Luca Masters' NaNoWriMo 2006

Chapters

2007-08-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that after Chapter XXVIII I restart the numbers at XXIV instead of XXIX. One simple typo and my chapter numberings are messed up for the rest of the book. And--aw man--I did it again in the XXXs. Clearly, Roman numerals are just too complicated for me to handle. Total chapters is actually 62(?) + 3 introductions.

Google Webmaster Tools

2007-02-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

Google Webmaster Tools to the rescue!

Okay, so I said I was going to edit, but then didn't do anything beyond that first day. Poo on me.

But thanks to Google Webmaster Tools, I've just found a quite significant error: Hilfa's real name is Hilfa. [Edit: WTF? Hilsa. Hilfa's real name is Hilsa.)

Apparently, the top (read: only) query for my website is 'hilfa fish'. Initially, I thought I was polluting the results for people wanting to learn about the type of fish knows as the hilfa, but a bit of checking reveals that it's actually knows as a 'Hilsa'. In fact, I knew this initially. There is exactly one occurrence of 'Hilsa' in the entire novel, her initial entrance in Day 4. The other one hundred (exactly) mentions of her name all call her 'Hilfa'.

I suppose I'll just to a simple replace, but maybe I'll later insert a running joke where Fin keeps calling her 'Hilfa'.

Or I could add a line or two where she explains (or the narrator explains) that her father'd had a tendency to mispronounce words, and he'd named her 'Hilfa' due to this. Nah. s/Hilfa/Hilsa/g;

(I seem to remember having trouble remembering how to spell her name while writing, but I guess I never looked back to the initial spelling and just settled on the wrong one.)

Editing has begun.

2007-01-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm finally starting a bit of editing. I started by catting it all into one huge file. Then I went through updating the chapter titles to include chapter numbers and putting them in order. Just doing this made me realise, holy hell, this is long!

The chapter titles, of course, hae some problems. 'Deadlines Approaching' refers to me being nearing midnight, not something happening in the story. 'A Noisy Arrival in a Noisy Town' turned out not to have the arrival, which ended up happening in 'For Real This Time'.

There is no Chapter XXXXIII.

Then there's the actual content. Chapter II needs bit of fixing up. Chapter III needs to be scrapped or rewritten in full or something. Chapter XVII has to exist, but needs to be much, much better and well-thought-out. What else? I don't know. Lots.

Day 28: For the win.

2006-11-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

When I awoke this morning, I moved my lapop back up onto my desk as I always do.

It turned off.

It's been doing this a lot lately. According to my sources, it has a broken pin that needs resoldering. Luckily, so long as I don't bump the cord, it's not a problem, so I just plugged it back in so I could turn it back on and all would be fine until I moved it again tonight.

Only, this time it decided it was really screwed for good. It won't stay powered for more than a few seconds. I have around two hours of battery time to use when I'm ready, and then it's gone until I disassemble, solder a pin on the motherboard (I've never soldered anything before), and reassmeble.

I sohuld point out that:
* Compaq notebooks have apparently been plagued with this problem since 2004 or before.
* The fuckers, as of 2005, had not yet said 'Hey, let's fix our goddamn soldering process'.
* Compaq is the devil.

So, anyway, my 500MHz Linux box is quite slow with anything graphical. Normally I wouldn't need anything graphical, but I do for Blogger. Or, Elinks wasn't working. No DOM. Makes for very limited JavaScript support.

Also, [almost] all my text versions of my NaNo were only on the laptop, so getting them to verify was a pain.

I got 49997 and had several contenders for hte last three words:
* 'The bloody end.'
* 'To be continued...'
* 'Compack bleeding sucks.'

I went with the second, but let me make this perfectly clear: Compaq bleeding sucks.

The Day's Text
Words today: 374
Words total: 50000
Target total: 46666.666 repeating

Day 27: Almost done

2006-11-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

124.666 more per day or (more likely) 374 tomorrow. Plus a little bit over.

The volcano story was shorter than I anticipated. But it's cool. A short bit of Sylvia tomorrow, then perhaps some fiddling about. Hilfa's age is the only thing that I know needs fixing (beyond a few typos I've noticed), but I'd like to insert mentions of these nozzles being dragged around by the army.

