Just a quickie. My father arrives in Chennai tomorrow and we're doing a few tours around the old subcontinent. Plan to spend a little bit of time on the backwaters of Kerala, visit the mountains to the south of us at Ooti (sounds like a Dr. Who character) and finally visit the Taj Mahal and see what all the fuss is about.
I'm doing re-writes on 'Stigma,' based on comments from my Beta readers and realised I need a better pay off at the end of novel. This will take up until the end of March, then I'll pick up 'Waters Deep' and write a first draft.
In the meantime, here's a little piece I wrote called 'The Pros & Cons of Being a Writer,' which has been published on the blog The Feckless Goblin which is looked after by the nice Mr. Kinsella who keeps the rather cool Weaponizer website.
Two of my beta reader have got back to me now, so I'm going to start making a few changes to 'Stigma'. These will be mainly areas of the story where I need to perhaps be a little more explicit with an idea or concept. I want to get this complete by the end of next week so I can get a first version out to my agent. Once it is out I plan to pick up a new project that I have mentally titled 'Waters Deep.' This is what I'll work on for the next six months, so expect lots of watery, flood-ey, sea-ey based links here.
In the mean time I've been working on short story that seems to have died and which I'll file away until I'm in a better place to write it, a humour piece entitled 'The Pros and Cons of being a writer,' which I hope to place with a website soon and a short film based on holiday videos made last year in NYC and my love of Woody Allen. You can see the video below:
A couple of good links I've found recently for writing. The first is the Electronic Literature Volume 2 (I assume there is a vol. 1, somewhere) which has a selection of new form writings where the electronic and written word intersect. I find this interesting because, as we move towards ebooks overtaking actual real world items, the barriers between the written word, film, music and visuals are going to fall down. I haven't seen any ebooks yet that makes use of such experimental forms, but I bet someone is working on them as I type.
The second link is to Ambiance. This is an audio service that allows you to listen to the music of every day life. When deep in writing I find I can only listen to music without lyrics and therefore listen to a lot of jazz, blues and experimental sounds. Ambiance might be useful for when I want to visual a scene and want some kind of audio trigger. I'll try water for 'Waters Deep,' and let you know how it works.
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McSweeney's 29 by Various - I must admit I'm a sucker for cool jacket design and beautifully tooled, well finished books. This is the main reason I like McSweeney's Quarterly Concern (which still has no subscription service in the UK that doesn't include paying more in airfare than the actual books). Most of the works in McSweeney's 29 left me a bit a cold. I think they're a bit too American for my taste and some of the references are lost on me (I have a vague idea who Hilary Duff is, but have never seen Lizzie McGuire, which I think is a US kids show). However, Roddy Doyle's piece 'The Painting,' is well structured and seems effortless even when it obviously isn't, and Brian Baise's opening work is a good meditation on misplaced anger. The rest however didn't really do anything for me.
Working on bits and bobs at the moment. 'Stigma' has gone out to beta readers and whilst I've had one return already, I'm not expecting the others back until next week. I've got several things on the go that I'm trying to get into a state so that I can pick one of them up after I finish any re-writes on 'Stigma'. I want to get input from my agent on these, as at the moment I'm thinking it's only worth working on projects if they are commercially viable. I know that this sounds a little like selling out, but to be a writer full time you need an income and at the moment I don't have one. If the 'Juvie' series gets published I'll still need several more works published before I get anywhere close to that.
The small stuff is a short story idea that doesn't seem to want to go anywhere and I might just forget about, an amusing essay on 'The Pros and Cons of Being a Writer,' that I might send out to a writing blog, two novel concepts and I've also got this weird comic book idea I want to do, but I need to hook up with an artist.
My father is coming out to India a week tomorrow and we plan to do a little more travelling. I want to see the Taj Mahal and Delhi (because I don't think you've seen a country until you've been to the capital) and visit some of the countryside south of Chennai. After that it's Australia and New Zealand.
With 'Stigma' out with beta readers I'm in new idea mode. Going through all those concepts and images that filter through my mind whilst I'm writing that I squirrel away with the intention of coming back to at some point and adding a little meat to the bones. Currently I'm thinking of a new YA sci-fi light series involving multi-dimensions, a series of YA environmental horror books, a comic book series for adults about dead celebrities and a weird fantasy Edinburgh novel. Hopefully one of them will build into something I wish to dedicate my time to.
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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
If you’re interested in sci-fi books and pay any attention to reviews and book prizes you’ll already know that ‘The Windup Girl’ has been singled out for praise by most of the big reviewing magazines and won last year’s Nebula. This is quite as is should be, as the work is simply brilliant. No bones about it. This mainly comes down to Bacigalupi’s skill as a world builder. I’ve only been to Thailand once, but this book transported me straight back to those humid streets. It’s a richly observed futuristic version in which the city pulses with the energy that Bangkok exhibits today.
A multiple character story that follows the demise of the city in an apocalyptic world where food, or more precisely calories, have become the de-facto trading commodity. A world where ecological parasites and diseases, grown in company labs, have wiped out whole countries and flipped the world in favour of the East. Bangkok survived, but only by hoarding carefully selected seed stocks and shutting the country off from the outside world - a bit like Japan in the 17th Century.
The story is political and social in aspect, charting the business and economic collapse of an authoritarian state. The gambling behind the scenes as powerful individuals attempt to move the country in one way or another, always at the expense of the vast majority, play against those who are thrust into the shifting landscape through no fault of their own.
The language draws you into the world, giving characters identifiable traits, but making them live on the page. They have realistic goals, never simply reacting to the action but instead manipulating the events to get the best result for themselves.
As of yesterday I finished the first reading version of ‘Stigma.’ This is different to a first draft which is just a rough cut. This version has gone through several iterations and is the first version that I allow to see the daylight. It comes into the world innocent, covered in bloody goo and incapable of making a good cup of coffee; but it’s a start.
The novel (a term I can now really use) goes out to beta readers. These are the dear people who get to see the first version and let me know if all the effort has indeed been worthwhile. I’ve sent them a list of question, or elements to take into account when reading the book. They tend to be things like:
Story - does it engage you as a reader? Did you guess where it was going before reading. Is there anything that does not make sense to you?
World Building - does the setting seem real? Can you imagine it, smell it, understand how it works? Does anything not seem convincing.
Characters - do they seem real, are they sufficiently involved in the underlying concept of the story? Do they evolve over time and grow. Have they any flaws - too simple, their actions don't make sense, are they contrived?
Language - does it scan and read correctly? Did you find yourself stumbling over any of the sentences or paragraphs? Did you have to re-read sections of the book for it to make sense? Does the language fit the reading material?
Spelling / Grammar - Doesn't matter how many times I re-write errors always slip in.
The beta readers are a great help to me as they are the first audience, the opening night jeerers if you will. They give me the confidence to send the book on to my agent and ultimately publishers.
All being well, they should get back to me within the next couple of weeks. In the mean time, I’ve been putting a lot of links to other writers essays and advice on Twitter. I’ve put some of these below because I know that not all of you indulge in the blue bird, plus it makes it easier for me to find them in the future. Enjoy.
