Thus endeth another marathon.
The story isn't anywhere near over, of course. I stopped at midnight in the middle of a scene, where a strike force is moving through the HQ of the city guard, killing their leadership. They got the captain and one of the lieutenants but now they're pinned down in an office.
so far the general plan is still kind of fuzzy, but I figured out a few more details. The bad guy's first step is to take out the city guard and the army. To do that, there are strike forces going in all ninjalike while the bulk of the guards and soldiers are on the streets dealing with the zombie riot. There is a third strike force that's supposed to find and free Norm Owani, arm him heavily, then turn him loose on the mob bosses of Gorman Street while they hang back sniping anyone that tries to stop him. And a fourth one breaking into the city armory.
The Rouge Rogues were supposed to help the strike force take out the army leadership (with the assumption being that it's tougher to crack and therefore requires more manpower), but because Clyde got captured just before it all started, they never received their orders. They'll run into a chewing out when they get to the thick of the action.
I validated after deleting my Discards chapter, and still had 50,167, so I did pretty good. The certificate this year shows a Viking ship. I like it. :)
2008/11/24
Well, the zombies are finally loose
I've reached the part of the story where I don't really have any notes at all. All the mysteries have been solved for what's going on, and now it's time for the main show. Unfortunately, I haven't a clue how to carry that out. Since my notes are for a roleplaying game, I'd left it blank - because the players were supposed to figure that out. The ending, also, was intentionally open-ended - do the players stop the bad guy from succeeding or do bad things happen? Dun dun DUN!
This is also not unlike the problem I ran into with Amulet II back in 2005. I ran out of outline for that one at 50k words or so, realized that what I thought was my ending was, in fact, the middle - and there were at least 50k more words to go. Except that I had no notes, and had no clue how to proceed.
This time around, I knew it was going to be the middle. My ideas for what happens next are very vague. The zombies are loose, the main bad guy is making his move. What happens next:
1. Myan falls. (Hence the title of the story.)
2. The zombies march on Fortress Launne during the ensuing chaos. Presumably the court of Fortress Launne is distracted by the fact that Myan has fallen.
3. The zombies attempt to take out three main targets, beginning with the Old Art Museum - Morraina's lair, and the strongest of the anchors of the citywide spell that binds the demon under the old fort. The other two got weakened during Temple, leaving Morraina to do much more of the heavy lifting to keep the spell afloat; if the demon can knock her down, he stands a very good chance of getting free.
So the question is: will Nathaniel figure out how to defeat the zombies in time? Or will Fortress Launne fall too, when the demon gets out and they have to destroy large chunks of it in a cataclysmic battle wherein Nathaniel tries to bind it back down?
Before I get there though, I have to figure out how to get Myan to fall. The bad guy, Master Lewis, has the zombies rampaging through the streets to provide a distraction from his covert-ops-style teams, that are breaking into key places to either kill, destroy, or occupy. Unfortunately, that's as detailed as I have. What exactly does one need to destroy and/or occupy, and who needs to be killed, to cause a city to fall? I have no idea.
So I started writing one of the strike forces as they break into a building and head toward their target, whatever it is. They've reached their target now. I have to figure out what it is. :p
One the bright side, I'm less than 1200 words away from 50k. Winning Nanowrimo 2008 will not be a problem.
This is also not unlike the problem I ran into with Amulet II back in 2005. I ran out of outline for that one at 50k words or so, realized that what I thought was my ending was, in fact, the middle - and there were at least 50k more words to go. Except that I had no notes, and had no clue how to proceed.
This time around, I knew it was going to be the middle. My ideas for what happens next are very vague. The zombies are loose, the main bad guy is making his move. What happens next:
1. Myan falls. (Hence the title of the story.)
2. The zombies march on Fortress Launne during the ensuing chaos. Presumably the court of Fortress Launne is distracted by the fact that Myan has fallen.
3. The zombies attempt to take out three main targets, beginning with the Old Art Museum - Morraina's lair, and the strongest of the anchors of the citywide spell that binds the demon under the old fort. The other two got weakened during Temple, leaving Morraina to do much more of the heavy lifting to keep the spell afloat; if the demon can knock her down, he stands a very good chance of getting free.
So the question is: will Nathaniel figure out how to defeat the zombies in time? Or will Fortress Launne fall too, when the demon gets out and they have to destroy large chunks of it in a cataclysmic battle wherein Nathaniel tries to bind it back down?
Before I get there though, I have to figure out how to get Myan to fall. The bad guy, Master Lewis, has the zombies rampaging through the streets to provide a distraction from his covert-ops-style teams, that are breaking into key places to either kill, destroy, or occupy. Unfortunately, that's as detailed as I have. What exactly does one need to destroy and/or occupy, and who needs to be killed, to cause a city to fall? I have no idea.
So I started writing one of the strike forces as they break into a building and head toward their target, whatever it is. They've reached their target now. I have to figure out what it is. :p
One the bright side, I'm less than 1200 words away from 50k. Winning Nanowrimo 2008 will not be a problem.
2008/11/21
45,048 words in 20 days
And now for some more brainstorm notes...
To tie the Endron plotline in with the rest, the bad guy of the Myan Invasion plotline needs to be the same one. Furthermore, an additional side effect of the new experimental gas is that it invigorates zombies. That would give the bad guy an actual reason to want to build a factory to make the gas. (Endron Oil itself is either unaware of this particular side effect, or they don't consider it particularly important.)
I've decided his name is Mort Lewis. He only just got mentioned by name tonight. I have no development on him whatsoever. Basically, his role is to plot the overthrow of the Myan court on ideological grounds. He thinks that the people should be ruling themselves, not constantly submitting to immortal kings. So he has a deal with the demon, which is that the demon will raise the zombies for him to use as a decoy during the attack, and then after he's done flattening Myan, the demon gets to march the zombies on Fortress Launne. The demon, meanwhile, sees the attack on Myan as the decoy activity, when the real objective is to destroy the spells that bind him underground in Fortress Launne.
The Rouge Rogues are in charge of the zombie-raising aspect of the attack, and he has other bands that have been preparing the other parts. Whatever those other parts may be - I haven't decided. In fact, I have no idea how one goes about taking over a city. It would probably help if I had any kind of political structure in mind for Myan, but thus far the only structure I have is one king and one prince (that acts like an XO). There ought to be more people in this government... well, I suppose there are a large number of coexisting mob organizations in Myan, which is the actual governmental bodies in practice, but there should probably be some figureheads, shouldn't there?
Meanwhile, the king of Myan also has no idea that an attack is coming. That's the simplest way to explain why he has no preparations whatsoever against it (because, as a corollary to not having any idea how one goes about attacking a cityy, I also have no idea how one would go about defending one).
I suspect that this particular story would've been a great one for snowflaking. Oh well...
Meanwhile, I've gotten much slower on the writing. I never know what I'm going to write next. At the moment I'm trying to wrap up the serial killer plotline - they've captured Zeke, and now they're in the process of getting the spell on him broken. After that their attention will turn to the other three plotlines. Because the zombies are going to get released next, I think.
To tie the Endron plotline in with the rest, the bad guy of the Myan Invasion plotline needs to be the same one. Furthermore, an additional side effect of the new experimental gas is that it invigorates zombies. That would give the bad guy an actual reason to want to build a factory to make the gas. (Endron Oil itself is either unaware of this particular side effect, or they don't consider it particularly important.)
I've decided his name is Mort Lewis. He only just got mentioned by name tonight. I have no development on him whatsoever. Basically, his role is to plot the overthrow of the Myan court on ideological grounds. He thinks that the people should be ruling themselves, not constantly submitting to immortal kings. So he has a deal with the demon, which is that the demon will raise the zombies for him to use as a decoy during the attack, and then after he's done flattening Myan, the demon gets to march the zombies on Fortress Launne. The demon, meanwhile, sees the attack on Myan as the decoy activity, when the real objective is to destroy the spells that bind him underground in Fortress Launne.
The Rouge Rogues are in charge of the zombie-raising aspect of the attack, and he has other bands that have been preparing the other parts. Whatever those other parts may be - I haven't decided. In fact, I have no idea how one goes about taking over a city. It would probably help if I had any kind of political structure in mind for Myan, but thus far the only structure I have is one king and one prince (that acts like an XO). There ought to be more people in this government... well, I suppose there are a large number of coexisting mob organizations in Myan, which is the actual governmental bodies in practice, but there should probably be some figureheads, shouldn't there?
Meanwhile, the king of Myan also has no idea that an attack is coming. That's the simplest way to explain why he has no preparations whatsoever against it (because, as a corollary to not having any idea how one goes about attacking a cityy, I also have no idea how one would go about defending one).
I suspect that this particular story would've been a great one for snowflaking. Oh well...
Meanwhile, I've gotten much slower on the writing. I never know what I'm going to write next. At the moment I'm trying to wrap up the serial killer plotline - they've captured Zeke, and now they're in the process of getting the spell on him broken. After that their attention will turn to the other three plotlines. Because the zombies are going to get released next, I think.
2008/11/17
Day 16: 38,394 words
Serial Killer plotline revamp:
A.
1. Body of Sandra Bernice Halley found
2. Suunja assigned to case
3. Brother Bernard found, but he's still alive!
4. Trackback to the site of the ritual (thereby eliminating Sally Anne from the story altogether), based on what Brother Bernard says about what happened to him.
5. Backstory fill-in with Morton happens en-route (thereby eliminating the boringness problem where they do all that while sitting around in an office).
6. They could start searching for the serial killer after forensics analyzes the materials used in the ritual, and points them to places that sell them.
7. Martha found, also based on what Brother Bernard says.
B. Skip to Endron Oil storyline (which needs serious revamping too)
C. Somehow find a link to the zombie storyline from the Endron Oil storyline
D. Zombie storyline leads to Siege of Myan storyline
... and then it continues like I planned out before. The Siege of Myan storyline needs some serious rethinking too, but I haven't figured out how to do that or Endron yet. Still, it's good to get a better grasp of what to do with one of the three problem storylines.
Now all I have to do is write all that up.
A.
1. Body of Sandra Bernice Halley found
2. Suunja assigned to case
3. Brother Bernard found, but he's still alive!
4. Trackback to the site of the ritual (thereby eliminating Sally Anne from the story altogether), based on what Brother Bernard says about what happened to him.
