Desert of Zin

So it (almost) begins…

Other than this post I’ll not be thinking of NaNoWriMo.  Tomorrow is when all the fun begins and despite not having a proper coherent story I’m refusing to fret.

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Today, at some point, I’ll be planning the NaNoWriMo for this year.  Was going to do it earlier in the week but loads of distractions got in the way.

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Err, yeah.  Desert of Zin is back online.  Whoo.  I can almost feel the ripples of excitement coming through the ether…

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Yeah, as the SVQ is out of the road, and after a week off from things I would really had to do, I cracked on with my writing yesterday.

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I’ve got two weeks off work.  I’m not going anywhere nice, this was one of those ‘use your holiday time or lose it’ moments, but I have every intention of getting the best out on my time.

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It’s Not National Novel Writing Month.  I have officially decreed it so. 

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Hmm, bit of a problem.  I’ve written next to nothing for the last three days.

For the life of me, I just can’t find the inspiration or the words.

Maybe It’ll be different tomorrow.

- Alistair

In less than perfect circumstances my WriMo has officially started!

Aurora has been up since 1.30, upset and unwell, and there’s little chance of me getting sleep any time soon.  Best make use of the time awake.  Certainly I’ll be knackered once I get in from work tonight so any waking time is potential writing time!

-Alistair

(Inspired by this post.)

I’ve been capturing notes dilligently today, while I’ve had downtime at work, and with days to go before the start I’m happy with what I have.

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I know it’s only the 25th (only the 25th?  It starts a week today!) but I’m already dead keen to get cracking at this year’s NaNo.  I spent some of the day today working on ideas.  I’m still going to do the same story I rattled on about before but i’m working on some of the side plots at the moment.  Something to pad it out and make it less one-dimensional.

I’m not sure if they’ll work but if I can get away with the main story (which I’m still playing close to my chest) then I can really justify anything.  Some of these sub-plots should be toffee…

(If you’re interested in what I’m doing, the project is called NaNoWriMo.  Head over and check it out.)

-Alistair

Less than a month to go until NaNoWriMo and I’m getting that familiar itch.  (no, not THAT familiar itch…)

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I logged on FaceBook this morning to see a friend had posted about the rapidly approaching NaNoWriMo.  Apparently we have six weeks until it begins.

Aww, hell.

I’m of a thinking that I might be body-swerving the nano this year.  But then in six weeks a perfect idea might fall into my lap which just demands attention.  Or not.

Too much to do and never enough time.

- Alistair

In an effort to balance my last doom and gloom post, here’s a list of things I’d like to spend my time on as baby and wife allow.

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So, happy new year!

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.

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Wow.  It’s been over a month since my last post, and life has been hectic.

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

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I’ve been away for the last few weeks.  On a wee holiday up east of Elgin at my in-laws.  The in-laws weren’t there leaving myself, Ruthy, her sister and the dog to deal with the bloomin’ awful weather.  Oh well, at least I wasn’t at work.  Small mercies and all that.

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Working steadily away here, but time for a wee break… 

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Well, it’s been a busy week with work and home stuff.  Loads to do in the office with the audited accounts coming in and at home I’ve been doing more prep for the arrival of baby.  All very excited for that.

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I’ve begun the editing process and as it has given me a chance to read what I wrote for NaNoWriMo this year I’m more than quite happily surprised at how good it is initially.

Well, that is until I get to the desperate days after the first week when I was just typing any old crap to get the word count up…

Still, the process continues interrupted only by the festive season where I will be too busy eating and drinking more than I know better to…

Oh, dear…

Oh yeah, totally forgot to post my final count for NaNoWriMo 2008.

I had 53950 words!  Not bad, eh?

Nope, not bad at all.

I would talk more but i’m enjoying a cool beer (first Leffe and now Hoegaarden) after a crappy week.

(And my confession is that i have not touched any writing since the end of NaNo, but rest assured I’ll get back to you with The Plan.  Oh yes.)

So, here we are.

My word count is currently 53109 which means I have beaten NaNo for this year.  Result!

But the story is not finished yet.  And that’s my plan for today once I get back from church.  The aim for today is 7k or the end of the story, whatever happens first!

And then it’s time to down the tools and take a few days before returning to finish DoZ book 1.

Ah, the joys.

Day 27 Expected target : 45009 (rounded up)

Day 27 Actual wordcount : 50077! (50030 as read by the NaNoWriMo site counter!)

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Day 24 Expected target : 40008 (rounded up)

Day  Actual wordcount : 45144!

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It’s back!

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Day 15 Expected target : 25005 (rounded up)

Day 15 Actual wordcount : 27183

So, what stopped me from getting to 30k tonight?

That would be chinese food.  Ah, lovely.

But 27k is a fine number to finish the day with.  And there will be more tomorrow.

Day 15 Expected target : 25005 (rounded up)

Day 15 Actual wordcount :26685 (so far)

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Day 10 Expected target : 16670 (rounded up)

Day 10 Actual wordcount : 16490

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Day 5 Expected target : 8335 (rounded up)

Day 5 Actual wordcount : 12141

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Day 3 Expected target : 5001 (rounded up)

Day 3 Actual wordcount : 8010GuildWars

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Expected target : 1667

Actual wordcount : 3929

Whoo!  I’ve done well.  Very well in fact.

I can’t say much for the quality of the work but that’s not important, the wordcount is high.

