Ted Mahsun

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...

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! That's just 12 hours away... I participated in last year's NaNoWriMo. Even went to the meet they had organised in MPH 1 Utama. But my efforts sizzled pretty quickly as work took over my life. But thanks to a different job and a lifestyle change this year, I'm pretty confident I can make the 50k mark this time round. Phew! 50,000 words. The number almost leaves breathless every time I think of it. Hey, it's just, you know, words . Anyway, I've decided that I won't be writing the usual angsty stuff I usually write in my short stories and will be aiming for a novel with a science fiction/young adult persuasion. One that doesn't require me to think too much. Plot driven, rather than character driven. Something that would most likely fit in the mass market. My influences would most likely be... er... lemme list 'em: The Hungry City Chronicles , The BFG , Snow Crash , Eberron, The Golden Compass (but not the rest of the His Dark Mat...