Muse News #2

It's been a busy old few days in chez Gilbert.  Busy, but not complicated so this will be a relatively short Muse News this week.

It had been my intention to get the fourth draft of my current WIP (Work In Progress), 360, finished and ready for my beta-readers by the end of last week.  However, in rewriting the opening third I have discovered I've negated some plot elements later in the story.  They have to go before I can consider the fourth draft complete and in a fit state to hand over to my beta readers.

Also, after initially hacking 30,000 words from the original 142,000 (yeah, it was a mammoth) during the early days of working on the 4th draft, I appear to have inserted another 7,000 back in as new copy.  That means I'll have to cull another couple of thousand to reduce it to be closer to the 110,000 target as well as clear up the loose plot issues.

Consequently, the original allocation of May for beta-reading is a very doubtful now, so I've revised my plans and June will now be set aside for beta reading (beta reader availability permitting).

The only other real news this week is that, as those who read last Thursday's Notes In The Margin will know, I've been dabbling in recording another audio book version of 360. I've only conducted basic tests with my new microphone to establish the kind of sound quality I'll be getting, which is much better than my previous efforts for the second draft.

I've also been trying out some new voices for the characters as I wasn't entirely happy with the majority that I chose to use last time.  If the resulting audio book is good enough then, once the ebook has been published, I might look at pursuing the audio book idea further, possibly with an eye to commercial release, but that is a very tentative "might"! 

For now I musty concentrate on finishing the fourth draft.  My original target for completing it was the end of March, so I'm throwing every available hour at it at the moment so it isn't delayed any longer!

Hopefully by Muse News #3 I'll have much more to report!

Post the First

Well, here we are.  My very first blog post.  I've been resisting writing a blog for a while now due to a number of reasons (unfamiliarity with the format, concerns about the time needed to maintain a regular blog and - most importantly - trying to find a decent name that still available), but finally I've taken the bull by the horns (albeit tentatively), waded through what feels like a million possible titles and put digit to keyboard.

So why am I here and why am I blogging about it?

Well, if you want a philosophical answer to that question, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong blog.  However, if you want an informative answer then read on...

I'm currently someone who writes in their spare time, although in the past I have written professionally within a variety of contexts; Drama and puppet sketches for amateur and professional performers (as well as for myself), resource material for kids workers, three promotional puppet videos for a charity that works with street children, and four so far unpublished novels (five if you count the nine pages of A5 epic that I wrote when I was six that got typed-up, illustrated and put in the school library).

Actually it might be just four.  It all depends if you count the novel I've just finished rewriting as a totally separate entity in its own right, or just a severe edit.  The characters and underlying premise are largely the same, but the plot is utterly unrecognisable and the text ninety-nine per cent new.  If they were science fiction stories one could almost market them as "Alternate Universe" editions of one another, but sadly they're modern-day thrillers so that option's out the window.

Oh, and the first novel was written a lifetime ago on my trusty Commodore 64 when I was a teenager.  It's a thousand page behemoth that's strong on creativity and teenage angst but very light on quality.  It's in need of a total rewrite - and I mean total - so that's my next project.

Which brings me to why I'm blogging in the first place.

It seems that the world and his wife are publishing e-books these days.  I've only really caught on to this fact since I gave in and bought an e-reader myself (a Kobo Touch).  I've resisted for a number of reasons and while I'd like to think it was down to a dogged loyalty to paperbacks, in truth is was mainly down to cost and the my cynicism of digital copies that could be deleted at any time by the supplier.

But while I've procrastinated the world has moved on and e-books have become more popular and more accessible.  Two years ago I gave all but two of my beta-readers - those stoic individuals who read and comment on the ugly first drafts of my novels - my previous novel a hard copy to read.  Now only two will read the hard copy and the majority have it electronically.  And if one is embracing the digital world, then one needs to do it thoroughly.  Hence why I'll be blogging my thoughts, my progress with my writing projects and anything else that seems appropriate to share with the wider world.

I'm new to this malarky, so please bear with me as I find my feet, get in to my stride and start to run with this new digital art form I've embarked upon (and forgive me when I smash metaphors together like two star-crossed lovers...).  I'm hoping to post at least once a week, but as I say, I'm new to all this so I may be a bit sporadic at first - especially as I'm heading off on a road-trip around Scotland next week.  Some of it is writing related, so you may find some excited posts unexpectedly appearing!

OK, no more editing.  This post's done.  Time to publish!  Deep breath and push the button...