Let’s do this

It’s been a while.  I’m not sure why.

I’ve been busy, but that’s not it.  I got married a few months ago.

Actual photo of my wife and I

That was pretty good.  Everything went well except for a almost near disaster with the kilt which I won’t go into detail about in case I happen to talk myself into a lawsuit.  We had a great time and the honeymoon was amazing.  We went on a cruise around the mediterranean and then spent a few days in Rome.  Rome is incredible, although ridiculously expensive.  A little known fact about Rome is that it’s quite a religious place.  Lots of catholics.  Keep it a secret though, I don’t think they want it getting out.

What else?  I passed my driving test.  Pretty chuffed with that.  I still hate driving, but at least now I don’t have to go out every week with an instructor who I dislike and who I’m pretty sure doesn’t like me.  Nothing quite like the small pleasures in life.

Writing wise.  Well, I’ve pretty much given up on the first book.  I learned a lot writing it, I think.  I think I was able to write a pretty cohesive plot.  The problem was I don’t think it was that interesting and I was never completely comfortable with writing about an area I knew little about.  Prostitution.  I could have headed into Leith and done the appropriate research but for some reason my wife doesn’t want me to.  I have explained to her that it would be an academic excercise only but she refuses to budge on the matter.  I think she is pretty selfish.  My writing career clearly means nothing to her.  Oh well.  I will just have to write a novel where I won’t have to sleep with women for money.  Is there even such a thing?

I am writing fairly regularly though.  I have started a new novel and am also writing a tv script and some sketches.  They are all at fairly early stages at the moment.

I aim to start writing more in this thing.  More than one update in five months at least.  They won’t all be about writing.  But they will all be written by someone who thinks himself more interesting than he actually is.  And isn’t that what the internet is all about?

Yes.

139 Days

Only 139 days until I get married.  We were at the hotel this week sorting out the bits and bobs – menu, timing etc.  We’re quite well organised I think, we only really have the priest to meet up with.  Though admittedly that is quite a big one.  As an atheist, the pressure is on me not to say something I shouldn’t, like perhaps suggesting that the sheer logistics behind the creation of an ark big enough to contain two of every animal in the world, not to mention the acquisition of two of every animal in the world, would make it an impossible endeavour for one man to undertake.  I should stay away from this line of conversation.  Though obviously, it would be quite funny.

Went to see Valkyrie and Seven Pounds.  Valkyrie I liked, though it wasn’t brilliant and Tom Cruise as a Nazi talking in an American accent just didn’t work for me.  I can’t think of a film where Cruise ever does an accent.  He must be quite bad at them.  Seven Pounds was a bit rubbish.  It’s hard to talk about it without giving the entire thing away, but realistically you ought to be able to figure it out within the first two minutes.

Finally finished the chapter I’ve been on for what seems like months now (because it probably is).  Granted it was a long chapter, possibly the longest in the book, but it shouldn’t have taken this long.  I’m reasonaly happy with it though.  I think it’s a lot better than the first draft, mainly because it’s written from the viewpoint of another character.  This approach so far seems to be working with the novel.  It’s much easier to flesh out the central character when seen through the eyes of the people she’s affecting.  There are still a few chapters where I’m not quite certain how they will work yet and I also go back and forward on how many other characters viewpoints I can get away with telling the story from but overall things seem to be coming together.  Though slowly, obviously.

One step at a time

1073 words.  A decent start at least.  I definitely think I needed the break at the weekend as I was able to start again tonight and got a few new ideas, albeit minor ones.  Knowing full well how this whole thing plays out, I’m enjoying being able to drop subtle clues and references in.  Of course I’m aware of not giving the whole game away, or at least I think I am.  That’s obviously something I will need to watch for when reading over the first draft.  It’s not like a crime novel where people should be reading trying to figure out what is going to happen but I still don’t want to make it too obvious what happens.

It almost feels like I am starting the novel again now, as I essentially begin the second half.  The thought occurred to me at the weekend that if I were to lose steam this might be the likeliest time for it to happen.  I can’t let that happen.  After the writing I did tonight I am clear on where I go next so that should keep me going for at least the rest of this week.  After that I don’t know.  Maybe it’s like the AA or something like it: One step at a time.

April Fools!

I hate April Fools Day.  Everyone always tries to be funny by posting stupid stories that people can easily tell is crap.  Well, most people.  Some people are just idiots.  With that in mind, I finished my novel today.  HAHAHA, not really april foolz!!!!  I wrote 1391 words which is pretty solid I think.  That’s over 2000 words so I’m looking okay so far.  I think I have fairly much finished this chapter.  There is still some wrapping up to do, but the most important story point has been covered.  Some of it I think is probably quite rough.  There is going to be a lot of editing required I think but as I’ve said before that goes for the whole thing.  Just getting the story down is the most important thing right now and I will worry about getting it perfected after that.

Oh yeah, my leg fell off today.

No not really, GOT YOU AGAIN!

