Crocs!

My new profile pic is only temporary. But, I had to stick something new in to replace the Nano Logo. I failed to win Nano, but next year...

This particular picture is an appropriate replacement for several reasons. One of the projects I am working on is the crocodile survey portal*. And as there is no budget to charge regular office hours to I will therefore be working on it in my free time ( A.K.A. my writing time) I feel justified in mentioning it on my personal blog.
The data for the portal was collected as part of Daniela's masters dissertation, and will be up on the web in a few short weeks. The picture, to come around full circle, is the work of Marco- Daniela's other half and great eco and scoio-politically concious artist. Marco was also the man behind the latest Paddington Bear excursion through london.


And while still on the subject of crocs- one of the evenings when I should have been writing I saw a preview showing of
A documentary on the plight of the gharial". A very well produced little documentary, but really depressing - film showing just how precarious life can be for other species sharing the planet with us humans.

Watch it here And please do watch it. Awareness, people, it really is the first step and not to be underestimated.

*The name has not been signed off yet.

Non NaNoWriMo writing

Well not exactly NaNo word count but I finally managed to submit an 'article' to Associated Content. It is an on-line publisher of, well pretty much anything really.
And for Americans at least they pay small amounts for each article that their user base churns out. Sadly living in England I am unable to earn up front payments for content I submit. There is one way non US submitters can earn money: by being popular – you could earn an amazing $1.50 per thousand views. So yeah not exactly a get rich quick scheme and I don’t even foresee getting that lofty target of not quite enough for a coffee, but if you want to read my badly framed argument for aquaria as a way to instil awareness and basic concepts of ecology (or if you just want to help me avoid getting RSI by logging some of those 1000 clicks for me) then:

May I present:
Aquaria as an Introduction to Nature

Ten percent!

I spent the whole day thinking about how much writing I would have to do today to catch up, or even get close to catching up to my daily target. And I kept having to ramp up my estimates as I factored in the kinds of daily output I could expect next week based on last weeks dismal daily word production attempts.

That is right youv'e got it. I spent all day assessing the amount of work I would have to do, and not actually starting any of that work. So how is it all looking?

It is not looking very good. In fact it was looking so bad that I lost hope, and now I can't find her little sister motivation anywhere either.

I did manage to get the words flowing though. Flowing like sewage thick, black, untreated, sewage, clotted with gnarly clumps of hair matted together with chunks of the eviler, more solid, of the two most common human waste products we excrete. I apologise I got carried away there.

I am very close to a thousand words now though and I just wanted to mark my first decent milestone: 5 000 words!

5,000 / 50,000 (10.0%)

I feel sure the last 45 000 words (God writing that number is disheartening) will be much easi.. Oh what the hell, who am I kidding. Back to the white screen (of Death) before I run out of time completely.

Read 'em and weep

5 words last night . Five!

I surprise even myself at this prodigious output.  Jeeze This weekend is going to have to develop extra hours...

I did go to the Cambridge fireworks- my first proper 'Guy Fawkes' night in England. And they were pretty impressive.  I might link a pic or two once a certain someone uploads them.  

The dog ate my notebook....

Well I tried I really did. Managed just under 1000 words last night, which puts me at nearly 2500 words behind. And it is only day 5! This weekend I am going to have to shackle myself to my desk.

Good news I am zeroing in on a title. Not there yet but I do have a title which has the right ideas associated with it and I am going to update the working title from Untitled to something slightly less embarrassing but still fairly generic and 'not quite right'.

Working title: 'Right through the cracks'.

To be referenced in this blog from now on as simply 'The cracks'

I think I could post up a plot synopsis or teaser. But 1. I need to get to work and 2. At less than 10% into the damn thing I don't want to be overly presumptuous.

I would be very interested in hearing from any of you whether the you find the title intruiging. Or not.  And more importantly I would like to hear what you, simply from the title, think the story will be about? What impression does the title give? 

 

Rolling and flailing in the mire, but the limbs are moving

I am not quite out of that first sucking pit yet, but I did manage a decent effort last night (and a few words this morning) espacially considering I spent two hours over time at work yesterday.  Even if I am still below target minimum, if I can just get my those writers legs poiting in a straight line I think I can catch up to target level today. 

