NaNoWriMo 2021 – End of Week 1

NaNo has begun and I am now in the early chapters of a story that I have no idea where it's going. Som business as usual here. The first week went well, except for a snag on Day 4, where I messed up my own tracking spreadsheet. I wound up thinking I was a on target instead of being a day behind, both in terms of writing and in terms of the days on the spreadsheet. Saturday was spent running a crucial errand, so that cost me some time as well. However, I managed to fight back to where I should be on Sunday.

The early scenes I had in mind are now written. That's both good and bad. It's good because over 11k words were written for them. It's bad because now I have no idea where I'm going. I have vague idea for scenes, but scenes are no substitute for plot. (Hollywood, are you listening?) Fortunately, the characters are solidifying enough that any one of them could produce a plot line on their own. It's handy when characters do that.

The original concept was to jump focus to the different characters. However, locking the point of view to Skater means that I have to work out what the others are doing, at least generally. I don't need to write a chapter that won't be published about Hudson's quest for to watch the Habs in a city on the opposite side of the continent. He's just going to complain about it bitterly when he next joins the action.

Coming up, well, laundry needs to be done which will eat at the time I have after work. But if that is out of the way Monday and I can get a couple hundred words Tuesday and Friday before gaming, I should be in a position to strike forward next weekend. I've done it before, I can do it again.

Brace Yourself!

November is coming!

Yep, NaNoWriMo is just over two months away.  I should at least start figuring out what I want to write.  I have a few possibilities right now, but nothing certain.  I'd create a poll, but I'm not likely to stick to the results.  Maybe if there's a request and it's not binding.  Let me know.

I do have a few possibilities already.  I'll present them in no particular order, with the parts I have figured out and the parts that I need to fill in before November.

Shadows of Tukayyid A BattleTech story, most likely done as a series of novels and novellas.  I've been in the mood for giant stompy mecha action thanks to reviewing Pacific Rim: The Black.  BattleTech is based on giant stompy mecha shooting and stomping each other.  The story will happen after the Clan Invasion is stopped after the Battle of Tukayyid and features two veterans of the fight.  The first is former ComStar Adept Joanna Kirk, pilot of a Black Knight, and Rebecca, a former Clan Ghost Bear freeborn MechWarrior, as they join a Free Worlds League mercenary unit that is looking to expand with pilots with experience fighting the Clans.  The first mission is forming in my head, and other missions are starting to come together.  I need to figure out other pilots in the lance and the mercenary company, though they are supporting cast.

The Courier  Initially conceived as a gender-flipped version of The Transporter, because why not, it's starting to get inspirations from Gunpowder Milkshake.  Maybe not the sisterhood of assassins based in a library, but the creation of connections between family who haven't really spoken to each other.  The main characters are Courtney, the courier, and her niece, Amy, who lives with her aunt after the death of her parents a few years prior.  The base plot is worked out, as is the rough map of where they're going.  The story should be a novel and could lead into a series if wanted.

Streetwise Valkyries I've mentioned the Valkyries before.  There's two possibilities to go with.  One is working on a few stories in the same vein as Subject 13 and I do have a few plots in mind for that.  The other potential is a crossover with Subject 13, turning Nasty into the Spider-Man or the Wolverine of the setting.  I have ideas for the crossover, so time will tell here.

Untitled Shadowrun story  I have a character idea for Shadowrun that dates back to the first edition, an elven decker who lost her parents during the Night of Rage and was subsequently taken into safety in the Ork Underground.  I've updated the character with each edition, but I never rebooted her.  Instead, I've aged her with the setting.  A recent edition, fifth, I think, had me realize that her career arc and mine were similar.  Ignoring that Skater's career has been mostly illegal and mine has been strictly legal, we've both gone through a number of major tech changes during our careers.  This gives me the hook I needed for an idea I've been playing with, and I do have the rest of the team worked out.  The first story might be novel length; follow ups could be serialized.

This isn't all the ideas, just the most prominent.  There's always a chance that a different story pops up and demands my attention, like The Elf's Prisoner had.  However, chances are good one of these will be chosen.

Mandatory cat photo (model is Jewel, photo by author)

Friday, Lost in Translation continues at Psycho Drive-In.

Saturday, Lost in Translation can be found at The Seventh Sanctum.

NaNo 2018 - Contenders

November 1st is just over four months away.  NaNoWriMo is coming up.  Heck, Camp NaNo begins July 1st, though I'm not participating this time around.  Four months isn't a lot of time.  I should start figuring out what to do so I don't start an epic fantasy with zero world building again.  I do have some contenders.

As always, the time-travellering kaiju hunters are on the list.  I'll have to figure out a few time periods for the /kaiju/ hunters to visit, with the legend of St. George and the dragon being a potential arc.  I do have a couple of laws of time travel in mind.  First, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle; the hunters can know either when or where they're going but not both.  The other law is a modification of Newton's First Law, temporal events will happen as they did unless acted upon by an outside force.  It's not that events are predestined; everyone involved will still make decisions based on their experience.  However, if an outside force interferes, a participant may make new decisions based on the new information.

