Breaking the Drought

Listening to: Untitled, Keane

It's been over 2 months since my last confession... Oops, sorry wrong place.

We've had a fairly dry winter here in Melbourne. There's been the occassional shower but no real soakings to fill the reserviors. The same can be said for my writing of late.

But tonight, I've had a 3 hour long solid downpour of words. I've added a lengthy section that adds some emotion to the story. I had been unhappy that the main character had not shown too much concern toward the fact that he is so alone.

With tonight's effort I have addressed that with quite a dark scene where a bottle of scotch seems to be the only thing that can relieve him of the pain of solitude.

Word count is currently 14,414

Moody

Listening to: Please Forgive Me, David Gray

Victoria at Characters Journey has another great tip, one that I'm very familiar with; using music to get yourself into the mood of the scene you're writing.

As you can tell from the 'Listening to' section at the top of most my posts, I like to listening to music while I write and often set the pace with a certain artist, genre or ambience similar to the scene (you might also note my preference for Electronic music).

A prime example was from the night I first penned the chase scene. I was listening to a playlist of electronic music that suited the image of a motorcycle speeding down a freeway, pursued by a hell-bent helicopter. Especially note-worthy was the grinding synth-bass in Strict Machine by Goldfrapp, which was a huge motivator. Alison Goldfrapps' vampy and ethereal vocals set a kind of music-video image (a cool one, not some crappy teeny-pop song). An added bonus was the title suited my mental image of the motorcycle and the characters feelings towards his bike: love of its physical beauty, respect for the power it wields.

If you're wondering what the hell this Strict Machine malarky is all about, check this out.

Moving the Goal Posts

Listening to: Such Great Heights, The Postal Service

After careful deliberation I have changed the Progressometer goal from 50,000 to 40,000 words.

I know, this seems like cheating but I can no longer see me ever getting to 50,000 words... but you never know.

This probably makes Coma City more of a novella than a novel.

Epilogue

Listening to: Time Out From The World, Goldfrapp

ep·i·logue
A short addition or concluding section at the end of a literary work, often dealing with the future of its characters. Also called afterword.

I've been thinking about how to set out the conclusion to Coma City.

Because I've been writing in the 1st person narrative I reckon an epilogue will be necessary to tidy up a few things, mainly the stuff that the character would not have been aware of at the time but should be explained to make sense of things and also what happens after the conclusion of the story (it's hard to explain without going into great detail or giving away the ending). I think it will be best if it's in the 1st person narrative again, set 12 months after the conclusion.

So, last night I spent a couple of hours typing up a list of events and characters, giving each a basic explanation and how things unfolded for them and how the world copes post Big Sleep.

You might think it's pretty silly to be inking out the epilogue when there's still more than half the book to be written, but it was a worthwhile exercise because I got a lot of ideas for the direction of certain characters just from thinking about what the future brings for them... I wish I could read the epilogue of my life, I hope it'd have a happy ending.

Sample of the First Six Chapters

Since we survived Devil's Day yesterday I thought it would be worthwhile to post a sample of Coma City.

It is by no means complete and is quite likely to change before I am comfortable enough to even call it complete (the title is also likely to change).

I have provided the sample of my book in good faith. Its existence is not an invitation to use it for any other purpose other than personal reading.

VERY IMPORTANT: There are some sexual references and coarse language so if you are under 18 years of age or offended by such things I suggest you don't click on the link below.

Otherwise, I hope you enjoy Coma City.

Here's the link

Please feel free to comment, either here on Distractful or on the linked page.

Devil's Day?

Listening to: It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), R.E.M.

Today is the 6th day, of the 6th month, of the year 2006 and I haven't seen neither hide nor hair of the Prince of Darkness.

But he probably doesn't work to Australian time-zones so I guess we'll have to wait and see what's in store.

Then again, we have Christmas Day once a year and Christ never shows up to that so maybe Satan will follow suit :)

BBC NEWS | Europe | Prayer vigil targets Devil's Day

The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey

Mark Jeffrey, author of The Pocket and the Pendant was kind enough to leave a comment (the first for this blog) on the post I made about my concerns of the similarities between his book and the one I am writing.

Mark assured me that although the concept of our stories have some likenesses, the scenario of an "empty world" is hardly a new one.

We exchanged a few emails and Mark was kind enough to answer my questions regarding self-publishing on Lulu which, considering how well it has worked for Mark, is well worth a shot... and it's free, so there's nothing to lose!

