A Work in Progress

Greetings!

If you have been following me here on this blog, I will be abandoning this site and all future updates will be made here.

You may now return to your regularly-scheduled daily mayhem.

Final word count: 10,232
Average words per day: 341

Well, that wraps it up for this year's NaNoWriMo.

My word count was not the 25,000 words that I had originally planned, but I'll definitely take the 10,232 words that I did manage to produce this year. That's roughly twice what I achieved last year, so that's definitely a good thing. (Any word count greater than zero... right?)

The story itself went off into an unexpected that: 1) makes sense, but, 2) is going to be interesting to resolve. I believe that I have managed to recapture much of the original "tone" of the original story, but this one is turning out to be a slightly different book. Funny how that seems to happen in sequels and followup stories, huh?

With effort and luck, the final version of this story might see print by August. We shall see . . .

Current word count: 8.911
Words this week: 1,843
Average words per day: 263

It was not exactly a stellar week in terms of word count. I really had expected to hit 10,000 words by this point, but it looks like I will probably have to settle for 10,000 words as my end goal for this year.

The story has stayed chiefly focused on the playing out a specific scene and sequence, which is interesting because it's a scene and place I probably would never have imagined the story would go when I first started writing it. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Only two more days to go, so write on!

While I have many, many thoughts about the new Star Trek: Discovery, I'm only going to hit a few of the points right now (it still being NaNoWriMo and all).

(I figure by now that those of you who are going to see it, have. If not, I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.)

• When the Starfleet delta symbol became visible in the sand near the beginning of "The Vulcan Hello", I was grinning like a fool just as I did during the last few minutes of Star Trek (2009).
• I adore(d) Captain Philippa Georgiou. I hope they find a way to bring her back. If not, they'd better keep the books coming.
• The moment I came to love Lorca:
  (from "Context is for Kings")
  
  LORCA (to SARU): Number One, you served with Burnham aboard the Shenzhou. What is your assessment of her abilities?
SARU: Her mutiny aside, she is the smartest Starfleet officer I have ever known.
LORCA: Huh. (to STAMETS) And he knows you.

  Ouch.
  
• I'm not wild about the uniforms, but I do think they are an interesting evolution from the ones used on Star Trek: Enterprise. But it does seem odd that they are not closer to the ones used in Star Trek (The Original Series). It will be interesting to see whether that's a piece of canon they try to resolve during the series run.
• I find it absolutely fascinating that there seemed to be more uproar about the use of profanity (the f-bomb) in "Choose Your Pain" than, for example, from the graphic depiction of the bodies in "Context is for Kings". Star Trek: Discovery does have a TV-MA rating, after all. (That is a topic for discussion at a later date.) That said, I completely understand and appreciate the "but ... but Star Trek never used profanity before" argument. Personally, I found the moment perfect and it added a brief injection of badly-needed humor at just the right time. I actually felt it was much appropriate and necessary that Data's exclamation regarding excrement in Star Trek: Generations.

Current word count: 7,068
Words this week: 3,200
Average words per day: 457

It was not a bad week, overall. While my word count was a bit lower than I would have liked, it was still forward movement.

The story ... well, the story continues to take an interesting turn. This week, my writing on it stayed chiefly on track with the current scene -- I just wish I knew where it was going to go.

In a way, I want November to be over so that I can go back and make notes about where I want this story to go and further set up the time, place, and the narrator's situation going into it. I think that will help immensely in tying it all together.

For a change, I don't yet know how this story is going to end. I suspect that it is more of a result of my not going for the usual 50,000-word mark, as the ending usually occurs to me somewhere around the middle of Week Two.

Until next week ... write on!

Current word count: 3,898
Words this week: 1,688
Average words per day: 241

My progress was slightly less than I had to expected it to be last week, but not by much. With everything else going on, I predicted a low word count.

For what I did write, the story took some very unexpected turns. One twist in particular caught me totally by surprise. I have no idea what the muse has in mind, but it makes for one heck of a chapter-ending cliffhanger. (I suspect, as with the first story, it is going lead down to some very interesting philosophical paths . . .)

We shall see what the next week shall bring . . .

Until then . . . Write on!

Current word count: 2,210
Words this week: 2,210
Average words per day: 315

Not quite the progress I would have liked, but it is forward motion and that's what this year is all about.

Even given that, the word count is a bit less than I would have liked, but not wholly unexpected given the other things going on.

The story itself has taken some both planned and unexpected directions. As with the first story, it will be interesting to see what themes and issues my muse stirs up from my subconscious to further surprise me.

Until next week . . . Write on!

. . . or is that the other way around?

This year's writing effort is planned to be a sequel to my novella, "Building Baby Brother". I finally have an idea what needs to happen next and, unusual for me, some its content is likely to be slightly more topical. (What can I say? We all deal with stress and uncertainty in our own way.)

Let's put this right up front: With everything else going on in my personal and professional life right now, I suffer from no illusions of "winning" by reaching the preferred 50,000-word goal. If I can achieve half of that, I will be very, very pleased. (The original draft of "Building Baby Brother" came in at slightly more than 24,000 words, so it seems a reasonable goal to set.)

