by Darcy » Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:05 am
Thanks! It's something I've always wanted to tackle but just couldn't get started. Being unemployed for the first time in over 30 years was the catalyst, as I needed something to do with my idle hands. I set up my photography website and wrote a few songs (had a CD on iTunes years ago) but then I reread some Hemingway favourites and decided to go for it.
No outline but I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go. While managing and check pilot on an operation on the Mozambique border, this Brit showed up for his first tour overseas and I've never met someone so out of place, so I used him as my protagonist. He was likeable enough but so nervous about everything, and so pedantic about the rules, he drove everyone nuts. The story is about him attempting to come to term with his many fears, some unfounded and some legitimate. Some of the things that happen to him actually happened to me, or to others, and in other places, but thats the basic premise, and of course, I've used a fair bit of artistic license. I seriously doubt he would consider himself the inspiration were he to read it. A new crew member arrived on base after we had been there for two years, and he was the most overtly racist asshole I had ever met, and caused no end of strife, he even caused a small riot and got kicked out of the country, so I've got him in there too. The ending was tricky, I had a riot, but at first there was a murder, but it didn't fit and struggled with how to close it out, but eventually I came up with something that doesn't read like a bad Hollywood movie, I hope. I just dove in and pushed through....
The process is the fun part! I had read a report of a university study where 1/2 the students wrote by hand, and the other half wrote on computer, then switched out, and everything was analyzed, and they concluded that the hand written material was far more personal and introspective. Plus I found an article that Hemingway wrote everything by hand, and used the stage of transferring everything to typewritten as an extra stage of editing. So while in Italy I got myself a Montegrappa fountain pen and some leather bound notebooks with Italian paper and got to work. Admittedly I loved the aesthetic of sitting in dark Scotch bar in Aberdeen or Montreal and scratching out my novel. I took the notebook everywhere and wrote in airport lounges and restaurants, on my back deck with a G&T, in Scotch bars, out in the woods hunting white tails, and eventually I got to the end. I read a fair bit of my old favourites while writing for inspiration; Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, Orwell....
Then I purchased some proper writing software; Ulysses, and set about transferring everything over to digital. I did a lot of heavy editing in the rewrite process, as per my inspiration. Ended up with nearly 80,000 words.
Then I tried to find an editor, but I received some very condescending and self-righteous replies on what they were going to do with my novel, and they hadn't even seen it yet, so I decided to go it alone. I purchased ProWritingAid, and cut and paste in a chapter at a time. This REALLY highlighted my poor grammar, flagging all the "ing" verbs and "glue" words and numerous other issues that severely affected readability, plus it explains the whys and wherefores of grammar that were lost on me. I am finding this a tedious process but admittedly I have a far better product as I progress.
I'm hoping to have it finished before the end of the month and start submitting to publishers, if i don't find a job first and get back to working! I've turned down some resident posts in various Middle East locales, and unfortunately all the Africa work is tied up by European companies, and I don't have an EU licence or passport, so I won't be getting back anytime soon. The company I've been with for the past 18 years went bankrupt. Quite a few companies claimed they'd hire me IF they win contracts now under bid, so I'm just waiting for one of those to come to fruition, in Myanmar, Thailand, Trinidad, Suriname, the Canadian Arctic and even one major contract here in Halifax that I flew for a decade long ago. At this point I'll take the first one that comes out with a solid offer.....