Adrian D. Roberts's Blog, page 7
November 26, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
Yay, I am almost back up to speed. 5,000 words today. I say almost because I started writing at 8.15 am. It's been a long day. I would keep going for another hour but tonight is Karate and I need to have dinner first.
I normally have lunch at about 1pm and watch a recorded program while I eat. Today it was Quantum Leap and I am really enjoying watching them again. The thing that always catches me though is Doctors. It's on from 1.45 to 2.15 and I generally catch it about 1.50/1.55. It's day time TV and let's face it, that normally means complete drivel.
Doctors is different though with some fairly punchy, well written stories. Today it told the tale of a woman in her twenties, she moved from Nigeria and died alone in her flat on Christmas day. She wasn't found for two years. The last person to see her alive was her neighbour. They were meant to have Christmas Dinner together at his house, two lonely people coming together because they had no one else.
He didn't report her as missing and didn't think anything was wrong about her because he was a convicted criminal. He thought she had stood him up because she found out and avoided him from then on.
It does sound a little far-fetched but trust me it's not. I've personally seen both of these things happen. Of course they were separate but it's still a worthwhile story to tell and is indicative of the storylines Doctors produces. I caught EastEnders last night and I watched it purely to see how it compares. Doctors certainly isn't as dramatic but in its quiet understated way I think it tells much better and more relevant stories.
Hopefully tomorrow I can mange a similar level of productivity as today. These extra chapters certainly are going to add a lot to the book. It currently sits at 127,000 words and I'm at 10,000 already with the new stuff. I think I'm only a third of the way through. I've very pleased with that, I want my books to be around the 150,000 word mark so they give real value for money.
I normally have lunch at about 1pm and watch a recorded program while I eat. Today it was Quantum Leap and I am really enjoying watching them again. The thing that always catches me though is Doctors. It's on from 1.45 to 2.15 and I generally catch it about 1.50/1.55. It's day time TV and let's face it, that normally means complete drivel.
Doctors is different though with some fairly punchy, well written stories. Today it told the tale of a woman in her twenties, she moved from Nigeria and died alone in her flat on Christmas day. She wasn't found for two years. The last person to see her alive was her neighbour. They were meant to have Christmas Dinner together at his house, two lonely people coming together because they had no one else.
He didn't report her as missing and didn't think anything was wrong about her because he was a convicted criminal. He thought she had stood him up because she found out and avoided him from then on.
It does sound a little far-fetched but trust me it's not. I've personally seen both of these things happen. Of course they were separate but it's still a worthwhile story to tell and is indicative of the storylines Doctors produces. I caught EastEnders last night and I watched it purely to see how it compares. Doctors certainly isn't as dramatic but in its quiet understated way I think it tells much better and more relevant stories.
Hopefully tomorrow I can mange a similar level of productivity as today. These extra chapters certainly are going to add a lot to the book. It currently sits at 127,000 words and I'm at 10,000 already with the new stuff. I think I'm only a third of the way through. I've very pleased with that, I want my books to be around the 150,000 word mark so they give real value for money.
November 25, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
It's been a while again since my last post. Not much to report really other than my struggles with finishing Crusade.
The book is about 95% there now with most of the editing done. At the moment I am trying to write about three additional chapters. One of my alpha readers suggested that Hanna became too competent suddenly without any build up. He was right, it was something I had noticed but I wasn't sure if it was just me being overly critical. It's very difficult to have a good perspective on my own work.
In Reason he is responsible for Julianna. He suggested I should use the rebellion more in the story and from that came the Hive and Julianna.
After he told me this the scenario came to me fairly quickly and in a couple of hours I had a section mapped out more completely than ever before. The one thing I couldn't think of was the original hook, the starting point that gets the ball rolling. It took me over a week of procrastinating to find it. Once I did, it has really been difficult to write.
My days have been, 1000, 500, 1,500, 2,500 words with whole days of nothing in between. Not good. I am feeling more positive now than I have for a couple of weeks though. The first chapter is done and I'm very pleased with it.
Now I'm stuck again as now I'm at point B, I don't know how to get to point C. What's the angle of attack? What are Hanna and Deni going to do? I don't know. Hopefully I'll have some inspiration overnight and come up with something.
The book is about 95% there now with most of the editing done. At the moment I am trying to write about three additional chapters. One of my alpha readers suggested that Hanna became too competent suddenly without any build up. He was right, it was something I had noticed but I wasn't sure if it was just me being overly critical. It's very difficult to have a good perspective on my own work.
In Reason he is responsible for Julianna. He suggested I should use the rebellion more in the story and from that came the Hive and Julianna.
After he told me this the scenario came to me fairly quickly and in a couple of hours I had a section mapped out more completely than ever before. The one thing I couldn't think of was the original hook, the starting point that gets the ball rolling. It took me over a week of procrastinating to find it. Once I did, it has really been difficult to write.
