50,208 words.
7,550 words for Amulet I.
42,623 words for Temple.
Discrepancies because the Nanowrimo validator counts more words than Scrivener.
So now I've set up James for a staged assassination by the Mudawi Three. I'm not sure at this point when I'll try to write the rest of it out. Maybe during Christmas break.
It's been a fun month. I think I'm getting better at this writing thing. Other than that, I don't have anything profound to say.
2016/11/30
2016/11/29
Working on Amulet I Part 3
48,457 words. I've started using the official validator to count my words for me, and it gets more words than Scrivener does. Somewhere I've gotten padded up by about 50 words.
Aliacorba's second ritual didn't turn out to be an actual official ritual. It turns out that the cougars were already bound to the pearl from a previous arrangement, and so when Aliacorba finds it, the cougars transferred over to him with it. Sentient cougars for basically the same reason as there were sentient wolves. I like the way that the scene turned out, but it didn't get me as many words as I was hoping. It was close to 4k by the time I was done.
So then I had to come up with another 5k words from something else. I reread what I'd written for James after he went back to Lagarnica. I liked the first two scenes. I also recalled that I need to put the Mudawi Three somewhere in Amulet I, so why not have them try to kill James for Lady Celena, who wants him dead so that her own son William will inherit House Duchene? Only, James runs into them first before they meet up with Lady Celena, and now he's going to talk them into helping him fake his death so he can run away again. Then he'll go back to his beloved Moraina, who will hopefully still remember him and want him back by then, and everyone will live happily ever after.
That's the plan, anyway. I'm about halfway through the conversation between James and the Mudawis. I think I can come up with 1500 more words for this by the end of tomorrow...
Aliacorba's second ritual didn't turn out to be an actual official ritual. It turns out that the cougars were already bound to the pearl from a previous arrangement, and so when Aliacorba finds it, the cougars transferred over to him with it. Sentient cougars for basically the same reason as there were sentient wolves. I like the way that the scene turned out, but it didn't get me as many words as I was hoping. It was close to 4k by the time I was done.
So then I had to come up with another 5k words from something else. I reread what I'd written for James after he went back to Lagarnica. I liked the first two scenes. I also recalled that I need to put the Mudawi Three somewhere in Amulet I, so why not have them try to kill James for Lady Celena, who wants him dead so that her own son William will inherit House Duchene? Only, James runs into them first before they meet up with Lady Celena, and now he's going to talk them into helping him fake his death so he can run away again. Then he'll go back to his beloved Moraina, who will hopefully still remember him and want him back by then, and everyone will live happily ever after.
That's the plan, anyway. I'm about halfway through the conversation between James and the Mudawis. I think I can come up with 1500 more words for this by the end of tomorrow...
2016/11/26
I think I'm done with Temple...
42,782 words at the moment. At this point, I've basically written everything that needs to be written from scratch for this. Everything else has already been written in a form that can be heavily revised. That leaves me 7200 words in the hole...
I've covered Chance's entire story. First he's in the top of the tower at the beginning, and then he reports what happened in Fianin to the king as the end of his arc.
I've covered Josephine's entire story. She was on the ground on the outside for the first half of the battle, and then she was following the wolves around inside the tower. The ending for her arc was when she picked up Jalai from Jacob and started walking off to Myan.
I've covered what Nathaniel's group was doing, including the bit part with Sarabelle. There's not much left to it other than to mention that Lady Valdren held up her end of the spell recast, and I can just stick that in somewhere without needing a separate scene. Maybe it could be something that Pedro and Sarabelle mention in the The End scene.
I've written basically Ashley's entire life story at this point. I haven't decided what happens to her after she finds out what she did to her sister by getting Felicia to steal the totem. There might be one more scene to her arc when I figure that out. The original idea was that she kills herself, but I'm not completely sold on it at the moment.
I've covered what Mindy did during the battle, and did rewrites for the scenes that introduced the mango drug, that I'm going to need to rewrite again. The rest of Mindy's arc was covered in the 2004 version. I tried to rewrite the hospital scene, but there didn't seem much point. It's already all there. It just needs to be revised for details. Later on I'll need to plug in more mentions of swamp mustard. Lord Malovek doesn't get any screentime at all, but he did make the bombs she was throwing...
I've covered all of Jacob's parts in the battle and talking to Brightspot and getting Jalai and etc. He doesn't really have an arc in this particular story, he was just useful as a POV.
All of Janis is already covered from 2004.
That leaves Thomas. In order to explain what his story was about, I pretty much need to finish writing Part 2 of Amulet I. So I guess I'm going to write 7200 words toward Amulet I now, starting from when he wakes up after the first ritual.
The main problem is that I didn't leave myself any notes about the first ritual. I have a completed scene for it, and it's great but it's from the POV of James, who didn't know fully what was going on during it. A lot happened in it, and I only remember the gist of what I had in mind. If there are any notes, it's probably in a Jer's Novel Writer file... still wish Jer had continued to work on it, it was great. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wing it and hope for the best.
