Frankenstein

What on earth possessed Mary Shelley to give her most famous story a sub-title. And a pretentious one, at that? Can you get a better name or title than Frankenstein? Good job it didn't ruin the story - possibly an afterthought title-wise...
There is no Prometheus in my tale, though there is a creature. The story hinges on it - something monstrous for the audience to hate, revile. And hopefully to wonder about. I can't compete with a name like Frankenstein, but then again, Shelley's monster wasn't called that. Wonder what else was missed? No great correction from the author. It possibly helped to leave things as they were.
Names are important. I've changed a few and changed them back. It's an ongoing process to be aware of.
I'm getting on with it. It's taking a while. Prolific I ain't. But you get few chances to do something of substance. I'm not writing a shopping list, but hopefully it will end up on most readers' wish list. Ya neva know!! Time to look at this year's christmas countdown...

Creating a pivot point

My enjoyment of exposition may destroy me. However, handling moments of explanation correctly will probably stave off the inevitable execution of my writing life. This latest chapter I'm looking at is a minefield in terms of how much to relate, and the manner in which it is related. It's good that I have reasons for things - actions, events, happenings - but such explanations can have a soporific slowdown effect that can kill any story if not enough control is employed. I'm aware of it, so believe I can take care of it. This particular chapter needs handling with that kind of care and what is mighty important is the bit I leave out. Too much information and the narrative will falter; too little information and the reader may create his own version. A dangerous situation: for who is the writer? We may well ask.  This particular chapter provides an opportunity to explain something important. It must not become an explanation as to why the story fails at this point. Words better not fail me...

A gift before bedtime

I no longer fear falling asleep. I now feel, with about 95% certainty, that I won't wake around 4 a.m. and be unable to breathe. This inability to breathe was not a feeling, though - it was a reality. Several times since my hospital visit, I thought I was off there again. When you can't breathe you believe you are about to die. That you will get worse and you will choke to death, pass out or not even have that luxury. But that you will choke and that you will soon die. It isn't a panic attack, and yes I've read up on that. This did not only happen at night, but that's usually when it manifested itself. This was in keeping with the usual tales of horror I uncovered across the net during my research into my own personal ailment. The hospital didn't know why it happened and my doctor didn't know either. And nobody else's doctor or hospital can come up with a reason for it, either.
The reason for that is simple: they only know what they've been taught, and they don't dare come up with an alternative treatment to drugs n stuff, otherwise they'll lose their jobs.
The number one reason for entry to emergency care is being unable to breathe properly. The greatest health problem, in the western world at least, is diabetes. The most money spent on drugs in the NHS is for diabetes (respiratory).
Go figure, or, viewed another way: Pharmacy is big business and I was yet another customer on the diabetes/respiratory pay cheque.
I began to look for an answer on the internet. To cut a long and painful story short, I read between the lines and came up with a short list of probable causes, any one of which, or combinations of which, could have been the answer. At the moment, I've settled on a certain diet and sleep regime that seems to work well for me. And it has been that simple. Not drugs, not inhalers - life itself needed to change. Yes, I'll keep taking the drugs as prescribed, but if it becomes apparent that they are the problem, or part of the problem, I will stop.
As things stand, the shadow over me is lifting and the weight of my non-life expectancy with it. As bad as it got, the worst of it for me was that I couldn't write. Oh, I tried to write, but I was dreadful. However good or bad I actually am, I was a pretty poor excuse for a writer in the past 6 months or so.
I've no idea if I'm over the hump in the road. I may not ever get past this first book. But I'm still around... life isn't so bad, at least right now :-)

