The last two weeks have been busy, but not as busy in a writing sense as I'd like. I'm still working through the "new" material for Chapter 6 and have just about got the "slogging" part done. Next are some additional scenes where I know what I want to show, but don't have the details all laid out yet. After that, I'm back to things I've planned out more fully and then Chapter 7.
Current word count: 35,210 words
That's about it for now.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Chapter 6: Call to Arms - Status Update 1
So, I'm swinging away at the beginning of Chapter 6. This part is being difficult and I'm really having to work to get it written. Not because it is difficult, but because it is something I've added as part of the Chapter 5 re-org and isn't as well thought out yet. Mostly I have a bunch of bullet points of things happening and I've been wrestling with how to present them in ways that enhance the story and aren't boring. I think I've worked it out, but I'm still slowly hacking through it.
The current word count is only 32, 494 words.
Once I get past this tar pit, the rest of the chapter is better laid out and should flow more quickly. Well, sort of. After this part, I get into the weeds of some police investigation needed to convey story and a bit of military action to keep story bits moving along. Then I can finally get to the significant plot points for this chapter and those are pretty well outlined.
The other thing I'm working with is my gamer ADD. I've stopped running games so I can concentrate on writing this novel. I have to be fairly ruthless with adventure ideas and campaign concepts that try to derail my writing. I'm playing in a (mostly) regular weekly Pathfinder game. My Hero System group is getting together again to run a Pulp Hero game during the summer. The GM is a high school English teacher and her work schedule is fairly grueling. I at least get to leave work at work - she has to bring it home so it can get half of it done. Papers won't grade themselves while she's teaching classes all day. Ungrateful papers...
I've also got an interesting idea for automating the project documentation we do at work for every project. I think I can see how to put a HTML front end on a database so all the necessary paperwork has all the necessary information without hand entering it in to each document. Still scribbling out design specs in spare moments at work when I need a break from whatever I'm working on. It's a cool problem to solve and engages many of the same mental muscles as writing does, so I have to keep the two things in separate mental boxes.
The document database is cool and all, but the novel will get published.
Later!
The current word count is only 32, 494 words.
Once I get past this tar pit, the rest of the chapter is better laid out and should flow more quickly. Well, sort of. After this part, I get into the weeds of some police investigation needed to convey story and a bit of military action to keep story bits moving along. Then I can finally get to the significant plot points for this chapter and those are pretty well outlined.
The other thing I'm working with is my gamer ADD. I've stopped running games so I can concentrate on writing this novel. I have to be fairly ruthless with adventure ideas and campaign concepts that try to derail my writing. I'm playing in a (mostly) regular weekly Pathfinder game. My Hero System group is getting together again to run a Pulp Hero game during the summer. The GM is a high school English teacher and her work schedule is fairly grueling. I at least get to leave work at work - she has to bring it home so it can get half of it done. Papers won't grade themselves while she's teaching classes all day. Ungrateful papers...
I've also got an interesting idea for automating the project documentation we do at work for every project. I think I can see how to put a HTML front end on a database so all the necessary paperwork has all the necessary information without hand entering it in to each document. Still scribbling out design specs in spare moments at work when I need a break from whatever I'm working on. It's a cool problem to solve and engages many of the same mental muscles as writing does, so I have to keep the two things in separate mental boxes.
The document database is cool and all, but the novel will get published.
Later!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Chapter 5: Cincinnatus - Draft Complete
This past weekend, I finally completed the draft of Chapter 5 and I am now in Chapter 6.
Current Word Count: 30,498 words
Saturday my wife had a Women's Day Out and Slumber Party, so I hung out with a friend at his place and played Space Empires 5, an old turn-based Civ-type game. It is just the right mix of complicated and easy to play that hits a sweet spot for us. Plus it can be networked so we can play against computer opponents. Assuming your laptop does not have a corporate firewall blocking all attempts to network. Like mine did.
So I went and bought a new laptop.
Now this isn't as crazy as it seems. While I did buy a laptop to play an old computer game, I had been planning on buying one anyway with my tax refund, which had been sitting in my savings account for a couple of weeks. This was just the spark that pushed me into buying the thing. Also, it came in under budget, so big win there.
Once we got it back, I had to run updates, load the anti-virus software, run updates, load MS Office, load updates, load the game, and then load the patch. Somewhere in there we took a break for dinner. After all THAT was done, we finally got to playing at about 8:00 PM and played until 3:00 AM. We would have kept on playing (or at least taken a nap and played all the next day), but we had a Pathfinder game we both are players in to make at 11:00 AM on Sunday. Needless to say, we were both slightly zombified, but caffeine helped tremendously.
Monday I spent loading and copying over a bunch of stuff (mostly my music) from my old laptop to my new one and running a backup. That took most of the day, mostly due to moving large amounts of data through a USB port. Plus, the cable TV went out and we had to wait for the repair guy to do his thing. He got to the house at 3:00 PM and was there until 8:00 PM, replaced everything (even running a new cable) and still no TV. Data was running fine, just no TV. We said goodbye and expected to see him again later in the week.
Yesterday was our wedding anniversary and my wife and I spent the day on adventures across the city. We had a really good time and greatly enjoyed the day out. When we got home, the cable TV was running again. Don't know how or why, but I'm not asking either.
That's it for now. Later!
Current Word Count: 30,498 words
Saturday my wife had a Women's Day Out and Slumber Party, so I hung out with a friend at his place and played Space Empires 5, an old turn-based Civ-type game. It is just the right mix of complicated and easy to play that hits a sweet spot for us. Plus it can be networked so we can play against computer opponents. Assuming your laptop does not have a corporate firewall blocking all attempts to network. Like mine did.
So I went and bought a new laptop.
Now this isn't as crazy as it seems. While I did buy a laptop to play an old computer game, I had been planning on buying one anyway with my tax refund, which had been sitting in my savings account for a couple of weeks. This was just the spark that pushed me into buying the thing. Also, it came in under budget, so big win there.
Once we got it back, I had to run updates, load the anti-virus software, run updates, load MS Office, load updates, load the game, and then load the patch. Somewhere in there we took a break for dinner. After all THAT was done, we finally got to playing at about 8:00 PM and played until 3:00 AM. We would have kept on playing (or at least taken a nap and played all the next day), but we had a Pathfinder game we both are players in to make at 11:00 AM on Sunday. Needless to say, we were both slightly zombified, but caffeine helped tremendously.
Monday I spent loading and copying over a bunch of stuff (mostly my music) from my old laptop to my new one and running a backup. That took most of the day, mostly due to moving large amounts of data through a USB port. Plus, the cable TV went out and we had to wait for the repair guy to do his thing. He got to the house at 3:00 PM and was there until 8:00 PM, replaced everything (even running a new cable) and still no TV. Data was running fine, just no TV. We said goodbye and expected to see him again later in the week.
Yesterday was our wedding anniversary and my wife and I spent the day on adventures across the city. We had a really good time and greatly enjoyed the day out. When we got home, the cable TV was running again. Don't know how or why, but I'm not asking either.
That's it for now. Later!
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