Unlock a New Level
Friday, 9 January 2015 12:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsAs mentioned in the previous post on limits to spell and grammar checking (DW), I had to start a new version of the YA trilogy file. And since it's Friday, might as well talk about the progress I've made.
Tuesday I had been worried that taking time out from writing The Lost Kingdom -- to do the two Christmas/New Year's short stories, prep for the Reading at ConFusion next weekend, write the WOTF Q1 story for 12/31, and work on other new and old short stories for The Mass Assault on Markets 2015 -- would leave me with nothing to think about. But... not the case. During the night I had gotten up at 3:30am to go the bathroom and knew that by the time I came back I had a story fragment, with historical dates and names, that I had to write down lest I forget. Currently by the bed on my side we have a Christmas light laden glass block which I like to keep on all night during Christmas or early winter... And in the tiny dresser that I brought back from Wendy, I had put in a pad and a pen for just such an event. Alas, the pen was ultra cheap, which is why I put it in there, and didn't want to write much. Still, in the morning I had my notes for telling stories to children in Maine. And before I got a chance to sit down at ZEPPELIN and do more writing, I had yet another scene to go -- this one with the coins on the eyes of the old man who'd died in Maine, which was why we were there in the first place.
In times past, when I had a brainstorm, I'd just pad out to the living room and write notes out there. But, with the damned leg, much better to minimize the random walking around in the dark with two canes. (grin) So keep a flashlight, pen and paper by the bed, kids. Oh, and I now have TWO working pens by the mini dresser. (double-grin)
No problem with the story spigot from brain to hard drive right now...
When you are really cooking, writing can be such fun!
Researches, mostly about Norway, include: The 15 window VW Microbus. A Danish progressive metal band called Royal Hunt. The 1938 Leica IIIb 35mm camera and the first real 35mm rolls of Kodachrome slide film. Extra leg room seat locations in American Airlines 737-200 Domestic MCE 31”, US Airways Canadair RJ200, Embraer RJ-175 and 757-200 V3. The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Airport Bangor ME. The 2015 GMC Acadia Denali SUV. Unionized McDonald's workers in Denmark making about $21/hour. Also Norway. Ludvig's Bruktbokhandel used book, records, videos and comics store in Bodø, Norway. Regular church attendance in Norway is less than 5%. Norwegian holidays are generally celebrated on the day before, e.g. Christmas Eve. Norway is a member of the Schengen Agreement. Minipris discount Norwegian Railway tickets online. Norway has no high speed rail system, except to the Oslo airport. Norwegian toll roads use AutoPay, you register your plate number. With heavy snows, some roads you must follow special plows -- kolonnekjøring. 91% of Norwegians speak fluent English. There are 7-Elevens in Norway. Norwegians eat a lot of frozen pizza. Most Norwegian aquavits are spiced with caraway and anise. 18 for beer, 20 for spirits. Norway has a unified police force ("politi"). A Norwegian mile, mil, is exactly 10 km. There are only about 70 European brown bears in Norway. Only 3 people killed by bears in Scandinavia in the last hundred years. Admiralty Island in Alaska has 1600 bears in 1646.4 sq. mi. Names related to Jove. 3200 miles from Bangor to Bodø. The regicide of Mary, Queen of Scots.
I am trying to find out if there’s a term for “princicide” -- Yahoo! Answers had this from 8 years ago: Regicide if it's a reigning royal. Queen Elizabeth's murder would be regicide, but Prince Phillip(sic) would just get plain old assassinated.
Yahoo! UK 6 years ago had: Regicide is the murder of the regnant or monarch. It would not technically apply to the murder of the reigning monarchs spouse as that person does not hold the title in their own right. For instance in the UK Queen Elizabeth II is the queen regnant meaning she holds the title in her own right and is not the spouse of a reigning monarch. The killing of other members of a royal family is simply murder.
So there's that.
At the time of the new file version, the shiny counters read:
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.06 (01-07-15 We)
Book 1 (starts page 80 -- hence the need to cut Research notes)
Book 2 (starts page 315)
Book 3 (starts page 510)
The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03
*** Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn't been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet. **** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.
And the current shiny counter:
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07
Since I started the new version, I have passed another milestone -- 150,000 words for the trilogy.
That's three NaNoWriMo "novels", and approaching the point where I can realistically see the end of the first drafts of Books 1 and 2. Books 3 and 4, of course, need lots more. But, there is plenty of story left to tell, I assure you.
It may even be worth reading. (huge-authorial-grin)
Dr. Phil
PS -- 01/09/15 16:49 Fri -- A heartbeat skip moment -- was just doing the Copy Paste Paste of the word count line when Word 2010 on ZEPPELIN suddenly announced that Word had stopped working and that Microsoft was looking to find a solution. This. Is. Never. A. Good. Sign. Then it said that Word was restarting and I got a (Recovered) .doc file. Usually when I get a Recovered file in Word 95/97 I have better luck using the last Saved Backup file – but this time it actually was the right stuff, as near as I can tell, because it included the last line I typed before the fail. Well, kudos for Windows 7/Word 2010 -- you actually worked like you were supposed to, other than the whole stopped working for no apparent reason thingie. Moral of the story, save early and often. And even though automatic backups are engaged, saving before doing anything major or completing one’s work is probably a good idea. And this is also why I have backups on flash drives and other machines. And sometimes in Gmail sent to myself...
