MORE NANO!

As you are reading this, I am on choir tour! HUZZAH! (I'm actually writing this on Wednesday, because this is when I have time to blog and go to the gym and do laundry and not do my homework and stuff like that).

For today's topic, I'm talking about National Novel Writing Month AGAIN! I know that my novel can't start for another two weeks. If you have been here since last NaNoWriMo season, however, you know that I have to do this NOW. (If you have not been here since the last NaNoWriMo season, let me tell you: I need to start plotting early, because I've been really bad at getting word counts otherwise).
Right now, I have realized that I have a plot mostly in place. I still need to figure out my ending, but I guess that will depend on how I build up to it. If nothing else, I can write an ending for the word count, and then write a new ending if the editing sends the story in another direction. I really do hope the editing does not send the ending in another direction, but I don't know what the ending will be in the first place, so that's irrelevant. But it's not the time to think of endings. I need to think of beginnings, middles, characters, and worlds. For example, I finally figured out what Eva and Galen have to build (if I have not mentioned it before, building this thing is kind of the major goal in the novel, so it's kind of important).
The object in question is called a unicursal hexagram. Basically, it's a six-pointed star that can be drawn in one motion. You can find a good image of what I'm talking about here. It's a really cool magical symbol; part of its importance is that it can be drawn without picking the pen up from the page and that the line crosses over itself in the center. The object that Eva and Galen have to build will be a three-dimensional version of this super-complicated star. I figure that it's difficult enough to require patience and interesting enough to figure into some kind of symbolism. If nothing else, the object can be the item that is requested by the fairy that winds up changing Galen into the dragon in the first place, since there is magical symbolism tied up with it.


I may need to set more goals for NaNoWriMo this year. By "more goals," I don't necessarily mean "write MORE WORDS THAN EVER BEFORE." What I mean is that I should set different kinds of goals. For example, I should try to have my ending be as close to the 50,000 word mark as I can - or, at least, hit my ending in November. I also hereby resolve to have at least one really good pun and to have at least two characters that are not romantically interested in each other (if they're in the same family, it doesn't count as 'not being romantically interested in that person.' Incest is not condoned in this world). If I do that, then I guess I will feel more accomplished about it. Or something. At any rate, I think this year is going to be a good year to WIN NANOWRIMO! HUZZAH!

On NaNoWriMo

So I got my idea for National Novel Writing Month 2014 last week. The plot is basically like Beauty and the Beast, except Beast (actually named Galen) is a former inventor (currently a dragon) and Beauty (here named Eva) only has one arm. Currently, I have about four ideas about how it can end, and I can't decide which of them to use. Two of them involve some sort of dramatic, Disney-style reunion where all sorts out okay, and the other two involve the female lead's memory getting wiped and nothing working out because of it. (At the same time, her memory getting wiped could wind up with a sequel.)
So that's my idea. I'm working on plotting the middle, which is always the hardest part for me. I know how I want the beginning to go. I know that someone in Eva's family is not going to like the fact that she is developing a positive relationship with a dragon. I know that person is going to inevitably react poorly when they find out that Eva is willingly staying with a dragon. I know I don't want Eva to have any magical ability, but I don't know how big a deal that is in her world yet. I do know at least one member of her family will have magic - most likely, that person is the one that reacts poorly to the whole dragon thing. I know Galen is rather self-centered for a while, but I don't know how self-centered and for how long. I don't know whether his human form has magic.
Also, I may have Galen try and make Eva a new arm. But that's only a maybe. After all, it's kind of difficult to build anything wood-based when you're a dragon.

So that's all I have for you right now. What's your favorite fairy tale?

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

How to Defeat a Dragon

I've discovered something that can be kind of interesting if used right.

My play for FYEC is going to involve dragons and people who contemplate suicide.  I know that much for certain.  However, I making my main character, who attempted suicide multiple times, also fluent in Old Draconic (like Old English for dragons), which brings up the interesting point: will she kill the dragon, negotiate with the dragon, or talk to the dragon in Old Draconic and win it over?  (I'm not telling you this.  I already know.  I've already written that part).

But this proposes an interesting alternative to dragon-slaying.

Yes, yes, I know, fantasy is supposed to teach us that dragons can be beaten.  But 'beaten' does not mean 'killed.'  'Beaten' means foiled, quashed, clobbered - not killed.

