So NaNoWriMo is done and dusted for 2014. I was really stoked for it at the beginning, and determined to hit the 50,000 word mark. So how did I do? Did I succeed? Anyone who has read this blog in any depth will probably know the answer to that one.
No, I didn't make it to 50,000. I didn't even make it close, really. In the end I just cracked the halfway mark, with 25,000 words. In one sense you could call that a failure, but I'm not going to take it that way. Over the course of the last year I've been averaging a few thousand words a month, so I've done more than five times my usual output. That's a success. It may not have been the goal I set out to achieve, but it's still a pretty hefty total.
The best thing about it is that I feel like I barely had to make an effort at all (my favourite level of effort). Once I started falling behind I started taking my laptop to work to write during my lunch break, and also on the bus. Doing this I've been able to average 1,000 words a day with no trouble at all. It's more than I was doing when trying to write at home, probably because there are fewer distractions. Okay, there's the occasional drunk old man trying to get me to look up the news, but it's not quite as enticing as Castlevania. Whatever the reason, I'm getting more work done, and that's cool.
The Lightless Labyrinth is currently sitting at around 70,000 words, and I estimate that I'm maybe two-thirds of the way through. It's gotten much easier to write now that I've split my characters up and started killing a bunch of them. I think I'll be done with the first draft early next year.
WRITING PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 17,235 words (69,214 total)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
She by H. Rider Haggard
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Anatomy of Games blog by Jeremy Parish
Thor: God of Thunder #1-25 by Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic and others
Guardians of the Galaxy #1-17 by Brian Bendis and others
What I'm Watching:
WWE Raw
Walking Dead season 5
Game Center CX season 1
What I'm Playing:
Castlevania on the NES
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest on the NES
Monday, December 1, 2014
Monday, November 3, 2014
NaNoWriMo 2014 Update - Week 1
Okay, so technically it's only the third day, but such technicalities are for lesser men. I'm calling it week 1, and if you don't like it, then stiff cheddar. Go and practice your accuracy elsewhere.
Anyway, I'm pleased to say that I've been doing really well so far. I was helped by my family taking off and leaving me home alone for a whole day, and so far I've knocked out over 3,000 words of The Lightless Labyrinth. At least on the word count front, NaNo 2014 has gotten off to a good start.
One area I haven't done so well at is the social side of things. NaNoWriMo has a thriving on-line community, and a whole load of live events as well. I've considered going along to one of the write-ins at the local library, or the kick-off picnic, but so far I haven't been able to bring myself to go. As much as I do enjoy mingling with writerly types, I'm not so good at meeting large groups of people I don;t already know. It's the introverted, hateful soul I have, that doesn't want to engage with people. So for this year at least, it's going to be a solitary experience, but that's probably the way I like it. I've also dabbled with the NaNo forums, but I've never been much of a forum user. My best days of internet sociability went out with Usenet, I'm afraid. I'm just going to keep posting here, content that nobody is likely to read or answer. I'll just be here in my antisocial cocoon, writing about subterranean murders and stuff.
WEEKLY PROGRESS:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 3,716 words. Current total: 51,979 words. (It's down a couple of thousand since last time, but I cut out a lot of stuff during the redrafting process.)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
She by H. Rider Haggard
What I'm Watching
WWE Raw
Walking Dead season 5
Doctor Who season 8
What I'm Playing:
Orthanc
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Game Boy Advance version)
Anyway, I'm pleased to say that I've been doing really well so far. I was helped by my family taking off and leaving me home alone for a whole day, and so far I've knocked out over 3,000 words of The Lightless Labyrinth. At least on the word count front, NaNo 2014 has gotten off to a good start.
