The End and the Beginning

Operation Overdrive has come to an end. Sort of.

I started this month with a big idea: to write a 75,000 word novel, posting daily blog posts, poems and videos. 31 days to do an awful lot of work, whether I did the novel or the daily posts. Attempting to do everything, that was where I fell behind.

And, life got in the way. But that's okay. That will happen.

I don't consider Operation Overdrive a failure, however. Quite the contrary. I think, with everything I did, it's been a success of sorts. I've managed to get back to blogging in a way that makes me happy. I've managed to put out a lot of poems, some of which were quite popular as far as my little poetry and prose blog is concerned, and I've managed to get back my confidence in front of a camera for my YouTube channel.

I've also discovered that I can't force myself to write a book if I only end up feeling guilty about not doing anything else.

Is this a problem for the dream of being a writer? No. It's a problem for any future attempts at NaNoWriMo in any way, shape or form. At least, not when the word count target is set to 150%.

The issue, you see, was trying to balance the workload when I was finding myself at my busiest, when I was working more hours in the bookshop, and when the sun was actually shining in Ireland. (Honestly - we had a weird summer.)

I know that I can write a novella in a week.

I know that I can write a non-fiction book using all of my spare time during a busy period.

I now know that I cannot dedicate a whole month to a book, while doing everything else in my life that I don't have any control over - like work, or babysitting, or burning up in the heat - because I will only tire myself out.

Part of the issue, for me, has been sleep, though. I haven't gotten much lately. We're talking the past couple of months. Since the sun started shining brightly in the morning, I haven't been able to sleep on past six most of the time. But this is after going to bed at twelve. I was drained, and that made me too groggy to start work earlier. The end result was guilt. Guilt at doing anything that wasn't writing. Guilt that carried over into the book. Guilt at trying something new.

And that last one? That's where the biggest issue for me was this month. I bought a new camera, my first DSLR. I wanted to take photographs. I wanted to practice, to get better, to really improve upon the very basics of photography that I had. And every time I did that - guilt.

Bad. Very bad.

That's why I left the book behind. I made a conscious decision, when I found myself incapable of writing the book because of how badly I felt for not doing it as much as I should have, to drop it. Not forever. Just until I get a couple of things in order. I have other books to write. I want to practice my photography more.

Operation Overdrive finishes today, officially, but the aftermath is this:

I want to write blog posts more often. I want to record videos more often, and I want to put more effort into them than a direct upload. I want to write poems with greater purpose for ParagraVerse. I want to set up a photography blog - and a business - and I want to get out more to take photographs. I want to write a couple of books that have been on my mind for a long time, and I want to continue to write my novel.

The month is over, but the desire to create, and the aspiration that I began with, they've only grown stronger.

Video Catch-Up

I had good intentions of returning to my writing schedule - which is all but scrapped at the moment - but I've made a video to help explain why I've been gone. My last video was in February, so it really has been a long time since I was on YouTube.

Anyway, this video has news, poor sound quality, very little inhalation, and an attempt to fit in several months' worth of life into four minutes.

Oh My God It's Miley Cyrus!

So, yesterday was my second day of Adventureland with Miley Cyrus. It was rather epic. I went to Offaly, where she lives; we spent a large amount of time being children, in and out of her house. Her parents were lovely; her dad (or, daddy if you go by how she refers to them) was very smart and funny, and her mum kept trying to feed me. Her brothers were shocked that I didn't like football, but oddly didn't hold it against me. Once I said I had no interest in it, they left it at that. That's a first. Really, it is. Too many people start asking, things like, "But why? Would you not just watch it?" Eh, no.

We also watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and decided that one of our friends is pretty much like Ferris. Naturally, I texted him to express our opinions. "You. Are. Ferris. Bueller. FACT!" I don't know whether he was more amused or confused.

Aside from having a wee adventure to Tullamore, getting Animal Cookies, White Mice, jellies and hot chocolate, we pretty much just hung out and chatted. Good times were had. We also took a few photos, and recorded the above video. Photography was mainly consisting of us wearing 3D glasses. Let's face facts - 3D glasses are a waste unless they are actually worn, so we might as well take photos with them. I won't be posting them here... because really I'm too lazy. See, it takes a while to get to Offaly, so I travelled a bit yesterday... two 40-45 minutes train journeys, two 15-20 minute LUAS journeys, one 20-25 minute bus journey and four 15-20 minute car journeys. I got home after twelve at night, having left before nine in the morning.

It. Was. Awesome!

