February 13, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Wonderful memories shared by my muse

Sitting here at my computer, looking out the window to a wonderland that is winter. It is very quiet in the house and I can hear the gentle ticking of the clock on the wall. It brings back a flood of memories for me of sitting in my grandmothers home in front of the windows where the sun streams through the lacy curtains and floods her violets with life giving sunlight. She had a cuckoo clock and I will never forget the sounds of that clock for the rest of my days…..such a gentle sound and it soothed me when I wanted to forget the world and how some people made me feel.

I miss spring and I know it will be here soon. It means life starting over again, although in our life we never seem to be able to recycle like the flowers in spring. Oh to be…

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Do you struggle with Word Selection?

February 12, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Words have a power all their own (Photo credit: Lynne Hand)

The word is on the tip of my tongue, or is it in my fingers poised above the keyboard. Wherever it is I need to find that dang word but I can’t. As I work through the current draft of Wyrm Bait, or in a few months some other novel, there are words that don’t read right. When nothing comes out of my addled head, I spend time delving for a better one in the Flip Dictionary, a really useful aid created by Barbara Ann Kipfer for The Writer’s Digest, which I prefer over a conventional thesaurus.

However hard I attempt to find dozens of phrases and words to change on every page of my manuscript, failure dogs my endeavours. Why? Conventional wisdom suggests that at the detailed editing stage I should be honing each word or phrase, since previous drafts only tackled the broader brush-strokes. In fact the number of edits should be nearer six if not more. What am I missing? Am I rushing? I’ve given myself two months at the rate of 8 pages per day. Or am I still too involved with my creation and unwilling to address its failings?

Maybe my writing process has eliminated the need to do repeated revisions. I plot my novels in detail and each day, before I write anything, I think through the next scene in my head. When I type, I don’t always churn out words as they come to mind. I craft my phrases a little but not at the expense of the flow. I also glance through my work at the end of each day or the following morning. Am I editing as I write?

I fear there is another answer. Word selection fails when I talk and I can ascribe that to my MS. Gradually the stress and the exhaustion has robbed me of my ability to remember even simple words. Sometimes I talk rubbish and I only pray that my writing isn’t close behind. Admittedly I can use the wrong word or hit the wrong keys but I call that a co-ordination relapse. When I was an equestrian journalist, remembering names of horses and riders’ faces was straightforward and essential. Now I forget friends’ names and the titles of song that I love by ?*&%$£?)(

Picture of Hollywood sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If only I hadn’t blown my money on Hollywood dreams, I might have the savings now to employ an editor with a better brain; or at least one without lesions.

Talk to you all next week. Good writing from The Silver Scribbler.

Is hindsight useful?

February 5, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Struggling to edit the second novel I attempted, today’s Blog is brief and more like navel gazing than tackling new ground. In 2011 I wrote a blog post entitled First Drafts – posted below as not archived on this site.

Re-reading the post, it seems to reflect the process that I find myself in. Except the novel that I’ve just finished drafting is Wyrm Blood, the sequel to Wyrm Bait, which is the novel being edited, for the third time. And Spiral of Hooves is with an e-publisher and should be available some time in 2013.

My word count has dropped significantly, mainly due to my MS worsening. However I feel that my writing has improved, but that decision is ultimately down to my readers. Hopefully having seven Works In Progress, there should be at least two published novels to enjoy this time next year. Beta-readers get advance previews, but that means putting up with mistakes and telling me what sucks. In late March I will be appealing for constructive betas for Wyrm Bait.

Clutter Update: Great (fraternal) minds thinks alike. Taking photos of the clutter resolved the problem of accessing my mother’s no-wheelchair access flat. Now I just have to tell my brother what gets chucked, and what gets saved, using the photos he took.

