A Singularity

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 1,407
Word Total: 13,326 (delta: -2,674)

Today’s writing was a little halting. I added to a scene I wrote yesterday which got me about six hundred words rather quickly. Starting a new scene with a new set of characters, the rest of the words took a little bit longer but not as bad. I got to describe and introduce two new characters and I think I handled a slight info dump partially well by using it to help characterize the two new characters. Yay me!

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 134,757

We’re getting there. Our group of military types have what they need to take on entire hoards of zombies and get to their last bastion and my specialty character is informing the reader about a situation they are about to arrive in. My third group is engineering the seeds for how our survivors might actually survive and triumph during this mess. I’m nearly at the end!

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 1,695
Word Total: 11,919 (delta: -3,081)

So yeah I had a busy weekend of not writing. Hence the negative delta. The NaNoWriMo website says I need to write 1,131 words per day to meet my goal, which sounds perfectly feasible, so that is what I’m going to do and likely then some.  I only wrote a little bit last Thursday, about two hundred words, and then wrote nothing until today. A small sabbatical I suppose. Still today’s writing session went very smoothly and interestingly. I had one minor hang up with editing but I wrote in about five hundred word chunks, only checking my word count twice.

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 133,350

Three scenes in a row about Armor. I like Armor. I like the idea of it. It doesn’t fit well in my story so I’m wondering if I’ll need to cut it. The idea is basically steampunk styled mechanical power armor. Like most weaponry in this world, highly deadly, but mostly used in ceremonial sport so it rarely kills anyone. Armor is primarily used for defense, or assaulting standing defenses, as it provides the wearer with an incredibly strength, endurance, and actual armor, but at the high expense of mobility. Actually thinking about it I should put some Armor in the airship camp. It actually is a decent anti-zombie weapon, as long as you aren’t too swarmed.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 2,189
Word Total: 10,224 (delta: +1,224)

So this entry encompasses yesterday and today’s writing sessions. Combined a grand total of over two thousand words. In reality I wrote only about eight hundred yesterday and the rest today. Today is my typical writing day. Yesterday I just didn’t have the time. Today I just wrote pretty quickly. So overall good sessions.

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 131,655

I’m finding that one of my plot lines seems “behind” the others. Or perhaps its that one of them is too far ahead of the others. Either way I’m writing a few more scenes for this plot line than the other. I’m actually onto three scenes without switching back to the other two, which is just how it’s going to go. I”m not going to worry about it. Editing is far in the future.

I’m finding myself thinking about my other unedited stories, now that I’m writing for Everlasting every day. Stupid other stories, trying to distract me!

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 2,448
Word Total: 8,035 (delta: +1,035)

So I actually did today’s writing in two small sessions. One in the morning and one after lunch. I got a package in the mail of some stuff I ordered that I told myself I wouldn’t open until I got at least two thousand words. That really seemed to help motivate. Writing was also actually a little easier when I didn’t have an entire work day behind me but only a little. Now I’m a little over one thousand words ahead of my goal. So yay for a buffer!

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 129,466

Today’s scenes with the other two plot lines who aren’t quiet near the climax that the other one is. Or the penultimate climax I suppose. But they were far easier scenes to write. I’ve been thinking about Everlasting, and I suspect I’ve had this revelation before, but I’ve really been writing three novels at once. The three plot lines have characters that rarely ever interact, save at the beginning and end of the novel. I suspect my first real edit through of story content will be to perhaps write each plot line linearly, rather than writing each scene, to make it flow well. With the breaks I’ve taken between writing, and switching between scenes, I’m sure I have tons of continuity errors. Especially with people’s injuries.

So I need to plot all the major plot points which effect all three groups (major events that happen to the city) and then write each plot line linearly. I might even write each character point of view for every scene. That’s a lot of extra writing, since I’ll want to vary the POV, but it might be useful. I’m not sure. I’ve always wondered if maybe what I’m writing isn’t a novel but a series of short stories or novellas about what happened to people during one major event.

But for now, I just gotta keep writing till the end.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 3,240
Word Total: 5,587 (delta: -413)

So this is actually a combination of the last three days, of which I only really wrote on two of those days. Bad, I know. But now I’m only about four hundred words behind so I’m not feeling too bad. I have most of tomorrow to get some writing done as well, so I plan to catch up then.

The whole camp thing for NaNoWriMo doesn’t really seem to be working. My camp is kinda dead. I think if some more communication tools had been used other than just a small message board, this might have worked out better. Like an activity meter where you can challenge your cabin mates to long-term word wars or something? Simulate being at a camp and doing activities, except all the activities are powered by word counts. 

Luckily a friend of mine (who I didn’t get into a cabin with) made a Facebook group, which has actually worked out rather well. We’ve been mostly posting our daily word counts and sharing stuff, which has been fun.

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 126,998

I’m actually starting to run out of outline. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m needing to write an outline of my next scene after I finish my writing for the session, which is awesome in some ways, and annoying in others. But it also means I’m very very close to ending this novel! YAY! I think I’m going to throw a party when this is done. Yes I do think so. Any ideas what kind of party it should be?

