How do you choose which path?

September 9, 2012 by Roland Clarke

English: Crossroads – and three ways out of the road opposite I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before on a single track road – a left, right and straight ahead lane to choose from. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you reach a crossroads is there a right path? Will turning right lead to a precipice or inspiration? Is self-publishing a more stressful route than the safe traditional path? Will choosing to focus on the task ahead be at the expense of other demands?

This last month has thrown all these questions at me, complicated by the pain and exhaustion of MS – the MonSter that shares my life. So where to start at this crossroads with multiple junctions? News first as that can lead down other lanes.

Hoof Shone ~ Photo credit: Flickr

Spiral of Hooves: Last month (in August 2^nd post) I mentioned that I was considering submitting Spiral of Hooves to a US publishing group http://www.spectaclepmg.com/. Well I did and they wrote back saying they were interested in publishing the novel so would send me a contract. Still early days but this could be the break I dreamt of years ago. For now I am being patient and tackling other work.

Fire Wyrm (Photo credit: garlandcannon)

Wyrm Bait: Returning to the first draft a year after writing this second attempt at a novel, I have found elements to change but also a basic structure and characters that read well. It is tempting to work on every sentence but at this stage I am looking at the bigger picture to see if the overall plot works. One element will demand a major rewrite – Point of View (POV).

When I wrote the first draft, I had a clear idea of the protagonist and chose his POV in third person as the opening voice, which works. I deliberated about the second POV: Should I choose the antagonist? Should I choose his ‘sidekick’? Would a female POV be better? In the end I chose a guy close to the villain – as that seemed easier than getting into a female head. The option of trying to inhabit the mind of the antagonist, make him believable and not have him lie overtly, was a tall order and not something I was ready to attempt; especially Agatha Christie does it brilliantly in ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In retrospect the second POV, as it currently stands, lacks credibility, perhaps because I tried to write an Asian POV plus the guy has strong similarities to the protagonist, and reads too much like an observer and victim of events. So the conversations between him and his partner will be presented as transcripts by someone anonymous. The new second POV who participates in the same events more actively than the Asian guy, is a female associate but American. Having written a female POV as the protagonist in Fates Maelstrom – the latest WIP –I feel confident attempting it again. Also the character is set to return in the sequel.

The Lair of the White Wyrm (Photo credit: karlequin)

Wyrm Blood: After the first Wyrm Bait draft, I realised the characters and background – an online role-playing game – could support a series. I intend to write the first draft of Wyrm Blood for NaNoWriMo in November (http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/about) and so I have outlined the plot and added to the cast. Some months ago a short phrase came to me and I honed it until I had an opening for some story. That will now be Wyrm Blood and one of the characters will be my second POV in Wyrm Bait. Working on the characters also fed into the first of the intended Wyrm series and added new dimensions throughout.

Card from the Japanese game obake karuta, c. early 19th century. Each card features a monster from Japanese mythology and a character from the hiragana syllabary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MonSter: Our crossroads is not on an English or Irish lane that takes us back to the beginning. Typing this blog has answered some of my questions and brought resolve into my plans. There is one turning left and that is where the MonSter lives. MS causes pain, exhaustion, headaches, spasms, gravity checks and as a result restricts my life. If I choose the path of an agent and a publisher, I can envisage problems coping when exhaustion is an underlying concern. How do I get to meetings, especially in London, when my mobility is a wheelchair? What happens when I have to make verbal sense yet speaking or reading aloud is a problem? I know that other disabled people cope and as the Paralympics draw to a close nearby I see what is possible.

However MS limits my work schedule so I make choices. If I read all the Blogs I subscribe too, my writing time is cut short. If I work on a book then I haven’t time to Blog. If I find time to write a Blog then editing is postponed. If the MonSter decides to run amok then I have to sleep or scream until I can re-emerge or escape into Middle Earth. It’s all about priorities and juggling but the MonSter can be managed, but not tamed, as long as I don’t overdo it and pace myself.

So if I don’t post for a few weeks, apologies. But please know that I am still writing or reading something and one day I will be back here.

Until then good writing & reading from The Silver Scribbler.