However, it has left me quite tired. I think I'll be resting up tonight and writing tomorrow, and hoping I'll have another day of Adventureland next week. Even if it does stop me writing, it's loads of fun! And that's what this summer is all about, for me. Writing is what eats away at the boredom between Adventureland, and what lets me explore the lives of a few people. Fun fun fun!

Obsession

I'm probably the first person who'll admit that there's something a little weird about me. I write - a lot of writers I know are at least a little crazy. I think it's something to do with characters disagreeing with our plots... in our heads. Crazy! I also Vlog, though, which is weird in itself if you're not used to it, like my brothers.

Then there's my ability to become obsessed with things very easily. At the moment, my obsession has led to the fourth playing of Tom Milsom's album Painfully Mainstream today alone, and a total of 73 Doctor Haik-Who so far. That's two obsessions at once... I'm learning. Normally my attention is focused entirely on one thing in such a horrendously... okay, obsessive is the only word coming to mind. Horrendously obsessive. That's me.

Okay, so I'll admit my Doctor Haik-Who are at least productive. I'll be writing a letter for one of the potential agents soon. And of course, I still have to write them. Can't stop that. (By the way, my new video is directly related to the Doctor Haik-Who!)

I do find that my obsession gets work done, though. Not just the Doctor Haik-Who, but all my other writing. I get thoughts going through my head about The Jump and Riders of Nebwey all the time, and occasionally The Hero of Edge. It's fun, actually. Bizarre, voices-in-my-head fun, but fun nonetheless.

And I've my "Wrote Today" Chart too, now. That's a positive step towards increased productivity, I reckon. Go chart!

Speaking of that chart... I think I need to update it. This blog will only consume more time that I don't have if I keep writing tonight. I've got to check stuff for college... secretly, so my parents don't know that I haven't done the work yet. *whistles nonchalantly*

YouTube Giveaway

I knew today that I would have something to blog about, I just didn't know what.

But now I know! I'm doing a giveaway on YouTube, of The Literary Den Book of New Fiction 2008. The video can be viewed here:

The info in the "sidebar"

Subscribe and answer to enter:
What's your favourite children's or young adult book, and why?

The book: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback...
The charity: http://www.lauracranetrust.org/
The group: http://literaryden.wordpress.com/

Deadline: Feb 10th 2010

Good luck everyone! (remember, comments on the video, not here!)

Locked up with God

I had a weird experience last night... the Fat Fighters trapped us in the Pastoral Centre (note: Fat Fighters is my immature substitute for Weight Watchers). When I say "trapped" I mean they turned off all the lights but the one in our room, put on the alarm, and locked both locks on the door. When I say "us" I mean myself (obviously), Niamh, Ingrid, Sorcha, Cliodhna and the religious woman... I forgot her name, okay!

Thankfully Niamh knew the code to turn off the alarm when it went off...

Why am I telling you all this? I have a video about it!

Also, keep an eye on my YouTube channel and this blog - I'll be doing giveaways next week!! And they're good giveaways too. One is with a book that the money of which goes to charity and the other is a book you literally can't buy anywhere.

Peace, Love and Potter,
Paul.

Back to Vlogging

Well, I've finally gotten up the courage to vlog while my family were in the house. Well, my parents were, but that's the same thing. My twin already knows I vlog, though he hasn't seen any of the videos, but my older brother is still ignorant of this fact and I'd like it stay that way.

Anyway, my new video Welcome to 2010! is now live and available to view. Please enjoy, and if you'd like something to be done in a video, don't be afraid to ask (although painful/stupid things that might get me caught by my family are out of the question.

If my plans go ahead, my Sooper Sekrit project will be announced within the next week or so. Also, I'll be annoying publishers soon to see if I can do something else on my YouTube channel that will certainly help spice things up a bit. (By the way, my YouTube channel can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/writeranonymous )

Now, until next time (like maybe tomorrow), good bye! (Also, sorry this blog increased World Suck)

Journey of a Thousand Miles

The ancient Chinese (or is it Japanese.. sorry, I'm confused now) proverb says The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. As far as I'm concerned, this is utter nonsense. Yes, it's stating the truth, the obvious truth that you have to begin before you get anywhere, but come on! A thousand miles - a single step won't do you much good unless it's onto a rocket that will fly you a thousand miles.

In my case, my journey begins rather boringly with not a step, but a chair, a laptop and a pre-registration form. My journey begins for real after that, I suppose. This is more like packing. And where am I going, I hear you ask? College!

Yes, this wee little blogger is on his way to the wider world where he gets to become scared of things like six year olds and paste until finally he escapes all that for fourteen years olds and clay. Admittedly, I won't be going near the clay, but teenage boys in art rooms like to throw clay about the place. It's annoying. I haven't even begun studying to become a teacher and I find it annoying.

