Category: Novel Writing

Writing books on smartphones and gadgets

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When it comes to writing, I’m one of the world’s greatest procrastinators. Rather than simply sitting down at my computer, I like to first get all of my client writing work out of the way. I like to schedule my day and work out when I can write blogs, clean the dishes, feed the cats; anything but actually sit down and actually work. I will be thinking about writing, formulating scenes and chapters in my mind, but I can often put off the actual process of writing for an extraordinarily long length of time. Sometimes, it’s just that I don’t want to sit down at my computer.

Something that’s got me producing more work and words every day is writing whilst I’m on the move. Though I’m a PC boy, I have fallen into the Apple cart, quite literally, and the iPhone has literally changed my life in the past two years that I’ve had it. However, it is in more recent weeks that the ‘Notes’ app (right) has been proving a huge benefit.

You may not think that writing a novel on your iPhone is the smartest way to go about producing work, but if you can actually get words written, then anything is a bonus. Think how fast you type messages and emails on your smartphone. If you can transfer this speed to your ‘Notes’ app, then surely you’re onto a winner. A benefit with the app is that there’s an integrated email function. When I’m home I can simply cut and paste the words into my main manuscript. Yes, there’s some formatting that needs to be done, but highlighting the text and adding line spacing, indents and changing the font takes mere seconds. As for correcting comma and quotation fonts; well I can easily do that in the final edit.

In the past few weeks I’ve managed to get a lot of words written using this method. Any free moment, whether it’s a coffee break or even an advert break when I’m watching the television, I can jot things down. Yes, you can take notepads, netbooks or laptops wherever you go if you wish, but there’s one thing that’s almost certainly always going to be to hand, and that’s your phone.

Of course, this isn’t a replacement for your PC or Mac, but it sure helps churn out those important thoughts and words when you have a few spare minutes. It also seems like less work than sitting down at your computer. And, for the ultimate procrastinator like me, emailing across the document, integrating it into the manuscript and suddenly realising you’ve written 5k by utilising otherwise wasted time is wonderful. I’m not sure whether other smartphone systems have similar applications as this. But, if you have an iPhone and you sometimes struggle with sitting down to concentrate on writing, utilising the Notes app may just provide the extra incentive to keep going.

The Tower of Souls – the first excerpt

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I’ve been working on The Tower of Souls, both actively tapping away and passively thinking, perusing and dreaming about it. It’s funny when you start a new novel and it gets under your skin; it’s almost all you can think about it.

Today I’ve been working on a chapter with Susan and Martha and thought I’d do something that I never did with Inside Evil; post a short except. Bear in mind that this is a first draft and only cobbled together today, but I thought I’d share this brief passage that involves one of my favourite double acts.

                                                                                               

The Tower of Souls; Except

Christmas had come and gone in Ridgewood. As Susan stood at the window of Martha’s kitchen, she looked out upon the grey scene. Though snow had brightened up the quiet little town in the weeks preceding December 25th, rain had arrived on Christmas Eve to wash away the crisp white sheet that blanketed her surroundings. Within hours, the beauty of the white landscape had been washed away to slush, and though evening temperatures continued to plummet, there was no new snow to provide fresh beauty to the town.

Susan sighed as she plunged her hands into the hot water and continued to clean dishes. The past few days had been extremely difficult; the first Christmas without Vanessa had been as bad as she thought it might be. Much to her husband Bernard’s displeasure, Martha had been invited for food, drinks and more drinks. They had sat in almost complete and uncomfortable silence around the table, with Martha occasionally attempting to make light conversation with Bernard.

“Why can’t you just leave us in peace?” he said finally, the words spilling from his lips with tired anger.

“Bernard, I’m so sor-“

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Susan interrupted, before turning her eyes on her husband. “How dare you-”

“How dare I?” Bernard shouted with indignation, “That’s a bloody joke! This woman, this interfering manipulative woman ruined our marriage the day she stepped into OUR bookstore.”

“What marriage?” Susan said, almost rolling her eyes, “We’ve been pretending to love each other for years. We only stayed together for Vanessa’s sake.”

“Well, how lucky for you, dear,” Bernard replied with sarcasm, “She’s dead, you can leave me now.” And, with that he pushed his plate away and stormed out of the room.

