Blank Slates and Taking Note

Inspired by Morgoth's comments a few weeks ago on the Honourkeeper update, I thought a quick post about note taking was in order. Now, I've already discussed the benefit of having a trusty moleskin notebook at your disposal and using it to flex your creativity in a nice, workshop-type fashion - I'd now like to expand on that by talking about the virtues of post-writing day/period note making.

One of the most sage pieces of advice I ever read was 'never finish off a chapter, always leave it open ended, so you can pick up where you left off on your next writing day'. I can't remember where I saw this, I think it came from the Internet somewhere. A friend of mine who I used to study with when I was doing my HND in Media Production (long time ago...) printed it out for me when I was just taking my first, fledgling steps to becoming a writer. This statement totally rings true.

Looking at a blank page, it's hard to find your inspiration sometimes, hard to get back into the 'authorial mode' (see earlier posts for an explanation of this). Reading back through what you've written always helps, and I recommend this to anyone (do it out loud, too - it's enlightening how different it can sound, especially the dialogue) but even still, when you reach that end of scene or end of chapter where you finished, chances are you'll hit a mental speed bump. That's the thing about endings; they put a stop to things, even your creativity sometimes.

So follow the advice, leave a bit unsaid or even finish off a chapter and deliberately start the next one - even if it's just a paragraph and even if it's not that great. You'll find (well I do, anyway) that this tacked on bit of writing or trailing end of a chapter or scene acts as a potent springboard to get you into your next writing day with the minimum of anguish.

It can be tricky sometimes (and I know a few folks who'll attest to this - right, Steve? :-)), when facing that dreaded blank page, to know how to get going again. This method works pretty well in my opinion. Try it at the very least.

So, what was I saying before I digressed into a mini-treatise on the virtues of never leaving a blank page? Ah yes, note taking, but not the moleskin kind this time. Writing the next bit of a chapter or starting the next scene isn't always for everyone. You might have built yourself up to a certain point, devoted all your thinking time and planning to end of a section and no further. In these cases, writing an additional chapter or even leaving one trailing to be finished later just doesn't happen, and guess what - you're left with the blank page.

Fear not, I have another suggestion, one that I sometimes employ as a surrogate for the whole write an extra bit/leave a bit hanging method, or use in addition to. It's fairly simple. Type some notes. Sounds a bit rudimentary doesn't it. Here's the trick. This stuff is just stream of consciousness material. Don't worry about your spelling or your grammar or if you type so fast you make loads of errors. It doesn't matter. In this moment, let your ideas flow. It can be dialogue, the odd line of description, even a rough scene or chapter map for what's coming up. I do it all the time and I find it really useful for structure and framing the next scene. If I really like what splurges out of my mind and on the page, if I really get on a roll, I might even write that scene or cut and paste later when I return to the page.

What all these techniques have in common is that they are designed to stimulate the creative part of the mind, enable you to re-engage with the 'writerly' part of your consciousness. It's like any exercise - you need to warm up first. These are just ways to help you do that.

Honourkeeper - Halfway There!

As some may know, I've taken a sabbatical this week (or rather, just used up some of my vacation time) to crack on with Honourkeeper. I'm pleased to say that I have now reached, and surpassed, the halfway mark! Yes, that's right folks - 50,000 words and counting. Things are progressing smoothly, and I'm just about to embark on one of the really big set-piece battle scenes (the first in the book). It's been a bit of a slow burner up to this point, developing character, atmosphere and setting up the story threads for the various pay-offs at the end.

Anyway, don't want to say too much. Bit of a tweaking to do today and another 3 - 5,000 words if all goes well today (and my house rabbit - yes, Louise and I have our own pet bunny that lives indoors - doesn't keep trying to chew his way through our fixtures and fittings).

And don't worry Wyrd Dreams fans, I'll be penning another chapter of that very soon now that I've reached my halfway point deadline (and ahead of time to boot) with Honourkeeper. Might be next weekend when I post it, though (so a little late - sorry folks...).

Actually, a friend of mine called Kev (glad you liked Back from the Dead, mate - it only took you two years to read it! :-)), suggested that I should put all the chapters into a PDF once I was done for people to download. I reckon this is a great idea, but I'll have to enquire with the powers that be (my publishers) if that's okay. Keep you posted (no pun intended...).

10,000 more words of Honourkeeper

Okay, so I got through the feast scene (it was easy once I'd had a think and made some notes) and have another 10,000 words of Honourkeeper to show for it.

So, so good at the moment, though the book isn't progressing quite as fast as I'd like (especially given that I want to write another chapter of Wyrd Dreams for this month; maybe two...). It's good stuff (well, I'm happy with it). It's actually turning into a bit of slow burner at the outset with more character debvelopment and less action in the initial third, but I think that's a good thing and will mark it out from Oathbreaker, which was kind of the popcorn crunching equivalent.

I must just say a big 'thank you' to my fellow author C.L. Werner, who I've been chatting to about the novel rather informerly. Some good food for thought there, Herr Werner - thanks!

Well, can't stand around here blogging - there's writing to be done!

Honourkeeper update

Hey folks,

Just a quick one. I'm now six chapters into Honourkeeper with just over 20,000 words down. It's going pretty well, though I did hit a minor snag regarding a feast scene in one of the dwarf great halls.

Rather than bang my head against a metaphorical brick wall trying to fathom what was wrong and then put it right, I stopped writing for the night and instead sat down and made a few notes. Sure enough, as I started to work out the possible ways of approaching the scene in the form of notes, I came up with a solution to my problem.

It just goes to show you the benefit of having a good notebook that you can write in when you need to. I use mine to write snippets of dialogue, remember pertinent facts about my characters and even flesh out entire scenes. It also shows how working in a different medium can refresh your mind and re-ignite the creative spark. It certainly worked for me.

Oh, and a big thank you to everyone who's posted reviews for Oathbreaker, either sending them to me personally or the various forums and websites that are dotted about. I read all of your comments with great interest and value your constructive critiques, so cheers for that - much appreciated! :-)

Incidentally, one particular suggestion, involving a certain hammer and a dragon was so good that I think I'll explore it in a short story (you'll have to wait a while for that one, though). Who says authors don't listen to their fans, eh?