5. Backstory fill-in with Morton happens en-route (thereby eliminating the boringness problem where they do all that while sitting around in an office).
6. They could start searching for the serial killer after forensics analyzes the materials used in the ritual, and points them to places that sell them.
7. Martha found, also based on what Brother Bernard says.
B. Skip to Endron Oil storyline (which needs serious revamping too)
C. Somehow find a link to the zombie storyline from the Endron Oil storyline
D. Zombie storyline leads to Siege of Myan storyline
... and then it continues like I planned out before. The Siege of Myan storyline needs some serious rethinking too, but I haven't figured out how to do that or Endron yet. Still, it's good to get a better grasp of what to do with one of the three problem storylines.
Now all I have to do is write all that up.
2008/11/16
35,049 at the Halfway
I've decided that the zombies storyline is funnest, especially when Pedro is involved. They've captured a zombie for detailed analysis. They're getting a few scattered clues, and might need Morraina's input for more. At this point, they're aware that it's the demon behind everything. I might not stick with that.
I also had great fun having Suunja meet a mob boss. Next up for him: meeting Mindy. Seems like the Norm Owani angle is going to be the best way for them to figure out that the serial killer is Zeke. In the next draft, I'm going to have to come up with more interesting things for Suunja and Morton to do while they're comparing notes - like wandering around in underground tunnels chasing leads or something. That would be a lot more exciting than having them sit around in an office shuffling papers all the time.
Meanwhile, Jacob's survey team has discovered some old dead bodies on Bordoni's land. So far I haven't figured out why they're there. Which could pose a problem for continuing that plotline.
I'm still kind of lost on where I'm going with all this. It's not time to release the zombie hordes yet, but I'm not sure what else needs to happen before that happens.
Somehow it would make sense to use Martha as serial killer bait. Unfortunately, none of the characters in a position to consider that option are at all likely to think of it as an option.
On Stranahan's plate:
1. send supplies and troops to Myan to help them defend against an unnatural uprising
2. environmental survey of Bordoni's land, which has now turneed into a crime scene as well
3. there's a serial killer on the loose, dammit
4. there are zombies rising, and they're victims of the serial killer
Meanwhile, the biggest priority is that the whole serial killer angle needs work. Namely, the clues to help them actually find and attempt to capture Zeke. So far all theyv'e done is track down his past activities. I need to figure out how to change that.
I also had great fun having Suunja meet a mob boss. Next up for him: meeting Mindy. Seems like the Norm Owani angle is going to be the best way for them to figure out that the serial killer is Zeke. In the next draft, I'm going to have to come up with more interesting things for Suunja and Morton to do while they're comparing notes - like wandering around in underground tunnels chasing leads or something. That would be a lot more exciting than having them sit around in an office shuffling papers all the time.
Meanwhile, Jacob's survey team has discovered some old dead bodies on Bordoni's land. So far I haven't figured out why they're there. Which could pose a problem for continuing that plotline.
I'm still kind of lost on where I'm going with all this. It's not time to release the zombie hordes yet, but I'm not sure what else needs to happen before that happens.
Somehow it would make sense to use Martha as serial killer bait. Unfortunately, none of the characters in a position to consider that option are at all likely to think of it as an option.
On Stranahan's plate:
1. send supplies and troops to Myan to help them defend against an unnatural uprising
2. environmental survey of Bordoni's land, which has now turneed into a crime scene as well
3. there's a serial killer on the loose, dammit
4. there are zombies rising, and they're victims of the serial killer
Meanwhile, the biggest priority is that the whole serial killer angle needs work. Namely, the clues to help them actually find and attempt to capture Zeke. So far all theyv'e done is track down his past activities. I need to figure out how to change that.
2008/11/15
Approaching Halfway: 30,155 words
Well, I seem to start every entry with the word "well." Oh well?
I'm about 20k behind where I was hoping to be by now. Looks like I might have to scale back my ambitions this year, too. One of these years, though, I shall actually make it to 100k!
It's not that I'm writing slow, either. When I'm actually writing, it goes by pretty fast. But there are lengthier pauses in between. I've had a lot more days of 0 words this year than any other year. I've also reached the part of the story that is beyond my notes, and where things start getting ridiculously complicated, which means I have to go slower if I want to keep track of what I'm doing well enough not to end up with gigantic plot holes later. There's already one time paradox, where two characters talk about a bunch of stuff in one scene that they can't possibly know all in that same scene; luckily it's easily fixable via breaking it up into two separate scenes later.
So, carrying on the theme of trying to keep track...
1. I need to develop the part of the serial killer plotline where they actually attempt to find the serial killer, and not just figure out what he did in the past. This means coming up with clues to throw at the cop guy.
2. Stranahan is ordering Bordoni to survey his land for environmental damage before he'll be allowed to sell it to anyone.
3. Mindy has Norm Owani in one of her dungeons. She's just unaware of who he is.
4. Mindy made some sort of outrageous request that Stranahan, against his better judgement, is granting. No clue what this could possibly be.
5. Kim is auditing the Myan warehouses.
6. Nathaniel has just learned that a) the killer's victims turn into the zombies, and b) the demon he's got locked up is who the killer is sacrificing them to. This means he really, really wants to get his hands on the serial killer.
7. Nathaniel is also planning to capture one of the zombies to study it, and figure out how to destroy them.
8. Stranahan is sending men and supplies to bolster Myan's defenses. Not sure yet whether Suunja is included in that.
9. Jacob could maybe be part of the environmental survey team on Bordoni's land.
10. Morraina is still analyzing the stolen oil. And she wants to know how the zombie thing turns out too. Maybe she can help study how to destroy them.
11. Somewhere on Master Byers' former land, there are bodies buried. This should somehow be important to the Endron subplot.
12. Suunja is comparing the list of zombies to the list of serial killer victims. He's going to notice the victims of Norm Owani.
13. Somehow need to throw in a clue that the killer is Zeke.
Hmmm. So far I'm not really seeing anything jump out at me for what to write next. That could be a problem...
I'm about 20k behind where I was hoping to be by now. Looks like I might have to scale back my ambitions this year, too. One of these years, though, I shall actually make it to 100k!
It's not that I'm writing slow, either. When I'm actually writing, it goes by pretty fast. But there are lengthier pauses in between. I've had a lot more days of 0 words this year than any other year. I've also reached the part of the story that is beyond my notes, and where things start getting ridiculously complicated, which means I have to go slower if I want to keep track of what I'm doing well enough not to end up with gigantic plot holes later. There's already one time paradox, where two characters talk about a bunch of stuff in one scene that they can't possibly know all in that same scene; luckily it's easily fixable via breaking it up into two separate scenes later.
So, carrying on the theme of trying to keep track...
1. I need to develop the part of the serial killer plotline where they actually attempt to find the serial killer, and not just figure out what he did in the past. This means coming up with clues to throw at the cop guy.
2. Stranahan is ordering Bordoni to survey his land for environmental damage before he'll be allowed to sell it to anyone.
3. Mindy has Norm Owani in one of her dungeons. She's just unaware of who he is.
4. Mindy made some sort of outrageous request that Stranahan, against his better judgement, is granting. No clue what this could possibly be.
5. Kim is auditing the Myan warehouses.
6. Nathaniel has just learned that a) the killer's victims turn into the zombies, and b) the demon he's got locked up is who the killer is sacrificing them to. This means he really, really wants to get his hands on the serial killer.
7. Nathaniel is also planning to capture one of the zombies to study it, and figure out how to destroy them.
8. Stranahan is sending men and supplies to bolster Myan's defenses. Not sure yet whether Suunja is included in that.
9. Jacob could maybe be part of the environmental survey team on Bordoni's land.
10. Morraina is still analyzing the stolen oil. And she wants to know how the zombie thing turns out too. Maybe she can help study how to destroy them.
11. Somewhere on Master Byers' former land, there are bodies buried. This should somehow be important to the Endron subplot.
12. Suunja is comparing the list of zombies to the list of serial killer victims. He's going to notice the victims of Norm Owani.
13. Somehow need to throw in a clue that the killer is Zeke.
Hmmm. So far I'm not really seeing anything jump out at me for what to write next. That could be a problem...
2008/11/13
Regrouping at 25,950 words
Well, I seem to have completely lost the trail. So, herewith, a summary of what everyone in the story is doing:
1. Sarabelle is going back to Nathaniel to report on the discovery of the warehouse full of zombies.
2. Pedro is going back to Nathaniel to report on what Master Byers said about the land that Bordoni is trying to sell.
3. Jacob is going back to Stranahan to report on the situation in Myan. He's also carrying a message from Kim to Mindy.
4. Kim is staying in Myan to snoop around the warehouses, based on a tip from Sarabelle.
5. Morraina is:
a) looking into the death of Brother Bernard (whereupon she'll discover where the zombies are coming from, and therefore want to talk to Nathaniel)
b) analyzing the oil from Endron
6. Suunja is waiting for other people to get back to him:
a) Chance
b) Morraina
... but he should probably do something useful while he's waiting. :p
7. Martha is preparing to do legal battle against S.M. Industries for Bordoni's land, working on behalf of Endron.
8. Chance is looking into the meaning of the serial killer's ritual.
9. Mindy is ... not real sure. It would probably help to figure out what her motive is in all this in the first place (if she even has one).
10. The Rouge Rogues are getting ready to release the zombie hordes from their warehouse.
I think that's everything. Laying it out like that, I can see a number of plotlines to pursue next.
At this point it's not looking likely that I'll make it to 50k in time to do another 50k on a second story. I skipped yesterday entirely and didn't write enough today. Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to a couple yoga classes, which will break up my day, but after that it should be clear unbroken sailing for a few days. Hopefully I'll have some clue what I'm doing the whole time so I can rack up the count some.
