Giles Diggle on Twitter @50oakwoods

Thursday 22 November 2012

More threads than fingers.

I have been busy. On 3 October, I started writing a new book (That's three now in various stages.) I've been feeding my 1000 words a day habit and am 10,000 words from finishing this first draft.

As I knew I would eventually, I have stumbled this morning and only managed 300 words, which is why I guess I have turned to this blog again. I have spent the last six weeks or so (at least  for 3 hours a day) seeing the world through the eyes of my ten year old self. I have managed to amuse myself, so I hope my book might entertain others. A 10 year old is a 12 year old is an 8 year old is a 10 year old. I don't really believe one generation of children is much different from another when you scratch the surface.

Now with just 10,000 words to go (Ten days - that is the way I measure things, like small children counting 'sleeps') I have to pull all the threads together and leave no loose ends, except maybe one or two that  I can pick up in another book.

My hands are full. My fingers are busy. Can't afford to drop anything now :)                

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Tablets: the saviour of the paperback

It's nearly year since I bought my Kindle. So how does it compare to reading books printed on paper? The Kindle is certainly convenient, easily portable and superb if you want to read several texts concurrently. It is wonderful until it breaks down.

I am on my second Kindle. The first one froze two weeks ago and there was nothing I could do to reboot it. I phoned Amazon. They answered within a minute and  five minutes later  they had ordered me a new one under the warranty. It arrived three days later. Great service. It tells me that they clearly want to support the infrastructure of ebooks and don't want any customer turning their back on their product.

Before the Kindle froze I was reading Kate Grenville's, Secret River, which I had picked up for £0.99 on Kindle's Daily Deal. And that's one of the things that irritates me about my relationship with the Kindle. It has turned me into a book buying skinflint; my greed for a bargain has started to dictate my reading. I was finding the novel somewhat indifferent, so it was a relief to turn to a paperback, The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connolly (which I hasten to add, I borrowed from a friend, which would be difficult to do with a Kindle book.) By the time I had finished it my replacement Kindle had arrived and so I continued with Kate Grenville.

Which was the more satisfying experience? I have to say it was reading the paperback. Why? Not because of holding the book. It was a tatty copy with small print. (I always enlarge the typeface on the Kindle). It was because I enjoyed the story more.

Earlier in the year I had another chance to compare. I read Donna Tartt's The Little Friend on the Kindle. Later I read The Secret History in paperback. (Incidentally, I bought it from Amazon secondhand for a snip inc., p&p.) Which was the better experience? The Kindle, because I thought The Little Friend was a more interesting book.

It is the literature that is important, the medium is less so, though I do concede I still enjoy reading paper books. I shall continue to read both. What I would really like is a paperback book with a code to download the ebook, but that's not going to happen for a while because it would destroy the current business model where readers are subsidised so that profit can be made from ebook sales.

I have yet to acquire a tablet and that begs a question for me? Why buy a dedicated e-reader when you can buy all the benefits of a tablet for not much more cash. That is certainly the case with Amazon products. I ask the question. Will the tablet kill the e-novel, just as the CD killed the cassette tape?

Why have a tablet and an e-reader? If you have a tablet the tendency will be to browse the web, read magazines, explore multimedia titles, play games, watch movies, catch up on tv, and fiddle around social media. The benefits of electronic paper may not be enough to persuade customers to buy a tablet and an ereader.

Ironically, the tablet may be the saviour of the paperback.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Burning the rainbow at both ends

Funnily enough I photographed another rainbow today. It was one of those complete ones, where you could see both ends, but is impossible to photograph without a super-wide angle lens. (Which is why we have an imagination and a memory.)  It boded good weather for birding... and as it turned out for writing too.

I have been making notes for a number of days - off and on - but just before lunch I began to write the new book. I have spent three hours writing 250 words. That seems like a long time spend with little to show for it, but I have been working carefully to find the narrative voice and set the tone. I think I have  gone some way towards finding them.

I have set the two main characters up and now I shall let them run and see where they lead me.

Friday 14 September 2012

Optometry & Optimism - seeing the road ahead.

This morning finds me a happy man. A rainbow arcing over Stroud at 8.00 a.m. I have managed to remove 20,000 words from The Key to Finlac so far (over the summer, not this morning!) I am listening to the new Bob Dylan album and I have the title for the new book I have just started writing (not drawn from Tempest).

It's raining. Less of a distraction.

As usual I was planning on writing something else. That book will have to wait while it ferments a little longer. As I have two books currently in various drafts, I thought I'd be better off writing something for 10-12's (30-35,000 words) - a comic creation to keep me chuckling when the revisions get hard. Ever the optimist...

... or should that be optometrist? I have four pairs of glasses: for reading, for reading in the sun, for watching tv & a pair for working on the computer. Make that five - sunglasses. Maybe six - rose-tinted.



Tuesday 4 September 2012

New Shoes & Autumn Leaves

Why do I still use school terms for my reference points even though I am no longer involved in education? Like a dutiful school boy I still settle down to work every time a new term begins and kick off my shoes & go barefooted when end of term comes around. I never have been comfortable with the notion of New Year's Day or the beginning of the financial year in April. Spring & the beginning of the Summer Term has more significance.

And then there is September, where it all really starts. New shoes, new uniform, new stationery; looking forward to kicking though the autumn leaves.

Time for me to review the past two years. I have written 100,000 words. I have a couple of children's novels in nearly final draft. I am a "finisher" - the work ethic side of me sees to that - but I also want to start something new. I want to get back to my 1000 words a day habit. I want to kick though the leaves rather than trudge back from town, laden with shopping however interesting my purchases

If a painter can work on several pieces at once, then so can I - as long as there is an end in sight. That is the challenge. The juggling....but not as the mood takes me. It requires more discipline than that.

Thursday 9 August 2012

Tupperware tells its own story

Does not posting a blog recently mean I have been focusing hard on the book? Mostly.

Writing the first draft of a book is like being a child again, running down the beach on the first day of the holidays to stamp my feet in the water. It's all shrieks and hollering. The second draft is shivering back up from the shore line, feet stabbed by stones. The final draft is being rubbed hard with a sandy towel. Warming, but unpleasantly abrasive.

