Stephanie Gunn

Not a lot of writing accomplished this week.

I did manage to start digging down into the problems that exist with The White Raven, mostly identified thanks to wonderful beta readers, and started the huge process of trying to fix them.  It’s going to take me a while, that’s for sure.

I did get a decent amount of reading in.  Well, decent for these days, but pitiful compared to how I once read.  I finished my review of Kirstyn McDermott’s Madigan Mine, which you should all read.  Moved onto another review book, and also picked up Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Power and Majesty.  Which has had the effect of making me want to also reread Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books.

Other writing-type work accomplished: the only thing is the continuing effort to organise my books.  Which has the result at the moment of some partially organised shelves and a whole lot of books in piles on the ground.  I need more shelves.

I’ve decided that I need to start being accountable for the writing work I’ve been doing.

At the moment, I’m pretty much still working in snatches of time.  If I’m lucky, I get about an hour a day while the baby is napping or being looked after.  And if I’m not exhausted, I can usually eke out another 30-60 minutes in the evening after the baby has gone to bed.  And on any given day, both of these times may not happen.

This week, most days were lost to complete concentration fail.  I wandered back and forth between projects, just trying to figure out what I actually wanted to do.  I’d been working on outlining Never, but suddenly I found myself dying to get to work on The White Raven as well.  The latter of which needs a tremendous amount of work.

My plan, as it came together after much faffing about:

To continue to outline Never, working on getting really indepth character bios and a detailed outline of the whole thing.

To strip down The White Raven completely and figure out exactly what I want it to say, and to develop a complete outline before I rewrite.

Realistically, these two outlines may be all of the writing work that I manage this year.  And that’s okay.  I’d be happy to be able to work up a series of outlines over the next couple of years, if nothing else, and then I can write the actual books when I have more time.

I’ve also gotten seriously back into reviewing, which is making me happy.  I’m thankful for the chance to do review work, since it often makes me read authors that I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise.

I figured that I’m a bit overdue for a post on the state of my works in progress.

At the moment, I’m still only snatching bits and pieces of time to write.  I’m able to actually catch up on sleep now, thanks to a baby who suddenly sleeps through most nights, though I’m still somewhat in deficit.  It’s taking a little while to get my creative mind working well, so I’m trying to ease into it.

I’m also working on a couple of other non-writing projects, primarily trying to organise my writing area/library and make it a comfortable and welcoming place.  At the moment, I’m in the middle of organising and cataloging my books.  After that, I need to sort out all the other craft stuff that’s been tossed haphazardly into the room.  I’d also like to replace the desk that’s in there to something smaller and more comfortable, and get some artwork up.

I’m working on outlining and writing up character sketches and history for Never mostly right now.  It’s a different process for me, since I’m usually pure pantser.  But not having the luxury of hours on end to meander around the page right now, outlining is something I can do in snatches and pieces.  I have to wonder how much I’ll actually stick to the outline when I come to writing a draft.  We’ll see.

I’ve also been feeling a bit of a draw to get back to working on The White Raven.  I need to spend some serious time going through my notes and feedback from beta readers, and then pull everything apart and see if I can put it back together in some fashion.  And just as I’m typing this, I’ve realised that I can read the MS on the iPad.  Might be time to invest in something like PDF annotate.

So I’ve actually started writing again.

The obstacles to my writing are this: a gorgeous, though energetic, badly-sleeping, high needs six-month-old baby boy, lack of sleep because of said baby boy, and my own inconsistent health.

I’ve always been able to manage to work in some writing time around health issues. Combine that with the sprog, and we have writing disaster.

For most of the last six months, I’ve been so sleep deprived that writing has been the furthest thing from my mind. I’ve blogged a handful of times lamenting that I haven’t been able to write, and I’ve done a few dribs and drabs of work, but nothing substantial. And most of the time, I haven’t really wanted to write. Even now, the idea of writing a whole novel is daunting in a way it never has been before.

But even without that burning desire to put words onto the page, Story has still gnawed away at me. In particular, the story of Never.  It’s gotten to the point where I need to start writing it down.  Without writing, I feel like I’ve lost a part of me, and I’m determined to get it back.

For the next handful of years, my luxury of having many hours in which to write are gone.  The sprog always comes first.  I know that there are going to be days when I can’t write, because he needs me more, or because he’s had a bad night and I’m too sleep-deprived to think straight.

I need to make use of the good days.

