it landed outside City Hall #nanowrimo #nanolondon

I know, it looks like a ready made plot line, but it's not the one for me this year.

I've decided to hang in there with the desert caper which I originally considered for NaNoWriMo a year ago. Not that I did any work on it at the time though.

It didn't make sense for me to attempt it last time and I used the time instead to re-edit some of the work I'd produced previously. There was no point in counting the words at that time, so I quietly dropped out of the NaNoWriMo system after about a day.

This time I have started with a completely blank sheet of paper and a stuttery beginning, but now the story is up and running I can see some of the ways to drive it along.

I'm using the most basic structure ideas based around setup/initial problem/bigger problem/biggest problem/resolution/finale this time and trying to drive out the plot more than the descriptions of weather systems. As was the case the last time I wrote something, the characters all have minds of their own again.

I've genuinely surprised myself so far. Although it may be limping along with a need for many running repairs (like when I changed a character name part way through), it does seem to be stacking up word count.

Because of work commitments I've decided to blitz this first weekend to get as far ahead as I can because of the inevitable slow down as real world kicks in on Monday.

Literary masters may scorn the rapid creation approach, but I think it helps to get the creativity running and I know the subsequent edits may overturn some sizeable chunks of the initial piece. I think Hemingway had a famous quote about first drafts.

And if anyone else is seeking inspiration and wants to borrow the scene from my photograph...well I took it last week and the 'Thing' is still there - right next to London's City Hall.

split between London and Scottsdale

I've dropped the characters into Arizona this time. I decided to give them a short lived treat at a luxury spa hotel before I sling them out into the desert with all manner of problems.

Some of the smaller problems have already started. They've already got split up and at least one of them is quite the worse for wear.

I've only got the vaguest idea of a plot and was just sketching out a few ideas so that I have something to write about during the weekend.

The first 500-600 words came quite slowly, but it is picking up speed now. I'm even slightly ahead (around 4k), but I think I'll feel better if I can use part of the weekend to build up some word count.

I should really be writing it now, but this is a few minutes break whilst the kettle boils for a cuppa.

skyfall

We braved the lashing 45 degree rain, strolling zombies and caped crusaders on our way to see the new James Bond film yesterday evening.

Actually we were served by the green witch in the pizza place before heading to the late evening show and on the escalator encountered some blood streaked and very pale faced leather-clad people.

But oh, yes, the same cinema was also screening a late night Rocky Horror Picture Show.

So what to make of the Bond movie?

I don't really want to say too much about the plot, which has a suitably fast paced start, with plenty of action before the opening credits roll. We also get some good locations like Istanbul and Shanghai which feature casinos, skyscrapers, fancy bars and glittering hotels. And Bond meets his fair share of intriguing women along the way - oh and a good villain of course.

So I guess plenty of the James Bond franchise boxes are ticked. There's also some references to old school spying versus more modern interpretations. A kind of action hero meets 21st century global spook technology stripe through proceedings.

There's also some good London Town moments, with MI/SI6 on the Thames, plenty of running around Whitehall and some tube trains thrown in for good measure.

Come to think of it they are some of the exact streets I've been along today for work.

I could say more but there's some pieces best left as surprises for those that intend to see the film. I quite enjoyed it although I felt there were a few slightly lengthy scenes that slowed the pace.

I noticed they have re-introduced a small amount of the humour too, which I think adds to the enjoyment of Bond movies.

Were there some plot holes? I think so. One did sort of bug me, but I won't describe it here. Did it matter? Not hugely, I think we had a good experience watching the film as mainstream entertainment. A fitting ramp into my own scribbling as November arrives and NaNoWriMo kicks off.

waiting for the vampire bus?

Halloween is one of those occasions that seems to have grown in commercial status in England over the last few years.

It was always a distant second to the higher profile Guy Fawke's Night, where we take an effigy of the chap that tried to blow up Parliament and burn it on top of a big fire.

Perversely, I still think of Halloween as an American custom that has migrated based upon movies and sitcoms and has now entrenched itself in the supermarkets of the country.

Of course, there will be those that point out its ancient and somewhat pagan roots, and that it originally migrated to the U.S. from Europe.

I suppose the point is that the English didn't make so much of it because Bonfire Night gives a perfectly good adjacent excuse to set fire to things, make explosions and drink.

So this evening, I may be looking out for souls seeking revenge, but it will be at the cinema, watching James Bond.

leaves, colours and bags

A side-effect of my calendar getting reshuffled today was that I could make a slightly later start. With the effect of the clock change it felt doubly late. I pay it back tomorrow with a first meeting at 8am.

The clock change reminds me that this year Autumn seems to have arrived very suddenly. A few days ago everything was still green, but now it's all gone golden and chilly as the weather turns.

And in some parts of London the colours go from the trees to the pavement and into bags in a matter of days.

feet held to flames to put mudguards on winter bike

The classic procrastination situation faced me today. I'd been getting the orange bike ready for the cooler months and was well ahead of the plan until time to fit the mudguards.

I did order a set - all £9.99 worth - and they've now arrived.

As has yesterday's tiny amount of snow.

And today's white roof frost.

To the extent that I'm sitting in front of the fire warming my toes. A small confession that yesterday I walked past that builders' supply place near Borough Market and they had those 'keep toasty' type leggings and arm warmers in the window. I nearly bought some.

Instead I will be doing that biking activity known as 'faffing' later today as I finish the winterisation (?) of the orange bike.

Must.Get.Away.From.Fire.

@LondonNaNo at Mad Hatter

I've pinched today's pictures from the @LondonNaNo twitterfeed, and I can almost be spotted in the back row from today's session at the Mad Hatter.

And yep - I've decided to have another go at this National Novel Writing Month lark.

