Category: Writing

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

An excerpt from my story The Searcher’s Want.

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Hello

As you may know I’ve been editing my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel The Searcher’s Want throughout November and into early December. I had always planned to share some of the story with you and here some of it is.

I’ve always liked writing action scenes so I’m going to share part of one with you. It has only gone through one edit so keep that in mind if you’d be so kind. The Searcher’s of my novel have been searching and killing demons across the planet for years. And after years and years of the demons having their way the searchers started to slowly take them apart. The demons have now gone from having underground palaces in freedom to having to live in sewers in fear. All this led up to a great battle between a collection of demons, mostly made up of the ripper demons that desired destruction more than any of the other three types of demon, and the searchers looking to stop them. Aaron Watch is our hero along with some searchers close to him Abraham Smith and Breaker Smart. Aaron is still only a few years into being a searcher whilst Abraham is the second oldest of all the searchers and Breaker is second in command to the Searcher General.

Any feedback is welcome as long as it is constructive. Thank You in advance.

‘

“Searchers! Form the line.” The general shouted as the fight was getting into full swing. Each searcher had been called in after research had showed a herd of rippers was approaching Manchester. Aaron and a few others had searched the demons out and led them to an old field on the outskirts of Manchester City Centre. They had managed to stop the rippers from killing anything up to that point.

“Searchers! You have nothing!” the lead ripper growled as his herd stood behind him. They were all twitching and itching for the searchers to bring the fight to them. The general was not the type to fall into a trap easily. The searchers had now formed two lines opposite them in contrast to the randomly placed rippers. The only one of them in any kind of position was their leader.

“This line doesn’t move until I say it moves. Once I give the order, take them all out.” The general ordered. All the searchers cried out in acceptance of this and stood side by side with their great swords up before moving them back behind their shields. The searchers numbered around three hundred from all over the world to the rippers five hundred. They braced themselves and Aaron remembered what he been told some two weeks before. ‘Rippers get annoyed easily and will attack after long’ Abraham had said to him. He stood in front of Aaron on the first row of the line.

“Watch them searchers. They are quick.” The general said. Aaron had been a searcher for six years but had never seen this many rippers on mass. How the local police hadn’t noticed them was beyond him.

The ripper leader was the only one stood still. He was scanning the two lines of searchers and looked to be trying to locate a weak spot. The two lines were tight together and nothing was going to move them apart. Aaron glanced around and saw that some of the searchers around him were complete strangers. The only thing he knew about them was that they had had the same training he had. He stared forward at the rippers the length of a football pitch away.

Suddenly, one ripper broke from the herd and charged at the searcher lines. Wild and completely out of control the ripper was picking up speed and storming towards them. The ripper leader didn’t even flinch. As the ripper drew closer to them Aaron looked to the general who was calm and collected. Then in one swift movement the general launched his great sword at the ripper, piercing its brain through its jaw. The ripper’s body slid toward him and stopped at his feet with the sword handle pointing upwards. The general then calmly removed his sword, cleaned it on the clothes of the dead ripper, and returned to his stance in the line.

The ripper leader lifted his arm and the herd went quiet. He held this for a few seconds before throwing his arm forward towards the searchers. The ripper herd let out a collective raw and charged. Aaron noticed that the ripper leader did not move.

“Why does he stay?” He said. A few people looked to Abraham for the answer as they were thinking the same.

“Because he likes to see how the battle is going before he enters it. When we start winning he’ll disappear. He’s does it all the time but that coward can hide. He can hide well.” Abraham said keeping his eyes forward. “Focus searchers.” He shouted as the lines tightened slightly.

Aaron wasn’t gripped by fear but by a heightened sense of things. He was aware of his feet and arms more so than usual. He gripped his great sword and watched as the rippers came closer.

‘

Thanks for reading.

Bye

And the edit is done!

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Hello

 

After 41 days, the first edit of my humans versus demons yarn is completed. Oh how I smiled when I read the last word. Though I have enjoyed the process, I am glad it’s over. I’m looking forward to a break from writing and I will start back up again, be it either by writing a new story or editing The Searcher’s Want again, next year.

Wait…more edits…NO!!!!!

