Freedom From The Mundane » NaNoWriMo

Focussing On The Commitment

colingalbraith — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:13:50 +0000

Image: Creaky Toe

I worked through seven chapters of GATECRASH last night. The further I creep into the story the better it seems to get. Some of the writing, though, leaves a lot to be desired. One can tell it was written with speed in mind—quantity over quality—a side effect of NaNoWriMo if ever there was one.

I never took part in NaNo last year (I was fed up with it), which I think is what has fuelled as little desire to uptake the challenge again later this year. I would need to commit myself to not being overtaken by sloppiness the likes of which I am working my way through just now. It makes it a nightmare to rewrite but at least the story stands up—it’s a belter.

While making a few minor updates to my website I happened upon the short fiction page and realised that it’s been a while since I last had a short story published. ON A MONDAY MORNING was published in May 2008 by Static Movement and remains my last piece of published short fiction.

The upshot is I need to make two changes. First, I need to write more short stories among all the long fiction and poetry I write, and second, I need to target my work better. I do aim work at specific markets but if they get rejected I tend to look far and wide for best fits, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Couple that with the amount of submissions I never even hear back from and you can see why this business can get so frustrating at times.

You might notice a lot of these changes being applied through June’s GDR plan published at the bottom of this post.

The June issue of my newsletter, THE PATTER, went out yesterday. Click here to read it and don’t forget to subscribe if you want to receive it regularly. It’s only once a month and you get the heads up on all new releases plus exclusive competitions.

This is my penultimate GDR plan of my Writing Year. As you may remember, I run my GDRs now from August to July and use the Edinburgh Book Festival as my Writing New Year, my time to get fully recharged, inspired, involved and absorbed in writing again. And this is why it also seems the perfect time to generate my GDR plans for the coming 12 months.

With this in mind you might well notice a dramatic change in the amount and type of work I’m targeting: fiction and poetry are top of the list followed by some serious submissions but everything else is falling by the wayside.

It’s strange to think it has been 17 months since my last annual GDR review and that next month I’ll be thinking about my first one since the end of 2008. It should be interesting, meantime here it is, my plan for June 2010.

Fiction
* Complete first rewrite of GATECRASH
* Polish final draft of GREENER IS THE GRASS
* Write at least one new short/flash story
* Catch up on short/flash story backlog
* Re-submit any rejected/recalled short stories
* Submit to selected fiction/poetry competitions

Poetry
* Write at least one poem per week
* Catch up on backlog

Editing
* Publish June ‘10 issue
* Announce hiatus
* Update site to reflect

Freelance
* Get some local gigs to review for NotW
* Keep all websites updated and relevant

Reading & Learning
* The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid
* Work anthology
* The Kenneth William Diaries by Russell Davies
* Suggs and the City by Suggs

The Scruffy Dog Review – SPRING ISSUE OUT NOW!!

Lockerbie Remembered

Colin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:00:31 +0000

Image: Getty Images

It was a night I’ll never forget. It was a night nobody in Scotland will ever forget. Twenty years ago today, Pan-Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747 carrying 259 people from Heathrow to JFK, was blown out of the sky above the Scottish borders town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people in total.

I was at a friend’s house. We’d been watching TV and talking about football, and it had grown dark outside by the time I left. My friend was walking me out the house and when we got to the garden his neighbour saw us after returning from walking his dog. He told us a plane had been blown out of the sky and landed on a town in southern Scotland. We thought he was kidding.

He wasn’t of course, and even for a couple of teenage idiots like we were, we found nothing to say to each other as we tuned into the news to see for ourselves. I remember the faces of the newsreaders; shocked, upset, and aghast. It was horrific stuff. Nobody could believe that kind of thing could happen, let alone in Scotland.

The images of the burning houses at night, and over the next few weeks of the giant crater left where homes once stood, will stay with me forever.

Twenty years on and the man found guilty of the crime, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, sits in a comfortable unit of Greenock prison after recently losing his appeal to be released on medical grounds. Nor should he. Nor should his wife pick now to proclaim his innocence and shout for justice; the man was responsible for killing 270 people. Rotting in hell is too good for him.

I applied for a couple more freelance gigs today. There seems to be a heavy flow of goodies at the moment so hopefully I can bag one or two of them. I’m only a few away from my annual target now so fingers crossed.

