This is always funny.
Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #8: http://youtu.be/LABGimhsEys
Author: johnrsermon
I’m a writer from Stockport, Manchester, England, who mainly enjoys writing short stories in the soft sci-fi genre. I do like writing in other genres, fantasy in particular, but I’ve settled on soft sci-fi because I enjoy adding fantastic things that could exist right now or in the near future.
I’ve been writing in my spare time since around 2001 with varying degrees of discipline. I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and my writing, and I use my blog to showcase my writing and discuss things on my mind. Every so often I’ll talk about other things in my personal life (Football – I support Manchester United, Holidays, Food, amongst others).
I enjoy writing short stories, but I have also finished a few novels and completed NaNoWriMo a couple of times. Writing makes me happy, and thankfully, I can’t see that changing any time soon.
My interest in writing began when I took a Film Studies Course at College in 2001. One of the assignments was to create a character and give him or her a back story. I did this and got some good feedback from my tutor, and I loved the feeling of creating a character from scratch.
My other interests include running and listening to rock and metal music whenever I’m running. I enjoy watching a wide range of films and TV to relax. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is my favourite film, and Arcane is my favourite TV show. My favourite authors are Giles Kristian, J.R.R Tolkien, JK Rowling, Bret Easton Ellis, Gareth L Powell, and Robert Lewis Stevenson.
Thanks for reading. If you like the sound of the above, I’d be more than happy to discuss all manner of writing-related stuff. See my contact page for details.
NaNoWriMo and the Quest For The Published Novel
Brilliant.
As you can see from the photos and the title, I’ve gone all Monty Python & The Quest For The Holy Grail over this post. If you haven’t seen it, I still think that it holds up in this day and age for classy yet hilarious humour. It is the most quotable movie I know and I love so many of the scenes from it. In fact, it was hard to choose some scenes to fit into a writing theme as so many worked well!
I’m half delirious from forcing myself to stay awake due to the four hours of sleep I got last night to get past that fabled forty thousand mark. The other half is slowly going insane, as I mentally prepare for the three hour drive ahead of me tomorrow after work so I can spend a full day in training sessions to then drive three hours back…
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And the Edit goes on La de da de de, la de da de da
Hello
So, as I’ve mentioned before I’m editing a story for the month of November and it’s moving along steadily. I have been doing NaNoWriMo for the past two years but I fancied a change.
As the edit has gone on I’ve picked up on a few things that will need researching and looking into in future. I’ve made a note of these things and they just so happen to be very important to the overall story. I’m considering doing an editing month for December more and more. Well, December through to January as December has a couple of birthday’s and Christmas parties that require my attendance. The research will cover my lead characters sister and her involvement in the whole thing and how the searcher general came to find the recipe for immortality. I’m about 2/3 of the way with the immortality back story and about half way with the sister back story. Hopefully by the end of the edit I’ll have a better idea of what I had planned for her.
I have also found that I may or may not have been trying to come up with my own language whilst writing the first draft of my human vs demon yarn, The Searcher’s Want. Some of the sentences, and paragraphs for that matter, just didn’t seem to make any sense. I’m being as ruthless as I can be and have deleted plenty of full sentences but I came across one paragraph and I could not stop frowning. What the hell is that? I found myself going back over the last paragraph or two to see what would make sense. It’s sorted now. Until the next edit anyway.
I also found that I had made one chapter 14 pages long. Now, that isn’t longer than any chapter I’ve ever read or written but when you’re editing a story that averages 8 pages per chapter, it’s a lot. I cut and chopped and changed some things round and it’s all evened out. Though my task is that little bit bigger than before. It’s all part of the fun I suppose. *groan
Anyway, I’m going to get back to it. Have a good week.
Cheers
Taking A Break!
Quality blog post re: this years NaNoWriMo.
Okay, phew. That was one hell of an intense day of writing. I’m actually going to stop myself instead of pushing on despite the fact that I could easily keep going. I think if I give myself the remainder of the evening to think on it and sleep on it as well, it’ll be better for tomorrow! Not only that but when I look at the walls of my room, I am pretty sure all I see is the Matrix. An early night never hurt anyone.
