A beginning, a middle and an end - In that order

The first version of 'Stigma' is now complete. The book has a beginning, a middle and an end - in that order, because I find that's best. It has a host of characters, a setting, narrative ark and themes. Beginning Monday, next week, I'll start the first rewrite. This is where the fun bits starts as the themes that became more obvious close to the end of the book can be extrapolated and explored across the whole story. Traits in the characters likewise can grow and the sci-fi elements that get created can be refined and made more integral to the novel. All in all, I'm pleased with it. It feels part of the 'Juvie' universe, but at the same time a book in its own right. It also leaves a fascinating story element to cover in the third book.

Today I'm going to reduce the amount of open info points I have from around the net. The problem with having 'always on' internet access, an iPad with RSS readers and a computer that downloads pod casts automatically, means I end up with all sorts of things that I never actually get to watch, read or listen to. So today I'm going to kick back and look at:

• The Guardian Books Podcast - useful for finding out what is happening in the world of literature.
• Intelligence Squared - podcasts and video of interesting debates and arguments 
• BBC World Book Club - interviews with writers
• Vincent - An app from the VG Museum all about Vincent Van Gogh that I never got around to watching.
• Open University - A talk on Cyborgs and cybernetics and talks on the creative writing process.
• Plus the numerous RSS feeds and website I have a daily look at (Boing Boing, Guardian, Gaiman, Ellis, TED, Wired etc etc etc).

Should keep me busy.

I also have the inkling for a short story, that I might get around to starting.

As it's raining, I'm not going anywhere.

Still Working Away in the Heat of India

I’m still here in Chennai, India, and I’m still beavering away on book two in the ‘Juvie’ series. I’m probably about a week or two away from the first full typescript. This isn’t the first draft as it contains lots of mistakes, ideas, concepts and notes that need to be fully explored. Only when I start a rewrite of the typescript will I get anywhere close to a full first draft, which all going well should be just before Christmas.

Already ‘Stigma’, as book two is called, has changed focus once, replaced the main character and introduced new concepts into the second half of the book that need to be incorporated back into the first half.

Apart from the writing I’ve been catching up on all that reading I’ve been promising myself. This includes:

The Fry Chronicles: Lovey, national treasure, voice of the establishment. Stephen Fry is all of the above and so much more. I read his technical reviews, his regular tweets, his books and watch his shows. I remember him from the early days of stand-up (which this autobiography covers) to his more recent sell out nights at the Royal Albert Hall (where I finally got to see him, live). He writes better than anyone I know when it comes to ‘passing on a story,’ and whilst sometimes he can be just a bit too ‘lovey’ in this book, it's still worth reading.

Kraken: Mieville is one of my favourites and I was looking forward to this book which has been reviewed as a tour de force and ‘fun’ work after the serious and hidden depths of ‘The City & The City.’ It is indeed lighter, but I found it slowed down by Mieville’s own use of language. I often found myself rereading action passages to understand what was happening, plus I had to reach for the dictionary twice. This worked well in his other books, but here it slows the pace slightly. Very much like a wordy ‘Neverwhere.’

To Say Nothing of the Dog: A time travel comedy that takes it cues from Jerome K. Jerome. Winner of both the Hugo and Locus, this is a slow building, light novel that pitch perfectly picks up on the language and mores of the 1890s. If anything it made me want to read some of JKJ’s work.

Now back to writing.

Read this week:

The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry

Kraken by China Mieville

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis