What one does instead of writing
So a great big wodge of more or less free time has opened up this evening and instead of devoting my time to changing the tense of my novel (ooh!), I’m instead helping my three year old visit the sandman.
Don’t get me wrong, as far as distractions go this is about as good as they get.
But distraction it still is and all it means is that a little bit less will be finished by the time I fall asleep at the keyboard later tonight.
Wait a minute. In the time it’s taken me to write this post, he’s started snoring. Maybe I should blog with him more often. Watching Dad write a blog post is obviously as exciting as the inside of his eyelids.
Read MoreThe joy of tense
So the third draft is on. I’ve done a re-jig of the text which requires (gulp) a change of tense in great big chunks of the story.
I’ve always thought writers, like drummers, have a natural rhythm. If you’re talking music my natural rhythm is a slightly skewed 5/4. Read into that what you will.
As far as writing is concerned my natural rhythm is first person, present tense.
I may deal with point of view later, but tense is definitely a sticking point for me. Most literature is written in past tense. It works pretty well, the idea that someone is telling you a story that happen some point in the past seems plausible to any audience.
Present tense though shoves the story right in a reader’s face. When you read present tense you tend to perceive an urgency to the story. Everything that happens is right here, right now. Maybe that’s why I like it. As a reader, you experience it like an observer.
Anyway, i find even when I try to write in past tense, present tense slips out at every opportunity, which makes for an uphill battle to edit.
All of which brings me to the case in point. Early drafts are usually in present tense, so if I decide that the story needs to change it inevitably involves detailed investigation of every sentence with painstaking edits galore.
There is an upside, however. By the third draft, writers have a tendency to skim, rather than read properly, which means editing can be a little less than thorough. Changing tense has a tendency to sharpen your eye though.
Hi ho.
Read MoreThe List
I sat down tonight for the first time is a while to face the novel again. Deep breath, et cetera.
It’s always a bad sign when I avoid getting started and even worse when I look at the manuscript utterly confused as to what I should do now.
It sort of like writer’s block I guess. I don’t, by the way, subscribe to the existence of writer’s block, just bone laziness.
Anyway it seemed pretty obvious why I was resorting to avoidance and confusion. I didn’t have the faintest idea where I was or what I needed to do. Thus we go to the other great skill of the novelist (well this one anyway): The List!
I have a few scabby notes lying around detailing what I think needs to happen (which I have also intimated in this blog), but what I need to do is map these out to the existing work and see what needs to go where and why.
As usual, I’ll post it up here when it’s ready.
I may have said this before, but I don’t think there’s much more that needs doing to the story. It just needs a sharp eye and a good editor.
More on my editor options soon.
Read MoreAlert: short story readers
The new series of mini shots by Vignette Press is now available. For anyone who wants to stick it to the mainstream publishing industry’s indifference to the short story form, I suggest visiting their site.
You can even download a pdf of the latest mini shot for nowt.
Read MoreFallow
I’ve left the manuscript fallow for a couple of weeks.
There are a few pretty good reasons for this (aside from laziness). The beginning of the year is generally a busy time for submissions, grants, and general crap. Writing is a business after all and its eternal conflict is that no business gets done when you’re writing, but then without the writing there would be no business to distract you from writing.
Anyway, the last round of submissions are out and grant applications are almost in the bag.
Then of course, there’s the third novel, which is set to commence streaming out of my head by the end of February.
So where are we with the novel (titled, but not publicly) that is the subject of this blog?
My notes tell me I need to rearrange great chunks of it and write a few new back stories to explain why characters behave strangely later in the story. I also have a few nice little “image” or (gasp) “poetic” type sequences that would work nicely. One involves tattoos, a topic that has always fascinated me, although I don’t have any myself (at least none you need to know about).
I’m interested in the process of how you choose an image that you’re prepared to carry with you for the rest of your life. What, for instance, does a celtic knot say about you, especially if you’re not a Celt?
Maybe I’ve read too many semioticians.
Read MoreThe Books
