NaNoWriMo: Day 15

I think I'm finally getting the hang of how to get myself motivated to write. Watching an episode of Bakuman before starting definitely helps. But what helps even more is when I get motivated to write by thinking of a cool scene. So from now on what I need to do is have fifteen minutes or so to think about what I'm going to write in the next immediate scene, and then go from there. It flows so much more easily that way. May not be the best, but it flows so much more easily.

It's been a while since I last wrote, lack of motivation played a big role. But now I'm back, and going to finish this darn book if it kills me!

Today I wrote 1,054 words. Not quite up to snuff, but more than my last few attempts, and definitely enough to make me feel good about myself. now I just need to be sure to do the same thing tomorrow.

And expect a few more reviews soon. They'll be later than this chronologically, because for some reason I'm obsessive compulsive like this, and want to keep everything in planned order. Oh well, as soon as I'm caught up I'll be able to fix the ordering.

And now, have your excerpt.

We sat in the ruined chambers, waiting, none of use making eye contact. I did look up when more Jarv slavers appeared at the door, this time armed with heavier weaponry. They made a sweep of the room, saw us sufficiently cowed, and then proceeded to load us into the ship.
There is a reason we don’t resist. Even the physically strongest among the slaves can’t stand up to their weaponry. And if we did steal their weapons, they would do us no good. The plasma rifles and pistols were specifically designed for Jarv use. It would be like a Tiger trying to take on an army with an assault rifle.

And see you tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo: Day 9

Today was a better day. Got some stuff done for the blog, and at the same time I had a surge of energy, and was in the right mood to get some writing done. Granted I didn't get that much done, but I had broken the initial trouble zone that I face when I write, so I need to figure out how to employ this every time I write and find ways to get the awkward, crappy moments that face each writing session out of the way. So far I'm thinking of either finding ways to put me in the writing mood, or to force the rough section of my writing time out of the way with something unimportant. Like maybe a fanfiction or what not. Either way, I got some writing done today, only 453 words. But I wrote something, and even if it's only a little bit, I'm slowly starting to understand how I work. Soon I'll be able to get myself to do writing earlier in the day if I figure out how to manipulate my mood properly.

Now have an excerpt, and be sated.

Wonderful. That was all I needed. If there was one thing Monopods were, it was strong. Monopods were predators, not the kind of predator humans are, or were in the past, that rely on weapons and outsmarting their prey. Monopod arms were perfectly capable of capturing their prey and imobilizing it while they stuffed it down their gullets. And if the prey was larger than them, which I wasn’t, they had no difficulty tearing it to edible pieces. While I was strong by human standards, working most of your life in a mine will do that to you, as well as give you terrible back pains let me tell you, I had neither the distance required in this small space, nor the high powered rifle it would take to take them down in a fight.

NaNoWriMo: Day 8

Nothing to report really. Still having trouble not being distracted by other work, including school work. That and laziness. However, it is incredibly embarrassing for me to post that I didn't get anything done here, so I think I'm on to something. I might even continue posting updates on my work here after NaNoWriMo is done. Or, maybe I'll do a weekly word count kind of thing. Either way, making myself accountable like this is a good way to get myself working again. Downside being that it isn't really doing enough to get me working as much. Probably has to do with me not actually planning my week out. I better get on that tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo: Day 7

Well, finally got some writing done. Nowhere near enough. But at this point I'll be satisfied with getting any writing done. It's a start, I know I had a lot of time today, but since being sick I haven't exactly had much motivation to do anything. But I feel a bit better now, and can face this week with more enthusiasm and focus. Expect more blog posts from me soon, to catch up to my late work.

I wrote 541 words. I know it sucks, but it's better than nothing. I'll be back up to my usual word count tomorrow. Need to spend some more time planning as well. I've got the plot more or less figured out, but don't have an entirely concrete plan yet. I kind of work my way through that as I go. So sort of discovery writing, but not entirely. I've decided to let the characters do what they want in the scene, while I focus my real planning on plot events, and some character reactions.

And now, for an excerpt.

“Only if some of the Jarv survived the impact,” I said. It was true. While the Jarv didn’t believe in wasting resources, they weren’t about to risk equipment going into what was most likely a dangerous zone now with large amounts of debris floating around. Unless of course there were Jarv survivors. Say what you want about them, and I for one had little good to say about them, but they take care of their own. In my eight years of working in the asteroid fields I had on several occasions seriously considered turning into an alien cockroach. While they didn’t actually look like cockroaches, the Jarv could still survive almost anything, including being sucked into the void of space. So you could say that besides being treated with dignity there would be some other fringe benefits to that kind of transformation. Probably not what Kafka had in mind, but I guess you could say I wouldn’t have minded being one of his protagonists.

NaNoWriMo: Day 6

Long day at work, and after that I slept. But now that the hectic week is done, and I have no urgent assignments due this week, I'll be able to pick up where I left off. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get back into the writing mood. I think I'll write one of my late blog posts.

