Writer's Blog: Christmas Lights

Have you ever seen the Christmas lights be turned on? I went last week and it is a strange thing. Before the lights were turned on there was the usual Christmas music but they seemed to only be playing the same six songs over and over again. I can't really blame them for that though. Often Christmas songs, or ones released around this time of year, have little to do with the season. When you take out the supremely annoying ones it doesn't leave you with many options. Having said that, they did play Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - though that at least has the good grace to admit it's corny! So after this it came time for the lights to be turned on.

A celebrity who I'd never heard of was there to do the honours. From what I can tell this woman is so obscure she doesn't even have a page on wikipedia. Then while she was there giving her pre-turning-the-lights-on speech I couldn't help but notice one thing... Around her were many Christmas lights! Yes it seemed that someone hadn't got the memo.

...

I kid, well sort of. Pressing the button did turn some lights on and was the signal for the fireworks to begin but there were most certainly lights on before that. Is this a phenomenon present only in Britain?

Writer's Blog: Notes from a (small) Dwarf

I don't think I'm mentioned that I have a new web site: https://unstableorbit.wordpress.com/ I have been doing a lot on that site recently which is why there hasn't been much here. So I'm going to look at two books I've read since my last post...

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Maybe the Moon by Armistead Maupin

Notes from a Small Island is a departure from the books I normally read as it is non-fiction. I read a few excepts from this book at university and so wanted to read more. I can't recommend this book enough it is brilliant.

The small island of the title is Britain. Bryson chronicles his travels around this island and reflects on many different cities. (I will admit to being a bit miffed at him missing Cardiff.) He has a wonderful wit and a great sense of humour. He is interested in obscure facts about people and places and generally has a high opinion of Britain. Particularly, as he is American, he reflects on the differences between the two countries.

'Just the day before at Skipton I had asked for a single to Manchester with a receipt. When the man in the window passed them to me he said: 'The ticket's free...but it's £18.50 for the receipt.' If he had done that in America, the customer would have said: 'What? What're ya saying? The ticket's free, but the receipt costs £18.50? What kind of cockammamy set up is this?' (P228)

This reminds me of something that happened to my father many years ago. I must have been, I don't know, twelve at the oldest. We were going to a museum or adventure park, somewhere where you had to pay to get in, and the leaflet had prices for adults and children. Since my brother and I were of an age where this was uncertain, at some places an 'adult' is twelve years old, my father phoned them. He asked the question 'How old are children?' and received the response 'Depends when they're born.'

My father has a great sense of humour so he appreciated this joke. It got me thinking though that for some people that joke could have caused offence. I have recently been working in a customer service role. It is interesting interacting with people. Sometimes jokes occurred to me but I wasn't ever sure of when the right moment was. It must be a great skill to be able to evaluate if a joke will be taken well. Jokes can so easily backfire. Either the joke is seen as somehow offensive, the other person doesn't get it, or they simply feel that now is not the proper time for humour.

To go back to the book this was a very good read. I look forward to reading more of Bill Bryson's works.

Maybe the Moon is a very different story. It is the tale of a dwarf actor. This character, Cadence Roth, stared in a film called Mr Woods in which she played the title character. However since the role required her to wear a rubber suit and she was uncredited she is not known for this.

The story is told in the form of a journal. Cadence believes that her life is of great interest and would make an excellent film. This is a strange story but I enjoyed it. The voice of the character is engaging and the story is compelling.

As a writer I find this to be a particularly interesting tale. If one looks closely not a lot happens in the story. I do not mean this as a criticism rather it is interesting the way a novel can form from a few simple events.

I recommend both of these books and hope that you enjoy them too.

Writer's Blog: Characters#2

Sorry about the extreme lateness of this post. Its been sitting on a tab in my browser for a long time. I thought I'd posted it - turns out I hadn't.

Chapter 5 of Writing a Novel looks to the subject of characters.

Characters are one of the most complex aspects of writing. Some authors describe how they can 'watch' their characters. Basically they know the characters so well that writing a scene about them is similar to the experience of listening to a conversation and just recording what is being said. I remember JMS saying that when writing a G'Kar scene he knew the character so well that he could just 'watch' and write what was being said.

I have not had that experience with my characters yet but it must be a magical thing. I even get into difficulties with how a character looks. For this at least you can cheat - well in a way. Sometimes I just simply search for an image of a person who looks like I want my character to look - then I just simply describe them.

Incidentally one of the best character introductions I've even seen is in Twin Peaks. Specifically the introduction of Dale Cooper. It is very simple. All he is doing is entering Twin Peaks and talking in detail about his expenses and, briefly, trees. Yet in that short piece, where he is speaking into a Dictaphone, we learn all we need to know about the character.

As with the other chapters this section gives a list of exercises to try. When writing science fiction or fantasy these sorts of exercises are quite complicated. If a character is living in a fictional world then, sometimes, everything about their life has to be invented. If they visited Mars you have to think of a good name for a city on Mars.

In the novels I have read the development of character is almost invisible. You reach the end of the novel and you know many details about the character but you can't always say how you know those things.

Writer's Blog: Graduating to Trolleys

My dad had the rather strange idea the other day. He suggested that I should wear a graduation robe to my pushing-trolleys job. It would be impractical but, as dad said, it would probably raise headlines. The point of this exercise was to highlight the of the job centre. I leave it to you whether you fill that gap with stupidity, short-sightedness or lack of caring. The point is that I have now attended the job centre with A levels and a degree and have noticed no obvious change in the opportunities offered. It makes me wonder how far the stupidity goes. If a person with a doctorate were to be made redundant and had difficulty finding work would they be given a trolley pushing job?

The point, that in a rambling and meandering way, I'm trying to make is simple. When a person is using the job centre their qualifications should be at the core of how they are helped. So a person with no qualifications should be given a different list of job placements to someone with qualifications.

To undermine everything I've just said the job isn't all bad. In fact were a vacancy available I would happily except it. It would give me an income, enough to pay the bills, and allow me to concentrate on my studies. Also being on one's feet and walking for so long is a great way to lose weight.

So I will be sticking with the job for the time being.

Writer's Blog: It Has Been a Long Time

I am now back online after quite sometime without Internet. Its funny how quickly the Internet has become so much of a necessity. When I first used the net there was only one computer in our house - my parents, brother and I all had to share. Now, between the four of us, we have at least twelve Internet capable devices. I was saying to my father the other day that I could, almost, manage better missing an arm than without the Internet. - I don't want to test that theory!

With my work placement still going on posts will be a little sporadic - till the placement ends or I get used to the routine - but I should be posting at least twice a week.

I also have a new site up - https://unstableorbit.wordpress.com/. On this site, which was created as part of my university course, I hope to put longer pieces of work.

I'll be back with another post in a few days.

Writer's Blog: The Internet and the Work Placement

I have been given a date when my house will once again have Internet – 7-10 working days. The problem is now my computer's unreliability. I'm currently sitting in the LRC at university and I'm supposed to have an Internet connection. For some reason this isn't working and my computer only seems able to connect to the router for short periods of time.

