Tag: Thrillers

Writing about writing a book – Day 20

It is a day of rest although writers are ready and able to work on any given day at any hour of the day or night when an idea or thought comes to them.

I’m trying not to think, but that’s not working.

I’ve been going over the reasons for writing the first draft of the book 30 odd years ago and it had something to do with the fact I was working with personal computers and local area networking when both were in their infancy, and I wanted to blend this knowledge into a story.

Of course, I’d always wanted to write thrillers, and this presented the opportunity to use computers as a basis for a worldwide conspiracy.  How easy it is these days to do just that, but back in those days, it was a lot of hard work.

I remember sitting in a meeting when the company I was working for at the time had just implemented a network and personal computer to replace the mainframe and dumb terminals, also looking to leverage the new technologies of spreadsheets and word-processing, effectively making accounts staff more productive, and removing typists and moving into the world of centralized word processing.  It was not a new idea with Wangwriter, but using PC’s was.

One of the departmental managers got up to give his take on the new technology, this about six months after implementation, and after a lot of teething troubles caused mainly by people who were vehemently resisting change, and his message was, it should not be called ‘networking’, but ‘not working’, in reference to the number of times the network went down.

But this is a digression.  Computers are only a part of the story.

The story also goes back to a time when there was a clear demarcation between the management levels.  Management offices were oasis’s whereas the staff worked in a stark desert-like environment.  When one came to work for such an organization, it was with the belief that you start at the bottom, and over time, you work your way up the ladder.  There was, very definitely, class distinction, and the various management levels never mixed, at work or socially, except within their own level.

There were Managers, Assistant Managers, and Manager’s Assistants, a typing pool, a secretary, that young, or old, lady who did so many jobs for their boss, that these days it would be considered demeaning.  They were dedicated to their jobs and irreplaceable.  There was no such person as a Personal Assistant.

Nor was such a thing as sexual harassment.  One company I worked in where one of the Assistant Managers was sexually abusing an office girl, her complaints didn’t get a prosecution as it would now, it just had him transferred to another branch.  Reprehensible, yes, and thankfully no longer a problem, except of course, in Fifty Shades of Grey which apparently condones such behavior.

There were department heads, General Managers, and Board Members.  The upper management level and participants were in a world of their own, one few could ever aspire to.  This is the world in which Transworld, my fictitious (but based on a very real) company lives.

I have to work on my company structure to make sure it is right.

Now I have two charts.  A timeline, for both Bill, and the story, and a hierarchy for the office management and staff.

This is beginning to be more complicated than I thought.

 

© Charles Heath 2016-2020

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 6

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

You see, this commitment to revising so many words a day becomes a little like a pressure cooker.

Having a plan is one thing, getting it done is another, but to keep going, now, there’s the thing.

Like this morning, sitting in front of the computer, knowing only five minutes before sitting down what I wanted to write about. A new twist in the tale.

Then the phone rings.

Up from the table, over to the phone, answer it.

A nuisance call, someone saying I had an accident when I didn’t, a new group of scammers trying to leverage money out of me. On top of the telecommunication scammers, and the endless charities looking for donations.

Distractions.

I sit down again, but my mind has switched off.

The words are gone.

Breakfast is looking good.

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 6

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

You see, this commitment to revising so many words a day becomes a little like a pressure cooker.

Having a plan is one thing, getting it done is another, but to keep going, now, there’s the thing.

Like this morning, sitting in front of the computer, knowing only five minutes before sitting down what I wanted to write about. A new twist in the tale.

Then the phone rings.

Up from the table, over to the phone, answer it.

A nuisance call, someone saying I had an accident when I didn’t, a new group of scammers trying to leverage money out of me. On top of the telecommunication scammers, and the endless charities looking for donations.

Distractions.

I sit down again, but my mind has switched off.

The words are gone.

Breakfast is looking good.

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 4

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

Those pesky characters seem to be always getting in the way

…

And no matter how much you think you have that character down, they always find a new way to surprise you. But, here’s the thing…

In those heady moments when you are first writing the story and working with the characters, they don’t necessarily have those little annoying traits, to begin with.

Those traits come now, in the revision, where they cease to be two-dimensional.

Of course, these people are mostly an amalgam of characteristics that you’ve observed over a long period of time.

I used to sit at the railway station at busy times to observe people and filled a dozen notebooks with both characteristics and eccentricities.