As the (modified) saying goes, there's more than one way to clobber a dragon.  Just some of the ways are more difficult than others.  The easy way out is just to kill it (though, considering it's twelve times your size and can breathe fire, might not be that easy); the more difficult way is to talk it out with the dragon; this may be only more difficult because the dragon is older and larger and smarter than you, and a battle of the wits is one of many situations where a Dragon of Old benefits from having a larger brain than you (it means it has plenty of room to think about gold and also clobbering humans).

Of course, talking to the dragon is dumb, according to every movie and fairy tale ever.   Who talks to dragons?  Who gets along with dragons?  WHO CARES ABOUT THE DRAGON'S OPINION?
The dragons care about their opinion, thanks very much.

On Grittiness

Earlier this week, my boyfriend suggested an article for me to read (you can read it here); it was by an author that neither of us had read, but my boyfriend is intending to.  The article deals with grittiness in fantasy, and, from what I read, I quite like his point - that getting into the gross, honest, painful details of the story is one of the best ways to make the tale compelling.  I do like, however, that he notes that including gory details of death scenes isn't always necessary, but those scenes should be included if that is what drives the story - the fights, the deaths, the moral ambiguity, the pain of doing unpleasant things.

I think that America in general, especially in politics, is starting to get rather polarized - black and white, good and bad, they're-not-my-party-so-they're-an-unenlightened-moron kind of deal.  I'd like to use more grittiness, but, to be quite frank, none of my writing demands gory death scenes.

What all stories demand, though, is honesty.  Telling things like they are.  Though there is some sort of poetic way to imply some things without saying, "That night, these two characters had passionate sex, and it was great," I do think that you should only use implications if the words that would have been said in the scene don't directly forward the story - if it isn't critical that someone's self-esteem is built or broken in bed, then the scene should simply be, "THEN THEY HAD SEX," and then cut to the next morning.

I believe honesty is necessary in fiction, but sometimes honesty and straightforwardness can be simply boiled down to someone saying that the sex was great last night.

On things in a Series

Last week, my J-term one-act was read in my First Year Course (the course has to do with theater).  Having something I put effort into be read in normal circumstances is rather unnerving; I don't know whether I wanted to be excited or terrified about having people read this draft.  I'd actually put effort into it!  It had been revised more than once!  I didn't think it was atrocious, but it wasn't exactly the next Great American One-Act.
Anyway, the point of this is that one of the critiques I got from my theatre professor is that it felt like it could be a part of a series - that there were other things later on that could be learned.  While I agree with him on that point, I have no idea how I'm going to do that, or whether I should, and in what format I should do it in (stage play, screenplay, one-act, novel...).

Anyway, the point, I feel, of things in a series is that there has to be some overarching plot, unless they're the shows like 30 Rock or Big Bang Theory where the alternate title could just be The Misadventures of Sheldon and Liz Lemon.  If this thing continued into a series, it would have to be the sort of series that has continuity and an overarching sort of idea.  The thing is, though, I don't know if I have enough ideas for that, and every show - especially TV series - peters out sometime.  Take Glee, for example.  I mean, I haven't watched in a while, so I can't be sure, but it seems to have lost a lot of the long-term goals that it had at the start of the first season.  They haven't had any multi-part episodes that I recall since the first time they went to Regionals; even outside of the two-part Regionals bit, there were still allusions to the fact that it was looming on the horizon.  Late into the third season, though, it became more about the singing and dancing and the theme episodes than the overarching plot, though with some relationship drama.

At any rate, things in a series need to be sustainable.  You could write like Jon Flanagan (author of the Ranger's Apprentice series of ten books) and have plots span several books with continuity still between them - you can lump the first four books together, then books five through seven, then books eight through ten (I'm pretty sure my numbers are wrong on that, since I don't have my copies at school, but you get the general idea).

I don't know whether or not I'll write a series based on this one-act.  If I do, it won't be for a few months - I have novels to finish writing.

Anyway, what do you, fair readers, think of this?

Final Weeks

My J-term class ends on Friday. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm excited that we're going to be on break and that spring semester is coming, but I'll be sad to see the excessive amount of time leave.
More relevant, I'm also not sure how I'm going to feel about the final product of the class. If there's one thing I've learned about my own writing process, it's that the editing part is never done. I have a measly seven scenes - I originally had eight, but one got cut before it got typed up - but all of the editing won't help my nerves, in the end.  Does the pacing work?  Are the characters relatable?  Will anyone be able to pronounce Siofra's real name?  Am I using too many cliches?  Is the timing right?  The list goes on.