If you're reading this it means I found a connection!

I've had a job placement recently – I'm not sure I mentioned it. I won't say where it is for now. What I will say though is that it is a hard job. We're on our feet for nearly the entire shift and it mostly consists of moving trolleys about! I have another four days of this and the potential to continue for a customer service qualification. Though this is very hard work I am considering continuing with the placement. If nothing else the placement is very good exercise. They say that there is no job opening but maybe their will be in another few weeks. I find myself wondering if I was getting paid for this if it would make any difference to how I felt about the job – maybe.

Writer's Blog: Characters

Later this month I'll be posting the next segment of my analysis of Writing a Novel. This will be on the subject of character.

Before I do that I wanted to prefix that with a discussion of Summon the Thunder. This is a Star Trek book and it has, I believe, a bit of a problem when it comes to characters - quite simply their are too many of them.

The characters are reasonably well defined. However I find myself getting confused as to who is who, what species they are and on which ship they serve. Also, and this may just be laziness on my part, I get confused with the names. Mostly I just look at the peaks and troughs of the name, so a 'g' and a 'y' look smiler. Even two names starting with a 'K' can be confusing. Nevertheless the nature of the novel is that it requires many characters. It is slow to start but once it gets going it makes for an interesting read.

Things I've found: Buzz Words

'...the precise correlation between the information you communicated and the facts, insofar as they can be determined and demonstrated, is such as to cause epistemological problems, of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear.' Sir Humphrey - Yes, Minister.

In other words I told a lie - or rather I'm about to. This post does not live up to the title of 'Things I've Found' as this item was something I was directed to by a tutor at university. The item is called 40 Publishing Buzz Words. It contains knew definitions for words we're all familiar with.

One of my favourites is: “classroom-friendly”: “kids won’t read it unless they have to”

These come from twitter so there's bound to be more.

I seemed to have had an errant apostrophe in these posts. 'Things' doesn't have an apostrophe - unless it does and this is the mistake!

Writer's Blog: 100 Items

I don't know where my copy of 'Writing a Novel' is at the moment so It'll be a while before a post something else on that subject. In the meantime I just wanted to put up a quick post. This is about an article which I heard about second-hand hand.

It was about a man who decided to limit himself to 100 items only. This is something I want to try to do – to get rid of a long of my junk. I need to lean to be ruthless and throw away, or give to charity, a lot of the clutter.
In a couple of places I'm going to cheat however. For instance I have books, dvds, CDs and various filled documents (like bills) they will not be marked individually. So I'll have my library, my dvd collection and my CD collection as three items, my filing cabinet will also be one item. So I'm hoping to start by getting rid of one hundred items a day. I know that most days I won't make that target but it is a good thing to try.
Could you manage with just a hundred items?

Things I've Found: The Fantasy Novelists Exam

Another thing I've stumbled onto. The Fantasy Novelists Exam. This is simply a list of questions. The idea, I guess, is to promote the idea of uniqueness in fiction.

Rather harshly it says 'Answering "yes" to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.'

Examples of these questions include:

• Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it?


• Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about "The One" who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?


• Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names?

Take a look and see what you think.

Writer's Blog: No internet

I'm writing this post in a word document, well LibreOffice Writer to be precise, because I don't have Internet at home at the moment. You see – I've just moved house.
I've been living in bit of chaos recently as everything is moved. I've discovered that I have a hell of a lot of junk. I'm hoping to get rid of lots of stuff and limit myself to just what I need. Its funny but although I have lots of stuff, what I use on a day-to-day basis is actually quite minimal: Computer; desk; chair(s); phone; kindle; book(s), food and a few other things. Sorting is hard though and sometimes you come across an item and you don't know what it is, perhaps a lid off something, but you keep it because you think that one day you will find what it is the lid for.
I should say thank you to my mother at this point for her invaluable help in organising the knew house and my too many possessions.
My Internet connection will be transferred down to my knew house in about a week. Then I can get back to wasting my time again. Its quite funny actually – I'm rather enjoying not having the Internet it means there is much less distraction. You as the reader though will notice no disruption in my posts as I have scheduled several to come out over the next few days – at least I think I have.
In other news my Scriptwriting Master's starts tomorrow. Its at the wonderfully civilised time of 1000 hours so getting up will not be a problem. I'm really looking forward to this course as scriptwriting is my favourite aspect of writing. I will write about the first day and, using my parents Internet connection, post it on Sunday. Until then see you soon.

Things I've Found: Religious Nerds

Don't be deceived. I'm not actually as with it as it appears. I'm scheduling lots of posts.

I don't know why I told you that.

Anyway I wanted to share a video with you. It's from College Humor. These videos can be somewhat hit and miss. This one is definitely a hit.



On a slightly different topic... Do you ever get caught in You Tube traps? By that I mean you watch one video and then another looks interesting and another and another. Sometimes I'll be watching many consecutive videos and telling myself 'Stop!' - Its a strange thing.

Things I've Found: Stumbling Upon a Video

This has little to do with writing but I wanted to share a strange video. Its, obviously, an odd song but some how I like it. Its by a band called Swish and Flick.



When I see something like this I wonder if I will ever write something that will be parodied.

Writer's Blog: Writing a Nover - More Sub-plot Symbolism

This will be a quick run through of the remaining questions of Chapter 4 of Writing A Novel.

There are five more questions in this section.(Pages 46 & 47)

In the interest of expedience I'm going to skip over question 3. It asks about unwitting symbolic elements to the story and I don't feel I've much to say on that.

Question four is far more interesting. It gives three one line synopses of a story and then asks for thoughts on sub-plots. In brackets are the possible themes of the stories. I'm just going to look at one of them.

'An out-of-work actor impersonates a woman to get work, and becomes a soap-opera star (men are very different from women).' (P47)

Now I would say that if this is your story its probable going to be a comedy. (Though it would be interesting to see this as a serious story.) So that gives ideas of sub-plot. In this type of story the secret would be a big issue. A gay woman could fall for him, believing the disguise, or perhaps a gay man falls for him not believing the disguise - and all the while the poor out-of-actor is in love with the young casting director who may fire him if she finds out his secret.

As odd as it may sound I almost want to write that story now.

The last three questions are all about names. The name of the novel and the names of the characters. What is being emphasised here is that a different name can have a different influence on how the character is viewed. This is a personal thing. If, for instance, you were bullied for years by someone called Alex - then it is doubtful that you would name a character this. So the name of a character will never be right for everyone - just try and make sure it sounds right to you and isn't accidentally the same name as a, either fictional or real, famous person.

Writer's Blog: Masters.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update. I have been accepted on a scriptwriting masters at Glamorgan University. This is a two year part time course and I'm really looking forward to it!

Since this course is part time I should be able to work as well. I'm hoping that being at university will mean that prospective employers will know what box to put me in. A person on a master's course applying for bar work makes a certain amount of sense. Most of my work will be personal study.