As always, I will keep you posted on my progress here.

To all of my fellow NaNo-ers out there: Write on!

Final word count: 5,315
Average words per day: 177

I won't lie and say that this wasn't a disappointing finish for what would have been my 10th anniversary of doing NaNoWriMo.

On the upside: I have 5,315 words that I didn't have when November started.

I also learned that sometimes only having a concept of an idea for a story isn't nearly enough to try to hang the entire structure of a novel upon. Sometimes it works . . . and sometimes it doesn't.

Still, I did learn a lot about trying to stray outside of my usual genre of science fiction. I might actually finish this someday . . .

So, until next year . . . Keep writing!

Current word count: 5,315
Words this week: 1,739
Average words per day: 248

All things being relative, it has been a better (writing) week than most.

My word count is still way, way behind where it needs to be. Is 10,000 words possible before midnight on the 30th?

We'll see . . .

Current word count: 3,576
Words this week: 361
Average words per day: 52

Okay, so not only is 50,000 words not happening, but even my revised goal of 24,000 words is very unlikely to happen. (Why 24,000 words instead of 25,000? Because 24,000 was my lowest word count over for NaNoWriMo.)

I'm going to try to keep plugging along and see how many words I can finally get down. How ever many it turns out to be, it will still be more than I had as of 12:01am on November 1st.

Current word count: 3,215
Words this week: 2,105
Average words per day: 301

Much better progress this week.

That said . . . I am so far behind at this point that I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect that I can hit 50,000 words by midnight on November 30th.

Let's see how many words the next week brings before I reset my personal goal for this year.

Current word count: 1,110
Words this week: 1,110
Average words per day: 159

 Um. Yeah. This year is not off to anything near a great start.

While it's tempting to surrender now, I keep chanting the mantra I so often use to encourage others: "Anything word count greater than zero is a good thing."

We'll see what the next week brings.

This year's story is going to be a little different. Instead of going with the science fiction space opera epic I had planned to write this year, I am going down a more cathartic route. It's also going to be a genre that I have never attempted before (not that attempting that isn't always fun).

This novel is intended to be a kind of ghost story, so supernatural in spirit. Whether it will also include any elements of horror remain to be seen.

As always, you can follow along with my progress here.

I am extremely pleased to be able to announce that my novella, “Building Baby Brother” is finally available.

I’ve been tempted to proclaim it as “10 Years in the Making!”, but then I’d have to answer for why it took me ten years to complete the final draft.

Suffice to say, for now, that it is finished and it is available for purchase directly from Paper Angel Press or from the major online booksellers.

If you’re at all curious about some of the ten-year history behind this story, here are some (old) blog posts related to it:

• The Long Tale of a Short Story
• Birth of a Story
• Making a Long Story Short . . .

Otherwise, please buy and enjoy the story. And tell your friends!

Thank you.

Final word count: 22,751
Average words per day: 758

I’d say that this closes the book on another NaNoWriMo, but that would be untrue in several ways.

First of all, the story is far from finished. I’ll undoubtedly pick it up again some day and write the rest of the tale.

Second, although I did not “win” by reaching the goal of 50,000 words, that’s slightly more than 750 words a day that might not otherwise have been written.

Third, it was a useful exercise in helping me build the world in which “Childtime” came to be.

So, although my tenth year of participating was a disappointing one, it was far from a wasted one.

Until next year . . .

Current word count: 22,032
Words this week: 6,695
Average words per day: 956

Well . . . a better week than last week is about all I can claim.

A 50,000-word win seems pretty much not happening this year. Yes, I’m disappointed, but at least I have 22,000-plus words I didn’t have at the start of November.

Let’s see where I end up . . .

Current word count: 15.337
Words this week: 5,369
Average words per day: 767

So . . . a better week than last week.

Although if not by much, I’ll take it. It’s not my worst Week Three word count, but again not by much.

The odds are very slim that I will reach 50,000 words this year. That bothers me a bit, with this being my 10th year of doing this.

But, as I always tell everyone else who asks, “Any word count greater than zero is a Good Thing.”

Back at it . . . to see just how far I can go this year.

Current word count: 9,968
Words this week: 4,949
Average words per day: 707

Well . . . this is not exactly starting off to be a stellar NaNoWriMo year. The last time I did this badly was the year when I didn’t “win”.

I won’t say that it’s impossible for me to reach the goal of 50,000 words this year, but it’s going to be a real challenge.

And, with that, I’d better get back to that challenge.

Current word count: 5,019
Words this week: 5,019
Average words per day: 717

Well, the good news is that this is not my lowest word count ever for the first week.

The bad news is that the only year when it was lower was the year when I didn’t make it to the goal of 50,000 words.

All I can say is that I have a lot of catching up to do. I am not going let my 10th year be one when I don’t hit that goal. As they say, “Sleep is overrated.”

So, back at it.