The muse returns

It's taken a while to feel like writing again. Actually, I believe the muse was always there, just it couldn't find its way to the head of the queue. Even missed my Auntie Pauline's funeral. Rest In Peace, little lady. If there's anything beyond, we'll listen to Elvis once in a while... xxx
My story timeline did its job, though. A bit of thought made me realise I'd kind of missed a step or two within a step or two - but that's why I created this timeline: it allowed me to think around things, as opposed to trying to think of things. I would have written stuff last night, but the England match got in the way :-)
The furore surrounding Rooney's inclusion in the team has got worse - they're even arguing about it on the tv panel during the discussions. Scholesy has put a thought into everyone's heads. Dead right, too! Rooney created Sturridge's goal, but missed two great chances to score himself. I think Hodgson fell into the trap of trying to include someone who doesn't fit into his plans. Of course, you need more than one plan, but sticking Rooney on the left, where he doesn't want to be, can't work if he won't do it. We've seen him cover and run and tackle then start up attacks and score for Man U. Not here, though. Hmmm. Why did he seem incapable of doing something we've seen him do so many times for his club? Because he didn't want to? I'm a great fan of Rooney's, but Sturridge puts the ball in the net. It's why Michael Owen was preferred to Andy Cole (and anyone else) for England. But Gerrard is no Pirlo - we need more in midfield than Gerrard can offer. Sterling's potential is plain to see, but nothing is being produced outside of it just yet. A bit of mayhem, but the Italians worked at it and that's all it was last night. Thought, application, work. Something's gotta give, selection-wise.
On the diabetes/breathlessness thing - a bit better...

Who wants to live forever?

Friday saw me admitted to hospital at about 6 a.m. unable to breathe... you think you're going to die and the great literary plan is all but over. Funny that I had to write my name on paper so they could check my medical records (I could barely speak and kept choking) - writing unto my final breath lol  Gasping for breath and collapsing like a rag doll with tears rolling down my face was an indignity I never imagined to experience. Survival was nothing to do with me, but made possible through some sterling work by a nurse on her own during a night of emergencies. Thank you, Nurse Rachael. I will marry you if I ever live through this book ;-)
Internet research tells you that the number one reason for entry into emergency care in a hospital is being unable to breathe. It also tells you how great a problem is diabetes. So, it's either a side effect of the drugs, or of the condition itself. But no-one actually states that, so I'm surmising... a bit...
I'm off this week, hoping to write more than just my name as a final epitaph... still expecting to finish it by October... if I'm not around by then, will I become a ghost-writer? ;-)

A better perspective

Both Dave Pimm and Noel The Ultimate Proofreader have been invaluable in my revision of the beginning. Sorry for banging on about it, but I knew that, unless the beginning felt right, I would find the rest of the story difficult to write. I've got other projects that can keep me occupied well into a ripe old age, but nothing as big as this - on the immediate horizon, that is. It's just me. My thought processes. Or maybe not...
Without revealing private conversations, Dave believed I was overpowering the reader at too early a stage with the hero's thoughts, life, mood and stuff. Noel stated quite clearly that I needed a beginning that took over the reader's outlook, or perspective, of the story from the outset.
These two pieces of advice could be construed as meaning the same thing. Not so. At least, in the context of this story it is not so.
Noel believed that I had to hold the attention of the reader from the first line. Produce something dramatic. Create something deep.
Dave believed the same, but that I was digging too deep within that idea.
Taking these, and my own idea of the kind of beginning I had to write for myself, I've arrived at something I feel quite happy about.
Given that I've written lots more stuff about it all, together with a timeline of events, the future of this dark story seems bright.
The pieces are beginning to fit...

