I'm at 31,032 words near the bottom of the 21st. I'm a bit behind, but hopefully will manage to catch up over the weekend, assuming I can come up with things to write about. I'm kind of stalled out on just about everything at this point.
Amulet I - I caved and wrote down the entire backstory for the Demon part of the storyline, beginning with when Allen's mage circle summoned him in the first place, and stopping when they were in Aunlania. Amazingly, I'd never written any of this down anywhere before, other than bits and pieces in Light's Spiral into Blackness (an oWoD Dark Ages game I ran on RPoL). That got me 610 words. I suppose I should continue it in backstory mode to explain what the Sundering is, since at this point I have no idea how to tell that part of the story. This is what first drafts are for for most people, aren't they? To ramble on endlessly about backstory and info dump until I figure out what the info actually is?
As for James, I get the impression that the next scene to write is going to be set far in the future from the first scene, and it'll involve Charles coming home, and I won't know what goes into it until after I find out what happens with Charles and Felna.
Triangle II - well, I got past the part where Rebecca tries to eat Janis. There are now about 2600 words to a set of scenes that don't seem to have any purpose. And now I'm back to where I was before, with no idea where to go next.
Amulet II - I opened it and looked. I think what I'm going to end up doing is keep the main plotline about the Glorian artwork, the university vs. Mindy's farm, etc. and dump most of the other bits about land disputes. The land dispute parts were boring to write the first time, and as they say, the readers always can tell when the author is bored, so I might as well just dump it.
That means heavy revision moreso than adding new words. I'm not even sure how I'd continue from where I left off - which was, of course, why I probably stopped in the first place.
Temple - I suspect that I'm going to have to start working on this over the weekend. I need 9000 new words by the end. Probably won't make it, but it works better to aim high.
Myan - well, I have about 3000 words for the zombies demolishing Myan, then going to Fortress Launne, and attacking Lady Valdren's haven and the university. I stopped when I got the parts where I have to figure out who wins and who's going to be where to oppose them.
Showing posts with label Myan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Myan. Show all posts
2014/11/21
2014/11/16
Passed 25k Today
Well, the theme of this whole Nanowrimo seems to be to do lots and lots of beginnings, and then stall out when I get to the part where plot needs to appear, and then move on to something else instead of trying to push through. So far I've done:
Amulet I - I wrote about 2200 words of James going back to the Duchene estate in Lagarnica, and meeting his current wife and new brother William. I'm not really sure where to go from there at this point. The new wife wants to kill James off so that William will inherit the estate. But I'm not sure if I'm all that excited about that storyline, not enough to actually write it.
Triangle I - I haven't done anything with this since the first day. 2200 words about Frank getting installed into his new body. It'll get broken up into individual scenes and put into appropriate places in the rest of the story later.
Triangle II - I have the most words on this one so far. 17.5k following what happens to Thomas in Jacob's house, getting the cure done, and then they and Josephine went off to Wild-hunt foodbeasts under the full moon. Meanwhile, Janis has a bunch more conversations with her grandmother. It stalled out where Janis was headed to talk to the city Eenin. She ran into Rebecca, who wants to eat her. Unfortunately, I'm not actually sure how exactly the protection on Janis works, because, once again, I need to figure out what the heck Aliacorba and Iorli agreed to, and it's stuck until I do. It has occurred to me, though, that Aliacorba would've had to give Iorli something in exchange during the pact, and I don't really know what that could be.
Amulet II - so far I haven't even opened this one. It's the farthest from my mind at the moment.
Temple - nothing on this one yet either. I'm assuming that this is going to be a huge project, and might be procrastinating starting on it until I've run out of all other, smaller things in the series to work on. This is probably going to be soon though, if I continue to be stuck on all the stuff I've already worked on.
Birthright - this was where I focused today. I wrote 3300 words covering what happens after they open the magic box. They ended up on the plain with the lamp post and met Arthur Glorian, and had a lot to say to each other. Then I tried to write about what happened after that scene, and I'm not actually sure what needs to happen next, without doing a lot of rereading of past material.
Myan - 1100 words so far. I started writing the attack on Myan from one of the zombies' point of view. They went through the center of the city, and then to Fortress Launne, and now they're about to attack the anchorpoints of Nathaniel's spell. The zombie that I'm following is headed over to the old art museum. Since zombies don't do a whole lot of thinking, or observing, of basically anything, I can almost freewrite what happens. Basically I'm just trying to get an idea of what actually happens, and I'll probably have to revise most of it later when I redo it from the point of view of actual characters. Once I figure out which characters that'll be.