But there will be a time when the sun breaks through, and I'll sip scalding sweet tea from a Tupperware cup, hot sand between my toes. And I'll dream that dream of never going back to school again.


Wednesday 25 July 2012

When Less is More...More or Less...

This is my morning. Still working on the revisions to The Key to Finlac. Still trying to reduce the first 45,000 words to no more than 10,000. It's a tough call, but I'm, getting there. The question to be asked all the time is: What is essential to the story? If it doesn't move the narrative forward, leave it out.

But it is also important to remember that 35,000 words have not been wasted. They have not been expunged. Not so much evaporation as distillation.

I write this, so I have the heart to go back to the book again tomorrow. It's a reminder to myself as well as a glimpse into the writing process.



Friday 13 July 2012

French Lessons with Donna Tartt

Apart from the fact that it is again going to be really hard to get back into the discipline of writing, what have I learned from my visit to France last week?

  • Normandy is a continuation of Dorset (geologists may tell me I am entirely wrong) and that is no bad thing. I am still capable of writing an ambiguous sentence
  • Red Squirrels abound.
  • Driving on the back roads is like being in the 1950's, but you can go faster and engines are more reliable.
  • My father landed tanks at Utah Beach in WW2 when he was twenty years old. (But he never mentioned it until I said we'd been there - I wish I'd known beforehand. Do fathers ever talk to sons?)
  • Language is not everything - but it helps. A smile goes an awfully long way. It's a myth that the French habitually laugh at the English.
WHAT I REALLY LEARNED is not to be daunted by other writers. Enjoy holiday reading. Come back wanting to write as well as Donna Tartt.

Thursday 28 June 2012

A Sparrowhawk ate my homework...

... and other excuses. It sometimes doesn't take much to disrupt the writing. The appearance of the Sparrowhawk on the garden bird feeders did just that and my compulsion to video it (See it here). Then of course I had to tell my friends about it and Tweet about it, followed by a celebration coffee in Kitsch (My coffee shop of the moment.)

Fortunately, I had produced a significant amount of writing yesterday, as well as making some important decisions re: the structure of The Key to Finlac. A day off then is excusable.

This though is the stuff of writing stories. It is the accumulation of small things, the looking and the excitement of it and the desire to tell people about it in a way that is fresh and conveys the wonder of it all...

Wednesday 20 June 2012

House Martin - The Bringer of Stories.

The other day I stopped on the way to my destination and stood stock still for ten minutes. A group of House Martins were feeding over a wild patch of water, bog plants and reeds close to the path. Flying fast at shoulder level they spiralled around me. To them I could have been any inanimate object. For me it was as close to airborne birds as I am ever likely to come. I could have looked them in the eye if they hadn't been moving so fast.

The air is light, the sunshine warm. Following small speeding bodies in flight with only one's eyes, the bright background a wash of colour, is disembodying. Such is the lightness of being. Gone is the weight of the world. And so is time. For a moment. This is close to flying.

Ariel.

How to tell of this? Find the right words and pictures to release something in the imagination. This is why children need to learn to love language and illustration from an early age through picture books, songs, poems and nursery rhymes. It is why children need to read and be told stories, and it is why it is beholden upon us to encourage them to enjoy the written word as they grow older.

Seeing a House Martin is one thing, being able to tell someone about the joy of it is another.

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Back on the road thanks to Cormac McCarthy

What is my impetus to write? I certainly know what the barriers are. That's easy. A glimmer of sunshine in a wet summer, a trip to the coast, the prospect of new birds on a SW gale, sitting in cafes, fiddling with technology - which still seems like magic to me.

I've had a writing lay-off for about two weeks, for all the reasons above in no particular order.

SUMMER!

So I'm back to my revisions of The Key to Finlac today and it has gone reasonably well. Up early. A fresh look. New ideas. An impetus. Clarity. For now.

So what was it that brought me back to the desk, apart from the remnants of discipline? I think it is because I believe that fifteen year olds are better off reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, than they are The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. If you want to read about the human spirit in a dystopian setting, better off taking a journey on The Road, full of challenge and in the end enlightenment about what is of value in this world. And then there is Ray Bradbury. He wrote so much, and if there was ever a cross-over author it is him.

Writing is the thing; literature is what matters. It's worth spending the time. And the effort. Of course it helps to have role-models and a little inspiration.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Hey, Ray Bradbury... you left somethin' behind.

On 27 March I wrote in my blog entry titled "Sunshine Stopped Play": I have ordered a second-hand edition of Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine" (my copy has long gone - and you can't get it on the Kindle.) I want to read the scene again where Douglas Spaulding puts on his new tennis shoes and races off into summer.



And now Ray Bradbury has gone, in body anyway. The sound of tennis shoes on gravel remain. Why is Ray Bradbury more important for me than many other other writers? He straddled the past and the future; he recognised the present. He captured childhood in a jar, let us look at if for a moment and then released it to fly wherever. He looked at the stars through the lens of a soda bottle and saw things clearly. He saw people as they are. Ray Bradbury's stories, however disturbing, always left me feeling that we have it in us to do better, to put things right if only we can come to terms with our restless yearning and realise that we would never have all the answers. Because there are none.


Ray Bradbury was an influence and still is. In that sense he is there I'm my Timeline with Dylan & The Beatles. 


My secondhand copy of Dandelion Wine did arrive. It looks as if it as never been read. Shame. I shall pick it up, read it, then pass it on. Ray Bradbury still has something important to say. 

Monday 28 May 2012

Robbing Public Libraries to fund the Destruction of Buzzards

(And the latest good news 30.05.12. : Tweet from RSPB - "Defra have dropped their plans for buzzards. We are delighted. And all of you that stepped up should be massively proud - WELL DONE Pls RT"


ORIGINAL BLOG POST -


This has made me really mad. It is not just the threat to Buzzards, which is bad enough, but the sub-text. The pleasure of the many is to be sacrificed for the pleasure of the few. Defra's £400K feels just like another banker's bonus.

In an argument there is more than one side, which is why, although I oppose a cull of Badgers in the interest of controlling bovine TB, I can see that farmers have a legitimate concern in that there is a threat to their livelihoods. Buzzards or any other bird of prey don't pose the same kind of threat to the pheasant shooting business.

