If you have been on my facebook page at any stage you probably know by now that NaNoWriMo which stands for National November Writing Month and it is a challenge whereby if you accept it, you are challenged to write a story in excess of 50,000 words in just one month and obviously being the month of November.
Ever since I have been a kid I have been writing short stories, but unfortunately over the years I have lost so much of what I have written, so a few years back I decided to start typing up what stories I still had a well as stories I could remember, and of course I continued writing new stories too. I have also been posting these stories on-line.
Even though I love to write short stories I have always wanted to write a real long story but until now I have not been motivated to do so, therefore I took up the NaNoWriMo challenge. The story I decided to write is called THE PATHFINDER MISSION, basically it is about a starship by the name of THE PATHFINDER, it is the end of the world and planet Earth is being evacuated, so The Pathfinder is charged with finding a new home for the human race.
So for 30 days and 30 nights even though I have existed on Planet Earth I have been living aboard The Pathfinder. Unfortunately right from the start of the month I was behind on the daily word targets but I had always been fairly confident that I could catch up but when I got up on the morning of November 29th I still had 13,400 words to reach the 50,000 target. Up to this day I had only 3 days where I had written more than 2000 in one day, 2,500 twice and 2,300 once and with a 14 hour effort I got through over 7,500 words.
I ended the story before the 50,000 word mark as I felt I that by going any further I was only dragging out the story, however I still had time to go so I wrote an introduction to the story to bring the word count up, and my validated effort reached 50,055 words therefore I am a NaNoWriMo winner.
So many of you kept me motivated all month long even when I thought it was beyond my reach, so me being a winner makes all you guys a winner too. Thank you all so much for helping me reach a personal goal, and who knows Maybe I might just get to try this again next year.
I have been posting the story in 15 parts on-line at short-fiction.co.uk where I post under the name 'actung'.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
PLEASE READ THIS
November may the month of NaNoWriMo, a month of writing that I am currently taking part in, but November is also the month of Movember, a month when men all over the place don weird and wonderful moustaches or facial hair in general for charity. This year I am taking part but since I already have facial hair I will give Movember a bit of a twist.
Now I have been able to grow facial hair since I was 12, so when I was 18 I had a pain in me back side shaving so around about this time of the year in the year 1992 I began to grow a full beard. After about two weeks it began to itch and itch so bad that I shaved. I started with shaving the cheeks and when I got to the chin I noticed that this part of the beard had never itched so I kept what was left and it has been there now for nineteen years which is more than half my life.
So what I will do for Movember is give what facial hair I have a new designer look but only if I raise at least 150 for Irish cancer society. So the deal is that if I raise over 150 euro by midnight November 22nd I will go get the designer look the following morning, have photo's taken, post them to my facebook and use one as my profile pick.
If you want me to give my facial hair a designer look then do what is said in the film 'Jerry Maguire' and SHOW ME THE MONEY. Come on people, who is gonna sponsor me.
Now I have been able to grow facial hair since I was 12, so when I was 18 I had a pain in me back side shaving so around about this time of the year in the year 1992 I began to grow a full beard. After about two weeks it began to itch and itch so bad that I shaved. I started with shaving the cheeks and when I got to the chin I noticed that this part of the beard had never itched so I kept what was left and it has been there now for nineteen years which is more than half my life.
So what I will do for Movember is give what facial hair I have a new designer look but only if I raise at least 150 for Irish cancer society. So the deal is that if I raise over 150 euro by midnight November 22nd I will go get the designer look the following morning, have photo's taken, post them to my facebook and use one as my profile pick.
If you want me to give my facial hair a designer look then do what is said in the film 'Jerry Maguire' and SHOW ME THE MONEY. Come on people, who is gonna sponsor me.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month, bu the National part should be replaced by Worldwide, for I am sure that it is something that does take place worldwide.
If you write seriously or just for fun, you are more than likely aware of what the whole NaNoWriMo thingy is. It is a challange more than anything else that challenges writers who take it up to begin and complete a novel length story of at least 50,000 words in just one month.
I have been writing short stories for as long as I can remember but I would like to write at least one Novel length story, just for the sake of being able to say I have actually written one, so this year I am going to take the challenge.
I have never come close to writing so many words in one month, so it will be some challenge for me to not only see if I can come close to writing 50,000 words in one month but to also have all those words in just one story. I have never taken myself seriously and write for fun, but I may as well give this a go.
