NaNo 2015 - The Last Two Days

Pens down!  NaNoWriMo is over!  The Elf's Prisoner has been validated and found to be a winner!

The Stats:

• Words Written These Past Two Days: 2764
• Words Written Total: 50 036
• Chapters Completed These Past Two Days: 3
• Chapters Completed Total: 38, plus three interregnums.
• On-screen Deaths This Week: none
• On-screen Deaths Total: 12

The last two days of NaNo, I had to write almost 2800 words to make the 50 000 word goal.  On Sunday, I did just that.  I split the writing into two segments, the first just after midnight, the second during the write-in.  The break in between meant that I could recharge and see the smaller amount during the write-in, a psychological boost.  There is something about seeing the size of the number of remaining words go from four digits to three.

After getting to the goal, I just stopped.  The story needs to be re-jigged; ideas I wanted to introduce still hadn't been reached.  There's a fight scene coming where my villain first meets the heroes that I need to set up properly.  World building needs to be completed, including working out a rough map and fixing directions in the story.  It's a minor mess.

However, my own pacing was good, barring the three days in Week 3.  I sat down and wrote most days, the exception being Fridays due to prior commitments.  I just need to remain in that practice.  Helping there are the commentaries I post every Thursday here and the weekly Lost in Translation posts over at Seventh Sanctum and Psycho Drive-In.  Posts for the blogs would add another 4000 words to the November totals if I included them.

I did learn that it is challenging to write a fantasy story while building the world ad hoc.  While I had rough ideas for most major locations, the details became crucial in spots.  The dwarven realm was easy to work out, but the trade town outside was a last minute addition, as was the canal used to get dwarven ore down to the coast.  The canal doesn't even have a name right now.  I came up with an impromptu naming system for characters, using real world cultures as the basis for each in-story culture.  I was inspired to do so after a friend started suggesting name for one of the elves, modifying names from her native Polish.  I ran with that idea - Polish for the elves, Cymric, Irish, and Pict for the local human lands*, Indonesian for the islander humans, and Ancient Roman for the villain.  The dwarves were slated for something along the lines of Aztec, Inca, Mayan, or Toltec, and that was before I put on the original Battlestar Galactica DVDs for background noise.

Something that did help was having appropriate background noise.  I don't use music to set the mood for the scene I write.  I use music to set the speed of typing.  Get a good beat going, fast enough to type to without being too fast, and I can keep a decent pace through the length of a song.  "Weird Al" Yankovic is ideal for me, as are instrumentals.  If I can listen to the music and not have to pay attention to lyrics, either because of familiarity or lack of lyrics at all, I can focus on writing while keeping the beat.

I will be putting The Elf's Prisoner aside for a bit.  I should keep writing, even if it's not at the breakneck pace of NaNo.  Unruly keeps returning to my mind, and I have two episodes to work on, one started and the other a natural continuation of Laura's story line.  During that time, I can figure out how to pace out The Elf's Prisoner properly.  The fight with the villain has an ending planned, one that should lead to an element that I really want to get in place.  The main problem there is that the last time I had my heroes travelling, they protested.  Maybe if I chased them there...


* I could have used Saxon names, too.  The names came from the King Arthur Pendragon RPG and supplements, and allowed me to justify having different naming practices in areas so close to each other.  After all, the typically Cymric player characters have to deal with Pictish and Saxon adversaries regularly, all near Stonehenge.

NaNo 2015 - Week 4

The fourth week is over.  It's now third down and goal* for  The Elf's Prisoner.

The Stats:

• Words Written This Week: 12 962
• Words Written Total: 47 272
• Chapters Completed This Week: 9 plus one interregnum.
• Chapters Completed Total: 35, plus three interregnums.
• On-screen Deaths This Week: 1
• On-screen Deaths Total: 12

After the doldrums during the third week, I fell off pace.  Last weekend's 5338 words let me get back on pace, but the buffer I needed wasn't there.  The furthest ahead I managed to get was a half day, or about 800 words.  This means that I will be pushing hard over the last two days to get as much written as possible.  The final validation needs to be done by 23:59, local time, Monday.  Not having the time to write on Friday threw me behind, but yesterday put me ahead of par with a 2700 word effort.

Listening to characters is important to writers.  For most people, hearing voices is a sign that they should be seeing a doctor.  For writers, the voices get names and lives which then get placed into a story.  If the voices agree, the writing goes well.  If they don't, well, the writer either needs to listen to their needs or bludgeon the characters into submission.  The latter could lead to a strike, though.  That was the problem during Week 3.  Week 4, the characters were where they wanted to be and were happy to explore and to argue and to be awkward.

The main mission is almost done, but that mission has been superseded by events in-story.  Sure, Nyssa has her audience with the dwarves, but preventing a war between two realms has paled when the villain wants to throw the entire coast into chaos.  The five leads now have to find the villain and stop her.  Good thing I need scenes!

