Tefnut's journal

Right, I'm packing up the computer today, and going back to my parents for a short while before New Zealand.
I'm not sure how much I'll be able to access the net during the next three months. Good-bye, then, if I can't post.

Take care, everyone.

Just a quick post to say "hi". :)
I'm busy writing for my Nano. I'm right on schedule. I'd like to take a bit of advance today, if at all possible.
I haven't started a new story. The WIP stands at 66600 words. It's unbelievable! I'm attacking the last portion of the book, when the situation looks hopeless. It will get better in a chapter or 2.

First the writing stats: 7049 words written last week, or an average of 1007 words a day. It's getting there!
I've decided to get rid of the detailed logs, as writing daily has now become a habit. :)

The landlady visited the flat yesterday. She seemed happy. After all, I haven't broken anything, and it's clean (apart from that cheap pvc flooring in the kitchen). She wants to change the heaters and the shower, and maybe install a kitchen. That means that she'll probably won't want people to visit before it's done. Good for me!

I'm also very proud with having finished writing the technical instructions for the databases I've created for work. A colleague tested the document. She was able to create her own base. :-) I can see myself writing technical documents in the future. I'll have a look into it, jobwise.

Another thing I'm proud of: I've phoned the police to signal an abandoned car (probably stolen) on a parking. This would have given me a fever a year ago. Real fever, with the chills and aspirin and the whole kablooey. Today? Not. A. Problem. Who would have thought that phoning the police would make me happy? :D

It's not just the writing that's getting there. :)

Note to self: do not write scary mirror scenes before going to bed, especially not if there's a mirror in the bedroom.

Dreadful week (I had to really drag these words out), but, to my surprise, it averaged out quite nicely. It's still a far way from the rhythm I would need for NanoWriMo. I don't mind. I'm writing!

Day	Words written that day	Total
2010-10-03	1381	28325
2010-10-02	1469	26944
2010-10-01	732	25475
2010-09-30	293	24743
2010-09-29	458	24450
2010-09-28	615	23992
2010-09-27	267	23377
That week	745 w/day	5125

I combined two characters into one. That blocked me a bit yesterday and today, so I ended up writing an eulogy of sorts for the deleted character. That was fun to do. :)

Goodie, I'm setting into a pattern.

Day	Words written that day	Total
2010-09-26	963	23110
2010-09-25	940	22147
2010-09-24	1081	21207
2010-09-23	0	20126
2010-09-22	387	20126
2010-09-21	587	19739
2010-09-20	541 (198)	19152
That week	642 w/day	4499

On Monday the 20th, I wrote 541 words, but I also deleted a short scene. The "198" is the difference between these two, and it's what gets added to the total.
I had a case of the lazy on Thursday. Friday didn't start very well, and then, whoosh!

I can't believe I've passed the 20000 words mark. I'm in the dreaded middle of the novel. The excitement from the beginning is just a memory now, and the reward seems far away... still, I'm trudging along. The plot is shaping up, and so are the characters. It's... well, it's hard work, much harder than the beginning, but at the same time, it's kinda comfortable.

It reminds me a bit of when I was at school, smelt that odd metallic smell from the ink staining my fingers, and heard the buzz of the neon lights. I had the quiet certainty it would last forever.

Writing the middle recreates that perception of timelessness.

I re-read Try again last night (one of my SG-1 fanfics). It brought some thoughts on some of my writing faults.

I'm guilty of taking shortcuts. By which I mean, I've got this story in my head -- fine. With scenes, and actions, and feelings. Still fine. It's pretty clear in my head, and even months afterwards, I understand why I've written what I have, because I *remember* the story. But I don't write the interstices. The links between the scenes, or the inner thoughts of the characters.

The inner thoughts in particular. It's like I'm afraid of going in their head, and showing what I find there. It's a shame, considering that's what writing does best: send the reader straight into the character's head, and have him experience the character's feelings from deep within. I don't do that. It's taboo.

But what am I afraid of?
Shocking the reader? Why? If I don't give the reader reasons to feel the story, why should he keep reading?
Shocking myself? Well, yes. Possibly. The noggin', it is twisted. I can deal with it, though.
Being true to the character? Being false to him? Because, it's my thoughts, my limited understanding of the character. I could be either very right or very wrong. I'll never know. I would hate being wrong, especially to my original characters.
Being boring? I have to accept that not everything is action, action, action. The inner life of the characters is interesting, too.
Afraid of telling, not showing? That's a biggie. Still not too sure of the difference, or when telling is beneficial to the story.

Gaaah.
These shortcuts, they're big. It's not just taking exit A instead of exit B. It's folding the map to jump directly from Highway 01 to Town 36, like in this King's short story I can't remember the name of. I really need to take the scenic route, even if I end up wasting fuel.

Eeeeps!
I just wrote the first draft of a black magic scene of my WIP.
Word count: 666.

*sniggers*

Contest 5, week 1: topic : SIN


This is part of a fanfiction I'm writing. I hope it's okay. This week's theme fits so well with the story I'm focusing on at the moment, I just wasn't able to write anything else.


( Read more... )




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I've got a cold that behaves like an allergy. My nose is a fountain, and the skin around my eyes feels like it has shrunk. Ggnnnn.