Ideas, Ideas, Everywhere

Turning my writing focus from my kids’ book to Young Adult fiction means that I’ve been back in the full-on “ideas” stage of writing recently.

At its heart, this is a very exciting time, especially as I LOVE brainstorming and running after new things.  My brain is always flying off on tangents and into a myriad possibilities, so this time should suit me down to the ground and it does.  But…

Having too many ideas can quickly become overwhelming.  That can then easily translate into paralysis and indecision.  And so, despite the loveliness of being able to constantly brainstorm and muse over exciting new ideas, I’ve found myself floundering as well.  Coming up with ideas isn’t a problem.  Deciding which idea to pursue is the difficult thing.

Originally I wanted to write something that I’ve code-named CAF.  It’s a fairly big idea – a quest story, with identity and some spiritual stuff at the heart of it.  So, I had decided to put that to one side for now so that I can get experience writing YA on potentially easier projects, before tackling what could be a more major one.  But on the other hand, it’s the story that I feel a real deep passion for, so why not just get on with it?

However, with that uncertainty, I’ve also been considering what else I could write.  Ideas come from everywhere and anywhere, all the time.

When I was at the lunch table at Swanwick, the lady I was sat next to misunderstood my friend’s name slightly.  This sparked off thoughts about a potential story idea around choices and gifts.

When I was at a Major Incident Response Group training module last year, we were being taught about CBRN incidents, and as part of that we were talked through the official response.  It completely grabbed me and immediately presented itself as thrilling matter for a story.  I sat there scribbling down as much detail as possible as fast as I could, which must have looked pretty funny as no one else was bothering to take notes!

Another area I’ve always found fascinating is cloning – not in the serious scientific sense though, but more the personal and psychological impact and repercussions of it.  I’ve got an idea for that that’s initially quite fun, but then becomes more serious and chilling.  It has the potential to be expanded as a standalone story or I could embed it into the CAF story.

Sooooooo many possibilities!

I watched Robert Harris on Breakfast last week, talking about his new book “An Officer and A Spy”.  It’s a fascinating and thrilling sounding story, but it was how it came about that particularly interested me, given where I’m at at the moment.  He went to Paris to meet Roman Polanski and talk through an idea he had for a new story.  Roman (or should I say Mr Polanski? I have no idea about social etiquette, I just like to be friendly!) had on his bookshelf several books about Captain Alfred Dreyfus.  They started talking about it, Roman said he’d always wanted to make it into a film and Robert decided to work with him on that, writing it as a novel first and then translating it into a screenplay.

Great tale, but I wanted to know more!  How much did he have to consider following that story rather than his original story idea?  Was it an easy decision or did he take a while to be convinced it was the right way to go?  Has he put the original idea aside to come back to in the future or decided not to bother with it ever?  I guess my underlying question is – do all authors suffer from indecision about a potential idea or do they just “know” when the right one presents itself?

I’m off on my Arvon YA course tomorrow and I’m sure that lots more potential ideas will pop up during the week!  However, I’m pretty sure I know which of my existing ideas I should get on with and pursue first, although doubts still bubble up about whether or not it’s the right choice.  They probably will for some time.

At the end of the day, writing anything - even if it turns out to be a naff idea ultimately or never gets published for whatever reason - is still valuable practice at writing.  I can’t spend my time going round in circles trying to work out which idea to go for rather than writing, coz to be a writer you have to write (not think)!  Time to go and read my previous post on focusing rather than faffing, and then just get on with it :-)

Endless Editing

I recently saw one of those questionable-authenticity-but-carries-more-than-a-grain-of-truth-in-it statistics:

“Writing a book is 10% writing and 90% editing.”

Man, that is so true!  I’m just working on my fourth draft of B4 (code name!).  It took roughly 3 months to write the first draft – if you don’t count the year it took to write the first 5,000 words and the preceding 15 years when I just carried the idea around in my head.  The second and third drafts also took roughly 3 months each to do.

This draft is NOT going to take 3 months!!!  For a start I’m desperate to have a go at a few other pieces of writing – mainly YA (Arvon course in 3 weeks and counting), but also brainstorming ideas for future B4 books, which would make this first one into the beginning of a series.

I’ve also had September in my mind for a while as my goal month for being ready to start submitting the manuscript to literary agents.  While no one else is holding me to that, I’m going to be seriously annoyed with myself if I don’t manage it.  At the same time, I have zero intention of rushing this edit just to meet that deadline, as submitting a manuscript that’s anything less than my best would make all my hard work and learning during the last year utterly pointless.

Editing is hard work though!  It’s endless deleting, tweaking, re-wording, re-ordering, and checking and double-checking that the narrative thread still works despite the alterations.  Some days it’s feels like I’m taking a scalpel to the manuscript, making small changes.  That might be modifying a line of dialogue so it sounds more natural or fits better with the voice of the character.  Or it might be swapping a bland word for a funnier word, or adding extra comical detail – useful things I learnt at Swanwick!  As Mark Twain said:

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

Other days I attack the manuscript with a machete!  Last week, for example, I cut about 3,000 words – amalgamating 2 chapters and completely cutting another.  On one hand, I’m very happy that it’s improved the pace and reduced the word count to closer to what I'd like it to be.  On the other hand, I have to consciously not contemplate the fact that a whole week (or two’s) worth of writing has been wiped out with a few presses of the delete button.

The impact that cut or changed sections have on the continuity of the narrative is my biggest constant concern.  For example, I’ve deleted the opening chapter where Ben meets Miss Bitts, the Headteacher, for the first time.  Its omission means that in the third chapter when she takes an assembly, that’s now the first time Ben experiences her and discovers what a horror she is (along with the rest of the school!), rather than it just confirming and adding to his previous first encounter with her.  While the flavour and humour of the scene remained the same, it had to be rewritten to accommodate this fundamentally different situation.  Hopefully it was improved at the same time as well, as I got to caricature Miss Bitts more!

The other problem with editing is that you can get so immersed in the minutiae of the manuscript that you lose all perspective on whether it’s still working overall or not.  By the end of one editing day I’d become convinced that I was actually making it worse, not better!  Thankfully I could console myself that at least I’d left in the bits that my pre-readers had told me that they liked the best, so it couldn’t be a complete write-off :-)

So, with my Arvon course looming and my keenness to finish this draft and hand it over to my husband for a final (in my dreams!) check, I’d better go and get on with some writing!  Talking about writing is so enjoyable but it doesn’t get the job done :-)