Month One Count - Required - 85250 - Achieved - 85659

So a close call for month one, and certainly not the margin I would have hoped for, but there have been a number of problems this month, and ones that I wouldn't expect to crop up every month (because if they do, we'll be bankrupt by the end of the year due to multiple car failure and friendless due to everyone dying...).

So, if this is the worst that life can throw at me (and don't take that as an invitation to try harder world), then I'm quietly hopeful that this will be the start of a successful campaign.

This is John Dodd, at the end of Month one, notching up celebratory drink one for the end of the year, and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day Thirty One - How to prove wordcounts for projects that aren't out yet...

A little quandry, some of the writing I'm doing is for commercial projects, and in at least two cases, totals 10,000 words, which is a reasonable chunk of what I need to do.  The problem is this, I don't want people to have to buy the items in question to see the words that I've done, but equally, I can't ask the people I'm doing the work for to give it away for nothing...

To this end, I will be getting a note for the wordcount on each project that I'm doing from the people I'm doing it for, this will be a form of credit note regarding the number of words that I've done for that person.  Those words will be independently verified by a number of people, so I need volunteers to check on those word counts, anyone can apply, just leave a note at the bottom of this mail.

Two chapters on the shift and a variety of words for one of the 10k projects done, but until they're completed, those words will make no difference (But it will be cheerful when I get them done...)

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day Thirty - Dear World, knock that s*** off...

Would very much like it if the world could just p*** off now...

Got more repairs to do on the old car now, and while I understand that they have to be done, between travelling for an interview this morning, getting a tax disk this afternoon, having to repair the car tomorrow which could be an all morning job, and having to put together a proposal for a game that's being done shortly, I sometimes wonder if I've taken on too much...

However, almost on target and I'll get back on track for tomorrow

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day Twenty Nine - What a difference a day makes...

Especially one where you don't have much else to be doing...

Good meetings had with a few people though, I know now what I'm supposed to be up to in the middle of the year and there's movement on two other fronts, nothing I can speak of immediately, but it will come to light in the very near future...

So, one very big shift update, and the world is well.

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Twenty Eight - Plan in advance for Birthdays

Or you find yourself typing like mad when you get home.

Mum's birthday today, somewhat subdued by the events of yesterday, but still a case for celebration, short update today and I'll make up for it tomorrow...

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Twenty Seven - Sometimes you don't have the heart to write certain things...

A friend of my mums died yesterday, she'd been ill for some time and so wasn't unexpected, but when something like this happens, it precludes you writing about certain things.  So, the chapter of the Shift that was being written got sidelined tonight and there's a chapter of World War Wolf in its place.

More tomorrow, but this is all I have for now

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight Pat Costello, family to mine in all but blood, Rest in Peace...

Day Twenty Six - Fast and Furious

Which is also the name of the film currently in the DVD player, the sixth to be precise...

There are those who say that the films are a good example of how to have unbelievable characters doing unbelievable thing at unbelievable speeds, but I think that those people are missing the point of such films.  It's entirely possible to enjoy a book or a film despite it being utterly rooted in things that are impossible and filled with characters that have complete script immunity, this does not mean they're bad, it means that you need to go into them with eyes wide open.

I should stress that neither of the two books that I'm doing at the moment have any characters that are immune from the script, just in case anyone is wondering, I don't believe in writing it myself even though I can enjoy things where certain characters have complete immunity from everything.

Still, been a productive day today, so todays update brings me back up to date and a little ahead again...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day Twenty Five - Poison of Choice...

Most of us get by on a variety of stimulants through the day, be they coffee, chocolate, proplus, or just plain old fashioned adrenaline.  I don't know many writers that haven't at some point practised some sort of physical art or sport.  By the very definition of what we do, we're sedentary creatures, but I find that if I don't train at least once a week, everything starts to get painful.  By that I mean that I don't walk around in pain, but I do feel the muscles start to atrophy, and that's not a good thing.  

Case in point today, worked out last on monday and survived most of the day on Coffee, which certainly has not helped, now more awake than I want to be and certainly more weary than I want to be.  There's a direct correlation between how much sleep you get and how productive you can be in the day that follows, and that's a sod, because I never get enough sleep to be that productive, so I don't know how truly good I could be if I put that amount of time in...

One day perhaps...

Small update today and hopefully the rest to be caught up on tomorrow

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day Twenty Four - Long Days of work are never fun.

Especially when you've had six long days of work in one week.

Note to anyone else trying something like this, only have one job, make it normal hours, and don't do anything else for the whole time you're doing it...

Still on target, but it's a close run thing.

Meaningful updates tomorrow

One more chapter of the Shift to read

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Twenty Three - Help in unexpected places

Converted the car to LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) this morning and found myself in the middle of town with nothing to do for four hours while the works got carried out.

Cheerfully had brought the laptop with me and proceeded in a cold office with no desk to write...

Four hours and four thousand words later, happy...

Now I should stress at this point, only had the films that were on the laptop (Alien/Aliens), no internet, and no breaks for drinks or other things...

There's a moral in here somewhere I feel.

So, two updates today, a great number more words on World War Wolf and certainly something a little more in depth on the Shift.

If everyone out there is reading just the blog updates, do me a favour on this day and read the latest chapter of the shift, I want to make sure I'm gauging it right for what I'm doing.

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Twenty Two - Middle of the day and all is well

Wednesday to Friday are the only days I have to really get word count in, so those days really really have to count.  Problem inherent is that life gets in the way, the new car needs to be converted for LPG and I have a meeting at my other job, which is RPG manager for UK Games Expo on Friday, which is likely to take most of the day.  The problem here is that losing one day is bad enough, losing two days could be a serious setback, so it's going to be interesting to see what comes of the next short while.

