I wrote my final chapter yesterday. Not that the book is done, because there’s still a shitload to do, but I got to the point where I couldn’t really get any further without knowing how it was going to end.
Now, to figure out what goes in the middle, AKA the big stretch of the book where my main character is mostly absent…
(Glad to see one of us is doing work. I got kinda worried about this thread after seeing it didn’t get bumped in the past couple of days.)
For Wednesday and Thursday I was kinda stuck with how the hell to proceed with Chapter 2 when it came to introducing all the characters. As of Friday, I’ve just decided to be gradual about it and at least somewhat continue with the mindfuck that is the main character’s possible insanity for at least a bit longer.
I’m not going to bed tonight (and I mean that for once), so I’m going to try to make headway on this and my other projects, especially since I pretty much have to do something on Monday because of I haven’t heard back from something yet and there’s a more than decent chance that I’ll get distracted by UMvC3. On top of that, provided I proceed with my plans and they actually work out, there’s a chance that I won’t be near a computer or even have access to one at all for at least a couple of days during the week of Thanksgiving.
I’m going to try to double my word count to 15,000 by today’s end if I just don’t keel over at some point.
You can always write with analog equipment. In fact, I often find it easier, except when I start to get blisters on my fingers.
(Analog equipment?)
Oh, it’s less my hands that hurt despite how much I type–though they do act up with (possible) arthritis from time to time, especially my left hand which is weird because I’m not left-handed (not a reference to Princess Bride)–and more that I’d just be dead tired by this time tomorrow if I can make as long (which is the time that I’m aiming for due to several reasons).
Also, I might just head-desk for getting stuck this early and/or not thinking about how I was going to introduce more characters, though I think I at least have a system for that now. I just don’t have anything nearly as concrete as I would like it.
This is kind of generic advice, but if you ever get hemmed in because of some kind of groundwork you’ve laid… fuck the groundwork. Just plow forward and violate whatever preexisting story problem is holding you back. Later on, when you’ve got your 50,000 words together, you can start worrying about fixing the inconsistencies, rewriting the problem sections, etc.
(facepalms with his better hand)
Oh, pen and paper. Analog equipment. I guess I can do that if I do end up going with my plans for the more extended absence, but pen and paper actually tend to make my hands act up a lot more.
As for “generic advice”, it’s sound…but I’m already aware of it and not willing to do it, if only because I don’t know where I’m advancing to if I do that. I mean, I’ve known how it’s going to end for a while, so maybe I’ll just skip ahead as well, but I’d at least like to try to suss–why do I keep using that word–it out if I can. If I can’t by tomorrow (though I’m working on it right now, so…), then I’ll concede and just skip ahead (a lot).
However, even as defeatist and apathetic as I am, I’m still a perfectionist at heart about things (unfortunately). Arguably, being a perfectionist is what made me as defeatist and apathetic as I am, but let’s not get into that.
I thought I had a good grip on where mine was going. Here’s a c’n’p of something I posted in the official NaNoWriMo forums:
This is probably a good thing. If you stick too closely to the plan, you can get into some artificial shit. Plus, one of the purposes of art is to work your way through your own mind, and to reveal things you might not have anticipated. That can only happen if you allow for spontaneous changes.
(Feh. “Art”. Let’s not get into that debate even as much as I “enjoy” it and enjoy reading & writing.)
Oh, I’m definitely fine with letting things happen spontaneously. I’ve already let that happen quite a few times already:
[LIST=1]
[]Let the main antagonist become more than twice as strong as originally intended but still believable beatable.
[]Let the chase and fight drag on way longer than I had intended.
[]Let one of the lesser noteworthy characters become a a lot more central to the plot since he’s the first other person the protagonist is going to meet up with.
[]Changed said character’s last name since despite it being authentically Irish and extremely common, I figured it was probably best to not coincidentally have the same name as someone I knew in high school.
[]Just recently decided on how systemically handle interactions with the main character’s “sometimes” delusions when before it was going to be…well, let’s just say something that would lessen the mind-screw aspect.
[]Just recently decided to completely change the role of the least used character for this book and the new two.
[/LIST]
So, yeah. I’m more than open to it. I just don’t want to skip around “massively” again since that’s part of what left me so dissatisfied with my first stab at this and I don’t want that to happen again. Also, I’m not nearly as sure as any of you that I’ll get around to editing this entire soon between what a lazy bastard I am and how many other projects I have (planned). So I’d rather get done now if I can.
Your advice is so noted, though, especially since I know that trying to keep up “the mystery” for the sake of a mere mind-screw that isn’t even the whole point of the book or that all that central to it (though it will be important later, maybe) is definitely holding me back at least a bit.