Amulet I - I wrote about 2200 words of James going back to the Duchene estate in Lagarnica, and meeting his current wife and new brother William. I'm not really sure where to go from there at this point. The new wife wants to kill James off so that William will inherit the estate. But I'm not sure if I'm all that excited about that storyline, not enough to actually write it.
Triangle I - I haven't done anything with this since the first day. 2200 words about Frank getting installed into his new body. It'll get broken up into individual scenes and put into appropriate places in the rest of the story later.
Triangle II - I have the most words on this one so far. 17.5k following what happens to Thomas in Jacob's house, getting the cure done, and then they and Josephine went off to Wild-hunt foodbeasts under the full moon. Meanwhile, Janis has a bunch more conversations with her grandmother. It stalled out where Janis was headed to talk to the city Eenin. She ran into Rebecca, who wants to eat her. Unfortunately, I'm not actually sure how exactly the protection on Janis works, because, once again, I need to figure out what the heck Aliacorba and Iorli agreed to, and it's stuck until I do. It has occurred to me, though, that Aliacorba would've had to give Iorli something in exchange during the pact, and I don't really know what that could be.
Amulet II - so far I haven't even opened this one. It's the farthest from my mind at the moment.
Temple - nothing on this one yet either. I'm assuming that this is going to be a huge project, and might be procrastinating starting on it until I've run out of all other, smaller things in the series to work on. This is probably going to be soon though, if I continue to be stuck on all the stuff I've already worked on.
Birthright - this was where I focused today. I wrote 3300 words covering what happens after they open the magic box. They ended up on the plain with the lamp post and met Arthur Glorian, and had a lot to say to each other. Then I tried to write about what happened after that scene, and I'm not actually sure what needs to happen next, without doing a lot of rereading of past material.
Myan - 1100 words so far. I started writing the attack on Myan from one of the zombies' point of view. They went through the center of the city, and then to Fortress Launne, and now they're about to attack the anchorpoints of Nathaniel's spell. The zombie that I'm following is headed over to the old art museum. Since zombies don't do a whole lot of thinking, or observing, of basically anything, I can almost freewrite what happens. Basically I'm just trying to get an idea of what actually happens, and I'll probably have to revise most of it later when I redo it from the point of view of actual characters. Once I figure out which characters that'll be.
2014/11/12
Top of Day 12
17,937 words.
I'm basically stuck pretty good on Triangle II at the moment. Things have reached the point where before anything else can advance, Janis needs to decide that she wants to open a history/culture center. So far that thought has not occurred to her. She needs to go visit the city Eenin again to find out that they could really benefit from such a center. And that it would help the outlanders understand the forest Eenin better also, instead of being mired in all the misconceptions that they have about the native folk. Especially since the city Eenin don't, themselves, have a good grasp on their own heritage.
Unfortunately, that means I have to invent the city Eenin. Or re-invent them, rather. I had stuff from 2006, and maybe I can even figure out a way to use some of it, because there were some compelling scenes out of it. The whole context for their existence has shifted a lot, though. And now I'm kind of stuck on how to go about it.
On the other hand, while I was digging around in my notes from over a decade ago, back when this was still a WoD setting, to try to find the original inspiration behind why Janis wants to open the culture/history center (there basically wasn't anything specific), I stumbled across notes for the Myan end of the storyline. And now I kind of want to go work on that instead.
I wrote in this blog back then (2009) that the biggest problem was a lack of viewpoint characters. At this point I've decided that those are going to be Suunja Henderson and Martha Bernice Carlson to start with. That's going to be revision work though, not new work. What I need to write is the actual battles that destroy the city (or cities).
It occurs to me that it might actually work best to write that from the viewpoint of one of the zombies. Or, by extension, from the viewpoint of the Demon.
So far the Demon has had no screentime at all, no character development, nothing but a name. His role for most of the series is to be asleep. But I need to write him anyway because he's going to be in the third part of Amulet I. So why not get some glimpses into what he's like, what his motivations are, etc. as filtered through the eyes of a zombie?
I need 3000 words today. I think that's what I'm going to try next.
I'm basically stuck pretty good on Triangle II at the moment. Things have reached the point where before anything else can advance, Janis needs to decide that she wants to open a history/culture center. So far that thought has not occurred to her. She needs to go visit the city Eenin again to find out that they could really benefit from such a center. And that it would help the outlanders understand the forest Eenin better also, instead of being mired in all the misconceptions that they have about the native folk. Especially since the city Eenin don't, themselves, have a good grasp on their own heritage.
