Friday, February 27, 2009

Spot on.

So I reached the end of today's section, which has mostly involved making the villain somewhat cartoonish before unleashing unexpected violence and death.
As I did the word count I found I had hit 996.
Well, can't stop there can I?
But finding the right 4 words to close out the section, because I wasn't about to start the next just yet, was quite hard. Especially as I had already ended the sequence.
But I'm a trooper, I have succeeded where lesser men might not have been all that bothered.
"Who would he choose?"
A little menacing, no? Even out of context, just knowing it's the bad guys thoughts makes it so.

All done for the week. Maybe time to get back to the comic pitch I have to do a rewrite on. I have decided to scrap an issue I'd planned and replace it with something more fantastical. As the artist said, I'm not playing up the fantasy elements enough, well this one should do it.
It's also planned as a mostly silent episode now.
Let's see if that sticks.

Words today: 1000
Total Words: 32424

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Return to the fold

Well, that break lasted a lot longer than planned.

Last week was supposed to be a week off and of doing some research. Instead it became a week of finishing a chapter on Monday, then playing GTA 4 and watching films.
I went out to see Slumdog Millionaire, which is a wonderful film and I've had the soundtrack (an Oscar winner dontchaknow) on almost constant spin.
But halfway through last week, I realised I dodn't know how to proceed from the point I had stopped. Couldn't think of which character to follow and focus on. My main idea, it turned out, I had already done properly and in full in an earlier chapter. So that was out.

And so, until today, I've been stumped. But then, as so often happens, I made myself sit down and begin to write. Just follow the protagonist for a bit, put the words down and let it come. As it nearly always does, this sparked off ideas and now the chapter is on the move.
Part of the problem is that I'm now racing headlong into the climax and I'm worried about word count. A stupid thing to get hung up on I know, but I'm tempted to try some padding, but also think that if I crack on with plot the words and situations are there to reach the goal of 60k.

Meh, I at least have got some traction back now. But I'm disappointed because if I'd kept up the pace of early January, this novel would be maybe a thousand words away from completion now. Instead it's half done with about a sixth of the words being the first 4 chapters which I haven't written yet. They'll probably be the last things I do actually write.

Words Today: 752
Total Words: 31424

Friday, February 13, 2009

Week's End

Well, two writing days out of five isn't great, but it's better than none.
Another thousand words today and the end of a chapter.
I've probably got one, maybe two more chapters I could write without diving back into the research, but I think I'll take next week off from new writing and change focus to research and rewrites on other projects.

In other news, my latest pitch to Abaddon fell at the final hurdle. Apparently I've never been so close before, so I'm getting there. Came up with 5 new ideas for pitches in the four hours after I got the rejection, I'm sure there will be more by the time the submissions gate opens again.

Words Today: 1192
Total Words: 28143

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A slothful sense of no motion

Well, last week was mostly a bust. Spent all day Monday in bed, barely able to do anything. Couldn't even think about writing. The rest of the week wasn't much better, but I did get the first part of an action sequence done.
Then that was it until today. Part of that is because I went to see some friends in Reading over the weekend, which completely took it out of me.
I've managed about 45 minutes this morning, and that's it.
I have at least finished that action sequence, now I'm about to get going on the following one, which leads onto another one, and then there is a break before the big final action set piece. So I'm in sight of the conclusion.
A couple of issues as there are some plot points happening elsewhere that I should be making reference to, but I don't want to lose the momentum I've built up.

Words today: 653
Total Words: 25810