Muse News #14: First Beta Comments, Audio Beta Slow Progress and Kiranan Psudo-Pantsing

It's a relatively short Muse News this week (no, seriously)!

I know I have three headlines at the top of the post, but what I can report on them could probably be written on the back of an envelope, that's if you could post the back of an envelope on the Internet (Note to self, might have to try that).

First Beta Comments Back

At last, the first drips of what I hope will become a steady flow of comments from my beta-readers have come back to me.  One reader a new reader for whom this is their first encounter with the story while the other read the last draft, so for them this is the second time they've read it.

However, both have provided some very detailed feedback and it will be interesting to see if a pattern emerges between the first time beta-readers and the second-time-rounders and if the two camps pick up similar things accordingly.

Audio Beta Slow Progress

Reading out loud is really difficult.  You wouldn't think it, would you?  It's just saying words as you read them.  How hard can it be?  And for a former puppeteer too!  For someone like me, talking should be the last thing I have trouble with.

Yeah, well, it seems that after three or four scenes my mouth seizes up and decides it's not going to play ball any more.  It might just be because I've been feeling tired lately (lots going on besides writing) and tiredness always affects concentration.  And then, once mistakes build-up, frustration creeps in prompting more mistakes and the circle feds itself until one becomes a gibbering wreck.

So, progress on the audio beta has been slow this week as I've hit frustration point sooner with each recording session.  My two loyal beta-listeners both have the first hour or so that's already in the digital can, so I'm going to have to focus and pick up my pace to keep them up to date with fresh material.

Kiranan Pseudo-Pantsing

In NITM#13 I announced that I'm just going for it and launch into writing the first draft of the first Kiranan's Crucible book without doing any more planning.  Well, I've started!

I've got the general plot laid down, so it's not as if I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, but I've stopped trying to pin-down every single detail before I touch the keyboard and write each scene.  So there will be a certain amount of detail that I'll skip over in the first draft, while I'll insert others simply as placeholders until a permanent solution can be found for the second draft.

So it's pantsing of sorts, only this form of pantsing has some lines within which I need to keep my metaphorical crayons.

It may drive me totally mad and I may change my mind in a few weeks, but it is good to be writing again, even if all the current material is eventually going to be edited it out.  I'm not word counting this time round either, but scene counting, so we'll how that works out too!

So There You Go...

Another week on Planet Gilbert and another Muse News.  Be sure to check back next Monday to find out how it's all going!

(via Notes In The Margin on Thursday, of course...)

Notes In The Margin #13: Sometimes You've Just Got To Get On With It!

I'm itching to write again. Not plan, not brainstorm, not blue sky, or mind map ideas.  I want to write words and string them into sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters and come out at the end of it with a new novel.

Even the old sketchbook's been out for map-making.
That's not writing.  That's drawing.  It's so easy to get the
two confused, isn't it?
[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

It's only been a couple of months since I finished the fourth draft of 360 and while I've enjoyed planning and starting to create the world for the Kiranan's Crucible series, I'm also acutely aware that there's a corner of my writer's mind that's chomping at the bit to actually get going on them.

So, I've decided to just get on with it and start on the first book.

It's not like I haven't done any planning

Essentially, I'm going to be making it up as I go along.  OK, that's not entirely true.  I have mapped-out the main plot and a handful of sub-plots along with the general arrangement of the world (like which side of the continent the capital is, how big the country is and its general geographical features) and I've also identified some of the more more minor details (like the names of a few roads, markets and taverns in the capital).

Muse News #13: Beta Audio Tweaks & More Kiranan World Building

It's not been a very exciting, or innovative week, but that's not to say it hasn't been productive!

360 Audio Beta

[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

Rather than recording new sections this last week, I've been rectifying technical issues with the files I've recorded already.  This has been in response to feedback from one of my beta-listeners who "took delivery" of the first batch of MP3 files last week.

The main problem was that the volume wasn't as loud as expected when played on different devices, so I've had to amplify the recordings in post-production.  From experience with the original recordings I made for the second draft a couple of years back, I knew that there could be a discrepancy in volume levels, but I had factored that in and thought that I'd adjusted sufficiently to combat it.

Notes In The Margin #12: New Chapters

Sorry that this week's NITM is a tad late.  It's been a bit of a mad week...

It's also been a week of changes.  Not for me, but a several friends and the phrase "a new chapter" has been banded about a fair bit (admittedly I've been among those banding it about!).

And that got me thinking.  As a writer, I've come to consider a change in a character's status quo as the subject for an entire story, not just a chapter.  But I don't think people would really get it if you said to them "oh, how exciting.  It's the start of a whole new book for you!".

A chapter sometimes finishes on a cliffhanger and I guess that starting a new job, moving house, or starting a new relationship is a kind of cliffhanger.  We rarely know what exactly will happen next, although we may have a rough idea of how it will pan out, or how we hope it will pan out.  It can be scary, exciting, or a bit of a let down, or just the next step.

The only way we find out what does happen is to live that next part of our lives (oh, what it is to linear creatures in space-time!).

For a fiction writer, the plot of an entire story usually follows the age-old formula of Character X is living their life in a particular way - the status quo (no, it's nothing to do with the rock band).  An inciting incident then disrupts that state and they are thrust along the a path that challenges their world view, behaviour, or current state with obstacles until they emerge at the end of the story with an altered world view, behaviour or new state of normality.