NaNoWriMo: Day 5

Well, I finally managed to finish up all my urgent papers and such, hopefully didn't do too poorly on my midterms. I still had to work tonight, so didn't get anything done. I work tomorrow morning and afternoon to early evening, but after that I'm free and I plan to use it to get some more planning and writing done for The Incredible Life of Billy Brown (not going to let this one fall apart). I usually find that I get my best writing done immediately after planning, even if what I write isn't what I planned. So we'll see how that goes. Not having written it in a while makes it hard to get back into it, and I need to organize my plot notes a lot more, make me more likely to read them. I think it would help if I made the paragraphs shorter. Either way, I'll get into it again tomorrow, and start myself back on my writing every day...not that I wrote every day this week. I'm horribly behind, but what are you going to do when this event is scheduled right when I have a ton of homework. I just need to readjust my values and put writing before leisure all the time, but right after school work unfortunately.

But, I get back on the bandwagon tomorrow. I'm going to dedicate at least a few hours to this. I also need to catch up on all my late reviews, that I really don't want to reschedule. I need to get these out of the way so that they're off my to do list.

NaNoWriMo: Day 4

Stupid homework and its stupid stupidness! NaNoWriMo possibly to continue tomorrow!

Maybe.

NaNoWriMo: Day 3

The hardest part of this all is forcing myself to write. I may not write as much as I intend to, but as long as I get something done I'm on the right path to slowly force myself into good writing habits.

I only wrote 271 words today. Pretty pathetic, but then again, it's been a hectic week. And the fact that I've written something today is a victory for me. Now I just need to get to finishing some homework before I go to bed.

And here, an extra short excerpt.

Keep in mind that this wasn’t just a mindless game for me. It’s a lot trickier to translate the game into both languages. There’s a lot to consider. For example, did you know that tentapods have over thirty words for black alone? It’s because of their eyes, they can see much more on the spectrum of color than human eyes. So different shades of black get different names, even if the black of an inactive screen looks the same as the blackness of space to humans. And then there’s the fact that I had to translate the concept of a letter into two completely different languages that did not have the concept of letters. At the same time.

Well, have fun, and keep writing. I'll try to get a more respectable word count by the end of this week. After I get through the hectic part and get my work organized. And I'll try to catch up on my late reviews as quickly as possible

NaNoWriMo: Day 2

Okay, so this didn't go as well as planned. I didn't get anything written because I was spending all day preparing for two tests tomorrow, and two papers due on Friday. Just so you know, I'm not falling off the wagon with this one, I'm just putting myself a little behind. I'll continue writing tomorrow, but for now I just had to use my time to get through school. Kinda stupid that NaNoWriMo's start is scheduled when I have a ton of work to do.

Oh well, no worries. Back to writing tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

Well, overall this wasn't so bad. I ended up finishing a bit later than intended, but I got more done than the minimum amount of words required. Not much to say, other than it's coming together nicely, and I've got the characters and overall plot in mind. The question remains as to whether I can keep this whole thing together, but that, I think, will rely entirely on my ability to take a moment and think everything through before writing. This will be a test of my planning abilities.

I did manage to decide on a title for this book, one that I hope emulates the old pulp stories, while at the same time being just a little bit silly. The title is, "The Incredible Life of Billy Brown."

I wrote 2,063 words today, and in honor of stealing ideas from Nathan, the founding principle of this blog, I leave you with an excerpt, that you probably won't read since it won't make any sense to you.

There were two groups to be precise. The first was a group of three monopods, whose bodies basically consisted of one giant leg with two arms attached to it, an eye on either side of their body, and a giant gaping maw where a human’s head would have been. The talked in a series of snaps and claps they made with their giant, clawed hands.

The second group was practically the exact opposite, being made of nothing but a multitude of tentacles, on which a mass of eyes sat. Underneath the tentacles, much like a squid or octopus, they had a set of hard mandibles, with which I’d often seen them destroy their food. The two of them communicated by clicking their mandibles together, filling the room with a loud clacking noise.

Imagine, being trapped in an enclosed space, with these nightmarish creatures, filling the room with what no human would ever consider communication. When supplies ran low, an event in the near future as there were no supplies in the slave quarters, there would be no doubt that the monstrous beings would turn to me, the one outsider from both groups, as a source of food.

And, with that, I leave you. Just please keep in mind that any excerpts I post are all first draft, and will be subject to my secret flaw, of being too wordy. Enjoy, and let me know what you think, and how badly you want to read the whole thing.

Maybe one of these days I'll update my current and finished project columns.

NaNoWriMo: Collaborative Project

Well, it's almost that time of year. To be honest I wasn't sure whether I would participate this year either. On the one hand I have a hard time keeping on top of the word count, on the other hand I should be writing a ton anyway. But this year I'm going to be doing something special. Along with Jason and Nathan we're each going to write our own story, set in the same world, for 30,000 words. And then for the finale we'll bring our separate plot lines together into one book. So we're basically going to be working on a collaborative piece. We'll see how this goes, and whether me and Jason will be able to keep up with Nathan's insane writing speed.

My part in the story is going to be a little interesting, since I'm going to be on a completely different continent from their plots, and have to develop my own separate plot. On the one hand that keeps me from being able to rely on their help too much, on the other hand I have a lot more freedom with what I do. Either way, it should be an interesting practice, and by the time we're done we'll have a 110,000 word collaborative work.

I'm definitely going to have fun with this, already have an idea for the main viewpoint character that should be a lot of fun. Either way, I'll keep you updated on my daily progress here. For those of you who care.

Also, since I want to emphasize the writing aspect of my blog, I'm going to be posting updates on my own writing until we start the NaNoWriMo project.