Today’s scene was one of the groups of characters making it to the airship docks, which is apart of my end game. Now all that needs to happen is to get the other group to the docks, then everybody on an airship! Whee!

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 1,047 
Word Total: 2,347 (delta: +347)

Today’s session was better than yesterday’s. It only took me an hour to write a thousand but I still felt like I was forcing myself. There were some minor distractions so I’ll count this word count as a good success. I’m still positive!

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 123,758

Today’s scene was with Lee. It’s about half done from what I outlined and it went okay. We’ll see how tomorrow fairs.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Word Count: 1,300 (delta: +343)

So apparently NaNoWriMo is going summer camps. Two of them. The first started today. Unlike normal National Novel Writing Month, you set your word count to whatever you want it to be. Also unlike normal month, you don’t choose your friends. Instead you are sorted into cabins with random people. Supposedly you can request others to be in your cabin but that did not work for me. So in theory I’ll be working on Everlasting again this time around, with a 30,000 word goal, which averages to around 1000 words a day

Thirteen hundred exactly, which kind of surprise me. I wonder if Scrivener is trying to cheat for me. Anyway getting started writing the current scene I was one was kind of tough. It took me two hours to write all thirteen hundred words and in reality the last six hundred only took me maybe thirty minuets. It was a talking scene, not a lot of drama, and it got me worried about all my inconsistencies and plot holes. Ugh. But I powered through anyway!

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 122,721

So yeah. My goal is to try and finish Everlasting by the end of the month, so I can be free of it until I try and edit it. Assuming I don’t just trunk it forever and start over, which is what I totally want to do right now. I know it sounds horrible but today was one of those days where it felt like I really do have one hundred and twenty two thousand seven hundred and twenty one words of crap, plus all my world building and such. Actually the world building I’ll want to keep… anyway things will look better tomorrow. Hopefully!

Word Count: 5,829 [1]
Total Word Count: 50,147 (Delta: N/A)
Remaining: -147

AND DONE! I decided to finish this evening, rather than stretch it out over this week. Which means once I’m done writing this article, I’m bound for home, and then reading Cold Days by Jim Butcher. YAY ME! Writing today was not the easiest writing session but by no means the hardest. I got to a scene that was actually slightly in my outline and so I knew what was supposed to happen. There was still a lot of making stuff up, but as you can see I wrote nearly six thousand words in about four hours, so it was pretty easy-going. I was focused!

NaNoWriMo 2012

I am not sure if I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo next year. This year was fun, if hectic, but I might be getting to a point where I really want to sit down and write something that is well planned out as I write, and not just worry about word counts. Three NaNos in a row have proven I can meet  a word count. Now I want to see if I can make something really finish with a coherent plot.

Monster Hunters

So monster hunters is getting shelved for now. It’s a neat idea but it was too complex for NaNoWriMo. It needs polishing before I can pick it back up again, and I want to redouble my efforts on Everlasting before I do that, or tackle a few of the short stories I have running around my head. Fans of Monster Hunters need not fear. I have the entire project saved and backed up, including some awesome notes and research ideas suggested by some friends to improve the quality of the novel later. So when I revisit it, I’ll be even more awesome. Until then!

Word Count: 4,117 [3]
Total Word Count: 44,383 (Delta: +1,041)
Remaining: 5,617

Today’s writing session was not as productive as I would have liked. Luckily the writing session of the prior days has kept me ahead of the deadline. I’m about half and a half thousand words from finishing and boy do I really want to be done with this. My last NaNoWriMo I felt rather satisfied with the story I wrote, even if knew it wasn’t that good. This one is feeling like my first second NaNoWriMo, except that the cool concepts I wanted aren’t there, and the characters aren’t there… and nothing is there. Because I haven’t written it.

I really am something of an outline at heart, and I haven’t been taking the time to outline, so writing has been somewhat grueling. I really only wrote two and a half thousand words this evening and it took me several hours to do it, and even an hour just to get into the right frame of mind to do it. My goal today was to knock out about three or maybe four thousand words to hopefully finish NaNo by tomorrow. I didn’t. But I might still finish it out tomorrow. We’ll see.

Monster Hunters

There is something here but boy is it rough. This manuscript is totally getting shelved. And when I dust it off next, I’m not even going to try to finish what I have. I’m going to take it, use it as a basis for an outline, and outline a far better story that doesn’t meander so much at the beginning like this one did. Definitely going to do that.

We got to meet one of the other main characters for the first time today. Doctor Wila Sylvan. Zora’s boss. And what does she do? She just kinda rants at her. I was rather surprised. I think I made it make sense but it still bothers me that this is the character’s introduction. She was also intended to be a POV character. So I’m thinking if I go back and write her POV, her reaction is going to make far more sense.

I’ve realized part of the problem with the POVs is that I want there to be a surprise reveal for the reader, that can’t be there if I’m writing from the POV of a bunch of characters already in the know, somewhat, and one character who isn’t. That’s definitely something that needs fixing.

Ahh well. Six thousand more words and then I can fix it all I like…

Writing Buddies

Where as I’m just trudging along, writing in order to stop, CinsAngel and LacyJae are still at it. CinsAngel has broken fifty thousand words! And Lacy Jae just broke sixty thousand words! Both of you are amazing and congratulations!

