Author: Justin Page 7 of 65

(July 13 – 19)

I’ve taken yet another break from the novel in order to write a new short story. I’ve had this idea bouncing around for some time about an underground phenomenon that turns out to be a portal into another universe/dimension (but think Event Horizon more than Stargate). For at time, I was struggling to find the right setting and premise for the story–it ranged from undersea drilling, military operations, abandoned mines until–I finally remembered a visit to Giant’s Cave last year. That gave me the setting, and the premise slotted into place quite nicely after that.

It’s turning out to be a different kind of story for me. A bit of a slow burn, more about the place than the characters, and with not a whole lot of plot. It’s a fun challenge and I’m enjoying what I’ve come up with so far, though I’m going quite heavy on the edit.

This is for a submission deadline that’s happening on July 31, so fingers crossed I can get it done in time.

One good thing

I know I’ve been talking a lot more about things I’ve watched lately, rather than reflecting on things I’ve learned, or things I can improve, but I want to give a quick shout out to Relic, which is an amazing Australian horror film.

I won’t say too much about it as I don’t want to spoil it but it does an absolutely remarkable job of representing the horror of dementia. And it is bloody scary in the bargain.

(July 6 – 12)

This week I’ve continued with editing the real Chapter One of the novel (as opposed to the Prologue, a.k.a Fake Impostor Chapter One). There’s not a whole lot to say about this that I didn’t say last week, so if you didn’t read last week’s entry this is a really good moment for you to go and do just that.

One good thing

Last week I finally watched Hamilton (thank you Disney+, I bow down at your corporate all-media-consuming altar). I tried listening to the soundtrack last year, following in the eardrums of thousands before me, but I struggled to get into it and decided to ‘save’ it.

I’ve realised from this that I tend not to listen to music anymore—I just enjoy having it on in the background—and Hamilton is something that absolutely needs to be listened to. So, as soon as the film of the musical arrived I realised this was my … chance (sorry, just couldn’t go there). And now I have that visual reference, and the story, themes, characters, and setting locked in my memory, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack almost constantly.

Yes, I look almost fondly back on the days when I didn’t have one Hamilton song or another playing on constant repeat inside my head.

Anyway, while I think Hamilton is something that I could spend years studying and learning from, there were two main takeaways for me on this initial viewing. The first was a reminder that genre is not fixed. Hamilton switches effortlessly between musical genres, picking whichever one is appropriate for the mood/character/story beat at the time. The second is the wordplay. Part of the genius of Lin Manuel Miranda’s writing (and the delivery of the cast) is his ability to write dense layers of rhyme that play with but never stray from the meaning of his words. Furthermore, the structure of the rhyme isn’t imprisoned by the meter (e.g. the rhyme doesn’t always happen at the end of the line, as is traditional, nor do his sentences wrap up at the end of the line, instead but they break free and flow on and create an entirely new structure). It’s the sort of wordplay you don’t see/hear enough of. I’m not sure how I can use this to improve my writing, but I know that I want to … somehow.

(June 29 – July 5)

It’s been a slightly patchy writing week (mostly due to me coming down mildly sick at the end of it) but an interesting one. As you will doubtless know by now, I’ve embarked on some mid-week evening writing sessions which I’m using to edit the earlier chapters of my novel. Over the previous weeks I’ve been working on the Prologue (which would probably just be Chapter One in most books, but just let me do me). Meanwhile, in theory at least, the mornings are for me to continue writing the first draft of the closing chapters of the novel. In reality I’ve ended up getting more into the editing than expected.

It’s been a really interesting process; trying to stitch the start of the novel more firmly with the rest of it. When I started this project I had some reasonably good ideas about the characters; about where they start out, and what their journey through the narrative is. What has been surprising is discovering that the versions of these characters in the early chapters are actually quite different. I would have expected that the characters would develop and grow over the course of writing the novel, but what seems to have happened is that they’ve started from a very different point than (I thought) I had in mind. In many ways they’re both bolder and brasher than I realised; the characters are still the same, but turned up to 11.

