Doc Coleman's Blog, page 24
November 21, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 21 – Sleepy.
Back to work today. And after a long day at work, I ended up taking a few hours off to nap. When I did get up and get moving, I managed to get in 1533 words before having to call it a night. So now I am over 71% done with 35,581 words on the clock.
35581 / 50000
(71.16%)
Today's character torture involved … well, today I had to throw the characters a bone and let them make some progress so they can have more doors shut in their faces later. You can't torture them every day…
Right. Off to bed. More writing tomorrow.
November 20, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 20 – Inching Ahead.
This morning started with another attempt to get my motorcycle ready for storage. While the new battery proved to be adequate to the task of getting the bike to turn over, the old gas had apparently been contaminated with condensation and would no longer start the engine. Now I'll have to figure out how to drain and change the gasoline.
I did spend most of the day writing, although it was slow going for the most part. I managed to get in 2178 words, bringing my total word count up to 34048. So I am slowly inching ahead of par. It is so odd to struggle through a fairly important section in order to make a transition, then get to a relatively unimportant part of the book and have the words just pour out of you.
34048 / 50000
(68.1%)
Today's character torture involved fruitless hours building and testing a device that detects signals that apparently no one is using. (Darn!) This led to the realization that there was a much simpler explanation for how the devices have been controlled, and the obvious conclusion that one of the main characters is the only viable suspect!
Right. Off to bed. More writing tomorrow.
November 19, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 19 – Catching up!
Today's mission was to get my motorcycle ready to put into storage for the winter. That means being able to ride it to the friend's house who is going to be able to store it. I haven't been able to ride for most of his year because of some medical problems I've had to deal with this year. I had been keeping my battery on a charger, but sometime during the year the charger seems to have died. This also meant that I've had to get a new battery because the old one doesn't seem to be able to hold a charge. I've no idea if the battery is ruined or not. I'll have to be able to charge it up first.
So this morning's first order of business was to go get the new battery. At least it was until I got in my car and the electrical system died. I managed to jigger it into working long enough to head over to the dealership. Good news is that it is covered under warranty and I have a loaner car. Bad news is they won't be able to diagnose the problem until Monday at the earliest.
But I did get my writing in today! I kept plugging at things and added 2615 words to my story, bringing the total word count up to 31,870 words, putting me slightly ahead of where I should be. My target from here on out is 2000 words a day so I can finish early. Or at least hit 50,000 early. This story seems like it going to run more than 50,000 words. I suspect I won't finish the first draft until sometime in December.
31870 / 50000
(63.74%)
Today's character torture involved exploding laboratories, accusations of treachery, and impending arrest. Of course, I had to let the characters off to have a chance to clear their names. All they have to do now is an impossible task or two. Oh, and did I mention that all the evidence they've managed to collect so far has been destroyed?
Right. Off to bed. More writing tomorrow.
November 18, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 18 – Falling Behind
This morning, I was so exhausted I called in sick and slept in until around noon. Maybe later. I knew I had a lot that I needed to get done, but I had a really difficult time getting myself started. Then this evening we had to finish getting the rental truck unloaded into our storage locker and they return the rental truck. It wasn't until after dinner that I finally got to sit down to start writing, and by then it was after 11 PM. But I decided to get some words in anyway rather than taking another zero word day to catch up to. I managed to crank out another 841 words, bringing my total up to 29,255. I need to put in a full day's writing tomorrow and Sunday. This is the first time I've fallen behind the target curve and I really want to put in the extra effort to catch up. I am not going to let NaNoWriMo beat me!
29255 / 50000
(58.51%)
Today's character torture hasn't been very spectacular. Today it has been all about having hopes dashed by presenting compelling evidence and having it ignored by small, simple minds. Tomorrow I shall have to decide what verdict and aftermath comes from this. Never fear, there will be an aftermath! Because that is what you get when you deal with the Killer Clockwork Budgies of Doom!
Right. Off to bed. See you tomorrow.
