Muse Interrupted

Day 11 of Writing Marathon.
Why is it taking so long?

• The Unexpected. Take today: had to move my rickshaw cuz of the floods in Bangkok. Now that my rickshaw is no longer at risk, I had to move it back so the final work can be done on it. I don't have to do that every day, but yesterday it was the hospital check-up, the day before my computer died, yada yada yada. Total time spent: 3 hours.

Now, that is unexpected! - art by fayren pickpocket 

• Sleep. Let's face it: the longer/more/harder you work one day the longer/deeper/more sleep/naps you have to take the next. It's just not a desk job, where you can push yourself doing the same thing every day. Inspiration and creativity come at a price and that price is a clear focused mind, which means sleep enough to get it. There are no shortcuts or bonus rounds in writing a book. Total sleep time 'good' day: 6 hours. Total sleep time the next day: 10 hours.

This is how dysfunctional my sleep is now - The Kiss by Chris Bachalo

• Inexperience. It's my first book. My 1st draft was really 3 drafts (Nancy's writing, my writing, our blended writing). My 2nd draft was really 2 more drafts (oh, let's add different character erspectives - no wait, we're over 200.000 words). My 3rd draft was really just a massacre (HACK... SLASH... Look mama, we slashed 100.000 words... oh, we also turned the book into bullet points). And finally the 4th draft is trying to fix plot, character development, scenes, dialogue and syntax. Sheesh!

An approximation of my process each and every
freaking draft. Prison Break - 20th Century Fox

• Conan and Jon. Okay, this one is my own fault, but if I don't end my day with a little late show viewing my brain keeps on rattling on and BAM, I'm lying an extra 2 hours in bed talking to myself about plot, drama, characters and how bad I want to sleep. Did I mention Nancy's on a work trip, so there's no one to tell me to 'shut up and go to sleep!'? Total laughs: 138. Total tears (for skipping work): 138. So I guess that evens out. Talking about Nancy...

Then again, the result of zoning out with TV can be that I find,
characters which inspire the looks of mine. Jimmy Neutron - Nickelodeon.

• Nancy and Alex. I love them and I love spending time with them. I write at home and you try keeping a energetic 6yr old Lego-building maniac from showing off his latest creation (which are admittedly cool... tee hee). Or... or you try not wanting to hug and cuddle with the most beautiful woman in the world, who turns into a helpless meowing kitten, as she's gotten sick from travelling and is lying in bed sneezing and coughing. Total love factor: 1 MILLION. Total work productivity: -98%.

Come on and tell me this is not worth some time away from writing, huh?
Okay, the kid is older and the wife a little less at home,
but they're still as fuzzy as in this picture!

and finally...

• I'm only trying to put together the most awesome, well-written, plot-intensive, uber-mythological, multi-genre-spanning, endearing, challenging, frightening, exciting, mind-blowing, ever-in-size-increasing, page-turning, globetrotting, adventurous, romantic, empowering, escapism-enhancing, sponge-bathing (what now?), game-changing, record-breaking, bestselling, Harry-Potter-And-Lord-Of-The-Freaking-Ring-smashing, life-improving, balanced, ecological-minded, social-commentating, detective-like, crazy-freakish, stupendous, wonderful, enlightening, fantasy-rich, marvelous, excellent, tear-jerking, laugh-inducing, atypical, engrossing, box-office-hit-in-the-making, unusual, funny, sad, intelligent, risky, nature-loving, surreal-experiencing, delicious, nutritious, imaginary, inspiring, all-inclusive, 

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL 

SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME

(and forever after, sticks to you, no rebound until eternity, so there)

And that's why it's taking so long.

Okay, maybe writing blogs like these adds a little to the problem. Total time wasted: 1,5 hour. Good grief.

Ses i morgon.

