I just passed the 10.000 words mark, and the halfway point in my planned outline.
The end of the story I am writing is finally in sight.
As it usually happens, now that all the pieces are on the chessboard and things should begin to finish, I need a moment to carefully plan the next moves.
What will happen, in what sequence, where.
I need to up the action.
All three major characters will have their big action scenes (one each, carefully mapped and choreographed, and one involving the whole team), the evil plot will be revealed, justice will triumph and the main bad guy will have his just desserts.
Which means roughly 8000 words… Continue reading
Q: Where do you find your ideas?
A: in the classified page of Time Out Magazine, London edition, somewhere in 1983.
Like this…
Playing in the background
I’ve often mentioned I keep music playing in the background when I write.
It keeps the real world away, it gives me a rhythm when writing, and it helps set the mood of some scenes, sometimes.
In the past I have shared some of the records that form my personal soundtrack when writing – often records specifically connected with certain series or stories.
What I’m doing now is a little different – just a gallery with the records that are in rotation as I write in these days.
The specific records are also there to represent the full discographies of these artists and bands, that are my personal writing background music.
Here goes. Continue reading
Every story needs a bad guy…
…and when I am looking for a scene-stealing, show-stopping, elegantly evil and subtly deranged bad guy, my first stop is the late, lamented Klaus Kinski.
Photo references are important, for my writing, and they are also fun to share. So here he is, the ruthless head of an evil corporation…
“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.”
– Alan Watts
Unusual places
Sometimes writing takes us to some pretty unusual places… sometimes it takes us to old familiar places we have not visited in a long time.
Progress report and French cuisine
I’m past the 5000 words mark as I stop and go invent something for dinner.
And once again I spent about one hour of today’s first writing session doing extra research for flavor.
The big surprise of the day – research-wise – was discovering the contents of the French RCIR, military-issued rations, called the “Ration de Combat Individuelle Rechauffable” (Combat Ration Individual Reheatable).
My only personal experience with military rations was during my service in the Italian Air Farce, on the single occasion in which we were taken to the field.
To call the experience underwhelming would be an understatement.
And Italians are supposed to be good with food, but the general wisdom was that some predatory NCO was reselling the rations and feeding the troops the leftovers. Continue reading
Karavansara 