Script Frenzy 2011 verdict

I won! I'm now an official winner of Script Frenzy, for the second year running. It's been a difficult one, and a good part of the credit for my win should go to Jon who encouraged me to finish when I was about to give up and even collaborated with me on the project, writing the beginning and ending of an episode (neither of us has figured out what goes in the middle yet.).

In short, Jon is great times a billion and I am rather exhausted.

Pagecount woes and rewarding myself

According to Scrivener, I reached 40 pages yesterday night, which should mean I have eight days left to write 60 pages. That's a lot, sure, but it's doable. There is of course, a BUT here. Quite a massive one. It seems Scrivener and Adobe Reader disagree on what a page is. So while Scrivener tells me I have 40 pages, OpenOffice says I have 41, and Adobe Reader has decided, arbitrarily, that I only have 36!

Gasp. Disbelief. Annoyance. Determination. At least I know now that I need to write an extra page to every ten pages, as 11 Scrivener pages roughly equal 10 pages once compiled as PDF. I would have been terrified if I had realised the discrepancy on the last day, thinking that I was almost there and then suddenly finding myself with ten extra pages to write.

So, off to write 70 pages in 8 days. WHIMPER. WHINE.

On the bright side, I have decided on a set of rewards. Mainly, they include:
- Easter chocolate!
- Cooking shows on iPlayer!
- New series of Doctor Who tonight!

I have decided to take another Holly Lisle course. I will elaborate on this in a further post, as I really should be writing my script now.

Script Frenzy motivation lag...

It turns out it's harder to keep up with a month-long project like Nano or Script Frenzy when every single person you now isn't involved too. Nano peer pressure is something quite real to me, as most of my friends, all of my flatmates, and my significant other are all doing it too. Script Frenzy is an entirely different matter. Most of the friends we managed to convince to give Screnzy a try last year have chosen not to renew the experience, and I'm now the only Script Frenzy ML for London.

My being ML is probably most of why I haven't given up, although it's not as good or enjoyable a motivation as having house write-ins. I now have to write 6 pages a day to finish in time, although with the massive headache I have right now, I doubt I'll be apt to doing that tonight.

This post is probably not worded as nicely or coherently as my usual. That would be because I'm writing from the Southbank Centre (Million Monkeys!), where very loud and unpleasant would-be-smart music is playing. The fact that some sort of obnoxious fashion show is playing has obviously become my newest procrastination alibi. Back to writing now! I have to add to these measly 21 pages.

Sherman & Lloyd Investigations

It's Day Seven of Script Frenzy, and to no one's great surprise, I'm behind on my page-count. I'm starting to wonder if this might not be just how I roll. I know where I want my story to go and what I want it to do and I feel very good about it. Maybe this is just my week one enthusiasm talking, but I'm still basking in the quiet, hopeful confidence of one who likes what she's writing. Compared with last years' opening pages, these have been easy enough to write and flow well enough.

I don't often feel that my first drafts are even decent, but this one has got good stuff going for it - namely three great main characters, several cool sidekicks, and some exciting (if mildly unrealistic) conflict. It's now tentatively titled Sherman & Lloyd Investigations, after the detective agency the main characters set up in the pilot. I don't love it as a title, but it'll do for now. I figure I should have a tagline, so here's my first draft for one. Judge it by first draft standards, pretty, please:

Acerbic linguistic professor Sadie, computer genius Stuart and PI's cynical secretary Charlie team up to fight crime.

Script Frenzy!

Only 8 hours to go until Script Frenzy 2011 kicks off! And only about an hour before our London Kick-Off Party :)

I don't have much of an outline in mind, although I do have a lot of ideas. I'm writing a crime TV series for which I need to write a good logline, as I've been struggling to explain it concisely to people. I will see how this year goes given a) this is the first time I ever write a completely original script (last year was an adaptation of one of my previous works) and b) I'm ML on my own this year (last year I had a co-ML, but she's quite busy with work at this time of year and she didn't want to Screnzy again).

I've added a page count widget to the sidebar of this site, I have organised my tweetdeck efficiently for MLing purposes, I have a little purple notebook with lyurical poetry by Edgar Allan Poe on the cover, and I've installed the latest beta version of Scrivener.

I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I guess. Bring April on, and let's write the heck out of this premise!

To laugh or to cry?

The first rule of wannabe writers is 'Don't be a jerk.'
The second rule of wannabe writers is 'Don't be a jerk.'

The funny bit:
Check out the oh-so-classy reaction of this self-published author to a review that she didn't entirely approve of.

