Woe is me, how shall I finish this novel?

I’ve been hiding under a shell lately, trying to finish my novel The Memory of Blood. It’s currently at 68, 000 words and counting. I’ve been asked by a few people of late what my process is, how I write and put together something so big. I’m by no means an expert, as this is my first novel, but many writers find it helpful to hear from other people working on big projects. So here’s my friendly, amateur advice.

Writing is much the same as climbing a mountain. At first it’s easy and exciting. Then, the air gradually thins, and as you get further into the story you start to discover obstacles that could potentially destroy your novel. You have to overcome these. Once you begin to reach the summit, the air is so thin that you can hardly breathe and it takes an hour to brew a cup of tea (stop procrastinating!). But when you reach that summit and finish your book, it is the most glorious thing, looking out upon the view you have created. After that, it’s all downhill from there.

I started The Memory of Blood in January last year, and was hoping to have it finished by December but that didn’t happen. At present I have most of the novel written, and I’m currently fleshing it out. By that, I mean that I have written the whole thing, but I leave gaps when writing so that I don’t lose the flow of the book. If you start getting bogged down in certain sections on the first run through, it makes it very hard to finish. The key is to keep writing. I like to play Arcade Fire’s song Keep the Car Running just to get me in the mood.

One of the biggest questions I get asked is how do I get motivation to write. I’m a generally disciplined person, although I never think I am disciplined enough and have my fair share of lazy moments. As Nike said, the best advice is to “Just Do It”. I hate corporate slogans but I can’t think of anything better. You have to sit down, turn off all distractions and write. I normally write without music on, or a little classical/film score music as there are no lyrics that can get into my book somehow. The best time for me is early on a saturday morning when all is quiet and my husband is still asleep. I get a lot of work done before he wakes up. Any aspiring novelist should find their quiet place to work. In the words of Virginia Woolf, ‘a room of one’s own’.

Writing a novel is much bigger than writing short stories (duh). This means you’ve got to think big about what you want to say and achieve in the space of 70,000-100,000 words. I see too many writers waste space with stories that don’t go anywhere or nothing exciting happens. You can either write one hundred pages about your grandma’s rose garden, or in the same space defile the Mona Lisa and escape from the clutches of an evil albino monk. I can tell you which idea made more money.

I begin writing by coming up with a start and end point. This is the same for any of my short stories or non-fiction pieces. If I know where I want to start and where it will finish, I’m able to make up my own way there in between. As TMOB is based on the Dracula story, it wasn’t so difficult to make up the in-betweens, but I was forced into an already created structure. People ask me if I have a plan. Mostly I do not. Stephen King refers to it as excavating seashells on the shore; you don’t know what you’ll find once you start digging.

Once you get to the editing and polishing stage it is hard slog. I won’t lie. Writing a novel is a lot of work for little return (if you were expecting to make as much money as JK Rowling you’ll be unpleasantly surprised). But doing it is a compelling achievement. I am proud to have written so many words. Just the knowledge that I am capable of such a feat spurs me on to more writing. In fact, I think I hear another mountain calling.

I’ve recently returned from a two week trip to New Zealand’s south island, where I was able to take some beautiful photos of the alpine scenery. We went on a tour with Hiking NZ, not a luxury trip but fun nonetheless, roughing it in tents and huts along the way. New Zealand is well equipped for hikers and a particular delight for nature photographers as the Department of Conservation works hard to preserve the wilderness.

Hiking NZ tour group

Being my third time in NZ, I was keen to see parts of it I had not seen before. I did Milford Sound and the Routeburn tracks about nine years ago, straight out of high school (it makes me cringe to say that – almost time for a school reunion). We did a short part of the Routeburn track, the hike up to Key Summit, and I was glad to see it still looked exactly the same as in 2001.

Key Summit on the Routeburn track

We stayed in some very out of the way places, one of my favourites being Gunn’s Camp, a kitschy set of cabins loaded with all sorts of photographic goodies, from retro signs to the first Irish skydiver on the South Island. Another place was Lake Monowai where we stayed in old 50s cabins built for the hydro-electric scheme workers.

One of the highlights was the day in Cannibal Bay (cannibals not included). We saw wild sea lions, who were either fighting or making out… I’m still not sure. The yellow eyed penguins waggled their way across the beaches, posing delightfully for the cameras.

That night we feasted on a hangi, a traditional Maori way of cooking by burying the food under hot coals and tea towels.