Looking Good

Three and a half weeks to go and I'm down 19 chapters on my third draft. I've cut a sloppy 40.000 words and am now at 65.000 with less than half of the book left. I'm also at the point where I left the second draft hanging a few weeks ago. It was then that I came to my mini-revelation that I needed to cut, cut, CUT. I have cut so much I deserve an honorary position in Hollywood as a film editor or even a director (don't they like to say 'CUT'?)

Anyway, things that have not made the cut so far:

• Sally's side-story in Scandinavian viking/fairy tale city Ny Asgard after being kidnapped, 
• several scenes starring corporate villain Zuul acting behind the curtains,
• dialog explaining and references to various concepts/terminology within the series mythology,
• Alix's sequences when separated from Maya and Simon after they get lost in Mexico,
• any character with an origin other than the fairy tale genre (leaving that for Book 2)
• explaining how the magic system works (also Book 2)
• and much, much more dialog, descriptions and action

I slimmed down events and welded scenes together by dropping locations and having the action take place in a previously used location. This would save me a lot of words describing the locations, but also finding a rationale for the characters to be there. I've trimmed down explanations of how the mysterious and secretive world of Alix and Maya works. This leaves Simon a little bit more in the dark, but I wanted to focus on keeping the momentum going. Everything really is about speed now and I'm afraid Book 1 of the series might indeed seem too rushed. But hey, let's hope for a success so I can fire my editor and write a door stopper next. :)

The Final Dash, part 6 (of 6)

:(

I didn't make it. It's alright. I worked hard these last few days and got to write over 40.000 words. I'm also in the second to last chapter, which really is the last one if you like happy endings (hint). The last few chapters were hard to write despite them revolving around action. Or maybe action is that much harder to write. In my head I see the action scenes play out and I have to capture it in words. On the one hand it's very satisfying because I write much faster (with many more syntax errors by the way) wanting to keep up with the action in my head. I play soundtracks from Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and Michael Giacchino on my iPhone as they usually have adrenaline pumping tunes. If you don't believe me listen to Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, Batman etc.

But they are also harder to write because of the choreography consistency. Characters in certain spots need to be there when you switch to another character and back. Objects used or destroyed, characters disposed of and tempo. Especially that last part is very important. You don't want to get bogged down by lots of dialogue, but you need that to get a personal involvement and for dramatic reasons. Also you don't want to sink in a mire of descriptive text, but that too is needed to keep it realistic and not just a rundown of events. So writing action can be very frustrating if you don't feel you're hitting the right notes and the right speed. Well, during the redraft I'll look it over and see if it flows.

So many many soymilk mocha's and green tea latte's later (and one bloated sore behind) I have made many coffeshop friends, who might be interested later in picking up the book. This weekend I'll wrap up the last of the words and take a long break. I'll see what I'll do with the blog. Maybe there's a need to get away from my monologues as well. :)

The Final Dash, part 1 (of 6)

OK, this is it.

Next week I will be leaving for Malaysia for my 5-day hike and after that there's a family vacation in the works. So this is an excellent opportunity to get the first draft of Simon & Sally wrapped up and ready for Nancy to edit, comment upon and return to me for rework. But holy crap...I still have 6 chapters to do and they are not doozies.

What's the problem? When I plotted the book way back in 2007 I felt I needed to have two main locations to explore within the 'element' of wood. Don't ask me yet, what that is about, but the five books planned for the series have a distinctive feel and topic range that is covered. Let's just rest with the fact that book 1 deals with forests. And I wanted a dualistic approach to one 'good' forest and one 'bad' forest. So far so good. With a small introductory setting leading into the first forest, a connecting of the two through an intermediary setting and a climactic setting, it made five different geographical locations visited by the hero.

Then Nancy, who was supposed to write the story, got a plate full of work handed to her and we agreed I would further flesh out the plot into 'one pagers', basically a page or two fleshing out of the main occurrences that would have to be described. Well, by that time I had included so much it became difficult for Nancy to find her personal freedom to write and it too similar to what she did for work (which was write technical manuals). There was no room left for her for fun and exploration. Too much depended on other things to be excluded. She got even more work, and finally we decided I would also write the story.

