Today’s First Drafter guest is Lucas Bale.
Lucas Bale is the pen-name for freelance writer and editor Andrew Mazibrada.
Lucas has been a science fiction nut as long as he can remember and, once upon a time, he was something of an RPG fanatic. He still think Aliens (Special Edition, naturally) is the best sci-fi film ever made and encourages people to disagree with him!
After fifteen years at the criminal bar of England and Wales, prosecuting and defending in some of the most serious and high-profile criminal cases involving organised crime, terrorism, and big money fraud, the desire to write again overwhelmed him. So he decided to make a change and wrote the science fiction series Beyond the Wall.
He also writes crime and espionage thrillers under the name Marcus Cameron.
When you decide to write something new, what is the first thing you do?
I generally have an idea for a story and I tend to develop the idea first. If it revolves around a character, I deal with characterisation and deep character first, then flesh out the character with a backstory, motivations, dramatic needs and so on. I work out how the character will react to certain key situations in the story. I may even think about physical and mental (and emotional) traits at this point. If the story does not yet have a lead, I work on the feasibility of the story and how it might develop. I never, ever, write first because I have always found it distracts me and whatever I have written is invariably useless later. So I get my thoughts in order first. I use Scrivener to do this. I try to work on Scrivener as much as possible as my principal tool.
Do you have a set routine approaching it?
No set routine, really. I sit down, wherever and whenever I can and open up Scrivener. I find Scrivener is my game face, once I open it up, everything else just disappears around me. Which is good, because my day job means I can usually only snatch an hour here or there so I need to make the best use of my time. So often, I’ll be in coffee shops or pubs, drink next to me, tapping away for an hour and wondering where the hell the time went.
Pen and paper or straight to the keyboard?
Pen and paper sometimes. I always use a plain paper, moleskine notebook and I carry the relevant one around with me all the time (I use a different one for each story or series). Often, if practicable, I’ll go straight to Scrivener. Generally, it’s a mixture of the two, but I always type my notes up which helps rekindle the creative throughout processes involved in that first, note-scribbling frenzy.
How important is research to you?
Absolutely fundamental. I refuse to put stuff out there that I do not believe in because other won’t believe in it either. As I write thrillers too, under the pseudonym Marcus Cameron, and as my background is as a criminal prosecutor, I know a lot about the genre I write in but the small details are also essential. I find that a speculative email or phone call, or calling old friends in the job, are both good ways to get your facts right. Dramatic licence only gets you so far. Also, good research often leads to key story strands which you might never have thought of otherwise. When writing sci-fi, research is also important theoretical physics, mechanical engineering, architecture and structural engineering, climatology, biology, regional history, geopolitical theory these are all areas I have had to research for the Beyond the Wall series, among others I can’t even remember right now.
How do you go about researching?
Books, internet, speaking to colleagues I work with, speculative emails they all work. I ask myself a question and go find a bunch of answers and the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. Or there is an expert in the field willing to talk to you. I find most people are willing to help if they think you are genuine and you explain you want to get your facts right for a work of fiction.
How do you store everything; ideas, research, images that catch your eye?
Scrivener. It’s the best friend an author, fiction or non can have.
Tell us how that first draft takes shape?
Generally, if I have a full day to write and the research is mostly done, then I sit down at my desk and let it come out. I’ll have worked out the essence of a scene in advance, and the themes running through the story as a whole, so by that time I can just let my fingers run riot. I write until I need another tea, I go and make myself a cup, then I start writing again. I only stop when I know I need to. There’s a point where my brain just simply folds its arms and shuts down. I know that’s it. Generally, it’s around somewhere between three and five thousand words in any 24hr period. Sometimes, I’ll revisit that scene or scenes the next day, just to see how I think it’s going. Or I’ll just do the same thing again, this is really easy for me if the research and preparation has been solid.
Are there any rituals you have to do or items you must have with you while writing that draft?
Tea. Lots of it and out of a specific mug. I usually drink around nine cups in the first draft days over the course of say five or six hours. I find it easier to write on my 21iMac than my 11MacBook Air. Maybe it’s the screen size, maybe it’s the thought of being at my own desk but generally, my words have more flow and better pacing when I am at my own desk. Also, I find the scenes have more passion and emotion.
Does the outside world exist or are you lost to us for a period of time as the magic works?
I like to look out of the window as I take a breath, but generally, the world dissipates into nothing around me when I am writing. I’ve been known to miss phone calls and people knocking at the door.
What does your work space look like?
Left to right: desk lamp, mug of tea, iMac, stack of relevant research books for the work in progress, all on my Edwardian pedestal desk (sounds a bit posh I guess, but it was a bargain on eBay and I liked the look of it, its scratched as hell and old, but I like it). Otherwise, nothing. I might have my moleskine notebook if I need it to transcribe something.
Edit as you go or just keep getting words out?
A mixture. Sometimes I’ll write three or four scenes before editing. Sometimes, I’ll edit a single scene the next day. I find that I like to edit on Scrivener once or twice before downloading it to my Kindle/iPad Mini and reading it theres the ideal place for me to edit.
