Sorry for a super late one today. I wanted to hit target before I wrote today because, well look at the title. 400 days of 1K and still going strong. Given I pick up by estimation about a thousand words on average every fortnight on top of 1K – a conservative estimate, and that I have a ton of writing I don’t count towards 1K on here and my journal, I’ve written somewhere in the range of 566,000 words since this project began. That is low-balling it too. I still find it crazy that I’ve managed to turn out roughly War and Peace in terms of content. Ok, so it’s not W&P level content but still.

I’m still sick as a dog, and I should be asleep right now, but it took awhile to psyche myself up to write TSS. I wanted to do that today for two reasons. First, I want to get the project done, so more TSS days equals better. Second, I managed to end the month on a positive note, with my only instance of five consecutive days of main project writing in the whole of October. This was a super tough month, and I’m proud of myself for getting through it in one piece.

So what do the next 100 days hold? Well if I manage to finish TSS before the end of the year – unlikely but possible – then I might have that as a finished project. As it stands, with the General Election to contend with I’ll settle for still being alive in 100 days. But I might have two almost typed up manuscripts by then, as on January 1st 2020 I’ll be switching to WHT. So who knows.

But on a funny note, this blog turns 1 year old on day 500. I like these weird little coincidences. Goodnight.

Another quiet day of being ill, another small step closer to recovery. Haven’t written yet but will soon. Back has started acting up, never one to be left out of the “pile on Sam for the heck of it” brigade. But I think I’ll be better by the weekend with a pinch of luck.

…just in time to go leafleting. And no I’m not joking, that’s what I plan on doing this weekend if I’m well enough. I can be a moron at times. Most of the time if I’m honest. But what can you do, I didn’t set the election date. Time to pick myself up and get on with it.

It’s funny, tomorrow will be 400 days of 1K and I’ve not really given it a second thought. The GE and CI – and I’m not sure which one is causing me greater discomfort right now – have kinda eclipsed everything else. I guess this is why I love 1K. It’s easy for something to happen if it’s my sole focus or I’m forced into it. When it’s background, and optional, and I still do it with the world burning around me, that’s pretty special.

Short one tonight. Target hit with TSS, bringing the project to 8,000 words with two months and two days still on the clock. Making good time and no reason I can’t have a substantial portion complete by the 31st of December.

Turns out I have a chest infection. Stupid stubborn me went into work with a chest infection again. I need to stop doing that, it’s irresponsible and unhygienic for everyone else. But at least I’m on antibiotics now and resting up. At least things are calm. At least no major stresses are on the horizon.

Guess it’s time for a General Election. My favourite…

I’m back! Ish. No that’s not fair, I am back at my desk. Trello is getting back into shape with a bit of spring – autumn? – cleaning. Heck I only had 66 emails this morning which was a nice suprise, and I’ve already dispatched them all. I managed to sleep by 10pm yesterday by some miracle, and that meant I had time to wake early, have a coffee. Heck I almost had a morning shower. Note to self, hot water not working…

So I’ve got two tandem projects at the moment. The most important one is the easier one: I have 37 chapters of VOL that need to go through HemingwayApp to get in shape. That is a pretty painless – if monotonous – process. I’m thinking if I do three a day then in two weeks I have the whole thing done. That’s an if still, but a doable if. The other is of course TSS, which all in all is going swell. The only problem is on any reasonable projection I’m 8 days behind schedule.

If I have a few bigger days here and there I’ll make up that defecit, but this is assuming I don’t have any 0 days. I’ve already had two, so this seems unlikely. Also of note, I have to have 0 days or I get like, well like I am right now, and like I was last week. So it’s unlikely that I’ll finish TSS by the end of the year. That’s ok, I know my limits, but the plan will be to pivot to WHT’s type up regardless of where I am with TSS on January 1st. 

If I did not have Trello I would never be able to put my life back together like I am able to after long periods of illness. In the past, if I was on to a good thing, one bad bout like last week would kill it in the crib. Thanks to 1K for the motivation, and Trello for keeping all my things safe while I can’t act on them, it’s like I was never ill. I mean yes my voice still sounds like I chain a pack a day – not until Boris gets his election – but otherwise I’m rosy.

Well, back to it.

Target done, and man does it feel good. I don’t feel fantastic but I do feel better than I have done in previous days. My cough is looser, and my general health a lot less dicey than it has been. I also feel good that that’s a thousand words of TSS that I’ve written, so that puts me in a good position to finish by the end of the year deadline.

I did a rough assessment, and found 46 chapters of TSS, each I estimate as being about two thousand words in length. That makes for a 92,000 word story, but some of those chapters will be nearer to 1,200 in length. That said, my range is now going to be officially 1,100 to 2,500, with the preference being right in the middle. I’m ok with having some chapters being twice the length of others if they need to be. For me, the position of the chapters matters more. Some work better as snapshots.

