Russian hackers and stock market manipulation add up to murder for National Security Agency mathematician Adam.
Monthly Archives: July 2015
Another record and a little road block
I keyed 2,358 words yesterday on Mindfield, which makes for 15,225 words in the last fifteen days. Yeah! Both numbers are records for me. Even when I’m not sitting at my keyboard, electrifying dialogue and action sequences dance in my mind. Too bad they aren’t as electrifying when I get around to punching them into words. Nonetheless, writing a new book is an exciting experience for me.
I did have a few slow days where I barely logged a few hundred words. Writer’s block? You might call it that, but the problem was I had a good outline for the first two-thirds of the book, while the last third was sketchy. To a degree, this was unavoidable. More so than most space operas, Mindfield is about its protagonist’s self-discovery. I had to write the first two-thirds of the book to fully understand Cam and where he wanted to head. That done, the remainder of the book plotted out in quick order.
Filed under Art and Craft of Writing
Record set for words written
Wrote 2,179 words today, which is a record for me. It was work, but I’m having a lot of fun writing Mindfield with its twist and turns.
Filed under Art and Craft of Writing, Mindfield
Secondhand Lions: Caine, Duvall, and Haley Joel Osment
Secondhand Lions has great actors, a twisty story line, and a lion. What more can a person ask for? My wife and I watched this 2003 movie at the suggestion of a friend and thoroughly enjoyed it. Osment is dumped off by his mother with two old great uncles, who may be rich. At least the Mother and other relatives think so. Initially the uncles all but ignore poor Haley, who has bounced around relatives and orphanages all his life. When he runs away, first the uncle played by Caine, and then the enigmatic uncle played by Duvall, accept the responsibility to raise him. The Duvall uncle has a past that haunts him in his sleepwalking nights. But was he really in the French Foreign Legion, or was he a bank robber, or is all of it bunk? The main three actors give fantastic performances as Haley’s character goes from a castoff young fourteen-year-old to a confident young man.
Writers should watch the director’s commentary where he talks about the balance between exposition and pacing, and character transformations.
kennethdschultz 