1055 words

And not too bad at all today, scribing-wise. Just about made up for yesterday's shortfall. Most of this is being done in lunch hours, which can mean sarnie crumbs or the occasional plastic fork stuck in mouth like a thermometer in a Carry On film. Maybe soup's the way ahead. And a straw.

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919 words

Yeah, I know. A bit squeezed for time today what with work bleeding through into nosebag hour and being committed (timewise if not in a medical sense) this evening. Have to make it up tomorrow and deal with the shame in the interim...

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1124 words

Coasting a little I reckon. It feels a bit easy today. Not sure if that's a bad thing or a good one.

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1001 words

And finishing nicely at the end of a chapter.

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1006 words

And a bit of a struggle today, if only because I was rushing. That'll teach me. I'm making no grandiose claims to working on this over the weekend this week, but I'm open to inspiration...

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1026 words

All pretty straightforward today thanks very much for asking, though the writing's taken a darker turn in the last few days that means that, come the second draft, the first five thousand words or so might well need rewriting to make them a better fit with what comes next.


This week, there's really been no hiccups with finding the time (an hour, sometimes a bit less), and I'm a little ahead of myself in leaving notes for progressing the manuscript.  Yes there's (the vaguest) planning, but it's good to have ideas coming through on a daily basis that I hadn't thought of...

1110 words

Phew. if there's one thing I hate, it's leaving a USB stick in a computer, even if it just there for backup purposes. Cue semi-panicky running around (probably made worse by a USB failure last week). even if the material's stored and backed up virtually (i've tried online drive services like Zumodrive, but you can't beat the simplicity of emailing yourself) there's the security blanket aspect of having something physical with the info on. The writing itself today, a lunchtime dream, made the easier by indulging myself a bit with a grotesque minor villain. some the stuff will be lost in the edit, I'm sure, but for now it'll do just fine.

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1145 words

Ah, I almost got into a real flow today; had to make myself break off from continuing.  Still, I've made myself notes and I can see where it's going for the time being, as well as coming up with a real gallery of grotesques.  There should be another day of plain sailing tomorrow.  Quality.  


Bad guys are fun to write, aren't they?

1123 words

Nothing done over the weekend, alas, but back in the saddle Monday.  Just a quick update today as I've got a dodgy USB drive to back up before it fails altogether.  


And I've put a second story over on the fiction page...

1030 words

And going well.  The story thing going in a slightly different, darker direction too, which is all good.   Ah, the weekend stretches before me like a tired cat.  Not anticipating any issues with adding to the word count over the weekend, so there should be another couple of kilos in the bag come Monday.

1057 words

And in doing so I got to thinking that maybe I'd gone about this in slightly the wrong way, which might mean, if not re-writing the first 10K, then at least re-jigging it a tad.  Basically, getting a more defined idea of what it is I'm actually doing, which I suppose is probably a good thing.

Thus far, I've had a general outline and a template to follow, but now certain synapses are firing.  It's a bit spasm-y, but I'll take the hit; any synaptic goosing is better than no synaptic goosing at all, as me old Nan used to say.  Mind you, she was crazed on snuff and Baileys half the time.

That's tobacco, not videos of actual murder.  In case you were wondering.

1002 words

Woohoo.  'Scuse the mild outbreak of enthusiasm, but not only did I get down the daily thou in record time, but was able to make some notes for future chunks / segments.   If there's a worry, it's that being so regularly episodic, it might read a bit staccato once I've done the first draft and am going back through it.  Ah well.  That can wait for another day.

Oh, I didn't mention it in these posts, but I've started putting up some old stories.  The first one's up now and I'll pop up another every weekend until I run out of material that I can stick up.

1024 words

Not a shabby haul, and pounded out in about an hour, which is pretty good too.  The whole thing's going fine so far, and is a useful way of keeping some first-draft writing flowing while I'm editing the other thing I'm working on.   This one, the one I'm on with at the moment is a revival of an old idea that I originally started a couple of years ago, but didn't really get my head around.  It's basically a retelling of an old Greek legend except re-sited to a run-down seaside resort in the present day.  There'll be plenty of blood, I reckon, before it's done.  That's run-down seaside resorts for you.   

