Focus

I learned, later yesterday, that all it takes is focus. I put up an umbrella to shield me from the raining memes - No, it wasn't a tin foil hat. Remember, I know where you live - and got down to some work.

Instead of trying to multitask, I worked on Herne's Brigade (The WWII/pagan script). Started to look at character histories. Man, it's all very well saying that X was in WWI, but do you know what regiment, where did it see action? Which then means you need to decide where they where born, rather than it be a vague thing.

For instance the specific Riding in Yorkshire determines if it was the Queens' Own Dragoons, or the King's Own Light Infantry. That's the easy bit. Were they a regular or a volunteer, so which battalion where they in, and where did they see service before the war. Only a brave man with Google and Wikipedia in hand wades into that fray lightly.

Thankfully, I know people who know far more about this than I ever will, especially from browsing. But the story seeds from arbitrarily deciding someone was from York and thus probably saw service in Mesopotamia...delicious.

I love it when a plot comes together.

Primero!

Still lost in the quagmire of no job. However, I do have ideas, millions of them, bombarding me like rays from some superhero-generating freak experiment gone wrong.

The downside of this is the sublime torture of taking them and turning them into something useful. This is why I stopped trying to write SF - I had the Idea, but the resulting story was just Idea and little stick figures worshipping it in dark Cthonic meaningless gibberish chant.

For a real writer it isn't the having Ideas, it is doing something worthwhile with them, that is the measure. This is where sitting with other human beings (preferably in a warm pub) comes in handy. I haven't seen another human being since last Tuesday. Anyway...

So I have the Idea for a book Primed, the one with Dee and Prime numbers and golems and World War II and I discovered that there is even a game I can use in my opening Dr No pastiche called...Primero! I love how these things come together - but then I just am stuck on a plot for the next 100K words.

I have an Idea for a World War II set TV series (always handy to use the same research twice I think), a Robin of Sherwood meets Secret War type thing. Got the top level arc, and even some of the smaller plot details. I sit down to do an outline for episode 3 (it is, so the received wisdom goes, better to pitch a mid episode than a pilot) and >bang< it all goes blank.

I decide to start work on a kind of prequel short story to Enoch's Vault called Clatty Pat's Needle, which is about my detective Alex McEwan looking into a shooting next to an obelisk in Glasgow*, and how the obelisk is actually sovereign territory for an African state...And I can do all that, but there's no plot...argghh.

That's before I even start on investigating the bottle of Nelson's Blood rum...which, you know, isn't sitting in a cupboard in my flat.

Its not so much writer's block and writer's white noise.

*It should be noted that there isn't actually an obelisk like this in Glasgow (that I know of), which is kinda part of the point of the story.

A slight case of progress

After four months of 'employment' ie I was chained to a company but not being paid, I have finally been made redundant, after I begged for it. Yep, four months of worse than slavery (a slave at least gets shelter and food in return for their labour). I can now claim on my insurances and get benefit from the government while I seek a new job.

I have been witholding my labour for about 2 of those months. But really I could no longer afford to go to work on my own savings. This would have been so much easier to bear if I had been on the dole for four months, as I would have had some income and the insurance and my savings. But I've exhausted my contingency money just getting here. I can only thank the people who have supported me this far - even if it was just a coke down the pub - it's made a difference, believe me.

Now all I need is a new job, very very soon. Last time I was unemployed was exactly, down to the day, two years ago. It lasted about six weeks. I had only just come close to recovering from that; the not being paid for the three months that followed me being 'employed' and the year of half-time and reduced pay I'd been through before that. It occured to me that in my whole working career I have only worked for one company that was making money - Guinness, my first proper job, seven years ago.

Still I did have time to finish a re-draft.

Alternative ending

I just finished the latest draft, within my deadline. I put on a big push over the last couple of days. Of course I realise now you never truly _finish_ a book, merely stop working on it.

I made it to 91,000 words. About 11K short of what I wanted, but I'm much happier with this draft than the last one. I still need to read through the third section. Make those edits and then read through the whole thing.

