wordwhacker

15,818 / 50,000 (31.6%)

Over 2,000 words today! Still on / slightly ahead of schedule, still writing crap, still not caring. And as a side note, my novel now contains baby sasquatches and wingless faeries. Who could ask for more? (I'll totally reply to all the comments and posts I owe my faithful reader(s?) tomorrow. Tonight I just want to get to bed at a not-insane hour, thanks.)

The day, she went fairly well. I got a hunk of writing done at work, meaning that I am still keeping up this amazing streak of meeting my word-count goal every day. I'm really liking this "write a little every day" business, ya know? Maybe I should look into doing this year round. Seems to me there's a website dedicated to the idea that everybody should write at least (or is it "exactly"?) 100 words a day, every day, for a year. Or something like that. Something to think about, anyway.

I actually don't think I'll post my writing this time around. This story is significantly less well-planned than last year's endeavour, which is a fact that rears its head in terms of the story's construction. Which is to say: ouch. Sometimes I know where I want the story to go, but getting it there is torture. Sometimes I actually DON'T know where I'm going, and I have to write through it, with varying levels of success.

Occasionally I fall into a groove, and it's all good. But I'm also just ploughing through events sometimes, just to get through them and move on. They ain't pretty. I have no delusions as to whether or not they're going to be permanent residents in my novel, shall we say. But they need to be there, at least for now. Otherwise I'll never get this freakin' thing written. The only way I can convince myself to write the shlock that this requires is to have the knowledge that I'm the only person who has to be tortured with reading it.

Which isn't to say that EVERYTHING SUCKS OMG, it's just a work in progress. It has potential, I think. Figuring out the best way to go at it will be the fun of editing the thing.

Anyway.

10,438 / 50,000 (20.9%)

As I said in the forums earlier:

"I have reached 10K! I am clearly some sort of omnipotent, god-like being!"

Time to back-up the novel and, uh, maybe sleep. Yeah. Sleep is good.

Ahoy! It's been a while. School came upon me, not unlike a storm of, um, books, but I have returned at long last.

NaNoWriMo is underway, and can you guess what I'm writing?


If you said, the sequel to that thing you wrote last year about 12-year-olds and aliens, you'd be correct! Well, sort of. It's a sequel in the sense that it takes place in the same town (to start with, anyway), but it involves different characters and an entirely different plot (12-year-olds and wizards.)

I might start posting here, though I'll probably disable comments because this is gonna be some baaaad stuff. Seriously. I don't want critiques, but that means I have to be willing to go without mindless praise, too. It's an ethical code of conduct that I came up with, oh, about ten seconds ago. Anyway, in case inquiring minds actually want to see it (and as an alternate means of backing it up), I'll probably stick some of it up here.

And because all the cool kids are using them, here's my wordcount expressed via a little slider thingie:

5,513 / 50,000 (11.0%)

I'm actually a little ahead of the game. Creepy! Let's hope I can keep this trend up as the month goes on. I'd originally thought I'd try to sprint and finish really early - I'm starting to think that just disciplining myself in order to reach a reasonable daily wordcount goal might be the better course of action. Besides, it can't hurt to insinuate that attitude into my system, both for NaNo and school projects in general.

But anyway. No more posting for now - I'll muse a bit more later. Time to get back to writing. And procrastinating - well, well earned procrastination.

A few weeks ago I was musing with nezchan about getting back into sketching and drawing, something I have no instruction in but always enjoyed. We both loved the idea of creating an online illustrated story, something that captures that sense of wonder that stories do when you're a child.

Now, less than a month later, I find myself the illustrator of Under the Rose, a story about a girl who finds her way beneath a compass rose and into a new world. The art is simple - I'm approaching it with an eye for perspective and scale.

Please consider adding it to your friends list - a new page will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday at underrose, always under LJ-cut so as not to be obtrusive. It's bound to be an exciting journey - and hey, you might even be back home in time for lunch.