Got through a ton of outstanding email which had been bothering me, and did a bit more on my GDRs 2008 and 2009. I need another resolution – I should have another resolution for next year – one doesn’t seem right. Anyone got any ideas? I still want to lose a bit more weight, but perhaps something more meaningful?

Did some editing work on The Big Taff Affair and on that outstanding freelance gig. I want it wiped as soon as – either way.

I wrapped all my Chrimbo pressies and tidied my office and sent out all the short stories I have back on the books and waiting to go back out. Got to keep the ball rolling.

And I’ve gone back to the start with Blood Ties, my failed NaNo attempt. I’m not starting the whole thing again, I’m just refreshing it all in my mind and editing as I go, because over the last couple of weeks I’ve been having a lot of moments of clarity about the characters and the pot that I need to fix now before I move on. I don’t have to, of course, I could do it after the manuscript is complete (that’s what I’m always told and normally do) but it’s a complicated one and I need to stay on top of it. I think I know what I’m doing.

Laura stayed over at her pals so Gail and I grabbed some badly needed time together in the evening. What with her ever growing photography business and my commitment to writing, time alone is becoming more precious than it ever was. We ordered an Indian meal and watched a film I have on rental at the moment; a classic you may have heard of, and perhaps quite appropriate for my current state of mind – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Until tomorrow.

Wiping The Slate

Colin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:02:36 +0000

Image: foundphotoslj

I was a wee bit tired this morning but managed to force myself out my nest. As I sat with my coffee reading my morning email with BBC News 24 playing quietly in my office, dawn broke. It was the most amazing display of pink, yellow, white and blue across the sky I’ve seen in many a time. And over Leith!

I think I’ve pretty much wrapped up my Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions plan for 2009. There are a few surprises, some interesting changes, and plenty of challenges afoot. Unless major something happens before the end of the year, my 2008 Final Review is all but complete, too.

My work on Blood Ties has recommenced. I’m not working to deadline any longer on this but I am sticking to a 2k word limit per day. I feel better having had the short break from it; I needed to regain a perspective on it that I simply could not achieve while rushing through it for NaNoWriMo. I’m beginning to think that not completing NaNo was a good thing, particularly with regards to this novel. If I ever do NaNo I’ll select my project better.

The day job went in fast, but maybe that’s something to do with the fact I’m really busy and we only have daylight here from around 9:30am until 3:30pm. Some folk in the office complain about the dark days – I love them. I don’t suffer from S.A.D. either, in fact quite the opposite as I find it easier to get up in the winter than summer.

Nonetheless, I got through a lot of good work today in the gear up to producing my final review and ticking off as many stray and annoying boxes as I can before the new year. I want to go into 2009 with a toned down, more goal focussed approach, so I need to clear the slate now before the holidays.

I caught up on my last outstanding email, worked on Blood Ties, completed the second article and drafted the final piece for my SDR January column, reviewed my GDR Final Review for 2008 and GDR Full Plan for 2009, broke the century mark for queries this year (I’m the only one still doing Kristen King’s Query Challenge that I know of), finally collated all my notes from this year’s Muse conference, and worked on my new website amalgamation for Compass Freelance.

Scotlandness

Colin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:20:08 +0000

Image: Foxypar4

I’ve been thinking about my NaNoWriMo effort last month, and the reasons why I never managed it. Compared to previous years I didn’t enjoy the experience this time – not because I never made 50k – I never made the 50k was because I wasn’t enjoying it.

This morning I feel able to continue work on the novel. The pressure feels as though it has lifted and I think the 50k deadline was constricting me, not driving me. Maybe I chose the wrong novel to write for NaNo; it’s complicated, deep, and is requiring a lot of research I never envisaged before I started. It requires a lot of writing “off the page” in order to keep a track of everything that’s happening.

Yesterday was Saint Andrew’s Day here in Scotland, Not many celebrated it, in fact, I think it was mostly the SNP trying to make themselves the Scotland Party instead of the Party of Scotland, and all the lucky civil servants who got today off work to mark the occasion.

In the spirit of ‘Scotlandness’, here’s some interesting facts about our Saint Andrew* you might not know.

