Category: Writing

Full or partly completed drafts of some of the stories I’ve written so far.

And so to the edit. Not forgetting the writing of course.

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Hello

I’ve started to edit the first chapters of two of my novels simultaneously. I’m liking how, as both stories are quite different, I’m not getting confused. Sometimes I think I’m going to focus more on one than the other or get parts of one story mixed up with another one.

The Searcher’s Want, which I started for NaNoWriMo 2012 and finished recently, starts off in the same fashion as The End Solution, my ongoing NaNoWriMo 2013 effort. I’ve found over these two and over my other stories short and long, finished and unfinished that I’ve written, start by putting the reader in the middle of the action. I have always preferred this when reading any story so it doesn’t surprise me that I have started my own stories this way. But I am pleasantly surprised I’m being consistent with my writing. Had to happen some time.

Both stories so far have started with the main character doing what he is chiefly known for. With the End Solution, the main character is about to and does remove the chemical from a potential threat to society. In The Searcher’s Want, he is searching for a demon and killing it. For me, putting the reader straight into the action is the best way to start. I like to be slowly fed the story. I also love reading a fast paced action scene. Writing them is a joy as well. All my long stories have many of these scenes in them but not too many. Well, so far anyway. I’ll probably remove some and add others when the edit gets into full swing. 

I’m going to post a draft of the first page or two of The Searchers Want on this blog and most if not all of the first chapter of The End Solution on http://www.critiquecircle.com/ sometime soon. Your comments and constructive feedback will be appreciated.

Along with this, so that I don’t get too settled into a routine, I’m continuing to write The End Solution. I wanted to write a page a day throughout January but a combination of laziness and doing other stuff meant I managed ten pages. Which isn’t too bad considering I’m editing as well. And so from this I ask….

Did you manage to get a lot of writing done in your January?

Good pie.

What a day this is.

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Hello

I’ve managed to go 30 days without drinking any alcohol and I feel great about it. So, there is only one thing to do. Celebrate!
But, which one of these will help me do that. Hmmmm…..(strokes beard in thoughtful manner)

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Congratulations as well to all those who have had a dry January. Now, to that hard decision I have to make.

Bye bye

One chapter too long. But that is what edits are for right?

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Hello

I’ve continued to write the End Solution and to my huge grin, which turned to slight annoyance straight after, I realised that the chapter I had just finished was twice the size of all the other chapters in the story so far. I would potentially do this for the ending of a story but not just passed half way. I’ll have to get to stream lining that ten page monster (compared to all the other five page normal sized creatures) in the edit. Or maybe I should do it now. I’m not sure. What do you think?

That cold I mentioned last time still hasn’t completely gone away. And it will go away because I can’t be ill for what’s coming this Friday. I’m sure you are all aware and are either applauding me or frowning as if to pretend you don’t know, it’s TNA Impact Wrestling from the Manchester Arena. Me and my friend try and go every year and it has never disappointed. It will also be the day I break my self-imposed, no beer plan and get back on it. I just hope I don’t get so ratted I miss the event. I’m sure I won’t. Hopefully.

I’ve started to renew my relationship with one of the websites I used to frequent. Critique Circle has always been a valuable way for me to get good, solid feedback and to read other writer’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi stories. If you are not aware, the idea of the site is as follows:

  1. You read other peoples stories from any genre you like and critique them once you are done.
  2. The more in depth your critique is, the more credits you will receive.
  3. Once you have 3 credits, you can submit a story of your own.
  4. Other authors will then critique your story and your feedback has arrived!

I’ve read one fantasy story and now have enough credits to submit my own work. I’ll let you know how that goes in due course.

Right then. I’m off to read and write.

Bye Bye

Editing, Writing, A Cold, Oh My!

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Hello

Following on from my last post, I edited the first few pages of the first chapter of my vision-of-the-future story, The End Solution.

One of the pieces of helpful feedback I received from my last post was to try to picture the street that the start of the chapter takes place on. I walk up and down said street every day and have done so for the past ten months, so this should have been a no brainer and something I should’ve considered. Captain Hindsight, I know your pain. Anyway, I pictured it and made some changes and immediately thought it read a lot better. I’m a little bit biased (Surprised?) but it was easier and smoother to read compared to what was there before it. I closed my eyes to picture the street and it didn’t take long for me to write enough of a description to hopefully set the scene and put the reader in the story alongside the characters. Or floating above them or walking just behind them at least.

I also changed what I thought was needed to put the story out of the passive and into the active voice. Again the story was smoother to read and was a lot more gripping. Actually putting the reader into the action instead of telling them about it like it happened a few minutes ago. As in, if you had changed from your work shoes to your boots to go home before the end of work instead of at the end of it, you would have seen it. Anyway, all in all I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so I may post the edited version on here at some point.

