Word count

I've not done any more of my novel today, instead I've written an assigment for my history course - it was supposed to be 800 words, but ended up being about 1,500! That done, I can concentrate on my writing - I won't have any more assigments for a while, not until I sign up to more courses at any rate.

Anyway I thought it would be a good idea to keep a running tally of how many words I've done on my novel. It's perhaps not the best measure of how I'm doing, but it's an easily measurable measure. When I reach certain milestones I can give myself a pat on the back and have a party!

My current word count is 10,667 words. Not a massive amount, but it's probably close to the most I've ever written on one story. I hope to be able to report an increased word count soon... Unfortunately, the need to do a lot of research at each stage of the story slows me down considerably but never mind!

So what is wrong with the world?

I've been reading a lot of history non-fiction, and I can't help but feel that a part of me would prefer to be in an earlier time, a different place. Somewhere more exciting, a time when life was simpler. Two or three hundred years ago anyone could apply themselves and make new scientific discoveries, or travel and discover new places, new species of animals, birds, plants etc. Nowadays, most people just struggle to get by, in meaningless jobs, everything costs more, everything is harder.

Now why do I feel like this? There's so much about the present day that is better than it ever has been. The 20th century has seen so many changes, so many advances for the better. Medical advances mean people (in the western world anyway) live a lot longer, they have huge choice of consumer goods, they have accomodation, food, clean water, tv's, the internet and free time too. So what's wrong with this? Well the cracks are starting to show. So many things are going wrong, so many things could be better. The problems with Britain, and the world, as well as things that can and are being done to try and solve the problems of today are a big source of potential articles and stories. You never know, some people may actually read it and take note. So I'm going to think and come up with a few of todays problems, and their possible solutions. More soon.

Long time....2007 and goals for 2008

Long time no post. Long, long time. I spent some time on a different blog - Knolij. While I'm as keen as ever on acquiring new knowledge, learning the great stories of history and keeping up to date with current affairs, I don't have the time to write about all of it and what I've learned. So I'm abandoning that blog and just using this blog for everything to do with reading, writing, learning stuff and anything else I feel like blogging about.

So what did I get upto in 2007? Well I failed spectacularly in reading my A-Z of authors. In contrast my wife is on her last letter right now. Did I do any better in my attempt to read different genres? Below is a list of the genres I was attempting to read books in, and whether I succeeded!

Crime - Yes, Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
Thriller - Several thrillers by David Baldacci
SF - Yes, Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
Fantasy - No, for first time in many years, no new Raymond E. Feist this year.
Horror - No
pre 20th century classic - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Historical fiction - Yes, Redcoat by Bernard Cornwell, Ireland by Frank Delaney
Biography - Benjamin Franklin's autobiography & biography
New book (HB or PB first published in 2007): Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child (HB 2007)
Non-fiction: Historical - Yes, quite a few.
Non-fiction: Science - Longitude by Dava Sobel

So not bad on the genres, purely by accident. This year I'm going to read whatever I feel like, books I enjoy and interest me, whatever the genre. And I'm going to try and read a lot more than I did last year.

Writing

Last year I started writing a historical novel, about two young men from the town of Lancaster in England who travel to America in 1700 to start a new life. The novel will follow the two young men throughout their lives as they establish successful lives in America. I'm on chapter three, about 10,000 words in and it is going well. I've planned out most of in loosely, but not in detail yet, and done some of the neccesary research. My aim for the year is to complete this novel, edit and re-write it as neccesary, and try and submit it to a publisher before the end of the year. It may be no good, but at least I will have written a novel, and if it doesn't succeed I will try again. Published novelists have often been on their 4th or 5th novel before they get published so the moral of the story is if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Hopefully I will succeed at the first attempt of course, but I won't succeed at anything if I don't actually make a real attempt. So that's my challenge for the year.

I may also have a go at writing some articles, poems or short stories, but the novel is my main writing goal this year. I will keep posting updates of how I am doing, and will be posting some chapters on my writing.com portfolio - chapter one is already up there.