It’s a frustrating, but necessary experience. As a result, an exact wordcount is… difficult to ascertain. (Book is now spreading across multiple documents, I spread like an octopus, maximise surfrace area, viral, infect, maintain) it’s about 11,000 words. I think.

On a positive note, I have decided on a quote for the first page.

It’s the little important things you know…

Observations;

• Kent is full of bugs.
• Reading is good for writing.
• Productivity is not always measured in wordcounts.

Over the week I wrote; about three or four thousand words, started an entirely new book (yes, I am a glutton for punishment). But by far most importantly, I think I’m starting to get to grips with how to structure this strange octupus of a story I want to tell.

I am not a technical writer.

However, when you want to tell a story you can’t just close your eyes, sit in front of a keyboard (typewriter/pen) shout “aaaahhh” and expect the story to come out. Technical issues get in the ways, things of tense and perspective. Who to tell the story? In which way? To narrate? To not? Present tense? Past tense? etc. Different methods and different voices suit different tales and different tellers.

I’d previous been putting  these decisions off, but a number have become clear this week. Partially through writing. Partially through reading. Partially through thinking.

All three are good things to do. I reccomend them if you are planning your own novel.

Monday brings renewed work, with more of a sense of direction. A lot less bugs also.

Thank god.

This being the season of summers and also holidays, I will be away in a Kentish lighthouse for a week.

Thankfully my laptop will be accompanying me, and with the English weather as it is, I am hoping for a lot of opportunity to write without too many distractions, and with easy access to ale, who knows what might occur.

In prep for this, I’ve been planning some plotlines and ideas in various notebookery over the last two days, hence not much writing and updating.

If they have internet in Kent, I’ll post a few updates whilst I’m there, if not, be prepared for a bumper megaupdate on friday or saturday week.

Until then.

Cheers.

x

I spent most of the day imagining an existence here as a writer. It containing for me, all the essential elements needed to write;

• The Sea.
• Proximity and abundance of good coffee.
• Excellent people watching opportunities.
• Lots of birds overhead.
• Multiple windy streets for writers-block-breaking walks at crucial creative junctures.

This evening spent trying to maintain progress in the project. Most of todays writing mines my own chequered work history, as establishing our protagonist as a minor retail slave, with him going to work the day after his break up. This goes with the bad interview scenes written earlier last week. Yes. Connections.

Today I appear to be mostly channeling Douglas Coupland, Gibson, and Palahniuk. I think the reception wasn’t great though.

Total Wordcount so far (after nine days): 7,992

Daily Wordcount: 1,001

It’s interesting and suprising to me how many people have, reading these updates on the site or on facebook, a) Enquired as to the progress of the project b) wished me luck on the project and c) asked the eternal question;

So. What’s this book you’re writing about anyway?

This is probably the hardest question to answer.

It is also probably the best question to be asked, as it is so difficult to answer, it makes you check and re-evaluate yourself. Check your motives and your ideas and first principles.

It’s one of the barriers against falling into a self fulfilling self indulgent maelstrom of bullshit. It’s what stops you going native. It’s what keeps you honest.

So. What is this bloody thing about anyway?

In short; I’ve only had a week.

The way I write. In particular the way I’m writing this, is that a lot of the plot and the narrative will become clear during the process. It’s not so much that the thing writes itself. It’s more that, as you write you are forced into making decisions. Storyline decisions, character decisions, tonal and thematic decisions. Making these decisions, and then crucially looking back on those decisions and realising that something either works (and should be kept) or doesn’t (and should be binned).

In this way, you kind of sculpt the thing out of rock. Slowly uncovering, archaelogically, the parts that are true.

So. What is this thing about?

As of today. It’s about a person who finds himself at a point in his life that he never intended to get to, and doesn’t want to be. It’s about him discovering that his own situation is something that has recurred. That has happened to people in his family, for generations and cycles. It’s about his own work in uncovering their stories, to understand his.

Of course, this could all change by tommorow. Or next week. Or the week after.

Total Wordcount so far (after eight days): 6,991

Daily Wordcount: 881

It’s strange to think that this used to be normal. A day where I got some serious writing done was a relatively rare occurrance. Now the opposite is true.

What’s good is that this habit has built up quickly. That I feel guilty for not writing bodes well for the future success of this project.

Total Wordcount so far (after seven days) 6,110

Daily Wordcount: 0

Week Two goals:

• Catch up yesterdays missing words, so that my (so far) above expectations of progress continue
• Begin to stitch together some of the disparate stuff written in week one
• gulp. Start to plan a structure that I can hang my two main story threads on. maybe.
• Start to edit and proofread week one’s writing

Big thank you to all who have shown interest, followed this project, and commented via facebook or twitter or email or the site or in person. I seriously wouldn’t have continued without the continual threat and knowledge there is an audience out there.

Cheers!

Tom

Still writing backstory today. Trying to flesh out the family and the past of the main character. I know there are big events in his past, and recurring events in his family’s past that cause the events in the current timeline.

I just don’t know what they are yet, so I’m writing lots of history, and seeing what sticks.

Sometimes writing like this is like archaeology. You pick a spot just keep writing and writing, going deeper and further down, hopefully you’ll find some real bones or ghosts down there that have  a story to tell,  ones you didn’t expect to be there in the first place.

Total Wordcount so far (after five days): 5,095

Daily Wordcount: 1,030

Writing in this way is a bit like taking part in the world’s slowest most inexorable car chase. Every day you have to get words out and get drama out and get blood out but the most important thing is keep going. Because that word limit is always behind you.

What I’m beginning to realise, (and hopefully I’m going to end up with enough words in the ‘bank’ that I can do this) is there’s going to be a lot of editing here to work out where each bit, each scene and each day’s progress fits into the whole. Even though there is a natural sequence to the construction of the narrative, - and those who’ve suffered reading my work in progress stuff before will know this - there is a natural and quite elastic way the parts of these sequences can be split up, and re-ordered, to best suit the narrative.

