NaNoWriMo 2013
Final count: 25152 words and a palindrome. When doubling that, it is apparently 50304 and a winner's screen. Because I pressed control-V twice. >_> My bad.
Not that I have anything approaching a novel either way. This year's project was a continuatio of last year's: writing out a bunch of intertwining stories in the World of Darkness universe. I made an attempt at writing scenes, so I have a couple actual plots on my hands, but most of the words were devoted to world-building, to hammering out my characters, their powers, beliefs, and interplay. I think part of my issue with the writing is that I've practically forgetting how to write compelling prose, I'm now much better at picturing it visually and trying to describe that. Or I ignore the prose entirely and focus on the dialog. The project was further hampered by my constantly having to check the WoD rulebooks and wikis for various things. My attempting to mash together old World of Darkness with the new series is not helping much. But I have the gist of how it goes, and now that I'm not being paid by the word, so to speak, I can edit and organize all the thoughts and disconnected ramblings.
One thing that actually helped was having a voice recorder. I just talked into it while driving for a half-hour at a time, basically dictating the words to write down later. It often got repetitive because I didn't always keep things straight in my head (and would forget that I had already covered something, at length, only to think about it again and only remember my previous progress halfway through that talk), but it was great for racking up word count :P
As it stands, I have upwards of twenty characters, at least one trait for each of them to go on, potential character arcs for half of them, one semi-solid plot to pursue, and so many character details and events that I really should put it all on a timeline. This'll be fun.
I also have thoughts on the show Grimm (because I spent a week plowing through the second season) and Thor: The Dark World, because someone decided to release it during NaNoWriMo XP I think I'll post those here:
Thor thoughts:
- Did you check his pulse? Did it even cross your mind that you should probably bring his body, to the morgue and to be buried if nothing else? Thor, love you like a puppy. You've grown up a lot and may have potential to make a wise king, but no one will ever accuse you of having common sense.
- Someone in the costume or make-up department must have been hella proud of that braid design, because we got so many loving long shots of Mala-whats's braid.
- Lot of shout outs to Doctor Who, Portal and even the Animatrix.
- After Jane smacks Loki and he just laughs, I wish she'd punched him in the gut. Actually surprised him.
- I didn't know one could turn Darcy up to 11, but they succeeded.
- So many loving shots of what's-his-face's braid. They must have really been proud of that thing.
[And adding to this:]
Thor: Fun With Portals
Thor: You Wanted More Darcy And We Delivered
Thor: Long Hair Requires More Washing, Not Less
Thor: Clearly The Bifrost Needs An Inter-Realm Tele-comm System
Thor: Healthy Happy Family Relationships Are Not What You're Here For. Sorry.
Thor: My Mother Is Awesome But Don't Get Attached
Thor: Odin Is An Asshat; No One Likes Him
Thor: Prison Breaks As Team-Building
Thor: Loki Paid Way More Attention To Captain America Than We Thought
Thor: We Spent Hours On Chris Eccleston's Braid So BY GOD YOU WILL ADMIRE IT. STARE AT IT AND ADMIRE.
Thor: Jane Foster and The Sexy Lamp Test
Thor: Everyone Threatens Loki With Stabbing and are horrified when it actually happens
Thor: Has Healing Skills According To A Deleted Scene, But Can't Check A Pulse
Thor: God In The Brain; Would Not Recommend
Thor: So How's Barton Handling His PTSD?
Thor: Greenwich Mean Time
Thor: So Where Was SHIELD While Greenwich Was Portal'd To Rubble?
Thor: We Say Dark World, But Nothing In Our Physiology Suggests An Aversion To Light Or Ability To Function Without It. We Are Villains of Nonsense.
Thor: All The Character Moments And Quiet Breathing Scenes Were Cut. Hopefully They'll Be On DVD. Sorry.
