davidlittlepresents.co.uk » davidlittlepresents.co.uk

A Little Drabble: Spinning

little — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:02:29 +0000

Kathleen mounted the spinning bike and started her usual rapid breathing. This wasn’t due to any physical exertion but rather part of her warm up; her way to get into the zone. She kept up the almost hyperventilating performance until the music began.

The instant she heard it, she pushed down hard on the pedals, then slowly increasing her pace in time with the music. It was her favourite dance numbers which really would push her, but that was exactly what she needed.

After all, she had to create a lot of electricity to keep her dad’s life support going.

A Little Drabble: Unique

little — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:59:06 +0000

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be special for one reason or another.

Now, you might say this was because of my parents, but I like to think of them encouraging me rather than being pushy. I tried my hand at various skills but after years of little success I thought my dream would never come true.

Then I met someone who was able to help me tap into more supernatural realms and the experiments began.

The doctors think my condition is most definitely unique.

If only I had grown a second head years ago.

So, What’ve You Been Up To?

little — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:43:23 +0000

I’ve been away from the site for a while now; going on almost 3 months I think. The last post before the drabble I put up earlier was my final one on completing NaNoWriMo 2011 which is a long time ago. As I did in 2010, once I had completed NaNoWriMo then I took a few weeks away to forget all things writing and chill out, before coming back and getting stuck into editing and future projects. That was my intention this year as well but several things have happened which has meant my time here has been… well, nonexistant.

Nothing horrible happened gentle reader, so don’t fret for me. Its more around changing jobs and having more to do now that we’ve moved back into the house which had been getting so much work done (not to mention my lovely kitchen which I happily spend time cooking in). Those two things coupled with focusing on other writing projects has meant that the site has had little TLC since November.

I did have a post set up for the end of last year to look ahead to 2012 projects but decided against publishing because I wanted to be sure of the targets before I went ahead. I’m still not sure what 2012 will bring but the picture is becoming clearer and so I thought it would be good to get back into posting here.

I did have two pieces on the amwriting.org website in the interim, so stop by and read them if you can. The first is on how to use festive gatherings as prime material for your writing (http://amwriting.org/archives/8974) and the second is how I’ve found editing to be much harder and daunting that writing in the first place (http://amwriting.org/archives/9917)

My plans for 2012 should see me delving into Self Publishing putting out at least Am/Dram if not ‘Tec as well, together with a collection of the ongoing drabbles I put on the site whic will contain some other text and art pieces as well.

In saying that, I’ve just had a cracking idea for a book which is driving me a little crazy at the moment as its consuming vast quantities of my creative time. Still, its all good and if the inspiration and ideas dried up, I’d be worried.

So, sit back, relax and hopefully enjoy more output from me this year.

No related posts.

A Little Drabble: First Day Back

little — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:24:19 +0000

The morning after his vacation was going well for Newton. He had managed to get up before the alarm and the car started first time. A parking space at the office awaited as reward for his early start and the coffee machine not only worked but seemed to be producing something resembling coffee.

Newton sat at his desk and turned on his computer, remembering his password first time and subsequently finding his inbox did not have three thousand entries.

There was just one from his boss.

“Newton,

Good to have you back.

Now, get me souls.

Best regards,

Auld Nick”

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 29 – Aaaand relax

little — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:50:25 +0000

So, after some furious writing over the past 3 days I hit the end. The novel stands at 50,347 words which just squeaks over the 50,000 word line. I’m pleased and exhausted, but still know there’s a lot more work to do to get this particular one finished.

This year was a lot harder than last year because even though I got up quite a head of steam at the start and raced ahead, I allowed myself too much time without doing any writing so was on the back foot for the past week, making up ground and finally getting over the line with 1 day to go. If I had stuck to the initial pace, I would have gotten over the line much earlier.

I still feel pretty damn good though, and while the first draft of ‘Tec isn’t complete, I’m well on my way to getting it done. My target now is to finish the first draft by the end of the year which, by my reckoning is just under 20,000 words in 32 days.

Should be a snap then.

For those of you participating this year if you’ve made it, brilliant; if you’ve got a ways to go, don’t give up. Its a great feeling and even if you don’t make it, you’ll still have achieved a lot.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 26 – A … Wait A Minute!

little — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:42:02 +0000

I haven’t updated progress here for a good two weeks. This is due to a combination of factors which are too traumatic to go into here* but suffice it to say, things happened and not much writing was achieved for at least 7 days. That was when I realised that my head start had whithered away to almost nothing and I needed to get back on the virtual saddle. Unfortunately when I climbed up, I had a bit of a creative nose bleed and had to come back down again.

This lasted a day or so when I didn’t think that I could continue with this year’s effort. I still had the scenes and beats mapped out, but turning them into something coherent or even lucent was difficult.

Then I started to get cross with myself. I had done so much with this project in the previous few weeks and now, after making so much headway, it was going to fall by the wayside.

