OK
so my new blog is here - http://onethousandwordsperday.wordpress.com
all new stories and posts will go there, but Imma gonna let this blog stay, and I may return to use this as a proper blog, and keep the other for my stories...
Friday, 11 December 2009
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
time for something completely different...
It may seem foolish to launch a new blog when you can barely update the one you've already got, but I say fie!
Starting a new blog that concentrates entirely on daily flash fiction, on stories by me, and any one else who sends them in is just the thing to keep my self discipline levels up when it comes to writing.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
We shall see.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
whitechapel?
What is the London area of Whitechapel good for? Well it's home to Brick Lane, to Freedom Books, and Aldgate Press, and saucy Jack, and it's home to the Freakangels, a free weekly webcomic written by Warren Ellis - it's been going for a while now, but I've only just discovered it, and it's brilliant, pure 2000AD if 2000AD was as good as you remember it.
Monday, 10 August 2009
Nearly a thousand
so far today, as of 15.30 I've written 950 words, although obviously I've been doing other things in between.
Edited to add; Ok managed 1550 by 1620 or so (roughly).
Phew!
Edited to add; Ok managed 1550 by 1620 or so (roughly).
Phew!
urrggh... promise fail, already... must type... more...
Just a few days into the brave new world of typing a thousand words a day, and I failed... I failed on Friday, on Saturday, and on Sunday, all because of a heady cocktail of application forms, alcohol, and girlfriend... That means I have an extra 3000 words to type up today, or at least this week - I can't realisitically what with everything else expect to write 4000 today, so I think if I spread the 3000 across the week until Friday, that's what less than 500 words extra per day? I can just about manage that. Hopefully.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
That much maligned genre
Fantasy...
I recently posted my list (or at least a partial list) of fantasy recomendations on the SFF chronicles forum, here it is;
My recommendations; (some of which may have been mentioned in which case I appologise, but there are nearly 200 posts here)
The Clay Machine Gun - Viktor Pelevin Set both at the beginning of the Russian revolution, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it covers buddhism, revolution, philosophy, fighting, gender, magic mushrooms etc, and it's just beautifully written and translated.
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov Another Russian novel, it can be read on two levels, one as a satire on stalinist Russia, and one as simply what happens when the devil comes to town. It's laugh out loud funny, lyrical, and moving all at the same time.
Anything by Flann O'Brien, especially The Third Policeman, or At Swim, Two Birds, the first is a sureal Irish yarn, with maddening but likeable characters, the second is a complex look at the lives of a writer and his characters, both hard to sum up books but well worth checking up.
On - Adam Roberts Often classed as Scifi, and it does have plenty of elements of that, in my view it far more of a traditional fantasy quest novel, and is one of the books that opened my eyes to fantasy, having previously been a die hard scifi partisan.All my recomendations are in my view easy to read (but not easy reading) and light introductions to the massive potential of the fantsy genre. Do not start with the epic sagas, in fact I've not read more than two ever that I can think of, and that's LOTR, and The Belgariad by David Eddings, and the latter I hated anyway.
My favourite. Mason and Dixon by Tom Pynchon. It follows the adventures of the two english men tasked with drawing up the Mason & Dison line, and it's far, far more than that - it's an historical novel with fantasy elements, and a fantasy novel with historical elements, it's really long as well, so maybe don't read it first.
The original post was on this thread.
Most of my recommendations will not be found in the fantasy and scifi section of a bookshop like Waterstones or Borders, and some are classed as "Literature" the non genre genre. This is understandable in some ways given the dire nature of much fantasy, especially of the "sword and sorcery" subgenre. Now if anyone asked me I wouldn't claim to be a fantasy fan as such, because I'm a fan of all types of book, from non fiction reportage or travel writing through crime to hard science fiction, but if someone is to ask me if I read fantasy, then yep - I'm going to answer in the affirmative. The problem is, as soon as someone writes a good, non series fantasy novel or short story, it immeadiately becomes classed as literary fiction. Now I can't blame the authors or publishers for wanting that, but it is a shame, that people associate fantasy fiction with the likes of Terry Goodkind, and not Thomas Pynchon or Audrey Niffenegger.
I recently posted my list (or at least a partial list) of fantasy recomendations on the SFF chronicles forum, here it is;
My recommendations; (some of which may have been mentioned in which case I appologise, but there are nearly 200 posts here)
The Clay Machine Gun - Viktor Pelevin Set both at the beginning of the Russian revolution, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it covers buddhism, revolution, philosophy, fighting, gender, magic mushrooms etc, and it's just beautifully written and translated.
