http://www.stephendeas.com The Dragons Are Coming Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:47:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Day seven: Target wordcount: 35000. Words written: 35000 In which chapters are set in a series of underground grottos and on a snow-covered mountainside, and if all of that has nothing to do with an  evening back on Skyrim and then getting six inches of snow overnight and spending most of ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-7-inspiration-comes-from-everywhere-522012/ Day six: Target wordcount: 32000. Words written: 32000 (Counts switched to running totals, as I finally 'fessed up to cheating a bit yesterday) The first act is finished. About a third of the planned second act has vanished in a smoking hole of unexpected narrative decisions, but on the whole, it's not ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-6-rinse-and-repeat-422012/ Day five: Target wordcount: 5000. Words written: 5500 Finished yesterday's chapter and did two more. Thought I'd got rid of yesterday's intruder, but like a bad penny, he shows up again. This is close to the end of the first act now and oddly, although much of the detail is ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-5-beating-the-ocd-dragon-322012/ Day four: Target wordcount: 3000 (on the road). Words written: 2700 (slacking off because I have credit from yesterday, but about 2000 of those were written on the Central Line in and out of Tottenham Court Road so I refuse to feel bad about it) A chapter and a half-chapter today, ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-4-gatecrashers-222012/ Day three: Target wordcount: 3000 (errands to run). Words written: 3300 A chapter and a half done today. All the major characters are now in play and it feels a bit like setting up a position on a chessboard. Like trying to reproduce a famous opening and not quite remembering how ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-3-first-contact-with-the-enemy-122012/ Day two: Target wordcount: 5700 (making up for yesterday). Words written: 5800 Actually a bit surprised to catch up today, but when the muse is in the zone, the muse is in the zone. I take these days when they come and am grateful for them, since there are also days ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-2-planning-and-wordcounts-3112012/ a.k.a. My Own Personal Novel Writing Month. While (a tiny fraction of) the rest of the world observed national Novel Writing Month back in November, I was in the middle of a stack of rewrites for Dragon Queen. It was pretty cool watching lots of people racking up their wordcounts and ... http://www.stephendeas.com/mopnowrimo-day-1-in-the-beginning-3012012/ The year of the Yang Water Dragon is upon us. Dragon years are lucky years to be born, to be married, to be, well, anything. Fingers crossed, it's a good year to publish books with dragons in. We shall see. Celebrating the year of the dragon, I'm offering readers of my ... http://www.stephendeas.com/year-of-the-dragon-2312012/ A long time ago in galaxy far far away, or so it feels, I once learned about a Russian methodology for solving technical problems. Genrich Altshuller's Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadach, or the Theory of Inventive Problem solving. At the time I found much that appealed to me in this, and ... http://www.stephendeas.com/russian-problem-solving-technique-and-the-art-of-writing-1712012/ So here's an excerpt of something of a work in progress.  Dragons are noticably lacking, it's not something my editor has seen yet, and possibly he might never see it, since this is an as-yet-unfinished manuscript. I have quite a lot of those. It feels a bit more heroic than ... http://www.stephendeas.com/gemmell-awards-2012/