WRITING ANOTHER RUDDY BOOK
Yes, being spurred on by NaNoWriMo once again I’ve been putting pen to paper to try and complete the second part of The Limbus Pentalogy – The Sceptre that Trembles. As it stands, I’m four pages into the last chapter and I finally feel brave enough to come on here and talk a bit more openly about the process. I mean, saving any terrible accidents I’m 99% certain that I’m going to finish the thing by Saturday.
How’s it been? Well, the usual. It started pretty well, with everything behaving as it should and events unfolding like I’d planned. A couple of characters changed their minds (but they do that) and not everyone came along for the main adventure. If I could have crowbarred them in, I would have but there was just no logic in the world that I could come up with to get them along.
Some characters started challenging what I was doing and so I sighed and gave them a bit more explanation, but it was going okay. Up until the second week, when the sheer act of opening the book and writing became the most dreaded part of my day. Frequently, I was convinced I was about to deliver the shortest chapter yet, but I surprised myself by achieving the exact opposite.
So…is it brilliant? No, its pretty terrible.
That’s the sad fact of first drafts. They’re awful, full of meandering passages, lacklustre descriptions and the most terrible dialogue ever to grace a page. But they’re a necessary evil. They have to be achieved for things to improve.
And at times they are a towering mountain of faeces. They have to be climbed, even though you know its going to be difficult and it will really stink. Saturday evening, I intend to be having a nice meal out somewhere and finishing the night with a shot of whisky. I’ll tuck my two books (yes – it went over. The word count is not much more than the first one, but I stupidly got a lined moleskine and its been mentally challenging to write small) into my secret cupboard and forget all about Neach and her woes till at least past Xmas.
If the odd idea sneaks through, then I’ll make a oneNote of it but I’ll be intending to experience some of real life into the New Year before I take a deep breath and hold my nose to read it all again. I’m hoping I’ll get enough good bits to move onto Draft two by February and then three, four etc until I’m back up again and researching Book number 3.
It’s odd, living in a fantasy world of my own making for the better part of the month. But the more I see what’s going on around me out there in the cold light of day, the more comforting it becomes…