I also had my first major reworked scene today, a therapy session between my protagonist and their therapist. I found in the first instance I wasn’t making the protagonist likable enough, and now I feel I’ve got some good work in place tugging on the audience’ heartstrings. It’s a huge improvement over my writing of five years ago, and it’s gratifying that I now know how to do these little things. I wonder what I’ll be like in another five years?

So I’ll be back at work tomorrow. That’s going to be a weird experience. I am lucky in that – touch wood – it looks unlikely an election will get called before Christmas now, so my holiday maneuvers shouldn’t come back to bite me. If it ends up called anyway then, bugger. But eh, I still have time to dedicate to it if that happens. I hope for my health’s sake it doesn’t. Selfish, maybe. To be frank I don’t give a damn, my health comes first. Plus hey, it’s not like it’s within my control.

Right, gonna go journal, then maybe do some more TSS. No sense in not banking a bit more while I’m on a roll as long as I don’t overdo it. I’ve learned that lesson; I don’t like getting ill like this.

Good news is that I uploaded VOL’s first chapter today without a hitch, It even has a snazzy new cover I’ll update above when I can. Bad news is I am a train wreck right now and I will try to write TSS, but it’s gonna be a bit dicey. Not having access to coffee is really taxing my productivity to the splintering bone.

Been a busy day, but alas the flat is still a tip. Not much I could do, my immune system threw me under a bus for a third of a month, and I did all I could to avoid my flesh scrambling under the serrated metal. Can you tell I’m still not impressed with how much I’ve had to put up with from my body this month?

Anyway sorry for yet another short and late one. When I’m back at work on Monday I’ll try and get the routine back in order. Cya for now.

I am still stuck in such a bad loop at the moment. I didn’t manage to tidy anything today, my energy is all going into basic functions because this cough drains the excess and then some. I’m so angry about this illness. It took my holiday, it took extra holiday days, and it’s about to take my weekend. Sick of being ill all the time. I exercise, even at my worst I eat better than I give myself credit. I take my breaks, and I get enough sleep. Why is my immune system ready to buckle at a moment’s notice?

Well, screw that noise because I now have the first 11 uploads for VOL ready to go. If I weren’t so sick that I average two coughing fits a minute I might have gotten the whole thing. I’m going to out-productive 99% of writers even if I do have to do it whilst spewing my guts up. I’m just that good. Random rants at imaginary writers to my imaginary readers aside, I still need to write !K for today, so am about to do that with TSS. The story is going well so far, cannot complain. I’m sure I’ll hit a roadblock at some point but for now, it’s flowing as it should.

While I would like to get VOL all edited up over this weekend ready for full serialising, I’ll settle for not also developing a chest infection at this point. Tired of stress making me so ill, tired of not doing what I love as my actual job too, but not a whole lot I can do about that in the short term. On stress, I guess I need to start turning more people down, and telling them “sorry, not my remit” and handing their requests right back to them. I should do that anyway. Heck, at least I’m willing to be polite about it.

Right, I’m going to dive into TSS, then with luck sleep the worst of this cough off. I like to think it’s getting looser at the moment, and I’m clinging to this notion until they wheel me into the hospital or I get past this mess. At least uploading that first chapter tomorrow will be a satisfying experience. Even if I still don’t have a cover…

I never realised just how disorientating coughing is compared to other ailments. You lose the day, all of it, it’s unreal. As it is, I managed even whilst not at full lucidity to do all the penultimate edits for VOL, and I’m about to run the whole thing through Hemingway. Short post tonight as this is gonna take awhile. Wish me luck.

hemingwayapp.com < use it.

Still feel rough but it’s just a cough. This I can work with. I’m going to keep resting up and doing more of the same. But tonight is going to be, quite special. I’m uploading two chapters to WattPad, and not just any two. The latter, is the epilogue. Tonight, we bring The Unreachable Star to its end. I don’t know what edits might be made in future, but tonight is the culmination of a journey I’ve now been on for over seven years.

But, no culmination at all, because the best is yet to come.

Target done. Ok I wanna talk for a minute about “Target done”; for a few days now I’ve only written this entry after 1K, and while yes that’s what I started off doing, and I never really laid a firm rule of when to write this, when I’m doing it so late at night that feels off. I mean yes I can write 1K at 5AM if I really want to – I never want to, what kind of psycho would? But this blog feels like more of a starter, a warm up if you will. Well anyway, point is I am going to try and write these earlier, as I can’t write this at 5AM.

So what I wrote today was the rest of Chapter one of The Spectrum Sings, or TSS as I have and will continue to refer to it. I feel right at home with this story, and feel I’ve hot the ground running with a strong opening, full of intrigue, questions, action, and of course my protagonist’s saving the cat moment. Can’t ask for too much more than that so I am pretty darn happy. I’d be happier if my cough was gone, but now I have the single greatest medicine known to, well, me: Boots Pharmaceuticals Glycerin Honey & Lemon Linctus. Live in the UK? Have a cough/sore throat? Buy it. Trust me, it’s gold. No really, it’s even golden in colour.

In case it’s not obvious I am still delirious from illness so imma go say sleep sleep now. Bye.