So I'm currently about 16000 words behind on NaNoWriMo. I'm writing this on the train back home, but basically what this means is that I'm going to have to write maybe 3500 - 4000 words a day in order to finish on time; considering that my mother and honors professor have made the joint decision to schedule ALL OF THE THINGS during break, this is not particularly feasible. I'm still going to write every day if I can, but right now I'm just going to write. I'm not going to work on word count, I'm just going to go.
Hopefully I'll still be able to get through with a lot of words.
Farewell for now.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Day 23: I haven't posted all week because reasons
Current Page: 112
Target Page: Let's just not
Place in story: shit, shit, more shit, and then a giant ball of poop.
Yeah. That's basically what Spencer has gotten herself into now. Every idea she has, the Empire foils it (SHUT UP ABOUT THE CLICHE NAME FOR THE EVIL PEOPLE). Anyway, this has been a really slow week in terms of writing, so right now I'm just trying to write. Not necessarily, like, the 10 daily necessary pages, but words. I just hit 30,000 today - I'm at about 30,250 right now. I'm probably not going to hit 50,000, but I'm going to work on it. I'm going to at least try to get close.
Anyway, in other news, this week has been rather stressful. On Monday, my roommate and I got called in to Res Life because we apparently had bedbugs. On Tuesday, we got treated for bedbugs; this treatment not only messed up our personal organizational systems (the bedbug guys had to move stuff to treat everything - including the inside of my trunk, apparently, where I keep the Confidential Things of Confidentiality), but it resulted in a few things going missing - most irritatingly, one of the dolls (in a set of two) that my host mom in Turkey gave me on my last night staying with them.
I missed classes yesterday to go to the Ring Ceremony/ Ball at my boyfriend's school (he goes to military school, so yes, my dress was super fancy; it was required for it to be floor-length and white). That was a lot of fun (except for the heels and the half-tripping over my dress for most of the night), because the band was actually really good and played decent music.
We woke up at around 7 this morning in order to head out by 8:00 or so; I needed to get back by 12 to attend a choir concert (this counts as the final, basically; College policy is that if you miss the final, you fail the course, so it's better to show up and get a 0 than to not show up at all). My parents came to that, which was really nice. When we went out to coffee afterwards, we saw one of the alumni of my fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. (that's another thing that's been on my plate this week: This is The Week That Shall Not Be Spoken Of But Which Involves Lots Of Gifts That Everyone Makes.) I didn't know him terribly well, but that was not an excuse not to get excited and hug.
Right, I have to do some more service now - candlelight vigil from midnight to 3 AM. Farewell!
Target Page: Let's just not
Place in story: shit, shit, more shit, and then a giant ball of poop.
Yeah. That's basically what Spencer has gotten herself into now. Every idea she has, the Empire foils it (SHUT UP ABOUT THE CLICHE NAME FOR THE EVIL PEOPLE). Anyway, this has been a really slow week in terms of writing, so right now I'm just trying to write. Not necessarily, like, the 10 daily necessary pages, but words. I just hit 30,000 today - I'm at about 30,250 right now. I'm probably not going to hit 50,000, but I'm going to work on it. I'm going to at least try to get close.
Anyway, in other news, this week has been rather stressful. On Monday, my roommate and I got called in to Res Life because we apparently had bedbugs. On Tuesday, we got treated for bedbugs; this treatment not only messed up our personal organizational systems (the bedbug guys had to move stuff to treat everything - including the inside of my trunk, apparently, where I keep the Confidential Things of Confidentiality), but it resulted in a few things going missing - most irritatingly, one of the dolls (in a set of two) that my host mom in Turkey gave me on my last night staying with them.
I missed classes yesterday to go to the Ring Ceremony/ Ball at my boyfriend's school (he goes to military school, so yes, my dress was super fancy; it was required for it to be floor-length and white). That was a lot of fun (except for the heels and the half-tripping over my dress for most of the night), because the band was actually really good and played decent music.
We woke up at around 7 this morning in order to head out by 8:00 or so; I needed to get back by 12 to attend a choir concert (this counts as the final, basically; College policy is that if you miss the final, you fail the course, so it's better to show up and get a 0 than to not show up at all). My parents came to that, which was really nice. When we went out to coffee afterwards, we saw one of the alumni of my fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. (that's another thing that's been on my plate this week: This is The Week That Shall Not Be Spoken Of But Which Involves Lots Of Gifts That Everyone Makes.) I didn't know him terribly well, but that was not an excuse not to get excited and hug.
