Done

32,577 words. The first draft of Inner Voice is done!

The last thousand words or so turned out to be only 668 needed words and an additional 120 or so words to the preceeding chapter. A lot of angst over bugger all in the end - ah, doesn't that sound nice? I think I'll say it again...The End!

I'd present the bean about now but he's already pissed off to the pub without me and taken my car so I'll guess I'll have to stay home and do the dance:

Not this one (Evan Almighty) (no embedding for this one)

This one:

Did I Say Short

The story continues to evolve as I work on this short for the Blood and Iron Anthology. I have gone from a little complex story with a hopeful word count of under 5K to something only half told and currently weighs in at 6400!

I have five scenes (so far) and only two of them are around 1000 words. The others are action scenes and pay the price arriving on the page at the normal length I would use for a chapter.

This is getting ridiculous.

I still haven't done any more on Inner Voices.

And to top things off - I wrote a totally separate flash piece as well which I'm currently sitting on trying to figure out what to do with it. The inspiration came from the CafeDoom weekly challenge Pharo sometimes competes in and I used to have a bash at at the start of this year. I had a quick look at what had been posted so far and had an idea of my own. Now I don't know if I want to put it up there, here, save it for 52 Stitches 2010, or submit it to market this year. Of course, it could be total tripe as well...and it's only 349 words in length!

So today, I've managed 4000 words...and not moved Inner Voices forward by a single letter :c(

I must find time this weekend to finish Nathan's story and work on this monster I'm creating, and get some reading done. And earlier this week I was writing about not having a plethora of ideas. I'm not complaining, not really, Mr and Mrs Writing Gods.

WIP Wednesday...On A Thursday

After four posts yesterday, and for some reason thinking it was actually Tuesday, I ended up not posting my progress for the week.

I managed three writing sessions this week which is pretty good for me. Last Friday I knocked out a little over 3K, and then on the real Tuesday night, I did another 1500 or so, and yesterday I managed a whopping 2742 words! The problem is yesterday's efforts had nothing to do with Nathan Steele or Inner Voice.

I don't know why, but during a slow period at work, I decided to browse through the anthologies listed on Duotrope. I'm guessing it's because of my recently reading KC Shaw's Jack of all Trades but I was attracted to a fantasy antho - Through Blood & Iron. I don't know why I do these things to myself. The deadline is October 1st! I have one week to write, edit, polish and submit - I ask again: why?

On top of that, I was aiming for something around 5K. I'm over half that already and will struggle to rein it in. I have three plot points which could be expanded out quite significantly. Two major characters have been introduced and two of four antags have made an appearance (plus two red herrings who were necessary just to put things in motion). Things are about to ramp up significantly. At the very worse, I'm hoping to pull this in at under 7500 words.

But, seriously, how stupid am I? I have a couple of thousand words left to finish Inner Voice first draft. I have a week long, fairly intensive course to attend every work day next week. I want to begin work on my self made writing resources bible. I have two books I need to read and review in the not too distant future.

So what do I do? I begin another story, with an extremely tight deadline, and introduce a complex plot.

Why?

Oh, my progress for the week in regards to Inner Voice. The total is an additional 4591 words for a current grand total of:

Still, 7333 words for the week over all is pretty good. The next seven days should be interesting...

Progress

Four posts in one day, must be something in the water.

A good night tonight. I've been researching my second to last chapter as my female lead steps into the spotlight for a moment to show off her musical talents. A shout out to Talie for pointing me in the right direction. I've listened to a lot of good music tonight.

Anyway, I managed to add nearly another 1500 words tonight so it's been good night. This week I'm fast approaching the 5k mark with only another 1500 or so to go till the first draft is done. My subplot characters have just stepped up to the plate but I'm not happy with how they want it played out. I may have to tweak things a little to put at least one of them back in his place.

Either way, this first draft should be done by next weeks WIP update if not before. Woot! I can't lie, I'm looking forward to knocking this one off and having a break with something different, but it's getting late and I need to be up early.

A good night's work. I'm happy.

WIP Wednesday

Another day of veging out as far as the reading and writing goes - not good. September's only 9 days old so there's plenty of time for me to turn it around. I haven't even updated the markets at AHWA yet this month - sick person still recovering here.

