Frustration

I’m just feeling so frustrated at the moment that if somebody said the wrong thing I’m afraid I might just snap and beat seven different kind of snot out of them.  The funny thing is that today has been a good day.  Yesterday was the literal day from hell where nothing could go right and everything which could go wrong – did.

The Spingboks are out of the World Cup because of a cheating referee who has made me question where I want to carry on following rugby or sport at all.  But that was two weeks ago and since then the Boks have come back and bolstered the Sharks who destroyed the table-topping Lions 53-9 to secure a home semi.

My writing has been going “okay”.  I haven’t been burning the word processor but you could say that I am busy making progress.  I’ve finished a rejigged schedule of scenes for Pecan Hill and am busy shifting existing scenes around according to the new schedule and writing the new scenes which are missing.  The next step is to make sure my characters shine through and line edits.  So I’m definitely getting there.

So why do I feel like Dave Grohl in Foo Fighters Walk music video?

The World in Union

The rugby world boils over today as the 2011 Rugby World Cup kicks off at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand today. The opening game is the game between the hosts, New Zealand and the Pacific Island nation of Tonga. The gulf between the All Blacks and Tonga will be too big for the Tongans to upset the All Blacks but the Pacific Islanders, like their neighbours Fiji and Samoa, can be rather physical and the All Blacks should hopefully (for them) make it through the game without any injuries.

New Zealand, so many times, the undisputed best team in the world between World Cups have a tendency to choke on the huge occasion of the World Cups and have only won it once, in the inaugural tournament in 1987. The similarity between that tournament and this one is that the tournament is being held in New Zealand. The crowd will have a huge influence on the tournament and any team, if they do knock the All Blacks over would be well-deserved champions. The problem the All Blacks have demonstrated (and even their fans are worried about this) is that they are heavily reliant on their flyhalf (or first five-eighth as they like to call it) Dan Carter. If he’s injured the All Blacks lose a distinct advantage and may struggle afterward.

This is the seventh Rugby World Cup and the trophies are concentrated in the hands of four countries: Australia (two), South Africa (two), England (one) and New Zealand (one). If either Australia or South Africa win the tournament they would be the first team to have won it three times with the added bonus to the Springboks (South Africa) that if we win the trophy again, it would mean that we would be the first team to successfully defend the trophy ever.

There are twenty teams in the tournament, but if we’re realistic there are only a handful of countries who will have a chance of winning the whole bangshoot. The teams are really the Tri-Nations teams (South Africa, Australia and New Zealand) and England and France. However, if you’re completely honest, you’d have to eliminate the two Northern Hemisphere teams from the equation as they have just never been able to tour well to New Zealand and aren’t used to the conditions. South Africa and Australia as touring nations will be used to New Zealand after sending a couple of months there every year while touring for the Super Rugby and Tri-Nations tournaments.

So let’s get this thing underway and GO BOKKE!!!

Cowboys and Aliens

I went into this movie expecting a lot and for once I received what I hoped for. It makes a nice change from the movies I have high hopes for to under-deliver on their potential. Of course, the movie couldn’t start with the confrontation of the Cowboys and Aliens right away and rather had to build up to it and I thought that in these beginning moments that the movie would have been a good one if there were no Aliens in it either.

*SPOILER ALERT*

The characters were also stereotypical and some of the action was predictable but it was enjoyable. The standard Western archetypes were in the movie being the bandit who has turned his back on his gang and is trying to live the good life (or was until the Aliens arrived), the powerful cattle baron, the American Indian servant who loves his boss. But the actors playing these roles did enough with the characters to make you like them.

The Aliens were kept “secret” and parts hidden until the appropriate time when one corners a young boy. It was here where I felt there was a bit of a break in that the alien didn’t attack the boy but rather “felt” his face with a pair of secret hands trying to understand the boy. This might have paid off if the alien was shown to be in opposition to the rest of its cohorts, but this is never explored and all the aliens encountered later were rather bloodthirsty in their dealings with the cowboys.

The humans were shown in great detail with all of our petty hates toward each other with American Indians and Bandits coming into the story later to assist the cowboys against the aliens. This was probably handled better as I believe it highlighted the animosity between the people in the time period. There was a barge which was never explained how it got to where it was (some critics of Lost would be critical because it was a question never answered) but it wasn’t needed for the story.

