h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's nearly two years since I had an idea for a story, called Dreaming in Stone. It centred on an old house in France, and the English family who buy it, to renovate the barns as bed and breakfast accommodation. But the house is crumbling, they haven't enough money, and they don't understand the French system.

When I started, I didn't call it a novel, even to myself. I called it a story, a project, even 'this thing I'm writing'. It was only once I'd drawn up a proper plot and some character studies, that I began to think of it as a novel.

I recently counted the words of all the pieces that I might use, and it totalled 26,000. I've written more than that, but there have been so many variants I've tried, characters I've taken out, pieces I've cut. And, worse than that, I thought I was nearly at the end of the middle section. I know what has to happen in the middle section. Alison tries to find work, gets a job in a restaurant and falls for the chef, Francois Allombert. While Brian tries to think up ideas for raising money, Alison and Francois become lovers. Then Alison's brother Tim (from whom she's borrowed money) arrives and tells her that her financial position is hopeless and she needs to sell the house. But 26,000 words at this point is too short for the story to be a novel.

Then I handed 5,000 words in to Susannah, the tutor of the Advanced Writing Workshop course that I'm following. People said that the scene where Alison and Francois become lovers was too quick, too early. It needs to be a slow-burning romance, said Susannah. Neither Alison nor Francois are the sort of poeple who jump into bed with each other at the first opportunity. And Francois is chef of a busy restaurant, while Alison is washing up.

I have already rewritten these scenes and taken the sexy bit out. This of course, makes the story even shorter. I shall go plodding on, I suppose. But I feel a bit like a person who's waded into a river, without realising how deep it is. I can't go back, but I don't know how i shall ever get to the other shore. In particular, I'm worried about the character of Brian, who is self-deluded. I suspect he's unrealistically stupid. What's more, I ask myself, am I going to do with this thing (allright, let's call it a novel) if I ever finish it.

I'm also loving this subtext, of course, dear poetlady, the story behind the writing of this novel. .

When Susannah and the others said that they thought the lovers scene appeared too early, did you agree with them? I guess you did, otherwise you wouldn't have rewritten it.

Now I want to read the Directors Cut, of course, the original version, with sexy bit included, I'm never sure what a Director's Cut actually is, but I like the sound of the phrase.

I wonder when you'll finish the novel. It must be so strange to finish a work that has been with you for months. I wonder how you'll feel when the final sentence is written? Bereft or relieved, tired, or inspired (to write the next novel haha) Is Dreaming In Stone your masterwork, your life's work?

Hi cc, nice to see you here.

I think Susannah and the others were probably right, and Alison and Francois became lovers too soon. If you're given crits by lots of people and several of them say similar things, I think the writer has to take notice. Though chucking out a piece of work you've struggled over is always hard.

I'm afraid that I'll get to the end, realise that Dreaming in Stone is still not that good and feel that I've wasted loads of time -and money. I shall have to tell myself that just finishing it is an achievement in itself. And stick it on hootoo.

Ah splendid! that you might publish Dreaming In Stone here on hootoo, I get to read it! yes!

Otherwise I'd have been hounding you for the script like a script hungry hound, , not like pressure or anything ...

...more like how it is when you're involved with a really good TV drama, and they tell you that series two isn't coming out for a year. So I pace around for a year, wondering who and why and when and grrrr and curious, and will he get together with her, or will that other guy ruin everything, except I think the other guy is better for her, even though he might ruin everything ...

.. and I rootle in my desk for rubber bands so I can nervously stretch them till they snap, but after a year I run out of rubber bands.

Sort of thing.



OK, interview time. Here's some questions I must ask this writer lady. I'm pretending to be a quality journalist for an arts magazine here. heheh. I wish. . OK I'm me really.

The intro ....

I notice that you have just completed what I would consider to be a masterwork, namely the creation of a haiku every single day for the entire month of November, plus other word perfect poems, which seemingly appear out of nowhere, like the miracle of spring blossoms.

These works are currently published on the website known as h2g2. (and I am hoping you are going to make a book).

The questions ...

How does the process of writing poetry compare with the process which you use to write, say, your novel, Dreaming In Stone, or other stories?

Did you have to do research before writing, say, your hootoo haikus, or did they just unfold in the moment, like spring blossoms unfolding from out of a bud?

Are you artistically satisfied with your hootoo haiku project?

If there was a creative challenge on h2g2, suggesting that you write and complete an entire story, or novel, like Dreaming In Stone, say a paragraph a day in your journal, all within the parameters of a month, could you do it? And be artistically satisfied at the end of it?

Can I have the script now please for Dreaming In Stone? Unfinished or finished. What happens??? (rootles for rubber bands to snap)

OK you can ignore the last question, , but I'm really interested to know about the others. If you want. But you don't have to.

Here, have a coffee

Goodness, what a lot of questions!

I found writing the haikus quite easy, because haikus work best if you concentrate on a detail - like the flowers on a Christmas cactus. I could write them down in my notebook, or even make them up in my head and remember them. Though I did find myself thinking 'I must do something today that I can write a haiku or two about. Going swimming would do.'

I think some of my haikus are better than others - and the vivdness of the image is usually key.

Working on the novel is complex. I have an overall plot, though it changes as I go along, character studies for all my significant people, and scene plans for most of my scenes. I've also done a certain amount of research. I've found Google maps surprisingly useful, but I'm going to have to read some serious French.

I don't think I could write even 30,000 words in a month and be satisfied with it. As I said, it's taken me 2 years to write 26,000 that I'm relatively happy with. Even then I know there are things I will probably change before I've finished

Sorry about all the questions my luv , I was getting inspired

Thanks for answering, fascinating. I love that about concentrating on a detail, for the haiku.

I do love descriptions of a creative process!

Google maps? I never thought to use Google maps for research, but then I'm not writing a novel. . Yet. Hah!

Thanks again!

There's a woman called Jess Richards who did an earlier version of the course I did at Sussex Uni. She wrote a novel called Snake Ropes -she wrote 200,000 words and had to boil it down. Not only was that published but she's been shortlisted for the Costa Prize for the best first novel!

You might like Snake Ropes- it's full of myth and .

This is really interesting MVP. I have 30,000 words since August in my 'sort of novel' and think it might or might not get finished.

I enjoy the writing, but my main beef is that it eats all my writing time. And I also don't know what I would do with it if finished - one of those chapter by chapter internet sites? Lulu? Fifty chapters in the post here? Hard to find the right one. Certainly nothing that involves lots of promoting it all over the place.

sprout

30,000 words since August sounds good going, Sprout.

Are you doing this all on your own? I've found the courses I've been on helpful and sometimes inspiring. Not only the information on things like plot and point of view, but also the encouragement of a group. Though when your fellow writers say things like 'your anti-hero is too dull and depressed', it's quite easy to go home despondent.

Like you, I'm not sure about publication. I think my chances of getting Dreaming in Stone published in the traditional way are slim. Even if it's well written it probably doesn't have that Unique Selling Point publishers look for. (Jess Richard's novel Snake Ropes is strikingly original). If you go for self-publishing, e-publishing and the like, you need to get your novel noticed - which, these days probably means using social media to get people talking about it.