Right, I have to do some more service now - candlelight vigil from midnight to 3 AM. Farewell!
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Day 16: when in doubt, switch universes
Current Page: 84
Target Page: GAH!
Place in Story: Well, while I try and buy myself some time to figure out how to get Spencer out of the craphole I've dug her into, I'm revisiting Myrtle for the first time in a while. I spent a week ignoring her, but I'm pretty sure she's actually useful now in padding my word count. So, Myrtle is at a sorority party now (one she got dragged along to because she hadn't been out of the house in weeks because NOVELING!); she just got sat on by a drunk freshman who thinks that Myrtle is trans* because the freshman sat on Myrtle's pen while Myrtle was sneakily trying to write.
With regards to Spencer, I'm sure you're wondering what craphole she's gotten into. Well, her navigation and communications systems are both down (she had an idea that didn't work; instead of successfully leading the enemy ship away from the base planet of the rebellion, the King's Stiletto was brought onto the enemy flagship and sabotaged); also, the base planet of the rebellion - the only definitively friendly planet in the only definitively friendly system within a range where navigation is simple - has been overtaken by beings of a malicious nature. She found this out when getting the coordinates to the base planet (she was calling the commander of the rebellion on their backup communicator, which is kind old), and then the bad guy took over.
I have no idea what to do about this. Suggestions?
On that note, I'm going to continue to write this awkward encounter in Myrtle's world, to the sounds of drunken frolicking outside. (Since today was the game against our rivals, there's even more drunken frolicking than normal, even though we lost).
Target Page: GAH!
Place in Story: Well, while I try and buy myself some time to figure out how to get Spencer out of the craphole I've dug her into, I'm revisiting Myrtle for the first time in a while. I spent a week ignoring her, but I'm pretty sure she's actually useful now in padding my word count. So, Myrtle is at a sorority party now (one she got dragged along to because she hadn't been out of the house in weeks because NOVELING!); she just got sat on by a drunk freshman who thinks that Myrtle is trans* because the freshman sat on Myrtle's pen while Myrtle was sneakily trying to write.
With regards to Spencer, I'm sure you're wondering what craphole she's gotten into. Well, her navigation and communications systems are both down (she had an idea that didn't work; instead of successfully leading the enemy ship away from the base planet of the rebellion, the King's Stiletto was brought onto the enemy flagship and sabotaged); also, the base planet of the rebellion - the only definitively friendly planet in the only definitively friendly system within a range where navigation is simple - has been overtaken by beings of a malicious nature. She found this out when getting the coordinates to the base planet (she was calling the commander of the rebellion on their backup communicator, which is kind old), and then the bad guy took over.
I have no idea what to do about this. Suggestions?
On that note, I'm going to continue to write this awkward encounter in Myrtle's world, to the sounds of drunken frolicking outside. (Since today was the game against our rivals, there's even more drunken frolicking than normal, even though we lost).
Friday, November 15, 2013
Day 15: halfway!
Current Page: 83
Pages written today: 7.5
Target Page: please, no.
Location in story: PLOT TWIST! You thought the Mentor's death was the low point? THINK AGAIN!! EVERYTHING THAT SPENCER KNOWS AND LOVES IS ABOUT TO GO KAPUT, THANKS TO THAT CREEPY CALL THAT SHE JUST MADE! Doesn't help that her navigation and her communicators are busted, so she can't really go anywhere accurately and she has to call on her backup communications. Also, she has ten unconscious guards in her cargo hold.
Yes, that's where I am right now. I've gotten a lot done today, but I still need to keep up this pace if I want to make sure I can get my word count.
Pages written today: 7.5
Target Page: please, no.
Location in story: PLOT TWIST! You thought the Mentor's death was the low point? THINK AGAIN!! EVERYTHING THAT SPENCER KNOWS AND LOVES IS ABOUT TO GO KAPUT, THANKS TO THAT CREEPY CALL THAT SHE JUST MADE! Doesn't help that her navigation and her communicators are busted, so she can't really go anywhere accurately and she has to call on her backup communications. Also, she has ten unconscious guards in her cargo hold.
Yes, that's where I am right now. I've gotten a lot done today, but I still need to keep up this pace if I want to make sure I can get my word count.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Day 14: tired, behind, and should be studying for Greek...
Current Page: 75
Target (at this point): 77 (two more pages... maybe? yes?)
Location in story: well...
