I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and I’ll not be writing anything completely new this year.  A few years ago I wrote a pulp sci-fi/horror called Planet of Snakes, the first and only time i finished a NaNoWriMo, which was a sequel to the story I attempted the previous year called Desert of Zin.  Thing is, i never finished Desert of Zin…

So, Planet of Snakes was the sequel to an unfinished novel?  Yep.  And it depended on the ending of Desert of Zin to work.

My thinking is that I’ll use Snakes and other works to write a space adventure.

It’s not strictly just an editing process.  The setting works, after a fashion, and I’ll only need to change the characters, the dialogue, most of the plot and anything else that springs to mind.

But that’s not all.  Oh, no.

It’s not about writing a 50k story this time.  It’s about writing something that actually works, that’s actually readable and is actually complete.  Planet of Snakes was a mess filled with quick fixes.  But my writing has come on in bounds.  I don’t fall into the same repetitious traps.  (Or not as much.)

Nothing quite like setting the sights high, eh?

It’s been a ‘interesting’ year, full of ups and downs.

It started well, with me riding high off the relative success of last year’s NaNoWriMo.  It was an important milestone with my writing, the first time I ever got around to actually finishing something in a short time that I even remotely liked.  So, that was Planet Of Snakes (a sequel to the unfinished Desert Of Zin) and very happy I was with it too.

(Not that it matters what’s finished and what’s not, things have changed in that quarter.  More on that in a mo.)

Then, shortly after the new year, my mother had a cancer scare.  Not good, not good at all.  But she had it removed, went for her radiotherapy and everything is currently peachy keen.  (It’s amazing how you can get all of the angst, worry and relief of a time like that and boil it down to a couple of sentences…)

Then a few months into the year amazing news arrives.  Ruth is pregnant!  I still remember how excited I was when I found out.  We had been trying for a while and finding out really was a gift.

Then we hit the summer.  And intimidation and bullying at work.  Not good seeing as I worked for the my church.  With the benefit of hindsight, and plenty of counselling, there is definitely an element of a culture of dishonour about the way some Christians act despite the ‘Culture of Honour’ that is advertised.

Anyway, it wasn’t a sudden thing.  Using the same old hindsight as before it’s clear that my self-esteem and confidence were being ground down over a long period of time.  More on that later as well.

There was a welcome break in there called Summer’s End, a progressive rock festival in the small town of Lidney, by the Forest of Dean.  Myself, The Psycho Chicken, Bruce and (when she felt like she could endure all that glorious prog) Sharla enjoyed Steve Hackett, Pallas, Pendragon and all the wonderful bands in between.

But then back to work where the situation continued to get from bad to worse…

The months of September, October and November were back to the growing depression, anxiety, stress and suicidal tendencies.  This really was the worst part of the year for me.  I was being intimidated and harassed by my line manager (who, unfortunately, was also my minister) and despite already letting people in authority know the situation he was still my line manager and still intimidating and harassing me.

Now, I understand that in the cold light of day it might not seem like much, but when your church is your work and the only feedback you get from your minister/line manager is negative and your interests and thoughts are open to ridicule, it tends to affect you poorly.

NaNoWriMo arrived in November, right at the height of how bad things were getting.  With panic attacks and ‘The Fear’ growing almost daily it was a miracle in itself that I was able to get over 24k words.

This was the ‘All-New’ Desert Of Zin story.  I felt like the existing one was going nowhere.  I had no plan or interest in keeping it going and any ideas I did have just seemed tired.  But then I thought that it might be an idea to take the core concepts I still had in mind for the story and just start afresh.  Different setting, different characters (although with the same names) and with a narrow scope, at least initially, than the original attempt.  And for the most part I’m a lot happier with it so far.  Lots of stories to tell though, which is good.  Stops me from getting too bogged down with any one story.

But it wasn’t finished in the month, so there we go.  I’ll try again with something new next year.

It was the second-last weekend in November when everything hit the fan.  Angry threats were made at work and that was the straw that broke back of it and I handed in my notice.  Better that I was unemployed and healthy than employed and suicidal.

And I haven’t really regretted it once.  It’s a no-brainer that I have not been back to Whiteinch Church of Scotland for the Sunday Celebration and I don’t think I ever will.  I do wish them well for the future but if they ever want to see this ‘Culture of Honour’ fully realised they’ll have to really look at sorting themselves out.  One thing that going though my own counselling process has shown me is that there are a good few of Whiteinch Church leadership who need counselling of their own.

But with a month of the year left, two wonderful things happened.

A story, Whiteinch In Flight, was accepted for a local anthology…

…And my daughter was born, late for Christmas, but in plenty of time for the new year.

I have big plans for 2010.  It really feels like I’ve been through a lot this year and I’m confident and a feeling a lot more prepared for what I’m planning for the year ahead.

There are books to write, a wife to keep happy and a daughter to raise.  No problem.

- Alistair

Let’s see.  What has been going on in the life of Al?

Well, NaNoWriMo started and, two and a half weeks later, stumbled and fell of the ride.  Loads of bad stuff happened, mostly from my work, and I was a basket case for the majority of the month of November.  Truth be told I was a basket case for a good few months before that and I still have a long way to go before I’m back to normal (whatever that is) and am back working on all cylinders.

