Posted 9:08 PM by Tim
I had this idea about doing an ongoing story on the web over the course of next year. The idea is to write between 10,000 and 20,000 words of a novel (a couple chapters), and post them to some site on the web. It's a good idea, I'm just now starting to worry about my ability to pull it off, given all my other commitments and plans and tasks and such. I have a tendancy to bite more and more till I choke on everything I'm doing. Stupid me, figure I'd learn by now.

Anyway, if the idea goes off (and I'm still pushing for it to go off), it will run under the name of "Dark Heart." It'd be based in the Warhammer 40K universe, and would be the tale of a Dark Eldar Warrior. At least, that's the plan.

On top of that, I want to get my novella finished and done (for the fourth time). Then, it's just shopping it around here and there. Hoping for it to be picked up, or rejected summarily a couple times. We'll see.

Then there's finishing the NaNoWriMo novel. It hit the 50K mark, but just started to get into the mystery (sounds very like last year, when the novel got to the mark, but was just getting going by then.... maybe I've an exposition problem). I figure there's easily another 20K or so in there, and I can reach it and get the rest out if I just get back to doing the daily writing. At least one of the rides to and from work... Shouldn't be too hard really - I know I can do it.

Plus, there's these articles. I've got to write something between 2,000 and 2,500 words for Sacred Twilight. I accepted an offer to be a staff columnist. It's a solid deal for me. I get my stuff printed, and get a good reference for other publishers. Sounds like a deal to me... if I can just write something worth reading. I've got things planned out, just need to work on them. (Anyone else noticing a trend here?)

Posted 12:12 PM by Tim
I totally dropped the ball on this NaNoWriMo blogging thing. I got NaNo done (been over the 50K mark a while now), but didn't really have the time to blog anything.

I was hoping to write about how things were going, but they went really well, and the novel got past 50K really quickly. Then, life stepped in. I took a "quick break" from the writing to get some things done, and ended up taking on a seperate work project and totally booking my time off to that for a couple of weeks (still working on it at this point, so you can see where my time is still going).

After this work project finishes, I've got another one in the works that'll demand less, but still significant portions of my evenings.

I've been up way too late, so I've been sleeping on the train. This has kept me from getting any writing done whatsoever. Bothersome to me, since I really want to finish the story out.

I've agreed to something rather daring. I've committed myself to writing not less than six 2,500 word columns on writing for Sacred Twilight. They're moving to a print edition (I suppose it's in addition to their online edition?), and they wanted me on as a staff writer. I agreed, so that's pretty cool. There's no pay, but I do get a print copy of the issue for my efforts. I've also got to work on their backend with them. After this current project - then I'll have time to do their stuff.

I've got an idea brewing in my head for writing (a couple of them actually). One is to start writing a bit of chapter-based fan fiction for Warhammer 40K. Give myself a month to write the first chapter, edit it, and plonk it down somewhere online. Maybe here? Maybe in a new blog just for the occasion. I'll figure out the details as I go. The idea would be to put out a chapter a month (maybe more?), and keep the story running. I've had a couple of ideas for 40K based fiction before, so I'd like to see if I can write some of it. If I can, cool. If not, meh, I tried and failed. Won't be the first time it's happened.

I suppose the best plan would be to start thinking about plot... and characters... and setting... hmm... maybe I will need a month per chapter...

Posted 3:30 PM by Tim
Yep. Stole thirty minutes of time. Got over the 50K mark 50,174 right now. I'll hold onto that 'till the ride home, then it's word crunching time. Yes, I've finished, but the story still has places to go - and I've got the time to actually see the rest of this out. Yay me!

Posted 11:00 AM by Tim
So close to being done now. Under 700 words. If I could only manage to get it done. Stupid work keeping me from my goals. If I could just steal like 20 minutes....

Posted 10:17 AM by Tim
Apparently, it is on.

That is, a friend of mine and I have a bit of friendly competition with the writing for NaNoWriMo. I've been ahead of her from the outset, but weekends are very bad for me and writing... so, she's caught up. In fact, she pulled ahead over the weekend. We were both at the 25,000 mark, and well... that's more than half finished in under a week. Should not take either of us long to get things done.

As of this morning, she was at just over 29,000. Which, to me, as a challenge that needs answering. I've totally thrown out my usual daily goals in exchange for the rediculous goal of 15,000 words. That, if I acheive it, would be 5K for Saturday's miss, 5K for Sunday's miss, and 5K for today's usual goal. What's the chances, you say? At this point, pretty damn good. I've made 5K this morning, on the commute in, and I've still got plot planned out for some time to go! At least another 10K worth.

Here's to hoping I can leave her in the dust again.