So here I am, with 155,000 words down (roughly 450 pages) and I still need to write one fifth of the book. Also, the settings have bloated out of control and I don't know how to stop it. The reason for the bloating is because I've taken too much luxury in getting to the point in the story where:

• the hero is introduced to this new world he is in,  
• the villain is introduced and the stakes of winning and failing are set
• the goal is clear for the hero to initiate upon and he has enough confidence to do it.

What still needs to be done though (in this second to last setting) is the final acceptance of the hero and his environment of the role and prophetic title that is rightfully his. For that a lot of explanation and dialogue has to occur for it to seem realistic. That is one part. The second and last part is the  final setting where the villain explains his ulterior motives, all the clues in the story are explained and tied together and the villain is defeated as per expected climax. These two things alone I will have to pump out this week, eye shutters on, without thinking of word count or spelling, syntax and semantic accuracy to a point where my fingers will be bleeding and my eyes shrivel up. But then it will be done and the resulting body of work be damned....

gulp....

The Map of the Land

Salutations,

I am in the zone. No, no, make that Zone. Capital 'Z'. Typing like a stock car racer behind the wheel of the Grand Prix. I am afraid I might blow out the engine with the amount that I'm laying down and render my work unpublishable due to sheer size. But because I'm afraid I think I'm training myself while I'm writing to be more efficient in coming to the point. It is really easier when writing more frequently. After all, the story flows better in my head and I actually remember what has gone before so I can time the action better with the dialogue, or skip descriptions and get to the point of the plot.

I also use my tools better to help me get to the core of what I am writing. Kind of like having a full-Internet friendly GPS with tour guide tips while keeping your eyes to the road. The actual Internet with Wikipedia and Etymology Online  helps me get a better understanding about the broad scale of mythology I am tapping into. Online translators and Google Maps/Images help me visualize places and scale travel routes realistically, while staying linguistically correct. Picasa and 123RF allow me to search through databases of my own and commercially available stock images so I always can get the right mood for a scene or place, or even just to look up my own drawn images. Paint Shop Pro allows me quick access to drawing tools, so I can create maps that allow overviews of cities and countries the characters move through. There are several programs I use to keep track of plot, characters, objects, motivations and concepts, but the final word is on my 'Wall of Scofield' where everything is linked together. And while I write I listen to my collection of soundtracks in iTunes.

It's primarily all digital, these tools that help me do my work, and I do like my physical hands on approach (the Wall, printing out research, drawings and books). It's like mistrusting fully electronic cars, because if the battery gives out you are locked inside. I like to navigate my way through the land of mythology and adventure (that's what the series is about) with that GPS and just stopping every once in a while to spread a paper map across the hot hood. The Muses can do some suntanning, while I ponder where the road will take me. I just grab a notepad and pencil, sit outside in our shady porch and write a scene that doesn't need on the job researching, translating or inspiration. Just me and the elements, with maybe a few singing birds in the background. But that is not for now. Even though the Internet is up and fast again - I am revelling in the sheer force that is propelling me through the remaining chapters. I may have feared yesterday that I'll produce an overblown glorified paperweight (ironically made out of paper), but days like these I feel like...gasp..Stephen King?

(Did I mention already I have no IT work going on right now? Better yet: do I miss it?)

A Little More, A Little Less

Hey how ya doin'?

Yesterday I wrapped up a pleasant writing result of 3018 words. I know it's not what the writing is all about, but as far as keeping some kind of progress check going: it's a good thing. It's not always like this of course. For every day I write way over my 2000 a day goal, there are four or five days I write far less, if anything at all. I won't go into the why's - read my previous posts. I am however fascinated by what makes it possible for me to just pour it all on the screen after I hit a certain number of words.