As you can see up there my count has hit that crazy sixty percent complete madness, although I think there is still so much more to this novel that I’ll keep writing as much as I can and I wouldn’t be surprised if I hit seventy thousand before NaNoWriMo ends (or my sanity gives in, one or the other). My daily word target is now…
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Oh editing, how I love and hate thee so.
Hello
So, it’s NaNoWriMo 2014. Well, it is for a fair amount of people but for me it’s NaNoEdMo 2014. As in, National Novel Editing Month. I’m aiming to finish the first edit of a story I started for, and completed shortly after, NaNoWriMo 2012. And to my progress…
It’s coming along nicely. I’m sticking to my schedule and I’ve now, just this morning in fact, finished editing Chapter 11. I’m going to start Chapter 12 later today. I gave myself the goal of editing half a chapter each time I sat down to edit and, though I thought it would be a little bit too much, it’s turned out to be a manageable amount. I don’t feel overwhelmed at how much I’ve got to edit by the end of the month as the bite sized chunks I’ve concocted are just right. I am glad I’ve not changed my mind over this as I’m very happy with the world I’ve created within my story. Part of me thought I’d throw it all away. Maybe I still will. But I’m going to try and not think about that for now. Possibly.
Even though I am enjoying the edit so far, sometimes I wonder what I’m on about. By that I mean, some lines I’ve come across that I’ve written some two years ago make no actual sense to anything on this earth. Some of them looked to be the sentence equivalent of a Magic Eye picture but the opposite way round. From a distance it looks like a normal sentence, all making sense and such. But as you get closer, you realise that it’s complete rubbish! Why did I write those words in that random order in the first place? It does give me a test though, which is to try and figure out what the line should be (for now) so it fits in with everything around it. Thankfully it didn’t take me too long but I was scratching my head for a while. That’s what editing all about right?
Ok. I’m off to edit some more. I hope you all have a good week and if you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo this year that you’re on target.
Good Pie.
As NaNoWriMo approaches I get ready to dodge it.
Hello
As you probably know NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. Now, I would usually take part like I have done for the past two years but this year I’m going to do something different. Instead of writing 50,000 words, I’m going to edit them.
Well, it might turn out to be more than that but I intend to edit much if not all of the novel I started to write during my first NaNoWriMo back in 2012. That story’s first draft was finished the following May and I’ve recently began to edit it as you may know. It then occurred to me that I could get the first edit done by the end of 2014 or even the end of November if I dedicate myself to it like I have done to NaNoWriMo 2012 and 2013.
The rate I’m currently editing my story could be quicker I admit. Sometimes I just want to lounge about and do nothing and that but as I have been lounging about I’ve thought that this edit isn’t going at a bad pace. I’m managing to edit four pages or half a chapter each time I do it. If I did this each day for November, I could come close to, if not completely finish, the first edit. I’m thinking I can easily do it now.
But wait. I know I’ll have to do some research during this time to help flesh out a main part of the plot and to write out the complete back story for a support character whose story directly effects our hero. I could do that in December actually. Wait, looks like I have a plan. Edit for all of November and research and write back story for part of December and probably into January.
Would you look at that? An actual plan I can stick to. It’s a shame that there isn’t a website dedicated to a National Novel Editing Month. Maybe there is but I don’t need to fish it out, I’m committed to this now all on my own.
To those of you attempting NaNoWriMo, good luck and all the best. If it’s your first go, make sure you have a good seating position whilst typing. My back was killing me after I did my first attempt. Worth it though.
Good bye
Somehow….I didn’t get much done really. Or did I?
Hello
Looking back over my last post I realise I’ve only partially stuck to my new routine over the past week.
The writing part of my routine has moved as slowly as ever. This is due in no small part to working over-time on Saturday, wanting to chill on Sunday, and starting back on the weights again Monday through till Today. Now, I don’t lift a crazy amount of weights but after 6 months of not using them at all, it’s made me pretty tired and lacking in the energy to write. Though I know this will change once exercise is as much a part of my routine as writing, reading and editing, I’m hoping it will come sooner rather than later. I’m feeling tired now as I write this post. I have managed to write a character profile for the hero of my time travel piece. Once I get my internet sorted, as in unlimited and not with a cap on it, I’m looking forward to going head long into time travel research. Who knows what I’ll come out with or even if my mind can handle it.
