Storyline Tracker

Storyline Tracker

Done another one of these for myself, to assist me with the novel, and track the radio storyline so far.

RADIO STORYLINE-------------------------------

Done so far:

Page 12 – setting part 1

Pages 20-21 – setting context part 2
Pages 69-79 – Scene 1 build-up + scene 1

Pages 108-120 – Scene 2 build-up + scene 2

Pages 120-123 – Bit to go after final scene

Pages 130-142 – Sub-scene - middle bit and end bit missing
Needs new scene inserted in here

Pages 156-175 – Scene 4 build-up + scene 4. end bit missing

Pages 253-256 – Scene 5

Pages 259-262 – Scene 6

Still to do: scene 7 as final scene.

108,000 words

Working more on the love story angle today. 108,000 words. There's so much written now that it goes over 300 pages of A4 with a size 14 font. If I printed it out, I would be carrying round an enormous book already. But there is still many more bits I want to write to hit 200,000 words. I've been working to ensure the various storylines all flow and are connected properly - probably the biggest task of the entire work.

106,000 words

Written another reminiscing section to reach 106,000 tonight. A few people lately asking when the book is going to be finished. End of 2013 - which is what I estimated when I started writing, and is still my estimate now. That's if I finish, of course.

Developing dialogue

I've spent the middle part of the evening working on the book, developing the dialogue - in particular between my character and the lead character from the radio scenes, who is loosely called Andrew.

The great things about the characters' names is that I can change them, even at the last minute if necessary. Although it's nice to have them in place before-hand.

The relationship between Paul and Andrew has to, within a few scenes go from not knowing each other, to a deep and (obviously not sexually!) intimate friendship.... The challenge is to do this over only a few scenes, and trying to use the right conversations, questions, moments etc to make this happen.

Been working at allocating more of the quotes tonight too, and editing the most recent radio scene that I've written.

104,000 words

104,000 words.

I finished off the final counselling scene. It feels great to bring one of the storylines - the first one - to its natural end.......... although obviously there's still work to be done on it, like everything else.

I also wrote half of one of the scenes with the female character... I kind of wrote the description bit to it without the dialogue, which is good cos most of the dialogue I have a good plan for, so it's good to fit the description stuff around it.

York Museums

Ok, a slightly lopsided view of Medieval York - from the Yorkshire Museum.

I've been doing the tourist thing with Ali today. And the first time, I've been into the Castle Museum and Yorkshire Museum since I was a teenager. A great shame really considering they are quite pivotal parts of York.

The Castle Museum is vast and contains themes and memorabilia from Victorian and Georgian eras (including a Victorian Street representing the street Kirkgate that would presumably have run through that area)... the Castle Prison cells - the site was still a prison even in the 1920s, and was surrounded by a huge wall even in that era.... a Sixties section... and also surprisingly lots of modern items including a Game Boy, a modern toothbrush and a pack of Nurofen (seriously!!)(is that how our era is going to be remembered???)("In the early twenty-first century, the natives frequently suffered from headaches - as is demonstrated here - but as you can see, they would have had very clean teeth)

I suppose the Game Boy isn't modern.

The Yorkshire Museum is smaller, contains bits of dinosaurs, the most perfectly formed roman helmet, someone's hair from roman times(????), pairs of roman sandals to try on - that are presented in little cubicles like you find shoes in a bowling alley. I may possibly have dressed in a tunic and looked stupid. The museum also contains a surprisingly large theatre, a timeline of the ages of the city, and a woman who moans to you about her claustrophobia (actually I don't think she's always there)

Commentary

Great win for York City this afternoon!!!
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I'm excited about York City for two reasons lately....
1) The team Gary Mills has put together is amazing, and an incredible run of results in the league, considering we were looking relegation-material when he arrived. Really good to watch lately.
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2) Secondly, I'm going to be commentating on them, for York Hospital Radio. I'm incredibly excited about this...
It's a childhood dream of mine to commentate. ... When I was at school, I was never very good at football, despite making a half-decent goalkeeper. However, I loved playing it, loved watching it and was obsessed with it.... In fact, the best things in my life were all football-related.....
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I look back at old diaries I kept at the time - before this one lol - I look back with wonder, to see what was going on in my life at the time... What it shows - is not so much about people or events - and lots of comments like "Norwich won 1-0, Mark Robins great goal" and "Won Conference with Gateshead in Premier Manager" hahaha. That was what really mattered to me then! :-)
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I had a friend called Ben and I we used to go round each other's houses and pretend to be commentators and score updaters. Sometimes we would play a computer game - with one of us playing and the other one commentating.
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Like most boys, I wanted to be a footballer - and idolised footballers (e.g. Paul Gascoigne, Matt Le Tissier, Andrej Kanchelskis, Eric Cantona) - players with skill, magic and humility.
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Obviously I could never be a footballer, but with all my football knowledge and stats-gathering, I grew the fantasy of becoming a commentator. I listened religiously to any commentary of Norwich on Radio 5, as well as spending most Saturday afternoons listening to the radio as all the scores and updates came in. As I grew older, I grew an interest in how different radio stations put across the football, so I used to tune into all different stations for variety... and used to LOVE going to visit different cities so I could listen to their radio, read their local papers and get a completely different flavour and angle on things.
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I loved the commentator and what he was about. The way people reacted to him - and how it felt when he commentated on a goal or simply announced a change in scoreline. And also, how it provided a very unique experience compared to watching the game at the ground or on television. Whereas on the TV, the player brings the goal to you - on radio, that is the commentator's privilege.
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Being an active guy rather than passive, I always felt like I wanted to be in the commentator's shoes, and share the enjoyment I feel at matches. Thankfully, York Hospital Radio has taken a gamble on me and given me a chance to achieve that dream. My commentary debut is next Saturday - January 22nd.

