Back, phew!

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Well, this absence had been longer that I’d planned, but I’m glad to say I’m back on the writing wagon now, and it feels sooo good to say that!

The reason? Open University. I’ve been studying for an open degree for the past few years ( a combination of IT and Physics), and aside from the four year break I took for the birth of my twins, it’s been going pretty well.

Anyway, the end of the road is in site now, I’m on level 3 TMA’s (tutor marked assignments – basically the final year of uni) and this last module in particular has been a particular drain. I’ve been head down for two weeks, putting together the mother of all TMA’s it seems, ready for a deadline date of the 9th September. I completed the last question this morning and I can’t begin to describe the relief I’m feeling (maybe I should, I do make claims to be a wannabe writer after all!) at this moment.

Finally, after completing the last question, I then rattled out 700 words of my WIP, which is the first time I’ve touched it since I started the TMA with venom just after my last post on the 22nd August.

So, I’m glad to say I’m back, I’m writing, and hopefully I’m on track to complete this draft by the end of September.

Now, time to catch up on everyone else’s blogs 🙂

Take care.

75,000 words of draft two reached – so, so painful!

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Well, this has been a struggle.

I hit 75k last night, but the last few days have been a trickle of writing that I just know will be obliterated in the now certain-to-be-needed third draft.

I’m not really sure what the problem is either. The outline is holding true, I’m still loving Scrivener, but it suddenly feels like someone’s drained 90% of my vocabulary. I look at earlier sections of the novel and I can literally see that the words were flowing so much more easily at that phase. Now, though, every word is a chore, every choice labored over for minutes before putting something down on (virtual) paper.

It’s frustrating, but trying to put a positive slant on it, it’s all a learning experience isn’t it?  I suspect deep down the reason I’m struggling is that there’s a flaw in the story that I’m writing around that I just need to identify and face up to. I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure it’s nothing that a good red pen and scissors exercise when this draft is complete won’t solve.

Anyway, I’m going to plough on with this draft, as painful as it has become. The end is in sight now (100K words), my main characters are all in their right places and the scene is set for the climactic battle. I just need to get there, as painful as that might be.

It’s a shame really – I’ve actually loved writing this novel, and compared to previous works I haven’t found it hard to put fingers to keyboard on a daily basis at all until recently. Earlier on I was nailing 1500 words + easily per day, but recent efforts are 600-1000, and a lot of it could/will be cut with no real impact to the story. Hey ho!

On the plus side – still loving Scrivener – easily the best part for me so far is that each scene is a separate file, which breaks the story down into nice manageable chunks for me to deal with. I’m even trying the Linux version now as part of my transition to a Ubuntu-running laptop. This bit is working alright actually, it’s the Google drive integration that’s proving irksome. But that’s another story.

Anyways – back to the WIP. I was going to lay my cards on the table this week and put down an anticipated release date but I think I might hold off from that, at least until this draft is completed.

Mike

Scrivener – One Writing Tool to Rule Them All?

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Hey,

** I am in no way affiliated with Scrivener or it’s makers. I am simply a fan of good software **

As a software developer by trade I’m a big fan of finding any utility that aids in making my writing process more efficient. I’ve mentioned StoryBook in a previous post, but now I’m heavy into draft two I’m now testing the excellent tool, Scrivener, in order to make it less painful.

Now, I tried Scrivener previously and just couldn’t get into it. I couldn’t see what benefits it gave me over my tried and tested method of using Word for the main draft (plus copious use of the excellent commenting function) plus an accompanying synopsis/outline and my StoryBook plan.

Anyway, I tried Scrivener again after reading more and more positive feedback about it, and I’m glad to say I did. Why do I like it? Well, the main thing, and this is massive for me, especially now I’ve got a 100,000 word doc sat in front of me, is the ability to break chapters down into a scenes as separate files. As I chop and change the order of the narrative and make my edits, it’s as easy as moving the files around as required. There’s also the cork board functionality  which simulates the old index cards for scene planning. Again, this is easy to manipulate as you sort out the structure of your novel, or just put together placeholder cards for “scenes you know you need”.

There’s a lot more to it, as I’m still finding out. There’re options to held research information, character and location notes etc. The learning curve isn’t too bad, and there’s some excellent tutorials there to help you get started.