1016 words

Monday, and back in the saddle again.  No, I ended up not doing a jot over the weekend in terms of writing (I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn't, even though I carted all the paraphernalia with me to do so).   Obviously, I'm a slacker.  Though I made up for that in some small way by knocking out just over a thousand before work this morning.  That's much more like it.


I could have done more as well, but am trying to keep to around about 1,000.  At least I know already pretty much what I'm going to write tomorrow, which is never a terrible thing.  I don't leave off in the middle of a sentence or anything like that, but I like to have something meaty to get back to.  In this case, I've left a body on a warehouse floor.  

1104 words

And that's much more like it.  Back in the saddle / groove / grooved saddle.  In all fairness to myself, yesterday was a different kinda day, though I should be able in future to plan ahead and not wuss out.  I'm away over the weekend so might not be able to remonstrate with my work ethic until Sunday evening.  Nevertheless, I'm taking the ickle computer with me and intend fully to do a kiloword (neologism?) both Sat and Sun.   


Best intentions tho.  Tricky things at the best of times.  

Zero

And serves me right too, Mister Cocky Let's Blog The Word Count.  In my defence m'lud I was working last night till late.  That falls more under "excuse" than "reason".  Mind you, I suppose it's a good thing and it is the point of these posts - to shame myself into doing stuff.

1085 words

For me, 1,000 words takes between an hour and an hour-and-a-half to process.  Usually, it's a slow start unless I've left off in the middle of something, or have deliberately left an idea to chase.  In terms of what I'm going to write, I've got an idea (there's a plan) but don't know exactly.  It's not like it's all worked out in advance; just the direction.  I suppose that's part of the interest in doing it; to see where the thread leads.


Ah, I'm giving away clues now.

1100 words

And flowing pretty well.  Just a single scene, a lad (our hero) on a beach with a phone in his hand, wondering what he'd going to do next.


Ever had that moment yourself?

1092 words, thank you very much

And we're up and running!  4,500 existing words plus just over the thou for today.  That's a good start at least.  Now, anyone can do this the once, or every now and again, but the trick is to do it every day.  That's the discipline.  


There's loads of writing books out there that talk about this, and I daresay I'll mention a few on the way, but the one that comes to mind straightaway is "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.  Pressfield's a great writer anyway (if you haven't read "Gates of Fire" or "The Afghan Campaign" at least, you really should; they're modern classics of the military historical fiction genre and are stunning from a formal point of view even if you don't like historical fiction in itself), but "The War of Art" focuses on one thing - getting you to the point of doing some writing.  It's an invigorating read, even if you don't subscribe to Pressfield's worldview (I don't, but he's great at getting his ideas across, and his single-minded focus on what he calls "resistance" - that collection of forces that stops you from writing (or doing anything you want to do, but not yet).    

"Bad Dog" and other stories

Apart from the current book that's ongoing (first draft done, just started re-reading it and annotating the manuscript prior to rewrites - more on that anon), I'm pulling an abandoned manuscript out from the virtual store-cupboard.  It's called "Bad Dog" and it should be for what's called the YA / young adult market.  I'll put more about it in the days to come, as I get back into the first draft of it.


Looking forward to it, weirdly.  It's a project I've done almost nothing to for the best part of two years.  That's far too long.  But I've got into something of a roll with doing the last one over the summer, and I don't want to stop.   That's the main reason for blogging this, like I've said - a bit of a series of daily kicks up the derriere to keep things motoring along.  


This time tomorrow, I should have a word count.

And here we go again

The whole point of this is to have a public/private place to stick up grumbles to/about myself to keep on writing; if I have to log in and confess to not having done any that day, then maybe - just maybe - that'll coerce / convince / embarrass me into doing some more. 


That's the plan anyway.  


More detail on the plan?  Simple: 1,000 fresh first draft words a day until the novel I started quite some time ago is complete.  Then start another one, and so on.


Day One of this enterprise is Monday the 6th.  We'll see how it goes from there.