Wednesday 31 July 2013

50,000

Okay so the ending kind of sucks and it could be better. BUT.... I did it. I have reached 50,000 words and I did it a day early! :D

What I'm going to do now is print it off, put it altogether with some big ass clip and let it sit whilst I write another 50,000 words in August. Yep! This Summer I'm planning on driving myself crazy.

But until then, print off my work and store it safe.

I have a novel! I have a novel! I have a novel! (repeat it and fade it out into nothing but a whisper on the wind.)

Monday 29 July 2013

Endings

As I'm nearing the end of my story with a measly 5,000 words to go I figured I'd do a little something about endings.

One of the most important parts of your story is the ending. You could have the best opening, a brilliant series of action scenes, fantastic dialogue, but if you don't have that stellar ending that knits it all together, then you've let your story down.

A reader who gets to the end and finds it... lacking compared to the rest of the story will feel cheated and disappointed. It may be a case that when you come to planning your story you already have the ending all figured out. But what if your story takes a different direction between the start and then? What if after you've written the story it doesn't fit in?

Rewrite it obviously.

But what if, like me, you don't have an ending. Just a starting point and a general direction of your story. But no ending? What do you do then?

You could sit at a wall for hours, days, just staring, thinking, wondering, shaking your head, cursing, starting to write that ending before realising you don't like it.

Just write it. For the first draft, just have an ending so that you can put the ever tastefully fulfilling words "THE END" at the end. Get those two words on the page first. Worry about the ending later. I know for a fact that there have been cases where the ending has been changed in the last and final edit to be ten times better. And if after three edits you still don't have a quite right ending, change it, tweak it, delete it, rewrite it.

Remember, you can always change it later. Just get an ending down, get to the editing stage and read your story as a whole. See what you think then and decided then what should be left and what should be deleted. It doesn't have to be an award winning finish with everybody dying or everybody having a happily ever after. But as long as you get an ending down that will tie up the loose ends in your story, then that is all that matters.

Editing is where everything gets better.

Even now, I don't have an ending. Well, I have a couple of ideas and I'm just going to get one down. When I do, I'll post it up and you can see how strange, natural or out of place it seems.

Keep writing.

Friday 26 July 2013

40,000 Excerpt #9

I have hit 40,000 words. The end feels so near yet so far away. I have come so far that failing at this point? Is not an option. If I have to write 10,000 words on the final day then so be it.

But I cannot fail.

It feels like an accomplishment to be this far in but next week? When I've hit that oh so charming 50 K? That will be a rewarding night.

And here's a little update on situations with Hunter proving herself to be not the diplomat a stand in Captain is expected to be:

“Who’s the boy scout?”
    “Captain Grey of Titan,” Sokoloff said just before she let the video transmission continue.  
    “Ah, Captain O’Donnell I believe?”
    She eyed him suspiciously for several seconds before she nodded, “Captain Grey. Command send you?”
    Grey gave a slight smile. “Yes. You see, when they discovered a sudden spike in heat and radiation well, they got interested. So they sent us through to look.”
    Out of the corner of her eye she could see Hunter and Sokoloff both shaking their heads. She was glad that neither of them were in video range since it had been shifted to focus on her. “Well, you must have some pretty fast engines. Faster than mine”
    Grey chuckled. “To which ship are you referencing? This hunk of junk or your designated ship Valhalla?”
    “Both actually. I’d like to lay claim to both. What better way to prove to be a capable Captain then command two ships at the same time?”
    Grey quirked one brow at her and she wondered what thought had just crossed his mind. “You must prepare for an emergency docking sequence Captain. Direct orders from Command.”
    The atmosphere in the bridge changed and Charlie hid it well. “Direct orders? Well,” she could feel the sarcasm slathering up each word as she spoke, “Who am I to disagree with direct orders?”
    Now Grey was frowning. “I don’t like your tone Captain.”
    “We were given orders that you would be waiting for us on the other side of the belt. Even if you were, which is doubtful, there is no way you caught up to us in that short space of time.” She pressed her hands to the arms of the chair and pushed herself up. Nelson and Torres stepped forward, ready to steady her. But she waved them off with a subtle shake of the head. Her eyes turned and snapped themselves on Grey. “So you listen to me you lying sack of shit. I’ve had enough bullshit being fed to me over these two days to last me a lifetime. I am not going to put up with your crap too. So tell me, Captain to Captain, honestly, what the fuck are you and your crew doing out here?”
    There was silence for several seconds and Charlie could tell there was shock in the room. There was rarely a time she yelled, never mind yelled whilst putting somebody in their place. Even Grey was silent for several long seconds before his shoulders rose and he exhaled a large sigh. “Captain O’Donnell, I have my orders.”
    “And I have mine.” She made a motion across her throat with her good arm and Sokoloff cut the transmission.
    Silence made itself comfortable in her seat, attracting all of the attention. Eliot cleared his throat and Nelson was the one to speak, “And our orders are?”
    Charlie let her eyes trail from the screen to Sokoloff, to Zach, to Hunter, to Nelson, to Eliot and finally back to Nelson before she said, “Get Dixon and some answers.”
    Hunter cleared her throat next and said, “And Command?”
    Well, she thought bitterly, No holding back now. “Can screw itself for all I care. We’re getting our ship back, finding medical help for Garrison and capturing Dixon for questioning.” The new found bump of energy had her limping towards the door, bypassing Nelson and the wheelchair. Every muscle in her body was screaming and her head was ready to shatter into a million pieces, but she needed space. “Let me know when we arrive at the planets.”
    “And what if,” Zach said, “Grey decides to call us up again?”
    Charlie sighed, let her good hand rest her weight against the frame and turned her eyes over her shoulder, “Ignore him. Tell him to screw himself. He can’t fire without having to explain it. He shouldn’t be here.”
    “What if he opens fire?” Sokoloff asked the question nobody had wanted to hear.
    She would be lying if she said the idea hadn’t crossed her mind, or wasn’t even a possibility. But it was. Grey could open fire and if Command had sent him, if they deemed she was ignoring rules and orders again, which she was, then they could either force an emergency docking or potentially shoot them down if they didn’t comply. “Eliot mess with the docking ports. Only the ones another ship could latch onto. Make it so that it can’t perform an emergency dock. Can’t break the rules if you can’t dock.”
    “And why we are going towards two unknown planets?” Sokoloff said.
    Charlie just wanted to sit down and forget this day or two, she couldn’t tell, couldn’t be bothered to check just yet, had ever happened. She wanted to wake up to McCallister complaining at the early hours, Rhodes giving orders and being blunt with everything. “Seeking medical help from nearest possible facility, and technically true so again, can’t open fire.”
    Then Hunter just had to open her mouth and stop her feet once more. “What if they open fire anyway?”
    “Have the emergency broadcast signal going. Somebody’s bound to pick it up and if Grey destroys us he’ll be ruined anyway.”
    “We were more thinking about staying alive,” Nelson offered in a sarcastic drawl and Charlie could feel her head getting worse.
    “Emergency broadcast. If he calls, medical help, can’t dock, he can try if he wishes.” And she ignored anything else to go lie down before she collapsed in an unconscious heap in the doorway. She’d managed to close the door to the Captain’s room behind her before her body gave up and had her collapsing with the need to rest. By the time she hit the floor she was already out to whatever was going on.

18

Grey’s command signature appeared on the screen again and Hunter sighed. She pulled herself up with a wince, whilst Nelson and Eliot left the bridge, and meandered to the Captain’s seat. “Okay,” she sighed, “Pull it up.”
    Zach sighed himself and pressed the button that connected the two ships. “Where is Captain O’Donnell?”
    “Attending business. Now, what can I help you with?”
    “You tell the Captain that I have every right to dock and board your ship”
    Hunter shrugged and fell into the seat. “Sure, by all means, go ahead. If you catch up with it.”
    Grey frowned. “What do you mean? Who are you?”
    “Staff Sergeant Evelyn Hunter. And our designated ship is Valhalla. About, ooh,” she turned her head about her neck as if thinking, and snapped her eyes back onto the other Captain. “An hour ahead on our current heading. Feel free to follow us.” And she offered the man her best grin.
    But it only seemed to make the man glare even harder. “Staff Sergeant, you are to relinquish command of your vessel and prepare for emergency docking.”
    “Yeah,” the American drawled out with a hint of a southern accent. If anyone were to ask she’d tell them plain and straight she was from Tennessee and proud. “You see, our docking system got damaged when we disconnected with Vanguard and well,” she shrugged her shoulders, “We can’t dock. We would love to dock for the use of your very useful medical bay because you see,” and she was twisting her hand about her wrist with exaggeration. “One of our crew members were severely injured in an altercation and he needs blood. A lot of it. Now, no doubt there will be some sort of medical facility on one of those planets. No doubt about it that  they are also much closer than Command or anywhere from where we were to the nearest station or Mars. We couldn’t risk losing another man for the sake of telling Command our story. So, we’re taking a diversion then we’ll be right on our merry way.” Another grin.
    Then Grey was gone and the stars with the planets not too far off came into view. Hunter slumped into the chair, a sigh releasing her tensely strung body. “I’ve never fake smiled so much in my life.”
    Zach chuckled with a shake of his head. “I thought you were going to crack.”
    Hunter nodded with a smile, “Yeah well, maybe next time I’ll just tell him to fuck off and see what happens.”
    “Then,” Sokoloff said, “If he does decide to open fire, it is on you.”     

