A momentous 2011, I hope!

I do hope that 2011 will be a pivotal year.
At some point I will be submitting my new story to agents. I've no idea who I'll be sending it to, yet, but by mid-2011 at least, half the story will have been completed. Judging by my notes, I realise that there is so much work still to be done and, although the second half of the story has still to be realised, I do know the ending, so there will be a coming together guided by that eventuality. I've had ideas, too, as to what the future might hold for further books. Two firm ideas register with me in my head. They seem to be the way to go - the third book has a title, though the second, so far, does not.
But who knows what is going to happen... who knows if anything will. I'll be positive and say that I have to make it happen. A good plan, don't you think? :-)
This will be my last post before the New Year celebrations. May I take this opportunity to wish everyone who has visited this blog a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. All the best to you for the future xxx

Not a day at the races

Saturday was going to be a day at the races. The weather put paid to that. However, a day up the Toon beckons instead, with some lovely people I work with. No doubt I'll finish face down in a curry somewhere later. Should be great fun!

Three weeks in a balloon

It will feel like that for Rich if his plan to write for three weeks non-stop works out! He's writing a new one - no idea what it is about, but I expect it will be very good. I don't know if I'll get the chance to read it as a critique. Then again, Rich is past the stage where he needs to take much notice of the likes of me - I am working on my own stuff, so I can only give part of my brain at the moment. That wouldn't be good enough, I fear. The beginning is always the hardest. Once happily past that, the rest is more forthcoming, though not any easier, for all that.
Best of luck to Rich. I don't think he will need it. He's too good for that!

The Return of The Pen

I knew I had to make a good start. Revising and editing these seven opening chapters will take time and I was procrastinating. Not too sure why - usually it's the inner pain of doing it. I'm usually so tired after it all - whatever 'all' means. But they are unfinished, though there is a lot of writing and information, movement, already there.
I settled myself down and, brandishing the trusty pen I had bought eons ago with which to write everything, after half an hour I found I had written a page and a half of a good beginning to the fourth chapter. It's unfinished, but it links well with what was already there. I also decided on how the rest of this chapter beginning should go, whilst being aware I'm on the edge of the beginning swinging into the tale itself.
I like my pen. It was a good choice and I'm going to keep using it.

Geordie Tolkien

Glancing at the front page of the local Evening Chronicle, I noticed an article entitled Tolkien of the Toon. Toon is the Geordie nickname for Newcastle e.g. Am gaan up the Toon: I'm going to Newcastle.
Well, would you believe it - Tolkien had an Aunt Grace, who lived, and was buried, in Jesmond. The grave she shares with her husband William Mountain was discovered during a makeover of the cemetery.

Wow!
I mean, WOW!

Suddenly, all kinds of references inside The Lord Of The Rings have taken deeper meaning. Longshanks, The Black Gate, the mines of Moria.

Now we have the Northern-rooted legend of King Arthur and Avalon (Lindisfarne) and the Northern-influenced fantasy of The Lord Of The Rings. The two greatest legends of the western world and they can be traced back to the North East. Arthur in Glastonbury? Pah! No chance.

I'd love to rewrite the Arthurian Legend, and also the Norwegian Sagas, perhaps. Probably not happen, but the idea is there in my head. Always has been.

Jeez! Tolkien had roots up North!
All together now: 'And did those feet, in ancient times...'

Did I say five chapters?

Make that seven.
All with varying degrees of unfinishedness (!), but they read how I intended them to. That is, I'm not disappearing off into different tangents. Whatever I saw, has come out in the writing. And I'm at the point where the story has begun to swing into itself.
Got to address the 'unfinished' aspect before I move on to the eighth chapter, but I do like what I am seeing.
Yeehah!
lol

First impressions

Hear ye! Hear ye!
It seems I have a beginning.
Many, many thanks to Solvey, Rich, Noel the Ultimate Proofreader, and latterly to Becca. I needed to be pushed in order to push myself. I'm lucky to have readers with such high standards.
I was getting worried: things seemed to be a bit of a mess and I wasn't sure what was troubling me. But, having looked again, and made one or two adjustments, I realised I had five chapters that ran very well together from the start.
It was doing my head in, I can tell you. My self-belief was fading. Perhaps writing up the flashbacks was eroding my sense of direction. There was a mist, of sorts, hiding the future. But it's gone, now. I'm addressing the story, which I hadn't been doing.
In the background are more chapters still to be finished, flashbacks which belong within chapters and lots of notes from my research. I haven't used a flashback within these five chapters. They aren't meant to be there. They are ready and waiting for the moments in which they will be used.
There is still that prologue, which may be resurrected and rewritten, but that's for another day.
For the first time, though, I do feel quite buoyant about the writing of this story. Hopefully, I will do it justice, after all.
Five chapters that run together... very promising!

