Greetings, Harold

My written exams are over. My Chemistry practical exam is complete. My Biology practical (ISA) is tomorrow and the written part of the practical element on January the 29th. However, my ISA preparations are going well, so I still have time to blog today. Most of the prep is in lesson time anyway.

Tomorrow I am going to start on The Magician's Tattoo properly again. In the latter part of 2012 I essentially deleted everything and started again. Three chapters have been written so far, and I hope to get chapter four completed this month and at least one chapter a month.

Image from maxfarquar.com

A few days into 2013, I started thinking about my characters. One thing that I couldn't get passed was Kwaad's name. As the novel isn't very long at the moment anyone who has read it won't notice the issue with his name, but I do. After all, I have done world building for the novel and so I'd hope I'd spot discrepancies within the world I created.

Every magician in the The Magician's Tattoo has a normal name. There is a little bit of comedy in the opening chapter when it is revealed the eccentric 'magic man' in the purple dressing gown is called Brian. However, despite this comedy, normal names are common in the magical world. They have different cultures to normal people (which will be developed later in the novel) but not so drastic that names are different. The normal people and magician populations developed along side each other. The only major difference is that magician's are magic and so have developed a religion (or religions on the world wide scale) based on how they get magic. But because they developed together their naming conventions aren't going to be too different.

I'm Sorry, ma'am

Long Black Nails
Image Courtesy of Kiss and Makeup

As regular readers of my blog will know, I am writing a Christmas Short Story at the moment. Now that I have solved my paradox with a little help from some friends, I have started writing it.

I wrote 230 words this evening which isn't bad as they are the opening 230 words. Normally I start off with small word counts for the first few days, reach 500 words a day in the middle and then write the last 1000 in a single sitting. With this in mind I should be able to finish before Christmas Eve with time to spare.

Today, I thought it would be nice to share these first 230 raw words with you. Remember they are highly likely to change, and I rarely share work this raw. But, I have decided to share it with you today so you can see my writing method. In these paragraphs I have focused mainly on the evil wife and Joe's submissiveness, but haven't yet got to fully describing his appearance.

Working Title: When Snow Falls

Joe shivered as he entered through the doorway. Not only was the morning freezing cold outside, but also his wife waited for him inside. He knew she’d care not that he’d broken the world record of most letters delivered in an hour. He knew this from her posture: sitting upright on her hardback chair meant she was annoyed. Her gaunt face tightened as Joe approached her.

###

“Good morning,” he said. “It’s Christmas tomorrow.”

She slowly rose from her chair, her heels putting her many heads higher than Joe’s already small being. She looked at her hand, as if contemplating its abilities. Her long black nails caressed her palm as she flexed her fingers. Joe knew what was coming. His wife’s eyes squinted, signalling she had worked out her hand’s ability and that she was willing to show it off. She smacked it around his face; the nails left stinging scratches that no doubt shone red against his cold skin.

“Do not say that again,” she spat.

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“Very good. Now, be a good husband and get my breakfast; I am growing hungrier by the minute. You should have been back ten minutes ago.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” He hurried off to the kitchen, his feet shuffling along the stone floor she had been so insistent on having. Opening the fridge, he welcomed the cool air on his burning scars.

###

Feeling Christmassy yet? I don't think Joe's wife is!

Thanks

Matt B

Paradox

As with Science for Writers, the Vocab Builder series is on hold until after my January exams are over. But as I promised I will still be blogging, only not taking 2 hours to write a post!

I still haven't started writing my Christmas Short, hence the face-palm. My problem is although I have the characters, I have one major plot hole. And it's to do with time travel, hence the sci-fi reference.

It reminds me why I haven't written a story with time travel before. There are just too many damn paradoxes to contend with. But, it is a necessity for the character arc and to give the Joe's evil wife her comeuppance.

The issue is how I want time travel to be used in the story. It needs the character to either replace his old self or interact with him. Problem is after he does this the character has no need to travel into the past to interfere with events. I originally thought of shrugging the problem off with this exchange:

"But how can I have changed the past? It makes no sense," he asked.

Snowman Mafia

Night of the Evil Snowman
Image courtesy of Rate my MS Paint

Science for writers is on hiatus until after my January A Level Exams are over. They take a long time to write and I don't have a long time to write blog posts at the moment.

However, I will be blogging at least twice a week throughout the period. I am hoping to keep you all updated with news and snippets from my Christmas Short story this year. I plan to start writing it on Tuesday and have it finished and uploaded by Christmas Eve. Today I came up with the idea in a burst of weird inspiration. All the characters and main plot lines popped into my head and for a moment I felt like what I can only assume someone on LSD would feel. You'll understand why I felt like that in a moment.

