Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Finished Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Basically, everyone should grab a pan galactic gargle blaster and read this book. It's not because it's earth-shattering. Oh, wait, it actually is. It's not because having everyone on earth read this book is highly improbable. Well, that's actually false as well, but if it happened you might be able to get a lift. It's not even to explore strange new worlds! But you do. I'll stop. Read this book.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Extending NaNo 2013: December 17
I admit I've been avoiding writing for a while. I had a couple days of writing a little here and there, but it hasn't amounted to much. I wrote about 1,500 words today, though. The trouble is, the story seems to be getting bogged down trying to get to the climax, which is just around the corner.
Anyway, I'm just shy of 59,000 words today, which if you read the previous post is where I thought I would be at the end of the story. No such luck. Apparently some things needed a little time to develop. One such thing was a pretty big deal when I thought of it. I was walking from Staples back to the office when I realized a little detail that has to come out. The trouble is, getting that detail out is taking a long time.
I'm trying to get one of my characters to find a way to get a certain thing from another character. This would then get handed off and ultimately explained to the reader. She went about it poorly and now has to find a new strategy. She doesn't know it, yet, but the window of opportunity won't be open much longer.
After that's settled, then the rest of the events that are waiting in the wings can play out. Honestly I'm still not sure about the specifics of them, either, but historically I've been better about getting through that kind of block than I have been about getting through what's bogging me down now.
I was really hoping to have been done with the story almost two weeks ago, too.
Anyway, I'm just shy of 59,000 words today, which if you read the previous post is where I thought I would be at the end of the story. No such luck. Apparently some things needed a little time to develop. One such thing was a pretty big deal when I thought of it. I was walking from Staples back to the office when I realized a little detail that has to come out. The trouble is, getting that detail out is taking a long time.
I'm trying to get one of my characters to find a way to get a certain thing from another character. This would then get handed off and ultimately explained to the reader. She went about it poorly and now has to find a new strategy. She doesn't know it, yet, but the window of opportunity won't be open much longer.
After that's settled, then the rest of the events that are waiting in the wings can play out. Honestly I'm still not sure about the specifics of them, either, but historically I've been better about getting through that kind of block than I have been about getting through what's bogging me down now.
I was really hoping to have been done with the story almost two weeks ago, too.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Extending NaNo 2013: December 2
Yes, I know the event ended two days ago, but I'm still going. I got another 1,200 or so words in on A Sky of Stars today adding one scene and tweaking another. Two scenes to go! (And maybe an epilogue.) All told, I probably have another 4,500 words to go, which would put me at 59,000 for this first draft. I'm still trying to finish the story before Friday.
Following the First Star (the book to which A Sky of Stars is the sequel) has about 55,000 words, but it really glosses over the details at the end. There's a lot of room to expand it. I'm not entirely sure where the expansion will happen with the sequel. I'll have to let that digest a while. I may not have the break point between book one and two exactly right, too. It remains to be seen! (No pun intended.)
Following the First Star (the book to which A Sky of Stars is the sequel) has about 55,000 words, but it really glosses over the details at the end. There's a lot of room to expand it. I'm not entirely sure where the expansion will happen with the sequel. I'll have to let that digest a while. I may not have the break point between book one and two exactly right, too. It remains to be seen! (No pun intended.)
NaNoWriMo 2013 - The End?
I won NaNoWriMo again this year. That makes six for six. However, what I did not do was finish the story I was writing. I crossed 50,000 words on November 30th, ending at 53,213 (Scrivener says 53,275), but I still have three scenes to write and one to rewrite from the ground up.
I had a vague outline that got me through several chapters, but it didn't get me through the whole story. A lot of talking with a good friend of mine helped to set what I needed to write for the story to make more sense. This was not just once, but several times throughout the month. It did make for a better story, and when I finish the scenes I mentioned above, it should be nicely set up for another sequel. I have no idea when I'm going to write that one, though. Maybe next NaNo, maybe sooner than that. I suppose it's possible I sit on it for a few years as I did with the 2010 story that led to this one, though I would rather not.
In years past, I kept much of the writing I did even though it didn't fit with the story. The earliest instance of this was in 2008 when I had a scene of the BBG robbing a liquor store, shown on TV. I never did anything with it and should have cut it, but it's still there. This year I would replace and edit as I went along. The most extreme case of this was where I had one character, and then rewrote the chapter to have two characters together. That cost me quite a few words, but it was worth it for the story.
