7/16/2013

Summer Writing Updates

I've moved past the preparation stage, and into actually writing my next novel, "Caretakers".

This is the view from the place I'm lucky enough to be writing for the next few weeks
It's an interesting process.  I'm using a workbook that I created after my experiences last year, writing, "Here Be Monsters", which pulls together lots of lessons and exercises that I found in various books and websites, and in talking with authors.  Assuming that everything goes well this summer, my plan is to polish the current version and go ahead and publish it in the hopes that other would-be writers will find it useful.

I've also been listening to the audiobook version of Stephen King's book, "On Writing"  for the last few weeks while shuttling my son Ben around to various camps and playdates and such.  The best part about it is that the audiobook is read by King himself, and I feel as though he's been my writing coach during the preparation for writing this next novel.

My old laptop was getting slow and cranky and flashing and crashing, so I've borrowed Ben's Chromebook for the last few days of writing, and have been so impressed that I'll be buying one of my own to replace my ancient Dell.  It's lighter, faster, runs longer on a charge, and costs less.  Given my computing needs, it makes lots of sense, and I'm excited to have a viable alternative to the dinosaur in mind.

Back to the writing...it's exciting and nerve-wracking and difficult and easy, all at the same time.  I know the shape of the story, having worked through the story arc and characters with my workbook, but there are some challenges with "Caretakers" that I didn't face with HBM.

The book is more complex, most notably from being written using two voices. I noodled around with alternating chapters, but it messed with the flow and my being able to relate to/with the characters I was writing; so I will be writing all of one voice first, all of the other voice afterwards, and then blending/shuffling the two once I've finished writing both parts.

I don't know if that's how other authors writer multiple voices/perspectives, but it seems to be the best way for me to write this novel.

I'm just getting started, but I will try to post with word counts and other developments as the project rolls along.

Thanks,

Jamie

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