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Draft Four The Win? – The Novel Continues

October 3, 2014 by Nick Bryan Leave a Comment

I’ve just finished draft four of the fantasy novel I’ve been writing for around 18 months. This is obviously an achievement – not a top-rated one worthy of a party, but a clear rung up the ladder.

So what does finishing a fourth draft actually mean? How many more am I planning? Do I even know?

Well.

Four The Hard Way

It’s been four months since I finished the third draft, which is longer than I like to leave things when it’s just me dealing with myself. But between these two particular passes, I sent the book out to beta readers, who have been steadily telling me their feelings ever since.

The good news: they all helpfully agreed with each other on the broad strokes, making it fairly easy to come up with an action plan.

The bad news: it was a reasonably substantial action plan, some of these problems need big-time tackling and I had to go in for close and extensive surgery for my fourth draft. I’ve written a couple of new chapters, various bits and pieces inserted throughout.

Weirdly, in fact, after getting shorter throughout the earlier drafts, the novel has now ballooned to its most epic length yet. I don’t know whether I now need to go in and cut more. I do kinda agree with the two betas who said certain parts needed expanding.

In fact, here’s the numbers:

First draft: 99,165 words.
Second draft: 94,923 words. (4,242 words shorter.)
Third draft: 90,605 words. (4,318 words shorter.)
Fourth draft: 104,107 words (13,502 words longer) (Whoops)

As someone who’s been there since the beginning, this novel is starting to seem like some weird Frankensteinesque experiment. An expanding one.

But nonetheless, I’ve finished now and my creation lives. So what now?

Fivetitude

Fifth draft, I suppose? Which involves smoothing all those changes down, making sure everything’s consistent, perhaps punching up the language and involving a second wave of beta readers?

Hopefully this will be the last lot of betas. I suspect once you’ve taken it through twice, you probably start to run out of people to experiment on?

I think I’m circling around the notion of finishing, basically. I’m pretty happy with the changes, although still mildly annoyed with how long it’s ended up taking, thanks to some slightly weak planning at the start.

And on the double-plus side, I don’t have to decide whether to go straight into the next draft, as my editor sent his thoughts through on Hobson & Choi Book Two, so I’m doing those next!

Problem solved. Blog about that project soon enough, I imagine. In fact, there are a few H&C bits I need to post about.

Novels By Numbers – How I Killed My Precise Book Structure

September 14, 2014 by Nick Bryan 2 Comments

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!

September 9, 2014 by Nick Bryan Leave a Comment

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

September 3, 2014 by Nick Bryan Leave a Comment

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!

Work After Work – A Work Update Working 2014 Over With Work

August 15, 2014 by Nick Bryan Leave a Comment

Due to the combined impact of my book coming out, my first ever trip to a convention and the heat and humidity fucking with my motivation, I have not done one of these ramble-about-my-process blog posts for a while.

I miss them, I have a few minutes spare, I’ve recently changed my writing routine a little and solidified my future plans, so let’s talk about that. Why would you work after work? Is it because you like work, or at least need to work on your work? What is work? What is my work? How is your work?

Work After Work After Work After…

Some days of the week, I go into my regular office day-job. Not all of them, it’s only part time, but some. On the days I did this, I wasn’t getting much fiction writing done in the evenings. The odd blog post but no proper work.

Well, as the possible projects stack up and I do extra days in the office for various reasons, the lost productivity from all those days began to annoy me. So I have adopted the strategy of forcing myself to bash out at least some writing (usually about a thousand words) upon my return from the office. Sit right down and do it, none of this eating/relaxing shit.

This has made me feel a bit better about my productivity levels, but thanks to the presence of the internet and other distractions, it takes a while, leading to not getting to eat until about 10PM.

I’m hoping that won’t happen every time, but on the other hand, the word counts are going away much faster, which is very much what I’m after. So if you see me and I look a bit more tired, that is why.

Hobson & Choi Book After Hobson & Choi Book After…

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - aka MY BOOK BUY IT

Currently, I’m writing the bonus story for the second H&C book, whilst finalising the text for the main story of that same volume at other times. In short, the second book is taking shape with alarming speed, helped by the fact I finished writing the first draft in about May.

It may even be out by the end of the year – I will admit, that is the dream, but considering I haven’t got a cover or sent it off to an editor yet, that might prove ambitious. If it does come out, it will be November, probably. If we fall back past Nov, might roll into 2015, as I probably cannot compete with Santa.

To be honest, though, my name is Nick so I’m used to being compared unfavourably with bloody Father Christmas.

Beta After Alpha After Omega After…

Meanwhile, in the stockpile of things I might get to work on some time, I’ve now had feedback from most of the kind associates who were beta reading that novel about the devil I finished drafting a few months back.

The results were not quite the unanimous love and acclaim I’d probably hoped for, but there was a lot of good stuff in there. To be honest, just the feeling of having the story engaged with excited me a lot. People seemed to follow it and the suggestions were mostly ways to beef up the ideas and characters already there, rather than polite but firm suggestions that I chuck everything away, burn it, then amputate my hands.

