Time for an update.

It’s now been a little over two weeks since my rash and foolish promise that I would podcast my NaNoWriMo exercise as I went. I confess that I was unsure it was wise at the time and let my general dissatisfaction with progress in general this year goad me into doing it. Furthermore, I admit wholeheartedly that in retrospect this seems like a Bad Idea. This has no doubt been evident to the few people still reading this blog by my reluctance to post the first chapter (now a week and a day overdue).

But a promise is a promise.

I am making the first chapter of Eleutheria available as a podcast and you can subscribe here:

http://www.podcastfm.co.uk/about.php?id=676

A few things:

- I am still experimenting with set up and so the quality is patchy in places.

- For some reason the hosting company seem to think it’s a video podcast, I will fix this as and when, you should still be able to listen.
- I can’t work out how to make it available as an MP3. As soon as I work it out I will make the files: a) available here and b) in that more accessible format.
- It sounds first drafty because it is.
- Feedback is welcome, insults – as ever – not so much.
- I hope to get better.

Lastly, although this podcast is free, this project is ostensibly for charity. If you enjoy the podcasts; or feel embarrassed for me; or simply feel it’s a good cause I’d really appreciate it if you would consider donating to my chosen charity, MIND.

A donation page can be found here: http://www.justgiving.com/neilbeynon

Just to let you know I haven’t forgotten about podcasting and indeed have chapter 1 sat, recorded, on my laptop.

I have two main issues:

1. The quality of the recording (audio wise) isn’t as high as I’d hoped.

2. Hosting the damned thing somewhere where it can cope with a modest number of downloads.

I anticipate this being resolved soon. Bear with me.

In other news: the charity donation page will be for MIND and will run for the entire life of the podcast while I’m out.

Wordcount wise I’m up around 12,000 and way behind. To be back on track I need to do about 13k in 3 days: however, it is the weekend and I do have the next several chapters outlined. All I need now is to get on with it.

Which is where I am going now.

I’m pleased to point out that Ballista issue 7 is now available to pre-order and contains my short story Crunch.

This is Ballista’s final issue and, while I am naturally biased, it would be nice to send them off in style so please buy one. Hell, buy lots.

You can order them here: http://www.flapjackpress.co.uk/page2.htm

Enjoy.

Hey. I just finished the audio edit of chapter 1 for my NaNoWriMo podcast but it’s late and I haven’t had a chance to listen through the whole thing.

And so with further embarrassment I am going to delay the podcast until later today/tomorrow, being Monday.

Apologies.

Those of you swinging by now, expecting the podcast, I’m afraid I have to admit that I am still editing it.

I don’t mean textual editing – I finished that on time – but actually editing the audio file. This is taking a smidge longer than anticipated. I’ll post it, somewhere, as soon as I can.

Apologies. *shuffles away embarrassed*

I am typing this on a train so apologies if the odd typo slips in.

Things have been quiet as the abject terror of what I’d foolishly said I would do settled in. Also, I actually did Stuff this week. In between I’ve been planning, tearing up plans and then planning again.

It’s been fun.

Sometime around Wednesday (shockingly late, I know) a novel poked the first signs of it’s existence into the world. By last night I had clawed back enough word count to still be in this thing (NaNoWriMo). I was right at the brink though, I need to watch this or I could fall too far behind.

I can confirm/remind you that the first podcast will go up Sunday.

In news that will come as no surprise to anyone who has been in my vicinity when I actually write, I have already deviated from the outline. That’s OK. The outline is to help if I get stuck, not a stick to beat myself with – never really been my thing, y’know.

Anyway, I still need to get into five figures by Sunday night and so I’ll leave you for now.

I haven’t had the most auspicious start: three days in and I still haven’t written a word.

On the positive side I have a premise, an outline (chapter level), character descriptions (principles), a backstory and a title (Eleurethia). I will break words either later on or in the morning.

Now I have a title and a rough idea what the story looks like I will knock out a blurb sometime tomorrow for posting Thursday. I’d love to get it live sooner but I am at a concert tomorrow night and will need any spare time pre-work to get my wordcount going.

Remember the first part (in whatever state) goes live Sunday.