The patronage of the saint, whose name means ‘manly’, also covers fishmongers, gout, singers, sore throats, spinsters, maidens, old maids, and women wishing to become mothers.
Andrew (the Galilean fisherman who was singled out to be Christ’s first disciple) preached the Gospel in the lands around the Black Sea and in Greece and was eventually crucified on an X-shaped cross in Patras. The X-shaped cross is what gives Scotland its Saltire.
The geography of his mission means he is also the patron saint of Russia and Greece, and never once set foot in Scotland.
Saint Andrew became associated with Scotland three hundred years after his martyrdom, when the Roman Emperor Constantine, himself a Christian, ordered that the saint’s bones should be moved from Patras to his new capital city of Constantinople. Before the order was carried out a monk called St Rule (or St Regulus) had a dream in which an angel told him to take what bones of Andrew’s he could to “the ends of the earth” for safe-keeping. St Rule duly took what he could – presumably in a swift and frantic raid on the tomb – and after an epic journey with the aforementioned assortment was shipwrecked on the east coast of Scotland. He must have deemed that he had indeed reached the ‘ends of the earth’!
St Andrew was officially named patron saint of Scotland after Robert the Bruce’s famous victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and in 1385 the Saltire became the national flag of Scotland.
Around midnight on November 29, it was traditional for girls to pray to St Andrew for a husband. They would make a wish and look for a sign that they had been heard.
A girl wishing to marry could:
- throw a shoe at a door. If the toe of the shoe pointed in the direction of the exit, then she would marry and leave her parents’ house within a year
- peel a whole apple without breaking the peel and throw the peel over the shoulder. If the peel formed a letter of the alphabet, then this suggested the name of her future groom.
- sleep naked the night before the 30th in order to ask St Andrew for his help in marriage. She will see her future husband in her dreams.
- young women should also note the location of barking dogs on St Andrew’s Eve, as their future husbands will come from that direction.

* Information provided by Lindsay Galbraith

Fiction
* Write to 75% complete of Blood Ties (G1,G2,D1,D2)
* Submit new batch short stories (G1,G2,D1,D2)
* Re-submit rejected/recalled short stories (G1,G2,D1,D2)

Freelance/Non-Fiction
Writing:
* Query freelance gigs 31/mth (0/31 pitched – Total=89) (G7,G9)
* Complete Scotland’s Treasure column for SDR Winter edition (Jan) (G5,G7,G9)
* Remain flexible for any TLB assignments that come through
* Prepare for new client’s work portfolio

Web:
* Updates to photography site pending

Business:
* Keep company accounts up to date
* Continue work amalgamating web design and freelance writing sites to compassfreelance.co.uk

Poetry
* Nothing planned

Editing
* Stay on top of RR submissions (G6)
* Launch RR issue 5 (G6)
* Start laying out RR issue 6 (G6)

Marketing and Promotion
* Publish December newsletter (G5)
* Prepare January newsletter (G5)
* Publish December GDR Plan
* Publish December GDR Review
* Prepare January GDR Plan
* Keep website(s) up to date (G5,G8,G9)

Reading & Learning
* On-the-job research and reading for writing of Blood Ties
* Closed Doors by Ian Rankin – IP

Non-Writing
* Final month of diet (15/28lbs lost as at 15/9/08) (R1)

Longest Day

Colin — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:57:44 +0000

Image: Swiss Dave

Today was THE longest day. And now everything – all my plans and hopes – have fallen apart. Nothing has gone to plan as the month progressed, and November looks like it is going to end in tatters.

My plan, as you know, had been to take care of the day job and leave early today, then get back home to take advantage of some dedicated writing time in the evening. During this time I had planned to get back on the rails for one final push at NaNo, and break through the winning barrier sometime on Sunday.

It wasn’t to be.

I was still (and still am) in the office at 1am Saturday morning, with no clue as to when I will get away. I’ve now been here (well, this is my second company building because the first one closed) for over 16 hours now, and I reckon I could have another 60-90 minutes to go.

The work I was doing has all gone wrong, and with it being a high profile systems upgrade, I can’t just leave it until tomorrow. It has to be fixed tonight. There’s simply no option.

I’m not happy, and I think what it means is that NaNo isn’t going to happen this year. I really cannot see me making the 50k now. 13,000 words in two days is a bit of a push, considering I have freelance work on the go and don’t want to do terminable harm to my novel.

It’s a shame, but too many things have gotten in my way to prevent me writing these last few days, and this tonight, has been the cream of them all.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Mr Grumpy

Colin — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:03:48 +0000

Image: Waterstones

I’m still feeling upturned and out of sync; not fatigued or procrastinational (?), just … weird … grumpy. It’s a mental thing and I’m still not sure what the root of it is. Hard to explain really. I suspect an electric shock or some form of re-jig of the portions of my brain might be in order.

