Jarsto's Writing Blog

Blog Moved

2007-06-21T14:19:00.000+02:00

This currently looks like a dead blog, and in a way it is. More to the point it has moved. You can find my full current blog here or just the writing category here.

I'm currently investigating whether I can more or less automatically have any writing related posts put up here as well. If it's possible that will probably be the future activity for this blog. If it isn't I may copy (some of) them over by hand anyway.

NaNoWriMo Report

2006-11-16T11:36:00.000+01:00

I've been neglecting this blog a bit. I've been too busy writing to blog about writing recently. NaNoWriMo is in full swing and I've been setting a new record pace for myself. But today I recalled the blog guiltily, so I've returned to make a quick report about NaNoWriMo.

It's been a record breaking, perhaps I should say record shattering, month so far, though I've had a bit of a slow down the last two days. I thought I did great last year, when with a ten thousand word sprint to the finish I managed to reach the fifty thousand word target on the 13th of November. This year I made it in just one week, and that included a sixteen thousand word sprint. I've slowed down a bit since, but have managed another big day at twelve thousand words.

The last two days have been a bit of a slump. I've been very tired for some reason, and evenings are usually my primary writing time. I don't much mind having a few slow days to relax now, with 75k under my belt. I'm sure I'll be back into it full speed soon enough.

It Could Only Happen To A Writer

2006-09-16T09:17:00.000+02:00

I just had one of those moments. I was looking at some of the background I'm preparing for NaNoWriMo and I noticed my MC was born June 22nd 2604. This happens to lots of people in Sci-Fi universes so it wasn't that big of a deal. Then I suddenly thought "probably a Friday".

This was one of those times to be glad I use Linux because the "cal" commandline utility can give a calendar for any year from 1 to 9999. I'm not sure how dependable it is before october 1582, but for the future it certainly works well. So I just ran "cal 2604" and wouldn't you know it: June 22nd 2604 is going to be a Friday.

Now I'm going to try to figure out how the heck my first instinct was right with only one chance in seven. Maybe it's because June 22nd 2317 is also a Friday, and I have a calendar from 2317 close at hand right now, for the edit of Gordian Knot.

Update: I did a little checking and cal is mainly questionable between October 1582 and September 1752. If follows the British Empire's dates for switching from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar.

Figured Out The Problem

2006-09-04T22:16:00.000+02:00

I just figured out and broke through a problem I've been having with writing the last several days. I'm writing new material now, but my mindset was still "this is the second draft, it has to be good" rather than "first drafts are allowed to suck". I've now gotten back into the latter mindset and the words are flowing again.

I'd always planned to do an extra edit on the newly written parts of this second draft, but somehow my mindset didn't follow quite the right way. Hopefully I can cover some ground and make up for lost time now that I've broken through.

In other news however I've found something else to distract me from writing. The Dutch NaNo Podcast (working title). It'll be a podcast, in English, centred around NaNoWriMo and the people from the (Dutch language) Holland & Belgium regional lounge. It's going to be aimed at all NaNo participants, which is one reason I'm still a bit hesitant about using "Dutch" in the title. It's going to be in English, not in Dutch, for one thing. Since I hope to have episode zero by Wednesday I guess I'll have to decide pretty soon though.

The Words Refuse To Come

2006-08-29T20:31:00.000+02:00

The writing isn't working at all the last few days. I'm about to give it another shot tonight, I have a little more prep work in place for the next section of Gordian Knot v2. But in the mean time my blog presents:

The quick and dirty way of making your own pizza.

But first: the even quicker even dirtier way of making your own pizza.

The EQ&ED Way of Making your own Pizza:
1) procure desired toppings (except those excluded by step 3)
2) procure frozen pizza from supermarket (pretty basic type will do)
3) drop any toppings already present on frozen pizza, mainly cheese most likely
4) unwrap frozen pizza, drop on extra toppings, put in oven as specified on box
5) set alarm for time mentioned on box
6) take pizza out of oven and eat

And now for something completely different: the regular Q&D way of making your own pizza.

First we have to have dough. The formal way includes all sort of stuff about yeast and such, but this wouldn't be quick and dirty if we bothered with that. Instead we just take self-raising flower. Between 100 and 200 grams (anything really, depends how big you want your pizza). If you want to be fancy here you can chuck other stuff in, salt, pepper, maybe a little sugar, but you don't have to.

Next we add milk. If you like you can put in a little olive oil as well. If you're putting in a little olive oil you can probably get away with just using water, rather than milk, but I wouldn't recommend using just water without the olive oil. After adding the first of the fluids, start working it through keeping an eye on the consistency of what you're mixing. I use an electric mixer with special "dough kneading" attachments, but you can do this with a fork, or if you have food processor you could probably use that. Just keep adding the fluids until the stuff is in fairly thick lumps, but not yet one ball, possibly with a little small stuff left. Then go in with your hands and start kneading, this should turn the dough into one ball. Keep working it for a while, possibly adding a little more fluid, if it's too thick, or more flower if it's too wet and sticky.

Now we have a nice ball of dough. We're going to have to flatten it out. Get a clean flat serive in your kitchen, and sprinkle flower on it to make sure the dough won't stick. Then sprinkle flower on the dough so the rolling pin won't stick. now roll the dough. Try to keep it pretty round.

Once you have a flat, round, disk of dough you have to make sure it won't rise to high in odd places. You can do the traditional thing and prick though it (except the crust) with a fork, or you can score it gently with a knife. If you use the knife, my current technique, be sure not to press through the dough all the way, just about half way should do.

Now put the disk of dough in the oven and bake it for about ten to fifteen minutes, about 180 degrees C. I like to make a slightly more special sauce then strictly quick and dirty demands at this point, since I have ten to fifteen minutes anyway. Basically I get a saucepan, put in a little bit of olive oil, and then quite a bit of ketchup. After the ketchup I add some sugar, some dried herbs (oregano and basil) and some salt and pepper. Then I leave the thing on the fire to reduce down a bit, so I get quite a thick tomato sauce with the seasoning in it.

Once your base gets out of the oven, spread your sauce on it. If you don't use the recipe above use ordinary tomato paste, or even just ketchup. Now add toppings and put the stuff back in the oven. Another fifteen minutes should probably do it. If it looks ready after fifteen minutes take it out, then eat and enjoy.

About To Start New Material

2006-08-24T22:38:00.000+02:00

I finally managed to clear the last of the difficult re-write scene today. That means the next writing on Gordian Knot (v2) will be new material, not in the first draft. I sort of cheated by belatedly moving the next scene to a different place in the outline. But with the new subplot I'm about to inject it was just giving away stuff too early. Of course it will now be hell to get it in the right POV without breaking the "one POV per chapter" target I've set myself, but that's for later. Right now I have half a dozen characters to invent.

