October 3 – Wednesday Check In

So far so good.

To recap my ROW80 Goal.

Write 750 new words each day on my MG  BALLYMOON while I continue to revise my MG project THE BEEF JERKY GANG.

Monday through Tuesday I banged out 2400 words.

Great words?  Not by a mile.  Plenty to cut when I go back but I just told myself to write fast.  I had a rough outline going in but am at the Middle of the Story where I am discovering some things about the characters.  So, I am letting that process play out.

So here is what Ballymoon is all about…and no, this is not my attempt at snazzy query / book jacket copy…just a general idea for you about the story.

BALLYMOON is basically Hogwarts meets Mathematics.  Got it?

No?  Okay, here’s a little more.

Brennan Jones lives in a world where after sixth grade you have to declare what kind of Second School you’re attending (Science, English, Mathematics, The Arts, etc…).  Problem is, Brennan is a terrible student, especially bad at Math and the only hope for him is to go to Grunt School and live a life as a Grunt.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere Brennan is given an opportunity to show off his amazing ability to do puzzles.  That’s talent alone is enough for a recruiter to invite Brennan to attend the most prestigious Mathematics Second School in the world, Ballymoon.

So, Brennan goes to Ballymoon where he has a chance to sometimes show off his ability to do puzzles but oftentimes still feels like he is a terrible student and terribly at Math.  He thinks his main challenge is to learn enough math that he will one of the privileged first year students who will be asked to come back for a second year.

But he has no idea.

Because there is more to Mathematics than Brennan had ever imagined.

Blah, Blah, blah…the basic science fictiony idea is that the world has a certain built in logic to it, a code so to speak.  And that code is mathematical…and if one can discover the code, then one can manipulate nature.

Sounds like magic, right?

No Magic in Brennan’s world, but there are Mathematicians, and the most brilliant have figured out how to manipulate some of nature.  There are those, however, who want to crack the whole code, to control all of nature, all events.  And Brennan will be thrust into the middle of this conflict.

So, again, I have a rough idea of what I want to happen and what the ending will be.  But in using ROW80 as my opportunity to discover the middle part of the story and finish the first draft.

I also continue to revise my MG Humor book TrHE BEEF JERKY GANG.  Am revising that as I take it through a MG critique group.  So far, really happy with the progress.

Thank you!   Daniel