Day: 10
Current Page: 52
Target Page: 58
Place in Story: For some reason that may turn out to be important later, I'm including periods in my novel. Like, menstrual cycles. Like, the thing that people with vaginas get every month from their crotch. (that was probably TMI. Sorry about that.)
I think I'm including that just to get Eva out of the palace for a little while and possibly to have her run into her sister and establish the way they interact. The way Clara and Eva talk to each other is very different from the way Jasper and Eva interact, simply because Clara was actually nice to Eva when they were kids and didn't try and transfigure her into anything, like Jasper did. (Jasper claims that it's because he was curious about how beetles and newts and other small creatures act and also to practice human transfiguration, but in reality it's because he's mean and a bully and wanted to pick on someone smaller and weaker than him. There's probably some degree of sociopathy/ psychopathy going on, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in the MAJOR FACTORS OF BEING A SOCIOPATH OR PSYCHOPATH to write Jasper explicitly as one of those.)
Since I've only written a page or two today, it's time to WRITE A LOT MORE!
Monday, November 10, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 9: Where I write about Judas and not Eva
Current Day: 9
Current Page: 48
Target Page: past 50
Current Location in Story: attempting to figure out construction details. Noelle completely ships Galen and Eva. Sam doesn't buy it. I need more plot.
Today, I gave up writing (mostly) for a day-long fraternity event (it was mandatory) and the draft of an essay about Judas. I'm glad the draft is happening, but I need to step up my non-procrastination game, because I need to stop procrastinating. I have nearly fallen behind on my word count, and I have some reading for Shakespeare to do as well.
This is going to be a long night.
Current Page: 48
Target Page: past 50
Current Location in Story: attempting to figure out construction details. Noelle completely ships Galen and Eva. Sam doesn't buy it. I need more plot.
Today, I gave up writing (mostly) for a day-long fraternity event (it was mandatory) and the draft of an essay about Judas. I'm glad the draft is happening, but I need to step up my non-procrastination game, because I need to stop procrastinating. I have nearly fallen behind on my word count, and I have some reading for Shakespeare to do as well.
This is going to be a long night.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 8: Where I attempt to use my lead to do homework
Current Day: 8
Current Page: very top of 48
Target Page: 49
Place in Story: Noelle thinks Galen and Eva have romantic chemistry. Samuel doesn't. Dragonfly hasn't made an appearance in a while. Neither have Jasper or Clara. WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS FAKE? To be discovered after I do a required draft of an essay on Judas...
Right now, I'm mostly trying to keep up. It's been busy - I was on a bit of tight schedule today, I'll be on a tighter schedule tomorrow. My word count is safe, but it's not very much so. Right now, I'm just trying not to fall behind. I'm going to go write an essay now in order to get my word count up later.
Current Page: very top of 48
Target Page: 49
Place in Story: Noelle thinks Galen and Eva have romantic chemistry. Samuel doesn't. Dragonfly hasn't made an appearance in a while. Neither have Jasper or Clara. WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS FAKE? To be discovered after I do a required draft of an essay on Judas...
Right now, I'm mostly trying to keep up. It's been busy - I was on a bit of tight schedule today, I'll be on a tighter schedule tomorrow. My word count is safe, but it's not very much so. Right now, I'm just trying not to fall behind. I'm going to go write an essay now in order to get my word count up later.
Friday, November 7, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 7: attempting to get farther ahead for the weekend
Current Day: 7
Current Page: 42
Target Page: 45 (But, realistically, I'm probably going to hit maybe 44 if I'm lucky and stop blogging now).
Location in story: Eva is having weird dreams, the basic materials have been purchased, Jasper the Older Brother is an asshole, Clara The Older Sister is reasonable, and I actually need to have stuff happen now, because PLOT. This could happen through backstory, but it might not. I don't know.
Right now, my biggest issue is making sure my word count is good, because I'll be very busy this weekend. Tomorrow, I have to write a mandatory draft for a term paper and Sunday I have a day-long fraternity retreat. I don't know how much I will be able to write this weekend, so I'm going to stop blogging now and write.
Fun story from this evening, though.
I helped my friend collect donations for Relay for Life, because she's on one of the committees. A typical interaction, especially in the male-dominated dorms, often went like this:
Me: *knock knock*
Them: *Vaguely scrambles about and opens door half-dressed*
Me: Hello, do you have any spare change or dollars that you would like to donate to Relay for Life?
Them: um... no... sorry...
