Between Drafts

Like Molasses in January

2007-11-07T19:44:00.000-06:00

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.

Video Games and Pizza (are not conducive to writing)

2007-11-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

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.

Commence Random Insanities

2007-11-01T11:52:00.000-05:00

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.

Stuck between a book and a different book.

2007-10-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

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?

Trilogy Progress

2007-09-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

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.

Renewed Conviction

2007-09-07T23:27:00.000-05:00

I'm going to write more this year.

Which really won't take much to accomplish.

I really really want to finish a first draft of one of my novels. Preferably Être-Úll, as it's the first book in the trilogy, but if I could get more done on Drogoloth it might help. And if I could figure out how the heck to write Rhaten's Field, that would be monumental. But I don't know if I can do that until I know exactly how Drogoloth ends. I mean, I know where it ends in the plot line and the basics of what's going on, but how it ends is a different matter. No real time passes between the end of Drogoloth and the beginning of Rhaten's Field, unlike the 4-year gap between Être-Úll and Drogoloth.

What I really need to do is find my notebooks. They're downstairs, somewhere. I've written a couple more pages for both Être-Úll and Drogoloth, as well as countless notes and scribbles, and all of it is in two notebooks somewhere in a box, and I'm stuck mostly without them.

Kalea needs to be renamed. It was really a placeholder name, but then I thought it might work. Except now I've discovered that there is a main character named Kalea in one of Boris Karloff's movies (Snake People), and the name is unusable for me now. I also have to rename Bakari, and would like to rename Faolan because of pronunciation issues. I think the rest of the characters should be alright, though.

Plus, I have good characters to turn evil, people to kill, a war to recount, another war to start, betrayal to set in action, espionage to reveal, love to spark, jealousy to deal with, moody characters to contend with, bickering muses to handle (they don't get along well with each other), and an entire ending to figure out.

Should be fun.

Roundelay

2007-05-11T21:47:00.000-05:00

Well, the last Roundelay of my high school career went to print this morning. There some reasons I'm sad about that but some reasons make me extremely grateful it's over.

I forgot, for the 3rd year in a row, to put in my "writer's block" poem. Ah well.

Script Frenzy starts June 1 which, coincidentally, is my last day of high school. I have to talk to Ryan about that. Maybe we'll do that script idea we have floating around. He was mentioning it earlier.

This summer in between the job that I don't have yet and a couple of projects, I hope to write a lot. I'll also be doing some yard projects (gardening things) and getting into photography some more, if all goes well. Those might all combine.

Don't forget to check out my other blog, where I write about my day-to-day life on a somewhat monthly basis. More often once life gets less crazy.

Haiku

2007-05-08T14:04:00.000-05:00

I have decided to write a series of Haiku titled "How to be a high school student". Each haiku will address a well-known group or type of teenager/high school student. Genres, if you will. I have two written.

How to Be an IB Student

Homework due Wednesday
Assigned seven weeks ago
Do it Tuesday night

How to Be a Floozy

Show too much cleavage
Short skirts, tight shirts, leather boots
Get mad when men look

So that's the idea. I have a list of other poems to write at some point. If I can write again soon. I have been severely lacking in inspiration and extremely busy.

Pen on blank paper
Empty mind strains to create
Curse you, writer's block

The Mind's Eye

2007-01-03T16:19:00.000-06:00

There are two things about writing that annoy me to no end. The first is that my muses seem nearly always to be most awake when I have neither paper nor a computer close at hand for jotting down ideas. The second is my severe inability to transfer the stories in my mind onto paper in a way that pleases me.

I am sure that all (or nearly all) writers understand both of these. I have often heard my friends (especially fellow Wrimos) complain that their best ideas come in the shower or on the bus or in the middle of the night. Although I doubt how amazing those three-in-the-morning ideas really are, as I have read many of those scenes, including my own, and nearly all are so tangential to the real story that you have to wonder whether the author was in fact fully conscious at the time.

With regards to the path from mind to paper, I’ve realized I’ll never fully capture my image and place into words. In my mind I know every detail: the precise way he moves his head or the exact tone of voice in which she replies, how the trees sway in the breeze, how the colors play across the sky as the sun sinks lower. I feel the piercing of her soul or the joy in his triumph. I hear the songbirds in the forest as clearly as I hear the voices of the characters. I smell the sickly aroma of the burning village. I taste the first meal in days.

I dare not write so much detail in my books for fear that it will be too much, that it will read like stage directions. I do not consider myself an untalented writer in any way, simply lacking experience. Like any skill it takes practice, and a patience which does not come to me easily. Perhaps when I have gained experience I will be more satisfied with my descriptions.

