It’s everso terribly exciting. Lookie-look. Here’s where I’m at with my WIP (alias SeaNovel) ...

I was so excited, I just had to sit down and draw this visual representation of how well I’m doing.

68,000 words out of a planned 90,000!!!! That’s only ... *gasp* ... another 20,000-ish words to go. And, more to the point, plot-wise, the gallop to the end is in sight.

I’ve blogged before about how I don’t use wordcount as the be-all and end-all of tracking progress with my writing, and you can see at the edges of the page the other elements I like to keep in mind to ensure I’m on track. On the left is a breakdown of the classic structural elements of a book, and a note of how long(ish) each section needs to be for this particular WIP. The descriptors are from this incredibly useful article from the Adventures in YA & Children’s Publishing blog.

The scribbles on the right-hand-side note that during the first section, up to the 30K mark, I did a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and re-writing ... and I mean A LOT!!! And then again at the 48K mark, when I reached a point where I realised I needed to go back to the start and alter things all over again. It means that the WIP up to the 48K point is in at least the 8^th version. Some of those versions are very short, while others are far longer, depending what I realised I needed to change.

I’m actually realising that it’s part of my writing process to spend around the first half of a book yoyo-ing to and fro, as I find it impossible to move forward in the book until I have what has gone before in a reasonable state. I’m not a writer who can just note any aspects I need to change, then go back and fix them later. I need my solid foundations, otherwise I know my word-tower will end up collapsing around me, and the characters will just stand there tapping their feet, refusing to do anything other than stare at me.

Mind you, all this revising I’ve done so far doesn’t mean there won’t be many more versions once this draft is done. Oh no! These on-going revisions are only a part of the process. Once I have a completed draft, I’ll be heading straight back to Square One and staring all over again (after a suitable break during which I shall thoroughly rinse out my brain). Which is actually one of my favourite parts of the entire process – the revision stage, not the brain-rinsing one!

And wow, it’s really not far off now!

I started this WIP in November 2011, and you’ll see that I’ve noted a tentative “End May” to complete it. Yes, well, I don’t think I’m going to meet that goal, but never mind. If I stand on tiptoe and squint really hard, I can definitely see that finishing line.

All I need to do now is calm down and get the hell on with it ...

So, when you’re faced with that tricky question of, out of a pile of (potentially) delicious lovelies, which book you are going to read next, how do you go about deciding?

Is it a matter of what flavour of novel you’re in the mood to read ... romance, thriller, crime ...

Or do you just grab the next book in your ‘To Be Read’ pile?

Faced with such a conundrum last week, I simply couldn’t decide. I didn’t know what I was in the mood for; so many of the books I bought with my birthday Amazon vouchers looked so exciting that it was impossible to choose between them.

So what did I do?

I closed my eyes, opened each one in turn, and sniffed them, then chose the one that smelled the best.

Nuts, me? Don’t be silly!

The one I went for smelled of biscuits and dust, slightly sweet in its papery mustiness. And, in fact, the sniff test proved highly effective because the book was wonderful and I read it in two days flat.

Now, I confess I’m a bit of a book sniffer regardless; one of the first things I do when I get a new one is smell it; there’s something glorious about the smell of paper and glue, and often, different books have their own individual smell. Second-hand books can be especially intriguing, impregnated as they are with the ghosts of odours they’ve picked up in their travels; it’s a part of the history of that particular book, indelibly imprinted in the paper.

I’m sure book-sniffing it’s something lots of book lovers out there indulge in ... come on, ‘fess up, you know you do ...

But has anyone else used the sniff technique when deciding which book to read? Maybe I should patent it or something. How do you choose the next book to read?

I’m well aware that everyone reading this will have differing views on the usefulness of “How To” writing books. We all know there’s a bogglingly large number of them out there, inevitably of variable quality. Not to mention the fact that what one person finds inspiring and constructive is the next person’s toilet paper! Since the explosion of the internet, and more specifically of the community that is Blogland, the sheer quantity of people posting thoughts and advice about writing has ballooned.

Over the years, I’ve got into the habit of printing out bits and pieces I come across. The ones that speak to me; the ones that touch a match to my pyre of inspiration; the ones that chime with my writing process, or which feel like they might be useful food for thought, or even simply damned useful technical tips.

The other evening, I spent a constructive hour re-ordering the file these various gleanings live in (it’s yellow!), revisiting old favourites and discovering ones I’d forgotten all about.

I now have a ring binder divided into three sections:

• Writing: Practical – articles on the writing process from brainstorming to drafting to revising and everything in-between that chimes with my process, or helps me to develop it
• Writing: Inspirational – pieces I’ve come across that speak to me in some meaningful way
• Writing: Business – everything from crafting synopses and queries to writing an interesting bio. And establishing a blog/website presence

I keep my file close at hand, and often leaf through to check/re-read a piece. Maybe I’m feeling down about my writing, so I’ll read one of the inspirational pieces. Or maybe I’m just beginning to revise a WIP, then I’ll get myself in the mindset by reading an article on a process that’s worked for me in the past.