Printing

I'm now at a point where I'm able to print out what looks like a beginning of substance to my book. I've waited a long while to get to this moment - far too long, but circumstances decided the length of time. The reason I'm printing this first part is that I'm trying to get a feel of what the written word might look like on paper, which is how I hope it might end up.
I have to be strong with myself, have to make a bold decision about the angle of approach and the manner in which I have written things so far. There are jars I can see already, but I have to consider everything so far and the overall effect of the tale, as well as the micro-effect of certain parts.
Jeez, there's so much still to do, parts I've barely covered - and they won't be until later in time. But it's all becoming a bit more exciting, taking shape, moving through one cycle and into another.
What a life! A lot more fun than my blog, though lol Trying to find something to say when, on the surface, nothing appears to be happening is, well, dire! Maybe one day I'll have something more exciting to say other than 'I'm slowly writing the next chapter'. One day, maybe...

Northern Children's Book Festival 2010

A brochure popped through my door, promoting the above event. Great, I thought, I must go. Being the author of a children's tale (nope, never got further than the first in that area), the idea appealed to the child in me. I only stopped reading The Beano at 33 (Frodo's age - I'm sure he would have loved it!) so there is still a huge kid buried beneath the painfully-slowly-written-adult-mountain of a story I'm attempting to scale.
Then I skidded to a halt: what on earth would people think about an adult male attending alone a children's book festival? All my nephews and nieces are almost grown up. Sly looks, suspicious thoughts, stares??? And that's just me! I realised that I couldn't go. But still, at least I should be able to buy stuff online and find out how it went.
Anyways, authors such as Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo), Karen McCombie (The Raspberry Rules), Justin Richards (Dr Who/The School of Night), Robert Crowther, The Two Steves (Return to the Lost World/I Hero), Chris Bradford (The Way of the Warrior/Young Samurai) and Steve Cole (Astrosaurs/Slime Squad) will all be there.
Should be fun, and though I'll not be there, I'll buy tickets in support of it all.
Now then, where's that Beano...

Who speaks?

I have friends of differing nationalities, and sexualities. Being straight and white, there are thoughts and attitudes, manners of speech and behaviour that I don't naturally comprehend. So I began a search, to seek out people I don't know about in order that I can represent them properly in my new story. (Actually, it's not a new story any more in my mind, but obviously everyone else will hopefully think it is.)
Nearly finished this research. I'm still in the middle of it. I know, if I hadn't done it, some of the things said and done in my new book couldn't have happened.
If I get published (sigh!), the list of credits (websites etc) will be a revelation and a source of amusement. I've had some amazing conversations with some amazing and striking people. Some of them have disappeared without trace. I do wish I could have met some of them, but I have long known this could have been dangerous and downright silly.
But it's been a blast, and though this research hasn't finished, it has been rewarding. I couldn't have written this book in the way I've done it without the internet. I know it can seem real at times, but great illusions are like that.
Still running with it....

Slow down!

From The Lord Of The Rings:

'Away now, Shadowfax! Run, greatheart, run as you have never run before! Now we are come to the lands where you were foaled, and every stone you know. Run now! Hope is in speed!'
Shadowfax tossed his head and cried aloud, as if a trumpet had summoned him to battle. Then he sprung forward. Fire flew from his feet; night rushed over him.
As he fell slowly into sleep, Pippin had a strange feeling: he and Gandalf were as still as stone, seated upon the statue of a running horse, while the world rolled away beneath his feet with a great noise of wind.

Majestic. It took Tolkien about 13 years to write LOTR, writing mostly at night. So why am I rushing to finish mine when I could miss writing fabulous prose such as that? I've taken my time and produced what I feel is good stuff. I have to look after this story and not rush things. It will be done when it is done, and I must judge that properly.
I guess I looked for this piece in LOTR as I had been listening to Susan Boyle's rendition of the Stones' Wild Horses. Mick Jagger said that The Beatles wrote better songs but that the Stones were better live. I am not so sure that is entirely true: to me, other people's versions of Stones' songs seem always to be better than the originals.
I've felt lost for a while. Maybe that's why I've been seeking out opinions. It is the right thing to do, of course. But not as often as I have with these flashbacks. I need to trust myself more. Hmmm. I think, also, that I just needed to be reminded that it is the treatment that is the key. The writing of it, the approach. If there is any greatness within what you've done, then this will bring it out. Allied to a good plot, you're halfway there.
Now for the other half. If I can just find it lol

Star Trek Weekend

And I'm off... Oh boy!

October skies...

