charles barrow's writing

Pantser -  "A NaNoWriMo *  term that means that you 'fly by the seat of your pants' when you are writing your novel. You have nothing but the absolute basics  planned out for your novel.  This outlook towards writing is often opposed by the 'planner', who knows exactly what is going to happen, when it will happen, and where it will happen. There is often enmity  between the two types of writers." The above quote is lifted directly from the online  Urban Dictionary **  and I post it here because the whole debate of plotting versus pantsing (I might have just invented that word) is very much exercising my mind at the moment. Back in September I wrote about the struggle I'd been having with doing any kind of writing at all, and how I'd employed one of my trusty old tricks for demolishing writer's block; namely writing for just eight minutes every morning. Well, as usual, the trick had worked for me and I found myself turning up at the blank page every...

I am now the proud owner of a new ISBN number, my third. I won't bore you by listing them here. It's an achievement getting an ISBN. Like getting a medal for crossing a finishing line, or a certificate for completing an arduous academic course. I got this ISBN for finally (finally) publishing John Mann - At Day's End. It's been a long time in the making, but it's made. This book completes the All The Days of John Mann trilogy that I accidentally started writing back in 2013; as I said, a long time in the making. You can download a free copy of the book from Smashwords.com (click on the cover image on the right to link to the book's page on that site). I hope you enjoy it. 

John Mann - At Day's End will be available to download very soon, as soon as I upload it to Smashwords in fact. It's the third, and final, book in the John Mann trilogy. And it needs a cover, of course, and working on it provided me with an opportunity to revamp the covers on books 1 and 2. This is their first public outing.  I'm almost happy with them. I think I'm too close to be objective so I'll live with them here for a few days to see if they still sing to me at the weekend. They may, of course, have started to nag and shout by then, but either way I'll have my answer. Photos are the author's own

As mentioned in my last post, I have to leave the flat I’ve lived in for the past seven years, so the past few weeks have been tinged with sadness and, at times, alarm (have you seen the cost of hiring a removal company?). But, of course, there have been moments of excitement too at the thought of all the new experiences I’ll have in the new place. I have found somewhere else to go and, you know what they say, different windows, different horizons? I have also finished writing and editing  John Mann – At Day’s End . Can I get a little fanfare? It’s good to go, just waiting on the cover. This book has been, literally, years in the making (three if memory serves) so it feels especially good to finally be done with it. And it seems apt that it should be finished while I’m still in this flat, where it was born, and where all the hard work on it happened. And now I’ve finished it? I can start looking around for something new to work on, after all, there are a whole lot of different...

I'm still editing my story. It's been a long road, littered with many perils - too many characters? Not enough action? No tension? Unsatisfactory ending? I've wrestled with them all. But chief amongst my headaches at the moment are capital letters. City, city, Government, government, Abbey, abbey, Sergeant, sergeant. I thought I knew these rules but suddenly I've become unsure and have lost my way. I can't tell you how many times I've changed some of these examples from lower, to upper, and then back to lower again. I've googled and feel none the wiser, I bought a book on punctuation, I've studied other novels, but I never seem to find the exact right example in the exact right context. I've almost decided to use lower case in every single instance, figuring that there will still be mistakes, but fewer on average. After all, this system never hurt k.d. lang or ee cummings. I could do worse than follow their example.

You know when you know what a word means but are sometimes at a loss to explain it? Well that was the case with 'Epilogue' and I today. The online dictionary I just checked says that it's the concluding part added to a literary work, but it also says that it's a speech delivered by one of the actors after the conclusion of a play. Now, those seem to be slightly different things; a conclusion in a novel, but another piece after the conclusion of a play. Perhaps it's possible that it is both. Either way, I've been considering an epilogue for John Mann - At Day's End. Now obviously if I include one it would have to serve a solid purpose like finish the story, add depth or colour, or look to a new beginning. I actually visualised an epilogue right back at the beginning of the writing of this story but then lost enthusiasm for the idea. And then recently I went out on a day trip and saw a telegraph pole with some coding carved into it (see picture below) and ...

I'm deep into another edit of John Mann - At Day's End. It's hard work of course. I've just found a loose thread which I will inevitably have to pull on, just to see what unravels so that I can stitch it back together. One of my favourite aspects of the editing process, which is not normally a fun pastime, is finally being able to turn to my Edit Boards. As I write a story I get words and phrases, ideas and prompts, pop into my head. I don't always want to stop right then and back track to add them into what I've previously written so I record them onto post-it notes and stick them onto the Edit Boards until later. Well 'later' has now arrived and I'm transferring the saved words and phrases into the story. They won't all find a home there of course, some are just destined for the bin. This is an enjoyable process for me, I enjoy this part. This isn't a struggle. As I transfer the contents of a post-it into the story I'll remove it f...

Guilt has spurred me to check back here. I wrote in a previous post that I find I can be writing here or I can be writing my book and I don't always find it easy to keep up with both simultaneously. So I haven't been here but I have been working on John Mann book 3, At Day's End. I've been writing and editing. It has been slow going but I'm still on track to meet my own deadline, so I'm not worried. I've also been planning an exciting research trip back to London in December. I've got some story wrinkles to iron out, and I'm looking forward to hitting the streets on my fact finding mission. I want to research facts certainly but also sights, sounds, and smells. I want to make sure I capture something of the atmosphere of the big smoke.

'When he was younger he would race for a dare between the city's livestock pens, terrified of the big farmyard beasts grunting and snorting beyond the slats. Now, he might just drop by on a blue moon to trade with the butchers for jerky and biltong, though there were fewer animals to be seen these days and then mainly sheep, with their black faces boney and their eyes uncurious.'  An excerpt from John Mann - At Day's End.  Photo is the author's own.

Just got back from the first of two story research trips to London. What an amazing, inspiring City. I'm not sure I'd want to live there again (having lived there for a short time as a student) but I love to visit occasionally, and this time I had a very good reason. I went to do some research on some of London's parks for book 3 of John Mann's story, tentatively called John Mann - At Day's End. I'd been to these parks before but this time I needed to explore them, see what of London could be seen from them, generally get a sense of atmosphere, and take photographs. It was a great thing to do because a) research is always fun and I want to be sure I have my facts straight, and b) London is just inspiring and now I feel more energised creatively. 'Tired of London, tired of life.' as someone famous once said. I can't wait to visit again soon.