Back to the beginning

We'd all like to start any project with a great beginning that worked first time. I've never been that lucky - or should it be: I've never been that good! Still, once you get there, or believe you have got there, it doesn't matter. Hopefully, you've learned from it and can then build on it. We'll see.
I was always rather disturbed that I couldn't get the opening lines right. I always envisaged a poem and other things, leading up to the beginning itself. It's important to have a vision. You must have one. At least, I think so. It's there now. I feel better about how things look, how things feel. Of course, it can be improved, polished. It's important to keep looking, refining.The prologue needs a slight makeover, but it must remain. You have to be you, and you have to ensure that the writing reflects that.
One thing I don't have to worry about is where the next chapter is coming from. The timeline I established ensures I only need to check where I should be, and where I should be going, to know what to do next. I don't have to follow that course if I don't want to - choosing the next chapter to write may be my personal choice at that time - but it helps enormously to have a course of events at hand. A form of security. I'll never write a chapter in a day, and I may never write anything of note, but I will have written it in the way I wanted. Important, that.
Incidentally, and I won't go into much detail, but in a discussion with a friend concerning Game Of Thrones (I've not read a thing of it, nor watched a minute of the series, and was told it had dragons and knights and violence and intrigue), I made a prediction: that it was American-written, American-produced, and the writer was no longer writing for himself but for the series. It couldn't have been written by a British writer, nor handled by a British concern. This all started during a discussion about King Arthur - my beef here being that why would anyone be fighting Vikings and Saxons in Glastonbury. A legend is a legend, but the surrounding facts and circumstances needed to be real enough to suspend disbelief. Arthur is a Northerner. Far north, and east. Any story based in the south was pure fantasy ;-) I was proven right about Game Of Thrones, which shocked my friend, who loves it and watches it religiously. I'm sure it's good. Wouldn't argue otherwise. I was rather pleased, though, to realise I knew more about the UK literary and fantasy industry than I thought. Hopefully, my judgment as to what to write about next - coloured by my experience with previous fantasy submissions to agents and publishers - has sent me in the right direction with regard to my own influences. Still, have a look for youself at the circumstances surrounding Game Of Thrones, then look at your British fantasy writers. What on earth happened here????? An argument for another day...
Getting back to my beginning... I'm over that rather large and awkward hump in the road. There are a few more to come, but I'm optimistic. Like most writers :-)
My optimism drew me to having a look at agents. The submission process has changed - Ha! quite a lot of literary agents insist on email submissions - or else! It used to be the opposite. I've withdrawn from that look. When it has been written, then I'll send. The list of agents may have changed by then, even in a few months.
So, on I go. No promises - there can't be - just that I'll write it.
:-)

Five weeks in a balloon - erm, cocoon...

I return to work tomorrow after quite a few weeks off. I'd like to say I've been recuperating, but it hasn't been like that. Discovering that I'd got type 2 diabetes and a hereditary form of it to boot, with the consequent 'high everything else', meant that all those years of trying to live healthily was really a waste of time. Well, maybe not, but it seems like it. It was a blow to the brain. Mr Hypochondriac had something to worry about for once! Anyway, I go back to work every bit as tired as I was when I left it. Jeez, I slept for England these past weeks - and was doing so long before that, too. Still, my kidney function seems to have improved and I don't drink gallons any more.
All that meant I couldn't write too much, didn't dare try to write, really, and went a fair way to explaining why I went long periods without writing anything at all. In the end, I was rather glad I had left things well alone. Tonight, I picked up where I left off and had a good look at where I'd got.
It was patently clear that the shape I was looking for was barely there. I liked what I'd done, but I'd broken things up a bit. Large parts of the jigsaw were still in the box. So I got them all out and pieced a few together - and looked at the rest of it. Even though I know I'm going to add more to the prologue, I put it back where it should be. Then I put in the opening poem, and some other stuff I'd done for the beginning. The picture became a whole lot clearer again.
I don't feel that the rest of the first book will take too long, now - I've written quite a lot of it already.
Just gotta keep taking the tablets... ;-)

