Tag: #amwriting

NaNoWriMo – Day 20

This is where the true mettle of a writer is found, down there in the trenches, getting it done.

I feel like I’m surrounded on all fronts by the enemy and t’s going to require an extraordinary feat to save the day.

The trouble is I’m nearing exhaustion.

I can feel the tiredness, the strain, but above all else the desire to finish.

Can the mere feat of writing ever take on being heroic?

No. I guess not.

I signed up for the full 30 days. No pulling out now, no matter how much the tie is trying to pull me in another direction.

It’s pen to paper and be damned!

For the statisticians, todays word count is 2,727 words for a running total of 49,220.

It’s agonisingly close, and, hopefully sometime tomorrow I’ll cross that invisible line in the sand.

It’s just a pity the book will not be finished.

NaNoWriMo – Day 19

Nearly two thirds of the way through the month. Id only I was two thirds of the way through this story.

I am a lot further than I thought I would be at this time, but there’s more work to be done.

This morning I started working on a section further along, before I;d finished a part further back, which can be fun, but I had an idea that was worth teasing out, because in the end it solved a minor block I’d reached, and then will lead to another part further on it the book.

Notes made in the various parts of the outline, it is now back to work.

It’s very early in the morning here in the underside of the world, and I’ working on a short piece before I go to bed, and tease the story out in my sleep.

Sometimes I forget what it was sometimes, when I wake up, I have to get pen to paper quickly, before that all important first cup of coffee!

For the statisticians, only 2,490 words today for a running total of 46,493.

NaNoWriMo – Day 18

Today I managed to get through a part of the story, that, not two days before, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it.

Perhaps, after writing the chapters before had something to do with it, because they were part of a vision that I wasn’t sure of.

A week ago those chapters were simple dot points in an outline.

Today, they represent about 30 pages in the book.

Still, no time to be self congratulatory. There’s far too much to be done, and so little time to get it done.

Todays report is brief.

For the statisticians, todays word count is 3,045, for a total of 44,003.

NaNoWriMo – Day 17

There is a host of details to be dealt with when a funeral occurs.

I’ve been lucky, usually I just have to turn up, seat in the back stalls, remember the person who has died, express my grief, and then go to the wake where we can remember all the good things about the person, and his or her transgressions are forgotten.

It’s different when it’s one of your family.

But, given the differences between my father and myself, which has resulted in a five year standoff, the first words spoken between us today were hostile. I asked if he needed help, and I was told where to go.

Yes, weddings and funerals bring out the best in us all.

With that, I decided my story needed me more than an ungrateful father, so I put it out of my mind and moved on.

I had a soldier to be injured in a fight, a leader to push the group on, despite setbacks, and the search for a needle in a haystack, literally, on the cards.

Cue horses, actors – action!

And by mid afternoon, I was almost there, but the requisite words for the day were written.

Just as well. My elder brother called, and yes, the negotiations continue. He at least was interested in what I said, and no, I don’t think I was going to be his proxy at the funeral. Not unless someone tells me where it is.

For the statisticians, 2,840 words today for a running total of 40,958.

A trip back through memory lane

We were diverting to Venus, sitting out there in screen, lonely as a cloud, if there could be clouds in space.

So, I wondered if the Captain had a special reason why I should head the team going to the freighter.

It was an opportunity to take one of the new class of shuttles, reported to be faster, more stable, and larger so that we could carry more people and cargo. It would be overkill today.

The crew assigned to collect the cargo were aboard, and my co-pilot for want of a better name was Myrtle, an officer that joined the ship with me, and had excellent qualifications.

We were going through the preflight, ready to lift off.

“First time?”

“In a shuttle, no. In space, real space, more or less.”

I don’t think I wanted to know what more or less meant.

“There’s nothing to it.”

The captain’s voice came over the speaker, “You’re cleared for departure, they’re expecting you imminently.”

“Very good, sir.”

It was never a gentle lift off, unlike landing, and that initial jerk was an annoyance. Then engaging the thrusters, we began to move forward slowly towards the cargo door, and at the synchronised time, the doors opened and there was nothing but empty space before us.

Outside, we increased speed, turned, and flying under our ship, just to get a look at it, something I knew the people aboard might be interested in seeing, then onto the Aloysius 5 drifting off our port bow.

“Do you see what I see?” Nice to see Myrtle wasn’t blind.

“I do, and that’s worrying.”

What was it? A scorch mark on the side of the Aloysius 5, in a place where we couldn’t see it from our ship, and a direct hit on one of the exhaust manifolds. That would stop a ship dead in it’s tracks without wrecking it.

