Wednesday 28 November 2012

2012 NaNoWriMo Winner

It feels pretty good to have crossed that winning-line, even if the last 2000 words were entirely world-building in nature.

I found myself left with a situation where I'd completed Poisonroot and certainly didn't want to ADD anything. I couldn't count words I edited out, so I decided to add some world-building ideas that will find their way onto this blog in good time.

However, my laptop is announcing that my time is short battery-wise, so I will simply post my stats and my winner stamp and be done with it!

I love the acceleration. I'm fairly sure I didn't write a massive chunk on Day 10, but instead failed to update it in time before midnight rolled around.

From the beginning I had flu, so that explains how far behind I was to begin with.

Towards the end: Acceleration! I was a few dozen words over the par every day from about 17 onwards, but it didn't really show until day 25.

Here's my winner's stamp!

And with that, good night!

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Poisonroot - Epilogue


A text completely without swearing or sex. One with a solid story arc, a couple of slightly smaller ones, a secondary character with a viewpoint that we see occasionally and a solid set of characters.

I am fairly pleased with this. I hope you've enjoyed it. Please let me know either way! I value my readers beyond all else.

Update: Changed the names on the brothers grim. Seemed a bit awkward. Originally they were Prime, Second, Tertes, Quad and Quinary. Now they're Prime, Secundus, Tertius (still not sure on that one, but Tertes sounds too awkward and Tertia sounds like a girl's name), the recently-deceased Quadra and Quinary. Let me know what you think.


Poisonroot - Chapter 29

Oh my goodness.

It's finished. It's finally finished. Now, a corollary to that; NaNoWriMo is very much NOT finished yet. I am ahead of par, to the extent where I could, in fact, take a day off. I won't, of course; that would be stupid. But I'll be writing something completely different for the last couple of days of NaNo because Poisonroot is DONE.

The last chapter... I'm proud of it. I'm not often pleased with my writing, but Victor's character has started to change in so many subtle little ways. I think he's still a bit of a bastard under the surface, but it's more that he's starved of contact with other people, or he's deliberately starved himself. Forced to communicate daily with Trip and Lauren, things have changed for him.

Anyway. A sequel is definitely coming.

Enjoy! I know I have.

By the bye; ALL of Poisonroot is in First Draft status. The editing needs to start soon, and then it will be time to think about trying to publish this. At that point, unfortunately, all the posts will need to come down, or at least be denuded of their Poisonroot content.

So, enjoy it while it lasts. The edit won't be coming up on here to save me time, though I plan to still post on here.


Monday 26 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 28

So I can finally add the missing chapter of Poisonroot, the one I wrote when I was having mild writer's block. It detailed the aftermath of the fight, and was another Interlude chapter... except this time it isn't an interlude.

This is essentially the start of chapters that are Anila-centric but are not interludes from the main action. I foresee a sequel to this (am, in fact, already planning a sequel to this) where Anila is a main character with her own POV chapters, alternating with Trip.

Anila is a wonderful character, with great motivations and a real mystery surrounding her. Who is, or was, her father? Is she some sort of experiment gone wrong or a real human child? Will she be able to find Victor and Trip, or will something else come up?

Find out in Tangleroot, starting soon!

There's at least one more chapter of Poisonroot to get down first, though, and an epilogue. And, of course, a NaNoWriMo to win!


Poisonroot - Chapter 27


Whooooooooooo! Epic fight scene is epic! Ok, so I listened to almost the entire Portal 2 soundtrack (Songs to test by) while writing this. It's actually really good for writing epic scenes. Lots of electronica-assisted soaring orchestral riffs.

This is quite a wonderfully epic scene for me and it's already got me thinking about how I can top it in the future. Tricky stuff. My inspiration for the Hork-construct monster is part Chernabog from Disney's Fantasia, part 18 colossus from Shadow of the Colossus and a healthy dose of body-horror from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

PAM is entirely grown from the D&D campaign. Thanks guys!



Sunday 25 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 26

Almost done, I think! Can things get any worse for Trip and company? Rennin swoops in the save the day and Sabir kicks ass, but will it be enough?


Saturday 24 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 25


Chapter 25, and the end is in sight for Trip, Lauren and Victor! What surprises await them? How will they deal with this new threat? What is High Father Hork going to do now that he has his own personal army?

Find out in the thrilling conclusion, over the next few days!