November 17, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 17 – Recap
The last few days have been pretty busy. On the 15th, we spent the afternoon packing up furniture in Georgia. I tried writing, but I was so tired after the day's exertions, I barely cleared 1000 words. On the 16th, we drove back to Maryland with our truck filled with my inheritance. I was able to write along the way and added 2018 words to my novel during the course of the 13 hour trip. Today, I went back to work. After working for a full day, my wife and I got started unpacking the truck. We got most of the furniture out, but still have some of the bigger pieces to unload. Tried to write tonight, but I am feeling drained again. I finally managed to clear 1023 words for today, but I'm pretty much done in. At least I'm ahead of the curve.
28414 / 50000
(56.83%)
Today's character torture has been all about trying to figure out a mystery, and discovering what pieces you don't have. Oh, and still under arrest, and not trusted. Also featured, a mention of the Killer Clockwork Budgies of Doom, and Mind Control Music!
Ok. I'm done. See you tomorrow.
November 16, 2011
#NaNoWriMo Update
November 14, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 14 – Georgia
After saying farewell to all of our friends at the Carolina Renaissance Festival this morning, and picking up our rental car, my wife and I drove down to Georgia for the beginnings of our viking raid. The plan had been for me to write while she drove. She usually enjoys doing most of the driving. But less than an hour into the drive, her eyes started trying to close and she needed me to drive. I had written around 400 words, so I agreed to take a shift at driving. Once we switched places, she pretty much sacked out for the rest of the trip and I drove the rest of the way down to my brother's house. Once we got the car unpacked, I was able to sit down and do some writing. I got the daily count up to 2088, bringing the overall total up to 24,300. Just shy of half way.
24300 / 50000
(48.6%)
Character torture for today? Well, let's see… Finding out your host is WAY older than he looks, a bout of cowardice, and having to admit to your host that you think his daughter is deformed. Oh and the reminder of an ultimatum, yearning for the sweet, sweet release of death, but instead being promptly arrested! Ain't we got fun?
Tomorrow the looting begins. Possibly some visiting with folks around the Atlanta area, and hopefully I can pass the mid-point mark.
Night, all!
#NaNoWriMo, Day 12 & 13 – Carolina Renaissance Festival
Well. Let's face it. This isn't going to be a sparkling NaNoWriMo post. Two days and no words written. At all. Of course, the reason for that is a good one. We attended the Carolina Renaissance Festival to pay homage to some fallen friends that we lost in the past year. In the process, we celebrated their lives by having more fun, and by discovering new family and making new connections that would not have been possible without the friends that we had lost.
Writing will continue later today.
22212 / 50000
(44.42%)
November 11, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 11 – On the road
Today's adventure was the trip south to Charlotte, North Carolina and the Carolina Renaissance Festival. That meant loading everything up in the car and the first test run of my mobile writing platform. My setup consists of my iPad 2 running Plain Text, and a bluetooth keyboard. Nice, sweet and simple. The biggest drawback is the lack of a way to mount the iPad so that it stays upright where I can easily see it during the drive. And no, I'm not the one driving. But other that that difficulty, it worked like a charm. Plain Text syncs via Dropbox to put the words I've written on the road back onto my laptop, and then Scrivener syncs them back into my master manuscript. The other drawback that the system has is that I can't see how many words I've written until I sync the words back into Scrivener. I managed to write 1998 words while out on the road today, so when I did my sync up, I wrote a few more paragraphs to round things out at 2148 words for the day. Now my novel is 44% complete, with 22212 words written.
22212 / 50000
(44.42%)
I know some of my fellow NaNoWriMo'ers have put a real push on today to rack up big word counts. I think that is great! And some of those word counts are really impressive. But I find that I don't have a lot of incentive to push to compete with their word counts. I think I could be really happy to be the guy who just cranks out two thousand words a day, every day. It's not a Lowell, but being able to produce a fifthLowell with regularity is quite respectable. This is also important because it is entirely possible that I may not be able to write much over the next two days. Most of my day will be spent at faire, so any writing time I am likely to have is probably going to be late at night before bed. But I have been running ahead of the minimums so far. Looks like I can afford to miss a day or two.
Today's character torture featured being cast out of an airship at an extremely high altitude! Hm… if they'd gone out the window I could have called it a defenestration… And this was followed up with the burn of frustration when our heroes are out searching for clues, only to have the building containing the clues suddenly swallowed up by the earth and forever put beyond their reach. Hee!
