ROW80 Round 1 - 20th Update

I'm only two weeks into the academic year and already have more assignments to do than I can poke a stick at. (why would anyone poke a stick at assignments anyway? Who came up with that saying? And why am I using it? It's stupid. But I digress.)

It's odd; I've been working almost solidly this week and I feel like I've done a lot, but I don't seem to have a lot to show for it. I guess that's the nature of research, in a way. I've made a start on the monstrosity that is my literature review (it'll be 6,000 words by the time it's finished), and my Honours supervisor looked at it and was excited to see that, unlike many other IT students she's had to deal with, I can string a coherent sentence together. I've also gathered almost thirty reference articles in relation to my topic, but I still need to find at least double that in order to fulfil the research part of my thesis. I've been sketching for my fourth steampunk character for my assignment, but I keep deciding I'm not happy with it, cracking the shits and starting over. I think I've now come up with the exact pose and costume he'll have, but I probably won't draw it for a few days; once I get into one of those moods with drawing I have to leave it alone for a while or I just get even worse.

Yesterday was a write-off because I got my new Nintendo DS game (Pokemon White, if anyone cares) and spent a bit of time playing that. Although, to be fair, I wouldn't have got much work done anyway since my Dad was in one of his "Interrupt Bec every five minutes for something unimportant" moods. I did eventually manage to get some editing done on my novella though, getting it down to under a page. It needed some unnecessary sentences cut out, and I think it reads better now, as well as being a bit punchier.

So, still on the to-do list: Revise chapter 1 (hoping to get this done by tomorrow night). Revising chapter 2 in time to use for my prototype is starting to look iffy, especially since chapter 1 is so long and needs so much work (it's a bit of a trainwreck, to be honest). Still, two chapters will be enough for my prototype to be functionally complete, so chapter 2 can be relegated to the "if I have spare time" pile. I also have to start my stupid research proposal at some point - another 3,000 words. *headdesk* On the bright side, I've pretty much finished the written component of my steampunk assignment for my Narrative subject, so that's one less thing I'll have on my plate.

To make up for my relative lack of progress this week, here's a picture of Judgemental Dog, before he grew up to become the terror of writers around the world:

Yes, that's our kitchen cupboard he's happily perched himself in; we had to clear out the bottom two shelves because he kept taking down stir-fry sauce jars, opening them and completely licking them clean, all without breaking them (to this day, we have no idea how he did it).

Check out other ROW80ers here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 19th Update

Since last week, all I've really done is read research articles for my thesis topic. I really wanted to get a bit more of my novella done, or at least draw another steampunk character for my Narrative assignment, but instead I spent my time trawling through various academic journal databases, which was about as fun as reading a phone book.

Fear not, fellow ROW80ers; I won't be dropping out of the challenge. The online writerly community gives me more motivation to get things done, since there are others to hold me accountable. It's fun to harrass other people with my irritable rants about my writing and drawing woes; blogging gives me delusions of grandeur :D Besides, Judgemental Dog would be most offended if he no longer had the chance to bully other writers into getting work done ;)

In my last post I whined a bit about how I needed to adjust my goals, but I didn't really specify my new goals. I shall do so now:
Writing
-Revise Prologue
-Revise Chapter 1
-Complete and revise Chapter 2
-Workshop revised Chapter 1 with writing group (Saturday 19th March)
Academic
-Gather 20 reference articles (by Saturday)
-Begin reference sheet
-Write 1 page of literature review (due Friday for supervisor)
-Draw final two steampunk characters for fictional game

I'll probably spend this Friday drawing, while Saturday and Sunday will be used for working on my novella. Once my last two illustrations for my assignment are done, I'll most likely put them in a blog post here and on my DeviantArt account for anyone interested in seeing them. The frustrating thing is that, since I came up with the idea for these characters, I've kept having more and more ideas for their backstory, for the world they live in and what happens to shape these characters, and how they shape their world in turn. I really want to sit down and start outlining for the steampunk novel series. But I can't. *sigh* I have at least drawn basic costume/pose designs for the remaining characters though, so all that remains is to actually draw them. For now, it's time to start writing my literature review...

