via redbubble.com
I often find myself thinking this when I hear about the trials and tribulations new parents are going through!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Grant year, week eight: writing and planning
I should probably just drop the 'writing' from my 'Grant year' titles -- it's pretty clear that every week is going to involve writing! Even if it's rewriting.
Okay, so it's been a quiet week. I still hit my target, in fact I'm ahead of my target. I'm not going gaga over that however because I think the first draft is going to be quite a bit longer than the 90k I'm aiming for. I'm currently at 42k and I'm just about to finish act one. So, the second act is usually longer than the first, and the third is usually shorter, but it could be 120k.
Which I'll still get done by the end of June, if I stay on track with my 5k/week word count.
Why does it matter how long it is? Technically, it doesn't. If you write a brilliant first novel, chances are that you'll find a publisher for it -- it just might be a bit harder. The Company of the Dead, by David Kowalski, springs to mind. But there's so many factors that come into play. Kowalski's book was kind of an alternative history thriller action romp (yes you can quote me on that). Multiple timelines. In structure similar to John Birmingham's blockbusters. There's an expectation that kind of book will be longer. The reality is that first-time novelists have better odds if their manuscript is about 80-90k.
Anyway -- getting a bit ahead of myself here, since I haven't even finished the first draft.
As well as the writing, I've been doing a bit of informal planning. And by informal planning I mean that I've been thinking about the problems with the book (the bits I haven't written yet) and how I can fix them. This week I finally figured out how two main characters are going to meet at the end of act one. I had a few ideas but they all seemed contrived. Finally settled on something this week. And even though it's vital these two characters meet at the end of of act one (it's the first major climax) I can change it later. In fact, if I was really struggling, I could leave the final chapter of act one and dive into act two.
The other problem that I've gone some way to resolving is how some of the sub-plots connect. In real life, not everything connects. Things just happen, right? Unfortunately, we don't give novelists the same leeway. People expect the details to mean something. So I'm starting to work out how the things that are happening in Harry's life now relate to things that happened to another character. I guess you could call him 'the ghost'.
I imagine what will happen is that some of these sub-plots will become integral to the story. Others not so much. Similarly, there are characters who I've breathed life into who I think may end up on the cutting room floor.
This week, I really need to get down to State Library. Act two is going to be much harder to write. It's where Harry starts unravelling the mystery. So I need to start ravelling it for him!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Grant year, week seven: writing and networking
I really caned the word count this week. So much so that I was able to work on a short story that I'm planning on sending off to an anthology this year. (More on this - hopefully - down the track).
I had originally planned to do some research at State Library. I've been behind the eight-ball on this count because of the flooding. It hasn't hurt too much, because I'm in the early stages of the book. But I'll probably go back and layer in some detail on the rewrite anyway. Although State Library was open, the car park wasn't. And I had the car, not the scooter, so I ended up driving around looking for somewhere to park, which was tricky because I didn't have any change.
This is a riveting story, isn't it! I decided to cut my losses and get in some writing at The Three Monkeys (which features in the book) and then realised that I had forgot to charge the Mac Book the night before and had very limited writing time. I managed to get a thousand words done in that session.
Then I decided to have another crack at State Library. I fluked an unmetered spot really close, and managed to charge the Mac and get another thousand words done.
At midday I met a writer friend of mine. I told her what I know about the grant application process, and she offered to be a 'beta reader' for Skin Deep, and also offered to put me in contact with her agent, which was very nice of her. So, it was a very worthwhile meeting.
I'm starting to feel that the opening act of Skin Deep is going to be a bit long, but that's okay. Once I know which are the important storylines, I can trip some of the others.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Grand Conversation on ebooks
This is a really interesting time for the publishing industry, and it will be really interesting to see how Shane’s ebook experiment goes.
For mine, I don’t read ebooks. Even though I love technology and my work revolves around computers and social media, I’m not an early adopter. At the moment, an iPad or a Kindle would be nice (or even an iPhone), but I still have some concerns about the whole ebook thing.
via jiraiya.com.au
Shane kindly invited me to take part in his grand conversation on ebooks...
Grant year, week six: writing and more 'location scouting'
Regained a bit of momentum this week. I hit my 30,000-word target relatively easily. I still feel the urge to have a 'write club'-style grant day where I just go for maximum word count, so I can get a bit of a buffer. On the other hand, it's nice to work week to week because you often get little ideas that you can explore as the story develops.
A case in point -- Red Hill Skate Arena. I didn't think of this place at all when I was thinking up scene ideas last year. When we were living at Bardon I never really went past the place, so why would I even think about it? Since we've moved to The Gap, I pass by whenever I'm heading into the city or West End. It's quite a forlorn building. It burned down in 2002 and, for whatever reason, the building hasn't been demolished. So it just sits there, the charred bones of its roof timbers pointing up to the sky. It fits with a theme that's developing about the price of 'progress'.
