Feb
27

State of the Writer: Early bird…

A short one this week as I’ve been away seeing family for the weekend.

This week went much better on the writing front. The main change I’ve made is getting up a shade earlier again to give me enough time to write a few more words and not feel like I’m constantly on the back foot. It does mean I’m wiped out a bit earlier than before but my word count on All That Glitters is creeping up at a more reliable rate that means I have a chance of finishing the draft in a reasonable time frame.

On the revision front I’ve been looking at the viability of knocking The Scarred God into submission shape for the Angry Robot open submission period. It needs a bit of work before I’m happy submitting. First step is to work out how many adjustments are needed and any work will have to be done concurrent with the other book. They are substantially different and so really it’s only available time that’s the issue.

Mood: cautiously optimistic.

More next week…

Feb
20

State of the writer: Frustrated

You have good weeks and bad weeks. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Last week was a bad week. My schedule got messed up, I wound up writing at awkward times of the day and with large gaps between sessions and I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. Those are the breaks. Still: forward momentum was maintained even if it did feel like wading through syrup.

On the short story front, I intended to get at least one more of my pieces out there but I’m struggling to find markets for an eight thousand word story of the kind I have on my hard drive that pays. There just doesn’t seem to be much about at the moment. I’ll need to noodle on this some more over the next week.

This week is all about the novel. I’d like to complete the first act, give it a light polish and a small test read to make sure it’s working before I plunge on. We’ll see. In related news, Forever has test read well and so I believe the next draft is likely to be more of an editing pass than a heavy rewrite. This makes me happy.

My present mood is determined to make some actual forward progress.

 

Feb
18

Music to write to

These days I tend to mix up my writing habits in order to prevent myself becoming too dependent on a single setting to write.

I don’t ever really want to be one of those writers who can only compose when the wind is blowing south westerly, listening to Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on repeat, wearing a toga and sipping wine from a plastic skull.

I only did that one time.

However, there are patterns in how I write. Generally, I write with music on unless I’m very tired or line editing.

I’ll compose first drafts to whatever fits the mood of the piece.

For example, with Forever I wrote most of the first draft while listening to Kings Of Leon because it made me think of travelling through a neon lit city at night, good bourbon and relationships falling apart. I have no idea why. In the case of All That Glitters, I’m taking a different approach as the language of the piece – in particular the voice of the narrator and the lead character – are so important, I’ve dispensed with lyrical music almost entirely and I’m listening to instrumental pieces.

In particular, I’m really enjoying cellist Zoe Keating’s stuff because – damn – that musician can play. I’m so glad I’ve seen her perform live. I’m blending that stuff with some more tradition classical favourites like the previously mentioned Puccini, Beethoven and soundtracks such as Master and Commander and Morse.

Naturally, all fight scenes are written to Metal. How about you?

NB – This is Zoe performing Tetrishead at Macworld 2011:

Feb
12

State of the writer: Need to push it…

I appear to have inhaled January. Most careless.

I’m trying to review my progress with a bit more care and attention than I did last year to avoid feeling like large chunks of the year have just slid away like wet cake. When you have lots on – day job, friends, LIFE – it’s easy for things to slip. Rather than lose energy beating myself up about it, I’m trying to create systems that work for me. That’s what I’ve spent this weekend doing.

The good news for me is that January proved unequivocally that my best time to get work done is before work. Early starts enable me to have time without distractions, maintain forward momentum, feel positive that I’m in control of the project and stops a tough day disrupting everything. I can bank that. It also convinced me that thinking about my writing in a more structured way – I’ve always been a bit seat of the pants about first drafts – really does help.

I’m still not entirely sold on the merits of detailed outlining but we’ll have to wait for the end of this draft to really be certain.

The bad news is that things still got away from me towards the end of the month as deadlines loomed on other projects. The impact of this wasn’t as severe as last year because I am much better at recognising the signs and I have a number of hacks to maintain progress on the composition front from minimum word count to twelve sentences*. However, it does mean that all the other things I really need to start throwing into the mix get lost: submitting material, revising and thinking about what I’m doing further ahead than arriving at my desk.

This situation was brought home to me at the SFX Weekender when I saw how long ago it was since Stone got put out there and I considered the number of completed, unsold, stories on my hard drive not to mention the two novels festering there. I have every intention of trying to get an agent and publisher in the second half of the year. I need to pull my finger out and put my money where my mouth is. I also need to stop with the cliches. :)

Time to crack on!

* I think I picked this up from Adam Christopher’s blog but I can’t be sure. In any case, it’s for the nights when you are really flagging and so you just write twelve sentences. Enables forward momentum and rest. Use sparingly.

PS – Incidentally, if you haven’t read Stone you can still buy Issue 14 from Murky Depths here. Though if you’re strapped for cash there’s a wealth of my flash available right here, a reasonable range being: Pixies, After the Rain, Territory and Blink.

Feb
08

SFX Weekender 3

I spent last weekend in North Wales at the SFX Weekender. This is the obligatory round up post. :)

On the whole I prefer smaller events, as they offer more opportunity to chat with old friends and meet some new people. SFX may have changed my mind offering as it does a rather nice blend of literary SF, TV, Film and gaming that pulls in an epic crowd giving all those different media a chance to reach outside of their immediate fan base. It was fun to see people on the bill who I haven’t seen since my teens.

Highlights for me revolved largely around seeing friends I don’t really get to see enough given we’re scattered across the country, talking about writing, and seeing my own name on a magazine cover (this never gets old, though I really do need to get some more out there). The Just a Minute with Paul Cornell, China Miéville, Sarah Pinborough, Joe Abercrombie and Toby Whithouse really made me laugh. It’s a great game that’s particularly well suited to a room full of merry geeks.

The accommodation wasn’t great…and it was colder than a polar bear’s proverbial…but I don’t think I really stopped chatting, drinking and generally hanging out with people long enough to notice.

I suspect I will be visiting again next year. Maybe I’ll even manage to wangle my way onto a panel.

*hands shake* Maybe not…

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