I: I went back to the Keys to interview Rupert for a second time about the writing process.
Since I first interviewed him, some extracts have surfaced on his web site, and he has apparently had a tough-love conversation with his alter ego Belem Knight, and told him, as Rupert sketched in English vernacular, to “get his arse in gear” and write a book instead of doodling on chapters.
This time, Rupert had two cats about his person. “I am surrounded by pussies”, he said, deadpan.
I: So, Rupert, you put a rocket up Belem?
R: I did. It was time he stopped sketching and scribbling aimlessly and got his act together. I told him to get cracking on a novel. He thinks weirdly sometimes, and it seems that fantasy erotica is perfectly OK, so I told him to stop wibbling and start writing.
I: So what is he going to be writing about?
R: I am not sure, but knowing his mind, it will be rather…warped. But not illegal.
I: I wanted to ask you about the life cycle of your stories and novels. I know you pants, and you have those four stages of writing.
R: Yes.
I: So when you create, say, a chapter, what phases does it go through?
R: Ah. You will now get a long answer to a short question.
The beginnings are usually one of:
Synopsis – a summary written out in Scrivener. I am tending to lean that way these days since it is good practice for book blurbs. I am not good at the Elevator Speech thingy, as in “you have 60 seconds to tell me what your book is and why I should buy it”. So this is good practice.
Sketch – Anything from 50 to 200 words, a join the dots picture, sometimes with dots missing. Often, I write in code, because I have a visual imagination. I have entire evenings of fornication sketched out in a sort of summary English, almost like movie storyboard. I can read it and know exactly what is happening. Anybody else reading it is going to have a hard time unless they have an even more active imagination than me. I did once talk about this with somebody who thought that proper sketches could work, but somehow I doubt that most intended readers could make that work.
Then, the chapter sometimes sits there. For a long time. Sometimes, I strike it, because I changed my mind. Sometimes I strike it because, well, you know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Only it’s not really any use.
Then we move to:
Partial Draft – Part of the chapter is written at the correct intended level of detail, but not all of it.
First Draft – This is, as Terry Pratchett says, you (the author) telling yourself the story. All the content is there. But the viewpoint may not be what the final version needs.
Revised Draft – This is after a long pause, when I come back and look at the prose again. Usually it changes, sometimes there is quite a bit of change, because I may decide that the viewpoint in the chapter needs to change. Normally this is a tidying-up, adding details, aspects of the narrative to deepen the content. You find content that does not add any insight, so you strike it. Then there are little details that need to be added, to tidy up loose ends etc.
Editing Draft – This is where a pro editor goes in and fixes all of the Silly Shit I didn’t fix. Like me wandering between American and English English, which can happen. And fixing some grammar quirks.
Final Draft – After some reviews by eagle-eyed reviewers, this is the Final version before publication.
A lot of story chapters are Sketches in Scratchpad in Scrivener. Some of them may make it to a story or a novel. Some probably won’t I have way more ideas than time to realize them.
I: So how long does it take to…
R: Create a chapter? That varies. I did one in 20 minutes once. I had the idea, the characters were all suddenly there and speaking to me, so bang, I knocked out 2400 words in next to no time. Other times, it can take months. Sometimes I am missing a scene-setting piece of prose. Something to provide a feeling, a setting, within which the characters can function. Then it can take a while.
You need some foundation on which to rest a chapter. If you don’t have that, along with a clear narrative to work along, you can end up just hammering on prose and not really saying much at all. Yeah, the words are all there, but when you read it back it does not really say much of anything, and you realize that you just waffled.