Susan had not needed any heeding, and despite Martha offering to leave whilst advising her friend to let matters simmer down, Susan knew that there wasn’t any going back. She’d known for a long time that her marriage was over, and since her daughter’s death she and Bernard had only been growing further apart. With Bernard glowering in the front room, Susan had filled a suitcase with clothes and left with the promise of a bed at Martha’s. Little did she know that as soon as the door to her family home had slammed, Bernard, teary eyed and regretful, had wandered the house looking for his wife, not believing that she’d actually gone. No, Christmas had not been pleasant.

As Susan heard the front door open and the rustle of an umbrella being shaken, she looked up from the foamy suds that filled the washing up bowl. A small movement caught her eye, and she noticed a small purple spider was spindling on a small length of silk attached to the top of the window frame, gently descending to the countertop below. Reaching out with soapy hands, Susan squashed the tiny creature with her index finger, before wiping the oozy innards from the paintwork with a sponge and turning to smile as Martha bustled in.

“I got it,” Martha beamed as she held aloft the large tome that she’d received from Sam Carter. “It’s exactly as she said it would be.”

A curious thing had occurred the previous night. Susan, though going to bed early, had been suffering from her usual early morning insomnia, and around 1am had finally given up the attempt to sleep and had instead crept down to the living room for a late night tipple. She thought, for a few seconds, that Martha had beaten her to it when she saw her friend standing at the drinks cabinet, before realising that Martha was actually staring into the large mirror mounted on the wall above. Drawing closer, Susan had seen the animated image of an older woman shimmering away, before the reflection in the glass was replaced with Martha’s familiar face. Martha pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear as if nothing untoward had occurred, saw that Susan had entered the living room and immediately pulled out a bottle of whisky.

Now, standing in the kitchen on the following morning, Martha pulled Susan across to the table as she pushed up the sleeves of her mauve cardigan and dropped the large and old looking book onto a small breakfast bar.

“How was Sam?” Susan asked, realising that she hadn’t actually seen him since the night that Roberta fell from the cliff.

“Dishevelled,” Martha responded as she flipped open the thick leather cover to reveal the first page. “I’m afraid I was too keen on getting my hands on this to spend any time with him.”

Upon the first page of the faded pink paper was a list of names and dates pertaining to the previous owners of the tome.

“Mrs Peacock. She must’ve been the woman in the mirror,” Martha said as she drew her index finger down the list.

Susan peered over her shoulder and saw the inscription below, letting out a small gasp as she did so. “Martha Wittle.”

Martha grinned with excitement. She seemed unfazed by the fact that a woman had appeared in her mirror in the middle of the night with instructions to pick up this book; a book which was obviously predestined to make it into Martha’s hands.

Leaving the table momentarily, Martha disappeared into the living room. Susan flipped the page and found that it was blank, the pale and slightly water marked pink paper feeling fragile under her fingers. Page after page was blank, with the only slight marks being those of age related trauma.

“Martha, it’s empty!” Susan called out.

“What?”

“It’s blank!” Susan shouted again, raising her voice as she did so.

“Bring it here would you?” Martha said, popping her head around the doorframe before once again disappearing. “I think I have a little trick to solve that.”

                                                                                

For those of you who’ve read Inside Evil there may be a few titbits of Martha’s future in this except. For those who haven’t, I hope I haven’t given anything too much away!

Inside Evil; The Tower of Souls

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It’s official, the sequel to Inside Evil that I’m currently writing will be called The Tower of Souls. You may think that, as an author, I ought to have known the title before I started writing. However, many authors actually finish entire novels before the title pops into their mind. In a similar way that characters grow into themselves as the pages are written, so too does the overall story arc, and often the title. And now, 20,000 words in, The Tower of Souls has ruminated in my mind for long enough to set down its official anchor.

What can we expect from The Tower of Souls? Well, to be completely honest, I’m not even sure yet. When I was in the throes of writing Inside Evil, a lot happened which I’d never envisaged. I have set milestones that I work towards, but the storytelling in between is left largely to my fingers and the characters themselves. Do I know where Tower of Souls will finish? Yes. Do I know what is going to happen along the way? Not entirely.

I can tell you that our favourite characters, Roberta, Sam, Susan, Martha and Karl will all be back, with Sam moving to the forefront a little and having his own Point of View (POV). As Roberta explores the dangerous world of Gathin, she’s going to discover the true horrors that shadows Ridgewood, and she may come to realise that her part in this story is not a mere accident. Meanwhile, with Roberta presumed dead by her friends who have been left behind, life goes on. However, shaking off the experience that was suffered in the final days before Inside Evil’s conclusion isn’t easy and, Sam in particular, will struggle to adapt.

