Tag: Writing

Two hours to go. Like last time, I have the barest sense of what I want to to, a beginning that has nothing to do with the rest of the plot (i.e. I don’t really know what to do in the beginning of the plot). Like last time, I have half my mind on another thing, in this case a rather long story on Vampire Rose for Fantasybits.

Last year… seems both like I was at this point in time just a week ago, and then like it was a hundred years ago. Last time I was in it for the fun, the sheer insanity of it all. This year I think I have something to prove. Prove to myself that I can actually write a semi-serious novel.

Prove to myself that this novel can be about Savant (something which I have carefully avoided until now — Tale of a Thousand Savants is, at best, an action/ comedy side-story that got carried away with itself).

Prove to myself that, for once in my ever lazy existence, I can actually finish something I start, and at least do so to my satisfaction.

Prove to myself that there isn’t some greater divine conspiracy subtly chipping away at me, putting little obstacel after little obstacle, one more excuse to stop and never start again.

I’m going for speed.

Current Projects:
Undecided at the Moment – 0 words

¡Vb!

You’d think that’s I’d at least learnt my lesson by now. But now, even with one unfinished novel still at the halfway mark, the new moth just a week away, I’ve taken the plunge and signed up for NaNoWriMo 2002.

Meanwhile Tale of a Thousand Savants has had some work put into it — okay, so just one chapter — but it’s now broken 40K. Whee! And it only took me a year! I’ll plug some more words into it by November 1st — maybe even finish the Eule arc by then if I’m lucky — and then move onto the NaNo2K2 novel.

Which, at this point, is called Undecided at the Moment. I get to write about a bar this time. This in itself is a strange thing, as I don’t drink, I’ve never been to a bar, I think Whiskey is a lame joke that’s gone on for far too long, and in general I don’t quite know what to do with a bar.

Oh sure, I’ll put in a few characters, a sub-plot, a contingency plot, a villain or two, a damsel or ten; but on the whole it’s going to be a very different novel. About the only major plot point now is that the whole medievel/fantasy city where this bar is located comes under siege from a huge army at some point. I’m still debating about whether or not they actually do take over the town. But that’s sure to get itself sorted out by the time it happens.

My current writing peak (overall, I mean, not recent) is 11K words a day, which is what happened last year at November’s end on ToaTS — mind you this was with ample rest, slacking off and ten hours of sleep. I’m trying to jazz myself up to at least do more than 2K a day. That way I can reclaim some sense of self-worth. It’s not like any other thing I do is giving me that.

It’s been three months since my mother died. I went to India, met the folks and the other folks; nothing much seems to have changed. Except now, older that I am, and sans mother, every uncle I have is even more annoying. I’ll tell you more about the trip whenever I feel the need to vent about stuff; since that happens every other day you may not have to wait long.

Right now, however, I have to go negotiate a scene involving a priest and a commander dancing to the accordian of a serial killer while they wait for a mysterious young woman who seems to be a messiah.

…how do I ever get myself into these things?

Current Projects:
The Tale of a Thousand Savants – Somewhere over 40K words, about half done.

¡Vb!

You thought I was dead.

You thought I was just lazy.

Okay, so you were right on the second one.

Two and a half months. A lot has happened. So let’s just run the checklist, ‘kay?

No, I didn’t finish the nanovel in time. Mom went to the hospital on the 11th (Nov 2K1), so things were on hold and I — almost — decided to shelve it until the 28th, when I thought I might go out in a blaze of glory. By Zero Hour I had gone up to 35K.

Not bad. Then I decided to take the day off…

…which has extended until today. Today is the day I start chapter 16 which — by my rough estimate — is a third of the way through the story. It’s changed a lot since I last wrote. I have much better characters now, thanks to a chapter which took place during a dinner (I needed some good conversation and the characters were born to suit that banter). Now the centre has shifted slightly away from Savant’s special squad — though they are important — to the higher level with Savant’s equals (in rank).

People seem to love it so far. It helped me get to 35K. Hopefully people will still like it after two and a half months. Mind you, none of the stuff I posted to Fantasybits wasn’t even spellchecked or proofread — I have yet to read the damn thing again, fully at least, and promise not to until the words ‘The End’ flash by.

All other projects — writing in general, in fact — is on hold. The Intangibles have been dormant since December. Maybe that’ll get active again, at least I hope so.