Word Count: 3,300 [1]
Total Word Count: 40,266 (Delta: +1,925)
Remaining: 9,734

The end is in sight! Only ten thousand or so words to go. I can knock that out easily (knock on wood). The irony is that I”m nowhere near where I thought I’d be in my book. But that’s for the next section. Writing session went well today. It took me about two hours to write my total word count, with a small break for dinner. I was really able to concentrate for most of that so awesome. When I have a good visual in mind, I find it easily to describe stuff. Of course I worry that describing stuff will put it too much in stone and not serve the plot later. Something to worry about in editing though I suppose.

I have a lot to worry about in editing, huh?

Monster Hunters

My characters are only just now arriving at Gateway. /Arriving/ at the place where the main story takes place. I haven’t even introduced the other half of the cast. I’m almost afraid to switch POVs only because it’d make no sense to now, right? This novel was intended to be a multi-POV story but I’m wondering if it should be? Am I writing another epic? I don’t want to.

But that’s all worries for another time. I spent a good amount of this session describing the land around Gateway. I have a neat visual of how it looks in my head. No idea if it is ecologically feasible. Gateway is in a mountainous region but set in a grassland surrounded by canyon. The grassland was excessively hilly so the initial settlers of Gateway tamed giant Brontosaurus like creatures, and flattened the land into distinct levels, diving up the hills into pastures for farming, live stock ranging, housing, and other such things that make civilization possible. So I’m visualizing something similar to the rice fields of the eastern portions of Earth, where the rice is field is non-continuous and on different levels in the side of huge mountains. It seems like a neat idea to me. I’ll include the description in the excerpt below.

Writing Buddies

I’m happy to announce my writing buddy Lacy Jae had won her first NaNoWriMo! According to her word count she is at an astounding fifty-one thousand and more words. Congratulations Lacy Jae! It’s annoying that you’re ahead of me but still awesome that you finished so early! My other active writing buddy is also way ahead of me with forty nine thousand words and counting. They’re both totally going to beat me. Which is great! Really! I promise!

Writing Excerpt

The ride to Gateway as uneventful as the prior day’s travel. The terrain transformed very slowly from open grassland to a dryer brush covered terrain with more hills and bushes, and less flowers and saplings. Hills were an interesting distraction in the transports but they were never a real nuisance. At one point Zora’s particular transport shifted direction and an amazing mountain range came into view in the distance. Zora had never lived near a mountain range but she loved the idea of being able to wake up int he mornings and peer out at the mountains in the distance. Details were lost in the atmospheric haze but she imagined these mounds of earth were large enough to gather snow caps all year around. She found herself hoping that they were close to Gateway so that she could keep this view. Despite the threat of headaches, she turned on her implants long enough to take a picture of the view, just incase.

As it turned out, Gateway was significantly further away but the view remained, not of the far away mountains but of the very real and present mountains in Gateway’s backyard. Zora, behind inside, wasn’t treated to a view of her new home until she exited the transports but it became obvious they were getting into far rockier terrain when she awoke from a nap to find almost nothing but stone directly outside the window. Apparently the transports were now traveling through a ravine. It wasn’t a very narrow one and there appeared to be a small river running through it. Zora tried to lean towards the window but the pain in her arm didn’t let her look up to see where the ravine’s top was. Eventually however they exited the ravine into the first sign of civilization. Fields of produce surrounded the transports and the natural terrain gave way obviously dirt roads. Here the banto obviously felt a little squashed. The road was really only one and a half banto in width, which was more than enough room for several transports or armored horses.

Still the banto seemed to want to weave along the road and it wasn’t until later that Zora figured out why, when she saw a massive head and neck lean over into the view of her window sniff at one of the fields of produce. There was an audible sound while it did this, followed by some shouting from the driver above that was loud enough to be heard below. The banto eventually decided that incurring the wrath of its drivers wasn’t worth it and kept moving but it made a sound that was obviously some kind of annoyance at having to walk past what was probably a feast for it.

On the other hand if Sam was right, every plant on those fields was a precious resource. She couldn’t see very far into the distance, event from her elevated position. The fields were actually participated by elevation. The area had obviously been very hilly but the land had been cleared and flattened to allow for produce. With tamed banto available, Zora didn’t imagine it had been very hard. But the hills ended in more rock face. Zora’s curisoity was enough that she eventually asked Janet to look around the other windows. Janet eventually reported that they must be in some kind of canyon because there was rock face everywhere, and the same cultivated fields.

There was distinct advantages and disadvantages to setting up in a canyon. If the ravine they entered was the only real entrance, then they were well defended but on the other hand they were also trapped. The fields, however, seemed to go on for a while, so she supposed any kind of siege could be outlasted as long as access to the fields weren’t cut off. The fields didn’t hold just produce however. As the transports rolled on, some of the elevated fields appeared reserved for herd animals, likely for food or some other resource. There were even some cottages and one very elaborate wooden house that Zora and Janet ooohed over appreciatively.