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.

Oh, lookie, it's mid-May!

April has come and gone in a whirl of script-writing, event-organising and mild swearing. I have tried to be a good ML and I think on some level I achieved that, although motivation strongly lagged after I started finding myself alone at write-ins. Script Frenzy was pretty cool, but it's not as popular as NaNoWriMo and its participants tend to be more of the online type, I think. If only because the fact that there even were MLs for London this year wasn't so widely known.

I'm proud to say that I have won Script Frenzy, with the 100-page mark reached on Friday the 30th around 9pm. I swear one year I'll win before the late evening on the last day. I wrote an adaptation of a romance novel I'd started for JulNoWriMo last year and it went pretty well. It's actually the closest I've come yet to finishing any story, but it's not finished yet, of course. The young padawan, much learning yet to process has. I also had fun with the format although it was a bit difficult to get to grips with it at first. I'm sure I went a bit OTT on visual gimmicks, montages and symbolic things, but I feel like I learnt at least a bit. So that was good.

Now, tell me about your month of April, people. Did you try your hand at Script Frenzy? If so, did you like it or not? Did you find script-writing to be just the thing for you? Or just the thing to avoid? Will you be taking part again next year? Will you give it a try if you haven't yet?

Don't worry, I'm still around...

I'm just quite bad at organising myself and at actually doing stuff. Also, I've been a bit ill recently, which induces tiredness and lazyness. I also haven't written at all in a while, which means the Guilt Monkeys have been visiting, Failure Hyenas and Shame Yodels in toe. It's hard to feel great and enthusiastic about posting on your Serious Writing Blog if you haven't been doing any writing.

Thankfully, Script Frenzy is coming soon, which means I will definitely be writing a 100-page script in 30 days in April. I am very excited about Screnzy this year, all the more so because a Municipal Liaison for London, so I get to organise lots of amazing activities, parties and write-ins.

On the reading front, everything goes smoothly, I've read the graphic novel Kick-Ass because I saw the trailer for the movie and it looked awesome and a Regency romance novel entitled Everything And The Moon, which wasn't that great. Right now I'm reading Temeraire, by Naomi Novik and I absolutely love it. Not that I expected to dislike a book about ships, dragons and the war between France and England, but still, the book fills me with glee and it should be the subject of my next book post.

Reading - The Lovely Bones

I've just finished to read Alice Sebold's best-selling novel The Lovely Bones. Susie Salmon (like the fish) is 14 when she is murdered by a man who lives in the neighbourhood. After her death, she looks back at earth from her own personal heaven, observing the lives of her loved ones, as they have to learn to live without her and cope with her death.

The front cover and the friends who had already read the book all told me it was one of these compulsive reads that can be devoured in a single sitting and on this subject I beg to differ. Even by my slow standards of reading, taking over a week to read one single novel is a little much.

I feel the characterisation is really the strong point of the book. That and, you know, the story's premise - it's original and gripping and beautifully well-served by Sebold's writing. For once, the back cover isn't exaggerating, the writing really is great. The characters' feelings, their reactions to the dreadful events dropped onto them, their relationships to each other, how they grow and degrade, all of this is masterfully crafted and feels incredibly genuine. I truly admire Sebold for that.

I found the story to be a little bit slow-paced and not just as great as the hype around it had led me to expect, but it should be taken into account that I was spoilt before reading the book. I also found the ending of the book to be quite weird and nonsensical and I liked the realistic elements of the story better than the few supernatural ones. I'm quite eager to see what the movie is like, now.

One thing I'm not that good at is multitasking...

When I made the conscious decision to start practising my writing more seriously, I knew that my issue would probably be to stay focused and determined, to keep at it regularly and establish a habit that I could rely on. I'm interested in a lot of things and I like to try out new activities as well as tried and tested hobbies I've come to love dearly.

I tend to organise my spare times a bit like I do my meals - i.e. not at all. I am mostly a nibbler and occasionally a binger when it comes to food and leisure, but I am never very organised or regular in what I do. I eat when I want to and I practise my hobbies when I want to. It should be that easy, shouldn't it? I like to write, I want to get better at it, therefore I should just be able to do it whenever I want. And that should be quite often because I always like to tell stories.

It seems to me like I pour into my writing a huge amount of hopes and expectations, and maybe, just like with food, these things I expect of myself are what can charge something I love with more guilt and worry than pleasure. And just like with food, I don't want to let that happen and I won't.

Maybe I should christen these posts Wacky Metaphorical Wednesdays, as I seem to be getting the hang of those metaphors. And at least, if they're not that great now, they'll get better!

Writing - The Artist's Way

Mur Lafferty, the author and podcaster behind I Should Be Writing, the podcast for wannabe writers, is currently releasing a series of video podcasts about Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, a twelve-week course in 'Discovering and Recovering your Creative Self'.

I like courses, because they give you a framework and I thought that doing this along with ISBW would help me do it properly and not abandon. I decided to shell out the £15 for the book despite Lafferty's warning that it might be a little bit heavy on the whole spirituality side for the sceptics among us. I was quite concerned about this because sceptic is a bit of an understatement when it comes to my views on religion. And in fact it does irk me quite a lot when Julia Cameron tells that I will be able to connect with God better and that I will inspiration from it. But I decided I could live with being irked and it may be worth it.

