Here is the brief post-NaNo wrap up, for anyone who's interested: I finished out November at 50,543 words, which is more than I've written in the last three years combined, I believe. Not that I'm counting or anything. I FINALLY finished Cry the Wolven, and started on the second book of the series, Hunt the Fallen, which is now at 30K. I'm playing with calling the series itself The Fallen World. Seeing as the whole thing will only be two books long though, I'm not sure it deserves its own title...
Oh, what else. Not much to report, really. December goal is to finish HtF, and then in January I'll start on edits for CtW using NaNoPubYe. I also have a kinda-secret-side-project going for January and February, called Loveblind, which will hereafter be tagged as "Adventures in Smut". Yes. You heard me. After that it'll be time for EdMo, and after that...
...well, honestly, I can't think further than four months out, so we'll just have to wait and see, won't we? :)
Question for everyone who's done editing: January edits on CtW are going to be fairly preliminary, with the basic goal of lengthening the draft and a quick continuity check. Any advice on how to edit without "going all the way" (such as One-Pass)? I'm trying to save all my hardcore work for EdMo... Commentary appreciated!
- Location:Hither
- Mood:
accomplished
*falls down ded*
Also, a very Happy Turkey-Lurkey Day to everyone!
- Location:Hither
- Mood:
amused - Music:Death Cab for Cutie- Crooked Teeth
Words (Total as of Today): 42,143/50,000
Mood: *half-heartedly flails a grumpy tentacle*
Treat: Rondnoir. Because scribbles said so.
Here is a breakdown of why I might be grumpy:
- The weather has been horrendous and atmospherically unstable for the past week. Generally this would be great for the novelling except walking back and forth everyday in rain/wind storms gets a little draining. Throws off the internal barometer.
- Got caught in a rant from someone who said, in a nutshell, that anyone who Zokutou's NaNo is cheating and doesn't deserve to verify and win. Also, that bringing pre-written material into NaNo somehow made it easier to win, regardless of the fact that those who bring in pre-written material STILL HAVE TO ADD 50K TO THEIR DRAFT BY THE END OF THE MONTH. Now, I know this is a contentious subject and everyone has their own opinions, but the reality is that it's a silly little internet contest. I'll get there my way, you concentrate on getting there your way. In other words, BACK OFF. (Also, I am supposed to be over this by now, but apparently it is still bugging me.)
- A couple of people in my OL writer's group quit NaNo today. I'm sure they have very good reasons and they are certainly entitled to do so, it's just generally depressing. One of them is further ahead then I am.
-Once I figured out that CtW is supposed to be two books, and (more importantly) that CtW1 was finished, I kinda lost my momentum. What's the point if the draft is done? Sure, my brain thinks, you still have 15K left for NaNo, but the draft is finished, and isn't that what you set out to do with NaNo anyways? Why go on now?
Every day this week, I've wanted to quit. Every day this week I've let other things and other people influence my mental status until all I hear is the repetitive chatter of "What's the point?" I could throw in the towel. I achieved the major goal I had of finishing CtW1. I could stop and give myself a break and forget about the last 8K I need to finish NaNo.
Instead, I am grumpy. I sit at my desk every night and drag my grumpy self into chat and peck at my keboard and whinge. Because I said I was going to write 50K this month, and there is not one single person (or weather event) out there who is going to stop me now.
(Besides, if I quit, my mom will take my $20 in finish-NaNo-prize money and donate it to the Republicans, and I can't let the terrorists win.) ;)
- Location:Hither
- Mood:
grumpy - Music:Hurricane Bells- Monsters
Haha I tricked you, you thought this was a Daily Report. Lucky for both of us, it is not. Instead, you get a mini-snip, because I can!
( Read more... )
Otherwise my night was a crapfest. Hoorah!
- Mood:Angsty
- Music:Band of Skulls- Friends
Words (Written Today): 1,857
Mood: Rusty
Treat: 2012!!! Disaster/Apocalypse movies FTW!!!
First Line (Written Today): Cheers erupted from the crowd.
