Nearly there...

Just have to finish this smallish piece, then it's on for my own review and send it off to the Intrepid Four. About a week, I feel. I tried to write tonight, but it didn't happen. Still, I'm off Thursday, so I hope to get things moving in that direction. Subsequent chapters seem to leap at me from my notes. I need to be careful which ones I write next and in which order they appear in the story itself. The flashbacks, and the new narrative device I've thought of, must be strategically placed. And blow me, but I've also had another idea, so I've got some thinking to do once the guys get their copies. Lord knows when they'll manage to get back to me, so I've got to step on the gas in the meantime with the rest of what I'm doing.
No buts... just get on with it!

Casting Light Upon The Magic

I remembered MG Harris, writer of the bestselling The Joshua Files book series, saying how her agent, Peter Cox, had advised her not to cast light upon the magic. I went back to her website to check whether I had read her right, and, sure enough, there was Most Glamorous Harris' quote, along with a comment from Dave Pimm (solvey) and from myself. Top advice, and when you read MG's thoughts on her website, you will see that they rarely, if ever, contain information on her work-in-progress.
Looking back over my own blog, I wondered if I'd been as discreet. I've spoken lots about my stuff, but not to the extent that I reveal much at all. I did, once, quote a small piece at Halloween, but took a whole chunk out of it as it was too sensitive to leave in. And if anyone asks me what I'm writing, my stock line is that it's a ghost story set in Newcastle. And so it is, with loads of... lol, no you don't! Peter Cox is right: if you have any magic at all, it should happen inside the book. I'm trying to conjure up something, but sheesh! this is the hardest thing I've ever done!
My readers know what I'm up to, though. How else can I deliver, if they don't know what I'm supposed to be writing? There is a team behind me, tapping me on the shoulder, jabbing at my words and pointing the way ahead. Without them I'd probably be lost and end up who-knows-where with it all. This is magic, too... magic that can be shared...

The Influence Of Music

I've known for quite a while that I probably wouldn't write anything worth reading without music. Music influences your thoughts and mood - it influences your life. I'm always searching, looking up new (to me) musicians, artists, putting the odd comment up if I feel I should.  Some artists are incredibly talented and I keep going back to have another look/listen.
I did try to learn acoustic guitar and also piano. I was a better piano player, but I didn't have the application those days and me and musical instruments drifted apart. I'd never have reached the level of some who are youtubed here, so maybe it's just as well.
I've listened to, and watched, so much music lately. It has helped me enormously when it came to channelling my thoughts and focusing my mind. Youtube is a regular haunt of mine, and sometimes I post the odd toon on Facebook if I think it merits an airing.
I couldn't say whether musicians and writers have the same creative outlook - music is certainly the more accessible medium audience-wise. Still, why should I even attempt to analyse that? Just enjoy it, enjoy the moment. It's wiser, perhaps, otherwise how can one relax and take in what is being performed.

Progress

Everything has been progress, really. It's the process of writing this first book that has been painful, though I'm going to put that down at this early stage to the switch from epic fantasy to science fantasy. I know I wrote A Brief History Of Tim, which held a more modern style, but that was based on the original book, so I had a 'helpful' influence there. Here, it's been a battle of styles and structures. I've kind of come out of the other side smiling, and I'm not surprised why: the story so far has taken shape. I've actually stopped worrying, too, which has to augur well for the creativity side of things. So I think, anyway.
There are places and scenes I have yet to visit and interpret. I've made notes, so I know where I'm going. Some of the scenes I won't/can't do until the first book has been done, as I will need to look back and choose where to put them. I don't want to show some of this yet, as I'd like it to be a future surprise, an addition, if you like, which will enhance the narrative. I need more time to develop this idea, but as it's new to me, I'm going to let it grow for a while.
So, 14 chapters, give or take, some of it new to the Intrepid Four, most of it not. But the layout and continuity is more concrete and, hopefully, fluid. Concrete? Fluid? Told you I was nuts!

