Two weeks without

I haven't written in any significant quantity for two weeks. Chicago has eaten my brain, and the last week was catching up and racing the clock for the deadline. Also, of course, the job interview and assorted tensions connected to that. The muse is becoming restless.

What I've done is edit "Special Forces", done the edits for several chapters, and I'm attempting to edit up to chapter 35 before the year's up. That's about the halfway point in "Mercenaries". I'm mostly cutting back Jean at this point, as well as plots and scenes that don't go anywhere.

In good news - "The Lion of Kent" is available as audiobook from Audible.com. I believe it's not available for the UK, but I somehow managed to download it, regardless. (Dear Jeff Bezos, don't take my book away, please!) I'm listening to it during a few free moments, and it's very strange to hear the text spoken by somebody else. Very, very strange. The American accent of the speaker makes me laugh a bit - I do like the American accent, but it's strange to hear a medieval British/English story read by an American. I hear my own words when I read my stuff, and invariably, my mindvoice reads stuff differently. It might be as subtle as a pause or a slightly different emphasis.

But then, reading your stuff aloud - or having somebody else read it out aloud - is a priceless editing tool. Anything that sounds hollow or tinny needs to be redone and cut. So far I haven't heard anything in "Lion" I'd want to change - so that's good news.

In case I didn't mention it, "Father of All Things" has been accepted for publication by Carina Press. I might have referred to it as "the mystery project" or the "secret project", but that was mostly to keep the pressure off my co-writer, Rhianon Etzweiler, who led the project (it was her idea, and I believe most of the text is from her). If you talk too much about a project that is being written and that can still die/fail, that puts a lot of pressure on. Well, that's over. "Father of all Things" will be out with Carina Press in summer 2011.

Three weeks since I submitted "Scorpion". Usually, I hear back in 4-6 weeks, so we're getting to the interesting time window. I expect an acceptance, but of course that might be premature. Self-confidence getting in the way. I do my best to forget books once they are off to find their homes. Sometimes it even works.

Right now, two projects need tackling. One is a final rewrite of "To Catch a Spy", which involves some more research and some tightening of the plot, but at least those changes are far less severe and time consuming than the last two or three rewrites were. It can be done in a couple weeks' time. And finally "Iron Cross", which needs to be written. The main problem is that I can't decide which one I want to tackle first. Both will be all-consuming, tough pieces of work. Then again, my philosophy is to wrap up the book first that's closer to publication.

To relax, I've been watching "Burn Notice". This is a show I'd recommend to every writer. You can learn an awful lot from "Burn Notice". I might write a post about that soon, but right now, I'll do some prep work on TCaS.

Revision request - novel surgery

I got a revision request - rather than a contract - from the publisher I subbed TCaS to. It all makes perfect sense, and is in line with what I thought I'd fixed, but apparently not enough. Time schedules being what they are, this will push back "Iron Cross" for at least another 4-6 weeks. That's the timeframe we're looking at to rewrite a significant part of the novel and then slot it back in and make it appear like there are no transplantation/surgery scars.

Hiding those scars isn't an easy job, actually. It has to be all natural and organic, but most of all, inevitable. However, if it had been inevitable, then it would have happened in Draft I, II and III. So that's the biggest sleight-of-hand trick - to make readers think that the book they are reading is the only possible version of that book. We hand them a bottle of water and need to convince them - with a straight face - that water can only live in bottles.

Again, this will mean a full print-out of the novel (a big folder of paper, it's around 90k), and then writing a synopsis by chapter. The beginning has to change, every scene needs to be slightly adapted, and one of the plots (granted, the smaller one), is flawed and needs more... more of everything.

I think that'll cost me a couple months, and since both Raev and me are busy with what they call "real life", this is going to be tough. Expect to read a lot of whining and bitching about it. In the end, however, I'm learning how to revise novels. That's a skill all novels will benefit from.

Talking about revising, I'm currently going through the galleys for "Transit", which is another chunk of work (at 98 pages or thereabouts). It has to be done.

First the current magazine issue, then "Transit", then "Scorpion", then TCaS, and Iron Cross. I'd wager that's my year taken care of. I have no idea how on earth I'll be able to slot in "Pawn" - there aren't enough hours in the day to completely edit another full-sized novel that needs some serious beta-ing from a Russian.

Well. Magazine work today, Transit and Scorpion this week. I'll see what happens if I just knuckle down.

Making stuff

I just started my day with putting together a cupboard. To get that thing delivered, I spent 2 hrs in a phone queue from hell, so no doubt this will become one of my most cherished pieces of furniture.

