I’ll go into stats and numbers later on in this posts, however right now day six has just finished, and I finished it at 22,056. I’m not starting with any other number than that purely because I just want to take a moment to enjoy it. To bask in it.

Why because by Thursday, though I was over performing the 1,667 daily weird count by a few hundred our so each day I didn’t think I’d do it. I was behind on my pre-NaNoWriMo schedule that I’d set. Now I’m a tough scheduler, when setting them, but I do my best to make them easy to adjust when inevitably underachieve, which I was doing.

So what changed? Friday I went into the #NaNoYorks chatroom and met some lovely fellow participants, and we challenged and encouraged each other. As a result Friday I hit the 10k mark, and that felt great, I was start to build some steam, and have a buffer against a bad day.

Saturday was even better, had a great write-in in Leeds city centre, meeting many of the people I’d been in chat with the night before, and some familiar faces from previous years. Drank lots of tea, and wore a lot of words. That wasn’t enough though, so I was back in chat Saturday night, and when I was struggling to motivate myself and get started again I was given a prod or two and made it to 16k, and that felt great too.

Carried on after midnight too with some hardcore NaNoWriMo’ers  still doing word wars until 3am. Wasn’t quite as much written in those hours, but it did nicely.

Sunday evening it was a similar tale until midnight, it’s with their help that achieved my 22k.

It’s a genuine pleasure to be part of a community of writers all working towards the same goals, even if we all do so at faster and/or slower paces than myself. We all enjoy writing, talking about our writing, and other topics when we need a break.

I’ll be spending a lot more time in chat and won’t be skimping in write-ins, after payday will be going to more than just Leeds ones, I’d like to goto a Huddersfield one, and one in Scarborough (as post of a weekend writing by the sea).

So anyway, I’m feeling positive, and am hoping to get to 50k by mid-month so I can enjoy the pleasure of writing with less pressure for the rest of the month. The more I write the more options i’ll have in editing in January, and hopefully I can carry the form in December and redo the works in progress I mentioned in previous posts.

Anyway, six days in I’m getting good stats now from my tracking spreadsheet:

Words so far: 22,056
Total hours writing: 26
Avg Words Per Day: 3676
Avg Hours Per Day: 3.12

Avg Words Writing Per Minute: 15.25
Avg Words Per Hour: 915
Max Words Per Minute in a Single Session: 49.3

Avg Morale Per Day: 7 (a qualifiable number based on how I feel each writing period, or out of 10)

Number of Words Remaining: 27,944
Number of Days Remaining: 23
Number of Hours Remaining: 28.00

Those stats may not mean much to most people, but to me they’re a story that is unfolding as I do this project. For instance the average words per minute has risen by five since Friday which tells me that when I suit down and write I’ve been more focused and am starting to spend less time looking at a blinking cursor. Which is a very good story if you’re me.

I’ll stop feeling now and get on with writing. Here’s hoping for continued successes.

I’m only going to do an hour’s writing, I have to go to work in the morning afterall. After work the aim is three to four hours solid writing while the passion is there. All being well I can clear 10% on the first day, get off to a great start and ride out the rest at a fairly comfortable rate. Or panic write over half the word count in the last weekend, (though hopefully not).

I’ve also got a new spreadsheet which is based on spreadsheet that Erik Benson created (I found out via Google at http://erikbenson.com/nanowrimo-report-card.xls). I’ve modified it with a few macro’s to create a more accurate log of my time and writing style.  Hey, what can I say, I’m a stats geek, and honestly believe the better I understand how I write, the better I’ll be as a writer.

I need to fix a few things, but I’ll post it up when it’s done.

I’ve set myself a gruelling schedule, but it’s designed to slip and be rescheduled, though I’m going to really push the early word count.

So if anyone is hoping for any sense from me for the next thirty days, good luck with that.

It’s been the biggest part of a year since I posted here. As years go, it’s been pretty crap to be honest, but it there have been some pretty good moments, and a few game changers.

One of those game changers hasn’t been writing unfortunately, but as the year isn’t over yet I’m going to change that next month. Next month because it is National Novel Writing Month, and I’m going to end my NaNoWriMo listing streak, (previous form WLL). I’m well under way to making this year different to the disappointing last two years, as for the first time I’m making a serious effort to plan a novel.

Usually I have a great idea and I run with it until I run or if steam, and I enjoy writing by the seat of my pants. To be honest though, I rarely ever finish, because between energy draining BAU of the daily grind, and the distraction of often not great extraordinary events, my steam runs out far easier than I would like. Still just because I run out of steam with a project doesn’t mean that project is at an end. I have plenty of projects at various stages ready to go again when I’m in the mood. Indeed my plan for December is to rework two fantastic ideas for short stories I had from the past couple of years. Also though my NaNoWriMo project is a do over of the Space Corsair project I started last year.

