No update today as yesterday wa a 'day off'' from writing.
Ostensibly this was a planned excuse to play computer games and watch TV all night and I was a little concerned it might break the writing momentum. It seems to have had an opposite effect though as now I can't wait to get back to the writing. The occasional break is good to give you alittle more perspective on where the story is headed, a subconcious check that I'm still (mostly) on the same path i think I'm supposed to be on.
Hopefully this means, when I actually get time to write today, the words will write themselves and all will be good with the world.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Word count - Day 12
20,274 words down - 29,726 words to go.
40% done, almost to the magical halfway point. So far still going well. The days when word count is down a little are easily made up the next day. For the most part the writing has been on a scene by scene basis. I have an idea of where things are headed ad even a vague clue as to how they might end, but the steps along the way are mostly writing themselves.
The initial intent was a darkly satirical story in a fantasy setting. The satire is still there occasionally but it's begun to get in the way of the story. As with most writing of any real length, the story has taken on a life of its own and wants to be written a certain way. Occasionally its just a whole lot easier to let it have its way and just go along for the ride.
I'm pretty happy with my characters so far, which makes a change. Normally I'm trying to force them to change by now, but they're remaining true to what they were created as and reacting in the ways I'd expect them to.
The only minor concern I have at this point is the story won't be finished in 50K words. This isn't entirely unexpected. i was either going to be struggling to find the last 20K or its was just going to keep going. Not too sure what I'll do once I hit the 50K. I'll see how much remains to be told after that. The writing itself is still far from what I'd normally be happy with, but I'm increasingly confident there's a few sparks of quality amongst the quantity, which is the aim of the exercise.
40% done, almost to the magical halfway point. So far still going well. The days when word count is down a little are easily made up the next day. For the most part the writing has been on a scene by scene basis. I have an idea of where things are headed ad even a vague clue as to how they might end, but the steps along the way are mostly writing themselves.
The initial intent was a darkly satirical story in a fantasy setting. The satire is still there occasionally but it's begun to get in the way of the story. As with most writing of any real length, the story has taken on a life of its own and wants to be written a certain way. Occasionally its just a whole lot easier to let it have its way and just go along for the ride.
I'm pretty happy with my characters so far, which makes a change. Normally I'm trying to force them to change by now, but they're remaining true to what they were created as and reacting in the ways I'd expect them to.
The only minor concern I have at this point is the story won't be finished in 50K words. This isn't entirely unexpected. i was either going to be struggling to find the last 20K or its was just going to keep going. Not too sure what I'll do once I hit the 50K. I'll see how much remains to be told after that. The writing itself is still far from what I'd normally be happy with, but I'm increasingly confident there's a few sparks of quality amongst the quantity, which is the aim of the exercise.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Word count - Day 6
11,684 words down, 38,316 words to go.
Past the first 10K words and over 20% in. From previous attempts its the next 10-20k words that tends to be the hardest. Once you get past the 30K hump its all downhill.
So far the writing has been of a less than stellar quality but that was never the aim of nanowrimo. The simple act of writing every day is more than enough effort for now. Somewhere in the 50K words of dubious standard there may be a few thousand words that can live again elsewhere.
Past the first 10K words and over 20% in. From previous attempts its the next 10-20k words that tends to be the hardest. Once you get past the 30K hump its all downhill.
So far the writing has been of a less than stellar quality but that was never the aim of nanowrimo. The simple act of writing every day is more than enough effort for now. Somewhere in the 50K words of dubious standard there may be a few thousand words that can live again elsewhere.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Word count - Day 1
2130 words down, 47870 words to go
Mostly written at work, mostly narrative introduction, main character has been introduced.
Mostly written at work, mostly narrative introduction, main character has been introduced.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
And so it begins..
Today marks the begining of nanowrimo, 30 days of self-imposed deadlines and writing purely for the sake of forcing oneself to write. This year I'm trying something a little different and looking to write a black comdey fantasy epic. It's mostly an exercise in trying to write a different style with a different 'voice'. Two paragraphs in (whilst drinking that first cup of tea in the morning) and it feels ok so far.
The biggest challenge is keeping up the word count. Fifty thousand words in a month means 1666 words per day (easier to round up to 1700 for the maths). From past experience, some days this is easy. On the days when you miss the target, or don't get any writing done at all, the prospect of 3400 words the following day to make up gets to become a very daunting target. Ultimately its as much an exercise in time management and self comittment than anything else.