The moment Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) found the alien spaceship I couldn’t help but think of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and was waiting for the Crimson King to appear on the ship’s balcony.

Overall, it was a good movie which I enjoyed thoroughly.

I Feel Sorry For The All Blacks

I am a rabid Springbok fan but I have to admit that I feel sorry for the All Black rugby players. These rugby players carry with them the hopes of a whole nation to overturn a 24 year drought in the World Cup. They have come so close so many times only to fall short each and every time. New Zealand dominates the periods between World Cups only to fall short at the big event.

The World Cup is being held in New Zealand this year (quite possibly for the last time EVER), so it would be the perfect time for them to win the World Cup. Every team is a different proposition in their home country and the All Blacks are no different. The only question is whether they can handle to pressure heaped onto their shoulders. The pressure would have only become more after the loss on Saturday. The loss means that they go into the World Cup on the back of two losses and surely people must be starting to question whether they have the ability to be able to win it this year.

I will reiterate that they will be a different team at home but they have never had the kind of pressure they will have on their shoulders while playing a game at home. I can’t help but wonder how the All Blacks will react if a must-win match when they’re eight to ten points down. Will they try to throw miracle passes to try and breach defences. If so, there is a good chance they’ll pass an intercept try and then it’ll be good night nurse.

Like I said, I feel sorry for the All Blacks.

Stuck between Drafts

Who would have thought that I would be stuck in the middle of spreadsheets while trying to finish my novel?

I certainly didn’t see this coming.

I have finally finished my reread of Pecan Hill and I can say that it is heinous. Maybe I should view it as a feather in my cap that I can recognise how bad the writing is, but it’s incredibly cringeworthy. You could say it was one of those situations where you’re trying to find what’s wrong with your project and the list of what is right is shorter.

The positive to take out of the situation is that I know what I have to do to fix the manuscript. I only have to work my way down the list, fixing everything as I go down and it should be presentable at the end of the day. Of course, when I’ve finished going down the list, it’ll be time to read through the manuscript again and find out what’s wrong with the new draft and then fix that. I wouldn’t say it’s a thankless task, because this is what I enjoy. Writing. Besides it’s supposed to be easier to fix a page than it is to fill a blank page.

My problem is that Pecan Hill was my discovery written manuscript. Now, after the dust has settled and I’ve pulled myself through the finished draft I can see that I’m going to have to sit down and make sure everything is there. I call it ‘planning on the backend’. And it’s at this point where I’m now “stuck” (I’m not really stuck I’m making progress but I’m not writing). I am going through the manuscript and making a detailed scene-by-scene outline of what’s already there. When I’m done with this little task I’m going to have to see what I’m missing in the manuscript and where it should go and then insert new scenes to make sure I cover all my bases.

Once I’ve finished with these spreadsheets I can finally go back and do some writing. Although the writing won’t be too much (hopefully). Then it’ll be the editing phase.

I can’t help but think it might have been easier if I had sat down before I had written the project and done a scene-by-scene outline. It would shorten my current phase by half. Not to mention, it would have cut out those times when I was wondering what should come next.

My next project (maybe all of them in my future) will have a HEAVY planning element in the beginning.

Ban the Haka?

The 2011 Rugby World Cup is a mere 27 days away (at the time of writing) and excitement levels are building. People in the North might like you to believe that teams like England and France have a chance of actually winning it this time around but let’s be honest: there are only three teams capable of lifting the William Web Ellis trophy on 22 October 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand and that’s the Tri-Nations countries of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

The SANZAR deal has provided South Africa and Australia the opportunity of regularly playing in New Zealand for the last 15 years. Both teams know how to play in the Land of the Long White Cloud and win there.  Northern Hemisphere teams have a torrid time of it down in the Antipodes. South Africa has beaten New Zealand (the All Blacks) in New Zealand in 2008 and 2009. What are the chances of the Boks pulling off another infamous victory?