    Hunter rolled her eyes. “With my charming personality what’s not to love?” 

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Excerpt #8

Well, I am 37, 775 words in and this is where things are taking another kind of turn.

    The machine was charging and Nelson was applying pads to Torres’ chest to prevent burns from appearing. The engineer awoke and the Doctor sighed. “What’s going on?”
    “We think we know a way to stop you from trying to kill anybody else,” Murphy said first.
    Torres’ eyes went to the Captain and she nodded. “Nelson found little mechanical robots on your nerves. They were what caused you to attack me. We believe short circuiting them would stop a repeat.”
    Torres nodded to the defibrillator. “What’s that for?”
    Now his eyes were on Nelson, waiting with expectation for the Doctor to answer. Which he did, after sighing, again. “You of all people should know what we mean by short circuit.”
    Torres’ eyes went wide and he shook his head, wriggling in his seat. “No, no, no, no. No. We are not killing me.”
    “It’ll only be for a few seconds, a minute at most,” Murphy said.
    “Hey!” Charlie said, “Shut it Sergeant.” Then she turned softer eyes on Torres. “Either take the shock or stay shackled. We can’t let you out. Just in case you decide to attack somebody else.”
    The man seemed defeated. He ducked his head, darted his eyes from left to right and back again then bit his lip with a slow nod. “Okay,” he finally said. His eyes lifted to settle on Nelson’s. “Do it.”
    Nelson nodded, holding back a sigh as he lifted the paddles that were now charged, at maximum, and turned to the engineer. His brows rose as he asked, “You sure?”
    Torres nodded, pinched his eyes shut and curled his fingers into fists. Nelson offered Charlie one last look before he pressed the paddles to the gel sheets. Torres flinched. Nelson sighed. Then he pushed the buttons and Torres’ body jerked up. Then it fell down. Nelson watched the heart monitor that was hooked up to the man and let his ears listen for the ping from the defibrillator to be ready then pressed it to the man’s chest. His body jerked again.
    But the screen was still flat lining. “Charging,” Nelson muttered more to himself then the others. Another ping. Another shock. Still nothing. “No,” the Doctor muttered as the fifth shock received the same response. “Don’t you dare,” he growled. The paddles were back on Torres’ chest, delivering their sixth shock.
    Charlie had been counting the seconds, could hear them tick by in her head, marking the second minute of death. Come on, she thought, her teeth biting the inside of her lower lip.
    Nelson was varying between the paddles and chest compressions to coax the man out of death’s hands. “If there is,” Nelson said between compressions, “One way, I’m going, to let you, die, it is, not like, this!” He stepped back, watched the screen and growled at the flat line.
    “Evan,” Charlie drawled out in a whisper. “Get your spidery ass back here now.”
    “Come on!” Nelson yelled as he grabbed the paddles again. He turned, placed them against Torres’ chest and there was a beep. He lifted his eyes to the screen and saw a pulse. The paddles were gone, the cart pushed away as his hands worked on making sure Torres hadn’t suffered from the death. “How you feeling man?”
    He spluttered for a few seconds before he coughed and nodded, “How long was I dead for?”
    Charlie and Nelson exchanged a couple of glances before she dropped the news, “Over two less than three.”
    “Holy fuck,” Torres dragged out.
    “Fuck indeed,” Nelson said, waving a penlight in one eye then the next. “I’d say you’re fine now. How’s the rest of you feel?”
    “My chest’s sore.”
    The Doctor nodded. “You did have a thousand volts of electricity applied to it.” There was a smirk to his words and he patted Torres on the shoulder. “Rest. I want another x-ray before I let you go.” He turned and stepped as close as he could to Charlie’s bed to whisper angrily, “Don’t you dare make me do that again.”
    She tilted her head forward once. “I won’t. I promise.” After a moment, just as he turned, ready to leave, she grabbed his arm and dragged him back. “I’m sorry for putting you through that. Honestly, and I’m sorry for what happened. But thank you.”
    The Doctor only nodded stiffly before he retook his arm and moved away from her. Charlie sighed in relief, let her head fall against the pillow and closed her eyes.

Sokoloff and Hunter stared at the screen. A video transmission was awaiting them and neither one of them wanted to open it. The stamp that attached itself to transmissions to allow the receiving ship to identify who was calling them, it was the Command insignia. “Well,” Hunter said, “We’re fucked.”
    The Russian held a hand up to the screen, “Are you not going to answer?”
    Hunter laughed, “Ha! No! I avoid politics like that.”
    “So I should get Zach?” Sokoloff didn’t wait for an answer, just tapped the internal comms and said, “Zach to bridge, Zach to bridge, we have an incoming transmission.”
    Then she opened the video message looked up to the face of a young looking Captain. Too young in her opinion. “My name is Captain Grey of the ship Titan. I wish to speak to your Captain on behalf of Command.”
    “They’re on their way,” the pilot spoke, “Let me put you on hold.” She muted and dead screened Titan, a useful tool that allowed bridges and ships to confer with its crew before it made a decision for everyone.
    Zach stumbled onto the bridge, having ran, and looked up at the frozen image of Grey. “Who’s he?”
    “Captain Grey of the Titan.” Hunter said. “He’s on hold.”
    Zach narrowed his eyes, “Shouldn’t you be the one answering him, seeing as how you’re the next in charge.”
    Hunter held her hands up, palms forward, “Not the politics. Captain knows that.”
    “You’re acting Captain. Next ranked. Grow a pair.”
    “If it’s so easy why don’t you grow a pair?”
    Sokoloff sighed, shook her head and turned in her seat. “Both of you have no balls. One of you, answer now.”
    “Pull it up!” came a familiar voice from the door and three sets of eyes turned to see their Captain being carried along by Torres and Nelson. They helped her to the Captain’s chair and she sighed as she slouched into it, holding her chest as she did so. The three eyes were still on her and she glared at them, “Who’s the boy scout?”
    “Captain Grey of Titan,” Sokoloff said just before she let the video transmission continue.  
    “Ah, Captain O’Donnell I believe?”
    She eyed him suspiciously for several seconds before she nodded, “Captain Grey. Command send you?”
    Grey gave a slight smile. “Yes. You see, when they discovered a sudden spike in heat and radiation well, they got interested. So they sent us through to look.”
    Out of the corner of her eye she could see Hunter and Sokoloff both shaking their heads. She was glad that neither of them were in video range since it had been shifted to focus on her. “Well, you must have some pretty fast engines. Faster than mine”
    Grey chuckled. “To which ship are you referencing? This hunk of junk or your designated ship Valhalla?”
    “Both actually. I’d like to lay claim to both. What better way to prove to be a capable Captain then command two ships at the same time?”
    Grey quirked one brow at her and she wondered what thought had just crossed his mind. “You must prepare for an emergency docking sequence Captain. Direct orders from Command.”
    The atmosphere in the bridge changed and Charlie hid it well. “Direct orders? Well,” she could feel the sarcasm slathering up each word as she spoke, “Who am I to disagree with direct orders?”
    Now Grey was frowning. “I don’t like your tone Captain.”

    “We were given orders that you would be waiting for us on the other side of the belt. Even if you were, which is doubtful, there is no way you caught up to us in that short space of time.” She pressed her hands to the arms of the chair and pushed herself up. Nelson and Torres stepped forward, ready to steady her. But she waved them off with a subtle shake of the head. Her eyes turned and snapped themselves on Grey. “So you listen to me you lying sack of shit. I’ve had enough bullshit being fed to me over these two days to last me a lifetime. I am not going to put up with your crap too. So tell me, Captain to Captain, honestly, what the fuck are you and your crew doing out here?”