One point of interest about the upcoming subplot: I plan to write one chapter of it from the black-hat POV. I don't often do this, but in this subplot it's probably best. Besides we're talking traitors here, which means I do get to keep the POV within one space-ship crew. I like to keep the POV characters in a clearly defined group.

Finally the fact that I slept badly last night is manifesting itself in interesting ways. For example my eyes seem to be very sensitive. I'm typing this while wearing a pair of sunglasses. Even though sunset was nearly two hours ago. But they make my screen more tolerable, and with a mild head-ache already present I definitely don't need any glare. Unfortunately my favourite blue sunglasses are currently elsewhere (I'll retrieve them this weekend). For some reason I often write better while wearing blue sunglasses - go figure.

Good Head For Worldbuilding - Bad Head For Writing

2006-08-22T22:01:00.000+02:00

It appears that for the last few days my writing/re-writing mode has been switched off, and my worldbuilding mode has kicked in. I'm struggling to make any words on the re-write I have in progress, but the worldbuilding for my possible NaNo project has really taken off. I'm currently doing basic designs for a space ship, working out a few centuries worth of future history, and mapping out some complex social taboos.

To an extend I'm actually pleased that the situation has balance. If the worldbuilding were going as poorly as the re-write I'd get really depressed about writing. As it is though the re-write ought to have priority, to my mind, but can't seem to get the words that go with that. Possibly I have to work out in a little more detail who has to say what in the scene I'm now working on. It's one of the tough scenes: it falls between a section rewritten to the point where it's unrecognisable, and a section that will be inserted entirely new. I have to connect those two, convey the sentiments originally in the scene AND add a new level of complexity to one of the sub-plots.

Anyway I've called it a day as far as actual rewriting is concerned. Only a little over 450 words on the new version today, and probably close to twice that in worldbuilding for Tech Runners. I'm going to try to do some planning for the new section ahead in the rewrite before I go to sleep. I'm going to need half a dozen new characters, split pretty evenly in white and black hats, to carry that one off.

What Would You Do?

2006-08-14T21:48:00.000+02:00

What would you do if a podcast you liked interviewed an author who, glibly, mentioned that her publisher is AuthorHouse? For those not in the know AuthorHouse is listed as "Not recommended. A vanity publisher." over at Preditors&Editors and has been described on the AbsoluteWrite Bewares and Background Checks board as "...the worst possible printer you could go with. Well, second worst."

I won't name the podcast or the author, but a few more relevant specifics include the facts that:
1) The podcaster seemed to treat her as legitimately published, even mentioning the possibility of other (older) writers being envious of her.
2) The book, looking at the sample pages, starts with blatant "As You Know Bob" style info-dumping (ref Turkey City Lexicon). Which doesn't bode well for the quality of the work in my mind.
3) The "publisher" was recently forced to pay damages for libel even though it claimed that it “cannot read every book cover to cover,”. Aside from the damages this does not bode well for the editing qualities.
4) Even the author acknowledges, in the podcast, that the book is available form book stores only if you ask for it. In other words, there is no distribution chain to any physical stores in place, a typical situation for a vanity press.

So what would you do?
Leave a comment on the episode, to get buried among hundreds of others? The count is over 600 already so it won't help, but you will have done your civic duty.

Contact the author, which probably serves little purpose as such. Either you end up shattering her illusions, which could get messy, or she's in the denial phase and it won't have any effect.

E-mail or voicemail the podcaster and point out the evidence (maybe just link to this post and have done with it).

Let it slide, the author's heart doesn't seem to be in the wrong place and the podcast will have a normal, not vanity-published, guest again next week. My lazy side, and the cowardly side of me that wants to avoid confrontations, are much in favour of this option. But there's a nagging feeling that everyone who's aware of them should help spread the word about vanity publishers. And in the long run leaving the author in the dark, assuming she is in the dark, about how publishing actually works probably isn't doing her any favours either.

I guess I'll decide in the morning. Right now I still have about 600 words to go today and the section I'm working on needs lots of editing. About a third of it, or more, consists of info-dumps that have to be trimmed or dumped entirely.

I'm A Sucker For Pretty Word Counts

2006-08-12T23:04:00.000+02:00

I noticed it again tonight. About three minutes before I starter writing this in fact. A pretty word count can just about stop me dead. Take tonight. I've finished work on Gordian Knot v2 for now. Partly because I made my current daily goal, 1000 words, but mostly because I finished at 8844 words.

If I hadn't made 1000 for the day already things might have been different. I can usually keep going when I have to. But every time something pretty greets me when I as for the word count there is a temptation to just stop for a while. To enjoy seeing the pretty count preserved in my daily word count sheet.

Sometimes I think I must be nuts, at times like this I'm sure.

Back To Business

2006-08-11T21:51:00.000+02:00

Well call me old-fashioned but I thought I'd get back to the true subject of the blog this time, how's the writing going. Well, technically I'm not sure whether it's writing or editing. I'm calling it editing, but when I compare it with the old version I don't think many sentences escape untouched, and I am retyping everything from scratch. Re-write may be a better description.

Whatever it's called, it's doing quite well. I had a somewhat slow start, I'll grant, but now I'm starting to hit my stride. Yesterday was actually a below average day with some 750 words. Today I made up for it, 1290 to get the average for the past two days back to over 1000. The next section will be more difficult than the one I've almost finished with. I'm dropping in two new sub-plots and probably half a dozen extra characters.

I've had an ache in my upper back the last few days. Fortunately it hasn't interfered with my writing as much as it has with other things. It makes it more difficult to really focus on anything, but writing takes a slightly different form of concentration it seems. Of course changing the way I sit every few minutes does slow things down. Still with 1290 today I can't really complain.

In August A Young Man's Fancy....

2006-08-10T18:30:00.000+02:00

... lightly turns to thoughts of November. Yes the first official warning has come, NaNoWriMo will descend upon us again this year. Time for those of us who are insane enough - quite possibly bitten by a few rabid dogs as well as the writing bug - to turn our thoughts to plots and world-building all in preparation for this great event.

The first thoughts are always tentative. I have an official candidate plot/world in mind for this year. I'm actually worried I may be over planning. Last year's world congealed in the final days of October, the plot in the first week of actual writing. That strategy carried me for 104,505 words, more than twice the victory limit of 50k.

Of course I didn't just think up stuff late October last year, so I may be okay. Some of the world-building/concepts that made up Flame Dancer (finished up at 127k January 31st) had been knocking about on my hard-drive or in my mind since 2003 or 2004. And Flame Dancer was a fantasy world, my current candidate, Tech Runners, is science fiction. That means I need more technology worked out before I jump in and start writing, bitter experience has taught me that once already.

