Revision

Yesterday rather than writing more, I went back over some of what I had already written to see what might need a bit of clarification, and to decide on some names for certain hitherto unnamed characters. Nevertheless it ended up with a couple more hundred words somehow, taking it over the 6000 words mark. I imagine therefore that I may have written some 10% of the novelization by now in that case, as 60,000 words is OK for a novel, just about. My feeling is that working to a script will tend to make the novelization short, since the plot of a movie cannot be too complicated. I am pondering this in the background: how much can I add? How much will characters' thoughts change things? I don't know. For now, I am inclined to just plough ahead, and maybe I will have to do some heavy revision later. Getting something down is, I think, the most important thing for now.

Today, I did no writing or anything, really, except watch all four episodes of Terry Jones' Barbarians, which is relevant to certain parts of the story. A friend read my coffee grounds (like reading tea leaves, but using Greek coffee) and told me I would reach my goals with slow and steady steps, or something along those lines, and that I was admired and trusted by many people and I deserved to be too. So there. ;-)

Forgot to Blog

Well, how about that? I've been forgetting my poor little blog! Anyway, I have done a fair bit of writing, apart from today. Instead, today, I have been trying to plan ahead a bit more. Although I have the movie script as a kind of a 'plan' I don't really want the novelization to be identical with it. There are things that can be written in a book that cannot be shown on a film: that is, thoughts. What are my characters going to be thinking about? How do they think? OK, the actions are mostly predetermined by the script, but the thoughts are not...

Writing Today

I didn't get to do any writing yesterday as I was busy, out and about and all that. So, I did some today instead even though it is the weekend and even though I didn't feel like it. However, 'feeling like it' isn't what writing, or most any other task, is about. It is no use waiting until I am in some sort of 'writing frame of mind' to begin. Writing gets done by my sitting down at the keyboard and writing. The frame of mind is engendered by the habit of writing: it comes second, in other words. Begin, and the frame of mind will follow.

And indeed it did. Enough for me to manage about half a page today, anyway, which is quite good, in my opinion.

It is possible I can extend this 'just do it' kind of habit to other things too. Good habits are useful and worth cultivating as they make it easier to do what you want to do. Bad habits, such as procrastination, prevent you doing what you want to do. Don't think about it. Begin it. Do it.

Not So Many Words Today...

A new scene, so new research... meaning I only wrote about 20 words or so today. :-/ Plus, I am sleepy and lacking energy somewhat, it seems. The weather is blustery so maybe that has something to do with it too. Anyway, I did sit down and work, so why should I complain? The helpful habit is being maintained.

One agent has been contacted, another may be shortly. I have been examining their web sites to see what I think.

Another Good Day

4285 words now... Ready to start the third 'scene' tomorrow. Things are really starting to move in the story now, as well: with the next scene the story will begin to overlap with the movie directly so I will be less inclined to half-worry that I am wasting my time or something.

I had been a bit concerned that I might not get much done, as I started writing rather late in the afternoon, but in the end, I did quite a lot - more than a page, anyway. I think of that as quite a lot. I am just hoping it won't need too much revision when I glance over it tomorrow.

Normally I revise the text as I go along, then look at it again from time-to-time over the next few days as I continue adding more to the end. Finally, I go through the entire work, ideally quite a long time after I have finished my first pass through, so that ideas and preconceptions about it have been at least partially forgotten and I can see it with fresh eyes. I can't, really, but to a limited extent I can if I leave the revision for a while. I probably won't get the time to do that with this work, though, as it is needed rather quickly so I will just have to do a quick pass through as soon as I reach the end, then hand it in to the studio to get their opinions on it.

Then I will make some revisions, I am sure! But hopefully nothing more than minor ones. ;-)

Speed Writing

Well, I got a lot written today! I've had a bit of a headache today, so maybe that helped (dilated blood vessels may allow more oxygen to get to the brain or something - that's my theory anyway). I wrote about a page - some 800 words or so. I am in what I think of as the second scene, out in the jolly old desert. I am on page 6 (single spaced, 12 point). Before it is proofread, I will change it to double-spacing or at least 1.5 spacing, so people can mark it up physically more easily: I don't want them tinkering with the computer files without my supervision, thank you very much. I want the last word on what goes in and what does not. Some bits are kinda subtle... there for the nerds to enjoy, perhaps.