But then it is getting towards that time of year when reflection and a dwelling on memories gone by is due, so maybe I should just let it run its course.

I seem to be pissing everyone off just now: Gail, Laura, my sister Lindsay; only my rabbits seem to have no complaints, but then all I have to do to please them is chuck a carrot into their hutch and ruffle the fur on the back of their necks.

Ever get that feeling where all you want to do is crawl into a dark box and be alone? I’ve got that. I’m not down or anything, quite the opposite in fact. Christmas is coming, I’ve got nights out impending, a couple of gigs and meals, three manuscripts are out on submission (1 imminent), various short stories being considered and plenty of paid work on the go. Life is good; I’m just … grumpy for no reason.

While the day job is mega-busy, I’m struggling to exist alongside my colleagues elsewhere on our floor. I find myself getting wound up and bugged by the rubbish that goes on around me: mobile phones with “humorous” shouting ring tones and constant needless interruptions for things that people could find out themselves, when I’m trying to concentrate on something.

I’m aware this gives the impression I’m a grumpy bastard, and some of he time I am (with good reason), I just don’t like socialising with people when I’m trying to work. I can’t manage multi-million pound software while people try to talk to me about reality TV programmes that I never watch.

I had to refresh where I was with Blood Ties before I could do anything more on it, which as you can imagine took longer than expected. I used the time and process to update my chapter tracker, which I not only use for referring to while I am writing, but also for the basis of my synopsis when all is done and dusted.

Overall, I added 661 new words to the manuscript. Poor but at least it was something, and I broke the 37k barrier, which psychologically, might help me get back on the road good and proper. I have the opportunity for lengthy spells of uninterrupted writing tomorrow, so if I’m going to complete NaNo this year, tomorrow is that day that has to count.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my American friends.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Angry And Frustrated

Colin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:55:24 +0000

Image: Cuban1963

It’s been a pretty bad couple of days. Buggering my ankle wasn’t the best thing to happen, especially after the problems I’ve had with my right leg this year. It’s just been one thing after another – one very painful thing after another.

I’ve written very little, which has only served to worsen my mood. I’m not in a good place just now, and with work building up behind things are really starting to mix up the pressure pot. I have lost four days NaNo work, and now find myself in the unenviable position of having to ram out 4000 words a day to meet the target on the 30th.

This has been made all the more difficult with the arrival of a new batch of assignments from TLB, as well as contact made from a new client who left a message on my mobile phone for some work opportunities.

To put it simply I’ve dropped the ball and I’m feeling out of sorts; I’m not fitting in well with anything, anywhere. The universe seems to me to be at some form of disjointed cross-over, and like a large vicious black dog, has thrown me around easily within the grip of its teeth, battered me off various hard walls, and spat me back out feeling angry, hurt, and drained.

I called back the lady who left me a message and we spoke about the work she needs done. It’s mostly editing and I should be able to turn it round for her reasonably quickly. She wants to prepare some stuff to send me first, which should arrive over the weekend or Monday. The timing suits me fine, since I have to complete other work first as well as try, yet again, to beat the NaNo deadline.

Half of me says: “You’ve been here before – you can do it – it’s only 14k!” But the other half of me says: “What’s the rush? Concentrate on the priorities first, and if you make it, you make it. C’est la vie.”

And to top everything off I have still to complete the final touches to the next issue of The Ranfurly Review, due out on Monday.

I have the possibility of two lengthy undisturbed periods of writing on Friday and Saturday so I reckon I will probably manage it without too much stress, but the freelance work has taken over my mind somewhat now with the plate filling up. All I need to do is shed myself of this anger and frustration and get back to being driven and focussed, instead of the wet blanket that I am just now.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Blessed Be The Saturday – Hell Be The Sunday

Colin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:20:47 +0000

Image: Zenobia Joy & MKevin747

Saturday

I fell asleep watching an episode of The West Wing last night, and only found out about it when Gail woke me up at 4:30am to remove my glasses and turn the TV off. Knackered? I was exhausted.

The upside was that I slept until midday, as did Gail, with nobody else in the house. This may not mean much to some of you, but those with kids and perhaps regular visiting in-laws (think Everybody Loves Raymond), it was an absolute blessing. The house was silent but for the wind against the window and the mail as it dropped squeezed through the letter box and dropped onto the floor.

