Avoiding The Game

1st Draft Is Done! 

Peter Germany Editing, Short Fiction, Writing

I wrapped up the first draft of the short story I’ve been working on yesterday. It’s topped out at about 3500 words that I’m quite happy with but when I get stuck into the second draft I’ve got a few changes to make and I’d like to add a few words at the beginning of the story as well to explain the situation a little better. I’ve got to add some detail in as well, some of it is a little vague in places.

I’ve had a couple of days off of AVG as I’m a little stuck as to how to connect where I am now and where I want to be to build to the ending. It’s actually bugging me quite a lot so hopefully I’ll find a solution soon.

It feels good getting a draft completed, even if it is only a short story. Feels like progress 🙂 

Good Morning, Monday!

Peter Germany Writing ,

This week I’m going to focus on getting back into a writing mindset once more. I know I’ve been writing quite regularly over the last couple of weeks but I need to get my focus on it again. I can feel that focus coming back to me but I need to push myself that final inch to be where I want to be.

What am I working on? 

I’m working on the AVG rewrite and a short story that I’m playing close to my chest. Those two WIPs are where my main focus will be but I’ll be working on planning a couple of other projects.

My main project is the AVG rewrite though. That’s the WIP that I’ll be aiming to hit my 500 word a day target on and any other words I add on the short story will be a bonus. I have no idea of my AVG word count as I’m working on paper for this but I’m at well over eighty pages of A4 now and I think I’m over the halfway point of the story, but not by too much though. I’ve still got a lot to tell before I’m at the ending.

I’m going to work hard on getting back into my groove this week. I feel ready and I’m enjoying writing again.

Good Morning, Wednesday 

Peter Germany Writing

I managed to pass my target last night, although it was a slow writing session as I was watching a movie as I was writing. Sometimes I find it helps if I’m watching a movie I like, but that doesn’t engage me as much as other movies do and although it feels like it means I’m writing slower I’m rarely unhappy with what I’ve produce when I look it over before writing the next day.

One thing I think I’ve done with AVG is repeat myself a little too much. There’s a bit of a mystery which runs throughout the story that won’t get answered till the end and I think I’ve repeated the same conversation and internal thoughts a little too much. I’m expecting to cut a lot of that during later drafts (which is what they’re for).

I’m at eighty pages of longhand A4 of AVG now and the temptation to start typing it up keeps coming to me but I’m going to try and hold off until I’ve got this first draft finished. When I start typing it up I’m going to begin to rewrite various parts of it and I think I’d rather have a completed draft so I at least know the ending and there’s not much thats undiscovered about the story.

I did add a few words to the short story I started yesterday but not many, although I’m looking forward to the next part of it as it’ll be very action orientated 🙂

Finding The Fun

Peter Germany Short Fiction, Writing

I’ve had an idea in my head for a while now for a short story which has a connection to a WIP and today I took the bull by the horns and started work on it. I know I’m still working on the Avoiding The Game rewrite so this was something I’ll be working on around that.

As I said though, I just started work on it. I was queuing in Subway and the opening scene just popped into my head and I managed to get a couple of hundred words down then, and a couple of hundred between stuff this evening. It was freeing just being able to run with the story and not having any pressure on me to hit a home run with a first draft. 

It was fun again, and that is something that has been missing from my writing recently. I’m enjoying AVG but it’s a story I know quite well, and although I know how this one will end its still a journey of discovery and it’s exciting me a lot. I’m really itching to get stuck into it but I’ve still got AVG to get done, so I may use this short story as a sort of reward for getting a minimum word count done on AVG.

I’ve started writing this short story on my phone, which gives me a lot of freedom as to when and where I can add words. I need to get into the habit of taking advantage of the fact I’m carrying a computer around in my pocket.

Just a quick post tonight, I’m tired and I’d like to get an early start on the day tomorrow.

Have fun, everyone 🙂 

Looking Back At June

Peter Germany Writing , ,

I haven’t tallied up my word counts from June yet but they’ll barely add up to about 5000 words.

Throughout the month I kept thinking June would be a write-off but looking back at it now I’ve realised that it probably done me more good than bad, in having this break. I was able to rest my creative muscles and when I did write it was small snatches of words that I did get down. There was no pressure to hit a daily target, no stressing over how the various plot lines were going to tie together as what I’ve been working on is a lot simpler than Project Apollo is.

I’ve also began to enjoy writing again, the pressure I’d put myself under had drained away my love of writing and it’s now slowly returning. I’m not sure I’ll be hitting big word counts again soon but I’m liking where the story I’m working on (Avoiding the game rewrite) is going. I know how I’m going to answer the big question which will run through the story, I will need to go back and insert a few little bits here and there to make sure it’s as prevalent as I want it to be, but I’m happy with that part of the story.

With Project Apollo, I’m not sure where that is going at the moment. There are issues which I’m not sure how to deal with and Owen and I need to sit down and work a few things out before we proceed any further. I won’t make a start on it again though until I’ve done this draft of AVG, I want to finish it so I can type it up in a month or two.
That’s the compressed look at June, I’m hoping I’ll slowly improve my productivity this month but we’ll see.

Good Morning, Monday!

Peter Germany Editing, Vampires, Writing , ,

Right! It’s the start of a new week and I’d like it to be a productive one. I’m working on the Avoiding The Game rewrite and that’s in longhand so I’m not going to get any huge word counts but I’ve got a minimum I’m going to be aiming for this week. I think I’m past the halfway point in the novel now, and I’ve passed what has been a difficult emotional scene to write, so it does feel like I’ve got the ending on the horizon.

