Nearly there. One last chapter and the first draft of The Perilous City is done.
Trouble is I've hit a last hurdle. The final scenes of this chapter takes place on the roof of St Giles. Previously it has not been possible to see that roof, so I had planned to do my writing from a combination of photos and imagination. Imagine then my surprise and delight to find, only a few weeks ago, that they have restarted guided tours of the roof.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get on one yet. They are run by volunteers and you have to phone in advance to book one. Weekends are my favoured time and they don't often run at weekends. So, until I can get up that roof I am having to hold fire on the last chapter. I could do it from my own mental resources, but nothing compares to going there, to a physical location, in person. For the final scenes of City of Fire and Ice I did the tour of Holyrood Palace, and saw Mary's chambers, and the tower that held them, the Long Gallery, and all the other rooms besides. It informed and shaped what I then wrote, and helped me imagine the Young Master's progress through those chambers, in search of Mary.
So, until I get on the roof, I'm holding fire. Can't wait.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Publish and Be Damned Part 2
That's it. Part 2 of The Great Project - City of Fire and Ice - went on to Amazon yesterday. I've published the whole thing now, all three hundred thousand or so words. Phew!
It feels good, getting part two out there. Getting a good cover was a little more tricky this time. I used the same designer, but we had to do a lot of backwards and forwards discussion before we got it right. I'm very happy with it now though. It hints at fire and ice, it uses a photo of Edinburgh Castle that I took, and it incorporates an angel, which is a key component of the story. So I'm pleased with it.
I've also priced this second part of my book less competitively - it's dearer. That way I would hope, eventually, to make a good return for all my two years of effort on the two books together.
The key thing now is to concentrate more on marketing/selling. And to do that I need to get my current book finished. I'm close, but like the sea it keeps receding. I'll get there soon though. Then it's sell, sell, sell.
It feels good, getting part two out there. Getting a good cover was a little more tricky this time. I used the same designer, but we had to do a lot of backwards and forwards discussion before we got it right. I'm very happy with it now though. It hints at fire and ice, it uses a photo of Edinburgh Castle that I took, and it incorporates an angel, which is a key component of the story. So I'm pleased with it.
I've also priced this second part of my book less competitively - it's dearer. That way I would hope, eventually, to make a good return for all my two years of effort on the two books together.
The key thing now is to concentrate more on marketing/selling. And to do that I need to get my current book finished. I'm close, but like the sea it keeps receding. I'll get there soon though. Then it's sell, sell, sell.
Monday, 11 August 2014
Resolving to Be Brave
I've just finished reading a so-so fantasy book, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Again it's one of those which puzzled me, because some of the reviews online were stormingly good, and yet when I read it myself I was disappointed. It was okay, the central story was fine, but it was so full of the most undisciplined digressions and 'world-making' descriptions, that the pace became tediously slow at times. I was puzzled again by the high praise some readers seemed to give it. So I delved deeper into the reviews, past the first few. There I found others which agreed with my assessment. And one I read made me think about my own writing.
The review said this:
'On the one hand, Lynch's technical talent clearly elevates him above the great gormless herd of modern fantasy writers already. And there's no denying that the book is very likeable indeed, while it seems unfair to fault it based only on what it could have been. On the other hand, it's just 'too damn safe'. Lynch is going to be a major player in the genre - that much is obvious already - but he has it in him to do something Seriously Good rather than settling for being the next RA Salvatore. But it's not gonna happen until he gets over his fear of failure. PERDIDO had parts that worked and parts that didn't but Mieville wrote his ambition on every page in letters of fire, and the excitement swept me, the reader, away with him. Whereas LOCKE LAMORA felt like Lynch was parceling out his ideas and his talent and calculating every story beat based on whether it would make a good start for a franchise.'
Apparently the book has already been optioned for a film, so the safety-first claim rings true. Now, I've read one of China Mieville's books, and while it puzzled and annoyed me in places, it gripped me. This one didn't. And it occurred to me that the willingness to get things wrong is exactly what makes the difference between the two. In other words when writing you need to be brave, to risk failure, to try something and not necessarily expect it to work, but to try it anyway. That idea has really resonated with me, and I'm wondering now how I can put it into practice. Have I been safe in my writing? I'm not sure. I didn't think so, but I wonder now. What this review has done is to make me determined to think through what I'm writing and look for the unsafe options. Have I considered and discarded them sometimes? I'm not sure. But I know I don't want to write a book like Locke Lamora. So, definitely not safety first from hereon in.
The review said this:
'On the one hand, Lynch's technical talent clearly elevates him above the great gormless herd of modern fantasy writers already. And there's no denying that the book is very likeable indeed, while it seems unfair to fault it based only on what it could have been. On the other hand, it's just 'too damn safe'. Lynch is going to be a major player in the genre - that much is obvious already - but he has it in him to do something Seriously Good rather than settling for being the next RA Salvatore. But it's not gonna happen until he gets over his fear of failure. PERDIDO had parts that worked and parts that didn't but Mieville wrote his ambition on every page in letters of fire, and the excitement swept me, the reader, away with him. Whereas LOCKE LAMORA felt like Lynch was parceling out his ideas and his talent and calculating every story beat based on whether it would make a good start for a franchise.'
Apparently the book has already been optioned for a film, so the safety-first claim rings true. Now, I've read one of China Mieville's books, and while it puzzled and annoyed me in places, it gripped me. This one didn't. And it occurred to me that the willingness to get things wrong is exactly what makes the difference between the two. In other words when writing you need to be brave, to risk failure, to try something and not necessarily expect it to work, but to try it anyway. That idea has really resonated with me, and I'm wondering now how I can put it into practice. Have I been safe in my writing? I'm not sure. I didn't think so, but I wonder now. What this review has done is to make me determined to think through what I'm writing and look for the unsafe options. Have I considered and discarded them sometimes? I'm not sure. But I know I don't want to write a book like Locke Lamora. So, definitely not safety first from hereon in.
Thursday, 31 July 2014
One Year On
The summer break is past, tomorrow is the 1st of August, the blog resumes. Not that the writing stopped. It went on at a relentless pace all through the summer, 4,000 words a week, every week, with one week off for a holiday in Portugal. The Perilous City is nearing its end. That is to say the end of the first draft. And what a thing it has become. It stands at nearly 200,000 words at the moment, with perhaps half a dozen chapters still to be written. now I know that size isn't everything, and it certainly isn't or wasn't what I planned originally. I thought it would perhaps come out at 150,000 words maximum and I wanted six sections of six chapters each. I've ended up with nearly a quarter of a million words (by the time I've finished) and more like four sections of twelve each. And when did I start writing this current novel? The 1st of August. Exactly a year ago.
As I've always said, novels are organic. I would hope that this one has not been padded, but I would say that it has grown like topsy. Characters have taken on a life of their own - Tibbie, the scarred whore with the proverbial heart of gold, Pincher the one-legged beggar and his friend Matty the fake veteran; Sary the witch-woman, Domhnall the inn keeper, and lots more besides. I needed them, I made them, but then they made themselves and I found it hard not to think to myself - what is he doing now, what is she doing now?
The real question I am going to have to face, when I come to revise this book, is how much of that growth should I prune away? Have I let the supporting characters grow so that they have now obscured the central story, which was meant to be quite bare and simple? Two sailors, one crippled, the other a drunk, washed up on the shores of the Perilous City and forced to make their living there. Tied together by guilt, but pulled apart by a woman. And both nurturing secret hopes - one for love, the other for his legs back. Which of those is more impossible, the book asks, and can the men's friendship, now dysfunctional and broken, ever be mended? Can they emerge from the shipwreck of their lives, or will they drown?
The simple answer to the pruning question is that I'm not sure, and won't be till I start editing and re-reading. I'm almost inclined to think that there are two books here, or two versions of the same book. Maybe it's like a film - the director's cut and one for public consumption. Whatever I decide to do I know that there is a lot of work still to be done. But I love these characters and I want them to shine, so the work of polishing them will have to take what it takes. And I hope in turn they will be loved by others.
As I've always said, novels are organic. I would hope that this one has not been padded, but I would say that it has grown like topsy. Characters have taken on a life of their own - Tibbie, the scarred whore with the proverbial heart of gold, Pincher the one-legged beggar and his friend Matty the fake veteran; Sary the witch-woman, Domhnall the inn keeper, and lots more besides. I needed them, I made them, but then they made themselves and I found it hard not to think to myself - what is he doing now, what is she doing now?