Straying From The Subject AKA Shower Gel Rant

2006-07-17T22:27:00.000+02:00

The edit prep continues, with all the difficulties of trying to design starships when you can barely draw a straight line with a ruler. But now for something completely different.

I was taking a shower tonight, because it's hot here and I wanted to get rid of the sweat residue on my skin, when I got to thinking about shower gel. More to the point why is it that I've seen a number of generic "store brand" shower gels come in the following types: Lavender, Apple, Cedarwood and "For Men".

The actual list is of course longer but you get the idea. Why is "For Men" a distinct type and does that mean all the other types are not for men. Do the other types not work on men? Judging by my armpit, fresh out of the shower, the lavender works just fine on men. Why then does "For Men" have to be a separate type? Are the stores afraid that men don't wash if they don't have shower gel clearly marked "For Men"?

Perhaps the "For Men" shower gel doesn't work on women. I can't check this theory but it seems unlikely. The main function of any cleansing product is after all to break the surface tension of the water and allow the water to absorb non-water-soluble types of dirt. Clearly the pure cleaning effect wouldn't be different for women. Though perhaps the slight scent it leaves is judged to masculine, but why not let women judge it themselves.

Maybe it's just meant to spare confused men worry. Rather than wondering What the difference between Lavender (calming) and Cedarwood (sensual) is supposed to be, they can just grab a clearly labelled bottle of "For Men" and head for the checkout line.

But aren't there any confused women out there? Shouldn't there be a bottle labelled "For Women" to spare them the effort of reading the various description, and pondering whether or not to take the type with natural sea minerals? Or has feminism not yet forced recognition of women who don't know their Lavender from their Cedarwood?

Plot-Bunnies

2006-07-04T22:36:00.000+02:00

I'm currently taking a break from studying. It's late already but with the hot weather we're currently experiencing here late is among the better times to study. The exam's tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. It's relatively late, but not late enough for things to really cool down any. Still the hall in which I'll be taking it usually isn't too hot.

But now let's get to what this blog's supposed to be about: the writing. I'm using this break to do a number of things, one of them was jottting down a few lines of world-building for Gordian Knot, the upcoming re-write/edit project. It was literally just two sentences about the state of space piracy among humans. Then it happened: a plot-bunny jumped into my head.

It's not a very big plot bunny yet. Just a very basic idea about a private war against pirates and infiltrating a pirate crew. It's not like I needed another idea for a novel, at last count I'm up to twenty five or so specific plot ideas. But the fact is, I just can't say no to a cuddly new plot-bunny when it jumps into my head.

I'll keep it there, just in my mind, for now. I'm pretty sure that at some point it will go into my written notes with more detail. In time it will be ready to be written. If I ever get past the twenty-five already waiting...

Editing

2006-06-29T22:42:00.000+02:00

All of a sudden this is threatening to turn into a short story blog. Two entries ago I found myself writing a short story. Today I found myself editing they only other short story I ever finished. I won't go into my natural preference for novel length this time. I'll just point out that I wrote two short stories in the same time it took me to write 6 first draft novels.

This short story actually might have been a chapter one if I'd been able to take the premise further. When I was writing it originally I was struggling to keep it interesting, to keep things happening, at 1500 words. In the rewrite I did last night and today, a sort of spur of the moment thing, I managed to stretch that to 2500 words. But the premise (I know you're not out to steal it but I'm paranoid so I'm not going to say what it is) really limits itself to a short story, there's not enough going on otherwise.

Now that I've finished the rewrite (pretty much writing from scratch with version one as the outline) I'm trying a different editing technique on it: the famous reading backwards edit. If you're not familiar with it this edit is basically to make every sentence work as a sentence. This is done by reading the last sentence first, then the second to last and so on, until you reach the first sentence.

Right now I'm three quarters of a page (single spaced) from the end, which means there's more than three and a half pages to go yet. It's a little early to be judging this thing, but I have to say that so far I do like it. I have to force myself to just do a sentence and not go back a couple of sentences each time, but it does force you to look at things almost totally out of context. Now I just have to hope it'll actually be noticeable to the readers, when I get around to letting people read it.

Number Crunching

2006-06-28T21:24:00.000+02:00

How much range does laser communication ship to ship in space offer? I wish I knew because if I did my world building would be a snap. In stead I trying to crunch the numbers: how much can I let it offer in a sensible way. If make the range too long, then private but slow (lightspeed) communication becomes a common-place. If I make it too short no-one will ever get close enough to use it.

That's just one example of course. The world-building I hadn't quite locked down before includes all sorts of things, com-ranges, sensor ranges and weapons' ranges. In the first draft of the novel I'm preparing to edit (working title Gordian Knot) weapons' ranges especially were a problem. In one of the early chapters there were merely a few light seconds, some chapters later they were nearly a light hour.

I should probably have done this before writing the first draft. Maybe I will the next time I start a new science-fiction universe. On the other hand crunching these numbers (for humans firstand then for three other races) is such a pain at times that I probably won't. Or maybe I'll just copy my present numbers over, change the names of the appropriate systems, and apply the same multiplication factor to all of them. Given how I feel about having to do them now I'm pretty sure it's going to be very tempting.

The Mystery Of The Short Story

2006-06-24T22:08:00.000+02:00

I wrote a short story the other day, and I'm still kind of shocked. Now it's not that unusual for me to write the number of words, a mere 1400 or so, within a single day. My personal best for words in a single day currently stands at more than 10,000. I just can't write short stories. I have six finished first drafts for novels and two finished (first draft) short stories, including the new one.

As you may have surmised from the above novels are pretty much my natural length. I'm fine with this and routinely ignore any writing advice that claims "you should work on short stories first". I'm sure that's worked for some authors, but if I concentrate on short stories first I'll be sitting here this time next year with two short stories to show for my trouble, if I'm very lucky. I'm sure that concentrating on short stories has worked for many people, but I've pretty much decided I won't be one of them.

My new experience, a story in a day, is nearly enough to make me reconsider that. Nearly but not quite. Because, well, I cheated. The short story I wrote could double as a bad prologue for Singer, the guilty bit of writing I mentioned in my last blog-post. More to the point it pulls the horrible trick of telling events set before the time of the novel from the viewpoint of a character who won't be in the novel, he'll be dead by then. But all my world-building etc carried over from the novel. Ironically it's a new perspective on the scene, dreamed years ago, that sparked the ideas for the novel. I think I'll call it a short prequel...

Addicted

2006-06-05T21:18:00.000+02:00

I once wrote, half joking, in my profile here that I'd addicted to writing; now I have a little story to tell about that. But first a bit of good news: Absolute Write seems to be fully back. Unfortunately I don't currently have a lot of time to celebrate, I should be doing something else (other than writing this blog) but decided I needed a slight break from studying to keep my head from exploding.

Now on to my addiction, I'm beginning to think it's even more real than I thought when I wrote my profile here. Singer is a case in point.