Oh, in December my father fractured his femur. He’s been at home for the past month. College is okay, been doing some work in Flash, and we started 3D today. I have the distinct feeling that I have no skill for any sort of visual medium, nor ever will.

Again.

Current Projects:
The Tale of a Thousand Savants(NaNovel) – 34,483 words

¡Vb!

We started doing GIF animations today. Did one of a stick-figure scratching his head. Pretty nice. I think I’ve found my True Calling.

Again.

Nanovel’s first ‘episode’ has ended with chapter three — I’m quite happy with it, turned out different from what I thought it would. Savant says some semikewl things, it’s nice to see he can still do that. For a few months there I thought he’d gone soft and reverted to Goofy-Sav mode — nice to see that he too can surprise me.

Progress on the nanovel is going slower than I would want (okay, so what I’d like is 10K words a day…), but that might just have been the total uncertainty with the first part. Now that the main plot is beginning I might plunge in head-first and come up with a lot of words. Rambling about everything I’ve already covered in short stories — but in different ways — (M-Storage, the Sword, Mars bars, etc) is much more fun than I thought it would be, plus I can pad the novel quite easily if it suddenly screams, “Finish me now!” at 50,002 words.

I wouldn’t like to end it at 50K, more like 55K just to be safe. That’s why the first part served as both an introduction to the characters (the so-called James Bond opening) and as a Contingency Plot.

Contingency plots are great: you just introduce one and resolve it within 3 chapters, but keep one part open (side-villain gets away?) and then, when you need a Deus Ex Machina to pull your guys out of the fire you can have your contingency plot characters show up and save the day without your readers thinking it was a Deus Ex Machina. Okay, so if you write it bad anything can seem like Deus Ex Machina.

But things are looking up. I’ve written stuff I’m satisfied with, I’ve found my True Calling again.

Now if only I could get the girl.

Current Projects:
Bender – 6739 words
The Tale of a Thousand Savants(NaNovel) – 6,214 words
The Intangibles – 51 posts (unedited), 7647 words (edited)

¡Vb!

Chapter one is ready. I’m happy with it, as I usually am with things I never plan out. It was going to be a long conversation ending with a ship looming out of the clouds and breaking the mood between Savant and Esfi, but suddenly I was stuck at Savant saying, “Pretty,” when Efpi, completely out of the blue, said:

“I don’t charge for sex.”

And Savant replied: “Neither do I.”

From there the story just found its way to the chapter cliffhanger. I might go back in next month and add details, but right now it — though rushed, sucky crap — is pretty okay.

I’m even hyped for writing chapter 2 now, and I probably will, after this. Damn, this is going to be a fun, hectic, crazy month.

Current Projects:
Bender – 6739 words
The Tale of a Thousand Savants(NaNovel) – 1,685 words
The Intangibles – 51 posts (unedited), 7647 words (edited)

It’s about half an hour to go. November. I’m trying to pass the time away with Bender, but that isn’t working. In fact, instead of writing, I edited some stuff out. Muse permitting I might write the entire pre-harem and harem scenes tomorrow. Of course, she might want me to go straight to The Tale of a Thousand Savants, Bender might have to be put on hold for a few days, at least to burn up the pent-up pre-nano energy.

ToaTS looks nice with its 48pt bold Trajan title. I put my name under it, as well as “01 November 2001 ~ 31 November 2001” — I don’t know whether to consider that as a sign of smugness or just wishful thinking. Even Bender looks nice with a 48 bold Trajan title. Heck, everything looks good with a Trajan Title.

Trajan needs to be big. It’s alright as a small font, but you really need to see it huge and up-close, I feel.

E-commerce was a mixed bag today. Okay, so it wasn’t fun at all. In addition to the already albatross-like Kaboom Project I have to do another 15 minute presentation next week on the role of graphics in e-commerce. Never mind that nobody from my group showed up today. Geh. I think it’s about that time to point a big finger at the rest of ’em and do thing the good old Vishal Bharadwaj way — Solo.

Well, 30 minutes to kill. Might listen to some ‘mood music’ — Tank! from Cowboy Bebop most probably. Tale of a Thousand Savants, though I don’t even know how it starts, seems to strike me as something that would start loud and cool and very stylish.