Speaking of time travel, I have an idea for Subject 13 guest starring Pixie and the rest of the Youth Brigade.  A battle against a supervillain winds up sending the group back to the 50s, where they have to figure out where they are and how to get home.  I have some dialogue in mind, too.  "Can you stop swearing for five minutes?  That's how we got into this mess!"  I've done some preliminary research, finding a USGC map of the area I want to use from 1956 and matching the location on Google Maps.

A while back, I created Demona using the Demon Hunters RPG.  I then realized she had potential as part of a group of supernatural hunters.  Format might be a fake reality series, but I'm not married to that.  I do have the first bit worked out in my head where Demona meets her new partners, Nadia and Ian.

Mecha Academy is a possibility.  I'll probably keep it on reserve for when another idea runs out of steam.  I am working on the next arc, but there is more planned for after it.  The cast hasn't even finished their first year yet, and I have a few more things to toss at them before I'm done with them.

Unruly is also in the works.  I have twists and turns for them, too.  Laura has to go testify, Fawna needs to give up her body for a weekend to Mags, Caitlin needs to plot, and chaos needs to ensue.  Again, if another project runs dry, I can always switch over.

The Shadowrun stories are still coming together.  Yes, stories.  Beside coming up with a story to be adapted into a new form, mostly as an experiment related to Lost in Translation, I want to try a horror story.  Problem is, I'm not a fan of horror, so the project might be doomed to failure from the start.  However, Shadowrun mixes cyberpunk, epic fantasy, and urban fantasy together, so with a bit of a tweak, I might be able to turn the urban fantasy elements into horror.  There are horror elements lurking in the game's setting that I can exploit, too.

So, short list, and one that could grow before I start striking off ideas.  It's a start.  I have four months.

Friday, another go at the Modiphius Star Trek Adventures character creation.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, "Truly Outrageous!"
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, hiatus week; this past week has been hectic.

Mecha Academy - Episode 1 - Roommates

Episode 1 - Roommates
Chapter 1 - From Around the Sector

Rhiannon slipped through the crowd inside Tamar's tiny spaceport.  She stopped long enough to switch her suitcase from one hand to another and get her bearings before continuing her walk.  This far from home, she hoped she wouldn't be recognized right away, but she didn't want ot take the chance.  She chose the Colonel KL Terin Military Academy because it was far from home.  Rhiannon didn't want interference, not from the press and definitely not from her parents.  Ever since her older brother's death two years ago, her parents ramped up their already over protectiveness to new levels.  Rhiannon just didn't want to be sheltered.  It wasn't as if she snuck away, exactly.  It was a family tradition for the heir to the Duchy of Bourgon to serve in the Royal Guard.  Her brother had been serving when he died.  Rhiannon didn't want to be the exception; she could still hear her brother's voice saying how important serving was.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Week 5 Update

Total Words: 67 911
Words Since Last Update: 7609
Completed Chapters: Episode 3 chapters 3, 4.

Pens down!  NaNoWriMo 2017 is over!

My pace slowed down in the last week.  Reaching 50k words meant the big push was over.  I also found that I was far off the original ideas I had for the story.  Some of the later character moments were going to occur far sooner.  That's not really a problem; the way the story was working out, having the tension between the two characters wasn't sustainable.  I also need the squad to work as a team properly.  So, off in a new direction I go!

This isn't my best word count.  That was 2009 with The Soul Blade, with over 83k words.  However, I am happy with the output.  I'm finding that I can maintain a good pace, can create content for longer periods (unlike 2006), and can rebound from a marathon writing session.  My wordiest day occured during the all-day write-in here, with 6250 words written.  Most will be kept, too.  I'm also just above 5000 words short of reaching 700k career NaNo word count.  Many words have been written.

Mecha Academy is going to be set aside for a bit.  I need to finish The Devil You Know, then I want a month off from posting fiction to focus on cleaning up last year's dba LTV Paranormalists.  I hope to work on Mecha Academy after that, to get the current episode completed.

It's far too soon to think about NaNo2018.  I need a bit of time away from the push before I can think straight about next November.  I now have four serials that want work done on them and I like to have a buffer before I start posting anything.

It was a blast participating again.  It felt odd to be motoring along like I was without the dreaded third week doldrums, but that was a good odd.  I am now 12-for-12 with NaNo.  The marathon is second nature now.  Maybe I can write.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Week 4 Update

Total Words: 60 302
Words Since Last Update: 13 215
Completed Chapters: Episode 2 chapters 4, 5; Episode 3 chapter 1

The big news, I've crossed the 50 000 word threshold.  The push is over.  Now, the goal is to get more chapters done so that I have a buffer.  As it stands, I have fifteen completed chapters, one in an incomplete episode.  So, it'd be nice to get a little more done before November 30.

My supporting cast grew over the past week, to the point where I took the time to work out some potential names.  With the new names, I have new antagonists to be introduced.  So far, the conflict has been kept within the main cast.  At some point, I need them to deal with external problems.  I'm not ready for the invasion yet - a murder is needed before that happens - so a new source of conflict has to come up.  That conflict has been introduced and just needs to have the first main incident written, a scene that I had in mind before NaNo started.

I've finally got my cast into the mecha of the title, and even that is just in simulations.  I've adjusted the size of the mecha for the series.  When Mecha Academy was first conceived, the mecha were going to be around 20 metres tall, minimum.  As I've worked on the story's background, I've reduced the size.  Now, there's an evolution in how mecha are used in the settings, starting from exoskeletons meant for moving cargo to powered armour to oversized powered armour standing about two to three metres tall.  Mecha aren't walking tanks but force multipliers for infantry.

