Friday, July 27, 2007

Impaled

Yes, still here. Been busy impaling people, hence the lack of blog. It really is a messy business and seeing as this is the first draft I am probably putting in an excess of detail. Further drafts shall probably see it reduced. I mean, how many impalings does one wish to hear about? (Quiet in the back there!)

I have been writing like one possessed. All long hand, the first time I’ve done that. I am usually up at 6.30 a.m. and writing by 7.15. Then its straight through till 1, with a swift lunch and some more writing till 3 ish. For those who have written, you’ll know that, when you are making it all up, that’s quite the go. For those who haven’t… try it sometime. I also don’t labour, Hemingway like, over a sentence, declare my day’s work done after a few mots juste and a bottle of Pouilly Fume. I bang it out. This draft, more than any before, has taught me perseverance. I bite my lip, ignore my ineptitude, and keep going.

In three weeks or so I am going to have a very rough first draft. I feel the rewrite will be more complex than ever before. But I broke this week to copy edit the final version of ‘Possession’ - Book Three of the Runestone Saga. I have completed a saga.

What’s a little impalement after that?

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

"His Name is Death and Hell follows with him."

That title, a quote from Revelations, is on my writing board and meant to be for Dracula.
But really, it’s for me.
Writing is Hell! There are various circles. Second draft decision making. Editor’s notes to be implemented. Then there is the one I am stuck in now... First draft hell.
There’s one canto in Dante’s Inferno where the travellers walk across a frozen pond with heads poking up through the ice. Dante gives one a good kick.
I am the kicker and the kicked. Frozen and free, alternating.
I look back at journals and notice that I am often in pain. I tend to forget that in the joy of a finished draft, the further delight of an actual edition. But this of Dracula… a real pain in the neck! (You see! Even my jokes are poor!)
I am forging ahead, regardless. I am writing this first draft longhand to try to get the flow. But I am also letting a lot of stuff pass I would otherwise be tempted to fix and correct.
I have to trust the process, keep reminding myself that my only goal here is to find out what the story is. Writing is re-writing, I truly believe. But, eight novels under my belt or no, I still get the jitters, the critics’ carping voice sounds. “You’re writing rubbish!”
The subject is hard hard hard. I still haven’t quite worked out where Vlad Tepes falls in the scale of great slaughterers. I don’t believe he was a psychopath. But where does that leave him?
So sorry, all – and thanks Rachel for the prompt. Won’t promise to blog more but I will try. If that damn Impaler will let me!