I spent a lot of lunch texting my boyfriend about the best thing to sabotage about a ship (would it be more detrimental to the sabotagee to take out the navigation or the communications? Life support would have been a good option to hurt the crew and passenger of the King's Stiletto if it wasn't possible for them to land on a friendly planet in about two minutes - aka before the oxygen ran out). It turns out that I've planned out the backups for the ship better than I thought I did. Either that, or theatre experience has trained me well for improv, because I may have been making it up.
Anyway, where I am right now in the story is trying to figure out where to send people now that the King's Stiletto has... barely been compromised.
I've also realized today just how much I've written about revolutions. The only year that didn't involve a revolution was the first one, and that was almost preventing something that was... what's the opposite of revolution? Not necessarily peace and harmony, but... since I based it on a video game, I'll just put it in those terms: BOWSER had captured the equivalent of PEACH and if the equivalent of MARIO wasn't out to save the royal family, there would have been anarchy that MARIO, LUIGI, and FRIENDS could not have controlled.
So... that's that. I have to do homework now.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Day 13: when in doubt, go meta
Current Page: top of 71
Target Page: um...
Place in Story: um...
So the title of today's post is derived from the fact that I do, technically, have three planes of existence in one novel: Myrtle's level, Jess's level, and Spencer's level. I have barely touched Myrtle's level in the last week or so, but Jess and Spencer have been sharing the stage fairly regularly.
Anyway, in order to shamelessly pad my word count, I wrote a scene with Myrtle, Jenna (her flatmate), and Elijah (her good friend), as well as a brief reference to Myrtle's and Jenna's cats (Samwise and Quark). The scene lasted only around a page, but it mostly involved Myrtle saying how she had writer's block, and Jenna and Elijah giving her ideas.
There are so many levels of this that I could write the sequel to Inception.
In other, related news, I have recently discovered that requiems are really good writing music. My two right now are Mozart's in D minor and John Rutter's. GO LISTEN. NOW.
Target Page: um...
Place in Story: um...
So the title of today's post is derived from the fact that I do, technically, have three planes of existence in one novel: Myrtle's level, Jess's level, and Spencer's level. I have barely touched Myrtle's level in the last week or so, but Jess and Spencer have been sharing the stage fairly regularly.
Anyway, in order to shamelessly pad my word count, I wrote a scene with Myrtle, Jenna (her flatmate), and Elijah (her good friend), as well as a brief reference to Myrtle's and Jenna's cats (Samwise and Quark). The scene lasted only around a page, but it mostly involved Myrtle saying how she had writer's block, and Jenna and Elijah giving her ideas.
There are so many levels of this that I could write the sequel to Inception.
In other, related news, I have recently discovered that requiems are really good writing music. My two right now are Mozart's in D minor and John Rutter's. GO LISTEN. NOW.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Day 12: stress?
Current Page: 67
Target Page: beyond that
Written today: nothing
What's going on: a lot of things.
Right now, the internet on my computer is being really dumb - for some reason, it won't connect to the server, so I can only access a few academic sites as well as Facebook and Twitter and, occasionally, the NaNoWriMo site. (This is the reason that I haven't posted for the last two days. My apologies for that.)
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to write too much over the last few days. I've been involved in a lot of things with my fraternity, and I have an essay due tonight at midnight (I'm mostly done with it, which is nice). Additionally, homework is starting to get to me, because all my professors have realized that there are about three weeks before finals (if you count the rest of this week and the two days before Thanksgiving as one whole week), and so they've all decided that now is the time to give out ALL OF THE ASSIGNMENTS. So I had an econ test yesterday, an honors essay tonight, a Greek test on Friday (as well as a bunch of translations), and a bunch of math quizzes before finals begin. Needless to say, there's been a lot going on.
Hopefully I'll find the time to write today and tomorrow and catch up - I'm now running behind, even on NaNo terms, so that needs to get fixed.
Finals. Gah.
Grades. Gah.
Target Page: beyond that
Written today: nothing
What's going on: a lot of things.
Right now, the internet on my computer is being really dumb - for some reason, it won't connect to the server, so I can only access a few academic sites as well as Facebook and Twitter and, occasionally, the NaNoWriMo site. (This is the reason that I haven't posted for the last two days. My apologies for that.)
