Game of Thrones

Well this has been a week where Real Life (TM) has gotten in the way of writing.  

Monday it was take the car to Aldershot for its annual service and MOT and like a new lieutenant with a compass I managed to get myself lost.  

The cause; transposing two digits when inputting the postcode for the directions.  

So a simple hour an a half journey took three hours.  To add insult to injury the train back took two hours. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time I got home.  All my American friends will be sniggering about now, but trust me forty miles in Britain is not like travelling forty miles in the States.

Writing wise this week was a disappointing 3549 words, as effectively I only manage two days of sitting my butt in a chair and typing.  Still this means another chapter written and I'm very close to starting act four.  Running total now stands at 63,041 words.  

Hopefully next week will be better, but next week I have to get myself back down to Aldershot to pick up my car.

Finished watching Stargate SG1 hurrah!  

Season ten ended with a time travelling story that was actually very good as it had real consequences for one of the characters.  Stargate: The Ark of Truth the first movie was a neat wrap up of the Ori storyline that would have been told in a longer form had there been a season eleven.  

Unfortunately, Stargate: Continuum the second movie was another time travelling story that felt a bit like old rope to me as everything is neatly tied up with a paradox  that loops back on itself.  The performances were all well and good, but the story just felt like it was going through the motions.

Reading wise I've just picked up George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.  I didn't have three dragons to pose with the books, so you get two plush kittens and Norbert the dragon instead.  

I'm not an avid reader of epic fantasy, but I really like the HBO series, so promised myself I would read the original story it was based on.  I like the writing style, very engaging.  By the way it may take me some time to read all of this series.

Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night

Four weeks ago I reported that my writing total for Ghost Dog was ahead of the curve compared to the same points during Bad Dog and Strike Dog by about ten thousand words.  To my chagrin I now find I'm two weeks behind at the comparable point, which means twenty thousand word behind.  

Such is the vagaries of writing, that or my general ineptitude.  This weeks total was respectable enough though with 6,723 words put down, which bring the running total up to 59,492 words.

So some angst about being useless and perhaps I should seek out a career in shelf stacking, but on the other hand Ghost Dog shows me I can write multiple books and that my writing style is growing.  Whether or not anyone apart from me, my partner and the plush toys will like it is another matter.

This week I re-read Arthur C. Clarke's The Lion of Comarre and Against the Fall of Night, which I have in a Corgi edition that contains both stories.  

I really wanted to re-read Rendezvous with Rama, but no longer have a copy, as I was looking for inspiration for some scenes involving ancient civilizations that I need to write.  Anyway, not the best character writer in the world, but he certainly knew how to think up big ideas, and like most SF fans of my age, one of the big three that I read avidly when I was younger.  

Moment of geekness; I just edited Wikipedia as they failed to list The Deep Range on his page, even though the novel has its own page.

Nearing the end of our Stargate SG1 original series marathon this week.  

Season 9 actually got better as it went along and the end of season finale was very good leaving everyone in jeopardy.  Just started season 10 and so far I've really been enjoying watching the show.  Perhaps not as good as season 6, but it runs it a close second.

Control Point

Reading wise I finished the book Control Point by Myke Cole and was left with mixed feelings.

On one hand I think it's a very good first novel.  It kept the pace of the story moving along quite nicely, and I like all the secondary characters.  About the only criticism I would make is that I would like to have seen some more humour in the dialogue between the characters.

However, I didn't like the main character who I thought was a whiny idiot.  

Also, the mix of traditional fantasy tropes within a military SF story didn't completely float my boat. The teaser for the sequels though did start from the consequences of the heroes actions, so Myke Cole clearly has thought through his plot, which I like.

So if you like military action set in a fantasy world this is likely to be something you'll want to read.

Finished watching Stargate SG1 season 8, which in my opinion has the worst end of a season finales of the show with a Deus ex machina time travel story called Mobius.  The acting and dialogue were good, but having the episode end with the characters not having to go on the mission just sucked.  YMMV.

Season 9 is just okay, which is sad because it has both Claudia Black and Ben Browder in it, both of whom I love from Farscape and therefore the show should be better than just okay.

Claudia steals every scene she is in and brings life an vitality to the cast, but it feels too much like old rope to me.

This has been a difficult writing week as I've struggled to get the words out of my head and down onto paper, metaphorically speaking, given that everything is digital bits on my computer. So I found myself at the end of this week having only written 1,518 words in total, which is an appallingly low amount from getting myself stuck by not knowing what to write.

Given that I've outlined the plot and know what is in each chapter, for definitions of know that mean the probability wave is not collapsed, but the choices are known, this is kind of a way bad situation to be in.

I then went into angst mode, never a good thing to do, and wondered why I seem to be in my editing head space, rather than my drafting head space?  

