I have the story, the editor is asking for it, and I’m putting the final touches to it

…

Between researching the locations, and creating personas for the characters, I’m exhausted. Yesterday was the longest day this month because I had underestimated the amount of work needed to bring these characters, pertinent to this story at least, to life.

Plan or no plan, there’s always something lurking in the details that are going to trip you up sooner rather than later.

Of course, not every story is pulled together and written entirely in the space of thirty days, so these sorts of logistical problems rarely cause the angst they are at the moment. You hit a roadblock, and it’s well just ho-hum, let’s do something about it, tomorrow!

This thirty-day deadline, well, it’s like the proverbial rocket you know where.

So, there was a lot of scribbling actual words on a real piece of paper, lots of crossing out, very little erasing because you can’t erase biro ink, not the cheap stuff anyway, and lots of going back and forth, turning pages.

A real page-turner of a different sort!

I can see the humor in it now, but at 2am, there was very little humor and had the shredder not been broken, a few good ideas might have gone through it.

Today is a new day.

The revolution beckons.

…

Today’s word count: 3,579 words, for the running total of 61,750.

I have the story, the editor is asking for it, and I’m putting the final touches to it

…

Between researching the locations, and creating personas for the characters, I’m exhausted. Yesterday was the longest day this month because I had underestimated the amount of work needed to bring these characters, pertinent to this story at least, to life.

Plan or no plan, there’s always something lurking in the details that are going to trip you up sooner rather than later.

Of course, not every story is pulled together and written entirely in the space of thirty days, so these sorts of logistical problems rarely cause the angst they are at the moment. You hit a roadblock, and it’s well just ho-hum, let’s do something about it, tomorrow!

This thirty-day deadline, well, it’s like the proverbial rocket you know where.

So, there was a lot of scribbling actual words on a real piece of paper, lots of crossing out, very little erasing because you can’t erase biro ink, not the cheap stuff anyway, and lots of going back and forth, turning pages.

A real page-turner of a different sort!

I can see the humor in it now, but at 2am, there was very little humor and had the shredder not been broken, a few good ideas might have gone through it.

Today is a new day.

The revolution beckons.

…

Today’s word count: 3,579 words, for the running total of 61,750.

I have the story, the editor is asking for it, and I’m putting the final touches to it

…

It’s hard to know just how someone would react in real life to a situation that is not normally expected to happen.

Like, for instance, a gunman walks into a supermarket and suddenly starts shooting randomly.

But, in the USA, that seems to be a situation that could happen anywhere, anytime and does with tragic results.

What would I do in such a situation?

It’s probably impossible to tell unless it really happened.

Why do I ask this question?

There’s a lot of effort required to plan out what each character is going to do in any given situation. What he or she might do has a lot to do with how they have been previously portrayed.

If they were nervous or frightened at the little things, it’s hardly likely that they would run into a hail of bullets unless there was a very good reason like saving a child, and even then it might be stretch to believe they would.

So, I’m writing about a dangerous situation, and it’s taking a lot longer than I expected because my characters have to fit their previous profiles, and I have to remember them, or, what I should have done in the first place, create profiles from which to draw on when necessary.

Another lesson learned the hard way, that planning is necessary, even if it appears tedious.

…

Today’s word count: 4,179 words, for the running total of 58,171.

I have the story, the editor is asking for it, and I’m putting the final touches to it

…

It’s hard to know just how someone would react in real life to a situation that is not normally expected to happen.

Like, for instance, a gunman walks into a supermarket and suddenly starts shooting randomly.

But, in the USA, that seems to be a situation that could happen anywhere, anytime and does with tragic results.

What would I do in such a situation?

It’s probably impossible to tell unless it really happened.

Why do I ask this question?

There’s a lot of effort required to plan out what each character is going to do in any given situation. What he or she might do has a lot to do with how they have been previously portrayed.

If they were nervous or frightened at the little things, it’s hardly likely that they would run into a hail of bullets unless there was a very good reason like saving a child, and even then it might be stretch to believe they would.

So, I’m writing about a dangerous situation, and it’s taking a lot longer than I expected because my characters have to fit their previous profiles, and I have to remember them, or, what I should have done in the first place, create profiles from which to draw on when necessary.

Another lesson learned the hard way, that planning is necessary, even if it appears tedious.

…

Today’s word count: 4,179 words, for the running total of 58,171.

I have the story, the editor is asking for it, and I’m putting the final touches to it

…

So, today I’m fascinated with places like Egypt, those not far from the Mediterranean, but consist of sandstone buildings and sandy desert not far away from urbanized areas.

My fictitious country is one that had seen many occupiers, the British, the French, the Russians, all after leaving a Noraville legacy behind, the most noticeable, the French.

Perhaps, once it had an outpost for the French Foreign Legion.

It certainly had an influence on the people’s names and customs.

The most recent posted occupier, the Russians, was not so much an ousting as it was the installation of a Russia-friendly regime, mostly for keeping their stranglehold over the country’s natural resources.

Human Rights, of course, and in practice, are very low on the agenda, whilst the privileged few, from the President down, work tirelessly to maintain their stranglehold on everything.

But like all oppressive regimes, there’s always an opposition that is well-funded and aided by the last occupying countries’ enemies.

And, perhaps, in their haste to try and appear like a benevolent regime, their attempts at hosting a human rights conference might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Just at a time when the country was fife with foreign diplomats, spies, and other assorted espionage agents lurking in the shadows, their motives and agendas unclear.

All of these elements make up a very good backdrop to the story.

And just to add to the mystery, I’ve decided on having the catacombs, under the old city, a place people can easily get lost in, are rumoured to have people hiding there, and is part of the military regimes torture apparatus.

Then there’s the scenic part, where visitors can visit caverns and water holes, even an underground river, providing substance to the mythical part of the land.

This story just gets more interesting every day!

Oh, and I forgot, yesterday was the day we passed 50,000 words.

…

Today’s word count: 3,862 words, for the running total of 53,992.