I'll talk more about this after my first weekend (Friday and Saturday) of study.

Writer's Blog: Writing a Novel - Sub-plot and Symbolism

Looking again at Writing a Novel I have decided to look just at the 'Things to Try' section.

I don't know what the rules are about quoting a novel on the Internet. Yet it seems to me that mention of new laws being passed and silly legislation come up far too frequently.

So here goes...

These questions come from page 46 and 47 of the book.

The first two questions cover the main plot and sub-plot of a novel. I am working on two novels. My fantasy novel is Lord of the Rings-esk but, I believe, still quite different. So it doesn't have much in the way of sub-plots. Rather the story is all about people doing what they think is best and the consequences of their actions.

My science fiction novel does have sub-plots. Actually the issue with it at the moment is that I'm not sure what the main plot is. I have a protagonist and it is the story of her life. I have flash points - events that spur her on - but I'm not sure how to interconnect them. In case that's unclear you can't just have the big events in a vacuum. Say you're writing a novel of two people and how they became a couple. A reader may know that is ultimately what is going to happen but you have to have mundane aspects of life interspersed.

This character joins Astrofleet, essential Starfleet, and it is about her career. However she needs to be actually doing something - even though the story is about her and not the mission.

I have watched several documentaries on Royal Navy ships, which gives something of an idea, but in my universe a lot of the day-to-day work can be done by robots. So if anyone from the navy, any navy, happens to stumble onto this could you answer a question for me? Say you're home port is in Portsmouth and you're deployed to the Middle East - on that journey, aside from drills and such - what do you do? I'd imagine that whilst travelling around friendly waters there isn't that much.

One thing I'm slowly discovering about a novel is that it doesn't have to be about anything. I'm reading Looking for Alaska at the moment. Its a good book but actually not a lot happens. Its a difficult thing to explain. There are a few actual events but mostly its people smoking and drinking. The character's are clear though and the first person narrative is very helpful.

Writing is a strange thing.

Writer's Blog: Looking For Alaska

Three days ago I finished Looking for Alaska. It is written by John Green. In other words this guy.



In case you are unfamiliar John Green is one half of the Vlogbrothers . Their videos are very good but this post is supposed to be about the book.

Looking for Alaska is a excellent novel. I won't write up the blurb here because it gives too much away. It is the story of Miles Halter who goes to boarding school and meets Alaska Young. There is a definite story here but what I find interesting is most of the actual scenes are just the group of friends talking, drinking and smoking. Yet from this, and the pranks they play, we get to know the characters.

With every book I read I lean something knew. This book has showed me that a story can easily be formed by chronicling every day occurrences.

Now I'm reading Star Trek Vanguard - Summon the Thunder.

Writer's Blog: Sorting Through The Pictures

My father has been setting up backups for me recently. The website we're using is called Spideroak. In a shameless bit of self promotion if you need backups you could consider Spideroak and, if you used this link I'll get more space!

Anyway enough of that. The point of this post is that one of the things being backed up are my photos. I don't take many but have a few hundred collected over the last few years. As I've said before photos are important to a blog so I'll be using some of them for future posts.

That's all for now - more posts coming soon.

Writer's Blog: Long Time No See

Its been nearly two weeks since I last posted. I wish I could say its because I've been doing a lot but that would be a lie.

I did spend a week in Tenby and utterly failed to take any pictures! My family go to Tenby every year. Its a great place but somehow this year it wasn't quite as good.

I'm quite an intense person. I don't relax very well and am always concerned about the next thing I have to do. When I go to Tenby it is a time to relax. Its almost magical how wonderful the feeling is of being in that place and feeling that their are no troubles in you're life. This time however it didn't come.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the trip but the feeling of relief was never quite there. I think I know why that was. I was aware that it was another year in Tenby and nothing had changed. I kept hoping that one year we would go and I would have a job. Therefore I could afford to pay my way a lot more and really contribute to the holiday. Still I have no job. (If not a job at least a girlfriend.)

I do have a degree in Creative and Professional Writing but I've yet to find a job that specifically calls for that particular qualification. It may be that one doesn't exist. So I'll continue looking for work and working on my novel.

I'm sorry to be such a downer - I sound worse than Jack Dee - but I see to be flipfloping between being silly happy and silly sad.

There will be more stuff to come this week. I'm hoping that that will include some pictures from Birthday.2 on Saturday.

Hope you have/have had a great day.

Writer's Blog: Uncomfortable Chair

Once a fortnight I have to go into town to go to the job centre. Usually I stay in town for the rest of the day and find a place to sit and write. I don't want to have to pay to do this so I go to Cardiff Central Library. Let me tell you something...

Cardiff Central Library specialise in the most uncomfortable chairs known to humankind! These chairs are hard, inflexible, they bow inwards, and there aren't enough of them by sockets. Some of the chairs have little tables attached to them. I've tried using them and the table never quite seems to be in the right position - also these mini-tables seem only just big enough for my tiny laptop!

I have only a vague memory of the previous library. This was at a time before I discovered the wonder of books. That library wasn't pretty but it was packed full of books and proper chairs!

When I have the money I'm going to buy a really nice chair from Staples. At least it should be really nice - the one I have my eye on is around £200!

Writer's Blog: Writer's Wondering

I was walking through town the other day. There were some people on the street selling some sort of accident - 'Have you been injured on work or on the road'- type insurance. I had the strange desire to 'trip' over their sign and get the company to sue themselves!

Writer's Blog: Reviewing

Since leaving university, and before, I have considered how I can use my degree in the real world. Ideally I'd like to work for a short story magazine. However such things, and again Star Trek is my reference, may not exist any more. So while the magazine depicted in 'Far Beyond the Stars' may have existed in the 1950s I doubt such a thing would be around today.

Reviewing is something I'm looking into. Reviewing may not be a way to make money necessarily but it does mean that an author has to provide you with a copy of their book. For me as an avid reader this is a wonderful thing. Then over time I should be able to develop a name for myself. That, I think, is the important thing to learn about writing, that each time you write you are developing your trade.

Reviewing is an especially interesting form of writing. Almost anything reviewed will probably have been reviewed before. Not only will some people find a book excellent while others find the same book rubbish, but they may have these opposite opinions for precisely the same reasons.

Raymond Chandler said that writers have 'a million words of crap to get out of their system.' I must be well on my way. If you are writing keep at it and finish something. - I haven't finished my novel yet so do as I say not as I do.

Writer's Blog: Nudity and Violence in films.

For a while I've been considering posting short pieces about various random things. I don't have a specific game plan here but for today I want to discuss films.

Just a brief not before I start. I live in Wales so I know British film certification. At the moment film certificates are as follows: Universal, PG, 12A, 12, 15, 18, R18. So if I refer to a films rating this is the system I will use. If you need these terms explained there is a great page on wikipedia about it. You can see this page by clinking - BBFC.

