1,302 words. I’m also embracing the stranger side of the story at last, and may have finally got my central couple past the ‘hesitant friendship’ bit of the story, thank god. It’s not long before seriously weird stuff starts happening. I’ve got a busy day today- I’m zooming into London for a screening, plus I’ve got a book to read. Lots of stuff is happening, which is always a good sign.

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

15,018 / 67,500 (21.0%)

I’ve cracked 15,000! Plus, I’m 21% into my quota! (Which is scary, considering I’ve only just scratched the surface, story-wise…)

Yesterday afternoon, I had to go and see teen werewolf movie Blood and Chocolate at a multiplex in Basingstoke, thanks to the distributors not screening the thing. The film itself was pretty dreary teen horror bobbins, but possibly the strangest moment (aside from the point in the film where I realised that all the werewolves’ clothes were magically evaporating every time they changed into wolves) was in the trailers. Yet another anti-piracy trailer turned up, except this one was selling us the idea of how fantastic a movie like Apocalypto is on the big screen, and how the crappy picture of a pirate DVD is nothing in comparison to the real thing.

All very true. With one problem.

We already knew that. We were actually in the cinema.

It reminded me of those old adverts on VHS tapes trying to sell the amazing picture quality of DVD when the format was just getting established- when there was no physical way of showing the difference. It’s just a nutty way of marketing, and the very definition of preaching to the converted. What’s the point of telling people who’ve payed to watch a film on the big screen that the big screen is best? If I wanted to watch a Pirate DVD… I would have watched a Pirate DVD instead! I managed to resist the urge to shout “We know!! We know!!” at the screen, but it was a close call…

Today- 926 words, plus I did a couple of reviews, and I actually drove properly for the second time in a very long while. Last week, I drove home from Alton- this week, I drove all the way to Winchester and back. I was on the road for about an hour- there were a couple of errors, and a couple of things I need to do better, but otherwise I did pretty well. It’ll take me a little while, and I need more confidence, but I’m feeling good about this.

I just need some time to work on The Hypernova Gambit, now…

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

13,716 / 67,500 (19.0%)

982 words. A little better than yesterday- I’m allowing some things to happen, and if I have to speed up this bit of the story, then so be it. I don’t know what I’m going to end up with, but it’s going to be interesting finding out.

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

12,790 / 67,500 (18.0%)

805 words. To be honest, it’s not helping that at the moment, I’m not quite sure how to graduate my story from the world of normality into the world of strangeness- the way I’ve got it thought out, it needs to be a gradual thing… but I think plunging into weirdness unexpectedly might be more exciting. I’m slowly learning the difference between writing down every single beat of the story and only writing down the ones that actually make a significant difference (I’m not writing highbrow literature- most of my stuff is designed to be a funky, strange adventure). Most of the stuff I’ve written over the past couple of days has been useful to a degree, but it hasn’t actually been stuff I could see lasting into the next draft. I don’t want to stop and take a break- I just need to choose which of the multitude of forks in the road in front of me I’m going to actually take.

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

11,808 / 67,500 (17.0%)

Soon, I may have a blog entry that isn’t just a progress report. Stranger things have been known to happen…

The trees outside are covered in snow. I’ve just done today’s quota- 921 words. Wasn’t quite as easy as yesterday- I’m still wandering through unknown territory story wise, and it’s probably the kind of thing I’ll only be able to correct once I come back and redraft.

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

11,003 / 67,500 (15.0%)

1102 words. All before breakfast.

And the running total is… (drumroll)…

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

10,082 / 67,500 (14.0%)

I have cracked the 10,000 word mark on this thing. Life feels good!

1127 words. This, on a scene that I wasn’t even sure I could do.

I’ve just managed to get my two lead characters to meet properly (admittedly by accident). It might be cliched and contrived having them running into each other (it’s set at a school, and they don’t share classes, so I don’t have many options), but it’ll do for the moment. I’ll be alright once I get past the initial stages of this story- I just need to get the real bits of the story working, so that once I hit the weirdness, I can go deeply, deeply strange…

Progress on FLIPSIDE:

8,977 / 67,500 (12.0%)