The tyranny of distances

gday gentle readers

I've moved glacially onward from ch2 to ch3 and struck exactly the same problem. 

They say write what you know. Well I've lived in Adelaide, Woomera, Darwin, Sydney and Bruny Island (south-west of Tasmania) and I wanted to include my experience of that diverse geography in my made-up world. Hence the mud map made a decade ago resembles and has the rough dimensions of Australia. I set the protagonists home town of Deep Creek in the foothills and the capital Grundston on the coast then set Deep Creek at Adelaide's latitude - where I have lived most and live now.

The first thing to note is my careless positioning of the main range in my quick sketch - much further inland (MISTAKE #1) than its Australian template and thereby hangs this tale, quite literally; like that little blue circle on your PC screen that says "I'm thinking I'll get back to you". I wrote book one, the one I'm trying to edit, using this map as a guide, guessing the distances (MISTAKE #2) and then as I wrote, mentally substituting the Adelaide hills for the Great Dividing Range (MISTAKE #3). 

The tale hanging tyranny of distances are those between the Mountains and Coast.

Adelaide 10 miles. 

Sydney 40 miles  
and according to my map
Grundston 250 miles 

So in ch3 when Averil, one of my heroines, sits on rock comparing the roof styles of the town below and the capital she's got damn good eyesight. Locally that's like picking out Adelaide's rooves from Woomera (in the US try seeing Washington's rooves from New York) 

Which brings me full circle. In my last post I figured I had to delay Averil 12 days so she couldnt catch the contingent before they reached the pass 500 miles away. I'd only just measured that distance and calculated the relatives speeds. Now my dividers have wandered further over my map.

During the original writing I imagined Averil was only a days journey from the contingent's starting point - Grundston. I wrote imaging the distance from the mountains to the coast was about 10 miles not 250 miles. At 250 miles its going to take her 12 days anyway. The one-day delay I already had is enough for her to need a horse or a short cut.

The problem resolved itself. 

If only I had read ahead I wouldn't have had to write an extra scene (600 words) or wonder how to get her story back on track after it.

Unwittingly (me being witless) I also have her sister Kezia, in the first scene of Ch3, make the same 500 mile return journey in a single day. That I fixed by having her go only to the next town not to the capital Grundston. But even with my godlike authorial powers I can't move these mountains. The story returns to this area in the last book using the later, detailed, upside-down and carefully measured map. 

until my next post problem

ooroo

RoB

Finished - where to now?

The Prologue

This post was drafted ages ago but not posted. Why is a mystery. I guess I was just emerging from the mind-numbing blank time after finishing the trilogy as noted below.   
 

gday gentle reader/s 

The problem with finishing a big project that took a long time is where to now?  In writing the problem is exacerbated by the fact that finishing is a relative term. Ive had several of them: finishing Bk1 Feb 2000, Bk2 aug 2010 and the Bk3 last week aug 2011. 

All dates refer only to finishing the first draft. Book 1 has gone through three, losing 30,000 words in the process. Book 2 its hard to say with all the stops, starts and backtracking - the original start is now in the middle of the book - a real dog's breakfast. Book 3 is the only one written from start to end with only superficial editing.

This how finishing went on my Face book page. Towards the end I was writing furiously with no time to blog.

5/8/11

word target reached 11:18 Friday 5/8/11 ~ 17 days ahead of schedule  180,000 words in 50 weeks - yaaaah!

finishing the book 3 itself is close and might just get done in the next 17 days

20/8/11

I've just started work on the last scene, of the last chapter, of the last book of my thrilogy (Freudian slip or wishful thinking?) begun Sep 1995. ( that date is true but misleading, the work has been intermittent as I will blog when the whole damn thing is truly really actually finished - excluding the editing)

The blog promised above has been a long time coming. when i stopped writing the trilogy I stopped writing. Almost a month went by until I appeared drunk in charge of a keyboard.

10/9/11

Iam in a delightfil state of imnebriation 

deamn fingeres

this is waht happen when you have nothing to do you waste your face on life book.

