Ted Mahsun

Well, I'm still alive. I've managed 5073 words and I'm still on target for 50k by the end of November. This year has been a different kind of Nanowrimo for me. Usually, I'd write like the wind and would churn out about 15,000 words in less than three days then after that I'd stop writing for a while, and most often, I would not even continue. This year though I've taken a very marathon-y pace at doing Nanowrimo (which is what Nanowrimo really is -- a marathon) and haven't done any ridiculous wordy sprints. I've managed to meet the daily target of 1667 words so far and haven't gone overboard. I can't keep this pace however, because Friday is a holiday (Happy Diwali, people) and that's followed by a weekend which means I'll be at home, which means I probably won't do any writing. I have a baby and wife and both of them are huge attention seekers so I doubt I will get any writing done while they're around. So today I really w...

Yes, I'm taking part in Nanowrimo again this year. This will be my first serious year taking part in Nanowrimo since 2007. I gave my all in that year and finished with 52,000 words. I would not be able repeat that feat the following two years due to work and life constraints. Even though I told people I would take part I never really took it seriously. So I never won Nanowrimo again for those years. So this year, I'm putting on my bandanna Rambo-style, this music video is playing in the background and I'm gonna hit that 50k word mark again. This is a promise. I've already put down 1812 words for today, so I'm on track. I'll write more about the novel I'm writing for Nanowrimo in the coming days.

Crap. Has it been twenty days already? I don't think I need to say I'm seriously behind on my word count. It's not that I haven't been writing. I have. Lots of it. It's just that all the writing I've done this past month has mostly been of the speeches, essays, book forewords and book reviews variety. After all that, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is to wrack my brains for a novel. In addition to that, the gallery I work for just held a HUGE event (I've mentioned this before I believe) yesterday, where People of Royalty came and graced us with their Presence. It was all a huge fuss and all so we were all understandably kept busy. It's true what they say. If you want to write a novel, don't have a writing job as your day job. You'll have written a lot during work, and by the time you get home, you'll be too tired to write anything for yourself. Having said that, I believe NaNoWriMo's not over yet. So there...

Hmm. Well I've been real busy of late so I have had to abandon my NaNoWriMo efforts for the time being. Also! My brother bought the Dragon Quest IV remake for the Nintendo DS...and it's completely captured me within its evil grasps. I'm making up for lost time. I never finished it the first time I played it on the NES all those years ago, and when they released the Playstation remake, I couldn't read Japanese. Now I'm determined to save the goddamn world, NaNoWriMo or no! (The following paragraph might only be interest to a special breed of nerd–the video game soundtrack nerd. I was digging through my video game soundtrack CD collection yesterday, and I could only find the soundtracks for Dragon Quests 1 to 8 except 4. I'm pretty sure I bought the soundtrack for 4. Did I lose it or something? Oh well, at least I rediscovered a CD I thought I had long ago lost: the Saga Frontier II OST! Yay! Only the best jRPG soundtrack evah! Well, next to Final Fantasy 6 obviou...

Woke up this morning to a NaNoWriMo pep email written by Jonathan Stroud in which he equates writing the first draft of a novel to an epic, heroic journey starring Charlton Heston: "Full of dramatic highs, dreadful lows and endless tedious bits when the audience goes out to make a cup of tea." How very true! Last night's writing session went better than the day before with me being able to hammer up to 2200 words. I had a target of reaching 3000 words but it was not to be. Still! 2200 words! That's a lot! My overall word count is now 5236. I'm happy with that number and also happy with the direction my story is taking. I didn't expect it to take a life of its own just yet, but that's what happened. I certainly did not expect the protagonist to impersonate a masseuse to break into a house. Weird. I think I'm beginning to feel the NaNo vibe now!

Yesterday's word count was much better. It didn't reach the requisite daily count of 1667, but I did write more than a thousand words and managed to reach 1400 words. If it's better than yesterday and the day before, than it's good enough for me. There's another thing that's good about all this. The fact that my daily word count is getting higher everyday might mean I'm gaining momentum so things might get better in the coming week. I'm still preparing for the worst though, so I can't get too cocky now. The art gallery I work for is planning a huge (HUGE!) exhibition launch this month and my wife's office deems it fit to make it compulsory for husbands to attend their family day, also happening later this month. I foresee these two events threatening to derail my NaNoWriMo efforts so I'll have to take some precautionary measures if I want to make sure my word count is good enough. Lastly, FUCK YOU PJH Corporation for forcing husbands to come ...