It is always a struggle to get going, and then when I finally hit some sort of magical barrier it just goes and I can't seem to stop until the chapter is finished. Well, chapter 19 is finished and it took me about 9 days to do it. If I keep that speed up I'll finish the remaining 11 chapters around the end of May. That is unacceptable. I already am not going to make my own projected deadline of 15 February, but the end of May? Sure, it includes a funky period where nothing gets written and lasts about 5 days, but still...there are things planned outside of me just writing. Weekends are it seems a bust: I can never get any time behind the computer - nor should I want too as I'd like to spend time with my wife and son. Then there's at least 2 small trips planned that will take me to technology-challenged areas (4-day Thai beach trip and 4-day Malaysian jungle-hike, both in April!!).

I guess I'll just put on the blinds and try to type 2000 each day that I can. Isn't that what professional writers do? Lock themselves up and refuse to come out until they have a book? It certainly doesn't take them years to plot and over a year to write. Oh well. 110,000 words down, hopefully not as many to go (or I'll really give Harry a run for his money). Chapter 19 was over 10,000 words long, certainly one of the larger chapters. Each previous one was roughly 3,000-5,000 words, with a couple of chapters nearing the 10,000 as well. Nancy will have her hands full dissecting the chapters into smaller, more palatable ones. And in the meantime, I'll definitely try to do a little less, rather than a little more. Isn't that what they say after all? Less is more?

The Later the Better...

Good Afternoon!

It's not really afternoon as I write this, but by the time I actually get down to writing today's 2000 words it will be. First of course I have to write this blog, then I'll be shopping for groceries and around 10 the Internet repairman will drop by to check out why my bandwidth has been steadily dying a slow death (now it's a measly 360 Kbps - horrendous!). So, I download the latest chapter onto a thumb drive, pack up my ASUS notebook, portable mouse and iPhone + headset and go sit at the local coffee shop where I'll commence to type as good as I can this chapter that is seriously dragging its feet.

It's not an ideal situation. The keyboard causes me to mistype a lot, there are distractions of people and Starbucks' own music blaring from the speakers and I won't have Internet (refusing to pay into what should be a free service). However I will have my gourmet overpriced coffee, while listening to my 'Writing' play list consisting of a lot of movie soundtracks (Series of Unfortunate Events, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator and Buddha Bar get me in the right mood) and I can fill in the necessary blanks of background info later (this is a first draft after all).

The strangest thing will happen. I will start riding the wave. Hit the zone. Get into the groove. You know, that moment where you're on fire and your fingers refuse to leave the keyboard for anything short of a continent wide disaster of biblical proportions. Because that's how caught up you get in it. I had that in the past with IT work (if I was left alone enough) and now I have it with writing. All of a sudden the fingers start moving faster trying to keep up with the brain, while my Muses are in the backseat of the car, strapping themselves into their seat belts, looking at each other with panic on their faces. Who is this madman behind the wheel? But it happens all in the afternoon. Racing towards that traffic light of 5 o'clock when I have to vacate the vehicle and take car of tonights dinner and put Alex to bed.

And then I read some fiction (starting the 3rd installment of Septimus Heap) or watch some TV (Fringe, Lost) until I hit the pillow and wake up to another day. It doesn't always work like this. God knows I have my share of creativity deprived days, but when it happens it's magic!

100,000 Words Under The Keys

Celebrations everyone!

 The 100,000th word has been written. No small feat seeing writing is not what I naturally do, but no large one either as this book project has been in the works for 3 years now. In the end I guess it's not really any kind of memorable feat as come editing time, 10% will be snipped off by Nancy, and before we submit it to a publisher, another 10% will be snipped off. Considering I'm halfway through the book, that means 20,000 words will be deleted in the first round and another 18,000 words the second time around. Sheesh! That's about 19 days of scribbling. I knew I should have kept on playing World of Warcraft on those Fridays.

