Chapters Galore

The writing splurge continued beyond last week's blog post, allowing me to reach the new designated end-point for the second version of my dissertation.  This end-point came after rather more chapters than I'd originally intended, meaning that it's quite possible that my dissertation will be made up entirely of material written this month.

And so all the chapters I wrote back in June/July are feeling all gloomy and neglected because I'm all excited about my shiny new chapters from this past week or so.  This will presumably be the state of affairs until my dissertation supervisor emails back to say 'no, I'm afraid this is all complete bollocks' (in a much politer, non-British kind of way).

Yes, shiny new chapters have been sent flying over the interwebs to my unsuspecting supervisor who will probably be unimpressed by my presenting her with almost twenty-thousand words of new material, almost completely out of the blue.  Surprise!  *Balloons*

Since sending off new-and-shiny dissertation chapters, I have written two more.  These result from the pleasant delusion that it might actually be publishable one day.

I also took a trip into uni today to use the library.  Critical research ensued, to the distant sound of some occasional but very loud burping from a different area of the library.  Quite impressive, really.  The burp volume, that is, not the research.  My research remains less than impressive because I'm not entirely sure I'm getting the right material.  My Publishing Project rationale was rather woeful and, given that it's on the same novel, I really think I ought not to use it as basis for the dissertation's essay.

Therefore, until I can get some advice from my supervisor, I shall be wading through as many texts as I can find with the word 'fantasy' in the title.  Sounds like a winner to me.

On the fiction-reading front, I have for now abandoned Andrew Neiderman's boob book and started on Cassandra Clare's City of Bones.  It comes highly recommended by Stephanie Meyer, but I'll try not to hold that against it.  Madam Meyer does, after all, like Jane Austen, so I can't utterly condemn her taste in reading.

Two chapters in and we're doing okay.  It's not quite enough to grip me but I haven't had the urge to throw it out the window.  There have been several snippets of unique and quite lovely description so I'm keeping positive - though a real determination to read it might have to wait until the writing splurge fizzles out.

All Aboard the Writing Train

Since my last post, I've managed to write five new chapters of Hide and See, my dissertation novel.  I can't help feeling a little proud of this, regardless of whether or not the chapters are actually any good.  I've managed to do something, which is more than I did the week before.  Progress!  Woo!

I'm finally getting into the story too.  I'm having that need to write.  I've missed that - the feeling of getting a sliver of conversation in your head and just having to get it down before it disappears.

This of course does have the unfortunate side-effect of being furious if someone interrupts my thought process, as my poor father can attest to after asking for some tissues while I was mid-sentence.

With only a month to go until the dissertation due I have thought that perhaps this is a little late in the day to be writing new material but I'm just not happy with a lot of the earlier chapters.  I mean they're alright, but they're not good.  I want to feel proud of my work, even if I can't get the grade I want.  I've obviously given up on the whole wanting-a-distinction-thing - that evaporated at the end of the first semester and was difficult for little over-achiever me to get over at first.

So I'm going for (not-quite-a-)job-satisfaction.  If I like it, maybe that will make me more inclined to work on it and improve it in the long run.  I've certainly had a productive few days and I only hope it will last, at least until I get to the point in the story I plan to use as the end of my dissertation.

All this writing has meant that my reading for the dissertation has taken a back seat.  Good news for my word count, bad news for Totton Library, who must be tired of me renewing books so often.  I read another chapter and a half of Curse by Andrew 'Boobs' Neiderman, but after having to read through another needless description of nipples I gave up.  I might go back to it at some point but I'm starting to think it's unlikely.

When this sudden writing splurge peters out I'll probably move on to a fresh book - hopefully one where the female characters wear bras.

Aiming for better

It was on a dark and stormy night... that I finally got round to updating my blog again.

Okay, 'stormy' might be a bit of an exaggeration.  Apparently we had one instance of lightning and thunder this morning but I was in the Asda car park at the time, doing my best impression of a drowned rat, and thus missed it.  But it has been frickin' miserable all day.  I'm hoping for a better weekend (Bournemouth Air Show!  Whoop whoop!!)

As you can see, I am celebrating my first blog post since coming back from France by doing the British Thing and talking about the weather.  I have also, since Sunday, been eating a ridiculous amount of marmite.