We got beautiful weather for the most picturesque parts of the journey, kayaking on Milford Sound and camping under Mount Cook. However, we were treated to the whole spectrum of Kiwi weather; at one point it snowed when we were hiking, resting on all the ferns at the 200m level. Even our guide was surprised! Goes to show, that the scout’s motto still applies – be prepared.

Snow on the ferns

Pouring rain often occupied our hikes, the result of which was a nasty cold, making the exercise particularly difficult. We took a rest day at Mt Cook and while some of the super-fit members of our group hiked to Muller Hut, we visited the Sir Edmund Hillary museum and ate cafeteria food. It is amazing that the man who climbed Everest couldn’t summon the courage to propose to his wife (in the end, his mother wrote a letter to her to propose on his behalf!). Peter Jackson, there’s a movie in that for sure.

As the weather cleared we were treated to sparkling sun on the alpine scenery. John told us that only one in three people ever see Mount Cook so we were pleasantly surprised.

The great thing about our trip were the people we met along the way (and the ultra cheap new zealand ice-cream – $2 for a giant two scoops). Our tour group had a great comraderie, so that even walking in freezing conditions was made bearable. I had so much fun on this trip, and being driven around and taken care of made taking photos easier.

You can check out more of my pictures on flickr here.

On the weekend I attended a draft swap meeting run by a dear friend of mine, Jan Cornall. Jan’s a great facilitator, she’s led a number of wonderful authors from first concept to publication, one of them being the award-winning fantasy author Margo Lanagan.

We all met up in an enchanting old terrace in Petersham, with green walls and red doors and a giant Geoffrey Smart painting on the wall, to talk about our novels, get some feedback and eventually swap manuscripts with other people to read over the holidays. Margo was guest of honour, bringing along two of her most recent awards, the Printz award and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, which she won this year for Tender Morsels. If you’ve never seen a World Fantasy Award (and really, how many of us have?) they’re actually quite funny – a pewter statue of H.P. Lovecraft looking like one of the Easter Island statues. He has big saucer eyes, so that the overall effect leaves you a bit creeped out, but wanting to touch his head nonetheless. Margo is so down to earth about all the awards; she is one of those people who really deserve the success they experience.

I haven’t read Tender Morsels yet but I’ve read Black Juice, her collection of short stories. It’s an excellent read. One thing that strikes me about how different her writing style is (and what marks it above other more traditional writing) is that she is not caught up in action speech (I did this, I said this), but rather evoking an emotion of experience through train of consciousness writing. It’s something to remember as an aspiring writer, and one of the things that I often notice about first time writers, that they begin every sentence with I did, he said, we went, rather than varying the sentence structure and allowing the fullness of description to enter their writing.

Some more advice I learnt for aspiring novelists is don’t quit your day job! Margo still needs to work on a regular basis, and this is a woman with three world fantasy awards under her belt. Which is a bit of depressing realism; we live in a society where even talented people can’t focus entirely on what they’re good at because of the money factor. She read some of her new book (a racy sex scene!) which is about selkies, the half seal, half humans found in Scotland.

In the afternoon we had a visit from another lovely published writer, Margaret Wilcox, author of Gone. Her book is a gripping memoir of tracking down her kidnapped daughter over fourteen years. Looking at Margaret, a well-dressed, polite older lady, she doesn’t seem like the type to be breaking and entering and dealing with dodgy lawers and cops, but we sat on the edge of our seats as she recollected some of the events of the book and the process of writing. She originally wanted it to write the book as a love letter to her found daughter Tanya, but was encouraged to send it to a publisher. The book has now been translated into several languages and distributed around the world.

Finally it came time to draft swap. We each read a segment of our novel and the synopsis and then paired up with someone else to swap manuscripts over the Christmas holidays. I swapped my novel, The Memory of Blood, with a couple who were co-writing a book set in London and Africa. What was great is that everyone was completely different; there were a few memoirs and literary fiction, travelling from India to Indonesia. And one rewrite of Dracula… mine. Personally, I found it really helpful to share with a group of people I had never met, after suffering a bit of writer’s anxiety, it’s good to get out and talk with other people going through a similar thing. Even published authors have been through the terror of the first book.