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov Another Russian novel, it can be read on two levels, one as a satire on stalinist Russia, and one as simply what happens when the devil comes to town. It's laugh out loud funny, lyrical, and moving all at the same time.
Anything by Flann O'Brien, especially The Third Policeman, or At Swim, Two Birds, the first is a sureal Irish yarn, with maddening but likeable characters, the second is a complex look at the lives of a writer and his characters, both hard to sum up books but well worth checking up.
On - Adam Roberts Often classed as Scifi, and it does have plenty of elements of that, in my view it far more of a traditional fantasy quest novel, and is one of the books that opened my eyes to fantasy, having previously been a die hard scifi partisan.All my recomendations are in my view easy to read (but not easy reading) and light introductions to the massive potential of the fantsy genre. Do not start with the epic sagas, in fact I've not read more than two ever that I can think of, and that's LOTR, and The Belgariad by David Eddings, and the latter I hated anyway.
My favourite. Mason and Dixon by Tom Pynchon. It follows the adventures of the two english men tasked with drawing up the Mason & Dison line, and it's far, far more than that - it's an historical novel with fantasy elements, and a fantasy novel with historical elements, it's really long as well, so maybe don't read it first.
The original post was on this thread.
Most of my recommendations will not be found in the fantasy and scifi section of a bookshop like Waterstones or Borders, and some are classed as "Literature" the non genre genre. This is understandable in some ways given the dire nature of much fantasy, especially of the "sword and sorcery" subgenre. Now if anyone asked me I wouldn't claim to be a fantasy fan as such, because I'm a fan of all types of book, from non fiction reportage or travel writing through crime to hard science fiction, but if someone is to ask me if I read fantasy, then yep - I'm going to answer in the affirmative. The problem is, as soon as someone writes a good, non series fantasy novel or short story, it immeadiately becomes classed as literary fiction. Now I can't blame the authors or publishers for wanting that, but it is a shame, that people associate fantasy fiction with the likes of Terry Goodkind, and not Thomas Pynchon or Audrey Niffenegger.
1000 words per day..?
Can I manage 1000 words per day, well I have for the last three days so he is hoping.
I got another 1000 in today, and you know what? If you're stuck on a bit, just switch to another character or plot point, it definately helps, so from now on in this blog is going to be called 1000 wpd.
I got another 1000 in today, and you know what? If you're stuck on a bit, just switch to another character or plot point, it definately helps, so from now on in this blog is going to be called 1000 wpd.
Research, how much research?
So... I've just started a novel, and currently I'm thinking "this is the one", this is the one I'm going to finish, take it all the way through, and do 90,000 words or whatever they currently prefer.
It's going to feature, police/detective investigations, fantasy roleplay (you know Dungeons&Dragons type stuff), political corruption, and drug smuggling; and I'm just wondering how much research it's actually going to take... I mean I've read loads of crime fiction, and a fair bit of fantasy, and I have already researched into local politics, and drugs (not like that!) quite a bit. It's the police procedure stuff, I'm slightly concerned about more than anything - I've seen enough TV programmes, and read enough books, but are they accurate enough? Am I going to end up writing a third generation carbon copy of what really happens?
It's going to feature, police/detective investigations, fantasy roleplay (you know Dungeons&Dragons type stuff), political corruption, and drug smuggling; and I'm just wondering how much research it's actually going to take... I mean I've read loads of crime fiction, and a fair bit of fantasy, and I have already researched into local politics, and drugs (not like that!) quite a bit. It's the police procedure stuff, I'm slightly concerned about more than anything - I've seen enough TV programmes, and read enough books, but are they accurate enough? Am I going to end up writing a third generation carbon copy of what really happens?
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
driving a wrecked train
Now I'm cooking, 1000 words in thirty minutes... I knew that I could do it with a bit of force, that's all it takes and then let gravity do the rest.
dialogue
Some people always find dialogue difficult, and some like me sometimes find it difficult, whenever I get stuck (like I am now, as you can guess) I find it helps to turn to other writers for inspiration. Even if you already know the rules, read 'em again - it does help.
Here's Robert J Sawyer on dialogue. I got the link from an old post on Mumpsimus' blog about writing dialogue, here.
Here's Robert J Sawyer on dialogue. I got the link from an old post on Mumpsimus' blog about writing dialogue, here.
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