NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 10

Well I wasn't intending on writing tonight, but I decided to go ahead and give it a shot anyway. I wanted to get ahead in my word count in anticipation of Thanksgiving weekend. But I was a little confused on where to take the story next. I know where the next big beat is, but for some reason I was having a bit of trouble visualizing how to get to it.

So I'm not sure how much of this chapter will end up in the final version. I had my rogue character talking to her friend about her encounter with the misanthrope. It was fun to craft the conversation, but I'm not sure how much new or interesting material is revealed. All it might have done was given the friend a bit more opportunity to be fleshed out in the novel. She hasn't been in too many scenes yet and she will have an important part to play. Of the four acolytes, she is the most devoted to the Goddess.

So the writing was a little tough tonight, but I met by goal and that was what I was shooting for.

Stats for the evening:

Page Start: 113

Page End: 120

Total Word Count Start: 47643

Total Word Count End: 50542

Nanowrimo Word Count: 22910

Music:

• Jupiter Ascending – Michael Giacchino
• John Carter of Mars – Michael Giacchino

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 9

So I had my first snag last night. I was all set to get some writing done, but life came in and smacked me around a bit. Between some bad news and all the craziness of the election I didn't want to do anything more than sit around and watch some mindless sitcom (Big Bang Theory if you must know). I'm a little worried only because my writing time is limited this week. Thursday and Friday are pretty much shot, and I doubt I will be able to write both days over the weekend. So I had to push past my typical goal of 2778 words a session. I managed 3709, not double, but a good boost. I've been over in my count this whole time and that is adding up. I'm at 20011 words so far. It is ahead of the average. That is where I want to be as we move closer to Thanksgiving - the time of no writing at all. :)

As for where I am in the story, well I just hit a new chapter where two characters play a bit of word fencing. I love writing conversation scenes (probably too much), and this one was a lot of fun. The time just flew by as I had each of these characters spar, giving hints as to their goals and how it will impact the protagonists and antagonists. Both of these characters feel they are puppet masters of sorts, but that is for the reader to decide when the story is done.

That section made me realize that one of the themes of this novel is going to be faith versus cynicism.  I never really thought about it in those terms, but that is one of the cruxes of conflict in the story. My protagonists are acolytes to The Great Goddess. They're actions are motivated by their belief in the path the Goddess sets before them. The antagonists are motivated by greed, fear and a world view that doesn't allow for faith in anyone but themselves (and sometimes not even that). I think that that time spent really fleshing out there backstories and perspectives of these six character will keep them from being one dimensional. I think the reader will really understand where they are coming from, and even sympathize with the antagonists on some level. When these two meet it will be a clash not only of arms, but also of ideals. And since I'm writing it, neither one will escape unscathed.

I don't think this is the only theme in the story, but it was made very clear in the dialogue scene I wrote tonight. In On Writing Stephen King feels that themes aren't something a writer should focus on in the first draft. They should be worked in during the later drafts, to give extra texture and depth to the novel. But identifying them early on it is always a good thing.

Stats for tonight:

Page Start: 103

Page End: 113

Word Count Start: 43934

Word Count End: 47643

Music:

• Gods of Egypt – Marco Beltrami
• The Monkey King – Christopher Young

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 7

Got started a little late tonight, but was still able to meet my word count. Tonight's writing was a lot of description. I'm not sure how much of it is going to end up in the final draft. I usually find that going into too much detail of settings or movement through the settings can actually end up confusing the reader. But leave too much out and you aren't actually giving the reader enough to flesh out in their mind. It is a delicate balance I think.

In this case, I have my protagonist rogue character sneaking around a temple complex. I went into a lot of details about her sneaking around guards, staying in the shadows and climbing walls. Fun to imagine all these details, but I wonder how it will all read.

What was interesting was fleshing out a bit of her backstory during this sequence. The reason she is going to all this trouble is to talk to another one of her race. She's been living among humans for a long time, so she is excited to meet someone like her. But as I mentioned in my last post, this antagonist is a misanthrope. So their dialogue was quite a bit of fun to write, as the protagonist goes from perky and cheerful, to confused, to disturbed, to outright terrified by the antagonist. Yeah it was good.

Here are the stats for tonight:

Page Start: 97

Page End: 103

Word Count Start: 40850

Word Count End: 43934

Music:

• Princess Mononoke – Joe Hisaishi
• Wonder Woman – Christopher Drake

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 6

Got in some good writing today. Finished one chapter and started in on another. Leading up to the moment when one of the protagonists actually interacts with one of the antagonists. It should be a bit of fun to write. The protagonist is a curious rogue character. The antagonist she chooses to meet with is a cynical, bitter rogue character, who pretty much hates everyone. It should make for some entertaining conversation to write.

