Playing God

Listening to: It's all in my mind, Beck

I'm toying/struggling with the idea of killing off a character. It's a tough decision, in some ways I think the character has run his course and death is a tidy way of removing him from the remainder of the story also, his demise will show the power the antagonist wields. But on the other hand there's only three characters and this one has become the comedy relief; I'm worried readers would be put off by his untimely departure.

Nick Daws (see previous post) has some tips on working through issues such as these. Basically by asking myself questions about the subject I can develop the story according to my answers... and my answers lean to death for the poor fellow.

If that's the route I take I will then need to work out how to do it. One thing's for sure I won't be bringing my story to life like an aspiring Mexican Horror writer has done. Police came to his apartment looking for his missing girlfriend and found some of her body parts in the fridge... he had even cooked some of it. Full story here.

Meanwhile, on a much lighter tone, I have updated the look of this blog (and the linked samples), taking advantage of the improved templates Blogger have on offer. Also, the Progressometer has been brought up to date by upping the desired total word count of the finished product by 10,000 to 50,000 words. The current count is 21,770.


Steve

Seeking Guidance

Listening to: 5-8-6, New Order

I mentioned before that I was having trouble moving my story past a certain point which I named The Writer's Chasm. Well I wasn't getting any closer to traversing this chasm so when I discovered Nick Daws, Write Any Book in 28 Days... or Less course I thought, what the hell, I'm not getting anywhere on my own.

I must admit I was sceptical (as is my nature) and the tacky website was a bit off putting but there were also some things that appealed to me and the price (US$49) and the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee helped make up my mind.

In the first hour of the course (which arrived within a week of placing my order) Nick discusses Freewriting and then sets an exercise to come up with three random, unrelated words and spend 5 minutes writing whatever comes to your mind. In 5 minutes, to my surprise, I had written a 200+ word story of a man who finds his teenage daughters dairy.

The next surprise came the other day, in the second module of the course, where Nick explains a "secret formula" used by Hollywood scriptwriters, I found that what I have written so far fits into this formula.

George Lucas used this methodology to write Star Wars but I'm not saying that this formula will guarantee my book will be a huge successt but it is nice to know I can at least lay out a story in an acceptable fashion.

So that's what's been keeping me busy of late.

Ciao,
Steve

Plodding Along

Listening to: Silent Sigh, Badly Drawn Boy

It's funny how the human brain works. I hadn't added anything to Coma City for a couple of months and then on Monday night I'm washing the dishes and a whole new idea comes to me, complete with dialogue and locations.

I have no idea what stimulated the thought process, one second I'm wondering if I should wash the pots or the knives first, and the next, my mind is awash with fresh ideas.

Naturally, I got stuck into writing them down - after watching Californication, a TV show about an author with writers block :-). At first I only intended to jot down the ideas in point form but they were so vivid and the words were flowing easily so I just wrote until I came, much to my surprise, to the end of the chapter and the perfect ending for the story - but not the end of the book, I have an epilogue, of which I have already written about 75% of, that conveniently ties up the loose ends.

I was up until 3am but it was worth it just to get those 2000+ words down.

Word count is now at 18,888.

Tabby of Death

Listening to: Someday Soon, The Doves

This is Oscar, he's a pet cat at a nursing home in the USA. Normally he doesn't pay much attention to the patients... until they're only hours away from dying.

Somehow Oscar senses that death is near and jumps up on the bed to snuggle up to the patient.

Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6917113.stm

Cat lovers out there are thinking, Aawww, how adorable. The cute little pussy cat has empathy toward the poor old person.

My twisted mind however instantly put together a story about Oscar the cat being a reincarnated psychopath who gets off on breathing in someone's last breathe.

I think I watched too many horror movies when I was young.

What's a metaphor for a metaphor?

Listening to: Get some sleep, Bic Runga

This writing thing is hard. It's like when you meet a new love. At the start it's all you can think about. You can't wait to sit down and write again. You can't concentrate on anything else because there's all these scenarios, diaglogues, plots and sub-plots and moods, swimming around in your mind. And you're discovering new things about your characters and even yourself as a writer.

However, as with any passionate beginning, the fire burns bright and then dims down to a steady glow as the more denser fuel burns. And it's the dense fuel that gives a fire it's heat, but if that dense fuel is not replensihed the fire can cool to just embers, or worse completely go cold.

My fire was down to a few glowing coals until last week when I found some more fuel to throw on.

I have written a piece that fits in somewhere near the end of the story - possibly even as the final chapter - and adds a nice little twist on something the reader has been lead to take for granted for almost the entire story. No, it's not a Scooby Doo ending, Old Man Withers isn't going to confess that he 'would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those pesky kids'. Nor is it a silly Hollywood ending. It's just a strange turn of events.