If you use you tube then you will know that nudity is not allowed but strangely violence is. I saw this video a while ago...



... and in trying to find this video I found another which had a man stabbing a woman. This was a clip from a film, obviously, but it is still allowed on you tube. I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed, that's not what this is about, it's just strange that it is. Strange because if someone wanted to do a vlog naked and talking about their love of kittens they wouldn't be able to.

Now this discussion can lead to a lot of silliness. I will admit their are some very attractive you tubers and I could turn this into a 'Who, on you tube, would you most like to see naked?' type thing. I'm not going to do that. I'm simply going to ask a question. Why is it that we, as a society in general, are prepared to have images of violence more accessible than just a nude image?

I'm not talking about porn, or even sex in movies, that's another kettle of fish entierly. I'm just talking about a naked person. That idea without context. Yes if naked blogging became a thing on you tube then those people would be sexualised - however that is in the mind of the viewer.

(In the same way that a father might sit and watch children's TV with his kids becasuse of the presenter's low cut top.)

I think that simply being naked should not be considered as much of a problem as it is.

Of course this may largely be an issue for the western world. In some parts of Africa the women go around topless. If there was a news story their then the presenters would be allowed to show these senses - even before the watershed. However, and admittedly this may not be true, if a female presenter decided to live amongst the tribe, for a documentary, and live like they do I imagine that the camera would have to be kept high.

This has been something of a rambling post. So in closing I just want to break it down simply. Why is it that we feel that showing our children a man getting hacked to pieces by a sword is all right, the film would probably only be a 15; but a film with innuendo, full frontal nudity but no actual sex would be an 18?

I don't have children but when I do I wonder what choices I will make in this regard. I don't believe that watching excessive violence will turn them into a violent person. I also don't believe that nudity is particularly problematic either. What do you think?

Writer's Blog: Lirael and Abhorsen

Lirael and Abhorsen are not really two books. That is to say that the story continues from one to the next.

Together they are both excellent books. Though I will admit that they were not as enjoyable as the first time I read them. (The first time they were read to me when I was much younger.) They are aimed at children but I think that adults can enjoy them.

Lireal begins with the eponymous character contemplating suicide. Naturally this is a dark opening of a children's book. However I think that NiX handles the subject matter very well. We follow Lireal and the other characters through two worlds.

Abhorsen continues right from where Lireal finishes. Lireal is joined by Sam as they travel across the Old Kingdom to prevent the release of a deadly power.

I realise that this isn't going to win any awards for reviews. I just want you to read these books. I hope you enjoy reading them. If you have any questions about these books let me know.

Writer's Blog: I Was Wrong

A while back, when talking about the Kindle, I mention not being able to click to a specific park of a book. Well it turns out I was wrong about that.

I've looked again at 'Writer Good or Die' and it does let you jump to specific sections. So, what can I say, my bad.

I've just looked at another of the titles I've got and this one doesn't allow for that ease of navigation.

It seems that the kindle is quite an interesting thing. How things are formatted seems to vary dramatically. I downloaded a sample of Star Trek Titan: Orion's Hounds. These books, at the beginning of chapters, have a bold capital letter. Unfortunately it doesn't format properly so we get...

W
e...

Instead of We... As with any news technology there is a ways to go before it is perfect. Given the price difference I'll probably still be buying this books in paper form.

Addendum

I'm still reading Abhorsen and I hope to be able to post a short review soon. However it might have to wait until after I get back from holiday.

Writer's Blog: Books so Easy.

The Kindle has many free and not too expensive books. I am slowly going through the free books and downloading them. There are thousands of these free books so this down loading could take a very long time. Also each book will take me at least a week to read.

I will also buy books for the kindle. Somehow buying on a kindle feels less real than on the main Amazon website - maybe because you have to wait for that book to arrive. So it could be very easy to spend a silly amount of money on books.

I have only bought the one book and that was a '1,001 Writing Prompts to Ignite Your Creative Spark.'

I've skimmed this book and will be looking at it in a later post.

Writer's Blog: Tired and Random Thoughs

Yawn. It's 11:25 as I write this and I haven't long been up. It was Torchwood yesterday and I always go to my parent's house to see it. I left late. I planned to leave as soon as the episode came to a close. It never works like that.

This series of Torchwood has been very good. The last episode had Nana Visitor in it and John de Lancie is in it next week. Yes I'm a nerd - I don't care any more. I'm hoping that Nana Visitor has more of a role next week.

During the day yesterday I when on, what might have been described as a wild goose chase except I found what I was looking for, trip to find the location of a restaurant where I'll be doing a work placement. Yes, the job centre actually came through and arranged a placement. The restaurant is in the middle of nowhere and is a bit of a pig to get to but I'm hoping the job itself will be worth it.

After Torchwood my mother and I had a look for bus routes. There is a bus that goes all the way to the restaurant but it's hourly. So it'll be two buses. The good thing is that I'll have about forty minutes to read on my kindle.

Yes the kindle again. I admit that I probably couldn't read a 'real' book on a bus. So technology is winning.

There is a possibility that this placement will lead to a real job with money and everything. Before that though I have a family holiday. I will hope to be scheduling several posts to appear while I'm away.

Writer's Blog: Write Good or Die

Write Good or Die is a collection of short... articles, I suppose you'd call them, from various authors. It was the first book I downloaded to my Kindle. It was free when I downloaded it but now, for some reason, the price had increased to £0.86. For aspiring writers it is a great read. I haven't finished reading it yet but let me give you a flavour of the work.

In the words of Heather Graham - '...don't make yourself sick of a story before you've told it.'

This has a particular resonance with me. My novel has got to the stage where I am sick of it! Nevertheless I'm plodding along.

I must thank my brother for his help. He put together a time line for me and helped me to realise that I was actually telling more than one story. I now have a bit more of a handle on exactly what the story is.

My brother's web site is Kiml42.

Writer's Blog: What's in a Name?

Writing a Novel

Names are perhaps one of the most complexed things when writing fiction. I find this quite difficult as it often seems like I need a new name every other page. The reason for this is that I'm writing a science fiction story with many jobs on the starship. I don't want to say 'The Communications Officer' all the time.

Having said that the names of secondary characters probably don't mater too much but the main character makes a big difference. The name may effect how your character is seen by the reader.

Mr Watts tells us: 'No names are neural in fiction - they all carry the weight of their predecessors.' (Writing a Novel p 44)

Watts gives the example of a name such as 'Juliet' - It carries such weight that the question has to be asked - 'Does the resonance suit your intention?' (p44)

Its not just character names that are discussed. The title of our work and the job of our characters are also important. I will be discussing this in a future post.

Writer's Blog: Lirael

Finished Lirael today. It is an excellent story but can't really be separated from Abhorsen as the story ends on a cliffhanger. I'll be looking over the two together in about a fortnight or so.

Unfortunately Abhorsen is not available on Kindle. My parents have the hard back though!