And... I will be needing a publisher. The studio would like me to sort one out. And... I might, therefore, be needing a literary agent, since the book is backed by a studio making a major movie (http://www.katherineofalexandria.com/) and since I don't want to be doing all the negotiating and what-have-you myself.

Anyway, it has to be more professional to have an agent. Alternatively, publishers may see agents as a nuisance, or as needless middle-men - but I doubt it, actually. They perform an important screening function. I have worked in publishing in the past and know roughly how it used to work and in any case have had about 11 non-fiction books published before (all sadly out of print and out of date now), so at least I have some sort of track record, plus plenty of editorial experience. Well, we shall see.

The Main Character

Over the last few days, I have been a bit confused about the current scene. There are lots of factors and influences to cover - it could really be at least two scenes, maybe more. In the end, I have settled for concentrating mainly on Katherine - Ekatherina - she is after all, the main character! Everybody else is basically peripheral. They will therefore go out of the picture and back in again as required, with just a brief explanation of their activities. That will do.

There will be some written from the point of view of her mother though, possibly. It is probably some forbidden practice to switch viewpoints from one character to another within a scene, but I plan to do it anyway. Sometimes, I think it is the right thing to do. Besides, there are certain points in the scene when it can happen quite naturally. I see it as the written equivalent of cutting from one camera to another in a movie. It may require a little bit of mental agility on the part of the reader, though, if I do it too precipitately. But I won't. ;-)

At the moment, as you may surmise, I am writing about Katherine as a child. How did it all begin?

Research Done...

Right! Research done, for the moment, conflicting information rationalized or explained away (but not really resolved), and back to the writing. I did a bit of revision of what I had already written and then added a new paragraph of the next scene.

A paragraph may not seem like much, but really to write anything of this story requires a lot of background information. I was busy checking facts all over the place as I went along (things like, what's the Latin form of this person's name (since I had only seen it in its more modern form)? Where exactly should this scene happen? And so on). At least in the 21st century one can check one's facts on the Internet. Fancy having to go to the library all the time or something! It would seem impossibly arduous. Or slow, anyway.

Shall I write over the weekend? Actually, I might. I was researching more during the week and writing less.

The problem with research...

...is when the facts don't add up! Various features of the story are not matching up with information that I am reading. That doesn't actually mean that the story is wrong necessarily: the materials I am reading may not be correct, after all. Much data about the period some 1700 years ago is in conflict or simply missing. All I can do in the end is to take a view, right or wrong, and write the book on that basis. Obviously I will keep as close as I can to what I think is best, bearing in mind that what I write has also to be reasonably consistent with the line taken in the movie. But, given that so little is known for definite, the label 'fiction' has to apply in some sense. Or, and perhaps this is better, that it is a 'fictionalized account of a true story'. Actually, I quite like that!

Anyway, I come back to the point I made a few days ago that Katherine's message of tolerance and understanding is what counts. The story is a means of explaining it. It is not a means of teaching history and it cannot be, since that history is simply not known. It is more of a 'what if' or 'what might have been' or a 'something like this happened.' The details will be wrong in many places, but still the general idea is correct and the message is certainly worth promoting.

Katherine's Diary

No writing today: instead I have been doing research, as I thought I would, and I have also been going through what we have of Katherine's diary - you can read about it on the movie web site: http://www.katherineofalexandria.com/ in the Synopsis/Discovering Katherine page. Basically the film is based in part on what may be her actual words, from the year 300-odd CE - that's AD to the old-fashioned out there. ;-)

Katherine of Alexandria

Well, I believe I have finished the first 'scene' of the book today: 1700 words or so written (altogether). However, now I have to figure out what comes next. I am not totally sure. I need to research the ancient Bedouin lifestyle a bit more too, before I put finger to keyboard. The next scene will be, partly, from the script of the movie (the web site for the movie is at http://www.katherineofalexandria.com/ ). Hmm... and the Roman army. And the bad guy...

I can see I am going to be doing a lot of reading over the next few days! Mind you, I do a lot of reading much of the time anyway. ;-)

Not Doing

Just because I'm not deliberately sitting down to write doesn't mean I won't... I didn't, in fact, but I could have. I did read though: research always needs doing, but it is not a chore. I read because the whole task is a matter of interest. At least, that is the ideal and in this case it is the reality.

However I probably definitely won't write tomorrow. I reserve Sundays for rest and spirituality, most of the time, and I actively avoid 'work'. I will do things like read self-improvement books, meditate, exercise, laze about, etc.