And now… a new excerpt! Here is the scene I ended yesterday with, and finished up today.
I had expected Miss Bang to lead me to the bridge of the airship, but when she lead me up another flight of stairs and down another long hallway, I was unprepared for her to lead me into a large laboratory. The room looked as if it had been lifted whole from a university. A number of work benches were scattered about the room, each apparently dedicated to a different scientific study. Along one wall was a table supporting a large and intricate assortment of glass pipets, flasks, and other doohickeys connected in a vast and confusing array. Burners were arrayed underneath several boiling flasks, and a brown liquid dripped into an equal number of insulated bottles on the opposite end of the table. Another table contained a microscope and a variety of weights and scales and tools for handling samples. At the far end of the room were several large pieces of equipment that bore the thick cables and massive switches that marked electrical experiments. Another bench resembled a machinist's bench, with a number of belt driven devices for cutting, boring, and shaping metal. As we entered, we found Professor Crackle, still in his attire of the night before, working at a table littered with cogs and springs and all manner of small tools.
"Harmonious," Miss Bang called as we entered. The Professor did not appear to take any notice of our approach. Indeed, he seemed to be very intently studying something through a jeweler's loupe lodged in his right eye. He muttered something to himself as he did so, but I was unable to make out any of his words.
"Harmonious," Miss Bang repeated as she laid a hand upon his shoulder, "we need to speak to you about a matter…"
"I know this hand! I know I do. I just can't remember where I've seen it before," the Professor interrupted, turning to Miss Bang with the loupe still firmly fixed to his eye. "But I know I've seen this work before! It is exquisite! How could I have seen someone who could produce work of this quality," he gestured with what appeared to be the wing of the bird that had gotten trapped underneath my shoe, "and not remember who it was?"
"Harmonious, I need to ask you about our guest," she said gesturing towards me where I stood near the door marveling at the perplexing array of equipment in the laboratory. "He says that…" she started, but now that his attention had been directed towards me he charged over to me and regarded me through the loupe.
"How could I forget seeing work of this quality? Look at it, look at it!" he said pushing the detached wing at me. "It is a masterwork! Each feather is individually modeled and attached. The articulation is perfect! The attention to detail…" I tried to look at the proffered wing, but the Professor kept gesturing with it and manipulating the wing as he talked.
"Professor!" Miss Bang came close to shouting, "about our guest!"
"Let him rest, let him rest. He's had a trying evening. I'm sure he must be exhausted." The Professor continued to fiddle with the detached wing.
"He's right here, Professor!"
He whirled around in a circle. "He is? Where?"
"Right there, Professor," she said pointing at me once again.
"Oh?" He looked at me again through the loupe. "Oh?" He opened this left eye and regarded me again. "Oh! My boy, are you feeling better now? I know I promised to return you promptly to your uncle, but you were so tired, I figured that it wouldn't hurt any to let you get some rest. And I've made such amazing discoveries! It is a pity our only sample is so damaged, I would have loved to…"
"Professor, will you pay attention?!?" Miss Bang appeared to be on the verge of losing her temper.
"What is it now?" he asked. "Can't you see I'm working?"
"Harmonious, do you know our guest's name?"
He looked from Miss Bang to myself and back to Miss Bang. "What? Yes, yes, of course I know what his name is. Don't be silly."
Miss Bang carefully composed her expression before continuing. "Harmonious, would you please introduce me to our guest?"
He looked at her, clearly confused, and I had to do my level best to keep from laughing. "But you've met. He's been with us all evening."
Her tone was utterly calm, and she spoke with the measured precision that indicated that the listener had better satisfy her or he would be in an immense amount of trouble. "Harmonious, would you be so kind as to tell me our guest's name?"
"Why certainly. His name is…" and he stopped suddenly, unable in a moment's realization to speak the name my great-grandfather had bestowed upon me. His eyes opened wide in the realization of what he had been about to do, and the loupe tumbled from his face. I dove forward and was able to grab the loupe before it hit the floor.
I straightened and handed the loupe back to the Professor. "I did try to explain to Miss Bang that my name wasn't exactly fit for polite society. I am afraid she didn't quite believe me."
"Ah. Well, I am afraid that, our young friend is… um. I am afraid that he is quite correct about the offensiveness of his given name. It would be… horribly improper for me to use such language…"
"You're serious!"