Grimm is such a nice example for a Hunter living among Changelings, though it also sparks stories within its own universe. Like after The Good Shepherd, I want to know what happened to the two Seelengut women who ran off to Tahiti or wherever. Is Harmony's child going to be a Blutbad or Seelengut? What will they do when they run out of embezzlement money? Does Harmony know about the embezzlement (or at least her partner's involvement in it), and how would she react? Would the whole ordeal suggest to Miss Morstan (or whatever her name is) that she should devote her life to honesty and atonement, or does she see con work as the only viable way to keep their life together? Was she initially planning to separate from Harmony, just giving her a great trip to offset her misfortune, only to realize that they work well together, and form a bond? This is the story I want. That, and someone to suggest to the Gluenvolk that owning (or befriending the owners of) a slaughterhouse would be really beneficial for their rebuilding their population. And to find out whether Casey and that vet on death row approach Nick, asking if they can help him with his work. They both have pretty decent Hunter origin stories. I wonder if anyone else has wondered these things.
Man, I maybe should have edited those sections. ... Anyway.
I think this is also my first entry in the better part of a year? Sorry about that. I want to write more often, but I guess it's a matter of setting aside a time, and willing yourself to do that instead of watch something, play a game, or something else. Apparently LJ has had a draft of something in here since February. Apparently it was a sleep-writing exercise. It's out of date, and goes in many different directions, but I'll keep it around. It's a good exercise if nothing else.
Now, for December, which I shall try to devote to my library rentals, bookmarked fanfiction, neglected video games, and story editing. I also want to make time to write here more. I'll try. I suppose I have enough to talk about.
- Been watching, reading, playing, and hearing a lot of stories lately. So I want to put forward various fanfiction ideas, and see other people's reactions and if anyone's tackled them already (for example, the Grimm paragraph above). Perhaps cross-posting to tumblr would be good for this.
- I can ask for feedback about certain aspects of this WoD story, posting about one character or setting at a time (example: five of the characters run a farm together. Am I doing any aspects wrong?).
- And there have been some things going on for me in real life that I should respond to through writing.
Hope it happens. I know LJ doesn't seem to be as active as it used to, but I've been reading your posts. Hope you're still reading too. I also hope you guys transitioned to Autumn well, that your Thanksgiving was good and that Black Friday didn't kill you. May December treat us even better.
Laters <3
Not that I have anything approaching a novel either way. This year's project was a continuatio of last year's: writing out a bunch of intertwining stories in the World of Darkness universe. I made an attempt at writing scenes, so I have a couple actual plots on my hands, but most of the words were devoted to world-building, to hammering out my characters, their powers, beliefs, and interplay. I think part of my issue with the writing is that I've practically forgetting how to write compelling prose, I'm now much better at picturing it visually and trying to describe that. Or I ignore the prose entirely and focus on the dialog. The project was further hampered by my constantly having to check the WoD rulebooks and wikis for various things. My attempting to mash together old World of Darkness with the new series is not helping much. But I have the gist of how it goes, and now that I'm not being paid by the word, so to speak, I can edit and organize all the thoughts and disconnected ramblings.
One thing that actually helped was having a voice recorder. I just talked into it while driving for a half-hour at a time, basically dictating the words to write down later. It often got repetitive because I didn't always keep things straight in my head (and would forget that I had already covered something, at length, only to think about it again and only remember my previous progress halfway through that talk), but it was great for racking up word count :P
As it stands, I have upwards of twenty characters, at least one trait for each of them to go on, potential character arcs for half of them, one semi-solid plot to pursue, and so many character details and events that I really should put it all on a timeline. This'll be fun.
I also have thoughts on the show Grimm (because I spent a week plowing through the second season) and Thor: The Dark World, because someone decided to release it during NaNoWriMo XP I think I'll post those here:
Thor thoughts:
- Did you check his pulse? Did it even cross your mind that you should probably bring his body, to the morgue and to be buried if nothing else? Thor, love you like a puppy. You've grown up a lot and may have potential to make a wise king, but no one will ever accuse you of having common sense.
- Someone in the costume or make-up department must have been hella proud of that braid design, because we got so many loving long shots of Mala-whats's braid.
- Lot of shout outs to Doctor Who, Portal and even the Animatrix.
