ROW80 Round 1 - 23rd Update

I wish I could make my last ROW80 post for Round 1 a tale of blazing success, but unfortutely it's been one of those weeks where one thing after another has gone catastrophically wrong. The worst was being woken up at 7am yesterday by a phone call from my uncle, saying that my nan had been rushed off to hospital with pains in her chest, so I spent the day alternating between worrying about my nan and wondering what was going on and being grizzly(er) because I'd only had about 2 hours sleep. My nan is slightly better tonight, but she's still quite ill and it will probably take her a while to get better. I know that at her age she's likely to face quite a few health problems from now on, but that doesn't make it any easier to prepare for :(

So, yeah... I've done hardly anything this week, on either the writing or academic front. I scratched away at Chapter 1 a bit more, and I've added a few paragraphs to my literature review, as well as scribbling out an outline for my research proposal, but there was so much more I wanted to get done by tonight. However, by the time I got to today, I was in such a foul mood I was ready to butcher someone with a paperclip if they so much as looked at me the wrong way, so concentrating on anything beyond that has been a bit of a chore :)

I did manage to get one thing done though; General Varideus, my fourth steampunk character illustration for my Multimedia Narratives assignment. The act of scribbling away with my Derwent pencils scattered all over my desk was strangely calming, so I was at least able to do something productive without having a mental breakdown.

(far left: Captain Elindra, left: Queen Saranthi, right: Pirate Emperor, far right: General Varideus)
These and other illustrations can also be found on my DeviantArt account.

I have really enjoyed the ROW80 challenge, and I've learned something about my own work habits as well. Though having the challenge and the support of other writers in the same boat as me helped motivate me to get stuff done, I think I probably overestimated my abilities when defining my original goals. As I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, wanting to have one thing at least to a reasonable standard before moving on to the next, I probably should have known to start with that I wouldn't get four chapters finished (not to mention my uni workload). Oh well... I'll know for next time.

Judgemental Dog has his eye on you... ROW80 Round 1 may be over, but don't think he's going to let you relax!

Anyhoo, I'm signing out for Round 1, but I'll be back for Round 2 (even though my goals will pretty much be all academic-related)! See how the other ROW80ers went here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 22nd Update

It's been another busy week, where more than once I have wondered what I've got myself into lol I've continued reading journal articles as part of my research, and I've written about another two pages of my literature review. My fourth steampunk character hasn't had much progress made apart from a few alterations to his costume, but I'm hoping to finish him tomorrow and at least start on the fifth character (which will probably take a while since some of his costume/equipment is quite detailed and complex). Still, at least it will be fun (I hope).

We had a workshopping meeting yesterday, and though only two others turned up, we had a good lot of writerly discussion. I didn't get the part of my novella I was working on done in time to workshop, but talking about the piece we were workshopping got me thinking about important elements of my own story, particularly in relation to research. In historical fiction or even in fantasy based in a historical-type world (medieval, ancient Egypt, feudal Japan etc), it is important to have your facts right so that the world you create still feels like it could really exist. And it brings home the old adage that you have to know the rules before you can break them hehe

Also, since the meeting was at my house, my fellow writers got to see firsthand how soft cuddly scary Judgemental Dog is. (he was very intimidating... made them give him lots of pats)

Since yesterday I've been continuing with chapter 1, revising some bits and rewriting others from scratch. For a long time, chapter 1 was more or less complete, but there was one scene that always really bothered me; no matter what I did with it, I just couldn't make it ring true, and since it was an important scene (when the belongings of the protagonist's fiance are found abandoned and she is told that he must have drowned), it's something that I couldn't afford to do halfarsed. Then someone suggested that it could perhaps be shown just as powerfully if it were not shown (in much the same way deaths/severe injuries in ancient Greek plays usually happened off-stage), and simply alluded to with the main character's behaviour throughout the rest of the story. Though I haven't made much progress in terms of word count, I think I've finally made some real progress with the chapter; I'm still writing it, but the words are flowing a lot easier than they were with the other method.

On a completely unrelated but awesome note... New album from Within Temptation! *bounces*

I guess I won't be letting Rex read any Stephen King books...

See how the other ROW80ers are going here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 21st Update

Still not a lot of progress to report this check-in :( With uni and work taking up most of my time, today was going to be my only real chance to get anything done... and it was eaten up by a stream of visitors and phone calls.

I'm still revising chapter 1 of Dark and Silent Waters. A few bits have given me a lot of grief, so even without the interruptions, it's taking me a lot longer to get through than I anticipated (I wasn't lying in my last post when I said it was a trainwreck haha). One section has to be written pretty much from scratch, since no matter what I did with it, it just didn't work. I'm still aiming to get it sent around in time for my workshopping group meeting this Saturday, so with any luck (and a lot of energy drinks), I can still achieve that goal.

I have started drawing my next steampunk character for my assignment, and he's already looking a lot better than my previous attempts, especially since I've been fine-tuning his uniform and weapon design.

I've also chipped away at my literature review, writing about another page for that.

Anyway, I still have a lot to get done tomorrow, so I'll leave it there.

Judgemental Dog was a bit camera-shy this week, so he's left his writerly intimidation chores in the capable paws of Spot and Dash, his somewhat smaller underlings:

Click here to see how other ROW80ers are going.

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:

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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.