Alright folks, as I said the other day I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year.

It was a hard decision because my other projects haven’t run to time this year and so the story I was going to use, being an SF tale, is not ready to go. Mainly this is owing to the amount of research required to do the thing justice from a science and setting perspective.

I digress.

I didn’t really want to just try to do the month for its own sake because when I tried this in 2007 I woefully failed. I need extra heat to keep going. I’m also a bit of a tinkerer who is keen to try different methods of writing novels and it seemed to me that these two things weren’t incompatible.

Here’s what I’m going to do:

1. Produce using (or attempting to use) a story design method, an urban fantasy of at least 50,000 words.
2. I must hit 50,000 words by November 30th and the whole story must be finished by 20th December.
3. It must be research light (based on current knowledge or my own world building).
4. I will have a tip jar of some description that will, during the month of November, go to a charity of my choosing. (NB – More to follow on this in subsequent posts).
5. Starting on Sunday 8th I will begin podcasting the story as I go.

Yes, you heard me right: I am going to podcast the draft as I go. Not the sound of me typing as I inadvertently made it sound like when explaining the concept to a friend, but me actually reading the story. Why?

I haven’t excluded the chance that I have actually lost it but that’s not the actual reason. There is a certain, screwy, kind of logic going on here:

1. I want to experiment with producing a more reader ready first draft by doing planning up front rather than producing a draft 0 as I have done in the past.
2. I am doing NaNoWriMo for fun rather than trying to advance my writing career and so I want a way to prevent myself endlessly tinkering. Broadcasting it provides a way of closing the door on the story.
3. Although I’m doing it for fun I do want people to experience the story and I’m not confident that I can proof and typeset this kind of volume at the frequency required to get it out in text (print or online) as I go. By reading it out loud I will pick up the errors as I go – in fact this is how I line edit; all I’m doing is recording it and editing out the mistakes.
4. I want to see what the results are of adopting a serialised approach to writing as novelists often did in the Victorian period and as comic writers frequently do today. How will the results differ when I can’t go back and add in things I think of half way through the draft? Is it freeing or constraining?
5. I enjoy reading out loud and don’t get a chance to do it very often.

Mainly I’m doing it for fun.

So that’s the plan. Beyond this I haven’t done a huge amount yet: I know it’s an urban fantasy, I know where the story is set, I have a faint idea of a plot, I have some twists planned and I have a small but growing menagerie of creatures.

From here on in I’ll be blogging as I go, albeit short posts, about where I’m at and I dare say my twitter feed will be an eye opener: http://www.twitter.com/neilbeynon

I hope you’ll listen.

It’s been quiet round here because:

a) work is a little bit mental.

b) I am in a frantic push to finish The Scarred God

c) In a fit of sheer lunacy I have decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, with a slight difference in approach to my previous attempt and have been planning for that.

More information will follow as I attempt to shamelessly drum up interest for my experiment/blogged insanity…

Things sound quiet on the writing front because I am working on what I am now affectionately calling the-absolute-final-unless-someone-buys-it draft  of The Scarred God. I’m at the all too familiar middle point sag where motivation dips and self-doubt swings a low blow. I’ve been here before with this manuscript, I recognise the signs and have deployed counter measures.

Still.

I want to start something new. I’m about done with Anya’s story, this one at least and I have another, entirely different, story I want to write – one more ambitious than anything I’ve ever tried and I have a ton of reading to do before I can start it. I have a protagonist in my mind, a premise and a loose idea of the world(s). Much to my surprise it’s SF not fantasy.

Anyway, my plan was to be ready to go on Nov 1st and therefore be able to run in NaNoWriMo. I’m not sure I’m going to make that deadline now because I was supposed to finish TSG last weekend and then go into creative rest for two weeks while I read the research material. I’m behind on TSG but still making progress and I really want to finish properly. At this stage I have too much time invested to rush it and fumble the ending, again – the last act being the area that require most work as regards pacing and somewhat left field developments. I still think I’ll finish up before November but whether I’ll have enough time to recharge is anyone’s guess.

In other writing related updatery I finished a new piece of flash that read well with my test reader and so I think I may try and flog that for a change. It’s also SF.

And now: back to TSG.