Note that the review isn't altogether bad. The reviewer even commends the story as entertaining until the end, but he does mention numerous typos, spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. The comments are where it all goes sour, as the author takes it upon herself to correct the reviewer, with such gems as 'My writing is just fine' or 'My book is great'. If you read further down the comments, you'll find she stands proudly by her terrible grammar and syntax, telling people to f*ck off.

Just scan the review to get the jist of it, and look at the first ten or so comments for that lovely, self-righteous feeling of 'OMG, are people really that unaware?' Comments are closed now, which is just as well, but it did put my stressful morning in perspective.

The serious bit:
What shocked me most in all of this what that the author seemed to imply in her comments that the reviewer didn't understand her sentences because they weren't English? I'm not even sure, as this woman's wording is terrible, but I felt so incensed by her even implying that! I spent so long making sure my English was faultless, for someone who can't even realise their writing is imcomprehensible to come out with such an argument was cringe-worthy.

For the record, I thought the reviewer was definitely too indulgent about her grammar/syntax/general massacre of the English language. I wouldn't even have reviewed the book. I'd probably have asked for a refund. And applied for a job as her editor.

Podcasts & Mary Robinette Kowal

I've never really liked listening to music on the radio - never knowing whether I'm going to like the next song really annoys me - but I like listening to shows regularly. I followed a few radio shows when I was younger, but I haven't in ages. I listen to Woman's Hour from time to time (especially when the amazing Kaite Welsh is on), but I get most of my spoken word entertainment from podcasts nowadays.

Ever since I discovered podcasts, about six or seven years ago (can't believe it's been that long!), I've been addicted to them. I used to listen to Harry Potter podcasts, as soon as they were out every week for several years when I was at uni. I couldn't watch any English-speaking TV, although I wouldn't go near French-dubbed movies with a barge-long pole, so these casts were my main source of authentic spoken English reference. I believe they're a huge part of why I have a bit of an American-ish accent when I speak.

Now though, I listen to writing podcasts, my favourites being Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing, which I've probably mentioned before, and the amazing, award-winning Writing Excuses. As I've a bit of an obsessive nerd, I've gone back in the archive and listened to every episode since both shows began. One of my favourite Writing Excuses episode ever is from back in 2009: Guest speaker Mary Robinette Kowal, Campbell-winning author and professional puppeteer (seriously, how cool is that?) talks about the four principles of puppetry and how to apply them to writing. Apart from being a fascinating insight into puppet theatre theory, it's a great discussion of what writing is about (mind-controlling the reader, among other things) and just a really fun talk to listen to.

So I think you should go listen to it here - Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 14 - The Four Principles of Puppetry with Mary Robinette Kowal - and if you're as intrigued by Kowal's cool writing theories as I was, you should also read her Hugo-nominated novel, Shades of Milk and Honey (Tor Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0765325563 - order it from your local bookstore). I listened to the audiobook (read by Kowal, which was a lovely bonus) this week-end and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is basically Jane Austen with magic. Need I say more? Probably not, but in case you're not convinced, here's the boing-boing review.

As you may have noticed...

I'm not very consistent. Heck, I think it's even fair to say I'm quite inconsistent.

I consider this particular quirk of mine to be one of my more annoying character traits. Whenever I try to do something even remotely long term, like make a really fancy costume, exercise regularly, practise drawing, diet, write a book or, say, a blog... I tend to just stop after a while. It's why I like Nanowrimo and Script Frenzy so much: I find it much easier to focus on one month and rush something out, even if it's more difficult, than to do it slowly over a long period of time.

I am well aware there are no magic secret and I know I won't get better at writing without doing a large amount of writing. So I am trying to be more consistent, to do things in a less hectic way, a little bit at a time. I'm breaking my big goals into smaller ones, detailing the process on notecards, giving myself a time-frame to finish each small goal. To make sure I make good on these, I got myself a nifty corkboard that fits right next to my desk. I've divided it into three categories (To Do, Doing and Done). I add new goals to the To Do column, then move them into Doing and eventually Done, as I make progress. Right now, in Doing, I have:

- Create main characters, both protagonists and antagonists
- Figure out conflicts
- Plot story arc and character arcs
- Do worldbuilding/research
- Plot scenes

I got the idea from a Holly Lisle article. What I like most about her courses is that she's so incredibly well-organised. It's been helpful, although it hasn't revolutionised the way I write yet. At least, my writing space looks pretty cool:

HTRYN: Getting to know what I wrote.

