And SFF Says -

- that she really enjoyed reading the voyage section. She had a few comments and suggestions, but nothing major. Hmm.

Awaiting SFF Review

My wife, SFF, finished the 4th Chunk while I was asleep next to her after getting home from work at 0600 in the morning. She mentioned it as we were running errands this morning and I asked her to hold off on commenting until were were home so I could take notes. Her feedback is invaluable and it all goes down in the laptop so I eventually will cover every point she makes.

I don't know how anyone could write a quality book - or at least do their best writing - without a close or intimate friend who can read it and offer honest comments and criticisms. I'm sure there are people that have do so - its hard to imagine Poe taking his stuff round the pub for some light hearted feedback - but I don't know how to do it. SFF's help will greatly improve my results.

From how many people is it possible to get valuable feedback? My plan is that I finish the first draft, then embark on The Great Rewrite, incorporating SFF's feedback, all of my own, as well as all the changes that occur in the flow of the rewrite. Then I will mail manuscripts of the second draft to my parent's, brother, sister, and a friend. Right now my guess is that their feedback will not result in any major changes, but will instead result in catching errors, inconsistencies and unclearness.

I've rambled a bit from the intent of this post, which was simply to record my anticipation of what SFF will say.

Time To Write

How do you find the time to write?

Everyone must face that problem, probably even authors like Stephen King, who are full time professional writers, but nonetheless have demands on their time just live everyone else.

Writing on the side must make it orders of magnitude tougher, though, especially because of the nature of the creative process and its demands on one's brain and energy.

I mean, if you're trying to find the time to hit the golf course, or go to the gym a pickup basketball game, or a dance class, you just have to get your ass off the couch and go. To get decent words down on the page I have to have the next scenes clear in my head, have energy, have creativity and, most importantly, have the motivation. How often do those stars line up such that you can get in a good session?

If you can't write until the kids are in bed you may have an undisturbed workspace, but how much energy is left after the day job and dealing with those same kids?

I thought I was going to get in a good session yesterday, but circumstance conspired against me and after some literary housekeeping I only got 400 words into the laptop.

What's frustrating is that my motivation has never been higher, I'm in the home stretch, I have a goal to reach and the most-fun part of the story is happening - if I can just find the time to get it down.

Creativity

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this project has been the opportunity to be creative. Depending on one's job and/or hobbies creativity may well be a nearly forgotten word to someone in middle age. Writing a novel is creative, certainly, and the overall plan of the book is creative, but what has been most fun is having an idea right in the middle of a writing session and immediately putting it to use.

A recent example is that when Silas arrived in San Francisco he did so aboard a sailing ship that dropped anchor off the frantically growing city (the setting is 1849). How to get him off the ship?

There are reasons why he couldn't just walk off but still, as originally conceived, he was going to get himself ashore in a fairly straightforward way.

Then came an idea, then another idea of a complicating factor, then another of how to resolve it, and by the time Silas was on dry land and walking into the city a new minor character had been created - a character I hadn't planned on, one who hadn't existed an hour prior, and one who will go forward with the novel.

That was fun.

Nice Comment!

My wife, SFF, offered an unsolicited comment last night. She's been reading the 4th Chunk, which has Silas, my protagonist, on a sailing ship going from New Orleans to San Francisco. She's not to the point where he's around Cape Horn yet, but she offered that she was "really enjoying" the voyage.

This was a very nice surprise, not only because SFF doesn't sugarcoat things, but because I had such a hard time writing the at-sea part. Fans of this blog (both of you) may recall that in my head the voyage was initially a kind of necessary hiatus to get Silas from New Orleans, where he was done, to San Francisco, where I wanted him to be. I got pretty blocked over it, until I realized that the important thing was what was going on with Silas, not where he was physically located.

Altogether, a really motivating remark because I've been worried that the voyage would be a weak section of the novel.

Verbosity

Word count is always in the back of my mind, although I've resolved to let the story run where it will and tell it as best I can, word count be damned. But.......here is an example of why I'm at 158,000 words so far:

The good ship Progress dropped anchor at its destination at last and 2,400 words later Silas set foot on the the shore of San Francisco. TwentyFourHundredWords?

Why couldn't have been something like "The ship dropped anchor in the Bay and by first light the next morning I was standing on the golden shore of California." 23 words instead of 2,400.

The answer, of course, is that there were things that had to happen and things that Silas had to do before reaching shore, all of which had to be expressed in my riveting prose, but I worry about verbosity. My wife, SFF, says it adds richness. (Very supportive of her as she hasn't read this part yet).

Richness? Wordiness? Time will tell, but its all subject to edit when the time comes.

Ship Drops Anchor

The good ship Progress has dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay. Silas has at long last reached California and is ready to abandon ship and join the Gold Rush. He is ten days ahead of the revised schedule, and only three weeks behind the original schedule.

The next sub-goal, a major one, is to finish the final chunk of the novel, the Gold Rush section, so that the rough draft is completed by December 20th, at which time we're going down to San Jose, CA for a family Christmas. I really, really need to get it done by then - it would be a great Christmas present to myself.

The biggest obstacle to reaching that goal is that there is a TON of stuff planned for this final section, all the threads drawn together for resolution, if I can accomplish that. I think the word count is really going to bloat (155,400 as of the SFO arrival). On the other hand, I've really been looking forward to the California section so, motivation being the primary factor in accomplishment, I'm optimistic that the rough draft will be done by Christmas.

Another benefit to reaching this current sub-gaol is that when I get home I'll be printing the 4th Chunk - New Orleans to San Francisco - and presenting it to my wife, SFF, for reading and review. Her comments and criticism are invaluable.

Here we go - full court press to the finish.