It has been a while since I last posted but this is 2020 – time has no meaning. Can you believe we’re over halfway through November?
This song seemed appropriate given the nature of this year.
I started Nanowrimo off fairly strongly but am now behind. I am only behind by 359 words so I should be back on track in a few days. The amount by which I am behind is shrinking each day.
Overall I would say I am enjoying the process. The writing has stalled now and then, and I have jumped around in a non-liner fashion, but I am at lease enjoying the process – which is, I think, the point of the exercise. Some of it maybe awful but awful can be edited – a blank page cannot.
I hope you are all doing well and I will see you soon.
I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
By the time you read this I will be ten days into nanowrimo. In theory I will have written 16,670 words. I am hoping that that is more than a theory – I did entertain the rather silly notion of getting 10,000 words a day done in this week as I have been off work for most of it. At least I can get ahead of where I need to be. That should be doable right?
As I write it is 2333 on the 4th and I am 45 words ahead. I have been playing catch up. Due to other commitments I was unable to write much on the first two days. In fact on the 2nd I got no words in at all! Now all I have to do is stay ahead so I can reach that target!
Love this theme tune.
So how is this thing going? Well the title is confusion so I’ll let you judge. Actually in truth it is not going so badly but one of the problems with not planning is that ideas come at you as you write. Therefore certain elements in the plot may be repetitious, irrelevant, or in need of change. I don’t see that as a big issue necessarily – that is why we have editors.
I thought about updating this across the week however that is something I am likely to forget – I do not organise this kind of stuff too well. As I write I am (It is the 7th now) 320 words ahead. I am off tomorrow (8th) too and then back to work so I will be doing more writing today – I should probably try to get outside too. I don’t think that will happen.
I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
I am not sure if there will be a knight in my Nanowrimo story but I do know one thing there will be a battle. Hopefully a battle in the story and not a battle of me staring at a blank screen and not knowing what to write.
I have often heard how important planning is for a novel. I find that impossible. I don’t feel I can visualise where things are until they are there. Does that make sense? No. The answer is no.
To it is like going for a walk but having to imagine the walk first. Then you write down a sequence and try to follow just that sequence. So rather than having a map you just have a piece of paper that says: left, right, left, left, right, and so on and so on.
So instead of a plan I am going to just start. I am on 2904 words (total) at the moment and have 2096 words to go to get me on track. I want to smash through that and finish this week, which I am off work for, far above the 11,667 target for the fist week. At least that is the plan. Now, if you’ll excuse, I need to get back to it. Toodles.
I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
The most basic way this happens is when I set out to find one simple piece of information. I had a character, I wanted her to be from France, and so I googled for a map of France. I picked a city name. I lingered on the Wiki page for that city – which was pointless all I needed was the name.
Incidentally the city I decided on was Draguignan – which I changed to Bordeaux when reading it out as I wasn’t sure of pronunciation.
Then there is background information. What do I need to know?
How indeed?
Many years ago I began planning the background information for a science fiction novel I was working on. The ship had many aliens on board and I wanted to know everything about the crew. There were 900 aboard and I wanted to know all their names, races, ranks, and ages.
Why? Because of Star Trek. I grew up watching Star Trek. For other children it was Disney but for me it was Star Trek and TNG and DS9 are still two of my favourite shows. A common feature of those shows, and all the Trek shows, was the crewman who would be unaffected by wherever was threatening the crew this week.
So when I was crafting my own universe I felt I needed to know exactly how many of each race there was. Therefore I would know which crewmen I could use for any given story.
Also to understand command structures I have done a lot of research into the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many other navies around the world. I have looked at ships, ranks, positions, and have come to one conclusions. I will never understand. The question I am struggling with is how much do I need to understand? A question I need to answer by the start of November.
I would love for someone who knows of the navy to be able to read a novel of mine and find it to be accurate. I have come to the conclusion that the only way to do that is to literally find a reader with that expertise. There is only so much google can find.
I don’t know exactly what form my nano novel will take. I have tried to plan but I just want to start writing. Five days from when you read this it will all begin.
My solution to the gaps in my knowledge is to skirt the issue. The nature of the story is that I can just invent my own world. If it isn’t the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but instead the Royal Navy of …. well I don’t quite have a name yet. Then there can be no mistakes.
If that fails I have to accept that I don’t kneed to know everything. Do I need to know every Seaman, Leading Hand, Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Warrant officer, Lieutenant or Lieutenant Commander? Probably not.
I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
I have just validated my novel. Yes 50,000 words written in a month. This is only the beginning of course and many cuts will have to be made – and maybe the story isn’t even any good.
Nevertheless a story exists now that did not before and now all that remains is to finish it… more words and edit; edit; edit.
After all as someone wise once said: ‘You can’t edit a blank page!’
Woo hoo!
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I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
It has been more than a fortnight since I last posted. That is because I have been working on Nanowrimo.
Juggling my writing, work, housework, and food is not easy. This is part of the reason the washing up has rather piled up in the last few days, why my flat is even more of a mess, and why I had a wired meal just now of: steak, a bell pepper, and Doritos. I have to leave for work in about an hour so I really should snap to it – by it I mean washing up – met writing target for today.