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to write too much over the last few days. I've been involved in a lot of things with my fraternity, and I have an essay due tonight at midnight (I'm mostly done with it, which is nice). Additionally, homework is starting to get to me, because all my professors have realized that there are about three weeks before finals (if you count the rest of this week and the two days before Thanksgiving as one whole week), and so they've all decided that now is the time to give out ALL OF THE ASSIGNMENTS. So I had an econ test yesterday, an honors essay tonight, a Greek test on Friday (as well as a bunch of translations), and a bunch of math quizzes before finals begin. Needless to say, there's been a lot going on.
Hopefully I'll find the time to write today and tomorrow and catch up - I'm now running behind, even on NaNo terms, so that needs to get fixed.
Finals. Gah.
Grades. Gah.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Day 9: Second Saturday and unnecessary romance scenes
Current Page: 57
Target Page: close enough (ish)
What's happened: bad things. Very bad things. Like plot-twisting things for Spencer and Crew. To pad my word count, I wrote a romance scene between Jess and Leo in the Player Realm. Will this affect anything? Yes. It will affect my word count.
And, with the Dungeons and Dragons quest completed for the night, I'm going to bed. Goodnight.
Target Page: close enough (ish)
What's happened: bad things. Very bad things. Like plot-twisting things for Spencer and Crew. To pad my word count, I wrote a romance scene between Jess and Leo in the Player Realm. Will this affect anything? Yes. It will affect my word count.
And, with the Dungeons and Dragons quest completed for the night, I'm going to bed. Goodnight.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Day 8: spaceship chases and strange coincidences
Current Page: 50
Target: 51 (current goal: not necessarily to do 2,000 words a day, but just to stay ahead of the curve, at least a bit)
Current Place in Story: Spencer is being a hooligan by trying to distract the Emperor's ship from the base of the rebellion. Will it work? No idea; I haven't written that bit yet. (Spoiler alert: probably not).
In other news, I organized a bit of a writing session for four of us in my group of friends who are doing NaNo (there's at least one more, but he works at Starbucks, so he doesn't want to hang out at his workplace, because that's kind of weird). Anyway, we somehow got distracted in conversation for a little bit, when we learned that both my roommate and my cousin have the same initials - BNM. The weirdest thing is that the first two initials stand for the exact same name.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
My roommate is dating the guy she had a crush on in middle school. My cousin is marrying her middle school crush in March.
Okay, the similarities end there, but I still think it's really weird how that worked out.
Target: 51 (current goal: not necessarily to do 2,000 words a day, but just to stay ahead of the curve, at least a bit)
Current Place in Story: Spencer is being a hooligan by trying to distract the Emperor's ship from the base of the rebellion. Will it work? No idea; I haven't written that bit yet. (Spoiler alert: probably not).
In other news, I organized a bit of a writing session for four of us in my group of friends who are doing NaNo (there's at least one more, but he works at Starbucks, so he doesn't want to hang out at his workplace, because that's kind of weird). Anyway, we somehow got distracted in conversation for a little bit, when we learned that both my roommate and my cousin have the same initials - BNM. The weirdest thing is that the first two initials stand for the exact same name.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
My roommate is dating the guy she had a crush on in middle school. My cousin is marrying her middle school crush in March.
Okay, the similarities end there, but I still think it's really weird how that worked out.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Day 7: Plot switch?
Current Page: 43
Target Page: shut up
Place in Novel: LOOKING FOR HELP! (the characters, I mean. Okay, and me too, kind of)
So many of you may realize that, before NaNo started this year, I had a pretty cool concept. The issue is, as you may have noticed, that I didn't really have a plot to go with this cool world I had come up with. Thinking back on it, what I did have was way to isolated in one story - I could have followed Jess through all her tales, or something like that.
So my plot this year is in a weird spot. I'm keeping in the Players, to make sure I can use all the words possible, but I'm pretty much separated from what I initially planned. Instead, I'm ripping a bit off of Star Wars and making the novel-ception (because that's technically what it is, strictly speaking... I'll go back and fix it later) the main plot of the story. From here on out, you'll hear fewer updates on Jess, Marcus, Leo, Tobias, Fabian, and Chelsea, and more updates on Spencer, Keegan, Arthur, Matthias, the Emperor, and Electra. Just to let you know.
Target Page: shut up
Place in Novel: LOOKING FOR HELP! (the characters, I mean. Okay, and me too, kind of)
So many of you may realize that, before NaNo started this year, I had a pretty cool concept. The issue is, as you may have noticed, that I didn't really have a plot to go with this cool world I had come up with. Thinking back on it, what I did have was way to isolated in one story - I could have followed Jess through all her tales, or something like that.
