Return of the Keyboard Junkie

“Just hold your breath and realise this is me… finishing the second draft.”

Okay. Well, it’s not strictly Grosse Point Blank, but I’ve tinkered with the line because a) I love the film, and b) it feels about right.

The second draft is done, finished, blitzed, fulfilled and wrapped up in a nice bow. I know you’re thinking “it’s just a second draft, right?” Well, I say the second draft is more important than the first in one respect – if you really fuck up a story, it’s usually during the second draft. This is the stage where a writer goes blindly down one path, thinking they’ve explored the alternatives in the first draft – yet there can be more than one path to true enlightenment (sorry - I mean to a complete story that matches the writer’s expectations). Every story I’ve written but left unpolished has been down to the second draft – that point of no-return. There was The Apprentice and the Stripper, and before it the Forever Chain, that perhaps just missed the point, or rather the turning for a book that could have been exceptional, but in the end (to me) was a little bit of a shrug and a sigh.

If I’m honest, the first draft of The Secret of Mhorrer was where I realised the path was wrong, and in that respect I am quite lucky. The first draft just didn’t look right no matter what I did, so after going back and starting over, the second draft is more than an improvement - it’s almost a whole new story. I’ve excised huge chunks of exposition, of scenes and even chapters that were nice, but superfluous. And I’ve taken some characters and drop-kicked them from the book, while conversely characters who originally had small roles are now quite prominent. Yet despite more complex characters and conflicts, the book has been reduced from 186,000 words to 160,000. That’s not too bad - not bad at all. With more trimming I’ll get that below 150,000 words.

And it means I can take a break from writing. I’ve earned it I think, and a short break from the project for two weeks will be refreshing and give me some time to do other stuff… Such as promoting The Secret War (I’ve now got a couple of arts festivals in the pipeline over this summer) - as well as personal stuff like reading more during my lunch-breaks rather than lugging around this laptop (I’ll be instead lugging about China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station – so it’s almost the same weight!). I’ll be enjoying more of the Spring air (I did get out in the sunshine for a day over the Easter weekend and got sunburnt – in April?!), and I’ll even have more of a social life (though do writers really have such a thing?).

Yeah, films, friends, family and fun (in no order). Sounds fantastic…

(Is the deception working? No?)

Okay, I admit I just can’t wait to get back to the writing. I’m not sure if it’s just being a keyboard junkie or someone who feeds on his imagination, but I love storytelling. And I know – just know – that even if I don’t start the third draft of The Secret of Mhorrer soon, I’ll be tinkering with my children’s book - A World of Night - or perhaps writing a short story or two, or thinking about the Autumn Project (whatever that will be).

Someone recently remarked to me that they didn’t know a time when I wasn’t writing. I told them truthfully there were the years at university (discounting the long anthology I wrote in my final year). Though even then I managed to write a novella and a couple of short-stories in those three years. So if you want me to stand up and confess to my addiction, there you go. I love writing, and this blog will probably feed that obsession in the coming weeks.

Either that or I get addicted to something on TV (I’ve just started watching series 2 of 24, so it’s possible…)

But the draw of the third draft may become unbearable. A writer’s gotta do the thing that feels most natural, right? The call of the Sinai, of swashbuckling adventures in time and space, not to mention the main characters who I have a fondness for – will lure me back prematurely, I’m sure.

You see, I am weak.

I’m an addict.