The novel is going well. One of the chapters is at nearly 15,000 words. For the finished piece I’ll have to edit it to at least seven chapters. The point is it is going well. That is due, in a large part, to drawing inspiration from my own life. Write what you know. Am I write?
I have a week off next week so the target will be reached. Here’s to the final push!
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I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
Nanowrimo is almost here. And once again I am going to attempt this rather difficult feat.
Last year I failed to meet the 50,000 word target. Also Thor, my laptop, died right near the end of it. I lost none of my work though as I have backups of everything.
I still haven’t finished that novel. I have several unfinished novels. I know that that isn’t good. I still enjoy the process of writing. Beginnings are always fun. In those moments you create a new world. After the first few chapters it is easy to become a little lost. It is like when playing with toy soldiers as a child: I’m not sure I ever did but it works for a metaphor.
When playing such games we imagine the great battle, the establishment of a beachhead, and the destruction of enemy forces.
We rarely play the aftermath. There are computer games for the Battle of Britain. They don’t make computer games where you have to work out the minutiae of the Paris peace treaties.
A novel is still a tall order but one I feel I will achieve some day. The words ‘some day’ are a curse but there they are.
This year I am going to attempt something a little different. I won’t be working in my usual genera but in romance.
It will be about a lonely man who lives on a narrowboat and finds love. It is a story that has been brewing in my mind for a while.
I have no solid idea of exactly what is going to happen in the story but I am excited to see where it goes.
If you are attempting Nanowrimo this year I wish you the best of luck. See you on the other side.
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I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
So today is day five of nanowrimo and its going quite well. I’ve written 682 words so far today. My total word count is 8941.
I don’t wish to count my ostriches (I have a picture for that) – but at this rate I should be able to finish a few days early.
I’ve already gotten a feeling for what this might be like. Yesterday’s 2000 or so words were a bit of a struggle – and took two and a half hours. Today it seems to be going much better.
In fact in general its going a lot better than I expected. I think that might be down to the deadline. I usually edit as I go (and to within an inch centimeter of its life) but I can’t do that here. That does mean that when it comes to the end it might be a bit of a confused mess.
One of the confusions is the aliens. I have to keep looking back so that I can remember; how many limbs they have, the nature of the limbs, their eating apparatus, whether they have gender, and if so what gender that is.
I’m beginning to see why humanoid aliens, which are kind of boring, are popular even in print – when you don’t have to worry about a CGI budget.
Anyway back to novel I go.
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I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
This is a blog in three parts. The parts are unrelated but I have three little things I want to say.
Part 1
I’ve been saying it for months but I’ve finally started to learn Welsh. I’m using Say Something in Welsh as a starting point. Will I ever be fluent? I don’t know.
I did Welsh is school but it was badly taught. It seems now that we learned a combination of overly formal language, and sentences that actually don’t make sense. One sentence we learned was: ‘Rwy’n hoffi Star Trek achos mae’n da.’ – Which means I like Star Trek because its good. Obviously we put our own like, or dislike, in it. We also learned to say that we didn’t like stuff because it was bad.
Why we learned these useless sentences I don’t know.
Some say that learning Welsh is a pointless endeavor. They argue that everyone who speaks Welsh speaks English. Its difficult to explain why I want to lean Welsh. A part of me is tempted to answer the question with: ‘If you have to ask you’ll never understand.’
I do feel a connection to Welsh and want to speak it. Without delving too much into the history it feels like its the language I should be speaking.
How long I’ll keep at it is another question.
Part 2
Its November now, you may have noticed, and for many, well some, it means NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is an acronym for: National Novel Writing Month. In which the aim is to write 50,000 words in a month. A tall order to be sure.
I’m not doing this in the ‘right’ way, as large chunks of my novel are written, but I am going to try and write more this month.
Will I finish my novel? If my previous track record is anything to go by the answer is no.
Part 3
Finally I wanted to talk about spoilers. In particular I wanted to talk about Doctor Who. At the end of each episode they have a ‘Next Time’ segment and my question is: Why?
Doctor Who is one of the most popular shows on TV at the moment. It has a guaranteed audience. There is simply no need to tempt views to watch they will be their.
This was especially irritating in the last episode: Dark Water. The villain (click here for the revel) is hinted at, take a look at the doors, and its reveled in a great way. However the effort of the writer to hint at this is ruined by it being shown in the next time segment!
If anyone from the BBC happens to stumble on to this please jettison ‘Next Time.’ We don’t need it. This series has been a mixed bag but on the whole I’ve enjoyed it. To make sure I see the next episode all I need is six words ‘The Doctor will return next week.’ – basically just tell me it exists and I’ll be there!
I have just validated my novel. Yes 50,000 words written in a month. This is only the beginning of course and many cuts will have to be made – and maybe the story isn’t even any good.
It has been more than a fortnight since I last posted. That is because I have been working on Nanowrimo.
It will be about a lonely man who lives on a narrowboat and finds love. It is a story that has been brewing in my mind for a while.
(I have a picture for that) – but at this rate I should be able to finish a few days early.
Unstable Orbit 