The reason I stopped before, I think, was because I didn't know what the second ritual was going to be like. Now I know it includes the pearl. And I have a few ideas of what the pearl was used for. But, still not sure where the cougars fit in. I guess I'll just write whatever comes to mind and see if any of it goes anywhere.
I've covered Josephine's entire story. She was on the ground on the outside for the first half of the battle, and then she was following the wolves around inside the tower. The ending for her arc was when she picked up Jalai from Jacob and started walking off to Myan.
I've covered what Nathaniel's group was doing, including the bit part with Sarabelle. There's not much left to it other than to mention that Lady Valdren held up her end of the spell recast, and I can just stick that in somewhere without needing a separate scene. Maybe it could be something that Pedro and Sarabelle mention in the The End scene.
I've written basically Ashley's entire life story at this point. I haven't decided what happens to her after she finds out what she did to her sister by getting Felicia to steal the totem. There might be one more scene to her arc when I figure that out. The original idea was that she kills herself, but I'm not completely sold on it at the moment.
I've covered what Mindy did during the battle, and did rewrites for the scenes that introduced the mango drug, that I'm going to need to rewrite again. The rest of Mindy's arc was covered in the 2004 version. I tried to rewrite the hospital scene, but there didn't seem much point. It's already all there. It just needs to be revised for details. Later on I'll need to plug in more mentions of swamp mustard. Lord Malovek doesn't get any screentime at all, but he did make the bombs she was throwing...
I've covered all of Jacob's parts in the battle and talking to Brightspot and getting Jalai and etc. He doesn't really have an arc in this particular story, he was just useful as a POV.
All of Janis is already covered from 2004.
That leaves Thomas. In order to explain what his story was about, I pretty much need to finish writing Part 2 of Amulet I. So I guess I'm going to write 7200 words toward Amulet I now, starting from when he wakes up after the first ritual.
The main problem is that I didn't leave myself any notes about the first ritual. I have a completed scene for it, and it's great but it's from the POV of James, who didn't know fully what was going on during it. A lot happened in it, and I only remember the gist of what I had in mind. If there are any notes, it's probably in a Jer's Novel Writer file... still wish Jer had continued to work on it, it was great. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wing it and hope for the best.
The reason I stopped before, I think, was because I didn't know what the second ritual was going to be like. Now I know it includes the pearl. And I have a few ideas of what the pearl was used for. But, still not sure where the cougars fit in. I guess I'll just write whatever comes to mind and see if any of it goes anywhere.
2016/11/23
A bit stuck at the moment
37,316 words.
I wrote out Chance talking to the king. Other than that, my planned chronology seems to have dissolved into a pile of goo.
It turns out that there's no way Jacob could've talked to Brightspot, picked up Jalai, and gotten back down off the mountain with Jalai in time to talk to the king the day after the battle. Glavni is supposed to be a 3-day journey by land through thick forest, and even if he flew there, he couldn't fly back with Jalai, so he'd have to go overland. The earliest he could've talked to the king would be a week later. Thus: now the second round of reports to the king is a week later, and Jacob's entire report happened in the second round, not the first round. I'll have to revise that out later. Fortunately, a week later fits fine for Chance.
I also need to make Josephine's scenes more meaty. She is the only one of the Mudawi Three that hasn't taken on a permanent guard duty type job. By the end of Temple when she starts watching after Jalai, she will have one. This needs more character impact than it does now. Thinking about it mostly makes me wonder how to fit in a scene or two in an earlier book where the Mudawi Three actually do what they're there for (to assassinate people). Probably would make the most sense somewhere in Amulet I.
Then: well, the key Big Decision that Thomas needs to make about Janis would've had to have happened in the library immediately after that fight, and not later on back at his house like I was thinking this whole time. So now the big moment happens from Jacob's point of view, which kind of loses a lot in translation, because Jacob doesn't know any of the context for what it was about.
So I have to write that part of the scene again from Thomas's point of view, and give it a good reason to exist other than to show just that part. It also changes what the cougars would've done as the battle was coming to an end. If the spell was broken in the library, the cougars would've noticed.
I also need to write the second ritual that Aliacorba did at the end of Amulet I, for the spell that Thomas broke in the library. Otherwise it's not going to come out right when I try to write about him breaking it. This is probably going to be what I write next. Looking back at my Amulet I draft pieces, I'm pretty sure that somewhere in there I wrote the first ritual all the way through. I hope I did. For the purposes of Temple, probably I'll have to start with a summary of it.
Before I can do that, I need to work out in my head what the second ritual entailed and how the cougars got involved in it in the first place. So far, all I've figured out is that I'm not sure if there even needs to be cougars in the story...
I still haven't written the scene where Ashley tells the Eenin where Janis was, either. Just not sure yet how to do it.
And then Thomas still needs to report to the king too, in the second round probably. He can just meet up with Jacob there.
I wrote out Chance talking to the king. Other than that, my planned chronology seems to have dissolved into a pile of goo.
