Post-Camp Progress Report

The biggest thing that Camp Nanowrimo 2014 did for me was force me to actually look at all the first drafts of Fortress Launne, figure out where things stand, and start to work out what needs doing next. I now have everything organized into a single Scrivener file and I've started "Second Draft" sections for all of what I think will be the actual books. This may actually still change around later, depending on what happens.

In general, Nanowrimo 2004-2010 were about figuring out what happens in the first half of every story. While at the same time working out settings, characters and their motives, etc. Once I have the first half figured out, I should (in theory) be able to write the other half.

Surprisingly, some of these first halfs are more organized than I would've thought. I can combine the useful parts of what happened in the two attempts at Janis (20k words in 2006 and 15k words in 2010) to make an actual coherent story with its own beginning, middle, and end. The total length of this will probably only be about 20k words by itself, so it also serves as the first half (or third?) of Triangle II. What happens after the parts I have first draft material on? Well, I have basically a paragraph summary on that - Jacob is going to help Janis build the cultural center. I have nothing else.

Triangle I is about 2/3rds there. I just need to figure out how Antoine fits into everything. He really needs a compelling motive for poisoning Frank. Preferably so compelling that it will also carry over with consequences into Amulet II.

Amulet I sort of has a very rough outline. I'm basically keeping all of the first third, where Edward is in Lagarnica. Then the next part is in Aunlania, and really needs to show off who the Eenin are. Then there needs to be a third part that's back in Lagarnica so that the overall story can have an actual satisfying ending of some sort, and I have nothing on it except the vague inkling that it will probably be from James's point of view.

I suspect that as I keep digging around (and I'm doing this via Distraction Method more than anything else), all of the other stories will be like this too.

SO. New plan for Nanowrimo 2014: "Fortress Launne: The Second Half of Everything."

If I can get my act together on organizing where things stand with every story by November, complete with detailed outlines of what has already been written and what needs to be written, then I can spend November writing new material toward the second half of everything. All of this will also be essentially first draft material, doing what I did with the first halfs, only it'll be adding on. It technically probably breaks their rules, but from my perspective it will count as first draft from scratch.

I also added what I have from Emerald Sword into the same Scrivener file. It isn't part of Fortress Launne, but in the back of my mind it's a story about Lucien Duchene, so it's in the same universe and therefore belongs. No idea yet if I'll actually do anything with it in the near future. The first 6k words were really damn amusing though, and I do want to finish it at some point.