by Chris McMahon
Death by Bird-Peck. That’s kind of what I am subjecting my SF manuscript to at the moment.
Life is currently providing small slices of time at random intervals. Thankfully I am revising a draft manuscript and not actually trying to write anything new, because that would probably drive me insane. And thank God for my laptop, otherwise nothing would be getting done at all.
This week it has been:
Two bus trips a day (20-25mins each). Add mad scramble to save files to USB and get laptop and USB back into case before I miss the stop.
Waiting in doctor’s surgery(35min). This guy is always running late, talk about turning a frown upside down:)
Cabs to medical imaging (10min each way). Back in the waiting room again (20 min).
Apart from this my life is consumed by the other two jobs and family commitments.
I think you get the picture.
The amazing thing is, I seem to be making some forward progress. It’s slow, and there have been more than one bus trip where I have been stuck re-drafting a single paragraph for the whole time (when I have to ruthlessly suppress the voice that tells me this sort of piecemeal work is futile). It helps that other writers critiquing for me like the characters, pace and storyline.
It’s a near-future SF thriller. The whole thing starts with a nuclear explosion that destroys half my alma mater (University of Queensland), then moves from Brisbane to a secret facility in Sierra Nevada, complete with mysterious sub-basement. I think I have had more fun writing this than anything for ages.
I find dipping in and out like this much easier to do if am working on an existing draft. I know other writers are the reverse, and find it easier to plunge into first drafts and new work than re-writing. New work, and first-drafting takes a large amount of energy for me. I have to concentrate fully and really get into the ‘zone’. Typically it might actually take 20min to even start flowing, and even then I need to keep pushing it. That’s why trying to do that on the bus or in other very short snippets of time is nothing short of torture! Basically I have given up on it. From now on I am going to first draft in ‘chunks’.
Anyone else working by Bird-Peck at the moment?
Mad Genius Club 
8 responses to “Death by Bird-Peck”
Me too, Chris. I’m pecking away at the first draft with hardly in good runs at it. I’ll just get a day or two and start to make good progress when I’ll have commitments of a week to 10 days. Very hard to maintain my mind in the ‘zone’.
HI, Rowena. It’s like torture isn’t it? You do so much work to get into the zone, leaving it is a real wrench. At least you get a couple of days – do you get a good chunk of hours for those days?
I couldn’t do a first draft that way. Luddite that I am, I’ve been know to print out things that need editing or typo hunts and take a red pencil to it while waiting in doctor’s offices or, more usually, the garage while someone works over the car.
Right now, I ought to be doing a last pass over something I want to put up on Kindle, and I’m going to have to unplug from the internet to force myself to pay attention to it.
Hi, Pam. If you work on paper like that here is another thing you will love.
A friend of mine, to error check his book proofs, printed out the pdfs and then went though the whole manuscript backwards with a ruler – line by line. Talk about laborious. But a good way to pick up typos if you are the author because it forces you to read each sentence rather than going into ‘autoflow’.
Here I am keeping you plugged to the internet! Shame on me. You should get that thing up on Kindle:)
Working by bird-peck = My life. I’m not working at the moment, but when I am I’m a full time graduate student, a full time employee and full time dad. No, it’s not babysitting. Yes, they are mine and it IS my responsibility. It still takes time. Right now, life is pretty slow and I’m JUST a full time grad student and a full time dad. Oh, and I’m married too, but I can send my wife off to work and at least get a couple hours of peace that way.
I draft by pecking, I edit by pecking and I fall asleep pecking. I dream of the day when I can take a vacation by myself and just write a chapter in one sitting….
And then I wake up and change a diaper before heading off to class.
Hey, Jim. You have my sympathies. Young kids are heaps of work. Anyone with older children who tells you its worse in their position is either winding you up — or has just plain forgotten (or neglected their children when they were infants and could not talk back). I shared care with our three from the time they were all under four until the youngest was at school. Not a job to be underestimated! And I thought it would give me time to write!
Keep up your momentum. I am constantly surprised by how much I manage to achieve in small parcels. I think part of it is that your mind latches onto the work and you are advancing it even when you think you are not – thinking about characters, themes etc.
Think of the bird-pecks as a glue that gives everything else structure – they might be between everything else, but also above, below, beside. Like putting water in a glass full of pebbles.
Good luck!
My problem is the “birds” are fricking rocs. I’ll kill the buggers yet.
Isn’t that a good thing? To have your writing attacked by birds or enormous size and strength? If you can put them to work you are made!