1. Sarabelle is going back to Nathaniel to report on the discovery of the warehouse full of zombies.
2. Pedro is going back to Nathaniel to report on what Master Byers said about the land that Bordoni is trying to sell.
3. Jacob is going back to Stranahan to report on the situation in Myan. He's also carrying a message from Kim to Mindy.
4. Kim is staying in Myan to snoop around the warehouses, based on a tip from Sarabelle.
5. Morraina is:
a) looking into the death of Brother Bernard (whereupon she'll discover where the zombies are coming from, and therefore want to talk to Nathaniel)
b) analyzing the oil from Endron
6. Suunja is waiting for other people to get back to him:
a) Chance
b) Morraina
... but he should probably do something useful while he's waiting. :p
7. Martha is preparing to do legal battle against S.M. Industries for Bordoni's land, working on behalf of Endron.
8. Chance is looking into the meaning of the serial killer's ritual.
9. Mindy is ... not real sure. It would probably help to figure out what her motive is in all this in the first place (if she even has one).
10. The Rouge Rogues are getting ready to release the zombie hordes from their warehouse.
I think that's everything. Laying it out like that, I can see a number of plotlines to pursue next.
At this point it's not looking likely that I'll make it to 50k in time to do another 50k on a second story. I skipped yesterday entirely and didn't write enough today. Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to a couple yoga classes, which will break up my day, but after that it should be clear unbroken sailing for a few days. Hopefully I'll have some clue what I'm doing the whole time so I can rack up the count some.
2008/11/11
Days 9, 10: 22,465 words
This year is turning out to be the fastest I've ever written anything. It takes very little effort to get going once I start - on the other hand, it doesn't take much to stop, either. I can start and stop and be interrupted and pick up where I left off with ease, which is a lot different from needing big stretches of unbroken time, during which I have no distractions.
I guess to summarize what I'm learning about myself, writingwise: plot and setting needs to be thoroughly detailed before I start. Characters need to be severely underdeveloped before I start. If I have that, writing it takes about as much effort as falling off a log.
Of course, it also feels sort of boring, because there aren't really any surprises. The characters pretty much do what I want them to, and don't deviate much. Still, it's good to know that I can write a passable story this way, if I really wanted.
And the story does appear to be passable. I'm starting to get ideas about its overall structure - which parts of the plot to tell in what order. There seem to be four main subplots:
1. Zombies.
2. A serial killer.
3. Endron oil.
4. A governmental overthrow in Myan.
The first two are pretty well-developed at this point. So far I've only hinted at the fourth. 1, 2, and 4 are all being caused by the demon buried under Fortress Launne, while 3 is a coincidence that works in the demon's favor, and therefore he's trying to exploit it.
So far I'm still writing out the setup. I have no idea what will happen when I actually set the fully explained plot in motion - that is, when I unleash the zombies. Currently they're all sitting in a warehouse awaiting the signal to start their rampage. I guess it depends on how informed and prepared everyone else is when that happens - which I haven't decided yet.
As for what order to put them in, my thoughts at the moment are:
1. I need to write a precursor scene that shows Zeke defeating the Rouge Rogues, and possibly also killing his secretary. That's what sort of sparked it all off.
2. Fast forward to the middle of the tale, where it follows the discovery of the serial killer through the eyes of Suunja Henderson. Keep going on his plotline until he runs into Martha.
3. Stop Suunja's plotline and start at the beginning of Martha's, about Endron Oil. Go until she runs into Suunja.
4. Continue the story from the point of Suunja and Martha meeting each other, until they run into a third subplot (I haven't written far enough yet to know which one it'll be. Tentative speculation suggests the zombie one).
5. Do the zombies subplot and the overthrow of Myan subplot in the same way - Sarabelle of the former has run into Jacob and Kim of the latter now.
6. Once all four of those subplots have run into each other, start over at the beginning of the Rouge Rogue's side of things. Which explains where the zombies, the serial killer, and the governmental overthrow are all coming from.
7. Then move forward from there. The zombies get released, mayhem ensues, etc.
I didn't write as much today as I hoped - got distracted by a quest for sushi that took longer than it should've. Yesterday I got in over 4k words, which is the highest day for this marathon so far. Even so, I'm still about 10k words behind where I want to be. Tomorrow isn't looking too good either, because I have work and some other non-novelling things to do. Wednesday I have a couple appointments as well, though they'll be done with by mid-afternoon. Hopefully I'll manage to catch back up on Wednesday evening and Thursday.
I guess to summarize what I'm learning about myself, writingwise: plot and setting needs to be thoroughly detailed before I start. Characters need to be severely underdeveloped before I start. If I have that, writing it takes about as much effort as falling off a log.
Of course, it also feels sort of boring, because there aren't really any surprises. The characters pretty much do what I want them to, and don't deviate much. Still, it's good to know that I can write a passable story this way, if I really wanted.
And the story does appear to be passable. I'm starting to get ideas about its overall structure - which parts of the plot to tell in what order. There seem to be four main subplots:
1. Zombies.
2. A serial killer.
3. Endron oil.
4. A governmental overthrow in Myan.
The first two are pretty well-developed at this point. So far I've only hinted at the fourth. 1, 2, and 4 are all being caused by the demon buried under Fortress Launne, while 3 is a coincidence that works in the demon's favor, and therefore he's trying to exploit it.
So far I'm still writing out the setup. I have no idea what will happen when I actually set the fully explained plot in motion - that is, when I unleash the zombies. Currently they're all sitting in a warehouse awaiting the signal to start their rampage. I guess it depends on how informed and prepared everyone else is when that happens - which I haven't decided yet.
As for what order to put them in, my thoughts at the moment are:
1. I need to write a precursor scene that shows Zeke defeating the Rouge Rogues, and possibly also killing his secretary. That's what sort of sparked it all off.
2. Fast forward to the middle of the tale, where it follows the discovery of the serial killer through the eyes of Suunja Henderson. Keep going on his plotline until he runs into Martha.
3. Stop Suunja's plotline and start at the beginning of Martha's, about Endron Oil. Go until she runs into Suunja.
4. Continue the story from the point of Suunja and Martha meeting each other, until they run into a third subplot (I haven't written far enough yet to know which one it'll be. Tentative speculation suggests the zombie one).
5. Do the zombies subplot and the overthrow of Myan subplot in the same way - Sarabelle of the former has run into Jacob and Kim of the latter now.
6. Once all four of those subplots have run into each other, start over at the beginning of the Rouge Rogue's side of things. Which explains where the zombies, the serial killer, and the governmental overthrow are all coming from.
7. Then move forward from there. The zombies get released, mayhem ensues, etc.
I didn't write as much today as I hoped - got distracted by a quest for sushi that took longer than it should've. Yesterday I got in over 4k words, which is the highest day for this marathon so far. Even so, I'm still about 10k words behind where I want to be. Tomorrow isn't looking too good either, because I have work and some other non-novelling things to do. Wednesday I have a couple appointments as well, though they'll be done with by mid-afternoon. Hopefully I'll manage to catch back up on Wednesday evening and Thursday.
2008/11/09
Day 8: 17,323 words
Somehow I wrote nearly 4k words today, even though the whole day felt like I was going around in pointless circles. I think the problem is that I still don't have a workable viewpoint character through which to tell the story. I thought I'd found a couple, but, no... it turns out the cop I invented wasn't it, because all he's been doing so far is library research. And Martha, who is posing as a secretary that is trying not to blow her cover, well, she's not doing anything in the high action-adventure realm either. Basically, as far as I can tell, all I'm doing is writing an expanded, revised version of my notes.
I'm also about 10k words behind where I was hoping to be. Taking three days off wasn't too helpful. Hopefully I'll manage to figure out something exciting to write about next.
I'm also about 10k words behind where I was hoping to be. Taking three days off wasn't too helpful. Hopefully I'll manage to figure out something exciting to write about next.
2008/11/08
Days 4, 5, 6, and 7: 13,473 words
Well, I didn't write a darn thing on Election Night. Nor did I get done anything else I'd planned for that evening, which meant I did those on Wednesday and didn't write anything novel-related then, either. On Thursday I was sick, but managed about a hundred words just before midnight, before giving up and just going to bed.
Friday came and I was all better and ready to go. I have a lot of catching up to do, if I still hope to reach 100k.
The problem is that I think I'm bored with my story. It's easy enough to write, and I do enjoy parts of it as I go along, but only mildly. The downside of the lack of emotional investment is that, well, I'm not drawn in. It's easier to write, but at the same time it's not as much fun.
Oh well. I just need to reach 50k on it, and then I can go on to something else. Only 36,527 more to go...
Friday came and I was all better and ready to go. I have a lot of catching up to do, if I still hope to reach 100k.
The problem is that I think I'm bored with my story. It's easy enough to write, and I do enjoy parts of it as I go along, but only mildly. The downside of the lack of emotional investment is that, well, I'm not drawn in. It's easier to write, but at the same time it's not as much fun.
Oh well. I just need to reach 50k on it, and then I can go on to something else. Only 36,527 more to go...
2008/11/04
Day 3: 9926 words
Well, I'm basically back on track for doing double-words (goal was 9999). This is a relief, and I'm amazed I made it considering I stopped in the middle of the day to attend a yoga class. (Just trying to counter the effects on my back of sitting in front of a computer all day every day for 16 hours a day...)
I've figured out how to write fast too. I think. Basically what I need is to work out setting and plotlines in advance, but do no character development whatsoever. It's working out a lot better to have characters that start out with barely more than name, general abilities, role in plot, and maybe a personality quirk or two. I don't have to psyche myself up to write for them, and I don't secondguess whether a given phrasing is the way they'd say it or not. I just write down what they're trying to say without worrying about how they'd say it, and move on.
So where last we left off with our anti-heroes, they'd just launched their practice weapon of mass murder. Norm Owani shot up a bunch of mob fronthouses before eventually getting captured by one of the bosses and locked into a dungeon somewhere. Because of the spells on him, he's basically unkillable - and now I'm thinking he might make a reappearance later on, near the end of the story. (Of course, as I type this, I've forgotten what I was thinking to do with him there ... but no matter. If it doesn't come to me by the time I get there, I'll think of something else.)
Meanwhile, our anti-heroes went on to capture their real target, whose name is Zeke. There were many words spent on getting him into the binding ritual - but now he's successfully launched too.