My Personal Writing Manual, cobbled together from pieces written by other writers agents and editors, has become a wonderful tool for me. And the best thing is, it’s ever-growing, ever adaptable, as I move forward in my writing life.

So, I guess, thank you to all the authors, agents and editors out there who take the time to share their thoughts, experience and wisdom. My personal Writing Manual you’ve contributed to is the one I turn to more often than I do any other “How To” book on my shelf.

A while ago, I posted about the two HUGE dark fantasy tomes I write way back when. I talked about the vastness of my world-building and the unwieldy dimensions of the two novels. And reading them really was like eating a great big bar of dark chocolate all in one sitting – WAY WAY TOO MUCH!!!!

The trouble is, whenever I think about those novels, I remember all the time and energy and love I put into writing them. I remember all the things I learned about writing in the process. And I remember characters who were fun to write, juicy plotlines, vivid settings, and I wonder if I have to retire them to the archive after all.

Every time I have this thought process, it cycles back around to the same two questions:

1. If my work is picked up for publication, are these the stories I want to be my first books?
2. Do I want to return to that world, those characters, those plots again, 4 years after I left them behind?

The answer in both cases is a resounding NO!!

However, there’s a little corner of my brain that’s still reluctant to let them go entirely, and I’ve recently found myself wondering what if ....

Specifically, what if I were to extract certain characters, certain plot threads and rewrite them in another form.

A Young Adult form, for instance.

I can see a way in which it might work, and I can feel a seed of excitement at the prospect.

Not now, obviously, since I’m still deeply immersed in SeaNovel, but maybe ... perhaps ... one day ...

So, I’m intrigued. What are your thoughts on resurrecting old work, or parts thereof? Does there come a time when you simply need to let it go and move on to something new, or are there arguments for sometimes having another stab at it?

"One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment." *
                                                                                                                      Hart Crane


*especially appropriate for the weather we've had throughout April in the UK!

• writing my novel
• reading someone else's novel
• eating chocolate

I also spent some time working out where I'm going to keep the tiger my husband bought me. Seriously. Look ... TIGER! I'm thinking maybe the bathtub, or possibly the back garden, though I'm worried it might scare the birds away. What do you reckon?

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while might remember that I've had a bit of a thing about tigers since I was little. I posted about it .... um .... ah-ha! Here ... So getting a tiger for my birthday really was the best possible present.

I was also lucky enough to be given Amazon vouchers by my lovely work colleagues and my family, so I spent a delicious morning perusing Amazon's aisles, and now have 6 books winging their way to me, which is so exciting I might just *EXPLODE!* And I still have lots of pennies left over, which I'm saving for books due for release later this year. Ahhhh ... guilt-free book-buying ... bliss!

The books I've ordered are a mixture of authors I've read before, and those I haven't read, but have been recommended to me, so I'm really looking forward to them arriving.

What about you? What books are you looking forward to reading at the moment?

That man, Joss Whedon, ‘e’s a flipping’ genius, ‘e is. 

I’ve recently embarked on a re-watch of Season One of “Dollhouse”, and, as well as apparently making me come over all Cockney, it’s renewed my appreciation for all things Whedon. 

Yet another of his TV series to fall foul of scheduling cock-ups and poor decision-making on the part of the studio, “Dollhouse” only ran to two seasons, but they’re little gems, both of them. Not least because of the fact that, since Whedon had good notice of the series’ cancellation, he was able to wrap up the story in a way that gave a fair indication of where he had intended to go with the series had it run for longer. 

But, I’m getting ahead of myself, especially as I’m only a couple of episodes in at the moment, and they’re the ones I wanted to talk about in the context of Joss Whedon = genius. 

Within two 45 minute episodes, and even within the first one alone, Whedon has skilfully succeeded in immersing us in the world and characters of “Dollhouse”. 

I feel a list coming on. 

• With a light touch, he’s introduced the concept of the organisation known as the “Dollhouse”, explained the set-up and what they do
• Each of the two self-contained plots of the episodes is complete and satisfying in itself, while
• Also laying building blocks concerning the greater over-arching plot
• Since this is a series re-watch, I can see where, even from the very beginning, he is seeding clues and events significant to the greater plot
• Whedon’s primary strength has always lain in his characterisation, and in these initial two episodes, he has already introduced all of the main players. We may only have had glimpses of them, but they’re already established in the setting. And that’s no small achievement, since there area at least 10 of them. Developed to varying degrees, given the small amount of screen time to date, something memorable about each character has already been introduced
• The premise of “Dollhouse” is unsettling enough, and knowing Whedon, you trust him to do something intriguing with it. Already, he’s giving us fragments of a Bigger Picture and a Greater Threat
• And even on a first viewing, it’s all so effortlessly interesting and intriguing. 

Phew! That’s such a lot to get into two little episodes, and yet it’s all so masterfully managed that it’s never info dump and is never overwhelming. 

