Nick Bryan

Archives for September 2014

Novels By Numbers – How I Killed My Precise Book Structure

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My novel – the urban fantasy one I am currently editing after intensive beta reading – has a very strict structure. Three parts (because I love the three act structure), each containing seven chapters (because… I’m not actually sure). I laid it out like that when I started, and have stuck to it ever since.

In my last edit, a few conclusive plot developments got pushed off the end of the final chapter – Chapter Twenty-One, obviously – and I put them in an epilogue. Because this preserves my precious structure.

I’ve continued this game of sevens all the way to the fourth draft, and frankly I think I deserve a medal. Or at least a giant seven-shaped cake. You can probably find one in shops under Birthday Cakes For Seven Year Olds.

Still, all good things are determined to come to an end, and I don’t think I can sustain this shape any longer. I’ve planned out my new final third and am adding some major new sections to the book, important new bits, cool stuff, all thanks to good suggestions from my excellent beta people. But I don’t think I can do it within the seven/seven/seven framework – not without writing chapters that are also ten/twelve thousand word novellas, at least.

So, with a heavy heart and a grim smile, maybe ever a cinematic single tear, I am waving goodbye to the sevens. I will miss them, but anything that makes the book better is probably worth it. And I still have sevens in the first and second third.

And, ditching the faux-eulogy tone for a second, let’s be honest: if an editor, agent, publisher or similar entity says I need to add extra chapters to the book anywhere, further messing up the sevens, I’ll definitely do it as long as I agree it’ll improve the story. Hardly seems practical to get over-attached to these things. Not as if the chapter-counts are story relevant, it just worked out that way.

And it least it gave me something to work within while I got the book written. Let’s not be ungrateful.I’m glad I wrote this blog post, it was therapeutic.

Interview with me about The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf!

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My lovely book cover!

I have not written a blog post today, but it’s okay, because Julianne Benford has interviewed me for her blog, so I can just link to that!

It’s a fun interview, I talk a bit about my inspirations and process, throw in a few jokes. Give it a look and report back.

And yes, the interviewer is also my girlfriend so there is a nepotism element in there. But don’t worry, it’s definitely addressed in the post.

Should reading that inspire you to pick up a copy of the book, here’s the page with the links. And if it reminds you you’ve read the book and still need to write a review on Amazon/Goodreads/your blog/somewhere else, that’s cool too.

Oh, and I 100% finalised my design brief for Book Two last night, so that’s looming in the distance, ready to bubble over at any moment. But for now, let’s focus on The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf. Read interview, buy, enjoy.

Dealing With Beta Readers – An Early Report

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It’s been a few months since I last looked at my full-length fantasy novel about Faustian deals – I put it aside for a spell, both to let beta readers have a crack at it and to focus on getting the Hobson & Choi book launch in order.

But the first H&C book is all fired into the atmosphere, the Book Two work now with other people, and most of my beta readers reported, so time to start in that direction again. Yesterday afternoon, for the first time in a while, I opened up the novel Scrivener file, looked at various beta reader notes and thought about it.

So, how does it feel returning to a novel post-beta? Have I got any advice for other writers in similar situations? Let’s find out!

Time For Staggered Hatred

Everyone tells you a piece of writing will only be improved by leaving it for a while and coming back. I put this book aside for about a month (Christmas, basically) between first and second drafts, and now an epic gap of three months (almost exactly) between finishing the third draft and re-opening just now.

The good news: I do not hate it. I’d grown weary of this piece back in May, whereas now I’m ready to tear back into the words. Though does that just mean I hate it in a different way? Discuss.

Either way, hard to go wrong with taking a break, even though it’s massively counter-intuitive with the desire to get work out there right the fuck now and inflict your genius upon the world. (I recommend multiple projects as a way of controlling this urge.)

Feedback And The Fleshy Cord

And I also have beta feedback this time, so that makes even more difference than just ignoring the book for  a few months.

Both leaving time and getting feedback are ways to weaken the crusty mental umbilical between yourself and your writing. You probably can’t sever that completely, but you can take a few hacks, break it down to stringy tendrils.

Sometimes adding the feedback of non-you folk will be disappointing. I’ll hold my pasty-white hands up and admit I thought the book was a bit more Ready To Rock than it turned out to be. At first, this got me down a bit. Not a crushing lot, but a noticeable bit.

Unfortunately, as every other writing blogger/tutor/street preacher has already told you, receiving feedback is a vital part of the whole process and if you can’t do it, you’ll probably (metaphorically) die.

Still, there is a plus side: you know how you spend half your life trying to hear/read other people’s ideas without stealing them? You will often now receive other people’s thoughts specifically about your book which you can plagiarise to your heart’s content. It’s so freeing, I’m not sure I need to learn to fly anymore.

Not to mention, although it’s nice to get praise, the experience of having other humans engaging with your book and taking it seriously is pretty great regardless. So focus on that and plough on.

Planning With The Uni-Brain

The one slight problem with beta readers (assuming you have more than one, and that’s a good idea if possible) is that they tend to have different views on your work. Until the blessed day we’re all replaced by robots thinking with the same networked Uni-Brain, you need to parse your beta-reader feedback and decide which way to go.

Whereas when your betas all suggest the same thing, it’s probably a glaring problem, likely also something a hypothetical future publisher/agent will notice. Best address those points, or at least have your reason/excuse ready.

In short, I spent two hours yesterday afternoon staring at the feedback and trying to come up with a unified plan of improvement. Much as I desperately want to just hack my way in, I gotta do the planning, and I may even do a bit more before I write/edit a single word. Partly because, if I’m being honest (sigh), it was partly lack of planning which caused many of the problems in the first place.

Seriously, when it comes to the next utterly new book, I’m going to make such detailed advance notes, it will turn the writing process itself into a completely joyless exercise in joining the dots. This I solemnly vow.

But I think that’s it for now. You’ve got to admire the amount of words I just got out of sitting in a cafe and thinking for a bit. Join me at some point in the future for news on how the editing actually went!