Just, for the record, I'm currently at 30,473. Nearly 1500 over her last posted count. Though... she's got all day to rush forward too... it could be close.

Posted 11:24 AM by Tim
The writing goals have been silly lately. I managed to get 4,000+ on the commute yesterday, so I figured I'd try to get up to a total count of 25,000. That meant adding another 5,000 words. So, the daily goal for yesterday was 9,000 words. Quite a bit, but I thought it just might be possible.

I made it.

This officially puts me into the category of the crazy people. I'm one of those few who manage to finish their novel well before the rest. I'm not done, mind you, but I don't see any reason why I can't get there quick. I've got a half-assed goal of trying to get the whole novel (well, the 50,000 words of it) done by the 10th. So, I'm really pushing for that. A friend of mine asked me what the rush was about. There's no rush, I've just been really liking getting things done.

Posted 1:53 PM by Tim
NaNoWriMo goes very well for me so far. Even better than last year (each years seems to be becoming easier and easier). I've got over 18,000 words already, and it's only the 4th day of writing. That's just over 4,000 a day. Not qute where I want to be, but certainly close.

You may remember that my usual goal is 2,000 words a day. I've amended that goal a little, and given myself a range of goals. I'm happy when I've met any of them, but extra happy when I meet the top goal. The range is: 1667, 2000, 2500, 5000, 7500 and 10,000 words. The first goal is the absolute minimum daily number. I'm not really "happy" to reach this goal, only "un-diappointed" with myself. The 2,000 goal is good, but I know I can do better, at least, on work days I know I can. I've been really aiming at the 5,000 mark (and I'll probably make that today, giving me a 5K daily average so far).

While this is all great (I'll be finished the full 50,000 by the 10th at this rate), it's almost not fast enough. I'm pretty sure I can write faster. After all, we're not looking for quality, we're looking for quantity. The main issue I have is time. The demands on my time (partly from me, partly from everything else) are pretty high. In addition to NaNo, I've got a couple of crafts I'm working on, and there's a couple of things I've really been meaning to get done. I guess they're gonna have to wait so I can tear through the rest of the novel.

I hope everyone else doing NaNo is keeping up. From what I've seen so far, it looks like they are.

Posted 10:02 AM by Tim
NaNoWriMo has offically started. I stayed up till midnight to get a jump on it. Got 1100 words in and put it down for the night.

Now, as always, the minimum daily goal is 1766. If I can't write at least that many, I'll never get 50,000 words in 30 days. The practical goal, of course, is to get at least 2,000 words in. That'll mean the novel gets done in 25 days. Of course, with just 2,500 words, the novel gets done in 20 days... and at 5,000 words, I could finish this whole thing in just 10 days.

I'm aiming for the 5,000 words a day, but I'm not expecting to get anywhere with that goal, but I'm doing pretty well so far. There's always people who seem to just blast the hell out of the writing thing. I've seen a couple of people who already have over 7,000 words done. And it's stull early in the morning. Both inspiring and freakish.

Posted 9:51 AM by Tim
First, I didn't make good on my promise. The novella was not edited in time... so it'll have to wait until after NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I'll be working away at midnight to get a good jump-start on it.

Posted 10:40 AM by Tim
There are three days until November 1. The start of NaNoWriMo. I'm all charged up thinking about it. If only I could get rid of all the other stresses of life to write. That'd be sweet.

Posted 9:45 AM by Tim
Since this is supposed to be where all my writing stuff goes, I'm gonna put this here:

I've been working on a novella for a while now. It's been edited three times, and I think it's looking pretty good. It just needs a fourth edit now, and it'll be ready for peer review. I've put out a call to a couple people I know, and they're gonna take a look at it. I just need to finish the fourth edit.

I'd like to have it done by the end of this week, but that just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Unless I get to work on it and really start getting things done.

So, to kick myself into gear, I'm going to make a commitment here on my blog to get the novella edited and sent out to peer reviewers by no later than October 29. That'll give me enough time to get in gear for NaNoWriMo, and leave my mind free to explore that story instead of mulling the novella.

Ultimately, the plan is to submit the novella to publishers, so I'm also going to have to start collecting a list of publishers interested in short fiction. There's bound to be a couple places I can submit the work, I just need to find them. I'm thinking, no less than three attempts at submission, but it'd be nice if I could find at least five places.

Posted 10:07 AM by Tim
NaNoWriMo is only a couple weeks away now. I've not had time to do any real planning on the story's plot. Gotta get to that.

Posted 10:08 AM by Tim
In three weeks, I'll be starting the writing fury again. I've got to get my writer muscles into shape! I think I'll need to start dragging out the laptop again... get some of those old story ideas fleshed out and finished.