In one dorm, though, I must have accidentally woken someone up some people and a boyfriend. The boyfriend stepped from one of the lofted beds onto the dresser to open the door from a weird angle. When I looked surprised, he just said, "Sorry, I thought you were one of my friends." I'm not sure why he thought his friends would crash, but this was a freshman dorm and we all know that freshmen get up to a lot of weird things.
Right, to writing!
Current Page: 42
Target Page: 45 (But, realistically, I'm probably going to hit maybe 44 if I'm lucky and stop blogging now).
Location in story: Eva is having weird dreams, the basic materials have been purchased, Jasper the Older Brother is an asshole, Clara The Older Sister is reasonable, and I actually need to have stuff happen now, because PLOT. This could happen through backstory, but it might not. I don't know.
Right now, my biggest issue is making sure my word count is good, because I'll be very busy this weekend. Tomorrow, I have to write a mandatory draft for a term paper and Sunday I have a day-long fraternity retreat. I don't know how much I will be able to write this weekend, so I'm going to stop blogging now and write.
Fun story from this evening, though.
I helped my friend collect donations for Relay for Life, because she's on one of the committees. A typical interaction, especially in the male-dominated dorms, often went like this:
Me: *knock knock*
Them: *Vaguely scrambles about and opens door half-dressed*
Me: Hello, do you have any spare change or dollars that you would like to donate to Relay for Life?
Them: um... no... sorry...
In one dorm, though, I must have accidentally woken someone up some people and a boyfriend. The boyfriend stepped from one of the lofted beds onto the dresser to open the door from a weird angle. When I looked surprised, he just said, "Sorry, I thought you were one of my friends." I'm not sure why he thought his friends would crash, but this was a freshman dorm and we all know that freshmen get up to a lot of weird things.
Right, to writing!
Thursday, November 6, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 6: FALLING BEHIND AAAAAHHHHHHHH
Day: 6
Current Page: 34 (very top)
Target Page: 38
Deficit: 5 pages
Location in Story: THEY'VE STARTED DOING THE THING. THEY'RE PLANNING THE BUILDING. EVERYTHING IS A GO.
For real, though. The most important thing about the plot: Building the UNICURSAL HEXAGRAM. Right now, Eva and Galen are trying to figure out logistics. After all, Eva is only five foot three, and the hexagram is supposed to be around ten to fifteen feet tall. Right now, they need to figure out HOW TO DO THAT THING - specifically, if they're allowed to use magic on a pulley system to get Eva up and down and around on levels. Am I overthinking this?
Current Page: 34 (very top)
Target Page: 38
Deficit: 5 pages
Location in Story: THEY'VE STARTED DOING THE THING. THEY'RE PLANNING THE BUILDING. EVERYTHING IS A GO.
For real, though. The most important thing about the plot: Building the UNICURSAL HEXAGRAM. Right now, Eva and Galen are trying to figure out logistics. After all, Eva is only five foot three, and the hexagram is supposed to be around ten to fifteen feet tall. Right now, they need to figure out HOW TO DO THAT THING - specifically, if they're allowed to use magic on a pulley system to get Eva up and down and around on levels. Am I overthinking this?
NaNoWriMo Day 5: Double-Named Characters and Mean Siblings
Current Day: 5
Current Page: 30
Target Page: 32-35
Place in Story: the villain has been introduced. Who is he? Eva's brother. (He was introduced way earlier than I intended, but I like where he is right now.)
One thing I realized as I was writing today was that I broke one of my only rules of writing: I accidentally gave my villain, Joshua, the same name as an important good character in my 2012 novel. The rule I generally give myself is DON'T SHARE CHARACTER NAMES BETWEEN WORLDS. The short explanation of how this rule works is that there's only room in my annals for ONE Joshua.
Of course, I don't want to change the name of either of these characters. All my character notes for 2014 call Eva's brother JOSHUA Thompson. At the same time, my 2012 villain is called Jericho, so I intentionally called his counterpoint Joshua because of the Biblical reference. It would be easiest to change Joshua Thompson's name now, while it's still early on in the process. Part of me doesn't want to - it would be really simple just to keep the names as is. The 2012 novel may not see the light of day, after all. The 2014 novel might not either, for that matter. Still, the fact remains: in the showdown between Joshuas, there's only room in the annals for ONE of them.
Though I do want to make sure that each name gets its own association, it's difficult to simply turn to a generator for answers.
Since all the names except one (and she's a fairy that only shows up in backstory, so she doesn't count) are in the typical realm of English names - Evangeline, Clara, Galen, Samuel, Noelle - it's a bit more difficult to figure out a new name than it could be. If they were all fantasy-style names, I could easily combine a few random objects around me to create a name for him, but most English names don't do things like that. I've been writing so many common-name characters, however, there are a few issues with most male names: I've either used them as characters, know someone with that name, or the name sounds unfitting (Euseibo, Frederick, Carl, Willy, Wilford, etc). Hopefully, I'll be able to sort this out.