Several further reviews have come in for Inside Evil, making me know that taking a breath and hitting that ‘publish‘ button was the right thing to do. Now, even I am excited by the story unfolding on the screen before me. Over the coming weeks I’m also going to post a little competition for one reader to have a very specific character placed within Gathin, allowing a creative fan to have their concept immortalised in an eBook form. But for now, and with a tentative release date of September, I need to get back to tap, tap, tapping away.

POV’s for continuing series

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I’ve never really been a fan of writing in first person. Though I don’t mind reading books that follow this style, I’ve always found it a little self indulgent. Perhaps I’m the type of storyteller who watches my characters from afar and writes, rather than actually becoming the lead hero or heroine in a tale. Writing in such a way allows me to follow several characters within a single book, which offers all sorts of freedom, and difficulties. Having now started the second Inside Evil novel, I’ve been struggling slightly with which Point of Views (POVs) to explore.

The first draft of Inside Evil was fairly disorganised, with several POVs inter-tangled. Eventually, Roberta Arlington, Karl Frans and Susan Lingly became the main focus, and the book developed particularly well from these view points. In book two, heroine Roberta remains, whilst I love writing scenes with Susan and Martha Wittle, so again, Susan stayed. My struggle began when thinking about how to involve both Karl and Sam Carter to the story. Having both been important characters who played their parts in helping Roberta, it was vital for their stories to continue in some way.  Having had Karl’s POV in Inside Evil, it seems only obvious to continue this thread, but then, I wanted to develop Sam. However, the logistics of the story pretty much mean that Sam is isolated from the other groups and needs to forge his own path.

So, Sam has become a POV for the second novel in the series, with Karl’s future still in doubt. As many characters often do, Sam is already proving that it was the right decision and has already started to forge his story across my computer screen. But it leaves me with the question…do I increase POVs to four by including Karl, or does the incompetent detective simply become a secondary character for the time being? Will this irritate readers?

Time will only tell, and as the book progresses, I’m sure Karl will start being difficult if he’s not happy with taking a back seat on this one. In the meantime, I better get back to seeing what Sam has in store for me.

Creating Characters

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There’s nothing more I love than creating characters. Not than I can take the sole responsibility of  forming these people. More often than not they present themselves in staggering vividness, and I have only to put finger to keyboard to allow their personalities to start appearing.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been seriously working on the sequel to Inside Evil. For my main character, Roberta Arlington, there’s a great transition to take place and I’m finding that, rather than being the strong willed and determined women I thought her to be, she’s actually decided to be far more fearful than I imagined. This has had a great effect on another major character for book two, who seems to be positively flourishing. Though only mentioned in the first title of the series, this secondary character plays a large role in future titles. However, I’ll refrain from actually writing their name here, for those who haven’t thought ahead and worked out who it is. 🙂

One of the things I love most about creating characters is how they transform and flesh themselves out with little help from me. A small grain of an idea, from a name, a face shape, or a simple spoken word, starts to snowball. Before long, you have this creation who has, by all accounts, pushed themselves into your mind and text on their own. I almost see it as a flashing of images. You never can quite catch their entire face in one moment, but the glint an an eye or the clench of a jaw pushes its way through the subconscious and makes them real.

I’m already loving writing again, rather than being plagued by the long winded editing process. It’s once again shown me just how intense and incredible writing can me. Where pages right themselves, and events which you’d never plotted, burst into animated life and start to shape your book. Though I had a specific idea for Roberta, she’s simply not playing ball. However, her resistance has proved vital for someone else’s growth, and I’m excited to see where this leads.

A Break from Advertising

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When writing a book for the first time, you think that THAT is the hard part. However, when you hit that ‘publish’ button, whether it’s on Smashwords, Amazon or the various other places available for self-publishing, you discover that it’s only then that the hard work begins.

Unfortunately, most books simply don’t sell themselves. There needs to be time and effort into promoting, building a fan base, surfing forums (and by this I mean actively engaging in the community and not simply spamming book links) and getting your book and author name known. It’s a hard process. And, it takes a lot of time.

Having read on many forums and blogs that touting a single novel is often a waste of time because though you’ll get sales on one book, there’s no back catalogue for fans to then purchase, I’ve decided to cut back on advertising. Book sales are slow, but having done no real promoting in two weeks, I’m still getting the odd sale here and there. Meanwhile, the extra time means I can plough myself into writing the next Inside Evil  book which, incidentally, is coming on rather well.