Singer is the working title of what was, until a few days ago, only an idea in the world-building stage. As of this writing its 1801 words of story, the start of a novel, with rather too little world-building supporting it. I broke two promises to myself in writing those 1801 words:
1) don't start writing until you've done the world-building
2) edit/rewrite Gordian Knot before starting another project
But damn it felt good. There's a unique rush from getting a new story flowing out. Just world-building can't quite compare, however much I like world-building. Editing I don't particularly love, though I like the result. Long story short: I really am addicted to writing something new regularly.

Still it's not the end of the world. Fortunately besides having next to no world-building done on Singer (quite a few important points, but none of the details to make the world real) I have little idea where the story will go. I'm nearing the end of chapter one, and probably won't write too much after that for a while. I'll just let it sit at a single chapter and do my rewrite on Gordian Knot. Then I can hopefully sent Gordian Knot out to hunt agents while I get back to world-building for Singer and possibly editing something else.

Well I've now spent nearly 15 minutes of "I should be studying" time on this entry, which is probably enough. More to the point I've said what I wanted/needed to say. One final thought: if I had to have an addiction at least I seem to have picked a relatively inexpensive and inoffensive one and one that doesn't usually demand very much time.

Scammers Irk Me

2006-05-25T10:42:00.000+02:00

Okay, I could have used a stronger word than irk, but that way I'd stray into language that some adults probably shouldn't hear. So now on from the general sentiment to the particular. Barbara Bauer, one of Writer Beware's twenty worst agents, has managed to intimidate the webhosts of Absolute Write into pulling the plug on the site. Miss Bauer made several claims to do this, none of which actually has any legal relevance. I refer the reader to this post at Making Light for more details.

Now Absolute Write is already partly back, and is in the process of moving everything to a new server, but these events still irritate me. And as the title of the post says, scammers irk me anyway. So I've done my part by linking the owner of the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency to the list of the twenty worst agents, to give google a little help. Of course this isn't just my brainstorm. The inestimable Miss Snark while blogging about this included a link to this blog post by Jim C. Hines. So I'm just echoing the call.

Finally, here's the full list of all twenty on this page, as well as through the links:

The Abacus Group Literary Agency

Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to "book doctor" Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)

Barbara Bauer Literary Agency

Benedict Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)

Sherwood Broome, Inc.

Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)

Desert Rose Literary Agency

Arthur Fleming Associates

Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)

Brock Gannon Literary Agency

Harris Literary Agency

The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following:

-Children's Literary Agency

-Christian Literary Agency

-New York Literary Agency

-Poets Literary Agency

-The Screenplay Agency

-Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra-Techniques)

-Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)

Martin-McLean Literary Associates

Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.

B.K. Nelson, Inc.

The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)

Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency, Simply Nonfiction, and Michele Glance Rooney Literary Agency)

Southeast Literary Agency

Mark Sullivan Associates

West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)

Back -- With A Vengeance

2006-05-02T15:43:00.000+02:00

Well I never really got back into writing after my forced vacation, until today. Today I did over two thousand words on Lightning, pretty much in one sitting of writing. The last two words? "The End". Lightning is now finished, or at least the first draft is. It's by no means perfect yet, but it'd done and when the time comes to edit I can fix it.

And the time is coming to edit, though not for Lightning yet. I'm not sure yet which project it's going to be, but I've promised myself the next thing I do will be editing, in the hopes of getting something publisher ready. But the first step, whichever project I decided to edit, will be plugging some holes in the world-building. In fact I may well plug a number of holes in the world building for several projects before I pick one to edit.

Forced Vacation

2006-04-03T10:31:00.000+02:00

I've been on a forced vacation from writing for over a week. A few minutes ago I wrote my first words since March 24th. "What happened" you may ask. Well a hard-drive crash happened. More inexplicably it was my newest hard-drive, only 6 months old when it crashed on the evening of the 25th. Two hard-drive crashed in 7 months and a replaced PSU in that same time was, I decided, too much for me to trust anything about the computer any longer, so I got a new one. Or rather I got a pile of parts and built a new one.

I actually had the new computer up and running on Thursday and fully working by Friday (the sound drivers for Linux took a little time). Then I went away to visit my mom for her birthday on Saturday. Finally last night I reconstituted my automatic backup scripts, without which I'd decided I wasn't going to write anything. That point I have now reached. Only one sentence so far, but you have to start somewhere.

All Typed Out

2006-03-10T22:59:00.000+01:00

Well I finished the big typing thing today. Everything that was written on paper has now been entered into the file. I didn't add much to it today, just over a hundred words, but I decided to give my wrists a rest after all of that.

Not A Lot Written Lately

2006-03-09T23:05:00.000+01:00

I haven't been writing a lot lately. In fact yesterday and today will be days without any new words. Yesterday was my birthday and I was sort of focused on that, today I've started typing in all the words I've built up on paper. I hope to finish that and start new production again tomorrow.

I actually did a few new words today - I can't help editing and adding a little when I type it in - but I carefully marked out the days I wrote on originally in the hand written version and those days are where the counts are registered.

Pretty Steady

2006-03-03T23:53:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure of the wordcount because it's on paper, but my production is pretty steady right now. My best guess is that it's somewhere between 300 and 500. I'd like to go higher, but for now a steady pace is good in itself. Really rather boring to blog about, but from the writing point of view I quite like having a solid, dependable pace going on.

Less Than Usual Today

2006-03-01T23:24:00.000+01:00

I didn't do as much as I would have liked today, or even as much as I'd usually expect to do. I felt I had to stop myself after about three hundred words, because I was sliding towards infodumping a chunk of worldbuilding into the manuscript. I generally believe in just writing the stuff and leaving the editing for later, but there is a limit to how much bad writing I'm willing to put in when I'm certain it will have to come out.

Already Asleep

2006-02-28T23:09:00.000+01:00

Well I'm just about asleep already anyway. I can barely keep my eyes open to type this. Basically the writing went good today. I did it on paper again, but I'm pretty sure I made the 500 words for the day. Also a lull in the battle, though you might call it a lull between a pair of battles fought between the same enemies, is giving Kevin some time to deal with some of his emotional problems after everything I did to him. That's making it easier to write from his point of view again.

Going Low-Tech

2006-02-27T21:36:00.000+01:00

For some reason I'm going low-tech these days. Not in the content of the story, that would be next to impossible with sci-fi, but in the writing. I've written on paper only for the past couple of days and today will be no different. As a result I only have estimates and not word-counts, but I wouldn't say the wordcount is suffering.

I also took a slight break from blogging over the last few days, largely because I was away from home. But I will admit that in this area my motivation suffers a little from doing the actual writing low tech for a few days.