I don't want to give too much plot away, so today I'm just letting you in on the characters that will be making their appearances in the story.

Postman Joe
This guy's an average, boring man who gives in to people way to easily. He will go through the largest character arc in the story.

The Postman's Evil wife
This woman's a bitch! Skinny and gaunt she looks like one of James' mean aunts from RD's James and the Giant Peach. Utterly evil to Joe she makes him do whatever she wants, because she knows he won't say no. I hope I can give her her comeuppance in this piece.

Santa Clause
Well, it's a Christmas story written by me, he has to be in it! Unlike previous years this one's not a drunkard, nor hopelessly stuck in a chimney. In this story Santa will actually be like most people's interpretations of Santa ... only with a few twists.

The Elves
Don't get too attached to these nice beings, I think I may make them get caught in the cross fire.

The Snowman Mafia
May be called the Snow Mafia, depending on how I feel on Tuesday. As you might have guessed these are the main antagonists of the story. These make Evil wife look pleasantly mean. The head of the Mafia, Big Snowy will do everything in his power to stop Joe and Santa from reaching/meeting their goal. I haven't decided if Little Frosty or Skinny Jack (Frost) will make apperences in the Mafia.

So, can you see now why I felt like I was high on LSD? When a postman, Santa, elves and a Mafia made from snow enter your imagination it's hard to feel much else!

Thanks

Matt B

Christmas Eve

Hi,

It's Christmas Eve! Need I say more?

Well, I guess I can. If I get my Christmas Piece online today I will be thrilled and I'm sure all you readers (well, looking at the stats not many are visitors, more just bots from some money-scam site visiting for less than 10 seconds 5 times a day) will be thrilled too.

If I'm successful it means I have been able to write a story in a week. Now, you're all thinking 'liar' you started 2 weeks ago. True... but, apart from the opening paragraph I didn't write anything until last Sunday so it all adds up to make a week.

Thanks
Matt

Christmas Restarted!

Hi,

Today is the first time, since I wrote the first few paragraphs of my Christmas story 1 week ago, that I have actually put hand-to-keyboard and typed something up. I more than doubled the length of the story in one sitting whilst watching the Comedy Awards on 4OD.

I hope to continue at this rate throughout the week. With the end of term in sight, it is unlikely that I will get any urgent work so I can put a little more time into writing this. Although it will have taken a fortnight to write the actual days will actually add up to a week so in reality if I finish Christmas Eve I will still have written a story in a week ... kinda anyway!

Thanks
Matt

Christmas Story Update 2

Hi,

It seems like I picked a bad week to try to write a story in a week. I have 3 trial exams this week so they have taken priority. Perhaps I should modify my target to a short story in a fortnight. It’s still something new for me and a challenge.

I guess I’ll have to wait for another occasion to arise where I can do my story in a week challenge.

This is also my first blog post with Blogger connected to G+. So hello to any new readers I have from G+!

Thanks
Matt

Christmas Story Update

Hi,

I got a few hundred words down yesterday. Not amazing, but I had to think of a way to start the story. It’s also been a challenge showing that it the story is on Earth, just minus one very important cultural thing. The story isn’t even about culture, it just so happens that I have to do it like this to get to the good bit faster.
I doubt I’ll get more than 500 today as I’m busy in the morning and have work to do for the rest of the day.
I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.

Thanks
Matt

Christmas Story

Hi,

Today I am going to start work on my Christmas story for 2011. I have an idea based around some famous Christmas songs, I have a middle, and I have an end. However, I am missing the opening. I simply can’t think of a way to start the story. I know the story is going to be good, but who’s going to read a story with a weak opening?

I’ve had Christmas songs playing as I work for the past week or so now as a source of inspiration. Seriously, it may be hard to believe but the songs ‘Last Christmas’, ‘Lonely Pup’, ‘I Wish it could be Christmas Everyday’ and ‘The Fairy Tale of New York’ have all helped to get the middle of the story sorted in my head.

I’ve also set myself a challenge with this story. Normally it takes between 1 and 2 months to write a short story to ‘upload standard’. I have done stories in a day before, but they needed a lot of editing. This story is going to be written in a week (hopefully). I’ve got the week end and I plan to not have lie ins on my late starts to get stuff written before leaving to college. Obviously AS Levels take priority, but I am really excited about getting writing.

Thanks,
Matt

Time, Lack of

Hi,

As regular readers of this blog will know, I’m writing a Halloween story this year. Of all the stories I’ve ever written, this is the toughest, and I’ve written some pretty tough ones. I’ve written whole pieces in 6 hours, a longer short story in 5 days, a co-authored contest piece and I’m writing a novel. This piece I’ve been writing since the 7th and still have a quarter of it left to write.

