Cloud Base

It's That Time Again

2011-12-21T17:04:00.003Z

Happy Xmas and Merry New Year!

Best wishes from Kev
(a tree-saving lazy bones)

Raw Material

2011-12-02T10:57:00.004Z

Phew, that was hard work. I've just recently completed NaNoWriMo, writing 50,827 words in 30 days. I'm no stranger to writing novel-length pieces of fiction, but that kind of sustained rate of creation (just under 1,700 words per day, on average) is quite a bit above my normal output. Despite that, I can honestly say I'm glad I did it.

The trouble is, although NaNoWriMo has ended, the project is far from finished. In fact, the first draft is not even done yet. What I have is a huge, incomplete pile of raw material from which to obtain a proper first draft of the manuscript. Then, of course, the business of re-writing and editing will come.

A big well done to all my friends who also took part in NaNoWriMo. It doesn't matter whether you 'won' or not. Like me, you'll have thousands of words of material to work with, that you would otherwise not have written. If nothing else, NaNo is a great instrument for giving us writers a kick-up-the-backside.

Suspicious Behaviour

As promised, here are some excerpts from my NaNoWriMo story Seeing Sharp. I've incorporated some of the suspicious behaviour that some of you suggested in my earlier article. It's not going to win any prizes, but it might be amusing to read.

Excerpt from "ATM", Seeing Sharp

"It's a bit too public, isn't it," Sean commented.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's a busy part of town. The perps are not gonna risk it here."

Patrick thought about this. "You might be right, but the paper said the robberies took place in many locations, seemingly at random. And during different times of the day."

Sean nodded. "Doesn't seem like opportunistic attacks by teenagers, does it?"

"No. It smacks of being a lot more organised… Hello."

Patrick had seen something on the computer screen that raised his interest. He zoomed in on it.

"What have you got?"

"Just a sec…" Patrick played with the controls some more. "Have a look at this guy."

Sean craned forward and they both watched the display. A man in a boiler suit was very slowly making his way up the hight street. His head was moving all around as he appeared to be examining all of the shops on their side of the street, from top to bottom.

On his head was a old-fashioned pair of can headphones with their coiled lead disappearing into his back pack. He was carrying two instruments, one in each hand. In his left was a device resembling the business end of a medical stethoscope. In the right was something that looked like a drumstick with a small ball on the end. Both were also wired into the back pack.

As they watched, the two ExPose operatives saw the man perform irregular acts of strangeness. At least it was strange compared to normal high street behaviour. Every so often he would put the stethoscope against the wall of a building, then repeatedly tap with the drumstick. He would move both instruments around on whatever shop wall he was interested in. Then he'd abruptly stop and move on.

Sometimes he would squat down and look across the street. His gaze was not directly at the view that the lap-top showed, but nevertheless in that general direction.

"He almost looking right at us," Sean remarked, though their actual position was well out of Boiler Suit's line of sight.

"Do you think he could be… D'you think he's looking at the bank? The ATM?"

Sean inspected the screen, looked out of the coffee shop window, then back to the screen again, trying to judge the angles. "It's possible. He's coming this way, so if we wait long enough, we should be able to see him out of the window."

"What the heck is he doing, do you think?"

"Haven't the foggiest. Metal detecting, maybe? Looking for coins buried in the wall?"

"So why does he keep looking across the street? At the bank?" asked Patrick.

"We don't know for sure that it's the bank. It could be one of the neighbouring shops."

Patrick found this difficult to believe. The two premises either side of the bank were a restaurant and a women's clothing store. He couldn't think what Boiler Suit's interest in either of those would be. It had to be the bank. Whatever he was doing, it was definitely suspicious.

"Stay here and keep observing," Patrick said to Sean. "Make sure we keep recording. There's enough disk space for over two hours."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to follow him."

Excerpt from "The Orphanage", Seeing Sharp

Behind the park was a very drab looking council estate with sprayed graffiti on many of the walls. A man with a shaven head, walking a squat but powerful looking pit bull terrier, was sauntering over in the direction of the park. From a different street, a youth on roller blades was skating and nodding his head in time to the music on his headphones, also approaching the park.

Celia watched the skater and thought she saw something a little forced about his weaving and jigging, as though he were deliberately trying to act casual. He pulled the hood of his cotton top over his head, as he neared the park. Something else Celia found to be suspicious, as it was dry and not a cold day.

He skated along the path, right past where Celia was sitting, then swerved into another path to retreat again. He'd barely glanced at her, though Celia thought she'd look out of place here. Also unusual behaviour; why hadn't he checked her out like many boys of his age would do?

She'd taken her eyes off the bald man, having been distracted by the skater. Now she saw him again, over by the wheely bins, crouching down. When he stood up again, his dog was trying to sniff something on the ground. Celia could not make out what it was from this distance, but it looked like small pile of parcels in brown paper.

The man dragged his dog away and then walked it out of the park, to return to the council estate. Several minutes passed, during which time Celia debated whether to go over to the bins and see what had been put there. She was about to stand up when the skater reappeared from behind the bins. He skated in an elaborate loop which culminated in him swooping low to snatch up the topmost parcel. He tucked it under his arm before zooming off back into the depths of the estate.

"You saw that too, didn't you?" a voice behind her said.

All I Want for Christmas

2011-11-10T06:11:00.003Z

Buy on amazon.co.uk.

Beth Prince has always loved fairytales and now, aged twenty-four, she feels like she's finally on the verge of her own happily ever after. She lives by the seaside, works in the Picturebox – a charming but rundown independent cinema – and has a boyfriend who's so debonair and charming she can't believe her luck!

There's just one problem – none of her boyfriends have ever told her they love her and it doesn't look like Aiden's going to say it any time soon. Desperate to hear 'I love you' for the first time Beth takes matters into her own hands – and instantly wishes she hadn't.

Just when it seems like her luck can't get any worse, bad news arrives in the devilishly handsome shape of Matt Jones. Matt is the regional director of a multiplex cinema and he's determined to get his hands on the Picturebox by Christmas. Can Beth keep her job, her man and her home or is her romantic-comedy life about to turn into a disaster movie?

Greetings, Captain "Ebenezer" Black here. Just to be a bit different, I'm going to sub-title this article.

Bah Humbug!

There are a few things I really like about Christmas:

You get to see lots of friends and family.
You get to eat and drink a lot.

However, there are many more things that really annoy me about it:

The commercial side of it drives me up the wall. Every year it starts earlier and earlier. I personally believe that Christmas related commercialism should be banned on any day that doesn't have a corresponding advent calendar window.
People who are really "into" Christmas bang on and on about it, to the exclusion of all else, cluttering up the social networks with their drivel.
Christmas is for kids. Grow up!
Buying presents is too expensive. I don't even want any presents (with the possible exception of booze).
You can't buy normal stuff in the shops, as it's been replaced with Christmas junk.
Why is everywhere so busy? Get the **** out of my way!
Call that music? What a load of droning, boring drivel. I hate carols. I especially hate that George bloody Michael song. Dose anybody actually want to hear that again?
I'm not bothered by the religious aspects, since I'm an atheist.

So there you go. Call me a Scrooge if you like. Haunt me if it makes you feel better. All I want for Christmas is a large gin and tonic.

Suspicious Behaviour

2011-11-05T06:15:00.002Z

This year I'm attempting to write a 50,000 word novel^* in thirty days – the annual insanity that is NaNoWriMo. The working title is "Seeing Sharp" and it's going to be a crime/thriller/mystery story. One of the questions often asked of NaNo participants is: are you a plotter or a pantser? In other words, do you plan and plot the novel before writing it, or do you write is as you go along by the seat-of-the-pants. This year I'm doing both!

I plot a bit, then pants a bit, then repeat as necessary, adjusting the plot as I "discover" new things happening with my characters. I'm attempting to keep the raw material, the plot notes and the storyboards all synchronised. This adds more time to the project during this creative phase, but I think it will save me time in the long run, helping me with editing stages once NaNo '11 is long over.

* Now I'll let you in on a little secret. Seeing Sharp is not going to end up being a novel. Instead I plan to make it a novella, or possibly something even shorter, once I've edited it down. It will then take its place as a sequel to Fugue in D Minus, which some of you may have read. Perhaps I'll write a third instalment to make it a trilogy. Nothing too suspicious about that…

…So what's with the title of this article? Well, one of the themes behind Seeing Sharp is the observation and detection of suspicious behaviour by a team of security specialists. So here's where you can join in. Inspired by Sally Quilford's plot ninjas, I'm asking if you might like to come up with some ideas to add a bit of fun to my story. Here how it works:

Think of some kind of suspicious behaviour you've seen in the past. The weirder the better.
Describe the details and post them in a comment here on this blog.
I'll try to incorporate them into Seeing Sharp. Any that I use will be posted here in excerpts, for your reading pleasure and amusement.

Thanks in advance.

In other news, this blog is four years old today!

Sally Forty-Eight

2011-08-10T22:47:00.003+01:00

In order to celebrate Sally Quilford's forty-eighth birthday, here's a little story I wrote.

Sally Forty-Eight

Some of you may recognise some of the characters.

And yes, it has been that long since I posted anything here.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-24T13:09:00.002Z

I recently sent out some e-mails to people, but there were apparently some "code-stripping" issues. I'm not sure why, possibly the anti-virus software being too aggressive, possibly the service converting into plain text. Or, just possibly, human error. Anyway, here's what it should have said.

Happy Xmas and Merry New Year!

Best wishes from Kev
(a tree-saving lazy bones)

Apologies to those who received a rather blank message. I hope you all have a fabulous break, readers. See you in 2011.

Time to Wake Up!

2010-11-05T07:11:00.002Z

Today, this blog is three years old, so it's as good a time as any to wake it up again. It's been over seven months since my last post but, do you know what? I don't feel the least bit guilty. I've stopped believing in blogging for it's own sake; there's just no time for it. When I've got something to say, I'll say it, otherwise I'll go quiet and get on with things.

I've also woken up my fiction writing hobby. For now it remains just that, a hobby. I'm staying strictly amateur with no interest in competitions nor publication. Not until I've racked up enough raw material anyway. This means the fun is back! I'm getting stuck into NaNoWriMo this month, which, at the very least, is giving one of my projects a much needed kick up the backside. Good luck to all the other Wrimos out there.

In case any of you missed it, myself and Jane Wenham-Jones have created a new web site for aspiring and established writers. When you feel like it, head over to wannabeawriter.co.uk and have a look. Feedback is very welcome.

I've noticed that many bloggers are slowing down or going quiet these days. Do you think this is a sign of the times? Have we all realised how often we spend too much time on it? Has it been superseded by other technology and/or social networks? Or is everybody just too busy writing?

Putting the Children to Bed

2010-03-23T14:53:00.006Z

Over the last couple of months I've been putting my babies to bed, metaphorically speaking. Like many children though, they refused to go to sleep until I'd read them each a bedtime story. I've almost completed the task now, just one of the youngest remains in need of a lullaby. It's possibly going to be a long sleep for my offspring. More like a deep-space hyper-sleep, cryogenically preserved until the interstellar ship reaches its distant goal.

What am I talking about?

The children I'm referring to are my fiction projects. One by one they've been put into long-term storage. The bedtime stories are their synopses. Yes, you read that right, the dreaded synopses. I felt it necessary to summarise them all before tucking them up. That way it will make it easier for me to wake them up again, should that time ever come.

In the process I came to discover that I actually quite enjoy the process of writing synopses. Before you die of shock and horror, I should point out that these are functional synopses as opposed to marketing synopses. They are distilled outlines of the plots and characters, two-page reminders of what the stories are about. They would certainly not pass muster if used directly for submissions. For that to occur they would need much more polish.

I'm still thinking about writing some non-fiction articles, for fun rather than for profit. For now though, the fiction kiddies are heading into the land of nod.

Missing Men

2010-03-17T14:56:00.001Z

Where are all the male writers?

A check of the Novel Racers membership, past and present, reveals that only four out of fifty-four (7%) are male. This got me thinking about whether that's typical or atypical for a collection of writers. Looking at my blog list, there are only a handful out of 54 personal blogs^* I read that are by male authors. Adding to this, my experiences of two visits to the Writers' Holiday at Caerleon, suggests that the world of writers is massively dominated by females^**.

Or have I missed something? Are there hoards of male writers out there that are somehow hidden from view? Is it due to the "circles I move in" being more specialised or atypical than I'd realised? Is it related to genre in some way? Are we effected, perhaps unwittingly, by stereotyping?

I know this isn't a new issue. Sheepish brought up some very similar things in her recent coffee break article and we covered many ideas that might lie behind the imbalance. I'd very much like to revisit the subject here, as I'm sure many of you will have had some more thoughts on it in the mean time.

So lots of questions, but I guess the main ones are: What are your experiences/statistics of male to female ratios in the world of writing? And do you have any more plausible explanations for any polarisation?

* As opposed to shared group or resource blogs.
** Not that I'm complaining.

WaW Meeting #5?

2010-02-08T10:38:00.001Z

How are you fixed for June? The "Wannabes" are thinking of having another meeting then. You can reply here or on the other blog.

Seeing Red

2010-02-06T07:50:00.001Z

Today marks exactly three years since I walked away from a twelve year IT career, after the door had been slammed in my face.

