Writing up a storm

The new project is simply flying along. It may be all rubbish but I don't care; the words are flowing and I'm having tons of fun with it. I've done at least a thousand words a day since I started it. Incredible. If I keep this rate up I'll have it finished by mid-March! I won't of, course. Right now I'm in a bit of a lull, work-wise, so I have plenty of time to devote to it. Once eh new projects kick in I won't be able to play but until then I'm going to give it its head and let it run where it wants.

And the beat goes on

I wrote over 1200 words today! I'm amazed! The story is leaping on to the page. Can't explain it; I'm not even going to try. I hope I can keep it up.

I've shelved Project Tevan for the moment. I intend to finish it, but for now it has be off the stove. It will benefit from the new project and the new energy I've tapped into, I'm sure.

Wow! Where did this come from?

Soemthing very odd happened to me this morning. I was driving in to work which in itself is fairly odd -- I only go to the office very occassionally -- when a story that has been at the back of my mind for years now suddenly burst into life. The names: the characters: the plot. Even a tentative title. The whole shebang in fact; and even odder, I've just written a complete "line-for-scene" breakdown of the entire thing. I don't do that. It isn't my way of working. It isn't even my genre. And it only took me about 30 minutes to do it. Really!
Will it go anywhere? Don't know yet, but I'm excited to see. I've posted the 608 words of my "line-for-scene". With any luck I'll be posting lots more words. I hope you will be too.

Is there Viagra for writers yet?

For the longest time now I have been -- suffering is not the right word but I don't know a better one -- from what I can only describe as writing impotence. I have the desire to write. I have the drive to write. Ideas are humming and scenes keep playing themselves out in my head. But I can't seem to get the mechanics to work for me. I haven't even been able to blog and that's not exactly the most difficult thing in the world, now is it?. It's been driving me crazy. I've thought about it. I've tried ignoring it. And now I think I know why. Frustration.

When I first decided to write a book in 2006 the words leapt from my fingers, and yes, most of them were complete dross and everyone knows what happened to that story, but nonetheless it was huge fun and hard work and a joy. And at the same time I was happy and fulfilled at work too. Not overly busy, but that was because I had the systems I supported (payroll as it happens and you know how people do like to be paid on time) tied down so tight they squeaked. I was the only DBA supporting them and, as such, I needed to be sure I didn't get caught wrong-footed or called in the middle of the night unless it was an emergency that could not be foreseen. Things changed and I acquired a team of really nice, hard-working guys in India and I shared the workload that was increasing to a point where I couldn't handle it by myself and life was good and busy and I rewrote the original book and was happy and fulfilled. Even when I was editing the second attempt, even though I hate editing with a passion, it was fine.

I picked up other assignments. More work, on the road, busy, busy, busy. Setting up new systems so that they would perform well into the future, helping clients in the short term when they needed additional hands to bring a project to go-live. And then I was assigned to the client I am currently supporting. I love them... well most of them... like family. Great people who work hard and have fun and are a pleasure to work with most of the time.
But.
But their boss, the Director of IT, is so completely inept it makes my skin crawl. He doe NOT want to hear bad news. Does not want to know what can go wrong and how it can be averted. Does not want to hear that things are not and have not been done correctly, and most definitely does not want anything done to correct those past errors. He even pays people to fix the issues they have created and pays them over and over and over again as they mess things up even more. It drives me to distraction and my frustration level is off the charts and getting worse.

That is what is killing my writing. I recognised it over the weekend. I sat for a long time on the screen porch and just stared at the trees and though about what was different now compared to three years ago. And there it was.Frustration at work. There are some frustrations going on in my personal life too that I should have blogged about but haven't. I will. Now that I've written this I think... I hope... that I've broken the barrier. I don't think I'll be able to get back to Project Tevan today nor even tomorrow, but if I'm blogging there's a very good chance that I'll be able to pick up the story again and run with it.

So pass me a glass of water; I need to swallow my little blue pill and get on with what needs to be done.

Time, gentlemen... PLEASE!

Okay. I cannot believe how long it's been since I posted anything here. I knew I'd been letting it slip, but then there are only 24 hours in a day which is totally inadequate as anyone can tell you. And whose idea was it to only have twelve months in a year? The absolute minimum should be thirteen, and I can make an excellent case for fourteen if asked. Time is playing some very strange tricks on me of late. It's slipping away like water through a sieve.

I've been fighting with my inner editor of weeks. I've struggled to get on track with Project Tevan even though the story is howling at me to get going. Finally I made it past the sticking point, and I'm getting in the zone. For the time being I'm not typing it, I'm scribbling in my little spiral-bound notebook, in my teeny, tiny writing in pencil. And the words are flowing like warm honey. It's really wonderful. I'm going to have to put them into Liquid Story Binder soon and I'm NOT going to edit them. That's what revision is for.

WIPs

Tevan's turning out to be quite a character. He isn't fully fleshed out yet, nor will he be for quite a while, but I know a bit about him now. I know the name of the narrator too. Varda. The plot is developing nicely. I have an inkling where it will end, and in between there are plenty of twists and turns. They're in for an uncomfortable ride. I'm not going to give away too much here until the story starts to take shape.

I've also been working on the revision of ASF. I'm nearly done with Chapter 17, but I still have several areas earlier on that need attention. I'm going to work on those in the next couple of days... If Varda and Tevan will leave me alone for a bit!

The muse works in mysterious ways

The spouse and I went to the garden center this afternoon, to get a few plants for the deer. I know they'll eat most of them, but for now the flower bed I've just finished planting looks really nice. That's beside the point. We were waiting at a stop light and I happened to glance to the side. In the far right-hand lane I saw part of the name on a tradesman's van.

Tevan, it said.

And before I could turn back again, this character pops up in my head and introduces himself. And then another joins him and between them they are starting to write what may turn out to be a short story for the Writers of the Future thingy... or it may turn into something longer. The second character is female and feisty as heck. I think I'm going to write this her first person POV. It'll be fun, because she doesn't really like Tevan very much. But they are a team. And he can't do without her, because she's able to redirect the flashback magic. Don't ask... I don't know what it is either. Not yet. So I have two characters, a vague idea that they use magic to defend their country ( I didn't mention that did I?) and the magic is dangerous in itself. I know a tiny bit about their culture and at the moment I have no plot. It'll be an interesting ride.

The muse surely does work in mysterious ways.