It’s coming up on the end of another month and another year. I feel this year has been a little better to me, and I’m hoping naughty nine will be even better. So, it’s time to look at my last years resolutions and see how little I got accomplished that I had planned at the beginning of the year.

But, first things first - How was yer Crimmas?

I had a pretty good one. Lots of nice presents, fun times, noisy kids and some assembly required. At the top of the list - A nice new comfy business chair. I like to spin around in circles until I’m dizzy… Oh, and it’ll probably come in handy when working as well… But mostly the spinning.

So, onto other things, I had a number of plans for this month. My Todo list wasn’t a very long one but that didn’t stop me from not doing all of it. I did read a little more, as I’d planned, and I also got a short Doug update finished. I got my Christmas shopping done, buying awesome presents for everyone to tear open, look at in confusion for a moment and then toss aside in anticipation for larger presents from others more willing to open their wallets.

Last year I made some resolutions for the year. Here’s what I came up with.

#1 -Complete Two Novels.
#2 - Keep to a sleep schedule.
#3 - Complete 3 short stories.
#4 - Loose Weight.
#5 - Cut down my smoking.
#6 - Save Money.
#7 - Get out more

As for number one - Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… ha.

ha ha ha.

ha.

Two?

ha ha ha…

Anyway… onto number two. I was having trouble sleeping back then but it’s been pretty good for a while now. The secret is to close your eyes early and open them late. Number three - finally, some good news. Not only did I do this one, I DOUBLED it. Booya. Four and five - I’m starting to get a roll on but there wasn’t a great deal of progress this year. Ditto for six and seven.

And as for ‘09. I haven’t really thought that much on resolutions except for one thing.

Write 1000 words every day.

Simple. Easy. Straight forward.

I can handle a thousand words a day. I’m sure of it. If I know what I’m writing then I can get through that in an hour or two. Although most of the time I don’t know what I’m writing, so It may take a little longer. But, dag nabbit, a thousand should be easily done.

By this time next year I should be sitting on about three hundred and fifty thousand words more than I am today.

Ouch.

This morning I finished reading Dune. A book I never thought I would get around to reading. I’m really not sure why it has taken me this long to read it as I’ve loved the story since I was a kid. I think it was mostly because I expected it to be something less than I wanted it to be.

See, when I was around twelve (at a guess). I got my hands on a computer game called Dune. With it’s great story, soundtrack and gameplay, It quickly became one of my favourite games. Starting out as little Paul Atreides flying around in an Ornithopter gathering up spice and talking to fremen then going on to organising an army using telepathy. Great fun.

I knew it was a book then, and I knew my father had a copy of the second book - Dune Messiah, I think I even read a few pages, but who wants to read the second book when you haven’t read the first?

It was a couple of years later, long after I’d completed the game, that I saw the David Lynch film. I wasn’t exactly sure if I liked it or not. There was the story that I remembered and loved but… It just wasn’t the game. I haven’t seen it since that first time, maybe I’ll watch it again sometime and see something in it that I didn’t see before.

Then, a few years later, I came across a box set of video tapes titled: Frank Herbert’s Dune. Unfortunately, much more expensive than I could afford… Not much later though, as video tapes were leaving the stores forever, the box set dropped in price to an easy $15. I snatched it up. And again I revisited Arrakis, now with glowing blue eyes and better (comparatively not relatively) special effects.

Onto the present: A few weeks ago I finally picked up my very own copy of the book. Though, I was still weary that it would be less than I wanted. This was the source material for one of my favourite childhood computer games. (They don’t make games like the ones I grew up on any more.)

How I was wrong.

I had not been so immersed in the world of the fremen since those days I spent hours in front of the computer. I flew through the book, enjoying Paul Atreides’ rise to power all over again. It had been enough time since I had seen or played any of the Dune’s that I couldn’t recall everything about the story but there were elements that came to me time and again. When Paul met Chani and vaguely remembered meeting her before, in a dream, I vaguely remembered meeting her before, in a game.

And now, I’m starting on Dune Messiah. Which, ironically enough, now that I’ve come to read it my father no longer owns it. - But, don’t fear (Because fear is the mindkiller), I picked up my own copy on Saturday.

It’s the last month of the year. 31 days to go, and a couple less than that till Christmas…. and about a day or two before that is when I’ll start my Christmas shopping.

2009 is going to be a much more productive year than this year and so it’s about time I got into the swing of things.