It turns out that there's no way Jacob could've talked to Brightspot, picked up Jalai, and gotten back down off the mountain with Jalai in time to talk to the king the day after the battle. Glavni is supposed to be a 3-day journey by land through thick forest, and even if he flew there, he couldn't fly back with Jalai, so he'd have to go overland. The earliest he could've talked to the king would be a week later. Thus: now the second round of reports to the king is a week later, and Jacob's entire report happened in the second round, not the first round. I'll have to revise that out later. Fortunately, a week later fits fine for Chance.
I also need to make Josephine's scenes more meaty. She is the only one of the Mudawi Three that hasn't taken on a permanent guard duty type job. By the end of Temple when she starts watching after Jalai, she will have one. This needs more character impact than it does now. Thinking about it mostly makes me wonder how to fit in a scene or two in an earlier book where the Mudawi Three actually do what they're there for (to assassinate people). Probably would make the most sense somewhere in Amulet I.
Then: well, the key Big Decision that Thomas needs to make about Janis would've had to have happened in the library immediately after that fight, and not later on back at his house like I was thinking this whole time. So now the big moment happens from Jacob's point of view, which kind of loses a lot in translation, because Jacob doesn't know any of the context for what it was about.
So I have to write that part of the scene again from Thomas's point of view, and give it a good reason to exist other than to show just that part. It also changes what the cougars would've done as the battle was coming to an end. If the spell was broken in the library, the cougars would've noticed.
I also need to write the second ritual that Aliacorba did at the end of Amulet I, for the spell that Thomas broke in the library. Otherwise it's not going to come out right when I try to write about him breaking it. This is probably going to be what I write next. Looking back at my Amulet I draft pieces, I'm pretty sure that somewhere in there I wrote the first ritual all the way through. I hope I did. For the purposes of Temple, probably I'll have to start with a summary of it.
Before I can do that, I need to work out in my head what the second ritual entailed and how the cougars got involved in it in the first place. So far, all I've figured out is that I'm not sure if there even needs to be cougars in the story...
I still haven't written the scene where Ashley tells the Eenin where Janis was, either. Just not sure yet how to do it.
And then Thomas still needs to report to the king too, in the second round probably. He can just meet up with Jacob there.
2016/11/18
Beginning of Day 18: all caught up
30,209 words. That puts me at 200 words past today's goal, so probably I'll work on tomorrow's goal when it's writing time later tonight. I did ~3700 words last night (3200 before midnight, 500 after), averaging about 1k words per hour, which is my most productive writing session for this Nano so far.
The scenes I'm working on are all from Ashley's point of view, explaining her part in the story, starting from when she first got started helping with Project Mango. It looks like there will be four scenes by the time I'm done tinkering. Last night I got to the point where she meets Janis (the last line was Janis saying "hi") before I stopped. So tonight I'll continue forward with the actual kidnapping, and then there's another part in the third scene that I need to go back to and expand on in more detail.
Writing it was kind of interesting. Ashley didn't have much screentime at all in 2004. She was basically tacked in at the last-minute in an attempt to get some of Felicia's motivations to make more sense. I've known about her and her motivations for a while, but this was the first I've tried writing about any of it from her point of view.
After I'm done with Ashley, I'll finally be able to write the Eenin warchief's reply to Jacob, and continue forward with that scene. Jacob was on his way to look for Brightspot at the time. After he meets up with her and gets her story, he'll get summoned by the king for the first round of reports, and then after that he'll finally be able to visit Thomas to see how Janis is doing. The next major piece after that point will be Thomas and Janis and the cougars.
If I get stuck trying to write any of that, I can always start on Chance, too. He'll be coming back for the second round of reports to the king. I guess basically he just has to report in the aftermath of the mages and what they've decided to do about the destruction of their temple.
The scenes I'm working on are all from Ashley's point of view, explaining her part in the story, starting from when she first got started helping with Project Mango. It looks like there will be four scenes by the time I'm done tinkering. Last night I got to the point where she meets Janis (the last line was Janis saying "hi") before I stopped. So tonight I'll continue forward with the actual kidnapping, and then there's another part in the third scene that I need to go back to and expand on in more detail.
Writing it was kind of interesting. Ashley didn't have much screentime at all in 2004. She was basically tacked in at the last-minute in an attempt to get some of Felicia's motivations to make more sense. I've known about her and her motivations for a while, but this was the first I've tried writing about any of it from her point of view.
After I'm done with Ashley, I'll finally be able to write the Eenin warchief's reply to Jacob, and continue forward with that scene. Jacob was on his way to look for Brightspot at the time. After he meets up with her and gets her story, he'll get summoned by the king for the first round of reports, and then after that he'll finally be able to visit Thomas to see how Janis is doing. The next major piece after that point will be Thomas and Janis and the cougars.
If I get stuck trying to write any of that, I can always start on Chance, too. He'll be coming back for the second round of reports to the king. I guess basically he just has to report in the aftermath of the mages and what they've decided to do about the destruction of their temple.
2016/11/16
Fixing a Major Plot Hole
So up until today, my thinking was that Felicia had kidnapped Janis in order to get Thomas to kill Ian. And then, while she had her, decided to use her in the experiments. Since then I've not had much luck coming up with ways to get her motivations to make sense.