At the end of it all, Character X's life is different to the life they had at the start of the story and can't go back to that old way.  Either they've changed forever, or their world has.  I know that not all stories follow that formula, but a fair number do.

And in amongst all that, there will be different chapters that take them along that path.  So, when we say that when someone is facing a next chapter in their lives, is it that we think of those chapters as a small part of the book of their entire life?  That would make sense.

I certainly don't feel like the person I was ten, or twenty years ago and my life has been split in to very clearly defined phases and adventures and I consider them more like books within a series that's made-up of multiple stories as the hero learns and changes with each new adventure rather than just chapters.

Perhaps that's just me.  Perhaps I'm over-thinking it and I should instead just celebrate the exciting new possibilities and adventures my friends are about to face.  I wish them all the very best and, as Doc Brown says in Back To The Future Part 3, "the future hasn't been written yet".  I hope for all my friends facing new a chapter, book, adventure, or whatever you want to call it, that it's a good one!

Muse News #12: Yet More Audio Beta, Kiranan Planning and I Bought A New Keyboard!

As you can probably tell from the headline, it's been a routine week this week (If there is such a thing on Planet Gilbert), but I'll regale you with the details nonetheless!

Yet More Audio Beta

[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

Now that my voice has very-nearly-almost fully recovered from its short time as a Barry White sound-a-like, I've been recording the audio beta in earnest this week.  Once again I find myself in awe of the actors and voice artists who record them for a living.  There is a definite way to speak when you're recording an audio book and a very precise metre that one needs to keep in mind.

In my haste to get the thing finished, I've found the whole thing turning into a bit of a production line and when one is in a hurry, the temptation to let little slips go are great.  Thankfully though, because I'm recording each scene individually, it will be (relatively) easy to go back afterwards and rerecord any sections when mistakes have sneaked through.

Notes In The Margin #11: People-watching

I've been people-watching again this week.  Not the scary, unhinged kind of people-watching with binoculars.  I'm talking about the studying and observation of the people around me kind of people-watching.

You may think that, actually, any kind of people-watching is a scary and slightly unhinged thing to do.  For me, it's the basis for research on how people behave, interact and think.

A busy street - great for studying people.
[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

Muse News #11: Audio Beta Recording Resumes, OneNote Migration and Beta Reader Questionnaire

It's been a funny old week full of lots of positives despite the feeling of not actually achieving very much.

It's strange how sometimes, there can be weeks like that, where you may feel like you're running to keep-up, but afterwards, when you look back and reflect on what you've actually accomplished, you find it's actually a surprising amount.

But look!  Muse News is being posted early...or at the very least earlier than normal.  Surprised? No? Flipping-heck! I am!

Audio Beta Recording Resumes

[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

I've all but shifted the annoying summer cold that afflicted me for most of last two weeks and I no longer sound like Barry White, or Darth Vader.  My voice got really deep.  That's great news for the recording audio beta schedule, which suffered as a result, but it's a shame that I can no longer go around saying things like "Simba, I am your father..." with silky-smooth resonance like James Earl Jones.

You'll only get that joke if you've watched both The Lion King and The Empire Strikes Back. Sorry.

I have, however, had a couple of comments from friends expressing their disappointment that I didn't record at least a snippet, or two, of the audio beta while I had the deeper than normal voice.

If I succumb to the lurgy again, I'll see what I can do.  The characters voices will be all messed-up, but the general narration might sound rather cool.

Anyway, with the head-cold gone, I've resumed recording of the audio beta and I'm managing to get half a dozen scenes recorded each night.  There are still over two hundred to record, so there is still a long way to go.  But, like writing, it's a matter of getting into the routine and maintaining it.

I'm good at doing that, so I will get there eventually!

OneNote Migration

Following my decision to move my digital notes from Evernote to OneNote (or "succumb to the Dark Side" as one friend put it), I've now moved the bulk of my notes to OneNote.  Microsoft provide a handy Windows application for former Evernote users to import all their notebooks, notes and tags into OneNote.

The app looks appears to faithfully transfer all the required notes into OneNote, but having said that, I haven't actually used it, so I can't vouch that it is 100% accurate.

I wanted to review my "back catalogue" of notes as I went, so I'm migrating my notes manually.  I've discovered some corkers in among the tidal wave of words and ideas and I've also discovered quite a few half-thoughts, or duplicates, so some pruning and reorganisation has ensued.

It can be quite cathartic having a clear-out every now-and-then, digital or otherwise.

I should be fully migrated by the time the two device limit comes into effect in a week, or so.

Beta Reader Questionnaire

Most of my trusty and loyal army of beta readers are now engaged in reading the fourth draft of 360 (no pressure, beta readers...I've only told the rest of the world) and I've thrown myself into the new challenge of compiling a questionnaire for them to fill-in so I can analyse their feedback.

I've not designed a questionnaire before, so I've been doing lots of reading around on the Internet to see what other writers, editors and professional questionnaire designers do.  I hope that my efforts will be clear and helpful, but I may find myself in the ridiculous position of requiring feedback on my feedback form.  I won't go beyond that (a feedback form for the feedback-form feedback-form) because I'm sure that could break reality and irreversibly warp the fabric of the universe!

Or maybe it'll just really confuse everyone.

Perhaps that's a good place to finish for this post.  I think space and time will be warped enough if I post this on time!