25,000 words though.  That’s not bad at all.

I’m currently unemployed as I had no other choice than to leave, the sanity of both Ruth and I was more important than a part-time admin job, and it’s going to be a long haul before I have my confidence and self-esteem back to where it should be.

Anyway, all of this madness got in the way of my finishing NaNoWriMo, which is a damn shame as I was really enjoying the story I had set myself this year.  But with time on my hands before the impending birth of my first child (due date = 13th December!) I am spending some of it on Desert of Zin so I don’t totally lose the thread like I did before.

- Alistair

Expected target : 1667

Actual wordcount (2009) : 2564

Actual wordcount (2008 – for comparison) : 3929

Been a good day, I’m liking the story and I think it’s shaping up to be a good month.  Not quite the rampage of the first day last year, but I had a plan then.  I’m going into this one blind…

- Alistair

I was planning to do something for the New Writing Dundee competition.  I had two stories partly done but neither of them seemed right.  I’ll work on them in the meantime.  There’s always another competition or magazine I can send them to and I’d rather they were right than rushed.  Although they’ll wait until after this year’s NaNo I’d dare say.

As for NaNoWriMo 2009…

I’ll be writing Desert of Zin this year…

But wait, haven’t I already been writing Desert Of Zin?  Won’t working on an already existing work be against the rules?

Yeah, well.  It’s not a case of working on the original, that’s a dead duck.  I’ve been working on it for so long and it’s been going nowhere.  The story is lacklustre and I couldn’t care less for the characters.  A shame, as Planet of Snakes (last year’s NaNo) is good and worth keeping.

So I’ve started again.  A completely fresh story, with similar characters.  Something less Space Opera and something better.  Much better.

- Alistair

I’ve been plugging away at a project, an easier task since the re-acquisition of yWriter a wee while ago, and although I was working on Desert of Zin and an as yet unnamed vampire story (actually DoZ is being worked on steadily but just not this weekend…) I’ve a new story that has been keeping up nights.

I’m thinking of entering it for New Writing Dundee which is due on the 1st of November.  That would normally give me a month to get it done and edit it but I’ll be away for the last two weeks of the month, on holiday but working on plans for the upcoming NaNo, so I have little time to get it finished and in a state I’m happy with.

It’s called The Spires At Midnight, just a working title for now, and it may be fantasy/horror but I’ll have a better idea once it is finished.

Anyways, back to work…

- Alistair

A busy time indeed…

- Alistair

The amazing Mr Push already has one of his stories on the site, check it out, and I think I have something to send the way of Telling of Tales.  Well, it’s not there yet, but I have plenty of time to get it right.  I’m trying to cut it down below 800 words and make it a bit more aerodynamic…

With the awareness that baby is enroute for a December arrival I’ve been working on an alternative beginning of Desert of Zin and I’m aware that there are about 40,000 words still to go in to it, and there are 3 good months to get the bulk of the work in.

Of course, there’s still this year’s NaNoWriMo.  I’m in two minds whether I’m going to have the time for it, but depending on the whole progress of the Zin book.

- Alistair

Sine the last post, way back on the 6th of March, I bounced abound saying how great it was that I passed the 50k mark with Desert Of Zin.

Whoo.

The problem is that shortly after I hit the mother of all walls and eventually felt that I’d like nothing more than to let the characters die.

That’s not good if you’re already written the sequel and you’re relatively sure that some of them are in it and alive…

So I took some time away from writing, didn’t check the blog, didn’t go to the writing group and generally retreated back into my shell for a while.  And somewhere along the way it seems to have done the trick.

Now, I’m not working on DoZ again, and won’t be for a wee while.  An extended break is definitely needed from that.  But last week I found myself writing some stuff that’s set after an idea I had AGES ago.

Something called The Bandstand.

It was a story I started a few years ago and, after the first scene, edited it until I didn’t care about the rest of the story.  Looks like I’m starting to care again.

I finished the first chapter (with the original scene) last night and Ruth gave it an edit.

Tonight I’ve made a handful of changes and after a quick second pass tomorrow I’ll be looking at releasing it by the end of the weekend.

(The good thing is that I’ve got the second chapter under way and with any luck it’ll be finished for edit in good time.)

The reason I’m so hyped about this is simple.  For a good few years now I’ve bored anyone that’ll sit still long enough about how I write stories and I want to be an author and on and on…  It’s about time I actually stop talking about it and release some bloomin’ content.

Quality!

Of course I celebrated the occasion by attempting to gut the sty that is my study.  Getting there but it’s a second behind the priority of writing.  Had a crazy dream last night that the book was 100k in length.  So only half way there!

Joking aside, I’m really chuffed with myself.  I’ll be even more chuffed once the damn thing is finished but 50k was a line i desperately wanted to cross and now that I have I hardly look at my word count.

That can’t be a bad thing?

Oh, on a side note, with the big clear out of the study, does anyone want to buy the a complete set of the Horrorclix base set?  And the Horrorclix Great Cthulhu?  I’d even be willing to make a trade if you had Mythos or Call of Cthulhu ccg stuff you didn’t want any more.  Hey, what can I say?  A boy has to prioritize and card games are so much easier to store…