A month after I started How to Revise Your Novel, how do I feel about it?

It's an eye-opener. It was designed to be just that, a course that makes the student look at their novel differently - taking it apart methodically, detaching themselves from their beloved characters in order to figure out where it went wrong and where it went right. This approach might not be right for everybody, but it appeals to me a lot. Stars Shine Brighter, though I love it still, is fraught with too many obvious mistakes and shortcomings to ignore. It's just not a very good story at that point. What's on the paper is nowhere near as shiny as what's in my mind, and even that is quite confused, so fixing it is no luxury.

Because Holly Lisle used to be a nurse, working in the ER, she uses medical metaphors to describe throughout the course. Your novel is an ER patient, who has just come in after a car-crash (or train-wreck, depending on how messed up it is). The first two months of the course, Lessons One to Eight (although it may take a lot longer than a week to work through some of the lessons), she defines as Triage, when the doctor/writer examines their patient/novel and figure out what is wrong with it.

During that first period, as a HTRYN student, you go through a number of re-reads of your novel in order to give the appropriate diagnosis (most likely it'll be diagnoses, really). Only after this long period of analysis, do you get to start making changes. Why? Because as you read your manuscript and identify its fault, sudden realisations about your work are bound to come and WHACK you around the head pretty much all the time. These are so common (and awesome!) that they even have a name on the HTRYN forums. They are the EUREKA MOMENTS!*

I will talk about the rest of the course when I get to it, but for now, let me tell you about my first few weeks of dissecting my novel.

How To Revise Your Novel, Lesson One:

Holly tells you straight up, when you read your first lesson, that it's probably the hardest one you'll have to go through. I don't know about future lessons yet, but I hope it's true because Lesson One was pretty though. Even after I had been warned that certain lessons may take longer than others to tackle, I was a bit shocked to find that Lesson One took me more than three weeks.

Lesson One isn't titled Magic, Despair and Grace for nothing. I thought I would stop several times and then I went on the boards, got some encouragements from graduates of the course and threw myself back into the task. I filled out the many worksheets, answering questions - What did I want my novel to be when I started? What is it like now? What came to life unplanned as I wrote it? - making notes on my manuscript every time I read something of notice - Is this good characterisation/bad characterisation? Why did this bit turn out to be so good/bad?, etc...

For me, the lesson highlighted many things that I suspected were wrong with the book and helped me see why. Because using the worksheets forced me to be methodical, it also squashed any illusions I could have, any argument I could try to oppose. Some of my characters are straw men and women. Some are flat, one-dimensional or just completely not what I would like them to be. Some bits of the plot make no sense and some elements I was fond of are just not shown at all. But I also know how this came to happen - hurrying through Nano, I left all the good stuff in my head and what made it to paper was mostly info-dumps, plot-holes and weak characters.

This may sound like it should be a depressing experience. But isn't the idea behind Nano that 'You can't revise a blank page'? Well, neither can you fix something if you don't know what's broken.

I know I'm explaining this all in foggy terms, but if I went into details this post would be even longer and I couldn't do justice to the course anyway. More on Lesson two coming up as I complete it!


*The Eureka moments are also referred to as epiphanies very often, but I favour the more science-y, less religiously-charged term. Shocker.

How To Revise Your Novel

For my first ever NaNo, in 2008, I wrote a novel about space pirates called Stars Shine Brighter. I had amazing characters and great ideas and concepts when I started out and, as it so often happens, the magic didn't translate onto what I'd written. Now, even though the first draft is a mess, I've still been in love with the characters ever since, figuring out more and more about them and their personalities and trying to write more. From these attempts, more snippets of text were born, but no significant progress was made.

So I decided to do something that had been tempting me for a while and sign up for Holly Lisle's novel revision course, the appropriately named 'How To Revise Your Novel'. I feel like HTRYN is going to be a good thing for me, because it structures things in a way that I quite like. How much vaguer could I be, huh? Information on the course can be found here at http://howtoreviseyournovel.com/. Now, I know the page looks corny and all, but I've read some of Holly Lisle's previous essays and fiction [and blogged about it] and I really do like her style and what she has to say. I'm just a sucker for anything structured like a class.

So right now I'm fighting my way through Week One of the course, which Lisle defines as the hardest one, because you have to set yourself a whole new bunch of targets, which you do by reading your manuscript and writing down every time you think something sucks. Which I my case happens often. Updates on this will follow as I work through the course.

My goal for the coming week is to finish Week One and start on Week Two after that.