No Writing Today

2006-02-24T22:10:00.000+01:00

Yes, I have sinned. I'm away from home right now, and I just don't feel like writing. So I'm skipping for the day. I have promised myself to work on mentally choreographing the space battle my characters are currently involved in. It's going to be rather tricky, if I want them to come out of it alive.

Back To "Normal"

2006-02-23T22:46:00.000+01:00

While I don't really believe such a thing as "normal" exists this was a pretty normal night's writing again for the first time this week. I managed to write 500 words without too much extra effort in a reasonable time.

While I'm very tired (and heading for exhausted) for the first time in days it's not because of the writing but just a normal tired feeling. The less emotionally exhausting part of my POV change finally seems to be coming into its own. The problems are so much simpler now: we're back to just having to survive space battles.

Struggling, But Made It

2006-02-22T22:52:00.000+01:00

The words didn't come as easily as I'd half expected today. It was still a struggle for each word and after I got the first 200 the next 300 seemed like a bloody long way to go. But I managed to get over the line in the end so I can't complain. Today's 500 also lifted me over the 64,000 word mark. It's not bad, but with the end rapidly approaching I think Lightning will end up being a bit on the short side for a novel.

Not Many Words, But The Worst Should Be Over

2006-02-21T22:53:00.000+01:00

I did a little better today than yesterday, but not much, 276 words in all to be precise. But those 276 have carried me over the point I was half dreading for the last few days. Within 2000 words after my Kevin's father died his older brother just died as well. I knew this was going to happen, I'm the sadistic bastard who thought it up after all, but that didn't make writing it any easier.

Something else should help things go more easily tomorrow as well. This was my final scene from Kevin's POV for the time being, the end of this chapter. That means I get to switch POV and deal with the emotions second hand for a while. It should be easier to write that way, both for my own emotional involvement and for believability.

A Little Lightning

2006-02-20T23:08:00.000+01:00

Just a little on Lightning today, but at least I managed to pick it right up again. Roughly 200 words for the day is not a great achievement, but I've been quite tired today, partly my own fault, I stayed up reading a bit too long last night. Just long enough that the sleepiness went away again and I had a devil of a time getting any sleep.

Tonight I'm making myself promise to put the lights out in time. It's a little easier tonight; I finished the book I kept reading last night around noon today.

Now on a side note for the day, something I noticed about modern news. Perhaps it just caught my eye today, but when did the news start to be reported in the future tense? I just finished reading an article provided online by BBC news that reports about an upcoming piece in a magazine that "... will accuse... will say (used several times)... will also accuse... will compare... will describe... will add:..." etc.

It reminds me - perhaps I should say it will remind me? - of some pieces of The Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams, where the news is reported from the future by reporters travelling through time. I guess I just missed the news flash that the BBC has perfect this technique already.

Dangerous Decision

2006-02-19T22:39:00.000+01:00

I made a dangerous decision today. Actually I made it about ten minutes before writing this. The decision? I decided not to work on Lightning today. I just can't get focused on Lightning. Keving still has the POV and I can't get anywhere near the emotions he's feeling at this point. I've decided it's just too distant to try to write it now.

I'll be doing some worldbuilding work on other projects instead of the work on Lightning. That makes me feel less guilty about this, but it does little to offset the danger of the decision. The danger is, of course, that what happened last year will repeat itself. That "I'll just take a break today" will suddenly become "I haven't done anything on that in eleven months". Here's hoping it won't happen.

A Bit Low Today

2006-02-18T23:24:00.000+01:00

My wordcount is now officially only 370 for today. I have some time left to try for more, but I'm just too tired. Writing my MC as, amongst other things, he deals with his father's death is not easy. I'm not sure I'm doing it justice yet, but even the way I'm writing it now is emotionally exhausting for me. In some ways writing can be a lot like acting. Actors often call on emotional memories to act the emotions their part requires. When I write I usually feel the emotions (from memory or imagination I cannot say) I'm putting my characters through.

Regular Pace

2006-02-17T22:59:00.000+01:00

Back to the normal 500 words today. Not another sprint like yesterday, but writing the emotional repercussions of my MC seeing his father die (from his POV so far) isn't exactly easy. I'm pretty sure they're not coming out right yet either, but that's for edits (I seem to be saying that a lot these days). At least I'm feeling a bit better physically today - knock on wood.

Going Strong

2006-02-16T22:38:00.000+01:00

The writing went very well tonight. I got 805 words in 31 minutes, which is never a bad thing. I thought about pressing on for a while, but decided I've given myself enough to deal with for now. My male MC, Kevin, just saw his father die, and it wasn't pretty. His father was hit in the head with a spatial pulse that destroyed a large part of his skull and sent his brain oozing out. I may have to edit back the squick value when I get to revision.

So in summary, and continuing from yesterday's post, a bad situation for my characters makes for good writing, but I don't want to take it too far. I have to go through at least some of what Kevin feels to write it and quite frankly I've given myself enough of that for tonight. Especially since I've not been feeling well physically, a strange sensation (not really pain) in the lower part of my stomach. It behaved itself during the 31 minutes of writing earlier, but now it's acting up a bit again.

Bad Situation For Characters: Good Writing

2006-02-15T22:57:00.000+01:00

The writing went well today. There's some stream of consciousness in there that probably won't survive editing, though I hope it does convey a sense of urgency. The trouble for my characters is growing, and the writing is picking up 500 words was not that difficult today. I hope to go 600 or better tomorrow, there should be enough trouble for my characters and enough action to keep me going.

A Little Late

2006-02-14T23:22:00.000+01:00

Well it took twenty minutes past the 23:00 target tonight, but I am back at over 500 words. Somehow writing doesn't seem to work the way it's supposed to right now. Fortunately it is working the way it's not supposed to (at least not for me). Even today I kept running into trouble just trying to write. So I opened up a plain-text editor and started to plot in more detail than I've ever done before. Four sentences to cover the last three hundred words of today.

"I'm supposed to just write!" my mind screams at me. And I can only answer my mind that it's certainly got a point. But even though it's not my usual 'whichever way the muse kicks me' way of writing, it got three hundred words done in little time. More to the point I had fun doing it: as long as the writing is fun I'm not going to complain.

The First Day It's Official...

2006-02-13T23:02:00.000+01:00

and I didn't make my 23:00 target time. Even so I'm calling it quits with just over 250 words for the day. I'm okay with that for today because I did spend part of my writing time on space station design again.

Actually calling what I've designed a space station is an insult to honest space stations everywhere. It's a loose grouping of ships held together by tubes. The reason it's a station is that the ships have had their drives removed, except for a few small units used to keep the station in one place. It's sort of a low budget do-it-yourself space station.

Officially Moving My Writing Time

2006-02-12T22:47:00.000+01:00

After a number of days in a row finishing early I've decided to officially change my main writing time. The aim is now to finish writing for the day by 23:00 at the latest, rather than midnight. I can still go to midnight if I want to (or have to) but if I get 500 words by 23:00 I can stop for the day without feeling guilty.