My days have been, 1000, 500, 1,500, 2,500 words with whole days of nothing in between. Not good. I am feeling more positive now than I have for a couple of weeks though. The first chapter is done and I'm very pleased with it.
Now I'm stuck again as now I'm at point B, I don't know how to get to point C. What's the angle of attack? What are Hanna and Deni going to do? I don't know. Hopefully I'll have some inspiration overnight and come up with something.
November 4, 2014
Reason For Vengeance
Hmm, I'm getting lazy with this blogging. I need to improve. The problem is that editing doesn't come up with much worthwhile to report. It's day after day of drudgery, important drudgery but still drudgery.
Today I've been looking and removing the unneeded 'had' and 'that' words from Reason. I was very pleased with getting through 272 pages in one day and re-wording some sentences while I was at it.
It's strange, as I wrote it all this year, how much better I can write a sentence now, blogging not included. I wonder if I'll be looking back a year from now and wonder what I was thinking by publishing this series without more practise? Oh well, I've kind of committed myself now so I have to push on.
I watched Dominion on Friday and I was impressed, good story, reasonable effects and reasonable actors. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.
My daughter and I went to one of these soft play places yesterday. She really enjoys it and so do I. For me the best thing is seeing her manage all the obstacles without my help for the first time. She's only two and a half and so she's always been a little too small, or not co-ordinated enough. It's just amazing to see her getting stronger and more confident. Long may it continue.
Today I've been looking and removing the unneeded 'had' and 'that' words from Reason. I was very pleased with getting through 272 pages in one day and re-wording some sentences while I was at it.
It's strange, as I wrote it all this year, how much better I can write a sentence now, blogging not included. I wonder if I'll be looking back a year from now and wonder what I was thinking by publishing this series without more practise? Oh well, I've kind of committed myself now so I have to push on.
I watched Dominion on Friday and I was impressed, good story, reasonable effects and reasonable actors. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.
My daughter and I went to one of these soft play places yesterday. She really enjoys it and so do I. For me the best thing is seeing her manage all the obstacles without my help for the first time. She's only two and a half and so she's always been a little too small, or not co-ordinated enough. It's just amazing to see her getting stronger and more confident. Long may it continue.
October 28, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
Slowly but surely Crusade is coming along. The edit is complete and I'm working through the amendments. Two more days and I think they'll be be done. I'll then print it a third time and do a final read through. I'm not going to hit my 31st of Oct publishing date but I'm happier with a better product.
I found something interesting during my editing. I used 'had' 1,932 times and 'that' 1616. When I looked at them, I saw they weren't necessary or I should be using words like used, needed, were, etc instead. I'm currently on page 174 out of 275 and I am down to 1154 hads. It makes a big difference. I need to go through Reason for them as well. That's got over 2,000 hads.
On the TV front, I now have ten programs recording on a Thursday:
Star Wars Rebels
Quantum Leap (They started re-running it from episode one this week)
Arrow
The Big Bang Theory (must see)
Defiance
Scandal
Forever
Franklyn & Bash
Scorpian
Dominon
That's a lot. I haven't seen Dominon yet so it might not stay.
If anyone is interested, I have the following also recording during the week.
Gotham (must see)
Have I Got More News For You
The Flash
The Apprentice
Sleepy Hollow
The Apprentice: You're Fired
Legends
The Last Ship
Agents of Shield
The Blacklist (must see)
The F1 Show
Doctor Who
Hawai 5.0
Now I just need to fit it in around my writing!
I found something interesting during my editing. I used 'had' 1,932 times and 'that' 1616. When I looked at them, I saw they weren't necessary or I should be using words like used, needed, were, etc instead. I'm currently on page 174 out of 275 and I am down to 1154 hads. It makes a big difference. I need to go through Reason for them as well. That's got over 2,000 hads.
On the TV front, I now have ten programs recording on a Thursday:
Star Wars Rebels
Quantum Leap (They started re-running it from episode one this week)
Arrow
The Big Bang Theory (must see)
Defiance
Scandal
Forever
Franklyn & Bash
Scorpian
Dominon
That's a lot. I haven't seen Dominon yet so it might not stay.
If anyone is interested, I have the following also recording during the week.
Gotham (must see)
Have I Got More News For You
The Flash
The Apprentice
Sleepy Hollow
The Apprentice: You're Fired
Legends
The Last Ship
Agents of Shield
The Blacklist (must see)
The F1 Show
Doctor Who
Hawai 5.0
Now I just need to fit it in around my writing!
October 22, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
I've been slogging on. Another 70 pages edited today. It's hard work. Every half an hour or so I need to tell myself to stick with it and keep going.
I hit a dead spot at about 11.00 am yesterday and came to a grinding halt. It took me five hours to get back into it. At least I didn't do that today.