If you’re interested in Jan’s workshops (sorry, they’re in Sydney for all you awesome North American readers), you can check out her website: www.writersjourney.com.au

Margo Lanagan also has a good blog over at http://amongamidwhile.blogspot.com/

I’ve recently put up my photographs of Broome on Flickr. I went there last year on my honeymoon in August; winter there is about 30C. The best comparison I’ve ever heard about the Kimberly region is that it is like going to Mars. The sand is fluorescent red, the sky is incredibly blue and the oceans are transparent. One of the most beautiful places in Australia; I recommend it to all my friends, and yet a lot of them aren’t interested in going to Western Australia. I have no idea why. I would love to revisit the area camera in hand.

Another fantastic reason to visit Broome is the wildlife – if you are interested in wildlife photography, the north of Australia is replete with birds and animals. We glimpsed eagles and falcons on our trip. Even the crocodile park is a great place to capture some ‘wild’ crocs (I certainly wouldn’t want to see them anywhere else but in a zoo!)

You can visit the photos online HERE.

Red Harvest was written by Dashiell Hammett in 1929. While not as famous as its counterpart, the Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest is an excellent novel of intrigue, corruption and whip cracking dialogue. It is acknowledged as the inspiration for films such as Yojimbo by Akira Kurasawa and Blood Simple by the Coen Brothers. The story follows the Continental Op as he investigates the murder of Donald Willsson, editor of Personville’s Herald newspaper.

The Red Harvest Project is similarly inspired by this magnificent book, with an aim to bring this classic tale to a new audience of readers. I began this project at UTS and hope to branch it out to an entire full-length graphic novel. My hope for the future is that it will be accessible to a wide range of people via the internet.

CLICK HERE to view Chapter One: A woman in green and a man in gray

You know when you run into someone you haven’t seen for a while, and they ask you what you’ve been doing lately? Whenever I get asked this question I never seem to have a good answer. I normally say, “Not much”, which is a complete and utter fabrication. I’m busy as all hell!

So I thought I’d fill you in on some of the exciting projects I’ve been working on lately. Then if you run into me on the street I can rudely direct you to my website instead of talking to you.

While I’ve been working full time as a designer since february, I’m still doing freelance work. At the moment I’m designing websites for two of my friends and being a faithful girl Friday to the free-spirited Jan Cornall, owner of the Writer’s Journey (www.writersjourney.com.au)

If you’ve visited the site in the past you might remember the Blog of Lost Classics. Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned my reviewing, far from it, I’ve ramped it up. This year I started radiantattack.com with my friend Saul Alexander, where we talk about books, movies and video games. Lots of webbage, as Ricky Gervais says. I’m also a guest regular on Eastside FM’s Between the Covers program.

But wait, there’s more! I’m working on a massive project with my husband Justin called Howibeat.com, which is a series of sites aimed at helping people suffering from alcoholism, drugs, depression etc. using the power of testimony. These are launching at the moment, so if you have a story to tell that fits into any of the categories on the site, let me know!

If that wasn’t enough, I’m busy finishing off my first novel The Memory of Blood, a reworking of the classic Dracula tale with a twist! I’m also just about to finish off my Grad Dip in Creative Writing, with a subject called Experiments in Writing, where I’ve met a few interesting people.

So that’s about it. People ask me where do I find the time to do all this, but it’s just my lifestyle. I don’t spend all my free moments watching TV. I don’t go out partying all night. I get up early on weekends when everything is quiet and I work for a couple of hours before my husband wakes up. I’d rather be proactive than sitting on the couch watching bad TV. (Although I do have a soft spot for Grey’s Anatomy.)

I collect things that have cats and books/writing related objects on them, and this is my writers block mug. I got it at the cat protection society op shop and feel it is very appropriate for my mood today. Which is an avoidance of writing but also my second voice telling me you better get your ass in gear and actually write, and the fact I am so tired that I am also using that as an excuse not to write.

Bad me. I have 40 000 words on The Memory of Blood and counting. If I actually write some more. You know that bit where you are kind of stuck and if you don’t sort out this point then you’ll be screwed for the rest of the novel? I tend to write my first part really quickly and get bogged down in the middle. I hate writing middles. If only novels were beginnings and endings.

Anyway I am trying to sort out the bit of Dracula where Lucy is attacked and Mrs Westenra dies. And then what happens after that. If anyone is a Dracula expert out there I would appreciate knowing how Jonathan Harker and co manage to get so quickly to places when he lives in EXETER, which is nowhere near London? Basically I am using this lack of knowledge as an excuse not to write, which is a rubbish excuse. This whole post is just a sample of the debates that my brain goes through in order to novelize.

I think I need more tea.