Blog Hard 2: Blog Harder

Hey.

So here we go again. I'm going to have another go at writing a novel.

I've downloaded some novel writing software called Scrivener and I'm currently on day 2 of it's 30 day free trial.

My method this time around is I'm going to write down at least 4 ideas a day that contribute to an overall plot & story world that I'm slowly going to build. Today was my first attempt at this. I got 12 main ideas down & also took advantage of the character sketch sheets that are built into Scrivener to briefly sketch three characters that I'm starting with.

My hope is that at the end of the 30 day trial I'll have enough material down for me to decide that actually paying for Scrivener will be worth it.

What I'm generally trying to write at this point is a young adult novel inspired in part by one of my favourite books as a kid, Space Demons by Gillian Rubinstein. I have a couple of reasons for doing this. Firstly I think trying to write a YA book might be less pressure that trying to write anything more serious, or literary or even just 'adult.' Secondly Space Demons really did rock my world as a kid & it would be fun to try and capture some of that vibe in something I could create myself. Thirdly I had this idea a while ago for a story that is some sort of cross between The Walking Dead & James Herberts The Fog & doing it in a Rubinstein kind of format might be the quickest way for me to realise it, at least for now.

So there we go.

Not sure how often I'll try & blog about writing this go around. Time will tell.

My Greatest Literary Influence Is American Idol.

I'm trying again.

It's three in the morning and i'm understandably tired so here is a brief summary of what's going on here.

I'm trying to write a novel, all attempts up until now have been failed attempts. I am now in the process of developing my own formula for writing. So far i'm two steps in. 

Step one was I sat and wrote a list of as many different possible lead characters as I could within ten minutes. 

Step two was I took each of those characters and wrote at least three things about each of them and the world they live in.

I find it difficult to pick one idea over another and say that idea carries more weight or validity, so instead i'm creating a competition between all the conflicting worlds that live in my head and waiting for them to tell me which, if any, wants to be written the most.

Look, at the end of the day it was a really fun exercise. 

All work and no writing makes me a dull blogger

This is my first post of the year and my first since back in November.

I did some writing tonight, more or less the first bit of writing for the year and the first since November. I'm establishing a theme in case you didn't pick up on that.

In short I chose to abandon my idea for a novel that I was so excited about back in those heady oh so dangerously intoxicating days that were November 2011. It wasn't from a lack of potential for the idea, it was from a dearth of passion. A creeping dearth that quickly gained momentum.

I took some time away from thinking too directly about my goal of writing a novel this year but the nagging awareness of it was always with me. Since the new year started the nagging has increased and today something inside me snapped and I decided I had to do something to shut that bitch up.

I've got a new process i'm trying for the new year, or maybe it's a different version of something i've already tried and written about in a previous post. Who the hell remembers what i've written about on this blog up until now?

The inspiration came to me after a day of doing some intensive housework and rediscovering some ignored and forgotten spiritual side of myself that exists.

More on that later because i'm pretty tired from said housework.

Last thing i'll say for the night is I got 1000 words of notes written tonight. I'm in a note writing stage at the moment. If everything goes to plan the notes stage will last about 10 weeks.