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Stuck

I'm at 34,122 words and I'm stuck. Not in terms of plot but in which way to go. You see, from this point that I'm at, my story needs to go one of two ways. But deciding between those two ways is a difficult one. Let me explain.

So Zach, the pilot, has been left in charge because everybody above him is dead, unconscious, seriously injured or bed bound for now. And that's a lot of injuries. Seriously. Walking around the ship with ease are, Zach, Sokoloff, Nelson and Eliot.

Hunter's awake, just bound to her bed until she stops pulling her stitches.

So that leaves Zach. The station is of no concern anymore but.... what next? They could either:

1) Pursue Dixon to the planets, which will only leave the story with more questions

or

2) Have a mysterious ship sent by Command intercept them. Again, raising more questions.

No matter which way I go there will be a lot of questions, a lot of mystery and a lot of groaning and head banging from me.

Camp NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words and I have at least 16,000 to play around with. In 16,000 could I possibly have them being intercepted and royally fucked from behind? Or could I have them reaching one of the planets and find the strangest of scenarios? I just can't seem to decide and this is my second day thinking over this. I just can't seem to go one way or another.

I could do both.

At a push.

But that's just all of the questions and will be bound to make the reader's head explode.

Saturday 20 July 2013

Planning.

I'm going to give you my opinion on how to plan your story, including characters, setting and place, time, science (if necessary) and other bits and bobs. My word is not the word of God so by all means, feel free to ignore what I have to say or just completely come out and call it a pile of shit.

But here we go.

Plot

You have an idea. You have a basic idea of what your story will be about, what do you do?
A) Create a basic outline - Starts at A, B happens, C is the end. This allows you to have a free for all session between A and C as long as B happens.
B) Create a more detailed outline - Starts at A, B happens, C is the character, D is their problem, E is the villain, F is a certain event that takes place, G is the outcome of F, H is the end. A little more information but you still have that leniency of altering the in-between sections.
C) Just go for it. Write. Stop. Research. Write. Delete. Edit. Smile. Frown. Write. Curse. Bang your head against a wall in agony. Break. Research. Distraction. Write.
D) Create your main characters. What they're like. What they're friendships/opinions of the other main characters are, who hates who, who is friends with who. Create a rough outline - Starts at A, B happens, C is the end.
E) Mix it up between the above.

When I created my plot for Vanguard. Aries well, I didn't really have one. It was a simple case of here are my characters. A is the start. B is the problem to look at. C is things happen. D is the end. And here's a little secret for you - I still don't know what D is going to be.

Now, here's a tip. In the first draft ANYTHING GOES. Your character kills everyone in the room and sustains a few bruises. The monkeys that kidnapped the princess are thwarted by a dragon dressed as a cat. (I don't know.) But the main thing to have is a basic plot. So write your story. Let everything happen.

Then you can cut, change, add or just tweak in the edit.

Characters

So you have your plot but you need characters. What do you do?
A) You already have the perfect name for your number one main character. The rest can have casual names like Smith, Turner, Jones.
B) You create a list of characters with specific roles in mind. Before you know it you have a profile for each one.
C) Construct a rough version of B. Names, country of origin, age, rank. Nothing else. Learn as you go.
D) Write and see what happens. Write. Name. Frown. Change. Worse. Change. Better. Write. Another name. Curse. Random name. Write.
E) Go crazy and mix it up from above.

Still using the example of the characters I've created in my story, all I had to begin with were names, ranks and what they were going to do on the ship. And their country of origin. But yeah, I didn't have their personality, their quirks, friendships or family members planned out. Just names, rank, country of origin and job.

The name could be Freddy McMacfield until you come up with a better name. Sometimes it's easier to just whack a name in there and go with it. You can always change it in the edits. You never know, you may get halfway through a chapter before you go, "This is a much better name. Yeah, let's  go with Snowdrop Princess."

Setting

Well, every story needs a place to be set in and there are several ways you could go about this. You could commit tonnes of research into the place, the rows of shops and houses, the landscape views you have from it. Google maps anyone?

Or you could go with it. Look at a few pictures of the place you're setting your story, go with it and add the full research later.

And if you're making it up? Well, try to think about how you want your world to look. Think about how the sky looks, or the material that would be used to build the houses. Would it be brick like us? Or sandstone? Clay? Minerals? Other rocks? Space rocks? Monkey dung? Just imagine the world in your head and try your best to get that down on paper.

Time

This is more for those doing future works of fiction or focusing on the past. Either have a history book or two on hand that talk about the times your story is set in or try to think about what year in the future you want your story to be set in. Now, for the history books, everything, or mostly everything you'll need should be there. For those that are set in the future, well, try to think about the level of technology you want. Is it going to be really advanced? Then maybe a few extra years into the future? Just a little advanced? With modifications to current technology? Just a few years into the future maybe?

Either way, think about the technology around at that time. If you're going to set a story in the 80's then remember, cell phones didn't really exist. It was house phones. 90's? Then brick phones. And Nokia. Oh I love Nokia phones. Any further back in time then do your research. Toilets that flushed from the beginning of 1900's later 1880's. (Don't quote me on that.)

Science

This mostly applies to science fiction stories this section but hey, read if you care, read if you don't. Science. What I mean by this is the science behind the technology. For example, Faster Than Light (FTL) technology. If you had to find a way to describe how it would work then look at old theories.

For every scientific fact you hear or read in fiction there is some basis of fact behind it. Do a little research, wormholes, black holes, white holes, suns, radiation. Just a quick few minutes of searching until you have a little understanding. Jot down the basics if you want and carry on with your story.

If you need to you could add it in during an editing stage. But remember, base it upon a theory that already exists.

And NO. You do not have to state the scientific fact you're quoting. You don't even have to go into the description of why your ship can travel millions of miles in just a few seconds. But YOU, as the writer need to know it in order to know about the downsides of such technology. For example, FTL technology means you have to think about relativity and the fact that everything outside of your ship is going slower. This means you age a little faster if you were stuck travelling in FTL for the rest of your life. A few seconds to the world could be days or weeks, even years to you.

Always think about the ups and downs of whatever technology you use.

And if I can come up with anymore pointers in planning a story, I'll let you know.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Excerpt #7

I've reached 30,000 words. And another main character is dead. Yet again I'm not going to tell you who's died but how about I show you Charlie's response? Yeah, the Captain's getting a little angry at the toll her crew is taking. Okay, I'll admit, there may be a spoiler to the people that have died. But here ya go:

