That boat journey just keeps going, with 749 words added today. Again, under target, but I’m not worried because the words just rolled out tonight. Which is great, of course, and importantly I’m feeling good about writing tomorrow. That has to be a first! I’ve got a lot of time tomorrow actually – about four hours all up as I’m down in London for the day and have some train time to fill up – so who knows, maybe I’ll bust that 1000-word target wide open.

Tonight’s work was still on that boat journey – yesterday I had left a gap in the chapter where the boat’s crew each recounts a different story about the Black Pyramid. This was unplanned and a bit too much like hard work for my frazzled brain, so I skipped to he following morning when Bellamy and Dr Clarke catch the captain alone and are able to question him about the glass casket without anyone hearing. I’m aware at this point that Zoe doesn’t have much to do, but I’ll be able to re-balance this once she gets to work on the archaeological dig in a chapter or two.

So tonight I went back half a page and completed the crew’s tales. No doubt these will change in the second draft, but at least something is there which can form the basis of an idea as to why the Black Pharaoh travelled west and built his pyramid, and who the strange tribe were that he met in those hot and steamy jungles.

As a “bonus feature”, I also jotted down the opening line of my second book! It doesn’t have a title yet, although I’ve saved the file under the name ‘Power’. As I see it the book is in three parts and again it’s a first-person narrative, although with a lot fewer points-of-view than Dark Heart. The problem now is coming up with a name for a supervillain. Actually I do have one, but does anyone have another suggestion? It needs to be modern comic cool, not old school – so no “Doctor Infinity” or “The Master Mind” please. Although those are both entirely great names which I might just have to nab as henchmen!

Better tonight: 683 words down, 70,945 to go. 683 may sound miserable, but this is the evening of my second day of my new job, so while not as exhausted as yesterday I’m still acclimatising. So 683 it is, and that’s 683 more words than I had this morning! I think by the end of the weekend I’ll tally up a daily average and see what I get – the target is 1000 words per day, and so far I’ve been over 1 day and under 2 days. Hopefully the weekend is a nice, relaxing time to get the count up.

As mentioned yesterday, I’m in the middle of a small bridging scene that has taken a life of it’s own, and 683 words later it still isn’t done. It is almost done, which is good – the late-night conversation about pyramids with the crew is over, and all that is left now is for the captain to share a secret with Bellamy and Dr Clarke while the crew sleeps, and then set our heroes down at the British army camp. So they’ll be there tomorrow, which means according to the synopsis on Thursday we’ll leave the great occult-detective and friends for a while and head back ten years to the Interregnum. Actually the synopsis says we follow Bellamy for a while yet, but given the expansion of the boat trip I think a break is needed.

Tomorrow’s target word count is still 1000 words. It would be good to make it if possible, otherwise I’ll have too much catching up to do later.

You’re supposed to write every day, but sometimes you can’t. Well, actually you can, but you can’t hit that target. You may just be busy – out the door at sunrise, back at midnight, that kind of thing. Other times it’s just not possible. It’s not about making excuses, it’s about not being too hard on yourself when you just can’t do it.

And on days like this, having just had my first day in a brand new job, when you just need to come home and collapse on the couch, content to drink wine and eat crackers and watch Man Versus Food and read a Green Lantern comic.

It’s times like this when you need to break the emergency glass and hit the big red button. And there is no better big red button than the 12-sentence rule.

I don’t remember where it came from – was it Robert Heinlein, or Harry Turtledove? Whoever, it’s pretty easy. Just write 12 sentences. Why 12? I’ve no idea. But no matter what is going on that day, you can always grab some writing implement and get 12 sentences down. It’s MUCH better than nothing.

So 12 sentences it is – coming today to 291 words. That’s 709 off the daily target, but seriously, the more I sit at the computer, the more my body tells me I shouldn’t have had those six cups of excellent (and I mean excellent) coffee today from work’s flash new machine.

The trick with the 12-sentence rule is not to play it every time you feel a bit tired. It’s there for emergencies, and today it just had to be used.

Sunday night and it’s one for one. I’m sure waiting until 7pm to actually sit down and right is a bad habit I need to get out of, but today’s task is done. In fact I beat the daily target and managed 1157 words. 71,919 to go!

One of the fascinating thing about writing is how it takes on a life of its own. While I have the entire novel outlined in some detail from beginning to end, as each chapter is written, all sorts of interesting things happen. Your characters decide to say and do things you didn’t know they would. The whole narrative can shift direction.

Of course every writer knows this, and this is why writing is such a terrific thing. So I won’t harp on about it, but just as an example something interesting did happen to this particular chapter.

The original synopsis says:

Bellamy, Zoë and Dr. Clarke have arrived at the British Army camp after a short trek by local – and very primative – airship (little more than a ragtag raft lifted by raw cavorite) from the port town of Kasbago.

Just 37 words there, a mere bridge allowing our heroes to arrive at the action in the British Army camp. Easy, right?

Well yes, very, except these 37 words have expanded so far to 3303, with probably more to come. They arrived in Kasbago, and then had difficulty finding transport, and then Dr. Clarke made some observations about the cavorite vapour lamp that powered the flight engine of the cargo boat on which they now find themselves floating in, 200 feet above the West African jungle.

And to top it off, having enjoyed a pleasant evening meal sitting around the green glow of the flight engine, the boat’s captain Pierre has just asked Bellamy and co. whether they are heading towards the temple.

The temple? Ok… I knew there was a temple near the camp, and indeed Faulkner (you’ll meet him later) gets an entire chapter to himself later as he relates his adventures being chased by zombies through the ancient ziggurat (ok, that was a spoiler, stick your fingers in your ears and start humming). I suppose Pierre guessed that Bellamy, Zoe and Dr Clarke were off to the temple, given that the army base is probably not at the top of his list of local tourist attractions. But what does Pierre know about the temple? Was his quiet chuckle at the end of the chapter a friendly gesture, or is he pitying the fools (and now I think about it, does he need a mohican and lots of gold jewellery?).

And you know, I can’t wait to find out tomorrow!

So let’s forget about 2008. It started well, wobbled a bit mid-year, then went banana-splits from November onwards. Ah well, even-numbered years are always the worst. Now we’re odds, so we’re back in business.

Looking at 2009 as a whole, I think there are two projects to focus on, one after another. The second project is a superhero novel that’s been kicking around at the back of my mind of ages. This will be a nice change of pace and style, and will provide a good break from the main project after that is done.

The main project is, of course, to finish Dark Heart. This voodoo steampunk fantasy – if you want to call it that, I probably don’t – has a target length of 100,000 words. So far, I’ve got down 26,924 of them, which leaves 73, 076 to go. The goal for 2009 is to average 1,000 words per day, which means starting now I’ve got 73 days ahead of me before Dark Heart (draft 1) is complete. By my reckoning, that means I should be writing words 99,000 – 100,000 on Tuesday 24th March 2009. Sounds good to me.

The purpose of this blog, then, for the next three months is to provide a daily progress update, give me motivation not only to keep going but to get up early in the morning to start writing (hey, it’s winter, it’s hard!), to post work-in-progress snippets, and to talk about anything interesting I discover about the writing process along the way.

I am the King Procrastinator, which is a weakness to be acknowledged rather than ignored. So on that note, I’ll see you tomorrow on Day 1.