One would hope that the more you write the better you get (unless you just keep repeating the same mistakes) so nanowrimo is all about the writing (with less focus on the quality). Of course, I don't know many people that write who are perfectionists about the craft to some extent, so there's generally some personal conflict involved in these sorts of undertakings.
My current intetnion is to update things here with a reasonable degree of frequency throughout the task, if only to serve as a mental pushing mechanism for myself. If nothing else a rolling word count update should be posted every few days.
The biggest challenge is keeping up the word count. Fifty thousand words in a month means 1666 words per day (easier to round up to 1700 for the maths). From past experience, some days this is easy. On the days when you miss the target, or don't get any writing done at all, the prospect of 3400 words the following day to make up gets to become a very daunting target. Ultimately its as much an exercise in time management and self comittment than anything else.
One would hope that the more you write the better you get (unless you just keep repeating the same mistakes) so nanowrimo is all about the writing (with less focus on the quality). Of course, I don't know many people that write who are perfectionists about the craft to some extent, so there's generally some personal conflict involved in these sorts of undertakings.
My current intetnion is to update things here with a reasonable degree of frequency throughout the task, if only to serve as a mental pushing mechanism for myself. If nothing else a rolling word count update should be posted every few days.
Monday, October 22, 2007
An idea of an idea
With a week to go I think I finally have an idea of what to write for nanowrimo. Unfortunately its not much more than a concept at this point and doesn't really have a plot to go with it. With a Halloween party Saturday night my current plan is to be up for little more than sitting in a near comatose state on Sunday with a notepad and pen to sketch out chracters and plot. If this doesn't work, I'll be 'winging it' for 30 days (a terrifying thought).
If the concept pays off it will be a very different style of writing for me. Most of my normal ideas are dark/modern fantasy as a general rule (none of my sci fi ideas have survived very long so far) and this is a lighter (humorous?) fantasy in a more traditional setting. Of course, even as I write this I'm thinking that maybe there's a way to change it from being too formulaic in its setting and maybe more of a dark comedy than a Pratchett-esque clone.
It will be interesting to approach it as a challenge though, not just in terms of the number of words, but writing something that isn't necessarily in the same vein as other things I've written. Its not exactly as radical a change as writing a post modernistic romance or a western but these things need to be done in little steps (and I can't see myself ever writing the first of those options.. the second, with a liberal dash of aliens, fae and/or time travel, is always a possibility).
If the concept pays off it will be a very different style of writing for me. Most of my normal ideas are dark/modern fantasy as a general rule (none of my sci fi ideas have survived very long so far) and this is a lighter (humorous?) fantasy in a more traditional setting. Of course, even as I write this I'm thinking that maybe there's a way to change it from being too formulaic in its setting and maybe more of a dark comedy than a Pratchett-esque clone.
It will be interesting to approach it as a challenge though, not just in terms of the number of words, but writing something that isn't necessarily in the same vein as other things I've written. Its not exactly as radical a change as writing a post modernistic romance or a western but these things need to be done in little steps (and I can't see myself ever writing the first of those options.. the second, with a liberal dash of aliens, fae and/or time travel, is always a possibility).
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Writing of a different kind
Despite the best laid plans, the majority of my recent writing all seems to be work related. The number of process documents I've had to write or re-write recently is enough to dull the brain to mush. Unsurprisingly, having spent time recently focused on my personal writing, work related writing is a lot easier to contend with. Templated documents already have structure, whether its forms, tables or overviews, all you need to do is make the words fit in the section they need to be in and the document is done (of course then getting sign off is an entirely different matter).
It's interesting to note that the recent comic script writing I tried was fairly similar in its exectuion. A complete story broke down to a story in pages, then in panels and finally into specific speech bubbles. Everything in its place. I'm still undecided if this is too restrictive a writing style for me to be happy with, or whether the structure is a welcome relief. Whatever the answer, I'd much prefer to be writing fiction that technical process documents.
Two weeks to nanowrimo and I'm still without a comprehensive idea. I really need to come up with something this weekend, if only so I've got a week or so to work on planning it out. The alternative is writing something so loose it wil threaten to fall off the page.
It's interesting to note that the recent comic script writing I tried was fairly similar in its exectuion. A complete story broke down to a story in pages, then in panels and finally into specific speech bubbles. Everything in its place. I'm still undecided if this is too restrictive a writing style for me to be happy with, or whether the structure is a welcome relief. Whatever the answer, I'd much prefer to be writing fiction that technical process documents.
Two weeks to nanowrimo and I'm still without a comprehensive idea. I really need to come up with something this weekend, if only so I've got a week or so to work on planning it out. The alternative is writing something so loose it wil threaten to fall off the page.
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