It's (fake) beech and fits neatly with my desk, giving me some of that coveted storage space for contracts and nicknacks. Also I could push my printer from my work desk and over to the cupboard. It's all still within reach, but frees up some space for planning and plotting to the side of the computer, so that makes for a much less crowded desk overall.

Now I have to decide what goes in there and how, but that's a question for another day. I've been coveting some acrylic stands and holders to complete the desk, but I'm also wary about crowding it up again. Authors can be funny about their work environment. Right now I have plenty of space to keep my couple piles of things mostly organised (usually, they are printed manuscripts and notes, where I "think"). Luxury worries if you have nothing else to worry about.

Meeting the estate agent last week was great. I'll have to do some financial planning on Thursday, but looks like all this house was an even better purchase than we thought. It's still something of an ongoing process, and with the economic data likely to get worse again (the "double dip" might just be here), we're moving very carefully indeed. People I'm talking to seem to expect things to get better in about 2-3 years... if China holds up and we don't see the real estate bubble in China explode (at the moment, my vote is, stay the hell away from China... but I'm not an economist).

The cool thing about my job is, I do get a great view on the global economy and get to talk to some seriously smart people (some of whom are scumbags). Which creates investment ideas. So I'll pretty soon start investing - the aim is to beat my pension pot in terms of performance, and the cash ISA and/or inflation at the very least. I reckon 5%/year should be doable without being a money whiz. Or doing nothing else.

And this weekend I'll work on TCaS. First steps will be to collate all the feedback I got, print out a fresh copy of the manuscript (one chapter at a time), put it all into folders, then go through it, pen in hand, identifying the things that need rewriting and improving the bits that are good.

Gritty groundwork. My least favourite bit. But the big goal is to finish this before "First Blood" comes back from Dreamspinner. Which might be very soon. Hopefully, it's all wrapped up by end of the month.

Overcoming a snag to hit a wall

I've seemingly overcome a snag in the scorpion story only to hit a wall. It's quite comical, actually. I start something new because I get bored with editing old stuff. I delude myself into thinking that that project is "short" and "easy". I hit a snag once the initial burst of energy is spent, I pull free, race forward. I then realise it's not holding together (prompted by first feedback I'm getting - no, it wasn't just you, Kate. :) ).

I end up with the choice between stopping entirely and fixing the problem or continuing to write something which will need enormous re-writes, in effect putting me back into the same quagmire that the project freed me from in the first place.

I have a pile a metre high of projects that need rewrites and rethinks. I'm still bad at editing, at least on the structural level, and at least when it comes to novels (I've rewritten and restructured short stories and novellas, but I'm not good enough yet to tackle a novel that is structurally flawed).

This is where I'm hitting my limits, and hit them hard. It's one thing to be a competent first draft writer, and another entirely to tickle out the best of the material you have there. It can mean to mess with characters on the most fundamental level. It means to kill your darlings, the scenes that are actually good but might not work best for the characters you're dealing with. It means, often enough, to remove overwrought bullshit.

The real challenge is to rise above the limitation there and put in the work. The real problem for me is that I tend to follow the fun. Rewriting isn't fun, not even remotely so. Over twenty years, I've focused on delivering a good first draft that needs only a polish and some (few) changes. My first drafts are damned clean copy already, but they have to be structurally sound or I'm fucked.

Well, in this case, the latter option applies.

Back to the drawing board, to the endless, boring, frustrating drudgery of rewriting and restructuring. The 24k I've written will need a good vivisection - unless that kills my fun in the project (which has happened before and makes writing a chore rather than fun).

So, the scorpion story went on the same pile as the other dozen projects that are advanced but not done (including ROI, IC and TCAS). Logically, I should focus on TCAS - it's the most advanced and really needs the least rewrites.

And that's where all momentum hits a wall. Switching projects at full tilt is downright painful. So sorry to everybody who was expecting "Scorpion" to get finished anytime soon. It won't happen in the next weeks or likely even months. It needs some more simmering and germinating. I have no doubt it'll be a good novel once it's done, but this isn't it.

Sometimes, this writing thing sucks.

But I moaned enough. Tonight I'm going home and work on "To Catch a Spy". Once that is out of the door, I might have a solution to the scorpion problem. I'll continue making notes and watch what the characters are up to, but it's now seriously time to plot and restructure, and that works best while not writing on it. Switch from left brain to right brain (only it's the other way round, since I'm a south paw).

In other words, great start to the week. Boss at least thinks the piece I did on regulation was 'very good'. There's one thing I'm good at structuring, at least.