Thank You All

2009-12-23T12:05:00.002Z

Thank you all for staying with me.
Thank you all for your kind words, when I stopped writing.
Thank you all for your support when things look gloomy.
Thank you all for your encouragement when things look good.

I wish you all a very H a p p y C h r i s t m a s and a M e r r y N e w Y e a r !

The Publishing Life Cycle

2009-12-12T10:44:00.004Z

I've had a go at modelling the publishing life cycle, as far as I understand it. This is to help me comprehend the processes involved for several reasons:

I'm assisting a friend to develop a writing projects database.
I'm also considering developing some software relating to writing, so I need to understand how it might fit in with the business.
I'm generally curious and want to de-mystify some of the concepts that authors, agents, editors and publishers use.
My understanding of publishing is very limited, so I'm calling on all you writers out there to compare notes.

So here's what I've come up with (see the diagram below). For those of you who are unfamiliar with UML state diagrams, the yellow ovals are states - phases, if you like - that a piece of work such as a novel or a magazine story can be in. When an item is in a state, there is often still work being done on it, but it's general disposition is well-established. Between the states, are transitions, shown as arrows with names in brackets. Transitions are how to get from one state to another.

Here are some more detailed descriptions of the states and transitions.

State	Description
Initial	You have ideas, maybe notes too, but you have not yet decided to commit to anything. You do not yet have a project, just possibilities.
Creation	You are plotting, designing, writing; generally creating the story. It could be in raw/draft form, or it could be being edited and polished as you go along.
Refinement	This is where you convert the manuscript into something that is suitable for marketing. This is where you correct mistakes, tighten the plot, rewrite weak parts, generally edit and polish.
Submission	Here you package the manuscript for its journey to the next phase. This can include adding material such as synopses, covering letters, pitches, author biographies and such. An agency or publishing house receives your submission package. They may or may not respond but eventually there must be one of two outcomes.
Publication	The agency or publishing house have accepted your story and both you and they work towards marketing it or selling it on to another company (e.g. agent sells it to publisher).
Sales	The publisher makes the material available for the public to buy. With a bit of luck, you (and the agent) will get paid!
Final	This is the end of the life cycle, which can be reached from many of the other states, depending on what happens.

Transition	Description
Proceed	You like what you've created enough to go further.
Abandon	For whatever reason, you shelf the project or cancel it altogether.
Submit	You submit the work to an agency or perhaps directly to a publisher.
Drop	You decide not to carry on, even with the polished manuscript.
Reject	We're all familiar with this one! The agency or publisher deems your work unsuitable for publication. There can be many reasons for this, which I won't go into here.
Accept	Yay! The agency or publisher has deemed your work fit (or almost fit) for consumption.
Revise	There may be changes necessary before the work hits the shelves. The scope of these can vary greatly. There is still room for failure here if you don't agree on what's necessary (or don't deliver).
Deploy	The publisher launches your work. Champagne!
Refresh	This typically happens if a new edition of your work is called for. Probably more common with textbooks and other non-fiction.
Withdraw	The product is removed from the market, or fizzles out. Perhaps the publisher decided on a limited sale in the first place. Perhaps it gets banned!

What do you think of this? Based on your experiences, does this seem correct? Have I missed anything out? I'm aware that the model doesn't yet incorporate the self-publishing routes.

Here are a few "translation" examples I've put together.

Phrase	Translation into "Life cycle speak"
I'm working on my first draft.	The work is in the creation state.
I'm doing my first edit/rewrite.	The work is in the refinement state.
My agent has asked me to change chapter six into the third-person viewpoint.	A revise transition is imminent.
I have to write the dreaded synopsis.	The work is in the submission state. That is, unless you're really keen and are writing the synopsis early as part of the creation or refinement phases.

Don't worry, this is not going to be another half-baked and aborted series of "how-to" articles. I wouldn't presume to preach what I don't practise. I'd rather hear your feedback.

Off to the Canaries

2009-11-17T17:14:00.001Z

I'll be away for a couple of weeks for the annual Lanzarote trip. The first week will involve the International Running Challenge, which I've done several times before. Hopefully last week's 45 km training will help me to do some good times this year although, truth to be told, I'm not getting any faster these days.

The second week will be more relaxing and probably involve lots of reading by the poolside. Imaging doing something frantic like NaNoWriMo instead? Madness! Having said that, good luck to all you nutters out there who are trying to get your novels finished by the end of the month.

Has it Really Been Two Years?

2009-11-05T08:09:00.005Z

My first blog posting was, according to the list in the settings panel, made on 5^th November 2007. This means that my blog is now two years old today!

For your reading pleasure today, here is another CCT article for you.

CCT: Alternative Browsers

Don't forget to let me know if you have any ideas for future articles.

Blog Tour Guest Visitor: Cally Taylor

2009-10-29T07:12:00.001Z

Did you specifically write for a commercial market or did you just write a good story and hope it fitted the market?
I hoped my book would be commercial but, because there wasn't an established market in the UK for supernatural romantic-comedies at the time (even though there was in the States), there was a bit of a risk that publishers wouldn't be interested. Luckily they were! To be honest I didn't worry about whether or not my book would get a publishing deal while I was writing it - I just wanted to write and finish a novel.
Do you work to a regular writing timetable in order to meet your deadlines?
Nope, I make it up as I go along! When I was writing Heaven Can Wait I wrote nearly every night for three months and three weeks and squeezed in a social life where I could. With my second book I'm squeezing the writing around my social life! As a result it took me a lot longer to write the first draft (seven months) and now I'm having to work to a timetable so I can deliver it to my editor on time.
How did you create the plot and storyline for your novel? Did you work to a design or did it grow and evolve organically?
When I came up with the idea for Heaven Can Wait I knew what the first few scenes would be, and what happen at the end, but not how I'd get from A to B! I had to make that bit up as I went along - which was quite a scary way to approach novel-writing but also exciting because I never knew what my characters would do next.
A similar question about your characters: Did you design the characters, their traits and their behaviours up-front, or did they take on a life of their own once the writing was under way?
I know a few things about my characters before I start. I know what their goals and fears are, what they look like and a little bit about their pasts but I only really get to know them as I'm writing.
Did you write the story in order from beginning, through middle to end, or did you work with a set of scenes and chapters, filling in the details in whatever order you saw fit?
Yes, I start at the beginning and work through to the end. Because I never know what happens in the middle of my novels I have to work that way.
Are there particular planning techniques that you use, such as storyboards, time lines and character profiles?
I tend to do things like that after I've finished the first draft and before I start editing. I write a summary of each chapter on an index card, noting down who's in that chapter and what happens (using different coloured cards to indicate main plot or sub plot), and lay them out on the floor. I can then see at a glance whether the novel is balanced or not.
When I've got the balance right I do something similar, but this time in an Excel spread sheet. I create a row for each chapter and then, in the columns, fill in the time line, setting and the first and last lines of each chapter. I do that to check that a) the time line and settings don't jump around all over the place and b) each chapter starts with a hook and ends with a bit of a cliffhanger.
Tell us about any software that you use for writing your fiction? Do you write longhand, straight to word-processor, or something more sophisticated?
When I'm brainstorming an idea for a new novel I use a notebook and scribble down everything that comes into my head. When I actually start writing I use my laptop and write into yWriter (free novel-writing software). I couldn't use anything else now. I love how easily you can access the different chapters and scenes, drag them around and edit them.
Once your first draft has been completed, how do you get your manuscript into shape? Do you rely on trusted readers and/or pay for professional critiques?
With Heaven Can Wait I asked a couple of trusted readers to take a look at the synopsis and posted the first five chapters on the Women's Fiction forum on www.writewords.org.uk. That was it though and Darley was the first person, other than me, to read the whole novel. I don't think I'm going to have enough time to get feedback on my second novel before I deliver it to my editor and agent and that's a bit of a scary prospect!
Do you use any "how to" books? If so, which ones would you recommend to other writers?
Do I? I've got two shelves full of them! Some are more useful than others obviously and my favourites include: Writing the Romantic Comedy by Billy Mernit, Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell, Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card and Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King.
How did you go about choosing your agent/publisher?
I bought a copy of the Writers and Artists' Yearbook and went through the agents looking for the ones that represented chick-lit and women's fiction. I then put a star by the ones who represented authors whose novels I'd enjoyed and approached my "top six". My agent decided which publishers to approach.
How much work do authors themselves have to do these days to publish and promote their books, compared with the work the agent/publisher does?
I don't have anything to do with who publishes my novels - that's my agent's job (and she does it very well!) - but I have been doing quite a bit to try and promote Heaven Can Wait. Obviously my publisher does a lot to promote it at a national level so what I've been doing is trying to promote it on a smaller, more local level as well as trying to raise awareness in blog-world!
What's the biggest lesson you learned during the production of your first novel?
Get your second novel written, edited and polished before you start promoting your first one! Trying to do both, and hold down a day job, is an almost impossible task and occasionally very stressful. I need to clone myself!

Further Adventures in the Highlands

2009-10-23T12:56:00.003+01:00

Now I'm back in Sunny Sutton (yeah right) and resuming my search for employment. My new computer is behaving itself, despite being loaded with Vista and all sorts of other pre-installed fat that no amount of exercise seems to shift.

That reminds me, there's still plenty of training for me to do before the next half-marathon in Lanzarote...

Practising What I Preach

2009-10-13T19:35:00.001+01:00

Remember that article I wrote about computer backups? Well, last week I had to "eat my own dog food" as they sometimes say in software engineering circles. Yes, you've guessed it, I had a computer failure. My five-and-a-half-year-old PC went into a coma and never recovered, despite some desperate attempted surgery.

There's a fault on the motherboard that caused the CPU to shut down after a minute or so. Probably some kind of overheating problem. Anyway, it would be uneconomical to have it repaired, so the machine has been consigned to the Captain's Museum of Defunct Hardware. I think the hard disk is intact, though I haven't been able to prove that yet, so in theory I could retrieve data from that. As it happens though, I don't need to! I lost absolutely nothing because I backed up on Wednesday evening and the machine failed first thing on Thursday morning. To be honest, I don't think I'd ever have lived it down, had this not been the case.

Restoration from my backups was more difficult than I'd anticipated. Before you call me a hypocrite though, let me assure you that this was not my fault! I'd envisaged replacing the hardware and operating system, then simply re-installing software and replacing my files from backup media. What I hadn't foreseen was the need to migrate from Windows XP to Vista. Again, I won't bore you with the details but let's just say it presented some challenges - what business types call "opportunity" (Houston, we have an opportunity).

Anyway, now I'm back up and running and in the land of cyber-space once more. Not much else to report really but watch this space for a special guest in a forthcoming article. In the mean time, I'll be off to run the Aviemore Half-marathon this weekend. Wish me luck.

Back from Canada

2009-09-09T14:23:00.002+01:00

Hi folks, I'm back from my holiday in Vancouver, which was absolutely brilliant. Here's a short list of a few things that my friends and I got up to.

Lots of eating and drinking. Shock! horror!
Sammy J Peppers, one of the restaurants we visited, has the hottest chilli sauces on the planet.
Walking around various waterfronts, taking photos.
A visit to the aquarium in Stanley Park.
Cycling around the sea wall in Stanley Park and False Creek.
Driving a car on the other side of the road. Only a few near-misses.
A visit to Lynn Canyon. Lots of hiking, including crossing a very wobbly suspension bridge.
Visit to the University of British Columbia, including the Museum of Anthropology, followed by walking through the country parks of the endowment lands.
Kayaking and canoeing in Deep Cove.
Huffing and puffing pour way up the Grouse Grind, on Grouse Mountain. A short 3 km hike but with 850 m of vertical ascent.
Almost running across the outdoor set of a filming crew. They were making an episode of Fringe, so I was told.

I also managed to get in four training runs, totalling just over 24 km. Still a long way to go until I'm fit for the Aviemore half-marathon next month.

I didn't take all that many photos this year but there are a few posted on faceache.

Now it's back to the serious business of choosing a career and applying for jobs...

Off to Canada

2009-08-17T18:10:00.005+01:00

I'll be away from cyber-space for a couple of weeks, in Canada holidaying with some friends. See you when I get back. In the mean time, I leave you with another CCT article...

CCT: Passwords

Game Over

2009-08-08T11:56:00.003+01:00

I'm going to start this post with something I'm proud of: I know an Iron Man! Last Sunday, Hamsin, my friend and brother-in-law, completed the UK Iron Man Triathlon in just over thirteen hours. For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it's a mind-boggling, non-stop sequence of three huge athletic disciplines:

3.8 km swim in open water.
180 km cycle.
A full marathon run, 42.2 km.

Well done Hamsin!

Yo Comments 'bout wh@c

I was going to do some reports about the wonderful Writers' Holiday at Caerleon (wh@c) but BattyPip and Debs have done such great jobs that I'll just point you in the direction of theirs.

Debs' report.
BattyPip: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six.

I hope they don't mind me using their postings to try to hide my own laziness. It was a really great week at Caerleon, despite the fairly miserable weather. I went for a run on the Wednesday but it was more like a swim. Along a country road, I had to perform an unscheduled ford crossing with water to above my knees!

The week also gave a real shake-up regarding my own writing.

The Future

I've spent a long time thinking about what I'm doing with my life and where I'm going. I'm dissatisfied with a few aspects of it, so I had a big fat think. One thing I focussed on was a review of my writing over the last three years. I came to a few conclusions.

