In the book I'm working on right now, I have two separate but intertwining plotlines that have to intersect at certain points. For the sake of the reader's sanity, the best approach seems to me to make it totally chronological, so that the progression of time is one less thing for the reader to keep track of. We'll see how it works...
]]>When in doubt, have a man come in the room with a gun.
In this case, the action happened offstage, because I didn't want to make a big deal of the incident itself, but it sparked off a chain of events that worked really well as setup for later chapters.
It also led to my writing the first on-the-page sex scene of the novel. Admittedly it's not really a scene as such, just a one-paragraph description - not because I was being coy, but because I wanted to convey the fuzzy, undetailed quality of wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night sex. To me, a sex scene is like any other; you describe it in just the right amount of detail to give it the weight it deserves. No more, no less.
]]>(I'm pretty certain the latest version of my work-in-progress fails, since there's only one conversation between women and it involves one girl dressed as a boy and another who is fooled by the first's disguise.)
]]> At the moment I'm reading The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan, which is unusual in that one of the protagonists is not just female but black and lesbian. We haven't seen as much from her PoV as the two male characters, but it's enough to pass my version of the Bechdel Test; let's call it the Lyle Test :)For me, what matters in written fiction (as distinct from film and TV) is not how many women there are and what they talk about, as how unstereotypical they are, how integral to the story and how sympathetic. They don't have to be nice people, but even villains need a human side or they might as well be CGI eyeballs.
Consider these two examples:
Exhibit A: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Now, overall I quite enjoyed this book (it could have done with some editing, but that's par for the course these days), but it fails the Lyle test, I'm afraid. There are occasional mentions of Locke's amour, who is supposedly clever as well as gorgeous, but the women who actually appear in the book are minor characters at best and stereotypical kick-ass warrior babes at worst. It's probably no more than one should expect from a fairly young male author, but it's still disappointing for this reader.
Exhibit B: The Rai-Kirah Trilogy by Carol Berg. For me this is a worse offender, since the writer is a woman. Each of the two male protagonists has a female partner, which ought to be good, right? Wrong. Seyonne's wife is a out-and-out bitch with apparently no redeeming qualities whatsoever (making Seyonne look like a total loser for being in love with her), and whilst Prince Aleksander's betrothed is an assertive princess, she figures so briefly in the story that I was left feeling like she was just a convenient plot device to help the heroes in their escape. The whole trilogy revolves around the obsessive (but disappointingly unhomoerotic) relationship between the two men, and hence fails the test.
Contrast these with practically any book by Terry Pratchett, where there are women of all ages and classes (and species), as protagonists or in minor roles, and every last one of them memorable and believable.
Boys, you've got your work cut out...
]]>That took me several days, because I have something like 121 scenes (as in separate Scrivener documents) in my book. It seems like a lot, but it's mainly because I switch viewpoints back and forth in some chapters, and I like to keep a strict one-PoV-per-scene rule.
Then I took the cards for the whole of Act One and started shuffling them around, trying new arrangements to tighten up the conflict and focus each chapter on a theme or event. It took a couple of attempts, but eventually I was happy, so it was down to the editing.
In the past two days I have drafted a couple more scenes for the opening chapters and edited the whole of Act One, which is about 29,000 words. At this rate I could be finished by early September, which would be marvellous!
]]>I'VE FINISHED!!!
OK, not quite finished as in ready to send out, but I have a complete draft at last.
]]> It's been four years and one hell of a learning curve, but I finally got to write the closing scenes that I've been envisaging for so long. The triumph is mingled with sadness, however. Although I'm not (yet) experiencing the post-partum depression that many writers report, coming down from the high of writing does leave one feeling rather flat.The rush of seeing all the pieces finally fall into place is like nothing else - as Terry Pratchett said, "Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself" - and you never want it to end. Luckily I still have a lot of work to do on this manuscript, and a sequel to look forward to in the New Year, so I won't be seeing the last of Mal and friends for a while yet.
]]>Well, almost. Apparently I can't write to an outline for toffee! Key scenes, yes - I know the story points I have to hit in order to keep things on track - but the stretches in-between? As I write each scene, new ideas come to me, characters don't react quite the way I had planned... On the plus side, it keeps things fresh and my Muse comes up with the coolest stuff in the heat of writing. On the downside, it's not terribly efficient. As mentioned above, I had to throw out most of a chapter because my plans turned out badly.
My friend David Bridger blogged recently about how he creates his synopsis as he goes, using his outline. I envy his discipline - or is it the cooperation between right and left brains that enables him to create a viable outline in the first place? Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure the technique is never going to work for me. But frankly I don't care. Writing a synopsis doesn't scare me.
Finishing this book and submitting, though - that's another matter entirely...
]]>Everything seemed to work fine, apart from Alphasmart Manager itself quitting unexpectedly when I tried to close it - but then this morning on the train I tried to do some typing and - disaster! The 'enter' button was outputting a # character in Alphaword, and I couldn't get into the control panel because it wasn't working anywhere else either!