I know the reason that I'm getting nervous about it, too - more nervous than my other writing.  It has nothing to do with my peers accepting it as decent work - that was what I had issue with at the beginning of the course, a long time ago when I only had to write five pages.  At this point, the trouble is me accepting it as decent work.  When you spend just as much time editing a piece as you do writing it (more time, actually), you tend to worry about it.  If this were a longer work, it would be like a child.  You want the best for it, but sometimes it gives you hell.  A lot of times, actually.  Some things you love to go over, other things you fear to even glance at.

Though this is not my longest work - it barely counts as 30 pages, even with the title page, the character list, and the page-happy formatting that a script must follow - it's still causing me a bit of worry.  In comparison to some other people in the class, I think I'll do fine, and I don't mind how it's written, but sometimes I wonder how it would turn out if I had done things differently.  I could have killed my main character.  I could have made the future relationship of two of my characters less ambiguous.  I could have made one character more sympathetic to the antagonistic party.

When it comes to it, though, I'm glad I had the chance to do this course.  It taught me how not to format a script, and it taught me what to look at and what to ask when going through the editing process.

Homework...

Well, I got homework on the first day of J-term.  For once, I am actually kind of excited about doing my homework (being excited about doing homework?  Yes, that can happen. Who knew?).
As I may or may not have mentioned, my J-term course is called "The Playwright's Process," where the final is a one-act that is fully written, edited, and thought out.  This is turning out to be (in the one class I have attended of this course) more of a workshop environment than one of instruction - there will be a lot more peer editing than I expected, and a lot less of the professor saying, "LET ME TEACH YOU HOW TO WRITE A ONE-ACT!"

About an hour ago, I went to have a meeting with my professor about my one-act - everyone has to, just to brainstorm ideas about what each of us is going to write about.  From that, the professor has given us each an assignment that is supposed to help us figure out what we are going to write about further (at least, that is what is happening for mine, because I need to work some details out).  I have to do two scenes: first, a scene in which the murder victim is the main character, and has to persuade the murderer not to kill them; second, a scene in which the being tasked with the murder is the main character, and, to maintain the secrecy of their mission and society, they must convince a relative of the victim to kill the victim.  This is supposed to be to help me decide which side I want to focus on - the secret society, or the being who investigates it (and who may or may not wind up dead).

So far, I think I like this course.  The professor is interesting, and the discussion today really helped with just generating ideas.  I came in with half a plot I threw together in ten minutes, but came out with something that I can actually work with (I'm not saying what it is, because I haven't finalized it yet, but I'm excited).  The main parts of the story - a secret society and a murder - are things that I don't normally write, because I feel that I'm really bad at coming up with plot twists and good reasons for a secret to be kept (she did once say that a secrecy motive I suggested was boring, which is really true.  I don't remember what it was, but I remember agreeing with her).

Anyway, I have to go forth and do cool stuff.  Farewell.

On length of tale

I realized something fully last night that has been in my mind for about four years now.
I admitted to my parents that I think in novels, and I can very rarely fit all my ideas into a short story.  We got on this topic when we started talking about my January Term (henceforth referred to as J-Term) course, The Playwright's Process.  The final is not a normal final: it's a fully written, developed, and edited one-act.  For those of you who aren't fully familiar with the world of theatre, one-acts are generally the short stories or novellas of the stage (you can, theoretically, resolve a larger plot line in a one-act, but I've never seen it done; after a point, you need more acts).  One-acts are generally between 20 - 45 minutes long (again, you could see longer one-acts, but I haven't); according to Wikipedia, a new sub-genre has started called "flash dramas" - one-acts that are only around 10 minutes long.

Anyway, this J-Term course is going to be a challenge for me.  As I previously stated, I think in novels - stories that take two or three acts to resolve.  To scale down one's thinking is something you rarely hear - most motivators I've heard tell their listeners to think big and shoot for the moon.

But maybe scaling down my thinking is not what I need to do.  Maybe I just need to think differently.  Not scaled-down, exactly, but just not as big a scale.  Maybe I should think big, but not as big as I'm used to thinking. Maybe, over the course of this J-term, I will realize that I'm actually more of a short-story writer than a novel-writer, and I've been fooling myself this whole time.  I admit, I need to put my characters through a fat lot of crap before they make it to the end when I'm writing a novel, but I always have trouble coming up with more than a little bit of crap to throw in their faces.  Maybe that's the main difference: the crap that gets thrown at people is a different sort of crap than the crap in novels (smaller, perhaps, but no less disgusting), and the hands that throw it are smaller than the ones that throw crap in longer works.