There's a distinct lack of progress.
- Novel 1: Worked on for nearly a year. 40% drafted. Shelved after wh@c 08 when it became apparent that it was not the novel I should be writing.
- Novel 2: Worked on for over two years. 33% drafted. Has had more plot changes than I care to remember. Feedback from wh@c 09 indicates that it's a complete mess.
- Novel 3: Worked on it (with co-author) getting on for two years. Although the first draft is complete, feedback indicates that it's massively over-complicated and badly written. A complete re-write would be the only viable solution towards publication.
I have minuscule chances of being published.
- The market is virtually insurmountable.
- The market usually favours relatively simple plots, single PoV/main character. Pretty much the opposite of what I like to read and write. Compromising to get published removes the fun factor.
I'm not really proud of anything I've written.
Feedback at Caerleon has made me realise that I have no natural talent and very little hope of publication. In fact, since wh@c 08, my progress seems to have gone backwards. My sense of ability was deluded. It was a humbling experience to find this out.
An alternative is to work very hard on my writing to achieve any hope of publication. I estimate that this would take decades, rather than years. I'm not prepared for that kind of commitment, if I'm honest.
I've discovered that I have lots of ideas for stories and enjoy story-telling, but writing is hard for me and no longer fun. I've also discovered that I don't really enjoy editing, something essential to getting published.

I'm therefore giving up writing for the foreseeable future. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't quit easily. This is mainly a logical decision, rather than emotional. I need to get on with my life and fill it with things that are achievable and realistic. It's been a very interesting three year experiment; I've had a lot of fun along the way. I've also met a lot of very nice people and made some great friends.

So what next? I don't have the answer yet but it's likely to be something scientific/technical, as that's what I know I enjoy and have some talent for.

This Blog

I don't know what the future of this blog will be. For now, I'll leave it as it is. I may post from time to time, if I think of suitable and interesting things to say. I'll certainly keep reading all of your blogs and keep up with what you're all up to.

I may also resume the Asteroid story, as that can remain fun and pressure-free.

A Big Thank-you

I would not have had anywhere near as much fun as I did, without the help of all my good writing friends, on-line and IRL. I want to say thank you to you all, it's been a great three years. I hope to stay in contact with as many of you as possible and, as I said, I'll be dropping by your blogs and web sites from time to time.

Stories Within Stories

2009-07-23T14:38:00.003+01:00

I was chatting with a writing friend on the tube the other day, she'd just had this idea about a crime novel where the killer leaves clues in a web log. This got me thinking about my own crime novel, Blood on the Rooftops. I also have a blog-related part to my story, though in my case it's a victim's blog rather than the killer's.

I want to take this idea further and create a story inside the blog, a bit like Asteroid inside this blog (more of that coming later in the year), along with the crime-related stuff. It gives me an opportunity to step outside the crime genre, whilst remaining in the same book; something that would normally be difficult to pull off and remain potentially marketable. I'm thinking my story within a story will be a romantic comedy or spoof. Do you think it's a good idea, or should the genres be strictly kept to their own bookshelves?

Are there any well-known stories that contain other stories? Have you written a story within a story, or would you consider doing so?

Captain's Computer Tips

There don't seem to be any burning requests, so I'll take a break from these articles for the time being. I have a few ideas for more, including:

Safety & security related tips: avoiding malware, phishing, spoof sites, spam, etc.
Web site design.
More HTML.
Other web technologies *.

Please let me know if any of the above would be of interest, or indeed anything else you can think of that's computer related.

On Holiday

Next week I'll be on holiday. A Writers' Holiday to be precise. That means I'll probably be "off the grid" for a while. See you when I get back.

How Not to Embed

2009-07-14T19:12:00.004+01:00

In this article I'm going to explain how embedding works. That won't help you though, as you'll see later. First some news.

The Finishers!

This month has produced an unprecedented amount of finishers - authors who have completed one or more stages of their novels. These include, but probably aren't limited to:

Calistro, Caroline, Ellie, Helen, Karen, L-Plate Author, Rowan, Un Peu Loufoque.

Well done to all of you! I will try my best to catch up.

void citizensAdvice (void)

Has anyone ever managed to contact the Citizen's Advice Bureau and actually received a response? I've had no luck in this department. Phone constantly busy, followed eventually by a very poorly recorded, truncated message about their opening hours, followed by rude disconnection. I tried the web site and filled in a form with all me details and my question. Input accepted (as far as I could tell) with no feedback and no indication of when/if my question would be answered.

Tomorrow I think I'll try going there in person. Wish me luck.

Better Now

I nearly posted this article yesterday. Well, when I say this article, I mean one that would have taken its place. I'm so glad I didn't, as I was feeling overwhelmed with depression for various reasons which you don't want to hear about. Anyway, now my stomach bug has gone and I'm back to normal. Did someone say "yo-yo"?

Last Call for WaW 4

The fourth Wannabe a Writer meeting is this Thursday! See the other blog for details.

Meanwhile, on with the show...

CCT: Hyperlinks

Well, that's three computer related articles done. I have some ideas for more, but in the mean time: any requests?

HTML

2009-07-02T13:33:00.003+01:00

More Captain's Computer Tips in this post, but first some news.

Progress

In an effort to focus my, um, efforts. I've simplified my WiP progress bar at the top of this blog. I'll reinstate the other projects if I ever get around to them.

Insight is going quite well but very slowly as Jason and I no longer live in the same town. We have a plan for editing, hoping to significantly reduce the word count and simplify the plot, not to mention pruning the enormous cast list.

Blood on the Rooftops is my other main project at the moment. It's about a third the way through its first draft. I hope to do some work on this at the Caerleon Writers' Holiday this year.

And now on to the lesson.

CCT: Bold & Italic

Computer Disasters

2009-06-24T14:03:00.002+01:00

Don't worry, I haven't had a computer disaster of my own, but I have been reading about several other people's recently. In most cases they seem to have got away with it and not permanently lost any documents nor other information. In my humble opinion though, they got away with it by the skin of their teeth!

In this day and age, most people seem to be reasonably well educated about sensible working practice when it comes to computers, so there should be no excuse for permanent data loss. Having said that, it's apparent to me that many still have a haphazard approach to computer safety, relying on the fact that "somebody somewhere" will be able to fix it, should anything go wrong. Or, for example, that you can run some kind of "recovery" on your hard disk to get data back.

Let me state categorically that you are gambling with your data, if this is your attitude.

I'd like to put this right; to give you some facts and ideas, and to clear up one or two myths. So, at the risk of preaching to the converted, teaching Grandma to suck eggs etc, included in this post is part one of Captain's Computer Tips.

CCT: Backups

Colworth Marathon Challenge

This weekend I took part in the Colworth Marathon Challenge. Three running races in three days, adding up to the marathon distance. The weather was very kind: warm but not too hot, though I managed to get slightly burnt on Sunday. My unofficial results were:

     Race  Distance  Time  
  Colworth Five  5.0 mi ( 8 km)  0:40:44  
  Trail Race  8.1 mi (13 km)  1:12:23  
  Half Marathon  13.1 mi (21 km)  2:11:22  
  Total  26.2 mi (42 km)  4:04:29  
 

Race	Distance	Time
Colworth Five	5.0 mi ( 8 km)	0:40:44
Trail Race	8.1 mi (13 km)	1:12:23
Half Marathon	13.1 mi (21 km)	2:11:22
Total	26.2 mi (42 km)	4:04:29

As you can imagine, my legs are pretty tired now. Certainly tired and definitely not pretty. My next big running challenge will be the Aviemore Half-Marathon in October.

From Racing to Racers

This coming weekend I'll be meeting up with some of the Novel Racers in Birmingham. I'll report back in my next post. Unless it's too embarrassing.

I don't often lose it, but...

2009-06-03T11:45:00.003+01:00

Fifteen Books

There's a meme doing the rounds at the moment. Feel free to have a go. You just have to think of fifteen memorable books you've read, in fifteen minutes or less. Here are mine.

Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes & Jerry Pournelle.
Five on Kirrin Island by Enid Blyton.
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet.
The Krone Experiment by J Craig Wheeler.
The Duelling Machine by Ben Bova.
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King.
Lightning by Dean Koontz.
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart.
Body Rides by Richard Laymon.
After the Hole by Guy Burt.
Timeline by Michael Crichton.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke.

I suppose including multi-volume epics or series is against the rules, otherwise I'd have included the following:

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
The Tripods by John Christoper.
Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton.

Fourth Wannabe Meeting

If you haven't already seen it, then please have a look at the Wanna Meet-Up blog. We have a proposed date!

Back Story

2009-05-12T15:55:00.004+01:00

Milestones

2009-04-03T14:44:00.003+01:00

A few of you writerly lot have already reached some milestones this year. Not wanting to be out-done by this, I've decided to blog about a couple of my own.

First Draft of Insight Completed

Jason and I have now finished our first complete draft of Insight. It's a novel weighing in at just over 125,000 words! It's taken us more than sixteen months to write it.

We now have ten trusted readers who are going to be helping us with another stage of feedback. Thanks in advance to all those who are participating. Then the real hard work will begin...

End of Day Zero

The latest episode of Asteroid is going to be the last one for a while. As I explained in an earlier post, there'll be a hiatus while I concentrate on other writing projects.

Spectrum marks the end of Day Zero in the story. At a rough guess, I'd say the story is no more than half completed. Possibly less if I decide to make it into a full novel-length piece. I quite like the idea of keeping it episodic though. What do you think? There's going to at least be a Day One, and possibly more.

Asteroid: Spectrum

Other Stuff

If you've ever wondered about the etiquette of blog commenting, then have a look and a listen to this. Thanks to Victoria Strauss for the link.

I'm going to take a break from cyberspace, while I go up to Scotland for Easter. See you all when I return.

Reading & Writing

2009-03-20T20:47:00.008Z

Asteroid: Bank

What do you Read and Write?

Somebody ^* at the Dubai Literary Festival remarked that many writers' write quite differently to what they read. So, how about we do a quick survey?

List the genres you write in, in descending order of favouritism.
List the genres you like to read, also in descending order.

I'll compile the results and see what we end up with. I don't suppose it will prove anything in particular, but it might be interesting.

Thank You Readers

Many thanks to the readers of the "adventure stream" of our novel, Insight. Your feedback has been, and will be, extremely useful.

We're completing the first full draft, ready to send out to the next batch of readers. It's only 125,000 words.

I must say though, I was slightly puzzled at this particular comment...

It may well be true. Perhaps we'll consider it as part of the next edit.

Fourth Wannabe Meeting

Those of you who would like to come to the next Wannabe a Writer meeting, please have a look at the dedicated blog. You'll need to let me know when you can and can't make it, as we have yet to choose a date and a venue.

* Probably Kate Mosse, but I'm not sure as I wasn't there myself.

When the Time is Right

2009-03-04T15:45:00.003Z

The blogosphere is a wonderful place. You get to meet all kinds of like-minded people and exchange ideas, stories or just random gossip. I've "met" so many good folk through these media. Not only that, there are several aspects of my interests, mainly fiction writing, that I would simply not have learned about if it wasn't for this realm and the people in it. So a big thank-you to all my colleagues out there.

I'm starting to realise that this comes with a price. Not a heavy price, rather a light one, but it's a price that is becoming increasingly significant as time goes by. It's simply the sheer number of people and blogs that form our ever-expanding network. I can now count well over forty different places I like to visit. To keep up with this on a daily basis is now extremely difficult and will soon be impossible.

I'm aware that a few others are in the same boat as me, and their solution seems to be to take "blog breaks" and then return after some suitable period of time. If that works for you, then great. I'm not sure that it would for me, though; I think I'd feel I'm missing out on too much. So, I think for me the answer is to blog less - which is what's happening anyway.

People say that it's important to blog every day, but I'm starting to question that philosophy. Why is it important to blog every day? I certainly believe it's important to write every day you can (if you're a writer), but blogging is not the same thing. In fact if my only writing on particular days was blog articles, then I'd start to lull myself into a false sense of security that I'm writing enough. The truth is, I'm not, and I need to get on with it.

Having said that, I do count Asteroid as writing, even though it's been part of my blog postings for a while now. It's by no means my main project but I do feel that it's good practise for me. However, there are only three more planned episodes, including Big Ears, before I'll be taking a hiatus from that as well. I'll be concentrating on my novels for a while. Gotta finish that pesky race, you see.

Asteroid: Big Ears

I don't want any of you to change the way you blog, but I'm going to change the way I do. I'll simply do less of it. It's not a break but a slow-down, so I apologise in advance for not keeping up with you all as much as I'd like to in an ideal world. If my postings and comments seem to be drying up, it's not because I've gone away, it's just because I'm busy.

Meanwhile, take care and good writing!

So What Do You Do?

2009-02-19T16:16:00.003Z

Asteroid: Inverness

A number of writers have admitted to dreading that question, including Caroline and Helen, so I've come up with an idea...

Many job titles sound much more grandiose than the job is in actuality. Some examples^* might include:

Title	Job
Environmental Services Engineer	Refuse collector
Customer Services Facilitator	Telephonist
Personal Assistant	Coffee maker
Concept Designer	Marketing dogsbody

So the idea is for us to generate a series of alternative, bigged-up job titles to use in place of the standard: "I'm a writer" response. Here's a few I've thought of off the top of my head.

Fiction Consultant
Literary Architect
Entertainments Implementor

Let me know what you come up with.