The Shift new chapter now, World War Wolf to follow this evening when I finish Larentia's day...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodday England, wherever you are...

Day Twenty One - But don't let it eat your life...

It's been a bad couple of days, from car crashes to job losses to car problems, to illness and insurance.

The details, unimportant, the effect, i've been slower today than I would have liked, so no shift update today (and sorry for leaving such a cliffhanger on the last episode...).

But one more World War Wolf to keep me on target...

And a day off tomorrow, to let me catch up...

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Twenty - Of exercising the mind and the body

Went back to the Iron yesterday, haven't been since the turn of the year and I was starting to feel like jelly all over... Cheerfully the ability is still there even if I can barely lift my arms now.

Lesson for today, Do the physical workouts last or be prepared for your typing to take longer...

I do feel better for it though, and the amount of sitting down I've been doing recently has been far more than is healthy, so I need to instigate some sort of plan if this is to continue and find me alive by the end of it...

And I just got another writing commission, so fear not if the word count drops slightly on the stories, I'm still aiming for one chapter of each till they're done and then I'll have to find something else, but when the commissions are printed, I'll be able to add those to the count for they'll be new words as well.

So the world isn't all that bad presently

Long may that continue...

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Nineteen - Word Count required 52041, Word Count achieved 52996

So that's Nano in nineteen days...

Never done Nano before, always figured that there were other things to do than try and manage word counts over a short period of time.

Wait a minute...

World War Wolf continues well, but I have to wonder where I'm going with at least one of the main characters, there's a question to be asked on how close to the bone someone should go with the characters in a story and I don't know how to set the posts as 18+ (so if anyone knows, please tell me).

The Shift on the other hand was originally thought up as a series of short stories about the things that go on on the night shift and it's now developing into an opera all its own...

Cheerful problem to have work that's writing itself in your head, got to avoid starting another story and really starting to mess with my own head space...

And I need some sleep...

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Eighteen - In Sickness and in Health

Although primarily in sickness to be honest, rough as anything today, voice has nearly failed and it's been a long day at work...

So it's a really really short update today, more in depth tomorrow

One more chapter of The Shift and one more of World War Wolf

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Seventeen - Of dark stories and darker moods

Mark lost his job today, not his fault, just a matter of making numbers meet, it's the usual policy of hiring twice as many people as you need and then cutting half of them to make sure you have the right number, and so, on the cusp of getting the money and full time job to pay for the car he's got sorted, he's back to trying to find a job again.

The thought of taking the shiny christmas hammer and visiting the workplace to carry out some instant negotiations did for a moment have precedence in my head, but then he returned and it was brought home that while I'd feel better for battering feck out of them, it would do nothing for Mark (unless I let him have the hammer anyway.) so I reconsidered, for now at least...

It did however, remind me of the useless nature of most management in companies and the problem that occurs when someone above see's someone approaching rapidly from below them and sabotages them so that their own position will remain secure despite their own ineptitude...

And that got me to finish the latest chapters, however, it's been a hell of a week and next week is going to be worse, so I'm hoping that next wednesday is a day of nothing but writing, or I will indeed have some catching up to do.  Still above target now, but it's close...

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Sixteen - Of Writing groups and like minded souls

Went to Sheffield Scribble with the Monday Knights this evening.

The thought occurred as I went there that I haven't explained much about my support network of people for this challenge, so here goes.

In Alphabetical order (Because all writers have to have OCD somewhere...)

Jude Dodd - The reminder that I need to be a better man than I often believe myself to be

Mark Dodd - The reminder that I'm still the same age as he is inside.

Martin Kent - His Laurel to my Hardy (if Laurel had been tall and Hardy had been short).

David Moody - The voice for my conscience when I find it absent

Graham Palk - The hand that prevents me falling back

Lee Swift - The smile that reminds me the day is better than it could be.

John and Sue Wilson, the people that I trust most to tell me when I'm being silly...Which they haven't yet, but I'm sure it's coming

Sheffield Writers and Scribble - Because it's good to know that other people are doing this too

And all of this will not be forgotten, for steak dinner awaits us all at the end of this year...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Fifteen - Sometimes you don't catch the breaks

Much car related mayhem today

New car today, Mazda 6, so fast I fear the accelerator...

And on the other foot, my mother in laws car got written off this evening, she is fine thankfully, but I fear the car will not make the insurance assessment.

New story today, World War Wolf, something I'm experimenting with, so let me know if it's working, and then the latest two chapters of the Shift

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Fourteen - Will doing Two stories allow twice the word count every day?

From tomorrow I've decided I'm going to try and keep two stories going at the same time, and I know that a lot of books on writing don't recommend that, but I've found something out in the last two weeks, and it's something that I'll be looking to expand on if I can as time goes on.  When you're writing at this speed, you don't have time for edits or revisions, there isn't time to turn around and decide you're going to do something else for a while because you've hit a sticking point.

You just have to write...

So, starting tomorrow, I'm still writing Shift, but I'm also going to be putting out the first chapters of WWW, something that I had a thought about some time ago and never got around to developing.  There are two different approaches I'm using and I want to see which one is working best for me.  The first approach is that of The Shift, where I have a bunch of chapter titles that occasionally expand themselves into other things, the second is what I intend to do with WWW, and that's to have some idea of how it ends, and try to reverse engineer it while I'm writing it.

Those of you reading will have to tell me how it goes...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Thirteen - Sometimes the good days escape you

Some days there won't be many comments, I don't believe in saying things that are only going to be negative and the day has been filled with people who believe the polar opposite of that...

Plenty of words though

This is John Dodd, in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...