J C GALE

Someone out their in virtual land is reading my ramblings. The counter at the bottom of the page is 10,000 plus hits! Yay, awesome, balloons, streamers, party time …. and back to reality…

The editing’s going quite well, I’m feeling comfortable, characters are talking to me again in their own special ways. I’m struggling a little of late to find the time to sit for any decent duration however this is not uncommon in my hectic life.

Not much else to report right now, I’m waiting on some feedback from the first few sections I’ve done so far.

More to come

J.

I’ve been wondering of late how any writer knows when enough is enough? I heard somewhere or another, probably on a podcast declare ‘there are no perfect novels, only perfect ideas’. My interpretation of this is while I strive for perfection, a noble goal, in reality as soon as I translate an idea, a story concept into words it loses some of the polish, its precision and clarity. Can’t be helped as the use of words is a limited medium. Like most people I don’t have the decades of experience to be able to get anywhere near perfection with my writing.

My point, yes there actually is one here somewhere, is I’ve been trying for the last week to chisel away at the start of Impatience to make it perfect. I now realise this is never going to happen. It’s impossible. What’s perfect or close to it for me, might not communicate to the reader what needs to be derived from the start.

I understand now I need to work towards the best possible balance. Focus on the key points, ensure they are communicated clearly. Don’t get hung up over what I, in my limited point of view, think might be best. I need to be more clinical and not so emotionally involved. Actually, I need to do both but at different times and take a third look to ensure this balance remains.

Man editing is hard work. … Luckily, I’m a hard worker

Oh yeah the contradiction of consistency thing, here goes. I find when I revisit my own work, like I’ve been doing lately, I can practically see the variations in my moods coming through in the various sections. Once again, being consistent is another worthwhile goal however a ridiculous one, at least for someone like me. When I write I go with the flow and have been known to embellish here and there. I admit I’m heavily influenced by my moods. if I’m in a good mood my characters often come across a bit more upbeat. When I’m tired, down or like right now a bit under the weather, it sometimes translates into my work.

Bummer.

A large 100,000+ manuscript takes me 6 – 12 months to write. There’s simply no way I can be consistent across that timeframe because, well, life often gets in the way.

Back to the grind…

J.

Well I’ve certainly enjoyed the last week. I’ve caught up on a few things I’d put off of late and now I’m once again back to work. I’ve thoroughly cleaned the whiteboard, my altar of brainstorming. The first word I wrote on the clean slate was ‘Impatience’. Yes, my avid, rabid, somewhat obsessed fans, well at least the half a dozen I know of, Impatience is going to receive a complete overhaul.

Change the oil, new plugs and points, splash of paint and even polish the chrome.

Metaphor mode deactivated.

Impatience is a wonderful story and well deserving of a thorough edit. So far I’ve begun to rework the first few chapters, always a good place to begin, and its coming together nicely. I wanted a more punchy start and this new version has the pace I prefer. Once done, I intend to take the so far unprecedented step of braving the roller coaster ride of publishing. I’ll be putting it out there, subjecting agents and possibly publishers to my version of the sacred Query Letter.

For now though, there’s plenty of work to be done. Two years on and two books later, I can look at Impatience objectively. I have a good feel for what should stay and what will go down the insinkerator of virtuality…

Ohh-kay, enough from me.

Back to work!

The last words written and the day has finally come. The big reveal… ‘Unnamed’ is now complete at 75,000 words and finally has a deserving title:

The Curing

My proof readers have done an amazing job again and much deserving of my thanks. The story’s polished, vastly enriched by their feedback. Sure, there’s a few typos here and there however in the majority it’s a solid read. I wrote this story intentionally for my wife, my behind the scenes editor. She has worked on all my other books and for once I wanted to give her something to read from start to finish and not *chunks requiring editing* as is the usual routine.

She read it today and really enjoyed it, which makes me very happy. Without trying to sound all gushy and what not its fair to say I’m pretty chuffed right now, mission accomplished. This story has pushed me to my limits as it’s an entirely new direction for my writing. I’m feeling very tired right now, happily tired with the usual desire to sit and write sort of in the background and not so pressing.

Therefore for the next week or so I won’t be writing, not a single word as I consciously regroup. Those of you who have been reading my posts over time will know I’ve preached about getting back to the editing. Well now I feel it’s the right time. Sorry fans of The Healing Truth, no sequel for quite some time as that is secondary on my radar. I might find some time now to post a little more frequently….

Like usual I’ll put up the first chapter PDF format, or maybe a little more this time, up on the Writing page. I’ll monitor the comments for a while and see if there’s enough demand to warrant a bit more of a teaser…?