The real question I am going to have to face, when I come to revise this book, is how much of that growth should I prune away? Have I let the supporting characters grow so that they have now obscured the central story, which was meant to be quite bare and simple? Two sailors, one crippled, the other a drunk, washed up on the shores of the Perilous City and forced to make their living there. Tied together by guilt, but pulled apart by a woman. And both nurturing secret hopes - one for love, the other for his legs back. Which of those is more impossible, the book asks, and can the men's friendship, now dysfunctional and broken, ever be mended? Can they emerge from the shipwreck of their lives, or will they drown?
The simple answer to the pruning question is that I'm not sure, and won't be till I start editing and re-reading. I'm almost inclined to think that there are two books here, or two versions of the same book. Maybe it's like a film - the director's cut and one for public consumption. Whatever I decide to do I know that there is a lot of work still to be done. But I love these characters and I want them to shine, so the work of polishing them will have to take what it takes. And I hope in turn they will be loved by others.
Monday, 19 May 2014
Temporary Blips and the Grim Reaper
Having rattled along on my current book - The Perilous City - at a rate of 4,000 words per minute for 38 weeks in a row (which for the mathematically-minded makes for over 150,000 words and counting) I have suddenly found myself coming to a crunching halt, though I hope it is a temporary blip rather than a full-scale meltdown. Why has it happened?
Two reasons one understandable, one less so. First, I have been away for a week in Stockholm, work-related and that proved impossible to combine with keeping up my galloping rate of writing. Fair enough, I'm back, things should be back to normal. But, something else is holding me up. I'm virtually at the end of a section, which should then lead me into the last part of the book (yes, so 150,000 words and not finished). But I'm struggling with two options for the same character/s, and I just can't yet decide what to do. One involves death now, one involves death later. I'm sure the Grim Reaper doesn't have these problems. When do you kill a much-loved character? (well, much-loved by me and you hope eventually the readers). That's something I'm still trying to judge in this case, and can't seem to resolve. But my real problem here is the galloping writing rate. Somehow my planning has slipped behind, and I now don't have a chapter plan for the last part of this book. So perhaps I'm going to have to take another week off from writing to do that, and to help myself decide on my character's fate.I'm loath to do it, but time spent planning is not time wasted I keep telling myself.
So, death hovers over her head, for a little while longer.
Two reasons one understandable, one less so. First, I have been away for a week in Stockholm, work-related and that proved impossible to combine with keeping up my galloping rate of writing. Fair enough, I'm back, things should be back to normal. But, something else is holding me up. I'm virtually at the end of a section, which should then lead me into the last part of the book (yes, so 150,000 words and not finished). But I'm struggling with two options for the same character/s, and I just can't yet decide what to do. One involves death now, one involves death later. I'm sure the Grim Reaper doesn't have these problems. When do you kill a much-loved character? (well, much-loved by me and you hope eventually the readers). That's something I'm still trying to judge in this case, and can't seem to resolve. But my real problem here is the galloping writing rate. Somehow my planning has slipped behind, and I now don't have a chapter plan for the last part of this book. So perhaps I'm going to have to take another week off from writing to do that, and to help myself decide on my character's fate.I'm loath to do it, but time spent planning is not time wasted I keep telling myself.
So, death hovers over her head, for a little while longer.
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Bad Books Great TV
Thank the Lord for Series 4 of Game of Thrones. It has come just in time to remind me that no matter how bad a fantasy book is it might still make great TV.
I gave up trying to read Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season. Seriously, gave up. I just couldn't read it, it was so turgid and flat. And this is the latest sensation? But then I had the same experience with Game of Thrones. I tried Book 1, I seriously did, and I got nowhere with it. I read a few pages, put it down, read a few more, leafed backwards and forwards through the huge list of names and places that I was supposed to learn, read a few more pages, got depressed, and just eventually gave up. And yet - fabulous television. On tv I don't have to remember someone's name, I can see who they are; I don't have to recall what happened 100 pages ago, someone refers to it, or we get a flashback, or it doesn't matter anyway. The turgid descriptive passages (George Martin - great story teller, rotten writer) are stripped out and instead we get fights and sex, and character development. What more could you wish for? I read a review of GoT which posed the idea that it really works because of its two-handers, scenes in which two characters feed off or interact with one another - girl and sell-sword, dwarf and brother, dwarf and sister, prisoner and master, runaway crow and wildlander (notice no names, can't remember most of them). And it's true.
So what are the lessons here? Firstly, that character makes fantasy. Makes all writing really. It's the key to any genre writing, but especially important in fantasy where writers tend to rely too much on flash effects and wierd names. Take David Gemmell's books. He has written dozens of fantasy novels, in endless mini-series. I don't think he has written a bad one. Just when you think this book is a piece of paint-by-numbers genre writing, he pulls a character out of the hat who surprises you, who does something out of the genre-predictable mould, or who is simply genuinely interesting to read about. It's a simple lesson but one worth learning for all writers.
Then I think that there's a second reason that even bad fantasy writing can make good tv. And that's because you can, in making tv or films, strip out the guff and the verbiage, emphasise the plot development, the action components and the spectacular elements and, finally, hide some of the thinness of setting by the magic of media. So, The Bone Season might work on film or TV because its world wouldn't look so thin and cardboard, its characters would have more to interest the reader and its plot elements would come to the fore. Nice idea, but I do doubt it.
Incidentally - the corollary of this is that good writing is hardest to make into good film or TV. Witness the woeful attempt to film His Dark Materials in The Golden Compass. Pulman is a fantastic writer, but not of film-scripts.
I gave up trying to read Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season. Seriously, gave up. I just couldn't read it, it was so turgid and flat. And this is the latest sensation? But then I had the same experience with Game of Thrones. I tried Book 1, I seriously did, and I got nowhere with it. I read a few pages, put it down, read a few more, leafed backwards and forwards through the huge list of names and places that I was supposed to learn, read a few more pages, got depressed, and just eventually gave up. And yet - fabulous television. On tv I don't have to remember someone's name, I can see who they are; I don't have to recall what happened 100 pages ago, someone refers to it, or we get a flashback, or it doesn't matter anyway. The turgid descriptive passages (George Martin - great story teller, rotten writer) are stripped out and instead we get fights and sex, and character development. What more could you wish for? I read a review of GoT which posed the idea that it really works because of its two-handers, scenes in which two characters feed off or interact with one another - girl and sell-sword, dwarf and brother, dwarf and sister, prisoner and master, runaway crow and wildlander (notice no names, can't remember most of them). And it's true.
So what are the lessons here? Firstly, that character makes fantasy. Makes all writing really. It's the key to any genre writing, but especially important in fantasy where writers tend to rely too much on flash effects and wierd names. Take David Gemmell's books. He has written dozens of fantasy novels, in endless mini-series. I don't think he has written a bad one. Just when you think this book is a piece of paint-by-numbers genre writing, he pulls a character out of the hat who surprises you, who does something out of the genre-predictable mould, or who is simply genuinely interesting to read about. It's a simple lesson but one worth learning for all writers.
Then I think that there's a second reason that even bad fantasy writing can make good tv. And that's because you can, in making tv or films, strip out the guff and the verbiage, emphasise the plot development, the action components and the spectacular elements and, finally, hide some of the thinness of setting by the magic of media. So, The Bone Season might work on film or TV because its world wouldn't look so thin and cardboard, its characters would have more to interest the reader and its plot elements would come to the fore. Nice idea, but I do doubt it.
Incidentally - the corollary of this is that good writing is hardest to make into good film or TV. Witness the woeful attempt to film His Dark Materials in The Golden Compass. Pulman is a fantastic writer, but not of film-scripts.
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Publish and Be Damned!
Publication Day is here! I know, I know, it's April Fool's Day, the weather outside is horrible, the economy is still weak, Spurs lost at the weekend, England are out of the 20-20 Cup, and the price of coffee is scandalous. But hey, look on the bright side. There are millions of people in the world who haven't read my book yet and who are just dying to do so. And now I've given them the chance. My book is now officially available to buy on Amazon.
I'll probably get the Noble Prize, for bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. Well, readers to be, here's your chance.
And on a personal note - I am excited, happy, over the moon and not yet sick as a parrot.