I will be off work for nine days from the 16th of October. This falls in nicely with writing the beginning as a whole. Having written some good things, and fallen over a bit with others, I will be using this period to draw everything into a more recognisable passage. It looks like I've written about 8 chapters that link up well with each other.
Looking at my notes, I've surprised myself at the depth to which my early research went. And also surprised myself as to how far I still have to go with it all.
I feel I've taken too long to get this far. That's not to say I could have gone any quicker. Somehow, this story seems to need piecing together, as opposed to writing it out from one point to the next. It's been frustrating, not least that some of the scenes have been rather short on words and, therefore, size. I'm working on that. Maybe I need to be aware of my approach at any given point and to just keep reminding myself of the purpose of the current narrative in the context I'm writing it.
The flashbacks have gone well; there are still a couple more to do - but I know each can wait until a more essential moment. The flashback that is the key moment in the story has been written. It can be improved. But I don't need to do that just yet. Rather, I can use it to draw my thoughts together with regard to this story and decide whether I'm doing justice to the whole project - however many books this might entail (and I've no true idea whether it's 1 or 10, though I do have another book title which makes me think a bit harder that there may be at least 3!) Aah, trilogies! But lets not go there, for now...
I'm aware that I might fail. That I will probably fail. Statistically, the odds are not with me. But I'm writing the kind of story I know I would want to read. That one thought is what keeps me going.

Discovery

I guess I've always been struggling with the idea that planning ends discovery. That, by its nature, planning ends the spark of originality.
The longest pieces so far came out of planning. The more recent, shorter, pieces came out of thought purely while writing, but mainly structure only - or plot, if you like. These were flashbacks, apart from the new first chapter.
I don't think planning hampers the spark of originality, or creativity. Planning seems to free the mind up, thus allowing more creativity.
I'm quite proud of the flashbacks, though - they have action as well as emotion. Both methods worked well for me.
Hmmm... emotion. I need to be careful not to try and gauge the amount. Rather, I must ensure that it is there.
I've now done the flashback that I have always felt would overshadow the others and now feel that I can look at the beginning, and the future it leads into, with less fear. I'm more able to decide what may be wrong, but more important: what is right.
Ultimately, the writer writes alone. There are trusted readers, who know what they like and give valuable feedback. But the decisions as to what, how and when belong to the writer. This is a given. Lately, I think I've been looking for some kind of approval for what I've done so far. That is me being silly: judgement can only be made when full passages are made available for evaluation, and I haven't done that for a while. This is, of course, because I needed to write a compelling first chapter and equally compelling flashbacks. Now that I've got more concrete work in front of me, the job of evaluation must initially belong to me.
I shouldn't release any more of it until all links and narratives are present. I'm now looking at this.
It still nags at me that the original prologue held a lot of important information. Yet I wrote it in such a flat, unentertaining manner that it couldn't remain in its present form. What I should do with it is still an unanswered question.
Things to ponder. I'm less in limbo these days, though, which is promising.

The Last Flashback

Actually, it's the last one I'm going to do for now!
I've no idea how many flashbacks I will need, but this one, the most important one, has been done. It's not complete: it has its own sequel, which I've yet to write out in full. But I need to parcel up everything I've written out so far and take stock of where I've gone. Plus I'm tired. I need to sleep.
This particular flashback is a vital one, and is so full of movement and emotion, that I've given myself lockjaw with the nervous tension it took for me to write it. I can improve it, but I possibly need a bit more information than my thoughts allow. Is there enough emotion dwelling inside the words? Does the whole scene excite/incite emotion? Well, I'll send it off to Solvey, Noel, Rich and Rebecca and see how they feel about it. It's only three and a half pages long. It's a flashback, not a true chapter or passage of narrative within the actual story, so it is deliberately short. Not sure it can be a prologue - I think it needs to be attached to a similar event within the narrative.
Now I must return to the beginning and then look down the line. I need to see where I'm going.
Good...

Ey-up!

Becca has taken her first peek from the outside at Litopia! Could it be that she is about to write something????
Her hubby Craig had better watch out: this is the beginning of the end for normal married life!
I've told her it's safe to join, as I'm not there any more ;-)
Coming to a book-world near you...

Cough it up!

Yep, just when I have three days off and am about to write probably the most important piece of this story, I've caught a cold. I've got a splitting headache, I'm snuffling into tissues like a pig looking for truffles, and my throat is so sore and irritated I can barely breathe. Anyway, I've made a large pan of soup, filled with enough veg to feed a non-meat-eating 5,000, so at least I'm making some effort to restore myself to healthfulness. It's nice, but my throat is still sore I can barely breathe without coughing. In the end, I've resorted to pineapple with ice cream in a further effort to soothe my throat. The rest of the soup is in the fridge, waiting for tomorrow.
Jeez, and I hope I'm better tomorrow - this writing won't wait. And after I've written a couple more pieces, I will undertake a much needed review of where I am, and where I need to go.
Right now, though, I'm watching Casino Royale on tv. He's good, is Daniel Craig, which I didn't expect.