So where are we halfway in the story? Our heroes: split up. Each making their own way to a mythical city in the Amazon rain forest. Before they arrive they will have to confront real-life dangers in the form of corporate henchmen chasing them through the streets of Mexico City and loggers slashing and burning tropical forest endangering indigenous tribes. Encounters with the flip side of reality will strengthen and test them as well, in the form of underground black magic markets, secret passageways through the Machu Picchu and a confrontation with a supernatural villain.

On with the writing! If only it were as easy as writing the paragraph above (but what a thin book that would make, eh?)

Things are Heating up

Good day to everyone!

After only a few days of coolness we're back to 86F/30C. I don't like it. The heat in Bangkok gets to you after a while, because it's either stifling muggy or scorching hot. Any way my sweat glands are working serious overtime.

But luckily things are also heating up on the writing front. Through LinkedIn Nancy got into contact with someone we used to work with in Eritrea, while volunteering there, and is now connected to publishers specializing in young adult novels. Excellent! But of course first we have to draft, draft again and final draft, before we send it in.

I got advice to eliminate 10% of the first draft after Nancy has edited it, and another 10% after the second draft. It sounds like sound advice. Any ideas anybody? Admittedly I'll have to read up on the various sources of writing when I'm finished with the first draft (check the box 'Where am I today?' to the right for daily updates) and Nancy is editing it. But for now the engine is burning hot and I am pumping out approximately 1500-2000 words a day and trying to keep the quality consistently in line with previous chapters (where I wrote slower, but kept going back to edit).

Story wise I've gotten to the point where the characters are splitting up and going their own way, which gives me a tool to keep the reader in suspense as separate perspectives hand off the story to the other, ending their narrative in a cliffhanger. It's something Nancy noticed while reading Harry Potter and Dan Brown's novels: maintain momentum by maintaining suspense. The only problem is that previous chapters do not have this separation of different character viewpoints, so I'll have to go back after Draft 1 is finished and correct this. But for now, the original plotted chapters already have this mechanism built in, so you will see the chapters flying by like crazy.

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.

Two Pictures

What's up?

I'll tell you. In the past 3 days since starting the blog I have written 5585, 1885 and 2290 words respectively. It usually starts out in the same way. I find myself sitting behind the computer with the plot of that chapter in front of me. Then I go to the fleshed out plot of the chapter (a 2-3 page walk-through, touching specific pieces of dialogue, thoughts and/or actions) and I write within that document. I look at each paragraph and then write it out, deleting a little, but usually adding a lot more. Especially dialogue eats up a lot of space. But that's good right?

And see, that's my problem: I have a tendency to want to include everything. This explains the variance between amount of words each day. I obviously write less when I am researching places, history, names and other stuff. But any way you look at it, at the end of the day I have written pages upon pages and I still feel I'm rushing through things. I have this continuous dread that our book is going to be 1000 pages thick. I need to know how many words Harry Potter or even Lord of the Rings is. Does anybody know? This would be a good indicator for me, as I am trying to write the next big milestone in young adult/fantasy reading and although with the amount of other material available on the market I'm still not sure if I can convince a publisher to push a first time writer with his first book if it weighs more than the reader. ^_^

How to balance fitting enough in the story to have it make sense to the characters and the reader, while not overwhelming them with information that might be 'cool' or 'interesting' but not relevant to the current story line? After all, the plan is to bring out a series of five books. I wish I could give you clear examples, but I am sworn to secrecy as it would kind of ruin it all if you already knew what the story was about. So I have a better solution:


There is an adage: A picture is worth a thousand word. In that respect I could easily give you a hint of what I'm writing. I have these pictures, because actually visiting the places I'm writing about would be hard to do at the current moment. One day however I hope to travel to the places I want the characters to visit in books 2-5, and I already mostly have done so. But a fresh writers perspective can never hurt, right? Anyway, if I occasionally publish the reference material in the blog instead of telling you what it's all about you still get your appetite wet.

And I may realize I'd better release a picture coffee table book rather than a novel.