(vincenzo ravina's words and pictures)

Ungodly Trifles - a rambling blog post about how I “finished” my novel called Ungodly Trifles

I am “finished” my novel, in the sense that I wrote the whole thing from beginning to end and have begun the process of showing it to other people. I am not finished in the sense that I’m done working it on it. Because there’s still plenty of work to do.

I started writing Ungodly Trifles around October 18, 2007. I’ve been working on it off and on since then. Half the book’s been scrapped in that time, and I’ve written and rewritten all over the place.

I wrote the ending while Laura and I were in Europe. I don’t know exactly when it was, but we were on a train. I didn’t count the novel as finished at that time because I knew I had to write new chapters around the beginning and end of the book, and heavily rewrite other parts and edit a whole lot of the book.

And so I completed that writing, rewriting and editing mission on February 8, 2012 at 11:33 pm, in a parking lot looking out onto Halifax Harbour.

But now it’s “finished”. It still needs a lot of work, but it’s all there. For those keeping track, that means that it took me four years, three months and 21 days to write it.

Laura and Nina are the first two people in the WHOLE WORLD who get to read it. They will contribute the first wave of feedback and criticism and editing suggestions. Then, my friends Cameron and Kathleen have signed up for round two. I’m glad to have people who are so eager to read the novel and help with making it better.

It’s weird and exciting to have Ungodly Trifles being read by other people, because save for a couple of really early chapters that I had floating around, I haven’t spoken a word about what the novel contains to anyone, really. It’s just been me in a vacuum.

But last night, Laura and I talked for an hour or two about all the characters and the various events of the book and who she likes and dislikes and why she likes or dislikes them, and it’s very cool to hear about the world and characters I created from the point of view of someone who is not me.

She’s not finished reading it yet, but she’s really close.

And now I’ll stop rambling and I assure you I will write better blog posts later.

If you liked Toy Story 3, you’ll love Breaking Bad

The following is a bunch of rambling thoughts that I typed down just after seeing the Breaking Bad season four finale. No specific spoilers ahead, just generally talking about the broad strokes of the plotting.

If there’s one thing that Breaking Bad is very good at, it’s ratcheting up intensity. It’s a slow burn. It sets up the card castle and then it blows it up good. Its main characters get themselves into huge messes. The show compounds those problems with more problems, then it locks everything in a room and eats the key. And the intensity builds to the point where you say, OK, that’s it. They’re completely and utterly screwed. It is impossible for the characters to extricate themselves from the train wreck. And then (spoilers) they do.

Just like Toy Story 3. The joy of Breaking Bad and Toy Story 3 is being brought to the point of black hopelessness before being immediately bathed in sunlight (although, not so much with the sunlight part on Breaking Bad). Have you seen Toy Story 3? If not, go see it. That scene in the incinerator is beyond words. And it’s the same way I feel when I’m watching Breaking Bad. And it is GREAT.

Sometimes people talk about emotional manipulation like it’s a bad thing, but all fiction is emotional manipulation, we just hate seeing bad emotional manipulation. We hate when we can see someone pulling the strings. That swell in the string section, they’re trying to make me cry and it’s so transparent. But emotional manipulation done well is so, so great. It’s a really good magic trick. There’s nothing better. Emotional rollercoasters are fun. More fun than real rollercoasters, I’d say.

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Editing Ungodly Trifles

I’m currently editing my novel. It’s taken me about four years to write, and the editing is driving me mad. So, for the purposes of keeping my sanity, I’ll write something in here, I guess.

I’m going to need help synopsizing this thing, once people start reading it. And this draft is almost fit for human eyes. It’s going to be, soon. And then people can start telling me if it’s any good, what the problems are, what I have to fix and rewrite and rearrange and all that. Because no one has read more than one or two chapters. No one but me! Which is pretty crazy. I’ve been writing in a vacuum. I don’t know if any of this is good! I don’t know if anyone is going to like it!

But, whatever happens, it’ll be a relief to finish it!

As of now:

36 chapters.

203 pages.

65,935 words.