The proposal is daft on many counts and the RSPB have put the case more eloquently than I can.  Above all else the proposal is immoral and brings with it more than a whiff of sleaze.

I don't often write to my MP, but here is what I have sent. Feel free to copy it if you want. Do something. Be articulate and make your voice heard through non-violent means.

Dear Mr Carmichael


As one of your constituents I am appalled by DEFRA's proposal to allocate nearly £400k to a trial programme to control Buzzards on behalf of pheasant shoots.


Buzzards are one of the British conservation success stories and any attempt to imprison them, destroy their nests, or relocate them is irresponsible and unnecessary. It sends entirely the wrong message to the next generation about wildlife conservation.


And of course it will have little effect. I quote Martin Harper of the RSPB:


"So how many pheasants do buzzards eat?  An independent report for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) found that on average only 1-2% of pheasant poults were taken by birds of prey. This is tiny compared to the numbers which die from other causes, like disease or being run over on the road (which accounts for about 3 million pheasants a year). 

Even if predation levels are higher in a few instances, there are plenty of legal, non-contentious techniques for reducing predation, which don’t involve destroying nests or confining wild birds to a life spent in captivity. Scaring devices, visual deterrents, more vegetation and diversionary feeding of buzzards could all make a difference, if done well. A few years ago we endorsed a BASC produced guidance note advising gamekeepers on how to reduce bird of prey predation using some of these techniques.


And is capturing buzzards likely to work? If you swat a wasp, but leave a pot of sticky honey open to the air, it won't be long before another wasp takes its place. The same is true of buzzards. Two gamekeepers previously employed on the Kempton estate in Shropshire were convicted of, amongst other things, illegally killing buzzards in 2007. They had killed over 100 buzzards in less than six months in one small part of Shropshire. As soon as one buzzard was removed, another (ill-fated) buzzard took its place. "


I hope you will pass on my comments to Mr Benyon MP, the minister responsible.


Yours sincerely


Giles Diggle

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Forensics: Getting to the Truth of the Story

Forensic has popped into my head this morning. Slow, methodical, painstaking work to analyse what has happened. What exactly is the truth of the story I have written? As another person, I have to go back to the scene and find out what really occurred there. What is still to be discovered?

I have begun re-writing, The Key to Finlac, opening the book with an entirely new episode involving a character I knew little about before. And as I'm discovering, I had not properly explored and explained the world she inhabits. I have been looking for clues - trace evidence - and putting a credible scenario together to present to the reader.

It is delicate work, tricky in that I have to tread carefully so as not to destroy or contaminate that which needs to be preserved.

Without all the pieces, those already logged and those freshly seen, the story cannot be rightly told.

Friday 18 May 2012

Agony & Avocets: what birds tell us about story-telling

What could possibly take me a way from me desk when I should be writing? I write in the morning I go birding in the afternoon, not necessarily the best time. Compromise.

Yesterday I broke my habit.  Avocets had hatched three chicks at WWT Slimbridge the day before. This is the first time Avocets have bred on the reserve, or anywhere in Gloucestershire. I felt an urgency to see them - history in the making -  and via Twitter @slimbridge_wild I had an inkling that the parents were about to move them. I left home at 7.30 a.m. I wanted to capture the moment on video.

I succeeded. You can watch it happening here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1HX72-jtmo. Magical. The birds performed right on time, boldly leading the chicks across the water to a fringe of weeds on the other side. A meagre shelter. This just fifteen minutes before I was due to go back to Stroud.

Jubilant, I went home and uploaded my video, then went into town for coffee.

In the afternoon, comes another Tweet. The Avocet family had gone missing. Predated? Or in a place of safety? The wardens can't find them so the first seems most likely. Agony. Uncertainty. My video somehow has taken on the aura of CCTV images. Last known sighting.

Life is more dramatic than art. Art distills its intensity and fixes it in the collective memory. The Avocets is a story in the making: a struggle against the odds creates a unique and thrilling event, then a mystery that we hope shall have a resolution.

The Slimbridge Avocets & Me says it all about our need to hear a tale well-told, and in children's books, the desire for a happy ending... whilst allowing for the fact that life is often not like that.


This morning the latest Tweets from @slimbridge_wild :

"We have found the male Avocet this morning feeding on the Top New Piece, but still no sign of the female and three young."


"We hope that the female Avocet is being a good mum & keeping a low profile with her family. Let us know if you see her from our hides today?"

To be continued....


The latest Tweets from @slimbridge_wild :


"Great news it looks like the Avocet family has made it to the Bottom New Piece (Kingfisher Hide) That's about 300M from the nest site."10.45. a.m.

Saturday 19 May 2012

"Fantastic news all three Avocet chicks are still with their parents on the Bottom New Piece (Kingfisher Hide) this morning #GlosBirds"

Tuesday 15 May 2012

My Window, the Pencil Sharpener

It isn't the biggest window in the world, but it is possibly the biggest pencil sharpener... unless your study has a bigger, more distracting window with a better view. The sun is shining too. Maybe I should turn my desk around and face the other way.

I am big on BIG this morning too. Truly procrastinating. Back from holiday. Staring at the blue Adriatic last week, the task of finishing The Key to Finlac seemed a very simple one. I could see the light and shape of things. I would be ready to come home and start again.

So here I am, turning the smallest of pencils around and around in the big sharpener. Writing. A window on the world.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Bulldozing and Landscaping the Novel

The restructuring of The Key to Finlac continues:

  • I have killed off a brother even before the story begins.
  • I have abandoned a set of parents.
  • I have demolished two houses, a factory, and a school.
  • I have remodelled a significant landscape.
  • I have scrapped a motley collection of old vehicles.
  • I have put a property developer out of business.
  • I have buried a pensioner-gardener
  • I have removed one mystery and replaced it with another.
  • I have added a new character and developed others.
  • I have written a more engaging back story for my other main protagonist.
  • I have done away with 500 years of history.
  • I have mislaid a brew bin.

I shall begin writing again tomorrow, having rewritten history today.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Revising the Novel: to slash or burn?

