Welcome back!

It’s been a bit since I posted something to my blog, so I wanted to talk about my grand NaNoWriMo experiment from August-November of last year. Simply put, things did not go as expected.

As each month passed all sorts of personal events kept on intruding to the point where I couldn’t even think of writing much less get my head into completing my goals. I experienced a sort of meltdown in my personal life and this directly affected my writing more than I’d thought possible. Add to this the self-imposed stress of trying to get the draft done before December and you pretty much get a disaster.

But that was last year, and now in this new one, I decided to approach writing differently. Even though my personal and financial life is still in turmoil, I’ve forgiven myself for missing my own deadlines last year and set myself a more workable schedule. I try to write what I can daily, but not under the constraints of NaNoWriMo-type deadline. I think this will give me room to breathe and not paralyze me with stress.

It also gives me the ability to concentrate on stabilizing other parts of my life while keeping the story moving. I’m hopeful that once things work themselves out on one front it’ll make it easier for me to put more effort into writing.

Either way, I will try to post at least something each month about where I am and I hope I have better news to tell then.

As someone involved in IT for most of my life, it was very refreshing to see a writer who knew how things really worked. Who understood how networks, databases, and other pieces of infrastructure that runs our daily lives really functioned. Daniel Suarez, is the thriller writer I’ve been waiting for: Someone who actually has a clue what really is happening behind the computing curtain.

All to often, I’ve found that most writers who write science fiction and techno-thrillers have no experience whatsoever with technology and love to throw terms and ideas out in order to cover their ignorance. This was one of the first books of fiction I’ve read where I saw the writer knew exactly what he was talking about and wasn’t depending on a subscription to Wired for all of his technical information.

As a novel, I found it enjoyable and frightening at the same time. Since I know about the technology he talks about in his books, I can easily see some of the things that happened actually occur. As one reviewer on Amazon had said, “This isn’t a novel so much as it is an object lesson in what can happen.” What I found fascinating was looking at all the reviews, people who really didn’t understand the technology involved, or people who think they do (listening to CNET podcasts and what not does not count as “knowing about computers and the internet”) did not like this novel as much as people who really do know the way things work in the internet.

In some ways, Daniel has limited his audience to very technical people, but to be honest those in the later generations are more technical than the previous ones and it is very refreshing to read a book where they author isn’t dumbing down the novel in order to keep people who aren’t technically inclined happy. Its like the author is saying to his readers, “If you can understand, great take a seat and hold on to the pull bar for a wild ride. If you can’t, then STFU and find yourself a Grisham book”. I like that. I like it very much.

To sum things up, if you’re in IT or involved anyway in computer technology, you should read Daemon. If you really understand what Daniel is talking about, it should both excite and scare you. This is definitely a thriller for our generation, and I sure hope to see more like these popping up in the near future.

Well, last month was a disaster as far as writing. There were a lot of things going in my life as far as my work situation that prevented me from really putting in the time to write. I was hoping that November would be better, but it’s off to a rocky start.

However, even with the less than optimal start, I’m not gonna give up and keep going forward with it. So far I have about 2000 words done and I can only go up from there.

Well, it’s October 1st and today is the first day of my personal NanoWriMo. I had some missteps in September due to events out of my direct control, but I’m now back on track and ready to go. I’ll be posting my progress here as I delve deeper into my writing frenzy.

All right! I made my writing goal for the first day and things are looking good.

Now I just need to repeat this for the next 30 days for the next three months…. Good, lord, what have I gotten myself into?

Seriously though, I’m looking forward to the end result of this orgy of productivity. Even if it may end up killing me, I’ll have a lot more to re-write, edit and get out there.

It’s both exciting and scary.

To keep track of everything, I’m using the NanoWriMo Report Card spreadsheet to track my progress and other stats. It’s a definitive must if you’re going to be pumping out words on a schedule like I’ve given myself. It’ll tell you nifty info how much you can produce in a given time period and just how much as a percentage you have left of your novel. You can find it here, and if you want to undertake NanoWriMo or decide to do your own personal NanoWriMo, then I recommend you get it.

As of now, the second day isn’t off to as good a start since I’m off to a career fair in the morning in order to secure some extra income to keep the lights on and the Internet flowing. But just like yesterday, I know I can make it up later in the day.