I knew I would have to edit my story at least ten times before I could maybe possibly send it to a proof reader to go over it. I’ve outlined that I’ll have to edit for; characters, description, locations, dialogue, punctuation, grammar, and probably a whole host of other things I’ll come up with once all those edits are done. But if I can keep each edit to around 40 days, I could have it done quicker than I think. I have to say I did not think I would be able to do it such a short time. I could actually make it shorter, which I now intend to do in the New Year. A few times I did feel like editing more but didn’t want to rush it. I felt it was easier to edit at a calm pace as not to rush the thing. And a few other times I decided to go to sleep instead. Sleep is good.

Anyway, I finished the edit! Here’s a few pictures of what is going on in my head right now as I think about how I’ve finished my first full story edit. Maybe. Bye!

20653-44412 Celebration 1 monkey-human-smile

November never ends.

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Hello

 

Alas November 2014 is done and dusted. Farewell to you. You are one of my favourite months. You make me become more focused on my writing than any other month could dream of. Over the past two years I’ve completed two NaNoWriMo’s and done my own editing challenge in the month of November. But though the calendar has moved on and tells me it’s December, I feel like you’re still around.

That’s because you chuffin are. Aren’t you?

I gave myself the task of editing my NaNoWriMo 2012 story The Searchers Want, a tale of demons and those who search and kill them to protect the earth they all live on, and initially I was well on course to complete the edit in one month. I was sticking to my plan. I was doing well. But now I find myself with two more chapters to edit but no more November left to edit them in. How did this happen?

Well, I know how it happened. Life and illness hindered my progress. Though I am very pleased to have edited around 70,000 words in a month. I can’t complain really. I’ll have the rest of the edit done by the end of 2014 at least. Then, I’ll start all over again in 2015 after a short break of probably a week. This plan reminded me of how good writing breaks can be. I have always felt fresh and invigorated when I start to write again after taking a complete break. One of the blogs I follow, a lovely blog by the name of http://rlsharpe.wordpress.com/, recently posted about taking a break (http://rlsharpe.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/writing-tip-wednesday-taking-writing-breaks/) and I am now ready for a break of my own. Once this edit is done, I’ll break and then get back to it. I’m hoping to start research into time travel theories for my attempt at a sci-fi story based on the same. I’m fully prepared for it to frazzle my mind. Wish me luck.

Right. Back to the edit. Bye!

The Edit VS Man Flu.

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Hello

 

Since last time I have been keeping to my edit plan. I’ve managed to do some editing each day and I now find myself at chapter 20 of 25. I’ll have chapter 20 read through and edited by the end of today but I should’ve had it done a couple of days ago. And here’s why…

It does annoy me that I don’t get to see my Sister, Brother in law and wild Nephew more often. But they would have to live in Sheffield wouldn’t they? No, Sheffield’s lovely and it’s their home. I just never seem to be able to get time off to sort something out. So when I heard they were coming to visit my parents and I could go up and see them that I was delighted. Awesome! I get to see them. Maybe wild Nephew won’t give me that ‘Who are you?’ look this time? Nah. Of course he did. But I got to spend time with him so it’s all good. It’s great to see how grown up he is. And once he and his parents had left to go back to Sheff-side I waved them goodbye thinking I wouldn’t see them again until Christmas.

But oh no, I wasn’t that lucky.

Because you see the wild Nephew, I’m sure it was him, left part him with me and my parents before he left. The cold and flu part more popularly known as the dreaded Man Flu. Now, I went to visit my parents this past weekend hoping that the aches I had been experiencing in the week prior would go away. That it was all a result of the exercise I’d been doing for the three days back to back previously. But alas no. As I prepared to go on the Saturday I had gotten worse. And my parents had also gotten the bug. So we all spent the weekend feeling ill together as a family. Togetherness and all that. Then, Monday comes around. ‘I’m okay to go into work.’ I say. ‘No you’re not you idiot’ says my body and head CLEARLY. I didn’t listen. Went in work, had an awful, yet surprisingly productive, day. Got home. Went to bed. Had Tuesday off work to recover. Went in today feeling a lot better but was late because I thought I’d left the water running. Which I hadn’t done. Because I’ve never done that. This now means I owe 1 hour back to my employer.

And this all means that I missed a few priceless days of editing.

I’m not too disheartened though. As long as I keep up my edit something each day plan I’ll have it done by the beginning of December. It’s not so bad actually…but Man Flu sucks. And I missed a fire alarm at work yesterday. As a fire warden, it’s always amusing to see how wrong most people get it when one goes off. Anyway…

Lovely to have you read a post of mine as always. Good Bye!

And the Edit goes on La de da de de, la de da de da

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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

Oh editing, how I love and hate thee so.

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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.

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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?

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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