Writing

The Star Wars Effect

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The July 2007 issue of DVD Review Magazine comes with a 95 page free book all about the influence that Star Wars had over the last thirty years of screen sci-fi– and I wrote about half of it (the other half was done by regular SFX contributor Jayne Nelson).

The films and shows I covered are:

The Black Hole,
Saturn 3
Flash Gordon
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
E.T.- The Extra Terrestrial
2010
The Last Starfighter
Red Dwarf
Babylon 5
Independence Day
Starship Troopers
The Fifth Element
The Matrix
Titan A.E.

A motley crew, but it turned out fairly fun in the end. It’s an entertaining read, and should be in the shops within the next week.

Speaking Too Soon

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I’ve got 21 pages of the book which is almost all exposition and people finding stuff out. That’s going to translate into approx. 42 pages of double-spaced manuscript, and that’s exactly the kind of thing which would make me get impatient and not want to read anymore. Every time I think I’m doing well with this, I open Pandora’s Box and it all goes a bit wrong. I’ve got to get finished on this damn thing on this pass, because I think I might go mad otherwise.

I’m starting a new Novel in 90 project on June 1st. I’m not even sure exactly what I’m doing with the idea I’ve got– all I know is that if I don’t start writing new stuff soon, my head may detonate.

Chapter Six

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I may have just cracked the major exposition section of my book. If not an actual success, I think it’s as close as I’m going to get to compressing it down. There’s still some work to do on the final third of the chapter, but it’s closer to being done than it has been for a very long time. Things will get a little easier once I get past this…

What I’m doing at the moment feels right. I can’t rid myself of the horrible feeling that it’s all going to go horribly wrong– but if it does, than that’s the way it was destined to happen. I’ve got to follow this road to the end, and see where it takes me.

Once this one is out of the way, there’s nine chapters to go before I’m finished.

Tick tock…

Incoming Futurity Homesick Blues

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I’m feeling oddly melancholic at the moment. Certain subjects are stressing me out more than they should, and while work is progressing well on the book, and I’m rewriting more and more, I can’t help feeling I’ve created something that some anonymous reader is going to look at and go “Hmmph. Well, it was fun, but it could have been alot better…” The chapters are taking shape– I’m in the middle of what I call the Godforsaken Desert of Exposition, where the characters learn all the necessary stuff they need before the next phase of the story can begin, but I got to a certain point in the rewrite last night, and I felt like I just couldn’t push myself any further. I desperately want to improve at this process and understand it better, but the only way I’m going to do that is by writing another one. With a certain degree of preperation, I think I’m capable of burning through a massive level of wordcount in a very short amount of time (my only writing method at the moment is to start with throwing lots of words at the page and seeing what sticks), but then it’s changing that into something good. I guess I’m just finding it a little hard to have faith in myself. It’s a very long road, and while I’m coming to the end of it, I’m getting nervous that the destination might not be exactly where I wanted to end up.

Anyhow, I’ve got the Clarke Awards in London tonight– I’m going to go, talk to lots of people, drink plenty, and hopefully have a good time…

Holding Out For A Hero (Paranoimia Mix…): A Novel Request

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I’m getting a bit paranoid about getting to the end of the rewrite of the novel, finally acheiving my goal- and discovering I’ve crafted something nobody wants to read. So, in an attempt to dip my toe in the water, here’s a preliminary blurb for the book, behind the cut. Have a look, let me know if it sounds like something you’d like to read. If you’d actually like to read some of it, let me know. At the moment, I’m desperately in need of feedback. Every little helps.

(This is repeated material from an earlier post, by the way- if you read the previous “Novel Request” post, you won’t be missing anything…)

The Low-down on THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT…

Go Wild, Go Wild, Go Wild in the Country…

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I didn’t want to blog about it up until now– and doing this now might jinx myself– but at the same time as rewriting the novel, I’m also writing a short story. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to end up with, but I’m using the Novel in 90 750 word a day method, and blimey if it isn’t actually working. For the last few days, I’ve even been finding that the best time for me to write is immediately after I’ve gotten up. No breakfast– straight to the computer. There’s stuff coming out that’s interesting, and I don’t know where it’s coming from, which is normally a good sign. I’d forgotten how good being productive makes me feel- today, I managed over 1,000 words, I restructured half a chapter in The Hypernova Gambit, I finished two reviews, and did a rough version of a third. Next time I’m blankly depressed, I’m going to try and remember today, as one of the points where it actually all worked.