Side note: I had real trouble not having Victor swearing in this. I'm tryin' t'keep it fam'ly friendly, I'm guessin'.

Listened to nearly all of the Final Fantasy XI soundtrack while I wrote this at 10pm at night and I got told off for getting Sue and Chippy 'right in the feels!'

Me too, y'know. Spent a lot of time in that world, and learned a lot about worldbuilding from it!


Friday 23 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 24

Ok! So I can share a post now, as the last two were either plot from after the current canon or background-related info.

I kind of had trouble moving on after the last chapter. It's taken me most of three days to write Trip and co. away from the cozy semi-safety they were in at Lord Rennin's. Poor Trip; he's not had a pleasant time of it recently, and things are only going to get worse.

I've been reviewing my stats on NaNo and I've discovered I've been almost bang on par or over it since Day 11. That's 13 consecutive days. I think I can actually do this again. It's almost miraculous considering how bad last year went.

Anyway, enjoy the next chapter! Things are definitely moving towards... A CONCLUSION!


Tuesday 20 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 23

Today has been crazy. We made bread at work; the kids thought it was great. Hell, I thought it was great! Only... cooking is incredibly tiring work when you're doing it all day in a school.

Got my words done though. Half of this was written in a Brick Lane cafe called Kahaila. I can only kind of half recommend it; they chucked us out after twenty minutes because it was closing time, virtually no warning. No posted opening times either. When I mentioned it might be nice to put them up, the lady looked at me as if she'd never thought of it before.

The rest was written at home over a pie and chips.

Now off to kill people in artful ways in Hitman Absolution, which arrived in my mailbox this morning. How I've managed to avoid putting it in the PS3 up until now, I don't know...


Monday 19 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 22

Just broken 30,000 words on NaNoWriMo! Feeling pretty good :D

Music; what do you listen to while you're in the writing groove? I listened to the Bastion soundtrack for the first half of this, the Braid soundtrack for the second half. They've both got good points and bad points; I need something quiet, not too beat-y, interesting but not more interesting than the writing. Nothing with words. That is a definite no-no.

There was an interesting Twitter discussion the other day with Sonia Leong asking what people listened to. I waded in with the Death Note anime soundtrack (not all the tracks, only some of them) but it was interesting to see that I also listen to some of the other things that were mentioned; Shadow of the Colossus, Braid, Bastion, a lot of Final Fantasy, Tron Legacy, all that sort of stuff.

To be honest, I have a 'quiet music' playlist that contains 2.4 hours of tracks selected from loads of different things. They're all quietish, all good 'background music' and, most importantly, all things I like. I use them when I'm teaching too. It's therapy for me and the kids have never heard any of them before.

Anyway! Today's chapter.


Sunday 18 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 21

Wow, this was hard to squeeze out. Like a cat trying to pee out of a sewn-up bum, to borrow from Sir Terry Pratchett. We were busy all afternoon with guests, then it was 'well let's eat some pizza and watch a film' and that turned into 'lets have three Coronas and watch a second film'. We watched The Big Lebowski, which is weird but good fun, and Stardust, which is also weird but good fun, and both weird and good fun in different ways.

I finally got my wordcount updated on the NaNo site at four minutes to midnight. Close run thing. But seriously, it took about five hours to get 1670 words out.

Hopefully there will be other, easier, days.


Saturday 17 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 20


Managed to get this chapter out amongst doing work for work, making bread for work and making cakes for Sue's work. Work work work. At least this was self-inflicted. Anyway, it's ten past late o'clock in the evening. Bedtime for tired writer/teachers.




Friday 16 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 19

Halfway through! Good grief, and what a day to actually pull ahead of the par for the first time this year. This set me wondering; is it an anticlimax to just finish the last chunk on the last day, exactly on par? First time I completed NaNo, it was with a mammoth 10k on the last Sunday of the month. That was actually the 28th, so I finished early and in style, mainly because I'd been behind almost all month. This time it looks like I'm bang on par. We shall see!


Wednesday 14 November 2012

Poisonroot - Interlude 3

Sneaky sneaky stuff from Anila here. I love her character; religious zealot, daughter who desperately wants to impress her father, highly-skilled agent. She's great.

Warning: Mild defenestration.


