And typing.

But busy. There’s a nice big job which has been taking up my time since October. It’s finished, and about ready to break. When it does, I’ll stick it up here. Watch this space, or don’t – I’ll understand.

In unworkrelated stuff, I’ve gone back to the book that has been breaking my heart to get down and write since 2007. And I’m hitting it in a big way, taking my learnings from NanoWrimo and applying them here, just getting the story down on the page and resisting going back to rewrite copy all the time. It’s working, but a residual symptom of NanoWrimo is I’m obsessed with word count. I’m up 51,000 of the bastards as of today.

I really did want to keep you up to date with little word count updates here and there during NaNoWriMo, as I ploughed and sometimes did not move very at all through National Novel Writing Month. But I decided that the time necessary to post a dozen words in a blog would have been better spent typing another dozen words into my Word doc.

The bottom line is, I made it. And I’m thrilled to bits. I clocked up 50,162 words and actually have the makings of a pretty good story – although, as first drafts go, it’s got more than a few gaps and holes and room to improve in it.

Now if you’ll have to excuse me, my PlayStation 3 has been feeling a little neglected, left on its own in the living room while I tapped away at the kitchen table, so I’m going to get to know it again.

5,100 out of 50,000 words written. And typing… very slowly. The words blood and stone come to mind.

3,050 out of 50,000 words written. And typing…

So I promise myself I’m going to knock out 50,000 words in November, which means I’ll have to sacrifice any spare time I have. Okay. And what do I do? I go shopping and pick up four books I really want to read – so much so that I can’t pick which one I want to read first. And to make matters worse, Modern Warfare 2 is 9 days away. And how the hell I’m supposed to resist breaking that baby out soon as it pops through the letterbox is… well the chances are slim and nil really. Balls. I’m going to write this book. Sleep is cancelled. I may end up in involuntarily growing a Movember moustache now.

Right, I’m doing it. I’m going to start a book and finish it, once and for all (and I mean write, not read – reading is the easy bit). And, I’m going to lash it out, all 50,000-ish words of it, in 30 days.

That’s the idea behind NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. It started in 1999 with 21 participants vying to start and complete a novel within the month of November. Last year it had 119,000 beginners and 21,000 finishers. Only a deadline can focus the mind right now, so come Sunday the 1st, I’m off. 50,000 words in 30 days means a daily  average of more words than I have ever previously managed in one sitting; that’s how bad I’ve been.

I think I’ve got the seed of a pretty good story in my head, which I will be dousing with Miracle Gro come Sunday, and hopefully have a a little book tree worth looking in a month’s time.

Have a listen to these commercials I wrote for RTÉ. I don’t think they’re going to be seeing the light of day now (God bless the focus groups), so I think it’s safe to post them. Not a complete loss – some other stuff I had a hand in will actually get to the ears of the masses in the next few weeks. How and ever, I really like how these turned out. I do have a bit of a hard-on for the whole observational humour thing, and I thought the idea here was a nice take on an angle for the nation’s broadcaster – championing the (often annoying) little habits unique to us, the Irish people. Who knows? – I may get to recycle them for some other client out there. Make your cheques payable to Graham, or meet me on the canal with a bag of cash and they’re yours.

rté: moan

rté: weather

“Shut up woman, get on my horse”. A mantra for the modern man there, I think it’s fair to say.