So I'm fast forwarding to a timepoint several years later. (Hrm. I might shorten it to months instead of years, depending on how that might work.) The "good guys" have discovered, for the very first time, the remnants of the zombiemaking ritual that Zeke is using on his victims. Now that they have that info, they can figure out everything they ever wanted to know about the serial killer - and work up to figuring out who his next likely target is. They haven't figured out the link to the zombies yet, and I'm not sure how they'll stumble on that, but that's for later. For the time being I finally have a protagonist! His name is Suunja Henderson, and he's the son of Janis and Mark. I worked out that by that point in the timeline, Janis's kids were going to be grownups, and since I had no existing characters that fit the role of a police investigator, voila. ;)
The next likely target is named Martha. (Yes, the one I was confused about back on Day 1.) She's posing as an executive secretary to a VP of an oil corporation, gathering intel about a new product they're about to release that will ... well, destroy the world, eventually. ;) Her group wants that to not happen. At some point after I've written out the serial killer info with Suunja, I'll be switching to her viewpoint from inside the corporation and with the group she's working with. How does this tie in with the rest of the plot? Well, see. The demon that's ultimately behind the serial killer wants the new gas to be released into the world, which means that Martha needs to be eliminated.
At the moment, I'm not really finding the concept of corporate board meetings that interesting to write about. Hopefully I'll warm up to it though. They are going to be talking about exciting things. I just need to get past the part where I invent all the people in the meetings (by names and roles - e.g. Head of Finance, Head of Research etc.). I've never been a business drone, so without any clue how these things actually work, I'm a bit lost. There are some friends I'll have to pin down and ask about that...
I guess that's where things stand at the end of Day 3. Tomorrow I have to put in a cameo at work, plus the election results are going to be coming in, so I'm not expecting to get much writing done. We'll see though. I don't really want to be 3333 words behind on Wednesday...
I've figured out how to write fast too. I think. Basically what I need is to work out setting and plotlines in advance, but do no character development whatsoever. It's working out a lot better to have characters that start out with barely more than name, general abilities, role in plot, and maybe a personality quirk or two. I don't have to psyche myself up to write for them, and I don't secondguess whether a given phrasing is the way they'd say it or not. I just write down what they're trying to say without worrying about how they'd say it, and move on.
So where last we left off with our anti-heroes, they'd just launched their practice weapon of mass murder. Norm Owani shot up a bunch of mob fronthouses before eventually getting captured by one of the bosses and locked into a dungeon somewhere. Because of the spells on him, he's basically unkillable - and now I'm thinking he might make a reappearance later on, near the end of the story. (Of course, as I type this, I've forgotten what I was thinking to do with him there ... but no matter. If it doesn't come to me by the time I get there, I'll think of something else.)
Meanwhile, our anti-heroes went on to capture their real target, whose name is Zeke. There were many words spent on getting him into the binding ritual - but now he's successfully launched too.
So I'm fast forwarding to a timepoint several years later. (Hrm. I might shorten it to months instead of years, depending on how that might work.) The "good guys" have discovered, for the very first time, the remnants of the zombiemaking ritual that Zeke is using on his victims. Now that they have that info, they can figure out everything they ever wanted to know about the serial killer - and work up to figuring out who his next likely target is. They haven't figured out the link to the zombies yet, and I'm not sure how they'll stumble on that, but that's for later. For the time being I finally have a protagonist! His name is Suunja Henderson, and he's the son of Janis and Mark. I worked out that by that point in the timeline, Janis's kids were going to be grownups, and since I had no existing characters that fit the role of a police investigator, voila. ;)
The next likely target is named Martha. (Yes, the one I was confused about back on Day 1.) She's posing as an executive secretary to a VP of an oil corporation, gathering intel about a new product they're about to release that will ... well, destroy the world, eventually. ;) Her group wants that to not happen. At some point after I've written out the serial killer info with Suunja, I'll be switching to her viewpoint from inside the corporation and with the group she's working with. How does this tie in with the rest of the plot? Well, see. The demon that's ultimately behind the serial killer wants the new gas to be released into the world, which means that Martha needs to be eliminated.
At the moment, I'm not really finding the concept of corporate board meetings that interesting to write about. Hopefully I'll warm up to it though. They are going to be talking about exciting things. I just need to get past the part where I invent all the people in the meetings (by names and roles - e.g. Head of Finance, Head of Research etc.). I've never been a business drone, so without any clue how these things actually work, I'm a bit lost. There are some friends I'll have to pin down and ask about that...
I guess that's where things stand at the end of Day 3. Tomorrow I have to put in a cameo at work, plus the election results are going to be coming in, so I'm not expecting to get much writing done. We'll see though. I don't really want to be 3333 words behind on Wednesday...
2008/11/02
Day Two: 5979 Words
Well, I shifted focus to the street gang that set everything in motion. So far they're called the Rouge Rogues unless I can think of a less silly name, but they might be stuck with it because I kind of like it.
So far they've gotten their assignment, which is to create a zombie army, and laid out their plan for how to do that - which is to kidnap a nemesis and cast lots of spells on him until he's doing their bidding. Their bidding being to go forth and murder everyone in sight, so that they can rise from the dead later.
To work out how well the spells will work, they've kidnapped a "practice" guy, run the ritual on him, and turned him loose on the unsuspecting populace. Next thing I write will be what he does with his newfound killing powers... he's doomed to die though. He'll be a fun little sideplot in the main story but that's it. And his name is Norm Owani. ;)
If I want to do double-words and shoot for 100k this month, I'm about 700 words behind target. Hopefully I can manage to find some scenes to write that flow out a lot faster than these ones today. Even with the extra hour (those of us in the U.S. had the daylight savings switch this past weekend), I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. Oh well, there's always tomorrow...
So far they've gotten their assignment, which is to create a zombie army, and laid out their plan for how to do that - which is to kidnap a nemesis and cast lots of spells on him until he's doing their bidding. Their bidding being to go forth and murder everyone in sight, so that they can rise from the dead later.
To work out how well the spells will work, they've kidnapped a "practice" guy, run the ritual on him, and turned him loose on the unsuspecting populace. Next thing I write will be what he does with his newfound killing powers... he's doomed to die though. He'll be a fun little sideplot in the main story but that's it. And his name is Norm Owani. ;)
If I want to do double-words and shoot for 100k this month, I'm about 700 words behind target. Hopefully I can manage to find some scenes to write that flow out a lot faster than these ones today. Even with the extra hour (those of us in the U.S. had the daylight savings switch this past weekend), I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. Oh well, there's always tomorrow...
2008/11/01
Day One: 2687 Words
Not bad for the first 24 hours, during which I had to do some heavy-handed modding of a chat channel, and for which I got cussed out and insulted yea verily. Not very conducive to thinking about novels, lemmetellya.
Anyway, I completely ditched all of my writing plans on Friday, and now I've somehow started working on The Fall of Myan. It's the story at the end of the Fortress Launne timeline, where a neighboring city gets overrun by zombies.
Since I didn't know that's what I'd be writing, I had to do a lot of cramming before I started. My notes are from 2003. There are details of the plotlines that I still don't fully recall, even with the notes in front of me. There are parts where I apparently assumed I'd remember what I was talking about and wouldn't need to explain. ("Party A does X to Party B to distract Party C from Y ... yaddayaddayadda ... and all of this was a clever ploy to distract everyone from realizing that Party A is really after Martha." Who is Martha? Doh!) Then I found some more notes (my notes organization "scheme" isn't terribly organized), in the form of a Corel Wordperfect 3.5 file for OS pre-X - which my current computer doesn't run. Luckily, Wordperfect files still display a lot of the text in a text editor, even if there are a bunch of weird symbols everywhere. (And Martha was fully explained in them. Yay!)
I wrote the first scene and a half last night, for 1566 total words, slept a bit, got woken up around 11am, trundled downstairs around noon, did a few other things, and then finished that scene and another one. Now I'm a bit lost on what to write next.
See, the problem is that although I have notes for Fall of Myan, they're notes for a roleplaying game, not a novel. Which means that I have a lot of backstory and plotting, but no actual viewpoint characters. In a roleplaying game, that's what players are for. So I've been limping along trying to figure out how best to actually tell the story.
So far it's looking like I'll have to invent some main characters lickity split. It might be the pack of mercenaries that are (one of the groups) behind the existence of the zombies. Of course, in my notes, they're the bad guys and they're supposed to lose, which doesn't make them very good protagonists unless they're going to change sides at the end. I won't say they wouldn't, because I don't actually know them (not having developed them as characters at all so far), but I can't assume they will, either. Because characters never do what I hope. :p
My longterm plan is to get to 50k on this story as fast as possible, no matter how crappy (first drafts usually are, aren't they?) and then hope to have time to write another 50k on the Rumen stories. We'll see...
Anyway, I completely ditched all of my writing plans on Friday, and now I've somehow started working on The Fall of Myan. It's the story at the end of the Fortress Launne timeline, where a neighboring city gets overrun by zombies.
Since I didn't know that's what I'd be writing, I had to do a lot of cramming before I started. My notes are from 2003. There are details of the plotlines that I still don't fully recall, even with the notes in front of me. There are parts where I apparently assumed I'd remember what I was talking about and wouldn't need to explain. ("Party A does X to Party B to distract Party C from Y ... yaddayaddayadda ... and all of this was a clever ploy to distract everyone from realizing that Party A is really after Martha." Who is Martha? Doh!) Then I found some more notes (my notes organization "scheme" isn't terribly organized), in the form of a Corel Wordperfect 3.5 file for OS pre-X - which my current computer doesn't run. Luckily, Wordperfect files still display a lot of the text in a text editor, even if there are a bunch of weird symbols everywhere. (And Martha was fully explained in them. Yay!)
I wrote the first scene and a half last night, for 1566 total words, slept a bit, got woken up around 11am, trundled downstairs around noon, did a few other things, and then finished that scene and another one. Now I'm a bit lost on what to write next.
See, the problem is that although I have notes for Fall of Myan, they're notes for a roleplaying game, not a novel. Which means that I have a lot of backstory and plotting, but no actual viewpoint characters. In a roleplaying game, that's what players are for. So I've been limping along trying to figure out how best to actually tell the story.
