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.

Crossover - Chapter 13

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

Micki's duplicate returned with the promised water.  She started by giving a thimbleful to Pixie, elevating the tiny heroine so she wouldn't choke on the liquid.  Meredith was next, with a few sips from a water bottle.  When she approached Nasty, she said, "You could try at least looking grateful."

Crossover Chapter 12 - Commentary

Natasha usurps Nasty's life.  Welcome to the commentary for the twelvth chapter.  Please read the chapter before continuing.

The supporting cast is coming in to find the heroes.  The cast is as assembled together as it will get.  Everyone in the know, from Keith and Eric to the Eagle Foundation personnel, are together.  That does leave Vicki's father on the outside, which was why I sent him to the ball game.  Their goal, to rescue the heroes.  It's a nice switch up from the usual superheroes saving regular people story.  But, these are the supporting cast, not the headliners.

Speaking of our heroes . . ..  They're not in a death trap.  The one thing that Natasha can't do is kill them.  The connectivity between the two universes means that when one dies, the other does, too.  Natasha neutralized them.  Nasty uses her fists; her hands are inside hollow metal balls that she can't touch.  Pixie shrinks; if she tries to grow, she impales herself.  Meredith has power armour; removing the BIKINI removes her superpowers.  Natasha has also taken the Peregrine costume.  Vicki gets to keep hers; Tori would never fit.

The reveal of Prototype Omega finally came.  I was hoping readers would just assume that Omega was Meredith's counterpart, but there were enough hints about him along the way.  Teh biggest hint was that Keith built the BIKINI, not Meredith.  I also avoided pronouns when referring to Omega.  That is difficult; I didn't want to use the neuter pronoun, "it", to avoid drawing attention to the fact that I was hiding Omega's identity.  I wound up using descriptive passages for him.

Natasha's scene in the hotel room was fun to write.  First, it was a chance to explore her mindset.  She saw the hotel room, the luggage, and the box of condoms, and jumped to her her own conclusion.  I also showed a less devious side of her, a softer side.  Natasha isn't just out for sexual conquest, though she does enjoy the conquering.  Like Nasty, she is smitten by Eric.  It's how she responds to him that's key; and her downfall.

Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 13.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, The Bionic Woman.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, a look at the outrageously short run of Jem and the Holograms.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.

NaNo 2015 - Week 1

The first week is over.  The Elf's Prisoner is coming along at a good pace, both in-story and with word count.

The Stats:

• Words Written This Week: 12688
• Words Written Total: 12688
• Chapters Completed: 9
• On-screen Deaths This Week: 6
• On-screen Deaths Total: 6

I am ahead of pace.  I was able to get a day and a half worth of work on the first day alone.  The writing got split into two sessions.  The first was at midnight of the 1st.  The second was after leaving CanCon and going to the library write-in.  I managed to get about the same number of words, 1300 written in each session, so I wasn't pushing myself at either.  I've had two days where I didn't reach the daily goal of 1667 words, but the other days surpassed it.

In the story itself, I left the meager outline that I did have.  The outline was loose, to give me space and to get broad ideas down.  It doesn't count towards the total words, but it gave me a scaffold to work from.  I've left it.  The result, more time given to my lead characters.  I may have to work around a planned death; she doesn't want to die and I don't think I want my experienced character gone.  Looks like the kid will die instead.

Why does this year feel different?  The big difference is blogging.  Between my work with Lost in Translation and the weekly commentary for the serializations I'm doing, I'm writing about 2000-3000 words a week already.  Often, I spend an evening working on both.  I'm just now expanding that writing from one or two days a week to seven.  Will I keep this pace up?  Usually, the hardest part is around the 30 000 word mark, when the numbers aren't changing as much and the story starts bogging down.  Pacing is tough; lulls are needed, but too long a lull in the narrative can dissuade authors, let alone readers.  I'm hoping that the characters engage each other.  So far, that is working out.

One thing I am trying to add is a theme.  I don't care much for obvious themes; too many times, the story warps itself to maintain the theme to the point where the characters fall flat.  But, if the characters themselves buy into the theme, maybe it'll work.  If not, that theme gets dropped like a hot potato.

For this week coming, my goal is to get the main characters out on their quest, set up some clues towards the villain, and see if any romance blooms.  There's no guarentee on any of those, but with all the characters now in the same location, there's a better chance of at least one of those goals being reached.

Crossover - Chapter 12

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

Cleveland City Center Hotel, Cleveland, late-morning

Eric paced in the hotel room.  The Foundation radio signal had gone quiet.  Not dead; he could hear the faint hiss of static from a carrier wave.  There was just no traffic on the band, none since Tash's last words.  It was the lack of conversation that had him worried.  He dropped on to the bed.  The urge to just run out and look for Tash was overwhelming.

