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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| NaNoWriMo #23 Day 23 I spent part of this morning doing jobs. Had a phone call this afternoon for an hour or so. Went out for dinner tonight, did some emails, a review on WdC… and spent the rest of the day writing. First, though, 2 hours of this morning were spent with me and my friend doing NaNo doing a write-in together at the library. In that time, she cracked her own 50k words! After all she has been through, I’ve been really happy to be there as a support for her as she crosses this ff her bucket list. The story’s not done, though it’s close, and I know she’ll finish it by the end of the month, maybe 60-odd thousand words for her. I am stoked for her. “Write a novel” can be crossed off that bucket list. She’s in her upper 70s – not that age means much, no really – but this is one more thing off her list. Next, she is going on a cruise with her daughter. She is a wonderful inspiration. Now, it feels almost ridiculous to be talking about me, but here we go: My second 10k day this naNoWriMo! The story just came out. I knew where it was going, though I did push at the end to break 10k words. Probably silly at the ending there, and I’ll rewrite that last bit tomorrow, but here is the story. Joanne meets her mum for the first time in 21 years, an discovers she is dying of lung cancer, plus she has some other issues. She has a few months left of life. Joanne discovers some things about the beliefs of her parents. We then discover some more things about the lives of the girls in the cult Joanne is helping, and it is going to help have the father put in prison for a while. Joanne and Luke finally hook up. Love interest! Characters! Woo-hoo! And I stopped when Joanne goes to visit her mother for a second time. So, I guess this brings up how do I write this? Do I just write a thin outline and go back later once it’s all over and flesh it out? Well, to be honest, no. I write it with way too much detail, adding everything I think I might need. No sketches, but a full-on piece of work. Then at the end of each section (either split by a section break or a sub-chapter numeral), I go back and edit. I check for spelling, for grammar, for punctuation and delete a lot of extraneous stuff. The amount of crap I repeat is insane, but it is me getting every single idea down as I write, then going back while it is still fresh and making the most obvious changes. For this reason, I am constantly stop-starting. Sometimes I really want to just get on with the next section, but the mini-editing I do at the end of the sections means the story sits better in my memory. I’m also not struggling to remember the details because I have done that first mini-edit. Now, I also make a list of the characters and the events as I go along. This does two things – makes sure I keep everything in order and keep everyone in order as well. No repeated names, no name changes mid-story (boy, was I bad for that!), and in this story, I needed everything to take place in a span of only 55 days. What this means is I have a calendar printed off (using MS Publisher!) and I hand write everything in, with the ending date marked already in red. I make notes of what I’ve called things (like the Unit Joanne works for), where things are, all that. Hand-written notes are the best. No scrolling back for them – a calendar with 3 months on one page, and 1 page (so far) of hand-written notes. So much easier to navigate! Computers are not the be-all and end-all, and anyone who tells you they are is plain wrong. That is how this pantser writes his works. Like I said, this story is really writing itself. I am looking at a good 50k words here, so a proper novel after a bunch of other writings this month. Yest again, sorry to those who sponsored me… Words today – 10043 Total words– 127233 |
| NaNoWriMo #22 Day 22 A day of constant interruptions. Could not sit down for more than an hour before the phone rang or I was asked to do something with people at the library. I shouldn’t complain; at least I am interacting with people in real life. That makes such a change for me, I suppose. So, the story. I knew where I was going yesterday, and I went there today. I killed the cousin. And I had Joanne find him, find the body, deal with the arrogant inspector, and have Luke come in to make them stop giving her a hard time. The death occurs off-scene – but sort of on phone – but Joanne is the one who finds the body on the beach. Two deaths in such a short period. But then I ended with Joanne discovering that her mother, who she has spent 21 years thinking died on the property where her father, uncle and aunt all died, along with her sister and female cousin, is in fact alive! However, she has spent the intervening time in prison. And, more to the point, her grandmother knew all along and never told Joanne about it. But things are being rushed through so they can see one another and meet up for the first time since Joanne saw her mother help kill her sister and cousin. It’s about to get tense… and depressing. This story is almost writing itself. So, only a four thousand words today, but tomorrow I have the day (hopefully) all to myself and we’ll see how we can go writing there. Words today – 4733 Total words– 117190 |
