Writing Update

Writing is definately easier when you don't get a migraine. In fact it's impossible to write when you do. Last night I had a migraine.

And to be honest I don't have any great tips for how to write when you feel dreadful. I've never got the hang of it myself.

The upshot of this is that I'm not much further on with my writing than I was on Tuesday evening, and this is a very short blog because my head's still foggy.

Writing Book Review - No Plot No Problem

"No Plot? No Problem!: A High-velocity, Low-stress Way to Write a Novel in 30 Days" by Chris Baty is basically the NaNoWriMo handbook as written by the founder of said insane writing event.

This isn't a book about creating high literature or tightening your plot. No, this is a book about getting that novel idea out of your head and onto paper as quickly as possible. Everything else is for the editing stage.

I like this book. Chris Baty has an engaging way of expressing himself that makes it fun, and it's full of amusing anecdotes and tips from other Nanoers (not many writing books have tips for upping your word count).

It bears repeating - I really like this book. I read it a lot.

I just don't use it much.

With a few exceptions the tips I use from it I used before I read it, and the others don't suit me.

However this is exactly how a large chunk of NaNo winners write their novel - just not me. People who want to write a novel and struggle to get started could do worse than to give it a whirl. Even if you don't want it as a writing guide it's worth a look anyway for the fun factor. It's inexpensive and doesn't claim to be the one true way to write a novel - just a way.

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Before I go could anyone possible recommend a good writing book that deals with Short Story Writing? All the ones I home deal mostly with novels. Thanks.

Short Stories shouldn't be this complicated

I've hit an interesting problem with "Opening" (yeah I dropped the 'The'). There's just too much happening for a short story or even a novelette. I'm either going to have to drop some things, or increase it to novella length in order to make it coherent.

I almost think the problem is too much Worldbuilding - I know all the people and groups who would react to what the protagonist is doing and can't justify not dealing with them. It looked okay in the outline but now it seems manic. For now the thing is to get what I have typed in and finish it and sort it out in the rewrite.

On the upside I'm halfway through the outline of "The King's Head". It should be finished before bed. And no way is this story going to be excessively long - it's far simpler even with the complication I've added. Given that my targets for June, as defined in this post, are merely to finish the first draft of "Opening" and outline three other stories by the end of this month I'm well on the way to fulfilling my goals. I'm actually considering adding 'write the first draft of "The King's Head"' and 're-outline "Firebird's Song" (my 2007 NaNo which needs to be made coherent)' to my June project list. I'll see how I'm doing on Sunday evening and then decide.

About Research

I feel a bit odd writing about research. I hate research. Well hate is too strong a word, but I'm not very comfortable with it - mostly because I'm not very good at it.

I mean if it just involves reading up on a subject I'm fine. I can find and read a book, article or Wikipedia entry no trouble. If someone I know knows about it I can ask them. If I actually need to find someone new who knows the subject and ask them questions I run into trouble. The thing is I'm a little shy and the thought of contacting total strangers and asking them nosy questions about it makes me feel ill.

As of yet I'm still trying to find a way past this hang up of mine, because research is important if you want to your fiction to have that element of versimilitude.

Anyway I've been researching research so to speak, and here are the links I've come up with so far.

• Research is Just a Roadtrip is about research in general.


• On Writing - Research is specifically about SF.


• Writing 101: Research that Novel


• How to Research Your Novel on the Internet
  

Writing Update

This is one of those posts when I will talk about the rest of my life, because it is impacting my writing.

This weekend I've had a guest and have been to a roleplaying convention in Birmingham. This was great fun but it's left me without any time to write. This means that the last scene of "The Opening" is still unfinished. However I also have tomorrow and Tuesday off so I intend to get it done before I go back to work.

I also hope to get some outlining done at the same time.

Quick Link Post

I have a friend visiting this weekend, so no time for a full post. Therefore I thought I'd link to some interesting blogs I've come across.

According to his latest post Noveldoctor is planning to launch some sort of contest next Friday. It has the entertaining title of “Help Keep Stephen Off Prozac Writing Contest Extravaganza.”

Daily Writing Tips can be very useful - and does exactly what it say.

Natalie Hatch has a post about George Orwell's own writing tips.

Fiction Book Review: Storm Front

Wow, I came late to this party. In spite of the fact that these novels were first published but this series had already been around for some time before I discovered it in 2006. Still I like it enough to feel that posting a version of the review I posted on Amazon at that time
is worthwhile.

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They may not inhabit the same universe but it would seem that there's more than one wizard named Harry out there in the world of modern urban fantasy fiction. In Storm Front - Book One of the Dresden Files Jim Butcher introduces us to Harry Dresden - Chicago's only professional wizard in the phone book.

It's an interesting concept. Dresden is a Wizard come Private Eye and this book plays to the conceits of both genres well. The story starts with a cash strapped Harry taking on two new cases. The first involves a very grisly double murder committed via magic while the vitims were doing the nasty together that he takes on for the police and the second is a missing persons case. They seem totally unconnected but if you know the genres you know things will get complicated very quickly.

It's not a book without flaws however (few books are). The villians are a little weak and and the PI side of the story can sometimes be a bit cliche and there is way too much backstory crammed into this first novel of the series. But unlike many series' starts it wraps up neatly and the style is good. Hopefully now all the back story is out of the way the pacing of the sequels will improve.

In spite of it's weaknesses I really enjoyed this novel. It's not high literature but it's entertaining and worth reading and yet another book I heartily recommendd to you.