Unfortunately, that means I have to invent the city Eenin. Or re-invent them, rather. I had stuff from 2006, and maybe I can even figure out a way to use some of it, because there were some compelling scenes out of it. The whole context for their existence has shifted a lot, though. And now I'm kind of stuck on how to go about it.
On the other hand, while I was digging around in my notes from over a decade ago, back when this was still a WoD setting, to try to find the original inspiration behind why Janis wants to open the culture/history center (there basically wasn't anything specific), I stumbled across notes for the Myan end of the storyline. And now I kind of want to go work on that instead.
I wrote in this blog back then (2009) that the biggest problem was a lack of viewpoint characters. At this point I've decided that those are going to be Suunja Henderson and Martha Bernice Carlson to start with. That's going to be revision work though, not new work. What I need to write is the actual battles that destroy the city (or cities).
It occurs to me that it might actually work best to write that from the viewpoint of one of the zombies. Or, by extension, from the viewpoint of the Demon.
So far the Demon has had no screentime at all, no character development, nothing but a name. His role for most of the series is to be asleep. But I need to write him anyway because he's going to be in the third part of Amulet I. So why not get some glimpses into what he's like, what his motivations are, etc. as filtered through the eyes of a zombie?
I need 3000 words today. I think that's what I'm going to try next.
2014/08/11
Second Draft: The Second Drafting ...
So far my second draft process for Fortress Launne seems to be:
1. Assemble all the drafts into one big file.
2. Skim them while compiling them into the one big file, but don't edit anything.
3. Make a duplicate copy of each draft to actually work on.
4. Do detailed rereads of each one. Make an outline of what the story looks like it's supposed to be.
5. Iterate. Rewrite the older stuff, write new stuff to fill all the holes.
I haven't done #4 for Amulet II or Myan yet, but it's certainly been a helpful exercise for the others.
The Flattening of a Temple
This was the one I wrote first (2004), and it has by far the most setting holes. It was also highly melodramatic - I can definitely tell that my writing skills improved as the years went by. The ones from 2007 forward are very readable as-is. Temple on the other hand, I think I'm basically going to have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
I'm probably going to keep the original structure idea, sort of. Start the story with the epic battle scene. Then have the king start an investigation into why that happened. Once the background is laid out, go back to the battle and cover all the parts that the king isn't going to find out about. End with Pedro. Of all the parts of the original draft, I really like the last few sentences with Pedro and Sarabelle.
The outline I made has pointed out a number of important holes in the story, too. Notably with Felicia. By the time I figure out how to fix that, I'm hoping it will also help with figuring out Antoine and the rest of the mages.
Other than that... well, I tried to reread my notes from all the tinkering I did between 2004 and 2006 or so. But I'm probably going to ignore most of it. It was a useful exercise for something, I'm sure, and all part of the process.
Amulet II
It basically has occurred to me that Triangle I -->Amulet II --> Temple is a story arc about the Reiter House. The tower gets built in Triangle I and demolished in Temple. So this one will likely make more sense from Antoine's point of view when I figure out what his point of view was in Triangle I - and also what Felicia's goals were in Temple.
Triangle II
The outline for this one turned out to be straightforward, much to my surprise. The first half is going to draw heavily on the Janis draft of 2006, where I basically wrote everything Janis is going to do and why, but didn't have the scenes in the right order, or the right setting elements pinned down yet. Then in the middle will be the court scene from Taint. And then there's a whole other half I haven't written yet, which will be from Jacob's point of view.
In general, the structure reminds me of Amulet I because it's in three parts (sort of). Only, the middle part with the king's court is actually quite short - only about 3 chapters or so. Whereas Aunlania is the longest part of Amulet I (so far, anyway). Also: the Janis part of the story, which will be around 20k words long, just like the Edward part of Amulet I ... can in fact actually be a completely complete story with all loose ends wrapped up and etc ... just like Edward's story would be if Lucien's spell actually worked.
I still find it kind of amusing that I had no idea that there was going to be a single coherent book in this part of the timeline until after I'd finished Nano 2006. Of course, on the other hand. I have a sneaking suspicion that what I'm writing isn't actually 7 novels. It's more like 15-20 novelettes, where each segment is 20k words long....