In my previous post I ranted about my reading options for the holiday.  In the end I didn't take The Curse with me, which is fortunate as I didn't actually get round to finishing The Magician's Apprentice until this past Monday.  This isn't to say that the book wasn't good - far from it - but it is a bit of a brick.  Seven-hundred pages of brick to be exact.  And I was reading for pleasure this time so there was none of that speed-reading Middlemarch-in-three-days kind of shenanigans going on.

I'm very happy that I bought The Magician's Apprentice from the nice fellow at the car boot all those months ago.  I haven't been so impressed with a book in a fair while.  It made me realise that all of the primary world books I read so far for my dissertation have been alright, but nothing special, and often with gaping plot holes or character inconsistencies that I've just sort of ignored.

It's difficult to get out of the workshopping mind-set, I think, especially with those novels which could do with improving.  I often found myself making alternative suggestions in my head, rephrasing sentences so that they flowed better.  This is all very well in a student's work but in published novels?  Maybe I'm just not reading the right books.  Anyone have any suggestions?

By contrast, the biggest criticism I had for Trudi Canavan was that her characters smiled 'crookedly' a little too much.  Or maybe this only bothered me because it reminded me of Edward 'Twishite' Cullen?

I'm back to writing now.  My first draft of the dissertation is still making me unhappy so I'm continuing on, hoping that the following chapters will be better.  I've been thinking about them a lot and even had that real urge to get some dialogue down (sat on the footbridge at Ashurst train station, forcing the commuters to squeeze round me) - this, I'm choosing to believe, is a positive sign.

The Magician's Apprentice is fighting the Curse

I'm off on holiday tomorrow.  All my clothes are packed and all that's left to go in is cosmetics and my phone charger.  I should hopefully have plenty of room to bring back oodles of chocolate which, let's face it, is the top priority.

I've packed my secondary world fantasy novel (The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan) in my hand luggage.  I have been contemplating bringing along the primary world one I'm currently reading (Curse by Andrew Neiderman).  Despite my resolution at the beginning of the week, I've not managed to complete the measly task of reading one more book for uni.  I'm only about six chapters in.

Responsible Me says I should take Curse to France and at least read some more, even if I don't finish it.  Non-Responsible Me says if I haven't read it this week, as I was intending to, I'm unlikely to find the motivation when I'm on holiday.  I will probably be too busy trying to ignore the inevitable rain and wishing my badly-glued boots didn't have so many holes in them.  I will be wanting to read about the Magician's Apprentice, which after ten pages already had me hooked.  I will not be wanting to read lots more descriptions in Curse of the main female character's breasts.

Curse, copious boob descriptions aside, isn't a bad book.  It's interesting and is different to most of the other primary world books I've read so far.  I'm glad I picked it up and I think it will be useful for my dissertation, either the creative part or the much-feared essay.  The fact remains, however, that it is for uni.  Uni is stressing me out at the moment.  I do not want to be stressed on holiday.  Holidays are for chocolate, croissants and pain au chocolat.

I'm sorry Andrew Neiderman, but Curse is staying at home.

Car Boot Books

This past week I have been trying to do some more reading for my dissertation.  I've read two fiction books, both (supposedly) within the same genre as Hide and See.  The first book I quite liked; the second was approaching good in the middle but tailed off to such a disappointing end that the first words out of my mouth on finishing it were 'ugh, lame book'.  Not exactly positive criticism.

When I say that they are 'in the same genre', I have basically been searching for any primary world fantasy novels.  The only problem is that a lot of these seem to be just romance novels with fantasy elements chucked in.  Quite often I think that if the fantasy bits were taken out and a few scenes were jigged around, the novel could still exist and sit within the 'romance' genre.

Hide and See, from my point of view anyway, isn't about romance.  There will probably be some towards the end of the book but the primary driving force of it is the supernatural abilities of the characters and the world surrounding them.  (My markers for my second chapter would probably disagree with this though - first time I've ever written something which was compared to Bridget Jones.  Oh dear, shoot me now.)

I therefore went to the local car boot sale today on the search for more books (poor little unemployed students can't afford to buy new).  I found a couple and will hopefully read at least one this week.  I'm trying to keep the effort going on the dissertation if only by doing reading.  All motivation for actually writing anything went swiftly out the metaphorical window after above-mentioned chapter two comments.  I'm planning to head into uni to use the library this week for some critical reading - got that dreaded 3k essay after all.  Another thing to make a pig's ear of.

