February 7th – 117,712.

Had a great writing afternoon today, having been busy for most of the morning – a reversal of the usual split of the day in this household.

So I hauled myself to a stop a few minutes ago, having hit well past the target count, managing 3,847 words. You may think these numbers are rather precise, but I use a spreadsheet to track them, and having entered the current word count of the w.i.p. it simply churns out the day’s word count, the total words overall and all I have to do is copy type them from one to the other. Simples.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast isn’t the best so I might well get another good writing day in, and if so the word count will stretch even further ahead of target.

February 6th – One hundred and thirteen thousand, eight hundred and sixty five words done.

Wow! It actually looks even more impressive written down that way. I managed a mere, (laughs at his own perceived arrogance and blushes before running away to hide in the corner) 2,864 words today prior to the trip to the torture chamber. A.k.a. the Physiotherapy centre.

Well, they’ve decided it is not now a trapped nerve in the rotator cuff and have centred attention onto my neck, which is where I started out three months ago. Apparently I have arthritis there, so I guess I’m getting old, well my body is, while my mind wants to write down as many stories as it can – before the body fails it!

Stopping my mind from thinking about other stories as I’m working on one takes a monumental effort.

The critique group went well yesterday, and seeing as I wasn’t presenting this time round I found it relaxing – as I usually do when I’m not the focus of attention. As often happens, there was one piece using an omniscient narrator and opinions were divided. I never like that contrivance, and one of the other members loves it, but doesn’t use it in her own work. It’s a good job we like or at least respect each other’s opinions otherwise sparks would fly.

A couple of people ask me why I’m so focussed on the numbers of what I'm trying to achieve, especially here in the public facing blog. I’m not, not really - for me numbers are a means of keeping track, nothing more, and making sure I’m on target. There will be days, and even weeks later in the year when I have no chance of writing, let alone hitting the target, so a buffer now is a great idea. It isn’t obsessive – it’s target setting and tracking, nothing more than that.

Still written out longhand it does look kind of impressive? What?

February 5th – 111,001 Words

It’s a good job I’m not counting in binary, isn’t it? Wouldn’t be doing so well with that number would I? Anybody know what it is? A pure fluke, I wrote the last sentence for today, read it back to myself and realised I’m missed a crucial the in the middle of it. Otherwise it would have been a very suspicious looking round number.

So a total of 3,087 words today, and I’ve had to stop in order to prepare for the writing critique group tonight. Three very different pieces - all of which demand some attention from me.

I followed the anonymous advice from when I mentioned my idea for a Steampunk story earlier in this blog, and actually wrote the first 1,000 words of a scene. Well, at 2,000 words on my main w.i.p. I had reached the end of one scene and didn’t really want to start another.

Than 1,000 word start means I now have something to build on – it’s my turn to submit something for my Speculative fiction critique group at the end of the month, and submission deadline is Friday. My main w.i.p. isn’t suitable for that group (they don’t do romance) and I guess Steampunk is right up their alley.

My problem is I’ve so far done very little research into the modern mores of the genre – but I felt a compelling need to see if I could get the idea down on paper (or rather screen) and see if the voice works. For me, that’s what a critique group is. for I hate it when someone takes something polished to within an inch of its life to a critique group merely to preen and bask in adulation. That belies the meaning of a critique, and I find people like that won’t accept criticism, however constructive, even so.

By the way, I have corrected the unfortunate typo in yesterday’s post – honestly my parents do not own an oven whose door can defecate in the kitchen! Well, not for much longer anyway, seeing its replacement has been ordered.

February 4th – 107,914 words to date.

Well, going to be a busy day so I made an early start. Despite an hour out to go grocery shopping I’d hit 3,034 words by ten forty-five and due to family issues have had to stop for the day.

Yesterday was not a good day in my mother’s kitchen, I’m afraid. First, the oven door which has been a bit temperamental for a few months now decided it didn’t want to shut. So my father decided to slam it, with the almost inevitable consequence that the glass hob lid dropped. Although the glass didn’t break, thankfully, it did break its hinges, meaning the automatic cut-off switch at the back (only depressed when the lid is in the up position) is permanently in the off position and the hob won’t work.

