The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 9th 2012

I knew this would happen. I'm back at work and the charge has gone. The urgency. I can't let that stand though. I wrote another chapter today, 1,792 bringing the grand total to 45, 090. I started writing it on the bus, scribbling notes with a shitty biro in whatever space I could find in my moleskin. I'll need another one of those, soon. I wanted to bring in more elements of the grand mythology that's available to me, and no, I'm not talking about more ITC Entertainment characters. I thought they could take a back seat for the time being.

With a chapter set in the secret city of "Under Paris" (I know, original, but it ties into other aspects of the world I'm building) I could make mention of Fée folk, Lutins and Matagots, even in passing this makes me happy. l'Ossuaire Municipal, which makes perfect sense considering where I'm taking the story, but also specific French folklore creatures like the Fée folk, Lutins and Matagots. 

I want... need... to use Roman de Renart because of the thought of an anthropomorphic trickster fox is so exciting. I damn near require a swashbuckling fox to swing in like Errol Flynn at the last moment and do something amazing. That's what I want to see. That's what I think you'll enjoy reading.

In the chapter I wrote today, I made reference to broad Japanese cosmology, and tied it into your populist-pop-culture-friendly Christianity. The kind of stuff you see on shows like Supernatural and what not. I'm trying to take a few pages out Mike Carey's Lucifer with my depiction of angels. But then again, does that go back to how Neil Gaiman introduced them in The Sandman, way back when? Questions, questions. I might introduce Jesus. That would be... actually, no, that wouldn't work for me at all. But hey, why not make your hearts skip a beat in surprise?

Anyway, I'm back at work. Today was long. Didn't leave me much time to do what's really important, but it's coming together. I'm going to aim to get to 50,000 words done by the end of tomorrow, and then when I've hit that I'll concentrate on the end game.

Am I playing for time? Am I writing some kind of weird double bluff?

...

...No...?

Hell, wait and see.

 The following albums were listened to today in no particular order: Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero and Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D as well as Interpol - Antics. I was writing without a soundtrack for a while today, just getting on with it and trying to get words down. Then I realised what I was missing, and that was a concept album about a dystopic future where a corrupt and super-charged government rule its people with an iron grip and absolute fear. Lovely jubbly. Thanks, Trent.

The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 8th 2012

Total word count now is 43, 298.

Things are going to slow down now, I think. Back to work tomorrow. No more staying up till 4am to get stuff done. The whole experience will have shredded my ability to get to sleep though, so that's terrible.

Ha, well, okay. That's me done for now.

 The following albums were listened to today in no particular order: Harry Gregson-Williams – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty score , Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill 2 Complete Soundtrack (Disc 1), Zero 7 – The Garden, Deftones – White Pony , Harry Gregson-Williams – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Original Soundtrack score, Danzig – Circle of Snakes, Lost Highway soundtrack and The Good The Bad - From 001 to 017

The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 7th to 8th 2012 - B

Long day and night.

Finished Part Two.

Wrapping up for the night (morning?) on 39, 378 words.

Blimey.

The following albums were listened to today in no particular order: The Frames – Burn The Maps, Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth, Sia - Lady Croissant, Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People, Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, Reuben – In Nothing We Trust, Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy, The Mary Onettes – Islands, Metallica – Master of Puppets, Tiger Lou – Is My Head Still On?, Nine Inch Nails – Another Version of the Truth [Las Vegas], Bloc Party – Silent Alarm, Dead Man’s Bones (self titled), The Frames – Set List, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Original Soundtrack and Kristin Flammio – Live At Southpaw

The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 7th to 8th 2012 - A

The moment I wrote the final line of Part Two's Chapter Three was punctuated by Mogwai's I Know You Are But What Am I?, a track from the album Happy Songs for Happy People.

The poignancy of the song matched perfectly the tone I was going for with that last line. Everything just seemed to fall into place. A beautiful moment of synchronicity.

Today has been spent writing and reading back issues of Hellblazer and starting the grand read of Lucifer. More writing was done than reading, I think.

I'm not done yet. I've been writing for hours, and I still have Part Two to finish. What comes next... well, that's the question. I know where Part Three ends, but how to get there? A mystery.

Wonderful.

The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 6th 2012 - E

Today has been an odd day, didn't get any content down on paper, but the structure is all in place, so all I have to do is knuckle down and get the thing together.

Losing the ability to string a sentence together, so I'm having an early one, which is probably for the best.

Word.

The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 6th 2012 - D

Finished the timeline. Going to have to remember to keep this up to date along side the story. It's going to slow me down  a bit, but I don't mind as long as everything makes sense. I need to make sure I know when things have happened and logistically... what time.

I also discovered that my computer's date/time can go back to 1900, so I can see what day January 1st 1900 took place on.

That was interesting.

But boring, I know.

The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 6th 2012 - C

Good news, Sam's agreed to edit this beast!

Sam was an indispensable when I was writing my first novel. He helped me realised that a) The story should take place in England because write what you know, not what you watch; and b) Every single scene takes place at night. What was up with that?

This is going to make things a lot easier. I need to write up a timeline though, that's what he always says... I normally just throw myself into it, but then if you do that then you find yourself... writing every single scene at night. Which is stupid. I mean seriously. What was up with that?

No progress yet though. Was able to eke out some words last night, if you were keeping track, and I'm on track, easily, for my 30,000 target by Sunday. Hell, let's call it 40,000 and get daring.

Wish me luck.