You Want Me To Go Down Where?! (Photo credit: tobym)

First Drafts

07/25/2011

Another milestone in the novel writing adventures of the Silver Scribbler. Having set myself the deadline of a month to write the first draft of ‘Skeins’, I completed it on time yesterday, without cheating. Great feeling although not something that I would do again as it meant having to be somewhat anti-social from waking up to going to bed; barring MS exercises, meals and rests. Also with the MS, I did require regular breaks or my legs stiffened up badly. Next time I will go for a slightly slower pace – back from 2,500 words per day to 2,000 = 5-6 weeks for same length draft (78,000).

Anyway it is written and without reading it through to revise it, I am happy given it is a first draft. First real test will be my honey reading it, especially as gaming is at centre of the cyber-crime plot. Also new working title is ‘Wyrm Bait’ due to cyber & fantasy gaming connections. Might even use main characters again and stick with some title format with ‘Wyrm’ or related.

I won’t be doing any serious revision on it for at least a month if not two or even six (the recommended marination time according to some professional writers). Instead I will be beginning the revision of ‘Spiral of Hooves’ which has sat in a cupboard since June 12th. Spent a week deliberating about how long to marinade it for and whether I should start a second novel, or whatever was deemed sensible. Eventually having weighed up all the advice, decided to write two in parallel.

So ‘Spiral of Hooves’ re-enters my life and I wonder what I will find. Could be an exciting time for the Silver Scribbler…and his red pen.

Clutter Or Backstory? (rolandclarke.com)

Clutter Or Backstory?

January 29, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Almost sixty years of living can produce a lot of baggage, especially if everything is too precious or important to throw away. Can I afford to chuck those vinyl records that filled my ears when I was a teenager? Surely some of my old VHS recordings must contain gems that can’t be trashed? However if I take a lesson from writing, then too much information or backstory can bog the tale down, make the reader close the book after a few pages.

I was on schedule to complete my January writing targets and yesterday I finished the first read-through edit of my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel – Wyrm Blood. I just need to print out a hard copy for the next edit in perhaps the summer. February was scheduled for the next edit of the first ‘Gossamer Steel’ book, Wyrm Bait. But then my past caught up with me.

Pre-2000, life was in a downward spiral in terms of property but belongings kept accumulating as my ex-wife and I moved house/flat. In 2000 when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and we sold our home, I moved in with my mother shifting the detritus of my life into one room & corridor. When I re-married in 2010 the attempt began to throw the clutter away and thanks to my new wife, much of it was disposed of, or moved into our home IF it could be used. Some remained ready for the final sort out, but annoyingly when you create space like digging in sand it fills up again – mainly with my sister’s junk. On our last visit, it was impossible to get at my stuff, so I gave up.

Then on the 4^th December my mother had a fall and went into hospital, then moved into a ‘healing centre’. Yesterday my brother rings up to say she will be home next week and can I clear my old room of the junk at least, in order that the live-in nurse can use the room. Great warning, especially when I’m in a wheelchair, my mother’s flat is up five steps and there’s no room in the corridor for easy access either. Plus I don’t travel at all well.

‘But you could sit outside and tell someone [my wife] what to throw out, when it’s brought out’.

Great idea when it’s cold, I need a toilet regularly, my wife suffers from asthma and a bad knee and hip, plus I know what I really need to keep – the things that add meaning to my life but not the clutter of my past. In addition the pressure of having to go there, deal with the problems = stress = severe MS attacks that my wife has to cope with, not just me.

English: Main symptoms of Multiple sclerosis. Sources are found in main article: Wikipedia:Multiple sclerosis#Signs and symptoms. Model: Mikael Häggström. To discuss image, please see Template_talk:Häggström diagrams (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After editing a few draft novels, I’m learning that you only need the backstory elements that add substance to the characters. Clutter isn’t needed, which means differentiating between information that adds to the characters, and facts that are only needed while drafting the characters in the background notes. Hence there are things, which I know are at my mother’s flat and I value as part of me – like the letters that I wrote from Canada as a teenager. But old clothes, VHS tapes and certainly anything that reminds me of my failed marriage are superfluous to moving on, especially if they carry memories of bad decisions.