Research-wise, I still haven't been able to get to State Library, which has been closed due to flooding. I'm still chasing some information about the tattooing scene in Brisbane in the 90s. And I'm still trying to have a yarn with a psychic to talk about readings. I don't urgently need this stuff. Down the track, I'm going to need to find out about how tattoos fare on dead bodies, do some reading up on graverobbing, and a whole host of other macabre stuff!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Data visualisation of 'Bug Hunt'
Have been playing around with Many Eyes...
(it should have embedded here, but didn't work, so here's the link to the site... http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizations/bug-hunt-...
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Grant year, week five: research and writing
Kind of hit the wall this week. Well, the first of the many walls 'Skin Deep' is likely to build for me to scale.A range of factors, some positive and some negative.The negative: kids not getting to bed 'on time' due mostly to the heat. It probably sounds like a cop-out, but the reality for me is that when the kids don't get off to sleep by 7.30pm or so, me having to go in and tell them to go to sleep, or stressing about when they are going to go to sleep, really drains me psychologically. And so I'm less likely to drag myself to the keyboard.And the heat itself. I had headaches pretty much all week which, again, aren't conducive to good writing time!The positive: I did two research sessions with tattooists this week. One with Davin at Brunswick Ink over at the Valley; the other with Matt Cunnington at Westside Tattoo at West End. I got to sit with both artists for over two hours and talk to them about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. Which was invaluable. Much more valuable than reading about tattooing or watching TV shows about tattooing. It was also good to see both ends of the scale. Brunswick Ink is relatively new, whereas Westside Tattoo has been around for ages and has built a really strong reputation.So, by Friday morning, I had zero words in the can. ZERO! I managed to get 1,500 done that morning before heading over to West End to meet Matt. I got another 1,500 done Friday evening. And then last night I was at my parents place with the kids. I didn't really expect to get any writing done. Then at about 10pm I opened the lappy. I surprised myself by hitting a really strong vein. After half an hour I had a thousand words. I felt like I was on a roll, so I kept going and by 11pm I had another thousand done.Mission accomplished!(By the way, I'm not trying to big-note myself regarding this 'feat'. This is very much a 'vomit draft' so will need a fair bit of work to get into shape. But for me, I need to get the words down. I need to feel some sort of progress happening to maintain morale!)
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Interesting interview with Will Elliott
You've now published an acclaimed debut novel (The Pilo Family Circus), a very personal memoir (Strange Places), two books of the Pendulum fantasy series, and you have another novel, Nightfall, waiting in the wings. You've previously said you wouldn't describe it as a 'career', but where do you feel you're at in your journey as a writer?I'll answer this one bluntly, if I may... I'm tired of doing this for less than half of minimum wage. Working on a book is an endeavour which takes over my life while it's in progress, especially in the rough draft phase. I obsess over it, stay up for long stretches, exclude most other aspects of normal life. It's not an option to do it part-time, especially with this poisonous brain medication I'm required to take. I have ample ideas and if it were feasible I could write 8-10 books over the next decade, maybe more. But circumstance is making it necessary to walk away and do something else. I won't shed too many tears either. Most of my last decade has been spent sitting before a PC screen in a room with no aircon, just chump change to my name. Kind of loses its appeal. There will be booing and hissing from the sidelines for this attitude, I invite them to try it for a decade and see how romatic it feels, especially with brain meds thrown in.
