With Spring Break here--and a mother who wanted to see her grandsons--I was able to go back to one of the earliest places that I ever wrote a book: the downstairs bedroom in my parents' house. Here, in the house I grew up in, I put together an interlude chapter with my highly enjoyable--and always running, it seems--Arik the Spy. I'm pretty pleased with what I put together, though there's a slight possibility that I'll split this interlude in half and put the set up in one chapter and the chase scene in another. Then again, that might be too many cliffhangers, so I might leave it.
Anyway, it was interesting to be in this room to work. I didn't want to worry about a parking ticket at UVU, so I decided to dedicate the time toward writing instead of driving to, say, Orem Public Library. I think it was a good choice. With the three hours or so that I was given, I managed about 3,400 words, which is a lot more than I was expecting to get in a single block of time. It was also a different feeling to be listening to music with the same peripheral clutter that I had when I was in high school. I used to start my writing on Friday or Saturday nights just before midnight, then write until one or two in the morning, hammering away at the computer that sat on the cramped desk in my room. Back then, I was working on a Spider-Man novel that I eventually finished before my mission.
I can remember quite distinctly having a story that needed to get out--probably during my first semester at college--and being unable to get it out. I wrote, I think, 10 different introductions--starting points, or "TIPs" (Thoughts In Progress)--for what was to become the precursor of The Terra Campaign: Impetus. I came up with a character named Brian Campbell (no relation to the hockey player Brian Campbell) who was deaf and a hardcore, super-smart ex-soldier. He had been trained by Pet Samden, who had essentially been through a bunch of crap before the book started and was bitter and angry. I essentially wanted to write a story in which two people went through very similar experiences but turned out quite differently. In the end, I abandoned the Pet Samden as a bad guy motif, making him younger and falling in love with Christie Callis, the protagonist of Impetus. (Also from the proto-Terra Camp book was Emily Alcott, who was originally Brian's protege but her role changed in the last version of Impetus. It's a bit of random trivia that means nothing to anyone but me, my wife, and a handful of other people who've read Impetus.)
So here I am, easily over a decade after working on those Spider-Man stories, pushing toward the final scenes of my latest--and, in my opinion, best--book to date. Obviously there's still mountains of work to get done. But there's also less and less time to finish this thing before my goal's deadline shows up. I only have 7 Saturdays left before the end of the school year (!) and I need, I'm guessing, at least 10 chapters to finish this thing off. (That should put the total word count at just about 300k.) So I'm motivated to find ways of squeezing extra work in wherever I can.
About today's working: I've found that I'm a circular writer. Images get stuck in my head and, even after I express them, I find myself returning to them. Parallel structure of character arcs and themes seem to permeate my work. Nic and Calistar in this book are extremely similar--though they turn out differently than the other. Earlier I mentioned Brian and Pet Samden being similar in my original plan. I have Arik sprinting all over the place for the second time. I have characters get hurt, captured, rescued, and then repeat. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, or if it shows I'm not as creative as I wish. I feel like it adds emphasis and echoes the things I feel important. Besides, isn't that more like real life? We have things that are the same, with little variation, and it propels us along?
Then again, maybe it's lazy writing.
Well, if I'm going to change it, I may as well wait for the whole thing to be finished before I worry too much about it, right? No reason to rewrite until I've written, says I.
Anyway, it was interesting to be in this room to work. I didn't want to worry about a parking ticket at UVU, so I decided to dedicate the time toward writing instead of driving to, say, Orem Public Library. I think it was a good choice. With the three hours or so that I was given, I managed about 3,400 words, which is a lot more than I was expecting to get in a single block of time. It was also a different feeling to be listening to music with the same peripheral clutter that I had when I was in high school. I used to start my writing on Friday or Saturday nights just before midnight, then write until one or two in the morning, hammering away at the computer that sat on the cramped desk in my room. Back then, I was working on a Spider-Man novel that I eventually finished before my mission.
I can remember quite distinctly having a story that needed to get out--probably during my first semester at college--and being unable to get it out. I wrote, I think, 10 different introductions--starting points, or "TIPs" (Thoughts In Progress)--for what was to become the precursor of The Terra Campaign: Impetus. I came up with a character named Brian Campbell (no relation to the hockey player Brian Campbell) who was deaf and a hardcore, super-smart ex-soldier. He had been trained by Pet Samden, who had essentially been through a bunch of crap before the book started and was bitter and angry. I essentially wanted to write a story in which two people went through very similar experiences but turned out quite differently. In the end, I abandoned the Pet Samden as a bad guy motif, making him younger and falling in love with Christie Callis, the protagonist of Impetus. (Also from the proto-Terra Camp book was Emily Alcott, who was originally Brian's protege but her role changed in the last version of Impetus. It's a bit of random trivia that means nothing to anyone but me, my wife, and a handful of other people who've read Impetus.)
So here I am, easily over a decade after working on those Spider-Man stories, pushing toward the final scenes of my latest--and, in my opinion, best--book to date. Obviously there's still mountains of work to get done. But there's also less and less time to finish this thing before my goal's deadline shows up. I only have 7 Saturdays left before the end of the school year (!) and I need, I'm guessing, at least 10 chapters to finish this thing off. (That should put the total word count at just about 300k.) So I'm motivated to find ways of squeezing extra work in wherever I can.
About today's working: I've found that I'm a circular writer. Images get stuck in my head and, even after I express them, I find myself returning to them. Parallel structure of character arcs and themes seem to permeate my work. Nic and Calistar in this book are extremely similar--though they turn out differently than the other. Earlier I mentioned Brian and Pet Samden being similar in my original plan. I have Arik sprinting all over the place for the second time. I have characters get hurt, captured, rescued, and then repeat. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, or if it shows I'm not as creative as I wish. I feel like it adds emphasis and echoes the things I feel important. Besides, isn't that more like real life? We have things that are the same, with little variation, and it propels us along?
Then again, maybe it's lazy writing.
Well, if I'm going to change it, I may as well wait for the whole thing to be finished before I worry too much about it, right? No reason to rewrite until I've written, says I.
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