When I got home I checked the Alphasmart user group on Flickr, since they are often more knowledgeable than the support staff at Renaissance Learning, and found out that, whilst the new US version of the desktop software (now called Neo Manager) is compatible with OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), the UK version is not. Fortunately I have a US Neo (because the keyboard layout is closer to that on the Mac), so I was able to get Neo Manager and fix my poor Alphasmart. I never use spellchecking on the Neo anyway, so I don't care if it's the US software on there.
I'm so glad I tried this now, and not in late October. I'm relying on my Neo to get me through NaNoWrimo in one piece!
]]>When it comes to more serious fantasy, on the other hand, we have practically nothing. SF TV gets to be dark and gritty, at least at times, but fantasy TV is much more limited. For starters, it's pretty much all urban fantasy: vampires, werewolves, and other monsters disrupting the lives of modern-day people. Secondly, for a generation brought up on the incomparable Joss Whedon, humour is almost obligatory. The only serious show that springs to mind is "True Blood" - which is of course a show about vampires. From HBO.
"A Game of Thrones" is neither urban nor humorous; it's more like "The Tudors" or "The Borgias", a sprawling epic of feuding dynasties set in a brutal medieval-style world. There are monsters out there, but they don't make much of an appearance in the first book (and therefore the first season).
I think, therefore, that part of my excitement stems from the desire for non-fans of the genre to learn that there's more to fantasy than vampires and boy wizards. Fantasy may not have the kudos of SF literature, which at its best can be the ultimate vehicle for a thought-provoking story, but it is much wider in range and style than public perception.
It'll be interesting to see how the series is received by the TV-viewing public. Given HBO's reputation for making top-quality drama, it has a good chance of success, even if no TV adaptation can ever satisfy the fan-boys. But one thing is now certain.
Winter is coming.
]]>My initial thought was to upgrade to a 3GS in order to get the keyboard connectivity, but that's not going to give me a lot of future-proofing. And although the 3GS is supposed to be rather less sluggish than the 3G when running iOS4, I'm not sure I want to take that risk. The alternative is to ditch the contract and go PAYG, which would probably save me a fair bit of money (provided I don't break the phone!).
This morning I downgraded my 3G to iOS 3.1.3 (using this excellent tutorial from LifeHacker, because I was heartily sick of its glacial response times - and a few bells and whistles like folders and a better Mail interface are no compensation for an all-round lousy user experience. I lost a bit of data in third-party apps because I didn't have a recent backup, but all the important stuff is synced, one way or another.
But if there's no new iToy on my horizon, does that mean my gadget-buying days are over? No way!
As I said back in May, I'm thinking of getting a new ebook reader. OK, so I already have one - a high-end, if old*, iRex iLiad - but it's slow to boot and significantly larger and heavier than newer models. And replacing it would be a lot cheaper than getting a new iPhone or iPad. But which to choose?
I've been lusting over Sony's offering ever since I saw a couple of them being shown off at FantasyCon last year, so I thought I'd look into it further.
My criteria for an ebook reader are:
The Sony PRS-600 does well on the first two, but falls down on the last. Apparently its funky touchscreen is highly reflective and difficult to read in low light or direct sunlight. WTF? The beauty of e-ink is that it's as easy to read as paper - so why did Sony decide throw that feature out of the window just to give you cool fingertip navigation? Apple envy? Whatever the reason, it's lost them my custom. But I'm a fussy geek, not a consumer, so I'm sure they sell by the barrow-load, same as the iPad.
Instead, unless something really amazing comes to market in the next few weeks, I'll be seriously considering the BeBook Neo. It's more expensive than the Sony, but it looks nicer than its cheaper rivals, supports both mobipocket and ePub, and has the same Wacom technology that made the iLiad so tempting - at 2/3 the price!
So, all I have to do now is finish this ****ing manuscript...
* by the standards of the technology, which has only been affordable for about 2-3 years
]]>The reason being that I want to get the rough cut critiqued by my writing group as soon as possible, before I attempt the final edit pass, and we've arranged to meet on Sunday 22nd August. I'm going to send round the bulk of the manuscript (around 80k) this weekend, with the rest to follow by the 15th.
That gives me four and a half weeks to write around 20k. It could be tight, given my present glacial rate of progress, but if I write solidly every weekend it is certainly doable. Here's hoping...
"Researchers have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, telegraph operation, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. The key is deliberative practice: not just doing it again and again, but challenging yourself with a task that is just beyond your current ability, trying it, analyzing your performance while and after doing it, and correcting any mistakes. Then repeat. And repeat again."
Peter Norvig, Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years
If so, I reckon I'm on year 7 on 10.