He blinked at her. "Of course I'm serious. Such a joke would be in very bad taste!"
"I don't believe that anyone ever accused my great-grandfather of having good taste." I commented ruefully.
"He actually was quite a thoughtful fellow in his youth. I never did find out what it was that made him so bitter and anti-social. I'd often wondered… Wait! Wait, I was going to tell you something. Something I'd just discovered." He looked down at the wing in his hand. "Yes! That was it! You remember the birds, the clockwork birds?"
I nodded. "Yes, Professor. It was just earlier this morning."
"Yes, they're a perfect recreation of the living creature. Or at least as best as I can tell, given the damage the sample sustained. If only I had an intact specimen to examine."
Miss Bang spoke up. "You're drifting again, Harmonious."
"No, no, no, no! This is important. Did you get a good look at the singers? The male and female leads?"
"At the opera?" I wasn't quite sure where he was leading with this.
"Yes! Did you get a good look at them."
"Well, I am afraid I wasn't really concentrating on them for most of the performance. And then when things livened up at the end my attention was, well… elsewhere."
"And you, Tit?"
"Other than the final song, they seemed quite capable, although somewhat uninspired performers." She paused in thought for a moment. "I'm not sure how to describe that final performance."
"Drat. I had hoped that one of you had taken a better look. Now we shall have to find what is left of them." The Professor moved back to his workbench and put down the wing and his loupe.
"You want to go find their bodies, Professor? Isn't that a task better left to the police?"
He turned. "Their remains, yes. But their bodies, I think not." He lifted the wing again. "I think they were clockwork."
"A clockwork man? How is that possible?" I looked to Miss Bang, but she seemed fascinated by the idea.
"But that kind of detail, Professor… and such a complex series of actions, to perform upon the stage. And they were actually singing. It wasn't a phonograph recording. Even with the latest equipment, one can tell the difference."
"Yes!" The Professor looked like a child who had been promised a new pony. "Exactly! Such perfect duplication of the living form! When I went down on the stage and examined the woman, she looked otherwise normal except for the side of her face. That had shifted down sharply. Like a plate had detached from the underlying support structure. I think the same person who made the birds made the opera singers as well. But I need more evidence. We need to find what is left of those performers."
"So we're going back to the opera house?" Miss Bang asked.
"Yes! No! We're already there. I'm sorry about this little detour, my boy, but I'm certain that your uncle is going to want to see whatever evidence we can find."
"And the police, Professor?"
"Yes, we must get there before they do! The last thing we need is for them to tromp all over everything and destroy the evidence we need." He grabbed a pair of goggles off of a bench and headed towards the door. "Come along!"
I had to hurry to catch up to Miss Bang as she swept out of the room in the Professor's wake.
All right. That's it for me. See you tomorrow!
November 10, 2011
#NaNoWriMo, Day 10 – Packing
Chaotic day today. Spent most of the day packing and getting ready for our trip down to the Carolina Renaissance Festival and our Viking Raid on points south. Unfortunately for me, this also meant a trip back into my work because I'd neglected to turn in my time sheet the day before. Time sheets go in on Wednesday of next week, the day we're driving back from Atlanta. So my choice was either don't get paid or take a run back in. Getting into work while rush hour was busy taking everyone away from work should have been easy. It wasn't. Traffic was horrendous, and for some reason my GPS kept trying to steer me back into the one stretch of road I knew was at a complete standstill. After much driving around in circles, and a fair bit of driving off into the darkness not knowing where I was going I managed to arrive. Something like three hours of driving, for a 10 minute errand. Yuck. After a late dinner, I finally got a chance to sit down and start writing. It wasn't a very productive day, but I did get some words down. Not quite my target 2000 words, but I did get 1771 more words written, taking my accumulated total over 20,000 words!
20064 / 50000
(40.13%)
No real character torture today. Just a bit of unfortunate naming of names and a brief revisit of the Killer Clockwork Budgies (of DOOM!). Hopefully there will be more character torture tomorrow.
No excerpt today. Been a long day. Hopefully I can give everyone a sneak peak tomorrow.
All right. That's it for me. I'm off to bed.