Then I think I'll see what the GSFWC make of it. Poor souls. Who knows what I'll do after that. My main problem right now is a lack of a laser printer. A 400 page novel on ink-jet printing - it'll take a week and about a gallon of ink ;-)

Pause for thought

I have set myself a deadline, two more weeks to go. (Or is it now 1.5?) Just finished writing new stuff for the end of section two and begun section three. Shortly to go back to editing established material.

I'm now past the 70K line and trucking on. Hard to think I had no idea how I would get past the 40K of the first finished draft. I now have proper book-length novel, and all I need to do is finish it satisfactorily. In two weeks.

End of Part 2

Finished my edits and rewrites of the existing part 2, of the Vault. Just have to do a quick read through for continuity and errors. That was the easy bit out the way, part 1 has had three edits, part 2 has had two edits. Part 3 will now see a sustantial rejig. I have actually written down a timeline for once. I just hope I can pull it all together, as I'm still not sure how to reveal the revelations. I also think that some of the newer stuff may end up at the end of part 2. Not sure where to make the cut, to be honest.

Well I'm at 63,000 words. The last entire draft was 69,000 ish. So well on track for 90-100K.

Also finally got my last errant submission returned with a no thanks note. Ah well. Thanks to a mysterious benefactor looks like I will get to spend a day at Worldcon. This is principally an SF convention, but its all about the books not the people in Star Trek costume. Who knows what doors may open up beneath me?

Recycled

I'm currently just above 50,000 words in the new draft and roughly, dare I say it, halfway through this version. Only a few months ago I reached that spot for the first time, now it may double. It is good to have people who wont let you get away with second best. Sure second best can be published but it can be better.

I still have one lost soul of a submission out in the wilderness, not sure how I can politely ask about it, or whether it is better to let sleeping dogs lie until the draft is finished.

Nova Scotia

Not my holiday destination but a collection of Scottish Speculative Fiction will be available soon and contains contributions from some of my GSFWC colleagues. You can get it from Amazon. Sadly I'm not in it. But you should buy it anyway.

I did try, three times. But my only SF story ever was thrown together just after I got off a plane from LA, and frankly must have shown it really. I also submitted my near future Cthulhu-does-Godzilla-in-Glasgow story The 23rd Nail but it's not the same on paper as it is spoken. My third attempt was Nine Minutes, but clearly the idea of two people getting together over the course of three speeddating sessions wasn't speculative enough whatever its quality ;-)

Better luck next time. Which hopefully won't be in ten years time. Actually come to think of it, a latter day relaunched New Worlds annual thing might not be such a bad idea, but it will depend on sales not doubt. So once again go buy it. Well order it at least. You're still here. The post's ended, go to the link.

Putting the band back together

I was reading Momus' blog, where the juxtaposition of the words cats and guns, gave me a band name bursting forth Athena-like, fully formed.

I haven't quite decided how I'll use it though. Maybe never at all, maybe a running 'See You Next Wednesday' gag in everything. I'm also not sure of the order either. Currently I favour Uzi Kitten, much more of a sense of aggressive moggy toting ballistic weaponry. Kitten Uzi, you see, sounds like a delightfully foxy Oriental Bond girl.

War of the Worlds

I didn't make the march on Saturday. I was involved in an event in Edinburgh, however. While I was doing demos and being prodded and trained by Kyudo sensei I could hear the helicopters overhead and was, by late afternoon, beginning to feel like I had slipped into a Vietnam war movie. Amazingly both entering and exiting E'Burgh by car went without any traffic problems at all. While there one of my fellow kyudojin came in after doing some photography of the march relating a tale of 200 hundred anarchists who had spray-painted the buses of those attending the march. Such a sad protest really.

Recent news has been on NASA firing a large heavy object at an innocent comet. We've been told this won't effect it's path in any way (obviously having decided to drop Newtonian mechanics from their memory). Quite why 'we' have decided to premptively strike this object we don't yet know. Perhaps it is one of those missiles fired by Heinlein's bugs? Or maybe its a Rama-like craft covered in frozen water? Whatever it is, even just a comet now sent on a new course, I don't see any good coming of it. When ET knocks on the door moaning about our kids smashing his car with their cricket ball I'm sending the bill to NASA.

