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Did I Write This Week?

YES I DID.

This was a weird week for me.

I’ve been sleeping pretty poorly and a few things that have popped up here and there have prevented me from really digging into the process of editing and fine tuning the zombie story (last part is this week!). I do intend in entering the finished product into a writing competition though and that needs to be submitted by May 19th so hey, a deadline that I have to achieve.

However, with that project coming to an end my brain has been doing a good job of starting to really flesh out some of the loose ideas that have been kicking around for next project (the full blown book thing).

I’ve got a loose narrative that I will need to expand on already in mind, and at least a handful of characters that I’ve come up with to play it out. I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about central themes and what a teenager might want to read about.

One of the hang ups that I keep getting caught up on is nailing down a tone, or a writing style that I will have to stick to for hundreds of pages. One of the fun things about blogging, or writing the zombie stuff, or writing the 9to5 comics is that I can flip back and forth between various voices and styles of writing. I know obviously that in more ‘advanced” level reading (Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting springs to mind in terms of wildly different voices depending on the narrator, and even A Song of Ice and Fire has different tones depending on which character is the viewpoint character) there can be a lot of variation. But when I think “book for teens” I don’t think the trend is quite as common.

As a bit of a test-run, yesterday I found myself starting to write what will ultimately probably be the prologue.

I really like the device when a prologue just sort of drops you into a scene and asks a lot questions, without really being tied directly to the main plot (even though it will tie-in eventually). It’s very cinematic. The opening scene of a movie crams a bunch of intrigue and suspense into the first five minutes, and then the opening credits roll and then we get to meet our main characters.

That’s kind of what I’m going for here.

The prologue could kind of stand alone as its own little short story, but it’s a fun way to try and find the tone for what I will ultimately be going for.

It wasn’t much, only a few hundred words committed to text so far, but it was kind of nice to have that ceremonial ground breaking of actually putting some of the ideas that I’ve had in mind for nearly a year now into a cohesive form.

Fun!

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.

Hey I’m watching anime.

Did I Write This Week?

Oh hey, it’s Friday.

Don’t worry, there’s going to be a Zombies and Loathing going up this afternoon if you’re one of the two people who are paying attention to the progress over there.

That reminds me, I need to update the Table of Contents with the new parts. Grumble-grumble.

So what’s going on?

As you may have noticed, we’ve updated our menu bar! It makes more sense and is a little more logically laid out if you come to the site and don’t know who Jon, Scott, Keith and Sophie are. We still need to tighten up a few things up there, but I think it’s a lot cleaner.

Also, Sophie and then Scott have been sick over the last few weeks, which is why there hasn’t been a lot of movement over on 9to5 (illustrated). The snowstorm that triggered the storyline has passed and now the entire city is in the middle of one of those “February thaws” that happen all the time and are totally not unusual. I’m guessing the ending will pop up next week.

So I mean, stuff is happening. Slowly. Just not this week. Or at least, not up until today.

I have the ambitious plan of writing out the final chapter today, but we’ll see how that goes. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…