Not so much slash and burn as letting light into the wood.  I have chopped and cut, cleared away the underbrush and stacked the timber. Sunshine is streaming through the new leaves. A Wood Warbler sings. The coppice is ready for new growth

By painstakingly listing the scenes in each chapter of the first 45,000 words of the book, I have found a way of losing at least 30,000 words, whilst retaining the heart of the story. It already looks better.

The remaining half of the plantation looks healthier, but it could still do with some more light and colour. I shall tackle that tomorrow.

Then the rewriting begins.

Monday 23 April 2012

Why I have no appetite for The Hunger Games

Why does The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins vex me so much? Not because it is a huge commercial success or because it is just the first part of a best-selling trilogy. I admire anyone who can do the time and stick at their desk day after day to finish something. I support the work ethic.

But ethics is only one of the issues for me. The violence is comic book and described without attention to detail and nor is much attention paid to the emotional consequences of it. The pages are dotted with splats as if a succession of flies have been squashed. The only death that disturbed me was that of the twelve year old Rue. For two reasons: Apart from Katniss Everdeen, she was the only rounded character in the novel. Secondly her death smacks of exploitation, for shock value, rather than as emblematic of the brutality of the Capitol's regime.

There lies another problem. The dystopian setting of The Hunger Games is never credible. In the past I have said that the Harry Potter books are a triumph of concept, setting and character over content, but in all four of those areas they leave Suzanne Collins' work trailing behind. I believe in Hogwarts, I don't believe in Panem, the Capitol and the 13 Districts. Where is the rest of the world? Considering the Capitol's extermination of District 13, wouldn't you have thought that the people of a Chinese liberal democracy might have made some kind of military intervention? Absurd? Yes. But I think that if you are to write about dystopian worlds, they need a proper context; one which can be discussed, as in Robert C O'Brian's admirable Z for Zachariah.

And why have the twelve districts in servitude all with a separate economic function? Only for the purposes of the Reaping. Given what we learn about the Capitol's ability to terraform the arena and engineer genes to the extent that they can produce the laughable wolverine mutants from the corpses of the fallen Tributes at the end of the novel, clearly the Capitol could produce all the food and resources it requires.

It is the poor plotting (the sudden change of the rules to allow two people from the same district to win), cartoon characters (the stylists and people of the Capitol), lack of challenging themes and paucity of language that really offends me. The book reads like a poorly produced video game. I want to know how those cameras see everything, even in caves - come on explain the technology - how do those parachutes bearing gifts from the sponsors land so accurately?

And teenage romance?  Katniss & Peeta. Where is the intensity? Gale in the background. An interesting love triangle that could provide so much more in the book.

Burgers and fries. Children and young people deserve so much more.




Thursday 19 April 2012

Monarch of the Pen: The Flight of Fancy.

No longer so perplexed about revisions today. In the early hours of the morning came a moment of clarity. What brought it on? Our upcoming flight to Croatia had been changed from a civilised 12.55 p.m. to an unthinkable 6.25 a.m. I was furious. I shall never fly with Monarch again. It prevented me from sleeping. I had to switch off and change the subject.

Out of bad comes good. At 1.00 a.m. I worked out exactly what I have to do with my book. Not the new one, but The Key to Finlac, which I "finished" in August. I now know how to reduce the MS by 40,000 words whilst retaining the heart of the story. That's the theory anyway. I began making notes this morning.

As for the recent book? Can I really revise both stories at once? The human brain is an unfathomable thing.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Truth can't be revised but it can be found through revision.

How do I feel now I've finished re-reading the first draft of my new book? A little perplexed and looking for kind words to deliver myself a difficult message. My then editor Christopher Reid found the words to describe one of my early drafts of Badgerman & Bogwitch:

"I'm afraid, though, I am still quite a long way from being satisfied. The whole thing still gives me the impression of muddled improvisation, and it has grown to an unwieldy size in the process....One of your weaknesses here and elsewhere, may have been the very fertility of your imagination."

And this is true of the new book. Rein in the imagination, find the truth of the characters, discover the real story and set it out in clear terms.

Back in 1990 when Christopher Reid wrote me that letter, I went for a stomp round the woods to vent my anger & despair. Now I am wiser. I keep the letter close by and listen to what it tells me.

You can rewrite a book; it is foolhardy to rewrite history.

Sunday 8 April 2012

Revision and the Taming of Two Horses

I always look forward to the task of revision, then immediately long for the carefree days of tapping the keys, meeting the characters listening to their story. But revise I must.

Sometimes it feels like raking up leaves in a high wind or chasing a lottery ticket along the seafront. Other times it seems like the plot is almost there, but it cannot quite be recalled, like waking from a vivid dream the details of which are suddenly lost.

Then inevitably halfway through the first read comes the loss of confidence and the realisation that you are going to have to write much of the novel over again, and that is like straddling pair of wild horses who want to pull in different directions, whilst juggling three flaming torches. It's an unnerving journey.

So I try to proceed methodically:

  • A read through, spotting immediate faults with the plotting and characterisation.
  • Listing the key things that need to be changed.
  • Producing a good plot outline (scene by scene).
  • Re-writing and/or deleting scenes and introducing new characters as necessary.
  • Re-reading and sharpening the plot.
  • Sharpening the prose and checking for typos.
Right now though I am staring at two wild horses.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Where is the key to Finlac?

So who's has the key to Finlac?

It is sixth months since I started writing this blog and this is the 70th entry. So where am I? At the outset, I determined to be up front about the process of being published again: my adventures in children's fiction.

I completed The Key to Finlac back in August 2011, or at least I thought I had. It is a book in two parts and stands at 95,000 words long. Since that time I have been seeking an agent. What have I learned from my enquiries during that time?


  • The premise promises much.
  • The story is worth telling.
  • The characters are interesting.
  • The writing is charming and lyrical in places; I can still put sentences together.
  • The book is too long.


I have decided to revise it, rather than throw up my hands and epublish it as it is...or abandon it. That would be the easy option. Writing is not easy.

I need to lose at least 40,000 words and replace a few. I need to pull it apart and put it back together without losing the essence of the story. This is a process that once I start will take three months. What's more, I shall be revising two books at once. A challenge. I shall enjoy it. Otherwise it is not worth doing.