NaNoWriMo is here again! I would've blogged earlier but somehow the Internet keeps acting up everytime I want to log into Blogger. So anyway! To catch up, there was a book launch party on October 31st , and by the time I got home at about midnight, the last thing I wanted to work on was a 50,000 word novel. (What I did was fire up Thief: Deadly Shadows . Have you played it? It's awesome.) When I did finally start writing – at 8pm on 1st November – I only managed to crank out 670 words. This is something new for me. Usually with every NaNoWriMo I've taken part in, I start writing furiously, fueled by enthusiasm and ambition. This year, even though I've got a story I want to put down on paper and have the basic outline in my head, I don't really seem too excited by it. Not like previous years anyway. This seems to be reflected in my miserable wordcount. (Talking about my wordcount, the NaNoWriMo site seems to be having its annual early hiccup, wherein the their server...

The Malaysian sf lover must consider Payless a godsend. I know I do. Enter any branch and most likely there's a good selection of classic sf for fantastically cheap prices. The better ones (my personal faves are the ones at 1U 1 , Summit USJ and Amcorp Mall) might even harbour some rare classics. So it was that I when I was digging around in the sf section of the Payless in Summit USJ, I chanced upon J.G. Ballard's Wind From Nowhere . There's an interesting story behind this book. It's actually Ballard's first published novel, but you'd never know that from the officially endorsed bibliographies or even the interviews with him. Written in a scant two weeks (take that Nanowrimo!), The Wind From Nowhere was his attempt to become a published writer. It succeeded and he soon followed it with his now classic, The Drowned World . Since then however, Ballard has disowned it, calling it a mere hackjob. I did not know this before I read it. I only knew of Ballard from h...

Pfft. 50,000 words? Piece of cake. Hah! Actually though? It was torture. On hindsight, I don't know why I went through it and I wonder how I managed to. But I made it! I made it! Now to actually finish my novel. At 50k words, my story's only half told... I envy those who can call themselves novelists at 50k. Right. So now December is officially Novel Finishing Month. 31 days for another 50k words! I can't wait! My heartfelt thanks go to my wife, L, who was patient enough to tolerate my absences (and sometimes, even dogged me to reach my daily word count) as well as Chet and Shark who cheered for me to go on! Woot! Cartoon by Inkygirl nicked without permission.

40,000 words! I never knew I had it in me. I've never seen so many words that I wrote myself in one place at the same time. How did these words connect together to form a single coherent story * ? It's magic, I tell you! Right, only 10,000 words to go. Listen to me... only 10,000 words to go. Hah! Madness. A month ago, 10,000 words was like a gajillion bajillion words. Writing so much was nigh impossible. * a matter of one's opinion Also! Check out Chet's blog where she reflects on what lessons NaNoWriMo taught her this year .

So I hit 25k today! What a great feeling it is to reach halfway through the novel! It's true what they say: you begin to start hating the novel, you start to think that the novel is crap. I've been tempted many times to just give up the whole damned thing. Many a time I stared at the empty page, mocking me with my inability to go on. Many a time there was when I pulled my hair in despair when I wrote my characters into a corner. (Don't be surprised when next you see me, I have less hair!) I mean, seriously. My protagonist lands up in a hospital after he knocks into an elephant god by mistake when he gets lost in the city. He then proceeds to get the living daylights beaten out of him, but because he's the hero, he survives. But then no matter how many times I give him a chance to escape from the hospital (so that he can continue the damn plot), he just refuses and stays in the hospital! The nerve! I've finally got him out, but not without some coaxing and navel-ga...

Whoop! Past the 10,000 mark! I got distracted during the weekend (no thanks to pesky, meddling relatives, grr!) so I'm relieved I managed to catch up.

7578 words so far. Added 2501 words today. I couldn't keep up the pace I had yesterday because I think I zonked out my brain last night. I think it got quite a shock to write so much in so little time! I've had to take it more slowly today; my thought processes don't seem to be matching up or something. Or maybe I just need more exercise. Anyway! The story continues and so far it's good. A bit slower paced than yesterday, because the protagonist started reflecting on himself before he got on the train, and then the plot just started to drag slower than molasses stuck on turtles. But at least he got on the damn train to his destiny. Finally. And now to take this story to The City.