A test of nerve

Yep, I seem to be unable to write in chronological order. I'm picking out things, far and near, where I feel I can do justice to the notes I made.
So, where does that leave me?
I guess it leaves me writing this story in the best way I can. I won't write what I can't, which has to be a good thing.
I feel like I'm writing milestones - pieces which link up the tale. Recognisable staging posts, if you like. And in between, I feel I can write what I like, in the way I like, as long as it eventually comes around and adheres to the plot I've been mapping out.
Of course, I can't just write it - if there are no lyrical movements, then will there be any satisfaction at the end of it all - for me and the reader? I would expect not.
Above all, I'm conscious of the fact that I seem to have shifted from writing with a pen, to typing into my laptop. I need to look at this. I believe I will go back to the pen for the time being, then type it in afterwards. This may be temporary, as I know I have written my newer stuff, such as the new first chapter, and the rooftop flashback, purely through my laptop.
Which is the way? I'll only know when I try it. I do know what I'm going to write next, so how I feel about the method of physically writing will be crucial, as this is probably the most emotional piece of this story I will write. It's a flashback. The longest and most dramatic flashback in the story - possibly only about five of them, and their placement must be exact. They each have movement, though - I'm not just writing 'tells'. The rooftop scene shows that I'm not. I have to get this right, otherwise I think the whole story may fail. I don't have to write it at this moment, but I'm going to. After it, there will be some more pieces to do, then decisions to be made as to what should go where.
A bit of a jigsaw, but most of what I'm doing is the opening, followed by the movement into the tale itself. The stuff I've yet to explore will probably feel like a release, as I'm restricting everything so far to the beginning and to the movement 'in'.
I hope some of the things I'm doing aren't going to be redundant, and so far they don't seem to be. Like the sword fantasy I did (wot I wrote lol), I'm writing what I've always longed to read, just I can't find it anywhere; only glimpses.
Still can't write on tap. I have to wait until I know I must write it, or burst, crack up or something! It's not a strange feeling, just something I will have to deal with, live with.
It's fun! I'm not as apprehensive as when I wrote the new first chapter, that's for sure. I had to be persuaded to write that - solvey and Noel can take credit for persuading me to write something so dramatic. Something had to happen at the beginning, and so it did.
Got to match it all the way through, now.

Design freak

When I began the long and winding road of my latest story, I knew I was going to hit problems simply because I was changing styles. Being totally immersed in the sword fantasy style I'd cultivated (perhaps some may say 'copied'), little did I know how hard the transition to modern stylist would be.
However, I did know how I wanted to write, and that, at various stages, my style would have to change or jump ship for a while to suit the period or world I would find myself writing about. There are different perspectives, and cultures, present in this story. They have to be catered for, and research needs to be as thorough as humanly possible in order to reflect the attitudes and mindsets of the people who populate the tale.
Funny how I've written so many notes, yet forgotten most of them as I write first one chapter, then another piece, then another. Looking at them now, the number of times I've said "Don't forget" or "Remember" is probably a good indication of how complicated this story can be.
So I've opted for simplicity. I'm trying to keep the story tight when explanations are necessary. In periods of activity, especially intense activity, descriptions are kept to the minimum. Revisions or refinememnts must be made in context, and any literary tendencies - and I have them by the truck-load - are under strict orders not to reveal themselves until the plotting has been done and the story 'run' at that point has been completed.
In short, I have requested the ghosts of Dickens and Tolkien to please retire to the rest room until I have written the plot and conducted the narrative. Koontz and Banks are standing guard at the door, waving at me from a respectable distance so I can't consult them during this period of examination, though the presence of all four are constant reminders of how far I need to go. Respect!
And thus far, it's worked well, as I seem to be changing little of what has happened, even after critiques have unearthed problems I hadn't seen, and afterwards I'm able to polish what I've done while adding more literary or lyrical movements as I do so.
Having read Rich's latest blogpost ( http://www.wondering-mind.blogspot.com/ ) I could be forgiven for worrying that I was underselling my work. I know how well Rich can write, and so does a top agent, too. But Solvey's comment on the post actually soothed my mind a bit: my plotting was good but the wordsmithery was average. Solvey wasn't insulting my work - we are rather similar in approach, leaving little to chance via research, and appreciate the lyrical as much as anyone. He was actually polarising a moot point. (Solvey famously has the TM on the word 'moot', I must tell you!)
Fabulous! Have I finally managed to grasp the true art of storytelling? To stick to the story first, and leave the lyrical embellishments until afterwards. In this type of tale, at least. In the modern world, the modern writing world, you need a good plot. The story, the story, the story. Like the others that Solvey, Noel and Becca have seen, these were first drafts - almost wholly plot and dialogue. The narrative generally getting you from A to B to C to D. The rest to come afterwards. But it HAS to come, and will, otherwise I won't be classed as a writer.
Personalities, emotions, character traits, dialogue, history, exposition in whatever form, all have their vital roles.
But without the story, the plot, you are lost.

