Decided!

So I have made some decisions. I have withdrawn from my course, as it just wasn’t there for me. I learnt what I wanted to learn in the first course and while I regret not getting the piece of paper, and having spent the money, I want to just get on with writing.

The short story I wrote the other evening, after some rereading and thinking, is going to be the basis of a new story called The Spiral Tattoo.  So I will have two on the go, but with no other pressures on at evening, the house all settled, I feel that I can get a real flow on. Heck if I get the same sort on numbers flowing out with any regularity then it will be hardly any time before I have finished one if not both of them.

Decisions Decisions

So. Well. Yes. Decisions.

After writing the short story on Friday, I have been left with a bit of a quandary. The E.I.C. has advised me that the story reads more like a first chapter and is rushed at the end.I have to either makes some cuts, while expanding the end to make it into a longer but better short story, or make different changes and do some major expansion to make it a novel.

The trouble is I didn’t want to start a second novel. Actually the trouble is the short story is about a couple of characters I have used previously in story starts, and I really like them. The principle characters are Elanore Fursk and Gurt, two guards/private investigators. Elanore is a Troll, and Gurt is a Eleniu (my name for a type of fairy). Their adventures are fantasy/mystery with a small comic tone. And I really like them.

So what to write, what to write…

   

A Big Nights Writing

Last night was a good night on the writing front. After too many weeks of dilly-dallying, mainly from moving angst and stress over assignments, I decided I needed to write some of it out and get the flow back. 2,250 words later I had finally cracked the 20,000 word mark! That’s like quarter of the way there… So the deal is back to writing and studying… If I can get some more writing like that done, then I will be really on my way!

Being An Organised Writer

I am fast approaching the 20,000 mark in my book, now that I am starting to get back into the flow after the Christmas break.

The story then has got to the point where I am starting to have keep track of who’s where and what names I have given people. I started an excel spreadsheet to keep track, but that wasn’t working, and I looked at a novel writing software package, but decided to not use it as I just wanted to write and fiddling around with the various options you could used looked to be distracting. So I need to create a new document to keep track, but I confess I am not very enthused.

But I better anyway, otherwise I will be so busy scrolling back through the story that I won’t get anything done, and my memory is just not that good to keep track of it that way alone

 

Beginnings

Still not much happening on the writing front, even as the building stuff races forward at an ever-increasing speed.   I think a general tiredness, and need for holiday are to blame.

So to give myself some extra incentives to get going, and because one likes to share, I am posting the first part of chapter one. Of course this will most likely change upon revision, and any glaringly obvious typos and flubbed sentences will be corrected later..

A Darkening Dawn

A Tale From The Seasons of Chaos

By Michael Parry

Chapter One: A Meeting At Dawn   

      “It is said that ebb and flow of civilization marches across the lands like the tides of night and day, sweeping from sea to sea, delving into mighty ravines and skimming over plains and forests.  First casting a light amongst the stones, and then shadows on the river. Bringing brightness again to glance upon eyrie and bringing a deep blackness to the streets. I can lay no claim to the truth of this, but having seen with mine own eyes the rise of Empire from the ashes of ruination, I will allow that on this day I can find no fault”.

      From a fragment of scroll found in the ruins of Gar’Lordium.

 

      The stones wept, or so it seemed in the dull dawn light.

      Sitting on a stone that once may have been a lintel, Robert D’Lures used damp clammy fingers to stroke the wet stone along the edge of his blade, seeking to erase the specks of rust that tarnished and blunted its edge. His mind was elsewhere, as he let his hands move in a rhythmic motion, while he sought to lean his back towards the fire that burned behind him, and while his eyes searched out the darkness. He knew that if he let the numbing cold fatigue, that clung to his limbs like the vines that tore at the walls of the abandoned keep within which he sat, overtake him, then death would surely follow.

      Still the grayness of the dawn, barely lightening the darkness behind curtains of steely rain, sat upon his spirit as much as the wetness seeped into every damp fold of his body. To him at that moment, not only did the tumbled towers and walls weep, but even the wet stone dampened with persistent rain, seem to cry out against the will of man and his own dead dreams. The unending rain could have been the tears of the gods for a golden age long passed, or merely the earth seeking to wash the stain of man from her scared flanks.

      Once Robert may have debated such issues with comrades and companions, but now he was alone, tired in both body and spirit. He had been pushed to that edge of existence where one can either leap off and plummet to doom, or pull back and cling to anything with a hope blinded by reality.  Robert, who many had described as having a calm self assurance that one usually found only in the aged, knew within himself that this dawn in which he sat was that moment. He had known as he had lit the fire in the night, seeking what shelter he could, and dry wood, that that moment approached. He had known as he had eked out the last stale bread from his sack, and the rank warm stale wine he drank to wash it down. He had known when awakening to pangs of hunger and as he had unwrapped the stone from its pouch and started to sharpen the edge of his blade.