Amulet I
The broad outline for this one is relatively straightforward ... probably. I sort of plotted out a sensible order of useable scenes from the 2006 and 2007 attempts. And then there's huge new blanks to fill in again for what happens after I run out of outline, that explains why the Duchenes and the Eenin are talking to each other.
I don't know why I have so much trouble with this one. I'm starting to have doubts about whether the Duchenes are even supposed to be in the Fortress Launne series, since, as noted, the Edward part of the story could be its own completely independent story. Plus the random scene about Charles and a tree and a prophecy and etc. I kind of wish I'd gone with it now, just to see where it went, because the only other time a scene like that randomly appeared (Thomas and Arrun fleeing Edward in Amulet I 2005), it was because I was doing the whole rest of the story wrong.
The Fall of Myan
So far I've reread the first draft and reread my notes from this blog. The rough outline I'd figured on before is probably what it'll end up being - where it starts out by following Suunja, then he eventually runs into Martha, whereupon it then goes over Martha's storyline about Endron Oil, and then moves Suunja and Martha forward together until they run into the zombie storyline. Then it would cut back to the Rouge Rogues. Something like that.
Eventually I run out of both outline and draft, though. I haven't written what happens after the zombies start their attack. I stalled out on what specifically the attack strategy was. At some point I'm still going to have to figure that stuff out.
Birthright
This one also has a three-part structure. It starts with scenes of Janis and Felicia at the Culture Center, and ends with Jalai in Mindy's house (along with others). The whole middle is a mobster story where they fight over possession of the magic box. I don't think I should intersperse anything in between - better to just let the readers immerse in that one for the whole go. I have a fairly detailed outline for the mobsters. The biggest problem is that it needs some kind of satisfying ending, where everything gets resolved to the mobsters' satisfaction. I can't just suddenly take the box away from them and leave them all hanging.
Triangle I
A lot of this one is ready to go as-is. The biggest problem is a complete lack of motivation for Antoine. I need to give him either a really good reason to try to kill Frank, or, he was trying to do something else and poisoned Frank by accident. Either way, there needs to be more to the character than what I have at the moment. And have it somehow also be related to everything else the mages do in the other books.
I guess that's it for where things currently stand.
1. Assemble all the drafts into one big file.
2. Skim them while compiling them into the one big file, but don't edit anything.
3. Make a duplicate copy of each draft to actually work on.
4. Do detailed rereads of each one. Make an outline of what the story looks like it's supposed to be.
5. Iterate. Rewrite the older stuff, write new stuff to fill all the holes.
I haven't done #4 for Amulet II or Myan yet, but it's certainly been a helpful exercise for the others.
The Flattening of a Temple
This was the one I wrote first (2004), and it has by far the most setting holes. It was also highly melodramatic - I can definitely tell that my writing skills improved as the years went by. The ones from 2007 forward are very readable as-is. Temple on the other hand, I think I'm basically going to have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
I'm probably going to keep the original structure idea, sort of. Start the story with the epic battle scene. Then have the king start an investigation into why that happened. Once the background is laid out, go back to the battle and cover all the parts that the king isn't going to find out about. End with Pedro. Of all the parts of the original draft, I really like the last few sentences with Pedro and Sarabelle.
The outline I made has pointed out a number of important holes in the story, too. Notably with Felicia. By the time I figure out how to fix that, I'm hoping it will also help with figuring out Antoine and the rest of the mages.
Other than that... well, I tried to reread my notes from all the tinkering I did between 2004 and 2006 or so. But I'm probably going to ignore most of it. It was a useful exercise for something, I'm sure, and all part of the process.
Amulet II
It basically has occurred to me that Triangle I -->Amulet II --> Temple is a story arc about the Reiter House. The tower gets built in Triangle I and demolished in Temple. So this one will likely make more sense from Antoine's point of view when I figure out what his point of view was in Triangle I - and also what Felicia's goals were in Temple.
Triangle II
The outline for this one turned out to be straightforward, much to my surprise. The first half is going to draw heavily on the Janis draft of 2006, where I basically wrote everything Janis is going to do and why, but didn't have the scenes in the right order, or the right setting elements pinned down yet. Then in the middle will be the court scene from Taint. And then there's a whole other half I haven't written yet, which will be from Jacob's point of view.