At this point...

... I have got a fair idea of the beginning of the beginning. I'm now piecing the chapters and related works together and gauging how it all looks from this point. So far, it seems substantial, but so far, I've still a way to go in establishing the movement of the story during the time we spend with the hero. I feel I do know what needs to be done, though, and that my notes have surprised me and I can build from here to a future point.
I've sent two pieces to Solvey, Noel the Ultimate Proofreader and Rebecca. These are, I hope, proof of my ability to write and ensnare readers into the world I'm writing about. They are, as ever, unfinished and belong to larger chapters, but I'm trying to determine reactions. They are important parts to the story, so I need to know how I'm coming across.
Now I need to do more. I'm on it...

So I went for a walk...

Off I went again for one of my now-legendary strolls along the sea front. I was a bit early this time, though, and it was too light and a fair number of people were around. Not so peaceful, this time.
But still, it was quiet enough and I took the opportunity to give Noel a ring and enquire after his trip down to Essex with his lovely wife Chris.
We also got talking about my latest work, which was good as it allowed me, as always, to expound on life as we know it - or at least, as I feel it should be!
Returning home after a quick visit to the supermarket (Jaffa cakes for when I'm writing), I set about looking at how far I'd actully got with everything. I soon discovered I'd written a whole set of notes far in advance of how I viewed them to be. It stuck out like sore thumb, too, as to what I needed to do next: look at the story. Not the chapters I know I have to do, nor the flashbacks - of which I must only allow to be a few. But the story. What are the events that create the story? What is the focal point of the story?
I've written scenes, and I have important people in them. I've looked at history and created links. In the past two weeks I've looked, but at four in the morning called it a day too many times while failing to address the true question: what is the story-drive?
I must crystallize the 'why'!
I'm glad I haven't written very much lately. The probability is that I didn't write very much as I didn't know where I was supposed to be going at this point in time.
I have managed to write a small flashback, something important, linked to history - true history. It's great and just what I wanted to write, so I have kept that focus in me.
Now is the time to write the links, the story, the movement.
That will be me on Friday night.

I've just realised something!

In the early hours of this morning I realised something: that my head is full of thoughts. Nothing strange about that. Except, it is for me!
You know, in all my previous jobs I always seemed to carry the work around with me. Even when I wasn't physically carrying something with me - notes, disks - I was always mulling something over in my head.
These days, I might have the odd thought about work, but mostly I do not.
Hmmm. Writing should be easier, then.
Not quite... I think the world is beginning to creep into my head, to find more room inside my head.
I seem to be finding more space to think about the world, about life going on around me. And whereas I made an effort in the past to find time to write in my spare time after work, these days I seem to need to fight to get enough space to even think about writing, now that I have more spare time after work. (Come again, Pete?)
It feels rather odd. More time to think means less time to write. I gotta change that!

A biscuit before bedtime!

That's been me, lately. Chocolate ones. Some kind of comfort food as I ponder my next literary move. Yet my poetic leanings seem to be taking a back seat as I write a story that is as serious as it is fantasy-laden. Fantasy-laden? Who says so? I do, so it is! Just, it's got roots in real history - English history. So I can't wax lyrical simply because the mood takes me.
Last night, I wrote two pages of a flashback. It's part of a chapter and introduces the reader to another view of the past. Our past, as well as the story's. Roots! The idea had been there for a while, but it began to niggle at me more and more until I just had to write out the whole idea. That's how I planned to write this book: no writing until I was bursting at the seams for it to come out of me. So far, so good. Except I tend to be writing what I feel I should write, as opposed to writing in chronological order. Hence the choccy biccies. I need them to support my nervous system.
I'm off in two weeks' time, and during those two weeks I'll be writing more of the story movement than I've allowed myself. All of the research I've done was geared to writing a beginning, and anything I've found that was a few steps ahead was left, with a view to picking up these future threads later. There are things I haven't touched yet which will be integral parts of the story when the story comes to them.
One particular idea I had, which caused me to talk to a certain type of people across the internet, seems to have become redundant. Although they appear in the story, the idea seems to have lost its appeal. I will need to revisit the whole idea and see if there is still room for it. It still seems valid, but I must make it clear in my head how valid the reason is before carrying on with it. If I rediscover why I picked up on it, then all the better it will be. How I approach it is the key.
It's going to be a tough two weeks. Six biccies left. That's my mother's birth date. Hmmm. Five is my lucky number. I'll leave them in the packet for now, as both numbers are there. My double chin awaits...

