As you can see, it hasn’t just been all fun and games and men in people’s nostrils. Bill still won’t let me talk to people, since I have 100 pages or so to edit. But this latest and near final draft is limping to that great finish line in the sky. See you in 2020!
I can’t remember who said it, but I read an author’s story, years ago, of how he kept motivated by making space for his as-yet-unpublished book on the bookstore shelves when he visited. He’d push aside the books to either side of the spot where his would go and just place his finger there for a few minutes. It was something I started doing, and my daughter will come along with me, if she’s around.
HANE-HANN
Well, I took a break from working on the book at the beautiful Los Gatos Public Library the other day to help the staff make space for Butterfly, a novel.
A quick public service announcement to say that we’ve hit 190 and counting on the short story that has grown and grown like a force-fed chicken.
190 and counting…
Or a weed, for you vegetarians.
And by ‘we’ I mean me, of course, and my agent, Bill, who has been holding a sawed-off shotgun at my head for the last few months while I whittle away at the monstrous fourth draft. His arms were getting tired (interesting fact, even if the shotgun is propped up and it’s not nearly as heavy as a full-barrelled shotgun, your arms will get tired holding a sawed-off shotgun at one level for an extended period of time) so he’s gone off to rest them and use the restroom for a few, which is why I’m allowed… well, not allowed, but, you know, taking advantage of the time to post this little update from inside the writer’s studio/prison.
The last forty or so pages may not be the prettiest in the world, but some of the words on those pages even look like they belong together in the same sentence.
So the next batch of manuscripts have been sent off to the First Readers — I’m at the 150 page mark.
The first 150 or so
It’s a little like painting a room. You put on the first coat. Take a break for lunch, let that first coat dry. Put on the second coat on one wall. Notice a spot on the ceiling, go get some paint remover. Put on the second coat on another wall and the third coat on the wall which already has a second coat because you’d forgotten you’d already done a second coat.
Notice that the fourth wall is patchy. Give it a quick second coat in the trouble spots. Realize later that you need to now re-do that entire wall. Give the third wall a once over, and you see that you’d forgotten to tape off the outlets or remove their faceplates on that wall.
At least that’s how I paint a room*.
It’s a somewhat more productive method that I use for drafting and editing my novel, Butterfly, which I’m sure you’re just dying to get your grubby little hands on. But it’s a similar method to the painting analogy. And this time round I’ve added one new painter’s tool to my toolbox, to allow me to go over the previously painted (to belabor a metaphor) sections is to use the laptop’s built-in ability to turn text into a spoken track.
My magic audiobook creator
So I use Scrivener, that excellent Mac-based writing software for organizing my manuscript. I’ll select all the text documents that make up a chapter, especially one that needs some work done, which gives me one long chunk of text.
I’ve got a whole other long and boring system for marking chapters that need work, in-progress, near final draft, and final drafts with different colored flag icons, but I’ll probably go into that at some other time if any one at all out there cares.
So I’ve got my big long window full of text. I hit ⌘-a to select all (Edit > Select All), and then right-click (or click with two fingers on the trackpad of the laptop) the highlighted text. What you should see is that menu above… with an item at the bottom for “Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track.” It’ll ask you what voice you want to use (the default voice, Alex, isn’t too bad), and then you’re good to go. You’ll hear a little noise when the transcription of the text into audio is finished.
In my particular workflow I then right click on that file in iTunes, show it in the Finder, and copy the track to Dropbox, and then open it on my iPhone for my walking around time or drive-time to have a listen to a reasonable facsimile of what I’ve written.
This is far, far easier than reading the text yourself into a microphone and making your own version with your own voice. Besides, if you recorded your novel-in-progress in your own voice you’d likely just cringe at how that doesn’t sound a thing like you the entire time and not pay too much attention to the words you’re speaking.
* Now available for hire for reasonable rates for all your interior painting needs.
So the first 100 (or very very close to it) are bundled up and on their way to London with the First Reader.
The First 100 or So
I don’t know what it is with trips to London and milestones for this book, but there you have it. Anyone up for a trip to London so I can hit 150, 200, 250?
But the First Reader feedback has been considered, probably summarily dismissed, and onwards we go. Calling Mollie Glick, Doubleday, clear your calendar… it’s coming…
So for the last… well, a long time. In February, 2011, after finishing the first draft of a novel entitled “Rudyard Kipling’s Chair” which is still sitting in a desk drawer somewhere, unwieldy and cumbersome and full of far too many characters and subplots, I was taking a break. Like practicing crop rotation for the creative mind, I picked up another project that had been festering.
This project was tentatively titled “Butterfly,” and it began at 5:45am that morning.
“I work at the Magic Funtime Butterfly Ranch. I make dreams come true. Probably.”
First Reader Copy, Away!
It was the story of a man who is separated from his family and his friends, the story of their struggle to get back together, and the various paths people take to fulfill their desires.
And it still is. About three drafts later, I’m working on that final polishing draft. My first fifty pages have been handed over to my First Reader, who fled the country shortly after receiving them.
So that’s where I’ve been. And I’m still not technically allowed out. I mean, the first fifty pages out of, what, two hundred and fifty? More? Less, hopefully, after some judicious editing? That’s a lot of judicious editing to go, a lot of clean up, usually squeezed in in the wee hours of the morning.
But that’s where I’ve been, where I’m at, and I’m very excited to see it coming along, at long last.
As an extra special treat, while I’m deep in the throes of editing the latest draft of Butterfly and not allowed out of the house except for pee breaks*, I thought I’d share a picture of a three decker in Worcester, which may or may not have something to do with the book.
A Vernon Hill Three Decker
And now back to the editing table.
* Imagine, if you will, we have an outhouse and that I live somewhere remote, mountainous, quiet, except for people complaining loudly that they have to walk outside to the outhouse to pee when everyone else they know has running water and electricity and television and all that good stuff. Or don’t imagine that, I’m not going to boss you around.
