NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 22

Another day I get a late start, but another day I don't let that stop me. I pressed ahead to finish may action scene. Gotta say that I could see this sequence appearing in a classic adventure film with the antagonists battling a stop motion Ray Harryhausen monster that emerges from the river and attacks. Had some fun coming up with a way for them to escape a bloody demise.

That chapter ends with the leader of the antagonists worrying about the toll the dangers are taking on the groups unity and if he has enough pull to keep them together to achieve his ends. Then I started in on the next chapter focusing on my protagonists as they begin their journey through the jungle to reach the same final location. Of course the path isn't going to be easy for them either. Some of the challenges will be geographical, but I have some monstrous elements in store for them too. Harryhausen creatures all around.

Of cours this meant I had to listen to some Harryhausen music. "Jason and the Argonauts" is one of Bernard Herrman's most bombastic and colorful adventure scores. Fit great with the monstrous creature attack that I started the writing out with, especially the music for the Talos scene in the film.

Stats for the evening:

11/22/16

Page Start: 161

Page End: 169

Word Count Start: 69360

Word Count End: 72625

Nanowrimo Word Count: 44993

Music:

• Jason and the Argonauts – Bernard Herrmann
• Fire and Ice – William Kraft

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 21

I got another late start today. We are hosting Thanksgiving again, so when I get home from the office I try to get some stuff down around the house. So I was messing around for a good while before I finally had dinner and then sat down to write. I was afraid I was going to end up barely meeting my goal, so I just focused on the task and kept writing.

I was even able to ignore the cat who came in to remind me when his snack time arrived with some yelling and a gentle tap on the arm. But other than a quick break for his snack, I kept writing and writing and writing. I actually passed by target by about 1000 words, which brings me ever so much closer to my final goal for the contest. That's great news, because I'm thinking that I'm not going to get much more writing done this week. We'll have to see.

What helped me keep writing was working on a pretty exciting action sequence, that popped into my head on break at the office. It made for a surprising peril and it actually leads directly into the original peril I thought up for this scene. Back to back dangers really put the characters on their toes. They were fracturing before, but now a couple of them are really questioning what the hell they are doing in this jungle hell.

As for the musical selections, well Goldsmith always writes great action cues. Both these scores deal with characters in and around water, so it seemed fitting for the writing tonight.

The stats:

Page Start: 153

Page End: 161

Word Count Start: 65513

Word Count End: 69360

Nanowrimo Word Count: 41728

Music:

• Deep Rising – Jerry Goldsmith
• Congo – Jerry Goldmith

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 20

I had planned to get some writing done on Saturday and maybe even get some more done on Sunday. But Saturday turned out to be a bit of a bust, so I was only able to get writing done today. Still traveling up the dark river with my antagonists. They are getting closer to their goal and things aren't going quite as well as they hoped. There is tension in the ranks, and they are about to run into a big challenge. I'll be tackling that tomorrow. But for today I got to write as the misanthrope for a bit. That was fun.

Not much else to add. I'm still having fun writing, even though i'm still a bit nervous about overworking this section of the story. I'm really curious to see how it reads and how much trimming it will need.

Here are the stats for today:

Page Start: 146

Page End: 153

Word Count Start: 62474

Word Count End: 65513

Nanowrimo Word Count: 37881

Music:

• Ben Hur (1959) – Miklos Rozsa
• Dragonheart – Randy Edelman

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 17

Got a bit of a late start tonight so I'm going to keep this one the short side. Had a bit of trouble getting back into the mind of the loathsome antagonist. But once i got there it wasn't too bad. I covered the first peril they run into and then they get to talking about some of the legends around the river they are traveling. One of the concepts in this story is that there are all these stories and legends that permeate this world. But some cultures see the same events in different ways. As they are talking this occurs with one story being about the birth of a glorious kingdom, and the other seeing it a corrupt race perpetuating itself.

I had a good conversation with my wife about one of my protagonists who was feeling a bit one note. She gave me some good insight into the mind of someone who strives so hard because they are insecure about themselves. That element is missing from this character, who is coming across more like a straight up bitch. I think my second draft will build on those insecurities a bit more, giving her a bit more depth and maybe even making her sympathetic at times.

Well that's all for tonight.