So who has the Key to Finlac? I have. And eventually, so will you.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Sunshine Stopped Play - Writing is just not Cricket

Lingering. Not malingering - I think -  today. Sunshine has waylaid my plans for writing. No bad thing. Time for reflection and letting the book settle. I could never up sticks to Provence or Tuscany (even if I could afford it.) I would never get anything done, except - perhaps - in the two months either side of Christmas.

I tell myself that I can undertake ebook formatting of Badgerman & Bogwitch and revisions of the new book in the evenings if I feel inclined. After all there is time. I have set a deadline for end of September 2012 to start full-tilt on an entirely new project.

I have been reflecting on the Wind in the Willows, as I do every Spring when it suddenly appears. It is a book I can admire from the perspective of childhood. I indulge it. It is beyond criticism. It is synonymous with sandwiches eaten by ten-thirty a.m., hungry again by twelve, ravenous and pooling small change for wine gums by three.

I have ordered a second-hand edition of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine (my copy has long gone - and you can't get it on the Kindle.) I want to read the scene again where Douglas Spaulding puts on his new tennis shoes and races off into summer.

And all the while, I have been contemplating The Hunger Games and what it means for childhood. I have not read it yet or seen the movie. So I can only have fears and no opinions. Who knows, The Hunger Games may yet prove to be a metaphor for publishing?

Thursday 22 March 2012

ebooks: lazy ways & easy money - why proofreading matters

Have you ever read an ebook on Kindle that doesn't have some formatting problems: spacing errors, randomly indented paragraphs, typos? I haven't.

I am not just talking about the free out of copyright classics, but recently published novels like David Guterson's Ed King, (Bloomsbury pub.) which I am enjoying. Fortunately I bought it on the Kindle Deal of the Day promotion for £0.99. At the current price of £5.00 I'd feel less charitable about the formatting errors (of course it could be a problem with my particular Kindle Keyboard 3, bought in 2011.) You wouldn't accept a printed book in this condition, so why do we have to put up with imperfect ebooks?

Formatting an ebook is not an easy option, as I am finding with Badgerman & Bogwitch. It is straightforward to convert the file from a Scrivener document. It took less than thirty seconds. It is only when you look closely at the .mobi (Kindle format) or epub file that you come across formatting errors, that have to be painstakingly corrected by going back to the original word processor file. And much of this seems to be trial and error - it could take days!

If you publish an ebook you owe it to your readers to get it right.


Wednesday 21 March 2012

Cloud Gazing & The Book Without a Story

On my third attempt, after eight hours work (well, a lot of sitting around actually) across two days and downloading some more software, I have uploaded a competent time-lapse movie (32 seconds covering a period of two hours).

It is technically ok. I solved a few problems along the way, like making sure I switched off the autofocus on the camera. My first attempt was dizzying, because the lens kept zooming in and out every 24th of a second during my first movie attempt. (N.B. You have to take 24 still pictures to create one second of video.)

So what's wrong with it? At first sight, nothing. Have a look for yourself. (Click here for Movie.)

But it's like a book. Without a story, without artistry and without a heart it is nothing. It is a doodling; a lesson learned along the way to something better.

Funnily enough, all this has helped me re-focus on my writing.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Time-Lapse and other Displacement Activities

What to do when you have just finished your first draft? While it settles like roast beef straight from the oven, (vegetarians be not offended - it has been said that I was born politically correct), I am leaning about making time-lapse movies. It seems an appropriate thing to do and keeps my imagination engaged.

The photography - and I only claim to be competent at it -  also engages me with the local landscape which is so important to my books. My stories are set in the small towns and the five valleys around Stroud, or an imagined version of them.

Of course the sudden interest in time-lapse movie-making might be another displacement activity. My next task is to finish the revised Badgerman & Bogwitch for ebook publication. What's putting me off? Filling in the Form W-7 and sending my passport off to the American Embassy for a US IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, so I won't have to pay income tax in the US. That's Amazon.com for you, good or bad.

Meanwhile, as I drink tea, my DSLR is clicking away every 4 seconds, and will continue to do so (I hope) for the next couple of hours.

A time-lapse movie I made earlier: Selsley Common.

Tuesday 13 March 2012

It's a 1st draft - 373 Words that make all the difference!

An eight o'clock start is always a good sign. Forty-Five minutes and three hundred and seventy-three words later I had finished the first draft of the new book.

I stood up from my desk with the same joyous abandonment as finishing the last paper of my Finals. At that time I took two weeks off to laze around and read. (Why would I do that when I'd been reading five books a week for three years?)

What shall I do now? Well, I won't start my revisions immediately. I shall leave it for a week or two and potter about with a new idea. Maybe start a third book.

As for the first draft being finished, I simply reached the point where I could safely leave it. For now it will do, like an electrician making the wiring safe for the weekend, but needing to come back to do a permanent job on the Monday.

So it weighed in at 53,626 words. Numbers are important. I want the MS to be 48,000. In revising I reckon to lose 25%-30% of the words simply by writing better sentences, which would leave me about 8,000 words short of my target. This difference will be made up by the writing of new scenes and the deletion or revision and development of others.

It may take another two or three drafts - three months' work. But I shall get there in the end.

Friday 9 March 2012

iTunes is not as sweet as birdsong - but it has its uses

When is the world silent? Never. Hopefully. My writing world is full of distracting noise; birdsong mostly, calling me outside. It is a shame to blot it out, but I do if I am to get anything done.

How do I do that? With music; my iTunes Writing Playlist. (100 tracks, 7.7 hours of music - I rarely get beyond 2.5 hours, the length of a typical writing session.)

The music serves two purposes. The first one I have already mentioned. The second is the most important. The music provides me with continuity. Like in a film it adds atmosphere and links the scenes and silences. It is a signal that tells me it is time to start work. The familiar playlist is the continuity I need for writing the story; it links one day with the next. Throughout the course of the novel I never change it.

But the music must never have words. It tends to be someone playing the piano, occasionally accompanied by an orchestra. The volume is set to the level of a secondhand bookshop with a Mozart string quartet in the background; it is like mites of dust in a shaft of sunlight. Greenery beyond.

It works for me.

Playlist: click here.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Ten things that tell you the novel is done

How do you know when the book you are writing is actually finished?

