More talk about the future

I still feel like I’m abandoning the novel. In a way I am though, that’s sort of the point. When I come back to it, hopefully I will be able to take it forward. It would be a shame to think I have spent that long on it for nothing. Actually I don’t think there’s any chance of that. Whatever else happens with the book, I have definitely got something from it. Just knowing that I can write something that long for one but I think that I also learnt a lot about pacing and building a plot. I know that for a lot of writers the first novel or even first few novels they write is not the first novel they get published. Ultimately I want to get published and if that’s what happens to my first book then brilliant, but if not I will write a second, and a third, and a fourth. I’ll probably give up before I get to five to be honest. That’s probably too many if I’m still not getting published. Unless I have nothing better to do, which is quite likely I suppose.

Started the research for the second book today, which I grow ever more excited by each day. I genuinely think it’s a great idea for a series of what I think will be quite unique crime novels. I should probably investigate whether the unique part is true I suppose, but I can see a lot of potential in the novels. I’ve got a couple of ideas for scenes already. There’s still the small matter of the plot to come up with but that will come. Probably.

More thoughts on the road ahead

I’m torn. Part of me thinks that I need to leave it more before I attempt any editing. Part of me thinks that that is just me making excuses. I suspect the truth might lie somewhere in between. Two weeks probably isn’t a long time to get enough distance. On the other hand, I’m now less excited by the thought of editing that novel than I am at starting the next one. This is probably the point where self-discipline has to come into play. In order to get the editing finished, I realise now I’m going to have to play the same psychological game I played with myself just to write the thing. In other words, I’m going to have to come up with some targets for me to meet, even if implementing them is going to be much harder this time.

But I still think I need to have a bit more time apart from the novel. Many novelists seem to swear by the idea of leaving well alone for a period of time, months rather than weeks. I may try to use the time just to explore the next novel and maybe even start writing that.

Auctions and Wanted

Went to an auction today. The only other auction I’ve ever been to is ebay and I don’t think that actually counts. Didn’t get anything. I went hoping to pick up a cheap laptop, but apparently so did a lot of people. Despite there being loads of them there, it became clear that they weren’t going to be going cheap as people kept driving the prices up. In a couple of cases I was pretty sure that the laptops were going for more than they were worth, which defeats the purpose.

Also saw Wanted tonight. It wasn’t bad, but it was so unbelievably over the top and none of it made any sense if you thought about it for more than half a second. That’s probably why the pace of the movie doesn’t really leave you much room to think about things. You can see the influence the Matrix films have had on it. Thankfully they’ve concentrated more on the ignoring of physics aspects rather than swamping the story in pseudo-intellectual nonsense like those films did.

Not done any editing yet. Should get on that.

Looking ahead

I’ve been thinking more about the next novel I’m planning on writing.  As I’ve mentioned before it’s still at the very early stages of planning ie pretty much nothing concrete but some thoughts in my head.  I think there’s potential in creating a series from it, potentially a crime one.  I could see it being similar in tone to the novels of Christopher Brookmyre.  It’s a genre that I’m interested in from the point of view of a reader, but I haven’t really thought too much about writing crime.  I write predominantly to make myself laugh so whatever type of book I write it has to be funny, at least to me.  Christopher Brookmyre’s novels on the other hand are always hilarious, so it’s not like including humour in a crime novel is impossible I suppose.

We’ll see.  There’s no rush.  Alongside editing my current novel, I’m planning to do as much research as I can for the next one.  I find the subject extremely interesting so that at least shouldn’t be difficult.

Finding it, losing it and finding it again

I can’t believe how much it’s possible to forget about driving in eight years. I had my fourth lesson tonight and it went okay but I’m really regretting not getting my license eight years ago. I was ten lessons in then and it’s a stretch to say I was good, but I was at least comfortable. But I seem to have retained none of that. Eight years is quite a decent amount of time I guess, but now it’s got me thinking that it’s also been a while since I last rode a bike. What if, contrary to the old saying, I have forgotten how to do that as well? It’s worrying. Presumably it will come back to me, but it’s an odd feeling to know you were once able to do something much easier than you can do now. I imagine this is what it feels like to be old. But at least when you’re old you get to eat as many mints as you want and no one calls you out on it. Ever.

Always more to do

Had a quick glance at the start of the novel. There’s a hell of a lot that needs to be rewritten. I don’t know if it’s natural to feel this way but already I’m trying to avoid panicking. After all, anything that doesn’t make the grade can be changed. The most important thing was getting something down for the first draft. And I know there is a pretty decent foundation behind it. It’s just, even skimming the thing here and there it’s clear that there is still so much more work to do. But then I never expected anything less.

Back

Well Alton Towers was excellent, as expected. The weather threatened a lot worse than it delivered thankfully. On the way down, we stopped at a service station to get a bite to eat and who should I spot doing the same thing but comedian Richard Herring. The closest I have come to spotting celebrities in real life before was oddly enough Stewart Lee, once pushing his baby’s pram and once passing outside a toilet in the Underbelly. But it was during the last Edinburgh Fringe so it doesn’t really count. I didn’t go over and speak to Richard Herring though. He was eating and writing something, it would have been pretty uncool. And I’m nothing if not cool.

I’m sitting next to my printed out manuscript. I am going to read the whole thing, taking notes of what works and what doesn’t. Once I’ve done that, I’m going to rewrite the whole thing. I’m not going to put any kind of timescale on this. It’ll be done when it’s done basically.

I’ve been thinking a bit more about the next book. I think it’s probably going to be a thriller/mystery type novel, although I don’t want to write a typical novel of that genre. I have an aspiration to write a thriller that walks the line between being explosive and mundane at the same time. I’m a long way from having any concrete plans or ideas for it, but it’s something I’m starting to think about on my down time now.

Clearing my mind

Not a lot to report today. I’m still trying to clear my mind of the novel so I can approach it fresh. I’m going to Alton Towers at the weekend so that should help. It’s hard to think about character development and story arcs when you’re hurtling through the air at the whim of a mechanical device. Not impossible, just hard.

Zadie Smith

The damn printer ran out of ink. Again. God I hate it. I may look into getting a cheap laser printer or something as the amount of ink I am likely to go through over the next few months alone will probably more than exceed the cost of one.

Finally finished Philip Pulman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy, which I really enjoyed. I’m reading Zadie Smith’s On Beauty now, which I bought and started a couple of years ago now but didn’t really get into it. I figured at some point I would pick it up again because I did the same thing with her previous book, The Autograph Man. Well not the exact same reason. I stopped reading it when I accidentally lost it and the bag it was in after a night out at University. So I bought it again and finished it a while later. I will probably finish it this time. I loved White Teeth, it’s one of the books that made me want to be a writer. She has a great, genuinely clever sense of humour, though her books aren’t really comedies. It’s the humour present in everyday life that she seems to capture. I wouldn’t compare myself to her because she’s leagues above me, but she’d definitely be someone I’d aim to one day be able to write as well as.

Editing

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to go about editing my manuscript. What I’ve decided to do is to print the whole thing out and then retype it all into another document. I had to do this several times while writing the first draft with stuff I had hand written and I usually edited things as I went doing it that way. The other bonus is getting to hold a full manuscript in my hands, even if it is just the first draft. These sort of things tend to excite me I have noticed.