Tuesday I had been worried that taking time out from writing The Lost Kingdom -- to do the two Christmas/New Year's short stories, prep for the Reading at ConFusion next weekend, write the WOTF Q1 story for 12/31, and work on other new and old short stories for The Mass Assault on Markets 2015 -- would leave me with nothing to think about. But... not the case. During the night I had gotten up at 3:30am to go the bathroom and knew that by the time I came back I had a story fragment, with historical dates and names, that I had to write down lest I forget. Currently by the bed on my side we have a Christmas light laden glass block which I like to keep on all night during Christmas or early winter... And in the tiny dresser that I brought back from Wendy, I had put in a pad and a pen for just such an event. Alas, the pen was ultra cheap, which is why I put it in there, and didn't want to write much. Still, in the morning I had my notes for telling stories to children in Maine. And before I got a chance to sit down at ZEPPELIN and do more writing, I had yet another scene to go -- this one with the coins on the eyes of the old man who'd died in Maine, which was why we were there in the first place.
In times past, when I had a brainstorm, I'd just pad out to the living room and write notes out there. But, with the damned leg, much better to minimize the random walking around in the dark with two canes. (grin) So keep a flashlight, pen and paper by the bed, kids. Oh, and I now have TWO working pens by the mini dresser. (double-grin)
No problem with the story spigot from brain to hard drive right now...
When you are really cooking, writing can be such fun!
Researches, mostly about Norway, include: The 15 window VW Microbus. A Danish progressive metal band called Royal Hunt. The 1938 Leica IIIb 35mm camera and the first real 35mm rolls of Kodachrome slide film. Extra leg room seat locations in American Airlines 737-200 Domestic MCE 31”, US Airways Canadair RJ200, Embraer RJ-175 and 757-200 V3. The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Airport Bangor ME. The 2015 GMC Acadia Denali SUV. Unionized McDonald's workers in Denmark making about $21/hour. Also Norway. Ludvig's Bruktbokhandel used book, records, videos and comics store in Bodø, Norway. Regular church attendance in Norway is less than 5%. Norwegian holidays are generally celebrated on the day before, e.g. Christmas Eve. Norway is a member of the Schengen Agreement. Minipris discount Norwegian Railway tickets online. Norway has no high speed rail system, except to the Oslo airport. Norwegian toll roads use AutoPay, you register your plate number. With heavy snows, some roads you must follow special plows -- kolonnekjøring. 91% of Norwegians speak fluent English. There are 7-Elevens in Norway. Norwegians eat a lot of frozen pizza. Most Norwegian aquavits are spiced with caraway and anise. 18 for beer, 20 for spirits. Norway has a unified police force ("politi"). A Norwegian mile, mil, is exactly 10 km. There are only about 70 European brown bears in Norway. Only 3 people killed by bears in Scandinavia in the last hundred years. Admiralty Island in Alaska has 1600 bears in 1646.4 sq. mi. Names related to Jove. 3200 miles from Bangor to Bodø. The regicide of Mary, Queen of Scots.
I am trying to find out if there’s a term for “princicide” -- Yahoo! Answers had this from 8 years ago: Regicide if it's a reigning royal. Queen Elizabeth's murder would be regicide, but Prince Phillip(sic) would just get plain old assassinated.
Yahoo! UK 6 years ago had: Regicide is the murder of the regnant or monarch. It would not technically apply to the murder of the reigning monarchs spouse as that person does not hold the title in their own right. For instance in the UK Queen Elizabeth II is the queen regnant meaning she holds the title in her own right and is not the spouse of a reigning monarch. The killing of other members of a royal family is simply murder.
So there's that.
At the time of the new file version, the shiny counters read:
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.06 (01-07-15 We)
Book 1 (starts page 80 -- hence the need to cut Research notes)
Book 2 (starts page 315)
Book 3 (starts page 510)
The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03
*** Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn't been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet. **** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.
And the current shiny counter:
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07
Since I started the new version, I have passed another milestone -- 150,000 words for the trilogy.
That's three NaNoWriMo "novels", and approaching the point where I can realistically see the end of the first drafts of Books 1 and 2. Books 3 and 4, of course, need lots more. But, there is plenty of story left to tell, I assure you.
It may even be worth reading. (huge-authorial-grin)
Dr. Phil
PS -- 01/09/15 16:49 Fri -- A heartbeat skip moment -- was just doing the Copy Paste Paste of the word count line when Word 2010 on ZEPPELIN suddenly announced that Word had stopped working and that Microsoft was looking to find a solution. This. Is. Never. A. Good. Sign. Then it said that Word was restarting and I got a (Recovered) .doc file. Usually when I get a Recovered file in Word 95/97 I have better luck using the last Saved Backup file – but this time it actually was the right stuff, as near as I can tell, because it included the last line I typed before the fail. Well, kudos for Windows 7/Word 2010 -- you actually worked like you were supposed to, other than the whole stopped working for no apparent reason thingie. Moral of the story, save early and often. And even though automatic backups are engaged, saving before doing anything major or completing one’s work is probably a good idea. And this is also why I have backups on flash drives and other machines. And sometimes in Gmail sent to myself...
Posted on Dreamwidth Crossposted on LiveJournal