Today it occurred to me that it should be the other way around. Felicia kidnapped Janis (on Ashley's advice, because Ashley hates the Eenin) in order to use her in the experiments. Then she finds out later that Thomas cares about her, and tries to bargain Janis's life for Ian's.
I didn't get much in the way of words today, while I was reorienting my worldview around that idea. My revised outline now looks like:
It was all because Jacob asked the Eenin warchief how they found out that Janis was with the mages, and I didn't have an actual answer anymore because the original reason from the first draft no longer applies. Ashley made the most sense to have been the one to tell them, though it would've been under duress. It does mean that I have a whole series of scenes that need to be written from Ashley's point of view now.
26,459 words at the moment. It's about 200 short of today's goal. I'll have to catch that up tomorrow.
Today it occurred to me that it should be the other way around. Felicia kidnapped Janis (on Ashley's advice, because Ashley hates the Eenin) in order to use her in the experiments. Then she finds out later that Thomas cares about her, and tries to bargain Janis's life for Ian's.
I didn't get much in the way of words today, while I was reorienting my worldview around that idea. My revised outline now looks like:
Ashley and Felicia: we need some victims that are going to stand up tougher to our experiments. What about the Eenin?
Ashley: I'll capture an Eenin that no one will miss. There's one sitting near the edge eating a sandwich. I'm sure she's not important.
Ashley and Felicia: experiments going better! yay!
Thomas: Oh noes! Where's Janis?
Felicia: I'll give her back to you if you kill Ian Wormon
Thomas: No.
Eenin: Oh noes! Where's our Speaker?
Eenin: hey wait, there's that stranger woman that was at the culture center at around when Janis disappeared. Let's interrogate.
Ashley: uh. oh all right, the mages have her.
It was all because Jacob asked the Eenin warchief how they found out that Janis was with the mages, and I didn't have an actual answer anymore because the original reason from the first draft no longer applies. Ashley made the most sense to have been the one to tell them, though it would've been under duress. It does mean that I have a whole series of scenes that need to be written from Ashley's point of view now.
26,459 words at the moment. It's about 200 short of today's goal. I'll have to catch that up tomorrow.
2016/11/15
At the Halfway Mark
25,095 words.
I finished writing both what Mindy and Kim did during the battle, and what Nathaniel, Allen, and Pedro did during the battle. That didn't quite get me to 25k, so then I started the other half of what Jacob did during the battle (after he parts ways from Thomas), which will segue into him chasing down Brightspot to find out why the wolves were there. That should be worth another few thousand words.
After that: well, Thomas needs to report to the king eventually. I'm not sure what he needs to say at this point, is the problem. Chance also needs to come back, and I'm not sure what he needs to say yet either. I imagine that the second round of reports to the king will go like the first round, where the overall frame is a dialogue, and it's interspersed with the actual action scenes.
Overall I'm starting to get kind of bored with my story. Rewriting is definitely not as much fun as writing it the first time. Although I do get glimmers of sentiment that my story is a cobbled-together mess and who would want to read this claptrap anyway, so, that part of the experience isn't completely missing...
Probably I'm going to have to do a full rewrite for Amulet II too. Maybe I should just go through all of them individually doing rewrites for the next ten years. Woo hah.
I finished writing both what Mindy and Kim did during the battle, and what Nathaniel, Allen, and Pedro did during the battle. That didn't quite get me to 25k, so then I started the other half of what Jacob did during the battle (after he parts ways from Thomas), which will segue into him chasing down Brightspot to find out why the wolves were there. That should be worth another few thousand words.
After that: well, Thomas needs to report to the king eventually. I'm not sure what he needs to say at this point, is the problem. Chance also needs to come back, and I'm not sure what he needs to say yet either. I imagine that the second round of reports to the king will go like the first round, where the overall frame is a dialogue, and it's interspersed with the actual action scenes.
Overall I'm starting to get kind of bored with my story. Rewriting is definitely not as much fun as writing it the first time. Although I do get glimmers of sentiment that my story is a cobbled-together mess and who would want to read this claptrap anyway, so, that part of the experience isn't completely missing...
Probably I'm going to have to do a full rewrite for Amulet II too. Maybe I should just go through all of them individually doing rewrites for the next ten years. Woo hah.
2016/11/12
Mid-Day 12
20,110 words at the moment. I'm back to being on schedule.
I've started on the scenes about what Nathaniel and his group were doing, and what Mindy and Kim were doing, during the battle. They're fairly long and detailed (more words!), and kind of important for explaining what happened, and I couldn't have written them without having first written the other novels.
One thing that has slowed me way down is making sure that all of the explosions during the battle make sense to every timeline, since everyone who was there would've felt them at the same time. I hadn't written them into the original battle scene (from Chance's view) with anything specific in mind, pretty much just whenever I wanted to throw in something to break up dialogue or description or something. But now every other POV has to sync with it.
