Absent without Ginger

Hello my fellow Militants! Long time no see!

As loyal readers (Hi, Dad) might have noticed, I haven't updated this blog for over two weeks. I feel thoroughly rotten about that, but I have been so astonishingly, mind-numbingly busy that I simply haven't had a chance to.

Last week alone, I worked a 50-hour week at the office, did 20 hours of writing for one client and then 10 more for another.

This is on top of Mummy Militant being 9-months pregnant with the latest addition to the Militant brood - and I've got two new independent business ideas I'm working on.

It all sounds far more exciting than it actually is!

Regardless, I'm back now with a couple of blog posts I hope you'll think are worth the wait. Have you yelled at an opinionated ginger today?

Blogging News

As readers of Militant Ginger will be aware, I have a bad habit of starting promising new blogs and subsequently neglecting them with blithe indifference (renaissancebabes.blogspot.com and steampunkgeneration.blogspot.com spring to mind!

But in the mindset of eternal optimism, I've undertaken a new project celebrating the viticulture of New Jersey. Please pop over to New Jersey in a Bottle to find out more!


And in the meantime, I'll get to work updating my much neglected side projects...

Being a better blogger.

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . ."

Polonius, Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2, 86–92

Verbosity is not a virtue.

In an effort to become a better blogger, I've decided to REALLY try and limit the length of each of my posts.

This was a perfect example of something that was too long - I halved the length here without losing any of the impact of the post.

So I've decided to usher in a new era of slimmer, trimmer blogging. My intention?

To make sure all of my posts accomplish the following:

• Answer a particular question, or raise a particular topic to make them engaging and encourage traffic/readers
• Express a forthright opinion about the issue raised, to encourage comments either agreeing or disagreeing with my post.
• Remain brief and accessible. Accomplishing it all within 500 words or less.

It's a difficult set of boundaries - obviously, complex issues demand longer posts. However, in this age of soundbites, people demand their news and information more and more concisely. I intend to trim the fat, cut to the chase and give new visitors exactly what they demand.

Let's just see if I can keep it up!

Blogging and Anonymity

Bloggers are a childish lot, myself included. We're all prone to throwing our toys out of the pram on occasion, and occasionally saying things behind the safety of a computer screen that we'd be FAR too cowardly to say to anybody's face.

But the worst of us are commonly the 'anonymous' bloggers.

Anonymity is a delicious mask to hide behind, resulting in far too many bloggers falling foul of what the Internet has come to call 'John Gabriel's Great Internet Fuckwad Theory.'

This theory evolved on webcomic Penny Arcade

But the fact is, not all anonymous bloggers are idiots. In fact, many people blog behind the shield of anonymity for legitimate reasons.

After all, the problem with expressing opinions over the 'net is that you can later be called to task for them. I mention in this post some examples of Internet activity coming back to bite poor bloggers - including the story of a schoolteacher fired for publishing a picture of her consuming an alcoholic beverage on MySpace.

I know plenty of 'anonymous' bloggers who write incognito to protect their 'real-life' reputations - and that freedom to truly express themselves is why their blogs tend to be good. 'Out and proud' bloggers, myself included, occasionally censor ourselves because people we know might be reading.

So anonymity is a choice - and one that evolved bloggers respect.

Which is why is was incredibly disappointed to hear about National Review Online hack Ed Whelans smugly 'outing' an anonymous blogger who dared to mock him.

Ed Whelan, a conservative pundit, was so incensed by a response posted by anonymous blogger publius that he tracked down publius' real identity and shared it with the readers of his blog.

"I’ve been reliably informed that publius is in fact the pseudonym of law professor John F. Blevins of the South Texas College of Law," Whelan smugly announced, in a post entitled Exposing an Irresponsible Anonymous Blogger. He brushes off the mistake publius was criticizing him for - instead declaring "Gee, I think it’s the guy hiding behind the pseudonym who has reason to be embarrassed."

publius, AKA John Blevins, held up his hand after this exposure and admitted his identity - revealing that he'd written anonymously because: "I’ve heard that pre-tenure blogging can cause problems – and I don’t want conservative students to feel uncomfortable based on my posts."

I think Blevins has handled his 'outing' with grace and class - which is more than I can say for Whelan. As a contributor to National Review Online, I thought he'd have had at least a modicum of respect for his blogging peer. Instead, he smugly gloated about his 'victory' in three follow up posts.

He brushed off criticisms of what he did, arguing that people "seem to assume that I owed some sort of obligation to Blevins not to expose his pseudonymous blogging. I find this assumption baffling. A blogger may choose to blog under a pseudonym for any of various self-serving reasons, but I don’t see why anyone else has any obligation to respect the blogger’s self-serving decision."

Whelan clearly doesn't 'get it.' His decision to 'out' Blevins - deliberately, and with the understanding that doing so might criticize the professor's job - says more about Whelan that it will ever say about Blevins.

Ed Whelan was unable to sustain an intellectual debate with his detractors, so he resorted to the final, desperate act of the ethically bankrupt - he decided to make a 'real life' attack against somebody in 'revenge' for having his Internet credibility questioned.

It's frankly pathetic. If Whelan was half the man he arrogantly thinks he is, he'd have been able to nail publius in debate, without resorting to personal attacks. What he did is disrespectful, cowardly, pathetic and reprehensible; a well-respected 49-year-old legal professional has reduced himself to childish antics.

But while Ed Whelan is clearly the 'bad guy' here, it does present a sobering warning to the rest of us.

There is no such thing as Internet 'anonymity' Not truly. That's why we've all got to think very hard about exactly what we share on the Internet.

Whatever we write, we may very well have those words thrown back in our face at some point in the future. Therefore, before you hit the 'publish post' button, perhaps we should ask ourselves if we're really willing to stand by what we write.

Blogvertise? Does advertising demean one's blog?

It's astonishing to think how much this blog has changed since I first starting writing it, back in June of 2006. I was Sales Manager of a radio station in Berkshire then. Now I'm living in New York - still working in the radio biz, but in a totally different capacity.

This blog has actually opened a lot of doors for me. It was one of the reasons I was featured in the BBC documentary 'F**k off, I'm Ginger!' and has helped me meet some wonderful people in a variety of different fields, including writers like Fiona Walker and Robyn Young, who've inspired me to keep up with my novelist aspirations.

This blog has evolved too - it's sprouted some pretty funky header pictures (I like the current one, especially) a third column and, I arrogantly believe, my writing has improved enormously as a result of it.

However, another less welcome addition to Militant Ginger has been advertising.

This photo is included to represent the commercialization of Militant Ginger and is in no way included purely for the purposes of titillation/pimpage. Honest.