My reviews

Just had a conversation today with Noel the Ultimate Proofreader. And, along with the two reviews from Dave Pimm (solvey) and Rebecca, I know I have enough in hand to allow myself to review the new first chapter.
I didn't send it to Rich this time, for the only reason that he has such a lot to conquer in his writing life (I do feel that he is close to a deal) that he really doesn't need my stuff clogging up his head. Nothing more than that, but it's a big 'more'.
Not sure if Craig (Rebecca's husband) can see any changes in his wife, but if she suddenly sits down with a pen and begins to write, he is in for a shock. Writers are mad! Hope he can cope lol
Apart from a few niggles, the chapter works. For me, and my three reviewers. Of course, that guarantees nothing. But at least I seem to be giving myself a chance that an agent's eyes will not be too unhappy to read my work. Happy enough to offer to read more may be a tough call, but I hope someone might get to the end of my submission, when it happens, and not stick it in the reply paid envelope after a few lines!
So, I write on: review this chapter, add the subsequent chapters to it and see where I go.
Things are moving now...

And on to chapter two!

Chapter one - the new one - is now more or less finished. I can add more, if need be, but I can't keep tweaking it any more than I have done. Solvey, Noel and Becca have got a copy of it. I'm sure they'll give it a shake. I'm hoping there won't be any changes, but you can never tell what a reader will think. I hope the ending makes them want to find out more. Does this chapter make the reader want to know more, to read more? Hmmm.
My next task now is to ensure that the already-written chapters read on from it; that they begin and end as seductively as I'd hoped.
Enough said. I have to deliver.

When to stop...

Yep! When do you stop writing the bit that you're doing?
I wouldn't know, for sure. I always leave a bit for later - something to work on, as it helps me concentrate more, and allows me to get into the groove that I was in while writing it.
Get into the groove
Boy, you've got to prove...

Yes, I've got a lot to prove!

Having just about completed chapter one (a few lines to look into and the general tone to consider), I'm now looking at the subsequent chapters and seeing how they line up all together. While eating Galaxy counters and watching Jo Brand - she's hilarious! By the end of this week, Chapter 1 will be done, and I'll be waiting for reader opinions and moving on with everything at the same time.

It's a funny old world, writing. Definitely a lonely one - self-imposed, of course, but it's something you have to do, not just want to do. I've often wondered what will happen if I don't get anywhere in the publishing world with my new story. Will I pack it all in? Will I just read? Become an alcoholic - lol, I'm halfway there already, I think!
Just rambling a bit! It's fun, sometimes...

Quiet down! It's just a fur-wound!

So, I've been off for a week, taking the opportunity to write. At least, I tried to write. Basically, I listened to music a lot, watched movies a lot, and read a lot. The amount of time physically putting pen to paper was not a lot!
Actually, I spent zero time putting pen to paper. I carried on typing everything to my laptop. It seems to be working out fine that way - but whether I continue doing stuff that way is another matter. We'll see.
I seem to have damaged my health a bit. Headaches, aching stomach, tiredness. Never felt this bad for a long time. Chocolate, trash food, alcohol and some dodgy carry-outs have well and truly taken their toll, along with late nights leading into early mornings. Inspiration and mood: fatal wishes, when you're not sure where you're meant to be going!
But the writing has been good. At least, I hope it has been good. The chapter is not huge, and the structure was already there. But it's been very difficult to work out what kind of writing was needed. I knew where I wanted to be, and where I wanted to go, but not quite certain of how I should get there. Style and substance can be uneasy bedfellows.
Then, one night, I got something down that made me feel I was in the right place. It's all subjective, of course, and I may have only succeeded in creating a blind alley for myself and the reader. You can't do that with the first chapter. It has to open out at its end, informing the reader that there is more to come, and the following chapters must move on from it.
I'm about half the way through revising and rewriting parts of this first chapter. Another week, maybe; not much more
Casting aside a prologue of any kind, I feel I have at least allowed the story to begin at a moment of high urgency and activity. But it can't carry on like that. You will get to know no-one in any story if you crash and bang your way along. You won't care about it, after a while, and neither will the reader.
See, I do listen. Sometimes...

