A Singularity

Writing Session

Word Count: N/A

Didn’t do any actual writing today. I did more outlining for Everlasting. This is mostly because I found that if I have a good outline, I can write out wrinkles that make me want to not write the next scene. Unfortunately the outlining didn’t go very far. I ended up falling into the trap of doing some organizing. I re-organized how I was keeping track of minor characters as I realized all the ones I was trying to write about were scattered within one long file, so I broke it out into different files and my inner categorizer went “WHEEE!” and argued over how to classify things and people. Ugh. But I did get some outlining in. Perhaps about 100 words or so. Every little bit helps.

Everlasting Update

Word Count: N/A (138,163)

I’m actually about four or five scenes a head in the outline but I’m at the fuzziest part of my novel, the end. I know where I want to stop but I’m still pushing to get my characters there. Right now one plot line is seemingly far behind the others and I’m not sure where it is going, hence why I’m focusing on the storyline.

Editing & Critiques

I am currently editing a manuscript for a friend and critiquing a long piece of work for another friend. I want to blog about my process as I go through them but I’m not going to go into any specifics or reveal spoilers. So these projects will have code names! Huzzah!

Basement

Basement is a novel a friend of mine has been writing for a very long time. It s actually gone through other media iterations and is now in book form. To put it into book terms it is the equivalent of urban fantasy with a main female heroine battling the forces of evil, with a high dose of sarcastic humor.

I’ve started copyediting it. I’m almost done with the first chapter. Copying editing is very interesting because I find myself reading sentence for sentence trying to determine if it is saying something interesting, and also making sure the commas and periods are in the right place. One key aspect of writing that I’ve always heard from various sources is that the “he said/she said” tags are more important that one expects, and I’ve found that to be the case here.

Sea Witch

Sea Witch is a fantasy spy thriller novel one of my writing group has currently been working on. I’m actually very happy to receive a critique copy, although the first draft is not yet done. I’ve been hearing about this book for several years now. I received the critique copy as an epub, which I found kind of interesting, but I’ve requested a more easily annotated manuscript.  So I’ll be updating more about this later.

Other Works

Everlasting Windows - On hiatus going on shelved until I get Everlasting done and start editing, at least a year for now. So I’ll go ahead and officially say it is shelved.

Free Write - On Hiatus. I finished Disguise

Station – Waiting to be edited.

Matrix – Hiatus.

Gerald - No work done.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013

Session Count: 3,406
Word Total: 16,732 (delta: -13,268)

So today is the last day and obviously if you’ve looked at my numbers I’m nowhere near my goal. Do not be sad. I resigned myself to not reaching my goal a week or so ago. It was a conscious decision, mostly. I got a little anti-motivated after a few scenes, and then I was busy on the weekends. I decided it wasn’t worth the stress. So this will be my official second failed NaNo related project, but I got fifty percent of the way there and made some great progress on Everlasting. So it was totally worth it. I’ll likely be doing a Novel in Ninety Days, which is a more low-key than NaNoWriMo, only requiring seven hundred and fifty words a day.

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 138,163

So I am running out of outline for one of my major storylines. The one involving the airship, which is the least planned of all the storylines as it is. None of the storylines have a full outline, so I think that is what I will concentrate on before I start novel in ninety. That’ll be my goal for May 15th. Whee. Otherwise Everlasting is going well. One scene in particular really wrote itself rather quickly. Another broke me for about two days and then suddenly worked. Not sure what I’m suppose to take away from that though.

Other Works

Everlasting Windows

On hiatus going on shelved until I get Everlasting done and start editing, at least a year for now. So I’ll go ahead and officially say it is shelved.

Free Write

Regular. I’m wrapping it up and putting it into hiatus once Disguise finishes up, which will likely be in a few weeks, in order to better focus on finishing up Everlasting.

Station

No work done. Still needs to be edited.

Matrix

No work done.

Gerald

No work done.

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!

Writing Sessions

Word Count: 1,034

What you write really does have an effect upon your speed. Last time the scene just sort of flew from my fingers. This time it took a bit of effort. I still got my word count goal but I wasn’t sure about the characters or what they should be doing, despite having a rather detailed outline. Some of the outline didn’t make a lot of sense. There was tone that my initial writing wasn’t quiet getting. Overall it was an okay writing session. Not great, not bad. So I won’t bash it too much.

Everlasting Update

Word Count: 120,424

Today we returned to Tigh and his two suicidal friends, trapped in a truck surrounded by zombies. You’d think that’d be fairly easy to write but in actuality I had a bit of a time pushing the tone of ear and desperation. Something to worry about in editing, of course. I had some issues with the blocking of the scene as well. Three characters in a cramped truck cabin. I have a surprise waiting for them in the back of the enclosed truck, once they get it working. Will my reader be fine with the idea that the military of this world over-engineers their vehicles to be accessible and fixable from the inside as well as outside? I think so. Combat in this world is based upon skirmishes and sieges. I just need to work that into the rational. Maybe bring it up in the prior scenes before they get trapped in the vehicle?

Other Works

Everlasting Windows

On hiatus.

Free Write

Regular. Currently exploring another novel concept tentatively titled Disguise.

Station

No work done. Still needs to be edited.

Matrix

No work done.

Gerald

No work done.