Life as Experience, part 1

Well met!

It is Sunday afternoon and after a morning of hot yoga, watching cable and eating crepes at a Swiss restaurant, one wonders: where in this cushy expat life does a person feel inspired enough by life to have the audacity to write a first novel?

Well, certainly my dad, a first time novelist himself, asks that question. Or more so: why bother with blogging and counting words, or even writing for that matter, unless one does the necessary homework beforehand. This homework consists of reading 'Make Your Words Work' by Gary Provost and 'On Writing' by Stephen King (and I would add several others on my shelf). Also practicing on short stories and sticking to a single novel first instead of planning a series.

There are several pitfalls with this approach, the biggest being of course: procrastination. There comes a point where you have prepared for every single contingency, but you still have nothing to show for yourself. Sure you can read and read and master in your mind the fine art of the next New York Times bestseller, but unless you actually write something you'll never get anywhere. Add to that that I'm convinced actually doing something and falling flat on your face is the best teacher you can get. Its a personal experience, not a universal one.

Which brings me to the writing itself. Sure I can limit myself to short stories or a single novel, but my Muses are telling me otherwise. And I find it best to listen to your fiery creative engine first, and logistics and market sense second. I am not trying to write something I think will sell or even something I think will have a big pull on readers. I am writing the colors in my head, the adventures in my heart, the characters of my soul. I am writing...me. Passionate, personal and pure fun. When the theory comes up that whatever it is a writer writes about is possibly biographical, I think: of of course it is. How else could it be? It's from the writer's heart, mind and soul so naturally a portion of their upbringing, values and convictions is going to be in there. That's what gives the story its heart beat.

And then finally invariably the question comes back 'why the blog? Why the counting of words? Why the planning of a series?' These things have little to do with either experience or creativity. It's discipline and common sense. Like I said earlier: this blog keeps me 'honest'. I need the governance by friends, family and potential readers in the future to monitor that I truly get up and do this thing, otherwise I might sneak in an 'off-day' and another and another, and before you know it, this project will just be another one (although the biggest and longest one) of my projects that I never brought to its conclusion.

The counting of words (minimum 2000 a weekday/1000 in weekends) helps me personally monitor progress and keep track the the novel doesn't spin out of control. According to Answers.com the Harry Potter books lead to 76.944, 85.141, 107.253, 190.637, 168.923, 257.045 and 204.796 words respectively. Personally I found the latter bucks less 'bang for your buck' and I've vowed to not bog down the reader with what I perceive a 'dialogue/description versus action/development imbalance'. I always thought the editor was slacking off after the writer becomes a hit. But then again at chapter 15 it looks like I'll have a 'Goblet of Fire' on my hands if I don't cut down in words...

Finally the idea of a series is partly common sense. The story I want to tell is not only epic in proportions including traveling across much of our world and the fantastic realms beyond. I also wanted the reader to have a clear and almost symmetric reading experience. What I mean is that the five books each tackle one particular experience and topic, with the heroes confronting one specific fault of themselves and the world, defeating one symbolic enemy and learning about one hidden truth. The series grow via the classic Acts 1, 2 and 3 towards the final climax in Book 5 where all of the previous aspects come together as a whole. Thus a starting reader gets a fully rounded experience with each book, yet if they choose to stick with it until the end they are rewarded with a much deeper level of experience spanning the whole series. In that aspect I take my hat off to Rowling, Tolkien and Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket for showing me the ropes in playing with story structure and reader manipulation.

So how does us living in Thailand tie into all of this? I'll have to leave you in suspense (or not) until tomorrow....cuz I gotta write.