So my plot this year is in a weird spot. I'm keeping in the Players, to make sure I can use all the words possible, but I'm pretty much separated from what I initially planned. Instead, I'm ripping a bit off of Star Wars and making the novel-ception (because that's technically what it is, strictly speaking... I'll go back and fix it later) the main plot of the story. From here on out, you'll hear fewer updates on Jess, Marcus, Leo, Tobias, Fabian, and Chelsea, and more updates on Spencer, Keegan, Arthur, Matthias, the Emperor, and Electra. Just to let you know.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Day 6: on gender and stuff
Current Page: 39
Target Page: Please, no.
What's been happening: Second encounter with the villains. They have got a trace on the ship that a pirate captains, and which is harboring a 'fugitive' (and by 'fugitive,' I mean 'a prince who was being used as a pawn who has escaped from his cell and onto an escape pod and just happened to wind up on the King's Stiletto because that's where the other escapee was going.')
The trouble with going so slowly (and procrastinating so much) is that I can't get anywhere. It's royally frustrating. I'm going to try to boost my word count over the weekend, but I'm going to have to apologize for my lack of substance on the novel front today.
So, in other news, I'm going to do a Wild Card's Life Update today.
In the front of classes, I'm taking five next semester (six, if you're counting choir): two honors courses, a course in journalism, advanced Ancient Greek (eek!), and history 101: the sixties. I'm not sure whether to be excited or terrified. Maybe both?
In the juggling front, I have finally found success. I'm hitting a point that most people found a few weeks ago, but AS LONG AS I CAN DO STUFF FOR THE FINAL PERFORMANCE I'LL BE FINE. This point is the one where I'm not getting an epic workout from chasing my errant bean bags for half the class, and also the one where I can regularly catch more than ten times. I also learned how to do cool things with a diabolo (photo here), which you spin really fast; one of the tricks I'm working on is to tighten the string so the diabolo goes in the air and then catch it on the string again. I learned a cool way of starting it yesterday, as well as started (and by 'started' I mean 'tried a few times in the last twenty minutes of class and probably can't manage again because my teachers' son won't be there tomorrow') working on throwing it to a partner. This only works when we're facing each other because I'm left handed and he's right handed.
On Saturday when I was working at Train Day (because this small college town started out as a train town). For the last hour and a half I was there, I was giving a little talk inside a fake caboose - what happened where, who stayed back there, why the seats were elevated (so, when checking to make sure the cargo hadn't fallen off, the crew's heads wouldn't get lopped off by a tree branch. Yes, really), that kind of thing. I started off one group of people by asking if they had any questions. One girl asked if I was a boy or a girl.
I'm not surprised she asked that - I have short hair and I'm not as well-endowed as some girls (I'm just fine with my cup size, thanks), and my style can be very boyish at times. That day, my loose green jacket hid my v-neck shirt and orange hi-tops tend to be gender-neutral. Also, my voice was probably in a weirdly ambiguous range after talking for an hour and a half.
At the same time, I'm glad she asked. She could learn to phrase it better - 'what pronouns would you like?' rather than a question that directly correlates to the gender binary - but I'm willing to concede that point on account of the fact that she looked to be around seven. At age seven, girls can be 'tomboys' and boys can be 'girlish;' the terms 'agender' or 'genderqueer' aren't really in the common vocabulary when a kid is seven. I'm glad she asked because it meant that she knew to ask questions if she wasn't sure about something, and asking about gender is something that's important. Why? There are people who don't strictly identify as male or female. This is different from trans* individuals; in the case of trans* individuals, they tend to identify as gender A when their birth certificate and chromosomes tell the world that their sex is B. Someone who is genderqueer can be assigned the sex of A or B, but can identify as the gender AB, A+B, AAAAABBBABABAABA, or 0 (or any combination).
So that's my tangent for today. The only reason I bring the last point up (aside from the fact that it's something I've been thinking about in regards to my own life) is that I've noticed that the two leads in the Novel-Ception (the Star Wars type novel, which is turning out to be the primary story line here) tend to follow interesting gender lines. The captain of the King's Stiletto is Spencer Watkins, who runs the show now that the old captain has officially given her the title; she's probably gotten laid more times than anyone on the ship combined (her standards: 1. your gravity must not kill me; 2. you must not have any deadly viruses or bacteria; 3. you must ask politely and accept a rejection, should Spencer choose to issue one). On the other hand, the love interest, Prince Art Pennington (SHUT UP ABOUT THE PRISSY SOUNDING NAME) is... okay, he is kind of prissy. His first impression of the ship was that the cockpit needed some decoration. In his defense, it's a cramped pirate vessel and he's used to, like, palaces and stuff.
