Feel Free to Ignore This Post About Word Counts and Shit

Another month has flown by and despite discovering the joy of twitter - @LeeReynoldson - I managed to write 15,645 words this month. About 500 a day on average. Which is not bad, but not brilliant. However, there's a lot of other stuff that needs to get done like editing and learning to format, make eCovers, etc. and none of that got done. Here's my 2012 goals . . .

Writing Goals 2012

1. One Short Story a Month.
2. 1st Draft of 50k novella.
3. Finish Ashcan edition of Redwald.
4. Finish draft of one of my other WIP's.
5. Practise and Learn (the Craft)
6. Read More.

Non-writing Writing To Do List

1. Learn HTML.
2. Learn Kindle/mobi. formatting.
3. Learn to use Kindle Gen.
4. Learn to use GIMP
5. Learn to tie a hangman's knot.

Yay for dry technical manuals, tutorials, complex coding, and buggy software! Joy untold.

Non-Writing Writing To Do List That Isn't As Dire as the First but is Equally Poorly Named

1. Finish Grail Seeker notes and add to Scrivener.
2. Add Grail Seeker character bio's to Scrivener.
3. Block scenes for Grail Seeker.
4. Edit Dungeon Bastards issue 1 script.
5. Pulp Plot plan for Jan short story.
6. Next Tables for Fables/Lester Dent Pulp post.
7. Brainstorm for Redwald shorts and novels.
8. Brainstorm ideas for 25 para Fighting Fantasy fan adventure.
9. Brainstorm ideas for Tunnels & Trolls mini-solo.

Well lets see . . .

List 1: I failed to write  short story in Jan, but at least made a start on one. Most of my 15k words was towards WIP number 4 and that's chugging away well enough. Got a bit more work on Redwald done, did a little practice of the craft, and didn't read that much. Not bad.

List 2: Nothing from this list. Must try harder.

List 3: Nothing from this one either.

Okay so for Feb I want to . . .

Write 20,000 and up my daily average to about 700
Finish a short story
Start on HTML
Edit Dungeon Bastards script
Notes for March short story
Push on with Grail seeker

The Perfect Template for a Hero

I love this . . .

"In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor -- by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.
. "He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks -- that is, with a rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.
.The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in." - Raymond Chandler 

Obviously Chandler is talking about a detective hero, but this would make for a great sword weilding (or wand weilding) hero in the type of Sword & Srocery yarns that I love.

Cap'n Jethro - Free Pirate Story - Sun 22nd of Jan & Mon 23 of Jan PST

My short story This Being the Tale of Cap’n Jethro ‘Fair-cut’ Henderson, Mutinous Matthews, the Thief, the Whore, the French Fop and the Treasure of Freeport. - otherwise known as Cap'n Jethro - will be available as a free download from Amazon tomorrrow on Sunday the 22nd of January and Monday the 23rd of January. 

This Being the Tale of Cap’n Jethro ‘Fair-cut’ Henderson, Mutinous Matthews, the Thief, the Whore, the French Fop and the Treasure of Freeport."

When his crew mutinied, in a bid to learn the secret of his Treasure, Cap’n Jethro escaped Freeport with little more than a vow on his lips. He would return to Freeport and claim his Treasure. But how can he when his former first mate, a shipless captain, the queen of Freeport’s whores, and a thieving street urchin are watching his every move, waiting to pounce and claim it for themselves?

A 7,555 word/30 page short story.


US Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003G2ZG6M
UK Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003G2ZG6M

Great Writing Advice from Cory Doctrow

The orginal blog post was here. As the title -Practical Writing Tips  on Writing a Book by 23 Brilliant Authors, there's a lot of good advice, but Cory Doctrow's really struck a chord with me . . .

Cory Doctorow

Author of With a Little Help, For the Win, Makers, and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

1. Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.
2. Write even when the mood isn’t right. You can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
3. Write when the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. It doesn’t suck. Your conscious is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.
4. Stop in the middle of a sentence, leaving a rough edge for you to start from the next day — that way, you can write three or five words without being “creative” and before you know it, you’re writing.
5. Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

Non-writing Writing To Do List

Snappy title I'm sure you'll agree, but move along; nothing to see here. Just me using my blog as a virtual whiteboard so I can remember all the other stuff I have to do. Non-writing stuff that is about my writing, but isn't actual writing.

Non-writing Writing To Do List

1. Learn HTML.
2. Learn Kindle/mobi. formatting.
3. Learn to use Kindle Gen.
4. Learn to use GIMP
5. Learn to tie a hangman's knot.

Yay for dry technical manuals, tutorials, complex coding, and buggy software! Joy untold.

Non-Writing Writing To Do List That Isn't As Dire as the First but is Equally Poorly Named

1. Finish Grail Seeker notes and add to Scrivener.
2. Add Grail Seeker character bio's to Scrivener.
3. Block scenes for Grail Seeker.
4. Edit Dungeon Bastards issue 1 script.
5. Pulp Plot plan for Jan short story.
6. Next Tables for Fables/Lester Dent Pulp post.
7. Brainstorm for Redwald shorts and novels.
8. Brainstorm ideas for 25 para Fighting Fantasy fan adventure.
9. Brainstorm ideas for Tunnels & Trolls mini-solo.