So, here's the thing! I'm up at 5am writing, and I've started having these thoughts - don't ask! I'm just starting Chapter 2 of my WIP, and I'm thinking: I'm not writing very fast. Where do I begin? I'm never going to get this book finished. Is there another book in me? Can I write this book? Am I going in the right direction? Am I any good? And so on . . . I carry on stringing words together, and gradually - as if it were a new life being created from my own DNA - the scene begins to take shape. Oh, at first it's an ugly formless blob that I'm ashamed to call mine, but then slowly . . . I move a word; flesh out a description; re-write a sentence; re-locate a paragraph; introduce a smell, a touch, a feeling. I interrogate myself: What is this scene trying to convey? What does that introspection tell us about who the character is? What he's lost? What his hopes for the future are? Add a touch of backstory - not too much - just enough to give an insight into who he is, his relationship with the woman, how they spend their Sundays. Do the metaphors and similies work? Is there a variation in the length of sentences and the size of the paragraphs? Is there lots of white space - dialogue, action? Have I used active instead of passive words? - I used to have a checklist, but now that checklist is part of who I am. And then . . . As if as if the universe has stopped turning on its axis, I think I can make out it's little fingers and toes, a nose, some ears, and then it begins kicking and squirming trying to decide what it wants to be. I re-read it a thousand times. I begin to love it. It has my nose, my quirky humour, my voice. I'm not ashamed of it anymore. I know, if I show it to people, they won't say, "What an ugly baby!" From tentative beginnings that were mired in doubt and lack of direction, a scene is fashioned, moulded and created out of the DNA of my imagination - some mornings a writer can begin to feel like a creator, like a god!
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So, here's the thing! I've just published my latest The House of Mourning (Parish & Richards 9). I know, call me a scribbler, creator, writer - your names can't hurt me! You know, I tried but I couldn't do it. There's a million things that need doing, but I just want to write. I got up this morning and finished the first chapter of my WIP: The Gordian Knot (Stone & Randall 2). Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time coming. Well, I'm into it now, so expect it around the end of May. My wife walks round with a list you know. It's a long list with DIY jobs, gardening, shopping and the like. On top of the page a psychopath has written: Tim's To-Do List. There's some crazy people about. Tim's To-Do List only has books on it - Ha, ha! Now look, you're gonna love this one. My wife was on eBay - not for the first time I might add - and she was looking at ebooks. Yes, I know, you're asking yourself what are ebooks doing on eBay. Well, people are selling them. Oh yes, brothers and sisters - and the people who are selling them are not the authors of said ebooks. Do you know, you can buy about a million ebooks on a CD for about £5.00 (US exchange rate = $7.60, and that's being generous)! So, here's the scam! You download all the books people keep making free on Amazon, you drag and drop them from your Kindle onto a CD/DVD/memory stick/ flashcard/etc and sell them on eBay/your own website/anywhere you fancy! No problemo. The author makes nothing from any sales because he/she gave them away for free in the first place, and the eBay entrepreneur is merely re-selling used items on - perfectly legal. My books are on there and I never give anything away for free. You know what, I think there's a lesson to be learned somewhere here abouts! |
AuthorHi, I'm Tim Ellis - I write a lot and I hope you enjoy what I write. Archives
June 2019
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