As for the story I will aim to write,I have a basic Idea for it already. I won't start writing it until Novembere 1st. I may as well go all in on the challenge and give it a real go. However prior to November 1st I can organise and plan the story. Within the month itself the concern is with quantity more than quality. After the month has ended if I have completed over 50,000 word, I could alway begin to edit and attempt to improve the story.
In the weeks to come I can hopefully plan well enough to give this a real go, and if I do complete it I will post the whole thing, in parts of course, at my regular posting spot short-fiction.co.uk. Posting this blog entry will also, I hope, inspire me to complete this challenge and not abandon it, as I am sure there will be moments where I will feel like giving up.
I know I have said before that I know all that confident in what I write, but it is better to have what I have already written and will continue to write in a place where it can be read rather than on pieces of paper, or in a computer file or in an out of reach spot in the back of my mind. So the challenge is on, can I complete it? Well time will tell. :)
If you write seriously or just for fun, you are more than likely aware of what the whole NaNoWriMo thingy is. It is a challange more than anything else that challenges writers who take it up to begin and complete a novel length story of at least 50,000 words in just one month.
I have been writing short stories for as long as I can remember but I would like to write at least one Novel length story, just for the sake of being able to say I have actually written one, so this year I am going to take the challenge.
I have never come close to writing so many words in one month, so it will be some challenge for me to not only see if I can come close to writing 50,000 words in one month but to also have all those words in just one story. I have never taken myself seriously and write for fun, but I may as well give this a go.
As for the story I will aim to write,I have a basic Idea for it already. I won't start writing it until Novembere 1st. I may as well go all in on the challenge and give it a real go. However prior to November 1st I can organise and plan the story. Within the month itself the concern is with quantity more than quality. After the month has ended if I have completed over 50,000 word, I could alway begin to edit and attempt to improve the story.
In the weeks to come I can hopefully plan well enough to give this a real go, and if I do complete it I will post the whole thing, in parts of course, at my regular posting spot short-fiction.co.uk. Posting this blog entry will also, I hope, inspire me to complete this challenge and not abandon it, as I am sure there will be moments where I will feel like giving up.
I know I have said before that I know all that confident in what I write, but it is better to have what I have already written and will continue to write in a place where it can be read rather than on pieces of paper, or in a computer file or in an out of reach spot in the back of my mind. So the challenge is on, can I complete it? Well time will tell. :)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A Second Story Published.
First of all I haven't quite got around to completing what I had set out for myself in my last blog entry but I will get to that in a bit. But before I do I would like to announce that I have been fortunate enough to have a second story published.
Almost 11 months after intrest was shown in a story I wrote entitled TORTURE by US magazine Horrotica I get an e-mail informing me that my story SCENT is to be published in the Autumn edition of 221b magazine. The magazines accepts entries through competition where the winning entries will feature in the next issue so I entered one story more out of intrest than anything else, and I have been informed it will feature from September 23rd.
The story SCENT came out of a friendship between myself and someone I have got to know through short-fiction.co.uk. I began to write SCENT and periodically e-mailed what I had written and got opinions back on it and continued writing accordingly until the story was completed. Then came across the competition and entered the story. So Rei :) thank you.
Now in my last blog entry I said it was time to really get going on my writing due to the sheer amount of thoughts and ideas I want to get through. Unfortunately my laptop went down not long after that post and I have lost a bit of what I had begun to work on, but I will eventually get there on what I want to get through.
I am still working on continuing my vampire series only the next part will have a different title than what I have said it would be and that will probably be my next entry at short-fiction.co.uk. Since my last blog entry I also had an idea for a story I hadn't previously mentioned is a story called ALTER-EGO which I have posted at short-fiction in two parts. It is a story I had a little bit of fun with since I have an alter-ego of my own and it gave me good cause to mix in elements to this story of stories I have written in the past.
Anyway People are still reading what I write, and comments are quite good and nice so I'll keep on writing, so until next time :) .....
Almost 11 months after intrest was shown in a story I wrote entitled TORTURE by US magazine Horrotica I get an e-mail informing me that my story SCENT is to be published in the Autumn edition of 221b magazine. The magazines accepts entries through competition where the winning entries will feature in the next issue so I entered one story more out of intrest than anything else, and I have been informed it will feature from September 23rd.