Mecha Academy is an older idea that had some work done to it already.  I'm not able to just dump what I've done already into the work, though.  Mecha Academy is so far off script that many of the later ideas are no longer valid.  The relationships have developed in a different direction.  There is still hostility, but not the full out physical assaults of the original idea, not this far in.  Some ideas can stay, they're not dependent on the characters' actions.  This is why I prefer iterative editing instead of full on re-writes.  Details get changed.  An edit pass will find problems and let me correct for what I want.  A re-write will result in something completely different.

Coming in the final days of NaNo - adding more words.  I have a scene to aim for and, if I run into a roadblock, Subject 13 and The Devil You Know to work on.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Mid-Week Update

I've hit 50 000 words.

This isn't the earliest I've hit 50k. The Soul Blade reached that mark, barely, on the 16th back in 2009, followed by 2008's Crossover.  However, what Mecha Academy has in common with those both seems to be a desire to be written.  I have had some amazing days without trying this year.  And the story's not done yet.  It has barely begun.  I'll need a few more episodes and an editing session before I think about posting it here, but the series is starting to shape up.  I did what I wanted to do, and this year, the writing just flew.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Week 3 Update

Total Words: 47 087
Words Since Last Update: 20 307
Completed Chapters: Episode 1 chapters 7, 8, 9; Episode 2 chapters 1, 2, 3

The end's in sight.  The chapters keep coming.  I have no idea where I'm going.  Yay, NaNo!

The third week is when the doldrums traditionally hit.  Somehow, I'm still going despite them.  This is possibly my best year at this point in November.  And yet, when the first arc wrapped up, I had no idea what would happen next.  The original idea was an early map, but I'm now off where I had marked "Here be dragons."  Much of the original plan is obsolete.  Ideas that can return aren't due yet, so now what?

Fortunately, in the first arc, I kept mentioning an event in Lars' hometown.  Ric wanted to check it out, though I didn't know why at the time.  So, off four-fifths of the main cast went, with new character Susanna tagging along.  Meanwhile, Dusty has stayed behind and was more or less ordered to go have fun in Shelter Cove, where the main spaceport is.  This, I hope, lets me contrast the groups.  The fair-going group is having a good time together and learning about each other while Dusty is coming to terms with being herself.  However, I need some excitement.  Two men with guns are going to break through a door somewhere.

The first arc finally wrapped up.  Again, I used the event I kept mentioning, the obstacle course, as the end piece.  This time, though, all of the main cast showed up.  I also set up a few other conflicts.  Miyami has a secret which Dusty is aware of.  Rhiannon wants her title to be kept quiet.  Lars and Ric, though, they haven't said anything about having a secret.  Either they don't have one, which would be a pain for me, or they haven't revealed anything.  Lars will get a bye here; he's dealing with Susanna.  Ric, though...

Coming up, a bit of excitement for the split party, some insight on Dusty who has been a bit of a black box for readers so far, and, possibly, 50 000 words.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Week 1 Update

Total Words: 11 610
Words Since Last Update: 11 610
Completed Chapters: 1, 2, 3

NaNoWriMo has begun!  This time, I'm re-creating an old project from scratch, using what I've written previously as a scaffold for this year's project.  So far, I've discovered a few new things that I hadn't realized before.  Let me introduce the characters first, though.

Rhiannon: Originally meant to be the sheltered daughter of a noble, she's not as sheltered, despite her parents best efforts.  She's taking charge early, though she is stepping up as the new heir to her father's duchy.

Lars: The local boy, big and brawny.  He's naive compared to Ric, below, but he's got a good head on his shoulders.  Lars is also now the squad's medic with first aid training, go fig.  He also already understands the basics of the Centurion training mecha, since his father's heavy farm machines have similar controls.

Ric:  He was meant originally to be the anime-style ace pilot.  Now, he's chatting up most girls his age, having hit on a barista in his first scene.  Successfully.  He's also planning on help Lars in that area.  But before pegging Ric as an MRA-type, his big asset is that he /listens/ to the women he talks to, and he's doing the same with Lars.  He's not bi, but if /Mecha Academy/ ever gets a visual treatment (TV, film, live action or animated), I do expect Ric and Lars to be shipped.

Miyami:  The underaged student and hacker of the group.  She still has that element, but she also wants to puch people.  In the junk.  Who am I to disappoint her?

Dusty:  The atoner, returning to the Empire after her parents defected.  She and Rhiannon have a history, which has come out already.  Some of the details I need for later scenes came out as well, so go me?

The big changes are that Ric and Lars have a proper intro and that Miyami wants to punch someone in the junk.  It's not that Miyami is a nasty person.  She just doesn't believe in a fair fight.

Chapter 1 is complete and was longer than expected.  I gave each of the main cast a scene of their own before bringing them together.  The cliffhanger I figured out about halfway through writing the chapter.  Chapter 2 is complete, though I had to end it before I wanted because of how long it got.  Chapter 3 focused on the big inter-character conflict, but let me sort of explore the main location; emotionally, it's not a happy chapter.  Chapter 4 got started and features the first slap.  It looks like Rhiannon and Dusty are going to have a rougher relationship than in the original plans.  Speaking of, I think I've veered off those, with only the general gist remaining.  The fun of being a pantser.