As far as the week that was in regards to Inner Voices, which I'm considering changing to Inner Voice - as it sounds less dramatic and less like a horror title. Opinions appreciated...

With the arrival of the subplot, I went back and reread the first 5 chapters where my character, who will become the saviour in the new subplot, dwelt in anonymity. I needed to see how much of him I actually revealed originally (not much), and what I can do to shape him into what I need.

Then I kind of got caught up in doing edits here and there and then just kept going and ended up doing little edits on the first 11 chapters. Chapter 12 and 13 are a little too fresh for me to be worrying about them now.

This was in no way the serious edits I intend to do once the first draft is finished, so don't think I managed to get through 11 chapters because they're all so great (although they're not bad - in my totally unbiased opinion). Seriously, there is way too much dialogue at the moment. The dialogue is needed, but I need to insert more descriptive narrative to break things up and create a greater overall picture - see, lots of work for me to do on the rewrite revision stage.

Sorry - tangent.

Back to the writing managed over the last week. Cue the bean...

An additional 3926 words were added, with 339 of them being due to the little edits of the first 11 chapters (told you they were little - lots of work still to come in the rewrite revision).

When added to the overall total, I now stand at -

Going Round Again

We're all at different stages of being sick again in my house.

The little one has never really gotten over her cold from weeks ago. The lad is just about over a bout of tonsillitis. The better half has been crook-as-a-dog for the past week and is slowly coming out of it thanks to antibiotics, and now I'm starting to come down with something. It's a never ending bloody cycle!

I'll be glad when winter is gone and I can bake in 35C+ heat. I love summer!

On the writing front: as many of you alluded to (are you all writers or something?), I have had a plot twist/subplot smack me in the head. I was driving down to watch the lad play footy on the weekend and a thought occurred to me. It will require making a minor character's role a little bigger, and probably give me an extra chapter between the big climax and the resolution - one of those 'so now he thinks he's safe, we'll throw the minor loose end at him to pump up the adrenaline one last time' - but the difference here will be the unexpected resolution of that loose end - which, of course, will allow for further expansion of another character in the next book.

I've got a bit of writing done this week (a little over 3.6k at this point, final count sometime tomorrow in the WIP report), but gaming has side tracked me somewhat. For those of you who need to know, Australia won the second test at Lord's by an innings and 20-odd runs for a 2-0 series lead. At the end of the first session on day one in the third test (after being sent in to bat) Australia are 1-477 (good decision Strauss - not). Yes, I think I've sorted out this game and need to bump up the difficulty level but it is fun hitting Broad all around the ground...moving on.

I need to set aside some time to read. I'm finding the motivation a little hard at the moment because my current book for review is in PDF format. As e-readers are not plentiful within Australia, I'm stuck with reading on the laptop. Not a pleasant duty and with everyone sick at the moment, I'm lacking sleep. Reading off a screen has an almost ironclad guarantee to make me doze. Don't worry, Joan. I promised I'd have it read and reviewed during September, and so I shall.

Best part about work at the moment is the slight slowing down. Unfortunately everyone but me seems to be on holidays or attending conferences, or interstate for one reason or another, but this week is one of taking a breath before getting stuck into my major projects - which means I can get a little bit of writing done. Writing at work leaves more time for gaming at home...reading, I meant reading at home. ;c)

That's enough of an update from me at the moment. This blog is pretty much doubling as my journal at the moment, cataloguing my journey as a writer and not giving out a lot in the way of advice or tips. I haven't done a link salad in, like, forever. But this too will change. When I've finished the first draft of Inner Voices (IV), I will begin bringing together all the advice I was given while working with Gill Ainsworth of Apex fame. I will also be pulling out all the tucked away advice from my hero Pharo. The plan is to let IV (how's that for a cool shortening of a book title?) sit while I learn the technical bits behind writing that I've only got a loose grasp on at the moment. I intend to post the lessons and tips as I go, so we'll get back more towards the help in writing I was once more known for (by my hundreds of adoring fans).

Oh, one last thing, I've updated the links in my sidebar to show all the writer's blogs I frequent. Blogger has allowed me to easily import everything from my Google Reader which was nice - so go have a look at the names of the writers I read the blogs of, and if you're one of them, some reciprocated blog linkage love would be appreciated. Of course, if you're not listed and would like to swap links, I'm happy to sort that out as well - just drop me an email or leave a comment.