In general, the structure reminds me of Amulet I because it's in three parts (sort of). Only, the middle part with the king's court is actually quite short - only about 3 chapters or so. Whereas Aunlania is the longest part of Amulet I (so far, anyway). Also: the Janis part of the story, which will be around 20k words long, just like the Edward part of Amulet I ... can in fact actually be a completely complete story with all loose ends wrapped up and etc ... just like Edward's story would be if Lucien's spell actually worked.
I still find it kind of amusing that I had no idea that there was going to be a single coherent book in this part of the timeline until after I'd finished Nano 2006. Of course, on the other hand. I have a sneaking suspicion that what I'm writing isn't actually 7 novels. It's more like 15-20 novelettes, where each segment is 20k words long....
Amulet I
The broad outline for this one is relatively straightforward ... probably. I sort of plotted out a sensible order of useable scenes from the 2006 and 2007 attempts. And then there's huge new blanks to fill in again for what happens after I run out of outline, that explains why the Duchenes and the Eenin are talking to each other.
I don't know why I have so much trouble with this one. I'm starting to have doubts about whether the Duchenes are even supposed to be in the Fortress Launne series, since, as noted, the Edward part of the story could be its own completely independent story. Plus the random scene about Charles and a tree and a prophecy and etc. I kind of wish I'd gone with it now, just to see where it went, because the only other time a scene like that randomly appeared (Thomas and Arrun fleeing Edward in Amulet I 2005), it was because I was doing the whole rest of the story wrong.
The Fall of Myan
So far I've reread the first draft and reread my notes from this blog. The rough outline I'd figured on before is probably what it'll end up being - where it starts out by following Suunja, then he eventually runs into Martha, whereupon it then goes over Martha's storyline about Endron Oil, and then moves Suunja and Martha forward together until they run into the zombie storyline. Then it would cut back to the Rouge Rogues. Something like that.
Eventually I run out of both outline and draft, though. I haven't written what happens after the zombies start their attack. I stalled out on what specifically the attack strategy was. At some point I'm still going to have to figure that stuff out.
Birthright
This one also has a three-part structure. It starts with scenes of Janis and Felicia at the Culture Center, and ends with Jalai in Mindy's house (along with others). The whole middle is a mobster story where they fight over possession of the magic box. I don't think I should intersperse anything in between - better to just let the readers immerse in that one for the whole go. I have a fairly detailed outline for the mobsters. The biggest problem is that it needs some kind of satisfying ending, where everything gets resolved to the mobsters' satisfaction. I can't just suddenly take the box away from them and leave them all hanging.
Triangle I
A lot of this one is ready to go as-is. The biggest problem is a complete lack of motivation for Antoine. I need to give him either a really good reason to try to kill Frank, or, he was trying to do something else and poisoned Frank by accident. Either way, there needs to be more to the character than what I have at the moment. And have it somehow also be related to everything else the mages do in the other books.
I guess that's it for where things currently stand.
2009/03/29
Yet another generic progress update title
Finished Chapter 4 of Vengeance. Aaron didn't much like the ransom letter, and Craig offered to help him get Alice back.
So far, the plan for Chapter 5 is to start out with Craig coming back from scouting out the warehouse where Alice is, and cross paths with Rumen, who is on his way to feed. They compare notes and decide that they need to get Alice back before Aaron gets there - and without telling Aaron that that's what they're going to do. Basically, it would be bad for Hernando if Aaron actually gets to the meeting and gets stuck in an agreement with the bad guy before Hernando has a chance to get an agreement with Aaron (which, of course, the bad guy knows, which is why he wants to get it set up as fast as possible, before anyone else can react).
Then, Chapter 6 will have both of them plus some of Rumen's minions breaking into the warehouse to get Alice. When Aaron arrives, they'll be waiting to hand her over to him.
That's the plan, anyway. I'll be rather surprised if it actually works out that way. ;) So far, the whole thing is about 5k words.
Meanwhile, my thoughts are turning toward Myan again. I worked out the political setup of the city (which is largely based on the interaction dynamics of Zynga's game, Mafia Wars, which I play on Facebook T.T). I'm leaning in the direction of starting over from the beginning, write up the serial killer plotline as I outlined here earlier (now that I have an actual protagonist, which I didn't have when I wrote it the first time). On the other hand, there's something to be said about continuing where I left off and actually reaching an ending before tinkering with any of it.
So far, the plan for Chapter 5 is to start out with Craig coming back from scouting out the warehouse where Alice is, and cross paths with Rumen, who is on his way to feed. They compare notes and decide that they need to get Alice back before Aaron gets there - and without telling Aaron that that's what they're going to do. Basically, it would be bad for Hernando if Aaron actually gets to the meeting and gets stuck in an agreement with the bad guy before Hernando has a chance to get an agreement with Aaron (which, of course, the bad guy knows, which is why he wants to get it set up as fast as possible, before anyone else can react).