I like to think I've kept it fairly discrete. I have commercials for The Beer Machine and several Renaissance-themed stores, because they're businesses I've used myself and am rather fond of. So far, I've made virtually nothing from this compromise to commercialism.

Similarly, I've taken to posting links to Amazon when I review books and movies. Again, this hasn't netted me a cent in terms of revenue - yet - but feel like I haven't 'sold out' because these are books and films I'm viewing and reviewing on my own terms.

Now I'm considering adding the services of Blogvertise to Militant Ginger.

The question is - does commercialization detract from this blog? Have I already gone too far, with links to products embedded in my posts? Does the commercial aspect of this blog still remain fairly discrete? Or have I 'sold out?'

It's an interesting question. I'd appreciate any thoughts.

As a blogger, I've realized that the opportunities to commercialize this blog are limited. One book I read recently, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett, highlighted the importance of having a 'blog niche.' As in, a specific 'thing' your blog is about (which gives people a specific reason to go there.)

Militant Ginger isn't really about anything. It's a mishmash of political opinion, reviews of books and movies, pictures of my baby, rubbish about cars and whining about how shitty British people are to redheads. And (you'll be relieved to know) I like it exactly like that! Militant Ginger gives me an opportunity to write about what I want, when I want.

But it's not very commercial. People aren't going to visit Militant Ginger unless it's to read a specific article (Stephen Fowler is netting me a thousand hits a week) or because they actually know me, either in real life or as part of my bloggy friend network.

I launched a secret 'commercial' blog and it proved messieurs Rowse and Garrett right. I started receiving more 'hits' per day on that site than on Militant Ginger - within just a week of being launched! Still haven't made any money off it, yet...

So, even though I might flirt with companies like Blogvertise, I just wanted to let you know that I like to think I haven't 'sold out' yet - and don't intend to.

I might be a wee bit too 'advertise-y' occasionally (Hell, I'm in marketing, what do you expect?) but to the best of my ability, the content you see here on Militant Ginger will remain exactly as Amazon and the others consider it - totally worthless!

Bloggers are people too! And they drink cider!

So this blogosphere is a crazy place.

Every single day, I read the online musings of all sorts of myriad people, from all over the world. I see photos of their homes and families, or hear stories of their lives and loves. I'm part of a whole community of people I have never - and might never - meet.

Well, I did meet one of them the other day - the inestimable Sasha Sappho.

Sasha happened to be in New York, so I gave her a quick tour of where I work and then exposed her [Bad choice of phrase - Editorial Bear] to my friends and colleagues at a local pub (and, inexplicably, she's still willing to talk to me!)

It was very odd to meet somebody who I paradoxically know so much, yet so little, about.

Ever since I first discovered Sasha's blog, I thought she was awesome. Her writing just pushed my button. She seemed smart and clever and open minded. Hers is one of the first blogs I catch up on every day.

So I was already confident that when I met her, I'd think she was awesome. I mean, she already was awesome in my head. The great thing though, was that when I did actually meet Sasha, she not only met expectations - she exceeded them!

She was everything she is in her blog, only more so!

And now, aside from having a great time meeting her, I like to think that Sasha isn't just a bloggy friend any more, she's a real friend. Which is pretty cool. Who knew that there was a door that led from the blogsphere into the realosphere™ [Trademark 2009 - Editorial Bear] ?

To Blog or not to Blog?

Sadly, no less than three of my favorite blogs have vanished in the course of the last month or so - their authors later explaining that they removed them because of privacy issues. Either people they knew - or, more worryingly, people they didn't - made comments or personal inquiries that left our bloggers deeply uncomfortable.

It's an issue that my wife and I have discussed recently and a little tête à tête between us nearly resulted in me shutting down my blog in frustration (I didn't like the idea of having to run every post past an unofficial censor before publishing.)

But the worrying thing is - Wifey had a point. Successful blogging means exposing yourself to every friend, acquaintance, stranger and nutjob on the Internet. Who knows what the result of that could be?

Many bloggers choose to blog anonymously - which gives them the delicious freedom to write about whatever they want. This is how bloggers like 'Belle Du Jour' and 'Girl with a One Track Mind' got started - writing about their steamy sex lives. However, anonymous blogging carries it's own dangers (as two of my deleted blogging pals discovered) when their real life friends and family discover their 'anonymous' blog and wind up with intimate and uncensored access to their most private (though public) thoughts.

Other bloggers, such as myself, choose to blog absolutely openly. This is great as it gives a way for friends and family to keep up to date with your adventures (or lack of them) and is perfect for an aspiring writer like myself, since blogging is self-publicity at it's most affordable.

The problem with a non-anonymous blog? Well, for a start you sometimes have to censor yourself. I don't write about particularly seedy topics, but I am well aware that whatever I write will eventually be read by my father.

Secondly - you can't hide from a blog. Once you've written something, it's out on Internet forever and there have been all sorts of stories about bloggers loosing their jobs after bitching about work on their blog - or losing out on employment when a 'google' search by a prospective employer brings up a blog filled with drunken debauchery.

If you're not blogging anonymously, you have to take ownership of everything you write and be prepared for anybody - absolutely anybody - to read it.

But most worryingly of all about a non-anonymous blog: How much of your personal information is available for everybody to see (and steal?)

This is what worried my wife, especially after the birth of our son. The blog of aspiring novelist Roland Hulme contained our names, a rough geological location, pictures of our friends and family and even personal information (e.g. a birthdate, gleaned from a 'happy birthday to me' post written on my birthday.)

Is it enough for somebody to steal my identity? Not by a long shot - and they'd have to wade through pages and pages of diatribes about religion and politics to get it. But it's enough information to make the typical Internet shenanigans (like rogue and offensive comments) seem worryingly personal.

Like, when my son was born, somebody left the delightful comment: "Argh another Ginge......get yourself sterilised. Hope the doctor slapped you."

First off - my son's not ginger. Secondly, as much as a comment like this would, in Great Britain, be considered 'harmless, just poking fun' it was pretty shitty for somebody to write.

So by blogging non-anonymously, you're potentially opening yourself up to all sorts of trouble. It was a comment on a public blog that caused the third of my blogging chums to shut up shop (at least temporarily.)

So I guess I can see why my wife would have concerns - and in some way, I share them.

But I think you have to end up taking the American approach to things when it comes to blogging. "If we leave now, the (Internet) terrorists have won!"

I enjoy blogging. I love the real-life and 'Blogosphere' friends I keep in contact with here. I love how some of the issues I discuss raise a lot of debate. I enjoy forcing myself to write every day and have been surprised at how my writing has generally improved as a result.

