I’ve not posted any updates on ‘No Way Back’ for a while, but I’ve been busy with it. I’ve finally come up with a definitive ending to aim for, and in even better news, I’m nearly ready to write it. I know it’s only the first draft and that ending could change depending on, well, all sorts of stuff, but it’s a great feeling to be close to some kind of conclusion.
Only around 400 words written today, between 8am and 8:30am, but I’ve got today’s Future Jeff cartoon to draw before heading to my normal/real life job. The good news is, as you can see from the photo, I’ve hit the 30,000 words mark. Go me! Until next time… keeeeeep writing or reading or both.
Something just occurred to me. A great first draft of a novel is like a really poorly played game of chess. I’ve never been any good at chess. I never plan ahead, and I always just hope for the best when placing my pieces (I’m mostly hoping the person opposite me is as clueless as yours truly). This makes for a disastrous game of chess, but a brilliant and spontaneous first draft. You place all the characters where you think they might like to go (I often plan the first few chapters, but no more than that) and then see where they go from there. Let rip with your pen or keyboard, and enjoy the ride. You’re the first reader of your story, after all, so this time will never come again. Until next time, keeeeeeep writing (or reading, or both. Whatever you’re into, I won’t judge).
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.
Many things come to my mind, all at once, all the time. I occasionally make sense of them and manage to manipulate and compile them into a sentence, but a lot of the time, my mind works in a higher gear than my mouth, and sometimes I forget that the person I’m talking to doesn’t have all the background context that’s just flashed through my brain. I suppose that’s why I’m a writer, so I can get my ideas across in my own sweet time.
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
I’m not sure I care that much about having something named after me (I named a couple of stars after my ex. She feels further away than both of those stars now, even though we both still work in the same building), but I’d like to think that I coined the term ‘stripisode’. Obviously, comic strips have been around a long ol’ time, but I wanted a term for one of my comic strips ‘Still Life’, which is longer than a standard newspaper strip, but shorter than a full page strip in the Beano, so the term ‘stripisode’ was born. It’s not in the Oxford English Dictionary yet, but I’m working on it.