It’s in the first person (I prefer writing in third). It has a complex tense change in the middle from past to present (present tense is tough), and is an extremely sensitive topic. Well, I say sensitive but I don’t mean it is personally sensitive, I more mean that it a subject that should be approached sensitively.

Being my Halloween story naturally means I’d like it finished for Halloween. Halloween is tomorrow. It’s not going to be finished tonight so that means I have between 1000 and 2000 words to write tomorrow.

Considering I will have around 3 hours worth of writing time that means I will have to average at around 11 words per minute. That may not seem bad, but when you think that I have very little planned and that each and every word must be thought about before being typed and that I am easily distracted, then you can see why that’s quite tough.

Tomorrow I will be posting a link to the story, hopefully in time for your Halloween bedtime read.

Thanks
Matt B

Halloween Story

Hi,

Every year (I started last year) I plan to write a piece for Halloween. I’ve already started thinking about this year’s and hope to start writing in a day or so. The problem is I can’t write scary, horrifying, dark, depressing, miserable and spine-shilling stories whilst the weather is so warm, happy, cheerful and completely not scary.

However, once that problem goes I will start writing. So far I have a few basic ideas for 2 characters and a plot. In comparison to last year, this story should be darker, but less gruesome. It will focus on psychological horror and will have implicit violence as opposed to explicit gore. It’s quite worrying how long the thought for this piece has been in my head (nearly 3 months). I mean, it’s not like a comedy piece or a happy-go-lucky story with happy characters. It’s about death and obsession. Honestly, if people could mind-read I think I would be incarcerated for getting excited about writing this.

Of course, I’m not excited about the subject, but about the challenge. With every piece I write, I am trying something new. Last year saw my first horror, and this year will see my first psychological piece. Literally everything I write is an experiment for me. I don’t like being constrained to one style so I am constantly evolving my writing and seeing what does and doesn’t work.

I’ll keep you updated when I start writing.

Thanks
Matt B

The Crinklebottom Short

Hi,
I thought I'd post with you all the opening paragraphs of my new contest piece which is being co-authored by two of my WDC friends. The opening section describes the main character and is (many) flaws.

Mr. Crinklebottom has a fat arse. Seriously it is huge. Even as a child, his behind was twice the size of every other kid his age. As a matter of fact, Mr. Crinklebottom's buttocks are so large his clothes must be specially tailored. His parents couldn't afford to purchase him tailored trousers, to cover his fat arse; they'd simply make him wear a burlap sack originally containing potatoes bought at the local market. The sack, tied around his waistline, hung like a burlap skirt down to the young Crinklebottom's swollen knees—doing little to create popularity with his peers.

Despite being fat arsed he still had room for more imperfections. If there’s a hole he’ll inevitably fall into it. If it’s a narrow hole the fire brigade will inevitably be called. Not from a friend, but from a construction worker who needs to use the hole. This ‘hole-magnetism’ as his parents used to call it has been with him his whole life. His psychiatrist, paid for by his dad, theorises that it’s because he was dropped, accidentally, in a hole by the midwife when he was first born.

To be fair to Mr. Crinklebottom, he is a very jolly chap. Despite the lack of friends or a loving family he is still very happy. He has a job at the nearby chair manufacturing plant and gets royalties from the saying ‘move your fat arse’. This isn’t because he’s optimistic, it’s because he’s rather stupid. Or, as his parents would say at dinner parties ‘academically challenged’.

It's got a different tone than I normally write with. I felt, along with my co-authors, that the slap in the face style works quite well. The style changes slightly when the main story starts; it's in a style which looks at what Crinklebottom is thinking in the third person. This allows the reader to get closer to the character whilst still being able to laugh at the sheer stupidity of the character.

There are a few types of co-authoring. The type we're using is that there is a lead author (me) and the co-authors read over what the leader writes and gives suggestions. The co-authors also provide vital support when the lead author is stuck and they also give plot ideas. Originally the opening paragraphs said 'Mr. Crinklebottom sucks.' But my co-authors suggested getting closer to the chacracter gave me a the first paragraph which I then altered and ran with.

Thanks

Matt B

The Magician's Tattoo - Snippet from chapter 4

Hi,

I know my previous snippet was from chapter 1, but I thought I'd give you a section where the comedy is so ouvert it's almost childish! In the word of Miranda's mum from Miranda "Such fun, such fun!"

The Magician's Tattoo - Old Version

Hi,

I know alot of my readers are from WDC and know me from the CSFS. This post, however is for those who don't know me from the CSFS. Below is the opening section from my novella in progress, 'The Magician's Tattoo'.