Negatives? Well, it’s not free, but there’s a 30 day trial where days are only used up as you use the tool. There’s a good discount on the app store for the iOS version but the windows version is $40, so not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

I’m still working through it, and the hardest bit was copying my book into Scrivener and splitting the work out into separate scenes. It’s easy to do, but with hindsight it would be better to have started in Scrivener from the off.

You could also say that all of this is doable with existing tools – You write your WIP in separate Word files, similar to Scrivener. You could use separate note applications (OneNote, EverNote etc) for other things like locations, characters and so forth. I think what Scrivener does well though is put all of this into one all encompassing package that keeps it all together.

I haven’t found anything else negative yet – although I’m still to test exporting back to Word when my work is done. I will come back and report on that when I get there. Hopefully it will still be a positive experience 🙂

Do any of you fine fellows use Scrivener? What’s your experience been using this tool? At the end of the day as long I get the text written down I’m happy, but anything that helps me along the way is a good thing to me…

Novel Outline (Manuscript – Act – Chapter – Scene)

Scriv1

Cork Board

scriv2

Inspirational music to help find the muse

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I’m a fan of sharing the knowledge, be it tools to help writing, benefits of my (limited) experience of just links to writing-related tips, news or other nuggets.

Today it’s the turn of the music. I personally find it beneficial to listen to music whilst writing, it seems to help me tune in a little more emotionally to what I’m trying to write, especially when the scene is particularly evocative.

So, today’s sharing is EpicMusicVn. This talented group of editors have compiled an excellent series of music compilations on YouTube that really serve to inspire, motivate and just simply help visualize what I’m writing about. I don’t watch the videos as such, just listen to the music and type away.

Check them out anyway, hopefully someone will get the same benefit I have.

epiccn

Mike

 

 

Coma Companion – a horror/sci fi short story of mine, now available at Smashwords (free)

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Hi,

This was previously available at Amazon (and still is), but I’ve taken advantage of the new Kindle Unlimited option of getting out of kdp select early and I’ve now published this for free at Smashwords here.

Hope you like it 🙂

“When Doctor David Baines creates a machine that allows him to directly enter the mind of a comatose patient, he encounters a twisted reality that, rather than being the inner workings of one person’s mind, is actually a limbo world beyond life, and death, in unexpected forms, awaits the unwary.”

Capture

 

Researching WHILST writing your WIP, and why you shouldn’t do it…

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It’s my own fault really.

A lot of my current WIP draws on modified versions of different mythologies from times of yore.  Now, before I did my first draft I spent many an hour on Wikipedia, mythology sites, old books etc as I worked to build the world behind my story. This went well, the background seemed solid, and the framework held for the first draft.

Then I made a silly mistake that I aim not to repeat.

I wanted some extra depth on my ancient Gaelic myth, so I dug around the web, eventually finding the fascinating “Epic Of Gilgamesh” (yes I know this isn’t Gaelic, I was branching out from my prime “Gaelic” source – curse ye Wikipedia and you’re suggestive links!).

Now, I should add that I’m not using this story in my own, but the story was fascinating, and I dug more into ancient Mesopotamia and other ancient legends. Inevitably, I found things I would just love to put in my WIP,  and so ensued manic reworks of outlines, backgrounds, histories etc just to fit in these extra juicy titbits of that I felt enriched my story.

Now I sit here, previously angry but now serene. Initially, the end result was  a sprawling mess – a prime example of trying to fit in too much to too little available space, but after that I took a heavy duty editing machete to this background work and trimmed the hell out of it. Gone were the various cherry-picked morsels from various old world religions – I took the best bits, the core required for my story, enforced consistency by way of sticking with one underlying mythos and I’m now left with a much simpler version of my background.

The exercise was helpful, but it means yet more work in draft three, when I get to that. My aim now is to consolidate my background documents into one master document and aim to work from there.

I suspect this is a newbie mistake due to my relative inexperience as a writer. I’ve never invested so much in world building before, but in order for this story to hold credence it needs to have a solid, consistent mythology for me to build upon. I also learned that this WIP will definitely NOT be a one book piece, there’s just too much – even with my simplified history – in my world for it not to be visited again. Whilst part of me is excited by this prospect, the other side is dreading the upcoming battles I’ll have with my own curiosity and the need to add “just one more thing”….

Anyone else experience this kind of story bloat when trying to cram too much in? Please say sit ain’t just me! 🙂

Here endeth the rant 🙂