Mark is very friendly and his books are bound to be a huge success... but don't take my word for it - read a sample or download the audiobook for free from Podiobooks and judge for yourself. If you prefer to hold the physical thing you can order the printed book from Lulu, Amazon or Borders.

The audiobooks are read by Mark and he recorded most of them in his home studio. If you're interested you can read Mark's comments on making an audiobook here.

More Coincidental Weirdness

I just did a search on Google for "Coma City" and found a band by that exact name, claiming to be "the hardest punk-ass motherfuckers in the world!".

They classify their music as Heavy Porn Music. Could be worth a listen ;-)

Now I'm wondering whether I should change the name of my book. I'm not exactly happy with it anyway... It's more than just a city that's in a coma, it's the entire human population of the planet. Maybe Coma World would suit better... or something else entirely.

I've still got 2/3rds of the book to go so I'm probably jumping the gun worrying about the title... and then there's the simple fact that I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PUBLISHING DEAL!!!

Great minds think alike... that or I'm psychic

Listening to: The Day the World Went Away, Nine Inch Nails

I've found another book on Lulu with a similar concept to the one I'm writing now. This seriously worries me because I would hate to finally have my book published and have it written off as a stolen plot... but then again any publicity is good publicity, just ask Dan Brown :-)

This is not the first time I have had this problem. The first book I started (currenty in limbo) involves an incident involving the International Space Station which almost puts NASA out of business. I had written about a 1/4 of the book when a cargo ship crashed into the MIR Space Station, followed by a fire. Then a few years later, when I was just revisiting the book, NASA's Columbia Shuttle disintergrated on re-entry. I was beginning to wonder if I was psychic.

In The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey (released 2004) time on Earth stands still except for a boy named Max and a few other children who set about to find the cause of the time freeze and rectify it.
In my Coma City, the population of Earth is sent into a deep sleep, with the exception of a small group of survivors who set about locating the mysterious force that has inacted the world's slumber.

Further details from Wikipedia (entered unbeknownst to the author) reveal further likenesses:

• The event occurs at a particular instant, affecting the entire world simultaneously.
• Aliens feature in the story (except in Coma, not everyone believes Aliens are responsible)
  

The big difference is that Mr Jeffery's book is aimed at the teen audience and mine is more for the 18+ audience - there's a ranchy scene and a bit of colourful language... and that's just the first chapter :-)

Also, The Pocket and the Pendant is the first book in a series (the second book: The Two Travelers is due for release soon). I have no current plans for a sequel to Coma City, but who knows what the future may bring - lottery, or car crash, or join a cult (gratuitous Bjork quote from Possibly Maybe).

Mark Jeffery could very well be the next J.K. Rowling. I wish him all the best with it.

I, on the other hand, am hoping Coma City has more of a Neal Stephenson-Snow Crash-like status. Not a household name but popular with those in the know.

At it again

Listening to: Oompa Radar, Goldfrapp

Just finished chapter 9.

I've created my own conspiracy theory and debunked it all in one chapter. Gotta love that.

Word count is 11600

Since I'm over the 10k word mark I thought I'd change the colour of the Progressometer to green.

Little by Little

Listening to: Blade Runner Soundtrack, Vangelis

In the last couple of days I have twice broken my golden rule:

"Until thou hath penned thy last chapter, thou shalt not edit previous work. Thou shalt only add new writings."

I've added a new paragraph to the very start of the book, which I believe adds a little something that was previously missing... mainly a hook to get the reader to continue reading.

I've also rejigged the chase-scene chapters. Something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Oh well, it was more of a guideline than a rule.

Word count is: 10982

Inspired Effort

Listening to: Utopia, Goldfrapp

Finally, after an almost two month hiatis, I have added to my book.

All it took was some inspiration, which came in the form of a novel called The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams, whose on-line novel I discovered via the self-publishing site www.lulu.com

Roger's novel, although far more profound than my own, gave me a real boost. As did the Lulu site, which I will seriously investigate when I get to that stage. For now I will concentrate on writing whilst I have my new found inspiration.

I had been thinking of trashing Chapter 7 and a new character it introduced. But now I have found a way to keep that character and the scenario Chapter 7 provided. This has also opened up possibilites for some drama and a tie-in to the finale. In fact, without giving away too much, the new character could become the crux to the conclusion of the story.

Word count is 10498.

Chernobyl, 20 years on.

Listening to: Complex, Gary Numan

BBC News | In pictures | Chernobyl's silent graveyards |


These pictures from Chernobyl, 20 years after the reactor exploded are kind of fascinating, although very grim. The image of half sunk ships left to rust in the icy port is like a scene from a Sci-fi movie. It gives me some ideas for my book - which I must get back to ASAP.