The Day's Text
Words today: 728
Words total: 49626
Target total: 45000

Day 26: Late, but not so late.

2006-11-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

Again, next to nothing before midnight. But enough after. This morning, I needed 411.2 words per day. Now I need 275.5. Gaining!

I discovered there's no Chapter XXXXIII. Nothing really fits in there. Maybe an additional Sylvia chapter, but at this point, I think the historic volcano will take more words than I need, so volcano+ending Sylvia+XXXXIII Sylvia = lots of words.

The Day's Text
Words today: 954
Words total: 48898
Target total: 43333.333 repeating

Day 25: Very late

2006-11-26T01:14:00.000-08:00

I believe I wrote under a hundred words before midnight, but then I stayed up really late, like, until now (4:20am here) writing. Got lots done. More than half.

In addition to getting a fair bit written, I now have a aside to write: The tale of the volcano. Lots of kissing and not enough swordfights. Turns out at the end that you can't stop a volcano with just toothpicks. (But maybe that you can with a trained military battalion.) Perhaps the volcano is Kukukillapacawowdomingobarajibjab. But probably not.

I only have two things left to write, though:
Volcano
Silvia

1 028 words each. Volcano will have to be long, because I don;t think Sylvia will be.

Also, I think the volcano aside will be inserted as Chapter XXXXVI, bumping up the other two.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2073
Words total: 47944
Target total: 41666.666 repeating

Day 24: Finishing a chapter

2006-11-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

I realised that Chapter XXXXI ('Paths Cross') wasn't really finished, so I've continued from it today. Next, I think should be Leath before the final decision is made.

TODO:
* Leath decides mission should be abandoned
* They abandon missions and decided to visit the Isle of the Gods.
* Maybe Phil picks up the escaped prisoners.
* Sylvia heads north.

I'll probably also want another aside or two. You know, historic bits, fables, and whatnot.

Low wordcount again, but I'm gaining:
Words per day to finish on time, as of the beginning of the day: 721.142857
Words per day to finish on time, as of the end of the day: 688.16666...

Of course, if I did words per thread to tie up, I'm not doing quite so well. That's why I need to think up an aside or two.

The Day's Text
Words today: 919
Words total: 45871
Target total: 40000

Day 23: New low

2006-11-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I didn't reach 1666.666... words for the day. I don't mind. I got some hard stuff done, tying up the Ravioli/Gar/Biscotti bit with a cliffhanger for Part II. I only need 793.5 words per day at this point and I got a fair bit more than that.

I now have about four things left to do. This makes for 1262 words for each, but I suspect the Fin-Dallywonk joint group will consume a disproportionate share of it.

A couple weeks ago, I started listing the various threads so I could look at it and pick one I could stand to write that day, and so I could see what had been ignored for the longest. Here are the threads as I see them now and what I intend to do with them (ordered by last written ascending order):

Tanenbaum Guards: FINISHED; Remember that stupid captain of the guard? He was fun, but mostly ignored. This will continue. I need not write any more about him.
Tanenbaum Region war preparations: FINISHED; Also no more needed for Part I. This is done.
Leath: He (or his superiors) should decide that Dallywonk's mission is a bad thing. This should occur after it's abandoned, though he doesn't know it's abandoned. Probably they assume it's failed
Silvia: Not much to do with this, but it's a good note to end on, perhaps. Just her continuing her journey north.
Phil: Maybe get in position to help Fin+Morris and/or to pick up the prisoners
Prisoners: Guenter and Warren: I may have Phil pick them up in Part I, but if they get ignored until Part II, that's fine too.
Fin, Hilfa, Snook, Meville Pennybrook, Sven Zoot / Morris Dallywonk, Filcher, Breck, Dudders: Abandon missions and decide to visit Isle of the Gods together. The Cheshire cat may prompt this. I don't know for certain. Zoot is opposed to exploding things, so he may also encourage it, despite not really having had zombie trouts preached to him as much as the rest of his group.
Delmer Ravioli: FINISHED; This is done. He met Biscotti and Gar in a cliffhanger. This had to be after Biscotti was accused so that Biscotti can be vindicated by the Fin-Dallywonk journey of discover in Part II.
Wartface: FINISHED; Captured by Biscotti
Gar: FINISHED; He and Biscotti met Delmer in a cliffhanger ending.