For now, I hope your world is as vivid as mine.

2006-12-23T00:20:00.000-06:00

The rain fell and froze into little balls of crystal ice, hanging on every branch and bush, and the snow came and frosted the world and as I stood at my window it seemed I was living in a snowglobe, a beautifully frosted, crystal world, and when things get shaken up it's okay, because everything settles down again and looks gorgeous and peaceful in the meanwhile.

And then the rain came, and everything melted and slushed and turn cold and nasty, and I holed up in my little corner and tried to forget that my snowglobe is broken.

Life v. NaNoWriMo

2006-11-15T12:17:00.000-06:00

Life is winning for the third year in a row. And at this point I'm not sure I can pull ahead. I'm 20,300 words behind and life isn't slowing down.

Auditions for The Wizard of Oz are tomorrow. I still have to choose a one-minute poem. Any ideas? Jabbewocky's already taken.

So my novel has been put on hold, but I am still writing for composition (the shifts in stereotypes of women) and speech (informative speech on phobias). Which is good. If I weren't writing at all I'd go sane.

Life is life, and it seems to be an unstoppable force. But Thanksgiving's coming up soon, which means a long weekend where life moves slower. I'm excited.

Day 4

2006-11-04T19:21:00.000-06:00

I'm behind. I'm at about 2,700 words and I should be at 6,668 by the end of the day. I've just been so busy with my play (which opens Wednesday) and everything else that I haven't had much time. But ideas are swirling around in my head and trying very hard to break out of my hand and onto the paper, so all should be well.

I know I said I'd explain my story more, but that will have to wait until I have more time to post. I do have an excerpt up on my NaNoWriMo profile, though, if you're interested.

But now I'm off to fill out college applications and such.

Countdown

2006-10-23T13:32:00.000-05:00

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, past the choir events and to the right of the candy gorging. This year, though, I’m going into Wrimo with something I’ve never had before: an idea of where my story will end. My novel from two years ago suddenly turned into a trilogy, so I've decided to start into the second book for Wrimo.

Two years ago, Kalea chased a goat through the woods near her property for a page and a half. Shortly thereafter, Eyad, a character wholly new to my concious, showed up at her little farm and set the course for the entire story. After the intial conflict, I had to explain it, and the story has grown and grown and become more and more complex. I still haven't finished the first book, or come near to it. But I've finally planned out everything that happens, as well as the key plot points in the second book. Hopefully the third book's purpose will emerge in time for NaNoWriMo 2007.

So the month of November shall be spent with me trying to work out a relationship between a human and an elf (and keeping it from becoming clichè), figuring out how to kill off one character and whether or not more should die, detailing the inner workings of the "dark elf mafia", and many more plot points besides.

In my next post I'll try to detail some of book one. Now, however, my nice soft pillow is calling to me. Calling out in a voice that says "Freaking get to bed already! You have to be up in six hours, and here you are perfecting your post. Sleep is more important than writing."

Honestly, I don't know why I listen to it.

Twofold Escapism

2006-09-02T01:38:00.000-05:00

The escapism of writing fiction is twofold: First, you create a gorgeous and magnificent world, one to which you would very much like to journey in order to escape the stresses and downfalls of reality. Then you fill that world with anguish and death and war and perils which make your life seem wonderful by comparison.

At least, that's how it pans out for me. A perfect village I dream of living in is burnt to rubble soon after its introduction into existence. The stalwart male character I'm developing a crush on is imprisoned or beaten, or turns to evil. The protagonist can't seem to get an hours rest without some new danger revealing itself. Between these scenes playing out in my head lies what most people call "reality". I call it "story fodder". Drama is simply life with the dull bits cut out. I read that at school, on the wall of the girls' dressing room.

I am telling you now that this blog will probably be best enjoyed by those who write as well. Between excerpts, I will be spending time musing about writing as only a writer can. With November (and thus NaNoWriMo) fast approaching, my thoughts will only become more frantic. This blog may be best understood by those who have experienced the sheer frustration of characters who completely steal the story, muses who fight over what happens next, characters refusing to cooperate, or that one character who just won't die.

Which brings me to the end of my post, in which I will pose a question to those of you who do write.

What's the most interesting way in which a character or characters let you know that the story was no longer under your control?

Mine would have to be the time when, on page two of my story, a character that until that point had not existed in any plans showed up at my main character's house, demanded to know where their child was, knocked her unconcious, and burned her house down.