How Did We Get Here?

I have a single week of lectures left in the first semester of my Masters. I'm still coming to terms with that one. How did we get here so quickly?

Let's go back, to before the Masters started. Let's go back to March. In March, I was acquiring copies of transcripts to be sent off as part of my application. In January, I moved from one bedroom in the house - the largest - to another - the smallest, and ended up misplacing a few things as I tidied up. I know where my original transcripts are. Unfortunately, there are also about three thousand other sheets of paper in that one place, and that may be an underestimation.

So, new transcripts, application completed, and I waited. I got an interview, I was offered a place, I almost cried (yep, that happened) and I paid my deposit. We've reached May. By July, I know how much the course will cost. I checked my budget, and I knew then that I could afford a laptop and a camera - specific ones that I'd had my eye on for a while. I practised with the camera. I got used to framing things, to playing with depth of field. I didn't know much about photography, except that depth of field was cool.

I was still shooting in Auto. Then: September.

The month dragged by after I paid my fees. I was waiting all the time. The day of my orientation, I met up with a friend of a friend, from Germany. The orientation was boring. It rained heavily as I walked home, and for the next two weeks I was sick. Brilliant start, right?

Well, yes. The first lecture was moved forward in a timetable change, and even then I didn't meet my classmates properly until Wednesday - everyone was in, and our lecturer encouraged us to meet up for coffee after the first lecture. And that lecture was, in itself, an ice-breaker. We went for coffee, we set up our own little Facebook group, we added each other, marvelled at how many people were from Galway, and at the little coincidences that seemed to pop up. I had a couple of mutual friends with various people already, and live near one of my friend's girlfriends. (By near, I mean she's essentially around the corner. And we've never met. Whatever happened to suburban values?)

Week two, lectures started.

So, we'll fast forward through this. We've been through this, mostly. I put together my audio drama, I took some photographs that I love, I gave a presentation on the Selfie, as understood from a reading of Susan Sontag's On Photography. Pretty early on, I considered many of my classmates friends. By Halloween, having only just parted from someone's company, I was texting to say I considered him one of my best friends.That was perhaps the most embarrassing thing to happen that night, and it's not really all that embarrassing. (I did try to teach people to do the Time Warp, but I'm not embarrassed by that.)

The path became clearer the further I walked.

By the end of week eight, I was exhausted, stressed out, and feeling entirely comfortable in the company of my new friends. We were also getting ready to start our next projects, including creating a new soundtrack for a video - foley, dialogue, environmental noises, music, everything. By the end of week eleven - that's where we are now - we're getting ready to write essays, and complete reflective journals. We've met industry professionals who work as photographers, marketers, a social media strategist, a videographer, to mention just a few.

I can remember it all, yet I don't understand how we've gotten this far. We're almost done with our first semester. We've had several varieties of home-baked food. We've been to see some less-than-conventional films. We have our in-jokes. Some people have nicknames they don't want. We've gotten used to using ProTools - I even composed some music for it for my group's soundtrack in our second project - and we've been dabbling in various aspects of the Adobe suite. We've had to use Macs for everything, to the point that when I return to my Windows laptop, I scroll in the wrong direction way more often than I'd care to admit.

But see, it's more than all of that. I'm now at the point of wanting to produce short documentary pieces. I want to create audio dramas, to actually release to the public. Eleven weeks ago, I thought my main focus would be on photography. And while I love photography, while I still want to pursue it, to develop (ha!) my abilities further, I'm not restricting my options so much anymore. I want to work on sound design more in the future. I want to write about visual culture, and new media. I know that by the end of next semester, I'll be looking to learn more about multimedia authoring. I'm dying to learn more about video production already.

I feel like I've come a long way with a lot of amazing people, and I'm not entirely sure how I managed to get here. That said, I love it. I love every bit of it. Choosing this course was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and I refuse to apologise for getting sentimental over it, not after everything I've done in the past eleven weeks, not after the people I've met. I can't be sorry for that.

A (Lack of) Progress Report

As far as writing has gone this past week... well, I haven't done much. I've wanted to, but I haven't exactly had as much opportunity as I would have liked. The most significant thing I've done is actually figure out why I want to write a particular series. That was done by figuring out what the overall story is. It's important, but it doesn't bring me closer to my target.

The main problem is that I've been spending my spare time relaxing a lot more than usual. That, when combined with exhaustion from a series of sleepless nights (partially my fault for staying up too late when I have to be up early, partially the fault of alarms going off in the middle of the night), has resulted in me doing much less than I'd have liked to.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will help put me back on track, with a couple of things planned for the afternoon and nothing else planned for the evening.

This means I have to avoid the PS3, though. That's been the biggest distraction. You see, recently I came across Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, and, having played the first game a few years ago, I couldn't help but buy it and play it. And play it I have. Constantly. It's not just a nostalgia rush, of course. I genuinely love the game, and I love following the story.

Yes, some of the dialogue is ridiculously cheesy. Yes, the graphics aren't the best. Yes, it's a dated game at this point. But it also has an interesting system of religion at work. It demonstrates the struggle for ideals in equality and peace.