And the meet ups are cool, writing with other like minded folk works really well.  And they’re a cool bunch.

More writing fun tomorrow.

It’s not long after 4pm and I’m currently sitting in the 13th Note in Glasgow hard at work on this years project.  There are about ten of us left and it’s been  quite the communal writing experience.

So far i’m on 3162 words and going strong.

Actually that’s a big fib.  I’m starting to flag.  but 3162 is a fine first day count.

Anyway, back to the grind.

AAARRGH!!!

Didn’t get the Deathwing Terminators finished. 

Did get housework done, some work on The Fracture and a few key upgrades to the site. 

So an overall success.

Got a meeting with fellow NaNoers tonight.  A pre-NaNo meet.  I’m quite excited.

And I bought the wife flowers today because of a top class image she’s done for the site (which isn’t up yet).

Six days left until NaNoWriMo.

I’ll share a bit of info on what this years NaNo will be.

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Everything stop!

There are seven days until NaNoWriMo 2008.  And am I excited?

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Mixed success.

Just over 13,000 words. A far cry from 50,000 but it was fun trying.

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Had a day to myself today. Since my hours have been cut at the After-School care, I thought I would take the morning off and get some writing done.

This year’s NaNoWriMo progress has slowed to a crawl, but that was to be expected.

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Day seven? Surely not!

It has been a long haul today. With church work, the after-school care and Revolution in the evening, I only got in about 8ish.

It certainly has been a long day. And all the longer with 1667 words waiting to be written.

But despite my lack of enthusiasm for the WriMo today…

1802 words today.

6863 words in total.

Bet my daily target today.

To make the 50,000 words in 30 days it’s advisable to do 1667 words a day. Today I bet that target. And I’m feeling damn good about it.

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3351 words.

Hmm, yes.

Still not making my minimum daily target of 1667, but I’ve written more today than on any other individual day.

As long as I keep that pattern going, everything will be fine. 

Nope.

Day 4 came and went.

Ruthy passed her flu-like badness on to me and the weekend was very much a shambles.  However the has been some Day 5 progress.  Not much, but any progress is good.

Another day, another few hundred words.

Sore throat, headache and general feeling of blah hampered today’s progress. But Ruthy has returned from her big adventure so there will be plenty of cracking the whip to keep me going.

The highlight of today’s additions is introducing a donner kebab to a Science Fantasy setting.

2095 words.

NanoWriMo Day 2.

Not much time for writing today. Still encouraged. Get there eventually…

1225 words.

Well, NanoWriMo Day 1 is almost over.

Difficulties include getting started, getting that initial sentence down.

Total for the day?

838 words. Not brilliant. But not bad at all…

I’ve been a bit cagey about this years WriMo.

I’ve not really spent any time thinking about it and my intention was to give it a miss this year.  With everything that’s gone on recently and with loads of guff happening at work I really couldn’t be bothered.

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Yes, well.

I wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped to be.

Nevertheless I’m still plugging away at it.

Target: 10000 (rounding up…)

Current Word Count: 6376

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Target: 8334 (rounding up…)

Current Word Count: 4721

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Target: 3334 (rounding up…)

Current Word Count: 2687

Okay, so I didn’t reach the daily target I set myself but that’s fine.

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There’s a thing about writing that really makes me feel alive.

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Target: 1667 (rounding up…)

Current Word Count: 1727

Yeah!

I’m on fire!

Whoo!!!

I’m all planned up!

Let’s go!

(Whoa, who’s wearing his keen pants…)

Yeah, I wasn’t going to bother with NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve been totally scunnered with my writing and the thought of forcing myself though 50,000 words in a month is less than appealing.

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And this year it will be….. (drum roll please)…. 13,000 words.

And the target was?…… 50,000 words

Which leaves just HOW MANY remaining?…… 37,000.

So, it seems, both a failure (not completing the 50,000) and a success (writing 13,000, which is a personal best for me). I’m not discouraged though, as the story has only really just begun.

or “it’s after five in the morning and I’m fecked”.

Okay, so I didn’t get anywhere near as many words done as I would have hoped but I’m up to 10,700 which isn’t terribly bad.

I’m at the begining of a new scene which has echos of a previous one so it should be easier to write. Or, at least, that’s the plan.

Anyway, enough of this carp, I’m off to bed. It’s been a long day. No point in making it even longer…

Or at least that’s the plan.

I rattled off a page and a half of A4 before the hangover and resulting de-hydration from my “only a few pints” night on the piss friday night made the prospect of writing anything else a step closer to a place closely resembling hell…

But right now, at just before half one in the morning, I have that all important second wind.

So now, as the good lady goes off to bed, I’m going to get down to my pants, break open a beer and get some damn writing done.

See you all on the other side of dawn…

Target: 15003 (or thereabouts)
Current: 8000

So I didn’t make my individual target for today or the target by day 9. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

And there’s the all-nighter I intend to pull on Friday night. In fact I think I might just see if I can write all the way through the weekend, stopping only for church, food and pooping.

I can get all the sleep I need at work on Monday. It’s not like I have to do anything else (except work, of course).

… because I’m not going to get any writing done if I don’t.

It’s like a magnet, pulling me away from achieving what need to get done.

And I need at least 2000 word done tonight…

Every year since 1999, in the month of November, many budding authors have tried their luck at NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.

The aim is to write a 50,000 word novel, or 50,000 words of a novel, in the 30 days of November. Aye right.

Or is that aye write?

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