Good evening, folks! How are we all doing tonight?
I’m not likely to get the vampire book done by midnight tomorrow, but is it really the end of the world? I can multitask, especially in those early days of NaNo. The initial excitement of the month kicking off, that energy we all have as we jump off the start line like it’s a marathon and we’re sprinting over the start instead of taking a nice gentle pace from the gun.
I’m not going to try and get ahead early on like I normally do. Most years I prepare for the worst of loosing lots of days midway or at the end of the month, but this year I’m going to look at focusing on a steady pace and getting a good foundation of this story down. I’m going to try and push myself out of my comfort zone with this one. It’s one I’ve been wanting to write for a while, have even tried a couple of times, but haven’t felt competent as a writer to do this story justice. I’m not knocking my own abilities as a writer, I feel this story I’m going to need to dig deep, and go for a different energy to what I normally write.
Can I do it? can I make this work in the way that I want it to? Ask me in two weeks.
A random picture of the river Medway in Maidstone from Friday
It is a gorgeous sunny day out there, and I’m at my desk because I need to get some words wrangled!
My aim for today is to do my final pass on Zombie. I’ve added in the rewritten ending and have a load of notes to work through for it and then I’ll hopefully be done with it. The notes aren’t like massive rewrites or anything like that. A lot of them are notes from my editor that’ll help build the characters and the world, and have it make more sense.
I do have a video that I need to get some more work done on and I’d love to post it today, but I’m kind of bottling it at the moment. Just that self-doubt creeping in again.
My plans for my Ko-Fi page are moving along, albeit it a little slowly. I’ve almost got the first year’s worth of content lined up. I’m just going to go simple and have it as one short story a month and then with additional bits and pieces added in as and when I can. I’ll be open with what I want to do when it comes to memberships, in time I’d like to change it up a bit but for now I’m going to keep it simple.
I had a little waiting around time yesterday while I picked up a prescription, so I walked down to St.Georges church and sat in it’s grounds for a little while. It was pretty nice and calming down there. (managed to find a plot hole fix as well). It was nice just listening to the world for twenty minutes, letting my soul absorb the space.
I can be very critical of my hometown. I think it’s one of many towns that is slowly dying and one of the things keeping it alive is its proximity to London. As I walked through town yesterday I couldn’t help but look at all the flats being built. Some into every nook and cranny going, while others are being rammed into old buildings. Gravesend feels like its become a bed for the workers who travel to London each day. I don’t like this. We’re not a B&B. This town has some amazing history and I’d love to see it bloom.
Now, I don’t keep track of the politics of the town, or the mechanics of administrating a town, but I’d like to see more done to build this town that has some amazing people in it. There are so many empty shops, so much litter on the streets (the street cleaners do a great job but it’s a never ending battle for them). We need to change the mentality of those who call Gravesend home.
Somewhere around here is Pocahontas’ final resting place. A selfie, obviously! 😂This was outside the church grounds but I like it’s energy
Right, I’m off to get some words edited. You all have a lovely day.
I’m going through one of those periods where my sleep is all over the shop. So I’m working on trying to adjust my evening routine so that I hopefully get some sleep. Part of that is watching an episode of a tv show or a movie I haven’t seen before. Something that’ll relax my mind a little. I’m also hoping it’ll help me get through some of my backlog of TV shows and movies that I need to catch up on.
I’ve fallen into the rut of rewatching a lot of shows and movies I’ve seen before, so pushing me out of a comfort zone which is toxic. It is comforting to know what happens in a show, but it can also suffocate us a little because we’re not experiencing new things. We’re not feeding our souls, and as creatives it leads to us stagnating. (Some, not all of us). We need those new tales to fuel our own creativity.
That’s what I’m working on. I’ve recently watched the newest adaptation of Nick Hornby’s book, High Fidelity. Now, I’m a fan of the original film (am yet to read the book). Okay, it has its faults and has some great examples of double standards when it comes to genders. It’s still a fun watch though. When I heard that not only was it being remade but with a gender flipped main character I was curious as to how it would come out. I was a little unsure about Zoe Kravitz in the lead role, and I’ll admit those first few seconds I feared that concern was going to have truth to it. I was wrong though, as soon as she started talking I was in. She had it down, perfectly. The rest of the cast was pretty spot on, and I liked the changes they’ve made from the original movie. I will read the book one day, because it’s a story I’ve always enjoyed.
