THE WRITING LIFE - WRITING RETREAT – TWO WEEKS TO DEADLINE

Countdown to deadline – two weeks to go!

The blog's a bit late this week because I only got back from my latest writing retreat (more below) yesterday evening. If you're new to this blog, I'm sharing the experience of writing my third novel. It's been a challenge! I submitted a crappy first draft in January – I'm calling that a 'zero draft', or draft 1.A so I'm referring to this one as draft 1.B. It's now two weeks to my deadline...

Anyway, it's been a brilliantly productive week. This is what I said at the end of last week's post:

So, my goal for next week: edit seven chapters, draft final two (or three) chapters. 

How did I do? Mission accomplished! I ended up doing more editing than planned, because I ticked off those seven chapters, and then went back and did more tweaking and twiddling on a few others. Writing the final two chapters led to some changes I needed to make earlier in the novel, and there are still things I need to add in. I wasn't sure if it would be two or three chapters, but now I think it'll just be two, although I've also started drafting a short epilogue. Nothing detailed, just a brief sort of 'this is where they all are six months later'.

The other thing I've done this week is to move from working in Scrivener to working on a Word document. I compiled the draft in Scrivener, saved it in Word, and from now on, will be working entirely on that document. Spent ages this week checking the indentations, making sure the chapters are numbered and spaced correctly etc etc – boring stuff, but it has to be done.

One of the reasons I've managed to achieve and exceed my goal this week is that I spent a few days on a writing retreat. I've been here several times before and can highly recommend it. http://www.anniemckie.co.uk/

The wonderful host, Annie, who is also a writer so understands writers' needs perfectly, brings delicious, home-cooked meals to your room at agreed times so you don't have to think about anything but your writing. You get your own room with shower and loo and your own back door so you can come and go as you please (though I didn't even leave the room this time!) There's also a lovely balcony overlooking the Forest of Dean, so in fine weather, you can even sit outside and work.

So, I got loads of work done, even though I lost half a day's work due to some ongoing stomach problems. Actually, I should warn you, next week's post may contain a bit of moaning and shameless requests for sympathy, because on Monday, which is my usual blog-writing day, I'm having a gastroscopy (camera down the throat and into the stomach). Had these twice before, and it's NOT my idea of a fun day out!

Anyway, let's not think about that (oh shit, now I'm thinking about that...)

Time to set a goal for next week: Edit my final two chapters, finish drafting the epilogue, and add in two little incidents I've come up with for earlier in the book. That's probably enough, given that I only have five days before I'll be posting again. Then I'll have a full week to read the manuscript and make any final alterations and corrections before submitting this draft.

Finally, I came back from the retreat to find my author copies of the Polish version of The Things We Never Said. The title is Przemilczenia, which Google translates as Silence, though there might be more nuance than that. I have three copies to give away if you read Polish, or have Polish friends who might fancy it. There are also three German copies going spare. The German version is called Ich Habe Dich Immer Geliebt, which translates as, I Have Always Loved You.

If you're in the UK and you'd like one of these, get in touch through the contact page of my website (the 'comments' facility on blogger isn't always reliable) with your name and address, and I'll post you a copy. First-come, first-served, obviously.

See you next week, when it's one week to deadline!

If you'd like to know more about me and my work, visit my website, like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter

THE WRITING LIFE - IT OFFICIAL, THE FIRST DRAFT IS CRAP!

Just a short post this week to keep you up-to-date. The last post was about me celebrating – drinking champagne, no less – because I'd finished and sent off the first draft of my 3rd novel. In that post, I made it clear that I was expecting to have to do a lot more work. I knew there were problems, particularly with the structure, but I'd got too close to be able to look at it objectively.

My wonderful agent and editor both read it quickly – they knew I'd be biting my nails down to the knuckles. Also, I've never pretended this book wasn't proving particularly difficult, so perhaps they both suspected there would be a lot to do and wanted to get a head start!

Anyway, there is a lot to do, as expected. From our initial chats and emails, it looks like it will be a VERY, VERY LOT. More, even, than I'd anticipated. I'll know more after we have a meeting next week, but it seems there's a lot that's not working at the moment. I suspect it won't be so much a case of murdering a few darlings as embarking on some wholesale slaughter!

About halfway through writing this draft (which had already gone through a major change of plan from the original idea – I cut a whole storyline and about 30,000 words!) I began to understand what I was really writing about. And therein lies one of the major problems, I think.

Of course I went back and did a lots of rewriting when my characters began to go in a different direction, but in hindsight, I wonder if what I was doing was the equivalent of realising I'd made a chicken dopiaza instead of a chicken madras and then trying to sort it out by pouring off half the sauce and whacking in the extra spices. What I really need to do is wash all the sauce off, grab some fresh garlic and ginger and start combining the spices again from scratch.

I have lots of ingredients; some of them are good ingredients which are right for this novel; some are good ingredients but need to be set aside for something else, and the remainder need to be binned completely. I also need to bring in some fresh ingredients. Okay, I can no longer bear the screams of that metaphor so I'll stop torturing it. But you get the gist.

On the upside this week, I've been catching up with some reading, including 50,000 words of a novel I started writing a few years ago and abandoned because I got stuck. While I can't instantly see where that novel should go, there's a lot of good material there which I'm sure will form the basis for my 4th novel.

I'm thinking a lot about book three, of course, but am very much looking forward to those thoughts becoming more focused after the meeting next week. There's a lot of thinking ahead, and a serious amount of hard work, but I know it'll be worth it, so bring it on!

Here's a picture that may just be the light at the end of the tunnel – something I hope to see before too long!

If you'd like to know more about me and my work or keep an eye on what I'm up to, visit my website, 'like' my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @sewelliot