The story SCENT came out of a friendship between myself and someone I have got to know through short-fiction.co.uk. I began to write SCENT and periodically e-mailed what I had written and got opinions back on it and continued writing accordingly until the story was completed. Then came across the competition and entered the story. So Rei :) thank you.
Now in my last blog entry I said it was time to really get going on my writing due to the sheer amount of thoughts and ideas I want to get through. Unfortunately my laptop went down not long after that post and I have lost a bit of what I had begun to work on, but I will eventually get there on what I want to get through.
I am still working on continuing my vampire series only the next part will have a different title than what I have said it would be and that will probably be my next entry at short-fiction.co.uk. Since my last blog entry I also had an idea for a story I hadn't previously mentioned is a story called ALTER-EGO which I have posted at short-fiction in two parts. It is a story I had a little bit of fun with since I have an alter-ego of my own and it gave me good cause to mix in elements to this story of stories I have written in the past.
Anyway People are still reading what I write, and comments are quite good and nice so I'll keep on writing, so until next time :) .....
Friday, June 17, 2011
TIME TO REALLY GET STUCK INTO MY WRITINGS.
Usually when I write, what I write is usually whatever takes my fancy at that moment in time wheter it be an old story I want to type up or something new that I want to get through but for most of the time over recent months I have been trying to get through a back log of ideas and stories with which I'd like to post online.
In the blog I posted back in March I listed a number of stoires I wanted to get through and I have completed all of what I listed bar one. There is a story I began writing a couple of years ago now that when I completed what I origionally began with I thought there is quite a bit more I can do and would like to do with that particular story. That story is BROTHERS OF THE VILLAGE . It went up @short-fiction.co.uk back in August 2009. I then wrote a prequel to this story which went up in three parts which went up in July and August 2010 simply with the title BROTHERS OF THE VILLAGE - THE BEGINING. Then back in November 2010 it continued with two more parts BROTHERS OF THE VILLAGE - HEROES, VILLAINS AND GHOSTS. So I plan to bring this story to it's conclusion soon.
Some thing else I'd like to bring to a conclusion is the Vampire series of stories I started last October. There had been so many Vampire stories out there that I thought I'd try write one of my own. I came up with a vampire character named Gabriel Grimmel and the story just seemed to write itself. The origional story turned out to be a couple of pages longer than I thought it would leaving me with another character to which I could continue writing with and that would be Seth in SON OF A VAMPIRE. I was left with do many ideas after that to continue writing the series but it wasn't until April the the third in the series went up WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO GABRIEL GRIMMEL? Which was followed in May with three parts to the fourth in the vampire series DARK SHADOW. I had thought that I would be able to end the story there but there is still more to go yet so hopefully I will get through the fifth installment OTHER VOICES soon.
But before I get through any of that there is a series or really short stories I am currently writing NIGHTMARES OF THE DEAD with three parts already post with two more to follow shortly.
Another story I spoke about in the recent March Blog was a story called BEAST. It is a story which went up in three parts and one which I really enjoyed writing. There is more I would like to add to this one too so BEAST 2 is something else which will be coming soon.
One more tale I would like to get around too soon is one which is inspired by a recent trip to an old closed down jail in Dublin called Kilmainham jail. But my story KILMAINHAMS GHOSTS will be a fictional story based on my visit there and the tour I took of the place.
There are a few more stories I'd like to get through before I consider wheter my online writing should continue or come to an end, but for the moment I am enjoying writing as much as I ever have and feedback has been so possitive, so as I have mentioned before since people are reading what I write, for the moment I'll continue to write. So till next time :)
In the blog I posted back in March I listed a number of stoires I wanted to get through and I have completed all of what I listed bar one. There is a story I began writing a couple of years ago now that when I completed what I origionally began with I thought there is quite a bit more I can do and would like to do with that particular story. That story is BROTHERS OF THE VILLAGE . It went up @short-fiction.co.uk back in August 2009. I then wrote a prequel to this story which went up in three parts which went up in July and August 2010 simply with the title BROTHERS OF THE VILLAGE - THE BEGINING. Then back in November 2010 it continued with two more parts BROTHERS OF THE VILLAGE - HEROES, VILLAINS AND GHOSTS. So I plan to bring this story to it's conclusion soon.
