Day Ninety - Nearly to the first big milestone, Required 247500, Achieved 244010

Getting there again, the world is better, various organising has been done and the day today was not so very terrible as the week before.

I'm going to be doing Camp Nanowrimo this month, figure if I keep up this pace, I'll be able to run away with it, but it means I need to do another story over and above the ones I'm already doing, or you're not really into the spirit of it.

So, there are two stories currently running around in contention

1: Oceans of Stars (working title), in which a team of astronauts from earth find themselves in an alternate universe where space travel in galleons is entirely possible, walking the plank means a very very long drop, and they're definitely going to need a bigger boat.

2: Beyond (Working title), in which powers far beyond those of normal men are a common occurrence, but those who have them find that they've lost a little something in the gaining.

And sorry to everyone for posting a chapter ahead in the shift, won't happen again...

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

Day Eighty Nine - Sometimes adversity makes you work harder... Required 244750 Achieved 240705

Being faced with a massive backlog this morning was both terrifying and invigorating, the day continued as it had yesterday, but this time the words were there.

I wish there was a secret I could share, sometimes the words are just there :)

New project starting next week, thinking not to start it on April first though, no one will believe it...

But then I don't think anyone believed this till I started doing it...

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

Day Eighty Eight - Darkness Falls - Required 242000, Achieved 236307

Off the back of an already crap week, the weekend turns so frenetic that I can't get pen to paper the whole day, and on top of that, the clocks go forwards today, so I lose another hour (which is why the post is coming in now and not an hour from now...)

So, it's dark and getting darker, I'm sure I'll catch up, but every day is precious and I've had four mown down this week alone. There is a single reason why the wordcount has suffered as much as it has and I'll come to that in a future post, when it's over...

Another update on shift this evening, because I'm ahead with shift and not with world war.

Give me some ideas people, I could really do with the inspiration at the moment...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of no writing, and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day Eighty Seven - It is my hope that such weeks do not happen often - Required 239250, Achieved 235113

Because between the conventions I organise, the writers group I'm in, and a whole bunch of other things that have hit the skids this week, I've somehow started my weekend on a positive and ended on a negative...

So, dig deep is the key and hope that this does not continue.

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

Day Eighty Six - Very long week - Required - 236500, Achieved 233906

So a few tons of things to be done, and the word counts been suffering as a result, but there's tomorrow and more still to be done.

And one less convention to be run in the meantime :)

So

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

Day Eighty Five - Required 233750, Achieved 232502

All there is to it :)

More tomorrow when time is on my side

This is John Dodd, you know the rest...

Day Eighty Four - Sometimes time with family is called for - Required 231000 Achieved 229889

So we went to see the new Robocop film

Interesting...

On it's own, not a bad film, but it does lack something when compared to the original, can't quite place it, but something about it just didn't gel well. The actors do their part well enough, but you don't feel for murphy in the same way as you did in the first film (We'll just skip over Robocop 2, 3, and the TV series...)

So, another update for the Shift and there'll be more tomorrow

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, thinking that Robocop around here would be a PCSO wearing a metal bin with a NERF gun, and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

What with World War Wolf getting interest, I saw this on kickstarter

The Wolf, A graphic Novel

And backed it immediately, beautiful idea, love the concept, and as he's writing about lupus b'stards having a go, I have to sympathise...

Day Eighty Three - Undead Comedy and Wolves at War - Required 228250, Achieved 228341

Long day today, but the handwriting thing is really really paying off, last couple of weeks I've been a few hundred, sometimes a few thousand words down by the end of the weekend, not so now!

Still World War Wolf Today and a small comedy piece from earlier about zombies...

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

Day Eighty Two - Sometimes a quiet night in is called for - Required 225500, Achieved 225766

Especially when you have an excellent writing day and end up ahead on one of the days when you should be behind...


Update on the shift to follow


So, off home to have a quiet evening in without writing for once...


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

Day Eighty One - Handwriting is your friend... Required 222750, Achieved 221549

Day Eighty One - Handwriting is your friend... Required 222750, Achieved 221549

Which would be Eighteen Hundred words without a single one typed, all while working, no dereliction of duty, just writing between calls...

I am liking this...

Another Update for World War Wolf, and I need to write the next chapter now because the next is due in two days...

Still, late, and I'm done, promised the wife a back rub (and for the last four days, time to deliver...)

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

Day Eighty - After a very long week, back where I should be, Required 220000, Achieved 219871

Just in time for the big shifts again, but now I'm writing in the books as well, I feel significantly more comfortable with the targets that I have to meet.