I also decided that it made more sense for Mindy to have caused the explosions rather than Nathaniel. Nathaniel wants to preserve the tower, not destroy it... I've still got a few thousand words left to finish off their scenes. That should give me plenty to do through the rest of the weekend.
I've started on the scenes about what Nathaniel and his group were doing, and what Mindy and Kim were doing, during the battle. They're fairly long and detailed (more words!), and kind of important for explaining what happened, and I couldn't have written them without having first written the other novels.
One thing that has slowed me way down is making sure that all of the explosions during the battle make sense to every timeline, since everyone who was there would've felt them at the same time. I hadn't written them into the original battle scene (from Chance's view) with anything specific in mind, pretty much just whenever I wanted to throw in something to break up dialogue or description or something. But now every other POV has to sync with it.
I also decided that it made more sense for Mindy to have caused the explosions rather than Nathaniel. Nathaniel wants to preserve the tower, not destroy it... I've still got a few thousand words left to finish off their scenes. That should give me plenty to do through the rest of the weekend.
2016/11/08
Middle of Day 8
I'm at 11,637 at the moment. Up until yesterday, I was basically right on schedule for a normal nano. The big thing that has slowed me way down in the last day and a half is the election. I did my part and voted in the morning, but spent yesterday evening looking up ballot measures.
At the moment I'm at a write-in, where the librarian seems to want to lead group discussions and expects participation, so I'm not going to get as much written as I was hoping. Will have to keep that in mind for next week's. Not that I probably would've written much anyway, since this area doesn't have any outlets and I didn't come in with a full battery. Thus: might as well update ye olde blog.
I finished out the scene where Josephine finds Brightspot. Then I started trying to write Ruth introducing what Felicia did to Janis while she was captured, and it turned out very rough. Not really done with it yet; the urge to edit instead of adding new words is high. The scenes after that will introduce the mango drug, starting with when Stranahan banned Mindy and Bordoni from selling it, and then moving forward from there to selling it to Felicia. A lot of that will be heavy revisions of the 2004 attempt, which also isn't really straight writing, and probably will be just as slow. I've also decided that the prologue is going to be the scene where Mindy and Weasel meet, which will also be a heavy revision sort of thing.
I'm not sure yet what's after that. I guess I'll figure it out when I get there.
At the moment I'm at a write-in, where the librarian seems to want to lead group discussions and expects participation, so I'm not going to get as much written as I was hoping. Will have to keep that in mind for next week's. Not that I probably would've written much anyway, since this area doesn't have any outlets and I didn't come in with a full battery. Thus: might as well update ye olde blog.
I finished out the scene where Josephine finds Brightspot. Then I started trying to write Ruth introducing what Felicia did to Janis while she was captured, and it turned out very rough. Not really done with it yet; the urge to edit instead of adding new words is high. The scenes after that will introduce the mango drug, starting with when Stranahan banned Mindy and Bordoni from selling it, and then moving forward from there to selling it to Felicia. A lot of that will be heavy revisions of the 2004 attempt, which also isn't really straight writing, and probably will be just as slow. I've also decided that the prologue is going to be the scene where Mindy and Weasel meet, which will also be a heavy revision sort of thing.
I'm not sure yet what's after that. I guess I'll figure it out when I get there.
2016/11/05
Chugging Along On Schedule, More or Less
8330 words.
That's three words short of today's quota, so I guess I better start on the next scene later tonight.
So far it looks like I've started out with a view of the epic battle at a high level, and now I'm going to fill in the blanks by telling it again several more times at ground level, as people report to the king what happened from their perspective and why. The chronology of the whole thing will probably come out in reverse. Should be fun. :)
Aside from the opening scene with the epic battle, I've finished writing the other epic battle scene that happened in the library that no one saw - where Thomas faced off with Felicia for Janis. Next up is Josephine running in to find Brightspot, which will reveal why the wolves were in the fight. Then, after that, I'll finally get to the part about the drugs that the bears were there for. Maybe. There's actually quite a few tangents I could spin off from with the wolves and cougars first.
Doing a full rewrite of a story I already wrote is turning out to be a lot more relaxed than coming up with it the first time, since I already know what happens. I haven't really run into writer's block as much. And after ten years of doing these, I've learned how to not care if I don't have the perfect wording right the first time. I mean, I do care, and in fact I keep stopping and revising to fix things as I go along. It's just not at the "I really suck at this writing thing and should quit" level of caring. I guess partly it's because I actually know how to stop and fix things now, and it's generally a non-issue.
The local Nanowrimo scene is a bit different this year. Someone at the local library has decided to run write-ins, and more or less do all the things that MLs usually do, so hopefully next year she'll volunteer to do it officially. Meanwhile, her efforts have drawn in a bunch of people who showed up to the first meeting (it ended up being more like a kickoff) with no idea what nanowrimo is. I suspect that us veterans are going to have to pep talk them through the dreaded Week 2. If they come back...
That's three words short of today's quota, so I guess I better start on the next scene later tonight.