I'll probably get the Noble Prize, for bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. Well, readers to be, here's your chance.
Friday, 28 March 2014
Launching 1st April
I'm a fool, I know. But I have my release day set for April Fool's Day.
Why delay till Tuesday, and not go with it immediately? Still one or two bits of tweaking to the KDP settings to be done, plus I like to go with memorable dates, and I should be able to remember 1st of April. So, countdown is now P minus 3 (and a bit).
Monday, 24 March 2014
My New Cover!!!
I have commissioned my book cover for City of Stone. As I said before I think it is definitely the one area that is worth spending money on. How right I was!
These are four of the five designs I was given by John Amy who runs Ebook Designer at
http://www.ebookdesigner.co.uk/index.html
To be honest I could have happily picked any one of the designs but in the end, after a straw poll of friends and acquaintances which backed up my own instincts, I went for number one. It does everything I want in terms of giving a sense of the atmosphere and style of the book, it is clean and it has impact. Fabulous impact, I think. It's actually based on a photograph of Edinburgh Castle and walls which I took myself, but then given the design treatment. I love it and I know it's going to work. Hopefully it will pay for itself in sales!So, the cover of my book is done, and uploaded to KDP, publication day is counting down, perhaps even coming forward a little, perhaps even 1st April - why not.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Old Horse
Where do the idea for my novels come from? Surprisingly from songs, as often as not. That happened with the book I'm writing just now, The Perilous City. The inspiration for that story came from a song, and a performance of that song, by Jacques Brel, the song Amsterdam. Well, it has happened again.
There's a song by Martin Carthy, called Old Horse. I was listening to it on Sunday, really listening to it, the way you do sometimes when you haven't heard a track for a long time. The words are moving, and that's what they did, moved me to tears. I realised then that I'm going to write a novel at some point, I'm not sure when, which is based on the ideas and the emotions contained within that song. The song is traditional, but actually it is based on a number of fragments which Carthy says he put together himself. That explains the power of the song, its rooted in our traditions and folk memories. And to prove that, my partner then said to me that her mother used to use that phrase, talking about Old Horse, as a way of saying something is worn out. I realised the longevity of the idea and its place in our consciousness.
Ostensibly it's a song about how we treat horses, use them, work them, put them out to graze and finally feed them to our sailors. But it's actually a song about how we treat our old people.The song ends with that feeling of abuse and sadness, or at least you think it does but it then adds a catch. 'Rise up old horse and shine again.' So there is a resurrection component to the song as well, and something of the mystical. I want to capture all that feeling in a novel. And I will.
Why do songs work so well as the wellspring of ideas? I think because they trade in emotions. They are a direct conduit to our emotions, and in tapping them they paint such powerful pictures. That's what I want my books to do.They are my songs - since I can't write music and I can't sing, though I wish I could. Instead I have my books, unplugged.
Old horse old horse what brought you here
Carted stones this many's the year
Killed by stones and sore abuse
They salt you down for sailors' use
A warrior am I and at war I've been
Fighting for my country and king
Now I'm old and I'm in decay
It's poor old horse get on your way
My keeping once was the stable wall
Free from all cold winds and harm
Now in the fields I am forced to go
Turned out in the cold and rain and snow
My feeding once was the oats and hay
That grew in the fields and the meadows gay
Now I'll get no such at all
But pull at the short grass by the wall
The sailors they do me despise
Kick my body and damn my eyes
Cut my meat and pick my bones
Throw the rest to Davey Jones
Here is a hoof that was so well shod
Likewise a hide that sweat so hard
Whipped him lashed him drove him down
Rise up old horse and shine again
From: http://lyrics.wikia.com/Martin_Carthy:Old_Horse
There's a song by Martin Carthy, called Old Horse. I was listening to it on Sunday, really listening to it, the way you do sometimes when you haven't heard a track for a long time. The words are moving, and that's what they did, moved me to tears. I realised then that I'm going to write a novel at some point, I'm not sure when, which is based on the ideas and the emotions contained within that song. The song is traditional, but actually it is based on a number of fragments which Carthy says he put together himself. That explains the power of the song, its rooted in our traditions and folk memories. And to prove that, my partner then said to me that her mother used to use that phrase, talking about Old Horse, as a way of saying something is worn out. I realised the longevity of the idea and its place in our consciousness.
Ostensibly it's a song about how we treat horses, use them, work them, put them out to graze and finally feed them to our sailors. But it's actually a song about how we treat our old people.The song ends with that feeling of abuse and sadness, or at least you think it does but it then adds a catch. 'Rise up old horse and shine again.' So there is a resurrection component to the song as well, and something of the mystical. I want to capture all that feeling in a novel. And I will.
Why do songs work so well as the wellspring of ideas? I think because they trade in emotions. They are a direct conduit to our emotions, and in tapping them they paint such powerful pictures. That's what I want my books to do.They are my songs - since I can't write music and I can't sing, though I wish I could. Instead I have my books, unplugged.
Old horse old horse what brought you here
Carted stones this many's the year
Killed by stones and sore abuse
They salt you down for sailors' use
A warrior am I and at war I've been
Fighting for my country and king
Now I'm old and I'm in decay
It's poor old horse get on your way
My keeping once was the stable wall
Free from all cold winds and harm
Now in the fields I am forced to go
Turned out in the cold and rain and snow
My feeding once was the oats and hay
That grew in the fields and the meadows gay
Now I'll get no such at all
But pull at the short grass by the wall
The sailors they do me despise
Kick my body and damn my eyes
Cut my meat and pick my bones
Throw the rest to Davey Jones
Here is a hoof that was so well shod
Likewise a hide that sweat so hard
Whipped him lashed him drove him down
Rise up old horse and shine again
From: http://lyrics.wikia.com/Martin_Carthy:Old_Horse
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Publication Count Down - P Minus 30
Momentous decision! I've decided to kick off the self-publication countdown for The Great Project, starting with City of Stone.
The book has been written, edited, revised, edited, user-tested, revised and so on. And finished since the Autumn. I had decided to hold off publishing the series because I was deep into writing my next novel, The Perilous City and I wanted to be free to do the sort of marketing that a self-published book needs. And, in truth, I was hoping that a publisher would take it. Well, no sign of the latter yet, and I've decided that now's the time to go it alone. Rather than waiting for hell to freeze over I'm going to self-publish now, so we're at P minus 30, or whatever number of days it takes, and counting.
The process began with the decision to begin the process. I've made that, so what next? Next was to decide what to do about a book cover. I've been a follower of the self-help community on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which is hugely useful, and the wisdom there is that covers matter. You only have a few seconds to grab someone's attention as they're trawling the catalogue, and a good cover gives you a better chance. Therefore I'm going to direct my financial expenditure to cover design. I tried my hand at using the KDP cover creator and what I produced was mediocore at best, because I'm not a designer.
I then looked at whether or not I should use BookBaby, the ebook promotional service, who also offer cover design. I came close to going with this. Cover design would have cost me about £170 (for the deluxe version) and along with their conversion and promotion package I would have been about £300 plus a 15% share of royalties. I was within a whisker of making the choice, in fact on Saturday I had decided to do it. But I read a little bit more over the weekend on the KDP community and I put a question about BookBaby there. The responses convinced me that there's nothing BookBaby does for you that you can't do yourself, and a number of things they don't do. They don't give you access to reports, they don't seem to do as much promotion as you could do yourself, and they want you to sign a contract which, to my eye, gives too much control away.
So I decided to do the bulk of the publication and promotion work myself, and shop around for a cover designer. I've now found one, and I'm in the process of putting a brief together. I'll report back when I have the designs, and by then I should be at about P minus 15/20 and counting. Hoping to publish by Easter or thereabouts.
The book has been written, edited, revised, edited, user-tested, revised and so on. And finished since the Autumn. I had decided to hold off publishing the series because I was deep into writing my next novel, The Perilous City and I wanted to be free to do the sort of marketing that a self-published book needs. And, in truth, I was hoping that a publisher would take it. Well, no sign of the latter yet, and I've decided that now's the time to go it alone. Rather than waiting for hell to freeze over I'm going to self-publish now, so we're at P minus 30, or whatever number of days it takes, and counting.