* No offence intended, they're just contrived examples.

Who's Who Scam!

I recently received a letter from Cambridge Who's Who (www.cambridgewhoswho.com), informing me that I've been proposed and accepted as a candidate for their registry. There was no mention of who proposed me, nor any introduction about this company.

The letter went on to invite me to "confirm" my details on-line, though all that they actually know is my name and address. The question "do I even want or agree to this?" does not come up.

If any of you readers get a similar request, please ignore it! It is a scam! The lovely people at Writer Beware! blog have written an article warning about this and similar scams.

I Wish It Did That

2009-02-11T14:08:00.004Z

Asteroid: Sunrise

Some of you may know that I was a software developer in a previous life. Well, I'm thinking of embarking on a new software project. It's just an axiom of an idea at the moment, rather than a fully-fledged, specified system.

I'm interesting in your input. It's going to be aimed at writers, though I don't yet know what form the software will take. Perhaps a stand-alone application, or perhaps add-ons or plug-ins to existing ones; that remains to be seen.

What I want to know is: what features and facilities do you wish your writing software had, but doesn't? What annoys you most about it? What sort of things do you wish it did better?

I'm not proposing to re-invent the wheel (nor the word-processor) but I want to design something specifically targeted at writers, rather than generic document handling.

Things you might wish to consider:

Editing and other text manipulation features.
Conversion features.
Document organisation and other structural features.
Analytical features; e.g. counting, statistics, cliché spotting (and other pattern recognition) ...
Integration of different writing aspects; e.g. plotting, characterisation, storyboarding, writing, editing, visualisation, time lines.
Version control, backups and storage.

The above are just examples. Anything else you can think of will also be welcome. Also, if any of my terms sound too "techie" and not "writerly" enough, then let me know and I'll try to translate.

Answers on a comment and/or e-mail please...

Two Memes

2009-01-29T14:25:00.004Z

Not a great deal of new lately. I've just been mainly editing Insight, ready for our proof-readers. I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a go at a couple of memes that have done the rounds recently.

Asteroid: Drawn

Fourth Folder, Fourth Photo

Oh dear. This one has turned out to be not very exciting. Here's the picture...

The photo is part of a letter I'm writing to the management company that are supposed to look after the building I live in. Needless to say, some of the recent electrical work leaves a bit to be desired.

Twenty Five Things About Me

My favourite colour is black. Bet that shocked you.
My (unwanted) nickname at school was Monkey-Man.
My nickname at Uni was Helmet, or just Helm.
I used to live in Brighton and cycled everywhere, despite the hills.
I use (and actually think in) metric/SI units for everything, except pints and occasionally miles.
My eyes used to be green but have slowly turned brown over the years.
I can read and write over six languages. Sadly they're all computer programming languages.
Music wise, I'm a total prog-head. 11/8 anyone?
I'm not much of a sweet tooth, prefer savouries, love king prawn jalfrezi.
I'm rubbish at team sports but like individual ones.
Red wine (sometimes, possibly) gives me a fat toe.
As far as I'm aware, there are only two foodstuffs I don't like: natural (unflavoured) yoghurt and mushy peas.
I know all the powers of two off-by-heart up to 65,536. Sad, sad, sad.
I'm a non-smoker (gsoh, wltm... ;o)
I love thunderstorms.
I also love Kaylee from Firefly.
Most of my computer and hi-fi equipment is on its last legs.
I subscribe to New Scientist. It's delivered every week but I can't keep up with it.
I once met Tony Slattery in a curry house in Clapham.
I like surrealist art: Dali, Magritte, Dean...
Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I sometimes read novels with pastel-coloured jackets.
My favourite Friends character has the same name as my favourite Charmed character.
I once nearly got arrested for being drunk on my bicycle. I got away with it by pretending to be German.
I like tequila based cocktails.
I skateboard/snowboard "goofy" even though I'm right-footed.

I tag anyone who hasn't done these yet (and wants to).

101100

2009-01-21T08:12:00.004Z

Today is my birthday. I've also noticed that there are one or two other writers, including Novel Racers, with birthdays this month, so in case I forget later: happy birthday to you!

Asteroid: Fisher Eight

Being Submissive

As I said in an earlier posting, I intend to submit more writing work this year. In particular, I have one piece that I think is pretty much ready to go. So, any tips? Those of you who've been in this game longer, I'd really appreciate any advice before taking the leash of my pets. My experience so far has been played: one, lost: one; so I'm not exactly a seasoned player.

Prezzies

As it's my birthday, I've decided to give everyone presents!

For Annie, a butterfly net with an extra long handle, for catching that so-far-elusive book deal.
For Calistro, a special key for breaking out of prison.
For Caroline, a year of great Scottish weather, for taking more of those splendid photographs.
For Helen, a large plate of mushy peas. I know she likes them.
For Lane, a pair of reversible jeans.
For Mercedes, a pair of hairdressing scissors, for cutting Nikki's fringe.
For Mother X, stress-free time travel for researching those Tudors.
For Paige, a supply of spare mojo. Writing magic, not the chewy sweets. Or maybe both.
For Sally, a toy duck as a thank-you for that story prompt.
For Spiral Skies, an INRA^* for best blinkin' bloomin' funny anecdotes.
For everyone else, a large dose of good luck for all your endeavours. You're no less important, I'm just crap at thinking up suitable presents.

Enjoy!

* International novel racers' award.

Keeping Up

2009-01-17T08:41:00.003Z

After taking only a week off from blogging and other on-line activity, I was faced with the daunting prospect of catching up with over sixty blog postings and triple figures of e-mails. You are a prolific lot, you lot! I've now finally caught up and am trying to stay on top of things. It's difficult though, as the RSS feeds are coming in almost constantly.

Scotland

I recently went to visit my parents up in Kincraig, Scotland. It was extremely cold, especially on the mountain tops. Minus fifteen degrees on one occasion. I've now added a Munro, Carn na Caim, and a Corbett, Carn an Fhreicaedain, to my collection. Not that I'm really collecting them; I'm no "bagger".

I managed to do nearly 32 km of running and 2 km of swimming, in order to keep the effect of the mince pies at bay. I also tried my hand at orienteering in a nearby forest. It was fun, but I don't think I'll ever win any prizes at this sport.

The week was rounded off very nicely with a curry in Aviemore. Mine was a veg green madras, and my mum said it looked like curried mushy peas! I didn't panic though, as it had plenty of chilli in it.

Plans for 2009

This year I really mean to crack on with at least three of my many writing projects, possible at the expense of the remaining ones. I haven't picked the main three yet, but one of them will definitely be Insight, and the others will probably be my two other novels: Blood on the Rooftops and The Bridge Across Forever.

I'll also be writing and submitting some short stories. Yes, you heard me right: submitting! Something I've done far too little of in the past.

This means that some projects will be relegated to the back-burner. To be honest, they were already in a de-facto state of back-burneredness anyway, so this isn't really a big change - just an official acceptance of that fact.

I'd still like to contribute to writing blogs on an occasional basis. Things like Cloud Line, Cutting It Fine and Sally's Workshops. I hope I'll find the time to keep this promise.

Finally, a really important goal for me this year: getting a job!

Asteroid Plans

Now for some not-so-good news. There's going to be two or three further episodes of Asteroid, before I take a break from it. Don't worry, I'm not going to abandon it. I want to work on my other projects for a while and, truth to be told, I haven't written much more of Asteroid yet, other than what I've got left in the bag. I do apologise for disappointing you readers, but the story will continue later in the year.

Asteroid: Breakdown

Early Spring Cleaning

2008-12-20T15:18:00.004Z

Asteroid: Albedo

I've just spent the last few of days sprucing up various blogs and web sites. A bit of winter "spring" cleaning, if you like. With some know-how, I learn a little bit more about HTML, CSS and JavaScript each time, and a smidgen of luck, the results should be an improvement.

What prompted this, you may ask? Two things mainly. Firstly, I got fed up with having to repeatedly update my "other blogs & links" sections on several different blogs, each time I wanted to add a new link. So now I've centralised the repository for such information and simply put a "repeater" on each blog. This way I only have to make additions to one place.

The other reason was that the Novel Racers' blog needed some updating with regard to our achievements over the last couple of years. Not to mention the forthcoming race for 2009.

That has now got me thinking about my own achievements this year, and my goals for next year.

Achievements 2008

I don't have any official achievements to report. In other words I'm still an amateur, unpublished writer. Having said that, I'm quite pleased with what I've done. Namely:

Almost completed (95%) the first draft of Insight, along with my co-author.
Cracked on with Asteroid, after coming close to abandoning it in favour of other projects.
Written a total of over 100,000 words, if you add up all my projects.
Learned a great deal more about the craft through books, friends & colleagues and a residential course.

Goals for 2009

Despite my "sprints", I'm still struggling to keep up with all of my writing projects. I think I might have to get a bit more radical next year. This basically means that I'll probably shelve many and concentrate on the remainder. I want to:

Edit Insight and decide what to do with the result.
Focus on Blood on the Rooftops. Get that written in terms of completing the first draft.
Continue with Asteroid. Just for fun.

This means that The Bridge Across Forever, which was once my "main" novel, will have to take a back seat, along with the other projects.

Down Time

I may be off-line for a while, due to the festive season. In the mean time, I wish you all a Happy Easter...

...Just joking. I'll be back before then. Enjoy the Xmas and New Year celebrations everyone!

Finally

Does anyone know any good office furniture shops?

I seem to have a bad case of writer's bottom.

All I Want for Christmas is...

2008-12-09T18:54:00.003Z

...A MACHINE GUN!

The streets and the shops are full of people behaving like zombies and programmed automatons. The shelves are full of utter garbage. All I wanted was a loaf of bread and a pint of milk! I can't wait for normality to resume, once the January sales are over.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the festivities part of Xmas: the getting together with friends and family, the excessive eating and drinking, the silly games. What I can't stand is the fact that this part is played down more and more each year, in favour of the relentless, mindless commercialism.

And why does everyone except me have a complete inability to manoeuvre? When several people are coming straight at you, as they tend to do in London, the straight line is all they can manage. Oh but it's a different story when people are dawdling in front of you: they sway and weave around like a bunch of drunks, making it impossible to pass. I think a machine gun might be the only solution.

I'm ambivalent about the religious part, being an atheist. I don't mind other people enjoying their religious celebrations, but I have no interest in it myself.

Sorry for the rant; I needed to get that out of my system. Also, sorry to Helen for nicking her "half a heading" style ;oP

Pebble

It's a bit early for Auld Lang Syne, but last weekend I went to a party in Brighton, where I met loads of old friends. It was good to catch up. I'll be going down again this weekend, but just for lunch this time.

I'm supposed to be collecting a large pebble from Brighton beach, to add to a special cairn that my parents are building in their garden. I'm losing count of the number of times I've been down there and not managed to retrieve the said item.

I did almost achieve this goal a while ago, only to have the rock confiscated at Gatwick Airport Security. Apparently it could be deemed as a weapon. If you ask me, Nikki Bradshaw's handbag would be much more lethal.

Where Next?

Recently I've had loads of ideas about the Asteroid story and where it might be heading. It's almost as much of an adventure for me as it is for you readers. I'm plotting this story much less than my other projects, you see.

I don't want to radically alter it's direction too much, but I was wondering what areas you think might be good to develop, and which ones to possibly play down. For example:

David & Craig's story.
Ronnie's story.
Aileen's story.
The Malcolm, James and Jodrell Bank angle.
The SF component: Asteroid, possible aliens and the like.
The romantic/saucy components (no squidge, I promise).
The mystery components.
Anything else?

One idea is to add some more slightly "mystical" elements to the tale, but I'm not sure if that would be a good fit with what I've written so far.

Answers on a postcard... Or a blog comment...

Asteroid: Missing Radio

Just Story

2008-12-01T18:03:00.003Z

I can't think of a suitable topic to blog about for this post, so I'll just get on with the story...

Asteroid: Waiting

Interruption?

2008-11-19T14:50:00.004Z

There are only a handful of episodes to go in my Asteroid story. Only a handful of the one's I've written, that is. That will bring the story to the end of Day One. I have lots of ideas about where it's going with Day Two and onwards, but I haven't yet plotted these out.

This means that I might take a break from blogging Asteroid, once Day One is done. What happens after that remains to be seen.

What do you think?

Asteroid: Aviemore

Points of View (Revisited)

Here is a story told from two PoVs, both written in first-person past tense. See what you think...

I saw him in the evening and he was acting really strangely. I'd been shopping with the girls in the afternoon and I did turn up a bit late, so thought it might be that. The bar was really crowded and loud so I suggested we go somewhere quieter to talk. He was still very subdued and distracted, so I suggested we go somewhere nice to eat.

All through dinner he just didn't seem himself; he hardly laughed and didn't seem to be paying any attention to me, or to what I was saying. I just knew something was wrong. He dropped me back home and I wondered if he was going to come in. He hesitated but followed.

I asked him again if there was something the matter, but he just half shook his head and turned the television on.

After about ten minutes of silence, I said I was going upstairs to bed. I put my arms around him and told him that I loved him. He just gave a sigh and a sad sort of smile. He didn't follow me up immediately, but later he did, and I was surprised when we made love. He still seemed distant and a bit cold. I started to think that he was going to leave me; that he'd found someone else. I cried myself to sleep.