Read more at horrorscope.com.au
It's good to interview authors who aren't afraid to admit it's not all rainbows and unicorns once you 'crack it'.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Grant year, week four: writing, researching and planning
Still going strong with the word count -- 20k so I'm managing to keep up with my 5k/week plan. There's a real temptation to just pound out the words on my writing day, but I'm trying to avoid that. Part of my grant pitch was talking about how I wanted time to do proper research and planning. As I've learnt from my reporting days, this can be a situation where you put in a lot of effort, chasing leads. It looks as though nothing is going to come of it, and then all of a sudden you're run off your feet.And this is what has happened. I really wanted some firm background in tattooing, given that tattoos are such an important part of the book. So I've been chasing up various leads. And it seems like they're all coming to fruition at once. One of my Twitter friends, @blackvalo, put me onto Brunswick Ink Tattoo in the Valley. I'm going in tomorrow night to watch Davin do some tattooing. Earlier, I'd sent an email to Westside Tattoo over at West End, and they also got back to me this week. I'm going in on Friday to watch owner Matt do some tattooing. And an ABC colleague saw my tweeting and offered to share some of her insights. I gave her a call on Friday and we had a good chat, which was really helpful.People have suggested that I get a tattoo and be done with it. It has crossed my mind. I've got a design in my head that I think would be rather cool, but I don't know if I've got enough of a canvas for them to work with. (People who know me will know what I mean). Also, there's the cash side of it. We're not flush at the moment so that puts me off a bit. Maybe I should make a commitment to get a tattoo when I sell the manuscript!I've also been chasing some contacts to do some research on the SAS. Again, I want the segments involving the SAS to be as realistic as possible. I've read a few books about the SAS -- most recent SAS Sniper, by Rob Maylor (which is a great read, by the way). But I still have a few hypothetical situations that aren't covered in the books. Because my mind often drifts towards 'action', it would be handy having some solid military/special forces contacts. So I'm working to build some trust with people in the know.The other really important thing I did this week was sort out a rough plan for the entire novel. Last year, even though I wasn't writing Skin Deep, I was thinking about it a lot. I'd think of cool scenes and jot them down in my Scrivener file. So I had a whole heap of scenes relating to Harry's working life, his relationship situation and tattoos, in no particular order. For some reason, I've been procrastinating about putting them in order. I think I was worried that when I actually sat down to plan the book out, I wouldn't be able to find a place for all these scenes. Which wasn't the case at all. There were only maybe three out of 30 that I think may get dropped. (That's not to say all will survive until final draft).This is a big deal because I've managed to hit my word targets to date because over the past year I've done a lot of thinking about the opening scenes in the book. So I've been able to write this down so (relatively) easily. But to sustain this, I need to start thinking about the scenes coming up, so that when I sit down to write, I'm not going, 'Um, so what happens now'.The other thing I've started to notice is the inner critic rearing his ugly face. I've been told that I 'write fast', meaning that I tend to race through the plot without giving a lot of thought to scenery, characters, what the characters are thinking etc. I think part of the reason I do this is that my inner critic convinces me that I'm boring the reader. So, I've told the inner critic to fuck off. I need to let Skin Deep unfold at its own pace. And if I get the pacing wrong in the first draft, I can always tweak it in the subsequent drafts. I would rather cut when I'm editing than write new material once I'm out of 'the zone'. So, for now, I'm exploring pretty much every avenue of thought, getting it down, and then I'll cut later.Potentially, I could be a quarter of the way through my book. I've got a feeling thought that this first draft may be more like 100k than 80k.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Writers on Rafts: win a short story critique or t-shirt!
As you may already know, Queensland Writers Centre has launched Writers on Rafts to help raise money for those hit hard by the Queensland floods.More than 150 Australian authors are offering everything from author visits to manuscript appraisals, book packs and the chance to have a character named after you in their next book!To win, you choose which category you'd like to enter, and then if you win you get to choose your prize.I'm pitching in by offering two prizes:Short story critique: While I'm not as high profile as many of the editors and writers offering critiques, I have won One Book Many Brisbanes twice, have published over 20 short stories and also have a background in journalism, which means I'm really good with line editing.T-shirt: As well as writing, I also design t-shirts. Check out my designs at RedBubble. My personal fave at the moment is 'Guns don't kill zombies, people kill zombies (with guns)'.So please, head on over to Writers on Rafts and enter!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Grant year, week three: writing, research, 'location scouting'
[[posterous-content:pid___0]] Wrote 2,000 words this morning, over at Toowong Library.
Did a bit of research into the Kibeho Massacre, and the corageous efforts of ADF personnel to save people. Amazing stuff.
On the way home I took some photographs of the Paddington Water Tower, and surrounds. My protagonist lives on a street that leads up to the water tower. He moves in there after breaking up with his girlfriend.
So, I was walking down the street and, guess what? There's a house for rent down there which, in many respects, was how I imagined his house. It was a little bit spooky. (But then, I like spooking myself out).
Seeing the locations gave me a few ideas for scenes that wouldn't have occured to me otherwise.
I'm hoping to get another 1,000 words of actual writing done this afternoon. Possibly three between now and the end of the week.
