Mammoth update following a brief hiatus.

It’s quite worrying how quickly the weeks race by. It only feels like I posted the last update a week ago. I apologise for not doing it more frequently but I have been slaving away on the editing process.
Without further a do, I will just dive in and update you on what I have been doing:

Editing: This has been going really well. I set myself the deadline of the start of the world cup and with three chapters left to do, it looks like I will be able to achieve it. I am happy with many parts of the book.
There are still some things I would like to change and re-work but there comes a point where I need to let others see the work. Otherwise, I will have amended my work so much that I would be unreceptive to any changes suggested. So come this weekend, I will print the novel out and will send it out to those four people I have selected.

Mark C Newton: For those of you that don’t know, Mark is the author of Nights of Villjamur. An excellent debut novel in the, “Legends of the red sun” series. His second book, “City of Ruin” has just been published and I highly recommend you check it out. Mark has quite a strong online presence and out of all of the authors I read, his style of writing is most like my own.
I do not pretend to be any where near his level in my standard of writing, but there are parts of NoV where I thought, “I would have written that in the exact same way.”
Anyway, the reason I am talking about Mark is over at James Long’s Speculative Horizons blog, Mark gave a three part interview (the third has not been published yet). In part two, Mark talks about his writing.
He mentions how he always makes sure he writes 1,000 words in a session, something I do too and how he thinks self-help books on writing have their place but should not distract from the actual writing process.
The thing that really resonated with me in the interview though was the fact Mark hated editing. Something else we agreed on! When I read that, I got a rush of blood and rattled off an email to Mark asking him how he went through the process and how he improved his ability.
Mark got back to me very quickly, more quickly than I would have expected a best selling author too. It was also not just a bog standard reply but a very helpful response, where he recommended certain books and websites (contact me if you want these).
It is so refreshing (I know there are others out there) for an author to be genuinely helpful and interested in a fans work. I just thought, the least I could do was to thank Mark on here.

Critters: I mentioned in my last post that I was considering submitting a couple of chapters to get a feel of people’s opinion of the book. I relented and sent in the first 5 chapters. Which in hindsight was a mistake as this amounted to 19,000 words and put a lot of potential critiquers (I know that is not a word) off.
Having said that, 5 people were generous enough to give their opinions on the chapters and I am pleased to say overall the comments were positive. I was also giving some excellent advice.
One person in particular concentrated on the first chapter and gave their opinion on a paragraph by paragraph basis, stating what worked for them and what didn’t. Their suggestions were invaluable and I can’t thank them enough. I offered to review their work in return and if I am honest was a little apprehensive. Their comments to me were so professional and it was obvious they knew what they were talking about.
However, when I reviewed their work, I was able to offer my own suggestions and there were areas that clearly needed some improvement. This was a positive experience as it clearly demonstrated to me that everyone benefits from others looking at work. Even if someone tears your work to pieces, every one of us aspiring authors is going through exactly the same thing.

So that is all I have for now. I am gearing up for the world cup and the inevitable disappointment of England’s exit in the quarter finals but for a few weeks the country will be buzzing. Come on the three lions!!

Mood: Upbeat

Good news!!!

Finally! Things are looking up again. First of all I will jump straight to the good news. I submitted those two short stories I completed at the start of the year (yes I know I said I would send them off back in February, but I didn’t, so sue me). Anyway, one of them - Route 246, got accepted by Dead House Grin, an e-magazine that specialises in horror.

I did a little research before I submitted my stories and in the process I discovered a fantastic site called Duotrope.com. This website lists every magazine and gives such details as: how long the magazine has been in circulation, what their response times are like and if they pay etc. It also had a fantastic tracking tool for tracking your submissions and prevents you from sending simultaneous submissions as well.

As a result of using this website I avoided sending my story to any old Tom, Dick and Harry. Within days of submitting I got this kind email from the Dead House Grin editor Larry (you see what I did there, rhyming Harry vaguely with Larry – maybe poetry is my true calling, sorry I am stalling),

Dear Rob,
'
'This is Larry from Death Head Grin. Thank you for the submissions, I liked them both, but due to space I can only accept one. If it would work well for you, and if it has not been accepted elsewhere, I would like to use "Route 246" in the September issue.


Thanks


'Larry Green

How cool is that? My first ever acceptance! May many more continue but at least – if all goes well, I will be able to say I had something published. It will also get my name out there.

In terms of the editing, I am back up to the point I was before I lost all my changes. This has been a massive challenge mentally but I can gladly say I have overcome it. The energy is back and I am raring to go. Roll on the rest of the book I say, my deadline is the start of the World Cup.

I have also been doing a load of critiques over at critters. My ratio had dropped down to 38%, which meant I had to review 15 critiques before I could have anything of my own reviewed. I have been feverishly working on these and have now got my ratio back up to the required level.

