Category: shan

We’re In This Together

I’m still very much trying to get a handle on what it is that I’m doing here. I read a few posts about the practical realities of sharing a work in progress (interesting one here) and I’ve also explored some of the platforms where writers upload their work as they go – Wattpad seems to be the biggest of these – but I’m not sure that any of that has furthered my understanding of the pros and cons of blogging a WIP (that’s one thing I learned*).

As ever the Nine Inch Nails have the answer: clearly, the way out is through. I’m just going to keep writing on both the book and the blog until I figure it out. It’s what the nerdy kids call grinding (the cool kids have a different definition). Obviously, this means that you might have to witness me driving into and reversing out of a number of cul-de-sacs but, really, what else have you got to do with your post-Jeremy Kyle life? And as NIN have pointed out…

So what have I concluded thus far?

  • This blog will contain spoilers for the book. I’d love to find a way that someone could read this blog and not have the book spoiled, but I think the only way around it would be for me to be unnecessarily elusive.
  • I’m feeling positive about sharing it all. There’s an uncomfortable feeling of being exposed, but I think another way of saying that is that there is accountability. After all, I really don’t want to just say that I’m writing a book, I actually want to write one.
  • I’m very grateful for anyone subjecting themself to this. FWIW I really think it will help me improve the book, especially if you get into the habit of commenting – this is very much a two way process rather than me simply broadcasting.

In book news I’ve now got a full synopsis and a breakdown synopsis, where I gave myself a single line to say what happens in each chapter. I’ll share it with you in the coming days, I want to tinker with it a bit more first. I also think I’ve got a work schedule set in my head. I’m going to aim to have a first draft written by the end of July. It’s probably going to be around 80k words, which means that I’m looking at roughly 1,333 words per day. In the current synopsis there are 25 chapters, so that would give just over 3,000 words per chapter. That gives me August to forget about it, come back to it in September and either burn the whole thing and murder everyone who ever subscribed to this blog until no record of it exists anywhere, or rewrite enough of the first draft that I could take it to my agent and see what she thinks. I’d need to be feeling strong for that last option because my agent scares me to the point that my bone marrow curdles when I think about her.

*The other thing that I learned is that the world now has enough poor vampire fiction to last until the sun expires. I also learned that Black Woman White Man is a genre that not only exists but is common enough that its earned its own abbreviation – BWWM. Am I really naive to say that’s a bit weird? Isn’t it just a romance? Why would it make any difference that she’s black and he’s white? I mean if they’re all set in Alabama in the 1800s then I get it, but these all seem to be modern stories. Has anyone actually read one?

Really, neither am I.

“And what do you do?”
“I’m writing a novel.”
“Really, neither am I.”

I can’t remember whose joke that was, probably Groucho or Wilde (EDIT, it was Peter Cook) but I do remember the sort of laugh I emitted when I heard it. It was a “hurr-huh-heh” sort of number. Contextually, I can see that it’s a joke, I can appreciate the wit, but I also don’t think it’s funny. Mostly because I’ve been the aspiring novelist in that situation too many times and the all-too-accurate rejoinder hurts.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve written a lot in my life, mostly pay–the–bills journalism but I’ve also had two non-fiction books published. Neither of them are particularly good; although in my defence I will flag up that both were written in less than eight weeks, which isn’t a very mentally healthy thing to do. Heck it all, I’ve even got an author headshot (rejected options below) so I’m clearly legit.

  • The laughing gnome
  • Market knock-off Ross Kemp
  • Self-portrait

So why am I sharing all of this with you – my as-yet-non-existent-reader? Well because I’m writing a novel and I’d like to document the process on this very blog and use that as a way to keep myself on target.

It should be fun! It might be fun! I already regret doing this!

Look, think of it this way – if the book is any good (and with your help it could be) then by following these posts and generally pitching in then you’ll be in on the ground floor of this literary endeavour, how exciting! You might even make it to the heady heights of the Dedications page (you almost certainly won’t).

Or, the whole project could turn into a burning Nissan Qashqai on the motorway hard shoulder watched at a distance by an ashen-faced knot of people. You could be those people!  

So, hop on board! Add your email/allow notifications and you’ll be informed of every post on this here blog as I write the book. To insanity!