Blogging is an important part of my life. I'm a gratuitous self publicist and blogging gives me a chance to 'expose myself' to everybody without having to wear a dirty mac and run around frightening people in the park.

Blogging, for me, is an outlet for the tangled thoughts in my head. If I didn't publish them online, my wife would have divorced me long ago for trying to discuss McCain vs Obama in the bedroom.

But the recent spate of blogging casualties has made me reexamine the whole blogging phenomenon and I have to admit, I've noticed myself being a little more sensible about how much of my own life I share on the 'net.

You'll notice I refer to Wifey and Baby by rather unoriginal pseudonyms (like, erm, Wifey and Baby) rather than their real names. And I still avoid discussing hot button topics that might effect me at work (which is killing me, since there's an angry rant just begging to be written about a new development in the office.)

I think it's time to tone it down a bit - at least for a while. Sometimes we all need to 'dig in' and avoid the crossfire. After all, after more than two years of blogging, I don't want to become just another Internet statistic.

But don't worry. Militant Ginger will (touch wood) keep on delivering.

Petite Anglaise

Although blogs are a great way to make friends online and keep your parents and friends up-to-date with your adventures, it's fairly obvious that the most dedicated (i.e. self important) of us bloggers are sometimes out there just to make a name for ourselves.

Which is why the success of bloggers-turned-authors like Belle Du Jour can be both frustrating, yet strangely affirming.

The latest blog-into-book is the blog of 35 year old expat Petite Anglaise.

Catherine Sanderson, under the nom de souris Petite Anglaise, started her blog in 2004, inspired by the likes of Belle Du Jour (which leads me to suspect that she harboured a certain self-publicist streak right from the very beginning!)

It started off as the amusing anecdotes of a British woman living and working in France, dutiful wife to 'Mr Frog' and loving mother to the bilingual baby 'Tadpole.'

But within a year of starting her blog, Sanderson shifted the focus of her writing away from the amusing expat experience (like her recommendations for working with FFs (French Females) to a more introspective and personal journal. This chronicled the breakdown of her marriage and her relationship with a new man she met in the comments section of her blog.

Her blogging continued it's surprising twists and turns when her boss uncovered Sanderson's candid chronicles - and swiftly gave her the boot (not the first time a blogger has been canned for their online antics.)

Taking her employer to court for wrongful dismissal, Catherine Sanderson picked up a £30,000 settlement, as well as a tornado of media interest promoting her story (and her blog) in British and French national newspapers. It even earned her a place on Richard and Judy's well-worn pastel sofa.

And just like that, Sanderson earned the happy-ending all blogger's secretly fantasise about. The media whirlwind inspired Michael Joseph (an imprint of Penguin) to publish her blog. We'll finally see the adventures of Petite Anglaise hit the bookshelves this June.


Bookish Blogging

Seeing the success of a blogger like Petite Anglaise can inspire conflicting emotions amongst us 'undiscovered' bloggers.

In some ways, it's incredibly exciting to see a fellow blogger make 'the big time' through their online exploits. But it's also rather frustrating to see somebody else succeed when your blog still languishes in relative obscurity.

However, skirting the emotional issues, it's clear to see why Catherine Sanderson's blog succeeded where others (such as mine) would fail.

Writing a publishable blog

Sanderson's blog makes for compelling reading - it's as simple as that.

My blog is pretty unpublishable, because it contains a few snippets of my boring life (painting the nursery and cooing at shiny red cars) in amongst reviews, editorials and completely unqualified opinionating about topics I have no authority to blog about (Kosovo, for example.)

Petite Anglaise has been a focused Bridget-Jones-esque journal from day one - and her romantic misadventures make the desire to find out 'what happens next' totally addictive. Catherine Sanderson expertly writes a real-life, expat soap-opera and we want to know more about her life - even if we disapprove of it.

And it is sometimes difficult to sympathise with Sanderson. Having just settled into my forth year of marriage, I find it rather uncomfortable the way a wife and mother like Petite Anglaise so swiftly dropped her spouse for an Internet beau - although I took no satisfaction in reading about her getting similarly dumped just over a year later.

It's also easy to be cynical about the way she embraced the media firestorm following her dismissal.

Catherine Sanderson made perfect headline fodder, but the beautiful young blond settled into her new role of 'celebrity blogger' disturbingly easily (similar observations have been levelled towards the most famous blogger/author Belle du Jour, who many people think is just the fictional alter-ego of some frustrated London hack.)

But leaving aside my petty prejudices, I can see the immediate appeal of an attractive, intelligent expatriate sharing her romantic misadventures in a blog-turned-book.

Whether you approve or disapprove of the choices she's made, Catherine Sanderson has one hell of a story to tell and if her blog is any indication of her writing skills, it's going to make for entertaining reading when it hits the bookstores.

Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson is available on June 17th from Amazon.com and bookstores.

You've been tagged!!

If you'll look on the right hand side of my blog, you'll see a long list of other bloggers I have links to. They all have great (if infrequently updated - you know who you are!) blogs which are worth a visit.

In order to reach out to my brilliant fellow bloggers, I've decided to try an experiment - something more seasoned bloggers call 'tagging.'

I've asked some select bloggers from my list to participate by filling in my 'Action Plan' for themselves - and post it on their blog. In return, I'll post a link in my 'Action Plan' post directly to their blog, including a little bit about what they do there.

In an ideal world, this would mean my completed 'Action Plan' would be followed by ten or so links to other bloggers who've given serious thought to what it is they want out of life. You'll be able to visit their post on the subject with a simple click.

If I've neglected to send you an invite, but you'd like to participate anyway, it's easy to do so! Just copy-and-paste my Action Plan, fill in the questions and post it to your blog. Send me an email (rolandhulme[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk) or leave a comment and I'll add your blog to my 'tagged' post.

Does that all sound like it makes sense?

Happy blogging!

The Action Plan

1: Name three things about yourself you would like to improve:

2: Name something you would like to achieve:

a) Within 1 year:

b) Within 5 years:

c) Within 10 years:

3: Name something you would like to help achieve for somebody else:

4: Name one place you haven’t been, but you’d like to go:

5: Name one person you haven’t met, but would like to:

6: Name three material things you would like:

a)...

b)...

c)...

A Blogger's Manifesto

It's a bit late to call it a New Year's resolution - but as 2008 dawns, I think it's time to think critically about my blog and where I intend to direct it over the next few months.

I think it's time to adopt some very serious blogging guidelines.