Tuesday 13 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 18

Another new character, but this one serves a purpose. My wife quite rightly pointed out that I've introduced a lot of new characters recently; some of them are important. Some serve a purpose. Others will be discarded. I think it's important to have a healthy cast, but some of these will eventually be cut, either in editing or through the process of moving on from their part of the story and forgetting about them.

I like Matron Yohloh though.

Also: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN...


Monday 12 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 17

There was no update yesterday. D&D kind of interceded. I'm still virtually up to date though, due to the lengths of some of the chapters. I'm hoping to get ahead for the first time this week. Whee!


Saturday 10 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 16

A new character, and a ladyfriend. Young. Rich. Potentially powerful. Also a bit wet at the moment; that might change.

Only a short update today; lots to do this weekend. Going to see Skyfall this evening!


Friday 9 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 already! NaNo is going great, I'm a little behind due to getting flu (which I'll go back and edit later when the wordcount is right) but I'm still due to finish about the 5th of December, so I can pull that back no problem.

This showdown in the throne room is actually my second attempt to write this scene. In the first one I simply pulled it out of the aether; Victor was more likeable, Trip was a bit less empowered, the Duke was more obviously nuts, High Father Hork didn't exist and the daughter's name was Amanda. Oh, and Trip and Victor came in under their own steam, not as criminals.

D&D parallels this book very occasionally. In the D&D version of this scene the Duke was more noticeably mad. For reasons of plot, a good outcome for me would see them in the palace's prison, so the Duke made them dance for their freedom. Poor Chris, actually a good dancer in real life, totally failed the dice roll and ended up smacking a guard with his weapon. Result: Whole party in jail. Win for the DM because it advanced my personal agenda!


Thursday 8 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 14

Oooh! Some Victor backstory. This is the commercial side of his backstory; there are far more things I could talk about but he seemed to be feeling particularly negative in this bit, so I focused on the sale and distribution of his stories.


Wednesday 7 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 13

Oooh. 13. Unlucky for some. Seems to be fairly unlucky for Trip and Victor but then it wouldn't be interesting if they got to the Arbour and there was a large 'to end plot, press here' button.

As it's unlucky for some, I want to take a moment to talk about people who deserve to be luckier than they are. I donated to NaNoWriMo last year, the year before and I will do again this year. Especially as a teacher, I believe in getting people writing, particularly children. Imagination is a wonderful thing and it's entirely too possible that a generation of imagination is being stunted by the plethora of media available. Now, believe you me, I'm not a technological zealot; I love my technology too, but it has a place, and that place is aiding the expansion of an imagination, not replacing it.

NaNoWriMo sets up writing opportunities for children, among other things, and that is why I donate. If my $10 can get a single child, or even half a child, writing a story that will enthuse them and make them see that life is totally worth it, well, that's worth any amount of money.

Anyway. Enough! Here's Chapter 13!


Tuesday 6 November 2012

Poisonroot - Interlude 2

So another nice little excerpt from Anila's life. It's good to see things from another's perspective; it allows me to describe characters afresh and also keeps things from going stale. Also, I have plans for Anila. Plans.


Poisonroot - Chapter 12

Turns out my flatmate and very awesome friend Chippy is also doing NaNo. She needs some cheering on :D


Monday 5 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 11

Chapter 11! Short post today as we've got a lot on. I'm back at work and generally things are motoring but I still found time to do this, so that bodes well for future updates.


Sunday 4 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 10

Still ill. However, Chris is down this weekend. An awesome friend, he was my best man at our wedding and he is ALSO doing NaNoWriMo! Wish us both luck ^^


Saturday 3 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 9

I have the flu. Blegh. Proper stuff; joints aching, temperatures, loss of appetite, upset stomach, the works.

Anyway, next chapter of Poisonroot.


Friday 2 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 8

The Mayor of Everywhere is a character that we use in D&D. He's a short guy in a black robe with a book and a wonderful bald spot. Essentially he's the character we use when we need a mayor or another official.

He makes a cameo appearance here as the Mayor of Deep Round.


Thursday 1 November 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 7

So, a challenger appears!

This year's National Novel Writing Month seems like the perfect excuse to come back to Poisonroot. Now, I know it's supposed to be a new piece you start, but the story of Trip and Victor is just too wonderful, and the world is just too rich, to let lie. So I'll be finishing Poisonroot during NaNoWriMo.

Here for you today is Chapter 7!