I’d also like to start making Beta Reader suggested tweaks on my Vampire collection. I spent a little time yesterday creating a Scrivener file for the project, one which suits the layout of the book better then just the standard one I’d been using, and I’d like to be a quarter of the way through the edits by the end of the week.

I’m trying to get back into the swing of things here, the last few weeks have been very testing for me and it’s time I got my head back on the job once more.

Good Morning

Peter Germany Editing, Writing , ,

In line with what I posted last night he’s a post 🙂 
I’ve not been up long and it looks a bit miserable out there today. I seriously doubt I’m going to get any words written today. Once I finish work at 3pm I’m going to wash my car (it’s at the point where the seldom used rear doors can’t open due to the build up of dirt). Then it’s home to clean out the henhouse and then I’m off out tonight with a couple of friends.

Tomorrow I’m thinking I may look at my vampire collection and start doing some of the edit notes for it. I may create a new Scrivener file for it as the current file isn’t the best format, I’d like to set it up so its in a novel with parts file for it. But that’s a minor detail and won’t take long.

As I said in my post last night I’m thinking about starting to type up what I’ve got written on the Avoiding The Game rewrite, so I may begin that tomorrow as well. All that will be after I’ve washed a motor home.
Have a good and productive day everyone 🙂 

Progress Report

Peter Germany Editing, Writing , , ,

There’s been very little progress.

I could leave it at just that but I’m not going to. I’m taking this month off from Project Apollo because I was struggling badly with it. The last chapter I wrote wasn’t acceptable at all. It was lazy, badly written and didn’t move the story along in the manner that Owen and I wanted it to.

My struggles with it was causing me sleepless nights and was causing a noticeable amount of stress. It wasn’t until a close personal friend sat me down and told me to take a breather from it that I realised how much it was affecting me. When I spoke to Owen about it he agreed that a break was needed.

Come next month we’re going to sit down and have a strategy meeting and read through what we have so far to make sure it’s on the right track and try to plot out the next segment of the story. I think this may be the hardest part as we’re entering the middle of the story and we need to advance in the right way so it ties in with the ending we have in mind.

Since the month has started I’ve thought a lot about the story and the surrounding universe and I’ve managed to come up with a few solutions to problems we’d not been able to solve. I think relieving that pressure of getting it written unblocked my mind a little.

I haven’t stopped writing totally though; I’ve gone back to working on the Avoiding The Game rewrite and I’ve solved the problem I was having with that. This rewrite is a totally different pace to Project Apollo which has been a breath of fresh air and I’m actually thinking about starting to type it up (so far its all been written in longhand). I’ve got a much better idea of my protagonist now and I’m happy with the reasoning for some of the actions that other characters do. After chatting with a friend today I’ve solved a problem with my protagonists past that was bothering me.

I am in a slump. I know I am because I’ve been here before and I’m trying to pull myself out of it. I’m happier when I’m writing, I’m more at peace and it energises me like nothing else. So over the next week I’m going to work hard on getting back into the habit of working on writing. I’ve got brainstorming to do, notes to type up. My vampire collection needs editing and I’ve got fiction to write.

I’m going to try and blog more as well. I find that being productive with my fiction and blogging seem to go hand in hand, so I’m going to make more of an effort to post here as well.

A Productive Day

Peter Germany Editing, Writing , , , ,

Despite what I wrote here yesterday I didn’t do any writing at all. I spent the day playing Football Manager and watching the score lines from the final day of the premier league season coming in.

Yes, I felt bad and very lazy about this.

Today though, I wrote 3100 words by about 1pm and then this afternoon I read through some Beta Reader notes for my vampire collection.

I emailed the latest, completed chapter off to Owen and I’m eagerly waiting to see what he thinks.

Now, as I said yesterday I think I’m only going to be able to work on Project Apollo when I have access to the Scrivener files, so why I’m on my lunch breaks at work I’m going to get back to working on the Avoiding The Game rewrite and I’m going to try and write on Project Apollo in the evenings. At worst I’m going to try and get a few thousand words done on Sundays.

But I’ll see how that goes 🙂

Looking Back At March

Peter Germany Editing, Writing , ,

Last month was a good month. I managed to get back into my groove and I managed to write 20655 words during the month. Most of those have been on the Avoiding The Game rewrite, but I’ve put that on the back burner a little and I’ve dived into the Project Apollo rewrite. I’m hand writing the fourth chapter and am typing up the third chapter at the moment. I haven’t yet gained the momentum on it I’d like to have done, but doing the initial draft on paper is slowing me down a little. It’s worth it though I think as when I’m typing it up I’m adding and rewriting where its needed. So hopefully it’s a much tighter draft.

Owen has been happy with what I’ve gotten done so far, he obviously has notes but we’ll get those added in when we work on the second draft. We both know the story very well, and Owen is going to keep me on track to make sure I don’t wonder off track too much. There are elements that we don’t agree on, but they are not anything that can’t be fixed in the editing phase.

On a personal level I just want a draft done. The first attempt at this story was a couple of years ago and isn’t that good. We have a lot of faith in the story, but our characters need a little work and the universe desperately needed some depth added to it. Since that draft was done Owen and I have spent a lot of time on universe building and I think we’re going to be able to flesh the story out with the details that’ll help the reader sink into the setting better.

Overall I think March was a good month, I wrote a lot of words and felt good about what I wrote. Now I’m aiming at building from last month and try to pick up a decent momentum going into April. Owen and I have set a deadline to have this Project Apollo draft done which is the 1st of June.