England lost to South Africa. Gutted. Got a shag though.

Apologies if you've heard that one before. Couldn't resist ;oP

Runner's Holiday

After this posting, I'll be taking a week off to "enjoy" myself doing a half-marathon and some other smaller races in Lanzarote. See you all when I get back.

The Two Towers

2008-11-13T16:32:00.007Z

Asteroid: Bigger

There's something I'm having trouble believing at the moment. You probably won't believe it either. The thing is: I'm really not reading very much these days, at least in terms of hard-copy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm busy reading a lot of things in general. It's just that they're all on-line or in some other electronic form. At my last count, I have just over thirty blogs to keep up with. I must be mad. Trouble is, I can't bear the thought of missing some useful writing tips or (checks over shoulder) juicy gossip.

I'm also steadily reading my friend's book, so don't worry MG, I'm getting there; on chapter twenty-three as I write this. I'm enjoying this story and sometimes forget to put on my critic's hat.

I'm also following a gripping story that one of my e-friends is writing for NaNoWriMo. She's so busy and prolific with countless other stuff, I don't know how she does it. Probably doesn't sleep. No it's not AnniEye, before you ask...

...Which reminds me, I recently found an early copy of (what was then called) Twisted Garlands. I guess I meant to read this and comment back. Gulp. Sorry Annie, I don't know how this evaded my radar. By the time I get around to reading TG, I'll be able to by the whole trilogy in the shops!

So I don't know how it happened, but my hard-copy reading has come to an almost complete standstill. This means that my to-be-read (TBR) pile has grown to quite frightening height. Well, by my meagre standards anyway. Actually there are two TBR piles, hence the title of this posting.

The Tower of Marmite

This is the non-fiction and books of learning tower. The stuff I've meant to read for a long time, in order to further my knowledge of the writing craft and business, not to mention the universe in general.

The Tower of Pickle

Lime pickle to be precise - is there any other kind? This is what I wanted to read for pleasure, oh, months ago. Who knows where the time goes (good song btw)? In fact it's been so long since I read The Dreaming Void that I'll have to read that again before embarking upon The Temporal Void. That'll keep me off the streets for a while.

Third Wannabe Meeting

I very much enjoyed the this meeting in London (details here) with the Wannabes, Isbes and Soontobes. It's especially nice that the Novel Racers and the Wannabes are starting to overlap. Long may these things continue!

Pastel Jacket, Anyone?

2008-10-30T12:26:00.003Z

Asteroid: Assistance

After watching BBC4's Reader, I Married Him programme about romantic fiction (iPlayer link available until 20:00 Saturday), I realised that this is something I also need to write. Don't worry, I'm not starting yet another project, this will fit nicely into an existing one. It may seem a bit strange to have some fairly serious romance in what is essentially a crime thriller at the moment, but I believe there is method in my madness.

Too many of the crime stories I've read have a very lightweight approach to the romance side of the story - if there even is one. This, coupled with my tendency to want to write cross-genre stories, means that I now intend to write some romantic fiction. You know what's coming next, don't you...?

...I need your help!

What is it that makes a good romance story? Can you tell me your top three things? Here's a list of things to think about, though feel free to include your own additions.

Happy endings?
Believable characters?
Plot: complex or simple?
Believable situations / settings?
Formulaic and predictability versus mystery and surprises?
Bedroom door: open or shut?
Comedy or serious?

Looking forward to your answers and thoughts.

Wannabe and Isbe Meeting #3

If you haven't already heard, the third WaW meeting is now booked for Monday 10th November. See the Wanna Meet-Up blog for details. I hope you can make it!

Happy Halloween everyone.

NRP

2008-10-21T11:19:00.006+01:00

Asteroid: Café

Novel Racers' Publications

What's that thing at the top of my blog? I hear you ask. Some of you will know that I've been doing some work on a blog gadget that lists all of the publications from the Novel Racers and their friends.

If you would like to put this gadget on your own blog, then you'll find full information on my web site.

Award and Meme From Sally

Where is your cell phone? Charging. I think it might need a new battery.
Where is your significant other? In my imagination.
Your hair colour? Be serious.
Your mother? Travelling in Asia.
Your father? See above.
Your favourite thing? Damn good Sci-Fi.
Your dream last night? Can't remember.
Your dream/goal? To reduce my workload to a single project. Maybe even finish and publish some of them.
The room you're in? Badly in need of redecorating.
Your hobby? Reading, writing, running and sometimes arithmetic.
Your fear? Stupid people in power.
Where do you want to be in 6 years? At a book signing for my umpteenth novel.
Where were you last night? Watching abysmal TV programmes.
What you're not? As good at IT as people think I am.
One of your wish-list items? One of those tiny portable PCs.
Where you grew up? Cheshire.
The last thing you did? Answered question sixteen.
What are you wearing? A smile.
Your TV? Ancient 4:3. Switched off.
Your pets? Don't have any.
Your computer? Limping lap-top.
Your mood? Lazy.
Missing someone? Not telling.
Your car? No idea. Sold it years ago.
Something you're not wearing? Bra. Not today anyway.
Favourite store? Off-license.
Your summer? Was there one? I must have missed it. Must have been a Thursday.
Love someone? Always.
Your favourite colour? Ridiculous question. Black of course.
When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday. Jack Dee (repeat) on TV.
Last time you cried? Probably too long ago. I bottle things up, you see.

I hereby pass this award and meme on to Calistro.

A Comma Conundrum

Finally, following on from last week's Commas and Conjunctions subject, how would you punctuate the following sentence (in red)?

A man was painting a sign outside a pub. The owner came outside to have a look. Seeing what the painter had done, she said: "You haven't left enough space between George and and and and and ~~and~~ Dragon."

Commas and Conjunctions

2008-10-12T20:44:00.004+01:00

Asteroid: Fog

Hello Readers and Writers,

Something has been bothering me during the course of my editing. It's about commas and conjunctions. I wonder if you good people can throw some light on this matter?

Many of the corrections I'm working on involve deciding whether to keep commas or delete them. This is particularly confusing when a comma occurs just before a conjunction. One of my kind readers, judging from their feedback, is of the opinion that a comma should almost never precede a conjunction. I'm not so convinced, so I would welcome any thoughts you had on this matter.

Here are some examples, which I've tried to categorise. I've highlighted the conjunctions and put the questionable commas in brackets.

Type	Example
Simple	"People who called me a friend in a time of difficulty[,] and taught me most of what I've worked on here."
Double	"Why work here diligently[,] and then turn and sabotage us?"
List	"The colours of the French flag are red, white[,] and blue."
Long	"Brandt tapped the console keyboard to access the department audit page[,] and requested the security logs of the laboratories from the night before."
Clarity	"Taylor said he was too busy to join us[,] and to put some of the food aside."

In your opinion, which of these types should have the comma and which should not? And why?

My own thoughts, which may well be wrong, are as follows:

Simple	The comma can be omitted, since the conjunction serves as a pause.
Double	Either keep the comma or the conjunction, but not both.
List	Americans: Keep the final comma. Brits: Lose the final comma.
Long	Keep the comma, as it serves to break up an otherwise long sentence.
Clarity	Keep it. Leaving out the comma would imply that Taylor was too busy to put some food aside (as well as too busy to join us). This would be incorrect.

I realise that this is going to be basic stuff for many of you, and that I should probably go and re-read Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but language is liquid as they say. I would like to get a modern set of opinions.

Your thoughts?

Progress

2008-10-06T17:12:00.004+01:00

Wanna Meet Up?

It's not long now until the third in the series of meetings for the Wannabes (and Isbes). It looks like we'll be revisiting Truckles of Pied Bull Yard in London. The date has not yet been confirmed, so go over to the dedicated blog to check on things. If you are coming along and haven't yet told me what days you are available, then please leave me a comment, either here or on the above-mentioned blog.

Insight

The joint project I'm working on with Jason is progressing very well. We're now editing the main plot stream, while continuing to write the Adventure plot stream.

Public Thank-You

Many thanks to our readers of Insight. Your feedback has been fantastic. You know who you are.

Also, thanks in advance for those who are going to get later and/or different versions.

Returning the Favour

Please let us know if you want us to read your works. We are not expert published authors (yet), but we're avid readers and would like to help.

Sprints

I've finally found a way of working on my multiple concurrent projects. For some time I've been struggling with too many things on the go at the same time. Consequently, and perhaps not surprisingly, all of them suffered: either inching forward at glacial speed, or halting all together. The only exception to this was Insight, where I have the luxury of a co-author to kick me up the proverbial.

The answer is to have one or two week sprints, where I concentrate on one project only for that time (Insight excepted). This means that I get sufficient immersion in the project during the sprint, for a good flow and therefore significant output. It also means that the other projects do not fall behind as much, since their turn will come up in the cycle after a few weeks.

The last couple of weeks I concentrated on Asteroid, and I now have quite a bit of that "in the bag". This allows me to concentrate on other projects for several weeks, yet still release the instalments on this blog.

Asteroid: Telephones

This week and probably the next week, I'll be working on Blood on the Rooftops - my crime novel. I also resurrected an old novel: Driller, but only because I wanted to re-use a piece I wrote for Jo's Weekly Workout.

Do you have any tips and tricks for boosting progress with writing? In any case, I wish you all good luck with it.

What Have I Been Up To?

2008-09-26T11:40:00.009+01:00

Asteroid: Checking Out

Some of my friends' recent blog postings have asked questions such as: Do you write to a time limit, or a word-count limit? and How much time do you spend reading and writing? This has prompted me to do a bit of self-analysis with regard to how I manage my time.

Since March 2008 I've been recording most of the time I spend on writing related things, though I haven't recorded time spent reading. Perhaps I should have done. Anyway, here is the breakdown.

As you can see, I'm spending far too much of my time blogging! The chart does not include everything in my day, just the writing and job-hunting related activities. The red one definitely needs to be increased.

Here is the breakdown by project.

I was a bit surprised at how much time I've spent on the Kim & Mark story (it's on Cloud Line if you want to read it), which is slowly becoming a novella in size. My co-writing project is the clear winner, with my other two novels in equal third place.

I should probably put Kim & Mark to bed soon (no - not a squidge alert), so that I can concentrate on the novels.

So, what have I learned from this exercise?

Find a job.
Reduce the amount of time spent on blogging and e-mails.
Focus less on the blog stories and more on the novels.
Continue writing and editing Insight with Jason. Full first draft is due to be finished in early February 2009.
Do not start any more projects!

How do you spend your writing time? Do you think this kind of analysis would benefit you too?

Now I'm Here

2008-09-18T14:49:00.008+01:00

Hello readers, did you miss me? I've been for a three week holiday in Vancouver, and what a fun-packed trip it was.

The Asteroid instalment is a bit longer this week, but I'll try to keep them shorter in the future, as I know you're all busy people. Hope you enjoy it.

Asteroid: Signals

Anyway, back to the Canada trip...

Vancouver Island

What a very long and tiring day that was. We started by driving to Tsawwassen to catch the ferry, only to discover that we'd just missed one. Not only that, but we didn't catch the next one either, because it had broken down! They only sail every hour so we had a dull time waiting at the port.

Eventually we got to board, and a hour and a half later we were in Schwarz Bay. There was a short drive to Victoria where we had only about two hours to park the car, see the views from the seaside, and take a quick look at the town.

Next came a fairly long drive up north through some really nice forest and lakeside views, before arriving at Nanaimo. From there it was another ninety minute ferry crossing to Horseshoe Bay on the mainland.

Dinner was a gourmet affair of a kebab wrap: we'd run out of time for a "proper" meal. Finally, we drove back to the hotel in Burnaby where we were staying. Just time for a quick drink in the bar before bed.

Kayaking

We spent a day on the water at Deep Cove on the North Shores. There were five of us, so we hired a canoe for three and two single kayaks. Throughout the day we swapped around, so that those that wanted got to try both kinds of boats.

The steering of the canoe was, um, interesting. Lets just say we didn't always paddle in a straight line. Eventually we worked out that the person at the stern had the majority of the steering power.

For lunch, we stopped at Jug Island, where there was a gravelly beach. It was here that I had slight landing difficulties. What I hadn't realised, is that I'd been pinching a nerve somewhere in my hip during my kayak paddling. Consequently one of my legs had gone numb. As I tried to get out of the kayak, I stumbled and fell sideways, taking the kayak over with me. Oh, and did I mention that I hadn't quite landed far enough up the beach? Anyway, the result was me getting soaked and the boat half-filling with water. I managed to sort the situation out and empty the kayak, before joining my oh-so-helpful friends for lunch. Thank god nobody was quick enough on the draw with their cameras.

Grouse Mountain

Grouse Mountain is just in the Rockies, about a half hour drive from Vancouver. It's amazing how you can either be at the beach, or in the mountains in only half an hour.

The walk from the car park at the base of the cable-car station, to the top station (not quite at the summit), is some 800m of climb. The shortest way up is a gruelling trail known as the Grouse Grind. Two years ago I did that in about two hours. The course record is twenty odd minutes!

This year we shied away from the grind, and took a longer but slightly less steep approach. My friends didn't actually believe it was easier, but we got there in the end.

Greeting us near the top of the wooded part of the trail, was a black bear! It was only a cub but still quite large-looking. We moved on quickly without disturbing it too much, as Mummy was probably nearby. No photographs unfortunately, as we were a bit too apprehensive.