I've got a fair bit of information about Hank now. He's really taking shape. I've got a few other characters to work with now, in the hopes that they'll reveal things about themselves, so I can figure out how Hank sees them. After all, nearly everything in the story will be from Hank's point of view.

I've got this plan to write a chunk of horrible, horrible fiction. It's in there that I'll be putting all the dares, idiosyncratic events and sheer craziness. The goal (for the first story-in-story) will be to be as cliche and hackneyed as possible. I want it to drip with wretchedness. Should be fun!

Posted 12:58 PM by Tim
It's NaNoWriMo time!

Well, it's time to start thinking about NaNoWriMo, at least. October is the run-up month before the big bash really starts.

I've got a couple of ideas, and I'm hoping that I can stretch one of them (or both should the first plan fail) into 50,000 words. Details on progress and so forth will be forthcoming, but let me give you the brief.

It's pretty much decided that I'll be writing a "diary style" novel. Much, if not all of the novel will be presented as diary entries of my main character (currently named Henry "Hank" Williams). I'm not sure what genre it'll end up in. Fiction for sure, but as for the sub-genre... no idea. Guess I'll just have to explore it.

Posted 11:57 AM by Tim
Right. September, and I'm already drooling for NaNoWriMo. I've still got my downtown TO job, so the 2 hours on the GO should provide me with ample writing time on a daily basis. Assuming I'm not entirely bogged down by everything else that's about to break forth in my writing life.

Let me elucidate, and thusly, enlighten:

I've been chatting briefly with a gent about doing some journalistic stuff (short-form essays and such) for a website. Not high-profile, but it would have my stuff being read by people in the area.

There's a slow-churning idea for something forming at the back of my head. A friend of mine put the seed of something in there, and it's been slowly germinating ever since.

There's my novella. It's sitting patiently waiting for me to run over it with the editing knives again, and it's just about that time. Then, it'll be down to finding it a venue for submission. Oh the joys of having things turned down and thrown in my face.

There's also an online writing newsletter thing I'm partially involved in. Submissions-wise anyway. I've got one piece in already, and about 2 days to deadline another piece in there just to see if I can get something done. Part of me wants to just wait and put my second piece in for their first quarter issue, but I'm not sure how likely it is that my work will be accepted. It wasn't 100% edited, but it wasn't horrible either.

In other news, I went looking at the Black Library yesterday. I'd read another one of their Warhammer 40K books, and have been thinking of writing one for some time now (possibly for NaNo, even). I wanted to know what their submission guidelines were. Apparently, they haven't any. They don't want submissions. If they do, they ask for them. Through contests. That's how it works. I missed the last contest they had held, so now I'm stuck checking back every month or so to find out when the next contest is going to be if there's any hope of getting published by them.

There's still a very, very small chance of me doing some other stuff and trying out one of the small-time publishers like Ellora's Cave, but that's becoming increasingly distant. My motivation to write "that kind" of story has waned, and I'm not sure how ready I am to re-kindle it.

Posted 3:43 PM by Tim
Nothing like letting a half year pass before posting, right?

Let's pretend I didn't just totally stop posting, and get right back at it, ok?

I've been working on a novella for some time now. It's finished, and I'm in the later phases of editing. I'm looking at structure now. What is the minimum I need to tell the story? That's my question.

I've looked at each of the characters that have speaking parts (for this definition, they must have at least 1 line of dialogue, or dialogue-equivalent). I've got 2 main, 8 secondary, and 6 tertiary.

For me, a main character has to be heavily involved in the story. Probably the focus, or involved in 90% or more of it. Secondary characters appear in a couple spots in the story, and add something of value to it. Tertiary characters appear once, and, though they may have a lot of dialogue or other plot significance, after their appearance, they're done.

Looking at the list of characters, there's 3 secondaryies that are up for being cut from the story.

One is an obvious cut. He was intended originally to be a friend for the MC, but in the end got written up as a wishy-washy loner drunk. I can cut him without too much trouble.

Another is a colourful character. Lots of little quirks and eccentricities to him. He's basically there for comic relief, and to give the two main characters a reason to interact over certain subjects. However, he could easily be cut, and the story wouldn't miss him. It'd gloss past a particularily boring part of the story anyhow. Trouble is, I really like the character, so I'd love to keep him, but I know he needs to go.

The third character is one I think might be saveable. I'll still need the minor plot points that the other two cuts would have brought up, and she can do just job if they're out of the way. It changes things for her a little bit, and means some serious re-works on her interactions with the primary MC, but I feel she's needed. At least at this point. I might end up changing my mind later and cutting her anyway (or reducing her to tertiary status).

Anyway, the editing on this needs to be done by about the 25 of this month. Then I'm going to have people read the work and see what they think about it. After that, more edits based on their advice, and then, I'll be trying to get it published.