Like Molasses in January
I'm several thousand words behind, thanks to a few extremely unproductive days. Things are getting better in that respect but I'm not working fast enough to catch up. Hopefully I will be within a couple of days.
Before long in my story, I'm going to have to talk about the whole muffin thing, which poses a problem: How do I make it clear I'm talking about English muffins without using the word "English" (as England does not exist in this world).
My internet is sketchy at the moment. It seems to be behaving now but I've been having network connection issues. Hopefully it doesn't act up again, but I'm not counting on it behaving entirely.
Now I'm off to see if I can figure out what exactly the significance of the ring Muffin just got is supposed to be.
Labels: Muffin Stüstik and the Face, NaNoWriMo
Video Games and Pizza (are not conducive to writing)
I made it to exactly 1667 on Day 1. I got another 697 words done yesterday, which is less than I wanted. I would really like to overshoot for at least the first week. But yesterday ended up being eaten by Guitar Hero III (which we've rented) and Evil Dead: Regeneration (which my brother bought). Evil Dead, by the way, is awesome. There's really no other word for it. So my brother, his friend, and I had pizza and played video games for a while, and then my parents got home and my other brother and sister-in-law showed up and we watched Pushing Daisies (I love that show), and then watched Phenomenon (I have newfound respect for Criss Angel after the Jim Callahan thing), and then it was midnight and I was tired.
My arms, by the way, are better, although both are still sore when touched. I've never had a flu shot before so I have no idea whether being sore for two days after is normal or not. In any case, it's no longer interfering with my typing (just my sleeping). So that's something.
Muffin Stüstik is, as yet, not blatantly satirical. I've thrown in a good number of clichés (and other oft-used elements that aren't necessarily cliché) to be expounded upon later, including the wizened old guy who's kind of creepy, the separated friends who reunite after several years and puberty and will eventually fall in love, the sick parent (not sure if she dies yet), the mystical/magical object (a ring, given to him by Creepyoldguy and which he doesn't know yet is mystical/magical), the hero having an unusual talent (though truth be told the ability to identify spices in a mix doesn't seem to be terribly helpful), the ominous landscape ("death to the north"), and I'm sure several others.
So it should go alright. Now I'm off to have leftover pizza.
Labels: Muffin Stüstik and the Face, NaNoWriMo, Non-Fiction
Commence Random Insanities
Here it is, the first day of NaNoWriMo. Here I am, typing very carefully because I have no ability to move my right elbow without wincing thanks to my visit to the clinic and a less-than-smooth blood-drawing process. It's not a good sign when the woman with the needle in your arm apologizes. Now it's badly bruised, very tender, and a weird pattern of tiny red dots has emerged to the side of the needle spot. Plus, a shot in each arm to keep me flu- and cancer-free. All of these hurt more than they normally do, and so all in all my arms are fairly beat up and even sitting and typing is making them ache. It's a great way to spend the first day of NaNoWriMo, with my writing arm temporarily out of commission and both arms aching when I attempt to type.
But at about 1:30 last night (after watching America's Funniest Home Videos with my brother, which, by the way, is much more hilarious when it's on at midnight), I did manage to write 64 words:
The Stüstik name was well-known in the immediate area and unheard of beyond it. Ride for a day or so and one would leave the dale and find oneself at the mesas of Cavadare to the east, at the edge of the Golshiv canyon to the west, at the rolling foothills of the ever-intimidating Eerghes Mountains to the south, and dead to the north.
I have no idea why you die if you go north, nor do I have any idea where the names Cavadare, Golshiv, or Eerghes came from. This is why I love NaNoWriMo so very, very much.
I'm off to do something not involving my arm (like, watching TV or some such thing) for a while, and then once my arm settles down I can tackle the math I have to do and get some NaNoWriMo stuff done. Mainly tracking down a three-ring binder and three-hole punch, and raiding the notebook cupboard (we're a family of writers). And of course there's the write-in at the Bou tonight. Should be fun.Labels: Excerpts, Muffin Stüstik and the Face, Musings, NaNoWriMo, Non-Fiction
Stuck between a book and a different book.
So, here's the thing. NaNoWriMo is just around the corner (the 25-day-long corner, that is), and I can't choose which novel to write, Rhaten's Field or Muffin Stüstik and The Face.
Rhaten's Field would be nice to actually start writing, but the first two books aren't anywhere near done and while Rhaten's Field would help me write the others, I'm afraid that I'll get stuck a lot unless I work on all three at the same time which would probably be too much to attempt during NaNoWriMo. But I'm still working on Être-Úll and Drogoloth so we'll see.
Muffin Stüstik and The Face would very much not be a serious book, with lots of dares from the NaNoWriMo forums and clichés and the like, and I think it would be fun to write, but I also have no idea what the book would be about. It would be satirical fantasy, but that's all I've got.
Thoughts?
Labels: NaNoWriMo, Rune Trilogy
Trilogy Progress
I've renamed Kalea and Faolan. Kalea is now Tana, short for Tanariel (which she rarely gets called). Faolan is now Zevan, Zev for short.
I've found some of my bits of writing, although I'm still missing those two notebooks I really need. But things are less stuck. And I've figured out some other things that will happen, once I can write them.
Things are moving along alright, which means I may be able to start book 3, Rhaten's Field, for NaNoWriMo. If I can figure out where Drogoloth ends. And there's the matter of me not sure how to write Rhaten's Field. It's a lot of battle scenes. Not my strong point in writing. But I've got a month still.
Labels: Rune Trilogy
