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

…

It’s a little more settled this morning, sitting down in front of the laptop and ready to go. The plan is in three different places, which is not what was meant to happen, but at various stages of the development process in the previous few weeks, I had to use different apps on my phone to make notes as ideas came to me.

If only Scrivener came on a Samsung phone!

But I will take the time to sit down and join the disparate pieces together, but as we all know that takes time, and time is of the essence.

So, today, it’s about the intermediate characters. The one I like the most is the police chief, an honest man working under a corrupt government, and military, knowing their foibles, and yet maintaining the ideal that the letter of the law will not be bent by his masters.

It makes for an interesting dynamic.

There are others, but these will be teased out as the story progresses, especially the girl in white who appears almost like an apparition.

Then, of course, is the international media contingent in the city for the conference, of which some are not necessarily who they say they are.

…

Today’s word count: 1,587 words, for a running total of 5,751.

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

…

It’s a little more settled this morning, sitting down in front of the laptop and ready to go. The plan is in three different places, which is not what was meant to happen, but at various stages of the development process in the previous few weeks, I had to use different apps on my phone to make notes as ideas came to me.

If only Scrivener came on a Samsung phone!

But I will take the time to sit down and join the disparate pieces together, but as we all know that takes time, and time is of the essence.

So, today, it’s about the intermediate characters. The one I like the most is the police chief, an honest man working under a corrupt government, and military, knowing their foibles, and yet maintaining the ideal that the letter of the law will not be bent by his masters.

It makes for an interesting dynamic.

There are others, but these will be teased out as the story progresses, especially the girl in white who appears almost like an apparition.

Then, of course, is the international media contingent in the city for the conference, of which some are not necessarily who they say they are.

…

Today’s word count: 1,587 words, for a running total of 5,751.

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

…

The story, in the planning stages, has a secondary theme running, that of the players involved in the events leading up to the assault on our main character, one that his handler was not aware of.

Why was he marked for execution, along with his previous partner?

That’s another story, one that will be teased out in this secondary theme and will run full circle and have some bearing on what happens at the end of the story.

Or not.

I’m not sure I will include any of this, and it might just become part of a novella that will stand on its own. For the most part, a lot of this story is about, and driven by, people he’s never met, but know of him, and his work.

It would be too easy to say he saw something he shouldn’t, because that’s not the case. It has to do with people he has worked with and been responsible for in the past, and whether or not there had been a conversation, without understanding the relevance of what might have been discussed at the time.

That part is nebulous at best, and you can see why it might not make the final cut.

It simply depends on how the main story goes, and the word count at the end. The rough plan calls for about 80 chapters and about 70,000 words, but I’m not one for sticking to plans.

Today’s work centres around the partner his handler has chosen for him, one that he’s not going to like when he finds out, the target he’s been tasked to watch over, and the location of the conference.

Of course, getting back to work after what happened to him is not as easy as saying he’s fine, but getting him to admit it’s anything but fine will be like getting proverbial blood from a stone.

…

Today’s word count: 1,990 words, for a running total of 4,164.

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

…

The story, in the planning stages, has a secondary theme running, that of the players involved in the events leading up to the assault on our main character, one that his handler was not aware of.

Why was he marked for execution, along with his previous partner?

That’s another story, one that will be teased out in this secondary theme and will run full circle and have some bearing on what happens at the end of the story.

Or not.

I’m not sure I will include any of this, and it might just become part of a novella that will stand on its own. For the most part, a lot of this story is about, and driven by, people he’s never met, but know of him, and his work.

It would be too easy to say he saw something he shouldn’t, because that’s not the case. It has to do with people he has worked with and been responsible for in the past, and whether or not there had been a conversation, without understanding the relevance of what might have been discussed at the time.

That part is nebulous at best, and you can see why it might not make the final cut.

It simply depends on how the main story goes, and the word count at the end. The rough plan calls for about 80 chapters and about 70,000 words, but I’m not one for sticking to plans.

Today’s work centres around the partner his handler has chosen for him, one that he’s not going to like when he finds out, the target he’s been tasked to watch over, and the location of the conference.

Of course, getting back to work after what happened to him is not as easy as saying he’s fine, but getting him to admit it’s anything but fine will be like getting proverbial blood from a stone.

…

Today’s word count: 1,990 words, for a running total of 4,164.

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

…

Or so it seems, but nothing is ever in concrete when working on a story. My first thoughts were, what led up to the start of the story, a veritable getting back in the saddle after the metaphorical horse has tossed you off with life-threatening injuries.

That’s basically the first chapter, or it might finish up as a prologue. There are arguments for and against prologues, so perhaps as the month and the story progresses, it might become clearer what is needed.

So, where are we?

Somewhere in Africa, a country that is run by the military with a so-called puppet president. A country that is ripe for revolution, where the people are plotting to take their country back.

With help, but just whose help is nebulous.

In the meantime, there’s a human rights conference about to happen, a rather ironic event in a country supposedly at the forefront of perpetrating such offences.

