I'm continuing to write "The Apocalypse Codex", the fourth Laundry Files novel. At the start of the series, Bob Howard, a slashdot-reading sandal-wearing geek, accidentally got himself conscripted by the Laundry, that branch of the British secret service concerned with applications of Computational Demonology -- defending the realm from Lovecraftian horrors.

Ten years on, Bob has been shunted onto the management promotion fast-track as the emergency generated by the return of the Elder Gods gathers pace. In this installment, he's been put in charge of a couple of external contractors (hint: the Laundry never uses contractors -- officially) and tasked with learning just why a certain televangelist is cosying up to the Prime Minister. "I feel like I've been given a sack of catnip and a laser pointer and told to go play with the kittens behind the fence labelled 'Siberian Tigers'" he complains -- except the tigers have run into a big game hunter, and the fecal matter is about to hit the wind farm ...

So far: It's fairly close to real life, with a touch of sci-fi (which I expect to become more than a touch pretty soon). The setting is - currently - a big building in a city, and I'm trying to work hard on character development (since I always have trouble with that).

I'm finding the biggest problem with this strategy is that I need a motivator to keep my characters going. But it seems to be working for now. We'll see in a couple of days :)

Around 30k words I was in a hole I had no idea how to get out of, so I sidelined the story until I have the time/energy to go back and fix it, building a proper plot structure with an attempt at keeping as much of what I'd already written as possible. But it's low priority compared to NaNo and a series I've had in the back of my head for something like a year.

Would you build a house without a blueprint?

Is it more work? Pretty much guaranteed. But for people who are incapable of writing with an outline (get bored or what have you) it CAN be done, but it ends up being significantly more work.

I would advise that most hobbyists or newbies stick to the techniques that have worked since as far back as the days of Aeschylus and Euripides. When you're Hemingway, feel free to break tradition and do your own thing. But assuming one is Hemingway before writing one's first novel is often a misguided assumption.

You don't need to outline exhaustively, mind you, but some sort of architecture is probably advisable. It will make for a better story, which is ultimately what the exercise is supposed to be about. Too often, new writers forget that they're supposed to be writing for an audience, not for themselves.

I suggest newbies try outlining before deciding categorically that they don't need to do so. That's all.

Now I know going down that path is foolish for me personally, so instead I have returned to more extensive outlines (my NaNovel outline is a list of all the scenes and an indication of which plot thread(s) they primarily touch on).

Good luck, everybody.

(unless you were joking, but I still think NaRaRaMo is a great idea)

The second rap is coming in mere minutes though.

http://videos.apnicommunity.com/Video,Item,1068300085.html

It's about a future where our preoccupation with productivity led us to genetically engineer away our need/ability to sleep. In this future sleep becomes the drug of choice and the domain of the counter culture.

I have a framework I wrote last month and a good friend of mine is a sci-fi editor. She agreed to give me notes, mainly so I would leave her alone.

Not really going to set a word a day goal. With me, I find that sometimes only a few hundred words eek out. While other days 3000-4000 come out freely.

NB: if not, do not go and read it just now. Finish your own work first, then read it.

Unfortunately he abandoned it after only 17 reasons. Perhaps he convinced himself?

But I don't know what your story's about?

I'm running an event on targeted attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats.

I have a research paper to finish on a class of vulnerabilities.

I'm preparing for my Tigerscheme SST exam.

I'm taking part in the HN November launch month.

I'm growing a comedy moustache for prostate cancer awareness this Movember (http://uk.movember.com/mospace/552354/ if you want to donate, all donations gratefully received!)

My November is unfortunately too packed to the gills. Of course, I could always write a novel about my november.... No, wait...

http://www.tapnik.com/post/nano2010

The topic was "Mistaken Judgement / Corporate / Cannon", so far the novel is about a burnt out software dev at a large and increasingly irrelevant company in the pacific northwest who travels to mars in a cannon. It's in the modern day but with the astrophysics of the age of reason transplanted -- mars has atmosphere, canals and forests, etc..

I'm "jdavis" on NaNoWriMo, add me as a writing buddy!

When a King dies, his son must discover if he needs to follow in his father's footsteps, of tread his own path of rulership. All the while holding onto a family secret dating back generations, one which helps them keep power... so long as no one knows about it.

Meanwhile his most trusted adviser finds herself crippled during an attack on the new King, destroying her both physically and mystically. She must discover who she truly is and how she can help her Liege in her new situation, while coming to understand just how dangerous the world really is.

edit: My "big theme" is exploring identity, in the young monarch's case figuring out who he is as a ruler, in the Elementalist's case figuring out how to handle life after her magic is crippled. All while dealing with strife from those who would depose him.

http://www.onepageperday.com

I said Ohlife as an alternative because it's to writing what Posterous' emailing did to blogging - as in a no-brainer workflow. It just makes sense to have writing as part of a serendipitous workflow and I daresay email is still the best way to keep track of that. Besides, if hell freezes over with One Page Per Day, Ohlife or Posterous, etc - you still have your sent email as backup.

Of course, all this has no implication as to the productive output but with reducing friction. I hope you now understand what I meant :-)

I've about 60-70k words left to go, so going to do that instead.

I am writing it with markdown and git.