Production and Industry

The times may be dark but I am feeling slightly smug at not only finishing my corrections for section one, but also adapting my story Nine Minutes into a film script, all in one day.

The script, however, is 20 pages long, which for a nine minute short may be a bit long...I dunno. It doesn't take that long to read through the dialogue, there's almost no action and maybe 30% of the dialogue is voice-over thoughts. I'll see what the experts have to say - it has been a while since I wrote a script. Back then I was the self-styled writer-in-residence of a blues/jazz bar in Glasgow who really was justing waiting for his partner to finish work. Whether that updated celtic invasion myth will see the light of day, never mind get typed up, is a mystery left to time.

The Dark V Returns

Finally made it to see Batman Begins. Sunday afternoon, blazing sunny, me, alone, in a cinema. I couldn't afford the ticket but I went anyway.

Easily the best film this year. Easily the best super-hero film full stop (Sorry Spidey). They completely nailed the character, the motives, and I loved the training and becoming. I mean Batman _does not_ kill people directly. A point so totally missed from the previous films. I mean never mind that it reduces your villain count for sequels he just doesn't do it and the deaths of Joker and Penguin etc were always accompanied with howls of rage from me. (Okay I only really know Batman and Spiderman from the cartoons rather than the comics but there were still things I knew to be wrong). I also loved the slightly subtle fact that Bats does some actual, you know, detecting. Rather than having super-villains crashing a Bruce Wayne gala all the time.

I began to think that V from Vendetta is the kind of character Ras Al Ghul (is he really immortal?) would rather Bats was. And how he is really the only British super-hero; attack the government not the criminals as its their fault the criminal system exists in this fascist dystopia anyway. And this is especially poignant when you realise both Bats and V are terrorists.

It will burn

Speaking of Vellum, (H)Al's publisher has launched their long awaited website. In my opinion it was worth the wait. I'm not fortunate enough to have read the whole book yet, but the bits I have over the past couple of years kick ass. I can truly recommend it sight unseen. (Probably a bit late for a cover quote attempt ;-)) But there's an extract to whet your appetite.

Sometime I Amaze Myself

Well I had another one of those weekends where I spoke to nobody (unless you count the woman at the checkout in Asda asking me if I wanted cashback). If I had died when I got home on Friday, I don't think anyone would notice until Tuesday.

Anywho. I have just about finished the redraft of section one of Enoch's Vault. Consequently, the new first-three-chapters are up for download on the website. I only have to add the flashback chapter I'm still working on, do another parse of the recent edits and then move on to the next section. Still what amazed me more, is that section one is some 33,500 words long. This is just under half the overall length of the draft for the whole book, before I started. I don't know that I'll have the same expansion in the other two sections, but if I did that would be a novel just over the 100,000 mark. Something I never thought I could pull off. Ever. My style being typically too terse. At this rate I'll be writing big chunky books like Hal Duncan's Vellum.

Right to Roam

Before I go any further, I'll nail my colours to the mast; I intend to be in Edinburgh on the 2nd of July for the Campaign Against Poverty march (Sans white band, although should they bring in ID cards I'm thinking a yellow one with a star might be a fetching statement).

My gripe is that I'm not sure this is how voices are heard anymore. I have no idea how many people really marched in Glasgow before the Iraq war to outside the SECC. It was chilling to experience such a mass movement. (Not as cold as seeing the snipers on the crane overhead). Many more marched in London and other cities around the world. A dictator was still deposed over the excuse of having weapons that did not actually exist, as most everyone who went on that march knew.

Marching is the merchandised acceptable method of protest these days. We get to let of steam, feel good and go home. Or worse some agitators (whomever they may be, and governments have a long history of planting agents provocateur) may start some rioting and defacement. But nothing happens. The protest is perhaps acknowledged. Tony will come out at some point and say on the front of Gleneagles that we have been listened to, if we're lucky.

I really hope I'm wrong, but it didn't work before. There must be some other way.

Easy does it

Thought I'd drop in a quick update.