The process began with the decision to begin the process. I've made that, so what next? Next was to decide what to do about a book cover. I've been a follower of the self-help community on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which is hugely useful, and the wisdom there is that covers matter. You only have a few seconds to grab someone's attention as they're trawling the catalogue, and a good cover gives you a better chance. Therefore I'm going to direct my financial expenditure to cover design. I tried my hand at using the KDP cover creator and what I produced was mediocore at best, because I'm not a designer.
I then looked at whether or not I should use BookBaby, the ebook promotional service, who also offer cover design. I came close to going with this. Cover design would have cost me about £170 (for the deluxe version) and along with their conversion and promotion package I would have been about £300 plus a 15% share of royalties. I was within a whisker of making the choice, in fact on Saturday I had decided to do it. But I read a little bit more over the weekend on the KDP community and I put a question about BookBaby there. The responses convinced me that there's nothing BookBaby does for you that you can't do yourself, and a number of things they don't do. They don't give you access to reports, they don't seem to do as much promotion as you could do yourself, and they want you to sign a contract which, to my eye, gives too much control away.
So I decided to do the bulk of the publication and promotion work myself, and shop around for a cover designer. I've now found one, and I'm in the process of putting a brief together. I'll report back when I have the designs, and by then I should be at about P minus 15/20 and counting. Hoping to publish by Easter or thereabouts.
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
The Plague Doctor
Just written a passage at the beginning of a new chapter of my in-progress book, The Perilous City, which if I say it myself I really like. It describes the arrival of the Plague Doctor. Here it is:
"The night had been sharp with frost and now the morning was clear
for a change, after the cold, wet winds which had blighted the last few days. The
winter sun hung in the sky over the Lawnmarket, bringing a pale shadow of warmth to
the City. The market was busy as always, crowded with people buying or selling,
making it hard for anyone to pass through their midst. But the figure that walked
up the Lawnmarket now, as the bell of St Giles struck the nine, had no difficulty
in finding a way. The crowd cleared for him, parting like waves before the prow
of a ship.
The figure that strode westwards, towards the crest of the Lawnmarket,
was wrapped in a heavy leather cloak, despite the gentle warmth of the morning. In
his hand he carried a long wooden staff, which beat a tattoo against the stones
of the street as he walked. On his hands he was wearing heavy leather gloves, which
came halfway up his arms. His boots too were long and stout, heavy riding boots
high up to his knees, covering him, like the cloak which was drawn tight. Nothing showed of the man beneath, if it was a man. It was difficult to tell. He looked
like a bird, like some giant leather-clad bird, stalking along the Lawnmarket. His
face, if he had a face, was covered by a leather hood, with eyeholes cut
into it. And where the man’s nose and mouth might be was a beak. Or something that
looked like a beak. It was a long wicker-basket, curving downwards, shaped like
a beak, tied behind the head with leather straps. As the man walked, if it was a
man, the basket wobbled and dipped, as if he were testing the air about him and
tasting it. Tasting it for fear."
The description is based on genuine images of the plague doctors of Edinburgh, but mine is a compound of a couple of them, with a little dash of artistic licence thrown in too. I like him.
Friday, 7 March 2014
The Bone Season - Yikes!
I am trying to read The Bone Season, by Samantha Shannon. I was drawn to it by reviews which made her out to be the next JK Rowling and Tolkein and Phillip Pullman all rolled into one. Quotations like 'Truly extraordinary and thrilling' or 'filled with horrors, wonders and charm' even persuaded me to get it in hardback. What a mistake!
It's rank. And it breaks lots of my rules for good fantasy. So, as the self-appointed fantasy writing police I have to make an arrest and prosecution. Here are my grounds.
First of all, it inhabits an alternative future world which just doesn't hold together well, and which has so many invented elements that it might as well be happening on Planet Zug, or the Deathly Wastelands. It never feels like a real world, it doesn't have the physics and rules of a real world, it doesn't have a landscape that works. It's a Czarina's cottage, a false front, hollow behind, designed to look shiny on the surface but lacking depth and realisation. In particular I don't think that the characters interact well with their world. They seem to be in it but not of it, resident like lodgers, not inhabitants.
Second the characters. Flat, one-dimensional, one-speed. The thing that strikes me most about them is that I can't imagine a life for any of the characters, bar one central one, outside of the pages of the book and the scenes they inhabit. To me that is the test of a good character - could you imagine what they do when they're not in those pages? Okay, not all characters will be like that. We all write ciphers now and then - second guard, evil wizard, selfless friend. But you have to try to avoid that and where possible invest even bit parts with some of the essence of life. Dickens could do it, and I think he achieved it by giving even the smallest of characters something memorable about them, something you then hung on to and recalled. Samantha's characters (I can call you Samantha, can't I?) don't feel like they have that life essence. The litmus test is the dialogue. Her characters speak to advance the action. They don't speak to interact and tell us about themselves, they speak to tell us things we need to know and move the plot on.
Third. Lists of bloody words. I know this isn't one of my Fantasy Rules, but it is now. I hate books with lists of countries or words or terms that we need to learn and get familiar with before we can read. I remember, way back, it was a major stumbling block for me with A Clockwork Orange, and only gradually did I get to feel comfortable with the patois that the characters used between themselves. I hated Game of Thrones for the same reason, and never got past the first fifty pages of the first book (subject for another blog - bad book makes good TV, often. I love GofT on TV). There are 7 Orders of Clairvoyance at the beginning of the book that we have to learn, and of course the book then tests us on them. Why 7, why not 8? Because the author says so. Crap. I can accept a character saying there are 7, they have their world and their limits, but the author? Surely the world is big and wondrous and full of the unknown. Watch Supernatural to see how you can make up rules and then break them all the time as a writer.
Fourth. Plot. I said plot was crucial to good fantasy. And I meant good plot. The plot is thin, ropey, tangential and without substance here. It lurches, it takes leaps, it doesn't build. One of the things I dislike about this book is that it is one paced. It jumps into frenetic and never gets out of it, but never goes higher either. Where are the highs and lows? Don't characters ever do anything ordinary? I hate the idea that in Fantasy writing every character is always slaying, magicking, fighting, rebelling or making speeches. Why can't they just be eating their dinner? Don't elves have dinner? Don't clairvoyants watch the TV for relaxation? If your plot is all at one speed then to me it's not a plot, it's a flatliner.
I could go on. There's lots more I dislike about this book, but it would be unfair to rant much further. Clearly there's an element of jealousy here. Yes, I'm jealous she has got this much attention for this tiny amount of quality writing and story telling. But more than that it depresses me, that this is what is getting hyped. To be fair it's not bad, it's just inadequate.Therefore to see the inadequate praised as the superlative depresses me. Still, if there's hope for Samantha (we're still on first name terms arent' we?), then there's hope for us all.
It's rank. And it breaks lots of my rules for good fantasy. So, as the self-appointed fantasy writing police I have to make an arrest and prosecution. Here are my grounds.
First of all, it inhabits an alternative future world which just doesn't hold together well, and which has so many invented elements that it might as well be happening on Planet Zug, or the Deathly Wastelands. It never feels like a real world, it doesn't have the physics and rules of a real world, it doesn't have a landscape that works. It's a Czarina's cottage, a false front, hollow behind, designed to look shiny on the surface but lacking depth and realisation. In particular I don't think that the characters interact well with their world. They seem to be in it but not of it, resident like lodgers, not inhabitants.
Second the characters. Flat, one-dimensional, one-speed. The thing that strikes me most about them is that I can't imagine a life for any of the characters, bar one central one, outside of the pages of the book and the scenes they inhabit. To me that is the test of a good character - could you imagine what they do when they're not in those pages? Okay, not all characters will be like that. We all write ciphers now and then - second guard, evil wizard, selfless friend. But you have to try to avoid that and where possible invest even bit parts with some of the essence of life. Dickens could do it, and I think he achieved it by giving even the smallest of characters something memorable about them, something you then hung on to and recalled. Samantha's characters (I can call you Samantha, can't I?) don't feel like they have that life essence. The litmus test is the dialogue. Her characters speak to advance the action. They don't speak to interact and tell us about themselves, they speak to tell us things we need to know and move the plot on.