So here we go. My Blogger's Manifesto:

1. I will only blog five times a week. Currently, I've been blogging several times per day and that's just ridiculous. Along with work, I've got my personal writing to do - and my fun cartooning. And I want to join and gym and get fit. So wasting my precious personal time writing diatribes about Kosovo is not the most productive use of my time.
2. I will set a blogging agenda. Out of my five weekly posts, I should determine some focus as to their contents. Therefore, I pledge to write one personal post a week (about my life in general) one post about local events in New Jersey (like the local elections) one blog about writing and getting published (and my attempts at both) and two other 'free choices' that might include reviews, cartoons, political babble. Whatever.
3. Brevity is Essential. The key to successful writing is not how much you write, but how little. Some of my blog posts would have put me in good stead as university dissertations. So from now on, I intend to make my blog posts short, snappy and relevant - so anybody clicking on them can get the information they need as quickly as possible.
4. Pimped and Polished. Since I'm using blogging to further my writing, I should make a firm commitment to keeping my editing as tight as possible. Just because this is a personal blog, I shouldn't allow spelling errors and the like to creep in if I can avoid doing so!

So there's my pledge for 2008. Fingers crossed I can stick to it! But if I can, it will hopefully mean higher quality content from Militant Ginger.

Normal Service will Resume Shortly... (Fingers crossed!)

Today is my final day in the office. Two more footloose days in blighty and Tina and I will be zooming up to Gatwick to catch our plane.

Firstly - and most importantly - it means we're going to be out of internet contact for at least the next few days. In modern society, that's the equivilent of having your arm hacked off. On the other hand, perhaps it'll be refreshing not to have to delete sixty emails each morning from Nigerian 'businessmen' offering you millions of laundered dollars if you'd only give them your bank details.

Secondly, it means the impossible is about to happen. We're going back. We're REALLY going back. And America awaits like an enormous blank canvas. Assuming, of course, the immigrations men in rubber gloves actually let me through.

They should do. My paperwork's all kosher.

We're flying out on the 3rd of June. Ironically, that's the same date last year that I started this blog.

I originally started blogging to chronicle my experiences getting back to America. Tina and I have been waiting since we got married in 2003 and I would hardly have believed that my goal would have been accomplished in just twelve months. I thought our immigration journey would carry on forever.

But it didn't. It's happened and it's here.

This means the nature of my blog will change. Anybody who's been reading it so far (Hi, Dad!) will have seen a mish mash of reviews and articles and podgy editorial pieces. and some reviews. Those where awesome!

The inconsistent content came about because I didn't have anything specific to write about. Now I do. Arriving in America is just going to be the first step in a whole new journey as I find myself a home, a job and a whole new life.

So stay tuned. There should be some good stuff coming up.

But not for a while. It'll probably be at least a week before I blog again.

Next time I write, it'll be in America!

How gay is Dr Who?

I spoke to my sister last night - who'd just caught the last two episodes of Torchwood and agreed that under Russel T. Davies, the whole Dr Who franchise was a bit... gay.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's important that Mr Davies realises that most of us want to watch good old fashioned intergalactic adventure - not Queer as Folk in Space.

Please, Russell. Stop trying to ram your sexual agenda in our face and give us what we want - stirring stories, scary aliens and a bit with a robotic dog.

Sofe and I aren't the only ones who think this way... The hysterical webcomic Sorethumbs ran this comic recently.

Nanowrimo - The Countdown Begins

On the first of November, despite mounting commitments, I am going to attempt Nanowrimo - to write a novel in 30 days.

I've got a really solid novel planned out - just haven't had a chance to write it yet - so there shouldn't be any problem. Oh, except for that pesky job, life etc. Tina and I are even considering getting second jobs to get our finances in order for a return to America.

So it looks like a pretty daunting task - but I'm sure it can be done. Why am I so confident? Because my incredibly prolific namesake, Angie Hulme, managed to do just that last year.

Angie describes herself as a 'wannabee writer,' which doesn't seem quite accurate since she's written a huge number of books, including "After the Fairytale" which starts off where the 'happy ending' of Cinderella finishes.

I asked Angie about Nanowrimo and the secrets of her success last year:

So for the uninitiated, what is Nanowrimo all about?

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writers Month. The basic challenge is to write a 50k word novel during the 30 days of November. Personally, it's a really big challenge and so much fun to do; socially, you've got this huge group of people who are just as insane as you are trying to do exactly the same thing – so you're never lacking support either online or in person from other Nanoers in your region. Nano as well raises money to do good things – this year the aim is to raise enough to build a library in Vietnam. It's all about having fun, doing something daft you wouldn't normally even think of doing and everyone not doing it thinks is totally insane, not to mention impossible, and going for that sense of achievement of a challenge well met.

This isn't your first year! Tell us about last year and what you wrote.

Indeed, this is my second year! I had so much fun last year I simply had to do it again! Last year I played the bad guy and wrote a story about a fellow who gains a big inheritance form a dead Uncle who suggests he uses it to do something memorable, something to change things – so my until-this-point everyday fellow reveals he's actually secretly missing a few screws, and sets off around the UK persuading other people to break the 10 Commandments! It was so much fun to write – just to turn off the inner editor, write whatever came to mine, not taking any of it seriously; I had myself in fits of giggles a number of times. And to make it even more fun I took on challenges form other people of things to fit into the story somehow. The entire Nottingham region had a challenge to fit ferrets in somewhere, other challenges met included evil bunnies, gnomes in compromising positions and a bucket with a big smile and a little hat...so yeah, it got almost surreal at points! But meeting with the Nottingham group every weekend through the 'ordeal' was so much a part of it as well – it wouldn't have been Nano without that, and the word games on the forums and speed-writing challenges in the chatrooms. It wound up, for me, as just a real fun time and after I finished sleeping after last years, I was immediately looking forward to doing it again! Incidentally – I did my 50k in 22 days last year; plan to try and beat that this time!

What was the secret of your success?

Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee keeping me awake late at night in order to hit my word targets, and plenty more at work the next day simply to keep me awake!
Having a good group around me was also really helpful – every Saturday the Nottingham Nanoers spend a couple of hours or an afternoon together and it's such a laugh and such fun and I would come away feeling refreshed and renewed and often with knowledge of where my story was going next; I think without that group of us I wouldn't have come near finishing. Also understanding friends are handy – non-nanoers who don't mind me asking random questions about nonsensical things or asking them for challenges or ranting about my characters or raving about my word count and generally hearing little from me except random nano nonsense for the month, they're great! I recommend warning them in advance!

This year...well once again I'm playing the baddie! My protagonist is a lady, a police officer, who after being jilted by her husband thinks back and realised that every lover she has ever had has done that in one way or another her whole life. So, again revealing a few missing screws nobody realised weren't there, she setts off tot rack them all down backwards from husband to first boyfriend in order to murder them in strange and interesting ways. So far for challenges, I have the Nottingham theme (seems to be 'the lower half of a man's right leg' - worryingly, none of us had much problem seeing where we could fit this into our stories!) and acrostic paragraphing, though I've not yet decided what word to spell out. And I'm sure there'll be more along the way!