| NaNoWriMo #21 Day 21. One of those days where everything was just on a roll. I finished yesterday with Joanne being taken through the house where the girls had been kept as prisoners by their hyper-religious father. I stopped when I wasn’t sure what I was doing there. Then I worked it out this morning, and I made it that Joanne told the police where the “punishment closet” was. This has introduced us to Luke, who will become more important as the story goes on. He’s the cop in charge of the investigation. I spent about forty minutes with a local detective who I know, and asked him all sorts of questions. He was happy to do it because (a) it gave him a break and, (b) (which is what he said to me) he liked the idea of things being accurate in stories. There is also the fact keeping good with the police in Australia is vital, as it is a nasty police state, and they will hammer you whenever they can. So, he told me that detectives here rarely work one case; they often have three or more on the go. This is perfect for my story. Luke is about to become a busy cop. So… Joanne has now got herself in good with the cops, and her knowledge (which the reader knows comes from her childhood, but virtually no-one in the story does) is making her invaluable. It will also make her being more empathic than other counsellors more logical, and push where I want the ending to go. Anyway, then we have the first death. Joanne’s grandmother, who brought her up after her parents and the other adults at the farm died. And her sister and cousin were murdered. Joanne and her cousin Jackson were taken in by the grandmother… and now she’s dead. And then I had to have Jackson accused of killing her, the implication being it was for her money. The police came to search Joanne’s house, but Luke came and helped, along with a lawyer. And I finished today with Jackson missing. A death, one that cuts deeply, and a missing cousin, who might as well be a brother to Joanne. The ante is being upped… finally. This story is flying. And a day like today when I just had the day to myself in front of the fans (no air con in the pub room), writing was all I did. This was a good writering day. Now, looking at how these things work, I know how the story is going to end, I know the next major character to be introduced, I am using the number five to its fullest. I know where this is going, and I just want to write before I lose it all. This is the best mentally sorted story of all those I’ve done this month, and it’s also the one that has been percolating the least. Maybe there is something in that for me to take note of… Words today – 7132 Total words– 112457 |
| NaNoWriMo #20 Day 20. Two thirds of the way there. Ten days to go. So, I was on the radio today, and that sort of killed the morning, as I took the opportunity to do some research for a book I am collating and had to go to the post office, and did a little bit of shopping. So this afternoon I set myself and managed to get a good few hours of typing done. Now, I say it killed the morning. But… I wrote a poem. Well, sort of. I re-wrote a poem. I wrote a parody of the C C Moore classic about writing a novel. It was something I could do while I was waiting in the radio station lobby. Took me maybe an hour and a half, but the idea was right there! I love it when a plan comes together! So, of course, with a novel to write, my brain said, “Hey! Here’s a poem!” And I did it. Stupid monkey brain. Anyway, this afternoon and the novel. The story is all set-up at the moment, introducing the characters and establishing the religious basis for a lot of the issues that are to come. Slow build, as is my wont. A bad dream to hint at disaster to come, and hints at what happened 21 years earlier. Not a real lot to report there. More than 5k words in 5 hours of writing, though, so that is a positive. But the biggest thing is – I’ve cracked 100k words! So we are looking at close to what I churned out last year. Apologies to those sponsoring me… Poem words – 407 Novel words – 5466 Total words today – 5873 Total words– 105325 |
| NaNoWriMo #19 Day 19. Cryptid story is finished! Woo-hoo! Just under 4k words to clear it off today, between bouts of helping people in my usual Tuesday library. So, after the tragic death yesterday, I was ready to kill the lazy guy, but he went and saved the two palaeontologists! They killed a few of the animals, but they are still out there. And there is a HFN ending, and the lazy guy lost his marriage, so he didn’t get off scot-free. Alright, and that is what a pantser sometimes has to do. We have to let our characters tell us where the story is going and not force it. As soon as that one character convinced me she had to die, the story just kicked along. Trust your characters – it’s their story and you are just the scribe. At least, that’s how I approach it. What this also means is that I had 6 possible endings I detailed a few posts ago, and not one of them was where the story ended up. It was a weird way to go for me, without that end-goal so clear after halfway through, and yet this story worked and I am happy with a first draft. I was going to leave it there for the day, but the demon story hit me and so I did a quick couple of hours typing there as well. I