Sunday 14 October 2012

Adventure 7 - The House of Pleasure

This is, obviously, not somewhere I can write a chapter of Poisonroot. This is about a brothel. I love brothels; they provide so much opportunity for character play!

Anyway, I painted several new miniatures just for this session. The characters entered the House and chose, in the end, to have their memories wiped. They gained experience, of course, and are left with a lingering need to complete the quest for the Succubus. She is an interesting character; the players' Insight checks were enough to tell that she was telling the truth. This suggests a couple of things: Either she has somehow turned to the side of good, or she was lying and is simply very, very good at it.

Whichever the case is, it didn't end in violence, which is a shame in a way because I'd taken the time to create the map in Roll20 as well as in reality.

I have two players, Futch and Ostardva, who play remotely most weeks; they connect via Skype and are able to see the players and me, able to read our faces and glean emotions that way. We initially used Skype for both but found it incredibly complicated when I made a set; Chris and Phil couldn't see what was going on and couldn't therefore easily get immersed. Now, they use Roll20 to see the tabletop. I think it's incredibly useful, especially in combat; there was plenty of options for combat in this week's adventure. Had they gone in all guns blazing the women would have turned on them as minions; had they decided to attack the Madame they would have found a succubus, two minions and two rattlesnakes as their enemies; to be honest, it could still happen, though I'm not sure it would make much sense story-wise for them to fight the Madame now.

I live in hope.


Adventure 6 - The Windmill

So the adventurers had fun with this one. The Goliath in the basement was one of Kali's family and she instantly saw red, all-but killing the Professor. In the end, she freed Summerchild who did the deed herself before returning to the town and letting the party carry on to Hillrest and, beyond that, Fennica.


Sunday 7 October 2012

Adventure 5 - Dunmarket's Sewers

The party ended up trawling through a sewer. They severely broke this one; the gelatinous cube that was going to be a major threat for them ended up being their pet that killed a load of my kobolds. Still, I learned a bit from this, as every. Future adventures will prove to be harder to beat.


Adventure 4 - Bounties

Two more PCs joined the party, so I planned a fairly straightforward mission. Needless to say, they came out on top and ended up with a Unicorn tail hair to call on whenever they wanted.


Adventure 3 - Leaving South Porton

The adventurers sadly took the decision to leave Porton with its bevy of possible quests. Never mind, there were lots of different things to do. Here's one of them! Also included are my own personal travel house rules. They managed a couple of good days and one wolf fight. When they rolled the wolf fight again, I did't make them go through the same thing again. It was a flexible house rule.


Adventure 2 - South Porton Investigation

Two of the people I play with regularly tell me that this was my best adventure so far. It's so good that I'm loosely basing the next adventure on some of the same ideas. It had the right amount of 'creepy' mixed with a bit of a fight.

It's loosely inspired by a quest from Skyrim. Hey, inspiration has to come from somewhere, right? There were two other options for where they could go from where they were, and I determined that this wasn't at all the way to run things. In all future weeks I guaranteed I had a route forward for them so that I could plan much better adventures. Planning three only to have two completely nuked out of existence on contact was too much.

Adventure 1 - South Porton

The adventurers took a rather... criminal route. I was quite surprised. For this first adventure I fell back on safety and went with the Wizards of the Coast pre-made adventure Kobold Hall. Never again, but it served for the first one.



Adventure 0 - Hydra Attack!

I started a D&D game. We were all a bit unsure of what we were doing, and this adventure was a good way to get us all into the system.


Friday 31 August 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 6

I'm going back to work next week. Can't help feeling slightly trepiditious for a number of reasons. That's not even a word, but I'm claiming it.
I'm worried I won't be able to fit in writing, D&D and schoolwork; the latter pays the bills, though I sorely wish the former did. I have to concentrate on that. However, I'll be putting as much of my time as possible into this project.

I'm also now unsure who the audience is for this. It's turning into a sort of young adult type thing. Do those sell, I wonder?

Anyway, Chapter 6 after the jump!

(Fixed the numbering btw. Ended up with Chapter 6 on about three posts. This REALLY IS CHAPTER SIX.)


Monday 27 August 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 5

The next chapter; thanks to everyone who's commented, it means a lot. I managed to bash this out today while sat in the Barbican, London; it's a really interesting space, coffee nearby and small tables in the carpeted area. Lots of people there today as it's Bank Holiday Monday!