The writing process feels more natural now.  Okay, /my/ writing process feels more natural now.  I don't recommend my process to anyone, but it works for me.  The flow feels better, I'm not stopped for long for a direction, and I can get far more output than I could in 2006.  What has changed?  This is my twelvth NaNo, so I have a writing method that works for me.  I'm also writing more over the year, thanks to blogging here and to Lost in Translation.  Even the latter's 1000 words a week, typically done in one sitting, means I get regular writing done.  Fiction or metafiction, it's still writing.  Add in the commentaries for the weekly fiction posts and having to write an ending to The Soul Blade; the act of writing feels more natural now.  Not quite second nature, but I feel like I know what I'm doing now.  An added bonus, I'm not wincing at what I write anymore.  Sure, I find a few clunky lines, but overall, the writing is far more solid than with Lethal Ladies from 2006.

My goal for the coming week is to just keep adding to my word count.  NaNo is a marathon, not a sprint, and the more I can get done now, the more buffer I have if I stumble on the way.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Starts Now!

NaNoWriMo is go!

This summer got away from me.  Other worries were on my mind, ending with the passing of Mischief.  This ate at brain processing cycles that should have been used for working out details for November.

Thus, the project for NaNoWriMo 2017 is Mecha Academy.

I've done some work on Mecha Academy in the past, but the goal will be a rewrite, to properly introduce the characters, and give all the characters an arc, not just a certain two.  The end goal will be a serial, with three academic years worked out, at least in rough.  However, I still expect the story to take its own path.  I write by the seat of my pants, and even with what I have now, I will have to create new content which may affect the course of the story.

Let's get it on!

NaNo 2017 - Two Months to Go!

Brace yourselves.  NaNo is coming!

Where do things stand now from the last update?  A few things that should have been done weren't, so there's not too much to say.  I wound up not being able to focus on any one idea over the recent weeks and was just able to get the required posts out.  That aside, some thoughts have occurred.

Right now, the Shadowrun serial is still the front runner.  The setting already exists and the goal wasn't to write a story but create something to adapt to another medium.  The idea was to put into practice what I've discovered through Lost in Translation.  However, another reason to go forward with the idea came up.  Science fiction has always been about issues when the work is written, even if the story is set in the future.  With recent events in the U.S., including the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, and neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and neo-Confederates (providing a very fuzzy circle of a Venn diagram) marching, there's a group in Shadowrun that lets me nail a few points home.  Skater, the elf decker that I've updated over every edition since the first, is tied to a major event in the game's in-setting history, the Night of Rage.  Shadowrun's KKK equivalent, the Humanis Policlub, was responsible.  That element can be easily worked into one of the arcs, including having Humanis march through the streets of Seattle.

The time-travelling daikaiju invasion is still in the cards.  The story would be more to distract from current events, though I really should figure out when and where the giant monsters appear, just so I can work out the equipment the team needs.  The general rules of time travel have been determined, though.  The Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle is in effect; the team can know where or when but not both.  They also try to not create paradoxes; they know less about practical temporal mechanics than the writer.  Mind, there will be some oddities left around.  It's difficult to shoot a dinosaur with a modern rifle and not leave a trace of gunpowder.  Still trying to work out some of the ideas, such as adapting St. George and the Dragon to the time travelling.  I also still need to get the future chapter set up that leads into the first.  Time travel weirds causality.

Mecha Academy is still a possibility.  It's an older story, but it still checks out.  I did go through the core cast and wonder about logistics about housing.  Do I need to drop a character or add one?  Neither really work for me.  I may have to do some hand-waving, though I can make it work since there is a reason two of the main cast are in the same dorm.  Serializing the story won't be difficult; it really does work better as one.  And, unlike the Shadowrun idea above, I can adapt to other formats without stomping over someone else's intellectual property.

The Final Fantasy VIII fanfic may be dropping off the list.  I need to adjust the concept to remove the FFVIII DNA.  That means, new setting, new reason why I have a military academy filled with teenagers, and figure out how to also not look like RWBY.  The three main characters won't change that much, at least at the start.  It's the later elements that get messed up.

I have ideas for both Unruly and Subject 13 but haven't been able to get those ideas to become concrete.  Unruly has several arcs that need to be done, including one focusing on Vamsi, one set over Thanksgiving, and Laura's testifying against her father.  There's also Fawna's deal with Mags, though that could be a short story instead of a full arc.  Could be useful for filler at the end of November when I'll want a change of pace.

The ideas for Subject 13 require a time jump, just to get Nasty home.  Essentially, I'll be starting a Volume 2 before Volume 1 is complete.  Nasty is also not going to be as angry; part of the reason is that I just don't need to vent like I did when I first wrote the series.  The result - Nasty gets to mature a bit.  She also gets to work out the new dynamic between her and her mother.  They've both grown, even in the chapters I've finished, so they now have to build a new relationship.  And Nasty gets to be more involved at her school while still dealing with having powers.  I'll also have to set things up for Crossover.  Or, I could just skip past Crossover and go to Nasty's senior year.