Writer's Blog: I Gave In

Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a - it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It's-it's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um, smelly.

Rupert Giles - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I, Robot... You Jane.

I had always said that a Kindle didn't interest me. I agree with the above quote. There is something wonderful about actually holding a book in your hands. So although I now have a kindle I don't think I'll ever stop reading books.

There is still something wonderful about a book shop. Seeing all the stories in neat rows. You can just pick up a book and flick through it - you can't do with a kindle. Like anything this device has good and bad points.

The obvious best thing about a kindle is the huge amount of free books available. As I write this post I am periodically checking the free book list and downloading them.

The Green Fairy Book.

The slightly annoying thing is that some books that should be their, i.e. they're out of copyright, aren't. Also I was very surprised to find that Harry Potter does not have a kindle edition!

The Grey Fairy Book.

Nevertheless this is an excellent purchase. Now onto what could be improved. As I mentioned you can't flick through, like you can with a book, there is of course the option to search which is almost as good. However some of the books I've down loaded are short story collections and, unless its just me being silly, it seems that you can't just jump to a story and have to instead navigate to it. This to me seems like a bit of an oversight.

The Awakening and Selected Short Stories.

Finally the geek in me is laughing. I now have a 'padd' and can pretend I'm aboard the USS Enterprise!

Writer's Blog: Sabriel

Sabriel by Garth Nix is a fantasy novel and part of The Old Kingdom series.

The story is quite complicated and I can't really do it justice here. It is the story of two worlds, one magical and one technological, these worlds are separated by a wall.

The most interesting thing in this book, and I think most original, is that magic and technology only work in their respective worlds. So a Charter Mage, this term is used in place of Witch or Wizard, can do spells in the Old Kingdom but if they cross the wall, into Ancelstierre their spells may not work. Magic can sometimes work in Ancelstierre but only in the areas close to the wall and it is dependant on which way the wind is blowing. Similarly technology is ineffective in the Old Kingdom.

These two words, neither of which is ours, make for a very interesting story. We as readers get to lean about two exciting new places.

The story is about Sabriel who leaves the technological world of Ancelstierre to go in search of her missing father. This is a novel about necromancy and magic and is an excellent read. Though it is supposed to be a children's book I believe that adults will enjoy it too. However an adult reader may find it a little simplistic in places.

I give this book ****

Writer's Blog: Asylum

Asylum is a strange book. I haven't actually seen the film but as I'm lacking a picture it seemed like a good illustration for this post.

Naturally Asylum tells the story of an Asylum. It's main character is Stella Raphael who is the wife of one of the psychiatries and becomes involved with one of the patients. As you can probably tell from the trailer it isn't the happiest of stories. However I did find the novel a good read. I can't really say, given the subject matter, that it was enjoyable but Patrick McGrath has written a good story. The question is why?

What I mean by that is a little difficult to explain. J.K Rowling for instance was compelled to write Harry Potter. The story I heard was that she wrote the first paragraph on a napkin on a train.Now I'm not saying that every writer has this feeling of needing to write. I myself find it to be an uphill struggle - yet I still want to write. The point about Patrick McGrath I'm trying to make is that I can't see him compelled to write this story or struggling through the up hill battle of writing this novel.

Of course everybody is different, There are no doubt an infinity of reasons why someone chooses to put hours and hours in to creating a new world from their fingertips. I would certainly recommend Asylum. It is always good to fine new books to read so let me know if you have any recommendations.

I have now (from the 28th July) started reading Sabriel by Garth Nix. I'll probably be reviewing this is a little over a week.

Writer's Blog: Sargasso Sector

Douglas Adams is the author of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is a great book certainly but it's not one I expected to find a reference to in a Star Trek book. Yes in this story the crew of the USS da Vinci discover an infinity improbability drive.

Well not quite. In this they call it an Uncertainty Drive. (p590) Strange things start to happen to crew such as - "The lift doors opened and...a kangaroo hopped onto the bridge..." (609) This is the best story in the Grand Designs collection. As I said in a previous post the other stories were meh. They had some interesting parts but on the whole they weren't so good. Although I enjoyed Sargasso Sector I feel it is misplaced in the Star Trek universe. The science in Star Trek has never exactly been great but in universe it is, theoretically, supposed to make sense. As this is not a holodeck story there is no real justification for the strange goings on. Perhaps this is just me being pernickety.

Nevertheless this was a good story and made some interesting statements about probability.

Writer's Blog: Grand Designs

I recently finished Grand Designs. Its a book in the Star Trek Corps of Engineers series.

This series has many ups and downs in quality. I think that the more recent stories have not been as good as good as some of the earlier ones. In this book the majority of the stories just get a meh from me. However I have to make an exception for Sargasso Sector. While I think that its author, Paul Kupperberg, is new to Star Trek it is a good story. I shall be discussing it fully in my next post. That should be in a few days. In the meantime you can buy the ebook here or the whole book.

Writers Blog: A Late Delivery from Cardiff

It has now been over a week since my graduation. I meant to post this last week but stuff kept getting in the way. So finally there it is my graduation photo. - Or rather a graduation photo.

It was a strange event but probably worth while. Yes, okay I admit it, mum and dad were right about the importance of graduation. Of course if I hadn't gone I would have thought that that was the right choice. I probably wouldn't have realised my mistake until sat with my grandchildren with no picture to show them! By the time I have grandchildren they'll be asking why the picture is 2D and or not moving! And the cost of their university education will be astronomical.

Now that university is finished I'm on the hunt for a job. In the mean time I hope to be posting far more frequently. So see you soon!

Writer's Blog - Symbolism

'A symbol is anything that stands for anything else. Of course, all language is symbolic - the word 'dog' has never yet bitten anybody - however, the literary forms referred to as symbolism are: metaphor, simile and allegory.' (43) Writing a Novel.
The chapter goes on to list the purposes of symbolism.

1. To Demonstrate a Concept


2. To add a further dimension


3. To sneak behind the rational mind

These concepts are rather complicated. Basically the emphasis in this section is that writing is a form of lying. "love is not at all like a rose, nor the moon like a balloon) P44 Meaning that words are already an agreed symbol. If there was some undeniable truth to words then there wouldn't be many languages.

I think the most interesting thing discussed in this section is the importance of names. It talks of how the wrong name can carry too much weight and not work in the story.

I remember hearing that Captain Jonathan Archer in Enterprise was originally to be call Jackson Archer.This was shelved when it was realised that there was only one Jackson Archer in the US. So it was then decided to call him Jeffrey Archer!

I have occasionally searched for the names of my characters. As I write this I seem to remember talking about this before. Of course its impossible to cover all possibilities. I might give a character a name that rhythms with a famous American chat show host. So on the whole I think worrying about such things is a little silly. When we consider the international nature of publications every name will sound silly somewhere.

Writer's Blog - It's Such a Beautiful Day

I have just finished 'Through a Glass Clearly' by Isaac Asimov. This is a collection of four short stories. It truly lives up to the tag of Master of Science Fiction.

