“Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you.”
― Zig Ziglar
After five years, two ‘book doctor’ appraisals, three rounds of copy editing, and a final polish from the proof-reader my novel ‘Lightmaker’ is now available. The grisly details are here. Will you chose the e-book or the paperback? I’d love to know your thoughts, and reviews would be fabulous.
Thanks to the friends who’ve supported me through this struggle, and special thanks to the people in Oxford Writing Circle who have dished out feedback and encouragement, alongside the occasional hard stare.
Maybe I’ve passed an apprenticeship. I lost count of how often I re-wrote the novel, but it’s well into double figures. Each re-write saw me learn. Details became more specific and precise, drama and tension arrived in seemingly placid scenes, I said exactly what I meant, I learnt how to conjure images in a reader’s mind, and my writing became more vivid. I’ve plenty to learn, but I’ve started the sequel, provisionally titled ‘The Talent of the Actress’.
‘Lightmaker’ was improvised, written on the wing, or ‘pantsed’. The major thing I learnt from pantsing was not to do it again. Whole scenes turned out to be irrelevant distractions which diverted characters from their inner journeys or contradicted my novel’s theme. Delays everywhere.
My writing journey was punctuated with reading various books on storytelling theory – most of them pretty useful – but a recent discovery proved more accessible than most.
Libbie Hawker’s book ‘Take off Your Pants’ is a practical guide to novel planning. She recommends developing your main character’s personality, and their central flaw. Hawker also emphasises the antagonist’s role in your drama, and my eyes opened when she said your novel can only be as good as your antagonist. My first draft of ‘Lightmaker’ lacked a real opponent which left the drama saggy and too peaceful. Only when I dropped the black-clad priest Rastersen into the role did the novel firm up. This time I’m developing the antagonist alongside my main character – their stories mirror each other to an extent – and this mirroring set the drama fizzing.
My next novel should take less time. I’ve learnt tens of things to avoid in creative writing, and have a clear plan to fill in those empty pages. A clear goal may help me document my next novel’s journey in greater detail, and I hope to send out more updates this year.
If you’re writing yourself why not drop me a line? Have you come across any gems in the vast number of creative writing books out there? Which would you avoid?
Until next time.
Kevin.