Tag: the searchers want

The Edit 2 – Bank holiday Drinking/Hangover’s and Exercise 4.

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Hello again,

 

The Edit has continued but not at the pace I thought it would. You see, as I always do in these situations, I forget to factor in the other things I like to do in my spare time. For instance, I decided to go for a run last Thursday that left me pretty tired. I was glad to burn 700 calories but as it was my first run in a couple of weeks, my knees didn’t thank me for it. I didn’t feel that editing whilst knackered would be a good idea so I didn’t do any. I’ve tried it before and it just ends up being worthless as I would only edit a small amount and would end up deleting it.

Anyway, last Friday rolled around and I managed to edit another page of my manuscript. The first chapter of my demon hunting tale, The Searcher’s Want, has already been edited before so I only concerned myself with making sure the story made sense and overall it sounded good. It did except for one part of it. The end part of the page. It came to me, whilst drinking for my friends leaving BBQ and then later in FAB café in Manchester, that I needed to change it. I had explained briefly and in a forced way a small piece of back story for my lead character. I copied the offending paragraph and replaced it with something that worked better for the chapter as a whole. It was slap bang in the middle of a chase scene and it didn’t make sense for it to be there. I’ll paste it in somewhere else when it actually makes sense. This bout of editing took up the two sessions, Friday and Sunday, but it ultimately gave me the chance to write a chase and fight scene to make the chapter work which I enjoy writing the most. These two sessions could’ve been four if not for…

Hangovers. As good as they are bad, hangovers.

Now, I think hangovers are bad because I get nothing done. I think they’re good because, for me anyway, at the end of a hangover day I’ve usually had a takeaway or something equally as greasy (a takeaway pizza on Saturday and a double cheese burger on Yesterday to be exact) and I usually end up having a great night’s sleep. Probably because I got in at 3.30-4am after each drinking session and only slept a few hours with the hangover actually keeping me awake. I did think about editing whilst hung over but it has never worked before so I didn’t break the habit. I’m not drinking now for two weeks so I’ll get a load of editing done. Promise.

OK then, I’ll get back to it. I hope you all have a good week.

Bye

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And so to the edit. Not forgetting the writing of course.

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Hello

I’ve started to edit the first chapters of two of my novels simultaneously. I’m liking how, as both stories are quite different, I’m not getting confused. Sometimes I think I’m going to focus more on one than the other or get parts of one story mixed up with another one.

The Searcher’s Want, which I started for NaNoWriMo 2012 and finished recently, starts off in the same fashion as The End Solution, my ongoing NaNoWriMo 2013 effort. I’ve found over these two and over my other stories short and long, finished and unfinished that I’ve written, start by putting the reader in the middle of the action. I have always preferred this when reading any story so it doesn’t surprise me that I have started my own stories this way. But I am pleasantly surprised I’m being consistent with my writing. Had to happen some time.

Both stories so far have started with the main character doing what he is chiefly known for. With the End Solution, the main character is about to and does remove the chemical from a potential threat to society. In The Searcher’s Want, he is searching for a demon and killing it. For me, putting the reader straight into the action is the best way to start. I like to be slowly fed the story. I also love reading a fast paced action scene. Writing them is a joy as well. All my long stories have many of these scenes in them but not too many. Well, so far anyway. I’ll probably remove some and add others when the edit gets into full swing. 

I’m going to post a draft of the first page or two of The Searchers Want on this blog and most if not all of the first chapter of The End Solution on http://www.critiquecircle.com/ sometime soon. Your comments and constructive feedback will be appreciated.

Along with this, so that I don’t get too settled into a routine, I’m continuing to write The End Solution. I wanted to write a page a day throughout January but a combination of laziness and doing other stuff meant I managed ten pages. Which isn’t too bad considering I’m editing as well. And so from this I ask….

Did you manage to get a lot of writing done in your January?

Good pie.

And its done. That was quick. But thoroughly enjoyable of course.