      Robert knew, deep within him that when he had finished he would either take his sword and end his life or sheath it again and march forward in a quest for answers. Which is why he didn’t stop. He knew he had nothing to cling too and feared the moment when he would stand, knowing what his choice would be, must be. And knowing this himself, knowing that his spirit fought within itself, that the spark that burned within him burned bright and did not wish to end this way, he fought on. Not alone in a damp forest, in a ruined castle, on a hill that once many years ago had held forth a dream now long forgotten would this ending come. And so the stones wept as he wept, in a cold denial that the fire within and without would soon end.

      It may be that at moments like these that fate will intervene, or mayhap the uncaring gods will turn their face to the world and intercede. It maybe that they won’t and a tragic tale unknown to any will end and return only to puzzle some curious soul in years to come. At this time Robert needed that intervention, and perhaps it was fate, or the gods, who saw that spark about to flicker and die, and moved to intercede. Or perhaps it was just chance and a will that would not be broken, that knew given time something, anything, would come along to help drag itself back towards light. Whatever it was, as damp numbed fingers finally let slip the stone, to lay forlorn amongst muddied grass, and Robert slowly stood, sword dangling from a limp wrist, shoulders hunched as though weighted down. It was then that from the forest below came the muffled stamp of hooves, the dull clank of steel on steel on leather and a quiet murmur of voices and horses.

      Robert straightened, his blade rising, and blinked the wetness from his eyes. He turned his head, seeking from whence the noises came. His heart blood coursed though his veins as what sustained his flame roared back into life. His mind, though weary, already sort to divine the future and what actions would be needed if friend or foe came upon him. He stepped back into the half open chamber where he had made his fire and quickly smothered it, before edging along the line of a tumbled wall and up into the narrow embrasure that used to be the opening of a tower. Within its shadowed  safety he watched as a line of horsemen emerged from the forest and began to end its way up the hill towards his vantage.

Writing and Studying

It’s an interesting thing this writing process. After so many years of non-starts, and letting fear hold me back, I am finding the whole process much easier than I thought. It’s like a light bulb has gone on in the back of the mind and as soon as I sit down, I find it’s no problem to knock of the next little bit. I have finished chapter three, and today started chapter four. My target for the end of the week was another 3,000 words, and by friday night to be over 12,000. Well as of today I am at 11,300, and I am thinking I might be able to crack 15,000 by friday. Since friday I have already written 2,000 words.

The only thing holding back at the moment in study. I am beginning to resent having to study and have started to put it off. I think that will need to stop, as the course is interesting and what I am learning about web page design is going to be valuable for me in the long run. Even if now I have some regrets at starting the course, but I wasn’t to know that my writing would finally start to take the place in my life I thought it should

Objectives, Death Row Dogs, And Houses on The Move

It was another successful week on the writing front, as I finished chapter two, started chapter three and reached my target of 3,000 words for the week to Friday. I am sitting at just over 9,600 words, which feels great. I can’t wait to clock over 10,000 words this weekend. ALthough the studying has not gone as well, as I keep get distracted by writing. Can’t say I am too upset by that, but must do better.  

Death Row Dog AKA Candy is settling into the family quite nicely. Her and Pooch have a lovely time playing together, and the eldest tornado child wants both to be sleeping in his room with him.

The house moving is a step closer as we have verbally accepted an offer on the land, and next week we will sign the paper work. We are starting to book in the various contractors, with the first date we need confirmed being the septic tank/water crew, as they need to be finished before the house moves on.

Chapter Two First Draft Done

Feeling quite happy with myself again tonight, as I have finished the first go at chapter two. Just over 5000 words. I like counting

Now onto chapter three. Tally Ho chaps and into the fray once more!!

Inordinately Pleased With Oneself

On Friday last week, I set about on my latest writing crusade. By the end of the week, I was happy with progress, and put down some aims for the coming week. By the end of the week(well almost) I have achieved two aims, but the ones I haven’t completed I am not too unhappy about.

Aims for this week:

• Work through next module and start on one after that for course work. [Done]
• Finish Chapter two, and get a good start on Chapter three of A Darkening Dawn [Not Done]
• Bonus to feel really virtuous – Finish Chapter three and start Chapter four. [Not Done]
• Word count aim: 3000 by Friday [Done]

I reached my word count aim, and discovered that chapter two is going to be much longer than chapter one. It is three and half thousand words and only half way there! Having not got this far into a story in ages it is hard to judge. But hay…

So aims for next week:

• Finish next module.
• Word count aim: 3000 words by Friday. Bringing total word count to 9000 words.

As for the EIC, she has been writing a children’s story aimed at our eldest boys age group. She is pleased because he liked it.

A Good Weekend

I am very pleased with the weekend’s effort. I finished my assignment, a week before due date. Usually (as in pretty much every case previously) assignments are finished very early the morning of the day they are due.

I wrote just over 3000 words on the new novel, finishing chapter one, and getting a good start on number two. I am feeling quite positive about the writing, and I am looking to not good too bogged down in extraneous fiddling.  Although I already need a map, and as I can’t draw, I will need to find some sort of free online mapping programme that can produce a half way decent map

Aims for this week:

• Work through next module and start on one after that for course work.
• Finish Chapter two, and get a good start on Chapter three of A Darkening Dawn
• Bonus to feel really virtuous – Finish Chapter three and start Chapter four.
• Word count aim: 3000 by Friday