One area I haven't done so well at is the social side of things. NaNoWriMo has a thriving on-line community, and a whole load of live events as well. I've considered going along to one of the write-ins at the local library, or the kick-off picnic, but so far I haven't been able to bring myself to go. As much as I do enjoy mingling with writerly types, I'm not so good at meeting large groups of people I don;t already know. It's the introverted, hateful soul I have, that doesn't want to engage with people. So for this year at least, it's going to be a solitary experience, but that's probably the way I like it. I've also dabbled with the NaNo forums, but I've never been much of a forum user. My best days of internet sociability went out with Usenet, I'm afraid. I'm just going to keep posting here, content that nobody is likely to read or answer. I'll just be here in my antisocial cocoon, writing about subterranean murders and stuff.
WEEKLY PROGRESS:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 3,716 words. Current total: 51,979 words. (It's down a couple of thousand since last time, but I cut out a lot of stuff during the redrafting process.)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
She by H. Rider Haggard
What I'm Watching
WWE Raw
Walking Dead season 5
Doctor Who season 8
What I'm Playing:
Orthanc
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Game Boy Advance version)
Sunday, October 26, 2014
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
I finished this book months ago, and I really ought to have gotten to this by now, but time has slipped away from me. You'll have to forgive me if I'm a little vague on the details, because... Wait. Hang on. This is The Eye of the World? Book one of The Wheel of Time? I've probably read this thing ten times or more. No worries, then, I've got this sorted.
So, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This is a big one for me. I first encountered it when I was around 15 years old, and that's probably the exact right age for it: too old for simplistic "farmboy saves the world" fantasy stories, but not yet old enough to have grown out of that sort of thing.
Make no mistake, The Wheel of Time is a "farmboy saves the world" story, and we've all read our fair share of those. I feel like it transcends that description, though. In a lot of ways it's the ultimate story of its type. Certainly it's one of the longest, at over 4,000,000 words. But more than that, it takes the tale in messier directions than the norm, exploring things like what actually happens when a farmboy becomes a king. But that's for a later time; for the moment, we're in more familiar epic quest territory.
The first book begins the story of Rand al'Thor, the aforementioned farmboy, and how he and his friends discover that they are important in the battle against the Dark One. Most of the story finds them on the run from the Dark One's minions, trying to get to the safety of Tar Valon.
I was struck upon this reading at just what a sudden lurch the finale of this book is. The characters spend the whole book with one goal in mind: to reach Tar Valon, home of the Aes Sedai (lady wizards, basically). Then, with about one hundred pages to go, they abandon that goal to head off into the Blight to foil the Dark One's plan to "blind the Eye of the World and break the Wheel of Time". It comes out of nowhere, and in some ways it feels as though Jordan hit a deadline and had to rush the ending. It doesn't seem likely, because he's usually a very meticulous writer, but this particular instance stands out to me.
On the other hand, there's a moment that I used to feel came out of nowhere, but is actually foreshadowed quite well: Rand's ability to channel, and the revelation that he is the Dragon Reborn. Upon my first reading, as a dumb kid, I had thought this done poorly. I don't know what I was thinking, because it's obvious in hindsight. There's even a scene where Rand is cornered by bad guys, and they get mysteriously struck by lightning. Dumb kid me got so angry at that scene, because, well, it's a stupid, random way to get the hero out of trouble. Except it wasn't a random lightning strike, it was Rand using the Power. Not to mention the episodes Rand has where he alternates between nausea and madness, exactly the symptoms described for becoming a channeller elsewhere in the book. Like I said, I was a dumb kid.
There's one strength Jordan has that is on display in this book in spades: planning. The guy planned the hell out of this series, and reading the first book it really shows how well he did so. There's foreshadowing all over the place, and a scattering of prophetic visions that all pay off down the line. It can't be stated enough how difficult it is to plan a book, then stick to the plan during the writing phase: especially so in a book spanning fourteen volumes.
Still, for all that planning there are a few unexplained oddities in the first book. Most of these come from the finale, which... well, it's confusingly written. Deliberately so, I'm sure; it's all from Rand's perspective, and he seems not quite in his right mind at the time. But a number of things happen at the end of the book that never get resolved. Was it really Rand's mum being held by the Dark One? Who was that ALL-CAPS VOICE? We'll probably never know for sure, but I'm cool with that. Every work of art should have its ambiguities.
