Novel:
500 words today.
I finally have a clear visual image of the village the story is taking place in, since one of my characters has decided he wanted to bike through the most interesting parts of it. The descriptions aren't anywhere near as clear as my mental image, unfortunately. That's really not my forte.

Short story:
I've rewritten the scene that lacked punch and gotten rid of one minor character. I had to reorganise / rewrite a few paragraphs to adjust to the new situation.
Now there's a huge scene staring at me with beady eyes. I have skimmed over it when I first edited the printed version of the story; I really need to give it a good second look. I'm sure I can tighten the prose. Too many long sentences in there, I must have stuck a truckload of double adjectives, adverbs, and compound sentences.
I find that editing is just as difficult as writing the draft in the first place. And that's just the rough edit. Can't wait to tackle the details. :-|

Meeep. So far, I've only been able to write 500 words a day. Which means, if I want to write a novel (around 100 000 words), it will take me roughly four months to finish the first draft.
Gaaaah. I need a faster brain.

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

silverjackal Words that remind me of you: writing, army, running, England, and Star Gate (one word).

( And you're right, it reminds me of me, too! )

I've been lurking on www.absolutewrite.com/forums/ for the past few days. It is a fantastic resource.

Now, see, I'm trying one of their methods: the BIC (Butt-In-Chair). What does it mean? Basically, I have to sit at my computer for two hours everyday and write write write.

What's not allowed: doing the laundry or washing the dishes in a fit of despair; plotting the story; researching technical info on the web (arghh, here goes my favourite procrastination trick); posting on livejournal or anywhere else, for that matter. Just write.

If the words don't come, stare at the blank screen.

So I did that yesterday. Ahem. I tried, anyway. I managed two one-hour sessions, which, for my first day, is all right I think. I did a lot of staring. Blank screens are fascinating little things, aren't they?

But I wrote, too. A lot, a lot, a lot. Unfortunately I deleted almost as much. Total of the day: 300 words. Boy am I slow. It's like I'm afraid I'll break my story if I choose the wrong word at that stage. It's stupid.

I'm about to try again, right now. My goal? 2 hours, 800 words. We'll see.

I've been stumbling upon a very neat site while researching writing exercises.

Simon Haynes is a sci-fi author, and he provides tips and tools on his website.

The first one is FreeMind, an open-source mind-mapping software:
http://www.spacejock.com.au/PlottingANovel.html
It's like having an infinite whiteboard with marker pens that don't stink and give you headaches. Bliss. I enjoy using it to go from broad ideas to accurate details without going bonkers in the process. It's also nice to explore different hypothesis, organise the plot, and so on.

My only beef so far is that it doesn't do hyperlinks, so when I paste a reference to a document on the web, I can't just click on the link to go back to it. No big deal.


The second one is yWriter, and is a free software written by Simon Haynes.
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html
The article that references it : http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html

Oh boy. This program rocks my world, and I've only explored a small portion of its possibilities. It makes it so easy to find the scenes you're working on, and which characters are in which scenes, at what location... You can fill all sorts of details, like for example at what time the scene starts, when it ends, if particular objects are being used...

I find it a lot more practical than my standard word processor. I've just finished a short fiction. I had made a rather major change (as in, gotten rid of one character) at one point, and forgotten to fix all the scenes to reflect that change. I was able to find my ghost character very easily. I was also able to rewrite scenes to explore new avenues, while keeping the old ones and mark them as "unused" so they wouldn't appear in the printed version.

Cool stuff, really.

Hey, if someone's still there. I've been hiding in Skoukla, all these months. It's a dark place where I feel safe, but it's not all that healthy.

I'm crawling out. I've been crawling out many times before, and being dragged back down just as many times -- that's when I disappear. So, I know I'll crawl out this time again, but I don't know how long it will last before I go back into hiding.

Since my last post, I've gone through two RL jobs, one I quit because I was harrassed, the other one I was laid off from as it was relocating. I'm unemployed and looking for a small job to tide me over until I go back to England.

In the meantime I had stopped writing, and to a point, reading. The words just didn't flow anymore, either in or out. I think part of the issue is that I live in France, which is fine and dandy except French is not my language of choice.

I couldn't stop creating, though, and found a new interest in Second Life. I am known as Raindrop Drinkwater, over there. I'm designing clothes, mostly latex. Raindrop is definitely in Skoukla at the moment -- the social pressures of SL are a bit overwhelming at the moment. I hope I'll be able to log back into SL within a fortnight.

So, basically, I'm still alive and well, if a bit hindered by social anxiety issues. It's daft. I play theatre and I'm fine on stage, but having an internet presence scares me. :)

Bah, still working on it. I'll snap out of it!

