The Frantic Writer

The fourteenth one

2008-01-31T20:18:00.000+10:00

Weather: balmy
Listening to: Kasey Chambers

It is done! I finished today at about quarter past three. I'll need to do a little fixing up, but it should be good to email tomorrow afternoon. So, yes, I finished it on its due date. What can I say? I take deadlines seriously.

I was wracked with the usual self-doubts at the end, but ploughed ahead anyway. I wrote 6000 words today, so the total word count for the novel is now just over 162 000 words. I'm in the strange position of not having discussed the ending with anyone, so I have no idea if I've misjudged it. In my nightmares, it's melodramatic rubbish with lots of people shouting. In my dreams, it's a clever twist that will create amazing word-of-mouth. The truth lies in between, I'm sure.

It's been hard to concentrate this week, with my little boy starting school on Tuesday, and then the discovery of a possible funnel web spider in our house (turned out to be a mouse spider... they look very similar).

What I'm looking forward to most of all: just hanging out with the kids on the weekend. And then... starting to think about the next book. No deadline.

Don't know if I'll keep posting here. We'll see. I'm going to try to be a little less frantic from here on in.

Yours
FW

The thirteenth one

2008-01-23T21:32:00.000+10:00

Weather: overcast and breezy
Listening to: Blondie

Refreshed. That's how I feel. Four days staring at the ocean, forbidden from looking at my notebook or thinking about my story. And I sat down this morning and it flowed out nice and easy. I reckon there's only about 15 000 words left in it. I reckon I might be finished in about a week, in other words EXACTLY ON TIME.

But we'll see. Will duly report back if (a) I have a blogworthy crisis or (b) I finish the book.

FW

The twelfth one

2008-01-15T20:59:00.000+10:00

Weather: raining, will probably never be sunny again
Music: "Unaccountable Effect", Liz Story

I suppose you think that my long silence means I have been writing. Perhaps (!) even finishing early. Well, no, in fact. I have been quiet because it is hard to blog from the Slough of Despond. Part four of this book turned into a long, dragging nightmare. I would plan a chapter, then it would stretch out to two, or three. Scenes were missing, they had to go in. I'd hoped to rein it in under 1250 000 words, but it will go closer to 135 000. BUT there is good news too. Light, even, at the end of the tunnel (weighs about as much as the Atlantic). I finally fought my way out of the story! I finally worked out precisely how I'm going to get from the end of part four to the end of part five (which is the end of the book). Now I know which direction to head in, I feel all light and bubbly, though the bubbly feeling may be sleep deprivation.

I am, at this exact moment, finishing up part four. It's a big scene, I've been building to it for a while, and from that point the story should fall away like a sand dune collapsing under my feet. Hmmm... that actually doesn't sound so good. I mean it will have a fierce inevitability about it, that will make it easy to finish. So, I intend to polish off this scene, then actually (no, wait for it) have a break for about a week (no, really) to read the story so far and do some quick fixing up. Then, next week, I shall sit down and finish the first draft, hopefully by the 29th when my boy starts school, then that will give me two days to fix up part five (only about 15 000 words) and stick the whole thing in an envelope to post to Sydney.

So, I will need to get on with it, won't I?

Estimated total length of the book: 150 - 155 000 words.

The eleventh one

2008-01-08T10:02:00.000+10:00

Weather: muggy and overcast
Listening to: Harold Budd "Agua"

What is the magic number? Yes, you guessed it, the magic number is 4251. That's how many words I wrote this morning between 6.30am and 10am. That's also the number of words that got me over the "hump" of the book and onto the downward slide. Should hit 120K tomorrow, not much to go after that.

I hope.

There are two states of being while writing: inside the story and outside the story. Outside is not much fun. You chip at it, feel dislocated, distracted. But you must keep writing, because that's the only way to get inside. Once you're inside the story, everything flows, the world goes away.

Writing that many words in one sitting is actually bad for your health, I think. My arms hurt and I feel kind of twitchy. I'd like to go and sleep for a week now, but it will be right back in the saddle tomorrow morning. 120K, here I come.

Yours ever
FW

The tenth one

2008-01-02T06:17:00.000+10:00

Weather: bizarro; rainy one minute, sunny the next
Music: Vaughn-Williams, "The Lark Ascending"

I can't work in these conditions!!!!

