Tag: #amwriting

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.

NaNoWriMo – Day 12

AS happened when looking at a large writing list, I got confused.

How hard can it be, you ask?

Well, I have half a dozen ideas that match chapters, and I was trying to get down all of the ideas as bullet points in their respective chapters.

So, you ask, how can that be confusing?

Easy. There’s a point where one of the characters goes down to the dungeons in search of her father who is languishing in one of the cells. Her approach to the dungeons is not be the usual method, but one that affords discretion, but when she gets there, there’s no clear, of safe way to reach him because of the guards posted.

That chapter in the original outline was supposed to be where she does get to see him.

Then, later, I wrote another chapter, possibly two, that seeks an alternate path, and then doesn’t get see him but finds an alternte method of communication.

But, since springing surprises on the reader is not exactly a good idea, I had to go back and establish how she came to realise there was such a means, in a casual conversation with another character.

The confusion?

Not updating the outline properly, and then putting chapters that came later, referring to previous events in the wrong place.

I know that sounds complicated, or confusing, but events can’t happen before the groundwork is laid before them.

So, I spent a valuable hour rearranging the wrongly place chapters, and checked a few others, and finding one in the wrong place.

The job, I fear, is only going to get harder.

Another photograph from the inspiration bin

There is always something strange about certain photographs that is not evident when you take them.

For instance, the photograph above.

While this might look like some vegetation by the side of a river or stream, its that are of blackness behind what looks like steps up from the water level that adds a level of intrigue or mystery.

For instance:

We had spent two weeks slowly going upriver looking for a needle in a haystack. It was an apt description, because there had been quite a large number of likely spots, all of which after investigation, came to nothing.

I mean, the description Professor Bates had given is was as hazy as day is long in these parts.

His recollection: that it was what looked like a cave behind lush undergrowth, with steps fashioned out of stone.

It was all the more confuse. Because when we found him, he was drifting on a rough hewn and constructed raft, half dead from dehydration. We were told he’d been on the raft for nearly a week.

That meant the cave could be anywhere between where we found him at the 10 mile mark, and 200 miles further on based on river flow.

We were currently at the 150 mile mark and the river was losing depth and width, and soon there would not be enough water to continue in the boat.

It was dusk and too dark to continue. We’d been enthusiastic those first days, continuing on in the dark, on shifts, using the arc lamps.

Then after a week, having lights on made us target practise, and after sever brushes with death, and the loss of all the bulbs being shot out, we got the message.

There was the odd marauder during the day, but we had the width of the river for safety.  Now that had gone too, and we had lookouts posted, but seeing into the dense jungle was difficult.

But we got through another night with no activity, and come morning, what looked like the entrance to a cave was not fifteen feet from us.

All we had to was row over and check.

 

© Charles Heath 2020