Third. Lists of bloody words. I know this isn't one of my Fantasy Rules, but it is now. I hate books with lists of countries or words or terms that we need to learn and get familiar with before we can read. I remember, way back, it was a major stumbling block for me with A Clockwork Orange, and only gradually did I get to feel comfortable with the patois that the characters used between themselves. I hated Game of Thrones for the same reason, and never got past the first fifty pages of the first book (subject for another blog - bad book makes good TV, often. I love GofT on TV). There are 7 Orders of Clairvoyance at the beginning of the book that we have to learn, and of course the book then tests us on them. Why 7, why not 8? Because the author says so. Crap. I can accept a character saying there are 7, they have their world and their limits, but the author? Surely the world is big and wondrous and full of the unknown. Watch Supernatural to see how you can make up rules and then break them all the time as a writer.
Fourth. Plot. I said plot was crucial to good fantasy. And I meant good plot. The plot is thin, ropey, tangential and without substance here. It lurches, it takes leaps, it doesn't build. One of the things I dislike about this book is that it is one paced. It jumps into frenetic and never gets out of it, but never goes higher either. Where are the highs and lows? Don't characters ever do anything ordinary? I hate the idea that in Fantasy writing every character is always slaying, magicking, fighting, rebelling or making speeches. Why can't they just be eating their dinner? Don't elves have dinner? Don't clairvoyants watch the TV for relaxation? If your plot is all at one speed then to me it's not a plot, it's a flatliner.
I could go on. There's lots more I dislike about this book, but it would be unfair to rant much further. Clearly there's an element of jealousy here. Yes, I'm jealous she has got this much attention for this tiny amount of quality writing and story telling. But more than that it depresses me, that this is what is getting hyped. To be fair it's not bad, it's just inadequate.Therefore to see the inadequate praised as the superlative depresses me. Still, if there's hope for Samantha (we're still on first name terms arent' we?), then there's hope for us all.
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Going to Plan. Or not?
I've gone a little bit off-plan with my current novel, The Perilous City, and I'm slightly freewheeling just now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think so. Is it? Until now I've pretty much followed the chapter plans I've mapped out in advance. That's not the same as my overall plan. I said before that that has had to change as I've gone along, and is necessarily fluid. But before I start writing a chapter I try to have a good idea in my mind of what it will contain, and the rough sequence of events.
That approach has broken down, slightly, with the last couple of chapters, and I'm wondering why. I'm finding it a bit hard at the moment to see the chapter ahead clearly. I know where I need to get to in a couple of chapters, and I have a list of events that have to happen in between, or that I want to happen, but I'm finding it hard to take the bull by the horns and order them explicitly.
I think some of that is planning fatigue. Just fed up of too much planning. Some of it comes from being slightly surprised by how long it is taking me to get to the end of the second part of my novel. Perhaps I don't want to plan it out because I'll see how much I still have to fit in. Also I'm in a slightly hazy area now, where the relationship of certain events to each other is time crucial, but I'm finding it hard to line them up straight. I may even have to go back in the editing stage and shrink the time frame - make less days happen between point a and point b. I want a shock to happen for the City, but it looks like happening on Friday and I could do with it happening on Saturday.
However, never fear, instinct takes over. Instead of following the plan I'm writing from the characters. I'm letting the characters lead me in these chapters, and I'm pulling in events I had planned as it makes sense to do so. So, for example, Rennie has time to kill after the trial at the Tollbooth, after he has heard about it from Jinty. I didn't plan for him to see Jack, but that's what he would do. He's at a loose end and he feels guilty about leaving Jack unable to get around. So of course he would. And where would he take him? To the tavern, of course. And that gets round my problem of when Jack finds out about the challenge that Rennie has accepted. Because of course someone in the tavern mentions it. So, my conclusion is that sometimes it's alright to follow your instincts because then you're following the characters, or letting them lead, and that can't be a bad thing. Just as long as you keep your plan to hand. And at some point I will get back on track and cover my list. I promise myself.
That approach has broken down, slightly, with the last couple of chapters, and I'm wondering why. I'm finding it a bit hard at the moment to see the chapter ahead clearly. I know where I need to get to in a couple of chapters, and I have a list of events that have to happen in between, or that I want to happen, but I'm finding it hard to take the bull by the horns and order them explicitly.
I think some of that is planning fatigue. Just fed up of too much planning. Some of it comes from being slightly surprised by how long it is taking me to get to the end of the second part of my novel. Perhaps I don't want to plan it out because I'll see how much I still have to fit in. Also I'm in a slightly hazy area now, where the relationship of certain events to each other is time crucial, but I'm finding it hard to line them up straight. I may even have to go back in the editing stage and shrink the time frame - make less days happen between point a and point b. I want a shock to happen for the City, but it looks like happening on Friday and I could do with it happening on Saturday.
However, never fear, instinct takes over. Instead of following the plan I'm writing from the characters. I'm letting the characters lead me in these chapters, and I'm pulling in events I had planned as it makes sense to do so. So, for example, Rennie has time to kill after the trial at the Tollbooth, after he has heard about it from Jinty. I didn't plan for him to see Jack, but that's what he would do. He's at a loose end and he feels guilty about leaving Jack unable to get around. So of course he would. And where would he take him? To the tavern, of course. And that gets round my problem of when Jack finds out about the challenge that Rennie has accepted. Because of course someone in the tavern mentions it. So, my conclusion is that sometimes it's alright to follow your instincts because then you're following the characters, or letting them lead, and that can't be a bad thing. Just as long as you keep your plan to hand. And at some point I will get back on track and cover my list. I promise myself.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Why Edinburgh?
Why are my three novels (The Great Project parts 1 &2, and The Perilous City, in progress) all set in Edinburgh?
Three vital reasons.
1. I love Edinburgh. If I didn't live in Glasgow I would live in Edinburgh. Or if I could afford Edinburgh now. I love it's mixture of old and very old (not so mad on the new). I love the juxtaposition of landscape and city. What other city has a view of Arthur's seat from its front door; what other city has a viewpoint like Edinburgh Castle in it's centre; what other city gives you a view of the sea (well the river that runs to the sea)? Some cities may have one of these, no other has them all. More than this, I love the village feel of Edinburgh. It is a small city, and one which feels like a lot of little villages tied together. Dean Village, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield, Morningside. Glasgow is metropolitan. Edinburgh is whatever the village equivalent of that is - micropolitan?
2. Edinburgh is a magnificent setting for stories. Stevenson showed that, and Ian Rankin, and I would like to think in my own sometimes humble way I'm adding to that lineage. The old city is a fabulous setting for stories. It has something of a Tardis-like quality to it, small on the outside, big inside, or on its underside. Go down Mary King's Close and get a sense of what the City must have felt like when it was surrounded by a wall, fingers of tenements pointing at the sky. Wonderful, dark and full of real mystery and danger. Furthermore, Edinbugh has not been used enough. I don't think Edinburgh has been properly exploited - the above company excepted - as the backdrop for stories. It fires the imagination, but it hasn't fired enough imaginations and I hope to redress that balance.
3. It's real. You don't need to make Edinburgh up, it's there already. You just have to walk it. And the beauty of the City is that you can go there now, today, and see and feel and breathe the history of the place, in its buildings, its streets, the remnants of its wall, the eternal geology of its rock, and so much more. Who needs a Harry Potter world when you've got Edinburgh?
Three vital reasons.
1. I love Edinburgh. If I didn't live in Glasgow I would live in Edinburgh. Or if I could afford Edinburgh now. I love it's mixture of old and very old (not so mad on the new). I love the juxtaposition of landscape and city. What other city has a view of Arthur's seat from its front door; what other city has a viewpoint like Edinburgh Castle in it's centre; what other city gives you a view of the sea (well the river that runs to the sea)? Some cities may have one of these, no other has them all. More than this, I love the village feel of Edinburgh. It is a small city, and one which feels like a lot of little villages tied together. Dean Village, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield, Morningside. Glasgow is metropolitan. Edinburgh is whatever the village equivalent of that is - micropolitan?
2. Edinburgh is a magnificent setting for stories. Stevenson showed that, and Ian Rankin, and I would like to think in my own sometimes humble way I'm adding to that lineage. The old city is a fabulous setting for stories. It has something of a Tardis-like quality to it, small on the outside, big inside, or on its underside. Go down Mary King's Close and get a sense of what the City must have felt like when it was surrounded by a wall, fingers of tenements pointing at the sky. Wonderful, dark and full of real mystery and danger. Furthermore, Edinbugh has not been used enough. I don't think Edinburgh has been properly exploited - the above company excepted - as the backdrop for stories. It fires the imagination, but it hasn't fired enough imaginations and I hope to redress that balance.
