Started on Chapter 1 over the weekend. Took a long damn time to put those first words on paper, but once I started writing, I could barely keep up. It’s funny: I’d been struggling for a while with one of the weaker aspects of the plot in the planning stages and never came up with a solution. Three pages into the text, I found myself writing a conversation with  a new character, and bang! a solution presented itself immediately. I suspect that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t already had the problem banging around in the back of my head, but it’s a useful reminder that there’s no substitute for just sitting and writing.

At the last minute I decided that I didn’t have a good enough feel for the CCS Halliday. I looked up some Russian submarine designs online. I think that I like that design philosophy for the starships in this universe. I had originally pictured more Star Trek-like corridors and lifts, but I really like the cramped feel I get from these schematics. I’ve been on submarine tours before, but didn’t really know what I was looking at. Maybe a field trip to Grotton, CT is in order…

The Livescribe pen is pretty nice for this. I’ve been writing the first chapter longhand to get away from the computer. Writing longhand has its benefits, it forces me to forge ahead instead of sit and revise what I’ve already written. On the other hand, writing with this huge pen is giving me wrist cramps. I’ll have to experiment to find some writing method that works best for me, with maximum opportunity to get words on paper/bits on iron oxide, and minimal opportunity to lose those words and bits.