84,000 words… the urge to resist rushing the last few chapters

Half of me wants just wants to write “The End” and knock it on the head. But I am currently at a stage where the story simply won’t let me. Sometimes a plot will not allow you to end a book whenever you feel like it. When I began this journey nearly eight months ago I had a very definitive beginning middle and end. Because I intend for this to be a trilogy there are key elements of both character development and plot that have to be told in order to set up the next two books. What I can say with certainty is this. The next book will not take so long to write. There is no better teacher than experience and learning how to write a novel, good or bad, has taught me more in eight months than I could ever have learned on pure theory. I am both excited and saddened by approaching the end of my book. My greatest fear is looking back at the mess that will be the first five to ten thousand words. (Clean up on aisle three). I know that it’s all over the place but I am confident that I can clean it up when the first draft is locked into scrivener. A note on Scrivener by the way. It’s awesome. Simple as that. If you don’t have it. Invest in it. You need it. See you at the finish line !. Colin

One of my favourite South Park episodes

Terminator Genisys trailer has arrived

I have to admit to being more excited by this movie more than any of the other tent pole movies next summer. I’ll admit to being a bit of a blockbuster addict. Granted you won’t find life changing story lines or even coherent ones most of the time but they entertain the hell out of you for hours. I have a certain connection with the Terminator franchise as the original was the first (over 18’s) movie I had ever seen on VHS. Jesus how old am I. I was totally blown away by it. It was the wonderful age of James Cameron when he was still hungry to make gritty awe inspiring cinema. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 67 years old. Has been a world body building champion, movie star and Governor. As a kid there was no bigger man in Hollywood and nobody that could hold a screen, or an M134 Minigun, quite like him. Although I wasn’t very fond of the third or fourth instalments of the franchise there were elements of both that I loved. The secret that director Alan Taylor is hoping will cement the latest outing is a similar one that J.J. Abrams is hoping to fuse in the new Star Wars movie. How to win back old fans and try to make it fresh for the new. Well it’s simple. We want to see the T-1000 (who cares if he is Asian or not?), We want to see Arnold, we want to see cop cars from the 80’s. We also want to see Han Solo and Chewbacca take a cruise in the Millennium Falcon one more time. Those two things will guarantee bums on seats this summer. It’s not rocket science. But after that a we want a bit of grit to the new Terminator. Gone are the days of X rated or Over 18’s movies (The excellent ‘Dredd’ excluded of course. More about that another day) so as long we don’t completely drown in C.G.I. and there are some tight one liners and a genuine wink back to the original practical way the first two movies were executed than this will be a fun couple of hours away from the world. I for one am totally pumped to see the metallic forearm of the T-800 attached to one of the biggest stars of all time once more. I’ll be back !

77,000 words.. the home stretch

Ok we’re at 77,000 words and counting. At this stage of the novel writing process I am conscious of heating it up. We all love the run in. The last 100 or so pages need to be furious page turners. I love the last 100. Where you can’t sleep or eat or talk until you know what happens. The scene is set, the orchestra rented.. Now it’s time to see if you can dance !.. If you will excuse me I have to get back to work. 😉

Twenty days to completion of the first draft.

My sister Fiona Maria’s new single “Never Pray”

My sister is a song writer musician and this is her new singe… called Never Pray.

Just came across this… WTF?

American Sniper

2,000 words a day.. lets kick it up a gear

The final third of this book is going to be an intense writing experience. I have set a target of 2,000 words a day which mean that in theory the first draft of the novel will be completed in the next 20 days. Realistically that will probably pan out to 30 days but the end of November was a key target for me to complete it. Blogging is going to have to take a back seat while I tackle this puppy because every word has to count. Finish your novel strong and with determination. I have looked back over the first quarter of it and have to admit.. My spelling is sinful ..

Write on

Colin

64,000 words.. hated characters

One of my characters has turned out to be a real pain in the ass. His arc has gone nowhere and while I could simply kill him off I keep thinking that is just a cop out. I can’t just hide him in a closet for the rest of the book because he had a primary role in the story. Maybe that’s a normal thing when writing a novel. I have no idea as this is my first one. He is currently exploring the surface of a planet with a few other characters. He’s like a third wheel on a date. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the ship will leave him behind… Aha!.. now there’s a thought!… Ah no I won’t do that.. it’s the job of a writer to stick by his characters no matter what personalities emerge from within the pages..

It’s national novel writing month !!

On your marks… get set… write… !!! It’s national novel writing month.. 50,000 words.. one month.. get to it.. No excuses..

http://nanowrimo.org/