Consequently there’s been quite a lot of stitching required, particularly in Chapter One (more so than the Prologue, because Chapter One is where my two main characters really start to interact and learn about each other). As part of this process, there are scenes that have been moved around wholesale from one end of the chapter to another. There are even moments where I’ve swapped the dialogue between the two characters (while noting that these characters are meant to have distinctly contrasting personalities).

Another advantage of going over these early chapters before I’ve even finished the first draft of the novel (and I’m so, so close to that now) is that it gives me plenty of room to play around with the ending if I need to—and, more importantly, it means that I’m excited to go back to the end now that I’ve revisited where these characters come from.

That being said, I’m equally excited about continuing this exploration of the early chapters so a little discipline will probably be required over the coming weeks if I’m to get any new words written.

Learned from …

This week I watched Death At A Funeral (the original version) and enjoyed it very much. However, I started wondering why it hadn’t been a bigger hit: it’s just as funny as Four Weddings And A Funeral, for example.

Then, in comparing the two films, I realised the answer. Four Weddings really takes you on a journey with the characters, even the supporting characters get moments where their lives change. Most of this is missing in Death At A Funeral. There is one character who gets a moment (finally standing up to her domineering father), while the others brush very, very close but don’t quite get there. 

As a consequence, the film, while perfectly enjoyable, becomes far more transient. You enjoy your time with the characters while you’re there, but very little of it sticks with you since you’ve not truly been on a journey with them. And it’s a shame, because all the building blocks are there, and all it would have taken is a few lines of dialogue here and there; a moment for each character to reflect, or to express what has changed for them.

Either way, I still recommend the film as it’s a blast: I just wish it had been a bit more than that.

(June 22 – 28)

I’ve decided to take a break from the novel and am instead revisiting a short story I first finished back in 2013. It was the second or third story that I wrote (following Graves and Colder Still), but I never truly felt that I’d gotten it right, hence it never got to sit on my Smashwords page alongside my other stories.

I won’t say that the problems (and solutions) jumped out at me right away, but there was one point where my ‘mind map’ of the story (the version of the narrative path that sits in my head) diverged quite significantly from what was already on the page. In short, there was a whole section in the story that I didn’t expect to find there. Naturally, this ended up being cut fairly swiftly, and the story is hopefully much stronger for it.

There has also been some minor knitting required at various points. I decided to change the secondary character’s progression through the story, which necessitated some story beats being shuffled around or omitted entirely.

I’m still not 100% convinced I’ve got the story right (though, in all honesty, I rarely am) but I’m hoping I’ve excised some of the more obvious errors and crafted a far more naturalistic version of this tale about a single mum finding a living skeleton in the local park …

One good thing

My good thing this week is that I’m getting a story published! Yes, I have been shortlisted for the KSP Writers’ Center annual spooky stories competition. Pretty exciting. 

One bad thing

My bad thing this week isn’t really a bad thing, tho it is a bad film. I decided to check out Io on Netflix as my Sunday night sci-fi. It wasn’t good, but films that fail to be good can still be interesting to study as it’s always useful to note what prevents a story from working.

In the case of Io, it came down to weak direction and an underdeveloped script for me. The film has a reasonably interesting idea, two great actors, and looks gorgeous. It reminded me very much of the sort of science fiction movies we’d have seen in the seventies (Silent Running, for example) where the idea is the big thing, and the character’s journey is what carries you through it.

In the case of Io, the idea alone isn’t strong enough to carry a story and there’s not enough else going on to maintain interest. A more developed script would have teased out stronger characterisation, or drawn more drama from the situation (particularly when the two characters finally meet). Meanwhile, a stronger director might have worked harder on the performances, found ways around the weaknesses in the script, and possibly drawn more from the setting. Not a disaster, ultimately, but kinda boring.