When we got up we had brunch; tea/coffee and bagels, then a long shower followed by a trip round to the newsagent for a paper and a bottle of Irn-Bru. Some of you may be salivating right now – please avoid dripping onto your keyboard.

I got the first 1000 words of Blood Ties down in the afternoon, and everything was looking grand. Then it all started to go wrong. After seeing Gail off to a photography job in Peebles, I put my dinner on and went out the back to feed the rabbits. As I stepped off the top level of our patio onto the bottom section, my right foot landed on the ridge of the step, buckled sharply to the right, and gave off a weird snapping noise. With my full weight over it, my ankle gave way completely and I fell to the ground, hitting my left shoulder off a wall and landed hard on my arse.

Sore? It was fucking agony. It was so sore I heard myself scream with pain as though it was someone else being hurt. I couldn’t stop myself. After a few minutes unable to move, my foot and ankle seemed to be all right again. I mistook this for it just being a minor jolt and as I got back to my feet I seemed to be all right again.

Not so. By the time I had finished my dinner I realised I couldn’t feel my foot, and it had swollen so much inside my trainer I realised the blood wasn’t circulating properly. I limped – not too badly – up the stairs and took my shoe off. I could literally feel blood rushing through my ankle into my foot, which blew up like a balloon. No bruising though, which I thought was weird.

Sunday

After a terrible night’s sleep, by Sunday I was in the position that walking was practically impossible; getting to the bog from bed was a tiring task, and no weight could be placed on my right foot in any way. Going downstairs wasn’t even a consideration.

It’s extremely frustrating and annoying. I’m not sure if the day job is a tenable optional for tomorrow, but the leftover painkillers from when I had my leg problem were put into action. I took one at around 2pm today and it knocked me out for several hours. I lay down on the bed within half an hour of taking it, and woke up again around 7 hours later.

I tried hobbling to my desk and got 86 words down (lowest daily word count ever), but it was too sore sitting at that angle. The remains of the pain killer from earlier must obviously still have been in my blood because I couldn’t get my head straight to what I was meant to be doing.

It’s been hell. I’ve dropped thousands behind my word count and also the five article assignments that came in from my client – needed for Wednesday.

How quickly fortunes change.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Taking A Break

Colin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:53:08 +0000

Image: Jessica FM

I wanted to complete my daily NaNo quota early to keep me on track today, and I did just that. I knew I would have no other time today other than between 5am and 7am, what with a night out in the evening and a busy day scheduled, so I’m happy to report it was a mission accomplished.

I had the urge to sail way past the 2,500 word mark and keep going, but I deliberately stopped myself, showed a bit of discipline. I’m in danger of going into overload and crashing, which if I’d kept ploughing on would lose me a day or two while I recharge myself. This way, I know I’m safe and still well on target for finishing NaNoWriMo ‘08 and completing the whole novel before Christmas. When I left Lennox I was mid-sentence, and he was just about to get romantic with a young lady. Nae luck, big man!!! 

After lunch, the early starts and hard work did start to catch up with me, though, and I started to feel very tired indeed. I got to the ‘nodding off point’ of tired at my desk, which is never good at the best of times, especially when you’re the only person from the team in work that day and making software changes to applications that house people’s personal life finances. I had to resort to double strength Espressos to give me a jolt.

It’s really beginning to play on my mind having to wait for news on Hunting Jack. I know they are interested and are doing what editors do, but as time goes on and I try to deny myself thinking about it, the harder it becomes. Right now, I’d rather know one way or the other just put an end to it, and obviously a good outcome is what I’m hoping for.

In the evening I found myself at a family birthday party being held in the Leith Dockers Club. The aunt of Gail’s friend (whose wedding we were at in September) was holding a 50th bash in the same club where Irvine Welsh used to drink; the flat where he wrote Trainspotting sitting unassuming and bland right across the road.

It was a good night; cheap bevy and within walking distance of my house, so you can’t say fairer than that.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Computerised Tennis

Colin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:55:44 +0000

Image: Unknown

Those 5,100 words yesterday didn’t half take their toll on me, particularly since 4,000 of them were written last night. When you’ve become so involved in the story that there’s a rush of inspiration, and therefore words, you end up going to bed with your head buzzing and firing ideas and thoughts in all directions. It’s like the old computer tennis game; two lines and a dot, except there are hundreds of those damned dots but still only two lines to try and hit them with.

