November 2009 Archives

I love working on my third draft! The second draft was all about playing around. This one really is about me stepping up to the mark, making this story count. And it's really focussing my thoughts. Instead of writing and seeing where it goes, I spent today thinking hard about what the first third of my manuscript needs to achieve and setting out to make sure that every chapter stands up to be counted. Great stuff. (I reserve the right to change my mind about third drafts when everything goes seriously off the rails.)

Having spent last weekend in feedback sessions telling writers to get rid of their exposition, I now inspect my own manuscript with a fresh eye. Oh my goodness, look at all that... You guessed it. Whoever would have thought that feeding back to others could become a learning curve of my own?

An email from the lovely children's writer, Lynne Benton, provided a perfect excuse to take a break. Well, let's be honest - I don't need many excuses. Facebook, Google Reader, Ravelry, Fastmail... How did writers survive before the Internet?

If you want some light relief from your own writing, I can heartily recommend subscribing to this blog: How To Write Badly Well. Laugh long and hard - then blanche as you wonder if any of these sins have crept into your own work or attitude. I particularly enjoyed the 'Dear Dream Crusher' outraged email to an agent. 

After a good five hours' work, I caught the tube to Bethnal Green and dragged my laptop and a bottle of prosecco to my sister's, where her lovely husband cooked for us and Mandy showed us the delights of her trolley bag. I don't really understand those things - aren't they more trouble than they're worth? (Excuse the shaky photo. I was laughing quite a lot.)

Finally, to focus the mind, I counted how many weekends I have left before submitting a third draft. Hmmm. Might need to take some time off work...

 

Winchester was everything I hoped it would be. As I hovered near the entrance two voices rang out in quick succession: Helen Moss and Jon Mayhew. It was great to meet Helen and we had a really good chinwag about our writing experiences, comparing notes on our lovely agent, Jenny. Hello, Helen, if you're reading this!

Then we settled down to listen to Meg Rosoff give a witty hour-long talk that left us both feeling so much better. Doesn't it do the soul good to know that you're not the only one who sometimes suffers? Meg commented on how we all tend to believe that 'real writers' never struggle, before revealing how - in her words - she's 'crap at stories' (hard to believe, I know) and that she aspires to one day write a novel that is more than 50,000 words. I love this about Meg, as I also seem to veer towards the 'less is more' approach! It was fascinating to hear how Sally Gardner had supplied plot solutions for A Bride's Farewell whilst the two of them walked their dogs on the heath. Meg was also very funny, revealing that she's had seven editors fall pregnant during her writing career. 'If anyone here can't get pregnant,' she told us, 'Come talk to me.'

Meg left me with two thoughts on writing which will stick with me:

1. The object is to create something that everyone thinks you've dashed off in your lunch hour. But writing can be just like digging a hole. You're shifting dirt, until you get to where you need to be.

2. If five people in a room say they don't get it, then something isn't working. I've certainly learnt this one is true during my brainstorms at WP!

After Meg's talk, I attended a session on the five basic stories. It was fascinating to speculate which of these my current manuscript satisfies:

Overcoming the Monster

The Dream Comes True

An Individual Overcoming Odds

The Loss of Something Important

The Journey

After lunch, it was time for me to hold my feedback sessions with seven different writers. I had a strict 15 minutes for each one-to-one session and a clock to make sure we didn't over-run. I hope I managed to help. I certainly found lots to say. Interestingly, the radical feedback I was most anxious about sharing went down very well with the writer who had been thinking along similair lines herself. If two people in a room...

Who will I be meeting? I hope to meet Helen Moss, another client with my agent, Jenny. I know Jasmine Richards of OUP will be there - a fellow editor who also writes. And Jonathan Mayhew will be there, who I've spoken to on the phone but never met. And, of course, I'll see Margaret Carey who so kindly invited me to come along and join in the fun.

If you spot me, do come over and say hello. I'll probably be the one grinning like a maniac at being around lots of other people I already know I'll like. 

And do you know what I'm doing on Sunday? Finally. Big pause here. Prepare yourself. On Sunday ... I write!

