Tag: Author

NaNoWriMo – Day 21 – Not long to go, need to write faster!

Three weeks down and the finish line is just around the corner, and over that invisible hill.

The legs are like rubber, and the going is getting harder.  I’ve never run in a marathon but I’m beginning to think I know what it might be like.

I’d hate to run out of steam and get only 49,999 words written before they cart me off to the rehydration tent.

It’s hard work, lonely work, but like building a house, you get to see the physical results of that work.

Enough, I’ve got to get back to work.

I can see the hill!

NaNoWriMo – Day 20 – Reworking the synopsis

Yes, it’s that time, nearly three weeks in, and writing a story sequentially from start to finish has some perils involved with it.

Like the plotting, and like any good actor given a bit part in a movie, the objective is to make it their own.

I think it’s called, grabbing hold of your fifteen minutes of fame and using it.

Characters do this us, they force themselves out of their restrictive cacoon.  One of mine has taken her bit part and is now the frontrunner for the villain.

How do you make such personable people drip with evil?

NaNoWriMo – Day 19 – Finally, we’ve got the internet back

After two days in the technological wilderness, we are back, which must say something about the human condition.

I’m sure, one day, the internet will collapse and billions of us will go through the same withdrawal symptoms I just did, and there’ll be a lot of clean rooms around.

Even so, there are those two items that were very prevalent when I went to school, pencils. HB or 2B, or colored, and lined paper in what was called an exercise book, 48 pages, 64 pages, 96 pages or 128 pages.

I am yet to equate words to an exercise book page, but that’s the least of my problems.

Still working on the new killer, and a perfect match for the hero.  Yes, I’m hoping we can have a happy ending for at least two characters.

The others, well, you reap what you sow!

Conversations with my cat – 19

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This is Chester, he thinks he is invisible.

No one has told him he’s not a zebra, and that he doesn’t have stripes the same color as the blinds.

I’ve told him over and over, just because he cannot see me, it doesn’t mean I can’t see him.

But, once again, we have to play the ‘game’.

I should be writing, but once again Chester has successfully distracted me.

If it was a cunning plan on his part, it worked.

 

You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone

On Sunday morning we lost the internet.  I went out onto my office and saw the flashing lights on the modem.  There was no signal.

Outside the house, a large number of trucks had blocked up the road and the closer inspection showed they were here to remove an old pole.

The only problem was our internet provider was still using it.

I imagine what happened was simple.  The power technicians or someone else moved the cable to the new pole.

It sounds simple, but I guess it wasn’t.  End result. No internet, not via the cable outside.

We had the grandchildren staying over and whilst the spectacle of removing the old pole kept their attention for about half an hour, the signs of restlessness and boredom set in soon after.

And with no internet and no cable TV, it was just about the end of the world.  Unlike in my day as a child, we had to make our own entertainment, there was no TV or internet, it was a matter of using your imagination, it seems modern children are lost without the internet, a computer, or tv

My room needed cleaning, the library had about fifty new books to put on the shelves, and the existing books needed some rearrangement, so I put them to work.

It was either that or the garden which always needs work, but one job I can’t seem to work up any enthusiasm to do.

And at the end of the day, still no internet.

I think I’m starting to get serious withdrawal symptoms.

NaNoWriMo – Day 18 – Still No Internet

More time to stretch out on the newly cleared sofa in my writing room to consider the direction the work in progress is taking.

We’ve reached a point where the guilty now have to make a move. I’m not quite sure how I want to do this, but the questioning of suspects has made it quite clear, the person in charge has covered their tracks carefully.

Will it be the case that like all people who think they have all the bases covered, make one tiny mistake that will lead to their undoing.

Fortunately, I’m not up to that part of the story but it is occupying a large part of my thoughts.

NaNoWriMo – Day 17 – Coping without technology

There are no more surprises at least for today.

We have no internet, the power company came along and removed an old pole and that was the end of it.

It’s amazing what you can’t do when there’s no internet, and then all the things you said you would do one day if only you had the time.

This mornings word count accumulates quickly without the distractions so I had the afternoon to finally clean up my workspace.

Now I can’t find anything.

Going to church on Sunday

This is my least favored option for spending a Sunday morning, but having married a Catholic and agreeing to adopt Catholicism, it’s one of those things that has to be done on rare occasions, usually a child’s milestone.

Yes, we went through our children’s moments like baptism, first communion, and confirmation, or these days in a somewhat different order.  Then it came to the turn of our grandchildren and today the last child is making her first communion, and there will end our involvement till the last rites.

Hopefully.

Church to me doesn’t hold any real significance.  It doesn’t mean that I would debunk the idea of religion and I firmly believe that if anyone believes in God, then that’s their right.

And it seems there are a lot of believers.  I’m sitting in the church now and it is packed.  It might be that it’s a captive audience given that it’s a first communion for grade three students and others. but given the enthusiasm of the children involved, I’d say the church was about to get over a hundred new followers.

Of course, a lot depends on the enthusiasm and devoutness of the parents who may wish to spend their Sundays in a different manner, but I suspect there are many here who will continue their devoutness in some form or other.

As for me, sadly, I will continue to use the only day of the week it’s possible to sleep in.

NaNoWriMo – Day 16 – A twist I didn’t see coming

Yes.

I had worked out who the murderer was going to be.

Don’t you just hate it when the story unfolds in a different manner?  The current person tapped for the murder is looking very guilty, except for one piece of evidence that was not taken into account.

I can’t say what it is.

And I can’t tell you who the likely suspect is, because now I’m not quite sure myself.  I feel this is like a true life murder crime. plodding through the leads and clues one at a time.

Once again I’m writing a story that unfolds for me just as it would for the reader.

NaNoWriMo – Day 15 – Half way there

Yes, 15 days down and 15 days to go.

At this point my hand is starting to cramp from the toils of writing, yes, I’m one of those writers who often puts words to paper longhand.

Two weeks is a long time, but I think this sort of exercise is what’s needed if you want to write a novel every year, though this one is going to come out with more than 50,000 words.

I think there are about three more chapters to go to end part two, then I can get onto the big finale in part three.

It has turned out to be a bigger project than I originally thought, and I didn’t think I could stretch it to 50,000 words.  Now, I’m hoping to keep it to about 60,000.

Still, no need to get ahead of myself.  Murphy’s law may yet rear its ugly head.