I probably haven't made it clear, but I LOVE this book. As I mentioned above, it took hold of me at exactly the right age, and Jordan became a massive influence on me as a writer. I spent a good number of years attempting to emulate his style, before swerving off into a totally different direction with Jack Manley. Later on, the series gets bogged down in detail and side-characters, but here in the first book it's a relatively tight coming-of-age quest story that does what it does very, very well.
So, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This is a big one for me. I first encountered it when I was around 15 years old, and that's probably the exact right age for it: too old for simplistic "farmboy saves the world" fantasy stories, but not yet old enough to have grown out of that sort of thing.
Make no mistake, The Wheel of Time is a "farmboy saves the world" story, and we've all read our fair share of those. I feel like it transcends that description, though. In a lot of ways it's the ultimate story of its type. Certainly it's one of the longest, at over 4,000,000 words. But more than that, it takes the tale in messier directions than the norm, exploring things like what actually happens when a farmboy becomes a king. But that's for a later time; for the moment, we're in more familiar epic quest territory.
The first book begins the story of Rand al'Thor, the aforementioned farmboy, and how he and his friends discover that they are important in the battle against the Dark One. Most of the story finds them on the run from the Dark One's minions, trying to get to the safety of Tar Valon.
I was struck upon this reading at just what a sudden lurch the finale of this book is. The characters spend the whole book with one goal in mind: to reach Tar Valon, home of the Aes Sedai (lady wizards, basically). Then, with about one hundred pages to go, they abandon that goal to head off into the Blight to foil the Dark One's plan to "blind the Eye of the World and break the Wheel of Time". It comes out of nowhere, and in some ways it feels as though Jordan hit a deadline and had to rush the ending. It doesn't seem likely, because he's usually a very meticulous writer, but this particular instance stands out to me.
On the other hand, there's a moment that I used to feel came out of nowhere, but is actually foreshadowed quite well: Rand's ability to channel, and the revelation that he is the Dragon Reborn. Upon my first reading, as a dumb kid, I had thought this done poorly. I don't know what I was thinking, because it's obvious in hindsight. There's even a scene where Rand is cornered by bad guys, and they get mysteriously struck by lightning. Dumb kid me got so angry at that scene, because, well, it's a stupid, random way to get the hero out of trouble. Except it wasn't a random lightning strike, it was Rand using the Power. Not to mention the episodes Rand has where he alternates between nausea and madness, exactly the symptoms described for becoming a channeller elsewhere in the book. Like I said, I was a dumb kid.
There's one strength Jordan has that is on display in this book in spades: planning. The guy planned the hell out of this series, and reading the first book it really shows how well he did so. There's foreshadowing all over the place, and a scattering of prophetic visions that all pay off down the line. It can't be stated enough how difficult it is to plan a book, then stick to the plan during the writing phase: especially so in a book spanning fourteen volumes.
Still, for all that planning there are a few unexplained oddities in the first book. Most of these come from the finale, which... well, it's confusingly written. Deliberately so, I'm sure; it's all from Rand's perspective, and he seems not quite in his right mind at the time. But a number of things happen at the end of the book that never get resolved. Was it really Rand's mum being held by the Dark One? Who was that ALL-CAPS VOICE? We'll probably never know for sure, but I'm cool with that. Every work of art should have its ambiguities.
I probably haven't made it clear, but I LOVE this book. As I mentioned above, it took hold of me at exactly the right age, and Jordan became a massive influence on me as a writer. I spent a good number of years attempting to emulate his style, before swerving off into a totally different direction with Jack Manley. Later on, the series gets bogged down in detail and side-characters, but here in the first book it's a relatively tight coming-of-age quest story that does what it does very, very well.
The NaNoWriMo Deadline Approaches
At the time of writing, I have four nights to go before NaNoWriMo 2014 hits. One of those nights is being spent watching rasslin', so that's a write-off. I've got ten chapters of The Lightless Labyrinth left to redraft, which is doable, depending on how extensive those redrafts need to be. I'm thinking they'll be more extensive the closer I get to the end, but I think I can still make it.