Another new chapter

The story has been moving along - a good feeling for me, as it meant that I was pushing through the beginning and heading into storyville - or the river, as I normally call it. For this particular chapter I'm doing, I only had a very brief note as to why it needed to be there. I'm half-guessing that right now in the story is the time to do it. It contains a bit of exposition, helping the reader/audience to understand the hero's position or status at this point in time.  After this chapter, other people in the story step in and out. It's not what you do it's the way that you do it, sang the song! It's my management of this that will determine the success of the narrative.
The thought creeps into my head that I've been writing this a long time - too long, perhaps, on the face of things. But looking back over my blog, which to me seems as boring as hell, I don't think I've reflected very well the length of time I didn't write. There were periods of research, of course, but there were also periods where I couldn't think of anything. Or I didn't try to think of anything. And where I frequently felt like burning it all and giving up the whole game - this was a reality, though somehow I managed to fight it off. You know, I do believe the main problem with writing my first book, Sword, was that I didn't take the time to stop! I wrote flat out for two years, rewrote stuff, dictated it through voice-activation software and then smoothed it all out. It failed to sell to agents, though I got some good replies to help me on the way to getting rejected elsewhere ;-) I'm trying to avoid that scenario happening again. Easier said than done. But I don't just want to sell - I want people to say that I can write. It colours everything I do with this project. Probably why I'll fail ;-)
:-)

Flow

The beginning flows.
However, it didn't used to. (Grammar, Pete!) The chapters I've removed and saved for later had had the effect of slowing things down - a soporific effect. Literary suicide...
I wondered why I did that. No, not removed them - put them in. First, to give it depth. Hmmm, didn't need to do it there, not at the beginning. Second, because I wanted to slow it down. Another Hmmm here, too.
You know, whenever I find writing that I like, I find myself re-readng it, often long before I've got to the end. An act of prolonging. If I like it, I don't want it to end.
And that, my friends, is basically it: I like what I'm writing. That's all. Solvey's (Dave Pimm)intervention ensured I didn't ruin it by leaving stuff in that really needed to come later. But that's all I've got to go on, that I like what I'm doing. No matter how poor it is - or I am - I like this story I'm doing. If I stop liking it, I'm probably finished. Yep, and if I fail, it's gonna hurt. Hurt mighty big!
Still, it's happened before and I'm still around, doing more stuff.
Not worrying, just reflecting :-)
I got to watch The Day The Earth Stood Still the other night. It was very good and Keanu Reeves played an excellent part. For me, it wasn't long enough, but the overriding impression I got was that it was possible to convey deepness while displaying impressive special effects. It was as non-indulgent as the classic original. Great stuff!
And so, this week I'm off to Newcastle, researching, visiting, catching up with Noel the Ultimate Proofreader. And more writing :-) :-)

Don't quote me on this!

I'm not too far, now, from pinging this first part of the story to my loyal band of readers - the Intrepid Four. Just a few more tweaks...
Whilst browsing the internet tonight, listening to music, watching movie clips and generally trying to relax a bit, I suddenly came across some quotes from prominent writers, people who had something to say, people with millions of fans, millions of readers who needed to read what they had to say. The most memorable quote came from Ernest Hemingway, one of the most revered of writers from the modern age. He put everything into truthful perspective while making me laugh out loud at the same time.

                                                "The first draft of everything is shit."

                                                                                                         Best quote I've read in years. Ernest, I salute you :-)

The thing with David Blaine

... is that you can't tell if it's a trick or not. It all seems like real magic. You really do question what you've just seen.
Let me take you back a step: before I could do any writing tonight, I had to get the Man U v Spurs game out of my head. That was more like the old Man Utd - the panel seemed to miss that point. Yeah, Spurs won and new players are needed, but a team they praised to the max were knocked from one end of the pitch to the other. However, Man U could only get the one goal. They say that if you want to write, you shouldn't watch tv. Ain't that the truth! Anyway, David Blaine being on tv was a gift - and he was doing new stuff I hadn't seen. He did the trick (!) for me.
David took enough of the memory of the game out of me, so that I could write. Sounds rather melodramatic, but the process of smoothing out this first third of the story needed to be begun tonight. And so it has. I've set a date for 15/01/2014 (two weeks' time), when I'll send this revised first third of the tale to my four readers - the Intrepid Four. I wouldn't know when they'll come back to me, nor in what tone. I've got the rest to get on with, so I will.
Magic! ;-)