  1. It tastes like a crisp apple.
  2. It burns in your throat like homemade ginger beer on a summer's day.
  3. It smells like clean cotton sheets.
  4. It preens like a Drake in breeding plumage.
  5. It is like dozing in sunshine.
  6. It is as if you have discovered Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine for the first time.
  7. It is your eleventh birthday.
  8. It is the first day of the summer holidays
  9. For me, it seems like 1964.
  10. ... someone else agrees that it is ok.

If it is all these things and it just feels right, then it is done. You have to stop somewhere.
Sometimes you have to be content with good enough.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Why I walked away from the book.

Sometimes a book in the making becomes an entrenched position like one side of an argument. It is best to walk away and reconsider one's standpoint; there's nothing to be gained in spoiling a good relationship by hanging onto a view you know to be wrong, but can't work out how to change.

I walked away from my book this morning, because it felt a little like that. There was no purpose in getting worked up about it, because I knew the plot wasn't going to budge. And basically I was too tired to argue with it as well.

Besides, the fog had cleared outside. 1 March - nearly Spring. The sun came out. I took someone else's book outside and started to do some gentle research for a future project.

It's true, a cup of tea and a fresh perspective cures most things. Today will become tomorrow; the earth turns.

Now I have come back to my book. The answer was obvious really. I should have listened to what the story was telling me in the first place.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

The Shed, the Deadline and the Pencil Sharpener.

A new coat of paint for the virtual shed today. Did it really need one?

Because Apple are doing away with MobileMe, I have been forced into upgrading to OSX Lion. Having upgraded the memory in my iMac to 4mb Ram some months ago, I bit the bullet and downloaded Lion from the App Store yesterday. (And it went without a hitch and runs sweetly in the background.)

Of course doing so would mean that I would have to download a new version  Microsoft Office 2011 for OSX, because my old edition would no longer work. I toyed with the idea of using the free NeoOffice instead, but I prefer the familiarity of the products I know. I have never got on with Pages or Numbers, so Office it is, despite using Scrivener for all my writing. But I feel I need the security of MS Office for delivering final manuscripts to agents and publishers. (Scrivener easily exports MS Word files.)

The other consequence of all this is that iDisk (Apple's online storage) will no long be available. It has been replaced by iCloud, and the only documents you can store on that are those produced on Pages, Numbers or Keynote. Thank goodness then for Dropbox, which I have now adopted for my backups. (And don't ever forget to do those, or even wander around with just a memory stick in your pocket!)

But what of the writing? Despite all this tinkering with the technology I have completed my 48,000 words right on time. However, the first draft is not quite finished. I think I need to produce another 5-10K to wind it all up...but it is getting there.

And what have I learned from this? Some days I just miss the simplicity of the pencil sharpener.

Thursday 23 February 2012

Apple & The Mysterious Technology of Sheds

A while ago in the days before Apple Stores, I visited an Apple Centre and got talking to a technician. He reliably informed me, though I'm sure it wasn't company policy, that the Apple Mac was the 21st century garden shed, a place where "Blokes go to get a bit of piece and quiet... and do their own thing alone, or with their mates." (As in other blokes!)

The analogy seemed apt, although I think the Mac is an egalitarian kind of machine, (if you can afford it). The metaphor has stuck with me. The Mac is a place I go to tinker about, mess with settings, root through forgotten stuff and primarily in my case be creative. It also has music, video, photos and a grand view out onto the world.

The shed's also the thing for writers these days - or the garden office - but this is where for me the Mac analogy begins to break down. Or does it?

I have taken my MacBook in the van, up and down the country, abroad, to a hotel room, but I have failed dismally to write anything on it while I've been away from my desk in my small (and untidy) study upstairs.  I can take the Mac and all that stuff with me, but when I'm away it no longer has the familiarity of the shed. It's a mystery. It's like borrowing a beach hut. No sooner are you in, than you want to be out.

The Mac is a shed, but it has to be in my garden just where I want it. There are working rituals around its use. I need to know exactly where it is and visit it the same time each day. Move a shed and it'll lose a little bit of magic.

Sheds aren't easily transported. Nor is my creative space. Maybe, I just lack the discipline to work in a caravan.

Wednesday 22 February 2012

The Devil in the Inkwell - The God of Small Pings

It was a small ping and a faint one at that, but at least I was at my desk to enjoy it, which was good because it has been one of those wrestling the wrong end of the elephant mornings. I have reached a point in the first draft, 3000 words from finishing, where I can already see what needs to be done in the second, but I don't want to stop before I reach an end. On the other hand do I just want to write on for the sake of it?

It won't come to that. I shall solve the problem that arisen for my plotting, while I am taken up with the diversion of the ping. Happy sound that even outshines the Robin singing in the garden. We are both two notes short of Spring!

The small ping? A request by email from an agent to see all of The Key to Finlac. A glimmer.

I have been printing off the manuscript; it was inevitable that I run out of ink.

Monday 20 February 2012

Every picture tells a story


The screen shot is of the Scrivener Project Targets pop-up box. This is one of the invaluable tools contained within Scrivener, and it works for me; more comfortable than watching the mileometer on an exercise bike.

However, another 4000 words doesn't mean the book is finished. It is only the first of what will probably be three drafts. One hill nearly conquered, only two more to go!

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Singles Sequels & Series

Diamonds, ermines and pearls? You can probably think of other analogies for single novels, their sequels and whole series. I am writing a standalone novel for children/young adults at the moment. I have only a short way to to go until the first draft is finished.

In the past I have been asked if I would ever write a sequel to Badgerman & Bogwitch. I always say, NO. Why? Because the words of my then editor at Faber ring in my ears. To paraphrase: Sequels never work, they are inevitably weaker than the first and the sub-text to his advice: sequels are lazy writing, a too often barren milk cow.

So the answer is still no. But I have thought of incorporating my protagonist of that book, Steve, as a peripheral figure in another novel. However, that too is a well-worn technique much done in TV drama, and other things interest me. I am at peace with that character; let him get on with his own life in his particular world.

No sequels for me. I don't want to be described as one book short of a trilogy.  Like ermine, sequels are cruelly unnecessary, retaining nothing of the character of the original warm blooded creature.

