I forgot how good these parts are.

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Hello

As I mentioned in my last post I’ve been trying to keep to a writing schedule. I’ve stuck to using Tuesdays as a reading and commenting day and Wednesdays as a definite writing day. I have been able to write on some of the other days whenever I can. In doing this I’ve realised that I can’t really keep to any set writing schedule and I’m thinking I should just write when I can and want. Though Tuesdays and Wednesdays plans will stick for now.

I asked the many groups I’m part of on Facebook and in response I got various comments that suggested a writing plan was both good and bad. I think I’ll see how it goes for now and whether I’d stick to a more disciplined approach (writing at certain times) or a random approach (writing when I want). I’ll keep you posted.

Now onto what this posts title is going on about. I’m currently writing the second to last (or possibly last) chapter of my story ‘The Searchers Want’ which I started for NaNoWriMo and I’m writing the third chapter of my newest story, my take on the vampire myth, ‘The End Solution.’

With Searchers Want I’ve written the story from the third person and focused on the hero. I’ve also jumped to focusing on the villain(s) and the other supporting hero cast as well. The story is concluding with an epic battle between ours heroes and the villains (of course). I have always enjoyed writing the ends of stories as I’ve usually already written them in my head. This means that I already have a template to work from so I’m editing my first draft (which is in my head) whilst writing my first draft (on paper). If that makes sense. In any case I had forgotten how this feels and it’s yet another reason why I love to write.

With The End Solution I’ve decided to write from the third person (surprise) but have the first three chapters introduce the three main characters and two supporting characters whilst starting the story right in the middle of the action. This has worked nicely as I’ve started the story with an event perpetrated by a man (chapter 1) and had the three supporting characters looking for him in a story which runs alongside the event (chapter 2). Chapter 3 introduces the villain and his efforts to try capture him. All this has allowed me to describe and introduce the characters and give the reader a taste of things to come. Hopefully I will make people want to read on.

This all leads me onto my question of the post, how would you introduce your main characters? Straight away or part way through or neither?

Bye Bye

 

A schedule to try and keep.

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Hello

As I’ve mentioned previously I’ve been hoping and trying to keep to a writing schedule. This has so far been fairly successful.

After updating this very blog last week I read a couple of stories on www.protagonize.com. Both of which were good and worked well to help me get back into it. One was young adult (well written and rude but also a little dull) and the other was a chapter of fantasy story I’ve been reading. Its called The War Golum. And it’s awesome. I’ve missed protagonize….

Anyway I would have liked to do more but time got away from me. Tonight I hope to read a few more stories. If time will allow of course.

My writing has also kept going at a steady pace. I’ve hit the main part of the climax to my story I started with NaNoWriMo ‘Searcher’s Want.’ Tomorrow when I pick it back up again I’ll be close to finishing the whole thing. This is something I’ve been waiting for since I started writing the thing back in November 2012. Don’t worry, I won’t rush into it. But I might do. A little bit.

The other story, my second go at my take on the vampire myth ‘The End Solution’, is taking shape even nicer. I want to try and build a world where the government has ultimate control and rules the country like a dictatorship. They kill those who oppose them and tell the rest what to think and do. They have huge government buildings in each major city that tower over it. The only thing that could stop them is the one thing they wanted to create…oooooooo and so on. I’m having fun putting it together and building on some of the characters I mentioned when I did my first draft. Which has been posted on this blog before (3rd February 2013)

Right, I’m going to have a look around and read some stories. But I leave you with a question. Do you find it hard to commit to a writing plan? Either whilst writing one story or many?

Cheers

 

 

 

Thank You!

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Hello

 

Just a quick one to say thank you for following me. I’ve just been informed that I now have 10 followers. It may not be much, but it’s ten more than this time last year. May the trend continue.

Thank-you

And just so I can’t be confused of not being multilingual….

 

 

Thank-You2

Cheers

Me and my medal.

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image

This is me after a day that consisted of running a 10k and drinking a fair bit of alcohol.
After doing one more errand after posing for this picture, I lay down and was asleep within minutes. And I snored too according to my girlfriend. All worth it.

The glory of the laptop.

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Hello

I would like to start off by saying that I ticked off something from my bucket list this weekend. I completed a 10k run in under an hour ( 54 minutes 50 seconds ). I’m hoping to do next year’s run and try and keep it up for the next few years at least. Wish me luck.