And then, just when I was convincing myself that this was a lost cause and I didn’t think I would complete the challenge, I suddenly felt I should try.

So, I pulled up the page and started to type.

Then I typed some more, and even more than that. Next thing I knew I had done over 3000 in a couple of hours and realised that I was back on track.

It has been uphill all the way since, and I’m still not caught up but at least I’m within 10,000 words of completing the 50,000. However, to finish the first draft of ‘Tec will still need close to 20,000 words on top of that.

Still, I can worry about that in December.

* Actually no they aren’t but it packs more of a punch if I say that, no?

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 11 – The Weekend of Not Doing Much

little — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:47:52 +0000

Word count is in a good space (21k) so I’m 2 days ahead of the game. However, I’ve been at that count since Tuesday so not much has happened in between which isn’t ideal. A good head of steam could be lost if I don’t get back on track and this weekend is looking like a mostly lost cause as I’ll definitely be prioritising time with the family and have an important event to prepare for on Monday.

I’m going to have to get some amount of writing done either Saturday or Sunday night, and then motor next week. However, I’m not. I’ll still complete it, but may not have as good a head start as I had earlier this week.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 10 – The Difficult Middle Bit

little — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:00:55 +0000

As with last year, the easy parts of the novel have been the first and third acts. This is mostly because the story has been floating around in my head for years* and the good character bits are in the first few chapters, with the real excitement at the end. Of course, there needs to be engaging plot points and scenes, as well as the important character interactions in the middle act as well because without them, the potential readers could just switch off.

As I’m progressing, I’m finding that I want to jump into the second act and get some things down because I’m sure I’ll need to get something done before the NaNoWriMo deadline hits as writing 50,000 words and not having a middle is either impossible or part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sure, the drive for NaNo is to complete 50,000 words, but I don’t want to write all the scenes I know will happen and then be left struggling to create those near Day 30.

So I’m back to my plot/chapter breakdowns and taking a few which should be in the second act and starting to flesh them out. I’d like to be half way through writing the second act by the end of week 2 to give me a good springboard for week 3 and see the whole thing knitting together.

*I keep mentioning this and really do need to sit down at some stage and find out when the idea came to me otherwise I’ll just keep wittering on with no real point, which I often feel as though I do)

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 9 – Another Extract

little — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:30:37 +0000

One of the benefits of blogging a WIP is that, from time to time when thought processes don’t allow you to provide daily clarity of the process, you can at least turn to the project you are working on and provide a quick snippet. Here then, as I continue to work feverishly away at ‘Tec for NaNoWriMo is a trippy extract from Monday’s writing:

Mark ran through the field of long grass towards the figure in the distance. His arms were wide open, ready to embrace Alice but as he progressed, he realised that the grass was getting much higher and it was taking him a lot longer than he expected to get there. He looked down and found that he couldn’t see his feet any more and in fact with each step he didn’t feel as though he was actually moving; there was no feeling of anything under his feet. He looked up and saw Alice walking backwards in the distance.

“Where are you going?” he shouted. “Alice? Alice?”

Alice seemed to be speaking but he couldn’t hear anything. The wind had risen and was blowing the field of long grass back and forth and as he watched it seemed as though the grass was actually the sea, albeit green. A moment later and he saw Alice turn, and dive headfirst into the grass like a dolphin leaping through a hoop and into a pool.
“What’s going on?” he begun, but before he could get an answer something had grabbed his ankle and was pulling him under.

Mark tried to scream out, but when he opened his mouth it was filled with what seemed to be grass seed. He tried to spit it out, but it stuck to his cheeks and started to cover the back of his throat. His arms flailed around above him as he tried to claw for something to grab onto to keep him afloat but found there was nothing. Instead the tall grass, now well above his head, was beating against his face and head, swotting him down and further away from the dwindling light at the surface. As this progressed, he heard a rhythmic thumping at the back of his head and realised that this was no doubt the sound of his heart pumping and gasping for life.
As his vision began to darken, and he slipped into unconsciousness, he heard the build up of music which started slowly and rose in both sound and pace. He suddenly felt it was odd that as he was drowning in a sea of grass, the last sound he would hear would be “Ecstacy of Gold” by Ennio Morricone.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 8 – Researching The Detectives

little — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:00:45 +0000

Mark, Alice and Danny are about to embark on their journey as detectives, but what does that mean and how can they be? Surely there need to be licenses given, and potentially exams passed or am I being naive and instead its an exchange of cash for a bit of paper to put in a picture frame and hang in their makeshift office?

If I want to make ‘Tec as real as possible (admittedly, it is fiction) answering questions such as those are really important. Therefore, I’m taking some time to do some research and find out the art of the possible which will then allow me to create the chapter which brigdes the “Lets be detectives” to “And here’s my card”.

Internet Search Engines here I come.