I also want to sit down and plot out part 3 in detail before NaNo begins. I've learned from experience that the words flow out faster when I know where I'm going. Inevitably it's all going to be rewritten down the road, but I'd like the stuff that I bang out in November to be as usable as possible.
Overall, I'm looking forward to it. The redrafting process has been really refreshing, and I find that I'm enjoying what I wrote. I'm confident that there's a good book there just waiting to be finished.
WEEKLY PROGRESS:
The Lightless Labyrinth - redrafted part 1, chapters 7-23, and part 2, chapters 1-8. Current word count: 52,908 (up about 1,000 words since last week)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
She by H. Rider Haggard
What I'm Watching
WWE Raw
Walking Dead season 5
Doctor Who season 8
What I'm Listening To:
Party Animals by Turbonegro
What I'm Playing:
Orthanc
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Game Boy Advance version)
I also want to sit down and plot out part 3 in detail before NaNo begins. I've learned from experience that the words flow out faster when I know where I'm going. Inevitably it's all going to be rewritten down the road, but I'd like the stuff that I bang out in November to be as usable as possible.
Overall, I'm looking forward to it. The redrafting process has been really refreshing, and I find that I'm enjoying what I wrote. I'm confident that there's a good book there just waiting to be finished.
WEEKLY PROGRESS:
The Lightless Labyrinth - redrafted part 1, chapters 7-23, and part 2, chapters 1-8. Current word count: 52,908 (up about 1,000 words since last week)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
She by H. Rider Haggard
What I'm Watching
WWE Raw
Walking Dead season 5
Doctor Who season 8
What I'm Listening To:
Party Animals by Turbonegro
What I'm Playing:
Orthanc
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Game Boy Advance version)
Monday, October 20, 2014
Redrafting Fever
In preparation for my upcoming NaNoWriMo stint, I've been redrafting The Lightless Labyrinth. It's coming along quite well, and the process has reignited a lot of my enthusiasm for the project. I'll definitely be working on this book in November, not starting another one.
But over the course of this process, I've discovered something about myself: I love redrafting. I really, really enjoy it. Writing from a scratch is a whole different story. When I'm writing from scratch it takes me forever to get going, and even then I often spend time agonising over every sentence, hemming and hawing over a single adjective. I enjoy writing, but it's often a painful process, and a slow one.
Rewriting, on the other hand, is a breeze. I can dive write in, punching up the prose, improving the descriptions (because I never include enough on the first go-through), tweaking dialogue, and just generally shifting things around. I'm even happy to rewrite whole swathes of stuff that I'd already done. I completely scrapped my original prologue (it was as expository as all hell), and the new one sprang out of my keyboard fully formed. Even my main protagonist has undergone a personality revamp, and I'm pretty happy about it. I find making changes to a thing that already exists much more pleasant than creating that thing to begin with.
I guess that's just how I work. My first drafts are often sloppy and unfocussed; I proved that with Jack Manley and the Warlord of Infinity, in which I had the same scene happening three times during the book. But once I've got the skeleton in place, and I can see the shape of the book, I can dig in there and start fixing it. That's the fun part. The trick is not to have too much fun with it, I guess, to know when the book is done and ready to be released into the wild.
Mostly though, I'm glad that I have some enthusiasm for the book again. It's something I should remember when I'm struggling with draft one: once the hard part is done, the fun of redrafting awaits. I'm already looking forward to it.
PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - redrafted the prologue, and part 1, chapters 1-8. Current word-count: 52,116
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
What I've Been Watching:
WWE Raw
Doctor Who season 8
The Walking Dead season 5
What I've Been Listening To:
Apocalypse Dudes by Turbonegro
Pop by U2
What I've Been Playing:
Orthanc on a PLATO emulator
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Nintendo Wii
But over the course of this process, I've discovered something about myself: I love redrafting. I really, really enjoy it. Writing from a scratch is a whole different story. When I'm writing from scratch it takes me forever to get going, and even then I often spend time agonising over every sentence, hemming and hawing over a single adjective. I enjoy writing, but it's often a painful process, and a slow one.