All of that said, just about an hour ago, I got to **8,567 words. **I think that I’m going to spend most of Chapter 2 with exposition and dialogue and then get to actual introductions either at the very end–because I just remember how little I know about sea-faring stuff also–of Chapter 2 or the beginning of Chapter 3. I also now know how I’m going to introduce at least a couple of more minor characters, though ironically half of what’s arguably the (heroic) protagonist quartet don’t have solid introductions yet. I blame Australian and/or Japan.
Keep in mind, there is such a thing as bad art, mainstream art, lame art, inconsequential art, etc. The word itself isn’t necessarily a value judgment. It’s just something human beings do… and the occasional intelligent gorilla.
(“Feh. Art.”)
Being an entity of abject failure, I of course fell asleep for a while and didn’t get around to do more now (partly because of my other project), but I think I finished Chapter 2, “Long Dream”, a bit earlier than I had intended. So I’m at least at **9,949 words **now. I still want to be above 15,000 words by weekend’s end, but that should be pretty easy now between motivation to write and already having an idea about how to end Chapter 3, how to begin Chapter 5 and what to do with the entirety of Chapter 4.
I just need to decide on how to begin with Chapter 3 since I don’t want to spend even half of another chapter entirely on a boat, at least consecutive. I think I’ll go with the nun earlier than I thought…
Time for a good ol’ wife-beating.
In my story, that is.
Lovely.
Setting up my protag… like an oyster shell of yomi layers… mother of pearl… my nacres out there know what I’m talkin’ bout. :tup:
signed up
then life happened.
Have hours to make up at work, a house to run, and a Masters Degree in the works…
In other words, I set myself up for failure.
Na, it’s cool. I stopped counting words looong ago. I just want to get somewhere good. If I can create a story, I’m good.
On top of all the other crap I posted that’s going on for me, I’m separating with my wife… Yeah… but…
… Writing is never complete, only due. :tup:
Oh, and I now have an excerpt up for my novel:
Hardships of a White Knight
[details=Spoiler]The highest turnout for a crowd watching The Break was somewhere in the 500’s. An exact estimate is unknown, since the occurrence predates the use of tickets, but frugal estimates say anywhere from five to seven-hundred people. For this year’s Break, that number would most probably be surpassed, since at least 600 tickets had already been checked. That meant a number of people the size of the entire population of Mercaster, plus at least 100 or so from the surrounding provinces were in attendance. Most assuredly, there were soldiers, military officers from Challen and Sal Hadria in attendance, keen to keep an eye on the future White Knight’s of Mercaster.
Makeshift seating , made to accommodate as many as possible on the small knoll which housed the school, was available. The people crowded these seats and, when full, crowds still came and were forced to sit upon a nearby hill and make use of the highly popular optics technology that was all the recent rage to view the combat from afar. Upon the hill there were mostly the richer viewers and their servants.
Balane looked out at that hill, normally inconspicuous, but now highly visible with upwards of 150 or more people crowded onto one side of it. He wondered whether or not one of those servants, some boy or girl was there, admiring him and his fellow classmates as they completed a fateful journey. He wondered if he could make a difference in the heart and mind of just one of those servants, let them know that there was always more. That they, like him, had a choice in life whether or not they were actually notified of it by their superiors. In fact, even that, superiority of one class above another, was nothing more than a mere illusion, an illusion that he had shattered and pushed his way through to the truth that had laid waiting, ever so patiently, within himself.
The days of his being a knife-wielding boy were over.
He looked over towards his superior, Wvinski - the very same officer who discovered him standing up to the bully Marc not three years earlier - and smiled. He knew. He knew that he was smiling because the audience out there upon the hill and packed into those rickety stands were his people, there for him. He looked at Marc, smug as ever, but not in the bad way, now. Balane learned, slow and hard, that Marc’s superiority was something very similar to the driving force within himself. Marc’s life, while one of privilege, wasn’t perfect either. He too had overcome serious obstacles to reach the point he was at, and had learned to control his temper, ease his manner and be a fine leader and soldier. In fact, Balane was privately comforted by the fact that he would not be matched against Marc today.
Then, of course, there was the girl, Maely, to whom he was matched. For three weeks, Balane had been searching for an alternative to the word “hate.” He needed something to call what he felt for Maely D’Giroux. He knew hate to be too strong a word, indeed, for a fellow soldier to whom his life may one day rely, but there was something deep-seated within this small girl that just would not stop. It didn’t rest. It didn’t sleep. It didn’t even bat an eye. And that was why Balane settled on the word “fear” to use in reference to what he felt for Maely D’Giroux.
When he learned that he was to combat against her as his closing exercise opponent, he was mortified with “fear.”