Crossover Chapter 11 - Commentary

Fight!  Fight!  Welcome to the commentary for the eleventh chapter.  Please read the chapter before continuing.

The mundane technology is starting to be dated.  Meredith has a flip phone.  Sure, there's text messaging, but today's standard is a smartphone.  And the less said about her roaming charges, the better.  She's looking at a huge bill.  The advanced tech of the BIKINI, though, makes up for it.  It is a smartphone with extra elements, like heads-up display and no roaming fees.

I gave Meredith the news about the havoc first to preserve the mystery a little longer and to avoid a bogged down repeat of what everyone knows is happening.  Two altered humans causing chaos in downtown Cleveland?  Who else could it be?  There's no need to toss in a new antagonist here.  Though, just two.  Meredith has no idea why that number is wrong.

In a world with superpowered humans, it's inevitable that police will have a plan in place when facing them.  Their Plan A is to evacuate the civilians before moving in.  Plan B is evacuating the civilians while letting someone also superpowered do the fighting for them.  Plan C involves calling in the Reserves.  It all depends on who is being faced.  An unknown person gets watched; a known costumed villain will have senior personnel reading files before making a decision.

Nasty has a huge limitation in the superpowered world.  She has a singular power, two if you count her constant swearing.  Against a normal person, she has the edge.  Against other powered people, she's working with a handicap; she has to hit someone to have her power punch go off.  If an opponent can throw energy blasts at range, Nasty may not be able to get close enough to be effective.  A thought crossed my mind at the time of writing, that Nasty would realize that she might be able to toss energy bolts, too, after seeing Natasha.  During the climactic battle, Nasty had other ideas of how to fight.

Pixie has her own handicap, as Nasty demonstrated.  When shrunk down, it's easy enough for someone to grab her with one hand.  Most of the time, Pixie's other power, her Pixie Dust, lets her get out of the grasp.  Grabbing Pixie is like grabbing an angry cat; you have her, but she can still fight.

The last paragraph with Nasty and Pixie was the scene that had me writing Crossover.  Long before NaNo 2006 started, the idea of Nasty and Pixie getting ready to deal with villains and being shocked by a third hero zipping past played over and over in my head.  The rest of Crossover came about to get that one scene used.  It too many many words to finally get it in.

The big fight, the big action set piece, has everyone talking while battling.  It's a staple of the comics, exemplified by Spider-Man, who natters opponents into surrender.  The battle let me contrast everyone's abilities.  Nasty has to hit people; Natasha zaps them from a distance while wearing a corset and leather pants.  Vicki shrinks; Tori grows.  Alpha has power armour based on agility; Omega's is brute strength.

With the heroines finally together, it was time to consolidate the supporting cast.  Vicki only has her father, conveniently sent to a baseball game.  Meredith has Keith, who is her partner in fighting crime.  Nasty has the Foundation, including Micki and her assistants.  Splitting time between Keith and the Foundation looked daunting at this point.  However, the Foundation has the gear to find Keith.  It's not like he can escape; he drives a Yugo.

Back when I started writing Subject 13, I played Champions, a superhero RPG.  The game let me try to define the characters' abilities and let me see where there were deficiencies.  Nasty really only has one power, her Power Punch.  In Champions, that would be a Hand-to-Hand Attack with the special effect of the purple flare when Nasty hits someone.  Pixie is more robust, having Shrinking and her Pixie Dust.  The Dust, though, is a harder build.  It doesn't really do damage, just puts people to sleep.  Champions is good at modelling, even if a player has to get creative with the modelling.  Two possible powers could work.  One is Transform, turning an awake target into a sleeping target.  That can get expensive and is all-or-nothing.  The other is Mind Control, with modifiers to make the the attack physical instead of mental and for just one command, "Sleep!"  Prototype Alpha is a variant of a power armour user, taking what's known as a Multipower to reflect directing energy into the BIKINI's subsystems.  Keith's tinkering is a Gadget Pool, slowly growing as he makes modifications.

Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 12.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, Spaced Invaders.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, The Bionic Woman.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.

NaNo 2015 - Day 1

November 1st!  NaNoWriMo has started!

Where am I?  First, before I can even start writing, I need to know what I am writing.  Three weeks ago, I had it narrowed down to two ideas.  Last week, I had that down to three.  Now?  It's down to one.

The winner is....

The Elf's Prisoner

To quote the great Captain Tenneal, "Get it on!"

Word count for the first day was 2603.  far better than I expected to do today, especially with a convention in town.  And that was without trying.  So, let's celebrate!

Bang a gong, it is on!

Let's get typing!

Woo!