ROW80 Round 2 - 18th Update

Just realised I missed the last check-in, but since I've been busy writing, I figure I have a good excuse :D

After my last check-in (Wednesday), when I'd handed in my final assignment for the semester, I had been planning to start writing straight away. Unfortunately it seems that my body doesn't like it if I don't sleep for two days straight, and decided to explain that to me by giving my a supersized version of my dad's flu lol Still, once I got over that, I've been more than making up for it; over the last few days I've probably written about 3,000 words. Some of those words can't really be added to my total word count though, since they were replacing others that had been deleted. I thought of a new opening for chapter 1 which was ten times better than what I had originally. Now it actually starts with some turmoil and conflict, instead of being all like, "Here's my main character, now here's a page and a half of pointless description of her and her house that no one gives a rat's bum about." I'm hoping to keep writing pretty much for the next week solid, but after that I'll have to get back into doing stuff for my thesis, so I won't have as much writing time then.

I think next round I'll probably amend my writing goals to something like 500 words 3 days per week (more if I'm able). Though I had the odd writing blitz this round where I'd get 1,000 plus words, there were also a lot of days where I wrote nothing. Ah well, I guess as long as my novel's word count keeps climbing, that's something. And yes, I've decided that, since the finished work is likely to be around the 80,000 word mark, it will definitely be a novel and not just a novella (hopefully this will also increase its chance of publication).

On a side note, I got my conference paper back today. Somehow managed to get 75% for it (more than I was expecting), which means I should scrape a high distinction for the unit. Woot! :D Funnily enough, the things I was worried about appeared to be fine, whereas things that I thought were alright were the things I lost marks on. I'll have to revise it according to some comments from the lecturer, but hopefully I'll be able to submit it for publication in the next few months.

Judgemental Dog is hiding from the threat of low word counts. But rest assured, he will return for the next round of ROW80.

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ROW80 Round 2 - 17th Update

Just over an hour ago I handed in my interactive steampunk narrative, which means I am officially all done for the semester (none of my subjects had exams, just massive final assignments). No more study for a month! *does happy dance* Actually, I'm not really doing a happy dance, I'm just staring at my laptop with bloodshot eyes and fumbling for my can of V, since I haven't slept for two days. So I clearly won't be doing any writing tonight. I might kick back with a few episodes of Doctor Who or Big Bang Theory.

Hopefully I'll be able to have a decent sleep tonight, to refresh my creative energies for tomorrow. I want to get stuck back into my novella and try to make up for the word counts I didn't get while I still had uni work to do. I also want to do an illustration of some sort, but since I have so many ideas for drawings I want to do, I'm going to have trouble choosing which one to start with. I expect to have a bit more to show by the next ROW80 check in, but for now, I'm off to rest my poor, fried brain.

Judgemental Dog is keeping an eye out for ideas that could distract writers:

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ROW80 Round 2 - 16th Update

Another check-in, another week with no novella writing being done :( I've still been busy though, writing the story for my interactive steampunk assignment. I've also set up the entire structure for the application in Flash; the programming, interface and navigation buttons are all complete. All that remains now is to set up the models in Google SketchUp and create my screenshots and animations. I know I said I was going to do that last week, but I got annoyed with SketchUp crashing every five minutes and decided I'd rather do the programming instead. Yes, I, who hate programming, decided it would be more fun writing code than using the steaming pile of sadness that is SketchUp. So now I'll be spending the next three days solid making things in SketchUp. Or, as is more likely, waiting for SketchUp to unfreeze.

Have I mentioned that I hate SketchUp?

While avoiding my assignment, I also stumbled across another site that looks interesting; She Writes. Basically it's like Facebook for writers, from what I can see. I've joined, so if anyone else is a member, you can add me here.

