The low-down on the down-low

Reader, I confess, I haven't meant to stray away from the blog for so long, or be so 'DL', as it were. Just time gets away with one but I can report that I have not been idle - not I!

Goals have been achieved and it's a good reminder for me to actually write it out here because it's a little perturbing how the brain tricks one into thinking one hasn't achieved anything!

Last I left you reader, I had finished the first draft of 'The Novel'. Since then, I revised it several times before getting an editor to read it so I had fresh eyes as I was beginning to suspect my nearest and dearest were not about to unleash their maximum criticism guns and shoot at me - even though I wanted them to! Getting a professional editor/writer who also writes in your genre to have a looksie is tres invaluable and if you have even the slightest of means, I would recommend it to anyone else. Count it as a investment in yourself and your writing.

How did I fare with the feedback? I honestly welcomed and relished in it, reader. I cringed where valid weaknesses were brought up - not because I was embarrassed in myself but because I knew it was a weakness and was acknowledging it sheepishly. I was keen to then ingest the notes and work on making the ms better. I also tried to keep the first note the editor wrote ('Great idea for a story') in a easy-to-see place as a reminder :)

Anyhow, I'm actually in the trenches of 'querying agents', reader. So again, apologies if updates are a little slim as one is focussed on that goal entirely. But the good news, my posts will now be living up the name of the blog itself, eh, eh?

Milestone Reached! Editing the first draft by hand

The vast chasm-like gaps between posts is inexcusable, reader. Would it help if I said that I've now completed by first round of edits to the manuscript, per manum, by hand?! This is the furthest I've got in the process of novel writing and the most methodical. I have technically got this far with the previous novel but that ended up staying in 'revision' mode for several years and in all fairness, was quite a haphazard state of affairs.

I've made all the edits, red pen and all and the result looks somethin' somethin' like this:

Ooh, look at all dem pretty tags!

One might be wondering, 'why make the edits by hand - you'll be needing to re-do them on the computer'. True yet I canna express how much joy I had taking the red pen out and making the changes physically on the page. Also spending a little paper and ink and overseeing a two hour printing job doesn't sound like fun but that in itself is so very minor. I basically assumed I was the editor of the script and oddly, it helped me to get some distant from the original work so that I didn't think of myself as the original writer. I know, I know I can't get as much objective distance and actual editor who hasn't been invested in this but it still helped. I honestly couldn't face doing the first round of edits on the computer, staring at the words on the screen. This way I kind of felt like a teacher or something, such fun! Plus I got to carry it around with me and edit during lunch breaks and on the bus (once).

There are numerous moments when I've just scrawled 'LAZY!' in the margins. :) Or just lots of lots 'reconsider' and 'rethink.' There are so many times I made basic 'mistakes':

• clunky sentences where the subject is confused, 
• telling and passive voice, 
• odd tense shifts, 
• POV shifts, 
• contradictory details, 
• puzzling character motivations,
• seemingly aimless interactions with no real stakes, 
• info dump description thrown in when we're in the middle of actions - the list goes on. 

Was I embarrassed by them? Not really, because in truth there aren't any real 'mistakes' made in a first draft. Just stuff that needs to be sharpened, questioned and improved. The whole aim of the first draft is just to get to the story down, the stuff that's raging in your head, stuff that you haven't even really worked out what exactly it is just yet. This isn't really the stage where your exercise your best writing chops - it's your elementary stage. Only then you graduate into the role of actual crafter, (aka shit gets real).
 
The whole objective has been achieved though - in that it helped to understand the lay of the land fully and know 'what story do I have here?' Subsequently, it makes it that much clearer to know what needs to be done to make it better - more tension, MORE suspense, more active characters/more 'action'. Also more actual resolutions - some characters stories have an end but not much in terms of an arc per se and well I think more stuff, like secrecy or whatever, more needs to be revealed about them, exposing them, than having them just reacting to the current events. Not sure I've articulated that well but I get it in my head and notes etc. **Runs off to the flesh out the vague note 'More secrecy and past mysteries to be revealed.'**

Anyhow, I am very excited to make the changes and essentially make this story better! I ain't gonna lie, one feels rather chuffed :) Plus I have a hard copy of my work where I can probably look back at it and understand far more clearly how I've progressed. Take that MS Word 'Track changes'!

...Whoops and Stumbled On...Plot and Logic get the finger in Star Trek: Into Darkness

Egads, reader, it's been awhile since my last post (typically then, I posted 3 times in 1 week - what up wid dat?) So alas, I did not keep the momentum up, as they say. 

Anyhow, the main reason is that all writing time (the precious hours one hoards when one gets back from work) has been dedicated to polishing off me manuscript! And I don't want to break THAT momentum. So yeah, apologies. 

'My mistress picks me over a social life!'

Also, on a lamer another point, I'm not sure what my next post should be on. So of course, reader, I do what any respectable blogger does and hijack another's post and link to it for your perusal. 

It be about the new Star Trek film which I must say I enjoyed but found it farcical in terms of plot and sense. And of course, the amazecakes peeps at i09 have documented the EXACT monologue that went on in my head during and after watching the movie: *headscratching* 

Kudos goes to http://thesnowolf.com for posting this
uber cute and distracting pic! Taaaw!

Some choice bites that made me laugh out loud, I mean LOL, several times (tried to pick ones that wouldn't reveal too much but, just in case...):

**You're now entering the domain of SPOILER ALERT Sam**

[Taken from Star Trek Into Darkness: The Spoiler FAQ]

*I have an English accent for no clear reason!*

Look, I know Star Trek is science fiction, but hasn’t Trek always at least nominally tried to get science right? Shouldn’t a Star Trek movie give the tiniest shit about such things?

One might presume.

UGH.

Yeah. You know how the first movie was all about Kirk’s journey from a rebellious kid to a more mature leader of men?

Yeah?

Well, we’re doing that again!

...

I think it’s nice that in this day and age, a white male can still be cast as an Indian played by a Mexican. White men really have come a long way!

...

NO DON’T YOU SAY IT

— Spock —

NO GODDAMMIT DON’T YOU SAY IT

— Spock yells —

AAAAUUUUUUUUURRRRRRGRGGGGGGHHHHH

“Khhaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn!”

F**k.

So yeah, that's my excuse for not writing a proper review on the film! (Also, aside addressed to J.J. Abrams himself, DUDE, enough of the light flares?!!) Peace out.

Star Trek: Into Darkness OST - Opening Track