Quotes and Scene Structure

Continuing allocating the quotes to places in the novel.
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It's giving me a really good idea of which of the dialogue scenes will stay, which ones need to be expanded on, and which ones (very few) may be scrapped.

103,000 words

103,000 words.

The other night, I met a guy who had written 150,000 lol. That seems and IS an absolute age away for me, but I still want to get there.

The counselling storyline is almost at an end. I am writing the last scene, and have just put in a section which precedes it and sets the scene for it. I am now at the stage where I can wrap up the counselling storyline (and bring it to a dramatic ending) in about 2,000 words.

Still matching quotes

This process of putting quotes into the various parts of the book is going to take a lot longer than I previously thought... but is definitely worth it...

The easiest ones are quotes which fit into the monologue sections, cos they just require a few sentences before or after. Nine pages worth of quotes I want to fit in, so its taking a long time planning where they all go, but it is very useful, as it helps clarify the scene structure of the book, and which scenes are so important they will have to stay in, and which scenes are less crucial to the plot, or maybe pointless.

I have a job

I'm still in my pyjamas and it's nearly 3 o'clock.

After two and a half months of searching, turning stuff down, failing at interviews and generally being an unemployed dosser, I now have a job which starts Monday.

Unemployment is weird cos you start to feel guilty for having loads of free time, yet it is free time that you would kill for when you're working lol..... So I started to enjoy it as much as I possibly could - and of course, am sad and will miss it.... Especially days like today, where I've spent most of the day lazing around.

The job which I passed interview at yesterday - is at the Higher Education Academy (sounds posher than it is!!) at the Science Park by York University. My mum works at the end of the sams street - in the Chemistry department for the uni - it's a lovely area of town, and there is a nice funky cafe on the corner by where I work. In some ways, I'm looking forward to getting back to work again - and I'm also looking forward to the nice long walk out to the Uni - especially on a fresh morning.

It's a finance/accounts role similar to some of the stuff I've done in the past, and it takes me up until the end of July - at which point it will be advertised as permanent - however the offer will be open to internal people first - so it's unlikely I will stay in the role :-(

Much of my spare time (which let's face it is a lot) lately has been spent supporting York City, and collating information and news etc about them for my forthcoming commentary position.

On Saturday, I travelled over to the game at Bolton with Pete, his brother and teenage son. City played brilliant - and compared to the Stoke game last year and the two recent Wembley finals, it was a great game... We were the better team, looked like causing a possible upset, and held them 0-0 until very close to the end when we conceded two late goals. It was a superb atmosphere and a great day out with around 5,000 supporters having made the journey across from York!!!

An enjoyable meal at the Fox and Grapes on the way back - but what was not quite as enjoyable was a drink in The Lighthorseman when we got back. Do not ever drink in The Lighthorseman. This happens. A really drunken guy sits next to you, and decides it is polite to interrupt your conversation to slag off the size of your nose. When you tell him to shut up, he decides the new topic of conversation should be slagging off the size of your mate's nose. Never go in The Lighthorseman.

On Tuesday night, I went to York v Grimsby which was another exciting game and another brilliant performance. Usually for York games we stand behind the goal fairly near to the back... so it was great to be stood right by the goal at the front. I much prefer that. City won 1-0 :-)

On Wednesday, I caught up with Simon back from University, and did my radio show.

Today, I'm heading into town - via an agency to show a copy of my passport, and the jobcentre to tell them I've found employment :-) :-) Finally.

Preparing quote sections

Been going through all the quotes to put in, and preparing them for their place in the novel. For some of them, I have to extend scenes - in some cases even write new scenes - some of them are already in, and some just need a couple of lines before them.

Work on Quote Allocations

Been working on the novel this afternoon.

All pieces of scrap paper with notes on are now typed up, and all messages in the Notes folder on both of my phones are typed up LOL

I now have two preparation files with ideas in. One has 6,100 words in... the other one, which deals mainly with quotes and for ideas on how they should be placed contains 2,400 words.

There are many different story quotes which I'm working hard to fit into the right areas. For each quote, I am trying to establish the exact scene it should be placed. And then work at the context it should be placed in and who says it. The context includes what should be said before or after it if necessary.

102,000 words

102,000!!!

Written 3 sections tonight.... first, finished off the section about my brother... then the other two sections are about the radio storyline... and are part of the climax to that storyline.. They are the second-to-last and third-to-last scenes in the radio storyline.

So all-in-all, very productive.

101,000 words

101,000.

Having re-connected with my brother at christmas time, I am writing this story into the book. I wrote 1,000 words or so about this in December and have added another 1,000 words today. With it being quite an incredible story, I figured it should occur in the book, more or less how it happened in real life.

I've also added a post-christmas feel to the book, kind of wrapping up the christmassy feel I'd put in earlier.