Giles Diggle on Twitter @50oakwoods

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 It has been replaced by iCloud, and the only documents you can store on that are those produced on Pages, Numbers or Keynote.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.