ROW80 Round 1 - 7th Update

As predicted in my last update, not much progress was made on the writing front this week. However, I did have some fun catching up with some friends for barbecues and DVD-watching sessions (yes, I occasionally DO leave my lair and brave the sunlight to socialise), so the time wasn't entirely wasted. I've also continued working my way through the Sherlock Holmes books, and though they are an entirely different genre and style to my own works (and to the books I normally read), I am finding them quite engaging, and they seem to be helping to kick my creativity back into gear.

I also ordered myself a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver keyring torch from eBay. Because it was just too awesome not to have.

Plus, I cleaned my desk. And trust me, this needed doing desperately, as I was starting to forget what the top of my desk actually looked like. I managed to empty out two drawers worth of junk, as well as clearing all the crap from the surface, so now it's all nice and ready for me to mess up again.

This morning (before going to a friend's house to gorge myself on grilled chicken and entertain a baby by making idiotic noises/facial expressions while eating said chicken), I sat down and wrote a bit more of chapter 2, as well as jotting down a few brief scenes for chapter 3. I also attempted to rewrite some unsatisfactory sections of my outline, but since I couldn't think of anything that was even slightly less unsatisfactory, I ended up leaving it for another day.

I have the next three days off, and most of the time I should have the house to myself, which will help me get a lot more done (I work best when no one else is home to annoy/interrupt me all the time). I am starting to wonder if it will be possible to get all four chapters for part 1 finished during this ROW80. Especially since I will be back at uni in just over a month, and working on my thesis - along with my normal subjects - will consume a lot of my time and energy.

I'm going to see how I go over the next week, but I may end up revising my goals for this ROW80. In my original goal statement, I said that I wanted to have the first four chapters of part 1 completed. If I do decide to adjust my goals, I will instead aim to just have the first three chapters completed. Not only will it leave me with a decent amount of chronologically ordered prose, it will also give me enough to use as a sample for the technical part of my IT/Multimedia thesis (which - without going into too much detail - is going to focus on eBooks).

On a side note; if anyone has links to interesting sites/articles etc regarding eBooks, feel free to leave them in my comments :) Though I have a rough idea of what I'm going to do, I'm still trying to define a more precise direction for my thesis, so anything that might spark a brilliant idea will be more than welcome.

Here is Judgemental Dog being lazy. The furry little hypocrite.

A link to other ROW80 check-ins is here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 6th Update

Went to the dentist on Saturday for a check-up and to get an abscess looked at. The dentist prescribed penicillin, which I have taken before with no problems. Upon arriving home, I took my first dose and sat down to write.

But the penicillin was all like "ha HA! Screw YOU, immune system, Imma be a cowboy and make as much of a mess as I can!" And then my immune system lay down like a little bitch as the penicillin kicked its arse. Thus I spent most of the weekend scratching and sneezing and looking like the victim of some horrid plague, and generally feeling sorry for myself.

Yes. That is how it happened.

So: This week's progress. As far as adding new words to my tally goes, I failed spectacularly. Yes, I did potter around with chapter 2, hoping to get it to almost-complete status, and I did manage to write a few more important scenes for it. But there are just as many important (and less important) scenes still to be written. I didn't spend as much time writing this week as I would have liked. I ended up going back and playing with my prologue and chapter 1 again (even though I said I wouldn't), so they're in a bit better shape than they were before. Still, I would have preferred to get more new material written (unfortunately after having something workshopped, I can tend to get a bit OCD about the piece, and I find it hard to leave it alone for a little while). I also got distracted by books (I found my old man's collection of Sherlock Holmes novels while raiding his shelf for something else, which I promptly forgot about anyway) so a lot of my spare time was spent reading instead of writing.

As for this week, I can more or less predict with 100% certainty that I'll get next to nothing done before the next check-in. With work, catch-ups with friends (some of whom I haven't seen for a while) and being forced into acting as the family's errand-bitch, I'm not going to have a lot of time to myself until Thursday. I still want to have chapter 2 finished by the weekend, but I will have to see how I go.

Possessed - A Lost Tuples Production

This is a short film made by myself and two uni friends (known collectively as The Lost Tuples) for our film subject last year, Digital Video Post Production. Starring The Lost Tuples, it was directed, filmed, edited and given special effects by the Lost Tuples.

The story has elements of some of those 90s occult/witchcraft shows, eg. The Craft, Charmed. We also wanted to incorporate elements of Eastern style martial arts fight scenes. Overall, we were aiming for a mix of 'dark' and 'cheesy', which I think we achieved fairly well :)



The Lost Tuples are: Rebecca J Fleming
Zak Ford
Jason Lochtenberg

Co-Starring: Ricky Shepherd

Software Used: Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Adobe After Effects

ROW80 Round 1 - 5th Update

I have been a naughty girl this week :)

I don't mean running around with a whip and a corset, or drawing all over the walls in permanent marker. Though I did do that a lot when I was little (drawing on the walls. Not the whip and corset thing. That would have been weird).

No, instead of writing, I have been watching DVDs.

I intended to write. I really did. I would wake up, go and sit at my computer, stare at my screen, then flick through my notes, and then stare at my screen a bit more. After an hour or so of that, I would come to the conclusion that I was just not going to be productive that day. So instead I got out some of my TV show DVDs (Firefly, Sherlock and Doctor Who), sat on my bum with a block of Cadbury and watched as Reavers were fought, crimes were solved and the Tardis was flown through various corners of the universe.