It's all coming together nicely, and with perfect timing. Shocking. (Okay, really, it's all coming together nicely because I'm being forced to split it into two parts, but the two parts split so nicely.)

The Day's Text
Words today: 1300
Words total: 44952
Target total: 38333.333 repeating

Day 22: Slow start, fast finish

2006-11-22T20:53:00.000-08:00

I wrote most of this in the last hour before midnight. It went nicely towards the end, though I hated writing earlier today. I HATES IT!

There was one problem: I introduced Dudders and then promptly forgot he even existed until morning. I had to go back and add a bit about him. But it's all good now.

Also, I realised about half an hour ago that BattleJesus had been right in telling me to hurry the plot along a day or two ago. I'm only just finishing up the set-up right now. I have half the plot to go and only 6 348 words until victory.

Oh well. Maybe aliens will put an abrupt end to these events when they tire of watching and drop nukes on the planet. (Oh, dang! I just realised that my stock cutshort ending won't work because no one dies in this war.)

The Day's Text
Words today: 1731
Words total: 43652
Target total: 36666.666 repeating

Day 21: Meh

2006-11-21T20:41:00.000-08:00

Gah, I /SO/ should have ended the day with 42k.

Okay, this crate should be picked up by the Phil or the pirates who joined the organisation.

That's all.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1672
Words total: 41921
Target total: 35000

Nope

2006-11-20T22:55:00.000-08:00

Then again, maybe I won't.

Day 20: I suck

2006-11-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

Damn it.

I'll write some more, post-midnight.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1697
Words total: 40249
Target total: 33333.333 repeating

Day 19.5

2006-11-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, done. Not much, but enough to counter Day 18's low count.

The Day's Text
Words today: 176
Words total: 38552
Target total: 31666.666 repeating

Day 19: Oops

2006-11-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I didn't make up for it, but I will. I'm not totally tired, so I'm going to finish this chapter before bed and post it as day 19.5.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2034
Words total: 38376
Target total: 31666.666 repeating

Day 18: Failure

2006-11-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

Caffeine is bad for you. Drugs bad, kids.

Only around 1800 words today, but I finally have a chance to fix my sleeping patterns (maybe), so I'm going to bed early. Very tired. Didn't sleep last night. Got a few hours this afternoon.

I'll write extra tomorrow. I promise.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1826
Words total: 36342
Target total: 30000

Day 17: Early finish

2006-11-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

I wrote over 300 words after midnight last night because I'll not be writing much/any tonight, most likely. I'll be up all night, so I may be super!tired tomorrow as well. Hopefully I'll get it done, though.

Today's stuff didn't get much plotwork, but the Fin Co. is moving along.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2063
Words total: 34516
Target total: 28333.333 repeating

Day 16: Oops, I'm late posting this.

2006-11-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know what to do with Fin and Co. now. They're just walking. Seems kind of boring to write about.

Once the two covert ops groups meet up, I'm thinking thy might take a secret ancient underground subway like thing to the coast. You know, to save time, writing, and whatever. But I don't know.

I did finally get something done with the prisoners Gar talked to. Nothing with Gar, but this is a start. However, I must remember to review 'An Explosive Turn of Events'. Guenter and Warren's personalities and speech are probably completely different there.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2279
Words total: 32453
Target total: 26666.666 repeating

Day 15: Record amount

2006-11-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I was checking around for some reference regarding how far these northern dweebs have to walk. And, well, Germany has 1480 miles of coastline. Did you know that? That's a lot of coastline. It looks closer to three hundred miles, but coastline is all wrinkly, making it actually really, really long.

Luckily, Fin and Co. don't follow the coastline. And Sawbill isn't at the top of the nation. And the border isn't at the bottom of Halley's old realm. I figure they only have to travel about 400 miles to reach the border. Various things seem to suggest that these people can maybe get 50 miles per day (or a lot more or a lot less) on horseback, and I have a friend who's walked over thirty miles in a single day, so surely! (Of course, that was with very few supplies. Thirty-six miles took her three days when heavily loaded. Horses, though, can carry the load.)