Someone I know who shall remain nameless recently finished writing a fictional manuscript. To my knowledge this is their first novel, at least it’s the first I’m aware of. I’ve been reading through it, grateful for the opportunity and enjoying the story as one does. Yet today I found myself struck with the weirdest feeling. I was proudly discussing the book in quite broad terms, covering the basis of the story as I mentioned this to someone else in passing, a completely unrelated person. To be specific I gave an overall impression of how great this book is. It hit me as odd that these lenient, positive and importantly forgiving words fell out of my mouth.

I don’t usually talk about my writing that way?

Up until that very moment I hadn’t actually been looking at this manuscript from my author’s point of view. I’d been a reader and nothing more. Today I donned the Jason Gale ‘Author’ hat, feel free to substitute ‘paranoid, self esteem crushing dictator’ if you like and there’s simply no turning back. This persona of mine seems to be a nit picking perfectionist, goody too shoes, expecting everything to be perfect and if not, then it must be absolute worthless drivel. My reader who is a sucker for the flow of a good story, felt satisfied to be swept along in the flowing plot and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. However now, the few grammatical, structural or dialogue faults seemed to leap to mind and it bugged me, big time. Why can’t I just enjoy the story and switch off the analytical stuff for a while?

I think as I’ve been writing so much over the last 12 months in particular, I seem to have lost touch with the basic premise that a good story is 90% there on its own. I’ve had many proof readers tell me they simply couldn’t put The Healing Truth down and read it almost non stop. Cool. How do I get the author to listen to that because he still thinks its not quite there.

I wish the author would relax a little and maybe let the reader takes the reins for a while.

In my present state of confusion, this war of positive and paranoid negativity, I can’t for the life of me work out if my new, unnamed project, is any good or not (no spoilers).

Sometimes it’s weird being me!

Time for a different post, I want to talk about the Borders / Angus and Robertson issue. I’m the first to admit I don’t know or understand the business dynamics of going into receivership however I want to look at this alarming issue from my point of view. The aspiring author who walks past these huge bookstores, especially the multi-level Borders at Chadstone shopping centre and marvels at all those delicious books, with their exciting covers and what not!

All those authors who once sat where I sit. Books written and a desire to push them out to agents and publishers. Wanting to see their name on the spine of a book…

I must admit when I heard of the receivership it felt like a blow. A sudden moment of clarity at the realisation ‘there goes half of the Australian printed shop front’. As I mentioned above I certaintly don’t profess to understand the details of this however its probably fair to say the stores will at least halv and if some other business comes along and buys up their stock of books, at a discount of course, we would see more of the Dirt Cheap Books no frills stores flood the market. This also means any cut down version of these traditional stores will have less floor space which means far greater competition to get a book up on a shelf.

All in all I would expect publishers to be even more hesitant to take on new work. Commit to the costs of initial print runs, plus promotional marketing and pay advances to the Authors? I say nay nay…

Does this spell the end of hard copy books for new Australian authors? Probably not, there are lots of small run presses all over this country however it might be the end for 1st time authors in the stores. Perhaps new authors have to now prove themselves with strong online sales and have a loyal fan base before they would get picked up for a minimum print run of say 5,000 books?

Book prices in Australia are ridiculous anyway. A friend of mine, an avid reader with always a dozen or so books in front of him, in the majority buys his books from Kmart and the likes as parallel imports. Less than half price of the larger book stores for the same book. I’m sure he isn’t the only one.

I might have more to say on this topic in the coming weeks as it all unfolds. Overall I think its sad when Angus and Robertson have been in business for 125 years!

Anyway for all my rambling, my selfish point of view, I guess I can always e-publish my content. The employees of these book stores might very well lose their jobs in the not too distant future, so yeah, a little perspective adjustment and I guess I’m not so bad off after all.

Set the scene, its early January and I’m enjoying the post Christmas glow of annual leave. Always a pleasure, a highlight of the year for me. Importantly, fun holiday times with the missus and kids! They grow up so fast don’t they? Anyway I was optimistically assuming 2011 offered the pleasant prospect of a quieter time, a gradual return to writing after an ‘insane-o-wrimo’ November and December. I felt free, confident and overall well satisfied with my 2010. Sure, reality check, I’m still unpublished and in all honest will be for some time to come. It’s the truth and I accept it. On the flip side everyone, and I mean everyone who reads my stuff, they’re all telling me my writing has greatly improved.

I’m betterer now at the word making up thingy but… *sigh*

Confident I would find plenty of free time to blog to my heart’s content, I found myself seductively drawn to a new story. It started slow, I played around with some plot, threw in a few characters and took it out for a test drive, if you will. Oh my god, before I knew it I’m screaming down backstreets! It’s a bloody sports car and I’m gripping the wheel, firstly and foremost in wide eyed panic and furthermore in a heart wrenching, adrenalin fuelled, rush of excitement.