PRINCESS WHISPER

August 22, 2012 by Roland Clarke

Today we had to have one of our kitty-cats put down. Whisper started losing her balance and falling over last week, and when we took her to the vet on Friday she was unable to stand or use her hind legs properly. The two vets who checked her over felt it was a neurological problem and prescribed her drugs, although if we could have afforded the £1,000 bill for a neurological vet & MRI that would have been an additional option. We watched over the weekend but she failed to respond to the antibiotics and was unable to use the litter, although she continued to drag herself around the front room to find the best place to sleep. But she was in so much pain, trembling, breathing heavily and wheezing with gaping mouth, pupils dilated. So the vet agreed that we had to end her suffering.

Our sadness continues but we know putting her to sleep was for the best. Hopefully Willow, her sister, will not pine too long for her and when we bring another kitty home she will have the company she now craves – when we’re exhausted or distracted.

Whisper was born on the 30th March 2011 on the farm at the B&B where we first stayed. So she would have been 1 year & 5 months at the end of the August, but in that short time she made an indelible impact on our lives, beginning with the moment we first met her as a tiny kitten. A ball of fur that was shy and cold so wanted to bury herself in my clothes. She was always the shy one of the two sisters and neither boisterous nor mischievous like her sister. But she would play, chasing balls or cat-nip mice, and catching flies or spiders; although it was without the nickel-driven exuberance of Willow.

Whisper was more refined in her behaviour, more demure and sedate with such silky thick tortoise-shell fur and a beautiful bushy tail. We were always sure that she had Maine-Coon in her bloodline, in contrast to her slim Calico tomboy sister. Our little princess had her special habits like climbing up the ladder-back of the dining chairs and staring at my wife whenever we were going to go to bed. She also loved sleeping especially between my keyboard and monitor – although she outgrew the space.

Less endearing but memorable, was her inability to bury her poo in the litter, scraping the sides or cover but not the granules. I tried to show her the bury technique as did her sister but if I didn’t clean it up then Willow did the burying. On reflection, we wonder whether this was the first sign of her neurological problem. Was it congenital and we missed the early clues? She had problems jumping onto the bed at first and there were times that she missed a target like the top of the toilet cistern. But they were so occasional that it was easy to ignore them. Not now, reflecting on her too short life. Now though she is at peace chasing butterflies by the Rainbow Bridge with my old cat Oliver and the much-loved dogs who went before them from both sides of the Atlantic. Her ashes will sit in a kitten carving on our mantelpiece next to our daughter Carrie’s and Oliver’s.

I hope you all understand that I had to write about Whisper as a tribute to her and as catharsis. This has been another piece of stress that has added to our troubled lives and my MS triggers. I am hoping that I get prescribed with Gabapentin to ease the spasms but have yet to hear from the MS Nurse to say that she has contacted the doctor. There are other difficulties and obstacles to tackle but hopefully in time we can move on, especially if we have the same strength that Whisper showed until the end.

How much time?

August 2, 2012 by Roland Clarke

St. Augustine writing, revising, and re-writing

Please don’t think I’m lazy but apologies are due I believe. The unforeseen hiatus in posts was enforced by MS dragging me down. Anyway I am back to the Blogging again. However Time is a tough commodity to manage when living with spasms, stiffness and exhaustion, so no wild promises or resolutions this time.

When I started this Blog at the end of May, the dominant theme became Editing as that was the writing stage I had reached with my first novel. After 12 years plus of working on Spiral of Hooves, I hoped that the end was in sight and only a couple of drafts were required to reach the finishing line.

Was I foolish thinking Editing would be so easy?

Three months on from starting the edit I had reached a quagmire and quit three days ago. Identifying the dire marshes that trapped me is simple – word checking. Was I reading too many posts about finding those ‘weasel words’ that grate and trying to eliminate them? I was spending day after day exterminating adverbs and expunging that/what/had/was or anything that was incorrect. I began to hate the manuscript and believe that it was not good enough. Plus I craved the day when I could move on to a better novel and get out of the Dead Marshes.

English: A view of the Kepler Mire String Bog from the Mt York Road Southland New Zealand (Photo credit: Wikipedia) [Used in LOTR films]

I abandoned the novel and put it back in the ‘bottom shelf’, deciding to move on and use a better manuscript as my first novel – the one I would use to get an agent. There was a mixture of frustration at my failure to finish Spiral of Hooves and relief at the thought of tackling Wyrm Bait, which already has a sequel hovering in the wings (called Wyrm Blood).

But was I wrong to give up so easily?

In the last few days two things happened that have possibly opened up clearer paths forward in my writing quest. First, my grand-daughter Jessica – step- if I was being pedantic – passed me a link to a US publishing group run by writers: http://www.spectaclepmg.com/. Perhaps they might be another route for a novel that needs a home – after a minor tinker.