The last chapter, starring Biscotti is valuable. I wrote it, gaining a lot of fast wordcount, and then fixed it up some more. It's not super!excellent, but it solves plot paradoxes (Biscotti must have known Delmer's name if he hired and betrayed him, so why the trip for Gar?) and tells the reader (and finally me!) what's going on with Gar and Ravioli and Biscotti. I needed that. They've been much ignored due to me having now idea what to write.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2350
Words total: 30174
Target total: 25000

Day 14: Moving right along.

2006-11-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

I set Dallywonk and Co. up to get lost, giving Fin and co time to get down to the border. I think they'll need horses, though. And a timeshift. I MUST REMEMBER: They get horses in THIS chapter. Not the next one. Maybe horses just happen to turn up along the trail. Maybe Fin steals them from some other travellers. Maybe they go into a town. But /before the chapter ends/. I named it to have horses. LEt's finally get something right with the chapter naming thing.

Oh, and I forgot to make the Pesce be polite and formal with each other for a bit. I had to go back and repair their dialogue. Added 107 easy words. Then I wrote some where they weren't so long-winded. But they were all panicked, sort of, having just fled a bear. So maybe it's okay.

But why, oh why do the Pesce sometimes speak almost like Middle English people and sometimes like 'normal' people? I suck.

Note: at some point, I need to mention Snook saying 'Fate!' from the Tan's perspective.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2123
Words total: 27824
Target total: 23333.333 repeating

Day 12: One long chapter

2006-11-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

A single chapter, for the first time ever. I got a late start and it was going very slowly. I tried having the waitress recite the menu for some quick wordcount, but that wasn't working well at all, so I was forced to bring back the Cheshire cat. From that point on I thought it didn't totally suck, and it went much faster.

Today I realised that trout live in the ocean. They're also river fish, but not only river fish. This was really an 'oh !$@%' moment for me. But I handled it acceptably. Maybe. It's a shame they're not southern ocean only. That would allow for the folks in the Tanenbaum Region not knowing about ocean trout. But alas, I don't think that's the case.

Time is messed up slightly. These people are trying to travel hundreds of miles to meet up with the other covert ops group (though they don't know it), but the other covert ops group is already heading out to strike. Maybe these people will buy a cart with their wealth, which will help, but I think this must be a day or two before the Pesce stuff. I guess the Tanenbaum army is still on the march, just a day or two ahead of the covert ops group.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2107
Words total: 25701
Target total: 21666.666 repeating

The War

2006-11-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

It seems kind of odd that this chronicle of the war between two sea-faring nations is focussed almost entirely on the land-based fighting. I was expecting some sea battles. But I think writing about sailing would probably be even worse than writing about grunts, as the terminology and such is even more distinct and foreign. Besides, this isn't needing to be a comprehensive study of the war, but merely a novel explaining the cause, the effect, and how it basically went down. Or something like that.

Maybe focus will shift to the maritime goings-on when they travel to the coast on their journey to the Isle of the Gods.

Day 12: Long chapter

2006-11-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

'For Real This Time' refers to the fact that I titled an earlier chapter 'A Noisy Arrival in a Noisy Town' and they didn't. Actually, I briefly forgot to make their arrival noise this time, but I went back and reinserted a mention of thunder.

Also, the cat, it seems, did have some bearing on the plot! I didn't know it until today, but it is the four travellers who will join Dallywonk in a journey of discovery to the Isle of the Gods, where they will learn the true nature of our fishy dead friends. At least, they'll probably be there. One of them must, since they too have heard that the gods are zombie trout. And now they're going to collide with Dallywonk's team. Fantastic!

The first chapter just kept going on and on because I really didn't know what I would do next. Probably my longest chapter yet. (No, wait. It looks like yesterday's cat chapter was longer. Well, that chapter has this chapter's name. Of course, these chapters tend to look longer than they are because dialogue makes for short lines.)

Oh, and you know how I've been mis-punctuating my quotations? Yeah, I didn't really have much of a reason to do that, so I think I'll just do it correctly from now on.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2079
Words total: 23594
Target total: 20000

Day 11: No progress

2006-11-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, Delmer was good. I liked that first bit. All the rest...