Without the grant, this week would have been a blow-out, given the uncertainties with work (our building was flooding) and my wife being sick (possibly Ross River Fever). So, once again, it's amazing how much difference a 'writing day' can make, and again I thank the Australia Council for making it possible!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Strange days
The view from one of the three new homes of flood-displaced ABC News Online. Yep, it's a soccer club!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Grant year, week two: thinking and reading
This isn't officially week two. We were away on holidays and I was fairly confident I wouldn't get any actual writing done (although I did still pack the Mac, just in case) so I shifted my two 'grant days' to later in the year.What I did do was a lot of thinking. I've fleshed out more of my protagonist's back story, and I started thinking about how tattooed I want my 'tattooed man' to be.Saw plenty of tattoos on show at Noosa/Noosaville. I take a good look at every design I see now.I also got some solid reading done. I finished fellow Brisbane author Trent Jamieson's Managing Death (part 2 of his 'Death Works' series - good read) and also Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars (which is the darkest set of stories he's written for quite some time).And today my wife gave me a short break, so I managed to get a little bit of writing. Probably under a thousand words, but it takes my total count to close to 10,000, which is in the ballpark of the 5k a week that I'm hoping to get done. If I can hit that target I should have a first draft by the end of June, and that means I can spend the second half of the year knocking it into shape.I also did a bit of a rewrite on 'Ashes to Ashes', which I'm hoping to submit to Ticonderoga Publications' Damnation and Dames anthology. This isn't technically part of my grant, but I would like to keep a bit of momentum going with the short stories.
Please help Writers on Rafts
Via Paul Landymore:The Queensland Writer's Centre is looking for offers of good and services to auction for its Writer On Rafts Flood Appeal to raise money for the Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal.
Between Christmas and New Year plans where being drawn up for Writers On Rafts, to contribute funds to the Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal for those affected in north Queensland and upon return to work last week QWC staff were prepping plans to make this happen.Due the events of this week and our having to evacuate our offices in the State Library this project has become even more important and pertinent. QWC has thousands of members throughout Queensland and many will be affected by the flooding.Furious work is being done at the moment to finalise details with a dedicated website expected to go live Thursday 20th January with articles to appear in the press the following weekend. Brisbane author Rebecca Sparrow has been tirelessly garnering support from the writing community and the details so far of how this will operate are as follows:
1. Through the website there will be a number of prize categories available:
- Author visit (to your book club, writer's group, school etc.
- Writer Assistance (QWC workshop, MS critique etc.
- Character Name: Get a character named after you in your favourite author's next book.
- Book Pack.
Special Prize
- Ultimate Girly Morning Tea with Rebecca Sparrow, Jessica Rudd, Mia Freedman, Erica Bartle, Emily Jade O'Keefe and Francis Whiting.
In addition QWC will provide each category winner with a prize pack which consists of:
- Australian Market Writer's Place Online subscription.
- WQ electronic (PDF) subscription.
- QWC merchandise.
2. Those wanting to enter the drawer will go to the website and register their details for a cost of $5.00 for each prize they wish to win. If they wish to enter for the Special Prize the cost will be $20.00.
3. There will be a winner drawn for each category for each State so for example if you are the winner of an author visit and live in NSW you will have a choice of local authors.
4. Any prize books left over after the drawer will be donated to statewide libraries and schools affected by the floods.
5. We will be publishing a target of $10,000 to be raised.
6. All QWC staff, authors etc are giving their time free-of-charge to ensure the maximum amount of money reaches the Premier's Flood Appeal.
Please note, due to power loss the QWC server is down so please contact Paul Landymore, Operations and Development Manager at paul@landymore.net
Friday, January 14, 2011
We're okay!
Thanks to those who sent emails asking if we're okay. The answer is yes. We're actually on hols in Noosaville, so apologies for the delay. For once I'm away from my computer. (sending this from my phone) Our house should be okay because it's up high. Of course, there's plenty not so lucky. If you want to help out, please donate to the Premier's flood appeal.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Grant year, week one: writing and researching
Well, yesterday was my first official 'grant day' and, wow, what a difference a day makes.I knocked over 3,000 words and got a lot of researching done, plus a little bit of planning.You can keep track of my online research via my delicious links, with the skindeep'>http://www.delicious.com/garykemble/skindeep">skindeep tag.I made a lot of decisions about one of the key characters. I've now got a much stronger grip on who he was and what he was doing to land himself in the predicament he ended up in.I put out feelers for further, more hands-on research.The rain scotched my original plan for yesterday, which was to head over to Paddington and take some photos, then head into State Library for some research, then maybe over to West End to talk to some real-life tattooists.I want to take photos because I find that even though you can make stuff up, sometimes you miss the little details, and it's those details that make locations so real. Also, visiting the places you write about can spark ideas that you never would of thought of, sitting at your desk.The State Library research is primarily for stuff I can't get online -- books and old newspapers. Because my book has an element of investigative journalism, I want to see how Phil Dickie unravelled his stories about corruption in the Bjelke-Petersen government.And the visit to West End Tattoo. Well, that's kinda obvious. Tattooing is a major part of the story, and yet I've no experience with it, other than what I've seen on TV.So, even though I got none of that done, it was still a very productive day. I've got close to 7,000 words down, which puts me on track to have a first draft done by the end of June.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
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