Brewing the perfect novel

The draft is finished. 763,000 cups of tea later… the draft is finally finished.

And it’s a good thing I procrastinated over so many cups of tea, because now is the moment when all that ‘brewing’ experience pays off. Now I get to sit and wait, while my manuscript brews and my mind clears. Ready to transform this thing into a final work.

The Fragrant Leafsays brewing is simple and straightforward. (If only it was!) They even outline some simple steps to show how simple brewing is.

1. Start with fresh, cold good-tasting water - I have fresh, crisp good-sounding words. I must be on the right track.

2. Preheat the teapot - Hey, this story is positively smoking. It’s got action, it’s got pace, and characters that leap from the page. (Okay, so sometimes they have arthritic knees and it’s not so graceful. It’s still hot.)

3. Measure the appropriate amount of dry leaves - Dry leaves? Ah, yes. Those moments where we allow the reader to come up for air, and take a break from it all. I’m sure I’ve got an appropriate amount of those. 

4. Select the right water temperature - Still treading water in the shallow end of the writers’ pool. Time to dive in the deep end I think. 

5. Steep for the proper length of time - The crux of the whole brewing thing. Normally I’d let it steep for a month, but who can wait that long these days? Besides, I’m on a time budget here and I’m not getting any younger either. I’m thinking a week. One week. Seven days. And it’s liberating not to think about my novel every spare second. And it kind of leaves me lost at the same time. What did I think about before I started writing this thing? 

Never mind. A week it is. I haven’t looked at it since Friday, so that means tomorrow my week is up. Oh no, that went so fast. I can feel the tension rising already. 

Urgh! 

I think I’d better go make a cup of tea. 

Sash.

Second draft in progress

…but are you using the cut and paste keys a little too much? I’m bang smack in the middle of my (official) second draft, so I really related to screenwriter John Pace’s post at The Story Department.

He has some pretty wild ideas to avoid taking the lazy way out, or as he puts it: “…we need to muster the courage to kill our babies, not copy and paste them into another family.”

At an author’s lunch some years ago, author of Shantaram Gregory David Roberts told us he’d (and I’m factual-recall challenged, so I’ll have to be vague!) completely lost at least the first entire draft of his novel or had it taken by prison guards. By the time he wrote the second draft, he really knew his characters and his story! And the results speak for themselves.

An interesting concept. Okay, I’m not taping electrodes to anything or popping into the prison for some quiet writing time, but I do get the point! No cutting and pasting. Aaagh!

elle x

Daily writing – I’ve blown my new habit already!

Like sooooo many other people, I started the year (yet another – this is getting tedious) with the New Year’s Resolution of writing everyday. This wasn’t just any old resolution though. I was on a mission. I needed to finish my draft for submission for my master’s degree. So finally, this year, (unlike any other) I did write every day. 

Then I finished. 

Then I started editing. 

And now it’s nearly February and I’ve realised that I haven’t actually ‘written’ for over a week. Yikes. Such a great habit was forming and I’ve blown it already.

Anyway, it made me realise how important it is to have other projects to contribute to outside of the novel. Because sometimes, let’s face it, you need to step away from the writing of the novel to complete the novel. You need time away from you work in order to look at it with fresh eyes. Time away from it because you’ve been writing it and re-reading it for so long that you are (dare I say it?) bored with it. 

So what, as writers,  do we do this problem? I’ve heard of writers having several novels on the go. But I think it would be the death knell for all of my novel ideas if I started trying to write multiple novels at once. Instead, (and Elle will be pleased about this) I’ve realised how important it is to keep on blogging; that I should start journaling again, and; that all writing counts, so why not use part of our creativity to come up with fresh ways to practise our craft each day. 

And having a writing partner helps too. Elle is currently taking a masterclass in scriptwriting and will no doubt come back inspired enough for both of us! 

I’m sure you’ve all got some great ideas on how to keep on writing – be brave, share your thoughts.

Sash.

We’re still here – and writing (just)

It’s been too long since Sash and I ventured into blog-land. Both of us are trying to complete manuscripts… Sash for a creative writing masters, me because I’m going to drown in my own neurosis if I don’t (can you do that?).

So we’re both busy writing – or thinking about writing as we taxi the kids around and keep up with work commitments. And the rest.

So I’m laying it on the line here. I’m up to 29,400 words (up from 20,000 two weeks ago) and keeping at it. I’ve been a bit menopausal lately, so I’m channelling the rage and writing all those fabulous confrontational scenes (gotta love women’s issues hey?).

So how about you Sash? What’s happening in your world of Young Adult Fiction??

x Elle