Judgemental Dog is not impressed with the delay in finishing my novella:

Check out the other ROW80ers here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 18th Update

After my first week back at uni, I've realised that my ROW80 goals are going to need a major revision. There is a metric crapload of work to be done this year. My IT Research Methods subject has three assignments. And each of those assignments is the size of three assignments. Then there's my Multimedia Narratives subject, which, though it looks like fun, will also be a lot of work. I have drawn three of the five characters for the first assignment though:

(left: Queen Saranthi; middle: Captain Elindra; right: Pirate Emperor)

-These illustrations and more can be found on my DeviantArt account. End shameless plug-

(I've got a fair bit of backstory outlined for these characters. A tentative title for the story is The Cogs of War, and it will be a fantasy in the gothic/steampunk sub-genre. I'm considering using it for this year's NaNoWriMo project. Although I seem to remember saying that about another writing project not long ago... Oh well, I'll wait and see what story I'm in the mood for at the time :D).

And then there's work on my thesis itself. Over the course of the year I'll be churning out nearly 20,000 words for that sucker, which isn't going to leave much time for creative writing :( And that doesn't include the time spent researching my topic and developing my prototype for testing.

So; goal revision. My original goals were to have the prologue and first four chapters of Dark and Silent Waters completed and revised by the end of ROW80 Round 1, as I was hoping to use this as the prototype for my thesis. At this point I've completed the prologue and chapters 1 and 2 (chapter 3 is still around 75% done because I keep chopping and changing with it). Chapter 4 only consists of two or three paragraphs. In light of the workload I'll have this year, I can't really see myself getting much more done in terms of novella word count. After discussing my plans for my prototype with my honours supervisor, we agreed that it could be just as effectively created using only a chapter or two instead of five, and it would involve less work. Therefore my prototype will now only include the prologue and chapters 1 and 2. Since these chapters are more or less finished, all I really have to do is keep revising them until they're at a higher standard. This will give me more time for designing the interface/graphics etc for the prototype and actually programming the damn thing.

I'm not dropping out of ROW80; it'd be a shame to do so after how far I've come and how much progress I've made. And I love having this community of other writers slogging through their word count along with me. But my goals from now on will pretty much focus on my academic requirements. I have another writers group meeting in about two weeks, so I'd like to either workshop my completed/revised chapter 1 (my group members have only seen bits of it), or a bit of chapter 2 (which none of my group members have seen yet).

Judgemental Dog decides to try the 'puppy dog eyes' approach:

Click here to see how other ROW80ers are going.

ROW80 Round 1 - 17th Update

A fairly short update this time :( Since the last update I've done next to no writing, apart from dabbling a bit on chapter 3 (I wrote maybe another 500 words) on Monday. I started back at uni yesterday, and the subject I had (Creating Narratives in Multimedia) actually looks like it will be really fun. Our first assignment is to create and design five game characters and then write a report on their backstory and how they adhere to the conventions of their genre... which is similar to what I do in my spare time anyway haha. Speaking of which, I've already drawn one character, shown below:

Her name is Elindra. She is the captain of a dirigible called the Acheron, and she is on the run from her corrupt superiors in the Continental Fleet. The game will be a fantasy one leaning towards the gothic/steampunk direction.

I've already thought of most of the other characters I'll be doing for this assignment. A few days ago I had an idea for a steampunk story (not sure why, suddenly visions of the world just started coming to me), and I was having a grizzle about this because I already have a metric crapload of unfinished stories in progress. Still, this assignment will double as a basic set of notes/story outline, which means that, at some point, it will become a novel. I'll just save it for when I've got my other major projects out of the way :)

You don't want to mess with Judgemental Dog. You really don't.