Then there’s the morning after. You wake up buzzing but only because your brain has emptied of all your bouncing balls and character chatter, and you’ve had a solid night’s sleep. You struggle to get awake – coffee a priority – and for the rest of the day you have a lower level of physical energy, but a higher level of creative energy, built up because of what you went through the night before.

This is when I pause slightly and take stock of where I am in a story. Writing through such a large amount of the plot – especially when it’s not pre-planned – can get me lost so I like to review what I’ve written and freshen it up in my mind. I know it’s not recommended during NaNo, but I was never worried I wouldn’t make it this year and I’m still not. The most important thing for me is, and always was, to get the book right first and foremost. Making the 50k was – only just – in second place.

Reviewing a chunk also helps to get back up to speed again. Think of it like jogging; if you hit a rhythm you can go on forever, but if you stop for a few hours you stiffen up. In order to get back to the steady rhythm of the previous day, you need to stretch (edit what was written), exercise (write the blog), and build yourself back up to speed.

And that’s what I did, with over 3,000 done tonight. Lovely. Plus I’ve really stirred things up for Lennox now – no easy road for him now no matter which way he chooses to go.

By my latest reckoning, if I stick to the plan I’ve outlined for the rest of November I’ll win NaNo on the 26th (having gained a day because of last night), and I’ll complete the novel in its first draft entirety on 15th December.

In other things, I see a war of words is brewing over in the Bigot Brigade, with Rangers Chairman, David Murray, telling Celtic Chairman, John Reid, a thing or two about public speaking.

“I’m recently a wee bit concerned by some of the inferences and innuendo that’s come from John,” said Murray. “I give the utmost respect to Celtic football club – they’ve got a great tradition but I am recently a wee bit concerned by some of the inferences and innuendo that’s come from John and I think he’s got to be careful and realise he’s not barracking in the house of commons any longer.

“We are in a society in Scotland where every point and every word is picked up by everybody and he should be very careful with some of the chat.”

Never has more sense been spoken by any member of the Old Firm.

Read the full article here

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

The Great Addiction

Colin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:56:42 +0000

Image: Zaldylmg

I felt really good today. Good about the novel, good about my submissions, and good about life. Talk about the ups and downs of writing a novel? Man, I’ve been all over the place this November; bi-polar moods day by day; all to be expected though but I’ve never been quite so “swinging” during previous books.

One of the great, great things about writing a novel is the feeling that one is living the story with the character. Right now I have Lennox working on a case in Edinburgh while having just arrived in the city; he’s looking for a home and trying to settle at the same time. As all this is happening, every day I walk past the hotel he’s been put up in until he finds a flat. Every day I walk past the place where I think I’m going to have him living; every day I walk past his place of work in Queen Charlotte Street, and every day I can feel him alive around me with all the other characters that are making the book what it is.

No matter how good or bad the final first draft will be, when I return to do the second draft, it will all be history. Everything that happens now is new to me and is a learning curve of the journey unfolding. Yes, I can manipulate it and make decisions, but it’s sill happening now and for the first time. Next time, on revision number one, It will be a recollection; Lennox and the other characters will be gone and everything will have happened last month or last year or whenever.

That’s what is so addictive about writing a novel: you live with these characters for so long they get under your skin, and when they’ve gone you miss them. So you want to experience the thrill of playing God over someone else’s life again, and feel the high of giving them a partner; the low of seeing them weep over a corpse.

Not sure how to tie that up, but needless to say I’m rolling just now after a difficult spell and I broke the 30,000 mark. Here’s to champagne in a couple of weeks.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Frustration

Colin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:34:47 +0000

Image: Martin Kingsley

Frustration was the word of the day; frustration with how everything changed slightly and yet had such a big impact on my plans. To start with, I missed the bus by 30 seconds because I left my sandwiches in the house and had to run back to get them. A good start, which left me with a walk into Leith and a wait for the “crammed” bus; no seats for the living dead.

My day job schedule changed negatively when I was told I would be required to attend an afternoon meeting. “No problem,” said I, and then discovered it ran for 5 hours from 12:30 in the afternoon. Nice. What with the 9:30 meeting already scheduled and the implementation I had to do at 11:30 for an hour, I had little time for anything else like food, or a lunchtime run at Blood Ties.