Why is our fractured main character there? To protect one of the keynote speakers and convenors of the conference, supposedly without her knowledge, but of course, secrets are only secrets if they remain so.

And with governments involved, nothing remains secret for long.

That’s the premise so far.

Today is much about fine-tuning the background of the main character, and what came before.

…

Today’s word count: 2,174 words, the same for the running total.

A score to settle

…

Now the pressure to write each day is over, I can take my time over the last chapters of the story.

I took the day off yesterday and spent a little time staring at the ceiling. Well, that’s my euphemism for mentally going over the story so far in my head.

I know I’m guilty of writing chapters instead of pages, and pages instead of paragraphs, so already I can see some parts of the story could do with a bit of editing, but that’s not my focus yet.

For the last few days I’ve had big band music running around in my head, and it came to me that the ball preceding the conference should have a big band playing all of those songs from the 1940s, and, in particular, Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman, In the Mood by Glenn Miller, and a few others.

Listening to it has been inspirational.

The ending has changed, and now it focuses on the two main characters. I’ve given up the notion of exacting revenge, and gone for a more happier ending, if that is possible after a rebel revolt. We’ll all have to wait and see if it succeeds, who comes out on top, and whether there are any casualties.

Certainly there will be one person who will reappear like a messiah, a man thought to be dead at the hands of the military. More than one person has said they should have killed him rather than keep him prisoner, and a few more glad that they didn’t kill him.

And like all good authors, I’m trying to write and ending that leads into a sequel, though how I can top a revolution might be just a little difficult.

And although the word count is low for two days work, a lot of other work has gone into changing the plan, and the ending, as well as a host of notes for changes in the middle to accommodate the ending. I might just get around to writing a white paper on ‘how to capture airports and media stations for the purpose of taking over a country’ by the end of this project.

…

Today’s word count: 2,724 words, for the running total of 87,901.

A score to settle

…

Now the pressure to write each day is over, I can take my time over the last chapters of the story.

I took the day off yesterday and spent a little time staring at the ceiling. Well, that’s my euphemism for mentally going over the story so far in my head.

I know I’m guilty of writing chapters instead of pages, and pages instead of paragraphs, so already I can see some parts of the story could do with a bit of editing, but that’s not my focus yet.

For the last few days I’ve had big band music running around in my head, and it came to me that the ball preceding the conference should have a big band playing all of those songs from the 1940s, and, in particular, Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman, In the Mood by Glenn Miller, and a few others.

Listening to it has been inspirational.

The ending has changed, and now it focuses on the two main characters. I’ve given up the notion of exacting revenge, and gone for a more happier ending, if that is possible after a rebel revolt. We’ll all have to wait and see if it succeeds, who comes out on top, and whether there are any casualties.

Certainly there will be one person who will reappear like a messiah, a man thought to be dead at the hands of the military. More than one person has said they should have killed him rather than keep him prisoner, and a few more glad that they didn’t kill him.

And like all good authors, I’m trying to write and ending that leads into a sequel, though how I can top a revolution might be just a little difficult.

And although the word count is low for two days work, a lot of other work has gone into changing the plan, and the ending, as well as a host of notes for changes in the middle to accommodate the ending. I might just get around to writing a white paper on ‘how to capture airports and media stations for the purpose of taking over a country’ by the end of this project.

…

Today’s word count: 2,724 words, for the running total of 87,901.

A score to settle

…

Tis the last day, but not the last day, if that makes sense.

I did not get the story done in the 30 days, but I did knock a big hole in it. All 85,177 words of it.

I did not anticipate the story would go that long, or consider that it might even be longer, say, around 100,000 words.

But, this is what happens when the story tells itself, going down narrow alleys and ending up in dark corners you never anticipated at the start.

That and the fact the characters evolve, and some even begin to start stealing the show and have to be reigned in.

It’s been an enjoyable journey though, and fun to write, but after I’ve got the first draft done, there is going to be a 6-month hiatus because so many other projects got put on hold so I could get this done.

And fortunately, at this time, we have the perfect weather for writing, continuous rain, so it makes it easy not to regret not going out.

There will be further updates through December, until the book is done.

But, for now, it is done!

…

Today’s word count: 3,784 words, for the running total of 85,177.

A score to settle

…

Tis the last day, but not the last day, if that makes sense.

I did not get the story done in the 30 days, but I did knock a big hole in it. All 85,177 words of it.

I did not anticipate the story would go that long, or consider that it might even be longer, say, around 100,000 words.

But, this is what happens when the story tells itself, going down narrow alleys and ending up in dark corners you never anticipated at the start.

That and the fact the characters evolve, and some even begin to start stealing the show and have to be reigned in.

It’s been an enjoyable journey though, and fun to write, but after I’ve got the first draft done, there is going to be a 6-month hiatus because so many other projects got put on hold so I could get this done.

And fortunately, at this time, we have the perfect weather for writing, continuous rain, so it makes it easy not to regret not going out.

There will be further updates through December, until the book is done.

But, for now, it is done!

…

Today’s word count: 3,784 words, for the running total of 85,177.