    Charlie stared. Her gun was still raised part way but her gaze was fixed on the image before her. Two of her crew had died. Two of her crew had been mercilessly murdered. Dead. In the same hour. She turned and moved back towards the airlock. Silent as she went. Her voice couldn’t be trusted. The anger that was rising couldn’t be trusted to be contained within. Eliot was still on guard at the door and she simply nodded to McCallister’s body. She dragged one of Torres’ arms over her shoulder and dragged him through the ship.
    “Captain?”
    She remained silent. She simply waited for him to pass so that she could put Torres down and lock the door. She pulled the engineer through the room and past the next door before she again, put him down and locked the door behind her. Then she was following Eliot to medical.
    When they arrived Zach was composing himself still, finally being able to enter the room and help pull Kelly off of one bed and into a body bag to put in the cold room for the trip back. For caskets. Zach and Eliot worked on repeating the process for McCallister, Sokoloff shaking her head with a frown as she watched. “Fucking shit bags,” she muttered before wincing as Nelson prodded at her chest.
    Eliot took Torres off of Charlie and tried to look her over, gauge her response or her thought process. She took one more look around the room and turned, made her way up to the bridge, unlocked it, stepped inside, locked it again and simply leaned back against it. For several seconds she allowed the pain of losing two of her members to overcome her, eyes watering in the corners for several seconds. Then she threw her gun across the room and watched it clatter across the metal. Fucking Collins.
    The man’s smirk from before came back and she felt the anger within her grow. Somehow, either the man had gotten loose of his bindings or someone had come aboard and helped him escape. Either way, the way that Rhodes had been- She closed her eyes as the image of the woman’s body came back to mind.
    She bit the inside of her lip, piercing the skin until she could taste copper. Someone had to pay. Be it Command, Collins, the rest of the people on the station. Someone was going to pay.
    The controls attracted her attention and she moved over to them and brought up the cameras that were still active on Sokoloff’s and Hunter’s vests. She watched the video as somebody burst through. A man and a woman, both with pistols. They swept the room with professional ease and shot Rhodes then Sokoloff. They moved across the room and shot off the cuffs keeping Collins down. The scientist took an offered pistol, turned and shot Kelly in the head. From Hunter’s camera he watched as Rhodes lifted her gun and fired off against the opposite wall. “Go,” Collins said to one of them and the man moved off through the ship. The woman was still stood there, her back to Kelly and Murphy.
    “Now, now,” Collins taunted the Doctor. “Your Captain is a bitch but you? You’re a bigger bitch.” There was a crude smile to his words as he slinked across the room towards Rhodes. He knocked the gun away with ease and picked up a scalpel from one of the trays. He jerked forward and Hunter’s camera showed the man sniff heavily as he dragged his nose up her cheek. “Oh yes,” he said with a smile.
    There was heavy grunting from the other side of the room and Hunter’s camera moved to show Murphy swinging her legs up and over her bed, kicking the woman off balance. Murphy fell with a shriek, grabbed the woman and managed to wrap an arm around her neck. The camera switched back to Rhodes to show Collins stood behind her, scalpel to her throat. Murphy. Wrapping her good leg around the woman’s waist. Then the neck was snapped and Murphy struggled for the fallen pistol, crawled to sit up against the wall and aim the weapon at Collins. The camera was back on the Doctor but her throat had already been slashed and she was sputtering for several seconds before she stopped.
    Charlie slammed her fist on the console and ignored the burning that started in her shoulder again. The pain killers had worn off.
    But she welcomed the pain. The image of Rhodes was still stuck to the inside of her lids. If it wasn’t Rhodes it was McCallister.
    She kicked at Sokoloff’s seat with a growl and turned on the PA system that spoke to those outside of the ship. “Collins you son of a bitch you listen to me now. You’re dead. You are a walking dead man. Everyone else on that station? Dead. You’ve hurt and killed my crew and now, now the rules are out of the window. If you approach this ship you will be fired upon. If you step aboard this ship again. You are dead.” Then she turned it off and slumped back in her seat.
    It wasn’t enough. She wanted to be out there, finding the man and letting him know what death was like.
    “Captain?” Zach asked from behind her. She turned in the seat and stood to move past him. He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. “Captain. What are we doing?”

    She glanced out of the window and stared at the station for several seconds before she pulled her arm free with a gentle tug. “Killing the sons of bitches that killed our crew.”

Wednesday 17 July 2013

First Death

Today marks the day of the death of one of my characters. Which one I am not to tell. But it is one and I know it shall not be the last.

But they have passed.

And even I wasn't expecting.

Here I was, writing my story at 11 in the evening and suddenly, there they are. Dead.

The thing is is that I was attached to this character. Well, I'm attached to all of them but just- man- the suddenness of it all has made me feel weird. Now I have to have the other characters finding out and doing something about it.

But yeah. I feel weird. Like I've lost a part of me.

Shit.

In my edits I might make this scene a little "not there and never happened." But I think it's staying. Shit.

Make them fall.

Make your characters fall.

 Make them bleed. 

Make them cry. 

Make them hurt.

Anything. 

Think about the last book you read. Did the main set of characters never get injured? Or get hurt mentally or emotionally? Did they cry at any point? Even if nobody but you saw them cry? Did they? No? Lies. 

Every protagonist or main character within a story needs to experience pain of some kind. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. It could be little or large, small or big, but it needs to happen in order for them to learn and grow as a character. 

Physically: stabbed. Shot. Punched. Kicked. Bruised. Bleeding. Brink of death. Burnt. Almost drowned. Water boarded. All of these are physical pains that your character could experience. Not all of them of course but perhaps a couple of them. It gives them something to overcome and something to get around in order to move themselves and the plot forward. 

Mentally: Psychotic break. Depression. Anxiety. Social recluse. Psychotic. In short, mentally troubled. This could happen through torture, the incorrect balance of drugs. A traumatic event that's been suppressed. Something that cannot be physically felt or seen. Neither can it be helped through comfort or be felt as being 'normal'. 

Emotionally: Hurt. Betrayed. Deceived. Upset. An emotional wreck. Let's pretend you have two best friends for characters. One of them dies. Here is the emotional pain that they have to experience and work through. It is something that they have to come to terms with, something they have to figure out is acceptable or not, until then they are emotionally invested in the wrong thing. 

But if your character does not suffer in any shape or form. If they could go into a gun fight, with a knife, screaming and yelling head first, and come out of it unscathed, their limbs intact and all of their blood still inside of them, then they are not believable. They appear to be superhuman as they defy the odds. That is not the kind of character a reader would like to read about. 

The human race has a sick fascination in fiction of reading what other people suffer and finding some form of mild enjoyment from it. Now I'm not saying we're all some sort of sick and twisted murderer or kidnapper, but in fiction we take delight in reading that somebody is hurt just to see how they get out of the mess. It is this anticipation that keeps your story going and keeps the reader hooked. 

Make them fall. 

Monday 15 July 2013

Halfway there! Excerpt #6

25,000 words! I am there! Halfway! And let me tell you this, my characters are fucked. Within this last scene there have been at least three broken bones, two stabbings, attempted shootings, bruises, cuts, and an attempted strangulation of the crew of Valhalla. Seriously.

And two of the members are still missing.

It's gotten really interesting now. And it's only going to get more interesting.

A very quick, short excerpt for you:

Zach kicked the door and it flew inwards.
    There was a momentary pause in Eliot’s actions as he looked up, giving two men opportunity to tackle him to the ground. One pinned down his legs whilst the other worked on wrapping its hands around his throat. Three more were working on Garrison. One was kicking at his stomach whilst another had a leg stretched, the third lifted its own leg and stomped down on Garrison’s. The crack was loud. Garrison’s scream was louder.
    All of this happened within the seconds it took for the three would be rescuers to take in the scene and react. Zach had already fired at Garrison’s attackers whilst Charlie raised her gun, only to have her body slammed into from behind. She heard Nelson yelp as his gun clattered along the floor. There was a stab to her side and Charlie let out a gritted groan, rolled onto the side and swung an elbow back and up.
    Zach turned on his heels, shot just over Charlie and within seconds shot over the one that had attacked Nelson. By the time both Nelson and Charlie had gotten to their feet Zach had already shot at the man atop Eliot’s chest, trying to choke the man of oxygen. But one of the men who had Garrison down was already coming at him, tackling him to the floor.
    Charlie turned her eyes to Hunter to see her tackled to the floor by a woman. She reached for her gun with a groan, rested it against her shoulder and pointed Nelson to Garrison. She pushed her handgun into Eliot’s hands and motioned for Zach to help her with Hunter’s attackers. They moved towards her and a burst of gunfire had them turning and ducking to the ground. Charlie winced as her right foot slipped and she landed on her knee, jerking her body with a flare of fire in her side.
    There came the sound of pistol shots and she lifted her head to see Eliot popping off shots. Nelson had also decided to forego healing to protect them. “Move it!” Eliot shouted, his voice hoarse and rough, grating along the inside of his throat.

    Whatever pain there was burning its way further into her side, Charlie ignored it. She pushed herself up and forced herself to run and fire off a few shots at the four that were huddled over Hunter. The woman was almost on the other side of the room, a good fifty yards away, but from the grunts the woman was giving she could tell it wasn’t good. There were two sat down, holding her in place and Charlie took aim at the ones that were stood over her and sat next to her, twisting a hand into Hunter’s stomach. 

Sunday 14 July 2013

Excerpt #5

I am now at 21,000 words and there has been quite a development since I last delivered an excerpt. For a quick update, here we go;

They boarded Aries and were kicked out of their own ship. Torres got the power on again and they found a Sergeant Murphy locked in medical bay. Her Captain is a man by the name of Dixon and Murphy is convinced that they need Charlie's crew's help.

They were able to track Valhalla's engine radiation output towards two unknown planets somewhere off in the distance. But they had Vanguard science research station to get to. So they did and found two more survivors, a scientist by the name of Collins and a test subject named Michael Kelly.

The crew searched the rest of Vanguard and have found two rooms of several people locked in cages, dead, bearing similar markings to Kelly. And now, I shall present you with an excerpt from a point just after this.