Ok. As you may or may not know I’ve recently embarked on a quest to write two stories at once without getting confused. I’m happy to say that this quest is going very well. Writing two stories side by side (ish) is keeping my mind fresh and I haven’t found myself struggling to write any of them at any time. By that I mean I’m not just writing to get my word count up I’m writing what I feel to be good stuff. Obviously this may be all completely binned come the editing stage but I’m quietly confident.

As for the title of this post, I recently acquired a laptop which is going a long way to helping me to try and get a writing schedule that I can realistically keep to. Since the New Year I have wanted to keep some kind of schedule for my writing. This would (or should) allow me to write on a regular basis and to read other authors stories on a more regular basis as well. I have always enjoyed reading other stories and having the people who frequent the websites I use (http://www.protagonize.com being the main one amongst them) give me feedback. It’s mostly useful feedback I have received so far as most of them are in the same position I am.

My laptop looks is looking like the perfect tool to help get this done.

Just the other day, I found myself waiting for my food to cook and wondering what I could do. I felt like writing but knew that I only had a certain amount of time in which to do so before my food was ready. Then I remembered my laptop. Just sat there on top of my printer waiting to be used. I managed to write a full page for one of my stories which, though it could turn out to be completely useless, has got me a lot closer to being able to make that decision.

So, officially following on from my last post I have prepared a rough schedule for my writing. This currently amounts to whenever I post on this very blog I will look to participate more in the online writing groups I’m part of and the websites I’m a member of. On any other week day I will try to write something towards my two current stories. This all leads me to a question…

What is your current writing plan?

Good pie

 

 

Preparation of all kinds.

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Hello

I’ve continued to write two stories at once and I still enjoy the hell out of it. I’ve not however been able to do this as much as I’d like.

I like to think that I have a good life balance and can spend enough time on each of the things I like to do. This past week though I’ve been a bit relaxed and need to get back into the swing of things. I’m prepared to do some serious writing over the next few days in order to make up for doing not that much over the previous few days.

I’ve got a clear plan in my head and I will hope to accomplish it over the next week and beyond. I’ll keep you posted of course.

My excuse for not writing more often you ask and/or wonder? (Possibly) I just fancied some time chilling out and doing next to nothing. This along with seeing my lovely girlfriend have meant that my writing time has become small and almost non-existent. I’m prepared to make up for that starting today.

I have also been preparing for the Bupa Manchester 10K run. This is something that has been on my bucket list for a while and I’m really looking forward to it. When I applied (because my girlfriend did and who is now NOT taking part due to her reoccurring knee injury) I was slightly scared as I’d not run 10k before signing up. That was back in October (or possibly before I can’t remember) but now my time for running 10k is 56 minutes. When I applied I said I could run it in under and hour so I’m more than confident. I know I can do better than this though and aim too either before the run or on the day. I’m prepared to push myself and I quite honestly can’t wait to do so.

Well I’m off to get some food and then start with the writing again. Laters

 

Two things at once. Hmm…Yeah I’ll give it a try. Oh and notes are awesome by the way.

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Hello

I’ve continued to write my battle scene and I’m happy to say that I’m close to its climax. Not because it was a chore to write the scene (I had to stop myself from getting carried away) but because I already have the end planned out in my head. Now all I’ve got to do is make sure I don’t get carried away (again) and write too much. On a related note, I read a quote recently which sums up how I’d like to be able to write one day. It came from the mind of Linda Harrison and was written inside an article in the June edition of ‘Writing Magazine’ entitled ‘Short and Sweet’.

“Always remember that brilliant writers can pack more of a punch into one line than mediocre writers can achieve in a thousand words.”

The article was about freelancers pitching ideas to editors but this line stood out for me. And it was also written in bigger letters in the middle of the article which helped. I have always enjoyed a good piece of dialogue which could give a twist away or change the whole direction of a story, film or TV programme in just a few seconds. I try and aim to do this but in doing so I’m putting pressure on myself. Hopefully I’ll get over this and reach that goal of a truly great piece of dialogue. And in order to do that I need to write and write some more. So…

As I was writing my battle scene I decided to go back to an old story I had written and put onto protagonize.com and critique circle.com. It’s my take on the vampire myth. If you want to see an older and extremely rougher version of it I posted it on this very blog. The blog post was dated September 2 2012 if you’re interested.

I’ve gone back to it and started to write the first chapter. I’ve found that it’s a good work out for the brain (well mine anyway) to be working on two stories at once. And I’m not finding it as hard as I thought I would as I’ve written a lot of notes for both stories. I’ll keep you updated on how this goes.

I’m going to get back to it. And I leave you with a few questions.

Have you ever written more than one story at once? And if so, how did you find it?

