Things That Are Awesome for November 24th, 2009
Wings of Avatars, Part II:
48575 / 50000
Of the four events that comprise the climax of the book, the two (relatively) small ones have occurred, and the next scene will be a rather long treatment of the landscape-altering third that is more or less the entire point of the book, with the fourth (or hellish aftershock) occurring two scenes later. There will probably be four scenes in two chapters of resolution to tie up over 100,000 words of character arcs and world-altering events. So that's seven scenes to complete in six days, except it'll really be more like five because Friday will be spent helping a friend move. Oh yeah, Thursday is Thanksgiving, so I can say goodbye to most of that day's progress too.
I really need to write more scenes today. My strep throat brought a friend: a sinus infection that makes it nearly impossible to focus or stay awake. I know this is such a tiny thing to most of you, but I haven't finished a story since Derek died, and writing is the one love I've had all of my life that always winds up getting sacrificed for other things. It makes me feel better and shelters my sanity sometimes when nothing else can. I wish I could earn money at it, and if the publishing industry weren't a bloated capricious dinosaur with PMS maybe I could. All that aside, it earns me real happiness in a world that's awfully stingy with that commodity.
In my writing I leave behind myself, my hopeless life and this punishing overcrowded world and escape to a fantastic tale that absorbs but doesn't involve me. It's like a full-on immersive VR moviegoing experience, or perhaps more like a video game in that I have to complete a series of tasks to advance to the next part of the story (in this case, transcribing what I observe). The end may not be happy, but it draws together all the threads and is right in a way that real life isn't.
It may not solve all the problems of my life but it makes me really forget them for a while, and in the end I have something much more enjoyable than an empty wine or rum bottle, into which I can escape again.
Edited to add: Oo-oo-oh, what a little tea and painkillers can do!
52067 / 50000
All right! Goal one of two reached! Here's the rest of the plan for National Novel Writing Month.
Chapters:
24.5 / 27
Based on the average length of all the chapters so far, here's how I've estimated the total length of the finished book (both parts!) and how close I am:
111870 / 122645
After each successive chapter I finish I'll re-estimate the total length, so from now on this will be the bar you see until I have plonked down the last word and the two word counts match exactly. I know in the eyes of NaNoWriMo's computers I've won, but way more important to me than getting all the words is getting all the story. Three of four climactic events down! Next one happens next chapter!
48575 / 50000
Of the four events that comprise the climax of the book, the two (relatively) small ones have occurred, and the next scene will be a rather long treatment of the landscape-altering third that is more or less the entire point of the book, with the fourth (or hellish aftershock) occurring two scenes later. There will probably be four scenes in two chapters of resolution to tie up over 100,000 words of character arcs and world-altering events. So that's seven scenes to complete in six days, except it'll really be more like five because Friday will be spent helping a friend move. Oh yeah, Thursday is Thanksgiving, so I can say goodbye to most of that day's progress too.
I really need to write more scenes today. My strep throat brought a friend: a sinus infection that makes it nearly impossible to focus or stay awake. I know this is such a tiny thing to most of you, but I haven't finished a story since Derek died, and writing is the one love I've had all of my life that always winds up getting sacrificed for other things. It makes me feel better and shelters my sanity sometimes when nothing else can. I wish I could earn money at it, and if the publishing industry weren't a bloated capricious dinosaur with PMS maybe I could. All that aside, it earns me real happiness in a world that's awfully stingy with that commodity.
In my writing I leave behind myself, my hopeless life and this punishing overcrowded world and escape to a fantastic tale that absorbs but doesn't involve me. It's like a full-on immersive VR moviegoing experience, or perhaps more like a video game in that I have to complete a series of tasks to advance to the next part of the story (in this case, transcribing what I observe). The end may not be happy, but it draws together all the threads and is right in a way that real life isn't.
It may not solve all the problems of my life but it makes me really forget them for a while, and in the end I have something much more enjoyable than an empty wine or rum bottle, into which I can escape again.
Edited to add: Oo-oo-oh, what a little tea and painkillers can do!
52067 / 50000
All right! Goal one of two reached! Here's the rest of the plan for National Novel Writing Month.
Chapters:
24.5 / 27
Based on the average length of all the chapters so far, here's how I've estimated the total length of the finished book (both parts!) and how close I am:
111870 / 122645
After each successive chapter I finish I'll re-estimate the total length, so from now on this will be the bar you see until I have plonked down the last word and the two word counts match exactly. I know in the eyes of NaNoWriMo's computers I've won, but way more important to me than getting all the words is getting all the story. Three of four climactic events down! Next one happens next chapter!