So far it's looking like I'll have to invent some main characters lickity split. It might be the pack of mercenaries that are (one of the groups) behind the existence of the zombies. Of course, in my notes, they're the bad guys and they're supposed to lose, which doesn't make them very good protagonists unless they're going to change sides at the end. I won't say they wouldn't, because I don't actually know them (not having developed them as characters at all so far), but I can't assume they will, either. Because characters never do what I hope. :p
My longterm plan is to get to 50k on this story as fast as possible, no matter how crappy (first drafts usually are, aren't they?) and then hope to have time to write another 50k on the Rumen stories. We'll see...
2008/09/28
Preparing for Nanowrimo 2008
Well, we're just over a month away, and for the life of me I can't convince myself to think about anything other than the Rumen stories. This looks like it'll be the first year where I don't work on something in the Fortress Launne setting.
A lot of things are horribly broken about the Fortress Launne setting. Lots of inconsistencies and contradictions that I'm not sure can be explained away. The way it got set up originally was with several individual stories around the timeline of one character's life. As the worldbuilding went on, other characters became important - and they have their own stories. It turns out that not all of these stories fit peaceably together with each other in the same setting. But all of them have equal weight. I can't very well negate one story in favor of another, so I'm not sure it's fixable. And thinking about it just makes me tired and not want to work on it.
The Rumen stories, on the other hand, aren't as fleshed out - and the details aren't as set in stone. There's also only one actual story - and I have a good grasp on which parts of it are story and which are merely details. Inconsistencies have come up, but I can still just change whole swaths of the setting to accommodate. It's much easier to work with overall.
So for Nanowrimo 2008, the plan is to add on to what I started at Labor Day 2008. Technically it's against the rules to work on something that's already been started. But this is the one that really wants to be written, so who am I to argue?
The End of Rage story has four main characters, each with their own subplots. So far I've barely mentioned the one surrounding Rumen himself. For Nanowrimo, I'll just start at the beginning of that one and work my way forward until I run into the parts I've already written. It probably won't last 50,000 words, but I'll figure something out by the time that comes up... >.>
A lot of things are horribly broken about the Fortress Launne setting. Lots of inconsistencies and contradictions that I'm not sure can be explained away. The way it got set up originally was with several individual stories around the timeline of one character's life. As the worldbuilding went on, other characters became important - and they have their own stories. It turns out that not all of these stories fit peaceably together with each other in the same setting. But all of them have equal weight. I can't very well negate one story in favor of another, so I'm not sure it's fixable. And thinking about it just makes me tired and not want to work on it.
The Rumen stories, on the other hand, aren't as fleshed out - and the details aren't as set in stone. There's also only one actual story - and I have a good grasp on which parts of it are story and which are merely details. Inconsistencies have come up, but I can still just change whole swaths of the setting to accommodate. It's much easier to work with overall.
So for Nanowrimo 2008, the plan is to add on to what I started at Labor Day 2008. Technically it's against the rules to work on something that's already been started. But this is the one that really wants to be written, so who am I to argue?
The End of Rage story has four main characters, each with their own subplots. So far I've barely mentioned the one surrounding Rumen himself. For Nanowrimo, I'll just start at the beginning of that one and work my way forward until I run into the parts I've already written. It probably won't last 50,000 words, but I'll figure something out by the time that comes up... >.>
2008/09/02
Labor Day Novel 2008: Day Three
7685 words to end the weekend.
This story has turned out to be the kind that's not written in the order it will be read. Basically, Rumen and Jenya have scenes now, but they aren't intro scenes, they're middle scenes. At some point I need to come up with stuff that leads up to these middle scenes, so I can explain who they are and how they got where they are. I'm not sure at this point which types of early scenes are going to be important enough to put on stage, however.
The main middle scene was where Jenya finds out that Rumen is a vampire. That was basically my whole day. The next scene with Rumen as viewpoint character is going to be during the battle, so I have to write everything else leading up to the battle first. And give Jenya viewpoint so I can show off parts of the plot that Rumen wouldn't get to see (he's now in a jail cell, and nobody sees any reason to actually talk to him about anything other than "omgxorz you're a vampire").
The next time I pick all this up, it'll be to figure out what Cassandra's quest is. She's going to have some kind of part in the battle, but it can't be as the leader of the whole shebang because the point is to prove she can do it, and they wouldn't put someone unproven in charge. Also, Gray can't be in charge (even though he's the most obvious guy to run it), because of possible loyalty conflicts; even though he's bound to the Crown, he still has a "dangerous" amount of wiggle room between following the letter of commands and following the spirit. I'm not sure who's going to run the show. Maybe the Crown himself.
It has also occurred to me that the quest assignment has to happen fairly early on - well before the battle - so she can prepare. So although I have a number of Hand scenes, and they're roughly in chronological order, there turns out to be much wider timegaps in between them than I originally thought, and I'll have to fill those in.
I've also decided that this is the End of Rage part of Rumen's timeline. This version of Rumen is still fairly young, not so powerful, not so experienced, and not suffering from the pain of losing Alec, whom he hasn't met yet. This means that I'll need another story to fill in End of Vengeance was about. Eventually. Maybe. No real hurry though since there's plenty of stuff to write at the moment already. I could just end up synopsizing it in flashbacks during Vengeance Returns.
This story has turned out to be the kind that's not written in the order it will be read. Basically, Rumen and Jenya have scenes now, but they aren't intro scenes, they're middle scenes. At some point I need to come up with stuff that leads up to these middle scenes, so I can explain who they are and how they got where they are. I'm not sure at this point which types of early scenes are going to be important enough to put on stage, however.
The main middle scene was where Jenya finds out that Rumen is a vampire. That was basically my whole day. The next scene with Rumen as viewpoint character is going to be during the battle, so I have to write everything else leading up to the battle first. And give Jenya viewpoint so I can show off parts of the plot that Rumen wouldn't get to see (he's now in a jail cell, and nobody sees any reason to actually talk to him about anything other than "omgxorz you're a vampire").
The next time I pick all this up, it'll be to figure out what Cassandra's quest is. She's going to have some kind of part in the battle, but it can't be as the leader of the whole shebang because the point is to prove she can do it, and they wouldn't put someone unproven in charge. Also, Gray can't be in charge (even though he's the most obvious guy to run it), because of possible loyalty conflicts; even though he's bound to the Crown, he still has a "dangerous" amount of wiggle room between following the letter of commands and following the spirit. I'm not sure who's going to run the show. Maybe the Crown himself.
It has also occurred to me that the quest assignment has to happen fairly early on - well before the battle - so she can prepare. So although I have a number of Hand scenes, and they're roughly in chronological order, there turns out to be much wider timegaps in between them than I originally thought, and I'll have to fill those in.
I've also decided that this is the End of Rage part of Rumen's timeline. This version of Rumen is still fairly young, not so powerful, not so experienced, and not suffering from the pain of losing Alec, whom he hasn't met yet. This means that I'll need another story to fill in End of Vengeance was about. Eventually. Maybe. No real hurry though since there's plenty of stuff to write at the moment already. I could just end up synopsizing it in flashbacks during Vengeance Returns.
2008/09/01
Labor Day Novel 2008: Day Two
5672 words.
[members-only cut]
I now have a ton of different plot threads started:
1. Cassandra's plotline. She's the princess that has just come of age, doesn't at all want to be stuck with the normal fate of princesses, which is to get married off to a neighboring kingdom as an alliance exchange. Her father, the king, has noticed that she would make a better ruler than either of his sons, who are both morons. But she needs to do something to prove her worth to the Council, who are going to balk because she's a girl. So, little does she know that there's some sort of quest in her future, just as soon as I figure out the details...
2. Meanwhile, the city of Trincal is about to go to war against the druids. They've discovered a "secret weapon" in the form of an old, powerful, yet retarded vampire who is really spectacularly good at sucking the lifeforce out of everything. They have no idea what he is, other than "some sort of lifeforce sucking demon", and they've been carefully herding him in the direction of an underground passage that leads straight to Duuniain, the druid's main village. And they're planning to coordinate an attack at the same time as he arrives to there.
For his part, his mental capacity is basically on the level of "braaaaaaaiiinnnsss..." - and the lifeforce energy on druidic lands is extra delicious, and he really really wants to go there just as soon as he finds a way. He's been bumbling around in the Trincal sewers while the rest of the city coordinates.
Cassandra's quest is probably going to have something to do with all this.
3. Meanwhile again, Rumen is a powerful vampire, and he has been living among the druids for the past 16 years. Trincal doesn't know about him, and the druids don't know he's a vampire either (otherwise they would've evicted from the lands by now, as they hate vampires). He was just going about his business eating a random Trincal resident, when he overheard the battle plans. He's going to rush home to tell them, only to find that they've discovered he's a vampire, so they're going to lock him up until they figure out what to do with him. After all, even though he's a vampire, he's also been an honored guest for 16 years and has helped them out a bunch during that time.
Since vampires are telepathically aware of each other, he knows about the other one, doesn't like him, but doesn't have any idea that the other guy is the "secret weapon."
4. Jenya is a young girl whom Rumen adopted as an infant, 16 years ago. Her dying mother placed her in Rumen's care, not having any idea what he was. For some reason he actually honored her dying wish and brought the baby to her people, which are the druids. This whole story is also supposed to be about Jenya discovering that her "revered grandfather" is actually a vampire in disguise, and coming to terms with that. I haven't figured out how to introduce her yet.
That's the Beginning, anyway. My thoughts for the middle so far:
1. Trincal attacks Duuniain. They fail, because Rumen is in there to defeat their secret weapon.
2. Cassandra, who was involved in the attack, ends up stranded in druid lands. So does Gray, who has been charged with teaching her how to be leaderlike instead of merely ladylike. Gray was raised by the druids, so once he's cut off from the Crown and the oath that binds him to Trincal, he can start going unhinged about everything that's happened to him in his life.
3. Lots of high minded philosophical existentialist debates on what to do about Rumen. This will go on until the battle, at which point he proves that he's on their side, which then complicates the debates. Eventually, it's up to Jenya to decide his fate. I'm hoping she'll decide to let him go, preferably in peace. (Because if she decides that she hates him, he'll be sad. He'll still go - it's not like they can actually lock him up for real or kill him unless he lets them, which he won't.)