So, dear readers, what do you think?  Any one-act/ novella/ short-story writers out there who would like to share some opinions on the writing process?  Anyone who's done both and would like to offer sage advice to a college student?  Feel free to comment!

On Openings

I just returned from Barnes and Noble, and I have discovered my new favorite opening line, from a Steampunk novel called The Friday Society, by Adrienne Kress:
"And then there was an explosion."
First off, this is a great use of in media res. Explosions don't happen on a daily basis in many places, so you start with a question of what the hell is going on.
Then it continues:
"It was loud. It was bright. It was very explosion-y."
That bit sets the tone for the rest of the story (or at least, for the page and a half that I have read) - for what I have read so far of The Friday Society, the 3rd person narrator is rather sarcastic and witty, and keeps up a similar narration to what has just been displayed, even if it only involves the development of the focus character, who caused the explosion (it wasn't on purpose, but... she's a lab assistant in a Steampunk universe; explosions are bound to happen).

A good opening, my friends, is more important than a good closing.  Why?  If you don't have a good opening, your readers are never going to make it to the end, so you will never know whether the readers will celebrate a good end to a good book, or complain of a terrible end to a decent book.  They're not even going to make it to the middle bits, even if the middle bits are of a higher caliber than the ending or the beginning.  Though it is important to develop every part of your writing, and to edit (which, unfortunately, I have displayed a severe lack in the writing of this blog), open your book well.

Day 27: the end is nigh, but not my wordcount

NaNoWriMo will be drawing to a close in a few days, and my plot line may or may not be doing the same thing.  My word count, on the other hand, is in dire need of help.  I am at fewer than 40,000 words, which is something that, in years past, I have hit by the 20th of the month.  This is not acceptable, and I need to go and write.
But do I have enough time to his 50,000 words in four days?  Not only that, do I have enough plot?
Well, yes, I do.  A paladin just got possessed by a demon and there is still a showdown to be had.  I don't know if I can fit a hero's journey into this; I just want to hit my word count.
And so I must write.  And write. And write.

And I need to do homework.  And write.
But homework first.
Farewell.

Day 16: Over the hump

Well, for better or for worse, it is November 16th, which means we are now slightly more than halfway through NaNoWriMo.  I still need to write today, but, according to my calculations, I need to write around 8 pages (around 3000 words) per day if I want to get to my desired word count goal of 60,000 words.  I do not know if I can pull this off, but I can try.  I nearly did it my first year - I overestimated how many words I could fit on a page, so I set myself the task of doing eight pages a day every day.  I should catch up, if I actually set time aside for myself to do it.
But there comes the issue of whether or not I have enough Plot to reach 60,000 words.  I hope I do; I hope, at least, I can hit 50,000 words.  But my three main characters are about to enter the city of Genesis again, wherein all hell is going to break loose (metaphorically.  That actually happens later.  Maybe.), and then the showdown is going to happen.
I may, to pad my word count, send Storm through the Hero's Journey.  There happens several things after the Showdown during the Hero's Journey, so that can help a lot if I need more words.  If you want to check out the steps of the Hero's Journey, I found a good link here.
If I had to point out where Storm was right now, she'd probably be somewhere in the Road of Trials and Atonement with the Father.  I don't know whether to include the Meeting with the Goddess or the Woman as a Temptress - I don't know whether they are going to be actually relevant to Storm.  Maybe they will.  Maybe they will not.

I guess Storm needs to have more inner turmoil or something.

Will work on that.

Farewell.

Day 12: I don't know why I do this anymore

The motivation behind the title is merely a wondering about my sanity.  I am not wondering why I do NaNoWriMo; I am wondering why I bother trying to do 2,000 words a day when I obviously cannot keep up with the word count I want to keep up with.  I have a test tomorrow and another one on Wednesday, and a take-home test due on Wednesday as well.  Projects for Intro to East Asia are going to be due soon after Thanksgiving Break.
And I always have to study and go to the gym before I can write.  And in the moments when I could be writing, I am doing something completely arbitrary - Facebook, Twitter, the like.  I should have my notebook with me.  I should be writing.  I should be.
But I am not.
I am ahead of the NaNoWriMo predicted word count for today, which is good.  But I do not know about what I am going to for the rest of the week.
For the rest of the month.
Blargh.


Welcome, my friends, to Week Two.  This is the first time when the Week Twos have hit me hard; I think it is because this is college and my arbitrary interest in things other than writing has increased because of the increase in afternoon time.
Maybe I should just write first and do homework later.
I honestly have no idea.

