Another hurdle has been passed…

Well, first of all, I should explain what has happened since my last utterings here.

Basically, I have been unable to do much aside from the book.

When I went to Weight Watchers, I was panning for gold in old drafts with my highlighter and my flags. Afterward, at Nirvana for dinner, I place my order, and then whip out the draft. On my way home, I figure, why not?, and stop at a cafe to finish up that draft out in public.

I think I’m going home to unwind, but it seems to not be happening, so I stay awake until nearly 4 a.m. tearing through the old drafts.  Then, I’m up at 7 a.m., and right back in.

And, it isn’t drudgery. I am fully engaged.

My previous "system," for lack of a better term to call my lack of a system, means I have probably read about 6-7 drafts of the novel in the past 48ish hours? I will admit my timeline may be off since my sleep schedule is. In any event, I read the same material over and over and over and over again…

The upside is I have a new appreciation for how far this novel has come. The first draft, which is this horrible 50ish page thing, is barely an idea. If anything, it regresses from the short story. But there are kernels in there that I know are going in a good direction.

Funny story, I thought the first draft WAS the Thailand draft, because I always remembered Thailand as a small draft. So, I’m reading this thing and I am thinking that I must have been completely out of my mind to have written this thing and decided it was worth getting out of my job and doing this a go full-time. I would have had to have been competely mental to do such a thing. Of course, when I go through the file cabinet here, I find another thing marked Thailand draft and, when I finally read that, it clearly is the turning point, and a good time to have decided to quit the job after all.

Here’s another shocking thing: I’m not sick of this book. This process has really shown me how much progress has been made, and I can’t wait to run it through the end of this draft now.

Just as with the weight loss, it is so easy to get fixated on what isn’t working, how much is left to do, that you lose sight of how far things have come, how much has gone right with it, etc.

So, here is where everything is at:

• All drafts, fragments, notes, etc. have been read and all the gold is pasted into a separate Word document
• That document will need to be ordered appropriately tomorrow, based on the outline, and pasted at the end of each appropriate chapter for possible inclusion
• A timeline needs to be created for when everything happens in the novel (so characters don’t seem to lose 60 pounds in two and a half months or anything)

And then…

When all that is done, perhaps as early as tomorrow… I get to start sculpting the text.

I’m really stoked about how all this has been going lately. And, I just know it isn’t a short-term thing. The book procrastination, block, malaise, etc., has ended!

(Warning: The blog entries are going to be coming at a pretty furious clip for the next few days, I think.)

So, I’m going through old drafts now, and some of the stuff is just PHENOMENAL as to how stupid and lazy it is. And this is several drafts in. Just unbelievable levels of procrastination.

I’m reading this section and throughout it, apparently during one of my "edit" passes, I mark it up. The original sentence reads:

"My awkward body language forces them to come around in front of me."

The EDITED sentence reads:

"My awkward body language (unpack) forces them to come around in front of me."

Unpack means to expand on that idea, explain it more. Show, don’t tell. All of that sort of stuff. But it just amazes me that such a thing would be written as an obvious second-round edit WITHOUT MY HAVING MADE THE SLIGHTEST ATTEMPT AT ACTUALLY DOING THE EDIT.

I mean, I’m suggesting edits now? To whom? Isn’t there only one person writing this? So, my edit pass is to make notes for a future pass where I then act on my own notes?

Unfuckingbelievable.

Well, it is official. The novel is going full tilt now.

I have been doing nothing but reading old drafts since the last post, and just unable to really focus on anything else (which is SO not the problem I have been having up until now). I thought it was going to be more work than it actually is, but that is not the case thanks to a feature I used a lot at Macromedia: compare documents.

It was something that came up a lot for execs who didn’t want their changes to be tracked, but rather to send me back a clean copy from which to start anew. But, well, I was never really into having someone subvert the process, so I would take what they sent back, go to Compare Documents, select the draft that I sent them, and it shows me what they changed exactly.

So, I read through three major drafts of the novel since I last posted. Found some good stuff, a few things just to make sure are in the final, and just put Post-It Flags(tm) through the draft (see image above.).

Now, I’m onto the online versions, and thought, this is going to take much longer. But no, it isn’t. Because these are versions of the same documents, just with edits. So, compare the documents, check the changes and see if any matter. Going much faster than anticipated. Yes!

The HUGE HUGE HUGE lesson here is to NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. Never have a draft, and then start fresh, because things get lost between drafts that way, and I am wasting time now, making sure funny moments and lines don’t fall through the cracks. but, live and learn, it won’t take too long. I’ll be writing by the weekend.