So far it looks like I've started out with a view of the epic battle at a high level, and now I'm going to fill in the blanks by telling it again several more times at ground level, as people report to the king what happened from their perspective and why. The chronology of the whole thing will probably come out in reverse. Should be fun. :)
Aside from the opening scene with the epic battle, I've finished writing the other epic battle scene that happened in the library that no one saw - where Thomas faced off with Felicia for Janis. Next up is Josephine running in to find Brightspot, which will reveal why the wolves were in the fight. Then, after that, I'll finally get to the part about the drugs that the bears were there for. Maybe. There's actually quite a few tangents I could spin off from with the wolves and cougars first.
Doing a full rewrite of a story I already wrote is turning out to be a lot more relaxed than coming up with it the first time, since I already know what happens. I haven't really run into writer's block as much. And after ten years of doing these, I've learned how to not care if I don't have the perfect wording right the first time. I mean, I do care, and in fact I keep stopping and revising to fix things as I go along. It's just not at the "I really suck at this writing thing and should quit" level of caring. I guess partly it's because I actually know how to stop and fix things now, and it's generally a non-issue.
The local Nanowrimo scene is a bit different this year. Someone at the local library has decided to run write-ins, and more or less do all the things that MLs usually do, so hopefully next year she'll volunteer to do it officially. Meanwhile, her efforts have drawn in a bunch of people who showed up to the first meeting (it ended up being more like a kickoff) with no idea what nanowrimo is. I suspect that us veterans are going to have to pep talk them through the dreaded Week 2. If they come back...
2016/11/03
End of Day 2
4147 words. The temple has been successfully flattened. It pretty much didn't go the way it went the first time at all, but it makes a lot more sense now.
I'm not actually sure what would make the most sense to write next, so I guess I'll stick with the outline. The king will visit the site of battle the next day and everyone else will take turns showing up and explaining their parts in what happened. I guess I better refigure out what order they should arrive in.
I'm not actually sure what would make the most sense to write next, so I guess I'll stick with the outline. The king will visit the site of battle the next day and everyone else will take turns showing up and explaining their parts in what happened. I guess I better refigure out what order they should arrive in.
2016/11/02
Nanowrimo Day 1 Summary
1790 words so far.
It's going slow while I try to remember the rather complicated timing of events that occur in the story. I'm rewriting the whole thing from scratch, starting with the battle scene that used to be the prologue. It's not really a prologue anymore, and by the time I'm done it's going to be probably somewhere in the 3k word range. I'm about halfway through now, done with all the setup, and now the temple just needs to get flattened.
It's definitely better than what I had before, with a lot more details and much better characterization and such. Possibly I need more description of the various spirits that are attacking. It's still a high-level view of the battle, as seen by Chance in the observation tower, who is giving orders to the mages and calling for backup from the king. It's written such that neither Chance nor the king have any clue why this is happening. This might have to change later, not sure yet. It might work better with them not knowing a thing in advance.
I've also decided to move up the Thomas vs. Felicia battle so that it occurs during the temple battle, rather than three days earlier. I'm not entirely sure why I decided to do that, but it might turn out to make more sense. It pretty much depends on whether the cougars are aware of Janis's location, because if they are (and they really probably should be), she would have to be in the temple for them to want to attack it. It might be more like a "last seen" kind of awareness for them, since Janis is supposedly in the library, not the temple...
The only part of the original draft that I'll probably keep is when Mindy and Weasel find each other. That part is still good on reread.
Oh well. Need to come up with another 1700 words today. I guess I better finish flattening the temple and then figure out what to do next.
It's going slow while I try to remember the rather complicated timing of events that occur in the story. I'm rewriting the whole thing from scratch, starting with the battle scene that used to be the prologue. It's not really a prologue anymore, and by the time I'm done it's going to be probably somewhere in the 3k word range. I'm about halfway through now, done with all the setup, and now the temple just needs to get flattened.
It's definitely better than what I had before, with a lot more details and much better characterization and such. Possibly I need more description of the various spirits that are attacking. It's still a high-level view of the battle, as seen by Chance in the observation tower, who is giving orders to the mages and calling for backup from the king. It's written such that neither Chance nor the king have any clue why this is happening. This might have to change later, not sure yet. It might work better with them not knowing a thing in advance.
I've also decided to move up the Thomas vs. Felicia battle so that it occurs during the temple battle, rather than three days earlier. I'm not entirely sure why I decided to do that, but it might turn out to make more sense. It pretty much depends on whether the cougars are aware of Janis's location, because if they are (and they really probably should be), she would have to be in the temple for them to want to attack it. It might be more like a "last seen" kind of awareness for them, since Janis is supposedly in the library, not the temple...
The only part of the original draft that I'll probably keep is when Mindy and Weasel find each other. That part is still good on reread.
Oh well. Need to come up with another 1700 words today. I guess I better finish flattening the temple and then figure out what to do next.
2016/10/26
Cosmic Potato musings
It's the last week before Nanowrimo 2016 starts, and of course all of my pre-writing ruminations are about a project other than any of the ones I mentioned in my previous post.