But this isn’t about the World Cup (yet), this is about the suggestion of ex-Wallaby Greg Martin to ban the All Blacks haka (pictured right). His reasoning is that it provides the All Blacks with physical superiority because of the war dance. I don’t believe for one instant it provides them with a physical advantage. My belief is that it provides the ABs with a psychological advantage over their opponents. Especially since rulings which started last year that teams are not allowed to do anything else other than simply stand and watch the haka. Opposition teams who have turned their backs on the haka have been fined for their disrespect.

This smacks of favouritism in my eyes. Altering rule books to allow one team to have to face a challenge in a certain way is an abuse of power [Psst, the person who passed such judgement is the head of referees, one New Zealander named Paddy O’Brien]. Conspiracy theory? Maybe.

Under the current “legislation”, the Springboks facing down of the Haka at the 1995 World Cup Final as a team while the ABs performed the war dance would have been fined.

Do I agree with Mr Martin?

No.

BUT, I believe that if the haka is allowed then every team facing it should be allowed to face it as they wish, even if it means the Scots wearing kilts and mooning the ABs at the end.

The ruling to allow the haka and favour one team over all others is pure discrimination.

Lost the Plot??

One of the many projects I’ve been busy with lately has been trying to do some retro-planning for my completed manuscript Pecan Hill. I’ve found it to be a frustrating and joy-sapping exercise to say the least. If I could compare it to anything, it would probably be like building a tent. You put the tent out and then have to put the tent poles in so it can stand. There was a certain degree of joy to be had as I was free-wheeling through the manuscript building the ‘walls of the tent’ by the seat of my pants with no proper or completed planning. I knew the ending I wanted and tried to work towards it. But now I’ve finished and have to go back and make sure there’s no gaping holes in the plot and to make sure it all flows together.

I believe it has been this process which has pulled the love out of the project and now it’s just some more work. I actually walked out to the car yesterday morning to go to my real job and found myself thinking that my free-spirited, seat-of-the-pants discovery writing days are behind me. I don’t want to have to go back at the end of the story again and try to figure out whether everything has been put in and if there are any holes in the story. I believe that in my future projects I am going to sit down and outline the crap out of the story before I even start. It might mean there is less ‘freedom’ in my approach but it’ll also mean less work at the back-end.

Tied in with the thoughts about never discovery writing again was the thought that the writers of the television series Lost really buggered it all up (My mind can be a very weird place at times – I recently got the final season on DVD and have been watching some episodes). Maybe I was thinking of how to plan a story and that’s always to start at the end. I can’t imagine that the ending they gave us was the ending Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and maybe J.J. Abrams thought of when creating the series. Sure, there was the reverse scene where the final thing you see was Jack closing his eyes where the opening scene was him opening his eyes on the island. But essentially the end was all of the characters going into the bright light and leaving their version of purgatory (*SPOILER ALERT*). There were dozens of questions they left unanswered and a part of me is fine with that, it was a story about the characters and not the plot of the island after all. The thing which got to me though was the fact that they had broken a promise to me the viewer. Admittedly it was never of screen that the promise was made, but the theory that they had been in purgatory had been floated around since the first season and the writers vehemently denied they were in purgatory. The end of the series rolls around and let’s be honest, the final proper scene was the characters leaving purgatory and not Jack handing the power over to Hurley. I felt cheated and it felt as though I had wasted the last six years of watching the series because of a big fat lie.

I suppose you could say that my thoughts were that I did not want to end any of my projects in a similar manner, breaking promises to the reader.

My purpose going forward is then crystal clear: PLAN EVERYTHING and DON’T BREAK PROMISES (SPOKEN OR NOT) TO THE READER.

EVER

Am I trying to do too much?

I have to admit that lately I’ve felt the desire to be published and to be published sooner rather than later. Maybe it’s simply a side effect of my personality and the age of instant gratification that this waiting around to be published is getting too much. Maybe my focus is too scattered and I need to decide which projects are the most important and focus on those projects and finish them.

 

The projects I have been working on in the past six months include:

• The short story for my writing group anthology (first draft due 31 July 2011);
• The short story I plan to submit to the latest Writers of the Future competition (due 30 September 2011);
• Pecan Hill (first draft completed);
• Pecan Hill (back-end planning to try and put some structure into the manuscript);
• Lords of the Apocalypse (series planning)
• When Angels Fall (series planning – possible self-publication)

 

I think that is far too many projects for someone who has a full-time job which expects him to accomplish objectives on a tight timeline. I doubt that even a full-time author would be able to juggle as many projects at the same time (maybe I’m underestimating them). But it should be clear that I need to prioritize my projects and decide what projects I am going to be following and postponing the other projects until later when I have finished the current project.