The sprog’s sleep has improved dramatically this week with his move into his own room.  Which means that my sleep has improved dramatically, and I no longer feel like a total zombie.  I’m also now making use of family help to watch him for a few hours so I can get some work done.  Previously I’ve used that time to catch up on housework and the like.  Now it’s going to be a priority for me to write.  I can do a lot of housework while wearing the sprog, and he’s getting happier to sit and watch me do things for a while.  Writing, though, bores him to tears, and he spend the whole time trying to get to the keyboard or eat my laptop

So, to a new style of writing.

This means that I’m outlining.  My writing sessions right now consist of me working up my character biographies, making my characters really live and breathe.  I’m spending a lot of time describing my locations, as well as doing research.  An invaluable tool has also been tumblr I can search Flickr with one hand for images which inspire me, and blog them to tumblr to keep a collection of pieces of Never.

It’s happening.  Slowly, but it’s happening.  And as I catch up on sleep more (which is a trend that I hope will continue), I should be able to carve out some writing time in the evenings after the sprog has gone to sleep.

I’m also going to be more disciplined with reading.  I used to read 50 pages of whatever I’m reading for review a day, with any other spare time given over to reading for pleasure.  Not sure if I can manage the 50 pages a day now, but I want to try to read something of my review work every day, at least.

Discipline.  It’s what’s for breakfast.

What are the most inspirational soundtracks to write to?

Some of my favourites – Solaris, The Fountain, Ink.

At the moment, I’m not writing and I’m not reading.

I’m thinking about writing, but it’s not the same as putting words on the page. And instead of reading, I’m watching far too much television (for example, I just rewatched the first two seasons of Skins over the last week). Watching TV can be useful for analysing characterisation and the like, but again, it’s not the same as examining words.

I barely have the time to sit down and read. And when I do, I find it difficult to concentrate, to fully immerse myself, because I’m always listening to Liam, even when he’s napping. I’ve always read a lot in the evenings when I’m settling myself to sleep, but at the moment I’m usually too damn tired or I don’t want to have a light on in the bedroom because it’ll wake Liam (and his sleep is a precious, precious thing).

How do other mothers do it?

Such is my schedule (or complete lack of one, thanks to the three month growth spurt – and lemme tell you, anyone who tells you that this growth spurt can be hard is telling the truth) that I’m not writing at all.

This is, perhaps, not completely true. I’m thinking about writing a lot – both about Never and The White Raven. And every time I make up my mind to work on one of them, I get an idea for the other one. In an ideal world, I’d try to work on them both, but that’s not going to happen. Well, it could, but it could be difficult. But hey, nothing worthwhile was ever easy, right?

I was pretty much ready to trunk The White Raven, but then that story started eating my brain again. I’m debating whether or not to add a prologue right now, giving a full description of Alanna’s car crash (apologies for this being meaningless for those who haven’t read the MS). Beta readers, do you think this is a good idea?

Reading has gone completely by the wayside, mostly because I’m either too tired or too busy with the sprog most of the time. I’ve traditionally always read for a while before bed, but I haven’t even been doing that, since I haven’t wanted to wake the sprog with the light.

Sooner or later I’ll find myself back in the word mines. For now, at least I can live in them mentally. And one day I’ll be awake enough after the sprog goes to bed to actually write.

Because I do still think about writing, even though I’m not actively putting pen to page much.

Paraphrased from an episode of Writing Excuses, where they sidelined into talking about writing to market:

“Make the art you want to make, just make it good enough that other people will want to read it.”

Why is it, as soon as I’ve made up my mind to work on Never, characters from The White Raven decide to invade my mind as well?  Sigh.

Not that I’ve exactly started work on Never yet.  I did make a start at putting together a playlist for it (which is part of my initial planning and helps me to discover the new world) and I started on some character sketches.  Then Liam had a bad day yesterday and all thought of everything but looking after him went out of the window.

Thankfully he’s been better today, though I haven’t managed to get any writing work done yet.  I have done some tangential writing though – catching up on emails and doing some awards work.  Now I’m going to work on my playlist a little more, brainstorm some characters.  Hopefully Liam will stay asleep for at least the next half hour.

Hopefully The White Raven will stay out of my mind as well.

I’m working on a playlist for Never.  Music, for me, is always a good way to find my way into a new world.

I need songs that evoke interstitial places, dreams made solid, a place that exists between places.  Any suggestions?