Rewriting, on the other hand, is a breeze. I can dive write in, punching up the prose, improving the descriptions (because I never include enough on the first go-through), tweaking dialogue, and just generally shifting things around. I'm even happy to rewrite whole swathes of stuff that I'd already done. I completely scrapped my original prologue (it was as expository as all hell), and the new one sprang out of my keyboard fully formed. Even my main protagonist has undergone a personality revamp, and I'm pretty happy about it. I find making changes to a thing that already exists much more pleasant than creating that thing to begin with.
I guess that's just how I work. My first drafts are often sloppy and unfocussed; I proved that with Jack Manley and the Warlord of Infinity, in which I had the same scene happening three times during the book. But once I've got the skeleton in place, and I can see the shape of the book, I can dig in there and start fixing it. That's the fun part. The trick is not to have too much fun with it, I guess, to know when the book is done and ready to be released into the wild.
Mostly though, I'm glad that I have some enthusiasm for the book again. It's something I should remember when I'm struggling with draft one: once the hard part is done, the fun of redrafting awaits. I'm already looking forward to it.
PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - redrafted the prologue, and part 1, chapters 1-8. Current word-count: 52,116
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I'm Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
What I've Been Watching:
WWE Raw
Doctor Who season 8
The Walking Dead season 5
What I've Been Listening To:
Apocalypse Dudes by Turbonegro
Pop by U2
What I've Been Playing:
Orthanc on a PLATO emulator
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Nintendo Wii
Monday, October 13, 2014
Nanowrimo 2014
As I do every couple of years, I've decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo. In theory this is a very good idea for me. It should motivate me to get more work done, and really kick my novel into high gear. In practice... not so much. I've entered NaNoWriMo four or five times, but I've never finished it. I've never even come close.
But, here I am in 2014, ready to disappoint myself yet again. But, making the assumption that I will actually make a decent fist of it this time around, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to work on. I could always continue on with The Lightless Labyrinth. It would be the sensible thing to do, given that I'm 50,000 words into it. But, to be honest, I feel like I've hit a wall. The enthusiasm isn't there right now. I don't intend to abandon it, because there's so much awesome stuff in it that I've yet to write, but I'm closing in on the conclusion to part 2, at which point the narrative branches in three different directions. I feel like it's a good place to stop if i want to take a hiatus.
So at the moment I'm going back over what I've done, rewriting my super-over-expository prologue, and just generally tidying up some timeline issues and hammering the character arcs into place. Once I get parts 1 and 2 done, I can decide what to do for NaNoWriMo.
The first option, as I said, is to continue with The Lightless Labyrinth. The second, very enticing, option is to start on my next Jack Manley book - Jack Manley and the Interchronal Deathmatch Tournament. Going back to Jack Manley is really tempting. I can write him in my sleep. The prose style is dead simple. I've got the plot worked out. I think it would be fun to take a break for a month. But then there's always the risk that, once I leave The Lightless Labyrinth, I'll never go back to it. It's been a difficult beast to wrangle, and it's only going to throw up more challenges as I get further into it. I'm pretty sure I'll be a better writer if I manage to finish it, but... Man, writing Jack Manley is a hell of a lot of fun. I'll have to think about it.
PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 1,632 words
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I've Been Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
What I've Been Watching:
Loads of WWE Raw
Doctor Who season 8
What I've Been Listening To:
Hot Cars and Used Contraceptives by Turbonegro
What I've Been Playing:
Orthanc on a PLATO emulator
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Nintendo Wii
But, here I am in 2014, ready to disappoint myself yet again. But, making the assumption that I will actually make a decent fist of it this time around, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to work on. I could always continue on with The Lightless Labyrinth. It would be the sensible thing to do, given that I'm 50,000 words into it. But, to be honest, I feel like I've hit a wall. The enthusiasm isn't there right now. I don't intend to abandon it, because there's so much awesome stuff in it that I've yet to write, but I'm closing in on the conclusion to part 2, at which point the narrative branches in three different directions. I feel like it's a good place to stop if i want to take a hiatus.