Peace Out (I don't know why I had a sudden urge to write that - sorry)

Can't Sleep

In the famous words of Robin Williams - it's oh two thirty in the morning. What's the oh stand for? Oh my God it's early!

Yes, it's 0233 here and my mind is running off on fuzzy and weird tangents when all I want it to do is shut down so I can go to sleep.

As it became obvious this wasn't going to happen, I got up and fired up the laptop (note to self: in the middle of winter, when you decide to work at stupid hours, put some pants on - my legs are bloody freezing!)

So, I went back and revisited my, you beaut big climax scene which I think is too short because it's missing the beginning third.

Some good news - the title of the first book came to me. One day you will all hopefully be able to purchase a copy of 'Inner Voices', Book one of the Nathan Steele series. (you'll have to imagine the trumpets and doves, voluptuous women gesticulating gently at the unfurling banner over head - you know, nothing too over the top)

More good news would be that I stopped obsessing over the length of the chapter and just finished writing it.

Bad news is, it currently sits as the second shortest chapter I've written, the first being...the first chapter. A fast start and a fast finish? Maybe...maybe I just need to let them sit and come back later with fresh eyes.

Which leads us nicely to some more good news...I'll be letting it sit where it is and come back to it later with fresh eyes...couldn't see that one coming could you? Oh, you did... :c(

Well, that's enough from me and it's good night from him, so because it's technically Sunday here, and therefore Father's Day in Australia, and I'm going to be tired and not feel like looking at a computer screen at all tomorrow, Happy Father's day to everyone out there.

Time for bed...

A Good Day

Today has been a good day for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I added a touch over 2000 words to the current WIP - excellent! Except I've struck a strange obstacle. I've written, what seems to me, to be the middle third of a chapter first. I know what comes after, but the first bit is eluding me unless I want a chapter that is around half the size of all the others.

I know it comes down to just write the story, don't pad, and all that, but this is the major climax - and it all seems to be happening too fast! I've slowly increased the pace until the point where our hero has had the crap beaten out of him and he's just about to find himself in the firing line between the good guys and the arch nemesis, and then has to use his own cunning to defeat the bad guy, save himself, and the day, but I've arrived too quick! I've gotten caught up in the action and rattled it off. (please, no male jokes this time - I'm feeling sensitive and vulnerable).

So before I get him out of the pickle, I've let things cool down. I'll go back to it after a nights sleep and see where I can heighten the tension, make the beating a little more vivid, pack in the punches - so to speak.

Another reason it's been a good day is because Jack of all Trades by the wonderful K.C. Shaw arrived in my mailbox! The only downer to this is the pile-up of books which sit in front of it before I can read it. My 10 year old daughter is also eyeing it off (It would be okay for her to read, wouldn't it, KC? Hanging around with dark fiction writers makes me ask first...)

But the last writing-related reason it's been a good day is because the list of books standing between me and everything else I want to read has been reduced by one! I finished 'This Is Not A Game' by Walter Jon Williams. This was a good book, but I'm somewhat biased because I'm a gamer from way back - not a video game player - a D&D player. I was rolling dice and talking to myself long before there was an AD&D. It is what really got my creative juices flowing in the first place and what I've tapped into to get back into characters heads ever since - but I digress...

This book has characters who are gamers, and the protagonist is also a writer who eventually switches from writing fiction to reality-infused-with-online games - these things are huge and have multi-million dollar budgets. But part of the appeal is because Williams also feeds out some mechanics on how to write a fictional story in the action/thriller genre. It's all pretty cool and that's just the first Act of the book (yep, it's even written in three distinct acts like all good little writers are taught). From there, the D&D aspects move more to the background and the obvious writing lessons disappear all together, but the story really takes off (which is more writing lessons in itself).

Okay - wait for more to be posted, like an actual review, on HorrorScope, tomorrow, or maybe Saturday if I don't find enough time tomorrow.

And totally not related to writing, but very cool anyway, I solved two major headaches at work today that have been hanging around my neck like a millstone for the last few weeks. The annoying bit is that I gave the guys the solutions and work arounds sometime back but nobody believed me until they implemented the suggested fixes today! There's some old saying about soaring with turkeys, and something about eagles - can't remember, but I think you know what I mean and it definitely applies to the Thanks Giving guest's of honour that I work with!

