Posted on July 30, 2008 - by MG
Joshua 2 vs Joshua 3
All my online writing buddies are all talking about this post today. It’s about how an author falls in and then out of love with their manuscript.
Right now I’m madly in love with Joshua 3, convinced it’s the cleverest and prettiest book ever. Meanwhile I’m sullenly continuing to date Joshua 2 even though we both know it’ll soon be over. And Joshua 1 is my glamorous ex- who’s gone on to much better things than me. (In a sexy orange outfit, no less.)
My life right now:
In the mornings I go straight to the desk and fiff and faff for a bit. Then I read through yesterday’s new words once again and tweak. Then I look at my plan for Joshua 3 and see where I’m up to. And then, just as I’m thinking that I really don’t feel in the mood, I start writing.
Somehow, I get words out. This is where a writer reaps the benefit of having established a work habit. If I only wrote when I felt in the mood, these days, I would hardly ever write. After the first 200 words it gets easier. Sometimes I’m done in two hours - the whole 1000 word quota. Very, very rarely I write more. This only happens when I have a particularly emotional scene to write - I can get just in the right mood and have to write that.
Writing action is both the worst bit and the best. When you write action, paradoxically everything slows down. Action eats words. A chapter might take 1500 words if it’s just dialogue and revelation. But when there’s action you can chew through 4000 words during which only minutes have passed. So you write and you come back the next day and for Josh…maybe only minutes - or seconds - have gone by. As the writer you dwell in those moments for a long time. Those action sequences become the focus of your thoughts, sometimes for days at a time.
(My as-yet-unsold manuscript ‘Jaguar’s Realm’ is largely one long chase - writing that was really tiring! The poor hero, Leo, hardly ever had a chance to sit down. I really felt for him as I had to invent scrape after scrape.)
So…in the morning, 1000 words of Joshua 3. Working title is TIGER KIDNAP, but today I thought of another: ZERO MOMENT. Any preferences?
And in the afternoon it’s down to Starbucks with my laptop and fifty pages of the ms for Joshua 2 (most likely ICE SHOCK or DARK ICE), plus my editor’s notes. I grab an iced mocha and a panini and chug through the revisions.
My pal Susie Day usually turns up with her manuscript for her own second novel, also to be published by Scholastic. It’s going to be called GIRL MEETS CAKE. Cool title huh?
We work and then we talk. About writing, editing, Doctor Who and TV and books and movies. We sob to each other about the few difficulties of writing. It’s okay, it’s lovely being a writer, but turns out that it drives you quite, quite mad to make up stories for a living. So we are crazy together.
Thank goodness for Susie, I’d probably crack up without her to talk to. I don’t even know why, but I’m definitely not as sane as I was when I was a scientist. I think I have the sort of mind that needs to do dull things repetitively, like make up test-tubes of chemical reactions and repeat experiments, for at least a small part of the day. Having to be creative all day long is unleashing some scary part of my psyche that I’m not sure was supposed to operate at more than 5%. I’m still struggling to adapt, to be honest.
It’s important to point out that if we lived in Jamaica, we’d make the effort to do as Ian Fleming did in his afternoons, and go snorkeling. But we don’t, so we write.
Today I reached 35,000 words. I’m close to writing the midpoint of the novel - I always try to make this super-dramatic. From the midpoint on, I try to pick up the pace so that a fast-paced story becomes roller-coasterish. (That’s why all the facts and knowledge have to come in the first half. Later I don’t want readers to have to pause to learn.)
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how hard it is to do this? If you write thrillers for a living then you do. Otherwise, well it’s surprising just how hard it is. I’m not going to tell how either, so thurp.
35,000 words. And still at least that much more to go…
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The MG Harris Blog
Website of MG Harris, author of the children's book series "The Joshua Files".Author event information, resources for schools or libraries...
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July 30, 2008
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Ahh, a nice refreshing little post. Probably better than that Mocha. Glad to hear you’re enjoying life - hope Susie is too. I am surely Reading the ‘Jaguar’s Realm’ book.
7,000 words sounds about right.
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July 31, 2008
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Tiger kidnap versus Zero moment.
I selfishly would like to see the title as Zero Moment. “Tiger Kidnap” are corporate words that send company executives into crisis response mode, and trigger actions and memories which many may want to avoid. Using the term as a book title, which will be populated on the net, and marketed mainstream, will in my humble view dilute the importance of its current context for industry. Whichever title you go for, good luck with the book.
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July 31, 2008
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But David…now I just want to use it even more!
You have a very cool job btw. I’m sure it’s very dangerous and you have to deal with nasty people but to an action-adventure/thriller writer like me…it seems seriously cool!