3. It's real. You don't need to make Edinburgh up, it's there already. You just have to walk it. And the beauty of the City is that you can go there now, today, and see and feel and breathe the history of the place, in its buildings, its streets, the remnants of its wall, the eternal geology of its rock, and so much more. Who needs a Harry Potter world when you've got Edinburgh?
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Writing Groups
I could be going to a writing group in Glasgow tonight, but I'm not going to. Why not? At this stage writing groups are not for me. I'm trying to get published and I don't feel that a writing group is much help with this. It's a hard slog, trying to get published, and sooner or later I may have to go down the self-publication route. I don't think I can get anything from a writing group that helps me to do that, other than some of the good and useful advice I've already had at early meetings.
Some of the speakers have been great and very useful, but I think at this stage in my journey I have become, and have to become, quite selfish, and focused on my own needs. I wouldn't for a moment say that I can't learn things about the process of writing itself, but that's not the kind of group this is. And I would venture to suggest I am my own worst and best critic. I have friends who read what I write, and I bounce off them, but in the end I know a lot of what's wrong, and what's right with what I produce. If I didn't believe that I don't think I would be doing this at all. Of course I would love to get editorial opinion on my writing, and I do and would edit my work, heavily. But in the end you need self-belief, don't you?
Some of the speakers have been great and very useful, but I think at this stage in my journey I have become, and have to become, quite selfish, and focused on my own needs. I wouldn't for a moment say that I can't learn things about the process of writing itself, but that's not the kind of group this is. And I would venture to suggest I am my own worst and best critic. I have friends who read what I write, and I bounce off them, but in the end I know a lot of what's wrong, and what's right with what I produce. If I didn't believe that I don't think I would be doing this at all. Of course I would love to get editorial opinion on my writing, and I do and would edit my work, heavily. But in the end you need self-belief, don't you?
Thursday, 6 February 2014
My Six Rules of Fantasy Writing (Part 2)
Rule 4: Plot, Plot, Plot
Having said that character is King, it doesn't meant to say that plot doesn't count. Quite the opposite, plot is hugely important. Obviously you have to know where the book is going, but the reader also needs a sense of where they are going, and a sense that they are on a journey. Plot is not just about deciding whether you're travelling to a, b or c, it's also about the shape of that journey. My feeling is that a lot of fantasy novels again don't put enough work into the shape of the plot (nor do a lot of books overall). The journey doesn't have to be linear, in fact quite the opposite. Subplots, circular journeys, digressions and diversions are all key plot elements, but they all need to fit within an overall shape and sense of direction. Perhaps I'm using plot as a catchall term and including in it dramatic shape, because I also believe you have to think carefully about where the rises and falls of your narrative lie, when and where the climaxes come. There's nothing more frustrating, to my mind, than a narrative which peters out, dribbles to an end, or is filled with forgotten digressions which run into cul de sacs. I could be accused, in my own writing, or having plots which are too complex, and I know that complex plots are sometimes the hallmark of fantasy writing. Look at Game of Thrones for goodness sake - a much better TV programme than book. But complexity is neither a vice nor a virtue in its own right. Used well its a way of giving your writing layers and texture. Used badly it is a pain in the narrative.
Rule 5: Big Emotions
One of the things I do love about fantasy writing is that it trades in big emotions. I love building towards scenes which have heroic interventions, massive disappointments, sudden rescues, daring escapes. It has always been one of the key things that has attracted me to the fantasy genre. Some of the scenes in Lord of the Rings I could read over and over, and I have to confess that there is a scene near the end of my own City of Fire and Ice, part 2 of The Great Project, which makes me cry every time I reread it. So, although I want my characters to be complex, to have real emotions, to have everyday lives in lots of ways, I don't think you should forget, avoid or ignore the big emotions in fantasy writing. It's one of the attractions of the genre.
Rule 6: Core Themes
A fantasy novel should be about characters, it should be driven by plot - yes, yes. But it should also have at its heart some core theme/s, idea/s. In other words, as well as writing a fantasy novel you're trying to explore some ideas. That way the book will stay with the writer after they've finished. That way you have something else driving the plot forward. That way you have implicit or explicit links building between all the disparate components of your novel. For me the book begins with the idea. With The Great Project it was the idea of two opposed approaches to magic which were gender specific, and were different ways of seeing the world. Tertia, heart, Alexander, head. Out of that then came all the ideas in the book of male and female differentiation and opposition, and it made sense to set it in an increasingly patriarchal society. Men rule, and rule badly, for the time being. The Perilous City, which I'm writing just now, started with the song by Jacques Brel, Amsterdam. I heard it for the first time and instantly fell in love with it. Then I read a translation of the lyrics and I fell in love with those. I listened to the song over and over, dozens of times.
Dans le port d'Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui boivent
Et qui boivent et reboivent
Et qui reboivent encore
Ils boivent à la santé
Des putains d'Amsterdam
De Hambourg ou d'ailleurs
Enfin ils boivent aux dames
Qui leur donnent leur joli corps
Qui leur donnent leur vertu
Pour une pièce en or
source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/j/jacquesbrellyrics/amsterdamlyrics.html
In the port of Amsterdam,
The sailors drink
And drink and drink again,
And drink one for the road.
They drink to the health
of the whores of Amsterdam
or of Hamburg or elsewhere.
In fact they drink to the ladies
Who give them their beautiful bodies
Who give them their innocence
For a coin of gold.
source: http://strangelyperfect.tv/390/jaques-brel-amsterdam-a-new-translation/
Then I started to form an idea for a story. About sailors, metaphorically shipwrecked. Men who once lived in the moment, who once drank and loved, but who now envy those who do. Men who want to lose themselves, but who are tied to one another by circumstance and guilt. That's the story I'm writing, I hope. As well as it being a prequel to The Great Project.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Having said that character is King, it doesn't meant to say that plot doesn't count. Quite the opposite, plot is hugely important. Obviously you have to know where the book is going, but the reader also needs a sense of where they are going, and a sense that they are on a journey. Plot is not just about deciding whether you're travelling to a, b or c, it's also about the shape of that journey. My feeling is that a lot of fantasy novels again don't put enough work into the shape of the plot (nor do a lot of books overall). The journey doesn't have to be linear, in fact quite the opposite. Subplots, circular journeys, digressions and diversions are all key plot elements, but they all need to fit within an overall shape and sense of direction. Perhaps I'm using plot as a catchall term and including in it dramatic shape, because I also believe you have to think carefully about where the rises and falls of your narrative lie, when and where the climaxes come. There's nothing more frustrating, to my mind, than a narrative which peters out, dribbles to an end, or is filled with forgotten digressions which run into cul de sacs. I could be accused, in my own writing, or having plots which are too complex, and I know that complex plots are sometimes the hallmark of fantasy writing. Look at Game of Thrones for goodness sake - a much better TV programme than book. But complexity is neither a vice nor a virtue in its own right. Used well its a way of giving your writing layers and texture. Used badly it is a pain in the narrative.
Rule 5: Big Emotions
One of the things I do love about fantasy writing is that it trades in big emotions. I love building towards scenes which have heroic interventions, massive disappointments, sudden rescues, daring escapes. It has always been one of the key things that has attracted me to the fantasy genre. Some of the scenes in Lord of the Rings I could read over and over, and I have to confess that there is a scene near the end of my own City of Fire and Ice, part 2 of The Great Project, which makes me cry every time I reread it. So, although I want my characters to be complex, to have real emotions, to have everyday lives in lots of ways, I don't think you should forget, avoid or ignore the big emotions in fantasy writing. It's one of the attractions of the genre.
Rule 6: Core Themes
A fantasy novel should be about characters, it should be driven by plot - yes, yes. But it should also have at its heart some core theme/s, idea/s. In other words, as well as writing a fantasy novel you're trying to explore some ideas. That way the book will stay with the writer after they've finished. That way you have something else driving the plot forward. That way you have implicit or explicit links building between all the disparate components of your novel. For me the book begins with the idea. With The Great Project it was the idea of two opposed approaches to magic which were gender specific, and were different ways of seeing the world. Tertia, heart, Alexander, head. Out of that then came all the ideas in the book of male and female differentiation and opposition, and it made sense to set it in an increasingly patriarchal society. Men rule, and rule badly, for the time being. The Perilous City, which I'm writing just now, started with the song by Jacques Brel, Amsterdam. I heard it for the first time and instantly fell in love with it. Then I read a translation of the lyrics and I fell in love with those. I listened to the song over and over, dozens of times.
