According to Hannah, the manager, I looked knackered. And, to be honest, I’m not sure if I was making a great deal of sense when I was talking to her. But that’s not the point, I had an empty enough head to write.

Funnily enough, since writing Bring on the empty head, I heard this line on Bored to Death;

Jonathan: “I’m really hung over from that vodka.”

Ray: “Well, you gotta write something. I did my best work hung over. I have less brain cells to confuse the issue.”

Which gives me another avenue to try, should the writing before I’ve had the chance to think ever fail.

Actually, I think that’s it. Writing before I’ve had the chance to think. I have a plan; I have a start point, an end point, and some stops along the way. On Monday morning on walk to the coffee shop I in my head a vague plan as to what I was going to write; I had a starting point, a stop along the way that I needed to work toward, and a vague idea as to how I was going to get there. But when I actually began to write I started to find that the writing took on a life of it’s own, and that the characters were saying things and acting in a manner that I hadn’t I really planned. And, by the time I’d finished, I no longer had the scene that I’d sat down to write. Which is really quite exciting.

I found that when I was writing WHHITC, specifically the last third, that I would write best first thing in the morning. Maybe best is the wrong word. I was certainly more prolific, and I found it far easier to write. But I don’t think it was because I was any closer to being in a dream state. Every day off I had and – as I neared the end – every time I was on a late, I would take a walk down town to the local coffee house. I’d get there for seven, have coffee and a pastry, and then write until nine. It wasn’t necessarily a lot, or any good, but I found that the ideas and stories came more freely. Then, unless I was in full flow, I’d go home and read through what had spilled out of my head. If it was any good I’d usually then go back to the coffee house in the afternoon and build upon it. But, as I said, I don’t think it anything to do with my proximity to dreaming. Merely that it was so early that my head was empty of all other thoughts. The stories and ideas didn’t have to compete with anything else. It was as if my RAM had been reset over night; the trash and caches had been emptied, all the processors cooled, and I was able to compute at optimum power.

I have not done this it quite some time, and I really think that it’s about to time now that I ought to. My writing has slowed right down, and if I don’t act now I’ll probably come to a complete halt again. So come seven o’clock tomorrow morning I’ll be sat in a coffee house, ready to go. Bring on the empty head.

After sitting down, and talking it through, with the first two people to finish I made a few changes. Some minor, some major. I amended the preview books that hadn’t gone out yet, and recalled two that had. Only JB, SKG, and The Bear read the book before the changes. They have a; slightly different chapter seven, Ben being a little meaner, an extra scene with Mrs. Palcznski, and an epilogue.

The epilogue was quite a difficult scene to cut. I liked it. I liked what was going on, and I liked what it did. But the consensus was that the end was stronger without it.

Was it the right thing to do? I’m not sure.

Should I put it back…? I don’t know.

I am going to use that scene though in As Yet Untitled.

And if you’d like to read it for yourself? If you’d like some clue as to where I’m going with As Yet Untitled? Please send me an e-mail at; karentribes@mac.com.

Morning *Karen*. I read WHHITC, it was a frustrating, enjoyable, funny experience, well done. When’s the next novel due?

I am not a fantastically confident person, and don’t look on the bright side of anything, so one word in that text really stood out which needed investigating;

Frustrating because it was badly written, or because of where it ended? Cheers though Dave, the follow up is slowly being scrawled in crayon as we speak.

It wasn’t so much the writting, just the characters conversations i struggled to follow some of them, and i didn’t really enjot the start of sentances like yeah,no. I found that frustrating but i can see why you did it cos of the dream/reality falling awake thing. On the whole tho the book was ace, it was different to the style of writting i’m used to i guess. Good work

It was an attempt to show Ben not thinking before speaking, and I also wanted the dialogue to be quite snappy. “I didn’t want to slow it down,” said *Karen*, “by breaking it up.” I also purposly tried to get the reader as lost as Ben. It starts of telling you what day everythings happening, and this gradually disapears throughout the book. What did you make of the end?

I liked  the end, i found the book easier to read the more i got into it, i guess it’s getting used to writing style. I’m sorry if i came across too critical, i really did enjoy it.

Critical I can do something with, I’m pleased with that, it let’s me know how to improve my writing. If he’d have simply text; it was alright, I’d have pestered him far more than I did. So thank you Dave.

