Paul Schiernecker

Category: Other

  • Making plans.

    It’s Sunday morning. I have a cup of tea. This is how I like things to be.
    That rhymes. I didn’t do that on purpose, I don’t think. Nobody is awake yet. I’m not entirely sure who is actually here to know if anyone should be awake yet but nobody has appeared and I’m assuming by the shut doors on the landing that there are people sleeping behind them. That’s why I’m being as loud as I can this morning. I’ve done some exercise, put on my skinniest jeans and storyboarded what could be the next sketch of You & Me & Him & Dad. I’m hoping it will be up by the end of next week.

    I’ve got a couple of days off. Usually people use this time to unwind and catch up and chill out but I tend to try and get as much done as I possibly can. I’ve made a list and I’m checking it twice. I’ve got an awful lot of Christmas/Hannukah stuff to prepare. I’m going to make a start on some new recordings. I’m going to finish redrafting Visions and I need to buy some clothes. Recently I decided to get rid of anything that I didn’t need. It was a brilliant move and I’m still sure I could cut out a lot of other stuff. Who knows, if I get the chance this week I may have another stab at it. I do need some new jeans though, and some shirts. I’ve decided that with my promotion should come the kind of Paul who wears shirts to work. I’m not going to go in wearing a suit every day because that isn’t me at all, and while I can get away with wearing what I want I think I should but you can wear a shirt and not be in a suit (look at Woody Allen). I also need to buy some presents and try and wrap everything up. I hate leaving things until the last minute and knowing that I have a month to go until the day is making me prepare like I’m going to war.

    The other night I was at the Rochford beer festival and my friend Mike remarked on something that I can’t get out of my head. We seem to be going through a quarter life crisis. This bodes well for us as it means we will live to a hundred but this year we have all entered into some kind of outlandish competition or achievement and it is completely distant from the kind of things we would usually do. At school and college we were part of the grunge/stoner set and as such any kind of sporting prowess was left to everyone else but this year one of us is training for the marathon, one of us completed a triathlon and I’m prepping for a trek across the Sahara. It’s so distant from our usual characters and we concluded that it was us trying to prove ourselves as men. I might try and write something more on that at a later date, let me know if you have any views.

    Thanks.

  • That should be that then.

    I am planning on writing a review of my NaNoWriMo experience but it will have to wait until the weekend, when I am not being battered about on a commute. It’s like a tossed salad up in heeeerrre! I’ve sent the first draft of Visions Of Violet to a couple of people and I am redrafting it but I’m onto the next project, and given how I spent the best part of an hour changing all my guitar strings last night I suppose it should be a set of recordings. The Christmas thing has moved slightly off centre, I do still have plans for it but I would like to record a near enough acoustic album. I have ten tracks, I make that an album.
    I want it to sound as natural and organic as possible, I’m prone to throwing all sorts of MIDI trickery in over my tracks but these I would like to keep to just a vocal and guitar tracks wherever possible. When I can I want to record live and where impossible I will just layer guitar over. I’ll wait to see what it sounds like before I start blowing my trumpet (purely metaphorical). That’s next though. Should be good.

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 22.

    So, I’m finished.
    I did it. I hope you all get to join me in the winners lounge soon. It’s great in here. Rushdie just bombed into the pool of mojito and Hemingway is BBQing swordfish. Come on in!

    It isn’t an easy thing to do. I’m very fortunate in that there are nearly two hours a day when I am sat with nothing to do, on my way into and out of London for work. That’s how I found the time but I think a lot of people could find that time if they really wanted to do it. People do amazing things.

    I’ve got the first review back already. I sent the first draft to my friend Stacy last night and she’s already declared it a triumph which is very sweet of her. I wanted to get a female perspective on the female perspective I used in the book and she seems to think it works. I’m not really sure what to do with it now. There was a much quicker turnaround than I am used to. It took me nine months to write the first draft of my first novel and it took me three weeks to write my second.
    I was saying to Kate the other day that it feels as though the first one taught me a lot of things and that now I know how I work best, and how I form a story and everything else. I can’t wait to get started on the next couple of things.