Dans le port d'Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui boivent
Et qui boivent et reboivent
Et qui reboivent encore
Ils boivent à la santé
Des putains d'Amsterdam
De Hambourg ou d'ailleurs
Enfin ils boivent aux dames
Qui leur donnent leur joli corps
Qui leur donnent leur vertu
Pour une pièce en or
source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/j/jacquesbrellyrics/amsterdamlyrics.html
In the port of Amsterdam,
The sailors drink
And drink and drink again,
And drink one for the road.
They drink to the health
of the whores of Amsterdam
or of Hamburg or elsewhere.
In fact they drink to the ladies
Who give them their beautiful bodies
Who give them their innocence
For a coin of gold.
source: http://strangelyperfect.tv/390/jaques-brel-amsterdam-a-new-translation/
Then I started to form an idea for a story. About sailors, metaphorically shipwrecked. Men who once lived in the moment, who once drank and loved, but who now envy those who do. Men who want to lose themselves, but who are tied to one another by circumstance and guilt. That's the story I'm writing, I hope. As well as it being a prequel to The Great Project.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
My Six Rules of Fantasy Writing (Part 1)
I don't even like the term Fantasy writing. Nonetheless I use it, because it comes closest to describing what I write, though Dark Fantasy is another. But I have been thinking about why I don't like the label 'fantasy' and it's because it tends to get used as an excuse for bad writing. A lot of fantasy that I have read seems to me simply to be badly written, and the weaknesses in the writing come from things which are excused by the genre. So I have my own set of rules for writing fantasy novels. These are:
Rule 1. Real World
I don't like fantasy worlds, I like fantasy to be set in the known, real world. Seen through a distorting mirror, yes, but the real, known world. I suppose that's why I use historical settings (so far), though I have plans for a novel set in contemporary Glasgow. I know that this type of writing tends to get called Steam Punk, which is fine as a label, but the name is not really important. What is important for me is that the geography, the landscape, the physical rules come from the real world. I get really frustrated by books which start out by inventing every single blade of grass from the bottom up. You can't locate in it, you can't visualise it, it is frustrating and annoying - for me. I hate books beginning with whole lists of names and titles. Having said that Lord of the Rings is still an all time favourite. But then Tolkein was reimagining the English countryside.
Rule 2. Rules
This comes from rule 1. I like my fantasy worlds to have real physical rules, and clear ones, which cannot be transcended and put aside just for convenience. I don't want my hero to be free with a single bound, or to suddenly be saved by some trick of physics which I hadn't explained before. To me that is just lazy writing. People are constrained by the world. If you pick up a thing you have to put it down again before you can do something else with that hand. If you leave something in one place it should be there when you come back. A bit like film continuity. For me characters should interact with their world - get cold if it's cold, wet if it's raining. To avoid that or misuse that is bad writing as far as I'm concerned. And that applies to magical/supernatural elements too. If you fire a gun the gun kicks back - it has a physics. Why shouldn't magic have a physics too? At the very least you should be clear about what is and isn't possible, and set yourself boundaries to work within. I like the books by Ben Aaronovitch, the Rivers of London series, because that's one of the things they concern themeselves with - the physics of magic. Anyone who says 'But it's magic, it doesn't need rules' is again a lazy writer, and is probably preparing the ground for something utterly inexplicable and stupid to happen in their book just because it's convenient.
Rule 3. Character, Character, Character
After that rant a simpler rule. Everything that happens in fantasy writing should still be driven by character. It is a rule which underlies all good writing, why should it not apply to the fantasy genre? What drives a story forward is character. You don't move someone from a to b, from Scotland to England, say, just because you need to get them there. There has to be a reason that comes from the character's motivations. I know external forces shape us, but internal forces shape us so much more. And in the end what people want to read about is people, not things. It is one of the problems with action/adventure books sometimes - they concentrate on the hardware, not the software. Frederick Forsyth could have been a much better writer if he'd listened to this. So, I don't want to know all the ins and outs of the politics of the Empire of the Dragons, unless you tell me it through people, through the people who make it and the people it affects. Consequently, characters need to be rounded and whole. I don't want my books to have characters like second troll or third magician. I don't want characters to be cyphers. That doesn't mean I always achieve that and to be honest there are only perhaps two characters in The Great Project, Fettle and Tertia, who I'm 90% satisfied with. Alexander, Jamsie and Ventglove75%. Actually the Princess Mary too. As I get better at writing I think I will get better at writing characters. That means thinking a lot about them before you even begin to write them. I've done that more with the new novel, The Perilous City, and I hope I will get better and better at it. This was a rant after all.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Rule 1. Real World
I don't like fantasy worlds, I like fantasy to be set in the known, real world. Seen through a distorting mirror, yes, but the real, known world. I suppose that's why I use historical settings (so far), though I have plans for a novel set in contemporary Glasgow. I know that this type of writing tends to get called Steam Punk, which is fine as a label, but the name is not really important. What is important for me is that the geography, the landscape, the physical rules come from the real world. I get really frustrated by books which start out by inventing every single blade of grass from the bottom up. You can't locate in it, you can't visualise it, it is frustrating and annoying - for me. I hate books beginning with whole lists of names and titles. Having said that Lord of the Rings is still an all time favourite. But then Tolkein was reimagining the English countryside.
Rule 2. Rules
This comes from rule 1. I like my fantasy worlds to have real physical rules, and clear ones, which cannot be transcended and put aside just for convenience. I don't want my hero to be free with a single bound, or to suddenly be saved by some trick of physics which I hadn't explained before. To me that is just lazy writing. People are constrained by the world. If you pick up a thing you have to put it down again before you can do something else with that hand. If you leave something in one place it should be there when you come back. A bit like film continuity. For me characters should interact with their world - get cold if it's cold, wet if it's raining. To avoid that or misuse that is bad writing as far as I'm concerned. And that applies to magical/supernatural elements too. If you fire a gun the gun kicks back - it has a physics. Why shouldn't magic have a physics too? At the very least you should be clear about what is and isn't possible, and set yourself boundaries to work within. I like the books by Ben Aaronovitch, the Rivers of London series, because that's one of the things they concern themeselves with - the physics of magic. Anyone who says 'But it's magic, it doesn't need rules' is again a lazy writer, and is probably preparing the ground for something utterly inexplicable and stupid to happen in their book just because it's convenient.
Rule 3. Character, Character, Character
After that rant a simpler rule. Everything that happens in fantasy writing should still be driven by character. It is a rule which underlies all good writing, why should it not apply to the fantasy genre? What drives a story forward is character. You don't move someone from a to b, from Scotland to England, say, just because you need to get them there. There has to be a reason that comes from the character's motivations. I know external forces shape us, but internal forces shape us so much more. And in the end what people want to read about is people, not things. It is one of the problems with action/adventure books sometimes - they concentrate on the hardware, not the software. Frederick Forsyth could have been a much better writer if he'd listened to this. So, I don't want to know all the ins and outs of the politics of the Empire of the Dragons, unless you tell me it through people, through the people who make it and the people it affects. Consequently, characters need to be rounded and whole. I don't want my books to have characters like second troll or third magician. I don't want characters to be cyphers. That doesn't mean I always achieve that and to be honest there are only perhaps two characters in The Great Project, Fettle and Tertia, who I'm 90% satisfied with. Alexander, Jamsie and Ventglove75%. Actually the Princess Mary too. As I get better at writing I think I will get better at writing characters. That means thinking a lot about them before you even begin to write them. I've done that more with the new novel, The Perilous City, and I hope I will get better and better at it. This was a rant after all.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
Visualising Characters
I really need pictures to get a fix on a character. At least for my main characters that is. So when I am researching/planning a novel I try to find images online, or elsewhere, which give me the essence of the character. The pictures aren't always perfect representations, but they give me a sense of the person which matches with the nuculeus of character traits, experiences and background already forming in my mind. And when I have a picture to work with I can read things into that picture, or highlight small details, which then help to bring the character to life.
So, two examples here of the pictures I found for the central characters from my new novel, The Perilous City. (Click on the names to go to the original web pages.)
So, two examples here of the pictures I found for the central characters from my new novel, The Perilous City. (Click on the names to go to the original web pages.)