OK, I don’t know why exactly, but I am addicted to bubble tea. You know, that iced tea drink with the chewy tapioca pearls at the bottom that you suck up with a big straw? LOVE it.

But the more I order it, the more something has been gnawing at me: I am getting SCREWED.

The place I most often partake, in the Castro, has everything as an additional price. If you order the Bubble Black Tea it is like $2.49, I think. If you want the larger size cup, add 50 cents. If you want tapioca pearls, another 50 cents. (This always annoys me, as the term Bubble in Bubble Black Tea would seem to indicate the tapioca was alread included. It is usually called bubble tea, but this is NOT the case with them).

Also, I get the most boring bubble tea there is, since I am watching my sugar intake and don’t do dairy. So, no milk teas, and none of the plethora os Asian flavor options, no lychee puddings, nothing. I get black tea, ice, tapioca, unsweetened. And it costs like $3.50ish.

For clarity, a gallon of unsweetened black tea at Trader Joes? $3.49. So, I am paying this for a cup of iced tea because it has tapioca pearls in it?!

NO MORE! I always assumed that the tapioca is a cheap-as-hell ingredient, and today, after buying a bubble tea, came home to investigate. Needless to say, the pearls sold for $7 for five pounds! Add another $2 for some fat straws, and the site says I should get about 100 12 oz servings. This means I am paying $16.42 (shipping added) for what would cost me more than $300 in the outside world! Phenomenal savings… unprecedented level of savings, actually.

So, the budget tightens yet again, as bubble tea becomes something I make at home instead of paying premium for anymore.

Today has been busy, although no writing has occured. I still have several hours more work to get through tonight, and none of that is writing, either.

Basically, I always knew there would be a horrendous, tedious step ahead whereby i would need to rectify the drafts. Like, once I got a draft I liked, I would need to go back to the Thailand draft, the draft written last March, and the non-fiction book from the narrator (that is no longer being used in the body of the book) and get them all square and happy. So, anything really good from those has to find its way into this final draft. No good writing funny, poignant stuff and being too lazy to make sure it ends up in the final.

So, that is today’s task (might be tomorrow’s too, we shall see). First up, I went through and smoothed out the outline. It didn’t need as much work as I thought. Still solid, and I still love it. That’s good.

Next up, reading the Thailand draft for the first time in… yikes, way too long. Just making sure no great nuggets, chunks, etc., fall through the cracks. Now that I’m working from the outline, it has more of a structure, so where to place something is more nailed now. i can read something and say, make sure that gets into Chapter 44, etc.

After Thailand will be the draft that was written post-Thailand. This also hasn’t been read in ages. Just panning for gold and lining it up, again.

After post-Thailand is a discarded (albeit huge) draft. Hmm, I also found some small pre-Thailand draft, very short thing, who knows.

Then there’s the draft that was written last March, which is the existing draft, so just need to do the first 14 chapters, as that is how far the edit only got. More for completeness than anything else, as this should all still be in there.

After those chapters, I will read the narrator’s non-fiction book, and there is probably more gold here than anywhere else, really, as this was written expecting some of it to be used in the actual book in excerpt form.

After that, the three documents I wrote the other day, just to make sure. And then whatever else I find in the folder, including the short story.

So, more reading, flagging, cutting, and pasting than anything else. At the end of this process, though, I will have a master document from which to cross the finish line. No work is being put off for the future. It is all happening now.

And, yes, I did mention and am seeing a finish line. Finally.

On a different note, to tie everything together, today was an exemplary diet day. Not a single emotional eating thing, nothing. Just all upbeat, on top of it all, and happy. Of course, I’ve never claimed there wasn’t a connection there.

ADDENDUM: This is a huge job, and since the work that needs to be read is all printed out and portable, I’m looking to use it to possibly get me out of the house as well. Two birds, and all.

Whew… today certainly was a strange day. It started as a day that seemed to be going down in flames. I started by downloading the Ricky Gervais podcasts, or rather finding they had all downloaded while I’d been sleeping, so I figured, why not give one a listen over breakfast? Then, I got addicted. I listened to like 10 half-hour episodes in a row.

Finally drag myself to the gym, listening to Gervais the whole time there, as well. When I come home, I pop on some Gervais video, too. I’d had it downloaded for months, but for some reason, today was Gervais day and it could not be contained or restrained. I just find him to have an uncontrollable joy that is infectious. The subtext of listening to him was that I needed to figure out how to be that jazzed about my book.

He is pure fun. Someday, I must meet him.

