NaNoWriMo - The Handyman Day 8

The good thing about blogging when things aren't working out is you're never short of something to say. The flip-side is when everything goes well there's little to whinge about.

So I'll keep this brief because it's going unreasonably well. I struggled for a few days blending in and cutting down a whole load of Angela background into the beginning of The Handyman. I'm sure it would have been quicker to re-write it, except I'd invested so much time and effort in the original text I didn't think I had it in me to do again.

The text is now blended, some contextual changes have been made and we're into the story proper. All that planning is paying off and I'm having fun writing Daniel and Angela Harper's story.

The question is whether I think it's any good. This is of course a first draft, I don't even think of it as that - more like Beta v.02 There are some sections that will be cut and shaped and others I know need expanding. There will need to be an extensive smoothing over process to tie things up and bring it all to a cohesive whole and something closer to what I would consider a completed first draft. Which is when the real work will begin.

Right now it is all there in the same way Chasing Innocence only was going into the back third. I really did spend a lot of time hammering out the details, twists and turns of The Handyman. It feels like it is paying off. I have read back through some of the sections and love it. What a great feeling that is. I really do think the Handyman has the potential to be one of those stories you put down and are still thinking about weeks later.

Of course in two days time I'll be wringing my hands and beating my head against the desk, but then that's all part of the fun too.

< NaNoWriMo The Handyman Day 6 - NaNoWriMo The Handyman Day 9 >

Hunting Demons: A long takeoff

About three months into writing Chasing Innocence, way back in 2008, I stopped and did a calculation based on total word count and time so far invested. I worked out it would take me seven years to finish the book.

It turns out the hardest part of writing that book was the beginning, for all sorts of reasons, mostly as I got to know the characters and importantly, getting their voices sounding natural in my head. Once I hit the 20k mark the wheels left the ground and we were off. Five months of writing later the first draft was finished.

So a lot of writing, lessons learned and many adventures later, we find ourselves in 2013. Chasing Innocence has been published for over a year, I've written a lot of words during this time, with one novella: Mahrie now also published. I'm currently writing the sequel to Chasing Innocence, titled: Hunting Demons. With two books published, some award short listings under my belt and a lot of great Amazon reviews, I feel I'm on the right track. The sequel would be a breeze!

The thing is, progress has been slow. The slowness is not because I don't know what's going to happen through the core of the story, or because I don't know these characters. I recently did a calculation and guess what? The average daily word count meant it would take seven years to finish the first draft. And now I think about it, didn't I really struggle at the beginning of Mahrie too?

So the lessons I take from this as I approach 20k of words, is that I'm just a slow starter when it comes to getting a story underway. Daily word counts are not helpful in my planning, but sitting at the desk and steadily chipping away at the story is. Despite knowing the characters very well, it has been about finding their voices, hearing their thoughts in the moment to moment. It's getting there. The wheels feel like they might soon leave the ground.

KDP Promotion February 2013

I ran a KDP promotion at the beginning of February for Chasing Innocence. This video is about what happened. It's my first Chasing Innocence promo video and although it may not show, the culmination of many hours practising video editing.

Snapshots are coming

Sometime early in 2013 I'll be publishing a series of novellas called 'Snapshots'. I thought I'd talk a little about them and the wonderful illustrations and titles Monika Filipina has created for the covers. The series will initially consist of four stories, each of thirty to seventy pages, ideal for commuting or at night relaxing before bed.

In conceptualising the cover images I wanted to represent the contrasts that exist through the stories. Above all I wanted purely black and white images to symbolise this. Using illustrated caricatures over more conventional cover images was the plan for several reasons. First, by limiting Monika to just black and white with no shades I hoped it would add a creative quality. Second, I'd be able to have the caricature proceed each story inside the book and thirdly, I wanted to show via the cover images that these were something other than genre novels, that the reader should expect something different. Lastly, the images are different, eye catching and really rather good. The fact they are SO good led me to publish each story as a separate ebook so I could showcase each image.

Mahrie (2012)

I heard the name Mahrie (Mah-ree) first while living in Edinburgh circa 1994. I always thought it was a beautiful name and for eighteen years it sat in my head as such. In February 2012 I came across a writing competition for a short story based in Edinburgh. I came up with the concept for Mahrie but didn't enter. When in September 2012 I decided to publish my favourite stories, I realised I needed one more, so I sat down and turned the concept into Mahrie's story. It was the kind of story I like to write because I knew what happened at the very end, but had no clue how the character would get there. The story is mainly set in the 1980's and setting it initially in Scotland centred my mind on a time that was very much the past for me. Mahrie the devoted wife turned out to be a lot more than I ever imagined. The detective in Mahrie is a much younger Francis Boer, who is the senior detective in Chasing Innocence. The story is pure crime/suspense that is sexually explicit in places. Mahrie really is: Devoted.

One Day (2006)

 

In contrast to the highly successful book and movie of the same name, this story is about a day in the life of Matt Nunn, a news analyst working at the BBC's London studios. This story is especially precious to me because it was the first full story narrative I wrote. With all the mistakes I have since learned from, this story has largely remained the same. One Day is drama mixed with mystery as we comprehend what it is Matt Nunn is hiding. It's subtitled: Dark, because it is, which contrasts wonderfully to the cover.

Sixteen Hearts (2006)

I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon's writing and share his passion for empowering young female characters in fiction. The girl of Sixteen Hearts is more than a child prodigy, she will one day be the guardian of a unique message - a story I one day hope to write. She might not be spiritually human and she isn't the finished product just yet but she is on a mission. Sixteen soldiers camped in the basin of a valley await her. The story was huge fun to write because being smaller and weaker than her prey she had to be physically very adept. I spent quite a lot of hours with Mrs. Potter, in the dark, in the living room, figuring character placement, bullet and torch beam trajectories and how far you can roll sideways from a kneeling position. Huge fun on a few glasses of red wine. Sixteen Hearts is fantasy and this young woman really is everything the subtitle says she is: Deadly.

34&43 (2006)

I would chiefly attribute the origin of my vivid imagination to my childhood, through which I was very ill. Asthma attacks came mostly at night and I would often hallucinate, frequently conjuring the body-less bull's head that exists in this story. On more than one occasion the bull told me I would die aged thirty four, which did make that year of my life quite anxious. That was the genesis for this story, written in my thirty-ninth year. The need to write it came to me while I was reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. The infrequent mention of the number 187 in my story is reference to the page of One Hundred Years that I was on when this story came together in my head. I listened to the soundtrack of Chocolat on repeat while writing it.

34&43 is the most beloved of all these stories because it comes from who I am. I get emotional reading the last page of the story even having read it so many times. Apart from One Hundred Years of Solitude I had just finished reading Invitation to a Beheading, which informed the ending. I hope you find its subtitle matches the story: Magical.

So there you have it. Snapshots will be coming soon to a Kindle near you. And in paperback a short time after.