All about finding a way to do what you want to do without compromising what you need to do...

But more on that tomorrow

Update on the Shift this evening, and as always

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

Day Seventy Nine - Been a hard week so far - Required 217250, Achieved 215280

But I'm still ahead on a few things, even though the week has been mostly meetings, phone calls, and dealing with things that have nothing to do with writing...

Such as, when you have a single charger for all your gadgets, try not to leave it at work....

When you buy a printer, make sure that it can print black copies even when you have no colour in the colour cartridge (Note to anyone thinking of buying a HP printer, Caveat Emptor, they don't let you do this, requiring that you buy lots more ink when you really don't need it...).

And Conventions, lest we forget conventions, one is okay, two is a push, three is a problem and four...

Well, in the accent of Frank Underwood, four may just be pushing a little too far...

Still, things to be done, mustn't complain :)

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

Day Seventy Eight - Busy busy busy - Required 214500, Achieved 211742

Every second wednesday I visit my good friends Sue and John Wilson in Derby, that's why I'm late back, but better late than never.

And all those who haven't played the new OGRE game, get a copy, it's as good as anyone ever remembers it :)

Short update on shift and more to follow tomorrow.

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

Day Seventy Seven - Does Preparation count as wordcount? Required 211750, Achieved 209382

Another hard day at work today, ended up staying behind so those left at the end of the shift didn't get crunched by the flow of things, we don't get paid for it, but damn it, you can't leave a man (or woman) down.

Still, while doing everything else, I was writing, more things for Oceans of Stars, which is likely to be one of the books that I start when I'm finished with Shift and World War Wolf.  The question for today, is does the preparation for the books count towards the wordcount that I'm doing?  I'm still writing, building the worlds even though I'm not yet writing about them, and it's all ideas and concepts that I have to put together before I can write about it, so...

Does it count?

Let me know

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

Day Seventy Six - The Written word - Required 209000, Achieved 206190

In terms of writing, not a great day, the Expo had a system failure yesterday that caused a raft of overbookings to be done in the RPG world, which has eaten my entire day of productivity to begin to put right.

However, while I was working today, I was also writing by hand in the notebook I carry, a scan of which I include underneath this.  So there's 971 words available there that I wouldn't have otherwise managed if I'd been trying to type them.

The question is this, are people interested in seeing how ideas form in my head (and on the page) with images like these?

Let me know

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

Day Seventy Five - The trick on weekends is to write the thing you've been thinking about all week - Required 206250, Achieved 205219

Because when you're writing about something that you've already planned out and have in your head, the words get down your arms to your finger so much faster...

So, lessons learned :)

Still, bit of a short update today, another chapter on World War Wolf, but we'll be back to normal service from tomorrow.

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

Day Seventy Four - 200k... Required 203500, Achieved 202221

And to be fair, nuff said on that score.

Productive day, but nowhere near as much as I'd like completed.

However, I am liking the new Titanfall adverts on TV...

Life, it seems, is certainly better with a Titan...I may yet be tempted to get it...

Another update on Shift this evening, and I'm waiting on a few ideas for stories from people.  This is not to say that everyone else can't suggest something, and I could always do with more ideas.

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

Day Seventy Three - It's been a busy week and no mistake, Required 200750, Achieved 199514

So close to Two hundred thousand and yet...

It's been busy this week, between all the conventions and a variety of other things, not least of which being that I'm not going to be making it to Gencon this year thanks to a variety of things, to which I'll be apologising to at least one of my good friends (Looking at you here Mr Tideswell) for which I'll have to make it up to you at a later point.

Still, the world goes on, and another update from World War Wolf Today

This is John Dodd in the socialist republic of south yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day 72 - Sometimes many jobs get in the way of writing Required 198000, Achieved 196024

So I've got several jobs, some I do for the money, some I do because I want to, and some I do because I love them and I think that they make things better, not just for me, but for others as well.

One of those job is organising games at UK Games Expo, and that's not a small job, there's a lot of email, a lot of organising, and a lot of trying to persuade people to turn up for the love of the hobby (like me really.), I also write for a few companies, and in my spare time, I write for here as well.

This week has had a lot of work in it beyond my day job, which is keeping trucks on the road when people break them, which happens more times than you'd believe, but at least the work is varied.  Hostile often, but varied...

So I'm a few thousand words behind, and that's on the days when I'm supposed to be forging ahead, so it's not shaping up to be a brilliant week, but there's things afoot, and things to do more of, and more on that later...

Another update on Shift this evening, things are speeding up...

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