More Writing Stuff

No writing today... I have had too much other stuff to do. Besides, Celebrity Big Brother was on the TV this evening... Rubbish? Well... yes and no. I like the show because watching it is not a passive exercise, unlike most TV: once you get into it, you have to use your social brain to work out the relationships and who's going to back-stab who, who likes who (and who I like), and so on. And it isn't all fiction, limited by some writer's imagination. Not that the contestants usually have much imagination either, of course...

I am probably not going to write over the weekend either. I don't want the book to become a chore that I must buckle-down and do every time I have a moment. If it is to be the best it can be, I need to enjoy the process: it needs to be fun. I think. No guilt and fretting allowed. This will also speed it up, paradoxically. Human nature is such that if something seems unpleasant, or I make it seem so by worrying about it, then it naturally becomes more difficult to do as my emotions try and get me to avoid whatever it is that is worrying me. The result: procrastination. And, more worry and loss of self-esteem in a vicious spiral. So, I must nip such thinking in the bud, or at least, as soon as I notice it.

This first scene

When I imagined writing this first short scene, which isn't even in the film script, I thought I could type it out in an hour or two. But: oh, no. 1500 words and three days later it is still in progress. OK, so it takes a long time, even with what I like to call a 'first draft' (which is in fact somewhat polished in the process of writing it out).

Why write a scene that isn't in the script of the movie? Well, a book and a film are different media and so tell the story in different ways. In a movie you have to show things through vision and sound. In a book you can write people's thoughts directly. The reader, if they are visually orientated, will make their own movie in imagination as they read.

Anyway, the book is not to be just a slavish copy of the script. It is a separate entity. And it will have non-fiction parts too, I expect. I am treating the novelization of Katherine's story as 'fiction' as even though it is based on what we believe to be a true story, as the real historical truth of her story is heavily obscured by time so it is only possible now to tell a very approximate version of what might have happened. And again, things need to be simplified and streamlined to tell a story otherwise there would be far too many minor characters and the political situation of the world would be far too complex to explain properly, and so on. The important part is the message not the telling of it. I think.

Still Writing

Well, the writing continues... I'm on page 2 of the first draft now: 903 words. Funny how long it takes even when I know approximately what I am going to write. It is the next scene that I have no real idea of yet. Still, I understand that the average writer only manages about 3 lines a day, when deletions are taken into account, so by that measure I suppose I am ahead of schedule.

I've Written A Bit

Well, a bit of the book got written today... I'm planning to get home and, after brewing a cup of tea and checking for any urgent e-mails, just begin. There's no need to mope about thinking about it: delaying tactics are just a waste of time (of course). Better to create a habit of beginning ASAP each day and just get on with it. After a short time, I hope, the habit will drive me onwards and it will become more and more easy to just go along with it.

Getting things done long term can often be assisted by the cultivation of good habits, I think, and by the elimination or variation of bad or unhelpful ones.

Well, that's the plan, anyway. I've written a few paragraphs. Maybe 300 words. And that took three hours.

I'm not saying I won't cross any of it out or anything, but getting it written in the first place is where I would be most likely to come unstuck. The second most likely place would be for me to give up or get distracted by old, unhelpful habits reasserting themselves, part-way through the project as habits are prone to do - but I don't think that will happen as, after all, the studio would like a product!

New Year 2007

New year's resolution? I don't think so. Better to make them up as I go along, I think. Make my resolutions as and when I need them, and when the time is right. And when I'm ready to execute them.

I'm not using my blog enough, am I?

Well, maybe I could be using my blog some more... should anyone be interested enough to read it, that is. Otherwise I would just be writing it for myself! :-(

Well, the property project didn't really work - I approximately broke even but have no capital left to try again (I had none when I started either). Instead I am now helping out at a film studio: we are making a film about Saint Katherine of Alexandria and you can view the trailer at the offical web site, http://www.katherineofalexandria.com/ . I am also to write a book to go along with the film and am thinking of maybe using my blog to talk about that as I write it - you know, the things I think about when writing it, or something. But by the same token, I can't give away aspects of the plot before the film comes out... I imagine.

Meanwhile I've updated to the new blogger version, so maybe it will be a few days before all this begins to work properly anyway (computer stuff never seems to just work: you have to mess about with it for a while first).