“Captain,” I said, hoping he was listening.

“Number one?”

“I think we have a problem.”

…

© Charles Heath 2020

NaNoWriMo – Day 16

It was a slow start to the day, and when I had planned for an hour of so of writing, that went out the window when I got a call that my mother have been taken to hospital, and was unlikely to survive the morning.

We have been expecting this for about a year, and the time had finally come. I will write more on this later, but suffice to say, I did not get back from the hospital until after 11 am.

Yes, she died at 8:30 in the morning from complications brought on by dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Perhaps it was lucky that I had some excess words from the day before, and these combined with the few I did today, as you can imagine, he heart just wasn’t in it, I managed to get 2,736 words for the day, and a total of 38,118 so far.

I’m not sure how things will go tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo – Day 15

Half way!

I managed to get this far, and I still have energy in the store.

But, ideas are coming along while I’m writing the parts that need to be written, and it’s a constant battle to keep focussed on the writing, and scribble on those pesky post-it notes those ideas I want to keep.

The other problem, finding a pen that writes.

Don’t you find that as a writer, who uses pen and paper as well as a word processor, can never find a pen that writes when you need one.

Frustrating, and time consuming, and sometimes an idea is lost.

Enough of being sidetracked. For the statisticians, 2,271 words for the day, down on my usual totals (blame the dry pens) for a grand total so far of 35,382 words.

NaNoWriMo – Day 14

It’s nearly half way through and I don’t feel as though I’m going to make it.

The writing is fine, it’s just three chapters a day seems a lot, and the latest project of the total word count, if I continue in the current manner, will be about 90,000 words.

I might have to start editing at the same time I’m writing, to keep it down to a manageable total.

Another new idea came to me, but this time it was before I was writing the piece, rather than later and have to go back.

Still, there’s time if I don’t begin to panic.

Or get writers’ block.

For the statisticians, todays word count is 2,801, for a grand total of 33,111 words so far.

NaNoWriMo – Day 13

Friday the thirteenth, that should have raised the red flag.

But lucky for me nothing went wrong, and I have been writing on several fronts.

Ideas have been coming, and I’ve been scribbling them down. I’m just hoping at the end of the day this book isn’t 1,000 pages long.

Editing is going to be fun.

Maybe it will end up being two books, or a trilogy. Hang on, that’s what my eldest grand daughter suggested way back when we were throwing ideas around.

Anyway, the writing is going smoothly, and I’m progressing.

For the statisticians out there, today’s word count is 2,615 words for a running total of 30,310.

A movie review, “Honest Thief”

Considering that we are in the midst of a pandemic, going to a movie theatre seems like the least like thing to do.

Hundreds of people packed into a small space for a few hours, just the sort of environment the Coronavirus loves.

Well, we may have zero cases and zero local transmission, ans the theatres can open, theses just a few details first.

Social distancing means areas of seating are blocked of so you and your partner are like sitting on an island. So limited seating. Social distancing in all queues, rubber gloves and masks on all attendants, and hand sanitiser at the door, in passageways and in theatres.

Overkill? Maybe.

But despite the fact there are no blockbusters coming out, there a few interesting films about, one of which was ‘Honest Thief’

It has Liam Neeson in it so how bad could it be?

Actually for starters there were four of us watching the movie in what we designated Gold Class, very comfortable recliner seats and waiter service. And by the way the food cost more than the movie tickets

But back to the movie. Like I said, i came expecting a kick ass movie and that’s just what I got.

The premise is a man who returns from the war, used to being in high risk situations not knowing if the next day is your last, finds he doesn’t fit in, so as all similar people do, you rob banks, and very successfully.

Until you fall in love

Of course you may, by the end of it decide that being in love is not all that it’s cracked up to be, but it’s certainly a good reason to stop.

Until things get serious and you want to fess up.

The bad guys, well they’re bad, and the one man wrecking ball, well, he does what Liam Neeson does best. Think Taken and take it from there.

I always take notice of the others in the film, and was a welcome sight to see the actor who made Michael Weston in Burn Notice famous, playing such a different role. Loved the dog, too. Then there was the bad Terminator guy who just seems to get older, and now playing what might be called character roles. The love interest I didn’t recognise, but later discovered was Kate Walsh, who, I think, once graced Grey’s Anatomy.

As for everyone else, I didn’t recognise them, but no doubt they’ll turn up on TV soon enough.

For me, any Liam Neeson kick ass film gets five stars, and a pity perhaps that it will not get a chance to be seen by more people.