Hunter and McCallister shared a look before Hunter unlocked the door and pushed it open, entering first. McCallister followed behind, swinging his gun through the door and into the room. He stopped two steps in, turned his head away and swung on arm over his face. “Fuck!” Hunter shouted.
    “Holy shit!” Torres muttered as he entered the black room. The smell was horrific. Burnt flesh and blood. The smells combined created a sense of decay within the room.
    “Okay,” McCallister said, “Everyone out.” He swung his torch over the room a few times as he became the last to leave, wanting to get a good view of what had happened. His gun worked its way over the ceiling and walls to check what was on his mind.
    Soon the door was locked again and everybody was out in the corridor, lights shining over each other and the door, searching each other for answers.  Eventually all eyes and torches found McCallister and Hunter. They shared a look and Hunter kept her gaze hopeful for an answer. McCallister sighed and dropped his eyes to the floor, finding a single drop of blood mighty important. “Mass extermination through fire.” He let that set in for a few quiet and awkward seconds before he lifted his eyes and looked to the other four people. “I’ve seen it happen before. When conducting research into viruses or biological weapons, the test subjects, human or animal, can turn on the scientist. As a defence the room the subjects are locked in hold incineration procedures. From several points in the walls and ceilings a gas is forced into the room. Then it’s lit.”
    Silence followed his admittance. McCallister kept his gaze steady and free of any emotion, eyes focused on a point in the darkness behind Eliot. Torres was the one to ask the worrying question, “What were the test subjects?”
    Everybody, from having seen the other rooms, knew what the answer was going to be but they hoped in all hell that it wasn’t true. McCallister only nodded in way of answering and he watched as Torres’ face paled and he looked a little uneasy on his feet. McCallister patted his shoulder and pushed the man along. “Come on. Let’s go find some computers for you to play with.”
    “Just,” he moved away from the man’s hand to lean against the wall. “Give me a minute.”
    McCallister lifted his arm to wipe at his face, to wipe a growing line of sweat from his forehead away, and smelt the faint hint of burning decay on his clothes. It was minuscule but it was enough to make him close his eyes and swallow the awkward lump in his throat.
    Then he heard Torres vomit. He turned to the man and patted him on the shoulder, “Get it out.”
    Hunter added her own input then, “Always knew you had a weak stomach.”
    Torres frowned, glared at her and groaned out a painful, “Screw you,” to the Sergeant.
    Garrison chuckled and said, “You already have.”
    “Screw you too,” Torres managed before he threw another load of his stomach’s contents across the floor.
    “Alright,” McCallister said, “Knock it off. We’re still on a job and we still don’t know what the fuck is going on. Focus on getting the damn power back on.”
    That stopped any further arguments and McCallister ordered Garrison and Hunter to take the lead with Eliot behind them. He stayed behind with Torres to allow the man to regain his composure, grab his water bottle, take a swig and spit it out several times before he took a swig to swallow. McCallister kept his gun high, trained on the shadows they left behind and heard Hunter throw a punch to Garrison’s arm before she said, “Fuck you with that bullshit. I mean it.”
    He shook his head and kept going, Torres finally joining him in watching their backs. They reached the main room with no trouble and both Torres and Eliot went to the computers within it. They did a quick check of each one before shaking their heads. Eliot spoke, “This is a secondary office. The main bridge with the means to turn the power on must be somewhere else.”
    Garrison flicked his rifle up and down to a door he was facing, “We didn’t come through there did we?”
    Everyone turned and shook their heads. Hunter said, “Think the main bridge is through there?”
    McCallister stepped forward and within seconds everyone was falling back into the same formation as before. He pushed through the door first, Torres following him through with Hunter on his heels. Eliot and Garrison slipped through afterwards and they paused to get their bearings. The corridor they were now in veered off in two directions. Forward and left. Forward led to a door and left to an unknown space.
    They came to the divide and he gestured to the door, “Hunter, Eliot and Garrison that way. Torres with me.” He moved left and heard Torres behind him, still covering their ass. The corridor carried on a few yards before it came to a door on the right. McCallister peered through the windows in the double doors to see a small set of stairs that went up eight steps before coming to a control room of some kind.
    He pushed on the door and found that it was open. He nodded to Torres, who nodded back, and ventured through, swinging his gun across the expanse of the room before moving up the stairs. They were alone in this room, but what stretched across the entire right hand wall was a window. He moved to stand in front of it and saw three beams of light moving across the floor. Red smears made themselves apparent in the quick flashes of light.
    Behind him Torres moved around, searching the room for several seconds before he said in triumph, “Power switch!” There was a loud click and lights began to click themselves on. McCallister’s eyes widened at the sight before him. The room that the other three had entered resembled a combat arena.  It was a large room that was decorated in blood smears and even some entrails that had been left strewn across the floor. “Holy shit!”
    “Holy shit indeed,” McCallister said.
    Through the window he watched as the other three noticed them in the window and looked up, waving their arms and guns in reply. Hunter’s voice came through the radio, “It looks worse from up close.”
    “What the hell were they working on up here?” Eliot asked. McCallister watched as the man flicked his gun back down to follow his steps around the room.
    “Something crazy as shit,” Torres said.

Thursday 11 July 2013

Pesky sudden appearances

What I mean by the title is the sudden appearance of new characters or places within your story you didn't think were going to be there. 

Sometimes you may think that you need to add a character in to make things a little different. Other times you think it needs something to break up the whole "silently creeping about part of the mission" parts. But as a writer you will always add a character that you didn't know, up until that exact point in writing, would be in your story. 

These characters could play the minorest of roles within your plot, adding nothing but a speed bump in the road. But they could also become a significant character within it, driving the plot into where it should have been going in the first place. These mysterious characters are fun to have around and play with as they open up a whole new world to the story. 

You may create these characters and think "It's just somebody to get them through the scene." And that could very well be the case. But just in case it isn't, go with them. Follow this new character and see where they lead you. 

I have two new characters that I didn't think would even exist or be made yet there they are, putting themselves into the middle of the conflict, creating more mystery and confusion. Damn you pesky sudden appearances. 

Let me explain; the crew found the ship Aries drifting in space seemingly without power but putting out a distress beacon. (Let's say it has its own supply that turns itself on in case the ship is incapable of doing it itself.) So, they board and on a preliminary glance find it empty. Then Zach tells them he and Sokoloff were jumped on the bridge, both being pilots, and that they were dragged and dumped in the closed airlock of Aries. They just got flim flammed. (hijacked, fooled, tricked, whatever floats your boat) On a more thorough search of the ship Nelson gets into the locked infirmary and finds one dead guy and an unconscious Murphy. ( a soldier.)

Whilst she hasn't done much Murphy has done enough to make her an interesting addition to the mixture of characters. She's alluded to being a part of the crew that flim flammed Charlie's crew. She has alluded to her crew being trouble and needing to be saved whilst also letting them know who her captain was, Dixon. This name sounds familiar to Charlie but she couldn't quite place it. 

My other addition that has just made himself known is Collins. I didn't know he was going to exist until today. He just appeared. But he's turned the Valhalla's trip into a more mysterious one then it was previously. According to him UNC had ordered soldiers to kill the scientists aboard the research station, which instills mistrust with Charlie. 

His vocal hatred and dislike of UNC for what they apparently did has made the rest of the crew question UNC's true intentions. Throwing another spanner into the works. 

Both shall remain in this story as far as I can tell and they shall both be making this a very interesting mission. 

If you write a story and a character appears, don't just push them to the side and expect to be there to get a little action going. See what they can offer, sit back and enjoy the ride. 

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Excerpt #3 and #4

You read that correctly. Now, whilst I am still behind, I feel that you need to see the progress my characters are making. I've begun to see Olivia Rhodes' position on the crew, whilst only a medic she can command a room when need be. Torres has been getting more and more face time and has even accumulated the nickname "spider monkey". McCallister is known for being the voice of reason for the Captain when she's expressing her severe dislike for anything, anybody or certain situations involving certain people. Hunter is still as vocal as ever along with Garrison whilst Eliot on the other hand has grown quieter. (Note to self, write him some more words) Nelson needs a bit more work on him and a few interactions whilst Sokoloff and Zach, the pilots, are stuck behind doing their jobs of flying and docking their newly acquired vessel Aries.

Bit of a drag of a paragraph but one last thing, they discovered a dead body and an unconscious, severely injured woman aboard Aries.

