Writing, Not Writing and Boats.

Writing.

I haven't added very much to Proctor:  The Art of Killing this week.  My target was 23,000 words and I'm only just up to 18k.  I might manage another thousand or so today, but I'll be adjusting my target downwards for next week.

The story is a departure from the style I've used in previous novels, and I've had to go back over chapter two in some detail to try and get the balance between atmosphere and story right.  The action comes thick and fast from the off and when I initially read back through chapter two, the atmosphere was thin.  If you have ships in space and space stations and you move FTL from place to place, there's always this sense of wonder and awe that naturally comes with it.  To achieve the same from something that is basically a chase across a really quite uninspiring region of a relatively uninspiring planet is quite tricky.  I thought I could describe the location right at the start and then just keep nudging the action along, but if you don't pay real attention to the atmosphere, the story and characters become two dimensional, and we don't want that, do we?

Anyway, I re-wrote chapter two paying a lot of attention to the feel of the location and I'm very pleased with the result.  I took the same approach to writing chapter three and once more - happy with that.

Yesterday, I saw my good friend and trusty beta-reader, Arthur Edwards, who delivered a treat for me...

A drop of Emma Rain's favourite tipple.

Anyway, after a chat with Arthur and Irene, it got me thinking more about the depth of the story and how I like to stray away from using a single style in a book, and gave me a few ideas for chapter four.  Which brings me on to...

Not Writing.

Sometimes I hit a wall.  It's not writer's block - I don't believe in writer's block.  A writer friend of mine told me that the thing that defines a writer is writing.  A writer writes and that's the end of it.  I can always write, it's just that sometimes it won't be very good, but as I shall explain, that's not a problem.

I can be writing one book and a piece of story-line will pop in to my head.  It may not be usable for the story I'm currently writing - perhaps it will break continuity or mess up the plot too much to make it work, but one in ten of those times, it might expand to an idea for the plot line of a new book.  I have a notepad I scribble ideas like that down in and sometimes I might go back and fiddle with them again.  And maybe one of them will become a book.

The point is, ideas that become books don't come often - maybe a couple a month, and maybe one in ten is usable, but in the course of writing a book, I might come up with one or two good ideas.  I don't need my imagination firing on all cylinders every day to achieve this.  And the same's true when I write.  I've written out the plot, I've broken it down in to chapters, all I need to do is put one word after another until it's a story and the point is - I can always do that.  And then, on the occasional days where I'm really feeling it, I can go back through and re-write and as long as every part of the jigsaw is there, it will eventually become a thing that twists and plays with your mind.  Before the book reaches the reader, I try to be as happy as I can be with every part of it - by the time you read it, all of it has been edited and re-written a few times at least.

OK - so after the issues I had with chapter two, I thought I would be OK and the following chapters would just roll out as they usually do, but I just couldn't get to it.  I had a busy week work-wise, so it was hard to find time to really get in to it, but somehow there was more to it than just that.  After a chat with Arthur and Irene and a sleep, I realised I needed to expand the scope of the story a little.  This goes against the principle of the writing style that I was employing for this novella, but talking to Arthur made me realise that in my previous books - well NTiS and Gaps anyway - I do chapters that are a break from the over all style.  One of those breaks, in The Gaps Between The Stars is actually of a similar style to the way I'm writing The Art of Killing - so why not try it the other way around?  Add a chapter that explores the character and motivations of the antagonist, for instance....?  Well, I like the idea of that and it will briefly change the pace of the book, giving the reader a pause from the headlong dash and at the same time, building a large three-dimensional scaffold around the story.  It's what I was missing and I'm pleased it's come to mind - I'm raring to go again.

Anyway, if it wasn't challenging, it wouldn't be good, right?

A quote for you...

"As he pushed between two trees, something ahead of him stirred. He pushed slowly forwards to get a better view. A blood-soaked patch marked where the man with the launcher had fallen. He'd thrashed for a little while, flattening the undergrowth around him, but now mostly lay still in the centre of the small area. There were holes through his chest and stomach, and his right knee was just a lump of protruding bone and flaps of skin held together by bloody-sinewy threads, his lower leg going away at an unnatural angle, his foot pointing the wrong way. Proctor silently drew the knife from the sheath in the small of his back and slit his throat."

Boats.

A little update on boats.  As those that actually bother to read my blog will know, I'm off to live on a boat later this year.  The market in second hand boats is starting to swell again, ready for the season and I've pretty much decided what I want.  Top choice would be a Norman 27.

Front cabin of the out-of-the-factory boat sleeps four in a v-berth and pullman diner.

On the left in this picture, the door leads to a basic head (toilet).  It's possible to lose part of the pullman to expand the head and add a shower.  Also, some boats have part of the galley removed and a small wood-burning stove added.  A very helpful lady from Fairies Hill Moorings Ltd sent me a stove installation guide and a few people in a narrowboats facebook group gave me some ideas on wood burners.  I looked at power options, and with a Norman 27, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to generate most of my own power.  Four hundred watts of solar panels, four leisure batteries and a mains inverter and most of the comforts of home will be mine.

It's hard to find pictures of the rear cabin of a Norman 27, but there's plenty of space to sleep two in there, so this will be my little hide-away when people come to stay with me - they can have the front end and I'll pile up my crap in the back.

The other two options I'm seriously considering are:

Burland 26 - this has a separate front cabin, but is aft cockpit.

And the Norman 32 (this is a beautiful example of a Mark I)

It has the advantage of a stern deck, but this area will need a cover most of the year round, and I wonder if it will be more of a burden than an advantage.