Chapterella 7 is up and I couldn't be happier. This chapterella came about as I was sitting in a class, and suddenly I got the tune to Jack's lament stuck in my head. I started inserting lyrics about the tree, and one thing led to another until suddenly I had a chapterella with a musical interlude. Originally chapterella 7 also had time marks so that those members of the audience unfamiliar with the Nightmare Before Christmas could sing along as well, but I nixed that idea.
You'll also see at work some foreshadowing, which I don't do often but...well it's there. As always, enjoy.
For those of you who've never written a novel (I know that this is my first) one of the biggest parts of the process is editing. Now I'm sure this is true for many other forms of art, but I'm going to stick to novel editing because it's a particular type of monstrosity, so let's jump right into it shall we.
I'm often asked if I've finished my book by people who I've told I'm working on it. This question is so tricky to answer both because I suck at answering questions, but also because it's a multilayered question. Have I finished writing it? Technically yes. I finished writing it in January when I pumped out a rough draft in a month (not counting the previous rough drafts and the five years it took to get to that first draft.) But judging by the fact that there is no novel up on this site, nor is it for sale anywhere, can I say that it's done? Oh no. Probably not by a long shot.
And the reason for that is editing. And editing doesn't just mean fixing the typos.
Just yesterday I posted what has to be the 10th version of those first two paragraphs, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's still not the final, final version. The reason for this is because those first two chapters need to be strong enough to convince someone to read the remaining forty two give or take chapters in the novel. They simply have to be the best.
And as they get edited, so too do things need to change later in the novel. Things reference those first chapters, as they reference things later on. Phrases are repeated. Introductions that are cut need to find their place elsewhere. And the more things change...the more editing.
So how does editing work on a novel? I don't think I really clarified above. It sounds tough, but that's just the first two chapters right, followed by some touch ups? Ah, if only.
At this point in time I have read through this novel at least four times, and each time there are a lot of small one to two line changes, but occasionally there are huge sections that get rearranged, cut, or added. Each time I read through the novel I'm getting a different perspective, and while I fix the little typos, I'm also getting a better sense of how everything fits together, which is important for a novel like this which can occasionally get off track. Of course, with each read through the earlier chapters also get more solid, but it also means I've read the first twenty chapters far more often than the last chapters.
Now for the biggest issue though. I've just told you about the small edits, and the larger edits, but the hardest part about editing?
I can't do it and then go back and do it again. There has to be time between each edit. The problem is that if I just read the whole novel front to back and then go through and do it again, I can't give an honest look at things. I might just say "this is good enough" because I just read it two days ago and can't stomach it again. Or I might cut something really good because I just edited it and decided that it's still not good enough, only to find two weeks later that it really was good enough and now I'm back in a corner (which is one of the disadvantages of digital.)
But with all of that beings aid, don't take this to be anything near a complaint. I am loving this editing process. Each time I read through the novel I marvel at some of the things I've written, and at how the whole thing is coming together. Which leads me to my last part of this post. Getting the damned thing published.
Obviously right now I'm writing to a small audience, and sometimes I doubt that any of that audience would stick around to buy it, but I'm researching methods of publishing the novel digitally, and it seems like going through Amazon and Nook will be easy enough. I can't give you anything more than that about where it will be, but I'm pushing to release this book sometime before the end of June, if everything goes according to plan. And as it comes closer, I'll be going into further detail with my experiences using these services. What will happen, I don't know, but expect an official announcement day soon.
As always thanks for reading you crazy people, and look for Chapter 7 to be up as well soon. After all, the more I get up here, the more I can entice you.
You may have noticed my absence last week, or perhaps you just assumed me to be one of those untrustworthy writer types who posts when he chooses. Well that second part would be true, but rather than posting last week I decided to do some living. And by living I mean gaming, which can be one and the same. I did have a blog post for Friday, but I won't up missing it so it will be up tomorrow. As an apology, however, here is chapter 6, as well as a warning.
