UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Agony Aunt
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Today I mostly wrote ... the word count thread.
M.T. wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Can't believe it. We're basically on lockdown, so I exerted some discipline, got lucky in that my brain is on more when I leave the apartment less, and got the last bit organized for..."The discipline is hard, and I've been spending a lot of time online with the kids, but that will settle down as we all adjust to lockdown (and, I hope, don't get sick).
I've been frantically running round getting in as much work as I can before we get locked down. I can manage now for a few weeks, hopefully, so now I can think about writing again
That's a good way of looking at it, Alicia! People pay good money to go on retreats. Sounds so much better than a lockdown! Besides, we will be out and about in the garden if this weather ever decides to perk itself up. Take care, keep well.
Day 3 of isolation, and everyone is stir crazy alreadyEdit: it's not that for me, as I'm the one doing all the errands and shopping etc. I just have to live with the contained, who aren't happy...
Schools are closing on Friday, which is pretty much what my brother thought ... 'until further notice'. GCSEs will not be happening so they clearly expect this to continue next term. It's all getting a bit serious. Still going to Mum's next week as we stand ... as we stand ...Having my writer's group meeting on google hangouts on Friday. Looking forward to it.
Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "Schools are closing on Friday, which is pretty much what my brother thought ... 'until further notice'. GCSEs will not be happening so they clearly expect this to continue next term. It's all getti..."You are lucky the writers group can do that. The gigs I had booked for storytelling at festivals have all gone. The guitar group I play with has suspended everything, and cancelled our gig. All my social stuff has just stopped
Bloody hell Will. That's pants. My social has mostly stopped. I was booked into a couple is cons in July. I doubt they'll go ahead. As for the group, were not sure we can but we're going to have a go.McMini spent a fair bit of time sitting next to a lad, yesterday, who was diagnosed with covid:19 today. Gulp.
Hang in there.
MTM
M.T. wrote: "McMini spent a fair bit of time sitting next to a lad, yesterday, who was diagnosed with covid:19 today. Gulp ..."I'd go ahead and quarantine all of you for two weeks - people are very contagious for a week before they even have symptoms.
And do NOT go to your mum's next week - she is definitely in the vulnerable age group. Can she do a video chat? Or a phone call?
It is not getting serious; it has been serious for months now - and ignored by our fearless leaders. Immunity is conferred by people getting the virus and then recovering - or by vaccines that won't be available for quite a while (>=12 months at best). If there are enough immune people around so the virus is generally not transmitted, then this 'herd immunity' MAY protect some of the vulnerable who have not had it or can't have the vaccine.
Good luck - and please keep us posted about McMini - even if all we can offer is sympathy.
M.T. wrote: "McMini spent a fair bit of time sitting next to a lad, yesterday, who was diagnosed with covid:19 today. Gulp...."
Last Wednesday my lady wife and I dined with the vicar and the rest of the 'team' in the vicarage, just a buffet in their lounge.
On Saturday the vicar had gone down with the virus, her husband is down now, but she is back on her feet.
But neither lady wife nor I have any symptoms whatsoever.
I am serious beginning to suspect I've already had it, and she got it off me, back in February
You would know for sure - if they tested you for antibodies to the virus. But that's not going to happen, is it?If they've given it to you, you may have a week before symptoms develop, during which you are highly infectious to others.
Alicia's right, Mary. I would not go to visit your mum. She's too vunerable. It's not necessarily how the virus will impact on you, but who you might pass it along to that's the worry.Our leaders have been too focussed on this herd immunity idea. It's brilliant unless you or your close rellies are the group whose lives are to sacrificed to make the others stronger.
Alicia wrote: "You would know for sure - if they tested you for antibodies to the virus. But that's not going to happen, is it?If they've given it to you, you may have a week before symptoms develop, during whi..."
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-19/u...
The UK is "very close" to having a Covid-19 test that can tell if someone has already had the respiratory disease and it immune to it, the Government's former chief scientific advisor has said.
The science and technology allowing the development of this test is progressing "at the speed of light" compared to how it would have several years ago, Professor Sir Mark Walport told ITV's Peston.
The Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation said that such a test would be "very important" as it would allow health care workers to be tested to see if they are immune to coronavirus, having already had the respiratory disease, allowing them to work with those who are infected.