 

It’s only through this method that I’ll actually be able to accomplish anything. The only question is what projects to postpone and which ones need to be completed now (I am, of course, placing the short stories at the top of the list as they have definite due dates).

Exciting Times

These certainly are exciting times in the publishing world. The writer has so much more freedom to be able to get his novel out to the public. An author can now decide to self-publish instead of going the traditional publishing route and having to fight their way through the slush piles and query letters to finally reach a publisher interested in buying your works. With the advent of the Kindle, Nook and other e-readers this means that your potential market for the work is just as large as the market for a traditional publisher.

Of course, there is a trade-off, but there are no free lunches in the world. The traditional route means a fixed advance and royalty amount for each copy of your book sold in the market, but you get to sit back and concentrate of the writing and leave the marketing, set-up, cover design and everything else that comes with the launch of a book to the experts. The new electronic alternative means the author get a larger slice of the pie but the author is then in charge of the editing of the novel, setting up the novel to be purchased in every possible electronic version (as well as the possible print-on-demand option), designing a cover and getting the novel out there and to the people who would be most interested in it. This means the author will now be paying for all the services which the traditional publisher kept in-house.

The ramifications of this can be rather extreme. If you pay for professionals to assist in the marketing, editing and design of the books the author will have sunk money into the project and all of the money which comes from the project in the beginning will be set off against the cost and it’s only once the initial investment has been repaid that the author will earn anything back on the project. Depending on the amount the author pays out, it might mean they will have to sell a lot of copies before they can see anything back on the project. It can be a daunting prospect to have to plan the budget for a novel launch and then trying to get the sales to recoup the initial spend.

Of course, the only way to find out all of the different aspects needed in the launch of a self-published novel is to just say “Screw it, let’s do it” (like Richard Branson) and jump in with both feet. There is no set date for the release yet, but a writers group I am involved in are going to be putting together an anthology of our short stories (although they will most likely be more like novellas) and self-publish it. The objective is to create the best product and launch using the skills we have in the group. I’ll keep you up to date but keep an eye out. This could be the start of something huge.

Pick up the pace

Life used to be so much simpler and the author had so much more time to grab a readers’ attention before they decided to put the book down and do something else (those who were literate anyway). There is always something threatening to grab our attention away from the book like the latest PS3 game, the latest movie starring that mother of orphans Angelina Jolie (or is that Jolie-Pitt?) or the latest great television series (the Files, Lost, etc.) and it’s becoming more important for the author to include snares and traps in his work to grab the unsuspecting reader.

I sometimes wonder whether the Lord of the Rings would have been as popular as it is if it had been published in the last few years rather than when it had been. Of course, such a change would have meant a huge change in the fabric of existence and the publishing landscape could look incredibly different. My point between the waffling is that The Lord of the Rings doesn’t start with a hook and the great important first line wasn’t something which blew our minds. The Fellowship of the Ring spent pages and pages and chapter upon chapter expanding on Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday and the repercussions of it. But would it have enough to grab a reader’s attention?

I’m not so sure. I’m pretty sure that everything before Gandalf telling Frodo that the Ring is indeed the One Ring would have been excised and most of the preparations for Frodo to leave as well. Great scenes like the Meeting in Rivendell and the creation of the Fellowship would have been curtailed. Tom Bombadil, like the movie versions, might have been scrubbed out completely and chunks of the discussion with the ents would have been obliterated. The finished product would have been vastly different and the soul of the novel might have vanished.

The conclusion is that it would have been so different it might not have made as great an impact as it actually did.

Now, if you think of the limitations placed on a great like The Lord of the Rings above, what lengths would the modern author have to go in order to have such an effect? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if there will be any work which can be as influential as Tolkien’s great work.

The only conclusion I can make is that we are writing under greater limitations in the current day to attract more readers. We would need to meld the great world-building of Tolkien voer chapters into a shorter period and layer the world-building with hooks to grab and hold the reader.

Not an easy task.