South-Western Lyria - Map

I'm playing a game of D&D with the fantastic John Aggs at the moment. I made some of the maps available to the players as part of the game on the basis that they'd have seen them or, in one case, be given them.

John was kind enough to produce this:


Location: South Porton

As part of the D&D campaign I'm running, I've typed up a description of South Porton. The players have now left South Porton and are unlikely to return there in the near future; with that in mind I've decided to put the description of South Porton up on the blog. To be honest the majority of these things are either already-discovered by the players or things they could find out by asking a passer-by.


Friday 24 August 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 4

I wrote this in several sittings so it's not as polished as it should be, but it's a first draft and of a decent length. I'm satisfied with it for now.

I'm heavily influenced by D&D at the moment. I've been running a campaign now for about six hours, maybe more, and I have to say it's freakin' awesome. I have a great group to play it with and they've been really imaginative.

I'm hoping I can use some of their ideas in this, and vice versa.


Today is Bank Holiday Monday, I plan to drink coffee from my favourite coffee place and write this novel.

It's worth pointing out that this is set in the same world that we play D&D in. The stories are subtly different for a couple of reasons; my 'Poisonroot' continent of Ehrian has only humans as sentient species, pretty much, while a D&D Ehrian has a mix of D&D races. The protagonists of Poisonroot started their journey in Monk's Retreat; the PCs in D&D have started in South Porton, though last night they made it as far as Oakedge and in the near future will undoubtedly go travelling again.

Writing for D&D has provoked some interesting ideas; I'd not had to think about the shape of the leaves of the One Tree until last night, for example. They've helped me populate South Porton and Oakedge; particularly in the case of the former there's a load of flavour text that I'm just going to put up here in the next post. In the canon of their D&D campaign they could ask pretty much any passer-by to get this information, and it looks like they're set to leave South Porton for a while anyway.

Chapter 4 after the jump!


Wednesday 15 August 2012

Poisonroot - Interlude

This is more of an interlude than a chapter, standing at only 700 words, but for now it's a chapter. Also mainly because it takes place in a different character's perspective and a different place.

Anila; to be fair she's got no fixed idea in my head yet what she looks like. She's more like a bundle of ideas and concepts at the moment, but that'll change as I write more with her. Eventually she'll be a proper main character with her own perspective chapters regularly.

For now, please enjoy this!


Tuesday 14 August 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 3

Chapter 4, and we find out a little more about Victor. Public opinion has this guy as some sort of saint, but the reality is apparently far from the truth. I've used some older material on this chapter, and I'm hoping it still comes together to make a coherent chapter; much of it, about 80%, is brand new and written this evening, mostly after a pint of beer, so I hope it still makes sense. As always, this is a FIRST DRAFT.


Sunday 12 August 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - we find out a little about what's going on.

Visually, in my mind at least, Victor is based on Sarge from Quake 3. No shit. Down to the cigar and everything. He's a world-weary fighter, seen it all, done it all, killed it all, retired but not really; he's something like Bruce Willis' character in that film about the retired assassins.


Thursday 9 August 2012

Poisonroot - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - I've sat on this for far too long, so I'll just get it out there. As always, this is a FIRST DRAFT.


Tuesday 7 August 2012

Poisonroot - Prologue

I know that a prologue is meant to be written after you've written most of the rest of the story but, screw it, I know where this story is going; I've got it planned out, the whole document. It probably means I'll fall into JK Rowling's trap where my final chapter is still doggedly trying to fit into a dress that is ten years too small for it, but we'll see. I'll be glad to get to the end of the book!

So here it is, the FIRST DRAFT (and those two words apply to everything else about Poisonroot that come onto this blog) of the first part of Poisonroot. This is a special project for me, because I'm writing it twice, effectively; parts of the world and setting are being used for my D&D campaign which I'm running with the brilliant Nana LiJohn AggsChippy and my beautiful wife Susan; somehow, miraculously, all four have blogs I can link you to!

The Prologue!


Sunday 5 August 2012

D&D and Poisonroot update

I've been busy recently doing a variety of things; I went to Edinburgh for a short holiday with friends and I've generally been relaxing into my summer holiday period. I've indulged my new hobby of jewellery-making and made a bracelet for my sister; it's good to stay interested in things I think, and I get bored easily. I've done a little writing as well, mainly reworking some previous things and, more recently, some world-building.