The forth stories are:

1. It's Such a Beautiful Day


2. Belief


3. Breeds There a Man...?


4. The C-Chute

All of these, except Belief, had a page on Wikipedia. It is a great short collection that I would thoroughly recommend. I think that Asimov is at his best when writing short stories. I have read one or two of his novels and got a little confused. - Though I was reading a trilogy in the wrong order!

It's Such a Beautiful Day describes a world where people no longer go outside instead they use a Door. This is like a cross between a teleporter, the Iconian Gateway and Stargate. It was first published in 1954 coming thirty-three years before TNG.

It may seem an odd thing to bring in Star Trek (again) but I just find it fascinating that these ideas which we think of as fairly modern have actually been around for a long time. It is often said that there are no new ideas.

The other stories in this set are also well worth a read but I think that It's Such a Beautiful Day is my favourite.

Writer's Blog - TV themes

Sometimes when I'm writing, particularly a short story, I try to come up with cliff hangers. Though I'm not sure that you can quite achieve that effect the same way you can for a television episode. Its just a fun exercise of the mind. Anyway along with this idea of the cliffhanger is theme music. Unfortunately you can't do theme music in a book.

Sometimes I'll think of part of a story ending in a cliff hanger and see what tune comes to mind. If the story is going to be good it might be this....



Not so good it might be something like this...



It's not a bad song as these things go it just doesn't fit.

That, of course is just my opinion. So I wonder if there is anyway to create the effect of a cold opener in written form.

Writer's Blog - Sub plot

Writing a Novel continues with a chapter on sub plot.

Sub-plot is basically a secondary part of the novel, or television episode, that compliments the main plot. At least that would be how I'd define it. Of course this has been done badly as in Silent Enemy, an episode of Enterprise. The summery, or Cliffnotes version, is that the ship is being attacked and the captain keeps ordering Hoshi to find out Reed's favourite food!

So to the book. The chapter begins with, oddly enough, a simple definition. Since I couldn't hope to match eloquence of Watts I'll start with that.

'The sub-plot is a subsidiary storyline which runs parallel to the main story, a narrative strand that can be taken away without causing the whole book to unravel.' (p41)

As mentioned above Enterprise got the idea of the sub-plot wrong in Silent Enemy. However I would be remiss if I didn't mention where Star Trek had done it well....



This is widely regarded as the best of the Star Trek cliffhangers. - As an aside its wonderful to be able to say that without having to put references!

Anyway this is the point in The Best of Both Worlds where Riker shows he can command the Enterprise. (Its later undone as the must be the reset button!) Its where the sub-plot combines with the main plot.

Of course its not totally necessary for the plots to combine in quite this way. A sub-plot can have little to do with the main thrust of the story but can help with character development. I'm trying to think of an example of where this was done and am coming up empty. I am trying to bring in a subplot in my novel. One of my characters discovers her magical ability and wishes to use that to help her mother, who is in a state of depression, it is not directly related to the main plot but it should serve to show what sort of person this character is.

Like the central theme of a novel Watts notes that a sub-plot also requires an arc. Watts also notes the dangers of the 'two-headed monster.' (p42)

'Beware of developing the sub-plot too much: you may create a two-headed monster, that is, a story with two distinct plots of equal weight, which can be confusing to the reader' (p42)

I'll discuss more on that next time. (Which may be tomorrow)

Writer's Blog - No Title Comes to Mind

Its Thursday. That sounds like the beginning to an even worse song about a day in the week. With that sentence I jump on the bandwagon of bashing Rebecca Black. Perhaps this is just a shameless way to get more hits on this site - but to be honest its just what occurred to me when I started writing this post. Basically I'm surprised at myself for actually keeping up with blog posts as I intended.

The other day I submitted a story for a competition. The competition is for Writing Magazine. This took some time as the upload didn't work. The problem was my story had a question mark in the title and for some reason that wasn't allowed! Anyway it is now submitted.

Tomorrow I will get my results for university. The funny thing is that I only found out about this thanks to Facebook - I don't think I've received official notification from the uni.

Anyway on to Writing a Novel.




As you'll remember from the previous two posts I was discussing the eight point story arc. As I believe I mentioned it is important that the arc is not the only thing used to bring out the story. Watts states 'I find [the 8 point story arc) most useful as a checklist against which to measure a work in progress.' (p38)

So when you embark on your novel keep this in mind. Also a novel doesn't need to have one protagonist - it might have many. The eight point arc might be required for all characters.

I've discussed this section of the book in quite a lot of detail. This chapter finishes with a couple of exercises to try. It has lists of character, object and setting. From these three it suggests that a story can be formed. Since I am already working on two novels, plus short stories, I don't want to start yet another. If you want plots for your story a google search of plot generator should get you started. I particularly like Seventh Sanctum- it has many generators for stories.

Happy writing.

The next chapter of Writing a Novel is on Sub Plots and Symbolism. I'll begin working on that post now. I will either set it to come out in a few days or failing that it will be on Tuesday.

Writer's Blog - Job interview

Yesterday I had a job interview with Cafe Nero. I was going to include here an image of one of their loyalty card things. I know that that is rather lame but pictures make the blog and I forgot to take my camera with me into town! Unfortunately all the batteries in my house are too dead for use in my camera!

Instead here is a picture of Nepal.




There is no real link between these two things - beyond the fact that there are many places to eat around the stupa in this picture. In Cardiff town centre there are three Cafe Nero's within a three minute walk from each other which seems a little odd. Actually it may not be that long!

Anyway it sounds like a really good job. I'm looking forward to learning how to make the various drinks. After the interview I went round the corner to another Nero. I had planned to write for a while but my laptop battery was almost dead!

I'll be back on Thursday with some more writing information.

Writer's Blog ...and so it continues.

It was back in March that I last discussed Writing a Novel by Nigel Watts. I was looking at Chapter 3 which details the concepts of the eight point story arc. You can click here for the earlier post.

I won't go into the details here but if you want to know about this type of an arc then Daily Writing Tips describes it well.

For this post I want to discuss the rest of Chapter 3. Watts goes on to discuss arcs of a novel in general. The arc is the change the character undergoes across the story. Sadly character change and growth can something be rare in fiction. This is especially true it television which often makes use of the reset button. I particularly rememberer Earth: Final Conflict being bad for this. A new technology would be introduced at the beginning of an episode and, for various reasons, be unusable by the end. Admittedly I didn't see it all the way through and I believe it is said to have later improved. Anyway I'm getting off topic...

To show the merits of the eight point story arc the example of Jack and the Beanstalk is used. It is highlighted that Jack and the Beanstalk is not the tightest of stories. Naturally it was written for children so the plot, were it written for adults, would no doubt be tightened.

