Another 50k!

Today, I wrote until I had two and a half pages, then got annoyed that Adir was being so blah today, and wrote someone else until I had gotten through 2k. I took a break to play Star Wars cards with Tom (which I lost, miserably, surprise). I kept writing until my word count hit 50k, then came over to check and see what the Official NaNoWriMo Word Counter sapped out of my count, while another scene was still in my head to write.

AND IT ADDED WORDS!!!!?!?! This has neeeeever happened to me ever. I gained almost 200 words.



So, as usual, I came nowhere NEAR the end of the story itself. Just as well really, as I now have like 473902 other side-stories that need battered into shape. For as much as I meant this year to fill in gaps of the first version... I've added so, so much content. Relationships like whoa. I'm really, really happy, I feel like it adds so much depth, having given the characters more room to spread out a bit and gain some extra dimensions. (We'll just ignore today's bit with Adir - he killed Sadie out of desperation, really, he had to do SOMETHING. bleck.)

As usual, more will be added to the story as time rolls on. Haven't decided if it will go here, or if I'll be a more reasonable person and build a page for the story itself, now that I'm moving so many chapters and things around. If you're interested in the few bits I haven't re-posted here, follow the link on the right to the '07 Amaranthus - the Carey chapter near the end is probably going to be changed to Adir, and maybe be tacked onto the crappy Adir section I just wrote. There will be some more ominous bad things that happen, and then the last chunk posted over there, with Luce and Azal. Things get REALLY bad, and then everything goes to hell. Only sort of literally. <3

Notes

Alright! Just shy of a day behind on the wordcount. I snuck in an hour or so of writing last night before bedtime, which helped a little. I wrote a little extra today, and hopefully can squeak some more in. If not.. well, I'm off work on Monday and Tuesday, which are the last two days of November. ;)

The Official NaNoWriMo Word Counter usually tells me I have fewer words than I'd thought (every word count works differently) - I just found a forum thread that explains what Open Office's issue is. It likes to count the end-quotation marks as a word. This can be fixed by turning off the smart-quotes-like feature, so the quotes all stay straight instead of curly.

...unfortunately, mine are already all curly. I have a TON of conversation in the novel this year. I miiight go in and find-and-replace the quotes, but... more likely, I'll just write extra, cross my fingers, use the official word count, swear and fume and spew out a few hundred more words, and then hopefully hit 50k. Next year maybe I'll set it up properly from the start, and avoid the annual trauma.


On another topic - yes, I forgot about Cerise too. ^^; I've already made note to bring her into the middle areas of the story more, sometime when re-writing. I need more female characters! And she's a lovely little contrast to everyone else. Also, she will be a catalyst for the closing scenes, and.. well, she was in my dream that gave me the opening scene at the rose party. So, she stays, and needs to gain enough presence to merit staying. I have no idea why Luce, of all people, is her escort, but that's what he demanded of me this morning.

I'm glad I thought of a way for them to die, but be incapable of dying. I think it's a good balance. They need to be generally immortal, but... I suspect Veri ought to die, and it's going to break my heart to do that to Meres. Honestly, they were supposed to have a happy sweet little reunion like two scenes after the rose party! I have no idea what is happening to them, but it's making me really, really sad. It was supposed to be the love between the two of them that was the bright spot in the story...

Notes

I took apart and re-assembled the over-large chapter with the Enoch stuff from the '07 NaNo. Originally, it was all Carey's pov, all at once, and it was just freaking huge. So, part became the just-posted Adir bit (with only a few slight additions and new bits). Another part became the just-posted Luce bit - I added a beginning and ending, and took out a middle chunk, which will be in tomorrow's Meres bit. I decided soon after finishing that year that Azal ought to be involved in all this, and so he will be. Adir/Carey could nooot have cared less, and so, they are removed when convenient. ;) I think it'll be a smidge less overwhelming now than it was before.. at least I hope so!