So, here’s my ToDo list for December -

1. Read more - I haven’t been reading a great deal lately and I think this is one of the reasons my writing is suffering. I seem to write more (and better.) When I’m reading more. I’m just finishing off Neverwhere and am heading on to Dune.
2. I plan on trying to do this… Two months - A complete first draft. It seems possible but I’m not even sure what project to focus on. (Which is a bit of a problem since I should be doing at least 1500 words today.)
3. I want to get a Doug update out too. It’s been somewhere around two months since the last one, this was supposed to be a weekly thing! shit!
4. I have a great concept (and title) for a short story, I want to get that one out before the end of the year too. It’s got a little bit of time travel and a little bit of existentialism. Fun for the whole family.
5. Violate the first law of awesomedynamics
6. I should probably throw in Christmas shopping as well…. - Although I usually leave it till last minute and then run around the shopping centre dodging all the bastards that can’t walk fast enough and grumbling to myself, as I do when I’m pissed off, all the while finding awesome presents for everyone.

So, that’s the plan for December. I better get to work I have a lot to get through…

Hmmm, my workspace looks a little dirty. Maybe some cleaning first. Oh and there’s a movie on in a few minutes that I want to see…

It’s the end of another month. The eleventh this year. It seems like only yesterday that it was January first and I was dreaming of all the things I would get done this year. I have gotten some things done but not nearly as much as I had planned. But then who ever does?

Maybe people who are more in touch with their obsessive compulsive side than I am… sigh.

So, usually around this time, I take a look at my ToDo list for the month and go through what I did and didn’t do. But I think I covered that in the previous entry.

I feel like a bit of a trap-door spider - nothing happens then suddenly I strike - 20,000 words - and then I take cover again.

Okay, I don’t feel like a spider. (They’re weird and definitely aliens.) but you get the point.

So, heading into December and the new year I plan on working my buttocks to a high sheen. I’m not sure If I’m going to start with a new project or a rewrite but I’m sure I’ll have made that decision by tomorrow…

That’s it for now folks, I’ll see you tomorrow for a brand new Monthly ToDo list.

P.s. - Dr Horrible is available for Pre-Order on Amazon. I ordered mine the second I heard. Now I just have to wait for it…

Just over a week ago now my brain shut down. It suddenly, for no apparent reason, stopped working. It blue screened and rebooting hasn’t helped. I even undid a few screws, unzipped the flappy bit at the back and slid my brain out of it’s slot (and yes, I remembered to disconnect the power leads first) I did a complete check but still couldn’t find what was the problem.

(By the way my brain looks hilarious when you sit little bunny ears on top of it and make it bounce around and pretend to eat carrots.)

…and so I haven’t written more than a paragraph or two in the last week and a half. I figure if I want to finish NaNoWriMo this year I need to write about 7000 words a day. And that is not going to happen. So, it’s official -

So, while I’ve been avoiding writing for the past week and a half, I’ve been doing other things. I’ve hired out a whole bunch of movies. There has even been a good movie or two in there. I quite enjoyed Mongol and the new X-Files movie had it’s moments too. And Val Kilmer was great in Felon .

I also bought myself Legend of Zelda for my Wii. It’s been quite addictive. But then that’s one of the reasons I don’t buy many computer games. I get addicted to them pretty easily and spend most of my time playing them until the game is finished.

I’m still deciding on what to work on next. (Which is probably why I haven’t been working on anything.) These are my choices-

1. There’s a new short story that I have an idea for but it isn’t fleshed out yet. But I do have a cool title and a great first two words.
2. Start work on another project. It’s a relatively new idea and I think I have enough plot for the first couple of chapters.
3. Keep working on the present project. Which will begin by rewriting most of it before adding in missing pieces.

Well, that’s about it for now. Remember - brains look funny with bunny ears.

P.s. The first episode of Season 2 of The Guild is up. Hoorah! Watch it Here

It’s another NaNoWriMo update and I have some good news and I have some bad news. And I have some moderate news that can be perceived as either good or bad.

And a decision.

And an Icy pole.

It’s getting to be freaking hot these days. It’s at 31.5 Celsius today. It’s supposed to be five degrees cooler tomorrow, so I’m crossing my fingers.

It’s going to be a bitch of a summer this year.

So, here’s the reason why I’m here today and not trying to hit my NaNo word quota while wiping the sweat from my forehead.

I kind of… well… finished.

I know! Right? I’m quite a number of words short of the 50,000… in fact I’m still short of getting halfway.

I knew this story was short. It wouldn’t make a thick novel. But when it was just a black spot on my brain I thought it may reach 50,000 words.

Ha.

Half way into it I thought it may reach 30-40 thousand words.

Ha.

I just wrote the last word which was word 19,134.

Now, some of the scene’s were a little glossed over and some were a little *cough* left out. There is also something missing that I haven’t quite put my finger on yet. But even with a complete rewrite I don’t see adding another 10,000 words.

Anyway, it’s definitely in the novella category. But hell, I’m not padding the story out with crap I don’t want just to make the thing longer.

I have learned a couple of things from NaNo this year already…

- I shouldn’t have any trouble hitting 10 grand of words every week. It’s pretty easy If I don’t procrastinate so much. So I plan to keep this up.