Only one major headache left to solve and then I can start making my own migraines by rolling out the first of two major projects I need to get done before Christmas this year :c(

2010 will definitely see more time for writing if I get everything right, so it'll be worthwhile - at least that's what I keep telling myself ;c) (there, I tied the last good bits into having something to with writing - kind of).

Time to catch some Pokemon - oh, is that the time...maybe just time to get some sleep instead.

Here's hoping you had/have a great Thursday as well!

Is This A Problem

My first instincts tell me maybe, but then the old saying of 'a story takes as long as it takes to tell the whole story' rings through the vacant space which I refer to as my mind.

I'm going to struggle to make 50k in my current WIP. A little while back, Cate mentioned she was struggling to find wordage and thought I'd have no problems reaching my goal. At the time I said I didn't think that was the case. Tonight I did a new outline of the last third of the book based on a new scene I had an idea for. I managed to re-script chapter 11 entirely, reworked chapter 12, and added a new chapter 13.

Total plot now plays out over 16 chapters instead of 15. Current average length of each chapter sits at 2100 words (some longer, some shorter). That math seems to suggest a first draft of 33600k, somewhat short of my target...

I know I want to go back and add in some additional layers, so I don't really see an issue with being able to legitimately move the wordage up close to 40k.

So I guess that's what I'm really looking at as my first target. I have a couple of other scenes which may need to be played out in the beginning of the book, but I'm not sure if they're needed and won't really know until the first draft is done.

The question I'd like to ask you: Should I drop my target at this point? If yes, should it go to 33.6k or 40k? If no, then do I stop and continue to work the outline to expand the scenes I think I need?

Am I thinking too much and should I just shut up and write the story, and who really cares about wordage and percentages anyway?

Did I just answer my own questions?

So I've done some writing last night and again tonight, as well as the new outline which is fairly detailed. I've also managed to complete another third of my current book-for-review. I'll finish 'This Is Not A Game' tomorrow and write up a first draft review (hint: it's a good book to this point), and then round out this weeks WIP total with a couple more hours on the laptop.

If things continue as they are, Nathan Steele, Book One (still looking for catchy title), will have it's first draft complete by the end of September. It's something to aim for...

WIP Wednesday...On Friday

I'm back! Miss me? No? Then why has everyone decided to add pink to my blog? More on that in posts to follow...

Thank you to everyone for the nice thoughts and comments (and sudden influx of awards).

As for my WIP, aka Nathan Steele, Book 1, (there will be a catchy subtitle here but I haven't found it yet - you're writers, use you're imagination ;c)).

Tuesday night I flew out to Melbourne for work. At least, I eventually flew out to Melbourne after my flight was delayed twice due to unusually high winds at my destination. Strangely the flight was very smooth and my stay was punctuated with only the occasional light breeze while on other sides of the city trees were being uprooted - very strange.

Still, I didn't get to the hotel until midnight on my first night in so my premonition that I'd not get any writing done that night proved correct and I practically fell into the hotel bed. The actual course I went there for was very good and the instructor was exceptional as well as being a nice guy - in short, it was one of the only courses I've been on, for work, in the recent past that I actually learned anything.

Night two arrived and I walked down to the nearest Subway for dinner, walked back to the hotel and setup my laptop on the nice little work table in the hotel room. It was terrible. It was the wrong height to work comfortably. My shoulders were killing me in no time. So I moved to the large comfortable chairs - better for my back and shoulders but the arm rests were too close to my body and trying to keep my elbows locked in grew old very quickly - I'm not a particularly lean fellow. So I moved to the floor - that lasted about 10 seconds. On to the bed, but the power cord didn't reach that far so I was on battery power with built in smoko breaks to ensure I didn't run out. Unfortunately the hotel is smoke free so smoko meant putting the laptop on charge and riding the elevator down and going outside into the cold night air.

In the end, I managed a paltry 1489 words, about 3K short of what I was hoping for. I just couldn't get comfortable or into the right frame of mind. I saved it and watched Angels & Demons from the inhouse movie menu (work was paying after all). The total for the week ended up being 3212 words. A little short of Cate's brilliant effort, but not too bad for me. I'm happy with it.