(And no, I didn't count any previously-written stuff in my wordcount. I even failed to count some things I wrote into the old sections, to make up for the couple of half-sentences I smuggled into the new sections. I'm a good lil NaNo'er.)

Notes

Back-dated the previous post - I worked a day shift, and when I got home, a fabulous dinner needed to be made. Pasta, homemade meatballs cooked in a yummy sauce, italian bread with dipping oil, some badly-smelling but yummy-tasting cheese...

After dinner, two episodes of Farscape, and some sips of a little bottle of Irish Whiskey (which was surprisingly yummy), the boy and I were too sleepy. But I needed to write. I was cranky and had no idea what to write, and we were both tired, but I wanted to get something down.

Tom was doing a bit of coding (his November project is learning to code for the Droid phone - he wants to make a Sabacc game, to be played on the R2-D2 Droid). But I interrupted his audible conversation with the computer screen to plead for an idea.

He told me I should have one person get stuck in the mud, and then two others fight over who has to stay with the whiny little bitch while the other goes for help.

While this made me laugh, it also struck a chord. That could actually work. I'd been flipping through my binder of notes, and stopped on the page listing the seven sins and their Latin names. Sloth. I could work with that.

But as I started in writing, I decided Claude would injure his hand, and be unable to paint. Meres would neglect to attend to him. And then I realized what I had written earlier - that Meres was using Claude's art as a substitution for his own. If Claude was hurt, that plan wouldn't work anymore. So, on seeing Claude hurt, Meres can just wander off to go do his own painting - and thus, not give a crap about Claude any more that day. (Not that Phistos need an excuse to be self-centered. It's basically the core of their nature.)

A few minutes later, I suddenly realized something, and actually gasped aloud and clutched at my heart, because I realized Claude's little painting should be destroyed. And it hurt me to think of doing it. My chest ached at the thought. Tom, I think, looked at me like I was crazy, but this was not something I needed his input on - if it hurt me that much, then it was a strong enough image that I had to put it in there. damnit.

I pounded through until I got to the end of the section, and though it fell short of my quota yesterday, it was something, and I hadn't the energy for more. I'm not working today, so between massive stacks of dishwashing, baking goodies for a baby shower, and going to said baby shower, I am going to get caught up.

Really.

As soon as I figure out wtfh I'm writing next.

November 1st again!

Hello, NaNoNovember! Halloween was, as always, total insanity at work. I have, as usual, too many crochet projects on my plate that really absolutely need worked on. I have not, as ever, been in the habit of seriously writing for months.

But I know full well how happy I always am during November, when I'm fully engrossed in the world of whatever story I'm working on. So, despite the usual trepidation, here I am again. :)

I'm sototally breaking the solemn interdiction of NaNoLand, and going back to work on an old novel. You're not supposed to do this, because a) it's restrictive, and b) insanely tempting to go into editing mode, rather than free-write mode. However, I'm feeling pretty confident after winning the last three years, and (sort of) feel up to the challenge. Also, I have huuuuuge swathes of story that need written in between the bits I wrote that year. Bits and pieces were added over the last couple of years, which I'm going to try desperately not to put toward my wordcount this month (if I decide to get them typed up). :p

Haven't yet decided if/what I'm going to re-post here - the early version has had several bouts of revision, lots of little things added, so I might copy-paste those sections here where appropriate, so anyone reading doesn't have giant chunks left out of the story. We'll see what time allows.


...and now it's past noon on Day One, and I haven't even finished re-reading the first chapter of the original version, in order to get back into my characters' heads. But! I have an outline! With vast expanses of asterisks and ideas sketched in and things that need to be added. (I only have ONE section from Veri's pov??? Really??!?) So I will be clinging to that, and lots of coffee&tea&hot chocolate& cookies.

Time to read, shower, think. And I think I'll copy-paste over here the early sections of the novel, as it stands in its latest revision. (I got about halfway through last time around, so these will definitely read prettier than the things to come!)