Work continues on both projects
My last crit is promised within days for Project Cold Witness, so I'm confident that I'll be able to wrap up the novel within the next month. At the moment I'm aware of two or three scenes that seem a little off (I've learned to trust my intuition), and I know that the whole thing could benefit from another on-paper read-through, to catch those pesky wording and grammar errors that go unnoticed on the computer screen. Doubtless my proofreader will find a whole slew of other things that need fixing ... but I'm not worried anymore. I know that it's nearly there. All the important problems were fixed months ago. From now on it's just the details.
Planning and prewriting for Silent Falcon is also coming along well. At the moment I'm concentrating on worldbuilding and individual ideas. The overall plot hasn't been nailed down yet, and I haven't outlined the characters, but right now I've decided to focus on the things that seem most fun when I think of them. Yesterday's work was on the two "safe rooms" that the soldiers will use to ride out psychotronic attacks. I drew up a complete floor plan, figured out how the walls were constructed (lead, then six inches of concrete, then computer-controlled APT magnetic coils ... ), and decided what each of the three equipment lockers would contain. I designed a nifty way that the soldiers could defend the safe room via a pair of gun loops and turns in the corridor. This idea may never make it into the story itself ... but it's fun to do, and it helps to build up a sense of depth.
I'm also discovering how music is affecting this project. In the past, all my novels have had a particular set of tracks associated with them: particularly Brahms clarinet pieces, various items by Bach and Mendelssohn (Fingal's Cave summed up Evil's True Form pretty well), and lots of Beethoven pieces. Classical music is best for its character. If I play a particular playlist over and over again while planning and writing a particular book, I can train my mind to recognise those tunes and put me back into that emotional mode. Making sense? When I play the ETF tracks now, months after I stopped working on the book, I can feel the same emotions and ideas I felt while writing the novel. It's a useful way to quickly "snap back" to a particular way of thinking.
With PSF, I'm using some tracks from the computer game Ghost Recon. They're not particularly good for writing, since they're highly rhythmic military-style pieces, but they're ideal for mood alteration. For example, I have given the tracks names of my own: things like "under seige", "heavy combat", "triumph/dawn breaking", and "marching". This really helps in planning. If I'm outlining CLARS or Spetznaz squads, I use the Ghost Recon theme music. If I'm drawing a map of the southern portion of Orfordness, I use the "under seige" music (which reminds me of the battle in Cold Witness). In every case, I'm able to think the problem through more easily ... simply because my brain has been forced into the right gear by the music I'm listening to.
Never tried this method of fine-tuning your thoughts? Give it a whirl. It takes time and patience, but it's given me some impressive results over the years.
My last crit is promised within days for Project Cold Witness, so I'm confident that I'll be able to wrap up the novel within the next month. At the moment I'm aware of two or three scenes that seem a little off (I've learned to trust my intuition), and I know that the whole thing could benefit from another on-paper read-through, to catch those pesky wording and grammar errors that go unnoticed on the computer screen. Doubtless my proofreader will find a whole slew of other things that need fixing ... but I'm not worried anymore. I know that it's nearly there. All the important problems were fixed months ago. From now on it's just the details.
Planning and prewriting for Silent Falcon is also coming along well. At the moment I'm concentrating on worldbuilding and individual ideas. The overall plot hasn't been nailed down yet, and I haven't outlined the characters, but right now I've decided to focus on the things that seem most fun when I think of them. Yesterday's work was on the two "safe rooms" that the soldiers will use to ride out psychotronic attacks. I drew up a complete floor plan, figured out how the walls were constructed (lead, then six inches of concrete, then computer-controlled APT magnetic coils ... ), and decided what each of the three equipment lockers would contain. I designed a nifty way that the soldiers could defend the safe room via a pair of gun loops and turns in the corridor. This idea may never make it into the story itself ... but it's fun to do, and it helps to build up a sense of depth.
I'm also discovering how music is affecting this project. In the past, all my novels have had a particular set of tracks associated with them: particularly Brahms clarinet pieces, various items by Bach and Mendelssohn (Fingal's Cave summed up Evil's True Form pretty well), and lots of Beethoven pieces. Classical music is best for its character. If I play a particular playlist over and over again while planning and writing a particular book, I can train my mind to recognise those tunes and put me back into that emotional mode. Making sense? When I play the ETF tracks now, months after I stopped working on the book, I can feel the same emotions and ideas I felt while writing the novel. It's a useful way to quickly "snap back" to a particular way of thinking.
With PSF, I'm using some tracks from the computer game Ghost Recon. They're not particularly good for writing, since they're highly rhythmic military-style pieces, but they're ideal for mood alteration. For example, I have given the tracks names of my own: things like "under seige", "heavy combat", "triumph/dawn breaking", and "marching". This really helps in planning. If I'm outlining CLARS or Spetznaz squads, I use the Ghost Recon theme music. If I'm drawing a map of the southern portion of Orfordness, I use the "under seige" music (which reminds me of the battle in Cold Witness). In every case, I'm able to think the problem through more easily ... simply because my brain has been forced into the right gear by the music I'm listening to.
Never tried this method of fine-tuning your thoughts? Give it a whirl. It takes time and patience, but it's given me some impressive results over the years.
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