This morning, though, I started to behave myself again; I rewrote my prologue and some of chapter 1 in response to feedback I received from workshopping on the weekend. I also wrote more of chapter 2, which I think is now around 50% complete. Based on my goals, I have until Saturday of next week to finish it, though I would like to get it done earlier if possible. Unfortunately I didn't get chapter 1 completely written as I had hoped (as I said in my last post, bits of it were just filler for the sake of completing the chapter). I have decided that I will more or less leave it for now and work on later chapters, only returning to chapter 1 if I get some decent motivation/inspiration to write it.

Anyway, by the next check-in on Sunday, I'm hoping to have at least the main scenes of chapter 2 completed, leaving only the 'bridging' sections to be written the following week.

Here is Rex, putting the 'mental' in 'Judgemental'. And he expects me to take him seriously...

Click here to see other ROW80 updates.

So You Want to Write a Novel

This video has been kicking around on the Interwebz for a while now, but I thought I'd share it here, not just because it's amusing, but because there are so many 'writers' out there who actually think like this.



The more delusional the writer is, the less likely they are to be aware of it :)

ROW80 Round 1 - 4th Update

hmm... As far as getting new writing done goes, this week hasn't been much better than the last, with health issues still refusing to leave me alone (incidentally, doctors have looked at my MRI and decided that my head isn't likely to explode in the next 24 hours, but beyond that, they have no idea what causes the severe migraine/nausea/dizziness/passing out thingies I keep having). I did (sort of) manage to finish chapter 1. However, while some parts of it were respectable, other bits of it were literally thrown in at the last second so I could say I had finished a chapter; in other words, they're not particularly good hehe Most of these dodgy bits will be more or less thrown out entirely, with those sections being rewritten from scratch.

We did, however, have our first proper writing workshop meeting on Saturday, with two of us presenting work for critiquing. I was up first (the sacrificial lamb, so to speak) and I workshopped my first five pages of chapter 1. Aside from the odd person reading a fragment of my work and sending it back with some basic suggestions, this was the first time in more than three years where I have had the opportunity to submit a piece of writing to rigorous examination and criticism. It was a little nerve-wracking; being away from the workshopping environment for so long had me wondering not only if my writing was still decent (as most people seemed to think in TAFE), but also if I was still up to giving in-depth feedback on other people's writing.

It turned out to be a very productive session, both for the workshoppers and the workshoppees. Everyone there felt driven to write, inspired by the creative atmosphere. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other writers bring to the table in the future. I got a lot of suggestions for my own piece of writing; some issues pointed out were so obvious I wondered how they'd slipped by in the first place, while others were more subtle but still had a great impact on the effectiveness of the chapter. I have a lot of work ahead of me to improve it for its next incarnation. But this is a good thing. The only real way to make a piece of writing better is to put it in front of others, carefully consider the feedback they give and, where appropriate, make changes that reflect that feedback to bring the writing to the next level. I'm sure we all know writers who believe that their work is Perfect and that any criticism of it is Wrong...

Anyway... Time for this writer to have lunch :)

Judgemental Dog is always so judgemental:

I should probably take him for a walk so he stops guilt-tripping me...

(see other ROW80 blogs here)

ROW80 Round 1 - 3rd Update

Or... the Week of Fail.

Working extra hours over the last week has taken a large chunk out of my writing time. This, coupled with family and illness issues of varying severity, has taken a serious toll on my productivity this week. Not just due to time constraints, but also because of the general crappy mood all of it has put me in; I just have not been in the right mindset to write. Normally when something happens I can work around it, but when lots of things happen, I tend to throw my hands in the air and give up, which is more or less what I did this week.

Earlier today, in an attempt to force some productivity out of myself, I decided to set myself a small writing challenge. As all Australians (and some overseas people) would be aware, Queensland is being decimated by torrential flooding that has turned three quarters of the state into a disaster zone. Watching footage of it on television and seeing houses and cars tossed around in the water like bath toys is so horrifying it's almost surreal, especially when it seems that there's so little anyone can do about it. I decided I'd do my (albeit meagre) bit by donating $1 for every hundred words I write today to the Flood Relief. I ended up with just over 1300 words for the day. I know it isn't much - being a student, I don't really have a lot of spare money - but I guess every bit helps. And since that's more words than I've written over the rest of the week combined, at least it was beneficial on a few levels.

In my goals, I mentioned that I wanted to finish one chapter every fortnight, meaning that I'm due to complete one by the next check in. Well, I am quite close to finishing the first chapter, and I should be able to achieve this (provided everything doesn't go even more pear-shaped) by the weekend (or even tomorrow, but I think I said that last week and it didn't happen, so I don't want to jinx myself again :|). I have at least got the first five consecutive pages of it done, meaning I have something substantial to put before my workshopping group this Saturday, instead of just a wad of random paragraphs (which I am quite looking forward to - I've really missed the critiquing sessions from my TAFE days).

Here's my updated word tally:
Prologue - 804 (complete)
Part 1
Chapter 1 - 4,647
Chapter 2 - 1,704
Chapter 3 - 173
Chapter 4 - 0
Part 2
Chapter 5 - 95
Chapter 6 - 933
Chapter 7 - 1,777
Chapter 8 - 1,991 (complete)
Part 3
Chapter 9 - 852
Chapter 10 - 0
Chapter 11 - 0
Chapter 12 - 1,097
Epilogue - 1,373

Total - 15,812

So: Not as much progress as I was hoping for - I think all my progress since my last check-in was made today - but I still managed to make some headway, and I am more or less on track to meet my goals at this stage. And I cracked the 15,000 word mark, which I am quite pleased with, especially since they're 15,000 decent words, not the filler rubbish I pumped out for NaNoWriMo.

Anyway, I thought I should end on a positive note, so here's a picture of Judgemental Dog (a.k.a. Rex) watching TV:


Oh yeah, almost forgot... A link to other ROW80 participants' updates is here.