So, in the middle of Gervaismania, I start hunting down the Dan Brown Witness Statement from the Da Vinci Code Plagiarism Trial in the UK. Never read the book, not all that interested, but I have some strange fixation about reading this. So, I find it, bring it up on-screen, pause gervais in mid-episode(?!) and read it.

And it is LONG, like 65 pages of him documenting all the arcania about and research methods for the book, which I now have even less desire to read than before. One thing does stand out, though, and that is even with the backdrop of such a "serious" book, he’s still having a lot of fun, a lot of anagrammed names, friends’ names, word puzzles, etc. Not sure why I keep reinforcing that I should be having more fun in my writing, especially since it is a known quantity and you can’t force yourself to have fun, and I do know this, but what to do about it?

OK, another thing that stands out. So, his wife does a lot of the research for the book, and gives him a lot of the historic background information, facts and figures, all of this great stuff. And, a lot of the time, he can’t use it, because it gets in the way of his writing a "page-turner" for an audience. Now, I’m a populist guy. I am trying to create something with merit and all that, but I am also writing a book that I hope people will read. I never get the whole notion of writing for an audience of one. I mean… I already know the point of the book. If I’m the  intended audience, let’s call it a wrap  and hit the dance clubs this weekend already.

Page-turner sticks in my craw every time he mentions it, because I know my book suffers from a lack of this at present. As much as I love what’s happening, nothing seems compelling enough to propel the reader through the narrative.

So, to recap, I spend way too much time vegging out (and working out) to Ricky Gervais. Then, I read about how Dan Brown researched The Da Vinci Code. I’m like 10 hours into my day at this point, not a stictch of work on my own book. Off to quite a rollicking start, eh?

The next thing seems to come from nowhere, but I never even question following through with it. I write an outline of my novel.

Both of my readers here know that this has been a long-time complaint of mine, that I have identified myself as someone who likes the idea of an outline, but yet I am plodding away guideless at present. Seems an easy fix, yeah? Need an outline, perhaps write one? Normally not as easy as all that, but let’s face it. I know the book pretty well at this point.

So, I spend the next eight hours or so writing an outline, except it doesn’t just outline what I’ve written, but has a new framing device that adds urgency (page-turner!) and builds to something that makes the whole project fun for me (Thanks, Ricky!).

Somehow in the process, I write a 55-chapter (plus eplilogue) outline, based on my 27-chapter draft. That should seem spooky and a bit mental, but somehow it all makes sense AND doesn’t require nearly as much work as it seems it should.

In fact, had I not spent 8+ hours doing that outline work, I’d probably be working on the book right now. I’m a bit shredded on it all right now, though.

Needless to say, I think the book is finally in the home stretch. I love everything about it now. Everything makes sense now. Editing with a trajectory and goal makes it all easier.

I see the end in sight!

Bring it on!

Today, I:

• listened to like 8 hours of Ricky Gervais Show podcasts (most of season 1) and was just floored by its brilliance
• worked out
• read Dan Brown’s entire witness statement from The Da Vinci Code plagiarism UK trial (like 65ish pages, I think it is, when printed out)
• decided to skip a concert for which i have tickets tonight (Subways)
• am about to write an outline of a radical new direction for the book, one that has me so revved up and energized that I am cooking up dinner and planning to outline the whole thing. It seems to finally give it the page-turning quality that it has heretofore lacked, and I can’t quite contain myself.

Crazy…

Just read a perfect quote over on Dave Winer’s site from George Bernard Shaw, noted playwright and vegetarian:

"If you are going to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh. Otherwise they’ll kill you."

That pretty much sums up my approach to my book. Well, OK, I don’t quite take it that seriously, but close.

Today’s plan is to not work on the text of the book which, arguably, increases my odds for success.

Instead, I plan to write three documents. Each document will represent the arc of one of the three main characters in the book, written in their character’s voice. The goal is to take more of an "outside looking in" approach to the novel.

Basically, the ongoing quandry is that I am writing a good book. I know there is something going on in the book that makes it relevant, interesting, and funny. And a lot of that stuff is nailed. But it is not swift and precise. There are belabored points and moments that seem forced for the sake of not knowing what comes next, or rather what should come next in the novel moreso than what would occur next if the book were instead the blog of the person recounting their day.

For example, when the character switched into turning his creation into a small business, before it becomes a national craze, he needs to get the money to start up the business. So, in earlier drafts,
it actually had him, I kid you not, applying for a loan.

Was there anything interesting that occurred? No.

Was there any point to needing to see the character do this? No.

