• Main
  • Fiction
    • Going Back
      • One Hour Before
      • One week before
      • June 1978 – an extract from Going Back
    • Shore Leave
      • Shore Leave – an extract
    • A Little Bird Told Me
    • The Tip Run
    • Damnation’s Cellar
    • Tender Blue
    • The Flyer
    • Middletown Dreams
    • Morningside Crescent – an extract
  • Non Fiction
    • Dear Friends
    • 50 Musical Memories
    • Rediscovering Rush Intro
      • Rediscovering Rush
    • Left-handed under the Iron Curtain
    • Let’s do the show right here…
    • Home away from home – Alba
  • About
  • Blog
  • The 60at60 index
  • Mastodon
Richard Watt

Words speak louder than actions

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Richard

I’m supposed to be reading right now.  And, to be fair, I am reading.  It’s just that, after so long away, I want to be writing – actually putting words on a page – too.  I have re-read parts of Going Back now, shying away a little form my idea of reading parts 1 and 3 consecutively, and figuring out what has to be in part 2.  It’s too daunting a task to tackle straight off, and I’m thinking around it at the moment.

I’ve also been reading the Weekend Novelist book (see below).  I’m a little torn – it offers sensible advice, and some useful exercises, but it’s also not really aimed at a novel like mine.  I’m guessing the average Weekend Novelist writes genre fiction, and has a straightforward story arc, with subplots and so on.  Mine is a little more, well, complicated than that, especially in the shifting timeframes, and the way the subplots turn out to be main plots, and vice versa.

I’m not setting myself up to be Thomas Pynchon or anything; but some of these exercises don’t really apply to me, I’m afraid.

However, all is not lost.  There’s an early exercise in the book, designed to get you to think more deeply about your protagonist.  It involves going back to before the beginning of your story and writing about what your character was doing an hour, a week, a month, a year,and so on before the story starts.  I have seized on this, and 3,000 words later (yes, I know; I’m supposed to be subtracting from the hulk, but none of this will go in the finished version, I think), I have some text which has a) caused me to be pleased that I can still wirte coherently about these characters, b) convinced me that I can still actually, you know, write, and c) given me someting to post here.  So, without further ado, I present a small section of the back story work I’ve been doing.  You’ll notice that I was unable to restrict myself to my protagonist, and that this isn’t the entire 3,000 words.  I may post more of it later…

Going Back even further – one hour before the primary timeline starts.

Posted in Work in Progress, Writing |
« Structurally unsound
Copy, right? »

Richard Watt

  • About
  • Home page

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • December 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • December 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • March 2009
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005

Categories

  • 50 Musical Memories
  • 60at60
  • Beatles
  • Book Reviews
  • Dear Friends
  • Music
  • Pink Floyd
  • Rediscovering Rush
  • Shore Leave
  • Tangents
  • Work in Progress
  • Writing

Categories

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© Richard Watt