I met with my agent, Jenny, this week to discuss my next draft. I floundered a bit until Jenny made an inspired suggestion about the main character's back story which made so many other pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Isn't it amazing, this business of writing? It really isn't about any one person. Every novel is a collaboration. How many agents and editors work quietly in the background, prodding their authors in the right direction? How lucky am I to have an agent who knows just what to say and what not to say, who allows me to slowly understand what I need to do next?

What I need to do next... Or, more precisely, before Christmas. So it's a shame that other things are getting in the way. My day job has leaked into this weekend, with a big manuscript that needs to be edited. No writing, then. That's annoying, isn't it? I must try not to be too annoyed as my day job rarely invades in this way and I still have a stretch of spare weekends coming up. Everything is under control. I have a desk, a computer, ideas. I just need to clear a few things, and then I can start. That's what's really annoying me, to be honest. Not the weather, or how busy I am. It's the feeling that a starting pistol has gone off and I'm still in the changing room, scrambling to get into my kit. When I finally jog out to the track, will I have missed all the fun? (Actually, I don't think I ever found Sports Day anything like fun.)

Oh, stop moaning, Karen! As another of Jenny's authors, Keren David, commented in a recent inspiring blog post: toughen up! Or as my boyfriend would tell me, 'Get on with it.' Tough love. It's the only way to handle a writer.

This is a lovely, lovely edition. The production values are high - I'm guessing a sewn spine as there was no crack of cheap glue when I first opened the book. Care has been taken every step of the way. Each writer introduces their story and there's a biog. for each of us at the back of the book, which has a nice fat feel to it and I know is going to be a delight for every writer featured and hopefully for some readers out there, too. A big high five to Frances Lincoln and Tony Bradman, who organised the compilation!

After a quick, late breakfast with Ian at our favourite local cafe, I came into town. I took this photo before coming up to the sixth floor of the Royal Festival Hall. I love the way that the startling yellow is reflected in the puddle. I've finally organised my own membership at the Royal Festival Hall, which means I can now sit in the members' bar with my laptop whenever I like, gazing out at the London Eye or writing blogs, when I should be thinking about manuscripts. I've come here today to think about my third draft, prior to meeting my agent next week for coffee and a chat about the way forward.

Jenny has sent over her assistant's thoughts on the manuscript, which have thrown up another flurry of quite necessary questions. To be honest, it's all very exciting. These comments couldn't have come at a better time. After a necessary and well-deserved break from writing, I can feel the definite itch to get back to it and on to the next stage.

On my way over to the South Bank, I listened to a podcast of the BBC World Book Club where Lionel Shriver gave readings and answered questions about 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'. I urge you all to listen to this podcast. It is fascinating from beginning to end and it was fabulous to hear Lionel discuss writing violence (get rid of any extraneous words, just write the action), the nature/nurture debate, today's increasing divergence between those of us who have children and those of us who don't, and the oh-so-clever twists and tension of her remarkable novel. At times I was whisked back to Thailand and the holiday where I nursed my sunburn whilst reading Lionel's book. Cocktails were involved in that holiday - a lot of them.

I leave you with an insight into the twisted workings of a writer's mind. Having compiled a document featuring all the feedback I've had on my second draft, I decided to do a Wordle on it, and see which words featured most prominently. I admit, I was feeling a tad insecure at the time. I was picking at the scab of that insecurity. Part of me wanted to see the words 'appalling', 'give up now' and 'Loser!' feature large in the Wordle word cloud. (Despite the fact that none of these words were used by my lovely agent or her assistant.) I hit the create button and waited for the inevitable. But nothing bad came up! I couldn't find a single negative word, despite my own twisted hopes and certainties. See what a sorry case I am?

Okay, one last glance at the Thames and then I promise I'll start work. Any moment now. In a minute. Right after I check my emails...

Later!

Under The Weather is published by Frances Lincoln this week. One of my stories is featured in the compilation and I've just discovered that the book is featured on LoveReading4Kids with a download-able extract ... of my story! So if you're signed up with LoveReading4Kids, why don't you pop along for a sneak preview? I must admit, I can't wait to read the other stories and see how several different writers have interpreted the subject of climate change.