And eventually to this  attempt to rationalise what was happening to me

16/9/11 

I, like nature, abhor the vacuum left after finishing the trilogy. Ten plus years with a single focus leaves a whacking great hole that the editing (absolutely necessary) and a new project don’t seem to fill. I feel lost. I fill the time with trivial pursuits. like this.

This drew a few comments from fellow strugglers-with-the-muse. to which I eventually replied  

26/9/11 

what I am doing is reshaping the chaotic sprawling tome/s into something resembling a story - Severne's tits - the contradictions, misdirections, blind alleys, bad science, and crap sentences are as numerous as stars ...

just completed my "master character sheet" which shows the trilogy has 141 named characters

Now its all done it has to be edited. 

ooroo

too late - the end is nigh

gday gentle readers

And here below is just how nigh it is as of 17/7/11, on time and on budget, or writely speaking I look like meeting my deadline.  

There are several things about this that please me, I have succeeded in pushing myself to meet the weekly target for a whole a year now. One push resulted my best daily count of 1600 words. In fact most of the 17 days > 1000 words have been in the last couple of months, partly because I could see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, partly because its winter and I can't get out in the afternoons, partly because I have simply got faster from doing it (almost) daily for 12 months and partly because the pace of the story is accelerating as my grand plan comes together.  

The one thing that doesn't please me is that the task of blogging the process has failed - way too intermittent I did say the writing would come first. I will however try to do better with the editing (coming soon to a blog near you.)

The cull from my  monitoring spreadsheet estimates 34 chapters at completion but that won't happen. The story will finished when everything that needs to happen, happens and I can already see it will go longer. 

 

So long as I have 180,000 before 22/8/11 I'll be satisfied. As the cull from another part of the spreadsheet shows the 1st 386 words of Arch's Chapter 1 were done 22/8/10  

When I say the end is nigh I mean in comparison to when I started in 1995 (though it hasn't been a continuous journey) there is still the edit while I look for and agent to help get it published.  

The problem is I seriously wonder if it will ever happen. While I was plugging away the world changed. That wonderful disaster, the Internet, took off 

I recently found a reprint (re-e-print?) of one of my flash fictions in an unlikely place.  It was first published in Antipodean last century (1999) reeprinted here(2009). Now I'm not complaining I'm pleased someone found it of value but as said on facebook ...

I'm concerned about my future earning potential as author. Bookshops are collapsing in the face of online sales, E-books are coming on strong and piracy is rife. 

my trilogy adds up to 7Mb

I have friend who downloaded 26,000 books in one shot some of which were current on his shelves and it was 'free' - in the sense that he didn't have to pay for it. I would be hard pressed to read 26,000 books in my lifetime yet it will fit on a 16Gb pen drive. Words, it seems, are cheap financially and in terms of  digital storage.

It seems no matter how you originally publish, once some has it they can scan it, copy it or type it, and make it readily available over the net for free. Why - because they can.  

Im old: pre-TV, pre-PC, pre-Internet. The wired generation, who have embraced the Internet generated idea that everything should be free, is here NOW. Regardless of copyright the gap between first publication and freely available is closing so although ..

My end is nigh - I may be too late. 

That remains to seen

ooroo

The Threat of Completion

G'day dear reader/s

The Threat of Completion hangs over me, I dread reaching the end of book 3 because then I have to edit the whole trilogy, not that I mind editing, I find it is easier than composing but measuring my achievement as a word count is nigh on impossible.

 edit = less

I could write something new to keep my word count measure going then edit. My problem with that is, editing a long novel (or series of novels in my case) is matter of concentration similar to writing a computer program, you have to juggle a mass intertwined elements - changing any of which will have repercussions everywhere.

Trying to write 500 other words every day then do the editing is something I contemplated and rejected. That would give this writer the same problem I have when I don't write every day, I lose the thread. 

So I'll just have to let the stats suffer unless someone can come up with a reasonable editing yardstick.  e.g. a chapter a day. Now given my average 4k-5k words that sounds like reasonable task. 

But hark, my completed trilogy will have about 120-130 chapters, lets say 125 days of work, or 25 (5 day) weeks = 6 roughly months (It ain't rocket science, it's basic math) 

Now given I might I finish book 3 in July, the whole damn trilogy could be ready to submit to an agent/publisher by old year's eve 2011.  Now there is something to aim for. 