I even rewrote a chapter that my alpha reader said was good, but lacked action, or plot development, even though the characterization was good. Rewriting takes as long as drafting and doesn't necessarily add many words to the end product.

After that I tried rationalizing my mood and lack of productivity down to visits to my rheumatology consultant, the subsequent blood test, and having a flu jab, which a lot of people report as making them feel unwell.

Not to forget two visits to the dentist and doing my bit for World Mental Health Day at Imperial College London, which you can read about here.

So a busy week.

I also haven't been sleeping well, and by that I mean worse than usual, due to the noise from the builders working on the exterior of the block of flats where I live. All of which seem like good reasons to me for a lower work output.

However, yesterday I had an epiphany where I realised that I had written my characters into a situation where they would have to do something stupid for all the wrong reasons, and that I needed to go back and rewrite an earlier chapter.

Doing this will allow me move some of the things that I described earlier in the story and put those events in a different form in a later chapter.  This will allow my heroes to make what looks like a good decision for all the right reasons; of course this will later turn out to be the wrong decision in that it leads them into jeopardy.

Plot problem fixed and Scrivener makes it so easy to do this.

I now have thirty one chapters outlined and I feel good.  This doesn't mean that the writing gets any easier, but at least I know what I need to write now.

Current running total stands at 52,829 words.  On reflection I had this self same problem previously; to me it seems to indicate a process on the learning curve that I have yet to master.

Writing Log 131006

This was a short week work wise for me, because I spent Monday catching up with stuff I normally do over the weekend.  Therefore this week I only managed to put my butt in the chair for four days to produce 5,822 words that brings the running total of my third novel  up to 51,295.  

Not as much as I would like to have written, but for me targets are guidelines, so no real grumbles on this front.

Saturday I went along to a writers group critique session, and sat and listened to them do what they do, which was most interesting.  I'd been told that such events were quite critical, but what I observed was largely constructive, so assuming that they'll take my money I'm joining them.  

To some extent this is going to be my new social group to fill in for the lack of a job where I meet people to talk to.  So all good I think.

On the watching TV front we are still working through Stargate SG1 and have just started season eight.  

Season seven had what I think is one of the best end of season finales the show ever did.  It was the one where Anubis attacks Earth and the SG1 have to use the lost Ancient defense base to defeat the big bad.  

All very satisfying with the X303 Prometheus and X302 fighter footage up against Goa'uld death gliders and Al'kesh attack ships while Ha'tak motherships rained fire down from orbit.  All deliciously over the top action.  Season seven also had the very moving two-parter that features the death of one of the series reoccurring secondary characters that was very well done.

One rant about the show and this is about the treatment of Samantha Carter and the writers effectively making her into the Black Widow by having all her relationships end in terminal situations.  

I know that Daniel and Teal'c both lost people and O'Neill's whole story arc centers on the death of his son and separation from his wife, but Samantha is just the crash test dummy of relationship difficulties.  

One could almost imagine it was as if they could think of no other way of developing her character.

Reading wise I've just started Control Point by Myke Cole, but haven't yet finished it, so I feel it's too early to comment, so I'll come back to it next week.  Off now to have a Lazy Sunday afternoon, hence the Zombies song YouTube link, and enjoy the autumnal sun coming through the windows of our flat.

The Fuller Memorandum

What a difference a day makes.  I've been without an internet connection all weekend with service restored this morning at 11.00.  All down to a fault on the voice line that BT owns.  

So I've been sorting out a zillion emails, catching up with what the internet thinks and sorting out problems with one of my credit card companies login that now require cookies for their security procedure.  

As someone who has set all cookies to be deleted when I quite the programme this has caused a certain amount of frustration as I was locked out of my account.  It seems that the previous change of password changes didn't take, or something.  I put in a complaint that using cookies as away of maintaining security was a dumb idea.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

Writing wise last week was not super productive as I ended up spending too much time thinking through plot points and having to write specific scenes to make everything work, which I always find hard.  

On the positive side my alpha reader thinks the two chapters I wrote were great.  So total number of words for the week was 5,305, total for the month 22,760, and running total for the novel stands at 45,477.  So I'm about at the halfway point. Yay me!

Fortunately, the lack of internet access wasn't an issue for me on Saturday as I was out at an Absolute Writers forum meet-up at a pub in London (my partner on the other hand was going up the wall trying to sort it out).  

I don't post a lot to the forum for several reasons.  First is that I'm not a prolific poster on any of the forums I visit.  Second, I've realised that visiting forums and reading load of posts is a time sink.  Third, American forums have a hard time with British sense of humour, especially one from a former British nurse who tends towards posting black and ironic comments in particular.