What advice do you have for any budding Nanowrimo'ers (like me?)

First of all – snacks. Buy lots of snacks and easy to eat foods. Also coffee or any other favoured energising drink, plus water/fruit juice for general consumption. Make sure you have plenty – you'll be needing it while writing.

Second – warn all your friends who are likely to notice something amiss during the month – and once warned, you can also make use of them for bouncing plot off, advancing it by asking what they might do, talking to them on the phone to get away from typing for a while,and various other things.

Third – don't promise to do anything with other people; tel them you will if your word count is good, but don't make any promises for November or for the first few days of December when you're likely to be sleeping.

Storywise – have an idea, plot as much as you like, but don't force the story somewhere it doesn't want to go else you risk losing it entirely; be flexible, write whatever comes to mind and if you get stuck, talk to friends and other nanoers. Also if you don't like your main character – kill them and replace them, seriously, this is Nano, you're not trying to write classic literature – entertain yourself, whatever that may take, and you'll get through it.

Get a good headstart during the first week or so, then weeks 2 and 3 can be more relaxed and hopefully you won't spend week 4 in a panic! The daily word count divides into 1667 per day over 30 days – so try setting a daily target of 2000 per day, if you mostly hit that then the odd bad day doesn't matter and it keeps you on course for being able to actually finish your story, not just hit the 50k target!

Don't get disheartened by other people's word counts. You'll find some people ace right through and are i the 100k's while you're still in 20 – it doesn't matter, you're challenging yourself, not competing against them.

Keep it fun, really, there's nothing at stake here, it's meant to be a fun challenge – keep it light, entertain yourself, remember you're not writing a masterpiece, you're just...writing.

Well, you'll be able to read about my attempts to write The Bootleg Boys on Nanowrimo at the Adventure Eddy blog. The current story should be winding up in the next couple of days.

And if you want to find out more about Angie's writing, the best place to start it her website. You can also find After the Fairytale on Amazon.

Adventure Eddy & Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Curse of the Mary Sue

I have a friend called Jo who writes fan fiction.

These are fan written stories involving characters and situations from popular TV shows. The most common one has to be Star Trek. A lot of writers got their break through 'fan fiction' and a number of television shows, Star Trek in particular, use fan fiction ideas as the basis for their episode ideas. Sadly, the fans seem to know their source material and have more original ideas than the show script writers. See that UPN show 'Enterprise' for more evidence.

A common occurance in bad fanfiction is the "Mary Sue." A new character introduced merely to give the author a voice and presence in the story. Often Mary Sues have knowledge and abilities beyond the realities of the fictional world and they're generally just awful.

A good guide to the Mary Sue can be found here.

My discovery of the Mary Sue prompted me to wonder if Adventure Eddy was, by his very definition, a Mary Sue. Certainly, he'd started life as a more handsome, exciting fictional version of myself and while the character has disappeared off on his own path, the colour of his hair, love of old cars and family situation remain mirrors of my own.

For some reason or another (I hadn't got a Playstation back then) I decided to write my own Mary Sue fanfiction. I'd throw Adventure Eddy randomly into a fanfiction adventure.

I chose Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I never got very far with it and I doubt I will ever finish it. It was a terrible waste of time! But for curiosity's sake, my I present Adventure Eddy & Buffy the Vampire Slayer in The Curse of Mary Sue...

The Curse of Mary Sue

Chapter One

The vampires swept forward like a relentless wave.

“Quick,” Buffy grabbed the back of Xander’s collar and literally threw him through the door, “get inside and somebody close that door!”

“I’m on it,” Spike grumbled, slamming his shoulder against the old crypt door, slamming it shut behind the Scooby gang.

Thump!

The door cracked as the vampires hurled themselves against it.

“Bloody hell,” Spike growled, shouldering the door shut as best he could, “I think I could do with some help, here.”

Thump!

A split traced it’s jagged way down the door.

“Quickly, Willow,” Buffy span towards her redheaded friend, who was already reaching for her spell book. “We need some of your mojo - and fast.”

Thump!

“Bloody ‘ell,” Spike repeated. “I think they were almost through, that time!”

“Here, let me,” Xander leapt to Spike’s side.

“Oh yeah… Like peepsqueak here will be any help,” the blonde vampire sneered.

“I wasn’t going to use my bulk, Captain Peroxide,” Xander snapped back, wrenching the great iron bolt into place. “I was just going to lock the door for you.”

With a clunk, the heavy bolt slammed into place.

“That’ll hold them,” Xander grinned, stepping back.

“Yeah, right, Mate,” Spike scoffed, shoving a cigarette in his mouth and reaching for his lighter. “That’ll hold ‘em for all of five minutes…”

Buffy Summers, who wasn’t feeling much like the mighty Slayer at the moment, threw a curtain of blonde hair away from her face.

“Willow,” she snapped, spinning back to her friend. “We need something kick-ass
vampire killy in five minutes or less.”

Willow, her eyes turning black, started chanting.

“Infidalus non beardus bringus maris sueus…”

An unearthly glow surrounded the crypt. Buffy, Xander, Willow and Spike shielded their eyes from the brightness, ignoring the thumps and crashes as the vampires flung themselves against the door.

With a roar of thunder, a figure burst from the brightness and lay, choking, in a steaming pile on the floor.

Buffy, Willow and Xander gathered around.

The thumping on the door continued.

From the smoke, emerged a figure.

He was in his mid twenties. Slim and broad shouldered, in jeans and a battered leather jacket. Square jawed, with curious green eyes. He had curly red hair, hanging over his brow…

Hang on a second…

This whole descriptive passage goes on for, like, four hundred words. Unfortunately we had to cut it. Just take our word for it. The kid who clambered out of the smoke was this ruggedly handsome redhead with a square jaw etc. etc.

Anyway. Back to the story.

Buffy, Xander and Willow, who’d been expecting an axe wielding hero, peered incredulously at the new arrival. The new arrival looked up in confusion.

“Where the hell am I?”


Chapter Two


Buffy was the first to speak.

“Woah… Are you, like, some kind of demon-killing slayer?”

The redhead dusted himself down.

“Erm, no,” he responded, in a sharp British accent. “My name’s Eddy.”

“Eddy?”

“Eddy Newbolt. Adventure Eddy Newbolt, some people call me.” He blinked those adjective-inspiring green eyes of his, “Erm… Mind telling me where I am?”



