Category Archives: Writing

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Beyond the Monotony

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A foggy evening 01

A foggy evening 01 (Photo credit: AnneCN)

What would you do after three months of editing?

Variety is the spice of life they say, but how do you achieve it? Stop editing and write? Switch projects? What happens if you have five draft novels all needing editing and two new plots pounding at your mind?

Most sensible writers seem to blend the editing and writing successfully, judging by their Blogs and their Facebook posts. But living with MS makes that hard. If I work at the revision then I no longer have the energy to do anything more than chill out. Which is why it has just taken me three months to complete the third revision of my 97k novel Wyrm Bait. Yesterday I sent it off to my editor for detailed analysis; also sent it to four beta readers for their thoughts.

Some time ago, I would have switched into writing mode and produced another draft novel, which is why there are so many lurking around, waiting to be edited. Heading the queue is that blast from my past, my first novel Spiral of Hooves. It’s been with the editors for the US ebook publishers – one English, one American – and is due back any day.

Decision made, therefore: I have to revise that next, addressing their input = another month or so of editing.

You Want Me To Go Down Where?!

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

Do I scream? It’s a change of setting, characters, plot and of problems to be addressed. But it’s still editing – NOT writing.

But editing is part of the writing process, the experts tell us. I need to learn to love the revision stage. The short cut of editing as I write is a gag on my creative flow. I prefer to plot carefully, write freely, and edit gradually. Except three times five novels = 15 months of editing. But total revision for each novel is far longer, which cuts out the creation. Doesn’t it?

However no new novels won’t work, not if I want to satisfy my urge to create and my potential readers urge for new words. When Spiral of Hooves sells, the readers should want the sequel, but it’s not written.

One source of new material has been NaNoWriMo in November and I have heard rumours of a June challenge as well. Is that the solution? NaNoWriMo has produced two first drafts: The Last Leaf (2011) and Wyrm Blood (2012). One took a month but the other was almost three to first draft completion. Even have two ideas in plotting process; if I can decide which one comes first in the penning order. Probably Tortuous Terrain the sequel to Spiral of Hooves. However Seeking A Knife is more alive in my mind. Decisions, decisions.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Need more time. Maths not looking good. Something needs to give. But what? Social media? Emails? Gaming? All cut to a minimum and part of my survival plan, whether to maintain contact or to chill and reward myself.

One solution is to blog rather than create new novels. Still writing and far faster, requiring quick editing. Revert to short stories and simplify my inspiration. Even novellas not novels. All ideas to be swept along in the tide of editing. And high tide is approaching. With MS lurking to dash the plans with exhaustion and pain.

So what do you do? What advise can you give the Silver Scribbler?

Related articles

Sadness in April……

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Writing about my mother is hard just day’s after her death. Writing anything has been difficult recently – MS ill health; emotional upheaval; trying to focus on editing; emails & blogs to read; writing tips to learn….

I’m trying to get past a blockage that has been growing since I completed the NaNoWriMo a few months ago. Some days it’s easier to escape into another world than write.

One day I will start blogging properly again – when I have something people want to hear. Am I talking to myself, I ask as I type away? Not just now but in earlier posts. Does anyone want to read the thoughts of an unpublished writer without insights? I thought not.

Until I have something worthwhile to say, then as Abraham Lincoln said: ‘Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

So read what my wife says instead…….

snowlass's avatarTHE DUSKWEALD

 

Here it is the12th day of April 2013 and it is raining outside…..when does it not ever rain here in England? For now I am just going to think that all these raindrops are “tears” from heaven.

We lost Rolands mum, Nidia, on the 8th at age 84, and this just added to the ever mounting sadness that the first part of April brings to this family. Two years ago on the 9th we lost our daughter and on the 12th we lost my step-dad. So it has been very trying to say the least.

I sit and wonder about Nidia………and why I felt like she did not like me at all……it didn’t matter what I did to try and please her, it just didn’t seem to be enough……..she burned many bridges with me in the short 3 years that I knew her……oh I…

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Editorial Work

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Editorial Work.

An interesting post that is very relevant as I edit ‘Wyrm Bait’ (and have to miss blogging properly today).

As I say in my comment, below the post: I used some beta readers for my first novel, and got some valuable advice from some of them at least. Going to do same with novel revising at moment BUT also sending it to a professional editor. Having both sets of comments will help me decide how much gets hacked or honed. Read too much self-published stuff that feels as if the writer never got any help.

Will be interested to see comments and thoughts.

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My wife finds the words and I shed the tears wanting to take her pain away. But I can’t.

Today I re-post this on my blog as MS has claimed the day.

snowlass's avatarTHE DUSKWEALD

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Some days it is really hard to put thoughts into words…..today I will try!!!!

 I have thought about what to put in my blog for a few days….I have so many thoughts going through my head but today is different…….today I want to try and tell you what it is like to be in love with and married to a person with MS or Multiple Sclerosis. I was never exposed to any real disability issues growing up….oh I remember a few families in the neighborhood who had disabled kids but I never really questioned why they were the way they were……that is until they died so young from whatever disease caused them to be different from everyone else….it scared me to think about losing someone at such a young age and never really quite understood the impact that different diseases and disabilities had on a person and those who loved…

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Wonderful memories shared by my muse

snowlass's avatarTHE DUSKWEALD

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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.

clock

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?

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Words have a power all their own

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.

Cover of "Flip Dictionary"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

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.