I’ve always taken this quote to heart: “I turn over a new leaf every day, …But the blots show through.” Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar, chapter. 11. But unlike Billy Liar, I’ve moved on so the blots have to go. Yes the clutter is my responsibility but then surely my siblings can understand that having a disabled brother is a responsibility too. Or perhaps I’m expecting too much?

I can list the 4 things I need from the past that’s cluttering up that room: 1. my old writing folders; 2. my Lord of the Rings souvenirs; 3. my old letters; and 4. a black cast iron kitten. There are books in the bookshelves but my brother is not worried about them, only my clutter which has been piled in a jumble with my sister’s clutter. Oh she lives in Singapore. Any more and the precious few become clutter in my new life, not backstory. Friday I will be nodding goodbye to the detritus, I suspect.

Is clutter making your hate your home? (thetimes.co.uk)
Maybe backstory isn’t so bad after all (nevalalee.wordpress.com)

Writing and Relationships

January 25, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Writing and Relationships. A post worth reading on The Daily Racewood

Nothing but the Truth

January 22, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Cover of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

I do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

As a fledgling crime writer in England these words should at least be embedded somewhere in the background or at least in the minds of some of my characters. Yet just because a witness claims to speak the truth, should all my characters be honest in their dialogue and thoughts? I do not have the skill of Agatha Christie to pull off the deception in Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but most of us are not totally honest so why should my fictional creations be? So my readers don’t get confused?

I try to ensure that the characters are not totally contradictory in their words and actions, unless that is clearly part of their make-up and consistent across all their actions. Deception can be a part of someone’s persona as long as it is believable. However it’s realistic to portray most people as having layers of personality and masks to hide certain things – isn’t it?

What is Truth anyway? Surely what one person sees as the truth can be another’s injustice or lie. Some people make an art of justifying their own actions and that works as much for protagonists and antagonists. Gone are the days of white-robed heroes versus black-caped villains. The power of Truth has also diminished over time, or so it seems if one glances at the following quotes:

Anti-Stratfordian Mark Twain, wrote “Is Shakespeare Dead?” shortly before his death in 1910. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain’t so.

MARK TWAIN, Mark Twain’s Notebooks

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

ALBERT EINSTEIN, Ideas and Opinions: Based on Mein Weltbild

Or does this show that it all depends on perspective? Does Truth prevail as long as the judge and jury are society and not a single group or person? Sometimes it seems that the media can become judge, jury and executioner … or maybe I should say politicians decide they are. But then I’m only a retired journalist that tried to report only the facts, although those were often the facts as stated by those I interviewed.

However, there was one article that I had to research very thoroughly as it was a controversial doping incident – equestrian not cycling. I attempted to interview parties on all sides, and when I wrote the article for an online equestrian site, I ensured that it was a balanced assessment. Fortunately there was almost unanimous agreement that it was one of the best reports at the time.

English: Toronto: Winston Churchill statue at City Hall Deutsch: Toronto: Winston Churchill Statue am Rathaus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Was it still my version? Can a writer ever stand back and be objective? Winston Churchill said, ‘History is written by the victors‘, and looking back over thousands of years that seems so wise. What I was taught in school about the Roman Empire took their point of view, not the ‘barbarians’ that we now know had as rich a culture but it was subjugated by the victors. How much of the negative image of Marie Antoinette was Revolutionary propaganda? How will Nazi Germany be remembered if fascism writes future history books?

I’m moving perhaps into the area of Alternate History, which in most cases is merely a fiction genre akin to science fiction, although there are some excellent academic works out there. But maybe some of the old historical accounts that were once authorities strayed too – strayed from the truth for justified reasons that might have been called for dramatic or political effect.

Thus I ask again: what is Truth? My protagonists think they speak the truth but the antagonists have their own version. If a jury was asked to make a judgement then both versions would be tested, as are the jury of readers. And if the tale was turned on its head and told by the guilty victor, who would know? Is the innocent man telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?