I've come up with a way to make Poisonroot, which is a project I started a while back, work and still be interesting, and I've also persuaded some friends to begin a D&D campaign with me as the Dungeon Master. With that in mind I've done a lot of reading and a lot of writing in preparation, and I've fleshed out the city of South Porton, one of the cities of the country of Lyria. It's much easier to set my D&D campaign in the country, and on the continent, that I've already named, mapped and designed. I've never liked playing with other peoples' characters or settings; this is a happy medium.

As the campaign progresses, and I write more, I'm going to upload things to the blog. I can't do it right now, though; if John, Nana, Sue or Chippy came here to read it, it'd be spoilers. And we can't have that. But at the same time, there's information they might never hear about, things I'll write that aren't ever going to be heard because the party chooses to go to The World's End for a coffee and pastry rather than a watered-down beer at Jakes'. Well, maybe I'll be able to work it in there somehow. But I think it will provide an interesting amount of unforced background if the things are available here, and I still get to say that I have a writing blog.

I'm hoping that our travels will flesh out the entire Lyrian country. There's no magic in Lyria, but we're playing D&D so there'll be magic. Hell, one of the party is a sorcerer. Disregarding the magic, the way the players see my world and the things they add should help to make the place come alive in a way that I can't on my own. It worked for Raymond Feist; why shouldn't it work for me?

All this said, I've actually got a new lead on Poisonroot, and I've gone back, added another 500 words and changed a few things around so that it fits in with what I've come up with. I'll say only two words: Zombie plants.

I'll update this blog with excerpts when I have more, both Poisonroot and D&D

Sunday 15 July 2012

100 Themes 037 - Eyes

I wanted to write a sequel to 035 - Hold My Hand but this wasn't quite what I had in mind. It's there, though, and done now.

I'll admit that this is a little loose. There's too many places, it's too bitty, I'm not really sure why Shania came back to see John and it ends with someone's nipple being forcibly embedded in a person's back. But hey, I wrote it and it's staying that way. I'm feeling tired and cold and slightly feeble, and I don't want to go back and rewrite it.


Sunday 8 July 2012

100 Themes 036 - Precious Treasure


I haven't had the time to write recently. I saw something that said that writing should be in your top five things to do if you want to try and be a serious writer. I do want to be a serious writer, but I suddenly realised earlier today that I haven't actually sat behind my netbook all week. Literally, I switched it off last Sunday and didn't switch it on again until today. Crazy thought there.


 

Saturday 16 June 2012

The Light That Finds Me

While watching an episode of the original series of Star Trek, I stumbled upon a journal post in my deviantArt account. Live-Love-Write, one of the groups there, has a weekly writing prompt, and to be honest I rarely give it much thought. This week, emboldened by the two pieces of fiction I've already completed and uploaded today, I looked at it.

The result is a post-apocalyptic mix of a true gentleman in a situation not unlike The Hunger Games (the first book of which I've read and truly enjoyed) and The Running Man (King at his best as his pen-name Bachman). It's not long, it's not even particularly good, perhaps, but it's a successful twisting of what should have been a wonderfully positive prompt. All of the examples they gave were about lights finding you in the darkest of times, positive things leading you onwards. Of course, I immediately wondered what it might be like if you didn't want the light to find you, if the darkness were your friend. This is the result.


100 Themes 035 - Hold My Hand

A love story, this time, and taking the theme completely literally this time. I really enjoyed writing this one and it's something I'm sure I'll return to. I know a lot of things have been set on Mars but I tried for a slightly different idea here.
Edit: My wife (who has an excellent blog over here) has suggested I make a sequel to this, continue the story. It's swilled around in my head for a couple of weeks and I think I have a solution. It's going to be a bit of an homage but I think I can pull it off.


100 Themes 034 - Stars


Well here we are. The writing bug is back, and feeling good. Each piece seems to feel more natural much better.

I don't plan these in any way. I generally start with a central idea, given to me by the theme, usually a twisted idea. Thought process for this one went 'Stars in the sky, stars on TV, stars sewn onto something as badges or embroidered (like Soviet stars), been looking at tattoos today, ooh, tattooed stars.' The whole story went from there.

Probably the first time a character in a story has surprised me by revealing something about themselves right at the end.