Why have I done this all of a sudden? Well I will tell you, if you hang on. As the editing is progressing, I am getting increasingly nervous about showing it to the four people I have singled out to read the book. What if they hate it?

To ease my fears I just want the option of a stranger’s opinion on the first couple of chapters. These are the chapters that I think are weakest and the folks over at critters can be brutally honest, which is what I need. I might, just might, pass the chapters their way.

Mood: Optimistic.

Grin and bear it.

I have not posted for a while and that is because I have been going through a plethora of emotions. In my last post I stated that I would be aiming to edit a couple of chapters a week. On average, each chapter has been taking me just over an hour, if the revisions are minor (grammar and removing the odd word).

Two weeks ago I decided that this was not good enough. I have worked too hard on this baby to let it drift along indefinitely. I got the bit between my teeth and aimed for editing a chapter a day.

Around the end of last week, I was really starting to hit my stride and achieve the target, the book was coming together and I was feeling good about the whole thing. I did however recognise the earlier chapters did not stand up against the latter chapters in terms of quality.

And so, suffering from a bout of confidence, I submitted the first five chapters to critters.org. Now the four followers of this blog and the numerous randoms that follow as well (please pop in and say hi!) will already know that I did not want anyone to read the story apart from the five people I have selected. Why did I change my mind? I don’t know is the honest answer. Critters have been very good to me in the past and I have genuinely benefited from the members’ advice, so I guess I figured it was a good idea.

The risk of course is that I am submitting chapters that I know are slightly weaker and if they get slated then my ego will take a massive blow. However, if it is constructive advice, that can only be good right? Right?

The other problem is that I was 19 critiques down and so I have to do a critique on a short story every day until my chapters come to the front of the queue in order for it to be read. I know I can reset my ratio but I feel I owe it to all the other authors that have grafted like myself in order to have their work read.

So that long and winded, Nestor from the Iliad style explanation brings us up to the Bank Holiday weekend. I went into the weekend full of vigour determined to get a lot done. How was I going to do this? Why get up early of course. Yes you heard correctly, set my alarm on days when I was legitimately entitled to a lie in. Was I mad? What was I thinking?

Saturday morning came, the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. and lo and behold I actually got up. I opened the laptop and set to work on Chapter 8. This was a big task as I decided to completely alter this chapter and write it from a different point of view. 9.30 am came and the little one stirred. Perfect time to stop. I saved and went about the day.

Sunday morning came and I did exactly the same thing. This time I was on the tricky Chapter 12. I chopped and changed a lot of the text. I also spotted a major plot hole and do you know what? I solved it – take that Meereenese Knot. The muse was with me and boy did I let it flow. I stopped when my family woke up and went on to have a very nervous day, watching my beloved Crystal Palace survive relegation by the skin of their teeth.

Monday came and I was too tired to get up but hey, that was o.k. I could afford to give myself the Bank Holiday off, I deserved it. All was well until Monday night when I opened up the laptop to send the book to my email account. (I do this so if I want to work on it at lunchtime at work I can). It also serves as another back up.

There I am merrily logging in, maybe even singing about birds suddenly appearing. When I think to myself, “that’s odd”. It hasn’t changed the last thing I did. I then frantically searched through the book.

NOT ONE SINGLE CHANGE HAS BEEN SAVED SINCE FRIDAY!!

Calm down, calm down. I can hear you all say. If you saved it, it must be somewhere. I thought the same, I searched and I searched and I searched. Nothing! I went on the internet and followed the instructions to recover files, searching for acronyms I never knew existed. WBK for example – nothing!

Rage, despair, denial. You name them, I have been through them all in the past 48 hours. I even took my laptop to work in an effort to sort it out at lunch.

Last night I almost gave up. I decided to sit down and just grin and bear it. I sat at the laptop and stared at Chapter 8 again. And stared and stared. Dejected, I shut the laptop down.

What am I feeling now? A small semblance of hope. At 12:45 a.m. I discovered a post on a forum where a woman had been through the exact same thing. Apparently Windows Vista does not always save the file in the correct place and when you search for it, it doesn’t search the temp files. She found the document she lost by opening up another attachment and discovering the path the computer saved it under. She then followed that path and there was her document in all its glory.

So now I just need to work out how to find that elusive path. The trouble is, I have no idea how to do that.

Interesting topic

At the Chicago con George R R Martin was said to have spoken about writing a Dance with Dragons. One of the things that irks him was remembering the eye colour of his characters and ensuring they were consistent. Over on the Westeros forum, Lady Narcissa and Maxlongstreet give a very good summary of his talk but below I have highlighted the relevant point that Maxlongstreet talks about:

“GRRM responded that this was one of the things that was making Dance take so long, namely having to go back and check a bunch of details. He said that without search functions in documents he would have gone mad.

He gave a very funny rant about eye color - about how in the real world, we really notice anyone's eye color unless we're very close to them, but in books, everyone has their eye color described. Having to go back and check the eye color he gave for hundreds of characters was an example of a detail that could drive him batty; GRRM said he regretted mentioning the eye color of any of his characters.”