- After Jane smacks Loki and he just laughs, I wish she'd punched him in the gut. Actually surprised him.
- I didn't know one could turn Darcy up to 11, but they succeeded.
- So many loving shots of what's-his-face's braid. They must have really been proud of that thing.
[And adding to this:]
Thor: Fun With Portals
Thor: You Wanted More Darcy And We Delivered
Thor: Long Hair Requires More Washing, Not Less
Thor: Clearly The Bifrost Needs An Inter-Realm Tele-comm System
Thor: Healthy Happy Family Relationships Are Not What You're Here For. Sorry.
Thor: My Mother Is Awesome But Don't Get Attached
Thor: Odin Is An Asshat; No One Likes Him
Thor: Prison Breaks As Team-Building
Thor: Loki Paid Way More Attention To Captain America Than We Thought
Thor: We Spent Hours On Chris Eccleston's Braid So BY GOD YOU WILL ADMIRE IT. STARE AT IT AND ADMIRE.
Thor: Jane Foster and The Sexy Lamp Test
Thor: Everyone Threatens Loki With Stabbing and are horrified when it actually happens
Thor: Has Healing Skills According To A Deleted Scene, But Can't Check A Pulse
Thor: God In The Brain; Would Not Recommend
Thor: So How's Barton Handling His PTSD?
Thor: Greenwich Mean Time
Thor: So Where Was SHIELD While Greenwich Was Portal'd To Rubble?
Thor: We Say Dark World, But Nothing In Our Physiology Suggests An Aversion To Light Or Ability To Function Without It. We Are Villains of Nonsense.
Thor: All The Character Moments And Quiet Breathing Scenes Were Cut. Hopefully They'll Be On DVD. Sorry.
Grimm is such a nice example for a Hunter living among Changelings, though it also sparks stories within its own universe. Like after The Good Shepherd, I want to know what happened to the two Seelengut women who ran off to Tahiti or wherever. Is Harmony's child going to be a Blutbad or Seelengut? What will they do when they run out of embezzlement money? Does Harmony know about the embezzlement (or at least her partner's involvement in it), and how would she react? Would the whole ordeal suggest to Miss Morstan (or whatever her name is) that she should devote her life to honesty and atonement, or does she see con work as the only viable way to keep their life together? Was she initially planning to separate from Harmony, just giving her a great trip to offset her misfortune, only to realize that they work well together, and form a bond? This is the story I want. That, and someone to suggest to the Gluenvolk that owning (or befriending the owners of) a slaughterhouse would be really beneficial for their rebuilding their population. And to find out whether Casey and that vet on death row approach Nick, asking if they can help him with his work. They both have pretty decent Hunter origin stories. I wonder if anyone else has wondered these things.
Man, I maybe should have edited those sections. ... Anyway.
I think this is also my first entry in the better part of a year? Sorry about that. I want to write more often, but I guess it's a matter of setting aside a time, and willing yourself to do that instead of watch something, play a game, or something else. Apparently LJ has had a draft of something in here since February. Apparently it was a sleep-writing exercise. It's out of date, and goes in many different directions, but I'll keep it around. It's a good exercise if nothing else.
Now, for December, which I shall try to devote to my library rentals, bookmarked fanfiction, neglected video games, and story editing. I also want to make time to write here more. I'll try. I suppose I have enough to talk about.
- Been watching, reading, playing, and hearing a lot of stories lately. So I want to put forward various fanfiction ideas, and see other people's reactions and if anyone's tackled them already (for example, the Grimm paragraph above). Perhaps cross-posting to tumblr would be good for this.
- I can ask for feedback about certain aspects of this WoD story, posting about one character or setting at a time (example: five of the characters run a farm together. Am I doing any aspects wrong?).
- And there have been some things going on for me in real life that I should respond to through writing.
Hope it happens. I know LJ doesn't seem to be as active as it used to, but I've been reading your posts. Hope you're still reading too. I also hope you guys transitioned to Autumn well, that your Thanksgiving was good and that Black Friday didn't kill you. May December treat us even better.
Laters <3