Writing well

I wonder how many people have a well. Inside themselves. That they would dip into; and every time they did something - anything - out would come something new.
Or if they would dip into this well, what was found was really something that had always been there, but was just waiting to be released.
I dunno, but every time I write something, and then I decide to change it, it comes out slightly different to what I'd already done. Even if the change is only slight. The difference can be seen. By me, and by others. It's great to get a confirmation of what you feel is wrong, as I have recently, but I can't change anything until I've had time to think. Which is good - more haste, less speed and all that.
I suppose I could always change things to my own taste and leave it at that. Do what I want, forget the rest. But I need opinions, and so I'm getting them. They do strike a chord with me. Everything I've got back in the form of feedback has been more or less what was in my own head. Some good, some bad. There's more to come, and I won't be writing any more into the beginning until it's all received and I've had time to digest it.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm struggling a bit. Not writing as fluently as I can (like this blog post), and not fully extending my thoughts in case I put silly stuff down. You're meant to put silly stuff down, otherwise how do you go places no other people go? That's what makes you different.
Hmmm. Am I testing the water? Seeing what works and what doesn't? Too much? The new chapter isn't the finished article - it's quite rough, and skeletal. For me, that is. I think the idea is fine - no, it's good - but the preceding poem was really meant for a later chapter; an illustrative flashback. Why, then, did I place it at the front of the book? Laziness? Thinking too much? Why do I believe I need something at the front, before the first chapter?
Maybe I don't.
Both the prologue and the poem (which will be returned to its former chapter) don't seem to work. The prologue could work, if I put in some exciting movement, some visual thought-stirring action.
Still, it's all not the final piece. Work is needed still on the beginning. A spot of refining.
I'm happy that it's there. A concrete beginning on which the opening chapters are built. They depend on this chapter, as they come back around to it eventually. Just gotta be careful how I present it. The writing has to be better, that's for sure.
I need to listen to some music...

First chapter completed!

At last it's done! I've written a whole new first chapter. It's still a bit rough, as almost all of my chapters are (just getting my defence in first), but it does run from start to finish. But is it any good? Soon, I will know. Noel the Ultimate Proofreader and Solvey will be getting emails containing this new beginning. And Becca, too! Becca is one of my friends from work. At a mere 22, she is bordering on the insane - erm, I mean she would like to become a writer lol I've tried to persuade her to join Litopia, but only time will tell if Becca really does want to join the ranks of the self-harming insane. Not sure her husband Craig would cope too well with a pen-wielding Becca, either, but she would at least be staying in a lot more!!!!!!
I'd like more opinions, but I feel that Rich has to concentrate on his new work. He needs to focus, as there's a lot at stake for him right now.
Now I have to concern myself with a possible rewrite of the beginning of the fourth chapter (won't take long) and the movement into the rest of the story.
Onward!

Two-thirds in

Well, 2/3 into this chapter and I'm feeling pretty buoyant. What I'm seeing is what is going down on the page; descriptions at a minimum, movement and dialogue. A bit sparse in places, but I'll add to that when I'm happy it runs from start to finish. A slight problem has caused me to write from middle to end. I have to think about the opening lines and the place in which the opening begins, and where the ending of the beginning, erm, ends. It's almost there! For good or bad, there is a beginning - one that is not too long, and adds to the reader's knowledge... but there, I'm telling more than I should. One day... or maybe never lol
Oh, and another thing: somehow, I've crossed over the line from writing with a pen, and have written this new piece on my laptop. Whither now? Should I try to write it all that way? Hmmm. See how it goes. Now, the opening words... the rest of the story impatiently waits!

My favourite colour is blue...

... but I'll always be a red!
It's been a strange season in the football world. If the media were to be believed, Man Utd were finished, gone - financially and football-wise. I've looked at, and listened in horror to, the conclusions of all of the so-called experts. Everyone seemed to be ignoring the obvious: the injury crisis at Old Trafford was almost crippling. Not according to the media. Man U were simply not good enough any more. Their time was over. Ronaldo and Tevez were the heart of the team. They couldn't recover. Completely forgetting that they both did little last season, and were reduced to virtual spectators by a Barcelona team playing in a Spanish version of the Scottish Premiership.
I must be following a different game. Where did they get it from... the media, that is?
And Alan Hansen - he with the Liverpool badge - was at it again. Man Utd can't win the premiership: they've lost three games already. Following that line, nobody can win it now! He should be pensioned off. I mean, you can't win anything with kids, can you lol. And didn't he also berate David Ginola for daring to think France could win the world cup in '98? Major stuff, yet the BBC still uses him. His finishing is definitely not sensational. Mediocre, actually.
As I said, it's been a strange season, and Man U might not win anything. I just can't figure out, though, why their faults were so magnified by the media, and everyone else's positives were so praised. Because everyone else's negatives are now kicking in. How could Man Utd's positives have been so ignored?