The assignment I'm working on now is the last for this semester. Once I've submitted it on Wednesday, I plan to spend a few days doing nothing but writing Dark and Silent Waters, though I may break out my Derwent collection and do some illustrations as well. It feels like I haven't touched my novella for a month - apart from squeezing in a few rushed writing sessions here and there - and I've had so many ideas and scenes churning around in my head that I really need to get them down on paper. Well, on screen. Up til this point I have pretty much failed to meet my 500 words per day goal - I did have a few days where I churned out one or two thousand, but not enough to make up for the days I didn't write. Hopefully with all assignments out of the way, I'll be able to power home through the last few weeks of ROW80 with a bit more to show for it.

Don't let Judgemental Dog catch you slacking off...

See how everyone else is going in ROW80 here.

ROW80 Round 2 - 15th Update

Not much to report this week. It's been one of those weeks where every time I try to do something, it blows up in my face. I managed to get my conference paper done, but it is - to put it bluntly - rubbish. Well, it probably wasn't terrible, but it's not to the standard I would have liked. I wasn't well and I was running out of time and I'd had no sleep, so in the end it was a case of "just get the word count and hope for the best". Then again, even if the theoretical structure isn't brilliant, I can at least console myself that it was grammatically correct and coherent.

And then I had no internet from Tuesday morning to late Wednesday afternoon because of an ISP fail, which normally wouldn't upset me that much... But I need internet access to be able to do my final assignment for the semester (I need to be able to download models from the online database for Google SketchUp). On the bright side, I did manage to write a few hundred words of my novella, even though it was from a later chapter. I also got most of the planning work for my assignment sorted out. Still, now I'm back to working on my Narrative assignment, wondering how I can create a steampunk world out of relatively few steampunk-themed models (aside from the odd dirigible, SketchUp doesn't seem to have a great selection for the genre). Once I've constructed the world, I'll be taking still shots and animations from it, which will be imported into Flash. Then I'll be adding some text and navigation buttons, so the end product will be a steampunk choose-your-own-adventure interactive story thingy. Lots of work involved, but it will be fun.

Are you worthy of Judgemental Dog's gaze?

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ROW80 Round 2 - 14th Update

*pauses while stuffing my face with the chocolates I got for my birthday* What's that? Time for a ROW80 update, you say? Very well...

I decided this morning that I didn't want to spend the whole day writing my dumb conference paper (I'm so sick of looking at it that it's not funny), so I spent a few hours working on my novella. Though I didn't make that much progress on the word count front (no more than 400-500 words), I did manage to actually finish the third chapter. Well, a first draft of it, anyway; I know that as soon as I reread it I'm going to want to pull it all to bits. So I now have the prologue, epilogue, chapters 1-3 and 8 completed, as well as random slabs of other chapters. After I hand in my conference paper (which is due tomorrow), I'm planning to spend another few hours on my novella, but after that I'll be working on my narrative assignment and I won't get much time to write again for a week.

Also, I got my results back for my conference paper presentation last Thursday: 95% High Distinction. This was a pleasant surprise, since I normally don't do brilliantly at any public speaking things. I'm one of those people who gets nervous talking in front of large groups of people and ends up speaking too fast, turning what was planned to be a 20 minute presentation into 10 minutes of horrified gabbling, interspersed with the occasional vague gesture at the slides. Add this to the fact that my presentation was fraught with mishaps and I'm surprised I didn't just have a breakdown in the middle of it, though I at least managed to get a few laughs from the class. I have included some choice quotes from the ordeal:

"I've examined the background literature and proposed a new method of looking at the issue." BANG! "And for your entertainment, I also hired a bird to smash into the window."
*after PowerPoint crashed for the third time in as many minutes* "This is why we don't pay for software, kids!"
"Many people don't like eBooks because they prefer the feel and smell of a paperback book. Though if they're the sort of person who makes a habit of sniffing books, I'd say they have bigger issues in life to worry about."
*responding to student asking how I made my diagram* "Yes, it was all very technical. I made a picture. Out of squares."