To the excerpt:

 Charlie let nothing but her breathing invade her hearing. The lurching of the ship let her know that it had docked with Aries. Once the green light by the door let her know that the air had been pumped full of oxygen she let other sounds invade her senses. “McCallister! With me, Garrison and Torres, Rhodes and Nelson, Eliot and Hunter bring up the rear! On me!”
    She let the air fill the airlock for a little longer before she opened the door, letting McCallister stamp through first, rifle raised. She followed him, swinging her gun to the left of the airlock. Light footsteps behind told her Garrison and Torres were close behind. She and McCallister made it to Aries’ airlock and paused, waiting for Hunter and Eliot to close the airlock to their own ship. McCallister opened the door and Charlie swept through it first, going to the right whilst he crossed to the left. They swept through a few feet before stopping at the interior door that led to the innards of the ship. A small window in the door told Charlie that there wasn’t anybody nearby.
    The sound of the airlock closing let her know to carry on. “Everybody, cameras and microphones on.” People shuffled as they followed orders and soon, Charlie was opening the door that led to the main interior of Aries. The hallway that they were immediately placed in was large enough for two people side by side. It split off into three different paths, forward, left and right. “McCallister and I will take forward, Hunter and Eliot left, Garrison and Torres with the Doctors right. We’ll try to reconvene at the centre of the ship. Go.”
    Everybody pushed off and Charlie took her path first, McCallister following on the other side of the wall. The light from their torches lit the walls and floor, checking every possible space for rooms, doorways and alternate routes. They’d already come across two crossroads and had cleared both before keeping to their straight path directly to the centre of the ship. As they went they checked the rooms, finding offices and storage rooms. Everything about the simple design and small routes has military ship written all over them.
    It wasn’t long before they’d reached the mess hall that led straight to the bridge on the other side. Hunter and Eliot appeared behind them after a few minutes as she and McCallister checked the room for traps. The other four appeared, footsteps loud and careless in the empty ship.
    “Nothing,” Garrison said as he entered. “Nobody, no blood, nothing. Just a few blown fuses and busted wiring. Where’s the people that sent for help?”
    “Oxygen low my ass!” Hunter shouted as she paced the room.
    “Torres, Eliot, could somebody have faked the levels to an outside scan?”
    Both men looked at each other for a few seconds before offering her a shrug. Torres spoke. “It’s possible. But the actual temperature in a ship this old would need to be decreased for a lengthy amount of time.”
    Garrison nodded. “You can feel the chill in the air still. But somebody’s turned the temperature back up when we docked.”
    “So where is everybody?” Rhodes asked, voicing the question that had been on everybody’s mind.
    Charlie addressed her pilots, “Zach, Sokoloff. Run a heat signature scan of the ship. I want body heat signatures now.” Through their radios came silence, not the usual ‘Aye Captain’ that either of them would have said. “Zach! Sokoloff! Do you hear me?” Nothing.
    Then Aries shuddered violently, jerking everybody off their feet and onto their knees. “Fuck!” McCallister muttered before he pulled himself back up.
    There was the sound of metal straining and Charlie eyed the ships ceiling with worry. Then silence. The eerie silence made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It was too quiet, even by ship standards. Many a times Charlie had walked through the Valhalla and heard very little. But there was always a humming from the engine. Humming from the systems as they filtered the air. And even sometimes people still up, unable to sleep.
    But this? The only sounds to be heard were her crews stunted breathing. Nobody wanted to make too much sound. Nobody wanted to advertise that they were here. Nobody wanted the attention. Not a body. Not a drop of blood. A smear. Nothing. Nobody. But she could feel eyes on her. Watching her every step. Whatever it was, whoever it was, nobody wanted their attention. Just in case.
    "The fuck do you think happened?" Garrison. Ever the vocalist.
    Their radios buzzed and the ship juddered again, forcing them off their balance. Zach, still aboard the Valhalla was rushing through his words. "Sir, they jumped me. Dragged me out of the airlock and onto the Aries."
    Charlie's eyes went wide at the prospect. She moved through the mess hall to find the nearest view port and watched as their ship, her ship, started to push away from them. "Mother fuckers!" Hunter, her voice loud and angry, kicked at one of the wooden chairs and sent it flying.
    “Son of a bitch!” McCallister added.
    “Rhodes, Nelson, go check on Sokoloff and Zach. Garrison go with them. Torres, Eliot I want you to get to engineering and find out what the fuck this ship’s condition is. Does it still fly? Can we move it? Go!”
    She allowed herself to take a deep breathe, hiding her anger. Somebody had gotten past eight pairs of eyes. Somebody had waited until they’d passed, snuck onto Valhalla and then flew their own ship out of there, leaving them dead in the water. And it must’ve been a small team. Zach had said ‘they’ and it couldn’t have been too many who’d gotten past them. “Captain?” McCallister approached. “What do we do?”
    She let her gaze settle on his, bright and angry. “We get my ship back.” 

And because I'm so kind, another one, just a couple thousand words later:

Charlie kicked at the units in the kitchen, pissed and angry at everything that was going on. EMP. Hijacked ship. Command screwing them in the ass. Bad luck after bad luck. “Fuck!” The twisting in her stomach was back and worse. It was scratching its way up into her ribcage. “Fuck,” she whispered.
    McCallister appeared in the door to the mess, one hand on the door frame the other firmly fixed to his rifle. “Any guesses?”
    She turned, ran her hands over her face and sighed, planting them on her hips. “Command fucked us over. Big.”
    He turned his head over his shoulder then back as he stepped into the room. “I know.” His head twisted back over his shoulder, “But, should they know?”
    Charlie sighed, ducking her head. “I’ll keep my voice down.”
    “That’s not what I mean.” Her eyes flicked up. “Do we know for sure Command screwed us over?”
    She took a seat at the table in the mess, threw her gun onto the table and leaned back, profile stiff, tense. “It sure feels that way.” Her hands were running over her face again with another sigh. “Everybody’s thinking it McCallister, I’m the one fucking say it. Command fucked us. Please, tell me what part of this does not scream ‘screw you’.”
    “I know.”
    “Denying me access to public knowledge. Deleting the knowledge  minutes later. Leaving us with nothing to go on! Leaving us blind! That screams screwed over!”
    “I know!” McCallister called back. Silence echoed back. “I know.” More silence. “But I don’t think everybody else needs to know how you feel about it all. It won’t go down well and we don’t need Hunter or Garrison running their mouths or their arrogance.” Silence. “Let’s just,” he pulled a seat out and took a seat across from her. “think about how we’re going to get out of this mess and what we’re going to do next.”
    Charlie hated to admit it but McCallister was right. There’s no need to rile the crew up. The Captain can’t be seen getting angry at her own bosses. If she was angry at them it would reflect in the crew and they wouldn’t want to follow orders. Just to cause trouble. She was glad McCallister was her first in command. He had a level head when she didn’t. He couldn’t, wouldn’t want the responsibilities of Captain. Both of them knew that.
    But she was still pissed. The reasons Command guessed her crew didn’t follow orders was yes, because she would break the rules to get things done when appropriate. But Valhalla wasn’t her first ship. And even then she broke the rules. Broke them because Command gave her nothing but Bullshit.
    Charlie stood, grabbed her gun and stared McCallister in the face. “I’m not losing another team. Not because Command wanted to screw me over with no information.” And she left, heading straight for engineering.
    “Captain,” Nelson’s voice over the comms stopped her in her tracks. “You might want to get to medical. Something you should see.”
    She turned on her heels and came back to the mess, McCallister still seated in the same seat. She nodded her head, a silent ‘come with’ gesture, and they moved through the ship. Medical was less clean than the one on Valhalla but the intention was still there. And so was the blood. “How the hell did we miss that?” McCallister said.
    “Nelson!”
    The man appeared seconds later, saw the blood by their feet and nodded. “Yeah, the place was locked and dark when we went past. But, we couldn’t see anybody through the windows so we moved on.”
    “Just like that?” she asked. McCallister tilted his head in her direction and she sighed. “What did you want?”
    Nelson pointed to the other side of the room, in the direction of the smeared and drops of blood. They followed him into the next room, where several beds were set up for long term medical treatment. Beds lined one wall, each with its own curtain and set of magnetic stabilising that kept the beds in place and the people in them safe if the ship took damage. What he was referring to was the two bloodied bodies, a male and a female, both unconscious and their states unknown. Another bed was covered in blood, gauze strips, patches, scrubs, all bloodied and scattered across the bed, floor and room.
    “Conditions?”
    Nelson moved to the bed that held a young man in his late twenties, early thirties. Black hair was matted back, thick with patches of blood. His uniform had been ripped open and white gauze covered in red still lay across his stained chest. “This one’s dead. Two bullet wounds to the chest and another in the leg. The first was the critical, piercing a lung and severing an artery at the same time.” Charlie stepped closer to the bed and pulled on the uniform until his name became clear, Carter.
    Nelson moved over to the next bed where a woman lay, her face looking peaceful and content. Her leg was bandaged and her shoulder was wrapped in red stained fabric. Blonde hair was stuck to the skin, thick with sweat and small streams of blood. If Charlie had to guess the woman was in her mid-thirties. The rank on her uniform screamed Sergeant. She pulled on the uniform until a name was clear again, Murphy. “This one’s alive. Well, just about. Broken leg, bullet wound to her shoulder and that’s only on an external examination. I’ve asked Torres for the emergency backup in medical to be a priority. I assumed you wanted her alive.”
    “Good thinking. So she’s not up to talking then?”
    “Not just yet. I’m gonna give her some pain killers in a bit. I doubt whoever treated her knew exactly what would be appropriate.” He gestured to the many rummaged drawers and thrown open cupboards.
    Charlie let her eyes linger on Murphy’s body for a few more seconds before she tapped her radio on. “Rhodes to medical, Garrison and Hunter I want you there too. Torres, get the back-up power working now.” She let go and looked back at Nelson. “Take over from Rhodes on the bridge, keep an eye on Sokoloff and Zach just to make sure they’re fine.”
    Nelson moved out of medical and Charlie shared a look with McCallister. He spoke before she could, “Whatever they’re planning to do with our ship, looks like they can’t risk the injured. Left her here in hopes we take care of her.”
    “Yeah well, out of the goodness of our heart we’ll keep her drugged up and safe. For now.” McCallister quirked a brow. She rolled her eyes. “I’m kidding. But she has a hell of lot of explaining to do.”
    Rhodes appeared a minute later, already moving around the infirmary and pulling gloves on. “Torres better get the power back on down here. I don’t want a patient dying.”
    “He’s on it.” 