Today's 500 words came with relative ease, but they took quite a while anyway. The earlier writing time is part of that, I have to multi-task my writing a bit more if I do it earlier. But I'm sure I'll get used to that before long and finishing up earlier does give me more time to wind down after writing. Or to put it another way it gives me a better chance of being in bed before one o'clock in the morning.

Back On Track

2006-02-11T22:32:00.000+01:00

Well I managed 500 words again today. It's still early, but I think this is enough for today; the writing isn't going as easily as I had hoped it would. I also need to design (part of) a space station before I can really get writing tomorrow, so I'll do some of that before I go to sleep.

Calling It Quits Early

2006-02-10T22:49:00.000+01:00

It's early and I've done only 100 words, but I just can't seem to focus on the writing. I'm leaving it at just 100 words today, at least I'm now poised to start some real action. With luck the action will boost my wordcount over the weekend.

The one thing I fear in doing this is a repeat of what happened to Lightning last year. "I'll just do a little less today" somehow grew into not doing anything at all and leaving the work unfinished for a year. This time I'm going to finish it, one way or the other. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

A Bit Late To Post

2006-02-10T00:09:00.000+01:00

I'm a bit late to post to night. I managed to get my 500 words well before midnight, but I got distracted before I could post here. What was I distracted by? The Lib-Dem leadership special of BBC Question Time. In short I'm up after midnight watching the leadership debate of the third party in a country I don't live in and don't get to vote in... I may just need a hobby.

Quick Endings

2006-02-08T22:55:00.000+01:00

Maybe it's just an echo of the way Flame Dancer's caught me by surprise, but Lightning may turn out shorter than I thought it was going to be. It 58,400 words there's still a way to go, but for quite a while I thought it would go close to 100k. Now I'm thinking 80k is more likely.

The problem with my current scenes is that they don't really have as much action as they should. That's one of the things keeping at 500 a day, I think. For today at least I still wasn't feeling well which didn't help either. And I managed to get the 500, so I can't complain too much.

In other news I'm learning about the dangers of quoting Jane Austen (as I did a few days ago on this blog). I picked up Pride and Prejudice to make sure my quote was 100% accurate, now I'm reading it, again!

Clocking Off Early

2006-02-07T22:33:00.000+01:00

Generally I tend to write until after 23:00. You can tell from the time stamps on my posts here, usually made right after I clock off for the day. Today I'm an hour (or more) early. But I have done 500 words. I would have liked to do some more, but I have a cold that's trying to get a promotion to fever. It's early for me, but right now I'm more than ready to turn in.

New POV: New Problems

2006-02-06T23:44:00.000+01:00

I've switched POV again and the writing is suffering. Lightening bounces the POV back and forth between two MCs, with one anomalous chapter (so far) in a completely different POV. When I picked up again I started in the anomalous chapter. Then I took the female MC. Now it's my male MCs turn. So just when I had found Kit's voice again, I've left it. Now I have to find Kevin's instead. But in spite of that I did (just) manage to get 500 words in today, so it's not a complete disaster.

I'm... Plotting???

2006-02-05T23:50:00.000+01:00

The horror!

Well no, there's nothing wrong with plotting. I'm just surprised because I've never done it before on the scale I did it today. I've only plotted out the next two pieces, but I've done far more detail than I'd usually do. Still it seems to have given me a break.

By determining that my female MC would be feeling the strain of struggling to help keep the ship running I managed to take her through 803 words today, with some more to come tomorrow before I'm done with this stretch of the story. It's not what you'd normally call "Lightning fast" but Lightning is getting faster.

The notes on Flame Dancer are also growing. It's amazing what you can think of without even reading anything back.

The Power Of Doing Any Thing With Quickness...

2006-02-04T23:32:00.000+01:00

"The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possesor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance."

- Mr. Darcy, in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This statement rather reflects what I feel about my writing today. I'm not all that happy about the quality. The scene I just finished is awkward and probably won't survive editing. But I did write 500 words again, and I wrote them much faster than yesterday. I wonder if this gem of a statement was Jane Austen inserting her own musings about a similar day of writing into the manuscript.

Though there is some time left before midnight I'm going to leave Lightning here. I've managed to get rid of the awkward scene, so I'll leave thinking up one that works for tomorrow. Instead I'll make a few notes regarding Flame Dancer. It's fresh enough still that I remember what I felt went wrong when I was actually writing. Though I've never made notes like this before I'm sure they'll prove useful when I return to it with red-ink in hand and start editing.

Still Trying To Get Back

2006-02-03T23:47:00.000+01:00

Well it doesn't come back overnight, but it is getting a little easier to work on Lightning. Getting 500 words was easier today, though I want to move back up to 1000 again soon. Not much more on the writing front today.

I hope to be able to sit down tomorrow and make some immediate notes about Flame Dancer. I'm not going to read any of again until it's actually time to revise, but getting some notes of what I remember being wrong right now should help the revision process along nicely when it starts.

Finding Old Voices Again

2006-02-02T23:50:00.000+01:00

It's clearly been too long since I worked on Lightning. I got 501 words today, which is sort of enough in building the pace, but it's a struggle. I have to reconnect with characters I haven't written in a long time. I'm getting back some feeling for their voices, but it's a very slow process indeed. That should be a lesson to me not to let things stall like this again.

The Day After

2006-02-01T23:24:00.000+01:00

I felt good today about finishing up yesterday, though the feeling was marred slightly by a bad night's sleep. I decided to get back into the writing right away, but it took me a while to settle on something. I spent an hour at least looking through world-building notes on several projects before I made a decision to keep up actual writing.

The project I'm taking up, code-named Lightning, started as my 2004 NaNoWriMo I made the requisite 50,000 words that November, but the project lost steam soon after that. It's basically been at roughly 54,000 words for over a year.

I think Lightning will be done in less then 100k, but it will almost certainly top 80k at least. That's a month or so of work, provided I can get back into the 1000 a day rhythm. Today wasn't a spectacular success. Getting back into the mindset for the book is not an instant process; I only got 132 words today.

It Is Done

2006-01-31T22:40:00.000+01:00

It's done. It's over. It's finished. After 127,183 words of story The End bumped the total to 127,185 a few minutes ago. I haven't quite adjusted to it yet. Flame Dancer is finished. In January still, which I'd thought I wouldn't make. In the end it just took a final sprint of 3186 words today and suddenly it was there. All the loose ends were tied up, the final scene I'd imagined had happened, there was nothing left.