On a positive note I finally found the answer to a conundrum that had been haunting me for weeks. A friend pointed out the below sentance from Reason.
"If they were lucky Deni or Hanna would have time to give Tern’s name but if they were unlucky or more accurately unprepared they would be incapacitated before they could enact their Bosses protection."
He said my use of enact was incorrect. After looking into it I found he was right but for the life of me, I couldn't think of the word I should use. I stumbled across it today - invoke.
I'll have that changed in my updated version.
I hit a dead spot at about 11.00 am yesterday and came to a grinding halt. It took me five hours to get back into it. At least I didn't do that today.
On a positive note I finally found the answer to a conundrum that had been haunting me for weeks. A friend pointed out the below sentance from Reason.
"If they were lucky Deni or Hanna would have time to give Tern’s name but if they were unlucky or more accurately unprepared they would be incapacitated before they could enact their Bosses protection."
He said my use of enact was incorrect. After looking into it I found he was right but for the life of me, I couldn't think of the word I should use. I stumbled across it today - invoke.
I'll have that changed in my updated version.
October 20, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've been editing Crusade and to be honest, it's a bit boring, NOT THE BOOK! The editing. So nothing to report.
It's coming along though and I've learnt more about it as I go. My first pass through the book took about a week in total. I really enjoyed reading it cover to cover, there were only a handful of plot points to iron out and I thought I'd caught most, if not all the mechanical errors.
Yeah, I was falling myself. Plot wise, I still stand by it. Mechanically? Not a chance. I'm on my second, much more thorough run through and I'm finding a lot. Some of it simply word choice. I use had, as and so far too much. Most of the time I only need to remove them and it reads a lot better.
Fortunately Eve Online sent me a 10 day free pass. I haven't played it for two years. I'm not playing it while working, well not properly. I'm just sending my ship out to mine Ice or asteroids. The ship can do it without my intervention for an hour at a time. Then all I need to do is a quick pop into a space station which takes two minutes. It's just something to have on the screen and keep me sane.
I saw a good example of why you need to be careful on social media earlier. Someone on twitter posted an article from an American website saying that Banksy had been arrested and his identity released. I was shocked by this and wanted to post it myself. I'm English, so I wanted to use an article from the BBC. Nothing on their site, very strange. After Googling it, I discovered it was all fake.
Don't believe everything you see on the net! Wow, isn't that profound and unoriginal.
It's coming along though and I've learnt more about it as I go. My first pass through the book took about a week in total. I really enjoyed reading it cover to cover, there were only a handful of plot points to iron out and I thought I'd caught most, if not all the mechanical errors.
Yeah, I was falling myself. Plot wise, I still stand by it. Mechanically? Not a chance. I'm on my second, much more thorough run through and I'm finding a lot. Some of it simply word choice. I use had, as and so far too much. Most of the time I only need to remove them and it reads a lot better.
Fortunately Eve Online sent me a 10 day free pass. I haven't played it for two years. I'm not playing it while working, well not properly. I'm just sending my ship out to mine Ice or asteroids. The ship can do it without my intervention for an hour at a time. Then all I need to do is a quick pop into a space station which takes two minutes. It's just something to have on the screen and keep me sane.
I saw a good example of why you need to be careful on social media earlier. Someone on twitter posted an article from an American website saying that Banksy had been arrested and his identity released. I was shocked by this and wanted to post it myself. I'm English, so I wanted to use an article from the BBC. Nothing on their site, very strange. After Googling it, I discovered it was all fake.
Don't believe everything you see on the net! Wow, isn't that profound and unoriginal.
October 10, 2014
Dark Vengeance
Not much to report for the last couple of days. I've been reading a far amount about how to write and edit along with catching up on the last month or so of Writing Excuses podcasts. I'd certainly recommend those for any budding writer, they have some good stuff in.
I've been kicking around some ideas for book three today. The first couple of chapters are locked in for now along with the crescendo ending to the trilogy. I don't have any hook though to drive the story to that point. It's early days, I'll keep working on it.
In the meantime I may well be getting a visit from the Police. I've just spent some time researching how you make gun powder online for a story idea. It's one that has been kicking round my head for almost six months now. Gunpowder/muskets isn't anything new, I know. Some excellent writers have already done it. Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan is a good example that I would recommend people check out.
For the record I had my idea before I saw anything that had already been released. I think my take on it is unique and hopefully it still will be once I've gotten round to writing it!
I've been kicking around some ideas for book three today. The first couple of chapters are locked in for now along with the crescendo ending to the trilogy. I don't have any hook though to drive the story to that point. It's early days, I'll keep working on it.
In the meantime I may well be getting a visit from the Police. I've just spent some time researching how you make gun powder online for a story idea. It's one that has been kicking round my head for almost six months now. Gunpowder/muskets isn't anything new, I know. Some excellent writers have already done it. Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan is a good example that I would recommend people check out.