Anyhoo, that's all for tonight. Need to go to bed. Farewell.
Target Page: Please, no.
What's been happening: Second encounter with the villains. They have got a trace on the ship that a pirate captains, and which is harboring a 'fugitive' (and by 'fugitive,' I mean 'a prince who was being used as a pawn who has escaped from his cell and onto an escape pod and just happened to wind up on the King's Stiletto because that's where the other escapee was going.')
The trouble with going so slowly (and procrastinating so much) is that I can't get anywhere. It's royally frustrating. I'm going to try to boost my word count over the weekend, but I'm going to have to apologize for my lack of substance on the novel front today.
So, in other news, I'm going to do a Wild Card's Life Update today.
In the front of classes, I'm taking five next semester (six, if you're counting choir): two honors courses, a course in journalism, advanced Ancient Greek (eek!), and history 101: the sixties. I'm not sure whether to be excited or terrified. Maybe both?
In the juggling front, I have finally found success. I'm hitting a point that most people found a few weeks ago, but AS LONG AS I CAN DO STUFF FOR THE FINAL PERFORMANCE I'LL BE FINE. This point is the one where I'm not getting an epic workout from chasing my errant bean bags for half the class, and also the one where I can regularly catch more than ten times. I also learned how to do cool things with a diabolo (photo here), which you spin really fast; one of the tricks I'm working on is to tighten the string so the diabolo goes in the air and then catch it on the string again. I learned a cool way of starting it yesterday, as well as started (and by 'started' I mean 'tried a few times in the last twenty minutes of class and probably can't manage again because my teachers' son won't be there tomorrow') working on throwing it to a partner. This only works when we're facing each other because I'm left handed and he's right handed.
On Saturday when I was working at Train Day (because this small college town started out as a train town). For the last hour and a half I was there, I was giving a little talk inside a fake caboose - what happened where, who stayed back there, why the seats were elevated (so, when checking to make sure the cargo hadn't fallen off, the crew's heads wouldn't get lopped off by a tree branch. Yes, really), that kind of thing. I started off one group of people by asking if they had any questions. One girl asked if I was a boy or a girl.
I'm not surprised she asked that - I have short hair and I'm not as well-endowed as some girls (I'm just fine with my cup size, thanks), and my style can be very boyish at times. That day, my loose green jacket hid my v-neck shirt and orange hi-tops tend to be gender-neutral. Also, my voice was probably in a weirdly ambiguous range after talking for an hour and a half.
At the same time, I'm glad she asked. She could learn to phrase it better - 'what pronouns would you like?' rather than a question that directly correlates to the gender binary - but I'm willing to concede that point on account of the fact that she looked to be around seven. At age seven, girls can be 'tomboys' and boys can be 'girlish;' the terms 'agender' or 'genderqueer' aren't really in the common vocabulary when a kid is seven. I'm glad she asked because it meant that she knew to ask questions if she wasn't sure about something, and asking about gender is something that's important. Why? There are people who don't strictly identify as male or female. This is different from trans* individuals; in the case of trans* individuals, they tend to identify as gender A when their birth certificate and chromosomes tell the world that their sex is B. Someone who is genderqueer can be assigned the sex of A or B, but can identify as the gender AB, A+B, AAAAABBBABABAABA, or 0 (or any combination).
So that's my tangent for today. The only reason I bring the last point up (aside from the fact that it's something I've been thinking about in regards to my own life) is that I've noticed that the two leads in the Novel-Ception (the Star Wars type novel, which is turning out to be the primary story line here) tend to follow interesting gender lines. The captain of the King's Stiletto is Spencer Watkins, who runs the show now that the old captain has officially given her the title; she's probably gotten laid more times than anyone on the ship combined (her standards: 1. your gravity must not kill me; 2. you must not have any deadly viruses or bacteria; 3. you must ask politely and accept a rejection, should Spencer choose to issue one). On the other hand, the love interest, Prince Art Pennington (SHUT UP ABOUT THE PRISSY SOUNDING NAME) is... okay, he is kind of prissy. His first impression of the ship was that the cockpit needed some decoration. In his defense, it's a cramped pirate vessel and he's used to, like, palaces and stuff.
Anyhoo, that's all for tonight. Need to go to bed. Farewell.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Day 5: Suddenly, BACKSTORY!