I'll stick to writing at home or at work from now on where the desk is the right height, the chairs are comfortable, and having a smoke doesn't involve descending four floors and having dodgy looking taxi drivers stare at you.

It's wonderful to be home.

Cue the Bean:

Ground Breaking New Trend

It seems my Nathan Steele series will be the first in the new trend to sweep once more over YA and middle grade readers the world over.

How do I know this?

Back in the 1970s and 80s, kids and teens from 7-17 were reading teen detective, teen thriller, and teen mystery books. I know because I was one of them. Couldn't get enough of The Famous Five, The Hardy Boys, or what about Nancy Drew or The Three Investigators.

As I grew, I wanted my fiction a little more sophisticated and moved into King, Koontz, Straub, Saul, etc. I also tried to read as many of the 'classics' as possible - Shelly, Stoker, Poe, The Bible, etc.

I think today's kids are a mix of that. They still like to read their thriller and mystery books, but it has to be a little more sophisticated: Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. But Potter started for younger audiences and kind of grew up with them. Twilight is even more finely targeted at teen girls. Enter Nathan Steele!

According to a recent poll over on Nathan Bransford's Blog I may be the only person currently writing something which has a teen trying to solve a mystery, while having to use his nous to create electronic aids, and dealing with the trials of getting his first girlfriend (without any paranormal tropes being used). In other words. I'm the only person writing a teen mystery action book. My vote didn't even register enough interest to allow the category of YA Mystery to tick over to 1%! So, me and possibly six other people (if I assume that over 0.05% would be rounded up) are heading the charge to the good old days.

I'm going to ask around at the local libraries and find out if kids are still borrowing teen mystery novels. My guess is they are, but want something new to reinvigorate the genre and get them all excited about reading again. I can dream...

So how did you measure up in the poll? Care to join me on the front of the wave?

A Good Writing Day

Little one has been home with a cold this week (just for something different), so I stayed home with her Wednesday and again today. Mum stayed with her yesterday allowing me to go to work.

Anyway, today we created two Pokemon card decks for her to have a go with at school (when she returns). And I also managed to get some writing done.

I went back to the beginning and went through a couple of things, adding in plants for things to make sense a chapter or two later, caught a misdirection in regards to where a bedroom was in a house (it was upstairs in one chapter and downstairs a couple of chapters later).

I also finished off the chapter I was writing last time I visited the WIP, and felt so much in the groove I just went ahead and wrote the next chapter as well.

All up, I've managed a respectable 2860 words today, and, more importantly, I'm quite happy with them.

And for those of you who want to know - a wink is not as good as a kiss...and now my main male character knows that as well...poor fella. Maybe one day he'll get there.

WIP Wednesday

It's Tuesday night - it'll be Wednesday in a little over an hour - close enough.

This week I've had two writing sessions on my WIP and managed to add a little under 2500 words. Pitiful, but 2500 words is a sizable step in a YA novel. Bringing down targets from 80-100k to less than 60k just seems to make the whole thing that much more achievable - not easier, just more within reach (if that makes sense).

On a side note: a great deal of this manuscript to this point has been dialogue. There have been descriptive narrative in places (obviously), but a lot happens with dialogue. I'm just about to move into a section where there is much less dialogue but much more interaction between my two main characters - ah, young love - how insecure and awkward we all once were - this should be fun. Not sure yet if I'm going to let my guy get a kiss or save that for much later. How many guys vote for him missing the signals and then just running out of time as the moment passes by them?

I still can't bring myself to throw up some examples. Call me insecure, but I need them to go through my normal vetting process before I let anyone read any part of them, and that won't happen until I've finished writing all of it and done my own revision. The process then involves my wife, then Pharo, and then my beta readers. Then I might reveal some snippets. Sorry.

Oh, I am getting closer to a title. Currently the WIP Title is 'Nathan Steele: Book One'. I'm considering titles which will play on his name, like 'Steele Trap', Steele Home', 'Steele Cap', and a number of other plays on it but nothing has quite hit the right spot. I know you have no idea on the plot or premise, but I'm thinking the ongoing series will continue this theme so any and all plays on the name may come in handy in the future. Remember it's a YA series so keep it clean, people ;c)

With nothing else to say - cue the bean...