Stephen King's 'On Writing'

I recently picked-up an audio book copy of Stephen King's book called 'On Writing'... and I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in creative writing. Probably would have made a good Christmas gift, oh well, there's always next year. Reading the physical book is great, but listening to King tell his story, in his own words, was definitely worth the price of admission.

Essentially the book is half autobiographical, half instructional guide on improving your creative writing. The autobiographic chapters, while heavy-going at times, gives the reader a good understanding of where King has come from as a writer, and provides us with an insight into the life experiences that have inspired King's stories. The second half of the book, King's guide 'on writing' was equally as interesting. This is the reason you are reading the book in the first place. I wouldn't say there was a great deal of information in those chapters that one could call 'revolutionary', a fact that King himself admits frequently. However, these chapters are full of bullshit-free, commonsense, instinctual tips and observations from a guy who has spent the last forty years as a writer. He must be doing something right, surely?

One of the most interesting ideas presented by King was the concept that you shouldn't have to plot out the story - simply put the characters in a situation or environment, and allow their own instincts/characteristics guide the story. Simple but thought-provoking.

I’d recommend the book to any creative writers out there – after finishing it, I felt recharged and enthusiastic about my writing. I believe that I’m certainly on the right track; however, there is a long road ahead. Will I succeed? Will I fail? Who knows? I’m done asking those questions. I don't have those answers. Regardless, Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ had given me a new appreciation of the journey.

Stephen King's 'On Writing', available at Amazon.

Novel Progress: Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas (for yesterday) and a happy New Year... and all that bullshit. We don't celebrate Christmas all that vigorously in my household, and given some of personal factors, including the illness of family members - 2007 has been especially low-key. Pretty much nonexistent. Just another day.

I decided to use Christmas Day to continue belting the first draft of the novel into shape - Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day are more or less the only real holidays I will get off over the next few months. The occasional public holiday here and there, but that's about it. Sure, I do get a couple of weekends to myself per month, where I don't get dragged into my real job on a Saturday or Sunday, but with so many things to do in the space of a normal weekend, my writing seems to get somewhat neglected.

Anyway. No real progress on any short fiction since my last update. I did start toying with an old fantasy/sci-fi/post apocalyptic short story for a few hours, however I decided to leave it on the backburner for the moment and concentrate on the novel.

The novel is around the 45000 word mark at the moment - it's on the cusp of being a long novella, or a short novel. With additional editing, fleshing-out ideas and spot-welding, it will definitely fall on the side of a short novel. 50000 - 60000 words as an estimate. Word count isn't all that important, as long as you have used as many words as necessary to tell your story.

'Ringtone' On Your Mobile

My first published story, Ringtone, has recently been given a second life... coming at you on your mobile phone.

Matt Ward from Skive Magazine has been working on an associated site called skiveflash. For those interested, skiveflash is a flash (250-1,000 words) fiction site designed for users of mobile phones. Despite the fact that the site is still fairly new, I couldn't pass-up the chance to have people read Ringtone on their mobile phones. The irony.

Hopefully they aren't driving when they read it.

Glass shards at the ready.

Novel Progress: Initial Adaptation Complete

Last night I completed the initial adaptation of my novel "UC", taking it from screenplay to something resembling a novel. Only took a few months, and that was the easy part. Now I have to go back over the entire thing and craft something that resembles a first draft. Actually more like a second draft, technically. Time to take some of the clunky movie dialogue and pad it out a little, make it a little more human... all without losing the fast-paced nature of the story. This part is going to be even more difficult than getting the initial adaptation on paper.

Oh well. Another three or four months and let's see what I can turn out.