If this post reads like it was typed by a confused man, that's because it was. It don't think I'll adjust until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Cliffhanger

2006-01-30T23:35:00.000+01:00

I didn't benefit from the burst of speed down the home stretch today. My daily wordcount is only slightly above average for a 1000 word day, 1083 to be exact. I could have done more, but I decided to leave with a cliffhanger. The theory is that I will get back into the writing easier thanks to the cliffhanger. It works for reading, so why not for writing?

The total wordcount I reached actually reflects my cliffhung status. 123,999 on the edge of getting another full 1000 but not there just yet. It's a pure coincidence of course, but it's still a nice fact. For the first time in a while I'm thinking that this thing might come in under 130k total. Though that depends on just how fast I can neatly tie up all the loose ends I've left myself. A few major ones should be done soon, but not everything gets resolved all at once. I just hope I don't forget any of them. Sure I could tidy things up while editing (it's certainly not going to be send anywhere without at least one edit) but I'd like to get it right in one go.

The End Is Nigh!

2006-01-29T22:50:00.000+01:00

Though I ended up leaving things at a shade over 1100 for the day yesterday it's taken off again today. I'm now over 1400 words with an hour to spare before midnight. This isn't just the interaction between characters helping things along, this is the build-up of speed as I approach the end of the novel. I doubt it'll happen in January, but unlike two or three days ago I don't think that would be impossible either.

Even though I knew what still had to happen in the story I didn't really realise how close I was to the finish line until I finished writing just now. I still have to figure out a way for my characters to get their hands on someone who is currently comfortably in the middle of a 30,000 strong army, but after that it's just a matter of a handful of loose ends to be tied up. Somehow it always surprises me when I reach this point.

Tomorrow we dive head first into the home stretch (to use a rather awkward mixed metaphor).

Characters!

2006-01-28T21:38:00.000+01:00

I just don't know what to do with, or think about, my characters any more. Every time I convince myself they're just figments of my imagination they insist on committing independent action. Some 57,000 words ago two of my characters decided they were attracted to each other. I didn't mind that.

It wasn't anything explicit, but it was there. The young emperor fighting to stay on his throne, the lieutenant of the legions looking up to his emperor. There were a few things in the background, but it wasn't an issue in the book. They were hundreds of miles apart for a long time, so they didn't exactly have much of chance I suppose.

But now they've decided to be more open about it. The lieutenant has claimed POV for a while (he'd had it once or twice before, so it's not a huge shock) and is moving to pretty clear show of affection. I have nothing against it, but I certainly hadn't planned on it.

And I thought I was supposed to be writing this thing! Right now I feel like I'm just a puppet put up as a front by some characters.

On the other hand I did get over 1100 words out of this, with two hours still left in the day to write more if I feel like it. So it's certainly not a totally bad thing, it just hurts my sense of control.

PS For a great take on the subject of authors and characters (and a great laugh) check out Author Versus Character by Lazette Gifford. Don't drink anything while reading this, it will leave through your nose!

Another Day Done

2006-01-27T23:57:00.000+01:00

Things are setting up nicely for what should be the end of most of my remaining plot-lines. Nothing much unusual about the writing today otherwise. The words didn't flow like water, but it wasn't especially hard to write either. An unusually average day really.

Today's Scores

2006-01-26T23:14:00.000+01:00

1026 words done.
160 or so dead in a skirmish.
12 or more wounded, including one significant character.

Needless to say I feel quite good about this. I'm not satisfied yet with the 160 number, or rather not with the kill ratio it represents. As it stands now only about 30 of those are good guys, which gives a better than 4 to one ratio. I'll have to see if this can be explained sufficiently. They did have two advantages, they're better trained and they were on horseback, the others were amateurs fighting on foot.

More important than the figures though is the fact that the fight scene was quite easy to write. I'm not entirely sure the POV won't change when I start editing, but even from a sub-optimal POV the action got the writing going again. Since I'm looking at more action for the immediate future that hopefully means I'll feel good about what I'm writing again for a while. I can keep going when I don't think it's good, but this is quite frankly much nicer to do.

Not As Good As I'd Like, But...

2006-01-25T23:44:00.000+01:00

Well 1000 words a day is definitely creeping back to a solid habit status. Unfortunately the words aren't all that good but they're getting me to the end of the novel anyway. I've already mentally marked this section as needing quite a bit of attention when I start editing this, though I'll let it rest for a few months at least before I do that.

Right now I'm working on the theory that it's easier to correct what I've written now when I start editing than it would be to write better now. Granted I usually hope to write a lot better than I seem to be doing now, but getting 1000 words a day that logically continue the story is the first hurdle.

Making these words not just continue the story but tell something exciting and well written would be a bonus. And when that bonus doesn't show up... well that's why you should edit yourself once at the very least before you don your Elmer Fudd gear and whisper: "Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm huntin' agents."

Day Four

2006-01-24T23:56:00.000+01:00

Well it's not a solid habit yet by any means, but the 1000+ wordcounts continue. I just hope I'm not jinxing it by posting about it. The story is heating up, it's currently at the first of a series of minor battles that will take place in the lead up to the end of the novel. At 117k words and counting, it had better be the end of the novel anyway.

My First Comment!

2006-01-24T20:31:00.000+01:00

I got my first comment on the blog, and it's not even from a member of my family!

In the time honoured tradition of blogging I've decided to repost the comment and reply to it. Many thanks to Becca for providing the comment.

"I saw you on Miss Snark's blog and decided to come exploring. Last night, in a fit of motivation (or maybe it was the residual effect of the Theraflu) I though about doing 1000 words a day on my WiP--the sequel to a book I just queried agents about.

I decided to aim for 500 on workdays and 1000 on weekends. We'll see what happens.

I go through these obssessive fits of writing where I want to nothing but sit in front of my computer and type all day. Unfortunately, I have another semester of school to teach before I can do that again.

Miss Snark's blog is a great read and while I wasn't actually on the blog itself I do occasionally comment on it, always hoping the supreme goddess of snarkiness will not crush me beneath her stilettos for the impudence. So far my comments have avoided the nitwittery that would lead to such a dire fate.

Of course I wish Becca luck with her efforts to reach a daily wordcount. One method I've used to keep it up in the past is just not going to sleep unless the wordcount is there. It's simple, brutal and effective. It's also somewhat dangerous if you have to be up in time in the morning, so you have to be careful when you use. And it's dangerous for your figure, I usually kept my energy up by devouring cookies and other sugar-rich products.

I do things differently these days, largely because I decided to stop 'cheating' with the cut off point. Back when I had the before I sleep rule it wasn't unusual for most of the wordcount for January 24 to be written between midnight and one 0'clock in the morning on what was technically January 25. These days 00:00 is the cut off time and if I don't make my goal by then, I just don't make it. I still make it most days because I can almost always manage 1000 words between 22:00 and 00:00. I'm not sure but I don't think it was that easy back in 2003. Experience has its advantages.

