Another go at Dorothea Brande

I gave it a good try this morning. I remembered to try and do some introductory meditation exercises. I used ones from Brain States by Tom Kenyon. Also I was try to see how I close I could get to Anthony Trollope's speed of writing. He set himself a target, apparently, of 250 words every 15 minutes.

The result was, that I started Chapter 5 Scene 4. I was doing as prescribed by the Sydney Writers' studio. That is I was trying to let my subconscious take over and just write willy nilly without correction or editing as I went.

It is quite a complicated scene to describe - essentially a pole vault before anyone quite knew what a pole vault was. Women didn't do it all.

I just about got up to Trollope speed but ran out of steam after about 20 minutes in which I got 300 words written. I don't feel it was altogether a success. On the hand I DO have 300 words of the scene on paper I suppose. I'll try and revise those a bit later and try again with this approach tomorrow,

Plot planning

I started out with a synopsis, well the beginning of one really. It didn't last long. Almost as soon as I had written the first couple of scenes I had to keep changing it. I do try and plan the structure of scenes. This is a version that will not last too much longer. I am sure it helps but the truth is I shall not have a plot that I can shape properly until I have worked my way through to the end of the first draft and can look back. My fear is that when I get there the task will be too daunting.

Dorothea Brande again

For the last week I've been trying as well as I can to follow the Dorothea Brande approach. That is to say I have been setting the alarm for 7.00 making myself a vacuum flask of coffee and hitting the keyboard as soon as the PC powers up without venturing onto email or anything else. Probably I should try a few minutes meditation first but I haven't yet. I'd say that I'm still undecided. It certainly means that I start the day with a few hundred words written, that's true. On the other hand I feel half dead when I wake up. Does everyone feel that way? I never know. It is getting better though, I think. I can't say that it really helps me better tune into my subconscious. On the other hand the ideas seem to come as well as they do at any other time. I can't really say whether they're better or not. I'm going to keep trying for a while longer.

Chapter 3 Scene 1.2

In the house of Isabelle Eberhardt

Link to Google Drive Chapter 3 Scene 1.2

The Gentlemen Rankers talk to Isabelle Eberhardt

It was something of a surprise for me to actually find a picture of the flood. I shall have to make reference to the French Foreign Legion in the next rewrite. It now seems clear they had a base there.














Here is photo of a flash flood.

 I think that I've posted pictures of Isabelle Eberhartdt before but this is where they more rightly belong. I really MUST start spelling her name right!

Chapter 3 Scene 1.1

Back to the Gentlemen Rankers themselves who have now arrived in Algeria.
Chapter 3 Scene 1.1

Apparently this is what Algeria looks like - with camels of course.

I'm very partial to camels - not to the extent of riding one or even going near one but somehow they are a wonderful combination of the noble and the comical.

I was determined that they should be in the story somewhere.

Perhaps my scene would look like this.












The camels in Weeping Camel aside from being the wrong sort were very lovely - just not for the four hours that the film seemed to drag on for.




I S Johar would have to be my casting for the guide. Actually he was Indian but was for many years a sort of all purpose dusky foreigner in British Movies. I remember him particularly in North West Frontier. That portrayal was criticized by the politically correct as being a characterture. George MacDonald Fraser retorted that anyone who had been to India at that time and for years afterwards would instantly recognise the person played.


The town of  Ain Sefra was surprisingly well represented on Google. It is a bit grander than I showed it. I was only guessing. I might change a few things come the rewrite.

















Probably too many but I couldn't resist putting them all in.

 Thinking more about the gentlemen rankers themselves here are three more pictures I muse over

Richmond Writers' Circle

The day after the Wednesday Richmond Writers' meeting - the high spot of my writing week! One of the main things I get from this is the heightening of my own critical faculties when I am reading to others in this situation. It is quite different even to reading aloud on my own. Also, I am more sensitively attuned to the comments of others. This is the reason why people are generous in the praise and circumspect in their criticism. Both the writers' groups I have attended, in Richmond and in Sydney, have been especially good at this. I suppose that is down to the sort of people who get involved.

Yesterday reinforced what I know already in a way. I have to work more on delineating my characters. Characters and plot are very chicken and egg. The plot partially evolves from well developed characters and characters are developed to serve the plot. And, yes, I can also see some plot problems coming. Actually they are here in what I shall be writing this week.

I shall try to approach things in a way I discovered flicking through a 'how to' book I saw in the Saltaire bookshop. (I wish I had bought it,) First, I shall try and push on to complete a first draft of the story and accept that there are going to be many weaknesses in the result. I am, after all, learning on the job as I go. My first rewrite will be to try and tie up all the plot loose ends and implausibilities. The next will be to sort out the characters. The one after that will be to attune dialogue to the characters. I wish I can remember what comes after that. Never mind perhaps I shall come across the book again.

http://richmondwriterscircle.org/

Chapter 2 Readability Stats

As I posted for Chapter 1 here are the Chapter 2 readability stats taken from Word as recommended by Jim Smith, I pretty much kept the Flesch score above the target suggested by Jim Smith of 80.  Also I pick up pace a bit in the action sequences - so I'm fairly pleased with that aspect of it.

I followed the Ladies of the Kensington Gore Croquet Club because I had to give the gentleman Rankers time to get from India to Algeria where I wanted them for their next scene. I am conscious though of the point made by some people that the book says it is about the Gentleman Rankers and I tend to give more time to the KGCC. I'll confess that this is at least partially because I enjoy writing the women. I shall have to see how it goes and evaluate it more when I get to the end of the first draft. (About the end of 2013 at this rate).

For Wikipedia on readability tests see wiki article on readability

Scene / segment	Version	Words	words per sentence	characters per word	Flesch	Flesch / Kincaid	Passives
1.1	V1.0	1,201	11	4.2	80.8	4.6	0.0%
1.2	V1.0	1,244	10.9	4.2	81.6	4.5	0.0%
2	V1.0	1,575	11.3	4.3	78.1	5.1	1.0%
3.1	V1.0	1,317	9.9	4.3	81.0	4.3	0.0%
3.2	V1.0	1,672	11.3	4.2	81.1	4.7	3.0%
3.3	V1.0	1,042	9.7	4.2	85.8	3.7	1.0%
3.4	V1.0	1,566	12.0	4.2	80.1	5.0	1.0%
3.5	V1.0	1,782	11.9	4.2	82.4	4.7	4.0%
3.6	V1.0	1,399	10.9	4.1	81.5	4.5	2.0%
		12,798