Finding something to write

Picked up writing Bullet With Butterfly Wings. I wrote the first half/two thirds ten, hell thirteen years ago and boy, did I have some bad habits! Tons of adverbs, passive writing and plenty of author intrusion (although to be fair at the time Robert Rankin was a massive influence, he the king of sotto voice) haven’t helped when continuing in the same style when I am a more technical writer than then.

Also bear in mind that the FreezeBurn Chronicles, of which this story is one of seven novellas, came from a pretty playful concept of writing something that would make me have a chuckle with my friends, with whom all the characters (bar Messr Redwich) are based.

The original premis back then was ‘this is for the crack’ and that hasn’t changed today. As mentioned I picked this up because it continued to nag me in its unfinished state and I also laughed my ass off when I re-read it a few months back. I haven’t written comedy for a long time and just plain fancied a crack at it.

On another note I picked out three short stories to start finding markets: Undo, The Man Who Met Himself and New York Story.

A quick re-read later and Undo and TMWHH are back in editing re-hab while New York Story – which gave me goosepimples while reading it at work – is nigh on perfect. The word count is an issue but I think technically it is the best story I have written. It’s a bleak read but with a great uplifting ending (or at least a resolution) and it deserves a home. The first two don’t have that affect on me that much as a) they are older (New York Story is my second to last completed story with Crumplezone being first) and b) I’m kind of sick of re-treading through the stories again. The edits I will be doing will be technical only: the plots will stay as they are.

Finished plotting Bullet with Butterfly Wings

Finished plotting Bullet With Butterfly Wings

I say finished – in fact the last third wrote itself in a rapidly condensed three-line sentence but it still managed to fullfill what I wanted from plotting to start to finish – a clear defiined goal and purpose.

What had happened initially was that my plot kind of malformed into a elongated synopsis and before I knew it I was up too close and personal to the story whilst I tried to work out how Larz would persuade the bugs to help him liberate his friends.

That plotline wasn’t the issue, it was more of a case that I didn’t know what to do with the other characters and before I knew it I started to overthink and ran into a full stop. Not only that but this story is…well, pretty dumb and silly. It’s a Jay and Silent Bob Cartoon at best. Over arching plotlines shouldn’t matter when it’s the characters you come to see, baby.

Not only that this story will never, ever be published. It’s just too dumb, and seeing as it is story number 7 in a 1 novel and 6 short story series (where, I stress, the novel and the sextet novellas are all in states of what I shall commonly call ‘flux’) of very sketchy quality pieces of work I doubt I will even put it anywhere public. It’s for me, to actually finish a novelle that when I picked it a couple of months ago had me laughing my ass off. I love it when that happens.

..So I zoomed out on the story, kept things simple and saw everything from up high. Eventually this story will come in around the 25-30 thousand mark.

Now that the synopsis is written I need to dive in there and begin writing. I already have my Hong Kong Horror story and Warp Factory busy tapping their watches in the corner. They want attention.

Writing projects

I’m finally kicking off on the few writing projects I’ve set myself to accomplish at the start of this year. One is to finish Bullet With Butterfly Wings (a story which is a good ten years old), the other to get some submissions underway.

It’s frustrating in the sense that all my endeavors to get my head down and begin these two small pieces of work get subsumed by the various umpteen other items of interest I put in my way. Imagine I am a drunkard, trying to get home. I have a bundle of money in my hand, and am walking down a busy high street, kebab and pizza shops flashing their neon lights each side of me. The goal is to get home. The reality is that I end up sat on a stool getting Chili sauce on my lap. In short, I am distracted by bright lights and things I like the smell off cooked meat. The goal loses interest.

Ok, crap analogy (but not that crap surely…) – the gist of the matter is that I’m starting to approach the whole writing shebang from a project/time management point of view. I recently came across an audio seminar of David Allen and his Getting Things Done methodology of task and project management. I found it so fascinating that I was implementing his ideas before I even finished the seminar, with his book soon winging its way from Amazon (which I have now returned…long story but I still have one copy remaining, put it that way) and after using it to tackle other aspects of my life I’m approaching how I plan my writing and related work with the GTD approach.

As a technical professional for a good ten years I know what a to-do list on my screen means, and applying it to my personal (and writing) life has interesting effects i.e. if it’s on the list, then get it done and clear it off the list.
So, I’m working on the plot for the remainder of Bullet (and writing myself into the same Caverns Larz, Steve, Al, Alex and Mav are dragged into) and have submitted Crumplezone to GUD Magazine.

There was a story in there that inspired me, called ‘The Problem With The Law’ by Neil Davies and I just loved it. I read it with a smile on my face from the first line. Crumplezone has some similarities in the fragmented, stacattoe’d style, and after a moment’s decision – where I had initially intended to submit New York Story, but felt the length would hold it back – I decided on a quick edit and found myself smiling as I read it in one sitting without spotting a single problem. The story is just mad, and crazy and nonsensical but still has a grounding where a reader can attach their own meaning on to the story. I think the ending is quite brave, especially for me. I call it my Akira ending

Bullet is still bugging me though. The idea of the idiotic Larz becoming the ‘king’ of the bugs is a cracking one because amongst the crew he’s the last person you would expect to have or want that responsibility ( I think of Cartman and the Markalars as I’m writing this…) but I have a few issues around what the other characters do. This is the problem with plotting, I fear. It’s very discouraging to write your plot into a corner where if you’re writing on the fly because you’re in the moment you can wing it a bit more. I’ll have another think and maybe back-track. I need Steve to do something, or have something happen to him. And if Mav, Alex and Al are stuck in a cave with no escape then what can I do with them?

Anyway. Soldier on. Adios.