I have had 6 hours sleep, I am sitting at my desk trying to write (should hit 100K today) and a small pink-clad creature is shouting "Mama! Up!" at me over and over, because she wants to play with my mouse. When I don't pick her up, she makes this noise: "Eeeeargh!" I have filled my office with expensive and educational toys, but she wants none of those.

For all of you reading this that don't have children and are struggling to finish a book: shut up! no, shut up!

Excuse my rudeness. I'm tired and emotional.

As the days go by, my ability to meet this deadline becomes a complicated mathematical problem. Divide word count by days remaining; assign word counts to chapters; recalculate projected word count; divide by days remaining again... I have to admit now that I have no idea what I'm doing, or whether I will finish the book on time.

Lord! She has actual tears on her cheeks! Over a mouse! I suppose I'd better go and sing a happy song. Luckily I've got NOTHING MORE PRESSING TO DO.

And she just dumped all my papers on the floor. "Wow!" she said. "Wow."

The ninth one

2007-12-21T10:33:00.001+10:00

This week has been a turning point. I have written 15 000 words since Monday morning. There is a VAST DIFFERENCE between a book that is 70K in, and one that is 85K in. One is only halfway, and one is on the way to being finished. I'm approaching a turning point, the middle of the middle, and I'm quite pleased with the words piling up, but not at all pleased with the quality of the writing. It is hysterical, melodramatic, people shout at each other without reason.

Ah....

I just have to keep moving forward. It can all be fixed later. The important thing is to write it. I have an interim goal of finishing another two chapters by Xmas, so there will be no rest for me in coming days (including my birthday tomorrow). I must try not to have a deadline over Christmas next year.

It's not too bad, though, as far as a life goes. I start writing at 6, my beautiful husband brings me breakfast and looks after the kids, I finish around 10 and then spend time with the family. When the children go to bed at night, I either do a little bit of other work or play World of Warcraft... it's hardly the salt mines!

The eighth one

2007-12-15T19:13:00.000+10:00

Weather: summery and breezy evening
Listening to: Christopher O'Riley "True Love Waits"

What do you suppose other people are doing on Saturday nights? I imagine them getting dressed up real purty, going to dinners and movies, enjoying the evening air... I am chained to this desk for however long it takes to write the 2346 words I need to hit my interim goal of 70 000 words. The longer I procrastinate, the later I'm going to be up (and the tireder I'm going to be tomorrow when one/both of my children wake me at dawn). So why am I on this blog, wasting word-energy and time? Hmm?

I will edit this post when I am done.

9.45pm. Done.

The seventh one

2007-12-07T21:57:00.000+10:00

Weather: I wouldn't know, I'm in aircon (probably quite sweaty)
Listening to: Stars of the Lid "And the Refinement of their Decline"

60 000. I'll say it again. 60 000. I've fixed my dramas, and I am writing forward again. The next 30K or so is planned out, and there's some good stuff in there so I just need to get it down. My goal is to get to 100K by the end of the month. In a month that includes my birthday and Christmas. No rest for sinners like me!

Sometimes when I am writing, a little voice in my brain helpfully tells me that I am applying crapola to the page in large measure (I imagine a palette and a spatula, rather in the way that render is applied to walls). That little voice may be right, but there is no place for self-doubt just now. I have promised myself that I am allowed to doubt myself on February the first, but not until then, when I have a 140 000 word manuscript printed out beside me.

Tonight my son fell asleep on the couch here in my office. My husband is out with his brothers and the little guy always feels a bit unsafe when the big guy isn't around. It's primal, I'm sure. So here I am, writing away, trying to hit that magic number (60 000 la la la); and Luka is sitting up telling me increasingly incoherent things as he gets tireder and tireder (is tireder a word; it ought to be!) I could not have imagined, ten yeas ago when I started in this silly business, that I would be able to write with anyone in the room, let alone a small noisy person. Goes to show, most artistic crises are a load of hogwash. If you need to get it done, you'll get it done.

The sixth one

2007-12-04T21:15:00.000+10:00

Weather: summer rain
Listening to: Deepspace (aka. my husband www.deepspacehome.com)

I fixed it! The second half of the beginning should have actually been the first third of the middle. Do you see?!?!?!

