Strike!

Still editing. Or trying to.

I am reaching a point of saturation: it is becoming virtually impossible for me to view any section of 'Crash' with a reader's eye. My head is dancing with phrases, scenes I've considered, scenes I've written, lines/comments/facts/possible continuity errors, I muddle up what I've already corrected and what I haven't, and am generally unable to keep track of where I'm at. I have to keep reminding myself: No, you haven't written that part yet. Yes, you were going to write it, but you haven't. No, you scratched that scene/character/part of the plot. No, the reader cannot read your mind and know what it is you actually mean.

It's highly confusing.

So for a couple of days I've simply gone on editing strike.

Instead I'm very hard at work on nailing the remainder of the plotline.

So. As of today the MMC is being interviewed by the police because the Sleazy Politician's daughter was found dead in his home; the LLD, after coming to some sort of truce with the SMC, has disappeared mysteriously (though the Reader knows how); and the SMC is threatening a journalistic ex-boyfriend with exposing his secret love life to his wife if he doesn't help him dig up the dirt on the SP and thus get the MMC off the hook for the SP's daughter's death and hopefully get the Conspiracy to return the LLD...

Confused? Good. My evil plan is working...

Setbacks

Hmmm.

I tried to sit down with the first two chapters last night. Realised after reading a couple of pages that Chapters 1 and 3 will have to be radically rewritten around Chapter 2 if it's going to hang together.

D*mn.

Why haven't I noticed before?

The Progress of March

Still going strong.

Have edited for just under ten hours out of the fifty. It does actually take longer than I'd have thought.
And I am literally doing it with a real, no-fake Red Pen. I find it easier that way to get an overview. The downside of this method is, of course, the amount of paper and printer ink it uses up. Ah well. The trees will have to suffer (though I do print on both sides of the paper).

I'm also writing new stuff. Have introduced a not-quite-fearless reporter to assist SMC in uncovering the perfidy of the Sleazy Politician. I spy an ending in sight. Word count creeping up.

In short, I'm rather enjoying myself.

GOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!

Okay.

As of now my word count is at **101121** words.

So I've completed the February goal.

YAY ME! *pats self on back*

Okay, that's enough self-congratulation for now.

More importantly, I've filled a few holes along the way, plus I've not only advanced the plot, I've also managed to map out most of the remainder of the plot (I tend to start at point A with a point B in mind but little concrete idea how I'm going to get there - most of my stuff is seat-of-the-pants flying without a parachute) and have a good idea regarding the rest.

Now, originally I was going to write in March as well. However, being that I have now decided to join NaNoEdMo I shall be devoting March to some serious editing. That's not saying I won't be writing as well; I sure would love to finally nail the plotline into place. But 50 hours of editing will be my main goal.
For that same reason I wouldn't dare set a word count goal, since I know full well there's some stuff that will most likely be drastically cut if not axed altogether.

So.

Fifty hours' worth of editing, plus whatever writing I might squeeze in: that's the agenda for March.

April is, of course, ScriptFrenzy month.

So come May, it will be interesting (that's putting it mildly!) to see where I'm at.

It's The Count!

Fast update: As of my last save I'm at **93618** words. Still seven thousand to go to reach the goal. But I'm daring to believe it can be done.
If only I don't get this flu I feel like I'm coming down with... On the other hand, could write some interesting stuff...

Yawn. Signing off.

Bad Accent

Thing is, I came across this entry on Kel's blog, and it got me thinking.

I actually tried to do a couple of lines of Cockney in my NaNo novel for one of the lesser characters.
Kel's plaintive request that no aitches be dropped, however, has made me remember the first time I read a Dorothy L. Sayers novel in the original English. I was actually thankful that I'd read it in Danish before; this meant that I knew beforehand what the dialogue was about and could concentrate on understanding the language.
So now I'm just going to make sure the reader knows my character is London born and raised the first time he opens his mouth.

The experience has taught me that accents can be incredibly hard to write - which makes me slightly more sympathetic towards those writers who can't pull it off properly - but only slightly - couldn't those people just realise the limits of their abilities rather than inflict them upon us all?

Little rant there. Feels good.

Kel: thanks for the inspiration.

H2G2 mk. II

... or, in other words: PANIC.

Why?

Well.

My full script needs to be at least 100552 words long by the end of the month for me to have written 15000 words in February, as per my Big, Fun and Scary goal.
So far it stands at 88690 words.

And 100552-88690=11862 words to go.

In six days.

Also if I'm going to do NaNoEdMo in March I need to finish the plotline.

It can be done. Sure.

But why do I have to be the one that has to do it?

The imp of perversion is laughing at me.