Right now though, I’m watching The Man In The High Castle. I’m about three episodes into season three, after having a couple of years away from it for a number of reasons. Which I regret. I wished I’d watched these last two seasons sooner. I enjoyed the first two seasons immensely, and so far season three is proving to be as intriguing as the previous two. It’s very different from Phillip K. Dick’s original novel, but I like what they’ve done with it.
Let’s end with a little writing update. I wrote 300 words today on the short story I’ve been working on, it’s taken a turn I wasn’t expecting and what was going to be a secondary character has become the protagonist of the piece. I’m not sure if I can weave it and the original story together, but I’m going to move forward with the intention of the original story being a part of it.
I’ve got a lot I want to get through tonight, so let’s get cracking!
The anthology K is for Kidnap came out featuring my story ‘Mother is God’ and is available in ebook and paperback. Please hit the link and check it out!
Love this cover!
The fantastic Leah Solmaz is working on an adaptation of one of my short stories! (squeeeeee!!!!!) Please go and check out Leah’s Instagram page, where you can see the intro!!! I’m super excited about this. Not only because something I’ve written is being adapted into a short animated movie, but also because its working with Leah who is a fantastic human being and damn talented as well. If you haven’t watched Theosight please check it out, I’ll add it to this post.
I have started on reading through and making notes based on the editors read of ‘Is that a zombie?’ I started then got hit with a head cold that knocked me off my feet. I focused my energy on work and matters away from writing. I’m going to get back on track with it by the weekend.
I’ve had a beta reader look at some of my longer pieces and got some excellent feedback, including that one wasn’t as polished as the other, so I need to go back and put my editing head back on to look it over.
Something I’m going to do in the next day or so is sit down and get my bearings on the different projects again. I’ve got a few which are at different stages and I’m just going to write them all down and figure where they all are.
On top of all of that we’ve got NaNoWriMo just around the corner…..
I am struggling to get back in the flow, much more then I thought I would. But it’s there, and I know NaNo will give me a massive boost and help get the words wrangled.
I’ve written 1501 words today. All recent wordage has been on the mermaid story. I’m not sure how much I’ve said about this story, but essentially it was a short story I wrote years ago but always felt like there was more to tell. This is what I’m doing now. I’ve already built on it and done lots of brainstorming and I am now almost past the point where the original short story ended. I’m excited by this as now I’m very close to writing a whole new part of this story that only exists in my head and in a few notes.
So it’s quite exciting at the moment.
Right, I’m off to settle for the night. Got what could be a busy day tomorrow so I’m gonna try and get an early night.
I finished this fine novel last night and wasn’t disappointed with the ending ☺️
Hey folks! Although I didn’t wrap up this draft of Black Blood I did add another 1500 or so words to the 500+ that I wrote this morning for a total of 2110 words for the day. Hopefully come tomorrow I’ll be able to wrap this sod up! I am so ready to be done with this draft.
Once it’s done I can move onto the next stage of Penal Earth, which will be a digital read through. I’m tempted to change things a little with my process and do two read throughs. Do the first one where I’ll make the changes as I go, and then a few weeks later go through it again to see what else I pick up. I’ll still do a red pen edit because I find an out loud read always finds bits and pieces that other edit passes don’t.
I had to get into proper game mode today!
With Penal Earth, I’m going to submit it to publishers. I’ve got my dream ones I’ll send it to first and see how well I do. I’m not expecting to get it accepted, and I can always self pub it if it doesn’t, but it’s not going to hurt to send it out to editors and smaller presses that I respect. That’s why I’m determined to do a good job with it. The zombie will be my first step into putting my work out there, and it has to be good. But Penal Earth is a full length novel that is part one of a trilogy. Now, part of me thinks I should just get something written which is a one and done, but with a few threads that I could pick up if it does well, but Penal Earth I’ve got a lot of confidence in, and if it doesn’t do well I can always self pub the rest of the trilogy when the rights revert to me or I manage to work it so I can publish them sooner. That’s a bridge I’ll cross when the time comes though.
Right, seeing is I’ve exhausted my creative wells today I’m going to watched sitcoms and tidy up before dinner.
Have a super day, folks!
I finished First and Only the other day, so now onto book two of the Gaunts Ghosts series, Ghostmaker.
1185 words written today. I’m at the point with NaNo where the urge to edit is kicking in! So I might try and do some editing on a short story and see if that quells that urge.