Watts tells us: "The protagonist should pass greater and greater points of no return, facing greater dangers and having greater pressure put on his resources." (p36) This is important to ensure that the story continues. Also I feel that the protagonist has to believe that these challenges are achievable - or at the very least the cost of failure is so high that there is little other choice. Finally Watts breaks down the plot of this fairy tale into its minor, major and grand plot points. The main thing to take away from this is that the difficulties are what makes a story. Jack steals gold from the giant, this version uses an ogre, if it had been a gift their would be no story.

Well I've just done a preview of this post and its quite long. So I'll finish with a quote that Watts uses to illustrate this point. I will certainly be making another post on Tuesday and may post one before then.

Nothing progresses in a story, except through conflict.

Robert McKee

Writer's Blog - The Next Generation

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated! I have just been busy for the last month. Doing what? I wish I could tell you. Its been a month since handing in my final piece of work for university.

I haven't just been lying around...



...or writing. Actually I have done some writing. Also a lot of reading. In fact I read an article the other day which talked of the advantages of short novels. Two novels of 30,000 words, as opposed to one of 60,000 means more accolades - assuming its any good.

Actually I know what I've been doing. I've been trying to get my inbox to zero emails. Its down to 35! You tube has taken up a lot of my time too. I know that's bad. There is a video I'd like to share with you though...



I don't actually know the original version but I thought this was pretty good. So enjoy it before the evil lawyers come chasing after them for copyright infringement!

After that sentence I'm trying not to break into a rant. Must not rant. Must not rant.

I'm saying actually a lot...might need to get that seen to.

I'll be back later in the week - probably Thursday. Until then I hope you all have a good day.

2011-04-06 - 2011-04-12 Writer's Blog

Another post written over a week! When uni is over I will post more frequently!


Its been over a week (two weeks now) since my last post. In internet time that is very long. I have a good reason though. I know, it makes a nice change. Well anyway yesterday (last week) I handed in my dissertation. I have been working on it all year and now its handed in.

It was quite a slog at times but now its in the office. Done. As you can see from the image my handwriting is atrocious! However I don't think I'm going to need to be able to write that much. I know strange. I plan to use a computer whenever possible!

The new issue of Writing Magazine has just arrived. (13:38 ish. This time last week.)

While this is a great magazine I have had trouble coming up with ideas for their competitions.



So I'll rip open the magazine and hopefully inspiration will strike. I still have two pieces of work to finish for university which I suppose I should also get on with!


The next piece of work due in is for Writing Culture and Society. This is a misleading subject title as the writing need have nothing to do with culture or society. For this subject I'm writing a science fiction story. It is written in a similar style to The Saga of Seven Suns. Each chapter has the heading of a character's name and that chapter stays in the point of view of that specific character. This structure came about because of the confusion of moving between POVs and locations mid chapter. Now the narrative is more focused and the novel is easier to follow.

It has only been because of tutorials that the necessity of this structure occurred. I would say to anyone writing a novel find your self a writing group. They are an invaluable resource.

The last piece of work, due in on Friday the 13th, is my screenplay. This is nearly done. I'm going through it at the moment and tightening the scenes. Some will probably be removed and their may be other's added. My script tutor told me a very important thing when editing a script. Edit in stages. I.E go thorough and look at dialogue, then description and any other aspects of the story. Only focus on one aspect at a time. This should lead to a coherent story.

Writer's Blog 2011-03-28

I think it was last year that I started looking at "Writing a Novel" part of the teach yourself range.

This next section is about the eight point story arc.

1. Stasis


2. Trigger


3. The quest


4. Critical choice


5. Climax


6. Reversal


7. Resolution

Anyone who's studied scriptwriting will probably recognise these. Each one of them can be phrased differently. I've heard "Stasis" expressed as "Who is the protagonist and what do they want?" This is a good place to start as it keeps the Vorlons and and the Shadows happy.

I was first presented with this idea in class. I must say that I misunderstood it. This is not a strict code rather it is guidelines. It is useful as a plan for a film or a novel. However in my opinion some subversion of the structure is advisable. Otherwise every story would be the same.

Everyone has seen films that follow this structure. To me it seems that particularly romantic comedies follow it. You must have seen them. The relationship is all going well. Then suddenly their is a hiccup. Somebody acts stupid, or a secret is revealed, and it looks like the couple will not live happily every after. Then we get the montage and they get back together in the end.

I've just finished a script based on this structure. In the planning stages I thought it to be a terrible encumbrance but in the final analysis it has been most useful.

The way I was taught was that these eight points then become part of a larger plan. For me this was forty points altogether. My script basically goes through and intersects all those points. Then will come the editing phase and hopefully the result will be an excellent script.

I have a scriptwriting tutorial later in the week. I will look more closely at this structure then. Until then: Good night, good morning, good afternoon and good evening. - depending on where you live.

Live long and prosper.

Writer's Blog 2011-03-21-2011-03-26

I am currently lying on the floor on my landing. Why? Because for some reason my computer is having trouble with the wireless. So I need to connect to the short yellow cable. I am on-line so it is sort of working.

I was in the centre of Cardiff the other day. I saw a young woman with a clipboard. I guess all town centres are smiler. These people are collecting money for charities and often ambush unsuspecting passers by.

Don't get me wrong I have no problem with charitable fund-raising its just the way they go about it. I'll admit to you that I have done this job. Though I am worse as I went door to door. I'm sorry. It is a terribly intrusive thing. Home should be the place where you can be sure of not being disturbed. For this job you have to lean this spiel of who the charity is and why you need money. I did the door-to-door job for three days. I hated it so much that I quite that quickly!

Anyway this woman's style should be the benchmark by which others work. She introduced herself, talked briefly and then basically said - they were raising money - it was so much a week - and could I help - perfect.

You see as soon as someone like this approaches, you know what they want. It often takes them ages to get to the point. Maybe its just me but I find it difficult to interrupt someone whist their delivering the long speech. So I would suggest to charities that they should try the simple style. They might find that they get more people signing up. The reason being that if the person they're talking to is going to say 'no' - you get there faster. You will then be able to speak to more people and make more money for the charity. That is the point after all!

So, being you typical poor student, I told her I couldn't afford it at the moment. That was it. I think though that charity collection is becoming more like a business. It is, as I know first hand, being done as a job rather than by people who are actually interested.

Of course you could try avoiding the collectors. My brother has the idea of carrying a clipboard yourself. He seems to reckon that the people would split to the sides of the street. It could work.

Writer's Blog 2011-03-13

I recently became disabled. It happened on the 21st of February. I shall never forget it. It was the day when I lost my home internet connection!

Yes. I had to manage without the internet for over two weeks. It is strange how quickly the internet becomes a part of our lives and the funny catch-22 situations you get into. My brother stopped just short of saying 'I'll email myself a reminder.' When he couldn't just use online banking. Of course he couldn't email either.

So that's the reason for my recent lack of posts. I have however discovered that its good to get out of the house sometime. Over the course of that fortnight I went to the library and a cafe to work. This was good. It may sound strange but working in that kind of place is quite useful. There is something nice about having people around you even if you're not talking to them. Though, having said that, the library, which I naturally expected to be silent, could have done with being a little quieter.



