I’m going to make it.

Just.

I set myself the goal of finishing my first, rough draft, by the end f the month and as long as I keep going on my current schedule, the rough draft will be done on the thirty first. Parts of the manuscript are pretty dire, some are outright unreadable but it will be finished, and from that I can chop out a decent first draft.

I’ll go into an explanation of rough draft, first draft and final draft next time.

That leaves the question of what to do next? I’m going to take Stephen King’s advice (in his excellent book “On Writing”) and leave in a drawer for a couple of weeks and do something else.

Tags: Idiot things I'm doing, impossible goals, nanowrimo in july, recommended reading, The Shadow Library, writer's block

Editing; for most of us, the bane of our existence.

At least, it’s the bane of my existence, along with chocolate donuts, sports injuries and a Best Friend who is more than willing to fill the role of worst enemy. The problem with editing is not so much being forced to change what I’ve written as it is a blunt reinforcement of something I’ve secretly known for years.

I’m a terrible writer.

Some of the stuff I’ve churned out in my first draft is beyond cringe-inducing.  Eye watering spelling mistakes abound, lodged in prose so bad it will herald the end of creation if said backwards. So, no matter how bad you think your writing is, console yourself with the fact that it probably won’t bring about Armageddon.

This is where editing comes in. I may be a terrible writer, but I’m getting better as a re-writer*. Editing is painful, but when you read over what you have already written, the shape of what should be there is easier to see. Grammar mistakes stick out, prose changes itself in your head and the feeling of your story will make itself known. Some writers are able to edit as they go but I’m not one of them. To properly edit my work I need some time to pass between writing it and then attempting to look at it again. Again, this isn’t true of everyone, however for most of us, giving your work some breathing space will allow you to look at it with fresh eyes.

Or bloodshot, sleep deprived eyes if you’re like me.

There is a second lesson to editing, on top of ‘You Should Be Doing It’. This was a far harder one for me to learn; ‘Don’t Edit A Living Work’. This means that no matter how tempting it might be to redo chapter one, resist the urge. I have three unfinished manuscripts that have fallen victim to re-write disease and  they now sit inside my laptop, alone and unloved. No matter what, you must finish your first draft because you can’t edit a potential novel**.

Finish your draft, then leave it alone for a week, then edit it. Your work will be better, book agents won’t instantly reject your book when they see it*** and the universe gets to keep existing for another day.

To steal (and change) Mur Lafferty’s line: “You should be editing.”

* I actually got this idea from a quote from  Michael Crichton: “Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it…”

** Unless you’re Terry Pratchett

*** Actually they might still reject it, but at least it won’t because you misspelled something in the first line.

Tags: edit, editing, neccisary evil, pain, save your book, the end of the world

I was hesitant about posting this particular article, at least in part because I’m not sure if this will work for everyone.

I also worry it’s going to make me look really stupid.

Still, without this particular set of experiences I would be far further behind in my writing than I am. I still can’t say if I’m any good, but if I am then one of my friends is at least partially to blame.

Because, in abusing this particular friend, lets call him Ross*, I’ve written well over half a million words of creative stories all describing his messy, humiliating demise at the hands of various different people, creatures and occasionally landmarks.

None of it’s printable, and some of it would have us both burnt an the stake, but we’ve both gotten a lot of practice just writing. No judgement, no need to make it good (although there were bonus points for concocting particularly gruesome deaths for each other) and no worrying about it if it didn’t make any sense.

I’m not suggesting you just send a friend an email describing in detail their death at the hands of a rabid wild boar, at least warn them about what you’re doing first. Having warned them though, back and forth emails stories between friends is a great way to refresh your writing and stimulate your creativity.

Plus, you get to send someone a really silly story and you’ll probably get one back. Awesome sauce.**

* He’s guilty as sin, but I’ve changed his name anyway

** The term “awesome sauce” I have lifted wholesale from Dave Kellett’s excellent comic Sheldon. If you’re a fan of excellent comic writing, not to mention funky art, you should be reading it.

Tags: advice, friends, recommended reading, sheldon, tips and tricks

Micro Writing is the art of writing in small, sometimes tiny, chunks throughout the day. This is the polar opposite of the 10,000 word marathon session. If you have lot of spare time, then of course sitting down and cranking out anywhere from 1000 words up is great.

But what if you don’t have that kind of time?

Enter Micro Writing. You simply write small amounts of words whenever you get half a chance. Instead of setting a daily goal, you set a session goal. I suggest something like 100 words. You can tap out 100 words in less than five minutes. Got a break between calls? Awesome, write 100 words. Baby stopped crying for a moment? Awesome, write 100 words*

You do this with higher numbers as well, although you’ll need longer stretches of time. If you want to hit four thousand words in a day (which is a lot if you aren’t a full time writer) then sitting down and trying to do it all in one hit will leave you chewing your own foot in frustration.

It won’t taste good.

Write 1000 words before breakfast. Two lots of 1000 during the day and 1000 after dinner. It’s still going to be a big day, but four lots of 1000 words is not the behemoth of a task that 4000 words is.

There is a downside to this style of writing though, and that’s the break you get in the flow of words. If you’ve ever re read something you’ve written over several sessions and found it stilted and jerky then you know what I mean. To combat this I suggest taking a run up. Re read your last sentence and you hit the end of it simply write what you would have like to read next. It isn’t a complete solution to the problem, and you may need to even things out  in a later edit, but it helps.

Give Micro Writing a try the next time you have a full day. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done.

* NB: make sure baby is okay first.

Tags: advice, goal setting, writer's block

I try to write at least 400 words a day, even if the world is ending, but sometimes even that doesn’t happen. I’ve been sick for the last couple of days and I have written exactly three words on my manuscript.