I ind of liked the bit with the cat. I was some easy wordcount, and fun, but really, nothing today besides Delmer's short scene really helped with the plot. Wordcount is nice, but if I'm only a quarter of the way through the plot when I hit 50 000, what then? Yes, I can always cut it short with a nuclear war from space aliens, but I'd rather not. There's a lot coming for the plot, and I need to work to get it all in.

#NaNoWriMo was part of my my inspiration for the cat, by the way. I needed someone to say this, and the cat was it:
19:32 < b2> claudia, you saucy wench
19:32 < PurpleCar> I know, tia, I know
19:32 < claudia6913> *rawr*
19:32 < LKBM> Someone is now going to say 'saucy wench' in my nano. I don't know who yet, but it has to be said.

They also provided the names Biscotti and Ravioli.

(And, oh shit, I just noticed the title of the chapter with the cat is 'A Noisy Arival in a Noisy Town', but they don't get to town in that chapter. Maybe I should start naming chapters /after/ I write them. Maybe I'll write some more before midnight and rename the chapter. It's not even 11pm yet.)

The Day's Text
Words today: 2003
Words total: 21515
Target total: 18333.333 repeating

Day 10: A late start, but a fine finish

2006-11-10T20:26:00.000-08:00

I was a little slow to start today and was worried I wouldn't reach 2000 words, but then my last two bits brought me right over it. A lot of short chapters early on, due to my inability to write. Wordcount comes when you're not expecting it.

I realise I should be writing about Gar, but I'm not sure what's supposed to happen there. How will it relate to the war? (Okay, yes, obviously the explosion is the casus bellum, and I believe the boss caused the explosion.) What's Delmer's relation to the boss? Who is Delmer? Were the three men just going to steel the royal yacht and sail down to the Pesce lands? Are they Pesce?

Maybe tomorrow I'll write it.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2156
Words total: 19512
Target total: 16666.666 repeating

More words; more plans.

2006-11-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

'Party of Four' was originally titled 'Party of Five', but as I was updating the index I realised there were only four of them. Hey, I also renamed 'One-Tooth' to 'One-Eyed' and didn't notice until I looked up to see if it was 'One-Eyed' or 'One-Eye'. Also, I've decided Hilfa is a lot older than originally stated. Fourteenish, maybe? This was an intentional change, though.

As for my writing plans: one option I've been considering is doing editing each day that I feel like it/have time after reaching 2000 words. Once I hit my quota, I tend to stop writing, but editing I could still do. However, I'd have to make sure my editing of old days didn't reduce their wordcount. For these minor errors I keep noticing, that's not a problem, but what I ought to be doing is some slightly larger rewriting. If I rewrite Jaime/Canton, it either needs to be not significantly shorter or so bad that I decide not to use the rewrite. (Another nice thing: rewrites that are on top of the daily wordcount can be rejected as crappy. Stuff written just to meet the quota can't be.)

The Day's Text
Words today:2019
Words total: 17355
Target total: 15000

Updating Blogger

2006-11-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well, the Blogger beta is now unbeta so they're in the very slow process of converting this blog. Hopefully this post won't get lost. Anyhoo:

There really was going to be some sort of deadline approaching in that chapter (the one I start in the middle of today), but I forgot. I can rename it once I'm done.

Another death, but I maintain that this is also not a war-related death. Anyway, no big loss, right? We hate Gill. (No, changed my mind. He's not dead.)

And I broke the fourth wall for the first time.

Also: second highest daily word count. I broke 2000 again. Starting writing before 7pm is good.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2143
Words total: 15336
Target total: 13333.333 repeating

The plan

2006-11-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, so some of the stuff I've written really needs work:

Gar didn't want to enter Sawbill and then got a room at an inn there, and then suddenly remembered he didn't want to be in Sawbill.: I hope to modify his intro to explain 'oh, lemon cart! That fixes the smell, so no reason to not go through Sawbill and show my face there.' Drop the bit about 'witnesses', for one. Also, since he can, expand his Sawbill experience. Let him stay overnight and visit an eatery. He's hungry.
The History of Pesce: Just a few moments after writing that, I eeMailed Jaime (Online pseudonym: 'Canton') to tell her she's boring. I need to rewrite this to make it non-boring. It can still be about her. Just non-lame.
Political Undertones: It seemed a bit boring and forced (it was forced), but doesn't really suck, maybe. I may want to fix it up a bit. I don't know.
Island of the Gods: Impressively bad. I think I want to keep it as a dream sequence, as it introduced my new favourite character quite well, but it should start out as a good, accurate representation of the island, then get weird just before he awakes. Once he awakens, chapter should end more quickly.

