I'm a fair bit shy of my daily goals lately, but it's been that sort of week. Tonight was gym night, and as a result I'm the kind of tired that makes it hard even to type well. :-)
Still, any progress is better than no progress, and I have this coming weekend to make up word count, in the gaps between the event I'm helping Amy cover with her henna business. I also resolved an issue with my remote-desktop software on my home PC, so it will be much easier to write over my lunch hours from now on.
And now, to bed. But first, some work-in-progress:
Thursday, November 3, 2011
A bit shy today (2,685 total), but I blame my full schedule. [Long WIP, too]
Had a Dia de los Muertos celebration to attend today, and wound up unable to get anything NaNo done over lunch.
Still, I think tonight's 800+ words were worth the trouble, and highly informed by the "Day of the Dead" mood of the evening. A lengthy sample of it follows, after this section break.
Still, I think tonight's 800+ words were worth the trouble, and highly informed by the "Day of the Dead" mood of the evening. A lengthy sample of it follows, after this section break.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
NaNoWriMo Day One in the Can! (Also: WIP)
1,744 words, better than the minimum-per-day of 1,677. Not a punishing pace, but a good start. They say that the first casualty of war is the battle plan, and that's certainly the way it's working out for me. The way I wanted the story to start is not exactly the way it's going, but that's okay!
I'm making great use of a Mur Lafferty tip this year: the placeholder. It's amazing how much leeway and momentum one can preserve by simply writing [scene where this other bit happens I don't want to think about right now] and keeping going. Great stuff.
Okay, work-in-progress excerpt:
I'm making great use of a Mur Lafferty tip this year: the placeholder. It's amazing how much leeway and momentum one can preserve by simply writing [scene where this other bit happens I don't want to think about right now] and keeping going. Great stuff.
Okay, work-in-progress excerpt:
NaNoWriMo Countdown is Ticking!
I've been outlining and brainstorming all evening for the writing marathon (or chain of sprints... whichever) that is NaNoWriMo. I'm quite pleased with my story concept and character sketches so far (great artist steal...), and to boot, I'll be blogging here about my progress and thoughts as close to every day as I can.
This novel, tentatively titled Vitium Renata, will mark both my first novel-length foray into fantasy, as well as my first attempt at working up a fully-fledged magic system.
What it will not be, though, is an exploration of something I discovered at this past weekend's Magic City Writers group meeting, which is that I may have a real gift for writing horror, or at least the ability to derive a lot of fun and pleasure from the process. I will definitely be trying my hand at some horror stuff after NaNoWriMo has ended. Just in time for Christmas!
After the break, a little rough horror scene I did at the prompting of Kathryn, who was driving the 10-minute writing exercises that day. Be warned: it's gross!
This novel, tentatively titled Vitium Renata, will mark both my first novel-length foray into fantasy, as well as my first attempt at working up a fully-fledged magic system.
What it will not be, though, is an exploration of something I discovered at this past weekend's Magic City Writers group meeting, which is that I may have a real gift for writing horror, or at least the ability to derive a lot of fun and pleasure from the process. I will definitely be trying my hand at some horror stuff after NaNoWriMo has ended. Just in time for Christmas!
After the break, a little rough horror scene I did at the prompting of Kathryn, who was driving the 10-minute writing exercises that day. Be warned: it's gross!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Prep for NaNoWriMo
The office is painted and furnished (mostly), the Big Drumming Gig is behind me (finally), and November approaches (inevitably). I have several ideas and concepts in mind for the novel I want to write for NaNoWriMo, and I've begun getting them recorded, in mind-map and outline form. Exciting!
I'm going to be author-blogging more frequently, too: now that I'm moving distractions out of the way, I'm free to focus better around here.
Should be a blast. More to come!
-Rich
I'm going to be author-blogging more frequently, too: now that I'm moving distractions out of the way, I'm free to focus better around here.
Should be a blast. More to come!
-Rich
Friday, October 7, 2011
Progress on the Office; NaNoWriMo on the Horizon!
It's been a busy few weeks of late, between a full work schedule, lots going on around the house, and other aspects of Life Getting in the Way, but matters proceed apace.
I've managed to get the office cleaned out and painted, as visible here, and tomorrow I'll be moving a chair and a desk into the room, as well as hunting down a flat-panel monitor and desk chair so I can begin to get the room suitable for use in serious writing...
...Which is good, because this year I've decided (with Amy's blessing) to participate in NaNoWriMo again! For those who might not know, during the month of November of any year, participants in NaNoWriMo try to write a 50,000-word novel from scratch. It doesn't have to be good; it doesn't even have to be coherent. But it needs not to have any preexisting text written (though outlines are fine, if you swing that way), and to measure at least fifty thousand words by machine count before midnight, December 1 in your home time zone.
The goal is to teach participants that they can produce in quantity, and to overcome being intimidated by the magnitude of the task, since that's one of the most daunting aspects of novel writing for a beginning novelist. My prior efforts have peaked around 35,000 words, but I've made a lot of progress in terms of my mental writing "stance" since those old attempts, and I feel like 1,667 words a day ought to be no problem this time around, especially with the practice that Magic City Writers has given me.
The no-existing-text thing means that I'm going to have to let Oasis and Darwin Colossus lie fallow during November, but that'll probably be good for them in the long run. I have the skeleton of a post-apocalyptic story idea rattling around in my head that should do nicely as NaNo-fodder.
So, to sum up: I'm excited! I have a dedicated writing space, a new project, and NaNoWriMo participation to look forward to. I'll post more as things start to fall into place.
-Rich
I've managed to get the office cleaned out and painted, as visible here, and tomorrow I'll be moving a chair and a desk into the room, as well as hunting down a flat-panel monitor and desk chair so I can begin to get the room suitable for use in serious writing...
...Which is good, because this year I've decided (with Amy's blessing) to participate in NaNoWriMo again! For those who might not know, during the month of November of any year, participants in NaNoWriMo try to write a 50,000-word novel from scratch. It doesn't have to be good; it doesn't even have to be coherent. But it needs not to have any preexisting text written (though outlines are fine, if you swing that way), and to measure at least fifty thousand words by machine count before midnight, December 1 in your home time zone.
The goal is to teach participants that they can produce in quantity, and to overcome being intimidated by the magnitude of the task, since that's one of the most daunting aspects of novel writing for a beginning novelist. My prior efforts have peaked around 35,000 words, but I've made a lot of progress in terms of my mental writing "stance" since those old attempts, and I feel like 1,667 words a day ought to be no problem this time around, especially with the practice that Magic City Writers has given me.
The no-existing-text thing means that I'm going to have to let Oasis and Darwin Colossus lie fallow during November, but that'll probably be good for them in the long run. I have the skeleton of a post-apocalyptic story idea rattling around in my head that should do nicely as NaNo-fodder.
So, to sum up: I'm excited! I have a dedicated writing space, a new project, and NaNoWriMo participation to look forward to. I'll post more as things start to fall into place.
-Rich
Twitterfeed test
Had a glitch with Twitterfeed URLs pointing to a bad location within the new Blogger. Giving this another try.
-Rich
-Rich
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