Cheers

 

A little bit here, a little bit there.

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Hello

As I got back to writing my battle scene I noticed that it could use a little something. I have done some writing for each of the main characters and showed them fighting within the battle itself. I haven’t however written about the battle in general and how it is going, shaping up, advancing etc. I looked over the advice I was given a few weeks ago and ummed and arred about how to approach it….

I decided to just jump right in and try and write a battle scene I’d like to see in the end. I always write like this anyway but whenever I’m writing any kind of action I always enjoy it a little bit more. I’ve managed to move the battle along and put my heroes in peril. I’m only part way through it and I’m looking forward to using smell as an indicator of the atmosphere of the battle. It has always helped me when I’m reading a battle scene and as I’m currently reading Giles Kristian’s Odin’s Wolves that applies this (amongst a load of other things) really well I feel I should at least give it a shot. This will all eventually lead to the prelude to the climax of the battle, which I’ve already got written in my head. I’ve also got to remember to feature the police at some point. They come into it after the battle has finished. They witness everything and then come in at the end.

I was going to have the police come in midway through the battle but I decided they wouldn’t be any match for the searchers(advanced humans-non steroid in most cases) and demons(a lot more powerful than them and have no desire to ‘stop’ at any time even when asked politely). The police are only going to be used to let the world know about the searchers and the demons. Which leads me to my question to end this post…

If you needed to send a message to the world and have it listen, how would you do it?

BYE

The Battle Continues With Thanks.

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Hello

I’ve received some great feedback from my question in my last blog post regarding the battle scene for my story. I’ve jotted down the ideas and will be putting some of them into action soon. I can’t thank the members of the various groups I’m part of on Facebook enough. In particular, Jaden Diebold of the ‘Fantasy Writers’ group, ‘Emmalyn Edwards’ of the ‘WRITING’ group (who also mentioned me in her blog at the following address http://home.earthlink.net/~wyverns/2013.04.01_arch.html#1367095376952 which was AWESOME!!) and Gina Marquita Fiserova of the ‘Writing Friends’ group. They have all given me many nuggets of help for the future.

Now, as for the battle. I continued down the route of telling the story from various view points. I’m currently writing from the view point of the main villain who is about to attack the leader of the Searchers (our heroes). This is not the leader of the army of Searchers in the battle mind you but the now disgraced leader looking to make good. Once I’ve done this I’m going to go back and add in another chapter which will be full of battle scenes. This chapter will be told from a third person perspective and will (hopefully) show how our heroes and villains both go on in the battle before the climax.

I’ve always liked writing battle scenes or any scenes were something is actually happening. I seem to write slightly quicker when I do this aswell. Ok. I’m going to get back to it.

Thanks again to everyone who helped. I’ll let you know how it all ended.

Good Pie

The Battle Commences.

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Hello

As I wrote in my last post I was getting closer and closer to the final battle of the story I started to write for NaNoWriMo. I started by writing out how the battle would go by bullet pointing the key thingshappenings within it. I’ve read numerous times that this is a good way of planning your chapters, big scenes, whole books etc but I always prefer doing this for the climax of my stories.

I tried it once for a whole story but I ended up only using the first few points and the last few. All the ones in the middle got either moved around or changed or deleted. I’m not saying it’s a bad way to go about these things but it’s not my chosen way. Anyway…

I’ve started writing the battle scene.

To set the battle…scene our heroes, the searchers who search and kill the demons, have throughout the story been fighting against four different types of demon. The Calculating demon, the Cautious- Calm demon, the Catcher demon and the Rambunctious or ‘Ripper’ demon. The Ripper has shown itself to be the more dominant one with the guidance help of their intelligent and strong in all ways leader. After he had lost the last battle against the searchers he has committed himself to getting revenge. He has pulled together an army of ripper’s intent on taking back what he believes to be rightfully theirs. Earth. The searchers have now come together from all over the world to try and defend it.

I’m being slightly biased but I think this sounds well good. I was slightly giddy when I came up with this about half way through(ish, possibly) writing the story. As I’ve said before I’ve been looking forward to writing this for a while.

I did agonise a little bit about how to start but I just thought I’d go for it and take care of any inconsistencies or moments of rubbishness in the editing process. I’m happy I did this as I’m enjoying writing it so far. I’m going to go and write some more now I think.

I’ve decided to write the first chapter (of three) for the battle from the view points of each of the main characters, the police and the villain. I’m liking it so far but I’m not sure if it’s the best way to write a battle scene. So, I ask you this?

How would you write an epic battle scene?

Cheers