Anyway I had a nice time talking to various writers and some of their partner's.  So big shout out to all the attendees on Saturday, if you are reading this?

I was also most flattered to be asked when was I going to start submitting my work for publication by Julie, a writer I know, and as a result I'm planning on sitting in on a writing group session at some point in the near future to see if my face fits, and if I like them.

Still watching Stargate SG1 and now on season seven.  

That's the one where Daniel Jackson returns as a series regular, but given the number of guest episodes he featured in during season six it never really felt like he left.  Neither season six, or seven are as punchy as season five.  They have gone back to having filler episodes about characters that don't add anything to the plot.  

I think they missed the chance to up their game at several points.  There again what do I know?

Reading wise the loss of the internet meant that I sat down and blew through Charlie Stross's The Fuller Memorandum on Sunday.  It was that good it made me weep in despair and I wanted to shout out, "I hate you Charlie Stross for making me feel so inadequate as a writer, hiiiisssss, boooooo, suck."  The man can write.  One day I want to grow up to be as good a writer as him.

So that's it for another week.  See you next month.  ;-)

Writing Log 130922

Laser project my partner is working on.  Real science stuff.  Image © Imperial College 2013

Okay this week I finished reading my Sandman collection, and while by the end of it I was enjoying the process of reading it. Also,  it occurred to me that I have changed over the years, and that my annoyance at being slowed down by changing between text and image processing was a sign of me getting older, and probably an indication of age related process.  I also took a moment to reflect upon a comment made by a comic artist friend of mine that my script for The Bureau was in his opinion not drawable, which is arguable, but I can see where he was coming from, and tend to agree.

Of course last year when I dragged the text out to work on I found myself getting into an awful mess with the task of converting it from a script into a novel.  I remain hopeful that when I get back to working on it, sometime early next year, I hope that the experience gained from writing three first drafts will get me over the hump, so to speak.  I certainly feel that I have developed as a writer during the course of this year; both from a structural perspective and that I have become more skilled with words.

So this week I have managed to write 6,518 words, bringing my running total up to 40,247, and by comparison to the previous novels at this same time I am ahead of where I was when writing them.  For instance Bad Dog at the six week point I had written 29,998 and Strike Dog a very similar 29,772.  For me the lesson learnt here is that I get caught inside my own assessment of how I'm doing and think I should be doing better, when in actual fact I am doing better.  Score one point for keeping a log of my word counts, not for the numbers per se, but to keep one grounded in one's progress.  I am clearly writing consistently and the amount I'm able to write is increasing.

Away from my neurotic self obsession with failure I've been watching more Stargate SG1.  Finished season five, which was note perfect.  Not a single episode was filler.  Best season so far.  Just started season six and while it remains good, some episodes are not necessary to the overall plot behind the story arc.

Reading wise I'm still labouring my way through The Emperor's New Mind, which couldn't be more densely written if it tried.  Sorry, Hawking's did a far better job with his Brief History of Time in conveying complex ideas in an accessible manner, and I know that a lot of people who bought this book and were unable to finish it, because they thought it was hard going.  Trust me when I say that Penrose's book is a much harder read. 

Sandman

This has not been a good week for me health wise with a bad bout of rheumatoid arthritis sneaking up on me and laying me out flat for three days.  Still mustn't grumble could be worse, I could have no immune system at all.

The other thing that bothered me was that I seem to have lost my comics/graphic novel mojo.  

I use to seriously enjoy reading graphic stories and restarted with Sandman written by Neil Gaiman, but have found myself tripping over the format with the pictures getting in the way of the story.  Probably a sign of getting old.

Still watching Stargate SG1, having just finished season four and now starting on season five.   

The end of Apophis story arc was actually very well done, and one actually felt sorry for his predicament that led to his death.  I've started compiling episodes into essential arc stories, supporting episodes and filler episodes; imagining how I would edit the series to cut it down to the most action packed and character developing episodes.  

This also has made me think about how I would have done the Battlestar Galactica reboot differently too, which wouldn't take that many alterations to fix the plot holes.  Such is the burden of aspiring to be a writer, one starts analyzing everything one reads and watches.

So this week my own writing has been rather limited and I only managed two days work in total for 3,036 words, which brings the running total to 33,730 words.  Hopefully, next week will be better.

I did spend yesterday doing more research for the novel I'm working on about what are minds and how to make them, courtesy of the internet and watched an interesting interview about microtubules working at the quantum level?  

Unfortunately, while I can buy that for a dollar, the presenter then drifted off into uncertain territories that would have been better left alone as he undermined the veracity of his ideas with stuff that was quite frankly loopy IMO.  

By that I mean I know enough about what he is talking about to understand that what he is suggesting is non-testable, and therefore fails the criteria for being based in scientific reasoning.