Sir Mark said he did not know exactly when such a test would be available, but it would "role out quickly".
I believe that in medical/pharmaceutical terms, 'very close' is code for 'within 3 years'.
Jim wrote: "The UK is "very close" to having a Covid-19 test that can tell if someone has already had the respiratory disease and it immune to it, the Government's former chief scientific advisor has said."I hope so - it would be a relief to know you had survived, and were now immune from having it.
Alicia wrote: "I hope so - it would be a relief to know you had survived, and were now immune from having it...."Yes, it's more useful than knowing if somebody has got it
Will wrote: "I believe that in medical/pharmaceutical terms, 'very close' is code for 'within 3 years'."For a vaccine, yes but perhaps less for this. So far they are at the point where they know someone has had a COVID so now it’s a case of ensuring they can identify which one.
It’s all go.
Lockdown discipline is finally taking hold.New finished scene - 1189 words - and it's about time!
The emergencies in the real world kind of took all my energy until now, but it's going to be a long isolation - and I want to have something to show for it.
It requires blocking the news. Which is good for me anyway - the news is dire.
Yay, well done Alicia. Lock down has had the opposite effect on me. Very busy entertaining McMini and ringing Mum for nearly an hour every day. It's fun but it's not going to get me anywhere on the work front! :-)Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "Yay, well done Alicia. Lock down has had the opposite effect on me. Very busy entertaining McMini and ringing Mum for nearly an hour every day. It's fun but it's not going to get me anywhere on the..."1. It's different with kids around, and
2. You'll find your rhythm eventually.
Talking to your mum is important for both of you, and no one is doing your housework or cooking.
Luckily McOther is doing most of the cooking. But yeh, it all takes time. Looks like I'll have some time in the mornings and one and a half hours between half ten and midnight. That should work.Cheers
MTM
By doggedly following my 'process' (a detailed list of steps which results in first gathering everything I've ever thought and jotted down about a scene, then organizing it, which always leads to writing), in spite of everything taking center-stage, 501 new words were written today which weren't there yesterday.At this rate, I may be finished in a couple more years.
Quite up and down at the moment, but Last Viking has moved on to 45K
Will wrote: "Quite up and down at the moment, but Last Viking has moved on to 45K"That's good
Because I'm busier than ever, I'm struggling to find much time. Also I'm tiring more easily, perhaps as an after effect of the virus. So whilst I'm up at 6am, by 8:30pm I'm just falling asleep
So writing Tallis stories and blog posts is taking what time I have.
Mind you I'm trying to do two a week of each because somebody has put me on as their entertainment officer ;-)
Alicia wrote: "By doggedly following my 'process' (a detailed list of steps which results in first gathering everything I've ever thought and jotted down about a scene, then organizing it, which always leads to w..."I'm getting like that about my current novel length wip.
Will wrote: "Quite up and down at the moment, but Last Viking has moved on to 45K"
Good job Will looking forward to it when it comes out.
Jim wrote: "Will wrote: "Quite up and down at the moment, but Last Viking has moved on to 45K"
That's good
Because I'm busier than ever, I'm struggling to find much time. Also I'm tiring more easily, perhaps..."
Glad you're thorough the worst even if you are knackered. Did you have to retire to bed or manage to work on through this one?
I have finished the audio alts for the last two and am just kicking back, relaxing. We would have been on holiday now, so I'm acting as if we are.
Great attitude, MT - have some fun with this - so you'll have something to tell your grandchildren.
M.T. wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Glad you're thorough the worst even if you are knackered. Did you have to retire to bed or manage to work on through this one?..."If I had it (I may have had something else and had coronavirus back in February) I just kept going, but much of my job at the moment is walking round fields taking feed to heifers and that sort of thing. Honestly I think being outside, walking and breathing fresh air is as good as anything
But if I get tired, I go and sit down and have a brew. And I go to bed early
But whatever I had was milder than the coronavirus my lady wife had
242 new words is better than nothing.Just too tired to do more, but it's getting very easy to slip back to September 2005 in Uttar Pradesh.
Jim wrote: "M.T. wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Glad you're thorough the worst even if you are knackered. Did you have to retire to bed or manage to work on through this one?..."If I had it (I may have had something..."
Yeh, I know a couple of people who’ve come close to calling an ambulance and a couple, like yourself, who are not one hundred percent certain they had it.