I continued to write the rest of The End Solution after doing this and I reckon I’m about five to ten chapters from the end of it. Although, I don’t know which of three possible, up to now, endings I’m going to use. But, like with all the other long stories I’ve written, the ending will come to me all of a sudden and I won’t be able to stop writing. I do enjoy that part.

Right then, thank you for reading and I’m going to get back to it. Oh, and the cold part of the title refers to a cold I picked up, after a small bout of food poisoning, that slightly ruined my week. It’s gone now though. I’m beginning to think giving up beer for thirty days was a bad idea. My body seems to be telling me so.

Good Pie

Thanking you and moving forward.

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Hello all,

My last post concerned the first page of the novel I’ve started to write, and will pick up again soon until it’s finished, from NaNoWriMo 2013. I asked for constructive feedback and received it quickly and efficiently. It will always amaze me how in some cases complete strangers can be extremely helpful. In this and in life in general. Anyway…

I would like to thank, in no particular order, Quinne Darkover (awesome name) who sent me, in a separate attachment, in the margin feedback on my story sample. It was very helpful and when I go to edit my story I will refer to your comments thoroughly. Sean Cleary, who is always helpful with feedback and straight to the point which is what I prefer for this type of thing, Lori Fetters Lopez ( @fetterslopez ) who gave me a very good insight as per usual. She also mentioned about passive voice use which has shaped my edit massively. Always reliable. Prof Godel Fishbreath (another good name) who gave me some food for thought regarding my starting paragraph. And my good friend and new follower to this blog, Leigh Yeats ( http://iseethingstwice.wordpress.com/ ), who advised me well and showed me some good reference material and feedback regarding passive voice use. Thank you to you all.

So, from all of this I have gone over the page and made some adjustments. Most of them were making it read in the active voice and not the passive where applicable. I always seem to have trouble with this. I know what the difference is between active and passive voice but I always seem to forget about it at the crucial time. When I’m writing! It is very annoying but that’s why I asked for feedback. Otherwise I would be walking around thinking I had the voices in the bag.

Okidoke, I’m going to leave you now. Going to go and continue reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which is shaping up to be epic. I’ll be looking at my story again tomorrow so I’ll let you know how that goes. Hopefully I won’t go nuts and decide to change the whole thing. From what the feedback so far has told me, it’s pretty solid. And I agree.

Bye Bye

Happy New Year and all that. Best get back to it then.

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Hello

Hope you all had an enjoyable new year’s eve. I spent mine with my girlfriend, my parents, sister, brother in law and my nephew. It was nice and chilled just how I like it really. I’m not a big fan of NYE and I only really like it when I’m spending it a house party/gathering or not at all. Does that make me a scrooge for NYE? There’s a story in that somewhere….

Anyway, after a month away from writing I must get back to it. I read a pledge the other day which went ‘I pledge to write one page per day in January.’ Sounds like a plan. Although I didn’t get any done yesterday and I won’t get any done today. I’ll have to plan how to catch up. It’s nanowrimo all over again. Or whatever the shortened version of it is.

A page a day will get me back into the swing of things. I reckon I’ll start by editing the first page of my nanowrimo 2013 (not completely but enough for now) and posting it on here. If u fancy a read, I’ll put a synopsis up with the excerpt soon.

Okidoke. Well, I’m going to start thinking, as my laptop isn’t with me and I’m off work so I’m trying not to do anything at all, of what I do after the editing is done.

Good pie

Merry Christmas to you all. Or just have a good day if your not that way inclined.

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Hello

Just a quick message to say happy christmas day or have a good day if you don’t celebrate it.

My christmas’s since I can remember have always been with family and friends. This time round though,  its slightly different. I’m staying home and cooking christmas dinner for my girlfriend. She usually works at this time of year so I thought I’d treat her and make sure she can celebrate christmas on the day.

I’m a bit scared, mainly of getting the timings wrong and ruining it, but she deserves so it I’ll try my best. Wish me luck.

Right, let’s celebrate christmas (or not)

Happy Christmas!

And the break continues…and a few pictures of what I did.

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Hello

Since last time I have still been keeping on with this break thing. I’ve had the last week off work which has meant I’ve had to focus even more on my writing break and not giving in to temptation. And this is how it went…

I spent Monday with my girlfriend, which was awesome and very relaxing. Having no work the next day was a refreshing change as one or both of us usually has to get up early the next morning.

