Work got in the way of writing in a dramatic fashion this week – we have a new title coming out on the 25th of February and there was some final troubleshooting to do. In fact, I wasn’t sure I’d even make it past 2,000 words until I made a concerted effort yesterday afternoon and added 1,875 words in one sitting. The first three days were spent on revisions of The Ghost Smuggler, tiny sessions crammed into what little time I could find. By Thursday I was struggling to find any time to work in Scrivener at all so I switched tracks and started a new project, codename Diary. It’s a project I thought of a few months ago but decided not to write. On Friday, I decided to use it as filler to keep my writing streak going until I could get time work on The Ghost Smuggler – more like practice than an actual story intended for publication. But then something interesting happened. Ethel the Muse began working her magic and my practice story became something I’m considering writing as my next project. It’s even changed tone a little bit. It started off as fairly humorous (and will probably stay that way) … Read More
Metrics Monday – 20th January 2014
Very late metrics, we’ve been on holiday in the Bahamas so no blogging for me. But I did get some fiction writing done which helped me hit 4,666 words for the week. The first three days were spent on revisions to The Ghost Smuggler. I’m doing those in Scrivener though so I couldn’t continue with that while I was away. Instead, I started work on a new novel. It doesn’t have a title yet but it has zombies in it. I really only started on it because I needed something new to work on while I was away. I don’t have an outline for it I’ll be putting it aside now I’m back in Canada to continue the revisions of The Ghost Smuggler but I like the concept so I’ll definitely be coming back to it, probably after I’ve finished revising Glitch. [Metrics Monday – 20th January 2014 by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 26th January 2014]
Metrics Monday – 6th January 2014
A pretty good week to finish/start the year – 5943 words – although it’s somewhat misleading because about 1,400 of those were part of an outline which are generally stream of consciousness ramblings and notes, rather than actual writing. Because that feels a bit like cheating I’ve been making sure I write some actual words of fiction as well as the outlines. Writing last week was a mix of Glitch, The Ghost Smuggler and a new, as yet untitled, story. The problem with the new story is that it’s now sitting at 3,339 words and I’ve barely started it. Which means, it’s either novella or maybe even a novel. That wouldn’t be a problem but I’m not sure the idea warrants that much space. I like what I’ve written so far so I’m going to poke around at the outline a bit and see if I think there’s enough ideas there. I also began outlining a new novel yesterday. I’m not satisfied enough to start writing it yet, but it’s good to start getting my thoughts down. I’ve got a decision to make regarding the next few weeks. The original plan was to work on the second draft of The Ghost Smuggler … Read More
Metrics Monday – 30th December 2013
Okay, not a 10,000 word week – 6, 701 – but I did wrap up Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet and kick off a new story I wasn’t expecting to write. The majority of those 6,701 words were dedicated to Glitch but yesterday, despite a rambling, directionless and altogether uninspiring start to the day, I started a new story and cranked out both the outline and the first 1,100 words. Like a lot of my ideas, this one came to me in the shower. It wasn’t really the story I was looking for – I was trying to come up with a new horror story – and I had been planning on starting the revisions on The Ghost Smuggler but the idea really grabbed me. No title for that one yet and today I’ve decided I’m not entirely happy with the ending I had planned, but still, it’s a good start. It also showed me, yet again, how much I enjoy writing. When I sat down to start the outline I was feeling completely “out of sorts”. Nothing specific and with no real reason (although my PC was, once again, giving me grief) but still, it felt like the day was turning … Read More
Feeling Drafty
I’ve just finished off the first draft of Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet (working title). The final word count is 65,228 – significantly more than the 10,000 words I’d originally planned. As always, there’s still plenty to do, including naming most of the characters. I wanted to put some extra thought into all of the names for this one so I ended up just putting [surname] or [mole-man] in place of actual names. When I start the revision process I’ll come up with a set of appropriate names. Before then, the story needs to sit and fester for a few weeks. In the meantime I’m going to wrap up the handful of unfinished stories I have sitting on my hard drive and start revising The Ghost Smuggler. I’m also going to try my hand at a script for a play based on The Z Word. [Feeling Drafty by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 28th December 2013]
