Published on December 27th, 2008 Join the conversation »
There are pros and cons to this method as you might imagine. As the Persistent Spirit story begins to enter its final phase and the end of the book is on the horizon, I find myself contemplating whether I might undergo the same process for the second book, A Shot in Time.
Time: writing and recording an episode consumes 15-20 hours of effort. Maintaining that each week with an increasingly demanding and unpredictable day-job has been, frankly, stressful.
Structure: episodes have a completely different structure to a novel, requiring continuing momentum, restructured scenes, and some point of tension at the end of each one. Unedited, this brings the novel a strange, pulse-like pace which now needs a further re-write.
Progress: episodes promoted regular writing. I believe I am further along in the story than I would have been without to self imposed demands of a regular episodic production.
Story momentum: despite the structure issue mentioned above, the story has a pace and continues to move along ithout getting bogged down and sluggish. Once the “episodic pulse” is edited out I think the novel will have an enhanced page-turning pace.
Feedback: reaching out with even an unpolished story to potential audience around the globe has generated feedback that has helped both encourage the work and help shape it.
Not another audio book, that’s for sure. The pros most certainly outweigh the cons, so the audio book of the second Table Rappers book must correct some of the negatives of this years’ experience. Most importantly is the frustration from being unable to produce regular, weekly episodes. Book two (titled A Shot in Time) will not be released as serialised audio until it has completed the second draft.
That does not mean there will be nothing from the Table Rappers in 2009, however. I’m planning some short story dramatised episodes, including a cast of actors, full sound effects, etc. Doesn’t that mean even more work? Yes, but the work flow can be controlled around the production, and such a project is free from an ongoing, weekly deadline.
2009 is already promising to be a challenging year on both personal and professional fronts, so careful planning will be essential to achievement of my goals. I’m thoroughly looking forward to what might prove to be a formative year for the future!
December 7th, 2008
A few months ago, when buried right in the middle of my novel writing, the thought of discovering a problem with the story large enough to consider rewriting perhaps 20,000 words and killing perhaps another 15,000 was horrific. Oh how attitudes change.
I’m 110,000 words complete in the second draft and a flaw has occurred to [...]
November 19th, 2008
Getting everything about your characters in place before the writing begins is the surest means of weaving your story and characters together throughout your book - erm… no.
I was thinking around a recent comment on my character arc post. Kev wrote:
Planning a story arc for a character can be difficult until you know the character [...]
November 14th, 2008
If you’ve been paying attention here, you’ll know that my big project, TableRappers, has been conceived as a series of novels. Currently four are planned, with aims to create a least six. This presents a significant challenge in managing character arcs.
Arcs are, of course, essential. The reader must follow a character’s journey through each story [...]
October 23rd, 2008
The history of TableRappers is one of planning. Like nothing I had tackled previously, the concept grew from simple ideas into an expanding universe of possibilities. Even after several years, the expansion continues.
I posted on the TableRappers site yesterday an announcement about the fifth book in the series. The concept I have had hanging around [...]
September 28th, 2008
Just a few days before our two week vacation and I have finally managed to select some reading matter to fill up those endless days doing very little. But in these times of writing my own novel, and wanting to take only my Sony Reader, selecting a book was less than straightforward.
Avoiding disappointment
First criteria is [...]
September 25th, 2008
As a reader, discovering new writers and learning to trust them can sometimes be a toe-stubbing, root-riddled ramble. Having had my time stolen far too frequently by disappointing reads, I try to explore the potential based on recommendation or general background hum. Just this week, and despite the general hum sounding distinctly positive, I had [...]
September 19th, 2008
Hollywood endlessly remakes old movies, bringing them up to date, polishing them with modern dialogue, swanky sets, and more than a splattering of special effects. But this kind of star-spangled resurrection doesn’t happen with books.
I am currently reading Algernon Blackwood’s The Damned (1914), which Wikipedia describes as “A highly original haunted house tale in which [...]
September 15th, 2008
I have been on the search for stories that scare me as much as those I read during my formative years, and I’m struggling to find anything that satisfies.
In addition to the big writing project (TableRappers) and its supplementary tales featuring its characters, I want to create some old-style scary stories. By old style, of [...]
August 27th, 2008
Bear with me while I pop back in time a handful of years to when I messed around with stand-up comedy.
For the first few years as an aspiring stand-up comic, one must tread the rocky paths of the open spots. These are the 5 minute - or if you are lucky 10 - slots that [...]
