Yes, well, I know it has been a couple of weeks since I wrote. But since then I've been writing module booklets for students, gathering a Semester's worth of photocopies and generally working my tush off. Added to which I've been training for a 10K run for Cancer Research. Did this today and am absolutely knackered.
But, have I been writing? Yes, actually I have. I started the new Novel in a Month course and although I'm now 2 days behind schedule, I am writing the damned novel and it is going sort of OK.
Students aren't doing too badly either. Some are way over the word count, some are a bit under and one or two are struggling, but they are all writing, and that is the point after all. Their biggest problem, it seems, is letting go of preconceived ideas of where their plot should be going. I keep telling them to let the characters lead the plot, but they will insist on wresting it away and forcing it. I've had to heed my own advice this week. Justin - my heroine's casual boyfriend, has just travelled nearly 400 miles to visit her - NOT so casual it seems, AND then he asked her to move in with him. This wasn't something I'd planned, he was always supposed to be peripheral to the plot and now he just marches in wily nilly without so much as a by your leave. (Please imagine me with outraged expression, hands on hips, right now). BUT, and this is important, it has raised all sorts of interesting scenario's and piqued my interest - How will my heroine get out of this and keep him away from this other life she has? I have no idea, I'm letting them sort it out for themselves. God, I love this job sometimes!
So back to Solent (officially the worst university in the country - we can only go up, I feel) tomorrow and introducing the students to Screenwriting and Horror Writing. I'm looking forward to it. We'll have some fun.
No word from two agents I sent chapters to yet - sigh...
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Laying down the layers
First response to first five chapters from my supervisor arrived in my email today. My supervisor is an Australian as well as being an academic. I know the two aren't mutually exclusive, but it makes him a kind of professorial 'dude', which can be disconcerting sometimes. (He says things are 'groovy' - which I like, but you have to admit it's a bit quirky)
Anyway, email arrived. I read it. I read it again. I lay down on the floor and thought about it a bit. Then I printed it out and read it. Then I called boyf and read it down the phone - blank. I started moving furniture around trying to see things from a different angle. Nothing. I rang an MA student friend who is able to understand Rachel Cusk's lectures on subjectivity and objectivity in narrative fiction ('nuff said). We took it sentence by sentence and slowly but surely I began to get to grips with what he wanted. Basically go through the whole thing and add more layers, go deeper, play around with language and style more, make it work harder.
Great. Desk looks great against this wall now.
I'd sort of planned to give some of it to an agent tomorrow. He's coming to College where I work to discuss future talks etc. So that won't be happening, because, now I understand what is needed it is patently obvious I'm nowhere near close to being ready.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you write a novel for a PhD - you take it apart piece by piece, you make every word count, you write a 'Novel' rather than a story (This is if you believe the idea that a story is simply a series of events, following plot, conflicts, characters etc. Whereas the novel tells us something about ourselves.)
The question is - which sells?
And does it matter at this moment?
My next job is to find some money to make up the rest of my fees for my PhD. I had thought the bank would give me a loan, but after a long chat with Mumbai, it seems that if I have a partial scholarship I can't get a partial or even full loan. I need to go deeper, find another layer, read the small print. The money is out there somewhere, I just need to find it.
Any writing?
Yes, some. Novel in a month starts in earnest on Saturday 19th - so if anyone is reading this and would like to join in, the idea is to get 50,000 words written in 30 days. It is how I intend to blast through the rest of this draft of my novel and will act as a nice respite from making (I quote) 'micro structural prose changes while keeping a mid voice dialogue.'
Get revved up and join the fun - you'll be glad you did and frankly I'd like the company.
Anyway, email arrived. I read it. I read it again. I lay down on the floor and thought about it a bit. Then I printed it out and read it. Then I called boyf and read it down the phone - blank. I started moving furniture around trying to see things from a different angle. Nothing. I rang an MA student friend who is able to understand Rachel Cusk's lectures on subjectivity and objectivity in narrative fiction ('nuff said). We took it sentence by sentence and slowly but surely I began to get to grips with what he wanted. Basically go through the whole thing and add more layers, go deeper, play around with language and style more, make it work harder.