So welcome back internet! All is up and running now and I can return to a topic I started weeks ago. I ended my last post by saying that in writing nothing is ever waisted. I'm working on a novel at the moment. Actually I've been working on it for a long time. So sometimes when I write I'm actually pasting old sections in from previous drafts. Sometimes the story has taken a new directions and so I end up with segments that don't really fit. This leads to the opportunity I spoke of in my last post. It is my hope that I can take some of those sections and turn them into short stories in their own right.

Like, I suspect, most people, I failed to keep my new year's resolution. I had said that I would submit a short story to a magazine every month. Well in February I failed. The good thing about this resolution is that I can retcon it to be 12 short stories over the year instead.

Yes that is a cheat I know. However reconing seems to have been a theme of film recently.So instead I will try 12 stories this year.

Fingers crossed some will be accepted.

Writer's Blog 2011-02-14

I have mentioned the web reviewer Sfdebris before. Recently he reviewed the episode Shades of Grey. This is a clip show which, as he points out, is a thing hated by almost everyone. When I saw he was to review this I though, 'How can you possibly review a clip show. Well he managed it. Here is the review:




What I find particularly interesting is his suggestion of other possibilities for the story. Clip shows come up now and then usually because of money problems. As a writer just starting I hope never to be responsible for a clip show. The easiest way to do that is not to become involved in television!

Being serious I don't understand why clip shows happen. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Babylon 5 never had clip shows. If you're a skilled writer you can create tension with two people in an empty room. Intersections in Real Time does this. This episode is about an interrogation/torture but there is no reason why that would have to be the theme.

TNG ran into money problems on another occasion. The Drumhead was produced as the writers felt they didn't want to go down the route of another clip show. So I hope never to produce anything of that sort. However from a text perspective, novels and short stories ect. There is something you can do that may sound similar but is very effective.

This I will discuss in the text post. Nothing in writing is ever really waisted.

Writer's Blog 2011-02-11

In continuing to look at Writing a Novel there's a paragraph I'd like to share with you:

There is a basic human need for fiction, a need which comes on the heals of our primary requirements...There have been storytellers since people had full enough bellies to stop and think for a moment...the audience is seeking the fulfilment of these same three needs: entertainment, escape, understanding. (p16)

Each chapter has many exercises. At the end of this chapter we are asked to think of our favourite story.

I can't say what my favourite story is. Frankly it depends on a great many factors. I'll probably have a different answer depending on who I'm with. Two excellent stories come to mind though:
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the Old Kingdom trilogy.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a great story. I've read it, listened to it and watched it. So as not to ruin it for you, this is the story of a man who travels the galaxy in his dressing gown. The radio version is the best, followed by the book, then the TV series - the movie? AVOID. Okay it wasn't that bad. It wasn't Star Wars prequels bad. But it doesn't hold a candle to the BBC series.

The Old Kingdom trilogy is a set of fantasy novels. I have been looking at the follow up book, Across the Wall, recently for a critical essay for university. I found I remembered very little of the original trilogy other than the fact that they were very good books. They are not your typical fantasy novels. I don't really want to say more than that other than: 'They're brilliant - read them!'

I would just like to highlight something I tweeted the other day. Recently I've been watching Charmed. I completely missed it in its original run. It must have been on a channel other than BBC! Anyway I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the writing in this series. In one of the last episodes I watched, Piper brakes up with her boyfriend. They talk briefly, he calmly says he understands, kisses her and leaves. I'm glossing over the details but the point is that there were no feelings of hatred and it was calm. Often when a relationship ends in film or TV there's always crying and swearing and, in the case of Buffy, death. These two people were written like human beings!

Writer's Blog 2010-01-31

Foundation, Earth, and a Referendum



About two weeks ago I began reading Second Foundation, by Asimov. I was confused. I thought it was just me, my mind does tend to wander, but no - I was reading the books in the wrong order.

So now I know. I've moved on to another Asimov:



And will come back to the trilogy later. This is kind of embarrassing but that's part of what a blog is for.

In other news...

Here in Wales we're have a referendum on giving the Welsh Assembly government more power. I shall most certainly be voting yes to this.

As you may be aware there has recently been a big issue in the UK about student fees, for university, rising. Well, because of the Welsh Assembly it isn't happening in Wales. So for Welsh students this is great news.

Those of you reading this in England this is a sad state of affairs. I wish I could make some suggestion of what could be done. It seems that the Liberal Democrats have proven themselves to be true politicians - they make promises and do the exact opposite. Being kind though they are in government with the Conservatives so I guess there was no choice.

Of course they could have chosen not to join them.

It will be interesting to see if this rise in tuition fees has any effect on university attendance next year.


See you later in the week.

Writer's Blog 2011-01-28

Surfing the internet is like sifting for gold. Not that I've ever sifted for gold. Well recently I've found some gold. A video by Meekakitty.



She's a wonderfully funny and beautiful vlogger. I hope you enjoy this video. As a geek/nerd this gives me great hope!

I'll be back with more stuff in a few days.

Writer's Blog 2010-01-26

I would imagine that most writers buy writing guides. I have many. In this image I'm holding Writing a Novel. It is part of the teach yourself range. At the end of each chapter it has exercises to try. So that is what I'm going to do.

The first chapter deals with planning. I am not a great one for planning. Usually I prefer to make a start and see where the story goes. In the same way that sometimes just playing a game is a better way to learn, rather than reading the rules.

I have a vague idea of where my novel is going. I uploaded some sections of it here but I think that quite a lot has changed since then. I'd rather not upload my plan but I will discuss something else the book talks of and that is why I want to write.

I wish I could say that writing is purely my passion. This is not strictly true. I enjoy some of the process, such as universe creation, but it still feels like a slog. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that. While the act of writing isn't so interesting the telling of the story is. If I had children I would probably be telling them stories of my own creation every evening. Hopefully they would be interested. As I have no one to tell stories to, I write them down. It would be nice if I could make money from this one day. However if I won the lottery, which would be magic considering I don't play, I think I would continue to write and upload them for free.
Making money is simply a factor of life. So when I say I want to make money from this it is a matter of practicality. Of course I could just get a job but that to me seems rather dull.

Part of my reason for writing is also, I'm not sure how to put this, for lack of a better word, copying. I don't mean writing Stellar Conflicts, Star Wars, I mean taking a pick'n'mix of ideas. So maybe you have a story about a vampire hunter but he/she is in the twenty-fourth century. From the excellent Firefly we know that strange genera mixes can work. Sometimes in reading or in watching films I try to guess the plot. Then when I get it wrong I can write that story. More than that though there are times when other works of fiction have ideas that aren't used beyond one episode/chapter. As a writer you can take those on board an make something great.
I have no proof of any connection but TNG had an episode about, what was essentially, a stargate They didn't use beyond that episode, and one of DS9, but for the various Stargate incarnations it is the entire premise.