Friday 1 March 2013

Big Dog: Bad Dog

 
As I may have mentioned I'm trying to complete my first novel, called Bad Dog, which was inspired by a phrase that popped into my head that went something like this, "It was all Big Dogs fault that I'm sitting in my Dog in Afghanistan being shot at."  It came to me just like that and so I wrote it down and filed it away as an idea.  That was around the middle of last year, or so.  I can't remember exactly when as I over wrote the original note when I started the novel, which is a bit of a shame really.  However, they are just words and ideas and one can't get too precious about such things.

Anyway one line pitch for Bad Dog: Starship Troopers meets Ground Hog Day.   Synopsis: Life in the military means everyday feels like every other day, but for Gunnery Sergeant Tachikoma today is just like yesterday.

The running total for first four weeks of writing was 25,087 words.  I've just finished another 2000 words today, so that makes 10,195 words this week, and brings this monthly total up to 41,210 words in all, which is why I've been a bit remiss in posting stuff here.  The novel now stands at 64,616.  It's an interesting challenge to write a novel, and for the first time in a long time I'm actually immersed in something that I'm really enjoying, in spite of it being really hard to do.

On a related note the BBC just posted a story about Big Dog and DARPA are developing things that I very cleverly allude to in passing in my novel.  Life imitating art?  No not really, just obvious stuff that happens.

Other news is that I now have new glasses for painting and making models.  Special prescription after taking a couple of examples of what I do into show the optician.
  

7 comments:

  1. Hope it goes better than my novel. It's been in the doldrums for a while. I finished it about two years ago and have rewritten it about five times already. Think I have read this more than I have read any other document.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well first off, well done. I really mean that. Lots of people say they could write a novel, but don't. So that makes you exceptional. My advice, for what it is worth, send what you've done off and try and sell it, and start writing something new.

      Delete
  2. The idea of the special glasses is brill! Keep up with the novel, sounds a good idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well just a s soon as I get a free weekend I shall be testing them out by painting something. For the last couple of months I've kind of lost my painting Mojo, but now I'm in the new writing groove I need to take time out to paint and think about other stuff than the damned novel.

      Delete
  3. I'm picturing some steampunk affair of brass and swivelling lenses.

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Inspired by VOTOMS for sure, but not VOTOMS as such. We need to organize another game. Perhaps after the BBQ?

      Delete
    2. Surely - my schedule gets tricky but I'm always interested in a game. (And I'm still plugging away at Giant Robot Apocalypse.)

      (One day, the phrase "please prove you're not a robot" will be seen as the blatant biochauvinism that it is.)

      Delete