The Intangibles is still going though its initial gestation period. Have to get it ready tomorrow and let the punters in.

Current Projects:
Bender – 6,757 words
The Tale of a Thousand Savants(NaNovel) – 0 words (unless the title is counted ^_^)
The Intangibles – 51 posts (unedited), 7,647 words (edited)

¡Vb!

This sucks. Bender isn’t even halfway done. Tomorrow’s the last free day before the NaNoWriMo starts. Tomorrow is E-Commerce. Tomorrow I have to shave. Tomorrow I have to write the juicy bits of the business proposal.

This sucks.

Oh well, at least I got the Intangibles group set up. Not ready to accept people yet, but more on that tomorrow. ^_^

Current Projects:
Bender – 6739 words
The Tale of a Thousand Savants (NaNovel) – 0 words
The Intangibles – 51 posts (unedited), 7647 words (edited)

¡Vb!

As the title says, Bender is back and flowing, though an edit will be needed — once it’s done, once it’s done. Swimming along at 5350 words, not even halfway done, maybe as little as a quarter — and I’m loving it. Sansaarika will be starring in a lot of future things, methinks. Now if only I could draw…

…speaking of drawing, the Cube-i-fying work continues at an okay pace — not doing a lot, but it’s better than nothing. I’ll probably refine single figures and stuff for the next month, then move onto cubed scenes (Roman Senates in Cubes seems like a nice thing to try).

Dreamweaver is surprisingly fun, and I did some sketches for the project website today — looks good, something I’d be proud of. The e-commerce project is stuck in neutral, I might do something tonight, maybe even some graphical work. Not that that’s the first thing on my mind… I’m a little sick of deciding what not to put into the final draft. I need to cut my emotions from this and think of it as — shudder — homework. That may help

People seemed to like Mote and The Old One on Fantasybits— wonder what they’ll think of later bits when Val gets a-twining. I may be dangerously close to fulfilling my “origins may kill characters” viewpoint.

¡Vb!

Paradoxically, I’ve been doing more writing about my writing than writing. Fantasybits has been buzzing since the entire closing ‘joke’ pulled by El Dwarf. It feels good that all of it is out in the open and the mess has been sorted out. Not that this is an end to it by any means, but at least now we all know things in black, white and a few shades of grey I’m not so sure about.

I’m most interested in what JacLyn has to say about all this.

Meanwhile, the Cube-i-fying process continueth, with mixed results. I think I’ll stick with it — looks better than anything else I’ve done all year.

NaNoWriMo still kicks major gluteus maximus, and the ongoing story that just spontaneously sprung forth is running well. An excerpt:

“No thanks,” she said, “I tried some of these — Jez gave ’em to me, they’re foul. Don’t compare to the stuff we have back home.”

“Back home?” Drago asked.

Alexandra wedged herself between Angie and Reese on the couch. Reese couldn’t stop staring at her. Angie couldn’t stop glaring at Reese.

Alexandra said, “Have you ever smoked the leaves of the Aureate Gonvax, farmed off the back of a Silk-Dragon and dried in her breath?”

“Can’t say I have,” Drago said.

“I’ll show you sometime, shug’ah.”

“I look forward to it.”

~~~

The other writers are nice — maybe I can get a few to come over to Fantasybits to play. I know C’Tah joined.

Bender is stuck. She shall not be by tonight.

¡Vb!

Today has been a rough day, writing wise. I hammered a few thousand words into Bender, but even in writing them I wasn’t satisfied. I have to move away from this habit of ‘introducing’ my characters in every story — it’s starting to annoy even me that I have to start Savant off as ‘the guy in the black coat’ every time. I do this with a lot of stories. I never say “John crept along” — I say “The figure crept along” until later on someone says “Hello John” and the character is named.

This never happens with my smaller, lighter stories, probably because lighter Savant stories are like new editions of a comic strip, whereas I unconsciously try to keep each longer/serious post as a self-contained thing in hopes that someday it may be published… this is even stranger as, to date, I’ve never tried to be published ^_^

Of course, the exception to this habit was Saturn Syndrome, but then, that was long and light-hearted, so…

Hopefully I’ll finish Bender tonight, but I may sleep early — tomorrow we’re supposed to start either Frontpage or Dreamweaver…

…eep.

¡Vb!