Last Line (Written Today): “After all,” said Arya, “Demyan and I have a history together as well.”
Favorite Line (Written Today): “Bah,” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “Decades I have watched over these shores, Demyan Shadowsoul. Centuries in which Azrehl and his kind have threatened our way of life. Not once…not one time in all of those years have they ventured here. Not. Once.”
“This time will be different,” he said to her. “This time, they will come. This time, Illowen will not escape.”
Oh, sigh. I have to apologize for the lack of updates over the last week- Week 2 ate my soul. I also took the weekend off to go to Sew Expo with my mommy, which was very much fun but not good at all for production. My word-cushion has quickly dissapeared! But now it's Week Three and I expect things to get better, so hoorah for that!
- Music:Death Cab for Cutie- Meet Me at the Equinox
Words (Written Today): 4,264
Words (Total as of Today): 20,315/50,000
Mood: Woot, for I am at 20K, and it’s only the start of Week 2!
Treat: Umm…nothing. Drat. But hey, now I get a 20K prize on Friday!!!
First Line (Written Today): She said nothing as they rode forth in the morning, only led her horse to follow his own.
Last Line (Written Today): “At last,” Arya breathed, heart thrumming with excitement, and opened the door to the teahouse.
Favorite Line (Written Today): “I will tell you of my name…” But her eyes closed and she was lost to sleep, and if he whispered the secret of his name in the darkness of that room, her ears did not hear it.
Tiiiiiiired, meh. I have no interent access at home still, so weekend updates are non-existent. Hoping to get that fixed this week. Otherwise, I am at 20K and happy about that, seeing as the Week 2 Blues are starting to strike everyone...
The last line I wrote seems a little anti-climactic when taken out of context. Oh well. ;)
- Location:that place that gives me money in exchange for my soul
- Mood: accomplished
- Music:Third Eye Blind- Walking with the Wounded
Words (Written Today): 2,122
Words (Total as of Today): 13,183/50,000
Mood: I like what I wrote. I’m getting a little worried about plot…
Treat: I watched a pretty good movie earlier (Blindness). Tomorrow I get my SHINY 10K SECRET PRIZE, which I am very excited about!!!
First Line (Written Today): …he was laughing in her mind, laughing as she wandered through the streets, broken buildings surrounding her like the teeth of a dark, dangerous maw…
Last Line (Written Today): When next sunlight approached the horizon, a caravan left for the Shining City, and Arya Tev’Aren left with it.
Favorite Line (Written Today): Night grows longer every year, Wren thought. Long enough and there will be no sun to save us- we shall be devoured by the darkness.
Plod. Plod. Plod. I would like to get to 15K tomorrow, but I have Bunco and don’t know if I can make it happen. We shall see. Otherwise, I am happy for forward momentum, even if I’m beginning to find myself with a distinct lack of candy-bar scenes to work with. Boo, transition work. Also, oh em gee italics!
- Location:that place that gives me money in exchange for my soul
- Mood:
excited - Music:Foo Fighters- Let It Die
Words (Written Today): 1,033
Words (Total as of Today): 11,061/50,000
Mood: Meh. Tonight was like pulling teeth, only worse. Did it suddenly become week 2 and no one told me?
Treat: None tonight.
First Line (Written Today): Arya stood for a moment, transfixed as the old woman paused behind the counter and smiled. “Yes, child?” Mother Idra said, wide smile revealing crooked, broken teeth. “What is it? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”
Last Line (Written Today): “I’m sure it will be no problem,” Arya said smoothly, setting a stack of coin on the desk. “The constable will not mind.”
Favorite Line (Written Today): “You do know,” she said to him, “that in my land, it is bad omen to refuse coin when offered.”
I have nothing else to say for the moment, as it seems I have misplaced my brain. Glee!
- Location:That place that gives me money in exchange for my soul
- Mood: amused
- Music:Augustana- Sweet and Low
Words (Written Today): 2,515
Words (Total as of Today): 10,028/50,000
Mood: I wrote 10K and all I got was this stupid daily report.
