Richard MacManus

30,125 words. Chapter 37 onwards. Two weeks to go, at 10,000 words per week. I feel I’m on the home straight! Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)

November 15, 2003 27,563 words. Here’s the latest (ch. 34 onwards). I’m hoping to reach the 30,000 mark by end of tomorrow. That will give me a nice round figure to aim for of 10,000 words per week for the final two weeks. I’m enjoying having two storylines intertwining now. On the one hand, Declan … Read more

24,662 words – virtually 50% finished. Tonight’s words are chapter 32 onwards. Today was quite productive. The new storyline has energized me and is taking the overall story in an interesting direction. I’ll be taking a day off tomorrow. Fridays have been declared rest days by my wife, which is fair enough. Originally published on … Read more

22,009 words – hanging in there (see ch. 31 onwards). Decided to introduce a sub-plot, to liven things up. It’s about a Silicon Valley graphics designer named Dave Darwin, who has just started a social software company. The themes of avatars and social software which I’m introducing here will eventually merge with Declan Atomz’s world … Read more

Man *what* a struggle, 20,059 words – here they are (ch. 28 onwards for today). But I’m not that happy with tonight’s words. I think the quality is not great. I had to interupt my writing a couple of times. Bah! Hopefully tomorrow is better. Well, later today – as it’s now after 12am. Need … Read more

18,297 words, here’s the latest. I’ve also added it to the menu. Still on track, but I didn’t get much done in the weekend. I was zonked out with the flu on Friday and Sat, watched the rugby on Saterday night (ABs through to semi against aussie), then went to The Matrix Revolutions on Sunday … Read more

It’s Day 8 and my word count is 14,778. Here’s the latest. I took yesterday off. Have got a bit of flu, but the show must go on. I’m trying not to take my novel too seriously, having a bit of fun with it. Today I came up with the concept of “space blogs”. Heh. … Read more

12,288 words. Here it is. btw I accidentally discovered an error in the very first sentence today. How embarrassing. So I fixed it up…I thought about leaving it in there, as proof that I haven’t done any revisions yet. But then there are probably plenty of other bits of evidence of that! I may take … Read more

I’ve decided to go the whole hog and post my novel online. There are a variety of reasons for this. One is that posting excerpts would mean it would be read out of context. If I’m prepared to post excerpts, I may as well just tell the whole story. Oh and another reason is that … Read more

8,120 words. I’m wondering whether to post excerpts online. Hmmm. Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)

6,086 words. Had to struggle to reach this. Started at 8.30pm and finished about 11.10pm. Man this is hard work and I’m only 3 days in. 27 more days to go! The good news is I’m still working at 2,000 words per day, but I suspect I’m going to have to put in a couple … Read more

4,062 words, so I’m keeping pace with the 2000 words per day goal I’ve set myself. I notice I’m currently first amongst the 15 or so Wellington writers 🙂 Enough writing for today. I’m off to watch the All Blacks hammer Wales in the rugby World Cup. Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)

It’s just after 7pm on Saturday 1 November and I’ve finished my first day’s writing in the NaNoWriMo challenge. I managed 2,108 words today, which I’m really pleased with. It took me about 3 hours, a little over 1 hour in the morning straight writing (about 1,000 words) and in the evening I spent 1-2 … Read more

I’ve now officially entered NaNoWriMo, which is an annual challenge to write a 50,000 word novel over 30 days. It kicks off on 1 November, which is one day away for me. I checked into the official NaNoWriMo website tonight and I was surprised to see that 14 other people from Wellington in New Zealand … Read more

I’m one of those people that regularly says: “One day, I’m going to write a novel.” Well now may be my chance. NaNoWriMo is a an annual challenge to write a novel in 30 days, over the month of November. The novel must be at least 50,000 words, which is about 175 pages. I discovered … Read more