Amazing progress

So my novel has just hit the magic fraction of being a quarter done. I still haven’t managed to set up the writing group. It might be easier to get done once uni starts up again. And the whole timed writing exercise pretty much failed. I continue to concentrate on the word count, aiming for blocks of 500 words at a time. Usually I manage to get it done in about two hours, which is a good average, I think. Yesterday, I managed to finish off a whole chapter of 2,000 words. I can’t figure out how I worked that magic though… I’m always looking for the hint of inspiration, something to replicate to get me through. Though maybe I should just concentrate on the writing.

Techniques and stuff

So I'm trying to set up two systems to get me into writing my novel quickly. For those who are following, this is a continuation of the chapter I had to write for uni. I also submitted it to the John Marsden Prize, so hopefully that will go well.

The first system I'm trying to set up is a bit of a writing circle with my friends at uni. Each of us has to write a minimum 1,000 words a week and then we spend the weekend swapping and reviewing each other's work. Hasn't quite caught on yet, but a few people seem interested.

The second technique to get me going is to try and write for time, rather than word count. I've assigned myself a quota of two hours minimum a day, with three hours preferred and any more rewarded. It's something I came across in a magazine a while back, but never really implemented. At this point, it's just experimentation, but if it takes off, it could become a general rule.

Feedback

I got some feedback on my uni novel chapter. And... well, there was mixed success. All the comments had something to do with voice and character - most often, how the voice interacted with character. Apparently, they're too close, making it difficult to tell when the narrator is speaking and when the character is thinking.

It was a reasonable complaint. This imposition of the narrator's voice over the character obscures the characters dualistic personality which I was hoping to highlight. How to fix this though, is a bit of a difficult problem. One way that I feel I could do this is to make the narrator more judgmental - or even to just make the narrator more explicit. Nothing wrong with describing the character, I guess. But I would like to make the reader do some work to figure him out.

Anyway, I suppose I should actually work on that now, rather than just musing about it.

The ups and downs

So, I just got a devastatingly low mark on one of my assignments. It probably torpedoed my final chance of getting straight into post graduate study. Alas, there's always the hope that I'll get enough money to pay my way into a Master of Arts instead.

On the other work of assessment for that class, my novel chapter, I had hit a wall with it. At only 2,000 words, things didn't seem to be moving far enough to bring the chapter to a close. That and I was bitterly disappointed in the last 500 words of what I did have. But, luckily I held off from deleting any of it. At the almost absurd suggestion of one of my intellectual cohorts, I agreed to add in some rather sexually explicit passages of description. It's not stand alone kind of shock value sex, though it would be nice if it had that effect as well. And, I'm actually happy with how it's turning out. It opens up all sorts of questions about the protagonist and breaks up the otherwise stilted dialogue.

Apparently sex still solves everything.

Troubles

So despite my self assurances at the ease of writing genre fiction, editing did not go well last night. I've concluded two major reasons for this.

Firstly is the technical reason. I don't know how advanced I should make the language in the novel. I know I shouldn't patronize the reader, but I don't want to bore them either. Finding that balance is difficult.

The second is entirely based on my own snobbery. I'd feel like a complete sellout writing trashy fiction, when really I'm not interested in it. Possible rationalisations include:

• I could lit the story up - make it proper high fantasy and challenge the teenage reader.
• I'm encouraging young people to start reading.
• Everyone needs money - we live in a commercialised society.

Unfortunately, none of these seem to circumvent my ego. I couldn't stand getting lumped in with Stephanie Meyer, rewarded for sub-par writing. And while my writing already is better than SMeyer's obvious first draft (I hope it's a first draft - if that was edited, someone needs to be fired), it wouldn't be my best writing. My integrity won't allow that. I don't think I could proudly own a teen fantasy novel. Not that there's anything wrong with the genre. I'm just not a part of it. I don't want to be. And while I could publish it under a pseudonym, I'd still have to acknowledge that I sold out.

I'm not going to delete what I have already in the story, but I don't think I can work on it until I've figured out this internal dilemma. It's strange though, that I don't have these qualms about children's writing. I could very happily say to anyone that I wrote a fantasy picture book for children. Maybe it's just the degeneration in the quality of teen fiction lately that puts me off it. SMeyer and Paolini have really pulled the bar down. Even being a leader of quality in the field would be like winning a drag race against a wheelbarrow. A token victory at best.

Maybe I should pull out my poetry skills and work on my children's book today for an hour or two, then get back to the uni project. There's no point in working on something I'm resisting so heavily.

Success!

I spent most of the day critiquing other people's work for this assignment. I'm a terrible editor and have no problems with admitting that usually my feedback is near useless, but everyone said they really appreciated my input, so I'm quite happy with that.

As for my goal to have the great opening line worked out, I think I did it. It's nothing compared to "Mother died today" but it's very specific to the main character of my novel and I think really sets up more about him than a full character profile would. The line is:

"For some people words mean nothing. For a poet, this is quite a problem."

Still a little rough on the edges, but says what I want it to say and it's ready to be refined when I reach that point. Now that I kind of have the critiques out of the way for one week and the opening line ready to be inserted into my assignment, I'm thinking of returning to my fantasy trash novel. The term trash isn't meant to be a derision of the genre, it's just what we at uni call fiction for downtime. Something light and fun that you don't have to put too much effort into reading.

I read over this old manuscript (if we want to get technical, I've been writing it since I was 15 in several different manifestations) and to put it in positive terms, it shows how much I've grown as a writer. Most of my language choices are still very appropriate, as the genre isn't really intended for post-graduate level readers. But the structure of the piece is awful. In the very first chapter it feels like I've completed half the story arc. Three major characters are introduced. The entire history of the fictional world is dumped on the reader in one paragraph. Problems are solved near instantaneously. I think tonight I'll extend the first chapter - maybe break it into two chapters. Get more character development into it and take out the providential problem solving.

It should be some easy writing after what I've been trying for the last 2 years.

Now, to get the ball rolling

So, after the customary introductory post, I think it's good to establish where I am. Apart from all the poetry and short stories, I have four books in production right now. That tells you one of two things. Either I'm brimming with ideas or I can't make up my mind. I'm inclined to think both. The books are as follows:

1. A fictionalised autobiography of my late teenage life, living in a country town. The hook? It's narrated by my own conscience. Rather experimental.
2. A children's poem. A long one. Aiming to have it illustrated by my sister, if the publisher will allow such nepotism. 
3. A fantasy novel. I'm not proud. If I finish it, I'll likely try to get it published under a pseudonym. Not entirely out of snobbery. There's just a tendency for readers to pigeonhole writers into genres.
4. A highly literary, sur/realist novel. Part of a project for a university assignment. While all attempts are made to make it non-autobiographical, personal experiences have a tendency to sneak in. 

At the moment, understandably, most of the work is going towards option number 4. I only need the opening chapter for this assignment, but there's no way I'm going to completely ditch the idea once the semester ends. I've already invested too much in it and I'm only 1,500 words in. Right now though, what I really want to do is fix the opening sentence. I want something to hook the reader, something to shock a little. Something to rival the opening to Albert Camus' The Outsider: "Mother died today." That's not an opening line you forget. And you don't stop reading after that. And that's what I want. Something short, sweet, blaise, and oh-so profound. But midnight has come and gone, and I need to do critiques in the morning, so I suppose I should sleep on it.

Tomorrow, I'll get the opening line. No excuses.