(June 15 – 21)

I have no major writing updates this week (see last week, if you like, which is virtually identical to what this week’s update would be but without the lighting shenanigans). However, I did watch a bunch of movies that were sufficiently distinct from one another that I thought I’d share a few words on each.

Titanic 2. Yes, Titanic 2–not a sequel to the James Cameron film, but a movie about a ship called Titanic 2. I was absolutely counting on this being terrible and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s the perfect bad movie: it strives for heights of unachievable excellence only to fall crashing to the floor under the weight of the incompetence bringing it to the screen. The icing on the cake is that it tries to rip off not only Titanic, but The Poseidon Adventure and The Abyss too. And does all of it terribly. (This is available on Tubi.TV should you want to want to check it’s terribleness out for yourselves).

The Limehouse Golem. An interesting british horror/thriller with a twist. Came across a bit like it could have been the pilot for a high-caliber period-set TV detective series (bit like The Alienist), but looked gorgeous throughout. Doesn’t quite reach the high bar it’s aiming for, but worth a watch.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Over the weekend I found myself in the mood for something vintage and engrossing, and managed to find this 1967 classic on Amazon Prime. It’s a superb example of the kind of thriller they rarely make any more—slow and character-driven, basically—and the movie absolutely thrives on Richard Burton’s performance as the gruff antihero. (This one’s on Prime Video).

Olympus Has Fallen. Saturday night popcorn fare. This made for perfectly good entertainment, but I was fascinated by how brutal it is. I have no problem with on-screen violence but I’ve found that it tends to come in two broad categories:the guns akimbo blockbuster style (with minimum blood); and the no-holds-barred John Wick/The Raid type of violence. This movie presents itself as a popcorn action blockbuster, but does it with R18 violence.

(June 8 – 14)

It’s my very last week of working from home (I’m back in the office next week) which means it’s time to get used to the new normal again, which is essentially the old normal but with the added bonus of deadly plague lurking in the background.

Because this will increase the disruption to my morning routine, and because I’m finding myself increasingly keen to start editing the earlier chapters of my novel, I’ve decided to trial some additional evening writing sessions. These are purely for editing, because that’s the writing discipline my evening brain is best used for, and I’m aiming for roughly an hour (between 8 and 9pm).

So far they have gone very well, despite me spending an extensive segment of my first session trying to get the lighting ‘just right’ in my room. It turns out that the exact same lighting I have for my morning sessions is borderline unacceptable for the evening sessions which take place at exactly the same desk in exactly the same room. Despite swapping various lamps in and out, I’ve ended up sticking with the same lighting arrangement and it doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting my progress. In fact, I’m positively enjoying these little evening writing sessions.

I have also made a change to my morning routine: I’m leaving my phone untouched until I’ve finished my writing. So far, evading the distraction of emails and social media until I’ve gotten some words down seems to be working!

(June 1 – 7)

Minor writing update this week: started a new chapter of the novel. This one’s inspired by children’s stories (fairy tales, primarily) and is another one I’ve been pretty excited about starting. In any case, it’s always good to have a fresh section of the story to get stuck into.

One good thing

This week I watched two films which helped cement a few good lessons on the relationship between character and drama. The first was the very excellent Sexy Beast, which is always a treat and gives us Ben Kingsley playing arguably one of the most terrifying characters ever committed to screen. 

This movie reminded me about two key aspects of building character. The first is that the way a character speaks can give you a great insight into who they are. Sexy Beast is, perhaps, infamous for its almost Shakespearean approach to expletive-riddled language (mostly coming from Ben Kingsley’s character, no less) but it’s not simply that the character swears that makes him stand out; it’s how he swears, and when. It’s in the moments when Ben Kinglsey is at his most dangerous that the expletives flow (and, oh, do they flow!) 

The second, and equally obvious, point is that the way that characters react to another character will do a huge amount of heavy lifting for you. We spend a reasonable amount of time in Sexy Beast with characters we’ve already gotten to know, watching them react to the mere prospect of Ben Kinglsey’s character arriving. The sheer dread reflected on their faces does a lot of the work building his character, but once he appears on screen we learn for ourselves that this initial reaction was more than warranted.