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Hello

As I mentioned last time round, I was looking forward to completing the character profile for the main villain of The Searcher’s Want, my NaNoWriMo story from last November. Last November? Dear lord that’s gone by quickly. Although, the next NaNoWriMo is just around the corner! Focus John, Focus.

So, after spending the previous three days with my girlfriend and visiting my awesome big sister and my even awesome-er nephew and then helping to babysit my girlfriends niece, I sat down to write the character profile for the Ripper demon, the main villain of the story I mentioned only a few seconds ago.

Do you know when you are writing and it just seems to flow out of you? Like it’s been dwelling inside of you, waiting eagerly for you to finish doing other stuff with your life and get back to your calling which is, obviously, to write? Well, that is what it felt like. I know the character well enough anyway and as I started writing I didn’t want to stop. I could have happily kept going and wrote all day. Who needs food and water when there is writing to be done? It did end quicker than I’d like but I wrote as much I thought was needed so I’m happy with it.

I had already made the necessary notes, so that I could at least start the character profile, when I was preparing for NaNoWriMo last October. I kept these notes to hand and as I wrote the profile, as like all the previous profiles, the character became completely fully formed on the page and in my head.

What I found as well, which made the process even more electric, was that I was coming up with plot points for the story as a whole and knew exactly how and what I needed to do to improve upon the Ripper within the story itself when editing begins.

My favourite part of the profile was the history part of it. This has allowed me to explain how the Ripper has arrived at the point I found him in the story. I was slightly worried about getting all the back story right but now, I’m not worried at all. Well, I probably will be when I add everything in, re-edit the edit, and find I need to write more. Oh great. Now I’m worried and excited. And I’m not sure what to do…

And that’s my queue to exit. I’ve not done any exercise since Saturday morning so hopefully that will help.

Good pie

A cold, a notice board and some good tips.

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Hello

After my last post regarding my love/hate relationship with research, well love/like a bit relationship, I found myself with a cold which stopped me in my tracks. I don’t like writing when I’m ill whether it be self-inflicted or not but I managed to stop the cold before it could get going. It put me behind on my character profiles though. I did manage to complete 2/3 of a character profile on the secretary, and wannabe searcher and killer of demons, Valerie Marks for my demon hunting story The Searcher’s Want. She is also a possible love interest for the main character. I’m planning on finishing this tonight and hopefully another profile as well. Bloody colds, you great big (insert your own insult here).

Also, I’ve acquired a notice board. My lovely mother sent me a text saying that she had one going spare. When I saw it I remembered it was the one she always used to use in the kitchen when I was growing up. I always like to keep things that have true sentimental value and, though I did forget about it for a while, this is one such thing. Now all I need to do is start to populate it. And get some pins. And small pieces of card or post it notes. And a good place to put it. Round my neck? In the bathroom? On my bedroom door? I’ll pick a good place for it.

I asked a question at the end of my last post, How do you like to go about doing the research needed for any writing that you are about to do or are currently doing?, and received plenty of good, helpful tips.

Sarah Waldock, of http://sarahs-history-place.blogspot.co.uk/, had some particularly good insights into research. She said that she likes to use actual books for research. This made me realise I don’t actually have any books that are solely used for research only. She said she also has a ‘holy shit that’s interesting!’ notebook which she keeps around for when inspiration strikes. There have been countless times when I’ve heard nuggets of information from passers-by and wanted to remember them and use them at some point. I now have a note book that will, hopefully, stay in whatever bag I carry with me day to day so none of these are missed. For all of Sarah’s useful comments, have a gander at my last post ‘Research…Will I ever like you?’ why don’t you.

Colleen Aune Moore commented when I posted on the Facebook group ‘Writing Friends’ by simply saying ‘How much time have you got?’ I replied saying I had a lot. She then advised that following the links from a Google search will get you the info you need. This is pretty much what I’ve been doing but it’s good to hear that others are doing this as well. I did think I was being a tad lazy doing this. Thanks again. Colleen.

Right, back to the character profiles and the research for the next week, ish.

Speak soon.