At the moment, my book in progress is begging to be a series, (or does it flatter to deceive?) There are three strong characters. A start for two more stories. But they have to be carefully planned, not just arrived at like a sequel. They must all be as good as each other and delivered with equal artistry.

So far, I have chosen to stand alone.

Friday 10 February 2012

Literary Agents: Five things you need to know.


5 things I have learned about Literary Agents in the past 5 months.

  1. They are very busy people, (some receiving 100’s of MSS a month).
  2. They always reply eventually.
  3. They seem to have kind hearts and want you to succeed.
  4. They have to earn a living; they don’t owe you a living. The figures have to add up.
  5. The best rejections contain a few words of encouragement with a name attached; the worst are sent by an anonymous intern, but even then you cannot afford to be offended.
Understand this. Make writing your focus. Success is in the doing and finishing...and starting anew. Mainstream publishing is primarily a business transaction. Money is a welcome but not guaranteed bonus.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Wrestling the wrong end of the elephant

You can do anything you want in children's fiction. Even wrestle an elephant. Preferably, a playful one with climbable tusks and a soft grandfatherly trunk to tip you upside down and set you back on the ground with the gentlest nudge.

But today, writing has been like grappling the wrong end of a leathery and ill-tempered beast. I have been whipped by its bristly tail for most of the day whilst my head has been squashed between a pair of huge knees. My toes have been trampled by monstrous feet.

Words, when I can get them out from between my crushed teeth, have mostly been ouch and look where you're going and quite often where are we going? The elephant is feeding at random ahead of me, while I wrestle its hindquarters.

All I need is a mouse of an idea to set me free.

Monday 6 February 2012

Unabashed, unabated and undaunted

Now what?

I am eight days from finishing the first draft of my new book and ten weeks from completing the second. That would make my deadline for finishing it sometime around May.

Then what?

I shall send it off to the same agents (there are a finite number) who have been politely rejecting The Key To Finlac which I completed in September last year.

I had two more No's from agents today, but I no longer think of this as rejection. It's not personal, just an unsuccessful business negotiation. They have not said no to me, they have said no thank you to the book.

Refusal just sharpens the mind about the next project ... and that is planned. I am already looking forward to June.

Friday 3 February 2012

Don't write while you drive!

Don't write while you drive!

Seems like rather obvious and sensible advice. But I'm not talking about texting. I'm talking about drifting away from the wheel and into story; slightly more dangerous than birdwatching with your foot on the accelerator and neck craned to glimpse a rarity flying overhead. Don't even record your thoughts on your phone if you are racing along.

If you want to write, sit at your desk. If you want to make notes sit anywhere, but don't try to multi-task.

The best ideas I have had have not come to me in an instant whilst doing something else. Occasionally something has occurred to me as I'm about to drop off to sleep, but I have rarely followed those ideas up. They never look so great in the morning.

For me, the best ideas come from the discipline of doing. Being in the right place at the right time. That is not luck; it is arranged. In my case 8.00 - 11.00 a.m. If I step out of that space I am less creative and certainly get less down.

If the day is sunny and crisp, like this morning, and I go early birding then I have to accept that the writing won't get done. For me there is no such thing as Total Writing. It is immersive when I do it, but it does not consume the rest of my existence.

Concentrating is the best way of staying alive.

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Kindle is the Tower Block of the Digital Age

 My Kindle seems to have come over all Soviet Tower Block; uninformative, depressing, slate grey, threatening to dictate my reading. What ever happened to the colourful pile of new books on my bedside table?

Twenty-five (at least) books to read on my Kindle. What to choose next? I am presented with a list of fairly meaningless titles (almost) and authors who are unfamiliar. What I need is book covers and blurb to entice me. My Kindle home page looks like a university reading list, lacking in colour and detail, or the outline programme of a dull literary conference. Perhaps this is an argument for the iPad?

But there are some familiar titles on my Kindle list - Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Tender is the Night. I have just re-read The Great Gatsby on the Kindle, for about the tenth time in my life - one of the great novels of the Twentieth Century. I remember the cover of the Penguin Modern Classic, I remember the smell of it, I remember the first time I read it.

The new titles on the Kindle don't sing to me. Will I remember the day I first read them? Doubt it. But here's the joy of the Kindle and the contradiction; I can carry with me all those classic books I have read in the past and the memories that go with them.

What of the new?

I think I need to read great books in paper format first time round. Now here's an idea (Probably not new). All books should be published in paper and be sold with a digital download for additional £1.00. (80p going to the author).

Then I can carry the moment forever on my Kindle

Tuesday 24 January 2012

The Detail's in the Devil

What makes for a good villain in children’s fiction? And there lies a paradox, because I don’t think that evil can truly be laid bare, but must be portrayed within the constructs of a safe environment. And how is that to be done?

  • The villain of the piece should scary enough for the reader to think twice about turning off the light, but not so terrifying as to summon nightmares. 
  • A villain must be discovered, at first not being too obvious. They may be hidden in plain sight.
  • A villain is manipulative and has power over other people and can control or influence events. There will be acolytes, inherent or recently converted.
  • A villain must not be too complex, nor on the other hand be based on stereotypes.
  • A villain must be original, but be rooted in recognisable archetypes. 
  • A villain must always be one step ahead until the very end and appear in surprising places, including daylight. 
  • They must be almost invincible, but in the end be defeated, 
  • Like the good they must contain the seeds of resurrection so there is the possibility of being terrified by them all over again.


Friday 20 January 2012

What Sarah Duncan can do for you.

Persistence pays. I didn't feel like writing at all this morning. I fiddled around looking over yesterday's work, then spent a little time reading Sarah Duncan's blog - displacement activity, curiosity. She writes romantic fiction. Not my kind of stuff, but writing skills and attitudes are fairly generic. Sarah Duncan always has something sensible to say about the novelist's working life.

Her blog happened to be about writing when you are tired - a daily occurrence. The blog was just enough of a nudge to make me hit the keys.

Writing can be an isolated existence, but it doesn't have to be. There are some good supportive blogs out there. And what's more, by persisting this morning, about 500 words into my writing I had one of those great Eureka, plot changing moments. The isolation is worth it for that kind of kick.

