Seraph7

I did it! Despite the worst day, where I had to spend hours in Casualty waiting for the doctor to see my Mum because she needed a blood transfusion I managed to get Validated and sorted for 50k. I proved to myself I could do it! Even under the most challenging of circumstances.

I think next year I definitely need to plan more and not leave til 5 days in to come up with an idea. That was just asking for trouble. Leaving it til the last minute to validate was pretty stressy as well. Won't do that again!

I really want to do 100k next year. One epic fanfic and an original. That would be good!

50029 / 50000 words. 100% done!

Check out the cover of Songbirds! Simple and effective I think. I will be doing a fanmix later if I manage to reach my target of 20,000 words.



Current Progress:

16051 / 50000 words. 32% done!

So far, things are going uber slowly. I'm kind of frustrated with Scrivener which worked fine until today and now refuses to save. This mean I can't seem to get any flow going. If things don't improve I'm going to have to transfer back to Word. I hope it's just a beta glitch as I really like the software and find it useful. I would be very disappointed to abandon it.

I really do need to work on my synopsis. Make sure I have enough scenes to fill this out. I don't really want this to be a long novel. I think 75-80k would be ideal and that's what I'm aiming for.

11661 / 50000 words. 23% done!

What I'm going to do is include a snippet and I would really appreciate a couple of f-list opinions? Pretty please? I just want to know that I'm on the right track. It's like I know what I want the story to be, since it is based on the Sutherland/Callas story. I have changed things significantly though and developed the characters to be different. I didn't just whack the two characters into an RPS story. Tom and Rob are facets of Ricky and there isn't really an equivalent of Pierre. Anyway here's the excerpt.

( Come inside! )

I don't know how I feel about this, to be honest.

Anyway what else is going on. I have to leave home in about an hour because I have to go hand out leaflets at work again. I need to do a mini-review of that random 'La Faniciulla del West' production I watched, and I really want to hit at least 15k tonight, and 20k by tomorrow to get myself back on track.I also need to find that Russell Braddon bio of Joan since I will probably be using that as some kind of source.

*Now that I've finished writing 'Troubadour' I have an urge to carry on doing original work for a bit. I know it's more than enough time since I updated on A03 and sorting out those stories is a priority, but I've been thinking about starting/planning the first of my Opera romance series.
I really like the idea of this so I might plan it out instead of putting pressure on myself to do Nano which isn't going to happen this year for certain. I want to play with my Scrivener for Windows Beta that I downloaded and this is the ideal opportunity. So far I have to say I'm enjoying the features. I think once I get the hang of it it's going to be so much better. I will probably fork out for the full version when it comes out. I think it's going to be so much more useful than trying to write in Word which can be frustrating. I did try Liquid Story Binder, but I could never get the hang of it. Too many features and it was as fiddly as hell. I need something simple so I can write without the software getting in the way.
As soon as I come up with a suitable blurb I'll post it up on here to see what I think. I've even started to think roughly of casting which is interesting and there's a fanmix floating about

*I have noticed quite a few writers blogging rather negatively about the whole Nano experience recently. I think these people mostly object to the thought of thousands of people. I personally don't understand it! What is so bad about people being creative and coming up with stores of their own. Alright, some of them might be bad. The story you come up with will probably need a whole bunch of revision and rewriting until it's fit for human consumption.
I find this with a certain type of professional writer. It's like they feel that writing is an exclusive club you can only join if you have paid your dues by taking it at college or University or you're published. It's like they forget that some time ago they too were an aspiring writer needing that push and some encouragement to write.
Nano isn't for everyone, especially if you are a perfectionist, but to my mind I have found it very useful.
After I finished my Journalism degree and admittedly I didn't do that well. I knew I probably wasn't going to make a career in Journalism. I lost every single bit of confidence I had in my writing and myself. I don't know if I would have ever had the courage to start writing again if I hadn't followed the link all those years ago and signed up. I'm under no illusion that I still have a long way to go before I can be published. If indeed I have the talent to be published. But something that gives people the confidence and chance to do something creative and enjoyable.Something that democratises the process of novel writing and shows ordinary people that they can do it. They can write! How can that be a bad thing?

*I'm still trying to sort out the Opera and Ballet showing. I'm a bit frustrated with the season as it's a tricky sell. All the showing which would have been easy sells are either not playing here because they're live and we don't have the equipment, or they're simply not showing it. Let me tell you, it's far easier to persuade people to see something like 'Cosi fan Tutte' or Fonteyn and Nureyev in Swan Lake rather than something like 'Tristan und Isolde' which is a arse-puckeringly long 4 hours plus! Still, that's the job I have to do and no one else is going to do it.

*I would like to go back to college if I could afford it, but what would I study? I would like to do something English related and creative writing based. That would be excellent.

* A couple of fic recs while I'm here to finish off.I enjoyed this immensely. I feel like I ought to read more GK fic. I might try and have a nosey round, now that I'm not writing so intensely.

The Season of Rainby Idrilka
Nate is the son of two millionaires who piss off the wrong people. Brad is the bodyguard assigned to protect him.

The Four Paw Problem by AJ Hall
John is, by now, fairly used to clients showing up at 221B Baker Street and telling him they fear for their lives. He's moderately familiar with clients from aristocratic and Government circles. He's absolutely used to having his intelligence impugned in the living room of his own flat.

He's just not used to confronting impossibilities which refuse to be eliminated.
This is an enjoyable crossover from Sherlock/Saki with a subtle dash of RPF.There needs to be more Saki fic in the world as far as I'm concerned.

Seeing as I have been going on and on about my Nano 2008 novel 'The Poisoned Veil' for what seems like an age , I thought It would be a good idea to post a couple of chapters as a teaser. I won't publish the entire thing but I thought maybe my LJ friends might like to read a bit of what I have been working on since Nov! So without further ado....

Title: The Poisoned Veil
Genre: Historical Romance, Fantasy
Author: Seraph7
Rating: Mostly PG-13 (Will definitely become NC-17 at some points) Character death, Moderate Violence
Chapter Summary: Jonah Wetherby travels to France and starts his new case. On the way, he tackles an unscrupulous foe and witnesses the execution of an unrepentant sinner.
( Read more... )

Hope you like it. I need comments and suggestions so please feel free to comment on the chapter.