So, not much has changed since last time.  The above order is more or less the likelihood of what gets done, with the Shadowrun serial having the best chance.  I have two months.  I need to think a bit more, but I should have a decision by October, or at least some background work done.

NaNo 2017 - Ideas and Concepts

By my watch, there's still seven months before NaNoWriMo begins.  That sounds kike plenty of time, but between other commitments, time evaporates faster than expected.  The sooner I can figure out the sticking points in projects, the sooner I can find a workaround.  That still leaves self-inflicted issues as a outstanding danger, like what happened with last year's project, dba LTV Paranormalists*, but if I can see something early, it's easier to write around it than to run into it mid-November.

I'll start with the new/unwritten ideas first.  Some may be familar, having been on the NaNo list before, but putting them down will help me try to get the ideas solidified enough to start working out arcs and characters and key scenes.  However, I am keeping open the idea of finishing an earlier work, as I'll point out later below.

The first idea is the Shadowrun webcomic/audio drama/holovid/dreamscape/*something* story.  It keeps changing formats everytime I think about it.  The audio drama idea came after listening to a couple of Star Trek fan audio series for Lost in Translation.  However, after adapting Unruly to an audio script, I'm starting to wonder if it may be easier to write a prose serial first, then go back and adapt to the desired format.  That means the idea is back on board.  Some changes are going to happen.  There were characters I just couldn't get a handle on; they'd work for me in a game, but not so much for fiction.  The only two characters staying are Tempest and the Chrome Rainbow.  Tempest provides a source of drama already, thanks to being a chiphead.  Chrome got saved after I realized that my new decker would provide a source of conflict with him, at least early in the series.

The new decker is a character I had worked out in the game's first edition - essentially taking the Elf Decker archetype and adding roots into the game's future history.  Skater, who has appeared in By the Numbers, has been a concept I carried through from edition to edition.  As it turns out, with the timeline advancing in each edition and the big event in her life locked at a specific date, Skater is roughly my age.  Skater will give me a way to express what it's like being an elder IT tech.  Yay?

With Skater in, that means Papa Slick is out.  The idea in the first arc is that Mr. Johnson wants runners who have never worked together before, for plausible deniability.  He needs just one decker, so goodbye Slick.  Sister Sam and Corporal are out mainly because I can't find an approach to use with them.  Corporal may be reworked, given a different background or I may just move him to being from the Salish-Sidhe Council lands.  Sister Sam's problem is her religious background; she's an interesting character, but she stands out.  Given that Slick is gone, thus leaving me without a runner who knows how corporations work.  Sister Sam may be replaced by a former wage-mage of some sort.  However, I do have their first run as a team in mind, which gives me a plot to send them on to see what they'll do.

The time-travelling kaiju idea is coalescing nicely in my head.  I have the core characters in mind, and their fleshing themselves out.  I have a rough idea of the limitations of time travel, and if I send the kaiju far enough back, the historical records get vaguer, allowing me to mess up history a little.  I have a good idea of how the defenders are travelling through time, mostly using kludges and brute force.  There will be some research needed; if I'm going to have one of my characters replace St. George when he fights the dragon, I should have details about St. George.  The dragon, naturally, is a time travelling invader.  I will have to write a scene before NaNo starts; the scene will appear later but affects the first scene in the series.  Time travel, messing up cause and effect since 2157.

A third idea that finally worked out a major problem features the crew of a small courier.  The original idea was an all-woman crew who stalled in their military careers because of gender.  But the more I thought about the setting, the more I realized that the future I'm picturing for the Terran Commonwealth wouldn't have this problem.  It's over 2500 year into the future and I could not justify to myself that sort of restriction.  Yet, I still needed a glass ceiling preventing the ship's commander from getting a proper command.  The solution came while reading a Traveller supplement.  The ceiling isn't gender but social class.  The ship's commander doesn't come from a proper background and thus had problems in her career.  This means that the crew doesn't have to be all women, which is opening up some possibilities.  The crew is small, the captain, the pilot, the mechanic, the medic, the sensor op, and the redshirt.  I need to flesh out the characters a bit more, but I have an idea for the first arc.  Yes, it's a serial; I find the format frees up trying to work out how to stretch an idea over 50k words and allows me to do a full-length novel later if I so choose.

As mentioned, I can also try finishing an earlier project.  As long as I only count the new words written after 12:01am November 1st, it's a valid approach.  Having recently read some of the incomplete - but still with a 50k+ word count - works, I realized that some didn't suck as much as I thought.  Time has a way of smoothing over the problems.  First on the list to complete is the 2015 project, The Elf's Prisoner.  Despite building the world as I went and not having a clue of where I was going until the third week in, it held together.  I can see a path for the story to take, especially since the key elements have already been introduced.  The core of the story is an investigation, not a quest, and that might be enough to prevent The Elf's Prisoner from being a fantasy heart breaker.  The world, despite almost no planning done beforehand, is solid.  I wound up using British Columbia as the rough geography, with the characters moving from inland towards the coast.

The other unfinished work I read was 2011's Bronya and Morwenna plot.  I had characters worked out in advance but, like The Elf's Prisoner, I hadn't worked out all the details like the main villain or the world in question before I started.  I do know who is behind what's happening and I know why.  I also have a scene in mind that I'm trying to work out how to fit in, and it might not fit at this point.  Work does need to be done before I think about continuing the story, though.