For the record I had my idea before I saw anything that had already been released. I think my take on it is unique and hopefully it still will be once I've gotten round to writing it!
October 7, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
The first set of amendments for Crusade are now all done and I filled in the plot hole I mentioned in the last post. The first draft is now off to my friends to take apart and let me know what they think! It should be interesting.
One of my mates sent me back his work on Reason a couple of days ago and I inputted all of them into my master copy as well. Nothing plot related at all, it seems I missed a lot of commas and apostrophes. Sorry to everyone who had bought that, the good news is that Amazon updates automatically and 80% of my customers have used that route. I plan to do those updates along with a few other bits and pieces to tidy it up later this month before releasing Crusade.
I do feel guilty about it. My defence is that I'm learning as I go and I will continue to improve my work all the time.
That is the agenda for tomorrow. I've got some books and websites along with Writing Excuses to catch up on.
Right now I'm going to do the vacuuming before dinner. Great fun!
One of my mates sent me back his work on Reason a couple of days ago and I inputted all of them into my master copy as well. Nothing plot related at all, it seems I missed a lot of commas and apostrophes. Sorry to everyone who had bought that, the good news is that Amazon updates automatically and 80% of my customers have used that route. I plan to do those updates along with a few other bits and pieces to tidy it up later this month before releasing Crusade.
I do feel guilty about it. My defence is that I'm learning as I go and I will continue to improve my work all the time.
That is the agenda for tomorrow. I've got some books and websites along with Writing Excuses to catch up on.
Right now I'm going to do the vacuuming before dinner. Great fun!
Crusade For Vengeance
I had a bad review on Friday and it really threw me. I've heard people talk about this and I must admit that I thought I wouldn't be effected by it all that much. I was very wrong, it really destroyed my confidence and I couldn't write or even edit all day, hence no updates since Thursday.
After a good weekend with my daughter and spending some quality time down the pub with a couple of good mates I was back on an even keel, well mostly. After a late start yesterday I got on with the editing and completed another hundred pages until I hit a bit of a bump. I suddenly realised that I'd contradicted myself on how a life worked. I had the enemy switch off the power and then a chapter later the heroes move it. Sounds minor but when I started looking at it some more, every solution I came up with snowballed into a half dozen other things that happen later on.
I've been thinking about this all of yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning. Fortunately what I think to be the solution came to me in the shower a few minutes ago. Now I need to re-write a few passages but it shouldn't be too much.
The plan is to have the first edit done by the end of the day and then I can get started on some revisions of Reason based on feedback I've had. Nothing major, mainly just tidying up.
After a good weekend with my daughter and spending some quality time down the pub with a couple of good mates I was back on an even keel, well mostly. After a late start yesterday I got on with the editing and completed another hundred pages until I hit a bit of a bump. I suddenly realised that I'd contradicted myself on how a life worked. I had the enemy switch off the power and then a chapter later the heroes move it. Sounds minor but when I started looking at it some more, every solution I came up with snowballed into a half dozen other things that happen later on.
I've been thinking about this all of yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning. Fortunately what I think to be the solution came to me in the shower a few minutes ago. Now I need to re-write a few passages but it shouldn't be too much.
The plan is to have the first edit done by the end of the day and then I can get started on some revisions of Reason based on feedback I've had. Nothing major, mainly just tidying up.
October 2, 2014
Crusade For Vengeance
I'm pleased with today's progress. I completed the read through and only found some minor structural stuff. Bits like timings and talking points that haven't been closed off. It should all be fixable tomorrow I hope.
I really need to do some exercise in the morning. Aside from my weekly karate and moving some boxes on Monday, I haven't done any for five weeks now. It's been too long and I need to pick it up again. I'll try and motivate myself for a run tomorrow. I'm not holding out much hope though.
On the agenda for tomorrow will be:
Finish the amendments
Spell check (yes, I haven't done this yet.)
Catch up on the Writing Excuses.
Start reading Shadows Beneath - a very interesting book by four published authors who I like to read and listen to on the above Writing Excuses. They've each written a short story and included the 1st draft and final versions. It should be some good insights.
I really need to do some exercise in the morning. Aside from my weekly karate and moving some boxes on Monday, I haven't done any for five weeks now. It's been too long and I need to pick it up again. I'll try and motivate myself for a run tomorrow. I'm not holding out much hope though.
On the agenda for tomorrow will be:
Finish the amendments
Spell check (yes, I haven't done this yet.)
Catch up on the Writing Excuses.
Start reading Shadows Beneath - a very interesting book by four published authors who I like to read and listen to on the above Writing Excuses. They've each written a short story and included the 1st draft and final versions. It should be some good insights.