The stage is set, the green flag drops! I've just finished writing my quota of words for today. My mind seems so numb, and my eyes can't seem to focus on anything right now. I managed to finish one chapter of the novel and my word count so far is 5077 words. Yay me! *clap clap* I'm feeling good about myself right now but this year I don't want to brag about it too much like I did last year . The enthusiasm only lasts for a few days, then it's downhill all the way, until something good happens, which is not often, if ever. The outline idea seems to have worked for me... so far. Also, unlike last year when I used Google Docs to write my novel, this year my noveling software of choice is the awesome Scrivener . (However, I am using only the free, unsupported and outdated Scrivener Gold .) This particular software is like a project manager for novel writing. It keeps and sorts all your research and data you've collected while researching your novel in one place and ...

Okay... I'm almost ready! Still writing the outline for my novel and am hoping to finish it by today. I'm also hoping that by writing an outline first instead of simply winging it like I did in previous years might actually help. Perhaps. I have a good feeling about this year's effort... but that could be the stale vegetables from the mamak's I had for lunch.

Well, it's that crazy time of year again, my friends! Early mornings and late nights, typing and/or scribbling away like nobody's business. Checking incessantly the word processor's word count; despairing that the daily word target hasn't been reached; despairing that ideas have all but dried out. Yes, the month of November is nigh, and that means it's National Novel Writing Month once again! We all know the drill but here's the lowdown: A participant of NaNoWriMo should write a novel in a month, or at the very least, 50,000 words of prose. Within 30 days. I failed to complete last year's NaNoWriMo challenge (managed only about 15,000 words)... or even the previous year. I wonder if I'll be able to make it this year? No idea, but I'm giving it a shot anyway! Last year, I tried writing a fantasy (with sf elements) novel , but this year I'll be attempting a young adult book instead. My idea concerns a bookish, nerdish and completely anti-social bo...

You'll have noticed that my counter hasn't moved for two days now. There are two reasons for this - 1) all the work I managed to avoid in the office defeated my barriers and have come and hounded me - there is no escape; and 2) my inner editor - usually a nice chap with glasses - paid me and my novel a visit, and judged it crap. What a bummer. Such party-poopingness! So it is with great joy that I received the weekly inspirational email by Chris Baty (NaNoWriMo's founder) in my inbox today, in which he says: The plot is draggy. The characters are boring. The dialogue is pointless, and the prose has all the panache of something dashed off by a distracted kindergartner. If you're feeling any of these things---or find yourself starting to feel them this week---know that nothing is wrong. In fact, you're likely on track for a great NaNoWriMo. Just lower your head, pick up your pace, and write straight into the maw of your misgivings. If you are thinking about quitting, ...

10027 words... and I'm spent. Probably won't be writing during the weekend, so had to make up for it. All those Raya eats to go to, y'know. Where is the story going? Dunno, one of the characters just finished an extensive monologue which hopefully isn't boring, then the whole cast got on a train. Off to where? Dunno. Maybe I'll put some snakes on the train. Say it! SNAKES! ON A MOTHERF'ING TRAIN! Wooot! I'm off to the 10k word party. Happy weekend peeps.

Looks like I have time to post. Thoughts on the Novel-In-Progress: Woke up feeling a little afraid that my momentum had lessened because I did not know how to continue where I left off yesterday. Well I did, but I couldn't really "imagine" a perfect continuation. Solved it by simply not thinking about it and sitting down and writing it. GF mentioned that the story reminds her of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go , which is interesting in that I did not have it in mind when I wrote it but I did read it recently. (About 2 months back?) The story does have some similarities to Never Let Me Go . A story narrated by a young person, and a "gob" instead of a "carer". But no clones in this one. Or any nostalgic escapades into the 80s. Or sex. :( I'm scared of writing this down because I might jinx my novel, but damn! I have a good feeling about this story. I didn't really plan the whole thing like I usually do, and I find this to my advantage because I fi...

Well! So far so good, I guess... 3731 words on the first day. I'm not going to be posting my updates every day, but here's a short excerpt of what I have so far, to give you an idea of what I'm working towards: The day Antartica finally declared independence was the day I saw my first true gob. I know, I know, I shouldn't say "gob". But that's what we called them back then, before it started becoming offensive. Of course, I had seen gobs before. Some of my teachers were gobs. But like I said, I wouldn't call them "true" gobs. Not after meeting Dulkhan "Magwitch" R.1128.9x. Compared to Dulkhan, my gob teachers were mindless drones, and when compared to my human teachers, they were even lesser beings. I cannot say this enough - Dulkhan was a true gob, in every sense of the word, good or bad... and I am fairly sure he was proud of it. The day I met Dulkhan was also my last day in school. My secondary education was completed. What await...