I think taking a break is probably a healthy option, and stops the advertising wheel from taking over your life. And, if I can put my energies into writing and publishing more work, it can only be a good step to take.

Self Publishing – Providing the Crucial Bait

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Today I was told that I had Anne Rice Syndrome. This is a very nice way of telling me that I’m doing something wrong. Anne Rice, the award winning author behind titles such as Interview with a Vampire and The Witching Hour is known for her long descriptive passages, causing readers to skip portions of the book. This is all very well for a well known author who’s work spreads by word of mouth and who doesn’t necessarily need that first paragraph hook. For me, however, changes need to be made to grip the reader immediately, rather than first setting the scene.

I’ve known that the first few pages of Inside Evil go to set the scene rather than jumping into the story. I’m no Tolkien, so I don’t spend 100 pages describing what Bilbo had for dinner, but the first 3/4 pages do set the scene of the craggy landscape where Ridgewood is set. If I were a well known author with lots of five star reviews, then yes, people would probably pick up, buy and read. However, i’m not, so a lack of instant appeal may cause readers to pass me by.

Ebooks, I feel, have a lot to do with this. As does Amazon’s Look Inside feature. Traditionally, if you bought a book, then you’d sit and read and indulge in descriptions. Certainly, I love that sort of written passage. However, with readers zapping through Amazon’s Look Inside feature and making decisions within paragraphs and pages, that instant grab factor has become vital.

So, what does it mean for me? My well meaning critique applauded my writing but suggested a first chapter rework so that readers are grabbed straight away. I’m considering it. I had hoped that the quality of writing would prevail and readers would become drawn into my described world. Perhaps i was wrong. I may attempt a rework, and then compare purchases to see if that first line hook is crucial in the long run. I will update on my findings!

My Newbie Editing Faux Pas

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You’d think that, as a professional copywriter and blogger, I’d have adequate skills to proofread and edit my own novel. Wrong.  The past few days I’ve been hermited away correcting an embarrassing amount of errors in Inside Evil. Luckily, due to my lack of promoting and poor first two week sales, few people have purchased the book. But, this is a rookie mistake that I won’t make again.

Matters first came to light when my sister bought the book and found a mistake on the FIRST PAGE.  Talk about trying to get that first 10% sample correct, I’d failed miserably at the outset. As she read further, I became increasingly concerned over the number of problems she was finding. She’s a medical secretary and very anally retentive about her work lest something strewn with errors be placed in front of a consultant. She was very happy to correct my work, and I was glad to have her input, but it highlighted the vital need to EDIT, PROOFREAD and EDIT again.

Part of the problem with Inside Evil is that it’s been in my head for so many years that I know it off by heart. However, this makes editing and proofreading that bit harder as you’re far more likely to not notice mistakes because, though you think you’re carefully tinkering with each line, you’re actually scanning it.

Hiring an editor

There are various people in self publishing who say that using an editor is an essential requirement for any self publisher. Along with using freelance artists to create stunning and eye capturing covers, proofreaders and editors are essential if you’re to rid as many errors as possible and ensure an enjoyable read not stymied by poor writing skills.

Going it alone

However, editors cost money, and there are other self published authors who attest to editing yourself and not having to fork out hundreds of pounds on a novel which you have no idea how well it will do. Money made off the back of sold novels can be used for hiring professionals down the line for later works, but large expense shouldn’t be made at the outset.

I’d love to have the money to hire an editor, but that option is simply not open to me. However, with my sister’s eagle eye, it has proved that using someone else to look over your manuscript is vital. So too, is taking a break between finishing your novel and the final proofread. I wrote, edited, proofed and finished in one straight line; a probable reason for some mistakes. Taking some time out allows your mind to forget a little, and come back with fresh eyes.

If there’s one thing that you want to get right, it’s the editing. Who can enjoy a story when it’s riddled with mistakes? It’s an embarrassment for the author and it could result in a 1/2 star review which could throw your novel into the pit of never being bought again.

I’ll never make this rookie mistake again, and even if you can’t afford an editor, take a few days break before trying to proof yourself. Read your work aloud, tracing your finger along each line to give you even more of a chance to spot problems. As a minimum, also get someone else unafraid of highlighting every error, to take a look; you’ll be thankful to them in the long run.