introduced the two main characters – Joanne, a psychologist, and Anne, a girl she is looking after. And then I introduced the work Joanne is doing. She is helping the victims of a cult… and it turns out that Joanne escaped from a similar cult as a child as well. Joanne is established as being a physically strong woman. Now, unlike the cryptid story, I have the ending of this one. Lots of allusions to the number 5, so after 4 of Joanne’s closest are killed by an entity, she needs to protect the fifth to stop the creature staying in the world, and her physical strength and long hair are going to be a part of that. I have some notes about the ending already. This story could flow easily. Maybe another 50k worder, I think. So… Cryptid words today – 3998 Total words in cryptid story – 50234 Demon words – 1750 Total words today – 5748 Total words– 99452 |
| NaNoWriMo #18 Day 18. Holy crap, what a day! Almost 10k words today… because the characters told me what was going to happen. I killed a couple of characters off… including one who I was sure was going to survive. It has increased the tension inside the hut. And then one of the animals managed to get in through a broken window. The narrator managed to kill it with an extension cord while one of the others hit it with a pick-axe. An off-screen death, a tragic death scene, a commitment to a divorce, a lot of recriminations, emotions everywhere… My brain feels like mush. Hopefully I can finish this one tomorrow, then hit the demon woman story… Sorry, I want to give more detail on how this happened, but it just happened. I started to write and the characters argued, and they went outside, and… it happened. Attack… death… It was what I needed. I was talking myself out of killing some people; I had to let the deaths go ahead. It was what the story needed to have more pathos and more emotion, and to let the reader know the stakes are really that serious. It is exhausting writing so many words in a day. I’m going to bed. Words today – 9118 Total words– 93704 (yes, I have cracked 90k) |
| NaNoWriMo #17 Day 17. Well, I finished the short story this morning. At a little over 2020 words, it is a weird little story about a series of women who, through some sort of means, are forced to “drown” themselves by an ex-partner (who they share). But they do not seem to actually die… I really like the opening scene I wrote (are we allowed to like our own writing?)… Okay, sidenote. I have seen two thoughts on this. First is that to be an artist, you should be proud of your work, as you put it out into the public, and if you hate your work, why do that? The other is that being happy with or proud of what you wrote is braggadocios and almost sinful. But I am trying to write for a living, and so, even though I am nervous about posting things I might sell here, I think it is okay to be a little happy with something you write… especially in my case when I am so unhappy with a lot of what I write, even published works. So, back to the post. I really like the opening scene I wrote, describing an Australian beach at the height of summer. It is just description, but I like to think I captured something of that horrid heat we put up with so often here. Anyway, that story is now done. Yes, ideas just attack me and I feel I have to grab them and write them down… So… the cryptid story. I added almost 2 and a half thousand words there as well. They got the lazy guy in and his wife wants a divorce. Just one long chapter of building character and back-story so that the readers feel for the person I’m going to kill. I think. I still have no ending. I am going to trust the characters to take the story where it needs to go. I think that is the best way to go. We’ll see how we go tomorrow with this! Sidenote #2: Someone keeps saying on one of the forums here that AI can teach people proper grammar and punctuation, when it can’t even get it right. I have decided to stop engaging with this person, despite them hijacking a thread about people wanting to learn rules of grammar. What do people think? Let this person think using AI to write is learning English rules, or try to help? I am inclined to leave them deluded. Word counts! ‘Adrian’s Call’ (short story) – 2020 words Cryptid story – 2431 words Total words today – 4451 words Total words so far – 84586 words |
| NaNoWriMo #16 Day 16. Stuggled a little today. I sort of wrote myself into a corner, I think, so I went back and rewrote to kill off one of the campers and injure another, which gives me an excuse to get everyone into the lightning affected hut. Except the lazy guy, who won’t answer his caravan door. It’s now evident they are being hunted by the creatures, and they have had to put up makeshift coverings in front of the windows. I need to remember that for later and Chekhov’s gun… or Chekhov’s broken window, as the case may be. But I think still not knowhow it is going to actually end is what is stifling the creativity when it goes into coming to the end of the tale. Now, while pantsing is the way I write, this does show an issue with that writing technique. By now, I usually have at least an idea of how the story is going to end. I can see where I am aiming. That means my writing gets direction as it reaches its conclusion. Still dithering about how I