Since my teens when I first started doing serious worldbuilding projects, I've thought that the human reproductive system is really stupid, and there must be something better than what we're stuck with. The sentient species on one of my planets, Siram, doesn't have two distinct sexes. There's only one, and they all release eggs externally into a stream, which hatch and develop into young that Someone Else has to worry about taking care of by the time they flow to the ocean.
Later on while getting a masters in marine biology, I learned about aggregate broadcast spawning in some fishes, so hey, it even exists (sort of). I also learned about plants in college, which have something called "alternation of generations" - where in the more primitive species, the haploid form is actually separate individual plants, and not just gametes. (They're technically separate individual plants in the derived species too, it's just that they either stay inside the flowers of the parent or they're pollen). I also learned that in a number of marine invertebrate taxons, including urochordates, there's a motile larval form, that settles out into a sessile adult form, that reproduces to make more motile larva; from a certain warped point of view, all vertebrates (humans included) technically have life cycles like those, except we've evolved to skip the sessile adult form.
All of which is background for the ideas floating around in my head at the moment, about a species that instead of having males and females, they have haploids and diploids. In the simplest version, there would just be two forms (one haploid, one diploid); if I wanted to get really complicated about it, there could be four (two of each type that are male and female). Two haploids have to come together to make a diploid, but a diploid (in the simple version) would be able to make haploids by itself. This would obviously have all sorts of subtle effects on what they look like and whether and how they socialize.
The most appropriate place to put such a species would be in Cosmic Potato. They're already cliff-dwelling birds with a very season-based cycle of putting nearly 100% of their time and resources into reproduction for half the year, and then they have time to do other things (sentient things, like explore the world) during the off-season. It would be pretty easy to have them also be haploids and diploids.
Then of course on the other side of the planet is the sentient plants. The plants could be a sessile adult form that also includes a motile juvenile form that runs around Doing Things before they have to settle down in one spot for the rest of their lives.
It also occurs to me that I can't really start the story when they start the sea voyage to get to the other side of the world. There needs to be a lot more backstory buildup for why they're going, and the surprise gas giant would be a lot more of a surprise if it was closer to the end of the story than the beginning. I think I was realizing this the last time I tried to write it too. So. To ensure that I'll have lots and lots of material to put into the backstory buildup, having them be cliff-dwelling birdlike haploids and diploids leading season-based lives should help quite a bit.
Since my teens when I first started doing serious worldbuilding projects, I've thought that the human reproductive system is really stupid, and there must be something better than what we're stuck with. The sentient species on one of my planets, Siram, doesn't have two distinct sexes. There's only one, and they all release eggs externally into a stream, which hatch and develop into young that Someone Else has to worry about taking care of by the time they flow to the ocean.
Later on while getting a masters in marine biology, I learned about aggregate broadcast spawning in some fishes, so hey, it even exists (sort of). I also learned about plants in college, which have something called "alternation of generations" - where in the more primitive species, the haploid form is actually separate individual plants, and not just gametes. (They're technically separate individual plants in the derived species too, it's just that they either stay inside the flowers of the parent or they're pollen). I also learned that in a number of marine invertebrate taxons, including urochordates, there's a motile larval form, that settles out into a sessile adult form, that reproduces to make more motile larva; from a certain warped point of view, all vertebrates (humans included) technically have life cycles like those, except we've evolved to skip the sessile adult form.
All of which is background for the ideas floating around in my head at the moment, about a species that instead of having males and females, they have haploids and diploids. In the simplest version, there would just be two forms (one haploid, one diploid); if I wanted to get really complicated about it, there could be four (two of each type that are male and female). Two haploids have to come together to make a diploid, but a diploid (in the simple version) would be able to make haploids by itself. This would obviously have all sorts of subtle effects on what they look like and whether and how they socialize.
The most appropriate place to put such a species would be in Cosmic Potato. They're already cliff-dwelling birds with a very season-based cycle of putting nearly 100% of their time and resources into reproduction for half the year, and then they have time to do other things (sentient things, like explore the world) during the off-season. It would be pretty easy to have them also be haploids and diploids.
Then of course on the other side of the planet is the sentient plants. The plants could be a sessile adult form that also includes a motile juvenile form that runs around Doing Things before they have to settle down in one spot for the rest of their lives.
It also occurs to me that I can't really start the story when they start the sea voyage to get to the other side of the world. There needs to be a lot more backstory buildup for why they're going, and the surprise gas giant would be a lot more of a surprise if it was closer to the end of the story than the beginning. I think I was realizing this the last time I tried to write it too. So. To ensure that I'll have lots and lots of material to put into the backstory buildup, having them be cliff-dwelling birdlike haploids and diploids leading season-based lives should help quite a bit.
2016/10/03
It's Prep Time for Nanowrimo 2016
I'm kicking around several ideas, but so far leaning in favor of working on Fortress Launne some more. It's the only thing I've tried during a Nanowrimo where I actually get more than 50k words, and it's been long enough since the last time I looked (Nanowrimo 2014, basically). Reading back over the blog posts from Nanowrimo 2014, I think what would make the most sense is to rewrite Temple.