Treat: I am rocking out to Fall-Out Boy. Do not judge me. J
First Line (Written Today): ...elsewhere, as nightfall brings autumn mists that conceal the footprints of strangers…
Last Line (Written Today): “I must find him…”
Favorite Line (Written Today): “Aram,” she said with soft anguish, cradling his head in her hands. “Aram, please, open your eyes. Look at me, brother…”
…and he did, but his eyes were not the green of new spring that lived so vividly in her mind, they were instead the grey of death, the grey eyes of the Wolven…
Hey look, all of my snippets end in ellipses…
In other news, I hit 10K, which I suppose I would be really excited about if I wasn’t so cranky. I don’t know what happened tonight, but I had a really hard time diving in. I spent most of the day dealing with low confidence, so that may have had something to do with it.
Anyhoo, I dropped the writing-chronologically thing and skipped around in the draft, adding scenes here or there where I thought I wanted them. This was actually really helpful, because once the words started getting stiff in one scene, I just hopped over to something else. Ended up tackling a really, really intense chapter near the end of the first story arc, and that took a lot out of me (but I’m proud of what I wrote, so am thankful for that, at least).
And now, to bed.
- Location:that place that steals my soul in exchange for money
- Mood:
cranky - Music:Fall-Out Boy- This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race
Words (Total as of Today): 7,513/50,000
Mood: Meh.
Treat: A game of Spider Solitaire- and I won, woo!
First Line (Written Today): Arya shrieked her friend’s name again, pushing against the Hunter in a desperate attempt to break free as the tree roots began to pull Meilahni’s body into the earth.
Last Line (Written Today): Sometimes a thing cannot be undone…but this thought he kept to himself in silence.
Favorite Line (Written Today): He was struck from behind then and did not see anything more until he woke, again, in the tent; hands forcing his jaws apart to make way for the devilish wine, and he drank, drank so deeply they had to pull it from him by force, and as the change came over him once more he laughed and laughed and laughed.
Things went okay this morning. I’ve been working in chronological order, which is a new thing for me, and although things have been going well I’m beginning to get bored. Overall, I’m not really in love with any of my prose yet. One of those things that I’m hoping will come with time.
I meant to be much more productive today, but I was overcome by the terrible nap monster this afternoon, boo. Nap monster strikes again!
- Location:Hither
- Mood:
contemplative - Music:Jack Johnson- Let It Be Sung
Words (Written Today): 4,236
Words (Total as of Today): 4,236/50,000
Mood: Beginner Glee/Beginner Angst
Treat: My awesome personalized NaNo Calendar that Jason made me…glee!!!
First Line (Written Today): …she dreamed of a small grove, lit with the late afternoon sun, and in it a man so familiar that her heart ached with recognition.
Last Line (Written Today): The trees seemed to move then, of their own accord, and suddenly dark roots burst from the ground and snaked across the fallen apples and emerald grass, wrapping themselves around Meilahni’s limbs.
Favorite Line (Written Today): The night wind blew down from the mountains, whispering promises of ice and snow, winter trickery made to fell men, and blustered through the assorted tents and caravans of Eshram’s Oddities and Wonderments.
Ending my day in the middle of an action-packed scene, which may not be the best idea but I am tired and cannot stare at the computer screen anymore. First day of NaNo and I’ve got that fantastic combination of “Hoorah, I have surpassed the Day 1 WC quota!” and “Oh em gee, I am writing a lot of crap.” I am SO out of practice, but I know that some of that will even out as I get back to daily writing. Also, it’s NaNo. I do not have to have standards this month. ;)
Quick note: For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m invoking the Zokutou (Zukotou?) clause for this NaNo and continuing work on my Novel-in-Progress, Cry the Wolven. Good thing too, as I’ve kind of promised myself the draft of CtW will be done come January 1st, and I need a lot of words to make that happen!
That is my boring first-day post. Good, witty blogs come with practice too, right? ;)
(Did not just totally try to write “write” instead of “right”. Oh, the nanoisms, how they abound.)
- Location:Hither
- Mood: accomplished
- Music:KT Tunstall- Heal Over
- Mood:
blank
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