For me, “Dollhouse” really shows a (screen) writer at the top of his game, all of his tools in peak condition and being skilfully employed. 

If you’re a Joss Whedon fan, what do you reckon? Do you have a favourite show of his? I’d love to hear what, which and why. I’m also hearing good things about his new film, “The Cabin in the Woods”; has anyone seen it?  

In the meantime, I’m off to do some more worshipping at the Great Man’s altar.

Between 2002 and early-2008, I was writing novels in a dark fantasy series. I wrote two of them, and vast great unsalable things they were too, weighing in at 208K and 184K a-piece. And the later wasn’t even finished!

They were the second and third novels I wrote (I blogged about the first one here)

Agents and editors said some nice things about the first of these dark fantasy novels (which I had on submission for a time), but ultimately, they were no-goers, which contributed to me making the difficult decision to leave the sequel where it stood and turn my energies to writing something else instead. After all, what’s the point in writing a sequel if the first book is never going to get picked up? Unless you’re writing purely for your own enjoyment, that is.

And it was a hard decision to make, because I loved the world of those novels; it was made up of so many disparate elements that had been haunting and fascinating me for a very long time, and they came together into a world and a story that was uniquely mine. I have two lever arch files full of world-building images and notes, cuttings and articles. It was a fully-rounded world, with maps, history, really ancient history, mythology, you name it. Everything was there, all worked out. And I had SUCH FUN doing it.

Now, you may recall that I’ve recently printed up my old novels through Lulu, with a view to revisiting them for fun, and this week, I’ve been reading those two dark fantasy novels in all their glorious angst and complex world.

And man! Are they hard-going!!!!

It’s partly due to the fact that I was still learning my craft that they’re full of so much exposition, but it’s also because of all that world-building I did, and wanted to share.

It’s a rich, vibrant world to be sure, but did I really need to write so much of it into the stories?

Um ... I’m thinking .... NO!!!!! FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, NO!!!!!

There’s a balance to strike between having a fully-realised setting for your novel (be it high fantasy or literary fiction), and the amount of detail you share with a reader to conjure that world for them. And indeed, how you share those details.

Even though I had to give up on my re-reading of those novels because they were so dense even I was struggling, I’ll always have a massive soft-spot for them. I love that world, and the time I spent creating it and writing stories set in it was truly formative to my writing life. I learned so much along the way of writing and re-writing those novels (each one exists in many versions). I’m proud of the world I created, of my cast of characters, and the sprawling, multi-layered plot they weave through.

HOWEVER ...

... it doesn’t mean to say that they’re of publishable quality, or that I’ll ever read the damned things in their entirety again!

But still, I’m proud of them.

Well, that was an interesting and constructive week or so of writing (hence my LJ absence). Not much forward progress, but I have killed one of my MCs! Well, not even that really – I removed him, wrote him out of existence, ripped him from the manuscript in his entirety. If you listen carefully, you can still hear his distant, receding screams as he plummets back into the well where all potential and obsolete characters live.

See, the thing is, I kept getting stuck over him and his motivation and backstory, which I had all worked out, but which somehow weren’t meshing with the rest of the story. Happily in denial, I’d ignore the problem, telling myself that the more I wrote, the clearer everything would become. Instead, that is, of facing up to the fact that I had mis-stepped somewhere along the way.

Ha!

Well, once I realised I needed to take a good hard look at him, the clearer everything did become, though not in the way I anticipated. Hmmm ... having said that, I suspect a part of me has anticipated it for a long time and I’ve just been “la-la-la” ignoring it.

What I finally admitted to myself is that he simply didn’t belong in this story. Or not in this version of the story. He was a hanger-on from an earlier inception of the tale, in which I was approaching it from a different angle, and because I liked him, and the twist he provided, I kept dragging him along with me.

Well, ex-MC, those days are over!

I sat down with my notebook and asked myself what the core of my story is, and by that I mean what it truly is at the root of all the little bits and parts that constitute it. In fact, what I found was that the core is what I conceived it to be in the very earliest seeds of the idea, which are years old now. I’d lost sight of it somewhere along the way, getting distracted by all the things I *could* do with it, instead of trusting my instinct and focussing on the story it needs to be. In asking that one small question, everything suddenly became blindingly clear. Ex-MC was a distraction, from the core story, and to my other MCs, and not in a good way.

So .... *riiiiiip* .... I tore him out of the story.

And in doing so, actually discovered that many of his scenes (those that do serve a purpose in the book) could easily be transferred to another character. He really was redundant to this book, and I’m now feeling so much more confident about my forward progress; that big sticky issue I kept butting up against and ignoring has *poof* gone away!

In this blog post, agent Mary Kole talks about how revision literally means “to see again”, and that for writers, the process of revision shouldn’t only be about tinkering around the edges, and should also often encompass vast, sweeping changes to a MS.

I feel like this is a process I’ve just gone through. I’ve polished up my crystal ball, erased the smudges that were obscuring the view, and taken a clearer look at my story. And you know what? It’s all shiny again now!