I see many writers counting words in a day. Word counter or other method of keeping track of progression?
Word-counter. Definitely
So, that first draft is down. Roughly how long did it take? And what shape is it in?
Beyond the Wall, Part One: The Heretic is nearly finished. It’s likely to end up around 40,000 words and is a series opener but half the length of the rest of the series books. I’d estimate that took around 12-15 actual days of writing. Sadly, I don’t get that time in a run I have to find it where I can so I actually started Beyond the Wall, researching and then writing it, around early December. With my first crime thriller Thread of Fate‘s 95,000 words and also nearly complete. I started researching that in March, started writing the first draft in May and stopped around November to work on Beyond the Wall. I’ll be starting it again shortly.
In what format do you like to read it through, ereader, paper or the computer screen?
Depends on time and where I am in the story and how many scenes I’ve written. I find that I like to edit on Scrivener a few times before downloading it to my Kindle/iPad Mini and reading it there’s the ideal place for me to edit sequences and acts rather than individual scenes.
What happens now that first draft is done?
I’ll edit repeatedly perhaps eight or ten times then I’ll send it off to a friend of mine who is my developmental and copyeditor. He’s a screenplay and script writer and I find his editing tightens my work up considerably. Then I’ll work on it again until I am happy with it. Then he’ll take another copyediting run at it to pick up any other errors we both might have missed. We might run a few emails back and forth about character and plot in between.
Thanks for digging into the depths of the first draft. It’s been a pleasure having you.
You can find Lucas on his Website and Twitter
To read any of the previous First Draft Q&A’s you can check the list Here.
To be a part of the First Draft series, just get in touch and let me know. Along with the answers to the questions, I’ll need a profile photograph, a first draft photograph and three links that you feel are your most important. If you’re thinking about it – Get in touch!
Yasmin Selena Butt says
I enjoyed reading that; I have Scrivener and it seems like a really Marmitey tool amongst writers, you either love it or you don’t or I’ll sneak in a third, you don’t get it! I’m with Marcus on Aliens, as a teen me and my siblings once watched it four times in one weekend! It was on Film Four a few months ago and I ended up taking to Twitter to see if other people were as enraptured with watching it for the umpteenth time as me, and they were. The thing I’d never appreciated until that moment was how perfect and quotable the script was, because that’s how absorbed you get just watching it.
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
I like the way the setting is as oppressive as Giger’s aliens themselves, as are elements within the protagonist group. Conflict, tension, foreshadowing feelings of doom through various symbolic elements and the attention to detail (just watch the opening salvage scene again to see what I mean).
Linda King says
These posts are so interesting, Rebecca. They satisfy the same nosiness that watching something like Location, Location, Location does! (I so love the insides of other people’s houses!) I know what Lucas means about losing yourself and missing phone calls etc – I’ve never missed one but I jump out of my skin!
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
I’m thinking about turning everything off when I write now – to really allow myself to focus completely on writing or editing. I make myself a cup of tea every hour or so which would allow me to check messages every so often but I have a deadline to meet – two season openers to write in two different genres and it’s all about the set-up in these opening books so there’s a lot of complexity to keep on top of!
MarinaSofia says
I like the way Lucas describes his desk from left to right – there is that precision there which makes for a great sci-fi writer!
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
I think it’s because I’m a little OCD.
Alex J. Cavanaugh says
That’s cool his background as a criminal prosecutor helps him write his books.
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
Certainly for crime and spy thrillers and even to a certain extent my sci-fi as I focus on themes involving government and political theory (hence dystopia), and human themes like survival, sacrifice and honour all of which have had some place in my work as well.
Margot Kinberg says
Rebecca – Thanks for introducing us to Lucas.
Lucas – I couldn’t agree more about the importance of good research. At the very least it makes a story more authentic. And thanks for sharing about Scrivener with us. Haven’t tried it (yet) but you’re not the first person to swear by it.
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
I tweeted this recently – research does so many things: it lends my story credibility & depth, introduces inspiring new plot/character paths & I learn cool new stuff. At the moment, I am reading a degree-level text on a discipline which the lead character in my opening crime thriller (a homicide cop) has taught herself in order to find her father’s killer and, at the same time, do her job. I’d be lying if I said it was easy work but, as I mentioned before, it teaches you stuff you never would have learned otherwise…
Annalisa Crawford says
10 – 15 days for a first draft??? Wow, I’m not sure my short stories get written that quickly!
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
See my reply to Jacqui below – it’s all about the environment of pressure of the last fifteen years.
Jacqui Murray says
I like that idea of having a switch–in this case, Scrivener–that puts you in the zone. I have to consider creating something like that.
Lucas Bale (@balespen) says
You don’t necessarily need it but it’s always been that way for me – wig and gown in court, scrivener when writing. Perhaps fifteen years has moulded my brain to think a certain way but it’s also made me assimilate detail quickly and knock out drafts quickly.