Buffy grabbed the redhead’s wrist and dragged him out of the smoke.

“Listen,” the blonde demanded, staring up at him with captivating blue eyes, “on the
other side of that door are twenty seven bloody thirsty vampires. If you’re not some ass-kicking vampire killing machine, we’re in trouble.”

Eddy blinked.

“Well, we’re in trouble then.”

There was another Crash!

Spike, his leather coat billowing behind him, threw his shoulder against the door.

“’Ere they come,” he warned.

Crash!

The door crashed open. Spike went flying across the room. Pouring through the open doorway came a wave of gnashing teeth and flailing claws.

“Holly crap,” Eddy blinked. “You weren’t kidding.”

The vampires pounced.

Like a blonde angel of death, Buffy Summers leapt into the fray. Her fists flew. Her stylish, yet affordable boots collided with ribs, kidneys and jaws.

Spike, his leather coat billowing behind him, launched his own attack, clawing, punching, kicking and pummelling.

Eddy simply watched, bemused.

“Grrrraar!”

Out of the darkness, a vampire reared, all bitey teeth and pointy claws.

Eddy grabbed his wrists, but was thrown onto his back by the vampire’s momentum. He suddenly found himself pinned to the flagstones, dodging teeth that threatened to tear out his jugular.

“Help!” Eddy released one of the vampire’s wrists and thumped him firmly on the nose. “Help! Big vampire thingy here!” He thumped the vampire again, wriggling free from the undead’s grip. “Help!”

“Here,” Willow, the willowy redhead, threw Eddy a sharpened piece of wood.

Eddy stared at it, bemused.

“Great. Thanks. A toothpick.”

The vampire launched himself forward again, teeth bared.

“Oh, right,” Eddy snarled. “I’m bloody pissed off now, mate!” He started pummelling the vampire with punches and kicks. The vampire pummelled back. They kicked and punched and wrestled across the flagstones, until the vampire had Eddy pinned down and was ready to bite.

Eddy closed his eyes.

Woosh!

Suddenly, Eddy’s vision wasn’t filled by snarling fangs… Instead, he found himself choking up a mouthful of ash. Clambering to his feet, hacking and coughing, he found himself facing a lean, blonde man with peroxide blonde hair.

The blonde in the leather jacket held out a stake.

“No need to thank me,” Spike snarled in his British accent.

“Cheers,” Eddy responded.

Winded, bruised and dusty, the redhead scanned the room.

It looked like the vampires were gone. All that remained was a thin layer of dust - like the mantlepiece in a crematorium. Buffy, Spike, Willow and Xander were dusting themselves down and checking themselves for injury.

“Looks like we made it,” Buffy sighed.

Eddy hacked up another mouthful of dust.

“Erm” he coughed, “no need to thank me.”

The Scooby gang span around to their redheaded guest.

“Hey,” Buffy growled, her blonde hair billowing in the non-breeze (since crypts aren’t generally that breezy.) “We summon a kick ass vampire slayer to save us from the vampires and what happens?” Her blue eyes narrowed. “We get Biggles here.”

“Biggles?” Eddy looked bemused.

“Leather flying jacket,” Xander explained, “she’s making a joke.”

“Oh, right,” Eddy blinked.

He put his hands on his hips.

“Listen, sorry about not meeting your absurdly high standards in vampire killing back there… But lay off… Where I come from, pale, bloodsucking friends are generally known as “traffic wardens.”

He gazed around the crypt and shivered.

“So,” Eddy demanded. “Where the hell am I again?”


Chapter Three


They held a Scooby meeting at Gile’s place.

Eddy Newbolt, still brushing dust from his shirt, sat on the sofa while the Scooby gang paced nervously around him. Giles, Buffy’s bookish mentor, studied Willows spell books carefully.

“Buffy,” he yanked off his glasses and turned to his blonde student, “it appears here that Willow’s spell misfired.”

“You’re not kidding, Giles,” Buffy growled. “Instead of a kick-ass Vampire killing machine, we get a carrot topped…”

“Hey!” Eddy interrupted.

“No offence,” Buffy span around. “Seriously, no offence, but when we called about The Powers That Be for a champion to help us defeat the army of vampires that’s invaded Sunnydale, we expected somebody who… I don’t know…”

“Believed in Vampires?”

“That’s it.”

“Well,” Eddy shrugged, “after the big bitey, toothy performance earlier, I certainly believe in vampires now.”

“Yeah, but you can’t fight them.”

“I don’t know. I gave that pale bugger a pretty good slug on the jaw.”

“No, seriously, Eddy,” Buffy frowned, “we expected some kind of superhero. Not an…”

“A what? An ordinary guy?”

“Well, yeah.”

Eddy shrugged.

“Well, sorry to disappoint.”

He turned to Giles, who he’d identified as the Guy-Who-Probably-Knew-What-Was-Going-On.

“So, Mr Giles blokey… Where exactly am I again?”

Giles shrugged.

“I’m sorry, Mr Newbolt,” he admitted. “I’m not sure. Willow’s spell was meant to summon forth a heroic vampire killer. Instead, we got you.”

“So, where am I again?”

“Sunnydale, California.”

“California? Like as in America?”

“Yes.”

“That’d explain the accents.” Eddy looked around. “Hey, I’m not sure I have a valid VISA, you know. Can you send me home?”

Giles took off his glasses.

“I’m afraid not. Not without the Necronomican.”

“Necronomican?”

“The book Buffy and her friends were trying to recover from that crypt. It’s a dark and ancient book, stepped in black magic. Only there will we find the spells needed to send you home.”

Eddy looked up.

“Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure I want to go back, yet. I mean, aside from the big sharp toothy vampire thingies, it seems pretty nice here. California. Land of grapefruit and Hollywood. I mean, while I’m here….”

“Eddy,” Giles warned, “there is more reason to recover the Necronomican than just you.”

“You mean this isn’t JUST about me?”

“No.”

“Well, I did think I was stealing the thunder a bit from Buffy, Willow and… erm… That beefy guy in the corner.”

“Xander?”

“That’s the one.” Eddy paused. “Hey, Dude. You realise you’re named after a fish, right?”

“Ahem,” Giles coughed.

“Sorry. What were you saying again?”

Giles chewed the end of his glasses.

“Eddy, you are here just in time to witness the end of the world. Apocolypse…”

Buffy sighed:

“What? Again?”

“Yes, Buffy. Unless we can get hold of that Book of the Dead, all Hell will reign on Earth… It’ll be like George Bush Jnr’s presidency, only permanent.”

There was a gasp across the room.

“Wow,” Eddy nodded. “Sounds pretty terrifying.”

He hopped off the couch.

“Let me know how it turns out, won’t you?”

