Allowing yourself to start again

Two or three months ago I started writing the overview and outline for my next novel. I'd had the idea for many years, even writing a few pages of it as a screenplay, but now after finishing and releasing the fourth Louise Miller crime novel, 'TIL IT BLEEDS, I wanted to write something other than gritty historical Yorkshire crime. Out of all my ideas, The Vote was the one that shouted the most to be heard.

So I started on an overview which quickly morphed from the original idea into something even larger in scope (and the original idea is quite a big one already). It changed from a modern setting into a near-future dystopian one, which in turn led me to creating an entire world-building bible complete with timeline, explanation of the new world system, technologies and more. So much more.

The knock on effect of this 12 page, 3000 word document was a much more detailed outline of the novel than I've ever done before. For the Louise Miller books, each one had a 1-3 page outline, with bullet points for each chapter; perhaps a sentence or two. This version of The Vote had 46 pages and over 18'000 words with each chapter being broken down into every story beat. I also did this for book 2 in what had now become a four book series. Even more, I had rough outlines for a further two more series all set within what I had now called The Codex Universe; 10 books altogether. Each with their own outlines.

I then started writing the first draft. If you've been checking in, you'll have seen the word count tracker rising steadily over the last month, getting up to 15'000 words - I've actually written a lot more than that, closer to 25'000. At first I was loving it, really enjoying getting the words down each day, aiming for 750 clean new words. Most times I got a lot more than that.

But pretty soon after starting, I found myself quite bored. I'd outlined the book so detailed that in my mind, I'd already written the whole thing. I felt there were no little avenues to go exploring, no secrets to unearth. It felt stale as well as slightly forced. Lucy had read some of it and thought it was really good but I just wasn't feeling it. I tried to get some inspiration by reading the last two original Hunger Games books as well as Station Eleven by Emily St. John, but that didn't work either.

So I stopped writing. I moved all the outlines, world bible and drafts to a new folder and saved it all away. Then I cracked open a new word document to write the original pitch for the story, which is:

THE VOTE: What if an alien vessel suddenly appeared over Long Eaton? What if all power, social structure and leadership failed? How would people react? What would be the fallout of such an arrival? And then, what if they demanded that the world give up half its population or face extinction and were given a 90 day countdown to decide by an electronic Vote. How would you decide? How would I?

I gave myself to the end of December to write the book, and have gone with a 1500 word a day target, allowing me time to write around my busy daily schedule, while at the same time ensuring I can get good, clean words down each day.

It's okay to start again, if not entirely from scratch, but back to the original idea. Sometimes you have to go several steps forward on a project only to have to scootch back a long ways to get it right. What I have written in the dystopian draft can be used in some way in the new draft. Certain names of characters and locations for instance will be re-used but tweaked slightly, or gone at from a different angle.

The main character, David Holt, is still a novelist. His wife is still Sarah and their two kids, Leo and Maya are still adorable. What I'm not doing is fully fleshing out the story this time. I know the beginning; I know the ending - that has never changed. I'm not going to bullet point the chapters just yet, but I have made a few notes for chapter 1.

This new draft already has 1000 words written and I feel a lot happier with them. That's not to say things may change again, but I'm hoping I'm on the right track this time.

Join my newsletter

There was no blog post this week, but I did update the site, along with a few teasers for the new book I am writing.

Sign up to my monthly newsletter to be one of the first to an excerpt from The Vote and learn more as I complete the book and start pitching to agents.

Writing with intention

A few days ago, I started work on a new novel. I'd had the idea for quite some time, and it had already gone through a few different iterations over the years. At first it was a screenplay, then a short story, and then a few weeks ago it became something else entirely.

I sat down and started to jot down everything I thought I knew about the world in which the story would be set, and that just exploded. From an initial What if... concept came an entire universe of setting, story and expansion, leaving me with a world-building document that could happily keep me writing for several years in this new setting.

Before I knew it--actually it was about two weeks--I had fleshed out a good outline and chapter breakdown of a novel, and set myself a goal of writing just 750 words a day.

Now, normally when I write, and as had been the case with the Louise Miller books, I would be looking at a daily word count of 2'000. 750? Surely that's too low?

Well, this is a different kind of novel for me to write. Without giving too much away just yet, here's a couple of snippets from the project overview:

...explores the ultimate emotional tariff of choice, asking a fundamental question about the human condition: Does true survival require the surrender of our moral dignity, or is a life without defiance a slow spiritual death?

... to examine the raw, enduring geometry of human love, memory, and regret. 

There are some big topics I want to explore here, and with a word count of 750, I can ensure I take the time to make every word count. That each sentence, each paragraph can be structured with the themes in mind.

Writing with intention, and not just churning it out with the aim of fixing everything in the rewrites. I started this practice towards the end of writing 'Til It Bleeds, (only £2.99 😎) with the last couple of chapters being pretty clean once finished. It was the rest of the book, especially the early parts that required quite a lot of editing and rewriting. I don't want to waste that time here.

So far I've written 8 pages, around 2250 words, and they are the cleanest work I've ever done. Sure, there'll be a couple of word swaps later, there's always room for a tidy up, but as for structure, pacing etc... I'm really happy with it.

Each day I set aside around 3 hours to work on the next 750 words. No music. No distractions. Just me , the rough outline and the book. I'm taking my time - the scheduled finish date for this is the end of November - and really enjoying this new approach to writing. I think I'm getting the best work I've ever done from it, and each day (so far) I've been excited to get back to the laptop and continue.