    I have a list of ten acoustic tracks that I would love to record and make available as a download in the same way I did for GMTM and I have unfinished scripts that I am hoping I can tackle before Christmas and then maybe in the new year start on another book, or three. I’ve been sitting on a trilogy of books for five years, it might be time to write them.

    Must continue redrafting though. Zut alors.

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 21.

    Word count: 47,298.
    Recommended word count: 35,007.
    Proposed word count: 50,000.

    Something very odd has happened. I’ve run out of words. I’ve run out of story. I’ve finished short of the word count. I’m dashing back through to add bits in, basically doing a preliminary redraft which means that it’ll be in a better state for its first reading than estimated. This is good right?
    I’m planning on it being done today. I’m ready to start the next thing. Romeo done

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 20.

    Word count: 42,300.
    Recommended word count: 33,340.
    Proposed word count: 46,666.

    I’m already behind on my wild plan to finish this thing tomorrow. I was lucky to get two thousand words done yesterday morning on the train in but unlucky to just make the train and therefore not get a seat. The important thing to remember is DON’T PANIC as Douglas Adams once wrote. I still have a week if I don’t manage that. A sweet week of extension.

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 19.

    Word count: 40,203.
    Proposed word count: 43,333
    Recommended word count: 31,673.

    So I’m going to try and finish this sucker on Wednesday. That means splitting the last ten thousand words over three days. This morning is going quite well, I fell into a pocket of writing where I just slammed through two thousand words inside of a train ride. I’m getting the hang of this ‘writing as a chick’ lark. I just tried writing about giving birth and then realised I had gone too far.
    The end is in sight though. What ridiculous task shall I set myself next?
    Record a Christmas album?

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 18.

    I’m not going to fill this entry in the way I have the last seventeen because I’ve barely done enough work to justify it.
    All I will say is that I’ve basically had the weekend off and it has been nice to just not really have to do anything.
    Today my friend Ant and I watched the whole Snuffbox series and tonight I’m going to see Peter Hook with Kate.
    I’ll be good as of tomorrow, I swear!

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 17.

    Word count: 39,073.
    Recommended word count: 28,339.
    Proposed word count: 42,000.

    So I didn’t meet my proposed word count yesterday. Still going to try and write beyond that today.
    I say I’m going to write. I’m sat on the sofa watching a documentary on Woody Allen. This is much more interesting.
    I’ve fallen out with my writing and need to apologise and make up pretty sharpish. I don’t know how I’ll do that.
    Ahhhhhhhhhh!

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 16.

    Word count: 37,403.
    Recommended word count: 27,672.
    Proposed word count: 40,000.

    Morning.
    Did some excellent work yesterday. Finally managed to finish chapter eight which is going to be the longest of them all. I originally planned to write ten chapters but its looking like I’m going to do eleven including the closer/ explanation/ emotional roller coaster.
    I’m now in unmanned territory. I’m writing about things that I don’t know. My characters are in a city/ country/ continent that I’ve never visited and I’m sort of having to wing it. The story is still onboard though. That’s the thing I have in my favour.
    I also probably made a faux pas in choosing to set my novel in a time before iPhones because ordinarily that would solve everything for me. Oh woe. On we go.
    X

  • NaNoWriMo: Day 16.

    Word count: 37,403.
    Recommended word count: 27,672.
    Proposed word count: 40,000.

    Morning.
    Did some excellent work yesterday. Finally managed to finish chapter eight which is going to be the longest of them all. I originally planned to write ten chapters but its looking like I’m going to do eleven including the closer/ explanation/ emotional roller coaster.
    I’m now in unmanned territory. I’m writing about things that I don’t know. My characters are in a city/ country/ continent that I’ve never visited and I’m sort of having to wing it. The story is still onboard though. That’s the thing I have in my favour.
    I also probably made a faux paid in choosing to set my novel in a time before iPhones because ordinarily that would solve everything for me. Oh woe. On we go.
    X