See other ROW80 updates here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 16th Update

This has been a busy week for me. Anyone who follows my pointless ravings on Twitter will know that I've spent the last few days working on my novella outline - again. A while ago I cracked it because I'd found a massive plot hole, and though I'd slaved over it for a few days to come up with a plausible alternative, what I had was still a bit crap. I had decided to leave it for the time being because I couldn't think of anything better, but I was never happy with it. And then on Thursday, while I was making paper aeroplanes out of other bits of my novella (don't ask), an idea struck me. It was something quite simple, so simple that I'm surprised I didn't think of it earlier (I think it was my writerly muse screwing with me). With a few adjustments, all my characters are now where I want them to be, when I want them to be there, with plausible reasons for their presence. The changes have meant that substantial parts of what I had written have to be rewritten or scrapped entirely; this is annoying, but probably better for it to happen now at 20,000ish words than at, say, 50,000 words. Based on what I've written so far, and my outline revisions, I'm also thinking that my novella may end up being a novel, albeit at the lower end of the scale (I'd estimate at this stage that it will end up at around the 70,000 word mark.

Though I didn't get chapter 3 completely finished, I have started writing chapter 4. Ideally I want to have my prologue and first three chapters completed and fairly polished by this time next week. I'm back at uni on Tuesday and I'm planning to use the first part of my novella in my sample prototype for my thesis, so that gives me more incentive (stress) to get it to a reasonable standard.

I've also more or less abandoned those two short stories I started a few weeks ago. I've kept what I wrote, but my inspiration for them kind of ran dry as quickly as it appeared (exactly as predicted). I may one day return to them, but they're pretty far down the priority list.

Judgemental Dog shouldn't get his hopes up:

See other ROW80 updates here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 15th Update

On Monday I managed to show that my innate talent for hurting myself in idiotic ways has in no way faded; not five minutes after dropping a full frozen-solid tub of ice cream on the middle toe of my foot, I managed to trip over my dog as he snoozed in the doorway of my room, accidentally kicking the corner of my cupboard in an attempt to stop myself falling. Even the doctor admired my determination in making sure my toe was properly bloody broken :D Luckily it didn't require plaster, though, so I can hobble around as normal, just slightly grouchier than usual.

Haven't got as much writing done this week as I would have liked. I continued revising chapters 1 and 2, as well as filling in more bits of chapter 3, which is now almost complete (I'm hoping to have the first three chapters more or less polished by the time I go back to uni next Tuesday). I think that, before long, I'll have to sit down and just do some research on medieval European history, circa 900-1200AD. While in some ways it's better to just write the first draft to get the story out, research be damned, there are some bits that I'm finding increasingly difficult to work on because I just don't know enough about the time to write about it convincingly. However, research during first draft will be at the bare minimum level, just so I can (hopefully) avoid the most glaringly obvious mistakes; the rest can be fixed up later.

I've also made a character sheet for Dark and Silent Waters, mainly so I can stick it to the wall beside my desk and feel productive. And I've started doing character sheets for my fantasy trilogy, Exile; I know I'm not meant to be touching that series at the moment but I was in a character-sheety type of mood :P

I think Judgemental Dog means business:

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 14th Update

Time has been good to me (mostly) since the last check-in, but it still hasn't been smoothe sailing. My insomnia reared its ugly head again so between Tuesday and yesterday I had no more than five or six hours of sleep, so you can imagine what sort of mood I was in - and I have a short fuse at the best of times ^_^

Writing has been a bit two-steps-forward-one-step-back the last week or two. On Friday, however, something awesome happened. I reached 20,000 words on my novella :D Since then I've kept plugging away, and I'm now at just over 21,000 words (so bring on the energy drinks).

Yesterday I workshopped the last bit of chapter 1 with my writing group. I've already revised it based on the feedback I got, and it's given me some good ideas for the main character's back story. It was a good session; the other writers have some really good stories going so I can't wait to see more of them.

Overall, it's been a good week :)

What do you think, Judgemental Dog?

Click here for other ROW80 updates.