And we're done ...

Yesterday I hammered out the last five thousand words of Tube Riders: Revenge, finishing the book up at ten minutes to midnight.

Then I had a little cry, and after that I went to buy a beer. Then I went to bed and at three thirty a.m. I got back up to feed the cat. Such is life.

That's it, done. You have no idea how I feel right now. Partly empty, with a huge gap in my free time that I'm going to fill for a couple of days doing absolutely nothing (okay, so I'm going to read a book, or maybe edit a couple of short stories, or write one or two more ... okay, you get it, I have no trouble filling my free time, "free" is a concept that doesn't really exist), and partly relieved. It's over. It's finished.

I wrote the short story Tube Riders in 2002. It was published in a special edition of a little magazine called Not One of Us in 2007 and I later published it myself in my collection Ms Ito's Bird and Other Stories.

In 2009, looking for a novel idea, I turned my mind back over my short stories and thought that the one with the kids hanging off the sides of a train might work. I got a piece of A3 paper, covered it with lines and scribbles, and what would become a 600 page novel was born.

It was originally never intended to be a trilogy. I don't like series - I don't like reading them and I don't much like writing them either. I actually prefer books which have a single enclosed story, but I found at the end of The Tube Riders that it was just part one of what would need to be a wider story if I was to really show what happened to the likes of Marta, Switch, Paul, Owen, Dreggo and even the horrible old Governor.

Until I come to self-publish it in March 2012 I had no real motivation to write any more. I had failed to sell it to publishers despite it being everything a commercially successful book needs, and I felt pretty much down about the whole writing thing. At pretty much my lowest ebb as a writer, I decided to give it a shot out in the world and it did okay. Not spectacular, but the reviews were decent, and finally I really felt like I needed to complete the story.

I wrote Tube Riders: Exile (TR#2) between September 2012 and February 2013. I hadn't really written anything in three years up to that point, and while its got a good story I was a bit ring rusty. I worked for a while on editing it, but then released that the third part in the trilogy, Revenge, was calling out to be written. So I shelved Exile for a while and got to work.

Thanks to the encouragement from several writer friends, I busted my ass to get this book done. And in less than three months - the quickest I have ever written a novel - I got to the end.

At 132,010 words, the first draft is a lot short than both book one and book two, but I tend to add a lot of detail in when I rewrite, so it'll probably end up a similar length. I think it's a good book. It's tighter, leaner and is absolutely relentless. There's no fat on this book at all, and I think it's a worthy end to the trilogy. I as certainly cut up writing the final scene yesterday.

So what happens now?

First, I'm going on holiday, next week in fact. I'm going to stay away from writing and stay away from the internet as much as possible - unlikely, but I'll try ... - and just relax for once. At the same time, though, I'm going to reread book one and make any minor changes that I feel necessary. I won't be changing the plot, but its my book and with the series now finished there might be one or two places I feel that clarification is necessary so I'll do what has to be done. Plus, a polish never hurts. Apologies to anyone who's read it who feels the need to read it again - you can get a free update from Amazon.

Then I'm going to begin the biggest task - revising Exile. I'm feeling sharp now and in control so it shouldn't take too long. Then, now the cover is done and the formatting has been commissioned I'll be putting it out for your appraisal. And then it'll be on to Revenge.

I want both books out by Christmas. That's the plan. I want all those little Tube Rider computer pixels to be filling virtual stockings on Xmas Day, and then you can all find out what happens in the end to Marta Banks and her friends. It'll shock you, it'll horrify you, and it'll make you gasp with excitement. It'll be worth it, I promise.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with me. The story is told. That's the hard part. Now I just have to get it cleaned and dressed and ready to step out into the world.

It was quite some ride ...


Chris Ward
3rd September 2013

Tube Riders: Exile - What happens next?

Yesterday, after five and a half months, of writing, I finished Part 2 in my Tube Riders series, titled Exile. It rocked in at 145,166 words or in readers' terms 530 pages.

So, the first draft is done. What happens next?