Click here to download it now.

under construction

Originally uploaded by magicmoir

So, born out of a few old notes, I’ve written a tiny amount of new material. It’s for book two, it kind of carries on from where I left off all those months ago, it’s the bare bones of the beginning of chapter six, and in it’s current state it gives so little away that I can include it here;

“Is this happening now?”
“It is. This is all happening right now, this instant, the wrong side of three in the morning, right here on the- which green is this…?”
“The 4th.”
“The 4th-”
“It was the 16th last time.”
“So this is a regular occurrence then?”
“No. Well, I’ve been here before. Only, not like this…” E cracked a smile and then shook his head, “no…”
“What is it?”
“Fuck…”
“How is it that you ended up all the way out here?”
E laughed,
“And where have you come from?”
“I… I don’t think I can tell you.”
“You’re not going to be in any kind of trouble.”
“It’s not that. I just don’t think you’ll believe me.”
“We just want to make sure that you’re okay, and to let whoever cares for you know where you are.”
“Wait. What? I don’t have anyone that looks after me.”
“Do you know what kind of medication you’re taking?”
“Medication…? This conversation has got away from me a little, why are we talking about medication?”
“Because we need to give you something for your ankle, and because you don’t quite appear to be making sense of what’s going on.”
“That’ll be the concussion. I’ve had quite a substantial blow to the head.”
“A weak ago-”
“Maybe for you…”
“Judging by the colour of your eye, it’s been about a week since you hit your head. E, we need to get you to a hospital, and we want to give you something for the pain, but we need to establish if you’ve already taken anything. And, to be quite frank with you, your eyes are giving you away. They look as if you’re on something.”
“What?”
“Or that you’ve been drinking heavily.”

3gs – notes

Originally uploaded by magicmoir

I’ve spent the last two hours sifting through and reading all the notes for book 2, and I’m much happier than I was yesterday after coming to the end of Chapter five.
There’s loads of ideas, loads of themes, loads of directions I’ve suggested for my(future)self to take, and loads of questions I’ve got to find the answers for.
Over the last week or so I had been coming up with small bit’s of dialogue, but no idea where they would fit in, and no ideas for the overall plot or for stories to tell on the way.
After reading through the notes though, I have several jumping off (well, in) points that I can take to get me back on the right track. Not sure just yet which one I’ll take… but I’m certain I’ll have some new material for you very soon…

as yet untitled – 2

Originally uploaded by magicmoir

I have finally finished everything on my reading list, which is brilliant, and it now leaves me with a rather interesting task. Because, you see, the final book on the list; ‘As yet untitled,’ is also unfinished. At the end of Chapter five there’s a line space, the header ‘Chapter six,’ and then that’s it. After that it’s just blank page after blank page.

I’m fairly certain that, until this morning, I hadn’t opened it in well over six months. I had looked through a few of my notes on Sunday, before meeting up with John, and realised that they just got to a certain point and then stopped…

What to do, what to do. I read the second half of WHHITC’s today, and then ploughed right into ‘As yet untitled,’ so my head is in the right kind of place. I think.

I’ll sit down tomorrow morning and lay out all my notes. I’m not sure if I’ll set out writing in precisely the same place I left off, but I will start writing again.

The links all still work however, so please click if you want to see what should be there.

to do/to read

Originally uploaded by magicmoir

I haven’t written a word of fiction in about five months. Which is shameful, really.

At first it was because I changed jobs, which was a much bigger upheaval for me than the people that know me give me credit for; “So where do you work now? ~ Well that’s just next door, right…?” And for the first few months the job was all I could think of, not necessarily the new stresses that I was under, or that I was having to learn something new, but because I had done my old job for so long it was something that I could do intuitively.In hindsight, in the end, I was probably doing my old job without thinking at all. Which is probably how I was able to write a novel and hold down a full time job at the same time. I could walk around work and formulate whole conversations, scenes, stories, and the odd chapter in my head. I couldn’t always remember all of them afterwards, I’d often had to stop and take notes before talking to people*, and I’d occasionally try to fit strange bit’s of dialogue into conversations with my colleagues and customers to see if it worked and to gauge their reactions, but for all intents and purposes I was doing my job well. So when I then changed jobs, and had to start thinking about what I was doing, I no longer had the spare room in my head to write. It was so involving that I couldn’t pries myself out of this world and into the world that I was trying to create. When I first realized this I tried to give myself the time to think, and to write, but by the time I had managed to empty my head of thoughts of work it would always be the time to head back.

Then a month ago, or so, I started to read Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger. It was the first time, in quite a long time, that I started to be drawn into a world that was not the one that I was living in, and it began to remind me of why I enjoyed writing With His Head In The Clouds. I had/have an idea for a second book, and had written the beginning and even several scenes further in, but work had robbed me of the time to immerse myself in it. Now I had the want to start writing again, but found myself unable to get back into the right state of mind. I decided that I’d finish reading Her Fearful Symmetry, then move onto my own first book, and then start writing again. Except then I wanted to read A Picture Of Dorian Gray, and then The Bear suggested that I read Moondust, and then I became completely distracted and found that I was spending a lot of my free time looking at photos on the internet. I had a long weekend last week, and wasted a great deal of time not reading, looking at pictures, and writing, well, blogging (six posts in four days, none of which amounted to anything worth reading). However, it did show me that I had the capability to think outside of work. I may not have as much time as I once did but I do have the want, the capability, and the passion to write again.

My plan of action is thus;

Less Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook.

Finish reading A Picture Of Dorian Gray, and then read; Moondust, With His Head In The Clouds, As yet untitled, and then start writing where I left off.