These chapters I'm posting are not the end all beat all chapters. They are drafts, which is why there is the occasional typo, inconsistency, or otherwise obvious mistake. This is not intentional, but it's also not unintentional. Part of this journey is in seeing how this book goes from start to finish. There will be days I'm just going to show you bits of old drafts (I found the very first draft the other day which will be a treat sometime soon.) But if you see a typo and think "That lazy bastard, he'll never work in this town again," I'd just like to remind you that A. It's a draft, and B. I'm not getting paid to work in this town in the first place.
This is a topic that some people who know me probably won't believe I would choose to write about. And as much as I'm going to try to not turn this into a "do as I say, not as I do" discussion, that is part of being a teacher. Trying to prevent the mistakes you made. So enough explanations. Let's get started.
If I have not mentioned before, Hypothetically Speaking has been a work in progress for over five years. As of writing, I am editing through for the third time and I don't think it will be the last edit because each edit not only sees corrections but it sees additions or replacements. And those require further editing later to see if they fit with the previous material.
But that's not five years of continuous work. I don't want to mislead you. In fact, there have been long stints where the story has sat. I've rewritten it at least three times, and by rewrite I mean completely changed everything. The only thing that has remained consistent has been that I've worked on it. No matter how bad it failed in the past, I didn't let it fail.
And now it's 'finished.' In a sense. But that means the work has just begun.
I'm not just writing this to discuss my own writing process, I want to get into something deeper. While I was letting Hypothetically Speaking stew, I didn't sit and do nothing. I was writing other things. Poetry, most of which sits in a folder on my computer because I hesitate to send it places. Short stories which went through first drafts and stalled. Though I've written a lot since I started writing, most of it is unfinished and unseen.
What's the purpose behind telling you all of this besides just trying to state that I work hard as a writer?
It's the ethic of it
Now that I'm in an editing phase I haven't stopped writing new things. I've begun writing a second novel, a YA fantasy adventure series partly because of a challenge, and partly because the idea has been in my head and it needs to get out. Yes it's based on the Britannians that I have posted, but it's different. And more importantly I'm working on it.
Which is the ultimate message I want to get across. In a roundabout fashion.
I worked on Hypothetically Speaking for five years, but I wrote the first of the editing drafts in the month of January. I'm halfway through my third edit by mid April and expect to be in a state to publish by May unless something pushes me to act faster. And the thing that's changed since January that wasn't present in the previous five years was just sitting down and doing it. All of it. Not false starts and half ways and second guessing. I just did it.
Because here's the thing with work. Working hard doesn't mean a thing if you don't finish. Just as working hard doesn't mean a thing if you don't get a quality product. I've gotten through the first and I'm working on the second, but I hope you've seen what I meant to get through this writing. I'm a little distracted by the world this week, as I discussed earlier.
All I'm trying to say is that talent without effort is worthless. And that's a modification of a Charles Bukowski quote so don't go attributing that to me.
Well folks, the new chapters are up. This makes a significant push and represents somewhere close to 1/10th of the book. Seems like a good time to do some talking about the book.
The reason I posted chapters 3 and 4 together is that, after careful consideration, I actually shifted their order. It might not seem like a huge shift but in terms of flow it does. So when you read 3 and 4, give a bit of consideration to how you would respond if 4 came before three.
Of course this is one of the joys of literature after the fact. You can do that and no one can stop you. But deciding to do it myself took more than two years of writing to finally do. Chapter 4 had always been chapter 3. And then I thought...what if?
Going forward in this story, it is important to remember that the title of the novel itself is not just clever word play. This is a story of what if. And I hope you've been enjoying the what if. So what's coming in the future?
Well for one, of course, more chapters. I'm going to keep publishing more of the book online in slow segments because I'm also in the process of editing and I can't go further than I myself have decided is set to go. And until it's published published, there's still more opportunities to edit.
As for publishing the book, people keep asking me about it and believe me, it is my goal to get the book published. There are a few ways to go about it, and I'm in the idea stage for a way to do so, but worst comes to worst, I'm going to push to get the whole book online and once it's up, I'll start looking into working kickstarter or something like that. But for now I just want everyone to enjoy reading it and hopefully experience a little bit of suspense.
