Nii Ayikwei Parkes is Booktrust's second online writer in residence. Click here to visit the writer in residence page Click here for Nii's biography

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  • The forest and the trees

    Posted Tuesday August 18th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve been a bit silent of late, but I’ve got a good reason.  I was deep into the final stages of that third draft I kept talking about, and the closer you get to the end, the harder it is to let anything else in life in. 

    I could feel myself racing the finish, ready to write that last word, delete that last comma, subtly emphasise that last theme, all in the attempt to make it sing, to make it fly, to make it great...

    Was I able to accomplish any of that?

    Hell if I know.

    Really, by this point for me, there’s a serious forest and the trees scenario.  I’ve spent so much time writing this book (and I don’t just mean the months of writing, I mean the everyday time as well, great hunks of hours in a row, lost in a story, making it work; it’s akin to remodelling your entire house while still living in it) and so much time thinking about it and weaving it together that, here I am, surrounded by thick, thick forest and only able to see the individual trees while I dribble unattractively on my lapel.

    …
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  • Naming the baby

    Posted Monday August 3rd 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Amidst all the hard (but rewarding) work of the third draft of the final volume of the Chaos Walking trilogy, today is a fun day for me. It’s when I get to tell the world its title. 

    This is partly because I decided to keep it a secret for a while. Not just to let the anticipation build for a bit (but why not?), but also because it felt like I was protecting my book a little; keeping it out of the fray until it was ready to launch.

    It’s ready now, and though I’m still working on that third draft, a real book is emerging, one that deserves a name. And that name is...

    Well, let’s consider titles for a moment first, shall we? Now that I’ve offered four of them to the world, I get asked a lot where I get my titles from, and the answer is often just the same gut instinct that plots emerge from. Half the time, who knows? You’re just bumbling along and suddenly it trips you up, fully-formed but obviously right.

    The Knife of Never Letting Go wasn’t originally called that, for example. I didn’t quite know what the title was going…

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  • New writer's tips again!

    Posted Monday July 27th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    They’re coming fast and furious now.  Well, fast, perhaps.

    There’s a new set of writers’ tips up today, this one talking about voice and how your book has one whether you like it or not, so it’s time to start listening to it.

    Bravos and brickbats to the usual comment spot.

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  • The small matter of making it great.

    Posted Friday July 17th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve written before on here about writing both first drafts (where you try anything and everything because no one will ever see it) and second drafts (where you cut away all the unnecessary fat and get a first glimpse at what your actual story is). 

    Each one is a scary thing. Facing the blank page every day for the first draft, desperately hoping there are enough diamonds in the rough of the second.

    And so I’m sorry to say the third draft isn’t any easier. It’s where, by some indescribable alchemy, you must take your story and make it great.

    Hopefully*, of course, you’ll have a head start on this. You wouldn’t have begun the first draft without a good idea, and the energy and power of that will still be there. You wouldn’t have cut away things in the second draft unless they needed to go for the good of the story, so what remains will be pretty much everything you need to get a real book out of it.

    So what’s the third draft for then? For me personally, it’s all about the telling of that story. I’ve set out my material as…

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  • New writer's tips up!

    Posted Monday July 13th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve spent most of the last month working on the new short story (which I hope you’re all enjoying; it’s free, after all!), so there’s been a lull in the writers’ tips portion of the page.

    No longer! Up today is a new set of very counter-intuitive tips on how setting limitations on your writing might actually free it. If you’ve been struggling with your story, this might help, though a little bravery is also required.

    Questions and comments welcome.

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