I see a lot of writers just rushing their books out, sending their first drafts off to an editor the day after finishing. I'm going to go old skool with mine and leave it on a virtual shelf to mature for a bit. The draft is done, but I have to decide if I'm really happy with the story as it is. For example, less than twelve hours after finishing I came up with a couple of small changes to make in the last scene, including one important confrontation that wasn't in the original manuscript. These are changes I'm going to make and there will be others, too. My drafts tend to be fairly sparse, so there's a lot of room to add stuff in.

I'm aiming to let it sit for about six weeks before I actually read it over. That should be  enough time for me to look at it more objectively. Once I start reading I'll aim to tighten the existing text, add more detail, get rid of as many basic typos as I can (my first drafts are littered) make sure the characters - particularly the new ones - maintain the same "voice" all the way through, hunt down and kill any plot holes, and try to make some of the more unbelievable sections as believable as possible.

Then, once I'm satisfied with it, I'm going to make it ready for the world.

1. Beta readers

These will be a small group of people who get to read through the draft. I have a couple of volunteers but I'd like five or six so if anyone else would like to ...

These people will have a direct influence on the final story. They get to tell me which bits sucked, which bits are stupid, which characters are lame. If I agree, I'll fix it.  If they all say the same thing and I don't agree, I'll probably still fix it. While it's unlikely I'll agree to bring a dead character back to life, or a kill a character that survives, I could be persuaded to kill them differently, or give them a bit more of a beating in lieu of actually killing them. I'm open to suggestions!

2. Copy editing

I edited Tube Riders 1 myself and I kind of got away with it because it had been three years since I had looked at it and the whole manuscript felt like someone else had written it. I was able to edit it as if I was editing a book for a stranger, but time it'll be a little more difficult, because I don't want to wait three years before getting this book out. A copy editor will aim to tighten up the text in sections I've missed, spot repeated words, that kind of thing.

3. Proofreading 

I may or may not get the same person to do the proofreading, but I learned the hard way that you can't do it yourself.  When I first put Tube Riders out last year it had more than a 100 errors in it, and it took me six different volunteer proofreaders to get them all out. This time I'm going to get it done before I release the book. It's way too important to go out with errors in this time. I'm learning slowly, but I am learning.

4. Formatting

Same as the above - I put Tube Riders out myself and the first edition had some bad formatting errors, sections that were all in bold, sections that didn't have intents, etc. Again, I'll probably pay someone to do it for me this time.

5. Cover!

Obviously a book needs a cover. I'll probably start planning the cover while I'm doing all of the above so that there is no delay once the book's ready. For this one I'm going to get Marta Banks on the cover as she's my leading lady. Not sure how yet, but it'll make a nice change from the scary Huntsman on part 1.

6. Release

I'm going to put the book out on all formats this time, not exclusively through Amazon. This will mean that I can't do free promos, but I will be able to do bargain books and also giveaways I arrange myself.  While I like the KDP free promos as a way of reaching a wider audience, I've been hit by far too many bad reviews by people who don't even like my type of book yet just download it because it's free and then complain about it. I've had enough of that. If a sci-fi fan hates it that's fine, but I'm tired of people who don't even like sci-fi slamming it because it somehow didn't manage to transcend a genre that they don't even enjoy reading. Tube Riders 1 will also be coming out of Select at the next opportunity, which is late Feb. My standalone books will stay in for now, as I don't mind a hit or two on those.

What am I going to do until March?

Write! I have a ton of stuff that's been put on the backburner while I got this done. I have a novella to finish, a short story collection and two novels to edit for starters. Then I'm going to play around about, maybe write some poetry, or a few stories about my cat ... We'll see. Once this book is done I'll get back to work on part three. Looking forward to it!

CW
10th Feb 2013

The Hunger Games vs The Tube Riders

Over the last weekend I bought and read the first volume in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games Trilogy.  I’d heard a lot about it but bought it kind of on a whim while I was picking up a few other books.  I read it over three days (usually takes me a month to read a book that long) and thought it was really good.

By a slightly scary coincidence (no, it had nothing to do with me) a new review last Monday for my book The Tube Riders had this to say -

“If you loved The Hunger Games then you will love this one. I couldn't wait to read what happened next and will definently (sic) buy the sequel.”

