No progress on the novel today, in fact, negative process. I don’t like the story, I don’t like where it’s head and I’m not sure I even like the genre.
Or the hero.
That can’t be good huh.
Author Archives: tony
Motivation
Not long got back from a delicious Sunday lunch out with friends, really enjoyed it.
Both myself and Grete are still feeling pretty grotty, Grete’s got the cold full on now, I’m on the tail end.
Don’t feel very creative, only just over 6 hours to go before I need to have written another 1600 words, think I’ll sit in the other room for a bit and try and absorb some ideas from the TV.
Well you never know, it might just work.
The Devil’s Panties – knowing your age
This is yesterday’s comic from The Devil’s Panties (hopefully Jennie won’t mind me linking direct, it’s a hotlink to her site, so follow it and check it out).
I know just how you feel Jennie, just how you feel.
NaNoWriMo: Day 1 update 3
In the spirit of NaNoWriMo I’m not going back and editing the stuff I’ve written. No time for re-writes. However, I am going back and re-reading it (to keep consistent) and to see how I well or badly I think I did certain bits.
There’s one bit I’m pleased with so far (yes, I know, early days). In the first major conversation of the story one guy is doing a lot of talking and is clearly agitated. Twice I went to write “so and so, clearly agitated” and stopped myself, and instead, I wrote these.
Philip sat down again, clasping and unclasping his hands.
Philip stood, and then sat down again almost immediately.
… his hands returned to gripping his knees tightly.
Hopefully I got the show don’t tell bit right.
LoLCat been a long time coming
NaNoWriMo: Day 1 update 2
Had a bit of a burst, got the main character in to a chat with his first contact, and that conversation drove the word count up. Hopefully it drives the story along and doesn’t sound like I’m just telling a story.
NaNoWriMo word count:1868
NaNoWriMo: Day 1
Day 1, and after a full breakfast, and some shopping, I still feel crap with the cold. I really had no clue where to start the novel. But I guess everything starts with the first letter.
590 words in now and actually quiet excited, because it’s already the most I’ve ever written in terms of a book. I’ve written many thousands of words for roleplaying modules and backstory etc. But this is the first time I’ve really had a go at writing an actual story for the sake of it.
The NaNoWriMo site is slow (they warned us it will be for a few days), and I’ve got an image link in the sidebar so the page may load slowly for a little while until things calm down.
Wish me luck.
NaNoWriMo word count: 570
Every movie I ever saw
Decided to try and write a list of every movie I ever saw. So far, that’s from the IMDB’s top 100 movies per year since 1971 and a few I remembered earlier. I’ll keep adding movies as I remember them, and watch new ones.
Is science fiction inevitable?
It appears to me, an uneducated sci-fi geek wannabe, that if the human mind can conceive of it, eventually we can bring it to fruition. What was fiction in the early part of the last century is the reality of today.
I’ve just been watching a TV program which included robotic limbs, both as human limb replacements and as human limb extensions (for remote use in dangerous locations). Limbs controlled by tiny electrical impulses from muscles, or by thought alone. Semi-realistic limbs, with 4 or 5 mobile and flexible fingers. Rather than guessing where we’ll be in 10 years, it’s easier to look back at where we were 10 years ago and imagine if we make the same rate of progress.
The same is true in so many areas of traditional sci-fi topics such as robotics, space travel, energy, communication. I remember watching the black and white Flash Gordon and thinking how awesome it would be, to be able to see the person you were talking to on the phone.
Now video conferencing and videophone technology is increasingly commonplace.
It appears that at all scales (from space travel to the moon to the tiny elements of motors and computers), if sci-fi authors have imagined it, then science practitioners have brought it about and made it a reality.
I am sure that people more clever than me debate this all the time. Asking questions about whether we make our own reality and hence anything we imagine can be made real, or that since sci-fi is based on a kernel of reality it’s bound to be possible to develop the ideas into real stuff. But for me, I just like thinking about it. Does sci-fi drive science research? If you spent your youth watching C3-PO does that in turn result in your Robotics research taking the form of a large golden humanoid with a personality disorder?
Is it inevitable that most of the inventions of science fiction will become reality?
It’s Friday
I really needed this Friday to turn up. Unfortunately I’m on-call this coming week, but at least the cold is finally beginning to abate. I’m left now with just a stuffed nose and an irregular cough, instead of a streaming nose and a constant cough, which is how it’s been for three days.
My stomach/chest muscles hurt from the coughing, I hate having colds. The wound on my thumb never really hurt, it’s odd. i expected at least some pain, but it’s knit together pretty well and there’s only any soreness if I press it. Had to move the dentist appointment to next week, couldn’t imagine sitting in the dentist chair coughing and trying to keep my mouth open. So, got that fun to come next week, really really not looking forward to it.
D&D tomorrow and lunch with some friends on Sunday should be good, I’m hopeful the coughing will have totally gone by then.