Going back down the mountain was a lot easier: we used the cable car.

Cycling

For half a day, we hired mountain bikes and, erm, went nowhere near a mountain. Nor even off-road, in fact. Instead, we took a nice leisurely ride around the sea wall, covering False Creek and Stanley Park. We also rode a few trails inside the park, reaching speeds on the descents that would make a police officer angry! Luckily there wasn't one around.

All in all, it was a very fun-packed and yet relaxing trip. I can't wait to go again next year.

Dictionaries

I've been using the on-line dictionary and thesaurus at dictionary.com, but am becoming increasingly disappointed with it. The pop-ups and on-screen advertising is steadily increasing, and the results seem poor on occasions. Can anybody recommend a good replacement?

Right, now it's back to my many writing projects...

I'm Not Really Here

2008-08-31T04:44:00.002+01:00

Hello readers, I'm actually speaking to you from the past, not the present. I posted this before I left for Canada, you see. By the magic of scheduled posting on blogger, this should now have appeared. Feel free to leave comments anyway, and I'll read them when I get back in a couple of weeks.

The story segment from Asteroid, below, is the last instalment that has already been posted on Cloud Line. All subsequent segments will appear on this blog. It will all be new stuff from now on.

Asteroid: Flickers

When I get back, I'm going to have a go at submitting a short story. Probably to some magazines. This is something I should have done a long time ago, as I have a finished story ready to go.

Does anyone have any tips on how to research target editors and/or agents? I've got the various books such as WAYB and WMUK for 2008, but I don't really know where to begin. Any help on this will be appreciated.

Right, I'd better go now. My past self has more packing to do. I'm sure my present and future selves will have plenty of Canadian beer to drink.

Take care, friends.

What Happened to Scribecraft?

2008-08-25T10:23:00.006+01:00

This will be my last posting for a while. I'm going on holiday to Canada for three weeks. Yippeee!

Asteroid: The Longest Day

Some of you may remember the Scribecraft series I started back in April. You may be wondering what's happened to it. Well, the short answer is that it's been shelved for the time being. I've come to realise that the publishing industry is very complicated and often non-deterministic in nature. Everyone works in a huge variety of different ways; there is no "magic formula" to successful writing.

I still stand by most of the techniques I started describing in Scribecraft, but I don't think it's worth my time to continue the series. I hope that hasn't disappointed anyone too much. Perhaps one day I'll revive it.

Now it's time to do my packing (5 minutes) and the household chores (5 hours) before I relax and go to one more pub quiz this evening, before jetting off to Vancouver tomorrow.

Well, perhaps just a quick bit of surfing and blogging before that.

Word count for last week was a meagre 1,703. Oh well, better than nothing, I suppose.

See you all in three weeks.

Who Wants to Read a Story?

2008-08-19T15:37:00.007+01:00

I've got an idea to force me to blog a bit more often that I've done so far (sorry). Hopefully this would accelerate one of my projects and encourage me to blog at least once a week. Having said that, I'm going to be taking a break in a week or two, for three weeks. I'm off on my holidays to Canada, so there'll be no chat room, Novel Racers, nor blogging for me during that time.

So what have I been up to recently? Well, apart from doing battle with my eight writing projects, including trying to get Insight ready for our first readers (gulp), not a lot really. A couple of weeks ago I went to the annual Writers' Holiday at Caerleon. It was my first time, and I have to say it was brilliant! I can highly recommend it. I certainly hope to go back there next year.

Anyway, on to the idea. It's very simple really: I'm thinking of telling you all a story. Some of you may already be familiar with the beginnings of this story, as the first two instalments are on the Cloud Line blog. I intend to stop posting it there, as I have a better idea for Cloud Line that will hopefully extend our writing capabilities. More on that later.

The story is called Asteroid, although that's pretty much a working title at the moment. The first instalment can be read here. Just look to your right. This piece was also posted on Jo's Weekly Workout, and got some nice comments from her. Thank you Jo, if you're reading this.

I've had quite a quiet week last week, writing-wise. Weekly word count was only 728. Mind you, that was somewhat affected by a large negative score on one project. Yep, that's right, I wrote a negative number of words for Insight. How is this possible? The answer is editing, of course! 192 words got the chop on Thursday.

So, do let me know if you'd be interested in reading Asteroid on a (roughly) weekly basis. Don't worry, I don't expect free critique from my blog readers, though if you want to comment, then please feel free.

Lights Out.

Ding!

2008-07-15T14:40:00.003+01:00

I love it when this happens. It's a big part of what being a writer is all about. You go back and read over the text for a project that you've put aside for a while. Then it happens: Ding!

That "light bulb" moment when you get a brainwave. A really good idea about how to move the project forward, or resolve those tricky issues. Then you're all fired-up and wanting to get stuck-in to the project once again.

I'd not done any work on Blood On The Rooftops for ages, but after being totally enthused by the recent Novel Racers' meeting, I read over it again today. I've now thought of a great way to tell one of the main threads of the story: via a blog diary that the police find when investigating a murder. I'm going to try to put the diary in as part of the book, thereby letting the reader "discover" clues to the crime as the detective does.

One good thing about this is that I can stick to single POV first-person. At least for this thread anyway. So that partly solves my "head-jumping" issue as well.

The bad news is that what I've written so far is in third-person, so I'm going to have to re-work it all. Oh well, it'll keep me out of the pub for a while. As if.

Any one else had any brainwaves recently?

In The Land Of Beginning Again

2008-07-10T21:49:00.003+01:00

Oh dear, I've gone and started another writing project. I told myself I wouldn't do this until I'd finished at least one of my existing ones. I lied.

Admittedly it's not that demanding a project, so far. I'll just be writing a few hundred words per week, or less. You can keep up with Asteroid (working title) by checking the Cloud Line blog. There are two instalments so far...

"The Longest Day"
"Flickers"

I have a few ideas for the plot, but I don't really know where it's going. As with most things on Cloud Line, it will be very much prompt-driven.

There's a prize for guessing where I got the idea for the title of this post, apart from the obvious thing of starting a new project.

Does Anyone Have Any Spare Legs?

2008-06-23T10:57:00.011+01:00

My legs have run 42 km in the last three days. Now they are refusing to obey instructions from my brain. At one point I got very muddy after nearly sliding on my backside. Must have looked a bit like Bambi on the ice. Then I got rained on, almost struck by lightning, then sunburnt. It was all good fun though. Now I'm going to take a bit of a rest from running and (hopefully) concentrate on writing a bit more.

It seems to be the barbecue season at the moment. I've got another one coming up this weekend, and that will make three in a row! I make it Pimms O'clock.

Quality & Deadlines

2008-06-05T16:38:00.004+01:00

Once upon a time, in a software business environment, far far away, a manager did enthuse the mantra of Quality and Deadlines. The instant reply from amongst the minions, mere practical hard-workers, was: "Which do you want?"

Having remembered this, it got me thinking that this would make a good discussion topic as applied to writing. Obviously, some deadlines cannot be moved: those for competition submissions and other publisher/editor imposed dates. What about self-imposed deadlines though? How do you find balance between a realistic, achievable deadline; and an acceptable level of quality? Not to mention factoring-in other annoyances and interruptions, such as real life?

One of the projects I'm working on with a friend has recently had a deadline applied to it, by ourselves. We're constantly measuring and tracking our progress, and are therefore able to set what we think is a realistic deadline for the first draft to be completed. The graph below shows that we seem to be on-track for a deadline of 1st November with 80,000 words.

When it comes to the later stages, we'll have a think about what editing will need doing, and how to achieve quality and meet deadlines for that.

What are your experiences in such things? Do you plod on until it's "finished" without regard for timeliness. Or do you set a deadline to reach and then improve the quality at later stages?

The Power of Synopsis

2008-05-21T13:03:00.005+01:00

I've recently been working on a synopsis for my main writing project, despite the fact that I've only half-finished the first draft! I have to say that it has focussed my thinking remarkably. I've managed to clear up some tricky areas and iron out some inconsistencies in the plot, just by writing a two or three page summary.

Of course, the synopsis cannot yet be set in stone, as the novel is likely to change and evolve as I complete it. The synopsis must therefore evolve alongside it, and definitely not be sent out to any publisher until much later. I'm therefore treating it as a "master storyboard". This is working very well and I can highly recommend it.

I found it very difficult to write a synopsis, for reasons I don't really understand. After all, it should just be a matter of summarising the story. Shouldn't it?
I just wish I'd started working on it alongside the novel right from the start.

What are your experiences with writing synopses? Good or bad? Useful or just distracting? Any tips on how to write a good one would also be appreciated.

For those of you on the Cutting It Fine blog, you can read my first synopsis attempt here.

I think spell-checker is trying to tell me something

2008-05-13T10:07:00.002+01:00

It just suggested I change "WIPs" into "Wipes". Not a good omen.

Scribecraft - Part 2: Overview

2008-04-10T15:36:00.003+01:00

This section provides an overview of the whole methodology. Later sections will explain each of the different parts in more detail.

The methodology is iterative and comprises of six phases. Central to the methodology are the activities of planning, scheduling and testing.

Iterative

We carry out the six phases not necessarily one after the other, as we might in some traditional cascading or "waterfall" methods. Instead we blend them together in amounts that are appropriate to which particular activities we're doing, and where we are in the schedule. Having said that, the emphasis does shift progressively as we go around the cycle.

An advantage of this technique is that it helps us to lose the fear of going back and changing something more fundamental, should we discover a fault in a "later" phase. Even the planning and scheduling aspects can be adjusted as we go along.

We can go around the cycle many times if necessary, evolving and improving things as we go.

Six Phases

In later sections I'll deal with each of the six phases of the methodology in more detail. For now here is a summary of them.

Requirements

This is basically defining what the end result should be. The poem, story, novella, novel, three volume epic, or whatever it is. The product, if you like.

Specification

This is for defining in more detail what kind of product you are going to produce. Genre, style, format and scope.

I've also included research in this phase, though some authors may prefer to have research as a completely separate phase in its own right.

Design

This is for mapping out the content of the product, including things like plot, characters and storyboards. It can also define the structure of the product, such as parts, chapters and sections.

Implementation

Here we have the actual writing part. Putting the thoughts, ideas, plots, characters and stories onto the pages. Note though, that implementation is much more than just typing and editing. There are also many other activities such as experimentation, illustration, exercises and note-taking.

Building

This may sound trivial but from your implemented artefacts (documents), you need to build the full product. This may be as simple as printing out the document onto paper. It may be much more complex though. For example, you may have a master document that is built from several smaller documents. There may be drawings or other graphical material to incorporate. You may need to construct web pages from your source material.

Deployment

This is where the product is deployed to its intended audience, or to a literary agent or publisher. This can be quite complex, depending on the requirements of the recipients (and the authors). There may be strict rules and processes to follow.

Deployment can ultimately be paper-based but also be to electronic media such as web sites and blogs.

Planning & Scheduling

Planning and scheduling are at the core of this methodology. Without them there is likely to be chaos for all but the very smallest projects. Every aspect of the project should be planned and then scheduled. Please note that you don't have to do all of this planning up-front. The point of the iterative approach is that the plans, schedules and actual product can evolve side-by-side.

Testing

There is a very appropriate quote I once heard. It goes something like "computer software need reviews for the same reason that pencils need erasers". The point is that without testing, the quality of your product will not optimal. In fact, the quality may not even be determined!

Have you ever written a piece, given it a quick once-over, got a friend to read and check it, then submitted it for publication? Well, at least you did some testing. In this methodology, we often take testing to extremes. We test everything that we can possibly test, which leaves almost nothing out.

In fact, we can write the tests before we write the documents. More on this in later sections, but suffice to say for now that the methodology is a highly test-driven one.

Scribecraft - Part 1: Getting Organised

2008-04-02T21:38:00.001+01:00

Introduction

Welcome to Scribecraft, a series of articles concerning methodology for writers. I'll be posting these on my blog as I produce them and I hope to make it a contributory and interactive ^* experience, rather than a solo preaching effort. So, I hope you'll read this but more importantly, I hope you'll take part. You don't have to write any articles but all feedback and discussion will be greatly appreciated.

Why am I doing this? Simple really: I'm currently far too disorganised about my writing and, as I gather from your blogs, so are a number of others. I've decided to do something about it and I thought, why not document it as I go along. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

* Interactive as far as is possible with this media.

Background

Let me begin with a story about software development. What's this got to do with writing? I hear you ask. In good time, all will be revealed.

In the days before software development methodology became popular, the art of computer programming could be a very hit-and-miss affair. Code was only written and debugged by experts and it was often a black art rather than a science. Typical problems would be along the lines of:

The software quality was varied and often unreliable.
Faults were complicated and difficult to remedy. Complete re-designs and re-thinks were not considered unusual.
Estimating time to completion for projects was tremendously difficult and often totally inaccurate.
Work was disorganised. Some feature were accidentally omitted, some faults were forgotten to be fixed, mistakes were repeated, user-interface style and effectiveness were often inconsistent at best.
Motivation would be good to begin with but rapidly nose-dived.
Projects were sometimes cancelled altogether, for one or more of the reasons above.

Does any of this sound familiar? Try substituting a few words in the above list. For example, instead of "software" read "my writing"; for "user-interface style" substitute "reader interest". If this is now ringing some bells, then this series may be useful to you. This is exactly the conclusion I came to when I decided to produce it.