I'm nearing the end of Act One here. The middle act is going to be the main journey/adventure portion of the story. I'm looking forward to seeing how my characters deal with each other and the perils in store for them.

Here are the stats for the day.

11/6/16

Page Start: 89

Page End: 97

Word Count Start: 37854

Word Count End: 40850

Music:

• Conan the Barbarian (Complete) – Basil Poledouris

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 3

So I reread what I wrote last night and did some slight editing. Mostly tightening up some repetition (my biggest fault in the first draft). Since last night was a rough one, I knew that what I wrote was needing some work.

One aspect of this novel (and many fantasy novels) is the journey. My antagonists are on a journey as the story starts and they eventually run into my protagonists who start their journey later in the story to the same goal. I need to balance story with world description, something I don't usually do too much of in my thriller/horror stuff. But i'm having fun describing the lands the antagonists are traveling through as well as their adventures and interactions with other characters.

The problem with the world last night was that a lot of that journey material was missing. So I added some good description where I could and actually used the antagonist's musings to feed on the environment around him. They on a slow river heading into a jungle Heart of Darkness style. I had some fun with the jungle setting affecting how this poor guy is feeling about the whole mission.

This mini rewrite helped me feel more confident as I got into the new material. This included a lot of description of The Great Southern Temple that plays a key role in the story. Had lots of fun painting a word picture of this ancient and colossal place. I may even get to use the Lovecraftian favorite adjective - cyclopean!

In any case, it was a good night of writing, and Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Steven's epic score to Masada made it even better. I'll take tomorrow off and then either Saturday or Sunday will be another writing day.

Stats for this this evening.

11/3/16

Page Start: 83

Page End: 89

Word Count Start: 34574

Word Count End: 37854

Music:

• Masada (Parts 1 through 4) – Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 2

Today at work was a bit of a soul sucker. So it was hard for me to get back into the world of the novel. But I pushed myself and met my word count for the day. I finished a chapter and started a new one. I'm playing around with POV in this novel. I usually stick to one character in most of my horror/thriller stories. But with so many characters in this fantasy story I'm actually jumping around quite a bit.

I'm eight chapters in so far. The first three chapters were from one of the protagonists point of view. There are four protagonists. The next three chapters were from one of the antagonists point of view, and there are four primary antagonists. Chapter seven actually jumped between all four protagonists as they experienced a ritual in different ways. I felt it gives the reader insight into each of these women and how they are going to view the coming adventures. Chapter eight is starting with a different antagonist, but I'm not sure I'm going to switch away from him. I kind of like the perspective he gives everything.

Hopefully this experiment works. I try not to jump around too much, but I think I can pull it off in this story.

Stats for the evening:

Page Start: 76

Page End: 83

Word Count Start: 31672

Word Count End: 34574

Music:

• Copernicaus' Star - Able Korzeniowski
• Braveheart - James Horner

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 1

So here we are again with a new log for my National Novel Writing Month. Like my posts from last year, these will be off the cuff and done after I've completed by writing for the night. So if they get a bit confused or contain more grammatical errors than I usually let by, I blame the lateness of the hour.

So this year I decided to do things a bit differently, but only by necessity. You see I already started working on a novel over the summer. It was a fantasy adventure story set in a world of my own design. So I spent most of August and good chunk of September crafting my main characters, drawing maps, creating some legends and lore for the world and some additional historical elements that are going to play into the story. I wanted to get these down so I had a solid reference as I progress through the story.

But I learned long ago that this stuff is just a guideline. I have to let my imagination run along a bit so that things stay fresh and interesting as I write.

And yes, I did start writing the novel in September and through a good chunk of October. As I was trucking along, I started to realize that this novel was going to be a bit longer than I originally thought (at least from a word count/page count perspective). I think all that world building helped me visualize a lot of these settings and people, creating more description than I usually tackle. Not sure if all of it will make it past this first draft, but it is an unusual development.

That said, I figured I would be further along in the novel when November rolled around, and I was ready to sit NaNoWriMo out. But looking at the fact that I was on page 67 and not even a third of the way through, I figured I could give it a shot.

So I'm shooting for the 50,000 word goal by the end of November. That means I need to hit about 2778 words for each time I sit down to write. I'm looking to write about four days a week. I'm not sure if that goal will be the end of the novel or not. If I do end the novel somewhere in the middle, I still have plenty of legends and lore, history and other elements I can write about. Because if I'm still having fun with this world after finishing this book, I can see this becoming a series. Yes, the world needs another fantasy series. :)

I think that is enough babbling for now. I'll start giving some more plot and character details in later log entries. But here are the vitals for this round.

Page Start: 67

Page End: 76

Word Count Start: 27632

Word Count End: 31672

Music:

• The Wind Gods – Pinar Toprak
• The Egyptian – Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman
• Dragon Age Origins – Inon Zur