All I had to do was moderate the pace. Slot in some extra scenes, flesh out some summaries. Now I have added 7000 words to the MS and my middle-not-beginning problem is fixed. I would love to have the time to explain to you what the difference between beginning and middle is (as they have quite different functions) but, alas, it is after 9pm and if I want to get up at 5 to write I'd better go to bed 15 mins ago. See, I even get into my pjs frantically.

I sat in a very nice cafe (okay, it was Gossips at Toowong) last Thursday and nutted out the next big chunk of scenes. Quite pleased with myself. I was rushing (can't think why) and hadn't given a significant subplot (with great narrative potential) its full weight. Now, fleshed out, it gives me lots of material to work with. I have decided that if I can hit 100 000 words by Dec 31, I can finish the book. If I can't make that goal, then I will phone my agent on Jan 1st and ask for more time. I am not good at asking for more time.

Will report back in due course.

Yours
FW

The fifth one

2007-11-28T17:19:00.000+10:00

Weather: Breezy and summery
Listening to: Led Zeppelin box set

Perhaps I should rename this blog "the fearless writer" because it seems to me that to rack up massive word counts you need to be utterly certain that what you write is okay. There is no time to second guess, you must just keep going. I'm certainly not feeling fearless this week, as I have hit 50000 words and have an awful sinking feeling I've completely screwed up the chunk I've just written. I think I wrote it as "beginning" when it should have been "middle". Hmmm. They have different functions, you see. Now I'm not sure what goes in the middle.... sigh.

In good news, those little Fantastica books I wrote have attracted a very nice deal in France. I wrote them frantically, so it can't be all bad.

The fourth one

2007-11-21T18:17:00.000+10:00

Weather: breezy summery evening
Listening to: my husband read to my kids

One of the promises I always make myself is that if I write something frantically, I will edit it at leisure. So when the edit of the historical novel I wrote earlier in the year (frantically) was returned to me for my consideration this week. Well, you can imagine how I felt.

I have managed to make it to the 50 000 word / one third mark of my current book; a natural place to put it aside for a short while and look at this edit. At the moment I am working from 5am to 7am; during my baby daughter's daytime nap; then again at night (my World of Warcraft habit has been temporarily shelved... and just when I'd got a horse!). It seems to be getting done, but it's hardly leisurely. It feels a bit, well, frantic.

Meanwhile, the research book I borrowed, from which I intended to draw masses of interesting details for my current novel, is now overdue. The best I can hope for is to photocopy a few chapters before it goes back, and have a chance to read them at a later date... perhaps during the frantic edit.

The third one

2007-11-17T08:04:00.000+10:00

Weather: rain clearing
Listening to: Jayne Hockley and Taryn Fiebig "Thyme and Roses"

Today I write from the Slough of Despond. The pressure to keep writing is immense, and yet I have a list of other things to do which is a mile long. Including editing another book. I must finish part two of this book THIS WEEK if I'm to have any hope of meeting its Jan 31 deadline. This morning I have been trying to write a fairly straightforward scene, and it feels like the words are brussels sprouts that I am pushing about on a plate. God, look at that sentence! Is it any wonder I am in despair. If my 5 year old hadn't woken me at 1am with a nightmare, then climbed into bed and chatted to me, then refused to get back into his own bed, screaming and therefore waking the baby... well, perhaps I would have been in a better frame of mind to make good sentences. My heart is spiky, as though little darts of adrenalin are constantly assailing it. This can't be healthy, right?

The second one

2007-11-06T06:17:00.000+10:00

Weather: beautiful rainy day
Listening to: Brian McBride "When Detail Lost its Freedom"

The Frantic Writer has about 130 000 words to write by January 31st. So I get up very early--usually between 4 and 5 am--to write. This means I am always tired (especially if I stay up too late the night before playing World of Warcraft... ahem...) but the deadline looms. This morning, however, my 14 month old daughter decided that she would like to be awake from 4.30am too. Fearing that she would wake her 5 year old brother, I brought her in here to my office. Now I am writing, frantically as always, while she trashes my office. There are coloured plastic paperclips strewn everywhere, file cards upended, books pulled out of shelves etc. And yet, I have managed to write 1000 words so I mustn't complain. But it is certainly very different from the old, pre-children, days when I might write... if in the mood... uninterrupted for hours at a time.

The first one

2007-10-31T20:34:00.000+10:00

I said I'd never do it. And yet here I am.