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| JACK |
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| RENNIE |
Both pictures were found in a search for images of bare knuckle boxers. These are like the characters, but not precisely them.
For example Jack is a cripple, who has lost his legs. But what I liked in this picture was the face with almost pointed ears, nose and chin; a strange satyr's face. Jack has been made bitter by the accident which crippled him, and is often called Black Jack. He has a wicked tongue and can be harsh. But there is also laughter in his eyes sometimes. I saw all that in the picture.
Rennie is bigger and heavier than in the picture here, and I used another picture along with this, of Mickey O'Rourke in his boxing days. So Rennie is really a compound of the two. He is a bare-knuckle fighter, but a man sickened by his skill, and hiding from himself in drink. And he is tied to Jack in a way which we only gradually come to understand. Both Jack and Rennie are also ex-sailors, so in both pictures the eyes were important to me. They both seem to have the far-seeing look, a sense of distance in their eyes.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Full Steam Ahead
I seem to be hitting my straps again. Towards the end of last week and now this week I've picked up the pace of writing and I seem to be finding it much easier to keep to my quota, and sometimes exceed it.
I'm pretty religious about achieving my target each week. Two written pages of foolscap each day, then typed and corrected. Approximately 600 words a day, every day and roughly 4,000 words a week. That usually translates to a chapter a week, but it varies with chapter length. The first draft of a novel should then take something like 30 to 36 weeks, between 7 and 9 months.
But it has been a bit of a slog for the last month or so. I've not been falling behind, in fact there's never been a week when I haven't made my target. But it has been a grind recently, and I haven't been going over target. Some Sunday nights I have had to push out those last two pages painfully, like passing a gallstone - except I've never passed a gallstone.
Then, suddenly, we're flying again. I'm not sure why. The section that has been hard work deals a lot with personal relationships, between the two main characters, Jack and Rennie, and Rennie's conflicting relationship with Jinty. Perhaps that has been harder to write, and now I'm moving into a part of the narrative with more open space. On the other hand I find dialogue much easier to write than straight prose description, so the character parts usually flow well. Maybe it was the post Christmas blues. Doesn't matter, we're through the sluggish channel and into fast moving currents again. Nautical metaphors definitely apply with this book. Full steam ahead.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
I'm pretty religious about achieving my target each week. Two written pages of foolscap each day, then typed and corrected. Approximately 600 words a day, every day and roughly 4,000 words a week. That usually translates to a chapter a week, but it varies with chapter length. The first draft of a novel should then take something like 30 to 36 weeks, between 7 and 9 months.
But it has been a bit of a slog for the last month or so. I've not been falling behind, in fact there's never been a week when I haven't made my target. But it has been a grind recently, and I haven't been going over target. Some Sunday nights I have had to push out those last two pages painfully, like passing a gallstone - except I've never passed a gallstone.
Then, suddenly, we're flying again. I'm not sure why. The section that has been hard work deals a lot with personal relationships, between the two main characters, Jack and Rennie, and Rennie's conflicting relationship with Jinty. Perhaps that has been harder to write, and now I'm moving into a part of the narrative with more open space. On the other hand I find dialogue much easier to write than straight prose description, so the character parts usually flow well. Maybe it was the post Christmas blues. Doesn't matter, we're through the sluggish channel and into fast moving currents again. Nautical metaphors definitely apply with this book. Full steam ahead.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Monday, 3 February 2014
Planning
Because I'm deep in the middle of writing book number 3 (The Perilous City) I should be writing more and planning less. That was how I set out to do things this time. It hasn't quite worked out that way. I did a very thorough plan at the outset, 36 chapters in six parts/sections of 6 chapters each. That fell by the wayside as Part 1 came out as 12 chapters. So it was revised to 3 parts at 12 chapters each. But Part 2 has now reached chapter 25, and is not finished yet. I had to do a re-planning session on Friday, to see where it would end and it's going to be around 30.
But do you know what - I don't mind. I was a little bit uncertain at the outset that it was going to prove possible to plan the whole book from beginning to end, and I have been proved right. Characters do things you don't want them to do, or didn't intend them to do. Situations change and develop; something you thought made sense to do now doesn't. To me that is an organic process and it means that the characters and the situations have taken a hold of you. The characters aren't puppets that you just manipulate - go there, do this - they have a life of their own, and as they grow and develop (hopefully) so they help to decide their own path. The intended route and outline of the book stays the same, the direction of travel, the end point, some of the key scenes and climaxes, but a whole bunch of twists and turns (and serendipitous opportunities) emerge as you go along. I would be daft to ignore them.
So hopefully Part 2 will be finished before too long, and actually I'm now thinking that Part 3 will be slightly shorter than planned. It feels like a really huge momentum is building, which will hopefully make the last part rip along. And I will surf that wave, I hope.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Another Rejection
Just got a rejection from Sparkling Books today. That was the quickest ever, less than a week since I submitted sample chapters and an outline through their online form. Well, at least they are quicker than some. I got turned down by Pilrig Press two weeks ago, and I think I submitted to them something like nine months earlier. I still have one current submission to hear from, to Snowbooks, who feel like a good fit to me - they have a fantasy and 'Steampunk' range, some of which involve re-imagined histories. And of course I continue to wait to hear from Luath, the Edinburgh publishers. They requested the full manuscript, but I then haven't heard from them for over six months, more.
On the whole the online submissions tend to respond quicker - and most of them want submission online now it seems. The online form, such as Sparkling Books use seems aimed at weeding the no thankyous out more quickly, so maybe that is why they responded so fast. Plus they only wanted one chapter, whereas most others ask for three.
The rejections don't hurt as much now as they did at first, though they all carry a small sting. Almost always they say the same thing - 'like it but not for us, too many books too little time, yadda, yadda'. Which is fair enough, except that the similarity of the responses robs them of any comfort. If someone said 'read your chapters, they were crap, don't want the book' that would actually be better feedback. Thing is I don't think they are crap, or the book, and I think it really is a matter of getting the right fit and the right timing. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?
The key thing is not to lose confidence. I am 100% confident that my book is great. The reader feedback I have had tells me that. My own instincts tell me that. So I am unshaken in my core belief that I have a great book. Self-publishing looms nearer.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
Sunday, 2 February 2014
Work in Progress
First blog post - reporting how things are going. I'm at work on the follow-up to The Great Project at the moment which in fact will be a prequel, looking at events before 1570, and dealing in an indirect way with how the Magister came to be possessed of the Dragon.
The working title for the new book is The Perilous City, which is a quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson, describing Edinburgh. I started work on the book in earnest at the beginning of August 2013 and progress is good. I'm keeping to my usual quota (for part-time writing) of 4,000 words a work and roughly a chapter a week. At the moment I am rounding off chapter 25, and the word count is currently sitting at about 110,000. The novel is in three parts and I'm nearing the end of part 2. I should be done with that by the middle of February. Then part 3, with an intended completion date somewhere around the end of April, and a likely word count of 160-170,000. Too much, I know, but then the serious editing work begins. I'm hoping to take anything up to a quarter of the content out, and in the process tighten and improve things.
My original aim was to have this as a smaller, more self-contained novel than the two parts of The Great Project, but somehow it hasn't worked out that way yet. Like everything I write it has grown like topsy, even though I planned this one quite thoroughly. However, I enjoy that element of organic growth in writing, and I wouldn't want it to be any other way.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
The working title for the new book is The Perilous City, which is a quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson, describing Edinburgh. I started work on the book in earnest at the beginning of August 2013 and progress is good. I'm keeping to my usual quota (for part-time writing) of 4,000 words a work and roughly a chapter a week. At the moment I am rounding off chapter 25, and the word count is currently sitting at about 110,000. The novel is in three parts and I'm nearing the end of part 2. I should be done with that by the middle of February. Then part 3, with an intended completion date somewhere around the end of April, and a likely word count of 160-170,000. Too much, I know, but then the serious editing work begins. I'm hoping to take anything up to a quarter of the content out, and in the process tighten and improve things.
My original aim was to have this as a smaller, more self-contained novel than the two parts of The Great Project, but somehow it hasn't worked out that way yet. Like everything I write it has grown like topsy, even though I planned this one quite thoroughly. However, I enjoy that element of organic growth in writing, and I wouldn't want it to be any other way.
My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/
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