4. I haven't decided what part of Rumen's timeline this is. It could be right after his first rampage when he was mad at the world for having become a vampire. Or it could be the rampage after Alec got killed by a hunter, when he killed the hunter's entire family line. If I'm hoping to match all this up to the Sacramento story with Craig, it would have to be the latter. See, Craig comes into it as the one member of the hunter's family line that Rumen missed, who has been trying to hunt down Rumen ever since... On the other hand, the whole setup with Trincal could also make sense as when Rumen first met Alec in the first place.
5. I also have no idea whether the Trincal MCs are going to run into Rumen and Jenya, and what will happen if they do.
And now I'm going to head off and brainstorm up a proper intro for Jenya. Her story starts right at the point where she discovers he's not who she thought he was, and I need to set up the circumstances for that....
[members-only cut]
I now have a ton of different plot threads started:
1. Cassandra's plotline. She's the princess that has just come of age, doesn't at all want to be stuck with the normal fate of princesses, which is to get married off to a neighboring kingdom as an alliance exchange. Her father, the king, has noticed that she would make a better ruler than either of his sons, who are both morons. But she needs to do something to prove her worth to the Council, who are going to balk because she's a girl. So, little does she know that there's some sort of quest in her future, just as soon as I figure out the details...
2. Meanwhile, the city of Trincal is about to go to war against the druids. They've discovered a "secret weapon" in the form of an old, powerful, yet retarded vampire who is really spectacularly good at sucking the lifeforce out of everything. They have no idea what he is, other than "some sort of lifeforce sucking demon", and they've been carefully herding him in the direction of an underground passage that leads straight to Duuniain, the druid's main village. And they're planning to coordinate an attack at the same time as he arrives to there.
For his part, his mental capacity is basically on the level of "braaaaaaaiiinnnsss..." - and the lifeforce energy on druidic lands is extra delicious, and he really really wants to go there just as soon as he finds a way. He's been bumbling around in the Trincal sewers while the rest of the city coordinates.
Cassandra's quest is probably going to have something to do with all this.
3. Meanwhile again, Rumen is a powerful vampire, and he has been living among the druids for the past 16 years. Trincal doesn't know about him, and the druids don't know he's a vampire either (otherwise they would've evicted from the lands by now, as they hate vampires). He was just going about his business eating a random Trincal resident, when he overheard the battle plans. He's going to rush home to tell them, only to find that they've discovered he's a vampire, so they're going to lock him up until they figure out what to do with him. After all, even though he's a vampire, he's also been an honored guest for 16 years and has helped them out a bunch during that time.
Since vampires are telepathically aware of each other, he knows about the other one, doesn't like him, but doesn't have any idea that the other guy is the "secret weapon."
4. Jenya is a young girl whom Rumen adopted as an infant, 16 years ago. Her dying mother placed her in Rumen's care, not having any idea what he was. For some reason he actually honored her dying wish and brought the baby to her people, which are the druids. This whole story is also supposed to be about Jenya discovering that her "revered grandfather" is actually a vampire in disguise, and coming to terms with that. I haven't figured out how to introduce her yet.
That's the Beginning, anyway. My thoughts for the middle so far:
1. Trincal attacks Duuniain. They fail, because Rumen is in there to defeat their secret weapon.
2. Cassandra, who was involved in the attack, ends up stranded in druid lands. So does Gray, who has been charged with teaching her how to be leaderlike instead of merely ladylike. Gray was raised by the druids, so once he's cut off from the Crown and the oath that binds him to Trincal, he can start going unhinged about everything that's happened to him in his life.
3. Lots of high minded philosophical existentialist debates on what to do about Rumen. This will go on until the battle, at which point he proves that he's on their side, which then complicates the debates. Eventually, it's up to Jenya to decide his fate. I'm hoping she'll decide to let him go, preferably in peace. (Because if she decides that she hates him, he'll be sad. He'll still go - it's not like they can actually lock him up for real or kill him unless he lets them, which he won't.)
4. I haven't decided what part of Rumen's timeline this is. It could be right after his first rampage when he was mad at the world for having become a vampire. Or it could be the rampage after Alec got killed by a hunter, when he killed the hunter's entire family line. If I'm hoping to match all this up to the Sacramento story with Craig, it would have to be the latter. See, Craig comes into it as the one member of the hunter's family line that Rumen missed, who has been trying to hunt down Rumen ever since... On the other hand, the whole setup with Trincal could also make sense as when Rumen first met Alec in the first place.
5. I also have no idea whether the Trincal MCs are going to run into Rumen and Jenya, and what will happen if they do.
And now I'm going to head off and brainstorm up a proper intro for Jenya. Her story starts right at the point where she discovers he's not who she thought he was, and I need to set up the circumstances for that....
2008/08/31
Labor Day Novel 2008
I'm 3925 words in to Tragedy of the Hand. Well, actually some of it is still technically called End of Vengeance (as opposed to the later half of it with Craig, which is Vengeance Returns) (although, actually, that back half might end up being End of Rage which is similar and yet completely different. I haven't decided yet.).
Uh, anyway. Most of the words is one chapter with four scenes in a market. It introduced Cassandra, the main MC who was originally going to get most of the viewpoints, and Gray, the second MC who is the tragic Hand. I'm only a paragraph into the second chapter.
Then I also wrote a small prologue-like opener to the Rumen half of the story, which happened sixteen years earlier. I'm not sure where I'm going with that part of the story yet - whether to continue from in that timeframe or jump forward to the "present."
And the third thread that I could continue, and have it still count since it's technically still all the same story, is Chapter 4 where Craig meets Aaron. I might end up doing that if I get stalled out on both of the other two too long.
I have no illusions that I'll end up with a finished novelette-sized story by the end of this weekend. Basically I'm just declaring the time Fiction Top Priority, and getting as much fiction written as I can.
After it's over, I'll have to switch to nonfiction (mainly eHow) for the next two months before Nanowrimo. Robert mentioned an excellent idea: I can write about stuff that writers will care about (how to attach lasers to the heads of sharks, etc.), and pimp them all on the Nanowrimo Q&A board. The obvious corollary is that I can get article ideas by reading the Q&A board as well. Writerly subjects might only be popular for two months per year, but there are a lot of writers...
Uh, anyway. Most of the words is one chapter with four scenes in a market. It introduced Cassandra, the main MC who was originally going to get most of the viewpoints, and Gray, the second MC who is the tragic Hand. I'm only a paragraph into the second chapter.
Then I also wrote a small prologue-like opener to the Rumen half of the story, which happened sixteen years earlier. I'm not sure where I'm going with that part of the story yet - whether to continue from in that timeframe or jump forward to the "present."
And the third thread that I could continue, and have it still count since it's technically still all the same story, is Chapter 4 where Craig meets Aaron. I might end up doing that if I get stalled out on both of the other two too long.
I have no illusions that I'll end up with a finished novelette-sized story by the end of this weekend. Basically I'm just declaring the time Fiction Top Priority, and getting as much fiction written as I can.
After it's over, I'll have to switch to nonfiction (mainly eHow) for the next two months before Nanowrimo. Robert mentioned an excellent idea: I can write about stuff that writers will care about (how to attach lasers to the heads of sharks, etc.), and pimp them all on the Nanowrimo Q&A board. The obvious corollary is that I can get article ideas by reading the Q&A board as well. Writerly subjects might only be popular for two months per year, but there are a lot of writers...
2008/08/12
Shifting my writing schedule and priorities ...
I finished Chapter 3 of Vengeance last night. It's not as pretty as the first two chapters, but it's done. Everything that needed to happen in it happened, and a motive for why Hernando wants Craig alive just dropped out of the sky while I was writing it. In short, Jessica's task can no longer be completed by any vampire, and here comes a non-vampire who could possibly do it. Just because he's a mortal enemy is only a minor problem. ;)
So in Chapter 4, Craig will be visiting the bookstore, and I'll be introducing Aaron to the non-game audience for the first time. Should be fun. While Craig was talking to Hernando, Aaron's love interest Alice was getting kidnapped by Hernando's rival, so Aaron isn't having a very good day...
That's what's happening with the front half of Vengeance. The back half, meanwhile, is now the opposite side of Tragedy of the Hand - which, right on schedule, I've still not gotten Round Tuit and it'll be what I tackle for Labor Day Novel 2008 coming up in a few weeks.
In general, I realized last night that at the rate I keep pushing fiction to the bottom of the priority list, I was never going to get anything done. Meanwhile the not-having-written pressure mounts while I'm at work or trying to sleep. So I need to prioritize better. I have four workdays and three free days per week. I have four categories of writing things to fit into those three free days - fiction writing, roleplay writing (RPoL), free nonfiction (my blog), and mercenary nonfiction (eHow and whatever I expand to for writing for pay).
Mercenary writing has to be at the top, just because I will be needing that money in a few more months when it (hopefully) starts paying off, assuming I invest enough time-capital into it at the beginning (i.e. now). Ideally I'd like to be making at least as much with it as I was getting from the takeout on weekends - around $200 per month. It wasn't a lot, but it took the edge off on rising gas prices and such. At the moment I no longer have that padding there, and while I'm not in trouble, it's still alarming to see how close I come to running down my checking account to the no-fees minimum.
RPoL writing I really can't seem to get away from. I'm in five slow but stable games, and I run mine slowly as well. None of them are at all likely to end anytime soon. I have no plans to join any more of them, like, ever. As a general rule, I pretty much have to devote one full day out of those three free days to RPoL to keep up.
Blog writing, on the other hand, I can draw back a bit. Daily posts took a lot out of me, and I'm down to 1-2 times per week nowadays, but the community I'm in doesn't at all mind. There's about 20 of us who read and comment each other's blogs, and I can just comment on theirs without posting much on mine.
So that leaves fiction. As with roleplay writing, to really do a good job it's better to give it big chunks of uninterrupted time. Last night I squeezed it in after I got home from work and before bed, but that meant going to bed at dawn, so I don't know if that's such a good idea every time. Certainly not if I have something scheduled in the morning/early afternoon.
So... merc writing gets one day, RPoL gets one day, and fiction gets one day. Blog now goes to the bottom, basically to squeeze in whenever I'm taking a break from the other three (instead of having fiction in that capacity and therefore never doing any).