My point in listing these is that at my current average of nearly 1900 words per day, I should have a bit over three days at the end up the month for editing (assuming I end right on 50k words; shan't). What I need to do is accelerate my writing to somewhere in the 2000-to-4000-words-per-day range so I'll have plenty of time to fix up the crappy parts. Yes, of course I'll do editing after month's end, but the better I have it by November, the cooler I am.

Beat the deadline!

2006-11-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

With seconds to spare.

I hit 1695 words at around 23:58:45h tonight. Now, I admit the line 'Cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese.' appears in today's text, but it's all about wordcount. Right? RIGHT?

IRC quote of the day:
23:46 < LKBM> I don't entirely like the chapter I just wrote most of, and I don't have a way to end it. I think one of my characters is going to now wake up and think 'Gosh, what a bizarre dream!'

And I pretty much did.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1696 (1695 before fixing the spelling/typing, which happened after midnight)
Words total: 13193 (see above)
Target total: 11666.6666 repeating

Later than ever, more than ever.

2006-11-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

I outdid myself today, not starting until around 7pm. Still, I got well over the quota. This also means I've broken the 10 000 word threshold. 20% done!

I went back and wrote an earlier chapter to insert somewhere around Chapter IV/V. I also noticed I had two chapters labelled IV, so chapter numbers have been bumped up doubly.

My plot is now emerging quite well. That is, a war is certainly brewing on both sides of the border. Tying it in with the Island of the Gods and the Zombie Trout inhabitants is of course some ways off, but I have a few thoughts on how to make it come about.

Though I haven't re-read it, I've decided I'm very unhappy with Canton (Jaime)'s history. It's boring. It's likely to face some major renovation or a full rewrite come December. Or...sometime. But for now, it's all about the word count. Speaking of which:

The Day's Text
Words today: 2225
Words total: 11497
Target total: 10000

Another slow start

2006-11-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

Once again, I didn't start writing until fairly late in the afternoon. And once again I watched an hour or so of TV latish in the evening. But I got it done. Not 2000 words today, but nicely over my quota, so it's all right.

I really have not much to say. I realise the thing in Mundi was awfully quick, but time between these things is obviously not synchronised. Leath heart tell of the explosion before I got to writing about it. I don't care.

If you haven't seen Firefly (especially 'Jaynestown'), go watch it. Truly excellent scifi. Jaime is an affable Firefly fan I know who goes by the username Canton. So there you go.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1842
Words total: 9272
Target total: 8333.333 repeating

Day 4: Having some fun.

2006-11-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

It's day 4. People in #NaNoWriMo are feeling the pressure:

Shortcuts are sought:
14:41 [@Phoebe] Time travel is easy.
14:42 [ LKBM] Phoebe: Yes, just write a scene and have it repeat over and over again. An easy 50k.

Questions about realism arise:
14:44 [ DemonHunter] How would a fight between an infinitly powerful person and a few teens turn out?

Some of us are feeling the pressures of just rambling:
14:58 [ LKBM] I have to remind myself 'I have a plot. I need to get around to the plot sometime. This silly stuff needs to lead /into the plot/. use the plot, Luca.'

Some people just like to make the rest of us feel inadequate:
14:59 -!- SCM|35803 is now known as SCM|36748
14:59 [ Shinko666] 36!!!!
14:59 [ LKBM] Holy shamoly, slow down SCM!
14:59 [ Shinko666] im gonna die
14:59 * Morwen{X}5648|1216 feels pathetic next to that word count
14:59 * t0e|11541 sings "my telly's gone bung"

Luckily, these people do have to sleep sometime:
18:07 [ SCM|40392] my night in less than an hour to go so my writing is over

Then, a bit before 4pm I finally put on my cape so I can start writing. But wait!
15:54 [ LKBM] My procrastination quote of the day: 'Where are my socks. I can't write a fucking novel without socks.'