So enjoy chapters 3 and 4. We'll talk soon about the book. Or something completely different.
Greetings and Salutations. Firstly, regarding the next chapter of Hypothetically Speaking. I will be posting the next chapter on Thursday. Look for it then, but don't stop coming back for further updates, poems, stories, etc.
A bit of pushing for myself, I have posted a link for one of my side projects The Jovial Brittanians as its own page, and would like to encourage you to check it out. It was a project I attempted a while back, to have a serial format story, where the audience could determine where the action went (kind of like those old/new choose your own adventure books.) I would love to get the project restarted, but as with all things, it depends on readers, and that one I will not resume until I get at least 10 votes on where the story should go.
Now then, on to a discussion on voice. Let's start with a visual example. Well, audio but also visual.
This, for those who don't know, is the song Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. I'd like to encourage you to listen to it if you've never listened to the song, or if you have, then listen to it again. Cause it's a good song.
Now then, a comparison.
The second version is by Johnny Cash, and is generally regarded as the better of the two. So much so that Trent Reznor himself has admitted that he now acknowledges Hurt as Johnny Cash's song. But this isn't a discussion on who does a better version of Hurt. It's a discussion on voice.
When listening to the two songs, notice how the song takes on a different meaning when sung by the two musicians? If you really pay attention, you might have noticed that Johnny changes one of the lyrics to "Crown of Thorns," as opposed to the NIN "Crown of Shit." Notice how just the difference in the tonality of their voice changes things?
What I'm trying to say and demonstrate with a fairly obvious example, is that voice in art is huge. And it's not just important in music. It is huge with regards to writing.
Voice is one of the hardest things to do well, because it requires consistency, it requires practice, it requires editing, and it requires actually being able to shift your voice around. There's a reason this blog sounds like it's me speaking, and it's not just because I type out the first thing that comes to mind. It has to do with a long history of developing my "blog" voice (which is different from my letter writing voice, or my poet voice or...) and figuring out how to manipulate the physical placement of my words to create that voice. I'll shift my voice in writing now just to demonstrate how this could be completely different.
Dear Reader,
It is a pleasure to find you considering the nature of my words as opposed to simply passing over them contemptuously for the latest blog relating to Justin Bieber or a Metal band with an unpronounceable name. It is not simply for the pleasure of spreading the words which I write that I maintain this literary space, but a true enjoyment of attempting to have discussions with others over a digital space that I...
You get the idea.
The above was written in my letter writing voice, which you can see is very cordial, sophisticated, and a little snobby. But it's what I do when I write letters because I want a different voice than in here. You can also see my different voices in my writing which I'm going to once again urge you to read. My poet voice is very different from the narrator in Hypothetically Speaking. Or the characters, which you'll hear more of in Chapterella 2. And that narrator is different than the one I maintain in The Jovial Brittanians.
And with all of this discussion on voice, I'd love to hear your voices as well. Comments on my voice discussion? Concerns about my self promotion? Just want to talk about talking? Leave some comments and let's get a discussion going. Cause you can't have a discussion without voices. And I'm out.
Greetings and Salutations. As the first blog post of what can only be called an experiment, I'm just going to be quick and establishing. Like a good opening scene.
This is not my first blog, nor my last. The days of a blog being pretty much just a diary open to discussion with the world are long past, though I'm sure things like Livejournal and the like are still out there. But blogging now is more about networking and like any good network, wasting time on the writing end isn't wise at this stage.
What can you expect from me? Monday's and Thursday's I'm going to talk about something. What is a mystery, though I'm sure themes will develop. It will mainly be literary or education in it's orientation, though never about any institutions I might work for. For today, having set up the blog, and set the first chapter of my novel to be judged by the world, I will simply be short and sweet. Coming this Monday, I'll open with an extended theme, but you'll have to wait until then to find out what it is. If you find yourself reading this, either by chance or on purpose, let me just welcome you and say: Enjoy.
And if you find yourself bored, why not check this out?