It’s just not something you can do after four days. I’m way too close to it. I am right in the middle at the moment and have zero perspective on the thing as a whole. I can’t see the forest, but I’m planting lots of trees.

I guess after a week, or after two weeks, I’ll give myself a day or two of editing and re-ordering. As I have approached this project with no storyline or plan or written outline for the narrative whatsoever, i’m essentially doing this with no guide rope. No breadcrumb trail.

I could easily go down the wrong path at any moment, and not realise it’s the wrong path for another week.

Total Wordcount so far (after four days): 4,065

Daily Wordcount: 792

Anyway.

Today’s scenes consisted of quite a few abstract flashbacks. Exploring character’s memories. Some I felt worked better than others, but it seemed to live when I got around to Alex’s memories of his grandfather. I think he’s going to play a massive role in this story. Cast a big shadow.

Sample:

My mother referred to his flying and the Tiger itself as “bloody stupid show off waste of time”. To the rest of us it merely confirmed the rapidly growing picture and backstory of Michael as some modern day Indiana Jones type adventurer. A 1920’s storybook cutout, cast in Gin and Flanel, all cut glass English and Derring-Do.

This was, needless to say, a lie and an impression that Michael did nothing to correct, in fact he revelled in our quiet doorway bound awestruck observations of him. Revelled in, and greatly encouraged  and inflated his role as our own legendary figure who’s deeds we would do well to emulate.

This is where the stories came in.

(Lowest so far, but still over target on aggregate. Must do better tommorow though.)

Day three and things seem to have settled into a (mostly) productive routine. Routine is good. Routine gets things done. It was one of the aims of the project so I’m happy with that.

Each day I spend somewhere between three and four hours writing. Now, I type fast, so if I actually wrote for three hours, I’d be close to finished here. But even at a very conservative estimate I could write 1,000 words in half an hour of solid typing. (1,000 / 30 = 33 (going at 30wpm)

So each morning when I’m actually writing. There are three hours of coffee making, fingernail biting, head scratching, pacing (Never underestimate pacing, I cleared a block today by walking up and down the stairs in my flat twice) and general procrastination.

I guess what I’m trying to say is we’re in a very inefficient business here.

Daily Wordcount: 1,241

Total Wordcount so far (after three days) : 3,273

Today we saw our protagonist (Currently Alex) enduring a series of disastrous interviews, many of which were drawn from my own substantial jobless past, straight out of uni with what I increasingly discovered was an increasingly useless degree. He also falls in love with a receptionist. I also appear to channel Chuck Palahniuk for an inner monologue that closes the scene. Tommorow, we’re going into some serious flashbackery I feel.

I have no qualms about cannibalising my past for this project. If you know me beware this fact.

Postscript:

Hitting my word count allowed me to get up to London and watch the simply breathtaking Frozen River. A low budget american thriller that swept me into it’s bleak and fragile world like very few films can and have. I found it beautiful, absolutely gripping, and often devastating. As people of taste and decency (in a world where Transformers 2 exists) please go see it.

Please.

Cheers.

You can probably yesterday productive and target busting 1,100 word day down to a mixture of excitement - new book, new project, no weight, no retreading, no rewriting - and guilt - new project, webpost to make, promises made, friends informed and eager for information (thanks guys!) as the beginning of today was an entirely different story. Trying to write this morning was like running into a wall. It’s amazing how quickly the nagging gnawing doubts come back at you, burying and tunnelling under the foundations of yesterdays optimism.

It was a much trickier day writing.

Biggest decision was whether to start a new chapter/scene, or whether to continue from yesterday’s (mostly complete, but not quite) work. In the end, it was the thought of continuation, of building on yesterday’s work that slowed me the most, but it was the option I chose.

To put things in perspective, I’ve tried to start writing both days at about 10am. It took almost an hour and half this morning to get going, which was when I was almost finished the previous day.

In the end I did decide to continue the opening scene, where our protagonist breaks into an old national trust stately home. Got that opening scene finished, and then the story goes into flashback, straight into some dialogue between our protagonist (will have his name settled tommorow I think) and some other major characters. Notably, in terms of yesterday’s progress, I did rewrite a few sentences of the previous day’s work. This means two things,

1. This might be the way I approach rewriting. Little and often, with the occasional revision day
2. This wordcount malarky is liable to dramatic change.

It’s interesting how the habits of four years of writing nothing but screenplays stick with you. I am still referring to these chapters as scenes. I do worry how the two counter-intuitive processes of novel writing and screen writing will marry in this project, and ensuring the habits of one do not impact on the strengths of the other will be a major challenge for me.

In terms of synopsis, I know who the book is primarily about (our stately home B&E merchant), and that he is searching for some kind of answer and permanence in his past, and in his extended families past. He himself is in a state of early life crisis, onset by recurring patterns and events in his social and family life. The story is him trying to find his own place in the world I guess, and finding his place in the past, present, and future. It’s kind of a generational detective rites of passage drama.  I guess.

Anyway.

Daily wordcount: 924

Total wordcount so far (after two days): 2032

Sample:

We are standing on the flat roof that extends from the loft room in Saff’s anonymous shared house. Below and outstretched is the grey brown haze of London in March.  A matte painting, a special effect of squat buildings clustered in alien hives. Wailing sirens and pubs. Boarded windows and women with orange shopping bags, drifting sounds of diesel engines of buses and the impatient yelps of dogs. Uninspiring squares and patches of green. Red Astroturf and basketball courts without nets.

Ugh, I hate reading this stuff back.

Still. Needs must. See you tommorow.

Cheers.