These days, software development is much more organised and scientific. In a previous job I worked with some of the methodologies that helped to achieve more consistent and better results. When I started writing, my work was very ad-hoc and disorganised. I therefore decided to apply what I'd learned in the software world, to my writing at home.

I really don't know if this will work. Some things will translate directly and easily but I suspect that some of the writing disciplines won't have an analogy from the software arena. Nevertheless I intend to give it a try and see what happens.

Preview

Here is what the rest of the series is probably going to look like...

Overview
Planning & Scheduling
Issues & Testing
Requirements
Specification & Design
Implementation
Building
Deployment
Summary

Be aware though. Plans can change, as we'll see in later articles, so the above list is by no means set into concrete. This can be your show as much as mine.

It's Just A Point Of View

2008-03-27T10:05:00.006Z

Over the last few months I've been pondering over points of view. There have been a few discussions about this on various blogs too. This is probably quite a complex and possibly subjective topic but one phrase I keep hearing goes along the lines of:

"I was confused by the change in POV..."

This usually happens with a change of scene. For example, moving from an indoor scene to something that is happening at about the same time outside the house.

It's clear to me that you must change POV if you change to a new scene where the character with the current POV is not present. So, how do you effectively achieve a scene change and POV change without confusing the reader?

Coffee Shops

2008-03-05T11:46:00.001Z

Writers block? Facing a blank screen with no ideas flowing? Why not visit one of your local coffee shops?
Don't worry, this isn't an advert and I'm certainly not getting any commission. I'm simply recommending a change of scene. It works wonders for me. It's even better when you meet a friend there and chat about joint writing projects.

Ideally you want one that sells good coffee (assuming you like good coffee), is not too noisy nor busy and has plenty of tables and chairs. I had an ideal coffee shop near where I live. It was even inside a bookshop! Unfortunately it is no more. Costa decided to pull out of Waterstone's and concentrate their efforts on the smaller, noisier, more cramped one further down the high street.

Where are your favourite coffee shops or alternative writing and thinking places?

Free Gold

2008-02-28T15:28:00.009Z

How can this be true?

The answer is, of course, it can't be true. The diagram below shows why. It's not to scale, the gap is exaggerated but believe me there is a gap. No prizes for thinking the gap is exactly 1cc.

A Milestone

2008-02-21T16:43:00.006Z

I feel a sense of achievement today. I've finally reached a milestone in one of my writing projects. The first draft of The Wild One's Hideout is now complete, weighing in at a little under 17,000 words. I've no idea what to call a piece of this length. A long-short? A novella or novelette or perhaps?

Of course, the project is not over yet. There's still plenty of editing to do. For now though, I can take a break from it and concentrate on some of my other works.

Gonna B, if you're reading, this was the project I mentioned in my comment on your Finding Treasure blog post. The one I started when I found some hand-written pages from some time back in the eighties.

There is still plenty to do though. Including works I'm editing, there are still five active projects plus two in the pipeline. Oh yeah, and the methodology series (watch this space...). I must not start any new ones!

Proposal: A Writing Methodology Series

2008-02-13T11:54:00.012Z

(or That Writing Timetable Thingy I was going to do)

For some time now I've been fermenting some ideas for a writing methodology. This has been fuelled more recently by frustrations with the lack of discipline I'm experiencing with my writing. If you feel you might be in the same boat, then please read on...

I got to thinking, why is the discipline missing from this aspect of my life when I'm quite well-organised about other things? I came up with the following answers, none of which are complete but all of which contribute to the issue.

There are too many unknowns. For example: How long is a particular piece going to take? How much research should I do? How much time a week should I spend on it?
Rightly or wrongly, the writing often takes a lower priority than other activities in my life.
I'm too easily distracted.
I'm working on too many projects concurrently. This means that some of them are, in truth, being neglected.

So now I think it's time to do something about it. What I'm proposing to do is to devise a writing methodology and to present it here on this blog. It's not a trivial undertaking and so I am asking for your help. You don't have to do any writing up and posting of the material but your feedback will be essential.

What do you think? A good idea, or just another distraction?

Sample Chapter from The Bridge Across Forever

2008-02-12T16:07:00.001Z

There is now a new sample chapter from The Bridge Across Forever available.

Cilicia

It includes the excerpt that was posted as The Geography Class on the Cloud Line blog.

Meme: Five Ways I Raise My Vibrations

2008-02-09T10:41:00.000Z

Sit on top of the washing machine... No, just kidding.

Go out for a run. It clears the mind and then lets it roam free. I've solved a number of writing issues that way, including writer's block, plot errors and, of course, writer's bottom.
The smell of freshly ground coffee or, better still, roasting coffee. A bit of a cliché perhaps, but it's such a nice smell.
Listening to progressive rock. In particular, anything by Spock's Beard or Transatlantic.
Riding roller-coasters. Particularly the really insane ones like Nemesis.
The sight of dilated pupils just before... Well... You know.

Thanks to Gonna B for the tag. I now tag Mother X.
I'll try to do a "proper" posting next time...

Meme: Six Things About Me

2008-01-31T14:31:00.000Z

Right, I've been tagged for this meme by more than one person, so here we go...

When I write certain letters and numbers, I do them the "other way round" to most people. For example, to write the number '9' I start at the bottom and do an anti-clockwise loop. For the letter 'S' I also start at the bottom and finish at the top.
I like fruit flavoured yoghurt but I dislike plain or "natural" yoghurt.
I can state the value of pi to twenty decimal places, from memory. Also, I've memorised several other mathematical constants, though not to the same accuracy. I know all the powers of two up to 65,536 off by heart.
I once did a 30 m bungee jump for charity. I've even got the video to prove it.
Since February 2007, I've written over 93,000 words. Probably enough for a novel. It's just a pity those words are divided between eight different projects.
Also since February 2007, I've lost 17 kg in weight. This was mostly achieved by running over 650 km.

I'm not going to tag anyone else, since you've all probably done this anyway.

Prime

2008-01-21T10:59:00.000Z

Today I come into my prime. Well, 43 is a prime number anyway. The 43rd element in the periodic table is technetium. How appropriate is that? Having said that, it does have an unstable nature! One of my favourite albums, The Dark Side Of The Moon, is exactly 43 minutes long.

Searching on "43" on the internet revealed a useful page about web design. Fin, you might be able to use some of the advice given there (e.g. #27).

Right, that's enough rambling. Time to o.d. on coffee...

Word-o-Meter

2008-01-20T23:33:00.002Z

Sorry for the technically oriented post but a number of people have asked me how to use my word meters. Hopefully this article will explain all. I'll try to get back to writing related things next time. A good way to understand things is by example. So, here goes...

Suppose you have three stories you're working on, and that their word counts are as follows:

Story Title	Current Word Count	Expected Final Count
My Favourite Horse	16,231	30,000
The Long Walk Home	10,388	25,000
Hide & Seek	9,654	15,000

The goal is to create a table containing the three word meters. Such as in the following example.

Works In Progress

To do this you'll need to follow the instructions given below.

Sign into blogger and go to your blog page.
Click "customise" near the top-right.
Go to the "add and arrange page elements" tab (if you're not already there).
Choose a position and click one of the "add a page element" items. A window should pop-up saying "choose a new page element"
Go to the one that says "HTML/JavaScript" and click the "add to blog" button.
Give your word meter a title and then paste the following text into the main box (after adapting the green parts with your own title and word values...

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.kevinmachin.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Scripts/cb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript">  </script>
Click the "save changes" button.
Click the "save" button near the top-right.
Click "view blog".

Hopefully that should work. To update the meters, just edit the page element and change the numbers in the script.

API Manual

Non-techies can skip this part but it may be of interest to anyone who wants to 'tweak' their meters.

The following meter related functions are available from cb.js...

CbMeterSetSize (iWidth, iHeight, iStep, b3D)

Sets the dimensions and style of the meters. Dimensions iWidth and iHeight are in pixels. Use the value zero for defaults, so for example MeterSetSize (0, 20) would leave the width as default but set the height to 20 pixels. Set b3D to 1 for three-dimensional look (pretty but slow rendering), or zero for flat look. iStep is the number of pixels per 'block' in the 3D look.

CbMeterStart (psTitles, psCount, psMax, psMeter)

Start a new meter table and set the headings.

CbMeterRow (psTitle, iCount, iMax)

Produce a meter bar with a percentage value. psTitle is the story title. iCount is the current value and iMax is the maximum expected value (for 100%).

CbMeterEnd ()

End a meter table.

Queen's Larder

2008-01-18T19:19:00.000Z

I went to the Queen's Larder today to check it out. Click here for details...

Meme (coz it's all me me :o)

2008-01-18T17:39:00.001Z

What's the last thing you wrote?	Apart from this blog posting, a short story, just under 1,900 words.
Was it any good?	I like to think so. My five reviewers all said they liked it (and gave useful feedback too).
What's the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?	Some poems, circa 1982.
Write poetry?	See above. I've also written a few last year.
Favourite genre of writing?	I like mixed genre stories involving thriller, crime, adventure and sci-fi elements. Ah heck, why not throw in some romance as well?
Most fun character you ever wrote?	A very dark and disturbed bomber in Blood On The Rooftops. They're not much fun but it was fun to write.
Most annoying character you ever wrote?	Richard Michaelson in Fugue In D Minus. He's too straight-laced and he likes statistics!
Best plot you ever wrote?	Not sure but probably the one for Blood On The Rooftops.
Coolest plot twist you ever wrote?	I quite like the one in my recent short story but I still have lots in the pipeline.
How often do you get Writers block?	Not often but I very frequently get writers cramp (slowing down). Oh and writers bottom.
Write fan fiction?	Yes. Working on some now with a friend. Novel length!
Do you type or write by hand?	Type. Can't even read my own handwriting.
Do you save everything you write?	Yes. And back it up. Hard drives can fail you know. If I've made you nervous then back up your work right now!
Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?	Certainly. The Wild One's Hideout was started (on paper - didn't have a computer then) back in the 80s.
What's your favourite thing that you've written?	So far I'd have to say The Bridge Across Forever.
What's everyone else's favourite thing that you've written?	You'll have to ask them that. Fugue In D Minus is not that well written (imho) but some people has said they liked the plot.
Do you even show people your work?	Some of my work but by no means all of it.
Did you ever write a novel?	Two in progress at the moment, plus one on the back-burner.
Ever written romance or teen angsty drama?	No, though there are smatterings of romance in some of my stories.
How many writing projects are you working on right now?	Four. Two novels and two shorts.
Do you want to write for a living?	Not seriously, no. I would like to get published but I'm under no illusions. I need a job besides writing.
Have you ever won an award for your writing?	No.
Ever written something in script or play format?	No. Wouldn't mind trying though. Perhaps one day.
Do you ever write based on yourself?	That would be telling. Show don't tell, remember?
What character that you've written most resembles yourself?	See above.
Do you ever write based on your dreams?	No, but I find myself writing about my characters' dreams.
Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?	I like all three. Depends on the piece and whether there is going to be a sequel or not.
Have you ever written based on an artwork you've seen?	No. If I were to do that, it would probably be something weird like Salvador Dali.
Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?	Nah. Just get the story down and then check it later.
Ever write something entirely in chatspeak? (How r u?)	Only on my phone. Or when taking the piss.
Entirely in L337?	Never. I get called geek often enough without that.
Was that question completely appalling and un-writer like?	I wouldn't know.
Does music help you write?	Depends on choice but it can help or distract according to volume, complexity, familiarity etc.
Quote something you've written. The first thing to pop into your mind.	"Looking around I noticed that the weather was still perfect. No sign of any thunderstorm."

Thanks to GonnaB for that. I now tag Mercedes...

Jobs Involving Writing?

2008-01-08T17:27:00.001Z

As some of you may know, I'm currently out of work and looking a new job or career. I used to be in IT and was involved with many of it's disciplines including software design and programming, training, standards and methodologies. Before that I was a physicist.

Now I'm considering a career change, though I'm not ruling out IT, and one of my ideas is to get a job that involves writing. A large part of my focus last year was on my fiction writing and I have to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying that.

So, dear reader, what are your thoughts on jobs and careers that involve large amounts of writing? Is this a good idea for me to pursue, or would I be running the risk of spoiling my hobby? I would hate to lose the enjoyment of writing but it might be a way to improve my skills and find a job at the same time.

Call for Plot Giveaways

2008-01-04T16:41:00.000Z

A Happy New Year to all my blog visitors. I thought I'd kick off 2008 with a seemingly strange request. I'm looking for lots of examples of plot giveaways in literature, film or TV. I want to use these giveaways, after suitable adaption, in a piece I'm going to write this year.

I know this sounds weird but there is method in my madness, so please send me lots of examples! All genres will be suitable and the examples could even be deliberate giveaways, e.g. for comedy purposes. Any contributors whose material gets used in my piece will be rewarded with a signed copy of the work, once it has been published (you may wish to remember to breath in the mean time).

I'll start the ball rolling with one I found: In Die Hard 2, some of the 'good guys' are really bad guys and they only pretend to shoot the terrorists. The giveaway is the fact that their ammunition clips are colour-coded with adhesive tape. Blue for 'safe' blanks and red for live ammo.

Please keep em coming...

