Purple Monster

And so it is April and April means ScriptFrenzy or Screnzy and I am re-attempting last years project of a Punk graphic novel. I was planning on being a bit more organised for it it this year but having the baby has thrown things a bit of course.

The initial idea had been to do Project FireStrom but i realised that I wanted to cover the Punk’s life so decided to start with the Fall of the Tower of Babel. This also has the added advantage of giving me proper background for the novels which start in the middle of the action.

Last year I started story boarding the graphic novel and didn’t get much further than the first ‘comic’ (my idea was to have 20 page comics which could be stand alone or make up 100 page graphic novels/comic books).

This year I have not done as much prep work as I would have liked so am going to still have to work out things like storyline etc…

Well wish me luck and hopefully some of you guys will be joining in the challenge too

I love my writing challenges and so will be continuing with them this year though how it will go with a new born I’m not sure!

The next one in February which is WoPoWriMo - this is obviously poetry and so nothing to do with The Punk except last year I found myself writing poetry about the Tudor sisters as I was reading so much about them in research for my nano novel!

Then in April we have Script Frenzy which I’m going to be using as a work an hour a day on the Graphic Novel - this is not really what it is for but as I’m still working on the story board I’m not going to be ready to write the comic book script before hand!

The first week in May is National Write a Picture Book a Day Week - I got fantastic results from this last year! Though I couldn’t do it within the alloted time - I did get 7 picture book stories written

In the summer there is an editing drive for nano novels so hopefully I’ll be at that stage by then!

October sees GothNoWriMo were you write a gothic novel in a month - I managed this last year and hope to again though it is hard work having it just before Nano!

November is obviously Nano and Picture Book Idea month - I’m hoping not to be editing this time round as that was a brain twister!

Well the novel is not finished - suprise suprise! Never mind I have until November! I am determined to start a new novel for the next nano though as it will be a Punk novel it probably doesn’t really make much difference!

Anyway I hope you all had a good Christmas and I’ll see you in the new year!

I realised that I hadn’t put in the prologue with the recaps and that the recaps themselves are sort of useful. But I think I a) need to add some categories to this blog and b) set up a page that indexes things in nice clickable links - I’m not promising this will happen any time soon just that I am planing to do it!

I think that now we are out of the other side of nano and I am not doing a post everyday I’m going to go back to putting up snippets that are 2000 words long - this makes things easier for me to keep track of the chapters and I think 2 K a week is not too much!

The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974

Abba Gold (look I have a small child who needs entertaining ok!)

Apocalyptica: Inquisition Symphony

Godspeed you black emperor!

More Than This: The Best of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music

No More Shall We Part: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Pink Floyd: Atom Heart Mother

Pink Floyd: Obscured by Clouds

The Ladder: Yes

Sea Shanties for the Far Inland: Men Diamler

And I have….. 72, 000 words!

Notes and chapter extracts will continue to go up through out the year - mainly I have enough novel to post like 1000 words a week for the whole year and more anyway!

I did really well with my PiBoIdMo stuff too which is good I will be attempting to get the novel finished in December but we will have to see!

Hopefully I’ll be taking part in more writing challenges and maybe get something more than my poems and flash fiction published!

As I was writing yesterday I realised that I really really do feel completely overwhelmed by the Punk Project as a whole - not just the novel. It is huge! It is so huge that it is going to take my lifetime to write and that frankly scares me!

Why does it scare me?

Well a) do I really want to spend all that time in my life on this one project and b) what use is it? No really - I always thought when I was younger I would give something to society and when say I was working on meteorites it felt like I was doing something for mankind yet here I am finding that my life work is going to consist of the sort of tacky scifi people ban their kids from watching/reading. And yet I am going all out with it - I am researching things, historical fact is as correct as it can be within the confines of the story. The same with the science and technology, I have looked at where I think new techs can go and what they can achieve - I have looked at the socio-political consequences and outcomes of certain actions etc… There is a lot of work and alot of actually quiet useful information going into the novel including the darker aspects of human behaviour and how the victims respond and cope with this!

My research list is massive though and my brain feels like a collindar trying to hold onto custard.

With it having taken me over a year to produce the first novel and then I am having to cut it in half :/ I just can’t really see me ever getting the whole lot written

Add in the fact that I really do still want to do the graphic novel starting from the beginning of the Punks story and working forward - the art work alone would take years and some of it I don’t even know how to draw But I’m not sure I can collaborate with anyone on this project either.

Every history section of her life I write is going to have to be researched so heavily too. The number of short stories and spin offs that are pushing at me too be written is quiet scary too.

On the other hand - the novel I am submitting for the Pratchette Prize was easy to write because of research I had done for The Punk. And my science writing has also benifieted from it. I just sort of need to convince myself that this is a) actually doable in one life time and that b) it is worth it for both me and society.

I know you were probably expecting some chapter 11 today and it is there waiting to go live but I just have more random thoughts and things about this years nano experience. Basically I didn’t really have an issue with reaching the word count but once I was there I found writing motivation hard

I’ve been rattling off a few hundred words here and a few hundred there - it has become more of a chore as I now am not really sure where this ‘novel’ as apposed to the series is going, were I should end it and indeed how I’m going to get the protagonist out of the fixes she’s found herself in (in a believable way!). I have also steam rollered myself with the ol’ research issue. I am still working my way through the books I’ve picked up about Elizabeth and Tudor England and realising that it did heavily effect things I have been looking a little bit at Joan of Arc and found I have made some glaring errors - I am therefore trying to resist the urg to go ad rewrite certain bits of the story but at the some time I do need to make sure that the story will still fit when I do change them :/

I’m feeling that my spelling and stuff is worse than last year - I think this is a pregnancy thing to be honest - I’m in general making more mistakes with everything. Ironically the reduction in my mobility is now causing me to not want to write as I day dream of running about or tidying the house :/

I’m really hoping that I continue writing in December and stuff - I do know a hell of a lot more about the area in history and my story in general than I did last year. So I hope to hash it out until I at least have this novel finished - it really looked like it’s going to be a big novel though :/ I am feeling rather overwhelmed by it.

Beginning - Matthew reveals he’s been sexual propositioned/rapped to keep the sleeping arrangements with the Punk

Middle - the Punk feeling helpless and the other boys realising what’s going on

End - a bullying incident from one of the slightly younger monks