I had a scare on Thursday.  Windows wanted to upgrade to Win10.  The worst time for an upgrade is during NaNo; one glitch, and any time I might have had gets eaten up by troubleshooting.  Worse, time would still get chewed up by waiting for the update to finish.  If I had a backup machine, there's a chance I'd have gone through with the upgrade.  However, my older laptop is dying and hasn't been turned on in over a month because of hardware issues**.  So, no, Microsoft, I am not upgrading to Win10 right now.  I can't afford the potential downtime.

With two days left, the goal is to hit my 50 000th word, then validate.  The more written on the 29th, the less I have to write on the 30th, giving me time to make sure that I have the time to verify that I have written enough words according to the NaNo site.  Tuesday, I rest, and figure out if I want to continue writing The Elf's Prisoner.  First, though. I have 2800 words to write and I don't want my tenth NaNo to be the first I fail to win.


* Canadian Football League rules, in honour of the Grey Cup.
** A fan is seizing, leading to the system overheating.  If I could crack open the old laptop without damaging either it or any tools I'm using, I may be able to clean the fan properly.  That, too, requires time that I just don't have right now.

Crossover Chapter 15

Featuring Subject 13, Prototype Alpha, and Pixie of Youth Brigade

Contains scenes of violence and coarse language.  Reader discretion advised.

Hank Cheetas, Cleveland, evening

The host led Eric and Natasha to a booth along the wall.  Eric moved so that Natasha would take the seat facing away from the door.  He allowed her to sit down first, then sat across from her.  She reached across the table and took his hands into hers.  He smiled back at her.  "How's this?"

Natasha looked around at the other diners.  Several in costume were obviously from the convention.  "It's nice, I guess.  Not as intimate as I'd hoped."

Crossover Chapter 14 - Commentary

The triumphant return!  Please read the chapter before continuing.

When I first started writing Crossover, I didn't expect my supporting characters to take on larger roles.  Eric is now shouldering the burden, having to fend off a false Nasty who has nothing more in her mind than using him as a sex toy.  Keith's technical expertise, already set up thanks to Prototype Alpha and the Powered BIKINI, is playing a key role.  Micki has taken charge of the situation.  I need a large cast, even if most of the characters are in supporting roles.  A single character would get stuck.

Micki needed to confirm Nasty was really Nasty.  There's already one duplicate running loose; there could be another for all she knows.  Plus, she got to have some fun at the former-Peregrine's expense.  Not everyone on this side of the barrier is nice.

Vicki has a problem that doesn't come up often in comics - what to do with personal effects when in costume.  Peter Parker can web his clothes high up on a wall to keep people away.  Pixie doesn't have that luxury, though she can fly.  People will notice a hotel key card flying over a crowd.  Pockets work; Peregrine's costume has a few, but Pixie shrinks.  The card would rip the pocket and the costume when she gets small.

Pixie's father gets a cameo!  His role was to be Vicki's chaperon.  Once in Cleveland, he needed to be out of the way.  It's a good thing that baseball doesn't have a set time.  Baseball games are nine innings long, and each inning takes as long as it takes.  A typical game is about 2.5-3 hours long, though the Blue Jays tended to linger and take longer.  A tie game after nine innings means extra innings which, again, take as long as needed.  In short, baseball games are a good way to get a character out of the way without having to worry that the character will show up when inconvenient.

The big battle is now set up.  The heroes lost the first fight; they weren't prepared.  This time, they know what to expect.  Nasty is looking forward to showing her counterpart the error of her boy-stealing ways.  Meredith and Keith have a rough plan to deal with Prototype Omega.  Pixie may be the odd girl out.  Her Pixie Dust doesn't work on her counterpart, just like it doesn't work on herself.  But, she will be there and ready to help.

Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 15.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, what challenges The Six Billion Dollar Man will face.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, Star Wars: Rebels.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.

NaNo 2015 - Week 3

The third week is over.  The Elf's Prisoner had some problems.

The Stats:

• Words Written This Week: 10 760
• Words Written Total: 34280
• Chapters Completed This Week: 9, plus one interregnum.
• Chapters Completed Total: 26, plus two interregnums.
• On-screen Deaths This Week: 6
• On-screen Deaths Total: 12

I hit the doldrums this week.  Typically, somewhere between 25 000 and 30 000 words is where I lose steam.  The story stalls out, either because it went in a direction I wasn't expecting or I get too caught up in the details.  This year, the characters got restless and wanted to skip past the journey to get to a trade town.  Once they arrived, the words returned.  For two days, though, I wrote just one day's worth of words.  Coupled with Fridays being too busy with socialization and transit time to do any writing, I fell two days off pace.  Fortunately, yesterday was productive, with almost 3000 words written; not enough to catch up completely, but I am within sight and one or two days worth of productiveness to get back on track.