Some thing else I'd like to bring to a conclusion is the Vampire series of stories I started last October. There had been so many Vampire stories out there that I thought I'd try write one of my own. I came up with a vampire character named Gabriel Grimmel and the story just seemed to write itself. The origional story turned out to be a couple of pages longer than I thought it would leaving me with another character to which I could continue writing with and that would be Seth in SON OF A VAMPIRE. I was left with do many ideas after that to continue writing the series but it wasn't until April the the third in the series went up WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO GABRIEL GRIMMEL? Which was followed in May with three parts to the fourth in the vampire series DARK SHADOW. I had thought that I would be able to end the story there but there is still more to go yet so hopefully I will get through the fifth installment OTHER VOICES soon.
But before I get through any of that there is a series or really short stories I am currently writing NIGHTMARES OF THE DEAD with three parts already post with two more to follow shortly.
Another story I spoke about in the recent March Blog was a story called BEAST. It is a story which went up in three parts and one which I really enjoyed writing. There is more I would like to add to this one too so BEAST 2 is something else which will be coming soon.
One more tale I would like to get around too soon is one which is inspired by a recent trip to an old closed down jail in Dublin called Kilmainham jail. But my story KILMAINHAMS GHOSTS will be a fictional story based on my visit there and the tour I took of the place.
There are a few more stories I'd like to get through before I consider wheter my online writing should continue or come to an end, but for the moment I am enjoying writing as much as I ever have and feedback has been so possitive, so as I have mentioned before since people are reading what I write, for the moment I'll continue to write. So till next time :)
Friday, May 13, 2011
30 songs in 30 days
I had been look around the web and had noticed that there was this 30 songs in 30 days thing going around where people were posting a link to a song a day. This ran by using the favorite song for day 1, their least favorite in day 2 and a reasoning for each song as the list went on. I liked this and want to do it myself but I decided to change the rules. I did have my favorite song at number 1 but as for the rest I made a list of songs which were of general popularity. I also thought that it might be fun to ask those on my facebook friends list to choose a number between 2 and 30. One song would go up each day according to the number with those who chose a number not knowing what song they got until their turn came around.
Now I was really unsure as to how it would be received. As it turned out it got a great response with plenty of you choosing a number. Many also commented and used the like button. It was amazing how much fun I had with it, so much so that I may just do it again sometime soon. So thank you all who joined in. As for the list of songs, the numbers they had, the day they went up and who chose what, well that is as follows :
Now I was really unsure as to how it would be received. As it turned out it got a great response with plenty of you choosing a number. Many also commented and used the like button. It was amazing how much fun I had with it, so much so that I may just do it again sometime soon. So thank you all who joined in. As for the list of songs, the numbers they had, the day they went up and who chose what, well that is as follows :
DAY NUMBER CHOOSEN BY SONG
1 1 ME PRIDE – U2
2 15 AMANDA EBINEEZER GOODE – THE SHAMEN
3 24 BECKS EVERY CAR YOU CHASE – THE POLICE
VRS SNOW PATROL
4 19 DONDA KOKOMO – THE BEACH BOYS
5 13 EILEEN 99 RED BALLONS – NENA
6 4 CELINE ATOMIC – BLONDIE
7 22 TOM SNOW – RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS
8 3 CRIENA LETS GET ROCKED – DEF LEPPARD
9 11 ROSS SPIRIT IN THE SKY – DOCTOR AND THE
MEDICS
10 5 GEORGE HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH – LORDI
11 28 GARY OUR HOUSE – MADNESS
12 10 TRACEY BREAK EVEN – THE SCRIPT
13 7 ME MUM STAY – THE HOLLIES
14 16 GERRI ORINOCO FLOW – ENYA
15 26 HARRY R EVERYBODY HURTS – REM
16 8 HARRY C YOU CAN’T TOUCH THIS – MC HAMMER
& KIDS
17 30 LIZ JUMP AROUND – HOUSE OF PAIN
18 18 REI SMOOTH CRIMINAL – MICHAEL JACKSON
19 2 STUART 500 MILES – THE PROCLAIMERS
20 21 KERRIE TAKE ON ME – A HA
21 9 SOFIA DON’T UPSET THE RHYTHM – NOISETTES
22 29 KEVIN LAND OF CONFUSION – GENESIS
23 17 AISLING JESSIE – JOSHUA KADISON
24 23 MARK YELLOW – COLDPLAY
25 12 AL USE SOMEBODY – KINGS OF LEON
26 6 THE KEY, THE SECRET – URBAN COOKIE
COLLECTIVE
27 14 CRAZY WORLD – ASLAN
28 20 GLORY OF LOVE – PETER CETERA
29 25 THE WAY I ARE – TIMBERLAND
30 27 RIGHT HERE WAITING – RICHARD MARX
Once again Thanks to all who joined in.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
THE TRUTH ABOUT GEORGE
Right, for anyone reading this who doesn't know me, my name is Karl O'Connor. For as long as I can remember I have had an alter ego named George. If I was arriving anywhere and anyone asked who is that? I would answer George. It has even got to the point where I have seperated personalities. Where Karl would be kinda shy, quiet and keeps to himself (myself), George would be out going and while being a good guy he basically does whatever he wants.