The thrill doesn't come if you sit there doing nothing.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Creation: the story without a beginning, middle and an end.

Running up a hill into a headwind in the dark. That's what writing has been like this morning.

I have 11,500 words (11 days) to go until I finish the first draft of my current project. I am at that turning point in the story where I have to begin pulling together all the threads whilst keeping the reader in suspense.

It is so tempting to just fall down by the wayside and reveal everything in an explosion of explication. That would be easy if I knew exactly where I was going. It would certainly be unwise. Instead I am doggedly, staring at the horizon in the hope that I know where I am heading, in the hope that I have come the right way. There are no landmarks. Who knows where I'll end up?

That is the way I write a story. The first thing I have to do is tell it to myself. And contrary to what they say in school, the tale starts without a beginning, a middle, and end.

Friday 13 January 2012

Stunning the rabbit; speed-dating the agent

Time's a tricky thing. I spent yesterday afternoon sending off four emails and attachments in various forms requested by different agents. It took me longer than to write 1000 words of my book in the morning. And of course it was a lot less enjoyable and so time passed so slowly that the morning's work seemed to be in the distant past.

And today time speeded up again. Three hours happily waiting for a glimpse of a Bittern (I saw two in the end, briefly). I think that experience is called "mindfulness", a super-awareness of what is around. This morning: sunshine, reed, water, birds calling, subtle movement, a scent of spring in the frost.

It's mindfulness which is the key to writing, coupled with putting in the hours.

This afternoon, I have returned to my desk. Ping! A nice rejection from an agent I only emailed yesterday afternnoon. She had wanted the first five pages. That's what I gave her.  Super-awareness or carelessness? Another approach to time. Efficient and painless anyway, like stunning a rabbit.

Speed-dating. Time to move to the next table.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

The sweet irony of envelopes

Twelve A4 envelopes (with gussets), newly obtained. 12 - another magic number.  Aren't all numbers imbued with meaning until you go beyond four digits? But then of course there's always the Jackpot, the BIG ONE?

Twelve envelopes, fresh with hope (it's in their nature). There are exceptions - redundancy notices, utility bills, condolences. Envelopes are scented with the optimistic fragrance of the stationery shop. When did that optimism first arrive? Probably in childhood with birthday cards and expectation of Postal Orders and crisp Ten Shilling notes.

I have a new ream of paper. Chapters to print; letters to write to agents. It's all about hope and potential.

Twelve disciples.

Twelve bullets for two six guns. Enough to defend the Alamo.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

The Puritan and the Pencil Sharpener

Strange how things turn themselves on their head. I have been writing my book this week, less because I have to, but more because I am enjoying it. This has been the situation for a while. Back in the 1990's when I was first published, I found getting down to writing very difficult, and would do almost anything to avoid it.

This week I have found myself doing it easily and have realised that I"d much rather be working on the book than writing tedious letters to agents. Creativity has suddenly become a displacement activity as well as a process in itself.

Well that's good isn't it? Better than pencil sharpening or cleaning one's keyboard. But the other work has to be done. I must resurrect the Local Government Officer in me and start pushing some paper. Tomorrow.

But the puritan in me also wonders, whether pain is a guarantor of success and all this enjoyment might just be a hindrance?At the end of the day, I shall have to whip the finished article into shape.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Like a cheap room at the Savoy

Back at the end of August 2011, I wrote "each ping of the email makes me jump." I had just begun my search for an agent. Now that it is the beginning of 2012, thirteen rejections later, the ping goes unnoticed. (The most recent  was today)

Is this growing cynicism or a burgeoning professionalism? I think it is the latter. I have learned a lot more about the publishing business in the past six months than I ever did when I started out 25 years ago. No one owes me a living. New writing projects are taking up my time; I have the confidence to complete them. And I am enjoying the challenge of each and every one.

So what is a ping to me now? It's like making an online hotel booking. A tad frustrating. If one hotel is full, you just look for another one.

The trouble is, an agent is still rarer than a cheap room at the Savoy.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Return to writing: wrestling a small boat in a high wind.

Ever tried climbing into a sailing dinghy on a blustery and unforgiving winter's morning? Today I have had one foot on a slithery floor and the other on the jetty, one hand on the mast and the other trying to grab hold of the boom before it flattens me. It barely feels like the same boat I sailed so smoothly before the Christmas break. Such is trying to get back into writing the novel.

Looking at this small boat, I can see that the sails are tattered, the rudder is askew, the varnish needs attention, the sheets are a little frayed in places, but it is not shipping too much water.

It still looks like a boat and it floats, albeit with a slight list. The rudder is easily mended.

If the weather calms down enough tomorrow, it should be relatively plain sailing.

Monday 2 January 2012

A price to be paid for ebooks?

What price ebooks? How much are you prepared to pay? It depends what you really mean by an ebook. My own purchasing habits as a reader have given me pause for thought.

Previously, I have compared ebooks for the Kindle as being like well-thumbed library books: text but not necessarily a sensory experience.

I have been buying quite a lot of books for the Kindle during December, prompted by the free classics,  The Kindle Daily Deal, and the Twelve Days of Kindle  Christmas promotion.

I have purchased 20 books and have paid no more than £1.57 per book. Most have been for £0.99. At a fair reading rate for me that's about £25.00 for six months' reading. A sobering thought for an author trying to make a living.

It seems that price is dictating what I read, and it's all interesting quality stuff. It turns out that £1.99 is about the maximum, I am prepared to pay for a Kindle ebook. That means for the author to have any chance of making a living, their royalty needs to be at least 50%. That should be ok, considering lower production costs and no expensive warehouse and shipping.

So what am I prepared to pay more for?

Well, I might pay £3.99 for a new novel, which would normally come out as a hardback, if I thought it was a must-read. It would have to be pretty special. I would pay a premium for an ebook on the iPad if it was illustrated or was an app like T S Eliot's The Wasteland or Jack Kerouac's On the Road, or a reference book like The Elements or anything that DK produces. Illustrated children's books I would pay for too, even if they didn't have multi-media features.

As a reader, do I feel guilty? No. Should I as an author be concerned? Yes.

We are fortunate as readers that authors will always write, because they have to, even if there's not living to be had from it.