Metrics Monday – 23rd December 2013
Last week was pretty productive – 5,424 words on Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet. That’s the most productive week I’ve had in about three months – yesterday’s session helped a lot. My best week was an 8,871 word week back at the end of July. I’d like to try to beat that before the end of the year, maybe even break the 10,000 mark. Of course, that’s a day’s writing for some writers but at the moment I’d settle for a consistent weekly word count over 5,000. Maybe that’s something to aim for next year. I’ve reached Chapter 25 of Glitch although I think one of them needs to be split into two. I’ll break the 60,000 word mark today. There’s a couple of chapters and maybe an epilogue to go so I’ll be very close to the 65,000 word mark by the time I’ve finished. I was hoping to get this first draft finished off before Christmas Day but that doesn’t look likely. That last 5,000 words will probably take 8-10 hours and I just can’t see myself getting that much writing done over the next couple of days. Especially as I want to finish off a play through … Read More
So This is Christmas…
I have mixed feelings about Christmas. I’m a big fan of the whole goodwill to all men, peace on Earth thing, not as big a fan of the incessant commercialisation. And the perfume adverts…don’t get me started on those. In fact, don’t get me started on any Christmas ads. I’m lucky in that the office shuts down from Christmas Day to New Years Day. That doesn’t always mean everyone gets that time off because it’s not unusual for us to have a project in the final stages of development which means a few people are in the office fixing bugs, testing, coming up with last minute design changes etc. But at the very least the constant stream of email and meetings eases up for a week. Normally, I just stick to the one week of vacation at Christmas but this year I wanted to get some extra writing done so I took Friday, Monday and Tuesday off which means I’m on the third day of my Christmas break already. As usual I’ve got a whole string of things I’d like to get done. Finish off the first draft of Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet. Write the first draft of a play … Read More
Metrics Monday – 16th December 2013
Another sub-4000 word week but the streak continues. Another week, another 3,845 words added to Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet. Things are looking pretty bleak for our heroes. I’m currently on Chapter 24 of what was originally intended to be a 26 chapter story but at this point it looks more like there will be 30-32 chapters. That said, I think I’m going to go back and cut at least one of the earlier chapters. I didn’t like it when I wrote it and I’ve written the most recent chapters in such a way that the earlier one isn’t required any more. [Metrics Monday – 16th December 2013 by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 17th December 2013]
Metrics Monday – 9th December 2013
I just about managed to break the 4,000 word mark this week, all on Glitch. The week was saved by a productive couple of hours on Saturday. We’d had a busy week with an Eddie Izzard gig on the Monday, a trip to see The Daisy Theatre on Friday and the 5km ‘Santa Shuffle‘ race on Saturday. Still, I avoided setting a new weekly low and broke the 50,000 word barrier. There’s still another eight or so chapters to go but I’m still hoping to get the first draft finished before Christmas so that I can spend the break working on revisions of The Ghost Smuggler. [Metrics Monday – 9th December 2013 by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 9th December 2013]
Glitch: A New Novel
I appear to be writing another novel. I wasn’t planning to, it just worked out that way. As I wrapped up the first draft of The Ghost Smuggler I started mulling over what I could do while I let it fester. I had a few short story ideas but I wanted to continue my writing streak and even writing just a few hundred words a day, it wouldn’t take me long to get through them. I’d also been trying to think of things to post on this blog, beyond word counts and random ramblings. Somewhere along the line Ethel the Muse suggested I combine the two and write a weekly serial to post here. As a kid, I loved watching the old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon Saturday morning serials. They seemed to be on TV every summer and at Christmas (along with the old Tarzan movies) and I never got tired of watching them. So, I decided to write a Flash Gordon style serial and post it to the site, one chapter a week. Initially the plan was to write ten chapters of around 1,000 words each. Then I decided that ten weeks wasn’t really long enough for people to discover … Read More
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2