Here's my word graph for the month:
The graph shows I was behind from the start, caught up on day 5 and then didn't write for two days. Believe it or not, day 8 has more words than day 7, though only by 178. I caught up again on day 13 and held it until day 22, though I wrote below the 1,666 words-per-day pace from the 21st until the 27th. During that time there was much discussion and outline revision. In my favor, I wrote on every day of the month except for the two days I took off (the 7th and 8th).
I wrote a strong 3,626 words on the 28th, only 609 on Thanksgiving Day, which was a busy day for me, and then 5,529 and 4,364 on the 29th and 30th respectively, winning on the last day.
The 2010 book suffered from a lack of focus on point of view (POV), and I could tell this one is going to have some of the same issues, though it is better.
I tried not to use adverbs, instead finding another way to say what I was trying to say. I think I failed in this, because I still used 165 different adverbs, and they counted for 514 of my words (almost 1%). I also tried not to use "was" or "is" too much, but it still appeared 768 times for "was" ("it was"+"he was"+"she was" = 259 of them) and 192 for "is."
I also tried not to use "thought" words. This is from writing advice from Chuck Palahniuk. The specific ones mentioned are thinks (30), knows (109), understands (18), realizes (6), believes (19), wants (59), remembers (6), imagines (2), desires (0). This is obviously not an all-inclusive list. The numbers after each are how many times I used that one, for a total of 249 times, though many of those were in dialogue.
My intention now is to write or rewrite the other scenes by December 5th, when the CreateSpace offer is supposed to appear, then to print a draft of the book as I usually do. It still needs a cover. I also want to buy Scrivener, which is half price for NaNo winners, as soon as I can work it into my budget.
I had a vague outline that got me through several chapters, but it didn't get me through the whole story. A lot of talking with a good friend of mine helped to set what I needed to write for the story to make more sense. This was not just once, but several times throughout the month. It did make for a better story, and when I finish the scenes I mentioned above, it should be nicely set up for another sequel. I have no idea when I'm going to write that one, though. Maybe next NaNo, maybe sooner than that. I suppose it's possible I sit on it for a few years as I did with the 2010 story that led to this one, though I would rather not.
In years past, I kept much of the writing I did even though it didn't fit with the story. The earliest instance of this was in 2008 when I had a scene of the BBG robbing a liquor store, shown on TV. I never did anything with it and should have cut it, but it's still there. This year I would replace and edit as I went along. The most extreme case of this was where I had one character, and then rewrote the chapter to have two characters together. That cost me quite a few words, but it was worth it for the story.
Here's my word graph for the month:
The graph shows I was behind from the start, caught up on day 5 and then didn't write for two days. Believe it or not, day 8 has more words than day 7, though only by 178. I caught up again on day 13 and held it until day 22, though I wrote below the 1,666 words-per-day pace from the 21st until the 27th. During that time there was much discussion and outline revision. In my favor, I wrote on every day of the month except for the two days I took off (the 7th and 8th).
I wrote a strong 3,626 words on the 28th, only 609 on Thanksgiving Day, which was a busy day for me, and then 5,529 and 4,364 on the 29th and 30th respectively, winning on the last day.
The 2010 book suffered from a lack of focus on point of view (POV), and I could tell this one is going to have some of the same issues, though it is better.
I tried not to use adverbs, instead finding another way to say what I was trying to say. I think I failed in this, because I still used 165 different adverbs, and they counted for 514 of my words (almost 1%). I also tried not to use "was" or "is" too much, but it still appeared 768 times for "was" ("it was"+"he was"+"she was" = 259 of them) and 192 for "is."
I also tried not to use "thought" words. This is from writing advice from Chuck Palahniuk. The specific ones mentioned are thinks (30), knows (109), understands (18), realizes (6), believes (19), wants (59), remembers (6), imagines (2), desires (0). This is obviously not an all-inclusive list. The numbers after each are how many times I used that one, for a total of 249 times, though many of those were in dialogue.
My intention now is to write or rewrite the other scenes by December 5th, when the CreateSpace offer is supposed to appear, then to print a draft of the book as I usually do. It still needs a cover. I also want to buy Scrivener, which is half price for NaNo winners, as soon as I can work it into my budget.
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