Given the age of the cooker and the state of the oven door hinge, which isn’t good, there’s no real point in doing anything than accepting the appliance is at the end of its useful life. So the rest of today will be spent shopping for a new one. That is, of course, after the eye tests we already have scheduled for my wife and myself. No doubt that will result in new specs for both of us and that’s yet another expense.

Ah well, one of THOSE days, I guess.

Well the trip to the opticians proved expensive! Both of us DO need new specs, and I need a pair of specialist ones just for computer use and I must remember to change them before I leave my desk. That’ll be fun, avoiding the broken neck!

February 3rd – 104,880 words

I guess I stopped writing about ten minutes early this morning. If I’d just written another four or five sentences or another quick exchange of dialogue, I’d have pushed through 105k. Never mind, I’m still on target, still going strong with another 3,269 words under my belt. That means I’m about 4 and a quarter days ahead of schedule, so despite expecting to lose time against the schedule at this juncture, I’ve actually increased my lead on the relentless bus.

My big problem now is the idea that’s formed in my head for a novel, the whole story dropping into place during the night. God I wish I could tape the visions that run through my head when I’m asleep – no not THAT type of vision, get your mind out of the gutter. I went to bed thinking, wouldn’t it be neat if… and work up this morning with the whole thing novel formed, just needing to be fleshed out. Unfortunately it’s in a genre I’m not familiar with, so rather than being a writing project it’s really a research one, so I don’t want to tackle it at the moment as research doesn’t count toward this target, which is a serious bummer.

It hit my productivity today, I spent time thinking about this great new idea of for a very original protest novel, when I was supposed to be thinking about the character development happening at a crucial point in my current w.i.p. Still I managed, eventually, to put it to one side, and pick up the w.i.p. and get cracking. Once I got a start, it flowed, but as I said, if only I’d kept going that little bit longer… oh well… spilt milk under the bridge and any other mixed metaphor with knobs on that you can think of for yourself.

February 2nd – Passed the 100k barrier

Today is going to be a busy, non-writing day, so I snatched the early part of the morning to get things done instead.

I managed just short of 2,500 words on my current WIP today, and a further 650 odd on the author newsletter. That takes me through the 100,000 word mark up to 101,611 words.

Today my son-in-law is coming round to help me fix the porch light fitting, I can’t stretch my arms above my head due to the shoulder problem so can’t even manage to unscrew the damn thing to fix it. It’ll probably only take us two minutes to get it done, and it makes me feel really down on myself that I can’t do something so simple on my own – something I’d have done without thinking about just a few months ago.

I’m also somewhat annoyed by news this week. The government have finally announced the route of the new HS2 rail link between London and Manchester and Leeds. This is something that is long overdue, for the country that invented the railway we are a long way behind the rest of the world. However, and it’s a big but, the route of the line comes within two hundred yards of where I’m sitting typing this. This house has been a quiet haven in a quiet neighbourhood for the 24 years we’ve lived here. The idea of 200+mph trains whistling past at frequent intervals doesn’t sit that well. The only advantage is, the first section of the line (London to Birmingham) won’t be finished till 2026 and they won’t start this section of the work till after that. A lot can change in 13 years, and who knows, we might well have moved out before then. If we move out, I want that to be at our behest, not forced out by noise pollution. I’ve never been charitable toward the NIMBY movements in the past, now I have to ponder if I’m going to become one.

February 1st – 98,515 words.

Well, February started off much better than January did, in writing terms anyway. Mind you, I hadn’t even decided to attempt the challenge a month ago, so that’s probably an unfair comparison.

3,245 words today, and I’ve finished a scene and it’s lunchtime, so it’s time to stop, only some 1,500 words short of that 100k mark. I guess I’ll hit that 10% of target point sometime tomorrow, which will be good.

On other news, I had a busy start to the day, having to go to the bank to keep the wolves at bay – i.e. pay the bills, and then take my father to pick up his car now he’s had that little front wing faux pas fixed. Then it was writing, writing, writing all the way. I’ve just received another print cover approval form back, so that’s one more off next month’s release list, but that adds another job to this afternoon. Oh well, no rest for the wicked!