So, I have a beginning, an end and some stuff in the middle... but that doesn't make it complete, does it? That middle stuff has gaps in it; some are huge and some are just hairline fractures.

It's like a railway (another metaphor, sorry), there's a station at both ends but the rails haven't been layed all the way through... and to be honest, there's a chasm that I've yet to find a suitable bridge to span its void. I was descibing my plight to a friend and decided it wasn't a 'writer's block', it's a 'writer's chasm' because I can see the other side I just can't find a way to cross it (that's the last metaphor for the post, I promise.)

So, dear reader, that's where I'm at. Teetering on the edge of a writer's chasm, with bits of story on either side just awaiting a bridge.

Does anyone know any good bridge-makers?


Word count: 16,697

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

Listening to: Cotton Wool, Lamb

I've had the flu since Monday and today (Saturday) is the first day in almost a week where I have not been feeling dizzy, groggy, clammy, crappy or just plain yucky.

It started off as a horrible, dry, choking cough in the middle of the night but it wasn't until lunchtime that I started to feel unwell. So it was back to bed, where I stayed, pretty much, through to Thursday.

Friday I could move around a bit more but anything too energetic (like picking something off the floor) still set off vertigo like feelings in my gut.

But the worst symptom of this virus infestation of my body was what it did to my olfactory system. It was like rotten flesh soaked in the most foulest thing you can think of was inside my mouth and nose and everything tasted and smelt the same, only its intensity increased if the fragrance was stronger. So toast smelt and tasted worse than just plain uncooked bread, which still didn't taste anything like bread. Apples were about the only thing that didn't taste like the north end of a southbound (and very dead) camel... Figure that one out?

I went to see a doctor on Thursday afternoon. He was the most useless person I have ever met. Apparently I had a virus and he wrote out a medical certificate for the week with the reason for me being unfit for work was because I was suffering from "a medical condition". The Monday was a public holiday and my employer demands a medical certificate for any sick days taken prior to or after public holidays and weekends. I hope they're happy with "a medical condition".

This is by no means another excuse for not writing. I don't really have one anyway.

But if I was going to try an excuse I'd say, there's been a lot going on. For one, my wife is studying so she is often on the computer polishing up her assignment (What, you expect me to write with a pen?... on paper? Are you mad?).

Then there's the usual distractions of the warmer months, but I can tell by the sudden plummet of the mercury when the sun drops over the horizon that autumn is here and winter will be close on its heels so my pursuits will shift indoors... hopefully.

There's definitely no distractions on the television. Nothing is really floating my boat at the moment. I don't like cop/law stories, hospital stories, American sit-coms, game shows or reality TV (especially reality TV). That rules out American and Australian shows. Leaving British sit-coms and documentaries. In Australia that means tuning into the ABC. But even there I've only found a few programs that peak my interests.
One is Extras, which is so brilliantly written that you actually feel the gut wrenching pains of embarrassment as the characters and celebrity guests insult just about every demographic you can think of.
Another has been Around the World in 80 Treasures, but the presenter, Dan Cruikshank's whispering and constant touching of artifacts can get on my nerves (I'm shocked that this program aired two years ago in the UK. Why does it take so long to get programs on to the Australian airways? No wonder illegal downloading via bit torrents is rife here, but even that is crippled by our poor "broadband" speeds).

My old favourite, Time Team is still showing every Tuesday night at 6pm (we're years behind on that one as well).

So there's my round up on influenza, useless medical certificates, weak excuses and a whinge about TV and download speeds.

Ciao until next time... Maybe I'll actually have wirtten something for my book by then. You never know; stranger things have happened.

Another teaser of Coma City

Listening to: Bliss, Muse

I'm finally happy with the chase scene I started almost 11 months ago. Pleased enough to post it for anyone in the world to read... Yep, that pleased :-)

So, click here and have a read. Feel free to leave a comment, either here or on the linked page. Any critique will be appreciated.

And if you haven't read the first batch of sample chapters I posted back in June '06, you can find them here.

Slack b'stard

Listening to: Climbing Up The Walls, Radiodread

A couple of recent encouraging comments on this blog reminded me how slack I have been.

I wish I could say that I was too busy writing Coma City to update this blog but that would be a big fat lie.

There's no singular reason for my tardiness. I have been writing in spits and spats, mostly updates (I know I said I wouldn't make changes until I had completed the last chapter but you know how it is, nothing new was coming to me so I kept myself busy building on some earlier chapters that I now believe are all the better for my tinkering).

I went to the dark side again. Things get a bit disturbing toward the end of Chapter 4 I'm afraid (inspiration gained from my newest favourite TV show, Dexter). I don't want to go into too much detail because it would give too much away... but let's just say it involves sex and violence ;)

So that's a bit about what I've been doing these past 4 months.

Cheers to commenters: Anonymous and Shanna for the kind words and motivation (kick in the pants).

Word count is 15,510

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.