Week 1 - The Panic Is Normal

Last night was day 7 of NaNoWriMo and so far I've been able to stay on top of my writing quotas.  There were a few days where I was forced to stay up late to pull it out, but at this point I'm very slightly ahead of the game.

Last Thursday, I think I was fighting off a virus or something.  I had a very hard time focusing, but I managed to still make goal.  So far my detailed outline has kept things on track.  It means I don't have to worry about what happens next, though I still have to sometimes figure out how I'm going to make it happen.

Last weekend I was hoping to hit goal early and take a break, maybe play a little DDO and do some favor grinding.  Something mindless to turn the brain off.  Instead I was persuaded to pull the chainsaw out and trim the trees since brush pickup is this week.  I also finally got around to mowing the thicket in the backyard where the faucet leaks.  By Sunday I had serious brain-fry and could barely focus enough to make goal.

To make matter worse I had an entire chapter that was all transitional scenes.  I did have some important ground to cover, I got to trickle out a little more character/cultural/setting background, but it was mostly about getting the characters from point A to point B to set up the next situation.  In fact I have often suspected I have a tendency to gloss over such things, just hit the important conflicts and move on--certainly last year's nano had much more action in it at this point--so I made myself develop those scenes more fully.  Hopefully I didn't overdue it.

I'm definitely going to need beta readers on this one.

21 Days and Counting...

So, I've decided to do the inadvisable and write a sequel to an unpublished novel. I am, optimistically, about half finished plotting the thing, though I still have some hard decisions to make that could slow things down. I am, however, already seeing some interesting connections developing between characters. The act of discovery is probably the most satisfying part of writing. I can understand how Tolkien would talk about his world as if he weren't creating it, but exploring it. I am both excited and a little intimated about the journey coming up next month. I hope I can finish planning my itinerary by then.

Preparing for NaNo 2011

Every year I tell myself I'm going to do a better job preparing for NaNoWriMo. So far I've been able to do that, but each year I feel I should have done a better job. It is now the end of July and I've already started that agonizing search for this year's story.

I started with a short-short story called Panacea about the accidental creation of a mutagenic plague. (I wrote the whole thing with my thumbs on my iPod as a lark. :) It was intended to be a bit of back story for a far future post-post-apocalyptic story involving mutants, primitive tribal culture and lost technology. (Were not talking X-men mutants here, but more like Beneath the Planet of the Apes type mutants.) Unfortunately I don't have a handle on the main character, so that story really needs to sit and gel awhile longer.

I also wrote a potential first chapter for a YA zombie apocalypse told from the POV of a 15 year old girl who has to travel through a zombie infested metropolis to get her family back together. I think it has a lot of potential and the dramatic irony of the first chapter was a lot of fun yet, somehow--despite living with a 15 year old girl, the voice wasn't quite right. I may have to backburner that one as well.

I have lots of other stories rattling around in the back of my head (not all of which are apocalyptic) including a lovecraftian horror romance story I was toying with last year. I may even violate one of the basic rules for writers and write a sequel to an unpublished story.

I never really finished A Kingdom of Stone. I mean, I did--and it's a pretty solid ending, but there was a whole second part to that story that would have been included if I hadn't hit the 134k word mark. In Arthurian terms, part one deals with the rise of Merlin while part two deals with the rise of Arthur.

(No, this is not an Arthurian tale! I'm actually somewhat tired of those. I'm using Arthur as a metaphor here so I don't have to explain the actual story--though I will be borrowing from the Fisher King and other parts of the Mabinogion so there will be a resonance there. :)

The ending for part two is pretty well mapped out, but the rest of it is largely up in the air. That's because it's really the ending of the first book that's just been chopped off. That means I've got to craft a new beginning for part two and finish working out the middle bits. We'll see how close I come before October and the pre-nano panic kicks in.

Nanowrimo 2010 Postmortem

I know nanowrimo ended for most people in Nov, but for me it doesn't really end until I'm holding my proof in my hot little hands. The actual writing ended about April--yes I know most people finish in November, but then most nanos are only 50k or so long. This year, mine came in just under 90k, a little shorter than last year's. Each year's attempt gets a little easier and this year's was no exception. I think this goes to show, if nothing else, that I picked the right story after all.