Soliloquy it's taking so long

I have a piece to write that leads into another chapter. Introspection from the hero. The ensuing chapter has already been written. There is editing to complete before I can release 'the story so far' to the Intrepid Four. Not long now!
There are 20,000 words typed up in this first part - and I'd guess therein about a fifth of the first book has been told, rather than half. But I'm not stopping and I have to say I'm pleased with what I've done.  :-)

Suddenly

I've come to a 'point of consideration'. Not the midpoint, but a point at which I knew I was going to have to stop and take a look around.
So, after declaring myself on a roll, I'm now declaring myself on a plateau, waiting for the next push! I'll do the pushing all by myself, but right now I'm about to look at everything from the beginning, and how everything expands from it through where I am now, and how I expect things to pan out afterwards. This will take in the earlier chapters I've already written, adding in the new work I've just done, plus interweaving the chapters already written that need to come after, or around, all that. It's a fair amount, though I'm not at halfway. Target-setting was a necessary choice. There's no failure in not hitting targets if you really tried to get there. Writing does benefit from a little urgency, sometimes, and I have tried to get the output as high as possible.
But, to recap: we are into the story proper and I have introduced the hero and almost all of the main people in the story. Any failure to ignite is my failure alone.
Around the end of this month, the Intrepid Four will get to see where they've helped me go.
This brings me to the subject of Agents - Literary Agents. I've danced around them in my head, lately - largely because I've got over a difficult period in the telling of this story and I couldn't help but think of them! I honestly wouldn't know who or when. Maybe when it's two-thirds done, I'll have to consider this more deeply. I'm probably wrong there, as it seems just about every agent demands the finished article in its entirety, so maybe when it's all done and I'm looking at beginning the second book. We'll see.
I need a drink - non-alcoholic, of course... ;-)

On A Roll

There seems to have been a shift in my mental approach to writing this story: I don't want to leave it alone. Things are hotting up!
Pen, pen, pen... ah! found it!

Typing up the past to secure the future

Right now, even though there is so much still to write - create and write - I'm getting the feeling that I must begin typing up what I've done lately. I need to know where I am in terms of the story narrative. The literary side will take care of itself i.e. I've come to understand that a lot is expected of me, and therefore I must adhere to that part of the bargain: as a writer I have to make it worth the reader's while. No amount of emphasis on grammar and punctuation will make any difference to the quality, if the quality isn't there. A semi-colon may look clever, but if there's nothing in the resultant clause, then what is the point of putting it in. The content of a sentence must reflect the purpose of the narrative; the content of the narrative must reflect the purpose of the story. To entertain. Anything less and you will have lost the reader.
At this point, I could carry on settling events into a pattern and knocking up a storm as I head off into my own horizon. I feel, though, that I'm possibly getting ahead of myself with one or two things. Typing up, editing, adding more, will help me get a feel of everything I've set down.
My wonderful readers have seen parts of it already and they will probably see that I've not added hugely to the word or page counts in that respect. Worrying about what they're going to say would be counter-productive, though. I'm pretty fearless and they are used to me by now. It's where I'm going with it all, and how, that matters: have I delivered? That's where I'm anxious for their valued opinions. Do I entertain, do I inform, do I hook the reader's attention? Have I lived up to my own billing? ;-) Well, you gotta be positive and say I hope they endorse what I've done. I'm not worried about what I've done wrong - it's whether I've hit any heights. Because if I haven't...
The prologue was an attempt to inform, which it does. But it doesn't entertain, and the advice so far was that it needed looking at. I'll probably do that when the first book is finished. A prologue may not be needed. It may not be my decision either way if it gets far enough. Mind you, it's quite a distance from opening The Lord Of The Rings until you get to the first page of the story itself. And Koontz spends a lot of time preparing the reader before the opening lines of Seize The Night. Options, my dear followers, are like gold dust. One must never throw them away.
So, I'll spend one more night at this early-ish point in the story, trying to ensure that this most difficult part in the tale (most difficult to me) actually works. I believe it does and that all of my self-inflicted worry and doubt has not been too much in vain. In truth, I feel this has kept me on my toes.
The Intrepid Four will receive their copies in the next month, though they have enough to contend with in their own lives and commitments, so I need to be patient. Then again, I need to be getting on with the rest of the story. And so I will!
Wow, this is a long road. Enjoying it, though... :-)

It just came to me!