So at the moment I'm going back over what I've done, rewriting my super-over-expository prologue, and just generally tidying up some timeline issues and hammering the character arcs into place. Once I get parts 1 and 2 done, I can decide what to do for NaNoWriMo.
The first option, as I said, is to continue with The Lightless Labyrinth. The second, very enticing, option is to start on my next Jack Manley book - Jack Manley and the Interchronal Deathmatch Tournament. Going back to Jack Manley is really tempting. I can write him in my sleep. The prose style is dead simple. I've got the plot worked out. I think it would be fun to take a break for a month. But then there's always the risk that, once I leave The Lightless Labyrinth, I'll never go back to it. It's been a difficult beast to wrangle, and it's only going to throw up more challenges as I get further into it. I'm pretty sure I'll be a better writer if I manage to finish it, but... Man, writing Jack Manley is a hell of a lot of fun. I'll have to think about it.
PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 1,632 words
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I've Been Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs
What I've Been Watching:
Loads of WWE Raw
Doctor Who season 8
What I've Been Listening To:
Hot Cars and Used Contraceptives by Turbonegro
What I've Been Playing:
Orthanc on a PLATO emulator
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Nintendo Wii
Monday, September 29, 2014
Positive Vibes
Remember how in my last post I tried to identify the reasons that I don't write enough? Remember how I made all those grandiose plans to rectify the problem? Well, forget about that business, because I sure did in a hurry. From August 24th to September 28th I did no writing at all, unless you count shopping lists and crossword puzzles.
I could certainly make excuses for my lack of productivity. I had a bunch of family commitments. My son got sick. My wife got sick. I got sick. I went to see half of Queen in concert. Doctor Who came back. Wrestling happened. I've been a busy beaver, just not in a way that translates into productivity.
And you know what? I'm cool with it. My current plan is to lighten up about it, because it really is difficult for me to find the time to write. So as long as I'm making some sort of progress I'm happy. Eventually things will change, and I'll get more time to myself. My son will start being able to entertain himself. My family will die off one by one (this is a joke, just in case any humourless family members are reading this). One day I'll even retire from my job. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at my various writing projects, and so long as they're moving forward that's good enough. It's time to let in some positivity and actually enjoy writing.
PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 559 words (49,010 total)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I've Been Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
The Marvel Timeline Project Vol. 1 by Jeff Deischer and Murray Ward
What I've Been Watching:
Not much WWE
Doctor Who season 8
What I've Been Listening To:
Queen, Queen and more Queen
What I've Been Playing:
Orthanc on the old PLATO mainframe
I could certainly make excuses for my lack of productivity. I had a bunch of family commitments. My son got sick. My wife got sick. I got sick. I went to see half of Queen in concert. Doctor Who came back. Wrestling happened. I've been a busy beaver, just not in a way that translates into productivity.
And you know what? I'm cool with it. My current plan is to lighten up about it, because it really is difficult for me to find the time to write. So as long as I'm making some sort of progress I'm happy. Eventually things will change, and I'll get more time to myself. My son will start being able to entertain himself. My family will die off one by one (this is a joke, just in case any humourless family members are reading this). One day I'll even retire from my job. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at my various writing projects, and so long as they're moving forward that's good enough. It's time to let in some positivity and actually enjoy writing.
PROGRESS SINCE MY LAST POST:
The Lightless Labyrinth - 559 words (49,010 total)
OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES:
What I've Been Reading:
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
The Marvel Timeline Project Vol. 1 by Jeff Deischer and Murray Ward
What I've Been Watching:
Not much WWE
Doctor Who season 8
What I've Been Listening To:
Queen, Queen and more Queen
What I've Been Playing:
Orthanc on the old PLATO mainframe
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