Halo

January 2023 Reflections

Peter Germany Cat, Editing, Health, Horror, Horror Writer, Life, Lifestyle, Men’s Mental Health, Mental Health, Preparation, Sci-Fi, Travel, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January wasn’t a bad month, I wrote 5448 words, and edited 51758 words.

I realised I needed a lot more background work on War Child before I can move forward with it. So I decided to go back to Black Blood while I start building what I need to progress on War Child. Because I’ve had a somewhat busy and interesting month I’ve not done as much on War Child, or writing work in general, as I’d have liked. But it’s not been disappointing though, it’s given me time to let War Child simmer nicely, let ideas grow naturally. I think that element has been very helpful in that I haven’t just rushed through it and made a pigs ear out of it all.

The edit on Black Blood is not overly taxing. For the most part it is just going through and taking out any little spelling and grammar errors. This will be my final pass on Black Blood before it’s shelved until I have the money to get it edited. It’s behind Penal Earth in that queue.

Not quite what I was hoping for, but still enjoyed it.

On a personal note, I had some good news which came near the end of the month. I broke out of my fear-built cocoon and got away for a couple of days, I’ll have a post about that soon. I feel like I’ve had some good mental and emotional growth, and have made some interesting self-realised revelations about myself. Which, honestly, I’m still working on figuring out.

Selfie while in Brighton

But I tell you what, it feels good.

Sunday, 10th of January 2021

Peter Germany Editing, Horror, Horror Writer, Life, Outlining, Planning, Short Fiction, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good Afternoon, folks!

Despite not getting outta bed much before 11am I’ve edited 6802 words on Black Blood and written 835 on a new short story set in my Penal Earth universe. That setting has been nipping away at me for a few days now, and the fact I’ve done a lot of editing so far this year meant I needed to get some new words down.

I’ve got a rough idea of the story I want to tell, but as normal, I don’t know what’s going to happen as the words are coming out. I can’t even tell you yet how long I think it’ll be as I don’t know. I’m just letting my gut go with it and see what happens. I think where I’ve not really done anything new since NaNo, and even then it wasn’t really new ground, I’m getting a little twitchy and need to get some fresh words out.

My priority is the Black Blood edit, but in the past I have found I can be very productive when working on two projects, or more, at a time. So I’m hoping to see how well I do with balancing these two this next week or so. I also have another project that is due by, April I think, that I can dive into if I need a little more variation. I think I’ll be aiming to have a first draft of that done by the end of February.

This Master Chief was a present from my dear friend Stefan (from Stefan’s Daily Gaming).

That leads into something I need to do better with, planning out the next few weeks of work. I need to consider deadlines, both self-imposed and from editors, and plan out my time. If I’ve got something written down I think it might lead to me being more organised.

I’ve got a week of earlies for the most part this next week, so I’m not sure how my writing week will be, but I’m aiming to do a little each day. Getting enough sleep is something I’m beginning to appreciate, and will be getting earlier nights, especially when I’ve got an early to contend with.

It’s the little details that make a story.

Reading is something I really need to be pulling my finger out with as well. That was the something that I stopped doing in the last eighteen months and I’m desperate to get myself back in the habit of reading. I’ve got so many great books to read and it’s time I force myself to get back onto that wagon.

Right, folks! I’m going to leave it there. Have an awesome day and good week ahead!

Good Morning, Sunday

Peter Germany Video Games, Writing , , , , , , , ,

It feels like I haven’t done one of these in a while, what with NaNo going on I’ve been rather focused on that and have obviously been blogging daily with my progress.

I won’t focus too much on NaNoWriMo here, I’ll just say its going well and I’m seeing the parts of the story that are working better than others. When I come to edit it I’m thinking of adjusting the pacing of it and giving more of the focus of the book to one of my two protagonists. It’s an odd story because I don’t really have an antagonist, both of the protagonists could also be viewed as antagonists as well. So it’s quite an interesting story to be working on.

Something I’m going to try and do in future is a bit more gaming. I love games like GTAV, Halo, Gears Of War, Mario Kart, Arkham Knight(I’ve just brought Return to Arkham too), and last night I started getting stuck into the new DOOM game. It’s something that I really enjoy and find it opens up other parts of my brain. I’m going to try and spend an evening a week gaming and blowing off steam.

I need to be reading more as well, that’s something I’ll be picking up in the next week and trying to get a routine going. I’ve got a couple of movies and new TV shows I want to get stuck into as well. I’m falling into re-watching shows and movies, which I love, but I want to get stuck into some new shows and movies.

Right, I’m off to get some words written. I’m not expecting to knock out 2000 words in just over an hour like yesterday, but I’m going hop on a couple of online sprints and see how I do. Then, time to get stuck into Gears of War 4.

Have a good day, everyone!

Some Free Time

Peter Germany Editing, Insperation, Movies, Sci-Fi, Video Games, Writing , , , , , , , , , , ,

This coming week I am off from the day job for some much-needed R&R. I’m quite lucky in the fact that I enjoy my day job a lot, work with a great group of lads and lasses and I have a great boss but I am really looking forward to taking this week and not having to think about the time I get to bed, or what time I get up.

It’s not all going to be sitting around and chilling though. Tomorrow (Monday) I’m off to Owen’s to work on Project Apollo, which in turn works on The Space Watch (Project Delphi). Hopefully we’ll be able to solve a problem we have with Project Apollo which is I ran out of steam just as I should have been smoothing the middle of the story out. I’m really hoping we can get it sorted so that once I am finished with my current, solo, WIP we can get Project Apollo finished and have a finished draft.

I would love to say that I will have my WIP finished by the end of the week, but I’m not going to say that. I don’t think I will be doing much writing this week if I am totally honest. I will be spending time with Tracie but also just relaxing. Feet up playing Xbox or watching a few movies (I might have a Battlestar Galactica marathon) Although saying that after talking to Owen tomorrow I may be inspired and get cracking with a new-found enthusiasm.

Mentioning Xbox just there, I was over my good friend Stefan’s (http://stefanmcmachan.wordpress.com/) last night and were spent the night killing aliens on Halo 4, which is a great game which I cannot wait to get for myself. The only aspect fo the game that I’m not a fan of is the Point Of View. It’s 1st person but I generally prefer the 3rd person POV you get with games like Gears Of War, but it doesnt put me off enough to stop playing 😉

Tie-In Novels

Peter Germany Book Review, Books, Insperation, Sci-Fi, Writing , , , , ,

A good friend of mine brought me the tie-in novel of the Battlestar Galactica mini series/pilot. Now I’ve read a couple of the Halo tie-in novels and neurally enjoyed them and I’m now just shy of 200 words into this and I’m really enjoying it, but it has got me thinking. Would I be able to write a novel like this. I’m not sure I’d write a tie-in in this manner. I’d love to write in say the Galactica universe, or the Terminator one! I reckon I could write a really mean Terminator story.

I’m not sure how it would work writing a tie-in novel would work. Did the writer, Jeffrey A. Carver, have a copy of the original screenplay? Or did he just have a copy of the pilot?

One thing I was hoping to get from this book is some of the thoughts and emotions from the characters as well as some of the background to the storyline. At first there was not too much but as I’ve got through it there is a fair mount of these extra details discreetly placed in the story. It’s been a quick read so far (when I have time to sit down and read that is!) it’s a good example of how to write a quick paced story. The chapters and paragraphs are generally short and snappy, like the scenes in the TV show.

Once I’ve wrapped up the read ill give a quick review of it 🙂