Of course, Maely wasn’t overtly fearful. There was absolutely nothing about her physical stature that made her seem imposing or threatening, nor did she exude any form of psychological trauma. She simply had a will to succeed that Balane - in his research for an adjective descriptive of the girl - had discovered another word for: “uncanny.” Balane wasn’t scared of being wounded. Nor did he fear humiliation. What he feared most was losing his chance to become a knight. And combating with Maely D’Giroux was perhaps the best way to ensure he did just that.
He went over pertinant combat tactics in his head. Maely’s offense wasn’t directly overpowering in the least. Her defense was strong, but nothing Balane couldn’t penetrate with enough determination. Maely was a swift fighter, not a strong one. Normally, you could tire out a swift fighter, one that was too fast to hit, wear him out over time; Normally. Maely, however, was an altogether different sort of fastblade. She couldn’t be hit. She never ended a move in the wrong stance, but most assuredly in the position best suited to defend against your slim attack options. And she never, ever, tired out. In the three years Balane had been watching those lighting fast feet, never had he seen them stumble due to exhaustion, not even during the longest battles. After so long, one of her rapid strikes were sure to land.
He felt that he had but one slim option available to him to assure an easy victory and that was to quickly overcome her before she had a chance to become sure of herself. Balane had never seen it, but he hoped that within her, that stern-faced indefatigable machine of a fighter, was the exact same thing he knew to be present in himself, in people like Marc, and even in Wvinski, his capable warrior trainer: “fear”.
Fear. The only difference between them was that Maely thrived on it, he had only recently realized. And for reasons Balane could understand. How would any of them know what it’s like to face a male opponent, larger, stronger and more experienced, as a female? Sure, history was packed full of famous women warriors, like Treshae Lermonde, or Brandty Wentz ‘The Gleam’, but those legends were as exaggerated as they were old. And if what Balane had been told by his superior officers was true, then fear can be used both as a weakness and as a weapon.
Still, none that Balane could think of had ever wielded “fear” against Maely D’Giroux. At least not until today.
[/details]
Today’s par is 23,333. I’m currently at about 22,000, so I have a bit of work to do if I’m going to do more than just stay afloat. EDIT: It’s worth mentioning that a NaNoWriMo member in my region (mid-MI) just passed the 50K word goal today.
Unintentionally, a big element of my novel is the subversion of the trope where the loner meets a sympathetic soul that draws him out of his shell. (Recently played straight to good effect in the film Drive, and infamously subverted in my Favorite Movie Ever.) I’ve noticed that happening a few times. I’ll be zeroing in on a fairly tried-and-true plot, then I’ll notice it and veer away at the last second. I didn’t set out to write a story that sends up the conventional storytelling norms, but it’s kind of turning into that.
The plus is that when I think I know where it’s going, it does something else. The drawback is that every plot has been done at some point. If I swerve away every time I start to see a plot, the book will end up plotless. Cue the TV Tropes maxim: tropes are not bad.
But that’s also a sign that I’m thinking too much, when the whole point of NaNoWriMo is not to think about what you’re writing and just let it spill out.
EDIT:
I know we’re not supposed to do this, but my task for this morning is to rewrite a section that I somewhat underwrote. I know I can get a lot more words out of it by expanding it, and it’s what I feel like doing right now, so fuck it. In the end, it’s going to be a lot more words to my word count, so it counts as more writing.
EDIT #2:
It is possible that I am a little too hammered to be doing this right now. Nevertheless, I am in the middle of a chapter that has already introduced one incidental character, and I’m already introducing a second. Maybe that’s the theme of this chapter.
The issue I’m dealing with is that I’m now writing the section in which my main guy is out of the picture, so I need other characters for my secondary characters to deal with. So I need to cook up a couple inconsequential fucksticks just to keep things moving.
It’s worth mentioning that one of my secondary characters is kinda sorta an unofficial expy of Superman. Thank you, The Damned.
(He’s what you would call a “non-powered normal”, but he is exceptionally strong, somewhat in the vein of the 1930s anti-establishment Superman.)
(I am going to feel really retarded when I read this after I wake up later today.)
EDIT $3: (Yes, I’m aware that is a dollar sign and not a pound sign. Quoth Shaft Agent: “Fight me.”)
I just named one of my characters “Keyster”. I must be stopped.
EDIT #4:
Pausing to go to bed this morning in the middle of Keyster’s first scene. That ought to leave a good hook to resume writing later today. Probably a good strategy, which I haven’t used before.
Hahaha. “Keyster.”
(Story of my life, Qrazy. Or, arguably, being set-up for failure is the story of everyone’s life/existence. [/nihilism])
Ugh. I’m only at 10,534 words after meandering, but I know what I want to do the next three chapters. I’m just being slow and lazy because I keep getting distracted on top of feeling like crap. That and trying to choose my words more carefully than I probably should at this point.
