Cutting the jigsaw pieces before the picture is done.

I put together all the parts (so far) of my book last night, and I noticed inconsistencies, name changes, and continuity problems. I don't know if it all flows or if all the plot elements are in the right place. The book expanded from 10 chapters to 12, and some of the chapters got quite a bit bigger.

I figure I have about another 5 chapters to go. (I don't know for sure -- it might be 3 chapters or 10.) Then I'll flesh it out, which probably will add another 50 pages or so. About 200 pages, which was about how long Star Axe was -- not terribly long by modern standards. But being an e-book it can be just as long -- or short -- as it needs to be.

Inspiration doesn't come sequentially, at least not for me. It comes piecemeal, in fragments, and sometimes even contradicts what came before.

Nor does inspiration come in whole. A new character pops us, who needs a background. A plot element emerges, which needs to be foreshadowed...

A novel becomes a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, where I cut the pieces before I know what the picture looks like.

But it's time to move on and finish, before going back. I'm hoping that what will be needed is a smoothing of the rough spots, adding depth and color and description and plot and character: but not wholesale re-writing of the entire book. Sometimes when I add an element or subtract one, the whole damn thing fall apart.

Then I have to pick up all the pieces and see if it's worth putting together again. When I re-read my 7th book awhile back, I found that I liked it, pretty much. But it didn't fit together. The part that was more or less readable, was rather slight. The more complex part was a jumble. They needed to be integrated better, and I just couldn't face doing it.

Easier, frankly, to write something new.

And as Jerad has been telling me, I have 30 years more living under my belt. (Though I'm not sure getting older really makes you all that much more wise. Less naive, perhaps.)

Truth is, I enjoy writing the first draft and discovering what happens and watching the subconscious creative part of my brain come up with stuff. (At least for me, writing is pretty much ALL sub-conscious. Writers who can cold-bloodedly think it all through are a different breed).

I'm not sure I like re-writing much. I tend to do both too much and too little. Too much in that I obsess over changes and do them too often. Too little in that I'm not effective in making all the effort count; not enough thought and perspective. (I think obsessing, for me, is another necessary component to actually finishing a book.)

Perspective on my own writing is really hard, obviously.

I've tried to come up with work habits this time which will solve this problem.

Pretty strange that it has taken 8 books to learn to do this. The first book was such a mess to write -- that I really didn't learn good work habits. The second and third books came pretty easy. So again, it didn't matter my work habits. The fourth and fifth books I just didn't put the time and energy in that I should have. The sixth book was where all the chickens came home to roost, and I just couldn't face writing it again. And the seventh book, while some of my work habits got better, just took too long.

Work Habit Rule #1 is to finish the first draft before going back and doing extensive re-writes. So far, I've been able to do that mostly -- except in obvious circumstances where I need to go back and fill in. That isn't quite the same as re-writing, thankfully. It's necessary, however, to write those sections when inspiration comes.

Like I said, the biggest obstacle and unknowable, is whether the whole thing fits together without falling apart and making me start from scratch. I don't think I could face that.

So far, so good.

No matter what else happens, I think it's going to feel really good to finish another book after all these years. I'll feel like a writer again. It will be very satisfying no matter how many people end up reading it.

Why I like writing a blog.

By now, some of you have probably asked yourself -- "What's with this Duncan, fellow? Can't he shut up? I can't keep up with his blathering."

Thing is, I like to write.

The following isn't meant to be egotistical. But it does explain why I write so much.

Growing up in Bend, I don't remember 'creative writing' as being part of the curriculum. I can count on one hand the number of times I was asked to write something creatively. Maybe there were other incidences, but I don't remember them.

In the fifth grade, I wrote a story about Snoopy and the Red Baron that was a huge hit with my classmates and my teacher. I mean, I was a rock star for about a week. At the end of the school year, my teacher singled me out to read it again in front of the class. For reasons I don't now remember, I was disgruntled and mumbled my way through the reading. I'll always remember the leaden response from my teacher and classmates.
It taught me that, if put in that postion, I at least need to try.

Then in the seventh grade I had an art teacher who assigned a clipped out picture from Life Magazine to each student, and asked them to write a story about it. Mine was a picture of the red rock bridge monument in the Southwest. As I went to sleep, my brain started churning out this tremendously emotional story of life and love and death and meeting under the bridge that was epic in scope. Epic, I tell you!

I woke up the next morning and dished out something else, got my usual A or B grade, and forgot about it. Well, not completely, because that creative urge that set in that night lingered. What if I had actually written it?

Then as a sophomore in high school, in a business class of all things, we had a guest speaker. It was a radio ad guy, who is sort of really well known in this area (I still hear his voice on local T.V. and radio.). He asked us if we wanted to try to create a 60 second ad, and gave us the particulars. I seem to remember it being a V.W. ad. Anyway, I wrote something out and that was that.

A few days later, he came up to me after class and asked if I was Duncan McGeary, and would I mind if he used my ad copy in a radio ad. I was a bit surprised, but said, sure why not?

And sure enough, there it was on radio shortly thereafter.

All these were small signs that I liked to write. I'd get idle comments from teachers, like "You have a facile ability with words which you need to discipline." And I'd usually get that moment in college when the professor who had ignored me up that moment would seek eye contact with me after I'd written my first paper and seem to be saying, "I'm on to you. I know who you are now." I even had a teacher say that outloud in class in front of everyone, embarrassing me. "Duncan knows this, but Duncan won't say. Duncan knows more than he's letting on...."

Just before going off to college the second time (I flubbed the first time) I had another one of those brainstorms. I loved Lord of the Rings, and nothing like LOTR's had been written up to that point, and I wanted to write something like it. My family was dubious, my mother was worried. I heard a lot of "You should be realistic." Only my friend Wes encouraged me, for which I'm eternally grateful.

I was stuck, though, on how to get started. Finally, I said to myself, "Just write a story. A story you would like."

Two sleepless nights later, I had STAR AXE pretty much mapped out. It took me another five years of flailing around trying to write it, but I finally got it put together and sent off. (By which time there were innumerable LOTR pastiches, sigh.)

It completely surprised me when it was accepted by not one, but two publishers. The money wasn't as much as I thought, but it was a beginning. I immediately wrote the next novel, and got it accepted, and then started the third.

Eventually, I wrote 7 novels, and the sixth and seventh I felt were the best. But in the meantime, I ran up against the reality of the business of publishing. Sending books off into the VOID and not hearing anything for years at a time.

So when I bought the store and was immediately rewarded for my creative efforts, writing took a back seat. I intended to start writing again, someday.

Blogging has become that writing...

I figure about 3 or 4 novels worth of words.

But with immediate gratification of seeing it out in the world that very minute.

Because, you know, I just like writing stuff.