Teacher, you ask? Yes, teacher. My course is one part Religion (well, really two parts Religion), one part English (proof there is a God, justifying the second part Religion) and one part Education. We'll do all sorts of fun stuff like discuss good and evil in Star Wars, watch the Simpsons, read loads of books and partake in four areas of work experience, one each year. How cool is that going to be?

This is the biggest thing that's happened to me since... ever! I'm actually going to doing something that counts towards my future (unlike the Leaving Cert, which is also like packing for this journey). And by the end of the course, I'll be qualified to teacher people Religion and English in secondary school. Yay!

Don't worry though. This isn't the end of my blog. Not by a long shot. If anything, it's actually helping my blog! You're probably wondering now how a college course will help my blog. Scroll up a wee bit there. See where I mention "read loads of books"? Yeah, that's what's going to change. Yes, I read books, but I've been writing a lot lately, instead of reading the books I want to read. College will broaden my selection of books reviewed on this blog, and maybe get me into reading a lot more than I already am. Fun fun fun!

The only downside to college, and this is both big and small; none of my friends are going to be there. They're all going to a different school so I'm stuck with, wait for it, my twin! Agh! I thought I was rid of him when I left secondary school, but obviously not. Still, it could be worse... Not a lot worse, mind you, just worse.

More fun things happening though; the college has two socities I'm currently interested in. A magazine and a film society! Hurray! I was already on a magazine and I vlog weekly (sometimes more than once) so they're perfect for me. Next in line - Niamh's birthday party! I love nights out like this. I'm not really a night life sort of person, and I don't drink, so my times out are always for something special like a birthday. And it's Niamh's birthday! And two days later, my Debs! Yay again! Niamh is going with me to that too. She'll be in turquoise, I'll be in a black tux with a silver waistcoat and silver cravat. In a limo. With a kareoke machine. Fun fun fun!

More stuff happening too! (I know, this list of great things happening is unfairly long, isn't it?) The Literary Den, with our fabulous new blog ( http://literaryden.wordpress.com ) all set up, are releasing a couple of things in the near future. One is our soon to be annual fiction anthology in aid of The Laura Crane Trust, and the other is a couple of t-shirts that will raise money towards funding the administrative stuff for the Den (like the website, and removing ads from the forum) so that we can give more back to the public. So excited about showing them all off on my YouTube channel too! ( http://www.youtube.com/writeranonymous )

I think that's it for now. I know, long blog post compared to some of my others ones. And this is only what i know right now! In the future, I'll be trying to add blog posts about NaNoWriMo and some music I'm listening to, and obviously more reviews of books and stuff like that. Until next time, though, take care!

New Videos...

Introducing my new video series, in its own little playlist! The Purpose Videos are designed to give reasons behind some of the little parts of my vlogging life, and, if you want, my life outside of YouTube. Just ask a question and I'll do my best to answer it. It's that simple!

This little box here is my attempt to embed the playlist to my blog. I hope it works... (If it has worked, then yay!)

Following that, I made another video to say Happy Birthday to my good friend Niamh. And by good friend, it's really closer to best friend status =]

Here's hoping you enjoyed those. Toodle pip and all that for now.

Update on the writing...

Sorry I've been away for so long; I've been writing. Mad, isn't it? A writer actually writing!

Right now, The Jump stands at 25,500 words! Yahoo! I'm loving the book so far and there's still plenty to go. This book is like Geneticide, only for younger readers, yet more mature. How strange is that! It's darker too, evident from some of the things some characters can do. But it's fun to write. I listen to Hollywood Undead as I write mainly. They aren't too distracting; it's just some humourous rock-rap music (plus, Michael Grant, author of Gone, listens to them!).

I'm using The Jump to do some things I really wanted to do with Geneticide but never got the chance. Characters have hero and villain names (not all of them, mind you) and there are predjudices against them because of what the villains do. The "bad guys" are all pretty messed up too, unlike a lot of them in Geneticide. I want this to be a fun YA novel, so I'm fulfilling a particular stereotype of comic-book supervillains; they're mental! And I mean that literally. They've got issues they can't handle.

So far, I'm six days into the story, which is counted from the beginning of Emily Quigley's gifted escape from people with guns. You might be wondering if that makes Emily safe as a character; I can confirm that it does not. Other things in the story might, but that doesn't. It's simply a method of keeping track on the story.