Lastly the current stats:

70,000 words, chapter 14, 
daily avg at day 10 of 2011 is 557. 
Estimated completion date July 2011.

ooroo

A 1000 words

well almost

G'day gentle reader/s

The pic of the reading room in Library of Congress was worth 789 words of description along with the action and dialogue of characters flowing through it. It comes from the opening of ch10 from Ashford's POV (who was Lee) in a scene labeled The company of Warriors.

This scene was written today but the following scene was written last week. I got so carried away writing a scene for the hosted goddess Rowena/Severn (a dual personality fighting for control of the same body) that it grew into two scenes. When I finished I went back, found cliffhanger in the middle and split it.  

Interestingly from my POV, Ashford, being the newest character is still forming, still surprising me. I don't yet know how he will turn out. He began on the side of villains, swapped when he met the one of the heroines Sarah, but he has since discovered she (like her sister Lisa) is a Restoration Warrior called Fern. He feels used, resentful, he may change back given enough motive and or opportunity. I don't know I'm only the author.  (Fern could be Brook. The twins Sarah and Lisa chose these warrior names and though I have them written down in my glossary I'm never sure which is which without looking them up.

[hey I got it right]

When I'm writing however I don't stop to Check and when I'm done it's forgotten)

The thing is, unlike the other POV characters I don't know Ashford yet. Sarah and Jorgena who newly get a voice in Arch have a history running back to Bk1 Break Giving them a POV is relatively simple and fun, making up motives for actions they took previously.

Words at ch10 = 51,000 

Daily average at day 340(2010) = 308

new E.T.A = Jan 2012 

(forget ETC, I'll stick to the standard acronym)

Ooroo
next post ... the story so far.

What the story needs

G'day dear reader

I'm back on target, 18,500 words done or about a tenth of my target  in only four weeks. If I can keep up the pace I will finish the first draft earlier than expected (in about 9 months).

As can be seen I'm half way through ch4, which like ch3 is looking for a title. I have a penchant for one word chapter titles something that reflects the general thrust, which is curious because as can also be seen  I generally write three scenes per chapter each from a different point-of-view (POV). This often makes it hard to to find a common theme. If I had to give a reason why I do this I would say the chapter titles give a rough guide to where I am in the overall story, making it easier to back-fill  or edit past events so they flow seamlessly into the present.

For example:  Chapter 2 has changed from "Campaign" to "Leaders"  The original referred only to Hyatt's goal of taking over the world. I had not yet written Rowena's scene where she asserts herself over her companions (including her parents). So 'Leaders' better reflects the chapter as a whole;  my two major characters,  antagonist Hyatt and protagonist Rowena,  (incidentally half siblings) being shown to be leaders.

I write in Word on a PC running Vista making extensive use of outlining  - Chapters styled as "Heading 1", P'sOV as "Heading 2" and scene-lets (groups of  paragraphs) as "Heading 3" again for reason of tracking the plot/storyline.  The styling (colour and size) is my own and the headings are set not to print when I print a chapter to take along to read at my writers group

The POV character Ashford  is the renamed Lee (reasons in previous post) who turned from enemy to friend. Why? "It seemed like a good idea at the time".  I make this up as I go along.

Also from the outline you can also see I currently have five (5) POV Characters: Ashford, Jorgena, Rowena, Hyatt and Sarah. I don't count Hedley because his POV is only in the prologue. Five is a lot to handle and give distinct voices to.  (I had three in book I rising briefly to five 5 midway, dropping two and bringing them back at the end of book II - whatever suited.) 

What the story needs the story gets.

I'm still not comfortable with so many P'sOV but I feel the story needs it so I just have to grin and write it besides when I started writing (with intent to be published) I wasn't comfortable with anything I produced: description, dialogue, POV,  naming, grammar or punctuation.

In my experience writing is learned by writing. Learning only stops when the writing stops.

Ooroo for now

The Writing Comes First

G'day dear reader,

       My time, thought and energy is divided equally among the three things I most value in life, my relationship with my wife, my health and my writing. My health took top billing recently (to be the subject of my other blog - if time permits)  and put a dent in the writing, the real writing, the novel; blogging is a luxury.