Alicia wrote: "242 new words is better than nothing.
Just too tired to do more, but it's getting very easy to slip back to September 2005 in Uttar Pradesh."
Nice going, hope the progress and spoon supply continue in equal measure.
This week, I mostly finished the audiobook alts, sent them over to Gareth (all 9k of them) and wrote this here blog post ... enjoyhttps://mtmcguire.co.uk/2020/04/11/on...
M.T. wrote: "Nice going, hope the progress and spoon supply continue in equal measure...."No spoons, sadly, but I put the work in, and somehow, out of the deep mysterious blue, appeared the next chunk, 837 words that didn't even exist in my mind, and were not in the rough draft - I can do this writing thing!
Thanks for the encouragement - very helpful when you're between book 1 and 2, and no one is buying book 1 right now! I won't stop - too stubborn - but a bit of progress is very nice.
Hope your various endeavours are all resulting in progress as well, MT.
Can't believe it. 27.3 is finished - in only a week (previous scene took 6 months!).2,299 polished final words. Yay for following one's own process.
I just kept showing up.
Oh, and following a very good rule: Never leave something finished; Always start the next thing when you finish something.
Well done everyone. I've been doing crits for my online critique group, fitting in my daily 30 mins walk and getting on with various practical things to try and keep my mind off the news.
Pam wrote: "Well done everyone. I've been doing crits for my online critique group, fitting in my daily 30 mins walk and getting on with various practical things to try and keep my mind off the news."Fine work! Better than me, I’ve written a couple of blog posts, a comment on Jim’s blog which, I think, I may turn into a blog post of my own and the beginnings of a huge long email on boarding sequence which basically gives away a whole book, over the course of a year. :-) Hoping they’ll get far too into it to buy before that.
Alicia wrote: "Can't believe it. 27.3 is finished - in only a week (previous scene took 6 months!).
2,299 polished final words. Yay for following one's own process.
I just kept showing up.
Oh, and following a ..."
Nice! I read somewhere that if you start something before you stop writing for the day, then when you sit down the following morning you are far more likely to be up and running faster than if you’ve rounded it all off nicely. I’ve certainly found that if I start something new or leave it in the middle I’m much less likely to lose the thread!
Onwards and upwards everyone
Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "I read somewhere that if you start something before you stop writing for the day, then when you sit down the following morning you are far more likely to be up and running faster than if you’ve rounded it all off nicely...."The brain hates starting new projects, and procrastinates, and wavers... but if it's already started, presumably it had some idea of what it was going to do next.
And I do.
Happy writing, MT - lots of projects.
And 27.FOUR is finished - in only 10 calendar days!1117 words that didn't exist two weeks ago.
This one was hard - tricky purpose, and it had to be just right, and I am very pleased. One more and that's another chapter off to the beta reader.
One of these days I may even finish a book!
Well done Alicia. I've had a bit of a slump after doing all those crits and then reworking the first 4 chapters of a book I first wrote in the early 90s and had updated a few times over the years but have decided to rewrite to set it back in the 90s since it has been rather overtaken by events in recent years and especially the last few months.
Pam wrote: "Well done Alicia. I've had a bit of a slump after doing all those crits and then reworking the first 4 chapters of a book I first wrote in the early 90s and had updated a few times over the years b..."My sympathies with the effort required to change something major like the timeframe.
One of the hardest things I ever did was to change the story from 2000 to 2005 - after 9/11, the world changed significantly in many aspects.
I didn't change for that reason - but I had to take it into account.
When I started writing PC in 2000, I thought it would take a year or so, and one novel. But when I realized the premise was going to take a lot more words to work (the more improbable the premise, the more words needed to sneakily convert your readers to your idea of the story), I also realized I needed to replot from almost scratch, and there was a lot to learn.
Once it's finished, I should probably burn the rough draft!
Happy finishing.
I have a novel or two or a series that is the 'trunk novel' - but I'd love to finish it because the characters worked really well for me. The plotting needs work. Maybe...
Pam wrote: "Well done Alicia. I've had a bit of a slump after doing all those crits and then reworking the first 4 chapters of a book I first wrote in the early 90s and had updated a few times over the years b..."I know how much work that can be - changing the timeframe is really hard. You will probably be happy when all the thinking you've done subconsciously yields some really neat plotting and characterization.
