Books, Mslexia and Westport

Since my last post I've been keeping very busy. My most recent book splurge arrived a whole two weeks earlier than Amazon's delivery estimate - perhaps these dates are just plucked from the air? But I couldn't complain as I am now the proud owner of the following books:

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King (which I'm reading and making notes on at the moment, so far it's excellent);

Write Right! by Jan Venolia; and

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White.

I also subscribed to Mslexia magazine which I received last week - and I already can't believe that I survived without it. It is chock full of tips, interviews, case studies and competitions to help even the most budding of writers out of her shell. The Mslexia diary is packed with even more goodies. I am officially a Mslexia evangelist!

The Ours and I took a break from work to celebrate our nine year anniversary. Thursday we had lunch at Chapter One and then watched Slumdog Millionaire, and on Friday we travelled to Westport in Co. Mayo to spend the weekend in a lovely hotel and spa. The weather may have been too changeable to get much sightseeing done but the soft rain made the outdoor heated rockpool even more enjoyable. It was a fantastic weekend.

Getting Ideas

I have roughly two weeks before my grammar books arrive, therefore I've decided to start thinking about my second book. Problem is - I have no idea what it should be about!

If I wait for inspiration to strike it may never be written, so I bought a notepad from Paperchase today (and a ton of differently coloured pens...yay!) and started to make notes. I know I have some ideas bubbling under the surface, I just need to start digging. I've begun by listing the things I've gone through and am familiar with (write what you know) and the themes and issues that I'm interested in (write what you want to know).

The plan is that, once I've come up with a decent list of themes to play with, I'll pick a few and then ask myself - what if? Perhaps I'll be able to link different themes through this question, or ideas will just form from these thoughts alone. Then I'll do some freewriting on each.

Hopefully out of the freewriting some characters, plots and premises will emerge. I'd like to start with short stories to get a feel for the story before committing to an entire novel on one idea.

This may come across as a little cold and calculated for such a creative process, and perhaps it is - but I'm just hoping that it will give my inspiration a little shove in the right direction! And who knows, once I start concentrating my thoughts on book two the ideas might start popping into my head on their own, so I'm making sure to keep my ideas pad with me at all times. I'm willing to write anything and everything down, even if it seems ridiculous...

How do you come up with ideas? Do they just come to you, fully formed, or do you have a process? Do you mainly get your inspiration from themes or characters?

Finito Baybee!

Well I've been off-line again, but for good reason - I finally completed the second draft of my novel today!

The last story was the hardest of all because I had to rewrite it from scratch, then edit the hell out of it, but it was worth the effort because I'm finally happy with it.

I've ordered a few punctuation and grammar books from Amazon for my technical edit - I'll format the entire manuscript into one document, print it out and go through each story several times, checking spelling, grammar, punctuation and any errors like repetitions, name confusion and so on. So I'll need to visit Easons for different coloured pens - cue stationery porn!

Then I'll post it off to an editorial consultancy...eek.

Unblocked

The post about my stickness did the trick - when I sat down with my ms that same evening the block had disappeared and my mind was teeming with ideas. Then yesterday I finished the paper edit.

Now comes the part I'm dreading - I'm planning so many changes that I'll be lucky if I get to use any of what I wrote before. This happened a few times earlier in the edit, but I (stooopidly) thought that my last story would go smoother, because hey, it's the last story right? Damn this writing lark.

Anyway I was going to start The Big Rewrite tonight but instead I'm packing for my weekend to London baybee! I'm going to put the book firmly out of my mind and just enjoy myself.

Have a great one whatever you're doing!

Teaching me a lesson

I'm well and truly stuck on this story. So stuck in fact that I'm posting that I'm stuck, which inevitably unsticks the stuckness.

The main reason I'm stuck is because this story, aka The Last One, is the pits. Here's me thinking editing and rewriting was getting easier, but in actual fact my stories were a little easier to work on. Alright, I had to rewrite 90% of the last three stories, but I had a solid foundation of premise, characters and motivations to build on.

I realised on Friday evening that not only had I made a hash of showing/telling (which came naturally to me when writing the first draft, so no surprises there) but the plot was thin, the characters were two-dimensional and the premise, while something that still grips me, cannot work within the current story.

I've picked it up several times since then but nothing doing. So I am posting this in hope that my muse comes back from her hollibobs or gets better from the flu or whatever is keeping her from my side.

Or perhaps she is staying away to show me that, despite my recent hopes of the opposite, that writing is and will remain hard work so I'd better show it the respect and time it deserves. Which means an hour or two in a quiet room with no television, laptop or music to distract me. More fool me for thinking I could do it any other way.

Today, repeat

After I shoved my naked goals for the year into the limelight for all to see, their bare knees knocking in fright, the gods of fate responded with a big boot up the arse for tempting them so blatantly.

I spent last Monday at work narking about how tired I felt to everyone unlucky to be in earwigging distance. When I wasn't whining to others I was berating myself for not getting enough writing done. At home I felt too tired and sad to do anything but watch television. Oh, how I wished I was back at home full-time again!

The next day I got my wish, albeit temporarily. I spent the next 48 hours being violently sick. The next 48 hours I was too worn out to leave the flat. I had absolutely no work to do, was too bored even to watch day-time tv, but still the words did not appear on the page.

Yesterday I went back to work with almost a spring in my step. I had a laugh with my coworkers and had a stroll in the sunshine at lunch. At home I sat down and got some writing done. Today, repeat.

2009

Happy new year everyone! Thank you for all your comments and support in the last year. Finding you all has been one of the best experiences of writing this novel.

My plans for 2009:

1. Finish the second draft of my novel
2. Brush up on English grammar/syntax/punctuation rules
3. Do a grammar/syntax/punctuation edit on my manuscript
4. Find a good editorial consultancy (preferably an Irish one) and send in my ms
5. Start the first draft of my second novel (better get an idea first!)
6. Accept the criticism from the editor with good grace without having a conniption fit first
7. Rewrite the manuscript of the first novel, taking the editor's comments into account
8. Submit final draft to agents/publishers

Just looking at that list exhausts me...

I'm hoping that these new steps will motivate me to post more, so please don't give up on me. I'll be counting on your help and support while I try to navigate this bewildering, fascinating and terrifying path that will hopefully lead to a published novel!