The Devil You Know from 2013 also needs some love, though that one is much closer to the end than the previous two.  The problem I ran into was dangling plot points.  I may also have to add in chapters featuring Gemma, who turned out to have a far larger role than expected, and Jack, who does need some spotlight time.  The climax is outlined in my head and involves rogue angels, rogue and rogue-ish devils, and Ione all dealing with the seamier side of the European underworld, ideally with an explosion.

Subject 13 could use some love again.  While technically the only part of Subject 13 that was a NaNo project was Crossover, the series itself could continue.  I am considering a time skip, bringing Nasty back home and seeing how she fares after her experiences in Rochester as Peregrine.  She did mature, so her dealing with people's expectations of her could be interesting.  I'll also have to introduce the Youth Brigade, via Pixie, to set up Crossover a bit.

Given all that, there is one project that's dead in the water - Digital Magic, which, for some reason, got a lot of hits since it was first posted.  I may salvage pieces from it, recycle some of the ideas for elsewhere, grab characters and scenes for other works, but the story itself isn't working.  It happens.  The big problem was that for a romance heroine, Jackie wasn't all that interested in any of the male characters, or any of the female characters for that matter.  Rewriting it as a straight-up spec fic story might work, but I'll want to revamp the world building before I even try.

Naturally, given that there's plenty of time before NaNo begins, I'll have other ideas come to me when I least expect it.  Having the ideas isn't a problem; I can work out details like setting and characters in advance and see if there are problems.  And a last minute idea, like in 2015, doesn't mean I'm floundering.  NaNo is a good time to experiment, even if the experiment fails.  The goal is to get words written, not written well, and I should be able to do that for each idea above.


* Short version:  Flashbacks must be handled with care.

The Soul Blade Chapter 25 - Commentary

Summer's research reveals the the threat, in The Soul Blade Chapter 25.

Brenna's morning is after being up late with Matt.  Krista's call is to get the information about the death in Sacramento to Brenna.  The reactions were the goal for the conversation, and after that scene, I realized that I do a lot of dialogue.  Go fig.  The call from Summer clarified the spells.  It also has a sequel hook, though that wasn't the plan at the time.  Summer wants the excitement of Brenna's life; she is well aware of the Blade and sees it as a cool thing, not the curse that her cousin sees it as.  The decision to have the information sent as an email meant not forcing the reader to sit through an infodump.

Tricia's reveal of why she chose the suburban housewife was inspired by the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman novel, Good Omens.  One of the characters, Crowley, is a demon who has a more modern look at spreading evil.  While his fellow demons are craftsmen, with one tempting a priest and expecting to have him in a year, Crowley causes a massive traffic jam.  The drivers trapped then take out their frustrations on others, who then do the same to even more people.  A wave of taint spreads out, affecting a far larger number of people*.  That's the line of thought Tricia is using; by killing someone is a safe suburb, and leaving the body to be discovered by her children, she's spreading fear as fast as the media can report the crime.  J. Random Surferdude in San Diego doesn't bring out the media as someone killed in her own home.

The advice Missy gave Brenna about starting a blog I eventually used for myself.  I started blogging in 2012.  The idea of Brenna writing down the stories she hears from ghosts and publishing them on a blog is a good one.  She'd have a unique voice and unique perspective about history, even if no one believed her about her sources.  Missy's choice of browser was based on the one I used in 2009.  Opera is a real browser, originally promoted as being small enough to fit on a 3.5" floppy disc.  I gave up on it when it started having problems with .gifs, requiring me to click on the element before it even loaded.  It could be fixed now, though.  Hindsight tells me that the tab Missy had for slashfic probably should have been for Supernatural.  However, Stargate SG-1 comes before Supernatural alphabetically, so her fondness for Wincest is still hidden from Brenna. 

With the email from Summer, much like the phone call at the beginning of the chapter, the goal was to show reactions.  Infodumps aren't the best way to get details to the audience, and the, "As you know, Missy," approach will have people wondering just how pedantic Brenna is.  The reaction to the infodump is the important piece.  There's a difference between, "Oh, crap!" and, "Oh, this again?"  Brenna's reaction is to call the police.

Friday, Brenna brings Detective McCoy up to speed, in The Soul Blade Chapter 26.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga", for a belated Ides of March celebration.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Nancy Drew.

* However, as goes evil, so does good.  Crowley accidentally caused a telemarketing call centre to be eaten by an angry Hastur.  The calm from the telemarketers not calling people and interrupting lives meant a wave of good feelings spread out, undoing the work from the traffic jam.

NaNo 2016 - Weeks 3 and 4

NaNo 2016 - Weeks 3 and 4

And it's over!  NaNoWriMo has ended.  Congrats to everyone who made it to 50k words and good show on everyone who didn't but still wrote.

Total words written by the end of November 21: 44 812, or a little over 2100 words per day. 
Total words written by the end of November 28: 56 182, or a little over 2000 words per day. 
Total words written by end of November: 56 536, or just under 1900 order per day.