The Scooby Gang watched him head towards the door.

“Wait,” Giles took off his glasses again. “You can’t go. What about the book of the dead? The curse of the vampires…?”

“Well,” Eddy paused, his hand on the doorknob, “you told me already I wasn’t the superheroic vampire killer you thought I was…. So I might as well stay out of your way until all this has blown over. I thought I’ve visit the Universal Studios.”

“But Eddy…. The world is depending on you…”


Chapter Four


After much discussion, it was decided Eddy would spend the night at Giles’ place. After all, they were both British and Buffy, who had the only other available couch, didn’t quite trust the winks Eddy was giving her.

So long after the Scooby gang had retired, Giles and Eddy found themselves sitting at the dining table, drinking rather good Scotch.

“So, Giles, old Buddy,” Eddy mulled, sipping his Islay malt. “What exactly Is going on here?”

“Well,” Giles took off his glasses nervously. “I didn’t want to alarm Buffy or Willow, but it appears our predicament might be much worse.”

“Worse than what? Worse than the bitey tooth vampires in the crypt? Because that was pretty bad.”

“For Buffy and willow, that’s simply a normal day.”

“Oh. So worse is much, much worse.”

“Exactly.”

“How much worse?”

“Well, Eddy. It appears the spell Willow performed was actually meant to conjure forth a Mary sue. Hence, you arrived.”

“Who are you called Mary Sue?”

“Don’t be offended, Eddy. It’s a non-gender-specific-term.”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“Eddy,” Giles rolled his eyes, “the term ‘Mary Sue’ refers to something. It’s actually a term used in literature. It basically equates to a character inserted into a story merely to project the author.”

“To what-the-what-what?”

“An author writes himself into a story.”

“Oh…”

“Well, many bad authors take existing characters and existing story situations - like from a comic or TV show - and write their own stories, inserting characters based on themselves.”

“And that’s bad how?”

“Well, these characters know everything, they muck up continuity and often form relationships with the main characters. It basically turns to world the characters inhabit upside down.”

“Oooh-kaay.” Eddy rolled his eyes. Then he paused. “What a second, Four Eyes.”

“What?”

“If I’m supposed to be like on of these fictional Mary sue characters, how come I DON’T know anything,. I didn’t even believe in vampires until a few hours ago. I mean, I met some once, back at home, but they turned out not to be real vampires at all. So I stopped believing in them. And then I saw them today.”

To Not Be Continued...

Blogging as Journalism

I just read a very interesting article in Writer's News about blogging.

Is blogging the new journalism?

Like it or not, the internet has transformed the writing industry, and perhaps not as you'd think. Book sales are as strong as ever. It seems nothing can match the experience of paper and ink in your hand (especially if it's by the beach, with some kind of rum drink in a hollowed out coconut.)

But journalism is changed forever.

Because now anybody and everybody has a voice. Whatever your opinion, sites like blogger allow you to create your own 'column.' A good showing online can lead to greater things. I'm sure you've all heard of Belle du Jour. She was a supposed Call Girl from London who posted her adventures on line. Recently, due to the number of hits and media attention her blog was getting, she managed to get a very juicy book deal. Belle du Jour's journal can now be found in Waterstones next to Winnie the Pooh.

Well, maybe not RIGHT NEXT to Pooh, but you get the picture.

They say that the blogger revolution will mean everybody will be famous for "fifteen people" instead of fifteen minutes. But other people might be able to follow Belle du Jour's example and make the leap from blogging to writing. Properly. And getting paid for it.

It's inspired me to think a bit more about what I post on my blog. I'm going to try and lean more towards interviews and opinions and lean away from shiny pictures of my new car. Maybe then I'll get discovered by an agent who wants an online journal like Belle Du Jour "but without the Jewish prostitute bits..."

I can wish, can't I?

Being Ginger

NB: Since writing this, I have blogged about being Ginger a few more times: http://rolandhulme.blogspot.com/2007/01/prejudice-against-gingers-daily-echo.html
http://rolandhulme.blogspot.com/2006/12/southpark-ginger-kids.html
http://rolandhulme.blogspot.com/2006/12/prejudice-against-redheads-ginger-is.html


I stumbled across a VERY interesting post on blogger, from a lady called Forever Amber. It's about the terrible disfigurement she suffers. Being ginger.

Okay, Amber. You might be ginger, but in case you haven't looked in a mirror lately, you're also disgustingly attractive.

Anyway. Her post got me thinking about something I think about a lot.

Being Ginger in Britain is a miserable thing. I spent my childhood getting picked on and being called names merely because I had ginger hair - quite commonly by teachers as much as fellow pupils. At University I had a girlfriend who told her parents that her new boyfriend had 'light auburn brown' hair because she was ashamed of going out with a ginger (you know who you are!!) In pubs and clubs, I got cat calls for being ginger or looking like Chris Evans (one of the reasons I got contact lenses.)

It's not as bad these days, since I lost the glasses and put on a bit of weight. But I'll still slyly turn around when I hear people laughing in the street in case - just in case - they're laughing at me. Since I moved back to England, they never have. But the doubt's still there in the back of my mind. Things like this don't help. Ginger Kids.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's the way it is. It was one of the major reasons I left England in the first place. In France or America, I never ONCE got picked on for the colour of my hair. In fact, the French found it unique. In America, the most offensive nickname I picked up was "Red."

I loved living abroad. It was like, after being so self concious for such a long time, I'd suddenly become invisible. Even now, I'll feel more tranquil and alone sitting at a busy cafe in Paris than I ever could in the UK.

I just don't understand what the British mentality is about ginger hair. It's the only minority you're still legitimately allowed to pick on. The ginger characters are always portrayed as gormless, social pariahs on television. No newspaper can print an article about Chris Evans, Robin Cook or Mick Hucknall without using the term "ginger" in a derogatory way.

In Amber's article, she takes a verbatim chunk of dialogue from an online forum and changes to the word "ginger" to the word "black."

It's quite shocking.

In this day and age, if you got into a fight with somebody from a different enthnic background to you and you yelled out some reference to it, you'd be banged up with a 'hate crime.'

Why aren't attacks on people with ginger hair treated the same way?

People from an African background have black skin and curly black hair because of their genetic ancestry. I have red hair, pale skin and freckles because I have Scottish roots. It's all genetics. I am a product of my racial heritage as much as any black or asian person. So how come people like myself aren't protected from hate crimes in the same way?

It all stems down to the same reasons. Ginger haired people are the only minority you can still legitimately harass. No civilised person would hassle a black guy just because of the colour of his skin. But those same people, so desperate not to be accused of being 'racist,' would spill my pint in a pub and call me "copper knob."