But it's less than a week until I go on holiday - and I'm going to be a complete rebel and take a secondary world fantasy fiction to read.  Just for fun.  I know, I live dangerously.

Rant Vacuum

I'm rather late for this blog post.  I'd vowed to write around once a week (the 'few times a week' thing never materialised) but I'm a few days over.  Whoops.

I was waiting for something to say.  I still don't really have anything important (like I ever do!) but I figured something might emerge if I started spewing random words onto the page.

Dissertation update: my full draft (it's not really the 'first' draft because I've already messed around with it a lot) has been sent off to Madam Supervisor.  I think I felt happier with it after reading it all through - I had forgotten a mildly exciting bit which improved the whole thing in my mind after my 'it's-all-incredibly-dull' rant.

I've not written any of the story since which may or may not be a problem, I haven't decided yet.  I have a vague idea that I might write a little bit of a different story, at least until I get some general feedback on the story so far.  I seem to have spent my last few days thinking about writing a lot, but not actually doing any.

As has often happened, perhaps pouring useless words into the interwebs might be of some assistance.  'Write anything so long as you're writing' - isn't there a saying that goes something like that?

I'm also spending a fair amount of time stressing over my upcoming holiday.  A holiday isn't something you should stress over really, but I'm doing a marvellous job of it so far, if I do say so myself.  I think part of the problem is I'm terrified that I've forgotten something crucial - like having a place to stay or something (I haven't forgotten this, don't worry, though it doesn't guarantee that the place we've got is any good).  Oh well, if everything goes horribly tits-up in France, at least it might make for an interesting story.

Although as I doubt there'll be any superpowers, explosions and epic battles of good versus evil, I'm guessing it wouldn't be anything I'd write about.  Sounds like a literary fic kind of thing to me and you know what I'm like with those.

Comparing my Leading Ladies

I've had quite a productive day today in Dissertation-land.  I can tell by the fact that I have the beginnings of that sharp pain in the back of my head which tells me I've been staring at my computer screen for too long.

I think the pain is worth it though.  I've been feeling horribly unproductive this week, only managing a few hundreds words a day, if that.  I'm still not connecting with my story as much as I'd like, though it is getting better.  I've still yet to figure out exactly why this is, although I have a few ideas.

The action is starting to move along a little bit now and I think this is helping some.  After writing the first draft of a novel last year where my main character spends most of her time shooting people and blowing stuff up, it was a little tricky to go to Hide and See's main lady, Rhonda, who thus far hasn't done much besides working in an office and having a natter with Joel, the main guy.

Obviously this is my fault, not Rhonda's, so I can't blame her.  The adventure stuff is coming round the corner though and while it's not very good for poor old Rhonda, it will hopefully help from the writing point of view.

I can't help but compare Rhonda to other main character in other novel (called Renarde) even though the books are very different.  Renarde is brave, daring, sharp, skilled... but very emotionally damaged.  Rhonda must grow into her courage throughout the course of Hide and See and while at the moment I wouldn't go so far as to call her a wimp (she definitely isn't), I do sometimes wish she were a little stronger.

Again, I'm talking about it as if it's all her fault.  It's not like I bloody created her or anything.  It's not like she is, in fact, nothing more than a product of my very weird imagination.  I'm one of those crazy writers, you see, the ones who find their characters running away on their own, rather than those sane authors who manage to remain attached to reality and are fully aware at all times that their characters are not actually real.

It would probably be better for my sanity if I could inhabit this second group.  Alas, my leading ladies are all too real and tend to go off on one before my fingers are really aware of what they've typed.

Anyway, back to the point (yes there is one lurking in here somewhere).  Today, I managed to finish the first complete draft of my dissertation.  This needs a WOOHOO! and an OH NO!  My problem has revealed itself in one of the above convoluted paragraphs (Gold Star to anyone who can find it).

The answer: I am only just getting to what I call 'the beginning of the exciting bit'.  So this raises two issues:

1) Does this therefore make what I've written so far (i.e. two assignments and my dissertation) boring?

and

2) Will I have sufficient motivation to carry the story on?

I don't know the answer to either question.  Maybe I should buy a magic-eight ball.