The most important part of creating flashbacks is deciding where to put them. All of them are vital to the telling of the history of the story - if you decide to use them - so they need to be placed where they have the most effect. I was having terrible trouble working out where to put one of them. No doubt I'll have as much trouble placing the others when I get to consider them. But suddenly, while writing something else, I realised that this was a perfect place to let the audience see this particular part of the past - more than perfect, in fact. I had also thought of something else before that, and afterwards thought of another 'something else' to put in as well.
The funny thing is, I couldn't get to sleep and was doing my usual visit to youtube and generally, it seemed, putting off the writing. And then I had to look and consider things a bit. But this is just like me: writing sometimes without a pen, but writing all along.
It took me until 4 a.m. to come up with something. But when I did, I came up with something good.
A bit of a garbled post, but I'm tired.
Sleep came...

Health-wise...

... I've been hunting around a bit, too.
Trying to find the elixir of life is like chasing rainbows: you will never get to the bottom of either. Mind you, there are certain things that come up regularly in modern homeopathy. Stuff like Cider Vinegar, Apple Juice, Honey, Maple Syrup, Water. Since I had that kidney problem, though it was a while back now, I've never really felt 100%. Me being me, I had to look around in an effort to learn more about what makes the human body tick. When you put that list of liquids together, you get a kind of health drink that tastes rather good and makes you feel ok, too. I've probably created - accidentally - the organic equivalent of liquid smack ;-) The things I've learned about the human body are amazing. The overriding feeling I have is that most of the organs inside of the human body are add-ons  i.e. they are there to either counter, or supplement, what was originally there. We have evolved. Modern life means we will have to continue evolving... but my knowledge is rather bleak in that direction.
Getting back to drinking stuff: when I go to the Dolly Peel, I have a standing order for what I call a Stressbuster. Linda, one of the barmaids, who also tended the bar at the famous Brunny 'fun' pub, knows exactly what I mean: Bacardi, Coke, Ice. Marvellous! Usually, though, I leave out the Bacardi. I just can't drink these days. Kidneys don't lie, and they can give you an alarming dig in the ribs to remind you.
But I'm off again in October for another two weeks. I'll be visiting my older brother and his family in Shropshire, as our birthdays fall within a couple of days of each other. And then I'll be writing well into what should be the last third of this first book. So I'll need to keep on top of my health if I'm to give it my best shot. I'm a lot better than I was. I'm not coughing all the time, though the taste in my mouth tells me that work still needs to be done to freshen myself up. That's where that drink concoction came in. Let's see how it goes. I'm a work-in-progress, all right.
Cheers!

A Bridge Less Rickety

So, what I've done is that I've created the bridge from the beginning and into the story itself. I've tried to keep things moving, illustrating as opposed to telling.
I always felt that this would prove to be the most difficult part of the tale, where I'd probably bury it all, and myself, if I didn't get it right. Of course, there are different kinds of 'right'. But we are now into the story itself. It feels like it's working. Now I've got to make it run.
There are gaps, still, as to what is supposed to happen along the way. Some things will be difficult to convey, to explain. The quality of the flashbacks must aid me here, and where they are positioned within the order of events ought to help make sense of things. It's a good mixture, I think, of a lot of things. I'm much more in control of where I'm going.
This way...

Into the night

That's where my story leads. I'm further down the line now, and it feels good to have made a few moves. I have to say that I struggle a lot of the time, my main worry being that I must not simply relay events - there are a lot of them, some of them in the history - but instead ensure that I'm telling a story. I'm trying to set the scene, but moving along at the same time. Think I'm doing that. There are a few people in the story - more than I imagined, but they are all interlinked. Each has their own stream of time, slipping in and out of the main river itself. There is a point I'm aiming at, where I'll have to look at everything and determine the validity of certain things. The direction will be crucial at this point. My readers will see what I've done at this point, too. Pretty convinced that I'll finish it this year...