NaNo 2015 - Week 2

The second week is over.  The Elf's Prisoner had some stumbles this week, but is on track.

The Stats:

• Words Written This Week: 10832
• Words Written Total: 23520
• Chapters Completed This Week: 11, plus one interregnum.
• Chapters Completed Total: 17, plus one interregnum.
• On-screen Deaths This Week: none
• On-screen Deaths Total: 6

I had a change in routine this past week.  As a result, getting time to write is a matter of creating a new routine.  Not helping were two days of pure frustration with the local bus service.  The second day of non-existent buses led to an hour of pure anger at the mismanagement* before I could calm down enough to actually write.  Friday, I knew I wouldn't have time to write, but I did have a day's buffer to account for that.

Story-wise, things started to get bogged down in the elf city in the trees.  My characters wanted to get going and weren't happy with me spending time on them meeting each other.  The plot is now on the road.  Of course, that meant trying to figure out food and drink, plus some research on clothes.  Helping out is having the Pendragon RPG, which has some of the details I need.  My notes file is growing as I fill out details of the world.  World-building on the fly, not for the faint of heart.

Speaking of world-building, something that is coming very useful is my Grade 10 Urban Geography class.  I have an idea of how cities are laid out and how and where settlements start.  I also, through geography classes and through Pendragon, have a good idea of what crops grow where, allowing me to work out what sort of food and drink are available in the different realms.

For the clothing, I went to an expert.  My cousin Kelly is a lecturer with the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta.  If you need to deal with zombies in Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece, she's the woman to talk to.  Research is important in a story; if a detail is wrong, it throws readers out of the narrative flow.  Sometimes, though, reality adds a wrinkle that goes against expectations, which is why I went to the expert when my own research came up with something just odd.

I also worked out a way to show a language barrier without having to create a language whole cloth.  The real world has more than enough languages to work from.  So, when I needed an elf to sound like she was speaking in a language she wasn't familiar enough with, I had her fall back on her own language's grammar.  To represent that, I worked out what she wanted to say, translated it to French, then did a blind idiot translation, word for word, back to English.  Instant language barrier, good for a lighter scene.

I added an interregnum to cut away to a minor set of villains.  While they aren't the main force behind the plot, they have their own goals and can be used to distract the heroes and be a false lead.  Again, the interregnum caused me to work out the details of the lair for this set of villains.  A lot of this should have been done prior to November, but The Elf's Prisoner only became an option mid-October.

One character showed a new side of herself.  She's becoming Ms Fanservice.  Her reason is that she's tactile.  She also comes from a culture that doesn't have the need for heavier clothes due to a climate that doesn't have extremes like winter.  She does have to get used to wearing heavy clothes, just to protect herself from the sun's harsh light.  Sunburns are one experience she dislikes.

Goals for the coming week include getting at least one subplot going as a red herring.  One character just brings along a lot of family drama with her, and I should use it.  I also need to build up the buffer again; Fridays are going to be a waste because of travel times involved.  Two write-ins a week, Sunday and Thursday, will help there, barring bus problems.


* Short version:  Management has no idea when buses are missing or where they're needed, nor does it have any flexibility built into the service to get new buses on the road when needed.  Add to this the detours because of LRT contruction.  First blizzard is going to paralyze the service.  And the fares are going up.