This and Meet Sam are my two big novels. They'll be going out to publishers when there are second and third books written in each of them. The two books are completely different, I might add. One takes place in modern Dublin, with nothing quite strange happening that isn't contained in the protagonists head. The other takes place on the east coast of the US, with younger characters, all of whom have super powers, and weird stuff still happens (weird even to them, I might add).

I've got no idea where I might send The Jump yet, although my boss in work has an inkling at what might happen ;-)

Moving on from the writing for today, I've got a new YouTube video online! In this significantly shorter video, I discuss my Purpose Videos!

The Purpose Videos will be going live over the next three days. I've got three recorded now, but if you want to know the purpose of something in my life, please feel free to ask with a comment or a message or an email of some description.

Also, the Literary Den Blog has gone live! I insist you go to read it, now! The link is: http://literaryden.wordpress.com - I was first, then Andy, and today, Sam. Enjoy!

Until next time, dear reader, take care!

Writing Marathon!

Well, I've gone on a mad one, but not in quite the same as I thought I might have gone a few days ago. See, my idea from a few days ago didn't come to pass. Quite quickly, I got bored with it. Thankfully my boredom died yesterday, with a new project.

I know what you're thinking. "This guy keep coming up with new ways not to finish/start writing." This time, you'd be wrong. See, I did write. I wrote a lot. And I wrote a lot more in these past two days than I ever wrote in that space of time.

10,009 words, according to my word count.

Yes, you read that right. 10,009 words of fiction in two days. I honestly don't know how I did it, but I loved every minute of it! It's been exciting, and thankfully the story's not over. I just had to take a break. Tomorrow there will be more writing and tea (there's always tea) and I'll have beaten another record - the most I've written in three days. Yes, I know it's cheating. Sue me. (please don't though; I only work six hours a week and I don't get paid to write!)

I could go on to describe what the new book is about. I really want to, but I'd just be repeating myself. You see, I read an extract and explained the story a bit on YouTube. So for the next ten minutes, you get to listen to me talk and hear a YT exclusive reading from yours truly. Peace and Love, and see you next time.

The Longest Wednesday of my Life

I've been dying to talk about this for a while, but I wanted to vlog about it first. On August 12th, I received my Leaving Cert results. They weren't the best set of grades, but they got me my place in college! In the days I call the Longest Wednesday of my Life, running from the 12th to the 17th of August, my results were released and my college place was offered to me.

I'm going to be studying in Mater Dei Institute! Education, Religion and English. By the end of it, I'll be a qualified teacher of second level students! Hurray!

You can watch my vlog about this too... seriously, watch it. It's long, yes, but that's because I talk about a lot of things... I flail my arms around a lot too, which is a bit weird. Enjoy!

I apologise for the length of it. It's crazy, I know. I just couldn't shut up. Still, it's a vlog, and you have to watch it or else.

Knighthood

Well, it's official: I am Paul Carroll, Knight of the Word Nerd Army by the Power and Grace of Rebecca Woodhead.

Knight of the Word Nerd Army

It's a nice little piece I think. If I can figure out how to make it a permanent feature of the blog, I will do that. For now, we can all just admire it where it stands, in this post. I'd like to thank Rebecca publicly for this, and for all the work she's done to start the Word Nerd Army. I'd also like to suggest Googling "Word Nerd Army." Go on, do it now and I'll wait until you're back.

See that? My video was there! Amazing isn't it? Me! On Google. I'm chuffed.

And with that, I bid you farewell. There are books to be read (and a particular publisher that needs to get back to the public and say who won a selection of books!). Toodle pip!

Doctor Who and the Word Nerd Army

So, I've finally had a free moment from my family, and I made a vlog! I sound insane otherwise, just talking to myself. Best not to let other people hear it too.

So, here it is, Doctor Who and the Word Nerd Army!




It's not much; it never is.

Anyway... if you're interested in sending your script to me to read and to share (I'll leave links to the scripts on my blog and YouTube channel (the latter when I get enough of them) so that everyone can have a read of them! Just send them literary_mania(at)yahoo(dot)ie with the subject of Doctor Who Script in .doc, .docx or .rtf format, with your name and the title of the script as the entire first page (as it would be presented to an actor, for example). Sending the script is giving me permission to share it (as fan-fiction, you can't sell it anyway).

If in the event that Literary Den t-shirts become available and I get enough scripts, I'll judge which one is most interesting.

If you can't write a script, write a story instead. Once it's Doctor Who in style, I don't mind. I'm judging the story, the dialogue, the suspense, the humour and how in touch with the show it is. And don't forget, not even the Doctor knows everything - he didn't recognise the things that attacked on Christmas, and he had to ask where the Clomian was from (Clom, obviously).

Good luck!