I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, today. I had a phone call just after midday and then a friend who is a very skilled writer text me asking if had five minutes to brainstorm a problem she had with a story she’s gearing up to write. That five minutes ended up being three hours, it a damn good three hours. It was good working ideas out and just letter her talk out her ideas. The story itself sounds damn good and I’m kinda itching to read it. So I’m gonna start bugging her to make sure she’s writing, because that’s what friends do!
The first story I ever had published was in Sparks, from Burdizzo Books. I still can’t quite believe that I’m a published author, but I have proof of it, even if I have to pinch myself once in a while. My story, ‘The Last Charge’ is one that was very easy to write. I wrote from the hip, no real idea where I was going with it. Looking back, I’d have done a few things differently, but I don’t look at it and cringe. It’s still something that I am still very proud of.
Imposter syndrome is real, very real. But I don’t feel as bad about having it hitting me once in a while when I hear of well established authors suffering from it. What beats over that feeling is the buzz you get from having a story published. I’ve only encountered two things that have given me a better high (no, not narcotics!).
Right, folks! I’m settling in for a movie (The Cave), and then a busy day tomorrow.
1617 words today over the course of five Starship Troopers movies. That’s day three where I’ve done both a movie marathon and writing at the same time. Not the best for productivity, (let’s ignore the 3k I wrote Friday) but I still got words down and am still ahead of the NaNo target. I’m not quite where I’d like to have been, but I need to balance my time off and writing so I actually get some down time. I can find that balance.
Such an awesome series, and one that I’ve found very inspirational over the years.
Tomorrow I need to get some editing done, it’s only a short story. Very short, so it won’t take long. I’d also like to get some work done on Penal Earth as well. I’m not the most gifted at sticking to one project so it’s time to dive into another one and get some words done on that one.
I am about to sit down and review my works in progress and set myself a little plan of action for the next week and try to stick to it! Which has always been my failing but I’ll persist and try and stick to what I list.
Something I am very guilty of is rewatching the same movies and shows, yes I’ve spent the last three days doing that but that was a special occasion. Time off work and a desire to watch some movies I’ve not watched in quite some time. So I’m trying to watch more that I haven’t seen before. I know I run back to old favourites when I’m not doing too well, it’s a comfort thing. But I need new input. I need to check mow out. Right now I’m watching Dead Space Downfall, never played these games but the film sounded interesting. So far I’m not disappointed.
With that said, I’m going to wrap this up now. Touch base with where I am with projects and make a small list of work for this coming week.
2068 words today. Another day where I’m doing what I consider NaNoWriMo numbers. When I was getting back into writing a few months ago I was scared I’d never get back to where I was. The thought of doing NaNo terrifies me because I know what it takes. I’m not feeling that now. I’m feeling confident, in a way I’ve not felt before. It’s not the false confidence I’ve had before. This feels, right. Like I’m capable of achieving my goals.
A month and a half until NaNoWriMo begins. Despite what I said in the last paragraph about hitting goals, there’s some I’m just not gonna hit that I set to have done by NaNo. This isn’t me being negative, it’s me being realistic. If I keep at this sort of pace, I could do it. But life is life. I can write everyday, but some days it’ll be a few hundred words and not the 2k like today. I’m in the position at this stage of my writing career where I haven’t got deadlines, and the ones I have are open submission calls. So if I miss them, I’m not faulting on a contract.
Today’s random picture 😉
I’m feeling focused and motivated. I need to step up in other areas of life as well. I’ve faltered a little recently so I need to get back on track, and find the right balance for everything.
It’s one step at a time. One hurdle at a time. Even if I go back a step, I’m aiming to move forward two steps tomorrow.
I mentioned my bookcases in my post this morning, and that’s something that I’m not doing well with. Reading.
It has been months since I properly sat down and read anything. Each time I’ve tried I’ve not had the attention span or been able to shut my mind off enough to get immersed properly.
Luckily I’ve had some audiobooks I’ve been listening to on my commute but I need to get back to a point where I’m reading before bed again. That was when I’d really enjoy the act. It would also put me in a good place to be able to sleep better.
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
The two books I’ve been reading are Clickers Forever, which is the tribute anthology to J.F. Gonzalez. The other is Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.
I’m further into Clickers Forever than Six Wakes, which I’ve only just started.
Clickers Forever: A Tribute to J.F. Gonzalez
I’m going to dive in hard with these two this week and hopefully I’ll get through the rough and start getting back into the habit and routine of reading again.
Peter Germany's World 