I found a new job :D
It's been a few weeks now, and I'm still getting used to the new rhythm. There's a huge learning curve, but it's very interesting.

I'm less tired than I was in my former job, although my energy levels still aren't what they used to be. I'm about to sign up into a sport club to fix that. I just hope I'm not still suffering from the consequences of the depression I had a few years ago. That would *suck* big time.

It has nothing to do with Daniel Jackson's peaceful way of exploring the world.
It also has nothing to do with "We come in peace. Shoot to kill", the Star Trek spoof (that's what I was googling for).

We come in peace is a series of short flash movies, featuring stupid monsters that are gracious like a block of concrete. They are mean and selfish. The stories are absurd. The dialog is limited to "Dup! Dah?". Go check it, it's fun!

Talk about bad timing.
It looks like the ficathon (that I completely missed) finished today. Everybody's posting stories.
Gaaahhh.

I'm looking for a job, so I *don't* have the time to read fanfic.
Well, I opened destina's one. Just because... my mouse slipped. Yups, it was a computer glitch.

I read the beginning. Daniel's on a planet with a team of scientists. Setting: the jungle. Shit hits the fan. Jack sees one very damaged guy.
I'm writing a story, where... Daniel's on a planet with a team of scientists. Setting: the jungle. Shit hits the fan, and Jack sees one very dead guy.

Our stories are probably very different; still, I won't read hers until I've finished writing mine. I don't want to unwittingly plagiarase her work.

I suppose I'll just have to write faster...

I've written a bit (300 words) of my new monster of a fanfic. It's not much, and it's a lot. The passage includes a description I wasn't comfortable writing.
( Why was it difficult? )

Also, today was my first day at work after two weeks of sick leave. I'm not working with the children anymore, which is a relief, as honestly I'm a wreck. On the minus side, I have to look for another job. Oh well.

After a few false starts, my S.O. and I have finally managed to update my website. We had lots of problems connecting to each other, so I couldn't upload my site (as I have to go through his computer to do that).

But now it's all right!

My significant other has to study NLP again. He's shown me his old books. I opened one at random, and the first sentence I read was:

What does it feel like to be wet?

"Hmm, goooood," was my first answer.
Then I realised they were, maybe, talking about rain. Just maybe.

Apparently NLP is meant to reveal how your brain works.
Oooops.

*off to read some porn*

John Hewitt’s Writing Update 06/13/06
Today’s Writing Prompt

Write out an idea for a play, screenplay or television show. You don’t have to create a complete scenario, but sketch out your ideas and see what you can come up with.
( My thoughts on this exercise )

Huh. Having a wee bit of a problem here.
One of the original characters from my new fanfic is growing a backbone. Great, fine, will you say. Except that she's not meant to! She's supposed to be a nice little coward, completely dependent on the others. And now I write that, I realise that, of course, she can't be that weak. It wouldn't make sense. Grrrmpfh.

So, I've now got in hands a minor character who writes herself better than her author would. I'm miffed! And also strangely proud.

A J/D slabble. Hurt and Comfort at high velocity, PG.
Do you think I'll ever rate higher than PG when writing slash, anyway ?

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( Stargate slide )

John Hewitt’s Writing Update 06/12/06
Today's writing prompt
Write a description of what you believe would be the ideal restaurant, pub, bar or other meeting place. Write the description as if the place actually exists and you are a visitor or regular there.

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( Read more... )

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Ooooh, that exercise brought up nice memories... This description isn't completely accurate, but it's based on a pub I used to go to. It's been bought back by someone who's changed it into a clean, trendy place. Yuck.

Instead of biking alone as usual, I arranged to walk the dog with my parents tonight in the forest. It was nice. We saw :
- lots and lots and lots of toads ; they are not even 1 cm long yet ;
- a red robin ;
- a dead snake ;
- a friend's wife ;
- lots and lots and lots of bugs, most of them nice and lovely, some not (mosquitoes) ;
- a big fish.

I also managed to send a motivation letter to a public library this afternoon. Go me ! Tomorrow I'll do some more job-hunting. And writing.

This morning started as a "oops", and ended up on a "Whoa !"

The "oops" : I realised my fanfic "Stay in Touch" had already been nominated last year. I wonder if it's all right to put it on for the awards this year again. I'll have to check.

The "whoa" : last year winning fic for the Jack/Daniel friendship category was Siege by Seanchaidh.

( Read more... )

Wow ! I'm just back on the net, and I find out that I've been nominated for the Stargate Fan Awards ! Thanks a lot, people !

It's been a long year.
I moved out twice, and wasn't able to get the phone or internet until yesterday.

I went through a lot.
( Read more... )

I remembered Skoukla.

It hit me like a wave. Turned me over.
I was finding myself again.

This happened last week.
I've written 5000 words since.