I have all but one of my submissions rejected, the remaining one is still in the field. Unless I forgot one. I got a very nice note praising the work and the talent of the writer's group which was encouraging if a 'I'm full, sorry' rejection. It helped me keep my head above water. I discovered later that this agent already represents one of the group, who was able to confirm the poor person really is up to their ears in work.

The rewrite is going much slower than I anticipated, but I am taking my time, honing, filing, tweaking, rearranging, and crucially, adding. It often feels bad at the time and I think I might appear ungrateful whenever I get a critical session from the writer's group. But I'm not, not in the long term. As I can't write notes it takes a while to sink in. I have to look again at the work. And in this instance I have four sets of comments which act like a gallery with me being able to call the writers up like holograms and question them as I re-write. (Really!) There are still comments I disagree with but there should be. Meantime I move ever onward.

An Actor's Life For Me

Had my first acting lesson last night. My intentions being to a) learn more about creating/becoming a character and b) get out of the house. It certainly looks like the next few weeks will be entertaining, but it will take me a little longer to get enough of an idea to fully immerse myself into 'method writing'.

Illumination

I once joked in a semi-serious way that I could easily be a monk, devoted to quiet contemplation. In one of those life-laughs-at-you ways that is not too different from my current existence. I quietly sit illuminating manuscripts (sometimes with dusty light). At least monks have other people to talk to (if they've not taken a vow of silence).

My solitude is at least productive. I now have three new chapters at the front of the book. Returning to my moment of brilliance that I have been, quietly, so frustrated at not replicating, I now have a speed-dating intro to the book, which nicely brings into light many aspects of our hero's character. Followed up by a flash back to his first meeting with Kate. Then we have a frantic piece of detection as the original case gets its breakthrough. I started to look at the original chapter one again and the change in writing is now rippling through this like a shockwave.

I didn't want to write the whole thing again, and it doesn't feel like I am right now. But it does seem like a fresh viewpoint is turning this how I wanted it. We'll see how we get on; had two more rejections at the weekend. Five left in the field. Act in haste repent at leisure.

Peering into the night

After a couple of days hard thinking and inspiration I started writing again. Hopefully from a better perspective in terms of the narrator - this time while being mostly inside McEwan's head I'm going to cover some of the other characters too (or at least this is how I perceive what I'm intending). I'm going to now finish the new intro-chapter I've started before plunging back in to what I had. Each line will then be reintegrated, weighted, altered and then examined again to be sure. Then I'll double check that I've answered any plot or logic holes. I also have a few good plans for the structure of the story so that we have some reveals earlier and also the big barney at the end again.

I might not be seen for some time, as while I don't want to rush and miss something if an agent wants to read the full script it has to be ready to go. There are a number of submissions still out there.

Getting back on the horse

The GSFWC gave me their thoughts last night. At the time I felt defeated and thought it best (and it still might be) to just leave it for a while. The thing that hit me hardest was being told it was 'first drafty' when it is in it's 8th incarnation by now. Pretty much all my feedback has had some issue with McEwan or the lack of him, while that was deliberate it clearly wasn't such a good plan,fortunately this should be straightforward to fix. There are of course detailed 'nitpicks' which I have had a blind spot to - in fact largely there does seem to be a matter of me thinking I've written something but it not actually being there! Although a quick check this morning still sees some of it there, just maybe not where it is expected/supposed to be.

Nonetheless by the time I'd gotten home and my mind had started chewing it over I had gone from defeat to anger. Not at my critics but at myself for being so...amateur. But this anger is what makes me determined to pick myself up, look afresh with these comments in mind and try all over again.

For a start I wanted to look at what the Watchers would do in the real world, could they be re-integrated? For some reason I kill most of them off within minutes of them being in the plot. Not much point throwing away the 'realist' approach if I'm then going to throw my 'fantasy' away moments after introducing it. I think I have had two stories fighting with one another, along with a greater ambition than my ability at this stage. Which is not to say I think my creation is poor - it just needs more polishing to get that diamond shining through.

Despite my achievements this really is the hardest thing I've done, and I'm going to get that reward at the end.