Otherwise, nanowrimo was a bit of a bust. We didn't have the usual midnight kick-off write-in and I didn't go to any of the events which were almost all on the other side of town, so I didn't really feel like I was a part of things. In fact I barely even got on the forums. Though who knows maybe it actually helped me meet goal more quickly. :)

If all goes well, the free print should be arriving in about a week. Sometime after that I'll be looking for beta readers. If anyone thinks they might be interested in reading the thing or even just willing to help me out, I could use some fresh eyes on it. I'll be posting more info then.

Halfway There and Two Days Early!

It's been an odd week. Week Two is normally Hell Week for most nanoers. It's the point where the story's shiny newness has begun to wear off and the characters stop cooperating. It's also the point where people who didn't plan often find out that they don't really have a story in any meaningful sense.

Tuesday I had my first short day. I came in 350 words short. Strangely enough, it was followed by a record word count day on Wednesday and even more on Thursday. Then Friday I had another short day. That however was something of an accident. I was only about 100 words short and I had forgotten that earlier in the day I had penned a snatch of dialog that takes place near the climax of the story and so wrote in the back of my notebook. Had I remembered to add it, I would have (just barely) made quota that day.

My cast of character's is exploding! I have two and a half main characters and the two (full) main characters are each surrounded by more than a dozen supporting characters too many of which are developing personalities and expressing opinions unworthy of background characters. The character that I thought would be the main character's nemesis sort of redeemed himself. At least he's slight more sympathetic than he was. And a new character has arisen to make the MC's life miserable. Unfortunately my MC has just been yanked out of that situation into a better/worse one. Who knows if either of the earlier potential nemesis will reenter his life later.

I have enjoyed discovering unexpected facets of my main characters though. That sort of things always makes writing fun and really helps with the word count.

Having spent all day writing. I'm going to go stand up now (if my legs will still support me) and then go play some DDO to unstress my brain.

NaNoWriMo -- Week 1

This weeks went surprisingly well despite the usual attacks of doubt and a disappointing lack of involvement in the nano community. I haven't attended a single write-in function yet (I at least went to the last 3 kickoff parties--this year they didn't have one) and have barely made an appearance on the forums. As a result, I don't really feel like I'm in NaNoWriMode right now.

The only thing that's saved me so far is that (until now) the story is pretty well-tread ground (in my head.) I've had a good feel for what's going on up to this point, though that will change as soon as I bump up against the edge of my outline.

I still get surprised by my characters, though. For example, my main character (the mage who accidentally defeats a giant and gets recruited in a mercenary warrior guild) was supposed to acquire a minor nemesis from within the guild. In fact when they see that he's not the usual big and strong type, many of the older students will take great delight in beating up the "giant killer" in practice. As I'm setting this up, I introduce a character that I thought would be his friend. Another new recruit that can at least sympathize with the MC while they go through this brutal training, only he's turning out to be quite the jerk. The MC has just met his romantic interest and this guy is making all kinds of rude suggestions as to why he shouldn't be interested in her.

I think he's found his nemesis, only it wasn't who I thought it was.

Anyway, if I can keep my motivation up, I should be Ok, but things will definitely get tougher over the next couple of weeks. The only good thing is that I'll have some time off coming up, hopefully I can use that to put some more numbers on the board (I do expect things to slow down a bit).

Unfortunately, you won't be able to follow my day-to-day progress that well on this site. The old widget, the one that showed the daily totals, no longer works and the new one only gives a running total. I don't know why that is. It's a little disappointing, but I've got other things to worry about right now.

Commit or be Committed

I want to thank everyone on facebook who posted their comments on which story I should write. I like all three and hope to write each of them eventually, but I think I've chosen my poison—so to speak.

I had all but decided on the Hell gate story which a majority of you seemed to prefer, and had even done some pre-writing, but eventually decided against it. Those characters just weren't ready to be written yet. I ended up going instead with story #3. Digging through my notes, I'd already written two short stories pulled from this story idea (though I had swapped the characters around and changed their names) so it seems my subconscious just felt there was more meat there to work it. (Yeah I know it probably means I'm committing myself to another 100k work. Yes I should be committed.)

I've tweaked my synopsis and even worked up some cover art for the curious. You can see them both at my writer's profile page on the nano site at: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user%252F200847 just click on the Novel Info tab.

Wish me luck. The roller-coaster is nearly at the top of the first hill. The anticipation is already killing me.