Then, Chapter 6 will have both of them plus some of Rumen's minions breaking into the warehouse to get Alice. When Aaron arrives, they'll be waiting to hand her over to him.
That's the plan, anyway. I'll be rather surprised if it actually works out that way. ;) So far, the whole thing is about 5k words.
Meanwhile, my thoughts are turning toward Myan again. I worked out the political setup of the city (which is largely based on the interaction dynamics of Zynga's game, Mafia Wars, which I play on Facebook T.T). I'm leaning in the direction of starting over from the beginning, write up the serial killer plotline as I outlined here earlier (now that I have an actual protagonist, which I didn't have when I wrote it the first time). On the other hand, there's something to be said about continuing where I left off and actually reaching an ending before tinkering with any of it.
2009/01/17
A Post!
Been a while since I've checked in.
I stopped working on Myan basically after I finished writing the previous blog post. Ironically it's probably the one that I have the best clue about how to finish - but my mind has wandered off to other projects.
At the moment I'm back on Nanowrimo 2007 - Edward. Some brainstorming rose up over Christmas break, and then I reread what I already had, and now I'm trying to figure out how best to use the brainstorm ideas. Basically, the ritual I'd written before - plus the scene immediately before it - are getting crossed out. They'll be useful for prose fodder later, but I'm paring back to the point where Charles realizes that Edward is dead, and moving forward from there.
So, what's next? James needs to get Charles back together again, and then they need to go talk to Negituka and Aliacorba about designing a ritual. Those scenes will cannibalize the first draft discussion I already have. Then I write the updated version of the ritual. If all goes according to plan, I'll know how to proceed after it's over, too.
Another online community I'm in, called the UCF (stands for any number of things depending on who you ask and when you ask it, but "Us Cool Folks" is a good stand-in), has plans for a February writing marathon similar to Nanowrimo. That's when I'll probably doing the bulk of the above-mentioned writing.
All in all, I'm feeling better about writing as a whole these days. In the Fortress Launne series, there are now: Edward (2007), Amulet II (2005), Temple (2004), and Myan (2008). (In 2006 I wrote stuff, but nothing coherent, apparently. o.O) The worldbuilding around all of these is starting to fall into place. There's a lot of work to do, but at the moment it doesn't feel overwhelming. I think I can I think I can. :)
The Rumen stories are on the backburner at the moment. I worked out a bit of backstory for one of the other protags in The Hand over Christmas break too, but it's staying in rumination mode for the duration.
I stopped working on Myan basically after I finished writing the previous blog post. Ironically it's probably the one that I have the best clue about how to finish - but my mind has wandered off to other projects.
At the moment I'm back on Nanowrimo 2007 - Edward. Some brainstorming rose up over Christmas break, and then I reread what I already had, and now I'm trying to figure out how best to use the brainstorm ideas. Basically, the ritual I'd written before - plus the scene immediately before it - are getting crossed out. They'll be useful for prose fodder later, but I'm paring back to the point where Charles realizes that Edward is dead, and moving forward from there.
So, what's next? James needs to get Charles back together again, and then they need to go talk to Negituka and Aliacorba about designing a ritual. Those scenes will cannibalize the first draft discussion I already have. Then I write the updated version of the ritual. If all goes according to plan, I'll know how to proceed after it's over, too.
Another online community I'm in, called the UCF (stands for any number of things depending on who you ask and when you ask it, but "Us Cool Folks" is a good stand-in), has plans for a February writing marathon similar to Nanowrimo. That's when I'll probably doing the bulk of the above-mentioned writing.
All in all, I'm feeling better about writing as a whole these days. In the Fortress Launne series, there are now: Edward (2007), Amulet II (2005), Temple (2004), and Myan (2008). (In 2006 I wrote stuff, but nothing coherent, apparently. o.O) The worldbuilding around all of these is starting to fall into place. There's a lot of work to do, but at the moment it doesn't feel overwhelming. I think I can I think I can. :)
The Rumen stories are on the backburner at the moment. I worked out a bit of backstory for one of the other protags in The Hand over Christmas break too, but it's staying in rumination mode for the duration.
2008/11/24
50,167 and won :)
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. :)
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. :)
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.
2008/11/04
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...
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