The editing part of the routine is going along as always. I’ve just finished Chapter 7 as it goes. It ended pretty poorly and I noticed how I’m very aware of the style of my story. My hero was on a hunt when he got distracted by his would be love interest. I added this in because it’s happened to me before. Not the hunt thing the distracted by love interest thing. I’m glad this is in as I hope it gets across how normal my seemingly abnormal hero can be. Like I said, the chapter ended pretty poorly and when I edited it, I removed three lines and put in one new one. I’ve read enough about having to be ruthless whilst editing and to make sure everything left in is useful to the story and I think I’m getting the hang of it.
The reading part of the routine is coming along nicely. Along with moving onto the latest edition of Writing Magazine, which has an interesting article regarding how Amazon could help authors instead of hindering them that was pretty interesting (thank you Tom Ellis author of the Parish & Richards crime series) I have been moving on with my current book to read, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument by Corey Taylor. As in, the lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour aka The Great Big Mouth. Now, I picked this up because I’ve heard a lot about how tough and diverse his upbringing was and listened to how he has used it to help his song writing but my curiosity wanted to know more. And so far I’ve not been disappointed. Some of things he’s gotten up to so far, I’m up to chapter about Sloth if you’ve read it before, are…well…all over the place, which is how I like my reading to be. He does this with structure and he writes so well I’m glad I forked out the money for it. To think I forgot I had it until I came across it when I last moved house.
Ok. That’s me for the time being. Have a good week.
Cheers
Getting a routine going.
Helllo
How do I get a routine going? Do I just start doing stuff and hope it all falls into place or do I stick to a plan and never waver from it whatsoever?
I’m not sure really. After a week of trying to stick to a routine which encompassed doing three things every evening I’m having a mixed time of it.
Firstly, the routine in question. I decided, after going back to my parents’ house for a weekend and finding two Writing Magazine’s for October and November and having not finished reading September’s, I needed to crack on. I didn’t want to rush for obvious reasons but I did need to get to the reading and that. So it was that I said to myself I will read some of my magazine every evening. I will also edit a few pages of my story and start to write another one.
I’m not doing too badly so far. I’m reading the magazine more frequently and getting, as usual, all kinds of helpful hints and tips from the articles and reader’s letters. One letter had me re editing something I’d only ten minutes prior edited. I pretty much slagged off a venue in Manchester and remembered, if I sell copies of my book someday, that I can’t do that unless I’d liked to get sued. Thankfully it was a quick edit to change from a negative to a neutral stand point on the particular place. This shows me that at least one part of my routine is working.
So far as editing goes, that’s moving along as well but not as fast as I’d like. It’s all my fault but what can I say, life keeps getting in the way. I didn’t sleep very well last night so I got to bed early the next, I played on my Xbox all night, I was drinking at a beer festival all day Sunday and was hung over all day Monday, you know the drill. I’m hoping to catch up with my editing this weekend and am looking forward to my own, made up, NaEdMo (National Editing Month) extravaganza. More on NaEdMo closer to the time.
The writing has gone even slower. I’ve started to make notes, which has led to having to do plan to do extensive research on time travel in the future, for a sci-fi story I’ve wanted write for a while. I’m not going to mention anything about it but for anyone who’s written a story with time travel in it, it does seem to be a bit of a mess. I’m sure whatever I come up with will be ripe for someone to pick holes in. Most time travel stories are whether they are air tight with their logic or not.
Right I’m done. Thanks for reading. Have a good week.
My first Manchester Literature Festival experience: Cory Doctorow ‘Information doesn’t want to be free’. 07.10.2014.
Hello
I just wanted to let you know about the great talk I recently witnessed as part of this year’s Manchester Literature Festival.
I received the booklet which explained all the MLF events and this one stood out for me. I hadn’t heard of Cory Doctorow before but what his talk was about, which covered the choices you make about your digital creativity resonating throughout the internet and three laws to abide by when doing so, sparked my interest. I’ve read plenty regarding copyright laws and what rights writers have when they decide to self-publish or are lucky enough to be signed up by a major publishing house and what they want when you sign a contract but hearing an expert talk about it was something I wanted to hear.