Pacing

Started the new chapter and the new writing week with 816 words.  I’ve had worse starts to the week.  I realised when I started that I wasn’t sure what I was doing with this chapter, but I have a better idea now.  I’m around about 32,000 words now which is about a third of the way through.  I am hopeful that I am pacing the thing well enough but I suppose I won’t find that out till a bit later.  I think I have enough of a framework to where I should be able to take it to around 100,000 words but it is a bit difficult to judge.  Perhaps this sort of thing gets easier, or there are better ways to plan it (there almost certainly are since most of the stuff is just sitting in my head) but I am not panicking yet.  My only concern is that the new character that I am introducing (well not completely new, he has been talked about a bit) might need to do a lot more in the book than I have actually planned for him so far.  Perhaps not but it’s something I’ll have to have a good think about.

I am about to take up driving lessons again.  I took a few lessons years ago but stopped.  My fiance bought me driving lessons for my birthday so I am ready to start.  Hopefully I will get my first one this week.  I will keep you updated, as if you cared.

Little writing done disguised as a breakthrough

It seems unlikely that I’m going to make this week’s target.  I only wrote 635 words today.  Nevertheless, I’m extremely pleased with this week as today I had what I think is a pretty major idea.  At first I was skeptical I wanted to include it as it will heavily change the tone of the ending of the book.  The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that it not only would work, but it would improve the novel tenfold.  It’s definitely an idea I will have to be careful with to build it correctly within the story.  It’s essentially a twist, but i’m wary of having a twist just fthe sake of it.  I went to see the movie Vantage Point yesterday and my biggest gripe was that the movie’s key twist felt completely contrived and didn’t even bother to offer even the simplest of explanations.  I thought it was extremely lazy writing.  Without spoiling it, it’s a scenario we’ve seen a million times before in movies.  When it’s done well it’s very good, but all too often it’s just such an obvious crutch for a writer to use.  The movie is still a fun enough distraction, but if you go see it you will know what I mean.

I think the novel itself is quite ambitious and this new arc will only add to that.  But I think if I am careful and keep the writing subtle enough I can pull it off.  Knowing what I know I imagine it will be more difficult emotionally for me to write it this way but I am sure that it’s the best way to go.  We will see though.

It might just be crap in the end.

Some work done!

Well I started writing tonight. It’s been one of those sessions where I feel like Ive written loads more than I actually have. Maybe it’s because of that week off, I don’t know. Got thinking about the part I was writing on the bus home today and thought of a few smaller details to include. I like when I come up with ideas before I start writing, it makes it much easier. Haven’t written nearly as much as I would have hoped for tonight. There’s a chance I won’t get to write much on Saturday, which is the last day of my week.  That means I have four more days to meet the target which is going to be tight.  As always I am predicting that I won’t make it.

Total Words: 777. Words to go: 4223

Can’t see the wood for the brown leafy things in front of it

437 words so far.  2713 the total.  Not sure if I’ll write more tonight.  I think I am starting to put together an interesting narrative.  I had been essentially telling two stories that are intertwined with the view to cutting one of them off quite early on and then concentrating on the main story but I realised tonight that there is no real need to do that.  The main story, or at least what I thought would be the main story is the one I have had most trouble trying to figure out how Im going to stretch it out for a whole novel.  Tonight I realised that the mini story I was telling, really has the potential to be dragged out longer and as it affects the main story in a major way there is probably no need to rush it.  It’s actually quite an interesting development for myself, probably not so much for anyone reading this entry, but for me it’s a revelation.

It’s funny the way you can sometimes find answers right under your nose.  Not funny ha ha, more funny in a an “oh yeah, I see what you’ve done there” kind of way.

The Monday Update

So far tonight I’ve written 387 words.  I think there might be more to come as well.  As it happened, I decided I wasn’t quite finished the second chapter and went back and completed it.  I don’t know if I want to get in the habit of doing that but I couldn’t leave the previous chapter as it was after re-reading it.  I had opened the chapter in such a way that I had to tie it in to the end of the chapter, and I hadn’t done that yesterday.  It’s done now though.

On to chapter three.  Actually, as luck would have it, adding to the end of the last chapter has kind of made the decision for me how to proceed with the next chapter, which is good.  I would much prefer the characters tell me where the hell I am going.  I am far too indecisive to be making decisions for them.

So I’m still looking good I think for making my target of 2000 words.  747 plus 387 gives me a grand total of (whips out calculator) 1134.  Over half way in two days.  Sweet.  There may in fact be some merit to this target system after all.  Just wait, I will probably write no more words for the rest of the week.  Damn my future self.

Write Hard

With the target set as a paltry 2000 words by the end of this week I sat down and did some honest to goodness writing.  Not a bad start either – 747 and finished chapter two.  Not quite sure how the next chapter should start as for the purposes of telling the story the narrative is going to have to switch between the past and the present quite regularly.  I’ve just spent most of the second chapter setting the foundations of one of the key relationships through a flashback.  I think I will have to establish in chapter three where things are going, although I am debating whether this is something I can afford to take my time with or whether I need to get into it quickly.  This is a decision that I intend to have made by tomorrow.  If it’s wrong I can always rewrite.  The important thing is to actually get something down on paper.

I remember when I started writing my first attempt at a novel, I spent ages  trying to decide what I was going to do in my head before I bothered actually doing any writing.  I was asking for advice on a webforum at the time when several people told me just to write and worry about changing it later.  To some extent through my own laziness, this is a problem I still have, but much less so than then.  Every so often though I have to remind myself that if I spend forever deciding what comes next, nothing ever will.

Still, I’m pleased with the progress so far.  Only 1253 words to go.  Easy.