It has been a steady couple of weeks for Human Software. While I’ve not been exactly sitting around wondering, I’ve not made stellar progress I feel. Instead I’ve been researching, I’ve been plotting, I’ve been thinking.
Sometimes life and (more importantly) paid work get in the way. Sometimes you just have to take the blows and keep moving forward.
On the flip side, while I’ve been despairing at losing momentum, I’ve also read a couple of books that get to the heart of novel writing.
Firstly I was recommended Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I’ve not even finished it yet but I know that the advice is exactly what I need. The main piece of advice I’ve already done – the famous “Shitty First Draft”. This is the don’t worry just write type approach. When I’m using Scrivener to count my words, when I’ve divided my novel up into parts and then chapters and then scenes, I can sit down and merrily fill the page.
However I’m not in ‘page filling’ mode right now, I’m in third or fourth draft mode (I forget).
So, in this case the second piece of advice is very useful from a process point of view. This is the “1-inch picture frame” as she calls it. Corey Doctorow calls it the “car headlights on a pitch-dark roadtrip” approach. Both are framing the author’s perspective in order for the to stay sane. In other words, you can only see as far ahead as the headlights, you can only ever see a part of the story. Don’t worry about that and keep driving, keep looking. I love this advice. It’s exactly what I needed to hear.
Sometimes, as a writer, you get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task; you flip back and forth, trying to work out where you should work on the manuscript. Focussing on the smallest part, you can help you get started.
The second book I’ve picked up is Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. This is a slim book of tricks and tips. I loved the “Story Islands” idea of making sure you have your plot piece “islands” in place – and indeed this is going to get me unstuck I believe. On the whole though, this is not a book whose approach marries very well with mine. It’s presents a very structure-driven and also very labour intensive approach. I’ve found the description of what he does in the first draft are things that I’ve still figuring out in my third or fourth draft.
Essentially, I feel I’m a bit too chaotic for Matt Bell and probably more of an Anne Lamot-style writer.
Both perspectives are valid, though, and I’m glad I got both books to keep me pointed in the right direction over the coming weeks and months!