- Writing is still fun. It’s obvious but you forget sometimes.

- And some other stuff too.

So here’s my conundrum - which is mildly humorous as well.

Last year I got bored with my story and gave up to work on something else. This year I was going well but ran out of material. HA! (I did say mildly humorous…)

Now, do I…

One - Begin my rewrite now? (Which I believe counts for NaNo since I’m still working on the same novel(la).

Two - Start work on a fresh project and still count it toward NaNo? (Which is a bit iffy on whether or not it counts. It’s a different project but I’m still aiming for 50,000 words)

Or

Three - Forget the NaNo thing and just work on what I want with no set goal… or a personally set goal…

Well, what do you think?

It’s funny cause it’s true…

All that I’ve written so far is absolute dreck.

But even still, the story is coming out and there have been some rubies in the dirt. Sometimes things that I had imagined vaguely have come out exactly as I had imagined them.

But other times the opposite has happened. I haven’t achieved the atmosphere that I’ve wanted. And I wonder, told as it is, If anyone would bother reading past the first page.

I’ve just been writing it in a very linear fashion. Beginning, middle, end. And I wonder if that’s the best way to tell it.

BUT that isn’t the real reason I’m here.

I’m at that point where I have to write a scene but have no idea how to write it.

Yesterday I managed barely 500 words. That’s a whole lot short of my word count goal.

I put that line there because that was the moment I reached this decision.

To move forward.

I spent all day yesterday trying to work out how to write this scene. How to inject a dream-like beauty into what is essentially an undignified act.

So I’ve now given myself a deadline of twelve o’clock today.

If I’ve not finished it by then I’m going to write an marker and move on to the next scene.

- Well, that’s it from me now. I didn’t write what I came here to write but all the same it has helped me out.

Don’t look now, it’s another NaNo update!

It’s been going pretty good. I’m still a little behind on my word count, but I’m not letting that get to me. Today had been a great writing day for two reasons:

Reason One: I have now reached:

That’s right. Thirteen thousand, three hundred and eight words. Which, even though I’m behind schedule by a couple of thousand words, is -

The most I’ve written on any one story ever.

Awesome, huh? Are you as excited as I am? Just barely? Thought so.

It also beats out my last years NaNoWriMo by about 4000 words. (If you don’t include the short story and a half that I wrote during November as well.)

Now, on to…

Reason Two: One of my characters was a little one sided. She was more of a plot piece than an actual character, something of an ingenue.

Until I gave her a knife.

She pulled it from nowhere. Suddenly, she’s sticking up for herself. She’s lighting fires. She’s doing stuff I never expected.

It’s such a shame I have to do horrible horrible things to her in just a few chapters time.

Anyway, Back to work…

So, how’s your week been?

Mine has been pretty good. I’ve been watching Northern Exposure on Foxtel’s new channel 111, I loved this show the last time I saw it - (10 years ago, at least) and I still love it. Though, I think there is some elements to the show that I understand a lot better. There’s also quite a few quick jokes I may have missed first time round also.

Also, on Thursday, I got a brand new dvd-burner. Very sweet, many super-cool functions, having a great deal of fun with the time shift function and the nice little hard-drive. (my previous burner was pre-hard drive era).

Oh yeah, and there’s also NaNoWriMo…

I’m a little behind, but not by much. I have been a little bad at handling my time this week.

Ideally, I’d like to be getting up early. Get my word count goal for the day done, and that way anything I do for the rest of the day would just be cherry.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the way it’s been happening. It’s a lot more like - I wake up and think ‘I’m much to tired still to work’ and so I watch some Tv for a while, or worse - a movie, (then, of course, Northern Exposure is on at 9am).

I think I finally get to opening the file at about 10 am. Then I spend most of the day flipping between working, watching tv, walking around, reading a book, playing with the dogs, playing the Wii, napping on the couch and so on and so on. If my day was a pie chart, working on the novel would be the red section… umm, i mean… working on the novel would be a small slice.

A fair slice, enough to fill your stomach (mostly), but still a small slice.

(Not that I actually made a pie chart. No. That would be procrastinating.)

So I’m going to try a bit harder next week.

So, how’s yours coming along?

So, it’s the fifth of november, the fifth day of NaNoWriMo. And I hear you asking (and shut up, by the way, you’re deafening me) How the hell is it going? Are you making some progress this year? Does this shirt make me look like I have man-boobs?.

The answers are - Good, yes and kind of, mostly on the left.

Here is a little word count doobie. -

I’m almost caught up to half way through yesterday.

Which means I’m going better than I did last year. (Though the writing is utterly atrocious!)

I’m trying to put a little widget thing on the front page. Not sure if it’s working yet or not. I’ll work it out later.

Well that’s it on the NaNo Front, I’ll catch ya later.