]]> Admittedly I've been writing for fun since I was a teenager, and I've even made a few pounds here and there over the years (mainly from non-fiction), but 2003 was the year I got serious about my fiction writing.Just over seven years ago, in late June 2003, I attended the Winchester Writers' Conference for the first time. I had joined a writer's forum (Writers' BBS) a year or two earlier, and worked my way up to the heady heights of co-moderator of the fantasy forum, but this was the first time I got an opportunity to meet other writers in the flesh: real, professional published writers, who were willing to give an opinion on my own lowly efforts.
As is well known, writing is a lonely occupation and one plagued by the extremes of hubris and crippling self-doubt. I knew I was technically competent (I used to be a non-fiction production editor), but could I write fiction as well as I hoped? Fortunately the answer seemed to be a qualified yes - and that was the point at which I finally felt publication was an attainable goal rather than a pleasant daydream.
So here I am, seven years in, and what do I have to show for it? One published short story, and an almost finished novel that I intend to submit later this year (Acts of God permitting!). It usually takes a couple of years to get a manuscript through the publication process and into the shops, so I reckon I still have time for that "overnight" sucess...
Perhaps if I had known how long it was going to take, I would have been discouraged and given up, but maybe not. Two things really distinguish a writer from a wannabe:
Here's to the summer of 2013!
3000-odd words added to the manuscript, which takes me up to around 78,500, and I'm finally feeling motivated to continue...
]]> Of those words, about 1500 were the second half of a scene that I wrote at the beginning of this Write-In, way back in March (has it really been that long??). In the process of patching that scene into the manuscript, I realised that the second half didn't work, so I rewrote it. Thankfully I still had the original version, so I was able to resurrect it for Chapter 21, where it makes a lot more sense (and adds a new complication to my plot climax!).Now I'm a bit depressed at the realisation that I have been at this stage of the revision process for almost four months, but also more determined than ever to press on!
]]>The good news is that the revisions are going well. After a slow start in the first half of last week, I started to pick up speed, and for the Forward Motion word-count marathon at the weekend I wrote just over five thousand words, taking me over the 75k mark!
The last couple of days haven't been at all productive owing to sleeplessness and a bad arm, but I'm hoping that things will pick up. I might even try for another 5k this weekend...
]]>So you have to ask yourself, why not add Dvorak to the selection of virtual keyboards available? It would seem like a no-brainer, and a trivial task, since it's just a tiny configuration file in OSX. However on closer examination it's not that easy, which is why I don't expect it to happen any time soon - if ever.
What it comes down to is a fundamental mismatch between the designs of Dvorak and the iPhone. The standard Qwerty layout places all the letters on the centre/left of the keyboard, with punctuation towards the top/right. Dvorak, on the other hand, places the most commonly used keys on the home row and centre of the top row, with less commonly used letters and punctuation on the bottom row and in the top corners, where they are harder to reach.
As a result, it's not simply a matter of mapping Dvorak onto the virtual Qwerty keys, because the keys that would have S, V and Z on them don't exist, whereas the keys for comma, full stop and apostrophe (Q, W and E in Qwerty) do. A one-to-one mapping of the existing keys would violate the basic design philosophy of the iPhone virtual keyboard, which is to have all the letters on the first screen and the numbers and punctuation on the second.
Hence, adding Dvorak requires a substantial recoding of the iPhone and iPad keyboards, to change the number of keys on each row. Not difficult, I am sure - but a lot more work than adding an extra config file.
Apple have gone for a quick and easy win by including Dvorak in the Bluetooth keyboard driver, where it is indeed a trivial addition - and I'm not ungrateful for that. When my current iPhone contract expires, I will seriously consider upgrading in order to get the keyboard functionality. Sadly, I don't see them putting the required amount of effort into the virtual keyboard - which means I won't be buying an iPad.
]]>The story's a bit old now by internet standards, but a good story is worth retelling. That's what we do, right?
]]> A fan of George R R Martin wrote to Gaiman asking if Martin owed it to him, the reader, to finish his epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire". Now I've only read Volume 1 so far, but I loved it and fully intend to buy the next book once I've finished my work-in-progress. Like the enquirer I do hope Martin finishes it in the not-too-distant future, though knowing how slowly he puts the books out, I am not hurrying.However, as Neil Gaiman succinctly put it, "George R R Martin is not your bitch". As writers, we don't owe our audience anything - except thanks for buying our books. Readers have no idea how hard it is to write a novel. Well I have news for you guys; something that takes hours of your time to read can take weeks, months, even years to produce. It doesn't matter how fast or slow one writes - in fact, writing slowly is much harder work, in my experience. No-one willing writes slowly if they can avoid it; it's tough to maintain that momentum, the total involvement in the narrative that makes the story come alive. Slow writing is a sign of self-doubt, and we should be encouraging tardy authors, not whining that their books are late. Fan pressure is the side of success that I least look forward to.
So let's hear it for Neil, George and all the other writers out there. There are a thousand struggling authors who would love you to buy (and read) their books. The wait for the next volume of ASOIAF will go much quicker if you find other books you like - and you might just discover a new favourite in the process.
And here for the record is Gaiman's original post, which is of course far better written than my incoherent ramblings :)
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