Current Page: 35
Target Page: can we just not do this bit? It's kind of embarrassing... okay, it's 38. MAY I WARN YOU, HOWEVER, THAT 38 WILL PUT ME AT OVER 10,000 WORDS. TECHNICALLY I'M WELL ON MY WAY TO 50,000 WORDS.
Pages to go: none, because I'm going to bed soon and waking up early.
What's happened so far: there's been character development and relationship development! HUZZAH! Accompanied by the soundtrack of Star Wars: A New Hope (what was available in one YouTube playlist, anyway), as well as the sounds of ThePianoGuys (whom you should all go look up on YouTube RIGHT NOW), my characters have discussed the loneliness of space and the fact that there is ridiculously cool life on other planets. They also discussed rebellions and the fact that the love interest has the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a twelve-year-old in the body of...
I just realized I haven't assigned anyone an age yet. Well, this is plenty awkward.
I mean, I know that the characters are all in their late teens or early twenties, but still.
You know what? That's good enough. I'm going to bed.
Target Page: can we just not do this bit? It's kind of embarrassing... okay, it's 38. MAY I WARN YOU, HOWEVER, THAT 38 WILL PUT ME AT OVER 10,000 WORDS. TECHNICALLY I'M WELL ON MY WAY TO 50,000 WORDS.
Pages to go: none, because I'm going to bed soon and waking up early.
What's happened so far: there's been character development and relationship development! HUZZAH! Accompanied by the soundtrack of Star Wars: A New Hope (what was available in one YouTube playlist, anyway), as well as the sounds of ThePianoGuys (whom you should all go look up on YouTube RIGHT NOW), my characters have discussed the loneliness of space and the fact that there is ridiculously cool life on other planets. They also discussed rebellions and the fact that the love interest has the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a twelve-year-old in the body of...
I just realized I haven't assigned anyone an age yet. Well, this is plenty awkward.
I mean, I know that the characters are all in their late teens or early twenties, but still.
You know what? That's good enough. I'm going to bed.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Day 4: it's Monday.
Current Page: 25
Target Page: 30
Pages Left: 5
Pages Completed: 2 (well, 1.5, really)
Stuff that's happened in the novel so far: they have talked about how the love interest is completely irritating and Jess has had a bit of an existential crisis about how she is basically in a pit stop between normal life and the afterlife.
Which is true.
And that's really all I can manage on a Monday.
Hoping for better next week.
Target Page: 30
Pages Left: 5
Pages Completed: 2 (well, 1.5, really)
Stuff that's happened in the novel so far: they have talked about how the love interest is completely irritating and Jess has had a bit of an existential crisis about how she is basically in a pit stop between normal life and the afterlife.
Which is true.
And that's really all I can manage on a Monday.
Hoping for better next week.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Day 3: When my idea shifts
Current Page: 23
Target Page (counting the number shifts I did today): 23
Point In Story: well...
So I had a minor panic earlier today. Not necessarily about anything homework related (though you should not get me started on how much honors homework I have to do, and with Econ, at this point, I'm just hoping that my pretty graphs will be enough for a decent grade on the homework this week), but because it's day three and I'm already running out of character drama. Myrtle's world is very bland, and I didn't really know how to introduce drama to the Players without writing the Player novel. In other words, NOVELCEPTION! (as opposed to INCEPTION.)
I've done bits and pieces of Myrtle's Novel, and then done scenes where the Players react to what happen. I've only kept it to bits instead of really important scenes because I wanted to focus more on the Players and Myrtle, but now I'm realizing that Myrtle might not be as big a part of this as I thought she might be. Right now, a good chunk of the last few pages has been the introduction of Myrtle's novel - the actual writing of it.
This may turn into just writing the sci-fi novel, but I don't know. We'll see how this goes.
Target Page (counting the number shifts I did today): 23
Point In Story: well...
So I had a minor panic earlier today. Not necessarily about anything homework related (though you should not get me started on how much honors homework I have to do, and with Econ, at this point, I'm just hoping that my pretty graphs will be enough for a decent grade on the homework this week), but because it's day three and I'm already running out of character drama. Myrtle's world is very bland, and I didn't really know how to introduce drama to the Players without writing the Player novel. In other words, NOVELCEPTION! (as opposed to INCEPTION.)