Blargh.

I need sleep.
And snacks.
And a better word count.

Day 10: where it's not Day 11 until I say it is

Yes, I know I'm posting at around 1:00 in the morning on a Saturday night... this is because, surprisingly, I actually have a life on weekends now.  Go figure!

Anyway, stats:

Start Page: 41
End Page: 48
TARGET ACHIEVED!
Plot Point: the paladin got possessed by a demon, and now (after the expulsion of said demon), they are all arguing about the ethics of trap-laying for poor, defenseless rabbits who do not know what is coming.  The paladin is arguing that traps are completely unethical and should be done away with at once; the bard, frankly, is glad for the food, because she barely ate the day previously; the rogue/ fighter is the one doing the hunting, so she's just using what she has deduced as the most effective trap in order to get what she needs to get to.

I guess a good way to get your characters' opinions out is to get them to talk to each other.  Storm and Melody talk to each other, with some civility.  Melody and Eden talk to each other, with Eden being the pushier of the two in the conversation.  Eden and Storm talk to each other with civility increasingly absent from the proceedings.  See?  OPINIONS FORMED THROUGH OBSERVATION.

Like my opinion formed through this observation: I have observed that I am tired, and I would like to get some rest, because the last two times I stayed up until 1:00 and actually had to wake up the next day, it did not end well, because both times were for class (well, I mean, the first time was when I was finishing a novel, so I feel justified, but I still did not have fun being tired all day and not being able to take a nap because I had to do homework.  I don't remember what the reason was for staying up until 1:00 on a weeknight was, but I remember I did not like it).

NaNo Day Five: Back from Tour Behind

Current Page: 21
Target Page: 30
Pages Today: .5
Pages Left: 9
Location in Story: unprecedented argument between crown prince and villain, in an attempt to discern why, exactly, the villain doesn't like half-elves.  Apparently, he doesn't know, either, because he's not saying anything.

Got back from choir tour last night with a shot voice and reasonable word count.  I was on track to finish the month at 50,000, not 60,000 as I had originally intended, but it was good enough.
Today, however, I have 3,000 words to write, and for the first time, I'm not ahead of everybody else.  This is rather unprecedented, and I'm not sure I like it that much.  The competition is going to help some, but not getting my East Asia chapter outline until an hour ago (it's due tomorrow) does not help at all.  Nor does my vague restlessness or general sense of being unable to settle.  Can't go to the gym, either - have to go to 'desserts with the president of the school' later, which means I need to go and eat and be productive and look nice and stuff before that.  Grr.
Maybe I'll go now, and walk laps and read about China since 1945 or something.  I look like a total weirdo, but whatever.  I'm weird anyway.

Anyway, to the point of the blog: writing.

So far, the writing has been going... okay.  As I've said, I'm behind on my word count, which is surprising for me, but this is also college and I have also been on choir tour for four days and didn't have a lot of time to settle into writing.  I don't predict I'll be able to settle down into anything until late night for at least this week, but after that things should clear up.  I HOPE they'll clear up, anyway.
But plot-wise, I've changed a bit.  Melody shows more potential than I initially thought she would, and Storm is less aggressive (well, I also haven't given her anyone to fight yet, but I have given her a non-dungeon way into the city).  I've also made the prince an actual character, but he may just vanish until the end.  Except for a scene or two somewhere.
Doing NaNo in college is going to be a lot harder than doing it in high school.  I know that for certain.

stress!

first of all, as I said I would do for our sign:

I know it's not exactly what I said I'd do for it, but it's something.  Huzzah!

Now onto the important stuff: I'm writing NaNo, and I've realized that the plots that my friends have come up with are a lot better than my plot.  Maybe it's because my backstory is more coherent than my actual plot, and has to be explained in more words (DEATH!  REGRET!  DESPAIR!  PARANOIA!), but still.  Tonight we're having a final plotting session and, with luck, I'm actually going to figure out what the heck I'm writing about.  Well, I KNOW what I'm writing about, but I don't know.  I know Storm and Eden and Melody are going to trump Jericho, who has lots of psychological issues and is trumped similarly to the biblical Jericho, except not actually because I have no idea how to do that.  But I need PLOT POINTS.  What drives the plot forward?  What actually happens to get Storm to Eden and Mel, and to get all three of them to the palace, and through a bunch of traps, a dungeon, and a whole lot else?
I don't know yet.
AAAAAHHHH!!!

Welcome, my friends, to the Writer's Process.