Three words.

Somehow, that’s even worse than writing none at all.

So for the second day, I did nothing. I lay on the couch with a duvet and I caught up on some reading. I felt guilty for not writing, especially considering I’m trying to get the first draft finished this month, but sometimes a day off is something necessary for both physical and mental health.

So when should you take a day of writing?

When writing is going to make you worse, not better. Writing is taxing, surprisingly so and sometimes if you don’t take the time to heal, you’re just going to end up costing yourself more words in the long run. If you just have a mild cold or something equally minor, then press on but if you find yourself swaying in front of your screen, praying for death, then it’s time to hit the couch.

Take the minimum of time off though. Writing is all about momentum, and any time you take away from your manuscript is going to take away some of your momentum. You can get it back again, but it’s harder to restart something than it is to keep it up.

Take time off if you’re ill, but the moment you feel better you owe it to yourself, your characters and hopefully, your readers to jump back into the game as soon as you’re able.

On a slightly different note, Mur Lafferty, of I Should Be Writing, is releasing some of her excellent advice via PDF on her site. You should go and check it out. It’s awesome and it’s free. What more can you ask for?

Tags: advice, living

I wanted to throw up a link to JC Hutchins’s Website. I’ve just picked up a copy of his book “Personal Effects: Dark Art” and I wanted to encourage everyone to drop by the site. JC Hutchins gives out more free content on his site than you can reasonably get through inb one sitting.

If you’re like me, you’ll try, it’ll just be unreasonable.

Drop by, get free stuff and if you like it, grab a copy of Personal Effects for yourself.

I set myself a big goal for the weekend: Write 20,000 words by hook or by crook. I utterly failed. At 8,000 words my brain turned to jello and I crashed out on the sofa with a box set of DVD’s.

You heard me.

As a writer, you’re going to fail at your goals sometime. I’m not trying to be depressive about it, it’s just that sometimes life gets in the way. If you catch fire I would expect you to put it out before getting on with chapter three.

It could happen.

The point of all of this is not that I failed to write 20,000 words, or even that I cooked my brain like a Christmas turkey. It’s that I got out 8,000 words, which is significantly more than I normally write (I usually go for 3 to 4 thousand words over a weekend). If I hadn’t gone for the big score, I wouldn’t have gotten 8,000 words out as a kind of failure by-product.

So lesson one in failing right is: Dream Big.

 If you don’t set a big goal, you have no chance of achieving it. Even if you don’t hit that big goal straight off, if it’s big enough, there’s always the chance you’ll get something worthwhile out of it anyway.

Like 8,000 words.

Of course, if I’d set myself a goal that was too big, like finish my first draft by the end of the weekend, I wouldn’t have done anything at all. You need to dream big, but it needs to be theoretically possible to hit your goal. As much as I joke about setting myself the impossible goal of finishing a first draft by the end of the month, it’s more than possible.

That make lesson two: Think difficult, not impossible.

I blog about these thing sin the hope that other people can learn from my mistakes, but I try not to give myself too much grief about the mistakes themselves. Of course I’m disappointed if I don’t get a goal, but being angry at yourself is a waste of energy you could be putting into your writing.

If being angry helps you write; by all means go nuts, but as soon as your writing is done with, put the anger away too. I’ve really made myself suffer in the past by being overly hard on myself for making mistakes. This is your writing, your novel. A mistake is not a tragedy because tomorrow, you can do some more writing.

Lesson Three is the big one: Learn from your mistakes, and then LET IT GO.

I’m on track to finish my first draft by the end of the month, and in part that’s because I haven’t let my innate ability to fail get in my way. If you check on all of your favourite authors, they’ve screwed up more than once on their way to becoming great writers.

Failure is temporary; it can’t stop you unless you let it. Now get writing.

Tags: fail, failing, goal setting, Idiot things I'm doing, impossible goals

Normally I tell people, no matter how bad your writing is, keep going. It’ll get better.

In rare instances, this advice may not be correct.

The link above is to Awful Library Books, a superb blog about weeding out the very worst things to grace the shelves of library’s everywhere.

Awesome.

Sometimes things just aren’t going as fast as you’d like them too. Perhaps you’ve been stuck in a 200 words per day rut. Sometimes life has just gotten on top of you and you haven’t been able to write.

You’re behind schedule and wondering about throwing it all in and taking up collecting shoehorns. Don’t do it! Once you start down the path of collecting shoehorns forever will they dominate your destiny.

Ahem.

Don’t do it. What you need is a 10,000 word say. They won’t be good. You’ll emerge from your writing study like you’ve crawled from the mouth of hell.

10,000 words, if you don’t sweat quality, will take you anywhere between five and eight hours. You’ll have to prepare in advance. The big thing is that you not be interrupted. Getting this done at all is a feat in and of itself. If you can secure a house to yourself for an entire day then that’s ideal, otherwise you might have to secure a comfy seat at the local library.

You’ll need food. Specifically coffee, in large quantity and high quality. If you’re going to write 10,000 words in one day, coffee is a food group. I would suggest you eat healthy, but we both know I’m not fooling anyone there. Try to get some protein in at regular intervals so you don’t collapse into a carb induced coma around 2pm.

You can stop to pee, eat and stretch. Or if your house is on fire.

Otherwise don’t stop.

The quality IS going to be poor, so you will need a ruthless edit once your story is finished, but resist the urge to go back and edit it now. Once you get into the flow of ideas you’ll be amazed at the good stuff you can write even in your fifth hour.

A final note, the day afterwards, write just 400 words or so and then take the rest of the day off. Soothe your poor battered brain.

Time’s ticking, get to it!