am going to end this, I think, is making me struggle with getting as many words down as I know I am capable of. I have my usual Sunday morning video call to Florida tomorrow, so I hope by talking with her about the stories (as we are wont to do), it’ll break it open in my head. Writing about it, emailing about it, is all well and good, but that verbal sparring and back and forth, bouncing of ideas, talking over one another, the immediacy, can really help me get my thoughts into some sort of perspective. The only thing I know for sure is the narrator survives because, well, he’s narrating. And his wife, otherwise it would be a real downer. I mean, there’s going to be enough deaths as it is, but that might be pushing it a little too far. So, yes, pantsing means there is no real prep as such, and you will have to do a rewrite a lot of the time when you’ve finished, but when this whole “no ending” thing hits, then you’re in trouble. I mean, even in the fairy story, once the fairies told me they were good guys and I introduced step-uncle Dan, I knew he was going to be punished in some sort of fairy manner. I might not have had the details, but it was so clear that was where it was headed. I could write in that direction. With no ending showing itself here, that is most likely the reason I am so stuck. However, I did do some words today, and have cracked 80k. 3797 words today Total words: 80135 |
| NaNoWriMo #15 Day 15. Halfway through NaNoWriMo and I am on course to equal last year’s insane effort. So, almost 5k words today. Good day concsidering it felt rather relaxed and chilled – half an hour writing here, half an hour there. Sometimes going in with no expectations and just writing when I felt like it and not forcing the issue can pay off. Of course, so can not having a job, a social life, friends or anything akin to something else to do… but I digress. Anyway, we’re still with the cryptids! They have set up at the dig site and are about to spend the night. This is it – they are going to be attacked. So, how do I isolate them completely? Got the idea from an interview I did maybe 30 years ago when I was still a vaguely working journalist – I interviewed a small group who had been inside a building when it was struck by lightning. I had some good memories of what they told me – I’ve used bits subsequently in stories – but decided to go hunting online for any other eye-witness accounts. I found three, all on different sites, and all of them not only told very similar stories, but they matched that interview from long ago. So, lightning struck the satellite dish on the roof, and burnt out everything plugged into the electrical system, which included all their phones and computers. It also made the electronic gates lock so they cannot leave. Now they are electronically isolated, and are just coping with that. I stopped it there, with them trying to recover physically and mentally. Tomorrow, I will hit the first attacks at the new place. I have 7 characters there… the narrator will survive and so will his wife… but how many more will get out unscathed? I get excited writing about the demise of characters. Unfortunately, I do feel that the characters I am going to kill off are not well developed (except the lazy guy), but I still hope their deaths will make the horror of the tale really be upped and hit the reader hard. The story has cracked 30k words, but I can’t see it being stretched to reach 50k; this means it will be yet another novella. Then again, I could pair it with my other Australian cryptid story and sell them as a good 90k word book, 2 novelas, Australian monsters. I’m getting ahead of myself. This story isn’t even finished yet! 4923 words today Total words: 76338 So, if this is halfway, I am looking at 152676 words, about 1000 less than last year. |
| NaNoWriMo #14 Day 14. Wrote this morning for a while, then again this afternoon. This evening I returned to the hand-written short story I started that died. I won’t count those words until I type them up. Hopefully I’ll finish it this weekend. So… the cryptid story. After the death and attack on one of the diggers, the police don’t want them to leave town so, reluctantly, they are now at the dig site. The fat lazy guy has spent no time in annoying the people running the site. The narrator has now shown the teeth he found at the site of the attacks, and they match teeth found at the dig site. To explain – they are uncovering a thylacoleo fossil, and found teeth imprints on it. They used dental putty to make casts of the teeth… and whatever attacked this creature tens of thousands of years ago is very similar to what is attacking the people now. The problem is – the creature is not on file. This is new, hence being a cryptid. So, I have the survivors together in a very isolated part of the country. I can feel a big showdown coming… and are still not sure how it’s going to end. Narrator and wife sole survivors would be my best bet, with the lazy guy being the last to die, having saved his friend (the narrator) at the last moment, proving he isn’t such a jerk after all. At the moment. The short story? It’s about an entity drawing people out to be drowned. That’s it so far… 3204 words today Total words: 71415 |
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