Anyway, Aspiring is back, and between all the writing I’m going to aim to at least hit fortnightly posts from now until the end of the year.

Good luck to all my friends old and new taking part in NaNoWriMo this year.

I make no claim to it being especially good, or an annual highlight to the poetry scene, (though my 27th Birthday Poem is the most read page on site – from people Googling for the exact words of the title I guess), its just a poem about my birthday and what the day means to me.

A Year to be Surpassed

A shadow fell over yesterday,
I turned twenty-eight,
It’s not that aging is bad,
But that another year has gone.

For every joy I’ve had to pay,
Yet seek joy come what may,
The same old slate,
Without a wipe date,
I will not say it was all sad,
And it didn’t make me mad.

The beast of success I did not slay,
My performance didn’t rate,
Yet for moments I am glad,
With a niece as lovely as a chiffon.

Another milestone be gone,
Next year I’ll have myself outdone.

©, Jonathan Lawrence 2010

P.S. I should add, as a cautionary note – I haven’t listed anything other than my niece being born as being explicitly good or bad. So I should note, that since my niece was born, I’ve enjoyed a fantastic time, being an uncle, thanks to some fortunate circumstances I’ve lived like a king, I’ve been to Prague, and I’ve come here to the Science Festival with some great people. Things like this were the moments I am glad for – just in case anyone thinks that I think I should be so rich and fortunate in life that the past two or three months have been less than notable.

When I think about it, it is quite strange that my niece coming into this world has marked such a massive turn around for my year, right at the end. However, life returns back to normal from here on in, I need to to start saving to make next year that bit more magical, all year round.

So to all my family and friends who have provided the highlights to my year, those moments I am glad for, have helped keep me sane when all else might have rendered me mad – I would like to say thank you. I hope I can do the same for you.

Once again I’m on holiday, this time not in Prague, but in Birmingham. I’m down for the British Science Festival, which is brilliant. So far I’ve been to the following talks and events:

• New Psychology of Leadership,
• Discovering Dyslexia
• Planets Outside the Solar System
• So What’s New in Particle Physics
• What Yeast Can Do For You

The other event I’ve been to, and this is where the poem comes in, was “There’s Science in my Fiction (And Poetry)”, which was an open mic for writers and poets who use science in their writing. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean science fiction, whereby future technologies are emphasised, but current science, and historic science that exists.

It was a really good event, there were poems on one of the first morticians, (his rise to fame, and subsequent fall), short stories set in a lab, a piece aimed at children which was all about how earth got its moon (which was really interesting), and a poem about horses.

I umm’d and ahh’d about entering, but a friend convinced me (@maryrperkins), and so yesterday afternoon I sat down and cobbled together a piece inspired by the particle physics talk earlier that day.

Here’s the great thing – I went, and I stood and I read my poem out. Shitting bricks I was, I’m not exactly a public speaker kind of person, and I know my voice, and accent (when I acknowledge I have one), don’t lend themselves to the job either. I came third in the competition, and have one a year’s subscription to BBC Focus magazine, (which I’ve never read before, but apparently is all about science, technology, and the future, so I’ll bet it’ll be interesting).

Now, we’re on to what this post is for, here’s the poem that did me proud:

Quarks of Love

Up, Down, Charm,
Forces attracting you and me,
Fundamental interactions,
Fades in the distance,
Yet still increases our attraction,
Strange, Top, Bottom,
Our basic matter a perfect fit,
Lost in orbit, your orbit.

And this is all too real,
Love gains mass.

Like the up quark,
Existing but for the moment,
Infinitesimal charge,
Destined to combine,
With your down quarks,
The beautiful neutron,
Precious foundation,
Destined to combine,
The beautiful nucleus.

Elemental forces,
Their waves alter us,
And the strong force,
Binding our love to protons,
Making us into atoms,
As one, as many,
As grains of sand,
Nuggets of gold,
And precious jewels.

And this is all too real,
Love gains mass.

Up, Down, Charm,
Forces bonding you and me,
Molecular complexities,
Build beautiful life,
But always from our force of love,
Strange, Top, Bottom,
Our basic matter a perfect fit,
Lost in orbit, your orbit.

©, Jonathan Lawrence 2010

I’m currently on holiday in in the beautiful city of Prague. Only been here a day, but the creative juices are flowing (get your mind out of the gutter I meant the intellectual ones). So far in MSC (Memoirs of a space corsair) we’ve not done much but there is our first proper space battle coming up, and some actual piracy – I’m going to base the world they go to fence.their ill gotten gains on the Czech capital I think. It makes sense, the more we leave where we came from, the more we try to capture the spirit of what we left… so in the future major colonies will be heavily influenced by their language/ethic groups in architecture and design. The architecture here is beautiful that it needs to be preserved in some fashion by the Czech speaking people 500 years from now.