The Artist's Way's method works on introspection a lot and it includes doing three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness journalling first thing every morning. I am very much hoping this will help me improve my phrasing and get rid of some of the stiffness in my writing which I discussed last week. Of course I'm using a notebook with lines stupidly close together so it's a lot of writing and it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to do - of course that probably wouldn't be a problem if I was able to get up a bit earlier or sacrifice my morning internet browsing to do my three pages. So far I've done most of my week-day morning pages at work during free periods or after work and I could feel the difference with the morning pages that I actually did first thing in the morning.

One thing I am worried about is that in doing this course and in getting ready for Script Frenzy next month (I'll be writing my script and organising events for the Frenzy, as I'm one of the London MLs), I will be so busy talking and thinking about writing that I won't actually do any writing. This has happened to me in the past, so I'll have to be careful to not let that repeat itself. It's going to be a challenge, but hopefully one that I can come out of as an improved writer.

Reading - The Graveyard Book

Last week, I read Neil Gaiman's latest young adult novel The Graveyard Book, which won The Newbury medal and a gazillion other well-deserved awards upon its release. I received this book as a birthday present and was absolutely delighted with it. I was given the adult UK edition - as with the Harry Potter series, The Graveyard Book was released in two separate editions in the UK. I saw the children's edition yesterday at Forbidden Planet and I have to say, I like the illustrations in mine better.

Gaiman says the idea for the book came when he saw his then four-or-five year old* son ride his bicycle in a graveyard. He thought it would be great to write a book just like Kipling's The Jungle Book, but with a boy raised in a graveyard instead. So The Graveyard Book tells the story of Nobody Owens, a boy who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his parents' murder.

I found it a very interesting book to read because of the way it is timed. Each chapter takes place roughly two years after its predecessor, meaning that we see slices of Bod's life, when he is one and a half, four, six, eight, etc... I really admired the way Gaiman made his growing protagonist so realistic because, despite my experience working with children and teenagers, I'm not very aware of what children do, what they are preoccupied with at which age. Of course, it helps that Gaiman has three children and that he clearly doesn't underestimate his young readers' intelligence or capacity to deal with difficult topics.

Naturally, because it is Neil and I'm such a fangirl and especially because he says very smart things about everything, I listened to a number of interview he gave about The Graveyard Book. One thing he said** about writing for children as opposed to writing for adults fascinated me - when he writes a book for adults, he expects the reader to read through the good bits, the action and the dialogue and maybe skim through the description and then put the book on a shelf. However, when he writes for children, he always keeps in mind the fact that the reader is going to read every word closely and question how interesting the story is all along. He also knows that if a child has enjoyed a book, they are very likely to read it again next month and again next year, because that's what we do when we love books as children.***

As a grown-up (sort of), I really enjoyed this book and I could also tell that here is a book I would have really enjoyed as a kid. Had this been written when I was ten, it would have had pride of place on my bookshelf and I would probably have re-read it quite regularly, as Gaiman rightly assumes avid younger readers do. And I know that in a few years time, I'll be proud to give that book to my niece. After all, I need to maintain my status as Auntie Claire, who lives in London like Peter Pan and gives cool gifts.

*I can't remember precisely how old Gaiman said his son was at the time. I'm sure he does though.
**Please forgive me for my not-so-good paraphrasing, I forgot to save the quote at the time and can't find the interview again.
***If I hadn't been completely in love with this man's brain before, this would have done it.

When I say I'm a grammar freak, I mean it.

An aspect of my writing which, I think, could use some improvement is that I'm often much too descriptive and wordy.

Not only do I tell instead of showing, I also tell in long-winded, elaborate sentences. I tend to do something called 'style indirect libre' in French, whereby I describe someone saying something, instead of just having them say it, as in "Mr and Mrs Dursley of number 4, Privet Drive were perfectly normal, thank you very much." instead of "Mrs Dursley, who lived at Number 4, Privet Drive, said, outraged 'We're perfectly normal, thank you very much.'" I think it can be used to great effect when it's done subtly and on purpose, just like in the example above, but I just do it all the time. Maybe it just stems from my usual talking style. When I recount an event, it can take some time and go in many an unexpected direction. Note how I embrace the British tradition of the understatement here?

A few days ago, I explained this problem to my boyfriend whose answer was that maybe I should try not to use so much pluperfect. Now you may think that's a random comment to make, but it's actually right on the mark. When he suggested that, I got all sadface and objected, 'But I LOVE the pluperfect!' And it's true. I think the pluperfect is a fun, awesome tense. I couldn't explain it clearly, but knowing that I am at liberty to use it makes me happy. I also love the pluperfect continuous. He suggested that maybe I'm trying to show off my English skills a little bit and I am going to deny it, in public. See what I did with that coma there? Erm. So. No showing off. At all. *kof, kof*

More seriously, I think we are touching here on one of the major drawbacks of writing in one's second language. It is very hard, once you've spent more than a decade being taught how to use a tool in the only right and proper way, to suddenly start using it in a more imaginative fashion. At first, you learn how to use your tool in a very basic way, you learn how to take a chip of wood away with a flat-ended chisel, then you progress, you learn the irregularities, you start using different-sized chisels and gouges and suddenly you can make pretty cool stuff. You've got most words, most tenses, most tools. You can make a lamp, or a chair, or write an essay on the compared benefits of reading or going to the theatre.