My self-imposed target was to  finish book 3: Arch, a 180,000 novel,  in one year. That's 3500 words a week.  two weeks ago I spent 3 days in hospital and though I wrote on my laptop,  I end up 1100 words short that week - no time to blog the process.  Last week - catch-up - I'm now 200 words short of  where I should be over all,  now I can blog it.

So where am I, 12,000 words into Arch and all over the place. 

keeping track

Chapter one - done.  Half of the prologue and  a third of chapter 3 and  I'm working on chapter 2.  It should be obvious that the numbers at the end are the chapter's word count - I aim for around 5000 words per chapter - it suits my modus operandi.

The part of chapter three that got done was  because a scene involving POV character (Hyatt - a villain in the sense that he opposes the aims of heroine Rowena) got way too long and was split.

The Jorgena of chapter one is the mother, lover, mother-in-law or grandmother of almost all the important characters (nothing like keeping it in the family)  At the start of Break, she is a mysterious figure but never with a  POV, she almost disappears in Face but will play a pivotal role in Arch; time she spoke up for herself.

Lee (now Lee Proctor and upgraded from acolyte to Server) who I introduced as a  villain to kick off Arch is changing sides.

The process is difficult to describe. I was writing Lee's second scene where he reports to his superior  and was looking for a nifty ending.  A sudden thought had me hitching him to one of  Jorgena's twin daughters who have also been waiting since Break to play a part. Jorgena in chapter 1 mentioned them as traveling so I put them in Lee's home town.

 I had no idea I would do this until it was done.  This is what I mean by a difficult to describe process - as Forrest Gump would say - it happens.  It happens as I write it, arising spontaneously from a restless mind in tune with the created world  and its characters - I think? 

However the twins are Sarah and Lisa and I paired him with Sarah. So now I have a couple called Sarah and Lee which is no better than Lisa and Lee (I did Roden and Rowena in Face, another same first letter double act  is one too many)  Methinks Lee needs a new first name - principle of  last on first off.

I have also give Sarah a POV (I have in my sketchy overall plan a sacrificial role for one of the twins - which is as yet undecided).

Who knows what will have happened by my next blog?  I don't - yet.

Ooroo

Easier done than said.

G'day dear reader

I have surprised and surpassed myself, getting half way through the first chapter in only a couple of days. For professionals my pace would be considered slow. All I can say is it suits me for the moment and as I get back into regular writing it will improve.  As it turned out starting was easier to do than talk about doing. My solution of where to start, was to invent a new enemy to confront my four principles (left at the end of Book 2) as they began their final journey. This  new character is watching them come across the border, in fact has been set to watch for them and knows their histories.  This gave me a great opportunity to fill in the story so far for readers who start with Book 3 "The Arch of Restoration" aka "Arch" 

I chose the name from a book of baby names. (I have  many but the one at left is the one used for this trilogy)  I opened it at random and looked for old English names. The original impetus for old  English came from researching my family tree, I came across a name I wanted to use.  Having started down that road I kept going, mainly for consistency. Character names are important, they come with baggage: gender, ethnicity, culture.  I wanted an homogeneous society.

The page I happened to open this time was in  the Girls section and the first old English name I came across was Lee. I then checked my spreadsheet  to ensure I hadn't already used it.  This is not an unbreakable rule (none are) but I like to keep my main characters distinct. Any 'Point Of View' (POV) character is major.  I found it used for my hero's mother's middle name. - not a problem so I added it to the sheet which records name rank and serial number (all the important details) of each character as I invent them.  

At this stage all Lee has is a first name and a title. The entry will grow with the character.Until now I have avoided using a personal pronoun for Lee. I got the name from the Girls page so I wrote her in as female. The next scene was also from a female POV and the one after that from the POV of two females in the same head. Too many female POV's for this old male to handle.  So I changed Lee to male and rewrote the scene. 

Interestingly the slice of spreadsheet above contains 4 major characters,  all sisters, two of which have been POV Characters - the baby book must not so randomly fall open at  'Girls - L' 

The story continues