Now being Karl I am not one for getting up at gatherings to give speeches or the likes, but whenever I have done so I have attributed that to George as he has no problem getting up at all. Don't worry though, I am not schizophrenic. It is all just a bit of fun. I recently made a facebook post and commented on it twice before anyone else did, and was then accused of talking to myself, so as a joke I thought I should create a facebook page for George so I could really talk to myself without actually talking to myself.
Now George has been around for a long time, I can't actually remember when he was brought into existance, but it doesn't stop there. There is a third ego or personality or whatever it can be called. I have been using the name 'Actung' since 1995. Now that name came from the U2 album 'Achtung Baby' as I am a huge U2 fan. Now I have used the name Actung for email, chat and also for my online writing.
Actung has even been on the radio. I used to regularly go on a radio show back in 1999 with the name Actung. Actung is basically Karl and George on the loose at the same time. As I said being Karl I am not one for speeches and the likes but I really wanted to go on this radio show so George combined with Karl and Actung was born. Actung was the last person on that radio show on it's final night and that last show had an estimated listenership of 70,000. Now there was no way Karl would do anything like that but through George Actung was born.
While the radio show was still running I went into a shop to get something to drink having been on radio the night before when someone I did not recognize came into the store saying 'ah there you are Actung, I heard you on the radio last night', radio being radio and not tv and me not having said anything I was extremely surprised to have been recognised. Also, nine months after that show ended I went into a store to get 'Actung 00' on the back of a jersey. 00 for it being the year 2000. I spelt out the name Actung for the guys behind the counter, they smiled and laughed as they also knew who Actung was.
Anyway so this is why George has his own facebook page, I think it may be taking it a step too far to create a facebook page for Actung too, but then again .....
Now being Karl I am not one for getting up at gatherings to give speeches or the likes, but whenever I have done so I have attributed that to George as he has no problem getting up at all. Don't worry though, I am not schizophrenic. It is all just a bit of fun. I recently made a facebook post and commented on it twice before anyone else did, and was then accused of talking to myself, so as a joke I thought I should create a facebook page for George so I could really talk to myself without actually talking to myself.
Now George has been around for a long time, I can't actually remember when he was brought into existance, but it doesn't stop there. There is a third ego or personality or whatever it can be called. I have been using the name 'Actung' since 1995. Now that name came from the U2 album 'Achtung Baby' as I am a huge U2 fan. Now I have used the name Actung for email, chat and also for my online writing.
Actung has even been on the radio. I used to regularly go on a radio show back in 1999 with the name Actung. Actung is basically Karl and George on the loose at the same time. As I said being Karl I am not one for speeches and the likes but I really wanted to go on this radio show so George combined with Karl and Actung was born. Actung was the last person on that radio show on it's final night and that last show had an estimated listenership of 70,000. Now there was no way Karl would do anything like that but through George Actung was born.
While the radio show was still running I went into a shop to get something to drink having been on radio the night before when someone I did not recognize came into the store saying 'ah there you are Actung, I heard you on the radio last night', radio being radio and not tv and me not having said anything I was extremely surprised to have been recognised. Also, nine months after that show ended I went into a store to get 'Actung 00' on the back of a jersey. 00 for it being the year 2000. I spelt out the name Actung for the guys behind the counter, they smiled and laughed as they also knew who Actung was.
Anyway so this is why George has his own facebook page, I think it may be taking it a step too far to create a facebook page for Actung too, but then again .....
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