The second movie was Vast Of Night, which has received a lot of well-earned hype surrounding its release on Prime Video. It could hardly be more different from Sexy Beast, but it also takes its time developing its characters. In fact, we’re easily twenty minutes into the film before the main plot kicks off. 

The reason Vast Of Night gets away with this is because the characters are so well developed; they’re idiosyncratic and have very distinct voices; in fact they’re so good we could probably spend a whole movie just listening to them (which is handy, since these two do largely carry the movie).

There’s also another aspect to this highly dialogue-driven movie, which relies on various (occasionally unseen) characters relating their stories. Again, in a similar way to Sexy Beast, Vast Of Night puts a lot of work into the build-up: we know that the characters we get introduced to have something important to tell us, something that will move the plot forward, but the script very skilfully keeps us waiting for it. The result is a superb sense of tension derived from not much more than people sitting in rooms and talking to each other.

One bad thing

I’ve realised that I’m spending a lot of time on my phone in the mornings before I get stuck into my writing, having somehow convinced myself that checking Twitter, Facebook, etc first thing is what I need to do to get my brain in gear. Given the morning schedule is already curtailed due to school stuff, this isn’t helping. Funny thing is, I didn’t really think about it until I saw John Scalzi tweet that he doesn’t ‘log on’ until he’s done his writing for the day. I think I shall have to try that …

(May 25 – 31)

Hurrah! I finished the horror chapter! All in, it took six weeks to get this first draft down, but the story did what it needed to do, so it’s all good.I also dabbled with a short story idea this, although didn’t write much more than a few lines as I’m trying to save my creative juices for the novel. We’re now two chapters (and an epilogue) away from the end, my friends.

In another positive development, my new bedroom heater arrived this week (my bedroom being my main writing space btw). This one’s a smart heater which, among other things, means I can set a timer for it to come on in the mornings and warm up the room ready for me to get out. I also had the bright idea (lol, accidental pun!) of setting my bedside lamp ( which is also smart) to come on at 6am and wake me the fuck up. Why it took me this long to figure this one out I can’t imagine.

Thus far it’s all working splendidly. I can’t claim that my word counts are seeing a dramatic increase, but I am at least managing to get up just after 6am instead of loitering until 6:30 or beyond.

One good thing

The (other) big positive of my week this week was Friday, which shall henceforth be known as the Big Day Of Adulting. I had a number of relatively boring and/or tedious tasks to get done, which included:

• Cancelling my overpriced car insurance renewal, and finding a better deal
• Cancelling my overpriced web hosting renewal, finding a better deal and migrating my blog (and, of course, backing up all my websites first);
• Food shopping;
• Cleaning the house;
• Making some roast tomato sauce with my excess of tomatoes

Long story short is that I, unbelievably, got it all done! In the process I saved a third on my car insurance (and then got a bonus 20% off my contents insurance too). Even more impressively, I got my web hosting down from $300 a year to $150 for three years. Pretty nice saving there.

Just once in a while it pays to Adult (oh, accidental pun again!).

(May 18 – 24)

In a twist which hasn’t really surprised me, but of course seems bloody typical, the horror chapter—the chapter that was supposed to be the easiest one to write—is hella dragging. Perhaps dragging isn’t quite the right term: it’s just taking a long time to get out.

Naturally, it doesn’t help that the kinderbesten being back at school has completely destroyed my comfortable lockdown morning routine. The new colder, darker mornings mean I’m getting up a bit later now, which gives me less than half an hour before I have to start haranguing the elderbeast to rise from his slumber—and once my flow is broken, that’s pretty much it for the writing.

I will say, at least, that the horror chapter has evolved during the writing and is hopefully  turning out nicely, with a few fun twists and turns along the way. Fingers crossed the slog is worth it.