So, there we have two new excerpts. Now, I'm gonna get my ass back onto writing. 

Enjoy. 

Monday 8 July 2013

Oops

So I fell behind. Well, I did have two barbecues in two days because of such lovely, warm, too warm, sweltering, exhausting weather. I'm at about 10,000 words and my aim for today is 12,903. Just a little under 3,000 in one day.

Update on my story, the characters have docked with Aries and have found it empty. Hunter and Garrison aren't happy (very swearingly vocal about this fact) and Charlie's wondering if it was a set up, if the twisting in her gut for the past couple of days has been anything to go by.

Torres has been mentioned more and even has had a little more face time. Go Torres! Rhodes is beginning to get a quiet, thoughtful, honest personality with a strong sense of authority when it counts - being the head Doctor on a ship in space will do that to you.

Sokoloff inspires great optimism in no situation, forever the pessimist who thinks realistically whilst Zach goes for the playful banter of "You're such great fun to have around." The man likes to pretend everything will be alright in the end, even if it's just to make people feel better, and himself.

McCallister has gone quiet, expressing his dislike of Command's acknowledgment that Charlie's crew are troublemakers who only follow the rules when it suits them. But the man screams command and control in the right situations.

And Nelson has been a little quieter recently, playing 'good little soldier' until the time arrives he can patch somebody up or bring up the childishness again.

I'm going to leave this here now whilst I go back to writing the thousands of words I need to get done.

Friday 5 July 2013

Excerpt #2

Yeah, he's a second excerpt from my NaNoWriMo story. Here I'm gonna let you learn that Captain Charlie O'Donnell will break the rules and laws for the safety of he crew;

    Green eyes found the paper and she searched for Vanguard. ACCESS DENIED glared back at her in big red letters. She typed her clearance level and the word CLASSIFIED screamed at her. Now she was confused and curious. “The fuck is going on.”
    She searched the rest of her words and slumped back when ACCESS DENIED fixed itself to her screen with every tap. Hunter’s words were coming back to her; “Bullshit with a capital B.” Bullshit indeed.
    Typing Aries had the same response and she kicked at one of the legs on her desk in frustration. Somebody was watching what she was searching and they were stopping her from finding anything. With anger growing in her stomach, which was twisting itself around her spine, she dialled up command as another shower of rocks tinkered across the hull. It took a few minutes for the connection to be made and Matthias didn’t look too happy himself. “What is the progress of the Valhalla Captain?”
    She checked her watch, “We are twenty minutes into the belt with another forty to go. Admiral, why am I not being given access to the search directive?”
    The man didn’t miss a beat. “You must not have the correct clearance level.”
    “The search directive is public knowledge and I had access to basic information on a ship called Aries. Five minutes later I was denied access. Why am I being blocked of information?”
    “Perhaps,” the man begun, again, not missing a beat, “the asteroid belt is creating interference. May I suggest that calling Command on such trivial ideas is a waste of valuable time and resources.”
    “All due respect sir,” she began, keeping her voice level. Many a times she’d had Commanding Officer’s retain information from her and her crew only for it to bite them in the ass. This was not going to be one of those times. “My crew and I are throwing ourselves into god knows what. We don’t know what to expect out there but we deserve any information we can get on Aries and Vanguard. We are trying to prepare ourselves, allow us to do so-”
    “Captain O’Donnell, it is ridiculous to suggest that somebody is purposely restricting your access to information. Command has laws to uphold and retaining public knowledge is not one of them. If you are going to accuse any member of my staff of performing such a law then might I suggest you run it through the correct channels.”
    “Sir-”
    Matthias cut her off. Charlie swore. She hated politics. Hated higher ups pulling rank, blowing around crude answers. And she hated everything about this situation. Matthias knew something, or was hiding something. No doubt he’d already informed Command of her ‘accusations’. She sighed and fell back into her chair, letting a hand fall into her face to cover it. Going into this situation blind was not what she wanted. Going into any situation blind is something she never wanted.
    Command would most likely accuse her of creating a scene, of pointing fingers and trying to drag Matthias’ name through the mud. Her crew were known for not following the rules at the most ‘convenient’ of times. Not her words but Command’s. What that meant was that her crew apparently followed the rules when they could be bothered.
    Her eyes lit up on the intercom speakers. Well, if they were going to accuse her crew of not following the rules then why not put some truth to the lie. She got up and slammed on the speak button, “Torres! My office!”
    It was Eliot’s voice she heard come back at her, “He’s on his way.”
    Torres was running. She chuckled at the idea that she could instil such authority and demand to gain such a response. Charlie retook her seat, pulled the screen down flat and turned it to face the chair on the other side of her desk. The search directive was still up and Aries was still flashing Access Denied.
    The Irish appeared seconds later, falling into the room and his breathing laboured. “I didn’t do it.”
    Charlie just leaned back in her seat and nodded to the screen on her desk. “Get me in.”
    She watched as the man approached the desk, took a seat and pulled the screen closer towards him. Torres tapped his fingers across the protected glass, brows furrowing. A few moments later he shook his head and looked up at her. “You want me to break in? As in hack?”
    “Can you?”
    “It’s against UNC laws.”
    She leaned forward, folded her arms on the desk and said matter of fact, “Screw the laws. Get me in.”
    There was a moment where Torres simply stared at her with her eyes fixed on his. His mouth fell open and he wavered, finding his words. “They’ll find out, and I’ll be court marshalled and… and my career will be ruined.”
    Charlie held a hand up. “Torres. Torres!” the man halted any other words and waited. “Use my access. And I’ve green lighted you to do this. This is on me. If anybody tries to bring anything down on you, I’ll take the heat. I will not allow anybody to alter your career.”
    There was a moment as Torres looked over her expression, seeking the truthfulness of it all. “You can’t promise that kind of shit! Oh sweet Jesus I’m fucked.”
    “Torres! Fucking do this! We are not flying into this mission blind. Now get me access.”
    Almost as if he’d had a personality change the man bent himself over the screen and held his hands up. “Alright, alright, you only had to ask. Don’t bite my head off. Now,” he tapped at the screen a few times, “Command uses a series of firewalls, the best.”
    “Can you hack it?”
    Torres lifted his head with a smirk, “You think people hired me for my social etiquette?”