I think it will be especially true of language/ethnic groups that lost much of their homes on Earth during the wars of 100 years from now. Well its war or catastrophic after affect of going over the green cliff (entirely depends how preachy I’m feeling when I write it).

Just need to break my current chapter and the show will really get going.

However, there is a new first, and that is my beautiful niece Phoebe, born two weeks ago today. She’s amazing – well amazing probably isn’t the most accurate description so far she’s learned to sleep, poop, and cry, but who knows what she’ll be doing this time next week.

Also, I have a pretty significant problem which interferes with my ability to write for any length of time. I started with carpal tunnel syndrome a few weeks ago, it was, and still is, really bad in my left hand, however now my right hand has all the symptoms too. I know have tubigrip covering both my arms in an effort to find release.

Carpal tunnel snydrome kind of caught me by surprise, I never thought i’d feel pain like this – even know as I type everytime I stretch to hit a key the pain is there, but ther are times when its excrutiating, especially at night. I’ve known people that suffered, and heard of plenty more – but I always figured it was constant discomfort rather than pain.

It does mean the limited time, and energy I have in my life for writing his decreased considerably, because I can literally only write during times the pain isn’t so bad.

I’m not giving in though, in a couple of chapters time, Memoirs of a Space Corsair is really going to take off, and get into the exciting adventures in space, and I fully intend to enjoy it.

Meanwhile, while the muse is with me, and I’m able to write I’m trying to get as much of chapter five done as I can, since its a day off work today, but back tomorrow.

So, yes writing with music really does help me. Of course it has to be the right music, it can’t be too exciting, or too catchy, and anything below three and a half minutes should be considered carefully – if the songs are changing too much you’ll pay more attention to the change. Or I would anyway, but I am easily distrac…

Ooooh Diet Coke, thanks.

Where was I? Oh yes, I’m easily distracted. Back last year, I had planned to do monthly ten song playlists – but I got distracted, I also got writers block, so it never really happened. What I’ve done this time, now I’m writing again, is to make a longer playlist, and call it a seasonal writing playlist.

I’ve got quite a mix of music in my summer version, it’s mostly easy listening, rock, and alternative, with a touch of pop – it works well as background music, while still giving pace to help put fire into the writing process.

If you other suggestions for a playlist for writing music, long or short, feel free to add them to the comments.

Since I got Spotify, it allows me to share my playlist with people – so if you want to have a listen to my summer playlist, just click here.

Click more to see the playlist without Spotify

Spandau Ballet – Gold
Marina And The Diamonds – The Outsider
Boston – Foreplay/Long Time
A Fine Frenzy – You Picked Me
Son House – Downhearted Blues
The Kooks – Naive
Muse – Assassin
ORF Symphony Orchestra – Montagues And Capulets
The Who – Baba O’Riley – Original Version
Green Day – ¡Viva La Gloria!
Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way
Placebo – Every You Every Me
Savage Garden – To The Moon & Back
Ultravox – Vienna
Muse – Knights Of Cydonia
Muse – Resistance
Muse – Take a Bow
Muse – Starlight
Marina And The Diamonds – The Outsider
Panic! At The Disco – From A Mountain In The Middle Of The Cabins
Panic! At The Disco – The Piano Knows Something I Don’t Know
Jace Everett – Bad Things
Muse – I Belong To You [+Mon Coeur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix]
Dido – Look No Further
Muse – Sing For Absolution
Lily Allen – The Fear
Spandau Ballet – Gold
Sublime – Garden Grove
Reel Big Fish – Where Have You Been?
Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz
Bad Company – Ready For Love
Blue Oyster Cult – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Blue Oyster Cult – Burnin’ For You
Boston – Foreplay/Long Time
Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger
Garbage – Push It – Re-mastered 2007
Apocalyptica – Bittersweet
Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane
Iron Maiden – Fear Is The Key
Iron Maiden – Weekend Warrior
Iron Maiden – The Apparition

Hope you enjoy – have a happy summers writing.

Sage

All being well, I will be launching the first chapter this week, and the second chapter on Saturday. I’m excited to be unveiling this story, and introducing the characters, most of whom should (but I make no promises), be around for most of my protagonist’s life.

And just to prove, I’m really not slacking, I’ve got a music post planned, and a couple of new poems – though I’ve yet to start work on an a poem that really means a lot to me. I’ve got a month to write something for the birth of my niece – and I want to pass on wise words, sage advice, and a bit of myself – I think I haven’t started because I’m not sure I can live up to my own pressure. I’m excited to be an uncle, and of course I want to be the best uncle I can be (since I have no kids of my own, and no plans to the contrary), and I want to make sure my niece wants for nothing. Should anything ever happen to me, I want her to always have this.

So yes, welcome to my life with writers block thoroughly behind me, and a summer of writing ahead.