Burning the Midnight Oil

Listening to: Rock the Shack, New Order

Another late night with excellent progress. The chase scenario I mentioned in the previous post has really got the juices flowing.

This scene was actually the genesis to the whole story of the Coma City idea, so I'm glad I've finally been able to get it down.

Word count is 9890!. If I wasn't so tired I'd get those extra 110+ words out to make into the five-figures. But I'm having enough trouble typing this so I'll come back to it later.

Good night

Picking up the pace

Listening to: Strict Machine, Goldfrapp

I was up until 1:30am last night writing an action packed chapter involving our hero (still haven't named him) on a supercharged scooter (like the one in the photo) being pursued at 180Km/h along a freeway.

It was a lot of fun to write, I hope others will find it as much fun to read.

The scooter is a Gilera Nexus 500, a very sexy beast indeed.

I actually envisage this chapter appearing a bit further into the story but the idea was there so I had to get it down. I also needed a distraction from the trouble I'm having with finishing off chapter 7 without it seeming like a waste of words... but maybe ditching it is the way to go.

The word count is now 8477. A long way from 50,000 I know. But it's a moving goal post.

Authors Blogs

Listening to: Tuna Fish, Emiliana Torrini

I'm now listed on Authors Blogs. The listing is alphabetical, by first name, so you will need to scroll all the way down to the S's to find me (Steve Scott).

P.S. Can you spot the typo in the description. Call yourself a writer? HA!

Copyright

Listening to: Lovely Head, Goldfrapp

You may have noticed that I have placed a copyright notice on this blog.

This is mainly to protect any postings I make regarding my book(s); such as the post of Chapter 3 I made earlier.

I have also added the same notice to the footer of the novel.

If you would like to know more about copyrights under Australian law check out this site: Australian National University (ANU) Division of Information - E-Prints

Not a bad effort

I'm quite proud of myself tonight. I've just written up Chapter 7 in about 2.5 hours.
Now I have the Progressometer as a gauge I found I kept myself going that bit longer. I've gone from 6700 words to 7395. 695 words is nothing to sneeze at.

I only wish I had started earlier tonight rather than at 11pm. It's Sunday now but I'm sure my 2 year old won't allow me to sleep in past 7am.

I've changed the target to 50,000 words. 60,000 seems too much now. I'm not even sure if 50k is over the top for this story but I'll leave it for now... besides I really should get to bed.

Also, you might notice that there was no "Listening to:" at the top of this post. I was so busy writing I didn't even notice the silence. Yay!

Progressometer

Listening to: Giving myself away, Faithless

I just added The Zokutou Word Meter to the sidebar (Over there on the right, below the 'About Me' box. Yeah, that blue bar thingy).

Hopefully this will encourage me to write more often; thereby pushing the blue bar on a steady march to the right.

I've set the expected total word count to 60,000 - I think that's achievable, I reckon I'm over a 10th of the way there (I can always change it as I get nearer THE END).

So keep an eye on that little blue bar. I know I will be.

The Pareto Principle.

Listening to: Supersonic, Jamiroquai

The following extract from Victoria Lynn Schmidt's blog, Characters Journey makes a lot of sense to me. But does make me wonder if this blog is attributing to the 20% or the 80%.

Note: Victoria calls it the Pareter Principle but it's actually the Pareto Principle named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who in 1906 observed that 80% of property in Italy was owned by just 20% of the Italian population. It was later generalised and given the more catchier name of The 80-20 rule.

Characters Journey: "Ever heard of the Pareter Principle? It explains how successful results come from 20% of your hard work and the other 80% is just wasted effort. In business this is a well known principle and has been proven true time and time again. As writers I think we can all relate to this principle whether it's wasting time on chores that don't really need to get done or wasting 80% on starting numerous writing projects without getting any of them completed. Boy if we could just foucs on that 20% all the time how wonderful that would be!

The question is - 'How do you know what the 20% is that will get you results without having to waste the other 80% to get there?'

Calm your mind. Pure and simple. When you are calm you develop 20/20 vision and can see which actions will give you that 20%.You can calm your mind before you decide what needs to be done in a day, or which projects to work on, with meditation, deep breathing, soft music or any number of calming activities you enjoy. In one sense Julia Cameron's daily pages serves to accomplish this task, I know many of you love to write daily pages and swear by them.

Just a thought. Being more productive with your time will help you get those projects completed."