It's a game that helped form the sort of depth I've wanted to include in my fantasy novels. I want to develop a system of religion that fits into the world. I want to create a rulebook for magic users. I want to create a world in which life is actually at stake, but not merely on a global level.

This is why I play games, even when it means not writing. The games that explore religion, and the games that explore the concept of the martyr, they help to create human stories concerned with personal destiny in the wider scheme of life. Colette in Tales of Symphonia has to save the world, knowing it will end her life. The l'cie in Final Fantasy XIII have to make a decision: destroy the world they come from, or die tragically. Yuna in Final Fantasy X has to stop Sin, knowing that the summoner never survives the pilgrimage.

I want to tell my own story. I want to figure it all out before I start writing that book.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can use that as an excuse for not writing the books I've already planned. I have a feeling I'll be playing catch-up on my books for the rest of the 40-day challenge. So be it. But I'll be damned if I have to give up doing something else I enjoy, too, especially on the days when exhaustion takes it toll.

My progress is lacking, but that doesn't mean I can't talk about it.

Day 9: Blame it on the Sunshine

Today, I had good intentions of writing a chunk of The Blood of Leap. This was to accompany today's task of getting the book trailer online. Unfortunately, neither thing happened.

As it happens, while sunny weather has a tendency to bring about storms - which can knock out power - the heat can also cause machines to slow down to the point of being useless. This is especially true when working in the attic. My bedroom is a sauna, and my laptop doesn't appreciate it very much. Though I admittedly spent quite a long time doing the artwork for the book trailer, putting the finishing touches on them on my laptop proved nearly impossible.

Most of the work is done, but the last bit, that I'm not even sure I'm sticking with, needs a tiny bit more attention. If it wasn't taking half an hour for the laptop to do anything, I'd have it all done, by now. Long story short, with this weather it's going to be difficult to finish up.

I'll have to bring my laptop down to the kitchen tomorrow to actually finish up, and to do some work, because I don't think either it or I can handle my room another day, even with every window in the house open. Heat rises, and it can't get out quickly enough. The end result: Paul roasts alive. The end.

I had hoped that by the time I finished up with the last image, I could write some of the book. Unfortunately, my laptop is giving up on me. Writing on it tonight is not going to happen. I've resorted to using my tablet to write this post, but it's much more difficult to do so, and to keep track of how much or how little I'm actually saying. I usually leave this for when I'm too tired to turn on my laptop to write a blog post.

Tomorrow, I'll try get done what I had initially set out to do: write a lot of the book, and upload the trailer. Since it's also New Comic Book Day, I'll be heading out early to ensure I get home early. If I manage 3,500 words, I'll be happy. It'll keep me on par with where I need to be with Camp NaNoWriMo, and it'll take a chunk out of the book. It's about four hours' work, though, if I'm calculating that correctly - and I'm probably underestimating myself - but I think I can manage it. The main priority is the trailer, though.

Right now, it's all just good intentions. The weather could very well kill my laptop again, and with it my progress. Time will tell, but hopefully I don't have a repeat of today on my hands.

Day 6: Not Enough Time for Tea

I lost six hours today, between leaving for work and getting home from a couple of supermarkets with my dad. The actual four hour shift in work was okay, if not boring, with a ton of de-stickering going on in our move to a franchise. It was mind-numbing.

It doesn't help that (a) I woke up early but felt exhausted, (b) I couldn't sleep last night until I felt I wasn't going to need to use the toilet again and (c) I went to the cinema tonight. Friday is normally my cinema night. Now, at half ten, I've had my day split up twice and I haven't written nearly as much as I need to.

And I just don't have enough time for tea. As it is my eyes are begging me to go to bed. It's not even a screen ting. Being open is bad enough. I'm writing this with my eyes closed for the most part, checking back for typos and errors and all that sort of nonsense, and just hoping there aren't too many of them to make the task difficult.

Having written less than 600 words today, it's clear that I either have to write a lot more tomorrow, or I have to stay up later than I really can manage.

I think I'm going to head to bed, soon, rather than stay up for the sake of attempting another 1400 words. Even if I could write the chapter with my eyes closed, I don't fancy sitting here doing so. I like to know what to write based on what I've already written, trying to achieve a bit of a balance between narrative and dialogue, and that's difficult when I can't re-read everything I've written, on account of my eyes being closed.

First world problems?

Anyway, tomorrow will be different, I think. I'll at least have a regular Sunday. I can wake up earlier than usual if I go to bed soonish, and that should give me time to write some of the catch up, and get me back on track to finish - hopefully - by Tuesday.

As it stands, I'm at 10712 words on Camp NaNoWriMo, and about 5,000 words over that in the book. It's reached it's minimum length to be considered a novella, and of course I still have a couple more chapters to go. Doing the maths in the my head, if I catch up over the next couple of days on top of my regular 2,000 words per day, the first draft will be finished by my schedule.

This leaves me with 22 days to write both of the other books. Sharing 44,000 words between them, I think I'll be reaching for more than 62,000 words overall in the month to ensure all three novellas are completed. (I've also got the little extras to throw in at the end of each, and should begin paying some attention to that, I think.)