The main prob is that children wouldn’t know what ‘tiger kidnap’ is. And it doesn’t scan all that well. For that reason I suspect the publishers won’t choose it.
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July 31, 2008
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I like Zero Moment, too. This was a great read, by the way, really cool. Good luck with the tough parts and keep having fun with the rest. x
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July 31, 2008
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There you are Sarah luv! When are we getting together with us young girls?
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July 31, 2008
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Thanks - that Libba Bray linked post was great - I breathed a huge sigh of relief, knowing that I wasn’t alone. It has given me hope that I may fall back in love and finish editing.
It was interesting to learn about your writing day. I went through a stage of ‘needing’ a Costa caramel latte in order to write. I did write. But I also ended up about ten pound heavier and slightly broke. Most of the time I write at the bottom of my garden (in shed) but I still find the need to write at least part of the time in cafes. I need an injection of outside life to offset my hermit shed writing! Funnily enough my kids making noise doesn’t have the same effect.
I think I like Zero Moment the best. But then again I don’t know what will be inside the book, so it’s hard to tell.
Thanks again.
Kat
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July 31, 2008
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Snorkeling? I shall stick with my Americano.
You’ve given away our biggest writing secret: we’re nothing without caffeine! Although mostly it’s just the desire to prove there still are other human beings in the world, after spending all morning with fictional types…
I heart that Libba Bray thing so very much.
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August 1, 2008
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Okay guys, thanks for your input. The official working title of Joshua 3 is now ZERO MOMENT.
Here’s where it comes from. In ZERO MOMENT Josh comes across a book…actually another copy of a book that features in INVISIBLE CITY. And scrawled in that book are some strange things including this:
“I would like to swim against the stream of time: I would like to erase the consequences of certain events and restore an initial condition. But every moment of my life brings with it an accumulation of new facts, and each of these new facts bring with it consequences; so the more I seek to return to the zero moment from which I set out, the further I move away from it. . . .”
I’ve just given you so many clues…
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August 1, 2008
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Thats cruel MG :’( We have two years to wait for that book and your spoiling us already, how could you! :’(
Is that a possible Villain for Josh? :O
Sounds EXTREMELY interesting, Can’t Wait!
Lukas
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August 1, 2008
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Yes, that’s why I’m spoiling it now! These posts will be so ancient by the time the book comes out that no-one will bother trawling through to find the spoilers. Plus, you’ll have forgotten what I said…
I FINISHED EDITING JOSHUA 2 TODAY!
From next week - what will I do with my afternoons?
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August 1, 2008
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Congrats on finishing the edit! Is that editing the rough draft…? Or the final thing?
Lukas
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August 2, 2008
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Oh it’s the final thing, I hope. After this it should go into a bound proof. Not changed massively since the first draft, which I finished last May.
You know what, in many ways I wrote book 2 before book 1 - because the first draft of book 1 had an older, more reflective and teenage (i.e. crazy about girls) Josh. Definitely sound editorial advice - all that mooching over girls might have been quite off-putting for younger readers!
I wrote book 2 with him as the younger 13-yr old, then went on to rewrite book 1.
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August 11, 2008
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Hmmm, Zero Moment - I keep getting the idea flashing in my head that the small piece you quoted is as fab a blurb as you can get for a book. A mystery to be unravelled! Should it appear on the jacket, it would draw such attention - and then you match it with the title!
Zero Moment definitely has a ring to it. Keep it. It works!
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August 12, 2008
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Thanks es, I can’t take credit for it though - that passage is a quotation from ‘If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler’ by Italo Calvino. I blogged about Calvino and that novel once.
So ZERO MOMENT, kinda like INVISIBLE CITY is a quote from Calvino.
Just a working title though…
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August 12, 2008
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Are you really Calvino incarnate?????
lol
I remember the blog post - I think I went off on one about Dickens not long after. (Just read a bit of Great Expectations and wowed my brain again!) I seem unable to read anything new - and my latest work is veering wildly towards Dickensian Newcastle. I’m sure Tolkien and Dickens are amazing influences, but will they help me get published? Too unthinkable!!!!
Too good for a working title - just don’t do a Bond and change it to A Moment Of Zero, or some such nonsense!
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August 16, 2008
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pita! pita! pita! my brother is sooooooo cute! hes all pink and his skin is dry but i dont care! hes awsome!anyway, g2g, my dad is breathing beer breath down my neck and forcing my to unload the dishwasher…
oh dam! he read that…
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August 16, 2008
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I can’t wait to see him! And…beer breath? I’d have thought the birth of baby was worth champagne! XXX to you all.