One thing I've noticed is that the nonfiction writing can be done basically anywhere, and I can be interrupted without too much impact. Fiction can really only be done from home; with roleplay, I often have to look up stuff in my books, and with the writing I need to avoid distractions. So, I just need to do more nonfiction writing while I'm waiting around on errands (in lines and waiting rooms, etc.) to make better use of that offline time, and therefore give me more time for the fiction.
So in Chapter 4, Craig will be visiting the bookstore, and I'll be introducing Aaron to the non-game audience for the first time. Should be fun. While Craig was talking to Hernando, Aaron's love interest Alice was getting kidnapped by Hernando's rival, so Aaron isn't having a very good day...
That's what's happening with the front half of Vengeance. The back half, meanwhile, is now the opposite side of Tragedy of the Hand - which, right on schedule, I've still not gotten Round Tuit and it'll be what I tackle for Labor Day Novel 2008 coming up in a few weeks.
In general, I realized last night that at the rate I keep pushing fiction to the bottom of the priority list, I was never going to get anything done. Meanwhile the not-having-written pressure mounts while I'm at work or trying to sleep. So I need to prioritize better. I have four workdays and three free days per week. I have four categories of writing things to fit into those three free days - fiction writing, roleplay writing (RPoL), free nonfiction (my blog), and mercenary nonfiction (eHow and whatever I expand to for writing for pay).
Mercenary writing has to be at the top, just because I will be needing that money in a few more months when it (hopefully) starts paying off, assuming I invest enough time-capital into it at the beginning (i.e. now). Ideally I'd like to be making at least as much with it as I was getting from the takeout on weekends - around $200 per month. It wasn't a lot, but it took the edge off on rising gas prices and such. At the moment I no longer have that padding there, and while I'm not in trouble, it's still alarming to see how close I come to running down my checking account to the no-fees minimum.
RPoL writing I really can't seem to get away from. I'm in five slow but stable games, and I run mine slowly as well. None of them are at all likely to end anytime soon. I have no plans to join any more of them, like, ever. As a general rule, I pretty much have to devote one full day out of those three free days to RPoL to keep up.
Blog writing, on the other hand, I can draw back a bit. Daily posts took a lot out of me, and I'm down to 1-2 times per week nowadays, but the community I'm in doesn't at all mind. There's about 20 of us who read and comment each other's blogs, and I can just comment on theirs without posting much on mine.
So that leaves fiction. As with roleplay writing, to really do a good job it's better to give it big chunks of uninterrupted time. Last night I squeezed it in after I got home from work and before bed, but that meant going to bed at dawn, so I don't know if that's such a good idea every time. Certainly not if I have something scheduled in the morning/early afternoon.
So... merc writing gets one day, RPoL gets one day, and fiction gets one day. Blog now goes to the bottom, basically to squeeze in whenever I'm taking a break from the other three (instead of having fiction in that capacity and therefore never doing any).
One thing I've noticed is that the nonfiction writing can be done basically anywhere, and I can be interrupted without too much impact. Fiction can really only be done from home; with roleplay, I often have to look up stuff in my books, and with the writing I need to avoid distractions. So, I just need to do more nonfiction writing while I'm waiting around on errands (in lines and waiting rooms, etc.) to make better use of that offline time, and therefore give me more time for the fiction.
2008/07/21
State of My Life: Mid-2008
Well, basically, I'm doing almost no fiction writing.
Roleplay load was exceptionally light in the past six months, after I mothballed my game. It was so light that I reached a point where I missed all my players, so I started it back up again a few weeks ago, right on July 1st. I'm also still technically helping with another game (though in practice I don't have to do much, just a couple posts every two weeks or so), and playing in three others. Grand total: playing 6 characters in 4 games, running one game with 9 active/semi-active players. Everything moves slowly. I'm allegedly trying to join a 5th game, but it might've already died.
Oh, and What is it to be Human? got deleted. Line hasn't been seen on RPoL since last June or so, so he wasn't around to undelete it, and then they purged it from the system entirely, so it's gone for good. :(
Aside from roleplay posts, my fiction writing is nonexistent. I did finish off Chapter 10 on the bus story, but it turned out to only need another 41 words. The lengthy scene I'd been thinking to write turns out to be superfluous, and so I'm going to skip some travel time and start Chapter 11 at the bus stop in Clarkston. So far I haven't figured out all the details of the setup to that yet.
I also figured out that the back part of Vengeance and Tragedy of the Hand are actually opposite sides of the same story. Which, well, should've been obvious, considering that I was using the same setting for both. That makes a lot of things easier overall. At the rate I've not gotten started writing any of it, though, it'll probably end up being my Labor Day 2008 project.
In nonfiction news, I've been writing articles on eHow. It's a website for how-to articles about anything and everything, and they have a program where you can get royalties (sort of). It's an ad-revenue-share scheme. Robert has had a bunch of art articles up there since last fall, and he's getting a lot of money off them, so I know it's legit. He also has a few articles up at HubPages, which doesn't have quite as restrictive a format, but he's not been there long enough yet to see whether it's worth writing for for me. I write extremely slowly, and he's highly prolific, so it works best if I just watch what he does instead of expending tons of effort personally. ;)
As for life in general. I took up yoga in January, quit the takeout job in May, rearranged my work schedule at the main job in June, and try to get offline more nowadays than I used to. I use the apartment complex pool more often than before (which was never), and have gotten to know some of the neighbors - including a rambunctious 5-year-old who is totally fearless when it comes to talking to strangers.
I also have a number of small potted plants - chives, basil, and tomatoes, and I've once again begun thinking about starting up my 20-gallon fishtank. Maybe this summer I'll actually do it...
Roleplay load was exceptionally light in the past six months, after I mothballed my game. It was so light that I reached a point where I missed all my players, so I started it back up again a few weeks ago, right on July 1st. I'm also still technically helping with another game (though in practice I don't have to do much, just a couple posts every two weeks or so), and playing in three others. Grand total: playing 6 characters in 4 games, running one game with 9 active/semi-active players. Everything moves slowly. I'm allegedly trying to join a 5th game, but it might've already died.
Oh, and What is it to be Human? got deleted. Line hasn't been seen on RPoL since last June or so, so he wasn't around to undelete it, and then they purged it from the system entirely, so it's gone for good. :(
Aside from roleplay posts, my fiction writing is nonexistent. I did finish off Chapter 10 on the bus story, but it turned out to only need another 41 words. The lengthy scene I'd been thinking to write turns out to be superfluous, and so I'm going to skip some travel time and start Chapter 11 at the bus stop in Clarkston. So far I haven't figured out all the details of the setup to that yet.
I also figured out that the back part of Vengeance and Tragedy of the Hand are actually opposite sides of the same story. Which, well, should've been obvious, considering that I was using the same setting for both. That makes a lot of things easier overall. At the rate I've not gotten started writing any of it, though, it'll probably end up being my Labor Day 2008 project.
In nonfiction news, I've been writing articles on eHow. It's a website for how-to articles about anything and everything, and they have a program where you can get royalties (sort of). It's an ad-revenue-share scheme. Robert has had a bunch of art articles up there since last fall, and he's getting a lot of money off them, so I know it's legit. He also has a few articles up at HubPages, which doesn't have quite as restrictive a format, but he's not been there long enough yet to see whether it's worth writing for for me. I write extremely slowly, and he's highly prolific, so it works best if I just watch what he does instead of expending tons of effort personally. ;)
As for life in general. I took up yoga in January, quit the takeout job in May, rearranged my work schedule at the main job in June, and try to get offline more nowadays than I used to. I use the apartment complex pool more often than before (which was never), and have gotten to know some of the neighbors - including a rambunctious 5-year-old who is totally fearless when it comes to talking to strangers.
I also have a number of small potted plants - chives, basil, and tomatoes, and I've once again begun thinking about starting up my 20-gallon fishtank. Maybe this summer I'll actually do it...
2008/07/01
just to break the bloggy silence...
I've noticed an interesting trend these past few weeks. I only ever want to write right after I've gone to bed, or when I'm hard at work at work. During those times I angst a lot about how I never do any writing. But when time rolls around when I can write, I never write. It's starting to get annoying. -.-
2008/04/14
Things I'm allegedly working on
In no particular order:
1. Edward. Need to move forward with what happens after the ritual. Either that or rewrite the ritual from Charles' point of view.
2. The Emerald Sword story from last September. I'm five chapters into it. It's on the backburner at the moment, with some inspiration going into it from the (currently defunct) Dragon Cave game.
3. Vengeance. I started chapter 3, where Craig is standing in Hernando's main audience chamber, meeting the MOC for the first time. I sort of faltered to a stop when I realized that I don't understand Hernando's motives clearly enough - namely, why don't they just kill Craig off and be done with it? (And perhaps more important, do I actually need to have a motive worked out in advance or not?)
4. Tragedy of the Hand. This is the one I haven't started yet, just have lots of notes drawn up. It's inspired by the Within Temptation song. If my current level of procrastination keeps up, maybe I'll just do it for Labor Day novel next September...
5. Stranger on a Bus. My 2005 Labor Day novel. Ten chapters done, two or three left to do. I've been stalled a bit because I have to come up with some kind of coherent wrap-up ending, instead of just continuing to make stuff up off the top of my head ad infinitum.
6. At this point I haven't the foggiest idea what my 2008 Nanowrimo is going to be about. I might take another stab at Birthright. I tried that last November but then got very focused on Edward, and never really got into Birthright at all.
1. Edward. Need to move forward with what happens after the ritual. Either that or rewrite the ritual from Charles' point of view.
2. The Emerald Sword story from last September. I'm five chapters into it. It's on the backburner at the moment, with some inspiration going into it from the (currently defunct) Dragon Cave game.
3. Vengeance. I started chapter 3, where Craig is standing in Hernando's main audience chamber, meeting the MOC for the first time. I sort of faltered to a stop when I realized that I don't understand Hernando's motives clearly enough - namely, why don't they just kill Craig off and be done with it? (And perhaps more important, do I actually need to have a motive worked out in advance or not?)
4. Tragedy of the Hand. This is the one I haven't started yet, just have lots of notes drawn up. It's inspired by the Within Temptation song. If my current level of procrastination keeps up, maybe I'll just do it for Labor Day novel next September...
