Thursday 26 July 2012

110,000 words plus and very timely encouragement

At this stage in the writing process the content is piling up and the story is becoming weighty, perhaps that is the sign of a 'not so good writer.' Although I never lose enthusiasm for the story, the characters or the culture, I feel like the road down the other side of the hill is flattening.  Little do the unsuspecting characters know that there are still several mountains they must climb.  Today I was greatly encouraged by the words of my co-author Hamma about the future of our book.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

word count

Today the word count on the novel has topped 100,000 words, in fact it is 100,175 words. This is an incredible achievement for me, its taken just over three and a half months.

Saturday 14 July 2012

the interview

This is a record of the interview that I might never have.  It is modelled on the ones that I've seen with famous authors such as Bryce Courtney and Anna  Funder.
Interviewer: Did you have any idea that your first novel might be published so successfully?
Vashti: When I first started to write as I described on my blog I didn't know if I would be able to produce so many words.  But as I proceeded the story was repleased from my mind. I cannot describe this process, it is one of thos miracle that just happens.  However I drew on all my experiences - emotional, academic, school, family spiritual, inter-relational and so on.  It was like the cream of all of these had risen to the top of my consciousness and it was being strained and smoothed like melted butter onto toast.
Interviewer: When do you do your best work?
Vashti: Some artists describe being 'in the zone'.   It happens to me when it is quiet and there is no one else around and the mid winter sun is tracking across my desk or I am sitting beside the heater's flue on a cold night.  That's when I become one with the characters and whatever is happening to them and my best writing is produced.  At other times I am contriving the text in order to get through a phase in the story, that is when the writing does not flow as well, it is not as relaxed.  But then life is like that, sometimes it unfolds easily and other times it needs to be pushed or pulled.
Athletes talk about being alone on the race track in a foot race, unaware of and deaf to the crowd watching them. They have a sense of nothing else and total focus on their goal, which is the result they have trained for over along period.
I have practised for this novel all my life. Now I know that this is what I have been working so hard for. A recent TV program explained how athletes have to practise discipline, commitment, focus, self-sacrifice, energy and belief in their ability to achieve their goals. As a writer I have to accomplish all of these.  The road seems long and the competition strong, but I beleive that one day my work will be published. (At the present it is a joint work)
More on this interview in the next post.

Sunday 1 July 2012

down the other side

Although I have written over seventy five thousand words in this my first co-written novel, I still get writer's block, which is apparently quite normal. Everytime I commence writing I sit at the computer for a few minutes, trying to mentally key into what's been happening in the story and how the characters are developing. It takes a few minutes to get into their world again, but then it opens up and they start to live their lives via the mechanical and electrical forces that work my brain and the computer.  However, if the writer's block extends beyond a few minutes it turns into low level panic fuelled by the question, 'What am I going to write?'
I used to think that about writing anything as big as a novel. Then it was, 'Where will I get all those words from?'  That's hard to answer, as they come from the some of the instrinsic meanings aquired sub-consciously from life's experiences. Lots of other words come from deliberately planned material. Altogether I hope they make a story that not only reveals many neglected or previously distorted historical facts but that also inspires readers from all walks of life.