I was discussing this with my brother –in- law and his immediate reaction was to say He could easily have solved the problem about going back and looking up things by writing down a detailed description of everyone for himself, before he introduced them in the books.

Now I am not one of those people that can’t stand for anyone to criticise GRRM. I do think a lot of the anger directed at the guy is crazy, but my brother-in-law’s comment struck me as the typical view of a non-writer, ignorant about the mechanics of the craft.

Yes, in an ideal world, every character would be planned out and one could look up their description in a handy index, and for the most part I’m sure George has this. But speaking as someone that has just written a book and is currently editing it and looking for the very same consistency issues, I can tell you the reality doesn’t work like that.

When I am writing a scene and a group of characters enter my imagination and therefore the story, I might briefly toy with their background but for the most part I just want to get them into the story whilst it is flowing. There is no way I am going to stop, plan each character out and write a description of them. After I have finished writing for the day, maybe I will really start to think about their background and jot down a few things about them but then I am not going to start checking that I have been consistent.

For the simple reason, once I start doing that, I am then entering the editing phrase. I might check a character’s eye colour and then read the sentence and think, “I don’t like that” and be tempted to change it. I have then disrupted the flow of my muse.

It would make it easier if at the end of each writing day, I made a note of all the characters and locations I had introduced but in practice in doesn’t work like that. What do you think?

Time flies

Boy oh boy, where did those two weeks go? I would love to say that I have been busy working away on the editing front, but April has seen me come to a stand still. Easter has got in the way and a combination of work being manic (8 staff reports to write) and the little one teething (only at night it seems), I am struggling to function let alone work.

In truth it has been getting me down. I have achieved this great feat in writing my first book and I am desperate to get some feedback. However, I realise I can’t get said feedback until the book is as best as it can be and I am simply not creating the time or energy to achieve this.

That is not to say I haven’t been working away on the book. I have now gone through the whole story and edited it. I am in the process of making the changes on the computer (which takes far longer than I thought it would). I have also re-written a large portion of chapter 2 and completed it. This was by far and away the area that needed the most work, so I suppose I have made good progress. It just doesn’t feel like it as I have not touched the book in almost a week.

However, when I get down about the book, I make a plan and that is what I have done today. I have given myself a target of 4 chapters a week to amend. I have put in for a week off in May to really concentrate on the book and get it completed.

On the more creative side of things, I have been mapping out parts of book 2. As things stand it will be told from 6 POV and will expand the world of Frindoth in a big way.

Working well

I have made pleasing progress on the editing front. I have gone through 363 pages out of 408. Hopefully I will be done by the weekend so I can start making those changes to the electronic copy of the book and begin the re-writes.

There are not too many passages that need re-writing, although there are quite a few areas where I wish to expand the text. This is dangerous and will certainly go against the Stephen King rule of: 2nd draft = 1st draft – 10%. The question is, was my 1st draft long enough? It is a dilemma but a happy one.

I suppose when I look it, as things stand the novel is coherent and tells the story fine. The areas I wish to add in merely make the characters richer. Is this essential or are the characters lively enough as it is.

On an unrelated note, my boy has contracted gastroenteritis. He is so poorly it is heartbreaking. I thought I know what a loose bowel movement was, but it turns out after a couple of days changing liquid nappies I was wrong!

First draft to second draft to third draft

I am making good progress on the editing front. I have now edited the first 267 pages of the story (there are 408 in total). The question that bothers me is: when does a second draft become a third draft?

At the moment I am going through the story with a nice red pen, taking out chunks of text, or tidying them up. In the margins, I ask myself questions such as: If Character A thinks this, is it reflected later on? In some cases I answer these questions, in others I wait until I will re-write those scenes that need it. So when I have completed this process for the entire book and made the amendments on the computer, does that constitute a second draft? Or will it only be once I have inserted the re-writes too?

As I write this, it has occurred to me the answer is obviously the latter of the two. Only when I have the story completely finished will that be the second draft. Still you can see the workings of the mind of a virgin editor.

The other thing that has struck me over the past week is how much I am actually enjoying the story. There are times (and this is going to sound unbelievably corny), where I actually forgot I was editing and just enjoyed the story. I really hope others get that sense of enjoyment.

Finally, a lot of authors talk about the editing stage of writing as a completely separate process to the creative side. I couldn’t agree more. When I was writing the book my mind was going ten to the dozen as I desperately typed the story as it unfolded in my head. I could easily sit and type non stop for two hours at a time. With editing, I just can’t do that. At most I have to do it in half hour chunks before my brain becomes fried with all the analysing. I find myself taking long breaks in between until I am ready to return to it. This is fine I guess, as long as I am disciplined enough to come back to it!!

Editing tip 2: Be disciplined, but know when your brain is fried.