Book-wise, I’ve gotten to the end of Chapter 5- and that’s actually a third of the way through the book. (I ended up with rather hefty, multi-part chapters that average about 10,000 words each). What’s coming up is a little scary, as while the middle third is a little weaker and in need of plenty of work, most of the rewriting needs to be done to the final third. Trouble is, I’ve been set a deadline by George that this all has to be done by 25th of June (and that’s including getting someone to read the damn thing, which is proving to be harder than I’d like). She keeps saying that ‘You’re never going to be happy with it’ in response to me saying ‘I just want to get it a point where I’m happy with it’– and the thing is, I know that I’m not going to get this perfect. I’m not fooling myself. But, I am convinced that if I work myself to the bone on this thing, I can get it to a stage where it’s all of a good, survivable standard. The first five chapters are almost there. The rest of it’s taking some work. I’m going to get there, I just wish I knew when…

As One Door Closes, Another Opens…

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Alright- we’ve got a final wordcount for this version of the book.

150,867 words.

Which means that over the last six months or so, I’ve sliced 37,000 words out of THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT. After a few days of complete paranoia and being convinced that I’d written complete bilge, I finally persuaded myself that some of what I’d written was actually bearable, and I’ve just sent it to a couple of people to be read. Hopefully that’s not going to backfire on me. Plus… I think I’ve actually worked out what I’m doing for my next book. It’s an idea I’ve been working on for a very long time, but I think if I do it right, I can pull it off. There’s definitely a novel there, it’s just going to be a matter of digging around a bit and finding it.

Plus, with my wife’s help, I’m making my first voyages into the online realm of World of Warcraft. I’m currently playing a blue alien girl called Valsaizer, and this evening spent half an hour killing a wide variety of mutant plant life. No change there, then…

I also may have succeeded in introducing one of my nephews to the joys of 2000ADs. I’ve got a gigantic pile of them (mainly second hand), nowhere to store them, and the chance to hand them on to someone who’ll enjoy them is actually quite nice (even if he trashes them- to be honest, they’re second hand…). They’re fantastic stories, and it’s great to get the chance to expand someone’s horizons…

The Sound of the Atom Splitting

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…and we’re back.

Long periods of silence on this blog usually means I’m either ridiculously busy, or going through tough times and not wanting to turn this into a non-stop moan about how annoyingly difficult life can be. In fact, the last couple of weeks have been a mix of both, along with the joys of spending most of last week rather ill, holding my stomach and going “owww….” a lot, so it’s nice that, at least for now, life seems to be looking up. Certainly, work is continuing to tick over at a good pace- I’ve been working my way through a mountain of manuscript reading work (with more to come), and have been doing a reasonable number of screenings, managing to net plenty of them for two seperate outlets (which are print and online, so there’s no conflict. Hurrah!)

Television-wise, Lost has taken a couple of steps back towards watchable by both letting something actually happen, and remembering what made the show so much fun in the first place- contrasting the dark intense stuff with lighter humour, and letting the ensemble play while still focussing on one character per episode. It’s in no way perfect, but it’s at least watchable, unlike Battlestar Galactica, which is feeling worryingly like it’s in terminal freefall. I’d love it if I was proved wrong, but there’s only one episode that I’ve consistently enjoyed since they got off New Caprica twelve or so episodes ago. Plus, there was Heroes, finishing off its second run of episodes with another humdinger that may have had a couple of wobbles but also had some fantastic treats, plus an entertainingly nasty cliffhanger. The middle of April seems too far away…

In the meantime, the writing has been purely focussing on getting The Hypernova Gambit in a better state. I’m learning a lot about ways of spotting mistakes, and once I get tomorrow out of the way, I’m sending it to a couple of people for opinions and leaving it for a little. I’m even, shockingly, getting a vague idea of what I’m going to do next. While I’m going to be starting on TALES OF THE HARLOT soon, the big story is going to be a heavily rewritten version of the script I wrote as a pilot for a drama series ten years ago. I need to strip away alot of the big story, and concentrate on the heart of the story. There’s a lot to be found there.