Second, I read a repost by a US agent – http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/08/the-writing-rules/ – that made me realise that I could be following the rules too rigidly and stifling my creation before I had given it a chance. Thanks then to Rachelle Gardner for rekindling my belief in my creative process and putting the Editing in a context – not that I’m throwing out the rules that pulled me away from my worst writing excesses.

I need to learn from this journey through the Pedantry Marshes when I move on to Wyrm Bait and I must choose a more sensible approach. I’ve learnt that writing a first draft isn’t so much of a burden as the Editing and I need to manage Time better. I hope that I can do that and find enough Time to produce the other ideas that are crying out for creation. On the cusp of 59 I wonder how much more writing I can manage before MS steals all the thoughts away.

How much Time does a novel require in your life? Do you juggle or manage?

“Writing on the wood is prohibited.” DSC07600 (Photo credit: Nicolas Karim)

Should I apologise?

July 7, 2012 by Roland Clarke

I feel that I should apologise to the readers of this intermittent Blog as I have been silent for so long. I’ve not been on holiday or even lazing around in the sun, although there has been at least one evening out listening to a concert and watching a Spitfire flyby plus fireworks at my family home, Borde Hill in West Sussex. I’ve also spent a bit of time chilling by hunting orcs, brigands and other fell creatures in Middle Earth but that has been after a day’s work – and my wife has been reading Lord of the Rings aloud, a few chapters each day.

In fact most of them time, MS symptoms and spasms permitting, I’ve been doing another ‘final’ revision of Spiral of Hooves and deciding which agents I should submit the synopsis and first three chapters to. The revision is finished although I will probably re-read those first three chapters for words and threads still astray. I also have to adapt a long synopsis that I wrote in January so it is shorter and a better reflection of the novel. ThenI should be ready to write the covering letters to my first five submissions.

So should I apologise? Probably as you may have been wondering where I disappeared to – apologies.

At least I must apologise to myself for failing to stick to my self-imposed blog routine. Hopefully next Friday I can write a proper update and establish the routine of a weekly blog day. Tenna’ san’ = until then.

Until we meet again the Silver Scribbler wishes you all Good Writing & May the Wings of Imagination grant you freedom to soar.

The Horror! The Horror!

June 28, 2012 by Roland Clarke

The Horror! The Horror! by Dario Ciriello – Repost

I’m not sure about Joseph Conrad—history does not tell—but I’m prepared to bet that a majority of writers out there whimper at the prospect of revising their work, especially if the revision involves structural rewriting. The thought of having to do something akin to removing, remodeling, and replacing several floors of a high-rise without the whole building collapsing is daunting, to say the least. To extend the analogy, what about all the plumbing, electrics and ductwork that run through the floors you’re refitting? How will changes on those floors affect the rest of the building? It’s enough to make you crazy.

continue reading: The Horror! The Horror!.

Roland Clarke Comment:

As I near what I hope is the end of the final revision of my first novel, your advise makes so much sense, Dario. I suspect that the process I have followed differs slightly but there was so much useful advise that I know it will make the next revision better. I just hope I’ve learnt enough in my early wanderings around the editing maze. Thanks

The Power of the Bow

June 23, 2012 by Roland Clarke

The Spartans thought the bow was the weapon of cowards but to me it’s the weapon of a hunter, a person who uses stealth and oneness with their environment to track & combat more powerful creatures and more heavily armed foes that might be using swords. Perhaps the bow symbolises someone at one with nature so in their own way special.

Elfwriter

There is a children’s movie just come out, Brave, with the heroine sporting a bow and arrow. Katnis, from the Hunger Games, was lethal with one. Legolas was extremely handsome even in the midst of a desperate fight for Helm’s Deep and never missed when he let fly.

It seems that a bow and arrow are integral ingredients in fantasy, even when the setting is modern enough for guns and technology. Bows were, of course, around before fantasy. Who can forget Robin Hood in the archery contest splitting his opponent’s arrow, which had pieced the center of the bull’s-eye? Classic.

And then there are the Samurai with their beautiful longbow, theYumi. They didn’t just shoot it with their distinctive technique, but held a philosophical discipline, kyūjutsu, akin to Tai Chi and other spiritual martial arts.

Even after the bow became outdated as an effective weapon it remained…

View original post 274 more words