The first law covered the locks that are put in place on something you own, mainly the thing you’ve created, and how it’s not really there for your benefit. As far as I was concerned before hearing this, I thought these locks are there to help. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is one lock that you would click before publishing with Amazon for example that would protect your creative product. Cory explained how easy these things are to unlock by saying that such locks were on DVD’s when they first came out and it was broken within 24 hours to allow any DVD to be pirated. Once the lock is in place as well, only the company that put the lock on can remove it. Not even the author can remove it once they agree to it. That sounds pretty scary to me. The Hachette Vs Amazon barnstormer battle came up and he explained how, with Hachette refusing to agree a new deal with Amazon re: sale of their products and such, Amazon have refused to sell any of Hachette’s stuff, which accounts for 40% of their annual turnover. Hachette has mandatory DRM on their products and some websites have this auto-selected when really, by the sounds of things, you shouldn’t use it. It’s akin to having armour round you work like wet tissue paper.
The second law was that publishers will make you rich as long as you are already famous. I’ve read many stories whereby an author will be rejected by publishers, self-publish and sell a lot of books, and then make a deal with a publisher but make it tailored to their needs because they can live without the publisher. It does seem to me like trying to go it on your own is the better option and probably the more satisfying one.
The third law was that information doesn’t want to be free. Information always seems to have some kind of cost to it. When it is put onto the internet, which is the Nervous system of the 21st century as Cory put it wonderfully (if you’ve heard that before, fair enough. But I haven’t so it was a wonder to me at the time) then it does seem like it would be easier to encourage people to freely share parts of their work which would in turn help the sales of the book in the future. This is something that Cory has done very well for many years. He explained as well about how computers seem to be everywhere nowadays. You carry a computer in your pocket (mobile phone) or an iPod or any number of things which can have its contents accessed by anyone if they tried hard enough. He said that in the future everything will run through the internet and that it was evitable.
In conclusion I did enjoy the talk very much, even buying a book of his and getting a picture with him, and would advise anyone who wants to know more about copyright laws to seek out Cory Doctorow and his musings (http://boingboing.net/ and http://www.craphound.com amongst many) . To finish, here are a couple of pictures from the night. Thanks for reading.
The art of moving forward without actually moving forward.
Hello
Well, it has been a while hasn’t it. Two weeks by my watch but I don’t wear one so it might be longer than that. As I mentioned last time out I had been packing for mine and my girlfriend’s move from her flat into a rented house.
Moving takes up a hell of a lot of time. This is the first time I’ve moved on a bigger scale than ‘just my own stuff’ from one flat to another. You don’t realise how much stuff you have until you move do you? I don’t anyway. Bags of this, bags of that. Where did it all come from? Happily the guys we hired to help with the move were efficient and friendly so the day went well. Although it would’ve gone a lot better if I hadn’t developed a cold the night before. I had the same problem once before when I contracted a cold just before a move. Maybe I’m allergic to it? Or it could just be hard work. Anyway, the moves done and we’re all settled in.
The week after this was spent setting up new bills and getting everything sorted re: the new house and that. Houses can be big places can’t they? My girlfriend is working nights this week so when I spent my first night alone, it was eerie. Every bump was a person breaking in and I didn’t manage to get much work done. This soon passed thankfully when I realised how daft I was being and how thin the walls are, which meant I could hear both sides as they went up their respective stair cases. Thankfully that’s all I’ve heard so far. No rude noises or anything. I did however hear an argument outside next door which was intriguing. Something about a multimillionaire and not seeing someone in ages? I daren’t poke my head through the blinds to watch but I really wanted to. So far, so good really on the hole though all this has stopped my edit from moving forward.
See? Moving forward without moving forward? Moving forward in my relationship but not moving forward with my writing? You probably got it straight away but I think I only worked it out at the end of the last paragraph. With regards to my edit, I have managed to finish up to the end of chapter 6. The last part I edited was a fight scene which, only being brief as the demon Aaron is hunting/searching for only wants to deliver a message and nothing else, still reminded me how much I enjoy writing action. Dare I write a full story of just action? Doubt that’s possible but we’ll see.
Ok. I can feel my editing muscles flexing and begging to be used so, I’ll tip my hat to you wish you a very fine rest of the evening.
Goodbye!
johnrsermon 
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