Finally, I do write, and in the last half hour, I throw out 500 characters to push me above my aspirational goal of 2000 words in one day!

Also, my second paragraph of the day was my longest yet. 417 words. Over 2000 characters.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2103
Words total: 7430
Target total: 6666.66 repeating

Gangsters and parables.

2006-11-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

Nothing much done this morning, but I made up for it pretty well in the afternoon/evening. Plus, today, I actually liked most of what I wrote.

I must apologise for Gar talking like Nunzio or Guido. It was unintentional and very unexpected. Also, I should explain that 'Dag' refers somewhat to Dagon, a Phoenician god who was represented as half-fish. I mention this as much for my own future reference as your own. Actually, probably entirely my own. Why would anyone bother reading this blog anyway, right? I mean, besides me.

Hopefully we'll see more of Fin tomorrow, as well as more on the explosion. Yes, its related to Gar.

Here's a map I drew, by the way:

Note that there are more towns. Mundi isn't all there is to Pesce.

Oh, and a note for anyone (such as myself) who might be confused: In /A Short Journey/, it says that Sawbill is farther /west/ of Whitefish. It isn't. It's farther /east/. Of course, the map makes that clear, but just so I know to fix it later on.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1844
Words total: 5327
Target total: 5000

The worst thing I've ever written. Or maybe the best.

2006-11-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today I learned not to listen to people on #nanowrimo:
14:43 <lkbm> How do you start a campfire? Flint and something? A stick and a shoelace? A mini fire-breathing dragon that you carry around in your pocket?
14:43 <Roxasora> sparks
14:43 <lkbm> 'Pulling some sparks from his pocket, he tossed them on the pile of leaves and sticks'.

Okay, fine. I'll do that. And I did.

So a bit later, I was writing--of course--and after a couple lines I thought, 'Gosh, this is the worst thing I've ever written.'

But then I wrote some more, and it turned out to be most excellent. A bit of cleanup to the earlier part and I have 1643 words for the day and some delightful wackiness. But that was around 7pm.

I started the day with Chapter whatever: A Boisterous Day (named yesterday), but didn't get beyond the first paragraph. So I wrote Chapter whichever: A Short Journey and then headed into The Red Herring, which was written partly early/mid afternoon and partly after dinner. This brought me nearly to 1667 for the day, and adding a single line to Boisterocity put me over, with 1668.

Of course, I then had to finish up the Boisterocity, but after writing The Red Herring, I had regained some of my real writing ability.

Oh, dang. I just realised no one is supposed to die in this war. Oh, no, wait. This is a historical aside. Long before the war. Whew.

But, yeah, I really should get to that 'war' bit eventually. Some idiot wrote an introduction making that the basic plot.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1768
Words total: 3484
Target total: 3333.333 repeating

Day 1: Let's change genres!

2006-11-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

So, I started off with no plot, no characters, and no particular thoughts. I'd actually been thinking I'd do a modern day something or another, but when I sat down and started typing, it came out as a fantasy, so that's what I'm doing.

The first bunch is encyclopaedic in nature, followed by a chapter in which I actually introduce a character. This seems like a good pattern for me, since I don't like writing about people doing things. I don't understand people.

The story is about two unfriendly nations. One is a fishing nation. They fish. They eat fish. Yummy. The other is a fishing nation. They fish. They put fish in big aquariums and eat red meat and grains from their suppressed easern territories.
This means I have to use as many fish puns as possible.

Oh, and there's a war. I haven't gotten to that part yet, but the introduction says there's a war, so there'd better be.

HushNaNo wants us to put zombies in our NaNo, so I'll probably do that. Zombie fish? Zombie people? I don't know. Zombies, though. Zombies and trout. Some guy wants to name his NaNo 'Trout' even though it has nothing to do with trout. Now whenever people say 'carp' on IRC (and they do a lot), we tell them 'Trout'. Well, I do. I'm very annoying.

Ambie on IRC stated at 13:53est today that she was nearing 7 000 words. At that time, I was around 700, I think. Anyway, I'm now over 1 700. Not bad. Nearly as much as my entire 2004 NaNo, I believe.

The Day's Text
Words today: 1715
Words total: 1715
Target total: 1666.666 repeating