It also occurred to me that what Aliacorba gave to Iorli in exchange for the protection of the spirit cougars on his family line was the pearl. I was reading a post where I was pondering this out loud and the thought just popped up: "the pearl of course." Of course. Hmm.
Other options: well, I could more-or-less fanfic Numenera. In the first game of it I was in, I had a character named Lanash Jahat. Lanash didn't like the less than stellar morality of the rest of the group, and so I wanted to have him wander off while I replaced him with a different character that was more suitable (a mercenary type who wouldn't care how money was earned, as long as he got his share). The GM didn't agree, and decided on a complicated way to throw out the whole rest of the game in favor of everyone following Lanash around when he wandered off. He neglected to mention he was going to do this to the rest of the players, however, and it didn't go over well, and although everyone else gamely tried to follow along, all of the spark died, and the game ended soon after.
Anyway, so I had thoughts for what Lanash was going to do after he left the rest of the group - basically pursue his original goals from his backstory. So I could write a whole adventure focused around that. Maybe put in some other characters. I also had other character ideas before the game, including one for a lattimor, that might work as another focus for a story.
I also have a Numenera game running on rpol. Pretty sure I could come up with stories out of that, too. Especially since Brent mentioned that he was going to write backstory for his character in it. So we'd be working on very similar things and presumably our brainwaves would sync up better during write-ins...
I guess I have almost a month to decide. I'm starting early because Alcar and Kelli have both started talking about it and seem stoked. Kelli and I might've also convinced Regina to give it a try. Guess we'll see if that pans out.
It also occurred to me that what Aliacorba gave to Iorli in exchange for the protection of the spirit cougars on his family line was the pearl. I was reading a post where I was pondering this out loud and the thought just popped up: "the pearl of course." Of course. Hmm.
Other options: well, I could more-or-less fanfic Numenera. In the first game of it I was in, I had a character named Lanash Jahat. Lanash didn't like the less than stellar morality of the rest of the group, and so I wanted to have him wander off while I replaced him with a different character that was more suitable (a mercenary type who wouldn't care how money was earned, as long as he got his share). The GM didn't agree, and decided on a complicated way to throw out the whole rest of the game in favor of everyone following Lanash around when he wandered off. He neglected to mention he was going to do this to the rest of the players, however, and it didn't go over well, and although everyone else gamely tried to follow along, all of the spark died, and the game ended soon after.
Anyway, so I had thoughts for what Lanash was going to do after he left the rest of the group - basically pursue his original goals from his backstory. So I could write a whole adventure focused around that. Maybe put in some other characters. I also had other character ideas before the game, including one for a lattimor, that might work as another focus for a story.
I also have a Numenera game running on rpol. Pretty sure I could come up with stories out of that, too. Especially since Brent mentioned that he was going to write backstory for his character in it. So we'd be working on very similar things and presumably our brainwaves would sync up better during write-ins...
I guess I have almost a month to decide. I'm starting early because Alcar and Kelli have both started talking about it and seem stoked. Kelli and I might've also convinced Regina to give it a try. Guess we'll see if that pans out.
2016/04/06
On the Jade Harvester Set Dungeon
A haiku inspired by playing too much Diablo 3. I have one last item on the to-do list to get the Season 5 pet, and it's a class set dungeon, and the class set I have leads to a tricky dungeon that I haven't figured out how to do yet...
Locust swarm and haunt?
Or multiple soul harvest?
This dungeon is hard.
Locust swarm and haunt?
Or multiple soul harvest?
This dungeon is hard.
2016/04/05
Circus Clown
Going for a bit of a lighter tone in this one. I have no clue where it came from. Right before it I was thinking about how nothing of note has happened to me today and I have nothing to write poems about.
Do you see it, Mr. Brown?
I don't know. It's upside down.
Are you sure it's not a frown?
I think we need a circus clown.
What the hell? What the hey?
Why a circus clown today?
Circus clowns will laugh and play
and all the frowns would go away.
Do you see it, Mr. Brown?
I don't know. It's upside down.
Are you sure it's not a frown?
I think we need a circus clown.
What the hell? What the hey?
Why a circus clown today?
Circus clowns will laugh and play
and all the frowns would go away.
2016/04/04
Poetry Per Day
Thing learned recently on Facebook: that Ray Bradbury said to write a poem every day. Someone I follow there, Steven Barnes, has decided to do this (again, he's done this before apparently), and I liked the poem he shared. It sounds like something I would say, and in fact a lot of what he says sounds like things I either would say or need to hear, which is why I follow him.
I'm not sure why poetry is suddenly more appealing to me than prose right now, maybe just lack of time and inclination to work on anything I have in progress while others (mostly Alcar) are super excited about Camp Nanowrimo this month, and I kind of feel like I should do something productive while sharing a cabin with them. So I changed my goal to writing 30 poems this month.
Here's the first one.
And lo,
The longstanding knot had loosened so far
that the lightest touch of love was enough to make it come undone.
And so the fear smoothed away,
and unfettered sorrow came into the light of day,
and the tears flowed and let it all go,
and the healing could begin.
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