Not a happy chappy.

Still, I managed almost 1200 words, taking me over the half way mark, before I went out to my writers’ group in the evening. I almost never went, but having missed the last few I thought I should make the effort under the new regime.

I’m not sure if I’ll be back to many of the meetings on a regular basis; It’s not what I wanted from the group when it was first set up. Originally it was a meeting for writers to just get together and have a few pints, maybe chat about writing, publishing, life, whatever. Back then we hit the high of 14 writers turning out. Now there’s barely half a dozen and the format is to read out short stories or novel extracts, and probably rather selfishly, I find it rather dry and lacking in spirit. The stories were good – the guys who read last night are talented people – it’s just that giving critiques over a pint of Guinness isn’t what I had in mind.

I work all year on my writing, whether on holiday, evenings, or weekends, and the main social occasion for the year is the Edinburgh Book Festival. Other than that there’s nowhere else to network on a social level with other writers away from the pressure of deadlines and word counts. Which is why I need that kind of interaction; relaxed and informal, a wee drink and chat about the larger issues, not sentence structure and story arcs, subjects that I spend every other waking hour thinking about and working on.

It was fun while it lasted but things move on I suppose.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

Got To Keep Focussed

Colin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:27:49 +0000

Image: Star Dust

I couldn’t sleep last night, and today I paid the price; heavy eyes and a grumpiness not seen since someone stole Stig of the Dump’s toilet seat. I wish that life could be simpler sometimes, but despite all I do to try and make that happen, things only seem to get more complicated.

I’ve got my writer’s group tomorrow evening; it’s a shadow of its former self since the organiser left and other people took over. The dynamic has changed, too I think, but I’ll find that out tomorrow I suppose. I’ve not been for a while and am quite looking forward to catching up with a couple of people I know from it.

I’ve been invited along to a ska gig on Saturday night at Whistle Binkies. Two bands are coming up from England to play in the pub that Hunting Jack readers will remember as the place where Jackie McCann sang Maggie May in the open mike competition, and met the gangster Stevie Love for the first time. Since Laura is away at Guide Camp all weekend and Gail has a photo shoot that night, I think I might just pop along and see what’s what.

Anyway, back to today. Blood Ties is moving along nicely again with over 3k added to my word count. I’ve discovered I must like writing about characters with problems and dark sides, and who can’t help themselves falling into situations. Troubled people seem to appeal and so keeping to the straight and narrow just doesn’t do it for me. I tried keeping Lennox on the case, but his refusal to go down that path and explore his own weaknesses and troubles was too great a pull, and led to me being unable to write. It sounds almost paranormal.

I think I forgot to mention I submitted Stella to an e-book publisher a couple of days ago. Fingers crossed for that. While I was preparing the synopsis for it – a task made a lot easier after the advice Devon gave me when writing my synopsis for Slick recently (thanks Dev!) – I felt a strong desire to do something more with the characters. Stella and Randolph make an interesting couple and I have begun to wonder if there’s anything else for them to say. It’s one for the near future – got to keep focussed on Blood Ties, though, and I won’t be writing any new fiction until the 100,000 word estimate of the novel is complete.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)

My Story To Stick To

Colin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:08:52 +0000

Image: Hashmil

By 10.15pm tonight I’d written approximately 200 words of Blood Ties and was growing mightily tired with the whole damn NaNo thing. Lennox was sitting on his arse in a pub talking to this lassie who just has to be one of the worst characters I’ve ever drummed up.

So, fuck it, I thought. If I’m going to be bored with the story at this point having to write about it, I’m going to make Lennox bored, too. I’m going to make HIM feel what I’m feeling; after all, he accepted the bloody date in the first place.

And guess what? It got Lennox thinking. And in his rationalisation of why he was where he was, and doing what he was doing, I came to realise what the problem was … Lennox is restless because of the situation I’ve put him in: no home, no friends, a new city, and other than the double murder enquiry he’s been landed with, he’s going through EXACTLY the same emotions and feelings I went through when I came to Edinburgh for the first time.

He knows not where to go for a good pint, and all his friends are miles away, not always reachable on the phone. So what does a man do in this situation? Why, he gets bored and dangerous and silly things can happen.

Suddenly, the story started moving again, but 1000 words it was too late in the evening to continue. At least I know what the root of the problem was – Lennox, not me.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo)

Blood Ties (Full Novel)