Meh. I can probably get to at least 15,000 words tomorrow even if I have to go anywhere (unless I get distracted by UMvC3). I might not go out at all, though, because those Occupy assholes are going to be at the same place I have to be in the afternoon. Hurray.
Anyway, I’m kinda playing around with the idea on whether to have go into the actual mind of my antagonist more already (since she’s basically the focal point of Chapter 3) and whether to have that focus on the environment (I am become Captain Planet, destroyer of throats) or hunting the protagonist. Decisions decisions, if only because the former is so deliciously obnoxious while being actual relevant (both within this fiction and in real life).
As for now, I’m kinda pondering going to sleep after I shower. Maybe I’ll be able to focus more tomorrow. (Probably not.)
Obviously, we must crush this lying cheat of a person.
…
tilts his head to the side as he thinks about this
Shit. My book kinda has the same theme going to. Not like anything’s original, but I suppose it’s odd considering how few of us are writing (on SRK) that two of us would have the same thing. Then again, we both have villain protagonists, so I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising.
I wonder who’s protagonist ends up being more violent–it’s probably mine.
Not really sure why I have to be thanked for this between how common Superman Expys are and how much you like the guy compared to me. People shouldn’t be credited for pointing out the obvious, Mr. Howard.
points to your constant Superman avatar
Predictabao!
This is a definite possibility if you’re thanking me for this and then typed this.
…Yeah.
Thanks for at least not multiple-posting several times in a row though hammered. Even wasted, you are a gentlemanly drunk.
Are they still villain protagonists if nobody in the story can really be said to be heroic? I may be verging on anti-hero territory, but my guy is probably too much of a loser for that.
Without a shred of irony, Keyster has already griped about being stuck in the rotten end of town.
Man, I’m glad I don’t play video games anymore. Well, not usually.
EDIT:
Today is officially the halfway point of the “contest”; thus, the goal for the day is a total word count of 25,000. I have less than a hundred to go before I can let myself off the hook for a while. I’m finding that I’ve been writing enough to stay afloat, but no more. A far cry from my initial intention to blaze through this thing by the 20th, or at least by the 25th. Early mornings aside, I just don’t have any convenient, quiet times when I feel like writing.
(I have too much quiet time, is my problem. Well, not so much quiet time as in “free” time.)
Yeah, “happy” half-way point and such. I probably won’t be going anywhere next week, so I guess that’s something optimistic (if it weren’t something I could have maybe looked forward to–hurray for preemptive disappointment).
I could probably get up to 25,000. However, I’ll be lucky if I can get to and through Chapter 5 by tomorrow, especially since by then I’ll only have introduced 5 of the–counts mentally–14-ish characters by then. And then I’ll have to worry about getting stuck with how to solve that introduction “problem”.
I wonder how little I’ll have gotten done story-wise if I even manage to make it to 50,000 words…
It depends on how the villainous the other characters are compared to the protagonist, but, yeah, you can totally have a villain protagonist in a world of villains since “Evil vs. Evil”/Black-and-Black morality stories exist after all.
Even though my character is arguably more of anti-hero, he’s easily the still the most dangerous, cold and callous of the bunch and he’s completely fine with killing people and doing other “not nice” things if he thinks it suits him.
Some stats I’ve rounded up on Wikipedia to entertain myself during moments of procrastination:
Good to know that if we fall 10,000 words short, the Nebulas will still have our backs.
EDIT: Uh oh. I may be running into a potential problem.
So I’ve been going with the plan where my main character gets sidelined. I jumped ahead and started writing the bit where he comes back, which is intended to take place shortly before the final chapter, which I’ve also written. Since then, I’ve been filling in the sidelined portion–the gap before the comeback–with as much business as I can think of.
Trouble is, not only am I running low on ideas for the “in the gap” stuff, but I’ve also reached a logical point for it to meet up with the chapter in which the main character comes back. I could always delay it, but that would mean both throwing away a good opportunity that may not come again and pulling more story stuff out of my ass that I’m not sure is in there.
The only other gap is between the unfinished comeback chapter and the final chapter. The rest of the structure is fairly continuous. And I have to find somewhere to put over 23,000 more words…
=D
I’m doing horrible. Only 6K words. But, I’m not necessarily doing this to win. Just to explore writing. It’s definitely the most writing I’ve forced myself to do in a long time! My short story’s a breeze because I know what I want to write. This thing is a completely different beast. I’m learning just how difficult it is to carry on with a novel now.
I’m really glad to have some folks to do it with. that really helps too.:tup:
New character time! I turned him into a girl, though. 