No, that wasn’t a spoiler, there’s no sports cars in this story. That was a metaphor, okay? Good…

Suffice to say I’m feeling well challenged and so far by the feedback from my select proof readers (are you jealous?) it appears to be of some merit. ‘Best thing you’ve done yet’ from one email and ‘give me more, more, MORE!’ in another

I’ve let the writer out to play again and that’s always dangerous. Writing is so addictive. There’s something, an edge to my writing when I know people are really keen to see what comes next. Mega cool feeling. The writer in all his creative flair makes the editor look boring, like a dreary cardigan wearing public servant (gosh, how offensive did that sound?). I’m sure it will play out this year, a battle of the wills. If I’m ever to return to reworking my other manuscripts and I know deep down I have to, the editor will need to use the authoritative voice and shout down the writer. When this present project is done. After all, to be published is the ultimate goal, the prize…

Isn’t it?

Hmmn, the writer doesn’t seem to think so… weird.

I have a few other, non publishing, things going on in the background at the moment and I’m sussing them out, nice and quiet like. Trying them on for size as well although not at break neck speed. I can’t really say much right now but I promise I will, when the time is right of course.

Well, that’s about it, not much else to report. Life goes on, work is busy, family life is busy. The study light is often on late as my fingers dance about on this old keyboard and I furiously scrawl illegibly on my whiteboard, my precious plotting tool…

Okay rambling now, night all!

J.

Well I’m 2 for 2. I’ve missed out on short listing for both short story competitions. Bummer. Sure, I could run around the house waving my hands in the air and blurt about the end of the world. Instead I’ll just post my story here for you to read

Lucy – 3900 words.

I think there’s something special about this short story. For me it’s the stand out of the three on my Writing page. Have a read and let me know what you think.

I’ve begun work on a new project and get this, its currently called ‘Unnamed’. I mean wow, talk about imagination… I could have run with Project Genesis or something cool like that but no. Late at night when it’s time to sleep I simply save under Unnamed. This one is evolving as I go and like usual I’ll keep the spoilers to a minimum. Suffice to say its a radical new direction for my writing which is a good thing because I think its important to stay challenged and fresh.

With all this writing of late I find myself feeling more and more like a writer. It’s weird. Writing is now so much a part of the routine of my life I couldn’t imagine not doing it. Over the christmas period I picked up my Xbox 360 controller and played a computer game, first time in many many months. Don’t get me wrong it was a fun way to spend a few hours and yet it felt kind of empty. When I don’t write for a while I find I miss being in the zone.

In other news the Queensland floods are very disturbing and I find myself watching the TV more than usual. I’m half horrified and half curious. In my novel Impatience there’s extensive flooding and many of the scenes on television are so very close to what I imagined when I wrote that book. In truth it gives me chills.

J.

Welcome to 2011 one and all

NaNoWriMo 2010 drove me onwards to produce my first Fantasy novel. At 96,000 words its a little light for me and in truth the job feels half done. The Healing Truth is part 1 of a 2 part story. Eventually I will have a single novel of around 200,000 – 250,000 words which I believe is respectable for this genre.

I hesitate to say too much here (spoilers!) about it so will focus, like always, on the process. NaNoWriMo felt to me to be quite like studying for exams. There’s this deadline which is fixed and you simply must meet it or else the entire world will collapse around you. Maybe not, however that is the feeling of it and I drove hard at the goal, harder than I have ever worked before.

I slammed out 70,000 words by the end of November and some of them were a bit rough around the edges. The story is quite involved and I found the characters wanted to keep drawing me away from the main, linear, timeline sequence of events. They all have backstories and I had to fight to keep the wheels moving in the right direction. Now I’ve written the ending I find I want to revisit these friends I have gotten to know, like putting on a favourite jacket before going out. Breathe further life into them.

For anyone who is interested PDF format, this is the first scene. We meet young friends Rohan and Mattias as they are hard at work, learning the art of sword and bow.

The Healing Truth is also why I failed to post in December 2010 as I simply had too much to do…

Enjoy!

Greetings one and all!

It’s Christmas time again YAY and I must apologise to my readers for my lack of posts in December. I have been a very busy boy with work trips and all manner of social things consuming my free time.

As it turns out my short story Piper, runs a tad short of 3000 words and did not get shortlisted for The Age short story competition of 2010. They pick the best 6 stories from 1180 entrants.

This means I’m now free to post a copy online! If you have a spare ten minutes why not go have a read, I would love to know your thoughts.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all, even those who don’t celebrate this time as I don’t care if that’s politically correct or not. This is my blog so there

J.