    Charlie rolled her eyes, folded her arms across her chest and let herself fall back into her seat. She checked the clock. They were twenty five minutes into the belt. Another thirty five and she could breathe a little better. The minutes ticked by in silence, save for the mutterings of Torres, and Charlie busied herself with looking over the words she’d written down and trying to figure out why Command had shut her out and why they were withholding information. 

Quite a lengthy excerpt but this is from chapter 5 and about 7000 words in. When I get to 10,000 I'll give you another excerpt. And look /\ a character you haven't really seen or heard from before. I'll try to include excerpts for all of the characters. 

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Creating characters

I want to add my two cents in the ideological world of creating believable characters. Now, let's take a step back from any creative thinking and let yourself think about the people around you. Your friends, family, class mates. Think about them. Think about how you know they'd react to a situation, how they would speak in a certain manner, the odd quirks they do; such as always sitting in the same seat or having to crack their knuckles at the same time of day. Little things that make them them.

Now look at your character (We'll pretend you've already got one, or many). Is there one person in your life, either that you've seen on television or that you interact with on a daily basis, that could fill one of those characters role near enough? Imagine the person saying the character's lines, acting in the same way, pulling the same face, standing the same way. Does it fit? Does it work? Does it make them seem awkward? Is it out of line with them?

Then change your character. Not completely, just tweak its personality.

Another way to approach your characters is to just throw them in the story and see where they go and what they do. Or another is to create their entire background, including what their parents are doing, how old their pet dog is and who their best friend at school was.

I prefer the earlier method; have the genders, the names, lump them in the same room and see what they do and what they say. Let me show  you with one of my characters shall I?

My Second Officer Lieutenant Evelyn Hunter.

She has a fiery personality and in Vanguard. Aries. (My NaNoWriMo story) Charlie mentioned that Hunter pushes her luck. Hunter will step over the line just enough to be noticed but not enough to be severely punished. Charlie puts up with this because Hunter is a good soldier. But Hunter also knows when to fall back into line. The woman is a born and bred American, having gone hunting with her Dad and two brothers she's a very good shot. She puts most of the men in the UNC to shame for this fact. She's worked her way up to Lieutenant with good combat skills too. But she can be hot headed at times and will let her arrogance get ahead of her at times.

This is all I know about her so far and this is through her attitudes and interactions with the rest of the crew. The part about her being a good shot because of hunting with her family? I've only just decided to add that in there. With Hunter I've made sure that although she's a damn good soldier, she has an attitude that will get into trouble more times then not. This severe flaw in her personality makes her seem like a living breathing human being. How many people do you know that let their arrogance get to their heads?

Let me show you a second character:

Corporal Patrick Nelson. The second Doctor on board the ship. 

He has a brotherly friendship with McCallister and will often call him "Cally" to rile him. He uses this playful banter to break up the too serious attitudes of other soldiers and helps to be a friendly face for the crew. He and Hunter occasionally will come to odds and ends but once the matter is resolved they partake in silly wagers. ("Whoever could hit the other first, no pads or anything, would make the other buy two rounds of drinks of their choosing." - direct quote.) His childish nature disappears when it comes down to doing his job of fixing the injured. 

This is as far as I've gotten with his character so far but the friendly banter helps to make him a likable character. The silly wagers instills the idea that even characters can have bad ideas and that a medical Doctor aboard a ship in space is no exception. 

Keep in mind that readers want your characters to appear human. Humans have flaws. Give your characters flaws to shape them into being real and you will get a lot further.

New Idea

Okay so, for a while this morning I've been sat just staring at  this screen, wondering what the hell to put. Finally I decided to let you all in on my idea for my 3rd year dissertation. With my course being an English and Creative Writing combined course, I've been allowed to choose Creative Writing for my dissertation. This means that I can write a series of short stories or the start of a novel.

Now, I did intend my Camp NaNoWriMo July 2013 story to be my dissertation work, then I submitted the excerpt. Instead of pulling that down, after all I need something for this blog, I decided last night to come up with another idea.

And I did.

And I could pull it off.

With some hair pulling and face planting of course.

Because there's a NaNoWriMo in August I've decided to torture myself with that much writing and take part. This way, even if I don't complete the August one (Of course I will aim to) but, in the case that I don't, it will give me a head start for the third year. It is another science fiction story and it involves wormholes. Maybe once my third year is over and I have my results I'll talk about it a little more in detail.

For now, I'm calling to call it project Wormhole. I still need to think of the characters and iron out the basic plot a little, but I am ahead with July NaNoWriMo so I should be able to do all of that one day without worry. Fingers crossed for two novels in two months.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Excerpt

Okay, I know I said Tomorrow but that's a long way away. So, I promised you an excerpt for this piece I'm working on right? Well, here ya' go. Keep in mind that the purpose of this challenge is to create a very rough first draft. There may be areas that sound weird, off or out of sync but bare with it. THERE IS SWEARING. You have been warned:

    As they were nearing the end of the fourth lap McCallister and Hunter spotted O’Donnell waiting for them, dressed and ready to finish the run with them. As they passed she joined them and nodded. “How we feeling Sergeant?” she offered with a grin.
    McCallister glared at her. “Crap sir?”
    Hunter scoffed and shook her head, “You always feel crap in the mornings Cally!”
    “Fuck you Hunter!”
    “Careful Hunter,” O’Donnell warned. “I may pair you two up.”
    McCallister smirked at the smaller American who only rolled her eyes in response. They came to the end of their run and O’Donnell watched as everyone came to a panting stop, some bent at the waist with their hands on their knees. “Right guys! You’ve got twenty minutes rest before I want you in the gym. We’re gonna be doing a few hand to hand runs! Sokoloff! Take over for Zach!” A collection of “Yes Sir” and “Yes Ma’am” were shouted back in response and she nodded back.
    McCallister made his way directly towards the gym, catching a cup of water from the mess on his way. The Captain was on his heels. “You got your wakeup call then.”
    It wasn’t a question but the slight twinkle to O’Donnell’s eyes made him school his features. “Yes Sir. A little warning would be appreciated next time.”
    “Noted. Next time don’t mess with the shower heads.”
    A slight smirk was stifled quickly and McCallister eyed the Captain with one brow cocked. “I have no idea what you mean.”
    “And I’m not the Captain. You and Eliot will be paired up.”
    “Yes Sir.” 

Now, I will post more excerpts as I go to show you progress of my characters, my writing and the development of the plot. Well, sort of, but you'll get hints at the different characters in my story and through them some of the plot, or in this case, the silly childishness that they sometimes have to break up their time. 


Camp NaNoWriMO

So, as the title suggests, Camp NaNoWriMo. For those of you who haven't heard of NaNoWriMo let me explain. It's a crazy challenge we writers (Not all just the crazy ones) like to partake in. National Novel Writing Month is exactly what it says on the tin. Write a novel in a month. This event takes place in November.

You heard.

1667 words a day. For 30 days. It's possible. It's doable. And it's challenging.

Camp NaNoWriMo is a sister site to NaNoWriMo only it allows you to do the exact same thing, write a novel in a month, but you can choose to partake in one of three different months. April, July or August. Or all three if you're that crazy.
For students wishing to write or be challenged Camp NaNoWriMo is perfect for you as you can track your record on their site. With the variable months to take part in it allows you to be flexible. If you're anything like me you have all of the essays and deadlines in November and April, so the next month for me was July. So yes, I am partaking in this years Camp NaNoWriMo. Yes, I am on target on day 2. I plan to stay on target for the rest of the month.

What's my story about? Well for starters it's a science fiction story set some time in the future. Don't worry everybody's human. Here's the rough summary I have going on:

Two distress signals being sent from just past the asteroid belt. Nobody ventures past the belt. 

Captain Charlotte "Charlie" O'Donnell and her crew must take her ship, the Valhalla, and investigate what is beyond the boundary. 

A derelict science research station, the Vanguard, and another ship, the Aries. Abandoned. Dark. And both broadcasting a distress signal. And two planets not on any star map in their system.

Something wasn't right. 

So yeah. There ya' go. Tomorrow I'll post an excerpt from it. For now, TO WRITING!

Just to say

As an introduction let me tell you what this blog will be about. It will be a way for me to express my thoughts and opinions on everyday life and more importantly writing. This will be used as a way for me to experiment with my writing and to develop as a writer. 

I want to use this space to talk about the progress of any of my fictional projects through explanations and ideas that make sense to you as well as me. Hopefully I can share my progress with you, through drafts and edits that bore the hell out of me.