What's So Great About 1000

2006-01-24T00:00:00.000+01:00

I managed to cross the 1000 word line again today, exactly four minutes before midnight. But it got me thinking about why 1000 words is such a magical boundary for me. It's not all that much more special than 1100 or 900, or 500 or 1500. Granted it's a little more special, but I don't think that's the reason it's special to me. Though in a round about way it's why I chose it originally.

For our next segment I will be nostalgic, readers are to consider themselves forewarned.

It was the month of March, 2003. I'd managed to write 80,000 words on my then current WIP, started in December of 2002. So I decided to try something I'd read about other people doing: setting a daily wordcount goal. I made my target 1000 words a day.

I stuck to that target like glue over the next 34 days with just 2 deviations. Over 1100 words on day 30, and a final sprint of over 2100 words on the final day. Every other wordcount for that period was between 1000 and 1099 words. The last two words of day 34 were "The End" the first time I'd even been able to put that under a novel of my own creation.

I lightly edited the novel, QS to give the intials of its title, about six months later. It tightened up some of the language, but it wasn't the sort of edit capable of tackling the major short-comings of the plot. Recently, while in the mood to indulge in revisiting old sins, I read that edited version. There are still major problems in it, but I now have the skills to see ways to, at the very least, start fixing those problems. Whether I'll ever actually try I don't know.

But regardless of whether I return to it, regardless of whether I will ever try to pitch it to an editor, I learned a whole lot from actually writing a book to the finish. I mentioned that in my last post as well, but it bears repeating. Perhaps the most important thing I learned from it was that I could actually complete an entire novel. That alone was a huge confidence boost.

At the time I picked 1000 words for a few reasons. It was a nice round figure, and I thought I could do it given my then current schedule. That I could indeed do it is obvious and now given the same time I might be able to do 1500 a day. But back then 1000 seemed like a lot to try for and 1500 seemed out of the question. In fact I believe I hesitated for a while between 500 and 1000, finally aiming for 1000 to see if I would make it.

And that, in a nutshell, is why 1000 has an almost mystical connection with a good day's writing for me. It's probably illogical, but it's nearly impossible for me to feel bad about my writing when I make it past 1000 words on any given day.

Staying Over 1000

2006-01-22T23:30:00.000+01:00

Well I've managed to stay over 1000 words for the second day in a row. My trusty wordcount spreadsheet tells me I haven't managed that since the first of December. I'm not as happy about today's work as I was about yesterday's. It's a reasonable stretch of first draft when all is said and done, but the exposition, however necessary it may be in a fantasy novel, is just a little too thick for me. Especially since it's coming 115k words into the book. By now I really should have set up just how things work in this world so I could just concentrate on actually bringing the book to an end.

The truly good news in all this is that my inner editor seems to have taken a short vacation. Even though I knew what I was writing wasn't perfect I managed to keep writing, rather than agonising over trying to get it perfect. This is important to me because I have fallen into the trap of eternal revisions on an incomplete manuscript before. Although I learned a lot from doing that it's not ultimately an effective way of writing books. It helped when I switched from writing in my native language (Dutch) to writing in English, but rendered me incapable of finishing anything.

It wasn't until I decided to just keep on writing until I had a reason to put "The End" at the bottom of a page that I finished a novel. Granted chances of that particular novel every being published are slim to none, it's not that good a novel, but I learned more from doing that than I would have from five revisions of an incomplete draft. And for all I know some form of it might be published. When I recently read it myself (revisiting old sins) I found I could actually see how to fix a number of the bigger errors.

I'm quite envious of people who can revise as they go without any problems. Maybe I'll be able to do that as well some day, but it would take something major to even make me try. Linear start to finish writing with no editing (except the occasional spelling error or missing word) works for me.

Four Figures

2006-01-21T23:45:00.000+01:00

For the first time in nearly two weeks I've crossed the 1000 word boundary, adding 1139 words to Flame Dancer today. I've also got a note ready for the whole section before what I've written now "Needs more conflict!" though I'll leave that until I get around to editing this. While the events in the previous section do help the plot they're almost devoid of conflict and that as much as anything else has helped to kill my pace while writing. After a few days one gets tired of typing long stretches of "everyone gets along with each other, oh look a plot point".

Right now my MC is arguing with someone senior to him, straying quite some distance from what is considered accepted behaviour for someone in his position, and about to face a major dilemma that will have serious consequences whichever way he goes - and the words are running out as fast as my hands can type them (allowing for a little hyperbole).

Rising Slowly

2006-01-18T23:22:00.000+01:00

Well it's not going as fast as I'd like (it seldom does) but my daily wordcount is slowly rising. With over half an hour left in the day I'm now at 500 words for the day. I hope to make it to at least 750 by midnight, but even if I don't get anything else written today it's definitely going up again.

Now that the exams are behind me I have some more time to spare for writing. But it still takes more time to turn out a given number of words than it did during my peak last November. That of course was NaNoWriMo, and I don't generally expect to write 1500 words an hour except during that wonderfully insane time of the year. There is one thing I miss from those days though, the ability to write crap and just keep writing.

Of course I adhere to some standards even during November, but there is something wonderfully liberating about having to keep going. Granted I missed the goal of 50,000 words this year, I wrote 54,000 too many. But even when you get past the goal the atmosphere keeps you going. That's long gone now, and I have to fight my inner editor over every single letter. Even when the story should by all rights be flowing smoothly.

Getting The Pace Back

2006-01-15T21:12:00.000+01:00

I had little time for writing today. Indeed I just spent all of twenty minutes on it and must now quit for the day to go back to studying. Even so something important has happened. Not the events of the story, though one of them is the start of something important, but the result on my writing. I suddenly got some pace back into my writing.

My 240 words for today hardly reflect it, but the writing suddenly started to flow again. Basically I introduced a new character - or rather I had a new character stay 'off camera' but send a message - and pretty much the moment I'd decided to do it the writing started flowing fast again. Tomorrow will be most about the exam I have tomorrow afternoon. But after that I should get a bit more time to write again. All of a sudden I find I'm looking forward to it a lot more than I was up until half an hour ago.

Ironic Timing

2006-01-14T19:13:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking over the possibility of this for a week now, but today suddenly the idea wanted to become a reality. There's a lot of irony in this since it's coming at a moment where I have very little time to write. Indeed I'm not getting a lot of writing done. I just had an exam recently, and I've got another one coming up. And now I'm spending valuable "not studying" time on creating this blog.

Still it should, hopefully, solve a problem. I keep a personal log (it's not called a diary because nothing I've ever called a diary lasted more than a week). It's supposed to be about pretty much everything, but lately the writing seems to be taking over. Granted writing is close to my heart, but there is other stuff I'm supposed to think of when it comes to my personal log. Maybe this will get all of that out of the way. Hell it may even motivate me to write more.