Anyway, I still have to finish writing the conference paper. It's been one of those assignments where I don't really know what I'm doing, so I've just been sort of winging it and hoping for the best. My word count for it is fluctuating because I keep writing stuff and then deleting stuff. At the moment I'm at about 1,200. It's meant to be between 2,000 and 3,000, but with all the background crap I have to put in, I'll most likely be nudging at the upper end of that limit. Which means I have to write more... *sigh* Once it's finished, I'll also be submitting it to some academic conferences, though since most of this year's deadlines have lapsed, even if it does get accepted, it won't be published until next year.

Ah well. Back to work I go!

*resumes chocolate-gutsing*

Judgemental Dog is happy, at least for the moment...

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ROW80 Round 2 - 13th Update

Not much to report this week; I've been alternating between working on my conference paper on eBook technology and interaction methods and tinkering with my multimedia narrative game prototype. While working on the latter, I managed to crash not only Google SketchUp, but also my whole computer. I achieved this feat by loading at least 30 dirigible models into one scene. In a way, I was a bit like that kid who pokes at a bullants' nest with a sharp stick; she knows it won't end well, but she can't help but see how far she can push her luck in the meantime.

I haz mad computer destruction skillz.

While avoiding working on my conference paper today, I also joined an interesting Twitter discussion about literary fiction versus genre fiction. It raised some fascinating arguments, which I've blogged about here.

Anyway, that's me over and out for another week. Better keep slogging away at my conference paper. So far I've written 1,000 words of that, but I need at least another 1,500. I also have to give a presentation for it tomorrow :( (I think that whoever decided making students do class presentations was a good idea should be hunted down with pitchforks and burning torches). I shall leave you under the watchful gaze of Judgemental Dog:

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ROW80 Round 2 - 12th Update

Since my update last week, I haven't had time to touch my novella. Which is really annoying, because the story has been kicking around in my brain a bit lately, and I would have liked to spend some time just getting those words on the page. Especially after doing the background work on it last week; I feel like if I'd just had time to sit down and write for a couple of days, I could have cranked out another few thousand words. Ah well. In about two and a half weeks I'll be handing in my final assignment for the semester, and I intend to spend the first week after that doing nothing but writing my novella, though I may also do a few illustrations.

On Monday I had to give my interim presentation to the IT staff at uni. It was fairly informal as it doesn't get marked, but the main purpose of it was to let other staff besides my supervisor know about my thesis and offer feedback or advice. My original topic was eBook interaction methods for fictional eBooks - already narrowed down a lot from my original ideas - but the general consensus was that I should take it a step further. Since I'd mentioned fantasy in some of my examples, and since I'm planning to use the first part of my fantasy novella in my Flash eBook prototype, it was suggested that I focus on what features and interactions users would most want in a fantasy eBook and problems fantasy readers sometimes have with paperback versions. This means my thesis prototype will let me muck around with writing, fantasy, illustration, graphic design and IT/multimedia. I basically get to combine all my favourite hobbies. Could it get any more awesome? I think not. Of course, refining my topic means I have to change my original plans for the prototype and my user survey and interview questions etc, which will involve a fair bit of work. But I think it's work I will enjoy doing.

Over the next week, I'll be working on my conference paper for my IT Research Methods subject, since I have to give a presentation for it on Thursday next week (I've finally picked a topic for it), as well as my Multimedia Narrative assignment. It's the assignment I'm most looking forward to; I'm creating an interactive steampunk story using the characters I drew earlier in the subject, but I still have to create the graphics for the background and interface. Thanks to my inability to just draw the characters and forget about them while doing the original assignment, I have the novel trilogy for them outlined, though I've had to change some key elements of the plot so it will work as a non-linear story. Now I'm just breaking it up so it can be presented as an interactive narrative with multiple paths, which is what I'll be doing for the rest of tonight.

Judgemental Dog doesn't understand the concept of deadlines:

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