I'll get a little further in before I start revealling a bit more about what I'm actually writing as I'd much rather put the energy into actually writing the book rather than talking about the book to come, so if I go quiet on it for a few months, you now know why.

But if you're working on a book or story yourself, try limiting your daily word count so you can slow down and write with a little more intention. You may surprise yourself.

 

 

To Be Read - what's on my list

I have way too many books waiting to be read. 

From low fantasy to literary via crime and scifi, these are the books I've amassed and have sat waiting for their time. 

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins - currently reading)
2. The Hunger Games: Mockinjay (Suzanne Collins)
3. The Hunger Games: The Ballard Of Songbirds And Snakes (Suzanne Collins)
4. Fairy Tale (Stephen King)
5. Duma Key (Stephen King)
6. Camino Island (John Grisham)
7. Camino Winds (John Grisham)
8. Camino Ghosts (John Grisham)
9. Druid Of Shannara (Heritage of Shannara #2: Terry Brooks)
10. Elf Queen Of Shannara (Heritage of Shannara #3: Terry Brooks)
11. Talismans Of Shannara (Heritage of Shannara #4: Terry Brooks)
12. The Last Chairlift (John Irving)
13. In One Person (John Irving)
14. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
15. A Prayer For Owen Meany (John Irving)
16. The Fourth Hand (John Irving)
17. A Widow For One Year (John Irving)
18. Until I Find You (John Irving)
19. Shards Of Earth (The Final Architecture #1: Adrian Tchaikovsky)
20. Eyes Of The Void (The Final Architecture #2: Adrian Tchaikovsky)
21. Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture #3: Adrian Tchaikovsky)
22. Dune (Frank Herbert)
23. Dune Messiah (Frank Herbert)
24. Children Of Dune (Frank Herbert)
25. God Emperor Of Dune (Frank Herbert)
26. Heretics Of Dune (Frank Herbert)
27. Chapterhouse: Dune (Frank Herbert)

What's on your TBR list?

New price for Ebooks

Hi all

It has been a busy few weeks. 'Til It Bleeds got an early launch, and has done pretty well so far despite the marketing being planned for June to advertise the launch. But even without a lot of noise about it, people have picked up the book and are reading it. Thank you so much!

Another exciting thing was seeing the first star rating come through on both Goodreads and Amazon: 5 stars! Sadly no review to accompany it, but hey! I'm not complaining. A five star recommendation already. Happy days!

The Cost of Living Crisis

All that being said, I am acutely aware of the current economic climate across the world, and its steady decline. Prices are going up everywhere for everything, and if they haven't yet, they will be. It is the natural progression of supply chain issues, caused for the main part, by the ill-conceived war in the Middle-East. Oil and Gas prices are soaring - February it cost £36 to fill my car with fuel from near empty to full; this week it cost £61; that's a 69% price rise. Food prices are also climbing and there will be shortages soon. We're already seeing it on our shelves here, but no one is talking about it, certainly not our Government. 

All of that to say, that I understand how, and why, people are being very careful with their money right now, cutting back on those expenses which are considered frivolous, such as hobby spending like Kindle Unlimited or ebooks.

I've taken the decision to lower the price of all my ebooks to £2.99. The first in the series, Dirty Little Secret, remains at £0.99. This is the lowest I can put the books to make it more affordable for readers, while at the same time bringing earning a modest income. All future books in the Louise Miller series will also be at the same £2.99 price.

As for the physical books, the paperbacks and hardbacks have had their prices reduced to the lowest I can and still earn from them. I've questioned whether or not to continue with the physical books as the prices are, quite frankly, staggering. The only reason I am considering keeping them is that they are available in libraries - it earns me a pittance, and only a yearly royalty paid out, so from a "business" point of view it isn't viable - but it means people have access to my books who may not be able to afford to buy them, even at £2.99, or even like digital books.

Look at that, you just saw the decision making process take place - I'm keeping the physical books for that very reason. I'll keep the prices the lowest I can, and they'll be available as well from your local library.

What I'm writing

At the moment I'm tinkering with some short stories I've wanted to write for some time, using them as a way to keep the writing habit alive as I gear up to start work on a new novel. I'm also writing longhand, taking time on a morning to get an hour or so in while the rest of the house sleeps. It's hard going, retraining the hand to use a pen rather than tapping away at a keyboard. It slows me down, lets me think more through the word choice and language used and so far, I'm enjoying it.

I've some new notebooks on the way to use for the novel; they should arrive towards the end of next week, and I've been cleaning out my favourite fountain pen to use. This isn't a Louise Miller novel, it isn't even a crime novel I'll be working on, but it is a story I've held for a long time and I think now is the time to write it.

I'll post some more updates later down the line.

Our Allotment

Lucy and I have started growing our own food, taking up an allotment which we have spent the last few weeks working on (yesterday we had 2 tonnes of compost delivered and spent a couple of hours moving it in the pouring rain - our muscles are crying out today!), the plan being to grow as many vegetables, fruit and salad leaves as we can, as well as provide for several members of our extended family as well.

I have to say I am loving it. Spending time with Lucy, out in the fresh air, surrounded by quiet, and doing good work. Hard work. I marvelled when I discovered we had a frog in the little pond at the back of the site. I spent time just watching a couple of pigeons fluttering around in the trees. It's a nice pause, away from the screens and scrolling.

So far we have potatoes planted, but the beds we put down and filled with the new compost yesterday will have lots of different veg put in soon - courgettes, tomatoes, beans etc. It's fun as well learning about them, when to plant, how to water them etc. It's a whole new hobby!