Wednesday 13 June 2012

100 Themes 033 - Expectations


I've been out of writing for a long time. My last piece was Easter, about two months ago, and before that it was a long old time.
My reasons for this sound, to my ears at least, mournfully self-pitying. However, as far as I'm concerned, this is my story and I'm sticking with it. My job has kept me very busy and I simply haven't had the mental space to write. I sometimes feel like writing requires at least two of these three: Time, willpower, energy. Pick two. I haven't managed to have two of those in the same space for nearly a year now.
Anyway, I'm on my way out of this particular job and hopefully moving on to doing some writing. I'd love to write a long piece again, using these little vignettes as mere warm-up pieces.

Let's hope this happens.

Written on two separate evenings, here is a piece of more realistic fiction. My wife said it's unlike a lot of my stuff, where I think there's usually something a bit weird or supernatural, or an odd twist. I suppose this has an odd twist, but it's not as twisted as most of my stuff. Please enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comments.

033 - Expectations

Jessica let the water sluice over her body, revelling in the warmth. Steam filled the air and the smell of her mint shower gel mingled with the warm-shower smell. Bliss, she thought.
While she washed, letting the foamy suds wash away the mire of sleep, her mind wandered. The day ahead was going to be busy; the call had come early that Overseer Simon wasn’t going to be in, and Jessica would be expected to take his place. It was at once thrilling and terrifying, with today being stocktake day and Mr Fujikama visiting from the Tokyo branch. One of those alone would have kept them busy, but both at the same time was a potential nightmare waiting to happen. Or, she reflected, it could be the thing that finally shows Management what a useless sack of shit Simon really was.

Monday 9 April 2012

100 Themes 032 - Night

Initially an idea we had for the Manga Jiman competition 2010, I was stuck for inspiration when I came across the plan. The next theme fitted it quite well; originally it was set during the day, but it was easy enough to repurpose, and actually I think it words better this way. I enjoy the idea of the grainy green night-vision goggles with the people picked out in white.


Written in a Cornish pub called something like Cornubia in Gwithian.



Wednesday 29 February 2012

Sunday 19 February 2012

100 Themes 030 - Under The Rain

This one fitted the idea for Oxy really well; a world too polluted to live out in the open, unless you had filters which you kept refreshed with precious oxygen. The rain was acid and only mutants could survive in it for long.

This one flowed easily.


Friday 10 February 2012

100 Themes 029 - Happiness

Grozchev was the antagonist for Oxy, my NaNo piece. He's a truly horrible person; I like making horrible people. They're so much fun to write about!


Definitely going to finish Oxy sometime.


He says.



Wednesday 1 February 2012

100 Themes 028 - Sorrow

Another piece for the failed NaNo entry. Meela, as a character, stayed in, as did Richard from the previous Theme.



Friday 27 January 2012

100 Themes 027 - Foreign

This was originally designed to be a taster piece for my NaNoWriMo 2011 work. Ultimately, I didn't like that and never completed it. It will definitely come here as a short piece, though; it deserves to be finished.


The setting is somewhat more sci-fi than most of my stuff, too; perhaps I tried too much change all at once. Anyway, here it is! This and the next few of the 100 Themes were for NaNo, but obviously with different focuses.



Monday 23 January 2012

100 Themes 026 - Tears

Something rather more a period drama, I think. Also an experiment in first-person writing, once again. It's not my favoured type of writing but it's something I'd like to work with.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Poisonroot - progress and first writings.

I've been working on Poisonroot. I've written a couple of short pieces and one long one, and here is the long one. I'd write more, but it's late and I'm in a bit of pain after aikido class so that will do for now.



Saturday 7 January 2012

Two short bits for Poisonroot

I've been prevaricating long enough over this. I had a good long chat with Sue today about the plot to this and she said it seemed to be pretty good, though I'm still having trouble grasping it in my own mind. It's like trying to grab a soap bubble; I don't want to grab it too hard in case I pop it.


Anyway, I've written a couple of pieces of non-story stuff to get the characters better acquainted in my mind. The first is a short piece about Victor. He's old, he misses his wife, he's lonely and he's fed up of kids coming and standing on his roses. The second is a piece about young Trip, aged 6; he's quite advanced for a six-year-old in thinking, I guess, but that's ok. In the main story he'll be about 12, but this is how he ends up doing a job by choice that most others have to be ordered to do, namely working in the Library.



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