Tuesday was the day I visited the famous, and largest in Europe, set of Christmas markets in Manchester. It does have a daft amount of stalls but I usually only end up buying some fudge and a huge rocky road muffin. I’ve not bought any fudge yet but I did buy a smartie chocolate muffin the size of my head which was gone in no time. I managed to buy a Christmas jumper and a present for my nephew as well. Then, in the evening, I did nothing at all. It was lovely.

Wednesday had me going to see my friend and her new baby. It was good to catch up as I’d not seen her in a long time. Afterwards I  went home and did naff all. Although this didn’t stop me from coming up with another idea for the twist in the story I told you about in my last post. It was something that had been playing on my mind since I finished writing story a few years ago. I knew I needed to make sure the twist was clearly explained and had a reason behind it. As long as I can do that, which I think I’m close to doing, I’ll be happy. Then I’ll probably discover that something doesn’t make sense and start all over again. I mentioned the story in a few posts previously and posted some rough drafts of the first chapter. Its called The Town of the Mountain. And then there was…

Thursday which saw me going to watch West Side Story at the Palace Theatre in Manchester with my girlfriend. I’ve wanted to see a big show at the theatre for years and she made that want happen by getting us tickets for a birthday present for me back in June. I wanted to see a show that was established and up to a high standard. The show was everything I hoped it would be and I enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks again Michelle.

Now on to Friday when I went to Leeds with a few friends to celebrate another friends birthday. We started drinking on the train there and polished off a fair amount of alcohol before we eventually went out in Leeds in our Christmas Jumpers. That night rolled on nicely as wearing those jumpers got us and everyone around into the Christmas spirit. The Saturday consisted of more alcohol and pizza followed by another night out. Out of the two nights, I preferred the Christmas Jumper one. The reason being I got chucked out of a bar on the Saturday night for something I didn’t do. Some bint accused me of pushing her off a chair. And managed to mistake me, a six foot, bearded man with short brown hair, with a five foot nothing bloke with long blond hair and no beard. How could this happen you may ask? Because we were both wearing black tops. She knew the manager so I got shown the exit. Even the bouncer said it wasn’t me. I could explain more but I may start to ramble and become more angry and go round trying to push more people over. So here are a few pictures instead.

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This is me being proud of my Christmas jumper. Just before we went out.

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This is me and a few mates. Not sure what we’re doing to be honest.

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By this point we were all fairly drunk and one of us had gone missing. It turned out he’d just gone home.

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More drunk now.

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This one was from Saturday night. I didn’t get many good pictures but this is us trying to do Gareth Bale’s heart celebration thing he does when he scores. Only a few of us managed to master it. Dan at the front, who’s birthday weekend it was, hand’s seem to have fallen apart when he tried it.

Well, that’s all from me. Hope you enjoyed a small slice of my life. Good luck as always with your writing and see you soon.

Cheers

 

Keeping on with this break thing…

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Hello

This self imposed writing break of mine is working out quite well. I like having not much else to do other than watch TV or play on my Xbox. It also helps having Christmas to distract me as well. I’ve pretty much bought all the presents I want to buy for my nearest and dearest and only have a few more things to buy. I’m even more organised than I was last year. Big smiles about that, I thought I’d be worse.

But, with all the thoughts about Christmas and all things in that area taking up most of my head space, those lovable writing thoughts keep floating to the surface.

I’ve been making notes as I usually do when this happens and the few notes I’ve made over the past week have been about a story I finished a few years ago and did a small amount of editing on. I was hoping to start editing the NaNoWriMo story I wrote last year but now I’m thinking of editing a the one from a few years ago. Or maybe another one. Or write a new one. As dilemma’s go, it’s not so bad really.

Ok, I’m going to get back to my break. Hope all your writing is going well and your enjoying your December so far.

Good Pie

Taking a break. Well, only a little.

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Hello again

After the awesomeness that was nanowrimo, I’m going to do what I did last year and take a break from writing any stories. I found that doing this and coming back to writing my stories after a month off, really revitalised me. I got straight back into it so I’m thinking, why break a successful formula?

Because it could be better, that is why.

In my month off, I’m planning on getting back into writing on this here blog and to reading more stories on the websites I’ve neglected over the past few months. I think it will be a good change of pace and although I do and always will like to write, I think my back and my mind will benefit from it. Because….

My mind can rest and take in others work and help to get it back into sharp and creative condition heading into 2014.
My back will love it as I tend to hunch over my laptop as I write and cause it to hurt.

Anyway, I’m going to get started on my grand plan but before I go for now, just one more thing,
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This was my set up for when I completed nanowrimo. And I ask of it applies to you…how did you prepare for and get on with your nanowrimo?

Bye bye