70,000 words passed

It was another slog today, but I got there in the end. 5287 words for the week and I passed the 70,000 word mark coming in at 70945. I can’t believe how close I am now, it feels really good to have gotten this far. It’s going to feel even better when I finish it. I said that I expected only three more chapters to be written, but I don’t know if that’s the case or not because the chapter I have just finished has sort of split off into another chapter. It’s pretty much the same reason as the previous two chapters in that I don’t want to avoid hitting too many key points in the same chapter. It’s probably either three or four I think. It would surprise me if there’s five more left, but it’s not out of the question.

I think I’m done for the day though. It’s a really warm day and being up in my attic is not the coolest place in the world right this minute. I think I will go have my tea and cool down a bit now. Bye.

Coincidences

695 words so far tonight, 3102 words for the week so far. Slightly better going into Saturday this week than last, but still a lot to do. It should be alright, I’m not done yet on tonight anyway, even though I am quite tired. That is how much I want it. Yes, I want it bad enough that I would stay up for a little bit longer than I want to. Dedication.

Had a funny moment tonight when I realised that I had inadvertently included a reference to a movie that the story in part plays off. It’s something I would have purposely included had I actually thought about it. Instead it’s just pure coincidence that it’s there. It’s a type of car owned by one of the characters is the same brand as one from a very popular movie that my novel takes a few (good-natured) swipes at. It’s just funny to think that if it got published and someone read it, they might pick up on the reference and think that it was cleverly done. When really there was nothing clever about it at all. It’s not the first time I’ve noticed something like this either. Maybe it’s my subconscious is just a much better writer than I am. If this is the case then I need to look into getting my subconscious to ghost write the thing for me and I can go back to playing Halo3 and Grand Theft Auto 4 again.

Detox

No writing done so far tonight. Had to get the shopping done and it took a bit longer than normal. Starting monday I am on a detox as it appears I am intolerant of certain foods. I have to try a month without any dairy and also, for the rest of my life, cut out the food additive monosodium glutamate. This is unfortunate as it is present in a surprising number of different things, from lorne sausage to chicken soup to crisps. Not always, but a lot. It’s only when you have to look at the ingredients for everything that you realise just how common certain ingredients are. And if you’re intolerant to them it’s a huge pain in the ass to work around. I was advised to start my detox on Monday, not today, so I have the weekend to eat lots of stuff that’s bad for me. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to certain things. Cheese and Onion crisps especially. *sniff* I’m alright. *sniff*

Some actual work done

Much better day today. 1032 words done. 2259 words which is not too bad going into Thursday I think. There’s no reason at this stage to think I won’t complete this week’s target, which is cool as I will pass the 70,000 word mark. Initially I estimated that I would be looking at 100,000 words for the novel. With only about three more chapters to go, I’m thinking it will be closer to 90,000. It will definitely pass the 80,000 mark, which should be by two weeks on Saturday. It’s still quite amazing to think that I am now this close. To think I only started this in February, I am quite impressed with myself that I am still going, and still going strong I might add. Thankfully Ive been able to avoid tempting myself to switch to writing something else.

So far anyway. I still have a very basic idea of something I want to do for my next novel. I haven’t really got any kind of story, just an idea for a subject that I think could translate well into a story. Somehow. I’m almost certain someone must have done a novel based around it but I don’t know of any examples. If no one has, I think it’s an idea that will definitely be done by someone at some point. Hopefully I can beat them to it. They shall get no clues from me anyway.

Anyway, proper work done today = good.

Yet another short update

473 words tonight, which actually feels really low. I can see this being another tough week. I can see most weeks being tough weeks actually. An easy week would be nice. And the apprentice is on tonight instead of tomorrow so I don’t have much longer left. Why am I wasting time writing this update then you might wonder? Well… shut up you.

Shortest update ever?

Went to see Indiana Jones tonight so didn’t leave me with much time to do any writing. Sigh. Never mind, Indiana Jones was ace.

Procrastinating in the form of learning

456 words, which is not brilliant but it’s better than earlier. I think I read more about writing today than actually doing any myself, which is a horrible trap I used to always fall into and I’m constantly worried about falling into it again. I think it’s useful from time to time to read articles on writing from other people though. Sometimes it can provide useful advice or even inspiration. Sometimes though it can be an all too addictive excuse not to bother doing any work. I think it started to become mostly the second one for me. Still, those links from earlier are genuinely interesting so do have a look at them. Just don’t spend all your time looking at them.

Bloody Sundays

Very little done today (162 words), which is a shame, but I am almost resigned now to being useless at writing on a Sunday.  Obviously this is stupid.  There is no logical reason why I can write 2600 words on a Saturday and hardly anything the next day.  I will probably write more for this blog entry than I will for my novel today.  The only reason I can think of is that I don’t actually want to write on a Sunday.  While that’s true to some extent as I think it’s important to take at least one day off a week, it’s not entirely true as I really just want to get on and get the first draft finished.  And it’s really not like I did much else constructive today so it’s really just a waste of a day.  It would be nice to get past this nonsense at some point.

One thing I did come across today was Louise Doughty’s columns in the Telegraph entitled Novel in a year and A writer’s year.  They are weekly columns and I’m sure you can have a decent enough guess as to what they are about.  I’ve only read a few of the columns so far but they seem quite interesting so far.  Novel in a year is now available as a book as well.

Shattering targets

I didn’t just meet this week’s target, I shattered it!  2621 words written today, putting this week’s total to 5620 words.  That will do.  After a slow start I finally got going today and didn’t want to stop until I had finished the chapter.  I think it was the explosive chapter I wanted it to be, but like with everything else I will see what I think of it when I come to do the editing which, barring unforeseen circumstances shouldn’t be that far away, perhaps just over a month or so.  It’s quite exciting.  I know pretty much everything that is still to come.  I still need to sort out the ordering of things in my head but I’m pretty close to that.  There will probably be one or two changes made between now and the end but I can’t seem them being major.  There really isn’t too much room now to suddenly change the ending, which is preferable.  And besides the ending is great.  Trust me.  Or it will be at least.

Swearing at girls on buses

I’m still writing, up to 781 words so far.  Hopefully I can lessen the load somewhat for tomorrow, since I’m still looking at 2000+ words to go to make the target.

Came home on the bus today and some young girls got on and proceeded to scream and shout and basically get on the nerves of everyone on the top deck.  They were shouting out the window at people, trying to make fun of them.  At one point one of them came up to me waving.  I looked up from my book and told her to piss off.  They laughed it off before turning their ADD-riddled brains to something else.  Ostensibly I am a hero.  Although by that point no one was around to hear me swear at a teenage girl except the girls, and they probably wouldn’t endorse me as a hero.  I think I would have had to have went out of my way to help them turn their lives around before they would acknowledge my hero status.  And in today’s climate, a grown man offering three teenage girls the chance to turn their lives around is a risky maneuvre.  The Daily Mail and it’s army of readers would definitely not take into consideration the fact that I was only trying to be a hero.  If anything they would somehow take that part and make it look like a bad thing.  But yet the Daily Mail and it’s readers are just the kind of people who would not approve of girls screaming their heads off on buses.  Their own unhappiness of the world is ironically something they themselves have caused, leaving them trapped in an eternal vicious circle.  Furious, but helpless because of their furiousness.  If they could only let go of their anger, all their problems would be easily solved.

Ah well.  There’s a chance I might be gluton-intolerant.  I need to get tested for it, but since all my favourite foods contain gluton I will almost certainly be gluton-intolerant.  Then lactose-intolerant and eventually oxygen-intolerant.  Mark my words.