Stats:

Page Start: 139

Page End: 146

Word Count Start: 59506

Word Count End: 62474

Nanowrimo Word Count: 34842

Music:

• Dragon Age 2 – Inon Zur
• Red Sonja – Ennio Morricone
• Sword and Sorcery Spectacular – Basil Poledouris

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 15

Well it finally happened. I started act two. Yay! I got my protagonists on the Path of Trials and my antagonists traveling up the river toward their final destination. Now I'll get to write all kinds of challenges and perils for them to encounter and attempt to survive. I have a few already planned out. Some are environmental hazards. Some are wild creatures roaming the jungles. Some are traps laid out to prevent treasure seekers. And some will be generated by conflict between the characters as the path becomes more and more difficult.

This is actually one of the original portions of the story I thought up when the idea for the story first tickled my brain. I was reading about the Maya, and how their ruins were hidden in the jungle and the perils that archeologists encountered trying to find them. I suddenly had an idea of a fantasy adventure story set in jungle setting similar to that. I'd never read a fantasy story that used that kind of setting before. So I daydreamed up some of obstacles, some based on the history of the Maya book I was reading. Others based on fantasy tropes. I think I've got a good mix going and it should make for some exciting writing and I hope reading.

Writing from the perspective of a particularly loathsome antagonist right now. Its a bit challenging, because he isn't a very bright guy, but he is cunning. He isn't super observant and pretty much only aware of what he wants and needs. A very in the moment kind of guy. It is proving fun to write but also a bit of a challenge, especially after writing for four well educated and very pious women. This guy is a brutal pig.

Stats for the evening:

Page Start: 132

Page End: 139

Word Count Start: 56389

Word Count End: 59506

Nanowrimo Word Count: 31874

Music:

• The Hobbit (playlist) – Howard Shore

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 14

Didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I wasn't really feeling the writing bug tonight either. But I pushed ahead anyway and actually met my goal. Most of what was happening was the acolytes going through some final ceremonies and rituals before they start on the Path of Trials. Again, I'm not sure how much of this will end up in the final draft. It feels right to be adding all these details to the world I'm creating, but how much of this is going to be interesting to a reader? Not sure.

But since I'm using the perspective of the different acolytes as they experience these rituals, we are getting some good character stuff in there too. In addition, the High Priestess tells us a bit more about what is actually at stake on this Path of Trials during he ritual. It is really spelled out for the first time here, and I think that works fine.

So my next writing session will have the four girls starting on the path and finally, finally heading into act 2. No really they are. :)

And yeah, I was listening to some Star Wars scores today. But in all honesty Star Wars is primarily a fantasy story with science fiction trappings. The music especially isn't particularly sci-fi. But it really falls into the swashbuckling adventure score mode of the Golden Age. I know these scores so well, they' don't distract me, but do inspire... well except for "The Jedi Steps and Finale" track from The Force Awakens. That is such a great build up, I just have to stop and listen to it.

Stats for the evening.

Page Start: 126

Page End: 132

Word Count Start: 53463

Word Count End: 56389

Nanowrimo Word Count: 28757

Music:

• Star Wars: A New Hope – John Williams
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams

NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 12

So this is the second weekend day I'm working on my novel for NaNoWriMo and I wasn't sure how well it would go. I wasn't really feeling the writing bug tonight, but I have a bunch of stuff to get done tomorrow and I wasn't sure when I'd get my writing time in. So I decided to give it a shot, and even thought about splitting my word count goal over today and tomorrow.

Surprisingly once I got started I was able to meet my word goal and get some important character stuff added to the story. As I mentioned I have four acolyte protagonists. I've been bouncing around between two of them primarily - the queen bee character and the rogue character. I've also go the bookworm who got her scene earlier in the week. I finally had some time to work on the Jock character. Yeah I'm kind of giving them these stereotypical names in the blog, but they are all a bit more rounded than those descriptions indicate. In fact my "jock" character is actually dealing with what she thinks is a loss of faith in herself and the Goddess. She's struggling with the idea of even attempting the Trials that will lead to full priestesshood. But her and the queen bee characters are intense rivals (at least in queen bee's eyes) so I have some fun with the sparks they generate whenever they run into each other.

But it was nice writing in the jock's head for a bit and giving her perspective on some of the events that have happened up to this point. I'm feeling like this is the end of act 1 (finally) and that once they start on that Path of Trials, act 2 will really kick in. That should occur in the next writing session or two.

All told a productive night. But I'm done for the week. That's fine because I just hit my halfway point in word count for NaNoWriMo. Right on schedule!

Tonight's stats:

Page Start: 120

Page End: 126

Word Count Start: 50542

Word Count End: 53463

Nanowrimo Word Count: 25,831

Music:

Sodom and Gomorrah – Miklos Rozsa