It was just the next linear step this character would have to take to get from where he was at the end of the previous chapter, to where he was going in the next/forthcoming chapter. And, it actually took a while to say: umm, who fucking cares?

Suffice it to say, in the current draft, the character mentions in passing that he also has a loan and a lease hanging over his head now. Less than a sentence, and it used to be a small chapter.

So, the tendency is for me to get too hung up in the minutae (a word I really need to learn how to spell given the degree to which I use it).

Today’s exercise is to have the characters discuss (from a vantage point in the future from the novel) a look back on that time in their life and their personal interactions.

The goal, really, is to see where the intersections are, to focus on making the characters less amorphous and possibly generic, and tightening up the flow of the book as a result.

I know already that each character is walking one trajectory of the current or about-to-be-former part of my life. Rather than having one character be my direct stand-in, I’ve sort of exploded myself into three distinct characters, each working around one specific obstacle.

But, without clarity on these, it is basically me looking in on three fragments of myself and trying to get them to interact as three separate entities, like some sort of forced, transcribed schizophrenic episode I intend to sell.

By bringing clarity to them as people, writing in their own voices to make them stronger as individuals, I think it will be good to see each character’s distinct path through the narrative and where they need the other characters to progress. I basically don’t want the main narrator’s story to be dominant and whenever I get stuck, I just toss someone in a room with him for the sake of story advancement.

If each character’s emotional and narrative arc is explored, it will make sense what needs to occur to get each character to the point at which the book ends, and then make it easier to work back and ensure those things happen on some sort of appropriate timeline. The two non-narrator characters have small story arcs, so it isn’t really juggling three equal balls, but they also get folded into the story one at a time, at different levels of progress toward their goals, so it all times out pretty well.

I refuse to rest on a good book when I know I’m a revelation away from having a great book. Even bringing more purpose to the secondary characters will drive the overall narrative better. I also hate the notion of these characters just being props to serve as downtime between the narrator’s arc.

For example, I saw "Thank You for Smoking" yesterday, which is the best movie I saw in 2006 so far. (That said, it knocked nothing down to the number two position as a result, it was the first movie to actually place this year). And from the second it begins until the credits roll, it is ‘game on’ and everything works perfectly, the tone is locked and loaded, and it is so satisfying. Right now, my novel has the bombast and backdrop perfected, it is the characters that need the clarity.

As I have written the linear story already, as far as what the characters need to do to advance the plot, what remains is what subtext and off-topic interactions need to occur for them to advance their own narratives at the same time. I want this book to have three strong characters, not just one.

So, the goal is to write those three documents today and call it my workday. If that means I get the night off, great. If that means I’m finishing them up at 2 a.m., oh well… but that is the task at hand.

It seems like anything that will get the book moving in a direction from good to great is worthwhile.

When I was a tech journalist (and who knows, once I need to pay rent again soon, it could happen again. But let’s hope not), i always read Dave Winer’s Scripting News site. In part because of what he wrote about, and it intersecting with my beat at the time, and also because as his own boss, Dave could give me a non-BS quote that was succinct. (Most companies give you marketing flunkies who take five lines to barely make a point).

Now that I no longer write about tech, or follow it too closely for that matter, I still read Dave’s site because I find him interesting. It is also surreal to watch these snarky debates arise about standards like OPML and stuff that, to be frank, I don’t even know what they do, or care to, really.

To me, the interesting thing about Dave is his drive. He seems to have had a passion that perfectly lined up with, and oftentimes drove, the way a lot of web technologies work today. It’s primarily under-the-hood stuff that end users will never link back to him, or care that there was passion and sweat behind it.

But he just pursues his passions with such gusto, not to mention that he strives to build communities offline as well as online. He arranges dinners around events he attends and has always been gracious to everyone down to the youngest newbie back when I would attend them on occassion.

He recently began talking about retirement from his tech pursuits and relentless blogging, and I was curious what the next thing would be, since no one with this much energy and drive is going to just watch Tivo and kick back.

Today, he wrote: "I’m thinking fiction might be fun. I’m thinking about dialog, and how a novel is a continuum, and a bunch of short stories hanging off a tree, and a few diversions to keep the reader on his or her toes. I’m thinking about the craft of writing in ways I’ve never done before."

After seeing that, I can’t wait for him to stop blogging. I think it sounds like an interesting path and would be very curious to see what he would do moving in that direction. It’s always refreshing to read about writing a novel as such a fun prospect, since I always seem to bring so much seriousness and mental anguish to things. Dave taught me a lot about technology, maybe I’ll learn something about creative writing from him as well. And, to be fair, he’ll probably blog about his writing, too. The more things change…