There be dragons

He received many warning from wrinkly old sages and bleached skeletons of past failures but our would-be hero had nothing but scorn for the Dragon. He could handle anything. 

But he barely got out of the quaint little village nestled in the green green hills before being run down by a cart, witha  heavy load. Strapped down in the back were several  barrels full of procrastination (They look just like barrels of rum but they weigh a lot more). One of the barrels got loose and landed squarely on his head as the last pair of wheels jolted over the meaty speed hump that was his body. It hurt. It hurt more when he woke up. Worse , somehow, while apparently unconscious he had crawled off the side of the road, and found himself wallowing in a pit of, worryingly premature, plot failure. 

I made it to 2 000 words people, but according to my target I should be much closer to double that. Can I make up for it tonight? I can say with a great deal of enthusiasm, that I positively do not feel able.

It was a dark and windy night....

well the first day is here and words have been written. I made an early start, at just after midnight last night. Yeah, before the first hour of November had passed I had a whole paragraph written. That's some dedication!

Look at that progress bar! Wow almost 1%!

I only got back into laptop reach after 12 last night because I had been to the Cambridge Nanowrimo kick off party last night. In amongst a pub filled with crazy Halloween costumed locals was a large group of even more crazily costumed NaNoWriMo participants. It appears to be custom to get as drunk as you can before going home and starting on a full length novel and trying to squeeze out a couple of thousand well chosen carefully positioned words. But it was good to get caught up in the atmosphere of fellow wriMos. And there was an official registration, with goodie bag handouts! The bags were full of motivational quotations, official stickers, and chocolate supplies( we have to keep our brains fueled somehow and we may not have time for cooking - let alone shopping). There are even several pages of word search puzzles which I assume are supposed to be less of a distraction thig and more to help give your brain something to do while it tries to puzzle its' way out of the plot deadend you just wrote yourself into.

We also had to present story setting, main protagonist name, title and genre, and a large number of important plot elements- like how many vampires or guns there are supposed to be. I had to walk around with a lot of blank spaces on my form and my title was simply: Untitled. What was worse wriMos, wrimos who have done this thing before, (o.K to be clear we are talking about pros here) were all talking about the novel outline they had prepared. No one told me about the month of planning you were allowed; were expected to utilise to the full. No one told me - until last night, with raised eybrows and sympathetic smiles- just how important it was going to be. Oh, dear.

On the plus side, it was great to hear all the varied, sometimes astounding, ideas out there and mingle with Other People Like Me.

Besides all is not lost: I have had this character in my head long enough, and I know whhere he is going, and I know where the action will take place(mostly), and I know what the last sentence will be. Now I just need to see if I can pull a decent narrative out from somewhere and wrap it all up.

Now to make the most of the weekend's many unbooked hours.

My NaNoWriMo Page

One day left and I have enjoyed the last calm breakfast before the crazy starts. Writing with a fork in one hand and trying not to fleck my keyboard with partially masticated food is I feel going to be a thrice daily challenge.

My Nanowrimo site is where my word count really counts if I want to be an official 'winner'.This is where I will submit my daily word count and hopefully watch the blue bar grow steadily.

I am going to put my own progress bar up here later...

[Edit:It is up]

Rally Friends!

Time has all but run out. Two days remain until I make my first go at Nanowrimo, and I want to make it a successful attempt. Surely peer pressure and fear of losing face are great motivational tools. I need friends, supporters - random people with too much time on their hands to cheer me on - or at worst anybody with a vindictive itch eager to goad me at the slightest hint of failure. So I have resurrected this blog and intend to post updates of my progress and word count, often - I can't be more specific because I have no fixed schedule yet. And hey, I might be busy.

And so the other reason for the blog. I am not going to have time for all that fantastic correspondence my family and friends have come to look forward to, to cherish, to use as props for their emotional well-being. No more of those, regular, lovingly crafted e-mails, say goodbye to those heart-warming, stimulating, motivational phone conversations. For the month of November if you want Nick's news: This is where it will be. You want to be entertained and enthralled by my amazing, exuberant, just this side of clinical, ramblings? This is where you need to be.

Only Forward:
I am now officially launching the new blog with an actual title this time.

Word counters will be put up soon. And maybe even a novel title. I am still not 100% committed to a novel idea, I have three possible ideas kicking around. And people: Time is running out.