Starting Something New

For the last few months I have been working solidly on my edit of Tattooing Angels. It is nearly complete, nearly ready to go off, but not quite and the editing process is one which I know a lot of writers find really difficult. One of the reasons for this is that a lot of the creativity we enjoy so much has already been done and the craft side is a lot more monotonous in a way.

I find that when I'm editing I need to have something to write as well. It doesn't have to be something that will go somewhere, and the first one I write tends to be something that ends up on the top of my wardrobe.

I recently had an idea for a new novel but wasn't sure what angle to use, how to write it. It was hard because I knew what I wanted to accomplish but not how. I started writing in first person to try to find my new character and I got a long way in before I realised I wasn't happy with it and the narrative wasn't working. I started again using two points of view - the same thing happened I wasn't happy.

The other day I realised that it wasn't just the narrative I didn't like - I hadn't found my actual story. I had the bare bones of it but not the actually movement of it. If you think of it like a series of points that you move around I had about five of the ten points I needed.

I have just started again, from scratch, new narrative and finding my movement and I am happy with what I have done so far. Of course it needs a lot of the dreaded editing and I will probably rewrite and revise it numerous times but right now I think I've finally found my new voice !

The Hardest Road to Travel

Editing is such a difficult process. Everyone does it differently - I know some writers who literally get a chapter down on paper and then polish it straight away. I find that my brain likes to splurge out the whole manuscript - a very rough draft which needs numerous layers of polish before it starts to shine. I like having that full manuscript to work on so I can weave new plot lines in, so I can make my characters flow right through until the very end.

Tattooing Angels is on (what I hope will be) its final line edit before it goes out in the world. Any more edits and I might lose some of the magic and just ruin what might have worked better before I decided to improve it.

Does anyone know when to stop? It becomes an obsession almost! A friend of mine who has recently secured a publishing deal has said that whenever she reads her manuscript over again she finds things she wants to change - even though its about to go to print she knows that there are things she won't like when she reads it back.  Is it possible to distance ourselves enough to really look at it again and finally think it ready?

I'm Back

Okay so I've been absent for quiet some time. The reason behind this is twofold. Firstly I had submitted my novel Tattooing Angels to an Agent and was waiting for feedback which makes me impatient, lazy and seriously silent. Secondly, I had my novel back but with suggested rewrites and so I've been changing my entire story around because Agents tend to know what they're talking about and you have to be able to take criticism in the writing game.

Rewrites are hard mainly because in the first instant you resist all criticism no matter how helpful. She scream and tant and tell yourself they are completely wrong and you don't know how they could be so blind. Then you read their comments again, you think you can never possibly deliver what they want because it wasn't your vision and now you're flummoxed (I love that word). Finally you accept that you can do the rewrites but you're going to need to basically start from scratch.

Tattooing Angels started off as an idea, it grew into something but it wasn't quite sure what. I debated where the massive hole was in it, this thing that was missing but that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Finally I realised that the missing thing was the real point to my whole novel. The story wasn't there and I needed to find it. I HAVE FOUND IT but then the ending went missing.

The ending had to be dramatic. It had to be climatic and capable of reducing my intended reader to tears. At first it kind of fell flat so I rewrote it. Then it fell flat again so I deleted it and sobbed. Then it sucked a bit. Now it's kind of, almost, not completely but someday there.

SO if I go quiet again its because I'm working out the various cracks and flaws in the novel that I love. Writing has to be about love doesn't it. If you don't love your book then why should anyone-else.

THE BIG BAD BLOCK

2012 has started with an unwelcome and quite remarkable patch of writer's block. Whenever I watch television and characters go into slow motion we always shout "oh no, bad time to get stuck in a patch of slow mo". Well I'm stuck in a patch of writer's block.

I downed tools just before Christmas to take a break. I've come to the point where I know there is something missing from my writing but I can't quite put my finger on it and until I can I need to step away from the netbook and do some soul searching. So then for Christmas I got a Kindle. I thought that was perfect, I'd do more reading and see if I might find the missing magic in someone-else's writing. Surely the puzzle piece that I can't find might have been used somewhere else. I just have to find it. That doesn't seem to be working either.

I have however read Reckless by Cornelia Funke. A magnificent novel that really pulled me deep into it and kept me there until the end. Suffering with an extremely short attention span has long been a curse when it comes to reading so to actually keep me hooked so completely is no mean task. If I could write a book like Reckless I'd be happy, but alas it's a different genre and style to my writing so the puzzle piece was not to be found there.

Now I'm reading The Hobbit which is a book I read when I was younger and remember enjoying. I am enjoying it even more this time around. I started it this morning and was about a fifth of the way through by the time I made it to work!

Unfortunately the writer's block is still there and nothing seems to be able to budge it.