NaNo Update

[seventhe]

For anyone reading this who isn't aware yet, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically, the goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. The novel does not have to be good. It does not even have to be edited. The only stipulation is 50,000 words in the month of November.

Hopefully that explains some of the confusion?

6,765 / 50,000 (13.5%)

Day: 4 / 22

Word Count: 6,765 / 50,000 (13.5%)
Outline Quality: At this point? Pretty much discarded and nonexistent.

Progress: Promising!
I Am Still: 2300 words behind where I should be, with my 8-day handicap.
I Should Be At: ~9000 words
I Am: Not screwed just yet!

Scene Worked On Most Recently: "Visit From a Nightmare"
Scene to be Worked On Next: "Aura"
"Research" of the Day: basically thinking up what a half-Nightmare might look like
Quote Excerpt of the Day:

"First of all," Klima said, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement as he looked at me, "your cousin is going on pilgrimage."

The words took a little bit to sink in at first, because Tirana wasn't really my cousin: we were related, through blood, but faintly, through a great-aunt and a half-sister somewhere back in our family line. I'd only met Tirana once, and it wasn't a happy memory. My doctors in Neinde had gone through a phase wondering whether a family member would be able to care for me better than a halfbreed, and they'd dug up Tirana's family as an excellent prospect; they were already dealing with one magical child, why not another? But Tirana had been born an elementalist, which was at least a noble calling, while I'd turned into a raving, crazy teenager with too much magic that wasn't useful enough. Tirana's family had come to the city, but her parents had taken one look at me and refused, pleading with the doctors that one magically fated child was enough for any family.

Novel I (Still) Think I'm Unconsciously Channeling In Terms Of Style And Exposition: Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
Things I Am Discovering About My Writing: Writing in first-person is hard!!

Character Quickly Developing His Own Quirky Personality: Klima
Klima Is: hotter than I thought he would be
Enna Is: the least snarky lead character I've ever dealt with
Lyde the Cat Has: shown up in more scenes than anyone

Best Thing I've Been Able To Meta With Today: elementalism, and the development of aura magic

Today's Goal: Write like mad tonight with wine while waiting for election results. I'd like to catch up to the 9000 words I should have (if I want any chance of finishing this thing in 22 days...)

Comments

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

I kind of love this bit:

while I'd turned into a raving, crazy teenager with too much magic that wasn't useful enough.

Um, yeah. Use of raving is an int +5000

~Cendri

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Well, just for you, a teaser about the dwarves, too:

The White Line was the dwarven council of healers, made of the top residents in the White Hall, and led by Haegler himself. The job of the White Line was to examine all unusual, odd, or dangerous injuries and diseases that made their way into Kabyora, to better fortify the dwarven city's health. We were close enough to the Hauntingwood and the Civil Lands that we saw a lot of strange things being carried over the borders.

They were more than basic healers: they examined their patients, trying to determine not only what was wrong, but what had caused it. They concentrated more on the diagnosis, leaving the usual healing to less skilled individuals, like myself. Wachen often asked why I wasn't on the White Line. I continued to remind him that I was a healer of middling skill only, not to mention not a dwarf.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

SO YOU'RE SAYING THEY BASICALLY TINKER WITH PEOPLE. SO AWESOME.

~Cendri

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Um, basically they are like doctor-engineers.

;)

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

That's the most frighteningly awesome thing evar. It's like if Drak and I combined forces.

Holy shit, I kind of want to do that now. ROCKET CYBORGS.

~Cendri

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

...god dammit, now I'm going to have to name two dwarf apprentices after the two of you.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

HA HA! EVENTUALLY WE'LL CAMEO IN EVERYONE'S STORIES.

Seriously folks, dwarves are so underrated. You can keep your stupid elves. /Elena

~Cendri

[churched.livejournal.com]

Oooh, who is Lyde the cat?

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I actually got in a little dig at the elves in one part of my story. And thought of MHS.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

She is the Cat That Follows You Everywhere.

[churched.livejournal.com]

So, basically my cat doing his best impression of a female. Nice.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

What color is your cat? I will insert him into my story! AS A GIRL CAT!

[churched.livejournal.com]

Except for having dark green eyes, he looks almost exactly like this (http://www.southernoregonhumane.org/Images/ImageManager/pretty_gray_cat_copy.jpg)!

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

AWWW! Cutie. Alright, then, Lyde shall be grey and gorgeous!

[churched.livejournal.com]

Will Lyde also be completely neurotic and desperate for affection some eighteen hours of the day? XD My cat may be the sweetest cat in existence, but he sure is needy!

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

You are doing really well! xD I am so excited to read your story bwajfdsjfdksakdja want it noooow.

I hit 7,324 today during the hour I couldn't do work (again). WHYYYYYYY?? Oh I can't complain, I got writing in!

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

WHERE DO I GET TO BE?

I WANT TO BE MOTHER FUCKING QUEEN. xD

[wei-jiangling.livejournal.com]

I'm semi doing NaNo. I have too much else to worry about at the moment to really take it seriously, but I'm taking a vague stab at rewriting the crap I wrote last year. I don't know where my old text disappeared to, but I wrote about 20,000 words and decided it would need a complete overhaul in order to not fall apart. And thus, I am now overhauling. Slowly, and definitely not in a way that will get to 50,000 words by the end of the month, but at least I'm thinking about it again.

Best of luck with your NaNo! It looks like you have some sort of interesting fantasy-ish plot going. I might be willing to proof it whenever you reach a good stopping point. Of course that depends on how much time I have whenever that happens. Ah well. Anyway, best of luck!

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

LOLLL YOU CAN BE THE AS-OF-YET-TOTALLY-UNNAMED ELF QUEEN Y/Y??

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Maybe not "completely neurotic", but she keeps following my protagonist around for attention and pets!

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I HAVE BEEN SAVING ALL OF YOUR EMAILS IN A KATY FOLDER so that I can read your story at some point when mine has totally stalled and I am looking for inspiration, haha!

[churched.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh. So the cat is me! XD

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

:) That's what I did with NaNo last year -- I knew I wouldn't make it, but I just tried to write all the words I could so that I was doing *something*.

I actually will be posting my work in December/January, and I'm hoping for some hard-core beta (it's kind of an experiment, because while I like the story I'm not entirely married to it, and I'm more interested in getting feedback on how/where it fails than anything!) -- so if you're still interested then, I will definitely come hunting you down XD

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA EVERY CHARACTER IN MY STORY NOW WILL BE BASED ON SOMEONE FROM LIVEJOURNAL Y/Y

[churched.livejournal.com]

WELL IF YOU DO THAT I DON'T WANT TO BE JUST A CAT. HMMPH! ;)