I've done bits and pieces of Myrtle's Novel, and then done scenes where the Players react to what happen. I've only kept it to bits instead of really important scenes because I wanted to focus more on the Players and Myrtle, but now I'm realizing that Myrtle might not be as big a part of this as I thought she might be. Right now, a good chunk of the last few pages has been the introduction of Myrtle's novel - the actual writing of it.
This may turn into just writing the sci-fi novel, but I don't know. We'll see how this goes.
Day 2: DON'T JUDGE ME FOR POSTING AFTER MIDNIGHT
Current Page: 15 (I will point out that this does hit me at approximately my target word count, but I digress)
Target Page: 16
Pages Written Today: 3.5
Pages Left: 1
What has happened so far: I began to write Myrtle's novel (kind of). I do not have any names for any of her characters; if I did give them proper names, I feel like it would all get really confusing. I'm in novel-ception as it is; I'm not sure how many more levels down I want to go (that is a novel for another time; maybe you, dear reader, can write that one). The characters who are irritable have calmed down a bit; the villain and the assistant are neither villainous nor cunning in their non-Archetype personas. I can work with this! (maybe.)
I'm glad that the structuring of the Players in Myrtle's novel is working out the way I want (was that sentence grammatically correct? I'm not sure). I hoped that they would turn out to be kind of a peanut gallery, frequently breaking out of character to comment on the novel itself. This is slightly confusing, but I have the magic of MULTI-COLORED PENS, so I can differentiate between what's in Myrtle's Novel/ real life and what is in the Player world.
An example of the Peanut Gallery is the following:
"well, what probably happened was that the ship blew up," the copilot concluded after a few moments of thinking.
"That's logical," said the pilot. "Shall we radio over and see what they want?"
"No." Marcus had regained his voice. "I mean really, in whose universe is this a good idea?"
Target Page: 16
Pages Written Today: 3.5
Pages Left: 1
What has happened so far: I began to write Myrtle's novel (kind of). I do not have any names for any of her characters; if I did give them proper names, I feel like it would all get really confusing. I'm in novel-ception as it is; I'm not sure how many more levels down I want to go (that is a novel for another time; maybe you, dear reader, can write that one). The characters who are irritable have calmed down a bit; the villain and the assistant are neither villainous nor cunning in their non-Archetype personas. I can work with this! (maybe.)
I'm glad that the structuring of the Players in Myrtle's novel is working out the way I want (was that sentence grammatically correct? I'm not sure). I hoped that they would turn out to be kind of a peanut gallery, frequently breaking out of character to comment on the novel itself. This is slightly confusing, but I have the magic of MULTI-COLORED PENS, so I can differentiate between what's in Myrtle's Novel/ real life and what is in the Player world.
An example of the Peanut Gallery is the following:
"well, what probably happened was that the ship blew up," the copilot concluded after a few moments of thinking.
"That's logical," said the pilot. "Shall we radio over and see what they want?"
"No." Marcus had regained his voice. "I mean really, in whose universe is this a good idea?"
Friday, November 1, 2013
Day 1: Doing... well?
First NaNo post! WOOHOO!
Today's stats:
Current Page: 11
Target Page: 8
Progress: AHEAD OF THE GAME!!! WOOHOO!
Current Location: well, Myrtle's going to start writing soon. I've already introduced the Players, and things have been... interesting among them. The love interest is a complete jerk, and the best friend got his tongue temporarily removed for bad language by The Voice, an entity that just tells the Players where they are and what they're doing there. So far, only one person is pleased to be there, and she's turning out to be peppier than I thought - that is, if I were to include her at all (she is the Villain's Cunning Assistant). The mentor is a cranky old guy who just wants to get his last tale done and then get out of purgatory altogether, and the villain is someone who is actually kind of friendly. The heroine is rather nervous (perhaps because nobody properly explained to her what's going on), and she's just trying not to get yelled at by the love interest.
In Myrtle's timeline, it turns out (not surprisingly, because I kind of hoped he'd turn out this way) that her advisor (she's in college) is sorta kinda sexist, but not in a WOMEN SHOULD STAY AT HOME AND I AM ANNOUNCING THIS FACT way - in a way of ARE YOU SURE THIS NAIVE GIRL IS THE ONE TO BE DRIVING A SPACESHIP AND STARTING A REVOLUTION?
I still haven't decided whether I'm going to include bits of Myrtle's novel (I haven't even plotted what that would be, but I'm not sure I need to), but I'm not quite at the point where I have to decide that yet. I may have to do that tomorrow, or later tonight.
In other news, I'm going to the gym now.
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