45,000 Words

I’m not entirely sure this chunk will be here in the second draft, and while I’m pleased to have hit 45k I don’t entirely feel it hangs together. I do like the ideas contained, more backfill character development and some future looking to plot structure, but it feels out of place. There’s still more to do to make it breathe and come properly alive, and for that reason i’ll carry on with it. But, it does feel like it has taken me away from the core tale and that’s why it feels a bit removed; it doesn’t progress the plot in a clear linear way, but it still feels relevant to later events. Does that make sense?

Part of this section has involved doing some broad stroke research on New Orleans, which is terrific - very little by way of actual writing competes with faffing about looking up stuff about mid 19th century music from that melting pot. The previous article alludes to it, but New Orleans is one of the most significant cities in the history of the US. Any place that had been the centre of so much activity, in terms of culture and commerce and adventurous expansionism, must have been a magnificent sight to behold - if you were financially comfortable and had some control over your own fate.

I think this will be a part of the story that will divide those few I have reading this first draft. At 45,000 words in I’m hoping they’ll have invested enough time and energy that they can stomach the shift towards something more than natural and roll with it. With this small section played out soon, around 50k, the pace will shift again for the next section. I’m guessing at about 120-150k now for the complete story, substantially more than the 80-90k I expected to need when I started - though I have no idea what that means in terms of actual numbers of finished pages.

One Thousand Words A Day

That’s what I’m aiming for each day, so I can bump things along by 5k a week and get my shit done. I’ve started to settle into a routine that kind of works for me, but I have a sneaking feeling I’ll get bored and fuck things up when the going gets a bit tough. It’s easy to write when you can see where you want to go, it’s just a matter of getting there and slogging on.

That’s where I’m at now, characters are developing nicely and creating their own responses to situations and events and it’s just a matter of recording what they’re doing - at least, that’s what it feels like. I can see the next few set pieces in my head, can visualise the people I need to be there and what the result needs to be.

It doesn’t always work out exactly like I imagine it would, little things lead to not so little things and every decision made in the telling has the potential for a fuckload of consequences to shit loose ends all over everything. The good thing about blindly following random ideas like falling dominos is that they can lead you down paths unknown to places unexpected, and just maybe, if the gods are being particularly benevolent, there’ll be some fat juicy wet original idea laying there with its legs spread wide waiting for you to ride its great quivering cunt towards some enlightened creative conception. Most of the time, though, its just a shat out and curled up runt of an idea that needs to have its skull crushed. That’s the problem with ‘easy’, you get cock-hard and rigid with self-delusions and think you’re all that when really you’re too fucking dumb to see you’re knee deep in your own shit and there’s no way to get out other than to burn the whole thing down and start again. Which is annoying.

That’s why it’s good for me to have an overall destination in mind, and a few truck stops that I have to check into along the way. How I get to where I need to get to can be as free-roaming and creative as I want to be, but checking in to the arc of the plot every so often keeps me grounded.

35,000 Words

Managed to get 5,000 words done this week, and I didn’t kill a single person, figuratively or literally, in the process. Against what I intended this week turned out to be mostly about writing backstory for various characters, which can be hugely involving when working out timelines and relationships - specially when I wasn’t expecting to be writing about it. But, as characters tend to do, they grew into their parts and needed to have some history built up to support them. 

I really enjoyed this weeks work, and not just the writing. There’s plenty of research to do: 1850s timber industry, moonshining, backwoods hunting and looking at hymns and songs from that period. I’m beginning to think my original estimate of 90,000 words might need to be revised upwards. I’m about 35,000 words in and it doesn’t feel like I’m a third of the way into the plot yet.

Secondary Characters & Locations

are a necessary pain in the ass.

Spent today writing up brief descriptions and backgrounds for 20+ secondary characters for one location in Troublesome Times, and I have a similar number - if not more - I’ll need to do work on for another location later on in the story. I’m not sure how much of a role each of these people will play, but they fill up the spreadsheets and give me a better sense of the world I’ve created in my head and the people who inhabit it.

Each ‘part’ of the story takes place mostly in one location, but there are sidebar stories that expand the world and the plot. I’m liking this way of working: the single location gives me a main story to focus on, and the sidebars let me indulge the characters with short insights. 

Aside from characters I’m also looking at references again today: timber and moonshine - I’m saving the preachering business for another day. 

 I’m using Pinterest to create pinboards for shit I find interesting that I want to keep track of for the story: http://pinterest.com/damnedthing/ and I have a list of books as long as my arm stored on google books that have been invaluable.

I’m going to have to plan out a visit to the midwest sometime later in the year, so I’ll be sticking pins in google maps at some stage. 

30,000 Words

This week I managed to finish Part One of Troublesome Times - 30k of words done. Have Part Two pretty much formulated in my head, it should be a similar length, although characters tend to do unexpected things that lead to a different neck of the woods. Hoping this section will be easier than the first; with all the set up in place you’d think things would just follow along naturally, but even though everything is all your own plan, with your own plot and characters, it’s funny how many nooks and crannies and secret compartments you stumble across when writing a story. 

Part Three, I have some defined yet vague ideas about, it’ll probably be the trickiest section and I’ll need to do a bit more research. Part four should be fun, bringing all the various bits together and tying up most of the loose ends.

It’s about this stage, now, I start to feel the characters fill out and grow into being themselves. There’s one or two I feel who are telling me their story, rather than the other way around, which is always fun. I’m enjoying the feedback I’m getting from my trusted beta readers, even the critical stuff - the obvious sometimes isn’t obvious till someone points it out.