5. Stranger on a Bus. My 2005 Labor Day novel. Ten chapters done, two or three left to do. I've been stalled a bit because I have to come up with some kind of coherent wrap-up ending, instead of just continuing to make stuff up off the top of my head ad infinitum.
6. At this point I haven't the foggiest idea what my 2008 Nanowrimo is going to be about. I might take another stab at Birthright. I tried that last November but then got very focused on Edward, and never really got into Birthright at all.
2008/03/02
New Plot Bunny: "The Hand"
Well, it turns out that the song I mentioned in my last post was inspired by a trilogy someone else already wrote - Farseer by Robin Hobb.
However, that didn't stop my brain from munching on it anyway, only not as something that has to do with Moraina and James, but as a completely different story. I think it'll be the same overall fuzzy setting that everything else is in, because I keep borrowing setting elements back and forth between them all - but the characters are all-new, and the story is based on the song lyrics. (Well, the backstory of one of the characters is copied from a snippet of backstory to something I wrote for Rumen... still, no reason why I can't use it twice...).
So far I have three key characters, a whole lot of political setup and background worked out, the opening scene, some fuzzy middle plot twists, and two elements of the ending. I've heard that for a lot of other people, that's enough to start doing the actual writing.
Guess I'll give it a go and see what happens. :)
However, that didn't stop my brain from munching on it anyway, only not as something that has to do with Moraina and James, but as a completely different story. I think it'll be the same overall fuzzy setting that everything else is in, because I keep borrowing setting elements back and forth between them all - but the characters are all-new, and the story is based on the song lyrics. (Well, the backstory of one of the characters is copied from a snippet of backstory to something I wrote for Rumen... still, no reason why I can't use it twice...).
So far I have three key characters, a whole lot of political setup and background worked out, the opening scene, some fuzzy middle plot twists, and two elements of the ending. I've heard that for a lot of other people, that's enough to start doing the actual writing.
Guess I'll give it a go and see what happens. :)
2008/02/27
Moraina
Last Labor Day Novel, I wrote the beginning of a story which looks like it wants to be the prequel to the Duchene saga. It was inspired by Emerald Sword by Rhapsody of Fire.
Tonight I may have found the theme music for something else. Hand of Sorrow by Within Temptation may be my inspiration for what comes after - either Part III which will focus on the story of James, or a sequel to the entire saga. The song could easily be about the story from Moraina's perspective.
I'm going to let it bake in the back of my mind until next September and see what happens by then.
UPDATE: Never mind. Apparently it's based on the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. I can't exactly rewrite that...
Tonight I may have found the theme music for something else. Hand of Sorrow by Within Temptation may be my inspiration for what comes after - either Part III which will focus on the story of James, or a sequel to the entire saga. The song could easily be about the story from Moraina's perspective.
I'm going to let it bake in the back of my mind until next September and see what happens by then.
UPDATE: Never mind. Apparently it's based on the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. I can't exactly rewrite that...
2008/02/22
More on Edward
Yesterday I wrote around 500 more words and got through the rest of the ritual. It took a while to figure out exactly how it needed to go. Basically the part I was missing was that it had to go wrong - and that regardless of how the shamans were planning for it to go, it wasn't going to happen that way.
Now I'm at another pause point, where I'm wondering whether I'll need to write the same ritual again from another character's POV, or if I should continue forward even though not as much info went into the ritual scene as I was hoping.
No new work on Vengeance either. They've reached Hernando, and I'm still ruminating on how to set up the scene.
Now I'm at another pause point, where I'm wondering whether I'll need to write the same ritual again from another character's POV, or if I should continue forward even though not as much info went into the ritual scene as I was hoping.
No new work on Vengeance either. They've reached Hernando, and I'm still ruminating on how to set up the scene.
2008/01/14
Thoughts about Vengeance
Last night I cranked out another scene to the story that I'm now going to call Vengeance as its working title. The "present day" part of it that follows Craig is now about 2000 words or so.
I also wrote nearly 3k words over Christmas break, on a "flashback to 200 years ago" segment that follows Rumen.
The two parts are coming out very differently, in terms of how I write them. The Rumen part just flowed along with very little editting. It stalled out when they finally reached the town, and I've not yet figured out what exactly will happen next. So now they're standing outside a tavern while I ruminate. In general, this part of it has been a lot like writing a Nano, except very low-key and unstressy. The story wants to write itself. I just have to sit down and get away from life distractions enough to do it.
The Craig part, on the other hand, consists of a lot of editting. I'm very slowly cranking out perfect prose. This isn't as straightforward as it sounds; generally I'm doing the same thing I've always done - write a draft to figure out what happens, fiddle with it to death, then chuck it and start over. Before last night, I'd been fiddling around with scattered fragments that were going to be somewhere in the scene but I didn't know where. Last night I got around to tossing it all out and writing the "real" version (the one that's presentable to the general public).
In a lot of ways, this is exactly how the roleplaying game went. We advanced at a glacial pace, largely because we had to wait for each other to post. There was a lot of in-between waiting time. This turns out to be helpful for the Craig part now - because even though I sometimes go a long time without actually writing anything, the story is still right there where I left off, waiting for me to come back and work on it some more. As long as I have a clear outline (which I do, two blog posts back) and know what I'm doing, it doesn't stall out too terribly. It doesn't disappear into the murk of my subconscious, never to be seen again, like a lot of my other stories have done.
It probably also helps that one of my most strong-willed characters is involved. Rumen can be very demanding and exacting for what I do with him and how I write him. During the game, he would often drown out anything my other character Aaron might want to say, sometimes making it very hard to post for Aaron. So now that Rumen is awake in the back of my mind, he's quite insistent that I proceed with this project. Ahh... muses. :)
And the finished segments end up very readable. Back when I was doing it for the game, they had to be - because people would be reading whatever I wrote within minutes of posting. All in all, the game has trained me very well.
I have one alpha reader for this. Fortunately he's very appreciative and encouraging - which is exactly the kind of support I need while it's still an alpha.
In general I don't actually know where I'm planning to go with all this. I'm writing it because it wants to be written, and there's only so long I can hide from it by doing other things (bill paying, household chores, playing endless rounds of jigsawdoku, stressing about work or moderating a chat channel, blogging, etc.). Every time I sit down and look at it, it's calling to me. I don't even know how long this is planning to be yet, or what its future is after I'm done. It's all kind of irrelevant in the moment, and who am I to question why. :)
I also wrote nearly 3k words over Christmas break, on a "flashback to 200 years ago" segment that follows Rumen.
The two parts are coming out very differently, in terms of how I write them. The Rumen part just flowed along with very little editting. It stalled out when they finally reached the town, and I've not yet figured out what exactly will happen next. So now they're standing outside a tavern while I ruminate. In general, this part of it has been a lot like writing a Nano, except very low-key and unstressy. The story wants to write itself. I just have to sit down and get away from life distractions enough to do it.
The Craig part, on the other hand, consists of a lot of editting. I'm very slowly cranking out perfect prose. This isn't as straightforward as it sounds; generally I'm doing the same thing I've always done - write a draft to figure out what happens, fiddle with it to death, then chuck it and start over. Before last night, I'd been fiddling around with scattered fragments that were going to be somewhere in the scene but I didn't know where. Last night I got around to tossing it all out and writing the "real" version (the one that's presentable to the general public).
In a lot of ways, this is exactly how the roleplaying game went. We advanced at a glacial pace, largely because we had to wait for each other to post. There was a lot of in-between waiting time. This turns out to be helpful for the Craig part now - because even though I sometimes go a long time without actually writing anything, the story is still right there where I left off, waiting for me to come back and work on it some more. As long as I have a clear outline (which I do, two blog posts back) and know what I'm doing, it doesn't stall out too terribly. It doesn't disappear into the murk of my subconscious, never to be seen again, like a lot of my other stories have done.
It probably also helps that one of my most strong-willed characters is involved. Rumen can be very demanding and exacting for what I do with him and how I write him. During the game, he would often drown out anything my other character Aaron might want to say, sometimes making it very hard to post for Aaron. So now that Rumen is awake in the back of my mind, he's quite insistent that I proceed with this project. Ahh... muses. :)
And the finished segments end up very readable. Back when I was doing it for the game, they had to be - because people would be reading whatever I wrote within minutes of posting. All in all, the game has trained me very well.
I have one alpha reader for this. Fortunately he's very appreciative and encouraging - which is exactly the kind of support I need while it's still an alpha.
In general I don't actually know where I'm planning to go with all this. I'm writing it because it wants to be written, and there's only so long I can hide from it by doing other things (bill paying, household chores, playing endless rounds of jigsawdoku, stressing about work or moderating a chat channel, blogging, etc.). Every time I sit down and look at it, it's calling to me. I don't even know how long this is planning to be yet, or what its future is after I'm done. It's all kind of irrelevant in the moment, and who am I to question why. :)
2008/01/01
New Year 2008
I don't have any big resolutions this year. Basically my plan is to keep doing what I've been doing.
Some specific things:
1. Make an attempt to clean at least one thing in my apartment every day. Tiny things count.
2. Do the hard things more. Try not to wimp out and run the other way.
3. Get more exercise. I'll be looking into some yoga classes next week, doctor's orders more or less, because sitting around in front of a computer all day every day isn't doing good things for the rest of my body...
Other than that, it's basically just a matter of chugging along. Write more, read more, keep blogging, do productive things at work. Possibly finish writing something enough to actually think about sending it somewhere, though I don't know if I want to make it a full-blown resolution (must do or else). Possibly start another hobby or two - I could try getting back into art, for example.
Some specific things:
1. Make an attempt to clean at least one thing in my apartment every day. Tiny things count.
2. Do the hard things more. Try not to wimp out and run the other way.
3. Get more exercise. I'll be looking into some yoga classes next week, doctor's orders more or less, because sitting around in front of a computer all day every day isn't doing good things for the rest of my body...
Other than that, it's basically just a matter of chugging along. Write more, read more, keep blogging, do productive things at work. Possibly finish writing something enough to actually think about sending it somewhere, though I don't know if I want to make it a full-blown resolution (must do or else). Possibly start another hobby or two - I could try getting back into art, for example.
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