After reading THG, I have to say that there are definite similarities.  Therefore, I thought it would be fun to write an utterly pretentious blog comparing the merits of a multi-million selling series (with a movie to boot) against my book, which at last count had sold about 150 copies.

I’ll try to be as objective as possible, because this isn’t supposed to be about which book is better, just how they compare.

(be warned, there are some spoilers coming up)

The World

Hunger Games is set in a future North America called Panem.  The capital city is called Capitol, and the rest of the “world” is split up into 12 districts, each of which serves a different function.  There is some mention early on of wars and natural disasters that have changed the landscape.

Tube Riders is set in the renamed Mega Britain in 2075.  Mega Britain is very recognizable as Britain except for surface detail, such as the perimeter walls surrounding the cities and the buried towns and removed roads in the countryside, known as the Greater Forest Areas, all of which is designed to prevent movement of population.

Result - Draw

The Leader

The Hunger Games doesn’t really involve President Snow too much.  We don’t know much about him except that he is angry at Katniss at the end.

In The Tube Riders, the leader, Maxim Cale, known as the Governor, is a seven-foot tall albino black guy with red eyes and telekinetic powers.  He has been in charge of the country for 40 years give or take, and doesn’t seem to age.  He features fairly strongly as a major character.

Winner - the Governor

Katniss Everdeen vs Marta Banks

In the battle of the leading ladies, Katniss is clearly the more badass in terms of skill, although Marta can do a mean tube ride.  Katniss has excellent hunting, archery and foraging skills.  Marta, having grown up in the urban waste land of London Greater Urban Area, is only really good at tube riding, although she can use a knife a little and “does what’s necessary” to get by in London.

Winner (in a fight) - Katniss

Winner (catching food) - Katniss

Winner (catching a train) - Marta

Peeta vs Switch

The battle of the leading men swings back the other way.  I really liked Peeta.  I thought he was kind hearted, gentle (except in a few certain situations), and honest.  He also seems to be pretty good looking.  Switch is a scrawny little man with a bad eye, no redeeming features and will kill without mercy or morals.

Winner (beauty contest) - Peeta 

Winner (fight) - Switch

Cato vs Dreggo

Cato was the only real villain in THG, and he had very little screen time, mainly because the book is written from Katniss’s point of view.  Dreggo, on the other hand, gets almost as much screen time in TTR as Marta, has been described as “a walking horror show” and is a hate-filled agent of vengeance.

Winner - Dreggo

The Brutality

I was very surprised with how much blood and gore was in THG.  Not that it bothers me, I just wondered how such violence can be considered YA yet there wasn’t a swear word in sight.  People get blown to pieces by landmines but no one so much as utters s**t.  TTR contains the same levels of violence but there’s a lot more bad language to go with it.  Mind you, TTR isn’t aimed at the YA market, whatever that really means.

Draw

The pacing

The Hunger Games really raced along.  I actually thought the whole reaping part was over way too soon (one chapter) while the middle section before the games started was too slow.  The Games themselves, though, absolutely rattled along.

Here is where it’s difficult to comment objectively (because I wrote it) but reviewers have tended to agree to the same with The Tube Riders.  However, with so many POV characters it is inevitable that there are some slower chapters.  Overall, though, for a 600-page book people seem to agree that it’s pretty fast paced.

Draw, THG maybe shades it

Sales figures

Millions vs not a lot.

Winner - The Hunger Games by an absolute mile!

I hope you enjoyed this little comparison of what I think are two awesome books.  Most people are familiar with one but I think the other is worth checking out.  Yeah, so you might think I’m being a pretentious writer in comparing my little book with a literary sensation, but you don’t need to take my word for it.  All you have to do is go over to Amazon and read the Look Inside (five chapters) and then come back and agree/disagree.  Nothing lost, nothing gained.

I haven’t read parts 2 & 3 of The Hunger Games Trilogy but I will be doing so shortly.  As for parts 2 & 3 of The Tube Riders, they’re currently under construction.  Watch this space.

CW

8th Jan 2012