And then you get the Dremmel. My brother - who is a wood crafter, if you were wondering where all the wood talk came from - has a Dremmel. He loves it, it's one of his favourite tools. A Dremmel is a neat little drill with many different bits to choose from and with it he makes absolutely amazing things. He made me the most beautiful carved wooden pendant. It was almost entirely hollow because it was literally made out of holes. It was a beautiful criss-crossing of dark red wood and ended up breaking in two because of how delicate it was.

Now, to me, pluperfect is like the Dremmel. You can use it to express things that you could hardly have expressed otherwise. You can use it to make things criss-cross and entertwine. And that makes me about as happy as a puppy with a new chewing toy. Which means that I think about as much as said puppy when using the pluperfect. What could go wrong if I'm being grammatically correct?

I know that not everyone who speaks English as their second language has this problem and that I have it mainly because I love weird, shiny tenses too much, but my argument stands. It is very hard for a non-native speaker of any language to write in any other way than stiff, proper, and grammatically shiny, because they have learnt that from their use of the language.

I'm now trying to correct this by not using the pluperfect or pluperfect continuous :'( and by experimenting with writing in the present tense. This was a suggestion from le boyfriend and so far it's been interesting.

On Saturday, I wrote a short spooky piece about a guy who enters his flat to find an unknown woman dead on his bed and on Monday I started on another present-omly story. This one is turning out okay too, but I won't talk about it too much because I want to do more writing on it tomorrow.

People, your turn. What do you think is your Writing-Wise Weakness? Let me know in the comments. Do you write tons of dialogue and no description or vice-versa? Do you plan too much and find the writing less fun or do you start without a clue and have to rewrite the whole first half when it's done? Or do you struggle with finishing your first draft?

Writing - I try to remember it's not that serious.

These days, I'm struggling with the idea that everything I write is not destined to be the ultimate best-seller. I'm still at the beginning of my learning process and I need to write plenty of imperfect sketches before I get the proportions right. I need hours of practise before I can even reproduce a melody, let alone create one. This is the step where I usually abandon my creative attempts because it's hard and I suck. I've seen it happen with drawing, with singing and playing the guitar, with circus arts and calligraphy. I also ditched horse-riding after the first fall.

Drama and English were the subjects I stuck with and they were the ones I got decent at. It helps me a lot that I truly believe talent is a mix of imagination, experience and hard work. Very hard work. And then more very hard work. And while I have a sneaking suspicion I won't be too good about going to the gym three times a week, I really want to keep training on my writing.

So I'm planning big projects, like the revision of my Nano 09 novel, the same one that despaired me so much last week. I've thought about it a lot, and decided to keep the first 20,000 words or so, because they make sense and I actually like them, surprisingly enough. There's a story and a half in there, so I'll work on making it two different short stories whose main characters are close relatives and I'll shoot for about 20k each. After that, there's two more stories I can write, again with characters related to the first two.

This project terrifies me because it's huge and historical, but I think it'd help me learn a great deal. Right now, I'm mainly writing very short pieces and blog posts for here or LiveJournal . I'm trying to keep myself writing in the time I would otherwise have used berating myself for not writing.

I can do this. Right?

Reading - Playing for Keeps

Last week, I read Mur Lafferty's debut novel Playing For Keeps, a superhero novel with average-hero protagonists - with super powers like the ability to cure hangovers, or never drop bar trays - and officially superheroic and villainous antagonists on a wide scale of barmytude.

It was a fun book to read and I wanted to know what was coming next. The story was interesting and the protagonists (it feels strange to say 'the heroes' or 'the heroin', given what these means in Seventh City), they actually felt like real people. They were put in a less than enviable position and they dealt in what felt like a genuine way.

I finished the book quite quickly by my standards, mainly because I kept sneaking in a page or two whenever I could - which is how I used to read back in middle-school. It was great to find a book that made me want to read it like that again.

I wanted to read this book because I listen to Lafferty's podcast I Should Be Writing regularly and enjoy it very much. If you're an aspiring writer and you've never heard of I Should Be Writing, I recommend that you try it, it's a great show. Lafferty talks about her writing, discusses writing problems and interviews awesome authors - including Neil Gaiman!* I've gone back and listened to quite a lot of ISBW and heard Mur discussing Playing For Keeps, from when she was writing and editing it, to the rejections and to being picked up by her publisher, Swarm Press.

I feel that listening to ISBW has taught me a lot, so I felt it was important for me to buy Mur's book and I wasn't disappointed! Check out I Should Be Writing and Playing For Keeps!

*Oh dear, I'm such a fangirl...