So, if/when I get H&C Book 2 put away, I shall plunge back into that book. Kinda excited by that. Again, the hope is to enact the edits by the end of the year, but I begin to think I should settle for just having made any decent start.

In short, the rest of 2014 is spoken for. It might as well be Christmas, except it had better not be, because I haven’t done half of what I need to do. Bloody hell.

If you want to make me feel better in the face of my striving, feel free to buy my book, or leave a review somewhere if you’ve already read it. All helps. If you’ve done all that (thanks!), you can get an entirely new H&C story by subscribing to the mailing list.

Nick Vs Nine Worlds – Convention Conclusions

August 13, 2014 by Nick Bryan Leave a Comment

This weekend just gone, I was at the Nine Worlds convention in Heathrow. Regular and well-behaved blog readers will have read my pre-game post last week, in which I revealed that this is my first convention, despite having wallowed in nerdy interests from the age of about ten.

So, how did it go? Well, I didn’t achieve my goal of taking interesting photographs, for sure. To my right is the view from our hotel window, which was one of only two pictures captured during the con. For the second photo, as well as opinion of the actual event, continue reading…

Nice Words

As you may have gleaned if you follow sufficient geeks on Twitter, Nine Worlds was pretty excellent. Just the right number of people, a brilliant range of events and, most spectacularly, threading the needle skillfully between positivity and PR.

Because, too often, many conventions look like you’re basically being gathered in a room to be advertised at, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve taken so long to go to one. But Nine Worlds designed all its panels around discussion of a topic, either serious or silly, and everyone turned up ready to say something worthwhile about those points. I’m not saying no-one ever honked the BUY MY STUFF klaxon, but for the most part, it was as a sideline to an engaging discussion.

Maybe that’s the result of the con being organised primarily by the fandoms rather than the studios/publishers, and it worked well. Even the publisher-sponsored Saturday night party on the book track didn’t over-do the sales pitch, and kudos to them for getting their tone right. And giving me some free books. (I’m only human, alright? Read my balanced analysis and shut up.)

Noteworthy Workshops

And now, here’s the part where I name some of my favourite panels, hoping not to miss any really good ones and feel like a dickbag. I’ve got the programme open in front of me, so hopes are high.

Si Spurrier and Kieron Gillen’s Creators on Comics lectures on Saturday evening were smart, interesting and well-delivered. Spurrier probably landed better for me personally with his thoughts on Comics and Story, simply because Gillen was deconstructing Watchmen, a work which I’ve not yet really connected with. Still, both well executed.
Our second (and last) photo is one of Si Spurrier’s slides, in which he assigns various story genres a species of sea creature. Click to zoom. (Then try his writing, it’s great. Especially Six Gun Gorilla and Crossed: Wish You Were Here.)
I started both days off with the debate panels on the book track – on Saturday, it was Dragons vs Werewolves vs Vampires vs Warlocks and on Sunday, Fantasy vs Sci-Fi. I don’t necessarily agree with the conclusions reached (dragons and sci-fi won, to my despair), but they were a very entertaining way to ease into the geekery, the speakers were all respectfully and repeatedly hilarious.
On Sunday afternoon, I took in Comics For Kids, followed by Female Protagonists in YA, and both were lovely, excited discussions which made me want to totally go and achieve stuff. Not sure what those things are yet. Still, both were frank, enthusiastic and good. Bravo to any panelists who happen to be reading this.
The book track’s Wow. So Panel. panel was cancelled. Such sad. I was hoping it would be a serious dissection of the Doge V Lolcats issue.
For the last panel of my convention, and indeed the whole damn thing, more or less, I went to Cara’s Fireside with Cara Ellison and Kieron Gillen. After a reasonably heavy day of genre discussion, it was exactly the right tone of talking-shit friends-down-the-pub philosophy you want. Not braindead, but definitely fun, kinda inspiring in its own way. If it ever comes out as a podcast or similar, I will try and link it up here, or at least on Twitter. Likewise for any of the events mentioned, in fact.

I think that’s everything I wanted to say about the actual panels. This has run a bit longer than I intended, but honestly, it was a great weekend and I kinda wanted to write it down.

No Wrongdoing

Aside from that, yes, there was some drinking on the Saturday night, and it was jolly lovely. I can’t pretend I saw any sci-fi authors drinking the urine of fans or inter-fandom honour killings – some great cosplay though. Especially the bloke who came dressed as Sharknado – amazing. Should’ve taken a photo, really.

I can’t pretend I networked fervently, but I had enough friends and nice Twitter folk there to keep me plenty company. For a first-ever effort at conventioning, that’ll do fine. I sold two e-copies of my book at some point on Sunday, I’m going to assume because I was doing awesome work with my Nine Worlds presence. (Even though they were both from the US Amazon site. Shut up.)

So, yes, Nine Worlds is a lovely con, offering substantial discussions, fun events and a great atmosphere. Unless your main convention need is a range of A-list megastar TV guests, I think it’s worth a look. I’m almost certainly back next year.

And that’ll be all for now. If I spoke to you at Nine Worlds, whether for ten minutes or all bloody weekend, hello again. It was an excellent time. If anyone wants one of these flattened cereal bars from the bottom of my bag, please send an addressed envelope with the necessary postage attached.