(crossposted from my journal, cassaclyzm)


Now - beat me if I don't post an update by the end of the night stating that I've started major overhaul work on my kids SF novel, will yas?

If I was Anne Rice, I'd say that this story "poured out of me". But I'm not. So instead I'll say that the first line popped into my head, and the rest of the story sort of, uh, happened to follow suit. It was fun to write, which was the most important thing at the time, though it wasn't for any challenge in particular. I'll get right on those, honest.


( Mother Knows Best - vignette, 1,000 words, first draft )


What's with me and first person narratives lately?

[Edit: January 11th, 2007 - this story is featured as a "demo" story on Critique Circle, along with the crits that it received. Pretty cool, eh? For anyone looking for a great place to get feedback on fiction (both short and long), CC is a wonderful resource.]


I can't remember exactly what the deadline was for this, but I'm pretty sure I passed it. Boo. Anyway, here it is - a concept challenge from eternalism to write a story involving a hurricane. It was a fun little snippit to write.

( Post Haste - Vignette, 650 words )

And now, challenges for the week of 07/10:

shloop and eternalism: Write a story involving a time capsule. (I figure, why not give multiple people the same challenge? It's fun to see what different directions the same prompt can go in.)

It's currently 3AM. I'd like to make a fairly concentrated effort to finish my project for crimsonata sometime around 7AM. So this is me, making a journal entry that I'll update with my progress every hour, on the hour, so as to not get totally off-track like I'm prone to do.

( Edit the First - When we last left our heroes... )

( Edit the Second - Some progress, slow and painful though it may be... )

( Edit the Third - Ever wonder if a novel would be easier? )

( Edit the Fourth - What is this 'writing' of which you speak? )

( Edit the Fifth - Hey! I can write! What a novel concept! )

Well, I sure am getting behind myself! Here we are, technically the week of 06/26, and I haven't posted a piece for the week of 06/19 yet. Bother.

Seeing as how it's 7AM on my first night back to work (read: no sleep for me), I'm not exactly of a mind to write anything. So instead I think I'll repost a story I wrote two, maybe three years ago. I haven't edited it since then - this is still the first draft.

I was going for a fable-like feel, which is unlike everything I usually write. For that reason I always find this story somewhat refreshing to read. The language is so simple and broad and general and clear. Usually I struggle not to over-word. There are some things I'd like to tighten up and themes I'd like to expand on, and I think I need to tweak the overall writing style somewhat before I'll be happy with it. But for now, I present it to you in its original state.


( The Wedding Bed - Fable, 1,400 words, first draft )

Whoops! I almost forgot that I need to post a piece of writing this week. Hmm. Maybe I'll dig up something that I already have written, but that needs some editing. I'd also like to get started on the project proposal for crimsonata - to write a story about a) a fight, b) a reunion or c) a sudden death, and to have the events take place within a 24 hour period. (But I think that one will be a couple of weeks in the works.)

Y'know what would make my day? If y'all would have a look at the stories I've posted over the past year or so (sad few that they are) and leave me a comment to let me know you read it. Even just "read it!" would do, if you don't want to feel pressured to tell me whether or not it sucked. (Which they do, but... y'know. How much?)

[EDIT: January 11, 2007 - My main issue with this one is the "so, what?" factor, and the overly simplistic ending. I think there's a nugget of a fun relationship here, but I'm not sure how well this fragment of a story explores that. As with a lot of my work, I feel that there's an uncomfortable balance here between being "concise" and "simplistic". I want to get deeper than what a story of this length allows me.]


I don't really have a title for this one - it was written as a response to a prompt in crimsonata to write a story involving a diamond. (Yes, I came up with that prompt. Shut up.) So for now it's called "Diamonds". Original, I know. If I do anything else with it, maybe I'll come up with a better title.

As is usual for me, this story is contained within a single dialogue-heavy "scene". It feels a little thin right now, but I wanted to keep it short. Ideas on how/where to expand on it would be appreciated, as well as any feedback at all (as always).


( Diamonds - Vignette, 800 words )