I think it will be my fifth attempt, and I've generally managed to hit the requisite 50,000 words in the month of November. Actually, I can only account for three of the stories though, so one has already received a suitably embarrassed consignment to a messy drawer.

The picture shows part of the assembled gang, which became 'standing room only' a little later. Today's launch was the second session, with a prior weekday evening one to catch 'commuting novelists'.

We also had the mix of Londoners and those from further afield including New York and Vancouver in my table's gathering.

There's something reassuring about meeting a diverse group of people about to set out on this craziness. It was also interesting to note that many had already successfully completed prior years. Most didn't know one another at this kick-off session, but it is already clear they we will all encourage one another along. The NaNoLondon web site is here and the London Regional forum is here.

Of course we won't start writing until the 1st of November. Some already have plots, diagrams and characters but I still have nothing.

Which reminds me, I must start banking sleep.

(p.s. that was about 230 words)

scary television for the Halloween weekend

I know it's not quite Halloween yet, although there seems to be pumpkins and cobwebs in abundance in some areas.

I've decided to watch something scary and am working my way through the old Twin Peaks TV-series.

It's one of those situations where someone else I know was watching it, then I noticed it was listed as one of the 'top boxed sets' in a weekend newspaper then serendipitously I found the DVDs lurking at the back of a cupboard.

I used to work occasionally around the Seattle area and managed to visit the mystical setting for the movie as part of a trip. We'd somehow got one of those stretched limos and a few hours to spare before a flight.

We headed off towards the wonderful Snoqualmie Falls, which was the main setting used for the Great Northern Hotel in the series. We also took a trail towards the bottom of the falls, right to the part of the path where it said something like "Danger - do not pass".

Anyway, as well as the humour of the reassuring cherry pie, donuts and 'cup o Joe' there's still parts of the series to make me jump right out of the chair.

why is a raven like a writing desk?

Oh dear. I received the email for NaNoWriMo yesterday. National Novel Writing Month. It turns out that there's a meeting in London at the Mad Hatter. On Saturday. I'm already doing something just around the corner near Lavington Street, so it's about a five minute walk away.

Aside from failed projects, I've got a couple of drafts at a 75% and 50% complete status, so I'm wondering if I really need another partial project at the moment.

It would be so much more sensible to finish the ones that are already underway.

But I have a few new ideas that I could make into something.

I even logged into the NaNoWriMo site today and updated my info. It said I've been a member for 7 years now. And that I've finished 4 times.

I feel that the tractor beam has somehow been switched on again and I am being sucked towards the door of the Mad Hatter.

It's only 1667 words a day to reach 50,000 words in November.

There. That was about 250 words. And I didn't even mention the weather.

Mad Hatter: “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
“No, I give it up,” Alice replied: “What’s the answer?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter

emergency lollypop

What started as a tipple with a friend yesterday later moved on to a conversation like a Black Books sketch. It was the one about the children's story. But I think I was the only one of our group that knew the scene - which has two main characters a bit the worse for wear whilst writing a children's story.

The elephant and the balloon.

Of course, their earlier consumption of alcohol may have made it difficult to remember the story the next morning.

The episode is available on 4OD, but not embeddable for copyright reasons, so the little clip from another episode will have to suffice.

I think I've mentioned before that I keep Black Books on my iPhone as emergency entertainment.

screme eggs, anyone?

Wrong on so many levels.

shiny shiny (again)

I've just seen the Apple show of all the various shiny shiny new items which will be hitting the stores in time for the end of year festivities.

I paid attention, because I'm in the market for a new iMac. A short time ago I even prepared but then cancelled an order on the basis that the new box was just around the corner.

It raises an interesting point though, because pretty much all of the Macs I've ever owned are still quite usable and have been pressed into service as secondary devices or hand-me-downs.

Not so with the old PCs, which have usually managed to develop some kind of unrecoverable fault or collapsed under the burden of operating system updates. There's still a variety of boxes and bits in the garage from various unsuccessful resuscitation attempts.

With the Macs, the main failure has been disk drives which eventually either get full or have needed replacement - oh and occasional new batteries. My relatively ancient 15inch Powerbook still works but has had a disk upgrade. It is still used for mainly music related projects but runs a very recognisable version of the Mac system.

And similar updates to a few of the other boxes right up to my current shape 'early 2008' iMac. It just won't handle the new very fast external disk for video editing.

It's still quite interesting seeing the rest of the new stuff announced. The iPad refresh was inevitable, based upon the predictable introduction of the new Lightning connector across the range. The old Apple connector - like the two I have in my car for iPod and iPhone - is now becoming a legacy connection.

The new iPad mini has been talked about for months and notwithstanding the price differential, there should be quite a tablet market share scramble leading to the end of the year.

It raises some questions though...

• Is the new refresh cycle now as low as six months for this technology? The iPad 3 only lasted 6 months before the iPad 4 appeared.
• Will the thinning down of all the devices mean that there really are no user replaceable parts? Check out the new case on the iMac and the circa 1mm thick battery in the new iPad mini.
• Presumably the new designs have considered heat? I've had a couple of timecapsules die from what seems to be heat related component fatigue.
• Will the iPad mini game-change smaller tablets - I've preferred a Kindle for reading because the iPad was too heavy, not very readable in sunlight and a bit expensive to get sand in.
• And will the iPad mini be more or less a 'consumption' device rather than one for 'creation'?

It's an interesting period for all of this stuff, because there's quite a few new possibilities and options around - including the Android and Windows 8 + Surface stuff. I'm a great fan of what I call 'quiet technology' - it just works - and where this pushes the market. It looks alike an interesting six months/few days(?) until the next tranche arrives.