In the third week, other than a couple of off days, I managed to maintain a good pace.  The story flowed as I wrote.  In the fourth, my energy started to flag near the end of the week.  The last two days, I put in some work but didn't push, with the last day getting all of twenty words written.  Adding to the fun, at the 45 000 mark, the second arc started wrapping up at a point where it made sense.  There was no way I was going to be able to stretch the arc another two or three chapters, not when I was about to reveal who the monster really was.  On the plus side, since dba LTV Paranormalists was meant to be a serial, much like Unruly, starting a new arc wasn't a problem.

Or shouldn't have been a problem.  It took an evening to figure out what the core plot was for the second arc, so word by agonizing word, it formed.  I had to figure out how to frame the opening scenes, resulting in showing the problem instead of having the new client just say what happened.  No idea of how well it worked out.

The cast grew again.  Each of the leads' family got expanded upon.  Whether this will pay off is too soon to tell.  Again, no plan when I started the arc.  I think I know what I want to do with Kristi's sister, Fred*.  It's now a matter of bringing the different elements together.  Having Fred around does give me room to up the stakes and cause Kristi some conflict.

The future of dba LTV Paranormalists is now in the air.  I have time to figure out what is happening in the third arc.  I have time to edit the first arc into something coherent.  At the same time, I have other writing to catch up on, including the commentary for The Soul Blade and prep work for Lost in Translation.

What I did learn this time out is that I can maintain a good pace.  If I push too hard, as I did over one weekend, I will need a day at a reduced rate to recover.  This is a far cry from my first time out in 2006 where just making the minimum 1667 words was a stretch.  I can now accidentally write 1500 words without effort in the course of an evening.  Writing isn't a chore, though sometimes figuring out what to write still is.

Now, the planning for NaNo 2017 begins, though I may work on some ideas before, just to get them out.


* A shout out to The Arrogant Worms and their song, "Mounted Animal Nature Trail", especially the live versions.  Like Kristi, Fred is from Northern Ontario.

The Soul Blade - Chapter 9

Previously:

"Bren, you're hurt."
"Ma'am, I think you're pushing the lass a little much."
"Matt, about yesterday--"
"Don't you dare squee over the phone."

Brenna hung up, slipped her phone into her skirt's pocket, then walked to the living room.  Her sister was curled up on the couch with an ice pack on her head.  "Party too much, Gracie?"  The blonde having a hangover did explain why there wasn't any music blaring.

"And where the hell were you last night?"  Grace scowled.  "Dad was worried when I got home."

"He was just as worried about you."

"Bren, you're his princess.  Always have been, always will be."

Brenna sat down in the chair beside the bookcase.  "It doesn't mean he can't worry about you.  I've seen it in him.  Besides, who else would he watch football with if something happened to you."

"Who would he watch baseball with without you?" Grace countered.

"This is stupid, Grace, arguing who Dad worried about more."  She picked up the old German textbook and flipped back to where she left off.  After reading a few paragraphs, the young brunette adjusted her reading glasses.

"What are you reading?"

Without looking up, Brenna answered, "One of Grandma's old books."

Grace snorted.  "Because of yesterday, right?"

"Duh."  Brenna shifted to she wouldn't aggravate her still tender back.  "Want to help?"

"No, thanks."  Grace stretched out on the couch.  "That's all about ghosts and spirits, right?"

"Your point, Gracie?"

NaNo 2016 - Week 2

NaNo week two is over.  Phew

Total words written by the end of November 14: 30 023, or a little over 2100 words per day.  Not bad, except the last day saw a complete shutdown on writing, with not even 600 words written.  Still, thanks to a very productive weekend, I'm now four days ahead of schedule.

The second arc has started and is up to chapter 9, but a small problem has occurred.  Kieu and Kristi are on a double date, which is supposed to be plot relevant but there isn't anything going on.  This shouldn't be a problem, at least for word count.  It is a problem for keeping the story going.  There are drawbacks to pantsing.

I did manage to get a few elements in that I wanted, including the introduction of the driving myth arc of the series.  Raccoon filled a chapter om his own, and he could have kept going if it weren't for the word limit I'm placing on chapters.  He needs to return in a later arc.

In the meantime, the mystery that should be the focus of the second arc is slowly coming together.  I really should have figured out who the person in the monster suit was before I began, but I didn't know who all was involved when I started.  That needs to be addressed later.  Unruly was easier; the girls started the plots themselves.  Right now, I do know who is behind the hauntings with a rough idea why, and have some nice red herrings involved.

New goals for the coming week include getting Ginger dressed properly.  She will have to appear in public at some point.

NaNo 2016 - Sneak Peek!

Here we area at the halfway point through NaNoWriMo.  A proper update is coming, but enjoy this snippet of dba LTV Paranormalists in the meantime.  Note that the bit has not yet gone through editing and fact-checking and is subject to change later.  But, still, enjoy!



Three weeks ago
Ayel tracked Kristi down inside the $Paterson lecture hall.  The blonde sat down beside the brunette, placing the manila envelope on Kristi's lap.  "I'm in."

Kristi's face brightened.  "Great!"

Ayel held up a hand.  "But I looked into the legalities."

"Legalities?"  Kristi's face fell a little.

"We're skirting the laws on private investigation here.  I know I don't have a P.I. license.  Do you?"