Great. Desk looks great against this wall now.
I'd sort of planned to give some of it to an agent tomorrow. He's coming to College where I work to discuss future talks etc. So that won't be happening, because, now I understand what is needed it is patently obvious I'm nowhere near close to being ready.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you write a novel for a PhD - you take it apart piece by piece, you make every word count, you write a 'Novel' rather than a story (This is if you believe the idea that a story is simply a series of events, following plot, conflicts, characters etc. Whereas the novel tells us something about ourselves.)
The question is - which sells?
And does it matter at this moment?
My next job is to find some money to make up the rest of my fees for my PhD. I had thought the bank would give me a loan, but after a long chat with Mumbai, it seems that if I have a partial scholarship I can't get a partial or even full loan. I need to go deeper, find another layer, read the small print. The money is out there somewhere, I just need to find it.
Any writing?
Yes, some. Novel in a month starts in earnest on Saturday 19th - so if anyone is reading this and would like to join in, the idea is to get 50,000 words written in 30 days. It is how I intend to blast through the rest of this draft of my novel and will act as a nice respite from making (I quote) 'micro structural prose changes while keeping a mid voice dialogue.'
Get revved up and join the fun - you'll be glad you did and frankly I'd like the company.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
New novel, new blog
We all think we have a novel in us, but only a few do something about it. This blog is my diary/record of writing a novel using the various different 'How to Write books' that are available in all good bookshops. This is also part of my PhD, so sometimes I'm going to be trying out my observations on the process here before I write them up for my thesis.
This is also my commitment, to whoever reads this, that I will write the novel in a year and finish the thesis in another year - so my aim is to be done in two years. Even though I am going to write daily, the blog will probably only be weekly - I have to work too!
The book is started, kinda. I've got a draft of about 18,000 words so far, and I'm trying to get an outline written. It has a title, 'Take me with you', and my first method is going to be "Nanowrimo" as created by Chris Baty and which I have taught as a short course for a number of years. I first wrote a novel using this method about 3 years ago and found it fun, exhilarating and frustrating in about equal parts. I never managed to do the rewrites for the book, but I an agent did read the rough (very very rough) product of the month's work and liked it and has said she'd read this one when I've written it and polished the final draft.
The thing is I know this is a good method, and I'm hoping it will help me blast a way through the story of this book,and not give my mind time to interfere too much.
I'm also using Scrivener - a writing programme for Mac, which helps me to organise the outline a bit as I go. If you have a Mac and you like moving around ideas on index cards, this is a great resource.
Have just got back from holiday. So this feels as good a time to start as any. Wish me luck, it could be a bumpy ride!
This is also my commitment, to whoever reads this, that I will write the novel in a year and finish the thesis in another year - so my aim is to be done in two years. Even though I am going to write daily, the blog will probably only be weekly - I have to work too!
The book is started, kinda. I've got a draft of about 18,000 words so far, and I'm trying to get an outline written. It has a title, 'Take me with you', and my first method is going to be "Nanowrimo" as created by Chris Baty and which I have taught as a short course for a number of years. I first wrote a novel using this method about 3 years ago and found it fun, exhilarating and frustrating in about equal parts. I never managed to do the rewrites for the book, but I an agent did read the rough (very very rough) product of the month's work and liked it and has said she'd read this one when I've written it and polished the final draft.
The thing is I know this is a good method, and I'm hoping it will help me blast a way through the story of this book,and not give my mind time to interfere too much.
I'm also using Scrivener - a writing programme for Mac, which helps me to organise the outline a bit as I go. If you have a Mac and you like moving around ideas on index cards, this is a great resource.
Have just got back from holiday. So this feels as good a time to start as any. Wish me luck, it could be a bumpy ride!
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