Which way is up?

Rich has been told (and I mean told ) by an agent that he has to write with more fluency, more freedom, if he is to be published. And I'm sure he will do this. He will get that elusive deal. I'm sure he will do that, too.
So then - how about me? How do I measure up to that criteria? Subjective, in this post, but I've always felt that I write with fluency. Whatever I managed to do in the past, the polished effect seemed to be there. Except, I didn't polish. It came out as it ended up. However much I planned - and I didn't plan much in the early days - what you saw was what I wrote from the start. Very little editing; just moving the odd word or sentence here and there. Sometimes I would write whole drafts and there were barely any crossings-out or changes. A mistake? I don't know. I don't feel so. And you know, wherever I worked, too, I'd take reports and rehash them into a more readable form, increasing or decreasing the volume as I felt necessary, stating the obvious into a more exact form of information, and so on. People liked what I did. But the report writing's all gone now - I removed myself from Local Govt, and feel so much more free now to think my own way forward. It's been difficult, but the whole point was to try and give myself more mental freedom.
Self-praise? A legend in my own mind? Deluded? You could be right. Only, this new story... well, having planned and written lots of it since mainly mid-2007, I know I've really struggled with the beginning. The fluency has been hard to capture. In the past, I would have just carried on and then returned to the beginning. But this time, I had made my mind up that this beginning would be a beginning worth having, and that the rest would follow in a manner I could be proud of. And that I would write no further chapters until the beginning was completed. (Though I did manage to revise one ;-))
In the end, I don't mind saying that this has been the slowest-created chapter in the history of my life (Life? I've almost forgotten what life is!) I've never fallen over so much in anything I've written. Ever.
Last night, however, was a bit of a breakthrough. I actually wrote some good stuff! It wasn't very long, but it did interest me. And I felt that I was moving towards where I eventually wanted to be at the ending of the chapter, and in other parts of the story. I feel like I'm writing the beginning as Solvey and Noel the Ultimate Proofreader feel I should be writing it. In my own way, though - which is not how I was feeling over the past few months.
Perhaps there was a bit of jar in my head with the loss of the prologue. There was so much information inside it, with no 'tell' as far as I could see. Just it was a bland piece of writing. Too much ice; not enough fire. I can rewrite it, or at least put more into it one day. But I will not be revisiting the prologue until the story is finished.
The good thing is that the beginning has much more life to it and I don't think I'm too far off completing it. Then I'll be able to write the rest of the story in a much quicker and more fluid manner. That's how I feel right now. There's so much still to do, and I daren't consider a second or third book any more until I'm way down the line with this first one. I have ideas, but Noel has insisted I stop writing with an eye on the future and just write in the 'now'. For now. So I am.
Much more hopeful than I was yesterday - more than I've been for months. It's a result.

Tense

One of the people in this new story is introduced in a chapter all of her own. Except, I chose to write about her in the present tense. I was playing with tenses and quite liked what I had done with it. Actually, the original plan was to write the book in first person. Of course, one of the restrictions is that the main person in the story must be present - everything being viewed through his eyes. I couldn't marry that with how the story was meant to pan out. So, I switched to third person, past tense. I left the chapter for a while and didn't expand on it at all, not knowing if it was a true part of the story. Well, I've changed it. The chapter is now in third person past tense - like the rest of the story. And, you know what? It works!
The reason it works is probably because I had left it. Then, when I did look at it again, everything seemed fresh and quite new. There was no hangover, and, having written the other chapters in past tense, the new chapter looked rather odd in comparison. It had to be changed. A job done, and a chapter saved!
Moving on with it all now.

Fun In Acapulco

Just watching Elvis in Fun In Acapulco. I must be one of the few who actually like Elvis films. What a film star he could've been, instead of the rather shallow leads he often played. But then again, they are infinitely more enjoyable than the dreadful caricature he became on stage in Las Vegas. A club singer in a white jumpsuit. What a role model for all the Elvis copycats around the world. Funny; but not fun.
Maybe I'm just too serious, or too critical. Whatever, I know what I like. A young Elvis was absolute brilliance - even though he dyed his hair black to hide his natural red hair. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't know that - especially the ones who should know.
Then again, I should know: my younger brother used to dress like him, and had his hair cut and styled the same way, too. He even had 'Elvis' stapled to his belt - all this in a school where we had to wear uniform every day!
Back to the movie...

Compare The Meerkat.com...

lol I love the meerkat adverts. A bit miffed that the Green Witch adverts didn't last a bit longer (boring script problems, guys?), but at least we've got the meerkats to enjoy.
We are doomed! lol