More soon. Keep watching the skies…

The Best Laid Plans…

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Honesty time. FLIPSIDE has ground to a halt. I’m not saying I’ll never do anything else to it, but… for the moment… it’s on hold. I’m heavily entrenched in rewrites on THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT, and getting closer with every step. I’ve also got an idea for a group of seven interlocking short novellas, all dealing with archetypal story forms- Comedy, Tragedy, Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches- and all set in a weird, semi-Victorian world. If it works, it’ll be called TALES OF THE HARLOT, and I’ll be doing it just for me, for the moment. At the least, I need to get THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT out of the way. It shall be done- oh yes, it shall be done…

In other news- after a very tense week, George and I finally managed to sort out various problems at the weekend- and while the situation with the flat may be somewhat annoying, we’re going to continue paying, simply to get the thing over and done with. We’re also talking more about everything between us, as the last six months have been non-stop risk and change, and there’s a certain point where you have to slow down and tell yourself- “Hmm- if we’re still alive, maybe we’re doing okay!”

I’ve also been driving more. We got the car back, and I’m just getting used to doing the ten minute trip to the workshop on my own, but Thursday is going to involve me both driving into Alton and (shock. horror) parking. The world may not be ready yet…

Day 22: The Nature of the Catastrophe

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Okay- first up- I didn’t do fantastically today.

Yesterday’s wordcount: 986
Today’s wordcount: 606

FLIPSIDE total wordcount: 21,166

I’m not even convinced that anything I’m writing is particularly good.

Second of all, today was horribly difficult for a whole variety of reasons. The nightmare with our flat is refusing to go away- last thursday, I discovered that not only has the Landlord not yet fixed a date for the refurbishments to begin (Apparently, the builders he likes are both dead cheap and ridiculously difficult to control), but he’s recently turned down tenants who were definitely interested in the place, simply because they wanted it for longer than six months, and that would mean he wouldn’t be able to refurbish soon and bump up the rent. (Okay, he said that was a deciding factor at the beginning of this whole nightmare process, but it still rankles, as I’m sure you can understand). He’s also continuing his habit of describing plans in a way that makes no sense, and only really starts making me angry about eight hours later- for example, the builders are currently doing a job ‘for the next couple of weeks’, but he can’t actually set a date for the end of the contract ‘until they’ve actually started work’, otherwise they might bugger off and leave him in the lurch (Which should, theoretically, be his problem, but he seems to be doing his damndest to make it ours). ‘Sometime in April’ is his statement- and even that is with ‘no promises’. On top of all this, I’ve since found out that- at least at the moment- the flat has been taken off the system at the Estate Agents who were supposed to be advertising it, and isn’t appearing on their website- they claim it’s still being advertised ‘privately’ in places like Loot (although I’ve checked the Loot website and there is no sign of anything resembling our flat), but are saying that it’s probably due to the Landlord’s decision to hang onto it and refurbish, rather than rent it again, and the fact that it’s in an ‘unrentable state’- (despite the people last week who were very keen on taking it).

This has, understandably, been playing havoc with me. I don’t handle stress well- I particularly don’t handle financial stress well, and the current situation of having to pay £715 a month for a flat we’re no longer living in is, to be honest, a bit too much for anyone to cope with. Even with significant help from George’s mum and dad, we’re functioning on the average earnings of a church mouse. This morning, it knocked me for six- I sometimes end up ‘Hulking Out’ in terms of stress, which is very bad for me, and George was incredibly supportive- but we’ve just had a major row over what to do about this situation. She’s right, in that the time for rolling over and playing along with this is over- but I’m still seduced by the idea of just getting to a point where this isn’t a factor anymore- just paying the toll and going home. At the moment, we’re talking about four rent payments- (to be honest, we don’t care about the deposit, so it would really only be three)- but that’s still upwards of 2 grand, and potentially ending up in a Court Action situation over that kind of money is something that frightens me an awful lot, and I don’t always respond well when I get frightened.

I guess- if anyone out there knows anyone in the legal world, or any way we might be able to get some advice- we’re four months from the end of a Fixed Term Tenancy Agreement, and the Landlord is playing silly buggers. An amicable ending would be nice, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen. To be honest, it would just be nice to know whether biting the bullet and not paying is a sensible move or the daftest thing we could possibly do.

Any advice gratefully accepted…