I hate it. It's permanantly put my back up living in England. And while I've had very little trouble since moving to Winchester (which is, after all, a highly civilised place to live) I will still always feel slightly uneasy living here.

I think that's one of the reasons I made Adventure Eddy ginger.

It wasn't so he could duff up the people who picked on him, or come up with witty retorts when he was insulted in a pub. I didn't want to make him a 'Mary Sue' character who managed to accomplish all the things that I'd failed to when I was put in situations like that.

I just wanted to write about it so people knew it happened.

The irony is, of course, that the section of Adventure Eddy in which he gets picked on for being ginger was one of the first sections I deleted when I started trimming the story down to a managable size.

This Writing Life: A Writer's Life

A brilliant post on how author Ian Hocking got his book published, and how he's working on putting the next two into publishable form.

This Writing Life: A Writer's Life

L'ordinateur qui ne mourir pas...

The talented Ian Hocking, who readers of my blog will know I'm a fan of, is a geek.

He has self-confessedly (yes, I know that's not a word) geeked out with a review the the computer he writes on. And in his recent interview with Mil Millington (author of Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About) he asks: What kit do you use to weave your masterpieces? Feel free to geek-out on the details.

As a result, I have decided to reveal to the world the kit I use to weave my stories.

It's not a hypermatic supercharged electrostatic computer masterpeice. But it is very special. It is the laptop that would not die. Or, since my friend Sarah Bailey revealed that everything sounds better in (my poorly translated) French, it is l'ordinatuer qui ne mourir pas...

Just recently, T and I managed to get our house sorted and we established a space in our spare room where I could write. That was what called for the unzipping of body bags, the application of unGodly science and the ressurection of the computer that had given birth to Adventure Eddy.

My computer is an eMachine. It is a first-gen Pentium, with a floppy drive and a CDROM. It has two USB ports and and QWERTY keyboard.

Many years ago, I had a girlfriend who gave me this computer to write my stories on. It was pretty nifty then. A bit out of date, but it had a word processor and everything I needed to write with.

It travelled with me through the USA, France and England. It ruggedly connected to the internet at the Pierre et Vacances in Paris and in a little terraced house in England. It slogged on reliably while more modern computers packed up.

But time marched onwards.

First to go was the screen. It had always been a bit 'pink.' Like taking too much viagra or something. Apparently there was a loose connection with the LED. Anyway. Eventually, the pink turned to red and then, the screen died.

Then the '2' key fell off the keyboard.

And the battery exploded. And the hard disk died.

In fact, this computer, which had seen me through SSIP 2003 and 2004 and got stories published in Hustler, seemed to be past the point of rescue.

But like Herbert West in the old H.P Lovecraft Stories, or the BBC with the new Doctor Who, or whoever that idiot was who invented the series "Enterprise," I refused to let it die.

The broken screen was replaced with a monitor from a car boot sale.

The keyboard was replaced with a keyboard we got on store credit from Computer Solutions on Jewry Street.

The USB ports were held together with duct tape.

And it lived. IT LIVED!!!

Now, despite all the odds, the computer that saw me from beginning to end on Adventure Eddy is alive once again, to hopefully allow me to write The Bootleg Boys.

I wanted to write about it, because it seems like anti-geek, to me. As close as IT can get to the dark art of VooDoo. And, hopefully, Adventure Eddy will get published and Ian Hocking will want to interview me and then I will be able to reveal to him the dark, unnatural creature that is MY computer.

Mwuh ha ha ha ha ha!

This Writing Life

Ian Hocking, author of techothriller 'Deja Vu,' has a fantastic blog about his experiences in writing, plus writing in general. His first novel has gone on to win quite a lot of acclaim and two more, a sequel of sorts called 'Flashback' and a very promising comedy called 'Proper Job,' are in the works.

Since I'm at the editing stage of Adventure Eddy, I thought it would be a good idea to ask a seasoned veteran about the stages he went through when putting together a book. Ian very kindly obliged. Anybody who aspires to be an author will find this fascinating stuff.

Obviously, all of us writers have ideas flitting around our brains. But at what point did you sit up (or sit down) and decide: Based on that thought, I need to write a novel?

I've been writing fiction since I was a teenager. I don't think I had a definite plan to write a novel, but, as sixteen-year-old, I was daunted by the size of a novel, and tried to cobble one together from a few short stories. The result: a complete disaster. But I learned a lot from the experience and wrote two more novels before I sat down to write 'Deja Vu', which was published in January 2005. The impulse to write that novel was simply 'Well, I suppose I'd better get on with it'. I didn't have any overall plan for the novel, but I had some interesting characters and an interesting situation, and wondered how far I could take it.

You wrote a 120,000 word novel. How? Did you plan it out? did you sit down and write it? Did you get writer's block? Did you need to go back and change stuff you'd written? Or did it all vomit out from your brain onto the page?

With Deja Vu, I wanted to make sure that first draft was written in one go without any stoppage, even if I thought it was going badly. So I planned to write 500 words a day, seven days a week. That's not too hard; it's like keeping a diary. Eventually, after about five months, I had the first draft of a book.

You stress the importance of editing very strongly in your blog. Just how different was your first draft of, say, Deja Vu from the finished product? How did you go about editing it?

The first draft of Deja Vu was 120, 000 words, and the published version is 69,000. That means I've reduced its length by 50,000 words - seems like a lot, but, honestly, there were no significant changes to the story overall. Those deleted words were unneeded. Adverbs, descriptive passages, an unnecessary character or two. Of course, editing is more than deletion, and I added a lot too. In fact, I re-wrote the first half of the book from scratch using the original draft as a guide. I was helped a lot by my editor at the UKA Press, Aliya Whitely (whose book 'Three Things About Me' is about to be released by Macmillan New Writing). She prepared a report full of suggestions (an editor never really directs you make changes; oh no, that would be to easy). Essentially, it boils down to: What is the bare skeleton of wordage needed to tell the story? Anything beyond that should be excised. This is particularly true of the thriller genre, but probably holds for most others too, with the possible exception of the literary genre. For me, editing is vitally important. An unedited book is like an unprepared actor going on stage; some are talented improvisers, but most will die on their arse.

I think that's fascinating. Thanks a million, Ian.

Ian's excellent website, plus details of his books, can be found at ianhocking.com

This Writing Life: A gratuitously old-fashioned adventure story

After finding his fascinating blog about writing on the net, Exeter based writer Ian Hocking was kind enough to check out Adventure Eddy, and even had a few kind words to say about it.

You can find out details of his novel here too, which has recently been published. He also makes it available via free podcast.

This Writing Life: A gratuitously old-fashioned adventure story