"I might know someone.  But if all we're doing is research, even for someone else, then how are we private investigators?  We do research all the time here."  Kristy shrugged, her tawny curls bouncing.  "At least I do."

Ayel shrugged out of her leather jacket.  "That's why I said 'skirting'.  As long as we don't investigate someone living, we should be good.  But if you know someone with a license, that'll help."

Kristi nodded.  "I'll talk to him.  Oh, I got someone else to help, too.  We're going to need detectors and she has a few ideas."

-**-

April
Ayel started walking back to her minivan.  "Better get that thing out of the rain.  Kieu will kill you if you get it wet."

Kristi shoved her electronic gadget into her pocket.  "She's not going to kill me.  Kieu likes me, in her own way."

"Then she'll kill me as a proxy for killing you.  And then grumble about having to fix her device.  No thanks."

"You just have to give her a chance, Ayel."

"I've done nothing to her."  The blonde hit the electronic lock to start the van once she was in range.

Kristi took one last look over her shoulder.  "I think that's too big to be a cat.  And it's standing all wrong."

Ayel rolled her eyes.  "Then it's a raccoon.  This used to be a farmer's field.  I'm pretty sure there was a barn around here ages ago.  And if it is a raccoon, we really have to get going, before a sinkhole swallows the van."

Kristi stopped mid-stride.  "Wait, what?"

"You didn't know?"  Ayel continued walking, leaving the brunette in the rain.  "Raccoons are a harbinger of sinkholes."

"Since when?"  Kristi dashed to catch up to the blonde.

Ayel reached the van, its dark blue getting lost in the grey of the rain.  "The summer.  Were you in town?"

Kristi opened the passenger door to get in.  "I was back home.  What happened?"

"It was big news here."  Ayel slipped in on the driver's side, shaking out her umbrella before closing it.  "A raccoon showed up at the construction site, then a sinkhole appeared three days later.  That's why we have to get going."

"Because of a sinkhole?"

Ayel grinned as she started the van's engine.  "Didn't you know?  We fill sinkholes with minivans here in Ottawa."

Kristi buckled up as Ayel put the van into gear.  "And you thought I was weird?"

NaNo 2016 Week 1

The first week of NaNo is done!  Huzzah!

Total words written by the end of November 7: 14 195, or a little over 2000 words per day.  That is about 2000 words more than last year's pace and is about a half-day ahead of where I needed to be.

Numbers aside, the story is progressing.  I had a better idea of what I wanted to do this year, and had worked on the characters a bit before starting.  It helps that the idea has been around for some time, just waiting for attention.  However, things have changed a lot since the original concept.  New elements are creeping in, a fourth and fifth character have been introduced because of necessity, and some aspects I thought would be around have been tossed aside.  I've learned a bit more about my characters.  Kristi now has a sister and a Possession and Acquisition License, the latter especially unexpected since she was meant to be far more into crystals than it is turning out.

The first arc is done.  The main goals of the arc was to introduce all my characters and to introduce the situation without being an infodump.  I went with flashbacks, and that technique is okay, but it is awkward when telling two stories at once.  It's a technique to have around but it doesn't sustain itself for long, at least for me.  Some characters were surprising.  Some editing may be needed, too, to dial back some of the weirdness.

I also did a bit more research.  Ginger, who is one of the fae, still hasn't said what sort of Wee Folk she is, so a quick search to avoid names like "sprite", "pixie", and "fairy" without a proper definition led to a future arc coming to mind.  What was once a Scooby-Doo approach is now getting a serial killer.  Things went dark-ish here.  Mind, the fae aren't exactly sweetness and light in legends.  An overall arc came from the research, too, and things can get serious.

New goals for the coming week include starting the new arc, having a Scooby-Doo plot, present the overall arc, and get Kieu to be nicer to Ayel.

NaNo 2016 Day 1

It's time to get things started!

NaNoWriMo has begun.  Fifty thousand words in thirty days, and this blog entry might not count.  I have a decision - dba LTV Paranormalists will be the project, with almost 400 words written in the first twenty minutes of the month.  I am a pantser, someone who tends to write at the seat of my pants.  The sole exception was By the Numbers, which had an outline.

With dba LTV Paranormalists, I'm already getting surprised by my characters - Kieu has a bias against blondes; Ayel is blonde; Kristi is far smarter than originally intended.  I've worked out where Kristi is from and realized that she has an older sister, Fred.  Ayel is the middle child, though her older brother is off on his own career elsewhere.  Her younger sister, Tiffany, is still in high school.  Kieu does have a family, and they miss her terribly during the school year.

So far, only Ayel and Kristi have been introduced.  I'm toying with a new style of writing that might not be sustainable through the entire series, but lets me show how the characters came together while still setting up the premise.  It's an experiment, so it's allowed to fail, provided I learn from the process.  Kieu should be introduced in chapter two, and the rest as needed.

The story is another serial.  They're fun and bloggable.  Unruly showed me that it is possible to get a serial done in NaNo without having to push a plot line out beyond what it could handle.  With dba LTV Paranormalists, I'll have an overall arc for the serial - already have one in mind! - and still do smaller chapters/episodes/entries that build towards the goal without feeling disjointed.

Let the insanity begin!

It's NaNo Time!

Get it on!

Best of luck to all WriMos out there.  May sanity be ever in your favour.