Angela Slatter

Novella Diary, Claw, Day Eight

PETERMBALL Works in Progress , , , , ,

Late start today. For reasons.

Actually, no, I owe you a better explanation than that. So here’s the thing: I’m going to the Gold Coast tomorrow night for an awards ceremony. It’s a work thing, and I’m going as the work representative, and it wasn’t something I’d planned for. This is bugging me. Not in an “I don’t want to do this and work is stupid” kind of way, but in a “why can I not do the things that I want to do” kind of way.

And this happened on the day that I realised my estimates for how long this book is going to be will be out by about 10,000 words. I can tell, ’cause I’m eight thousand words in and I haven’t yet hit the end of the forth chapter. The forth chapter is an anchor point. When I set out to write something like this, even if I’m pantsing it, I divide the word-count into quarters and mentally tag them: first act, race to mid-point, away from the mid-point, last act.

Things happen at the end of the first act. They haven’t happened yet, but they should at the end of Chapter Four. Ergo, given that Chapter 4 will push us over 10,000 words, I’m figuring my estimates are out.

I get derailed by stupid shit.

Session 8.1 (8:13 AM – 8:36 AM)
Word Count: 639

So this was a weird one. Started writing a scene based on a set of assumptions regarding the dynamic. Reached the end of the scene and realised it would be more fun if I set up a different set of character dynamics. One that’s more antagonistic, and is predicated on the antagonist being a bit dodgy, but if I do it it’ll justify a whole bunch of scenes that I’d written earlier where certain characters come on stage and do stuff ’cause I need them on-stage.

So now I’m going back and making a note of the places where those changes need to happen, ’cause it’s going to have an effect on every single scene in the story thus far.

Session 8.2 (12:08 PM – 12:19 PM)
Word Count: 327

Eleven minutes spare during my lunch break at work. Turns out I can totally rock eleven minutes of writing time.

Session 8.3 (7:58 PM – 8:19 PM)
Word Count: 438

We were meant to be gaming tonight, but people couldn’t make it, so I ended up with a free evening of writing that I hadn’t really planned on. Considering tomorrow night is going to be a wash in terms of getting stuff done, it’s a welcome reprieve.

Session 8.4 (8:36 PM – 8:52 PM)
Word Count: 502

Second half of the online Writing Race we run through work, whereby a bunch of people gather online and write for an hour.

Didn’t quite hit the end of chapter 4, but that’s only because it’s turning into an unwieldy mess. Going to leave it here for the evening and see if I can create a plan for rewriting things a little, if only so I can block out the scenes and figure what goes where.

First, though, I must load the dishwasher, iron shirts for tomorrow, and collect the washing.

Total Daily Writing Time: 1 hours, 11  minutes
Daily Word Count Total: 1, 906

Total Manuscript Writing Time: 10 hours, 46 minutes
Total Manuscript Word Count: 10,161

Novella Diary, Claw, Day Seven

PETERMBALL Works in Progress , , , , ,

Really? A week in already? It doesn’t feel like I’ve been at this for a week. Two chapters down. Chapter three about two-thirds done now. By rough word count I’m about a quarter of the way through the book at the point I’m writing this (after session 7.1 below); but narrative points, I’m a little behind. Experience says this means the novella will be longer than 30,000 words in this draft and I’m going to spend some quality time with the flensing knife afterwards.

I more or less decided to track the process of writing this novella after reading Dean Wesley Smith’s recent blog posts about writing a novel in ten days. I’m a pretty frequent reader of Smith’s blog – I don’t always agree with him, but I’m always interested in what he has to say. Plus I’m interested in gathering data about writing that’s immediately useful, and I really had no clue how I went about writing something or what my work flow really looked like.

Session 7.1 (7:56 AM – 8:48 AM)
Word Count: 858

Day-Job day, which means I’m back at Odin the Desktop early in order to get some writing done beforehand. I am the very model of efficiency when I have to be; it’s when I’m got a wealth of free time that things go downhill.

Today’s scene is very, very bare bones. It largely exists to signal intent and general tone, ’cause all the details will change once I finish this draft and have a chance to go do some research. Autopsy scenes are like that. I have some quality time on the internet coming up, locking down the kind of details I actually need. I’m really hoping it involves the word “striations” though. It’s a cool kind of word.

Session 7.2 (6:33 PM – 6:45 PM)
Word Count: 226 words

I got out of work late today. I got home even later. Tuesday night is Trashy Movie night around these parts, which isn’t ordinarily conducive to writing. I normally get home from work, cook some dinner, crash out of the couch with Silas the Laptop and live-tweet the hell out of a particularly trashy movie. We’ve been doing this for over a year now, Tuesday after Tuesday. It’s become an ingrained habit.