Anyway, there's my excuse for not writing much today. I think resting eyes that are tired to the point of being sore is probably a good call, though. I'll still bring a cup of tea to bed.

Day 1: War Against the Word Count

I made a late start in Camp NaNoWriMo, today. It was after two in the afternoon when I finally sat down to do some writing. I set myself a word count target to achieve before I did anything else: 2000 words.

As it happens, I reached just over 2000 before five, with some distractions. Today has been a lot about getting back into the story, and trying to build on what my plan dictates I write. I'm noticing that the first couple of chapters in the book are a lot shorter than I'd have liked them to be, certainly shorter than the first chapters of Balor Reborn. What this means is that the rest of the chapters will be longer, to meet my target word count.

It's not an ideal way to write, but by notes actually require a lot more to be written later on in the book anyway. The earlier scenes provide a lot of set up for events that, in reality, take place over the course of a few hours. I say "set up", but I merely mean that it's all leading towards the climax. As it's a short book - they're all short books - there's not much to actually happen over a few chapters.

The flip side, of course, is that rather than simply having to reduce how much I write in each book, I have to attempt to include a lot more information about characters early on. With Fionn and Michael, it's easy: I'm working from Balor Reborn. With my later addition to the team, Emily, I have to figure out how to make her a strong enough character so that her personality shines through in her passages.

I've actually given her a lot of space to work by herself in this book. While Michael has been the "side-kick" before, Emily has her own troubles to deal with independently to Fionn and Michael. This is keeping in mind the fact that Fionn is the lead protagonist in the series; he's not alone, and he's never supposed to be, but he's also not the only person in the series that matters.

In the flash fiction stories on ModernIrishMyth.com, I've tried to make it clear that there are other important characters who exist in the country. This includes, but is not limited to, Ogma, Fearghus and a couple of the lead characters from other stories - the ones that don't meet an unfortunate end. So, while Fionn is part of a Grand Plan to save Ireland, Emily and Michael have their own roles to play. Without them, it's just this nineteen year old with a hurl trying to fight off all sorts of monsters and magical beings. But see, here's the thing: he's not always the most level-headed person in the world, and the events of the books are going to take their toll on him - on all of them. He needs other people to go through this stuff with him, and they need to prove themselves independent of the protection he can offer.

So, Emily is kicking ass with her half of the book, having scenes alone to deal with problems that on the face of it are larger than those Fionn has to face a lot of the time. I called her, a while ago, a "strong female character", and this is exactly what I mean by that: she can hold her own, not just against the dangers in the book, but narratively. I wish the term hadn't become cliché, but there you have it. I hope you at least understand from this what I mean.

It was today that it really became apparent to me the sort of person she is. I've made her inquisitive and considerate, and while she's not a natural warrior, she's able to put on a brave face. Except that wasn't in the plan. I just wrote her that way today. (That plan didn't say anything contrary to how I've made her. It just didn't say "Make her smart. Make her brave. Make her ask questions." That part had to come from the moment.)

Writing a series like this isn't going to be easy, I know. Balor Reborn was manageable, because it was just one book, with one clear goal in mind: stop the maniac with the Death Ray in his eye. But there's a lot more to the story that I have yet to reveal to readers, and it's those parts that are the driving force of the series as a whole. Early hints have been dropped in the first book, but I have to address the issues again in The Hounds of Hell, before I really throw a spanner in the works in The Blood of Leap.

I won't say any more about what's actually happening in the series. Don't worry.

The actual writing was fairly easy to get in to, once I had my Excel sheet set up. I like to keep track of how many words I've written in a day. I find that when I'm aiming for a word count target, and I find my concentration slipping, it helps to know how much I have to write to catch up on myself.

It's also handy to have something to judge by when I really get into the writing and smash my target. I think the most I've ever written in a single day is over 10,000 words, and I've managed it on a couple of occasions, but it's a whole-day affair, and it requires a lot of motivation. Still, two days like that a week and I'd write a million words in a year. There's a Thing for that, isn't there?

My advice, for those who are trying out Camp NaNoWriMo this year, is to set yourself realistic target each day. If you know you have a lot of work to do in other areas of your life, don't assume you can write the same amount as you would if you spent the whole day writing. For me, my 2,000 word target took into consideration the fact that I was starting late and had to clean my room. Well, not clean my room exactly, but clear out a press outside my room...which created a mess inside my room. Mainly in the doorway. I can't spend all day writing when I have to do that. Tomorrow, though, if I have a lot of the cleaning up done, I can write for a bit longer than I did today. I might manage 4,000 words, if I'm lucky.

I've also read the advice that you should never start on a blank page. Some writers suggest stopping before you finish a chapter. However, if you can't bring yourself to stop there, I suggest even writing the words "Chapter..." and whatever chapter you're on, on the next page. That, or do some writing warm-ups. I write haiku when I need to get words into my head again. I really have to think about the right words to use when writing them, so I kind of jump-start my brain.

I may need that tomorrow if I don't finish this up and make my room habitable again soon. To my fellow Wrimos, I wish you good luck tomorrow with your novels. To everyone else, I hope you have a happy Tuesday.