Fake mercies and I think it's time to leave it be...

Okay, so the last post was about how I had recovered a PDF file which was the latest version of my story?

Lies.

When I checked the file properly, I found out that it was in fact a slightly older version - though not as old as the backup - and I don't have a lot of words I obviously added later.

I'm pretty annoyed at myself, but I'm forcing myself to ignore the situation and roll with it.

If I don't get it back, well then, it serves me right for not backing up properly and I will either re-write the story or leave it and write something else (not the highest chances for that).

I've worked on this since last November, when I began NaNoWriMo for the first time. It has become my "beloved" story, and I have a bit of an impression that I'm trying to start too big.

As of this very moment, I've completed 1 short story, of around 4,300 words (which I can retrieve, sent it in an email recently) and - completed, mind you, with a clear goal and finished quality - 2 shorter pieces.

That's right. Three.

I have so many beginnings it's unbelievable and these three finished stories, and yet I'm sat here worried about another unfinished work?

Pretty pathetic, really. Who was it, King? That said you have a million practice words in you?

My novel-to-be has 17,000/18,000 words in it... and these shorter pieces mostly come to around the 2000 mark.

These are all, apparently, horrible compared to what I will produce some day -- as I keep practising and improving.

Though, I recently realised that the advice writers tend to give you is actually true, cause dammit I never really listened...

Write every day,

Doesn't matter what you write, and you can't help but improve as you go. Your word choices become ever more varied, blending together more fluidly, your style becomes more apparent and you feel good about writing.

I think it's time to leave my novel on the back burner. I'll return eventually, but for now... this ship has sailed.

Small mercies...

Thank God for small mercies...

I recently lost my memory stick, and the last time I backed it up fully was July. Not good.

Luckily, thanks to an upload of a PDF version of my work in progress to Lulu I have a copy of the story and can reproduce it in Word if needs be!

Hopefully, I'll be able to find my USB at college - there's a chance I've left it at the library.... Oh, how I hope that is true.

Engage with conflict sooner rather than later...

I had a problem with my work in progress novel last week. I didn't know how I would get from the beginning to the end. I have the two figured out. I know what I want to happen. It just didn't bridge after a certain point.

A friend of mine offered his services as a wall for my idea bouncing session - oh alright, so there wasn't much free will involved...

Either way, he brought up a very good point to contest one of my own.

I had said: "Novels, these days, are either stand-alone, trilogies or four-plus multiple volume deals."

Because, I was worried that everything I want to write about wouldn't fit into a single novel without becoming too unwieldy.

He replied with: "Well, either remove the huge war you have planned, condense it, or make it happen sooner."

Of course, he was right... I had to edit the plot - obviously. The events for the middle haven't changed in a year. This is ridiculous!

So, changes were made and steps were taken to ensure that clichéd horror would not occur. Mainly about the gender of characters.

My plotting sucks. I shall have to improve. I am on the way, though.

It begins...

The waiting is the worst part of this process, isn't it my fellow university applicants? And for those of you who haven't and/or don't want to and/or won't get the chance, it is the worst part of applying to university.

This morning at 9:36am, my UCAS form was sent away. Now I wait. Possibly for a long time.

I shall pass the time by writing various coursework pieces, and fantasy stories, and reading books. Yes, that sounds nice.

Prepare your quills, ladies and gentlemen...

Preparations for NaNoWriMo 2011 have begun!

An A3 piece of paper with a diagram detailing the scenes I shall add daily.

I don't know why I never thought of it this way before, but 50,000 words into 30 days is 1,667 a day, rounding up... and that is everyone's daily word goal... so why not have 30 scenes of 1,667 words each?

It's simple, and easily organisable. So, I currently stand at twenty-two scenes planned.

However, I don't usually plan, and this is mirrored in this plan by the "plans" being sentences like:

Public hate the elitist mages for their power. Uprising. Mobs.

Not sure about you, but that's just about as ambiguous as it can get.

I've actually worked backwards, this time, too. Started with the end scene, and so this way I can work back to a logical starting point and not worry that it won't come to a cohesive ending.

Here's to success!
Happy writing, all.

O brave new world, O brave new world...

I've just finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley... and it's quite strange.

The main character is nebulous - I get the impression that the true main character changes at different points in the novel.

I'd be very interested to find if this was the first novel which used voice as Huxley did... in chapter 3 and again in a later chapter which I am at a loss to find right now, he decends into a maelstrom of character:

"'Well, all I can say is that I'm going to accept his invitation.'

Bernard hated them, hated them. But they were two, they were large, they were strong.

'The Nine Years' War began in A.F 141.'

'Not even if it were true about the alcohol in his blood-surrogate.'"

And so on and so forth, a strange and confusing medley of conversation rampaging around the page. I admit it was hard to follow, at times, but overall a very exciting read. It's actually a short novel, 230 pages or there abouts.

I'd say that the most interesting character is that of John, the Savage.

I don't want to spoil youir enjoyment of it though, read it for yourself. Make your own mind up.

The chill air of autumnal nights...

It's a quarter to the second hour of the new day, fifth of this month of October.

I sit at my desk, huddled against the chill. My pencil held in fingers growing ever colder. An itch threatens to dispel my hard-earned concentration, it's worming into my eyes. Under my lids, scampering across my skin. An even deeper sensation stems from this itch, an ache - burrowing into my skull. Centred on my eyes, hidden behind my forehead.

Time passes like sand through my fingers, slipping away without end.

It's ten to the second hour of the new day, fifth of this month of October.

Distractions, everywhere. They invade, pervading my senses, subjugating my mind and taking hostage my free will. Oh, how I loathe them.

To meander...

This blog is called Meandering Thoughts, and if you read my posts you'll probably see why I decided upon that name.

I meander.

A lot.

meander
intr.v.  meandered, meandering, meanders
            1. To follow a winding and turning course:
                Streams tend to meander through level land.
            2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction:
                vagabonds meandering through life.

n.
            1. meanders Circuitous windings or sinuosities, as of a stream or path.
            2. A circuitous journey or excursion; ramble./ Often used in the plural.
            3. An ornamental pattern of winding or intertwining lines, used in art and architecture.

Taken from thefreedictionary.com and I particularly like the second example for the intransitive verb:
         
         vagabonds meandering through life.

This is the definition of my blog. Vagabond. For the adjective, it means
adj.
         1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a wanderer; nomadic.
         2. Aimless; drifting.
         3. Irregular in course or behaviour; unpredictable.

I'll tell you why Meandering Thoughts is a vagabond.

1. There is no 'home' for this blog. It has no set genre or code to relate to. 
2. Of course intrinsic to the first point, I do not have an 'aim' as such, for my blog. It drifts from topic to topic, and I rarely adhere to the rules I set out.
3. And again, inherent in the result of the first two points, I am unpredictable in terms of scheduling posts, what point I shall make and whether I will ever mention it again.

And there you have it, the vagabond blog: Meandering Thoughts.