How is it Going?

"Don't get it right. Just get it written." (James Thurber)
If you write, you will be asked this.  (Whatever you do, you will be asked this. But we are talking about writing here.) Your answer will vary from one week to the next, often depending on how the very last session went.

Writing a novel is a journey, with uphills, downhills, thickets and dark muddy places.  Here are some snapshots taken along the way.

 

Stepping Back

The End. I’ve written those words again.  I’ve unwound the thread of my story all the way to its finish.  The next thing is to look it over to see what more needs doing, and what needs doing differently. It’s a mental adjustment.  I’ve been living with this thing for...

Into the Woods

My heroine is feeling her way through woods at night. So am I. She knows where she is.  She knows where she needs to get to.  The way is dark. She is groping with her fingers and toeing forward with bare feet. The path is muddy, stony, brambly.  It leads downhill. Her...

Cycle of Emotions

Marite, a student in Mexico, once asked me if I went through an endless chain of emotions while writing. I don’t know.  Do I? Surely I do! I am an artist! I should be endlessly consumed by the emotions!  I should be a seething, nay, gibbering mass of creativity, my...

Beachcombing

All right, I admit it.  I did. I stole from someone else’s novel. I had been reading a retelling of the Arthur story.  I wasn’t thinking a great deal about it, except the usual “I wouldn’t have done it like that” thoughts that authors often think when reading someone...

Plotting

In an earlier post I saw two approaches to planning our story: either we do or we don't.   Let's develop that further. The two ways were: A.  We get an exciting idea, jump on its back, shout ‘Yee-hah!’ and gallop off blindly in whatever direction it takes us, or B. We...

Research After: Inconvenient Truths

My near-future Science Fiction novel WE had reached the copy-editing stage.  It was time for a last check on all the technical detail that I had written into its pages. . I’d done my best with this.  I’d ploughed the pages of Wikipedia, talked with teachers, doctors...

Research Before: Gerald

You are writing a historical novel.  How much research do you do? I would say that you must show enough for the reader to believe, but no so much that it burdens your pages. When do you do it? Before, during or after you write your first draft? Different writers will...

Like Leaves

‘Books are like autumn leaves’ my father said.  ‘They lie on the ground, and maybe they are beautiful.  But they are soon hidden beneath the layers that come after them.’ There’s a melancholy thought!  Books should last, shouldn't they? Especially the ones we have...

There’s so much to talk about, isn’t there?  Tell me what you think.  It will be good to hear from you.