A Not So Short Story

2007-12-18T21:47:00.001Z

The Path to Nowhere

...Or so I once thought. After some pondering, and some useful feedback from the members of Amateur Fiction Writing on facebook, I realised that the story lacked a proper ending. In fact, it was only really a beginning...

Now, some six months later, I've written 11 chapters out of an estimated 23. The word count is 22,461 out of an estimated 47,000.

So today I decided that it's no longer to be categorised as a short story, but as a novel. That's right, I'm officially writing another novel. Gulp.

The Writing Lifecycle?

2007-12-18T18:17:00.000Z

I've been wondering about what the various stages and disciplines are, when writing a piece of fiction. Different writers seem to call these things by different names, which can sometimes be confusing for a wannabe like myself. Are there any definitions of the stages, I wonder? Terms I've encountered are:

(First, second...) draft. What exactly constitutes a draft?
Editing. When to stop and attempt to publish (or otherwise release in some manner)?
(First, second...) rewrite. What is a rewrite as opposed to an edit? Is there a difference?
(First, second...) complete partial. Surely illogical. How can something be complete if it's partial?

For example, during the editing process, how long does a piece remain a draft, and when does it become something more? Any ideas or experience with this? Ideally, drawing an analogy with my previous experience of software writing, I'm looking for definitions (however rough) of the writing lifecycle. Perhaps I'm trying to be too analytical, but that's my nature I'm afraid. Answers on a flowchart or a piece of graph paper...

Music About Writing

2007-12-15T12:45:00.000Z

I thought it might be fun to start compiling a list of songs or musical pieces that relate to writers and writing. I'll start the ball rolling and others can contribute when they feel like it. If it takes off, I'll keep a list here on Cloudbase. So, in no particular order...

Genesis: Behind the Lines
Beatles: Paperback Writer
Dire Straits: Lady Writer

Plus, if we are allowed to include songs relating to particular pieces of writing...

Sinead O'Connor: Troy
Dire Straits: Romeo & Juliet

Not only that, but for some utter cheating here are some song titles I've nicked for my own fiction...

Genesis: Blood on the Rooftops
Transatlantic: Bridge Across Forever
JS Bach: (Toccata and) Fugue in D Minor [okay, well almost]

I Can Use That

2007-12-13T18:01:00.000Z

(or: If you can't write what you know, write what you imagine)

Ever since I decided to try my hand at this fiction writing malarkey, I've found myself using a particular phrase more and more. Sometimes even out loud. It's the phrase "I can use that".

Holiday

Walking through the lava fields on the island of Lanzarote, I was taking the time to tread carefully. The rocks have eerie, twisted formations and are razor sharp in places. I imagined what it would be like in a time when the rocks were softer and still forming. The heat must have been tremendous. A walker in that time would also have to be very careful. Not to avoid getting cut, but to avoid breaking the thin crust and plunging into the molten lava below. I can use that, I thought.

A bike ride to one of Lanzarote's few sandy beaches - most of them are rocky - also involved a very pleasant swim in the warm surf. It was here that I experienced the occasional annoyance of getting the salty water in my eyes, nose and mouth. I imagined what it would be like in the days when the volcanoes were still active. A swimmer would have additional problems of scalding water, made acidic by the sulphurous gases bubbling up from below. I can use that, I thought.

These imagined challenges are exactly what a time-travelling adventurer might face when exploring pre-historic Earth. I have used that in The Wild One's Hideout.

Illness

Some time ago when I was ill with a stomach bug for a couple of days, I found myself using that phrase. In fact, I did use the experience in The Bridge Across Forever, where a number of the characters suffer various illnesses.

Bitten by the Bug

so what does all this mean? I think it means that I can't stop thinking about my writing, no matter what I do and what happens to me. I hope this is a good thing. Now, some of my writing calls for romantic parts. Perhaps one day I'll be able to say: I can use that, but until then I'm making do with reading about it (sound of sad, slow violins). I've put my pre-xmas order in for some chick-lit novels, but in the mean time I'm open to advice about how to write realistic romance.

Back from the Land of Totty

2007-12-10T12:14:00.000Z

Phew, that was quite possibly the most exhausting holiday I've ever had. I ran a total of 70km, swam 15km, rode god-knows-how-far on a mountain bike. That's not to mention the kayaking and windsurfing. Pity I had to leave half way through International Aerobics Week though. Now I need a holiday! Somehow I managed to lose 2kg in weight, despite all the good food and beer I drank (no I didn't amputate my bad ankle). I can thoroughly recommend the resort if you are even in the least bit sporty. See the Club La Santa website for details. Right. Now it's back to job-hunting and writing. Oh yeah, and the dreaded Christmas shopping.

From Marigold Foot to a Blown-up Island

2007-11-21T10:47:00.000Z

Captain's blog. Stardate 2111.7 Last week I was housebound for a large amount of the time. This was due to an unexplained swelling of my right ankle, which got so painful that even getting from the lounge to the kitchen was a major expedition, taking up to a full five minutes to cover the mere ten metres involved in the journey. This has happened to me in the past but never quite this bad, and never for such a long period of time. The GP was about as much use as a one-legged man in an arse-kicking contest. On Monday, my foot looked like a washing-up glove that had been over inflated everywhere except the fingers (or toes in this case). Today I'm happy to say that my foot has deflated (hope it wasn't a puncture) and I'm walking about again, preparing things for my eighteen day holiday in Lanzarote. This means I'll be taking a break from writing and related things while I sip a few cold ones by the pool. Having said that, I'm sure my friends will soon get fed up with me muttering things like 'I can use that' during our conversations. I hope to come back refreshed, recharged and ready to steam ahead with my works-in-progress. That is, if I'll be able to remember what I was writing about. In the mean time, good luck with all your writing and with everything else.

Squidgy Bits

2007-11-20T11:24:00.000Z

This came up on Sunday's Wannabe chat. Yes, you know. The... naughty bits. Sex. There, I've said it. So how do you go about writing the more steamy bits in your story? Do you even need to? Perhaps the story can function perfectly well without the sex scene and you can just imply that it took place rather than describe it in graphic detail. I'm sure that's often true, but occasionally the sex scene will have to stay in. For example, with the Nexus story that a friend and I are working on, the plot calls for such a scene, albeit a relatively very mild one. Sex is used as a form of attempted coercion, you see, so I can't completely leave it out. So how to go about it? Answers in the chat room varied from "I just shut the bedroom door and let them get on with it" to "I get them undressed and the cut straight to the post-coital cigarette". Nobody admitted "I describe the whole thing in anatomical detail", which is probably a good thing. We're writing a piece of modern fiction, not pornography (well, I'm not anyway). Neither are we writing a medical textbook. Hang on a minute. Why are we getting in such a twist about this? Perhaps it's a repressed Brit thing? Why not treat it like any other part of the writing? Why not just apply the same rules? I decided that this was exactly the thing to do...

Writing

Just tell the story: Like Stephen King suggests in "On Writing", for the first cut just get on with the business of telling the story. Graphic details and all, if necessary, but get the main important aspects down in writing.
Use five senses: Or as many as is appropriate in the descriptive parts. Yes, really describe the whole event. You are going to edit it later remember, so no need to be bashful at this stage.
Realistic dialogue: Make the conversations natural and real. People do not say things like "Oh, give me your manhood" in real life. Don't leave out the giggling either.
Research: I'll leave that one for you to work out ;oP

Editing

Pace: Look at the pacing of the thing. Speed it up, where necessary. For example, cut out those unnecessary words. Do you really need to say "deliciously" so many times?
Clichés: Get rid of them! The reader will just groan. Probably out loud. Not for that reason.
Show don't tell: Do you know where the biggest sex organ in the body is? Wrong! Go north. It's your brain. This is probably, for me, the most important rule. I prefer to edit things down quite a lot here, so that I end up with just enough for the important plot drivers to remain and leave nearly all of the rest of the details to the reader's imagination. What you are left with will hopefully be more realistic and believable, because it was derived from a realistic longer and fuller version.

It'll be interesting to hear your comments on this. Sally Quilford has lots of useful tips in her blog about this subject. See Ask Sally #25.

Estimating Final Word Counts

2007-11-14T00:44:00.000Z

How do you go about estimating the final length of a work-in-progress? My early thoughts were to simply set an arbitrary target figure. Say around 20,000 words for a short story, 40,000 for a novella and 80,000 for a novel. For a while this seemed to be a reasonable thing to do. It wasn't long before I realised that this wasn't working as well as it could. For one thing, the lengths changed quite a bit as I evolved the plots. Sometimes adding complexity and therefore length, and sometimes simplifying things and reducing the length. One of my short stories, The Wild One's Hideout, seems to have stabilised in terms of it's overall length. I suspect that this is because the plot is now fairly fixed and I just have to simply get on with writing the material. On the other hand, The Bridge Across Forever started out as a short story and is now looking like it's more likely to be novella length. Who knows, I might even end up with enough of a story for a full novel. So what to do about these changing lengths? Well, as Blackadder would say, I have a cunning plan...

Take the number of chapters you have actually started, i.e. greater than zero words written.
Work out the average number of words per chapter (arithmetic mean, i.e. add up total words written and divide by the number of started chapters).
Multiply this figure by the number of expected chapters.
Round up to the nearest 1,000 words. Just for good measure.

This is the formula I'm now using and it seems reasonable so far. Of course, I can all ready see some potential problems:

Chapter lengths can vary, making the average an unreliable estimator.
In fact I often toy with where to put the chapter breaks, so this can throw things off as well.
Partially completed chapters add inaccuracy.
Estimating the final number of chapters can be a bit ad-hoc to say the least.

So how do all you other writers come up with your estimates? I'd love to hear from you. Right! Must stop fiddling with formulae and coloured word-o-meters and actually write something.

Bring Back the Vowel, I Say!

2007-11-06T16:36:00.000Z

I think the problem may have started with Kwik Save - anyone remember those shops? - and other such deliberate misspellings. Are we now on a downward spiral toward illiteracy? Next came the CamelWords. You know, those words that are AllJoinedTogetherWithMixedCase. I blame the IT industry for that one (I'm certainly guilty of some of that myself). Mobile phones have all but eradicated the use of the vowel now. What I don't understand is why this is still the case? With predictive texting capabilities, and let's face it only the most ancient phones can't do this - there is no need to use the abbreviations! Finally, the biggest culprit of all: The internet. omg lol rofl... afaik thrs no nd 2 wrt lk ths. Ur kool & gr8 2 yr m8s bt imho a w8st'v tm. If the above 'sentence' slowed you down, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's got to be something wrong with deliberately choosing to mutate the English language in this way. Or am I just a snob?

In the Pipeline

2007-11-05T22:29:00.000Z

Something tells me I might be biting off a little bit more than I can chew. I'm now working on no less than four concurrent writing projects. Five if you count the stalled novel, though something that has stalled can hardly be truthfully called concurrent. Anyway, they go something like this...

The Bridge Across Forever

Three interwoven stories that eventually meet. Set in the recent past, the present and the future. Currently at 16,200 words. I estimate it will end up somewhere in the region of 30,000. If you've read The Path To Nowhere on my web site, then you've already read the first chapter.

Blood On The Rooftops

Fairly straightforward thriller about a hunt for a terrorist bomber. Has a twist though. Currently at 10,400 words and estimated to end up around 25,000.

The Wild One's Hideout

A weird science fiction and adventure story. Also has a twist. Currently at 9,700 words and expected to end up at about 15,000.

[Untitled as yet]

A co-writing project with a friend. A story set in the near future world described as the backdrop to the Nexus series of live action role playing games (www.n-e-x-u-s.org). Storyboarded but nothing much written yet.

Cloud Base

It's That Time Again

Happy Xmas and Merry New Year!

Raw Material

Suspicious Behaviour

Excerpt from "ATM", Seeing Sharp

Excerpt from "The Orphanage", Seeing Sharp

All I Want for Christmas

Bah Humbug!

Suspicious Behaviour

Sally Forty-Eight

Season's Greetings

Happy Xmas and Merry New Year!

Time to Wake Up!

Putting the Children to Bed

Missing Men

WaW Meeting #5?

Seeing Red

Thank You All

The Publishing Life Cycle

Off to the Canaries

Has it Really Been Two Years?

Blog Tour Guest Visitor: Cally Taylor

Further Adventures in the Highlands

Practising What I Preach

Back from Canada

Off to Canada

Game Over

Yo Comments 'bout wh@c

The Future

This Blog

A Big Thank-you

Stories Within Stories

Captain's Computer Tips

On Holiday

How Not to Embed

The Finishers!

void citizensAdvice (void)

Better Now

Last Call for WaW 4

HTML

Progress

Novel Racers Meeting #3

Cloud Line

Computer Disasters

Colworth Marathon Challenge

From Racing to Racers

I don't often lose it, but...

Fifteen Books

Fourth Wannabe Meeting

Back Story

Printers

Milestones

First Draft of Insight Completed

End of Day Zero

Other Stuff

Reading & Writing

What do you Read and Write?

Thank You Readers

Fourth Wannabe Meeting

When the Time is Right

So What Do You Do?

Who's Who Scam!

I Wish It Did That

Two Memes

Fourth Folder, Fourth Photo

Twenty Five Things About Me

101100

Being Submissive

Prezzies

Keeping Up

Scotland

Plans for 2009

Asteroid Plans

Early Spring Cleaning

Achievements 2008

Goals for 2009

Down Time

Finally

All I Want for Christmas is...