Speaking as somebody trying to write a really complicated prequel that ties in with a really complicated novel I can feel your pain, both of you!Didn’t do much today, wrote a blog post.
https://mtmcguire.co.uk/2020/04/25/in...
Cheers
MTM
Wasn't getting anywhere - when I realized I was trying to circumvent some of my 'process' and do something in my head I really can't do in my head, especially not in one step.Went back to the process - an hour later everything was organized and assigned to where it would probably go - and the writing slid smooth as ice cream down my throat.
I skip process steps at my own peril. It is sometimes frustrating, sometimes a bit boring, but it works. 451 new words for the beginning of the last scene in this chapter - and I am VERY pleased, because I attempted something entirely new with this one, and, apparently, I can.
I let the robot voice read it back - corrected a word or two - and that part is almost good enough as written.
It's good to poke at your process occasionally - maybe you've gotten better without realizing it - but if the attempt fails, you have the tried and true to go back to. It keeps me from leaving out key things the reader will need, and from putting unnecessary baggage in the boot.
I love how stretchy 'novel time' is.
Alicia wrote: "Wasn't getting anywhere - when I realized I was trying to circumvent some of my 'process' and do something in my head I really can't do in my head, especially not in one step.Went back to the pro..."
Top going. It’s nice when corners can be cut but, as you say, when they can’t and you have a tried and tested method there’s no biggie! I haven’t written anything yet. I’m just about to start as I am uploading the files for the last audiobook and it always takes a while. Especially with McMini doing e-school and McOther at work both hammering the bandwidth alongside me.
Cheers
MTM
Alicia wrote: "Pam wrote: "Well done Alicia. I've had a bit of a slump after doing all those crits and then reworking the first 4 chapters of a book I first wrote in the early 90s and had updated a few times over..."Thanks Alicia. I worked on a couple more chapters over the last few days but didn't get back to it today as baking and other things took over.
Pam wrote: "baking and other things took over..."Ah. Life. Mañana. In the course of a long life, I have learned that it's always something.
VERY occasionally I can write in the late afternoon, and even more rarely, in the evening.
But it has become crystal clear, for me, that if getting ready to write - with the intention of writing as soon as the brain kicks on - is the only way I will get words on the page.
Even a 20-min phone call with a friend takes energy from the wrong source in my brain - there will be no writing of fiction.
I'm giving up even pretending that it isn't so, because all my attempts to 'just do this one thing first' - which never turn out to be as short as I thought they would - have resulted in NO words that day, not of actual fiction, and often not even of the thinking on the page that I do around the actual fiction writing.
Once diverted, it doesn't come back. It doesn't have enough energy reserves to come back with. Sad, frustrating, and true.
Yeh, the one thing first is a killer! I’ve found that. Write straight away or you won’t! I’ve managed about 3k words this week I think. I must get my counter up and running again. Also did a blog post today so that’s another 1k.
Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "Yeh, the one thing first is a killer! I’ve found that. Write straight away or you won’t! I’ve managed about 3k words this week I think. I must get my counter up and running again. Also did a blog..."
Great that you're writing.
Today is the day for finishing and polishing a chapter before it goes to the beta reader. This means I can't block the whole internet (my editing program, AutoCrit is now only available online, and I have a lifetime subscription), but I'm adding all the news sites to my program Anti-social, which should block me being able to waste time on them.
Alicia wrote: "M.T. wrote: "Yeh, the one thing first is a killer! I’ve found that. Write straight away or you won’t! I’ve managed about 3k words this week I think. I must get my counter up and running again. Al..."
Sounds like a good idea! I managed 638 words yesterday. I was pleased.
I did a blog today, did about 1600 words yesterday but they were hard work and I suspect when I revise I'll do a lot of tweaking there
I did half a blog yesterday and 168 words that were like pulling teeth. Have done 170 or so today and hopefully I'll get to do more. Just discovering some very interesting things about my mailing list ads ...
M.T. wrote: "I did half a blog yesterday and 168 words that were like pulling teeth. Have done 170 or so today and hopefully I'll get to do more. Just discovering some very interesting things about my mailing l..."OK so what are you actually advertising then ;-)
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Yay! Well done Alicia. Brilliant to hear there's an up side.
Cheers
MTM