Earlier today I read Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s post about writing habits. It got into my head a bit.

I mean, I had twelve minutes. And I’m starting to figure out how just how much I can get done in that window.

Session 7.3 (10:05 PM – 10:23 PM)
Word Count: 578

Chapter Three drafted. I sleep now.

Total Daily Writing Time: 1 hours, 22 minutes
Daily Word Count Total: 1, 662

Total Manuscript Writing Time: 9 hours, 35 minutes
Total Manuscript Word Count: 8,256

Novella Diary, Claw, Day Six (Write Club Edition)

PETERMBALL Works in Progress , , , , , ,

Today’s Monday, which is my regularly scheduled write-club day with the inimitable Angela Slatter. I’ve talked about this plenty of times on the blog before (as has Angela over at her virtual home), but for those who are new around these parts: Write Club is a once-a-week meet-up with Angela where we basically catch-up, drink coffee, write a bunch of words, eat lunch, and write another bunch of words.

It’s enormously valuable because a) it gets a lot more words done than I would ordinarily do; b) it’s good for the psyche to regularly have conversations with another writer whose approach to having a career is similar to mine; and c) it means there’s someone I respect who will give me shit when I’m doing not-terribly-smart things with my writing career.

Session 6.1 (12:10 PM – 1:26 PM)
Word Count: 1,339

And this is the magic of write-club – a kind of sit-down-and-focus-on-writing that I rarely do when left to my own devices, simply ’cause there is someone else around who will look askance at me if I get up and stop writing simply ’cause I’ve hit a hurdle after twenty minutes.

Interestingly, I’m not actually sure it results in a greater words-per-minute, just more focus and more time at the keyboard. In this respect, it’s a useful anchor for the writing week.

Stopping now for lunch and conversation with Angela. Will be back, I suspect, within the space of an hour for another writing stint. Hoping I can clear Chapter Two by the end of the day.

Session 6.2 (2:10 PM – 2:53 PM)
Word Count: 1,136

And that’s the end of Chapter Two. Unfortunately I’ve invalidated some of the stuff that I was now leaving for later chapters, but the pacing of the novella works better for it and I’m getting a whole bunch of information on-stage in a way that, hopefully, doesn’t feel too clunky.

Better yet, I have a fair idea of how Chapter Three is going to start. Morgue scenes are one of my favourite things to write for some reason, which means I may actually get a portion of the way through the next chapter before today is done (and therefore make up for some of my slackness over the weekend).

I have this theory – and it’s only a theory, ’cause this is the first time I’ve really tracked my process this closely – that the next chapter will be pretty easy to write. Largely this is based on some assumptions about the way I pants my way through an Aster manuscript, where I make sure I hit all sorts of narrative beats at the end of certain chapters/word-counts.

Novellas make this pretty easy, particularly the Aster novellas. Chapter one is all about establishing the world (and the stakes for the protagonist) and bringing them to a point of conflict. Chapter Two is all about the character running away from that, one way or another, despite the fact that it’s obvious they’re going to dive into the story.

Chapter Three is all about telling the character they’re wrong and making them pay for being stupid enough to think they can take the easy way out.

Which, lets face it, is generally the fun part of writing. Writer’s are basically sadists, after all. We exist to torture our characters.

Session 6.3 (9:55 PM – 10:29 PM )
Word Count: 525

The way I work, there are generally two types of scenes that get written. The first are scenes that lock themselves into a framework, the second are scenes that are free-floating until the story catches up with them.

I don’t mean to write this way, but every new scene creates new context within the story and you start seeing the narrative shape a little bit clearer. Which is why I’ll write, say, a scene where Aster has coffee with a journalist that knows more than he should, only to realise that this is actually something that happens in Chapter Four rather than the end of Chapter One.

Or write something on spec, ’cause it might take the story in an interesting direction, only to have it gradually get written out of the narrative altogether as I start heading towards the conclusion.

Pantsing your way through a book is an in-exact science. Usually I leave the free-floating chapters in the draft, figuring that they’ll get locked down once I reach them. This lasts right up until I figure out that some of them aren’t needed, or that they’re very different to the way the scene will actually unfold, or that there’s simply too damn many of them, and they’ll then find their way into a second word file where I can pull them out and rework them as needed.

I excised a bunch of free-floating scenes right before I started session. A little over 1,700 words. Technically these are no longer going to be included in my Total Manuscript Word Count, although they should lead to a handful of days when I can get some scenes written faster simply ’cause I can grab these earlier version from the secondary file.

Total Daily Writing Time: 2 hours, 33 minutes
Daily Word Count Total: 3,000

Total Manuscript Writing Time: 8 hours, 13 minutes
Total Manuscript Word Count: 6,594