A little backpedalling is required.

I know there isn’t a lot of time for revisions this early on, but there are ‘glaring’ mistakes, even for a first draft, even if it is not meant to be perfect.

As they say, moving on…

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 4

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

Those pesky characters seem to be always getting in the way

…

And no matter how much you think you have that character down, they always find a new way to surprise you. But, here’s the thing…

In those heady moments when you are first writing the story and working with the characters, they don’t necessarily have those little annoying traits, to begin with.

Those traits come now, in the revision, where they cease to be two-dimensional.

Of course, these people are mostly an amalgam of characteristics that you’ve observed over a long period of time.

I used to sit at the railway station at busy times to observe people and filled a dozen notebooks with both characteristics and eccentricities.

A little backpedalling is required.

I know there isn’t a lot of time for revisions this early on, but there are ‘glaring’ mistakes, even for a first draft, even if it is not meant to be perfect.

As they say, moving on…

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 3

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

So, finally, the plan is working

…

The story is progressing and I can see, for the moment, that the story is heading in the right direction.

Of course, in saying that, it might just jinx the project.

There was a small moment of hesitation though, one of those, perhaps this might be a ‘better way moment’ that caused a brief stoppage while I considered the consequences. Then of course I make that fatal change that will have consequences later on.

Then I just added another sticky note to the four hundred others lining the monitor and nearby shelves and went back to work.

Who needs a good memory when you’ve got a hundred pads of stick notes just waiting to be used.

Got to get those 1,667 words revised.

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 3

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

So, finally, the plan is working

…

The story is progressing and I can see, for the moment, that the story is heading in the right direction.

Of course, in saying that, it might just jinx the project.

There was a small moment of hesitation though, one of those, perhaps this might be a ‘better way moment’ that caused a brief stoppage while I considered the consequences. Then of course I make that fatal change that will have consequences later on.

Then I just added another sticky note to the four hundred others lining the monitor and nearby shelves and went back to work.

Who needs a good memory when you’ve got a hundred pads of stick notes just waiting to be used.

Got to get those 1,667 words revised.

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 2

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so, it begins…

…

At last, a chance to get words on paper

…

Planning is fine but it’s not much good if you are up against a deadline. I’ve given myself 30 days to get this done, using the methodology I use for NaNoWriMo.

(Picture me shaking my head right here!)

I know where this story is going to end up, that isn’t going to change, but some elements of it might. That’s the ramifications of yesterday’s tangent.

I guess writing a story is always a fluid situation, but it’s not a first for me.

I’m generally a fly-by-the-seat of my pants writer so let’s see where this takes me.

For now, it’s back to the pen and paper.

I haven’t edited my quota of words for today yet.

“The Document” – the editor’s second draft – Day 2

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so, it begins…

…

At last, a chance to get words on paper

…

Planning is fine but it’s not much good if you are up against a deadline. I’ve given myself 30 days to get this done, using the methodology I use for NaNoWriMo.

(Picture me shaking my head right here!)

I know where this story is going to end up, that isn’t going to change, but some elements of it might. That’s the ramifications of yesterday’s tangent.

I guess writing a story is always a fluid situation, but it’s not a first for me.

I’m generally a fly-by-the-seat of my pants writer so let’s see where this takes me.

For now, it’s back to the pen and paper.

I haven’t edited my quota of words for today yet.

Mistaken Identity – The Third Editor’s Draft – Day 26

I have been working on the story, the editor is asking for a second draft after making suggested changes – and I’m now working on it

…

This month has been exhausting, because not only have I been trying to get the NaNoWriMo project completed, which involves writing about 1,800 words a day, every day, I have been keeping up the A to Z blogging challenge with a new story every day bar Sunday.

You have no idea how much I looked forward to each of the Sundays.

Of course, a plan is needed if anyone is contemplating to do something similar.

It also requires you to be able to come up with a new idea every day for the story and try not to get caught up in a crossover.

And, try not to hit the wall.

This is exactly what happened yesterday, when I got halfway through the story, and the equivalent of deleting the file rather than saving it happened.

So few yards from the finishing line and kaput, I’m sitting there in front of a blank screen wondering where the next 2,5000 words for the story are coming from.

And questioning my sanity.

I missed the deadline, wrote zero words for the A to Z and went to bed.

Tomorrow, hopefully, will be a new day!

…

More tomorrow.