I did wind up doing some ad hoc world building.  Each culture is getting its own naming convention.  The elves are receiving modified Polish names.  Human names are coming from Cymric, Pict, and Irish cultures*.  The villain's name comes from Ancient Rome, modified to be more sibilant.  I have three goals here.  The first is to have names that don't sound like a collection of letters pulled out of a Scrabble bag.  Unless the language I'm using/abusing has glottal stops indicated by apostrophes, there aren't any.  The second is to have names that feel like they come from a culture, even if I haven't created those details.  Artificial depth still looks deep.  The third goal is avoiding impromptu world building when I should be plugging away at the story.  I don't need, at least during November, to waste time working out minor details for one paragraph when I should be writing that paragraph and more.

Breaking through the doldrums involved more than tossing a guy with a gun**, or, in my case, six goblinoids with spears, at the characters.  While the goblinoids did let me get some words down, it took me a night's sleep to realize they had a clue on them.  It took me a second interregnum and the arrival of the characters at their destination to pull out of the stall.  Ms Fanservice helped greatly; a nude elf makes for a wonderful distraction and an interesting discussion about cultural norms, along with requests for her to cover up.

This coming week's goal is simple - catch up.  Eight days and over fifteen thousand words to go.  I need 1965 words per day right now to finish on time.  I've done that pace before, and I have scenes coming up that are needed and have been playing out in my head.


* As seen through the King Arthur Pendragon RPG.  Never discount useful sources.
** Raymond Chandler's advice for when writers get stuck.  The idea is that first the characters need to defend themselves from the attacker, then try to figure out who sent him, which means the writer needs to work out that same detail.  The proper phrase is, "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand."

Crossover Chapter 14

Featuring Subject 13, Prototype Alpha, and Pixie of Youth Brigade

Cleveland City Center Hotel, Cleveland, early evening

Eric returned to his hotel room.  He opened the door and stopped short.  The number of shopping bags he saw was unbelievable, most from stores he never went to and he was sure Tash wouldn't step inside under penalty of death.  "Hello?  Tash?"

The bathroom door opened.  "Tash" dashed out and pulled him into a hug.  "Hi!"  She kissed Eric on the cheek.  "Missed ya!"

Crossover Chapter 13 - Commentary

Heroines in danger!  Natasha on the prowl!  Please read the chapter before continuing.

One of the fun bits I added to Crossover was having Canada be the nastiest nation on the mirror Earth.  Everyone there is afraid of the mirror version of Canadians.  I didn't get into details.  Half the fun is letting the readers try to work out just how dangerous a Canadian would be.  Mirror Meredith is one of the nastier mirror Canadians.

Names got interesting.  Everyone involved needed two, a proper name and a nickname, just so I could identify which side of the dimensional divide a character was from.  Most of the characters have names that can have diminutives.  A few, like Nasty and Micki, already use nicknames, allowing me to use their proper names with their mirror counterparts.  With Meredith's counterpart, I went for the ironic nickname, Merry.  Keith was the only character to not get a nickname for his counterpart.  Fortunately, the counterpart went by Omega most of the time.  Hopefully it made sense and was easy to follow.

I dropped an element while writing Crossover.  Tori's fear about her father came up, but I never had the chance to explore why she was worried about being seen by him.  Part of the problem was that I kept Vicki's father out of the way at the baseball game.  Without the two ever meeting, the issues just disappeared into a crack.

Keith recognizing Omega's power armour was a point I needed.  Since Omega is Keith's counterpart, not Meredith's, having Keith recognize the armour was a way to set up elements I'd need later.  The recognition also means that the heroes have information that they can use, while the opposition doesn't.  Keith's reasoning is also important.  First, for the narrative, it gives the heroes a way to outsmart his counterpart, if they think of it.  The second is a condemnation of the militarization of the police.  Too often, police go into a situation with their faces covered.  The result is a disconnect from society.

The escape starts with using Merry's cruelty against her.  Vicki took advantage of the situation, reacting and bluffing.  Merry wasn't ready for the Pixie Dust.  Meredith is using the classic prisoner ruse, helped along by being Merry's duplicate.  Nasty, though, hasn't seen enough movies where the trick is used.  Eric will have to show her Star Wars.

The trip to Natasha's room came about when I realized that two of the heroes needed clothes.  Natasha had taken Nasty's costume to pretend to be her and took the Powered BIKINI to neutralize Meredith.  Once I knew I needed to go there, I decided to have fun at Nasty's expense.  Last issue, Natasha complained about Nasty's wardrobe.  This time, it's Nasty's turn.  The wardrobe was another way to show how different Nasty and Natasha were.  In the later issues of Subject 13, Nasty demonstrated her feelings about short skirts.

One of the handy parts of setting the story in Cleveland was having landmarks that the cast would care about.  In this case, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which turned out to be close to the hotel I chose.  Sometimes, things can fall right into place when writing.  Micheline never really says what the Hall of Fame is on her side of the barrier.


Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 14.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, Jem and the short run.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, what challenges facing The Six Billion Dollar Man.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.