Until then, TO WRITING!
UPDATE: Eva's brother is now named Jasper Thompson.
Current Page: 30
Target Page: 32-35
Place in Story: the villain has been introduced. Who is he? Eva's brother. (He was introduced way earlier than I intended, but I like where he is right now.)
One thing I realized as I was writing today was that I broke one of my only rules of writing: I accidentally gave my villain, Joshua, the same name as an important good character in my 2012 novel. The rule I generally give myself is DON'T SHARE CHARACTER NAMES BETWEEN WORLDS. The short explanation of how this rule works is that there's only room in my annals for ONE Joshua.
Of course, I don't want to change the name of either of these characters. All my character notes for 2014 call Eva's brother JOSHUA Thompson. At the same time, my 2012 villain is called Jericho, so I intentionally called his counterpoint Joshua because of the Biblical reference. It would be easiest to change Joshua Thompson's name now, while it's still early on in the process. Part of me doesn't want to - it would be really simple just to keep the names as is. The 2012 novel may not see the light of day, after all. The 2014 novel might not either, for that matter. Still, the fact remains: in the showdown between Joshuas, there's only room in the annals for ONE of them.
Though I do want to make sure that each name gets its own association, it's difficult to simply turn to a generator for answers.
Since all the names except one (and she's a fairy that only shows up in backstory, so she doesn't count) are in the typical realm of English names - Evangeline, Clara, Galen, Samuel, Noelle - it's a bit more difficult to figure out a new name than it could be. If they were all fantasy-style names, I could easily combine a few random objects around me to create a name for him, but most English names don't do things like that. I've been writing so many common-name characters, however, there are a few issues with most male names: I've either used them as characters, know someone with that name, or the name sounds unfitting (Euseibo, Frederick, Carl, Willy, Wilford, etc). Hopefully, I'll be able to sort this out.
Until then, TO WRITING!
UPDATE: Eva's brother is now named Jasper Thompson.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 4: a Slow Catchup
Current Page: 21
Target Page: 28 (to modify it because I'm behind, it's 24 or 25)
Pages Written Today: 4
Pages Until (modified) Target: 3 or 4
Location in Story: Eva is about to begin The Right and Proper DOING OF THE THINGS. Involved in The Right and Proper Doing Of The Things is reasoning with a dragon, building the dragon's character, and eventually (hopefully by the end of the night) getting the dragon to consent to Eva building the icon anyway. Right now, though, she's hanging out in the library and trying to find things on religious iconography. I'm not wholly sure why I'm having her do that, exactly, but she's there and that's what she's doing. I might have her look up in-world religious iconography to give symbolism to the stones they're putting into the unicursal hexagram.
Speaking of STONE SYMBOLISM IN UNICURSAL HEXAGRAMS, there will be some of that going on. Unfortunately, I lost the bookmark that had all my character notes on it and the stones I plan on putting in, so hopefully I can find that before it becomes necessary. Mostly, the stones have to do with balance of passion and energy. I decided the fairy changed Galen into a dragon because of her religious order: the order is all about harmony, balance, and unity, and dragons generally are none of those things.
So far, though, Eva is still not showing any depth. Well, she's showing a little ability to manipulate and talk through things, which I can hopefully use, but she's in more scenes than Galen and does a lot of things (or at least says a lot of things), but has no character development, aside from being resentful of her older brother. Kind of. I know what I'm doing with that, I just need to flesh it out properly.
Anyway, I still have an hour left, so BACK TO WRITING!
Target Page: 28 (to modify it because I'm behind, it's 24 or 25)
Pages Written Today: 4
Pages Until (modified) Target: 3 or 4
Location in Story: Eva is about to begin The Right and Proper DOING OF THE THINGS. Involved in The Right and Proper Doing Of The Things is reasoning with a dragon, building the dragon's character, and eventually (hopefully by the end of the night) getting the dragon to consent to Eva building the icon anyway. Right now, though, she's hanging out in the library and trying to find things on religious iconography. I'm not wholly sure why I'm having her do that, exactly, but she's there and that's what she's doing. I might have her look up in-world religious iconography to give symbolism to the stones they're putting into the unicursal hexagram.
Speaking of STONE SYMBOLISM IN UNICURSAL HEXAGRAMS, there will be some of that going on. Unfortunately, I lost the bookmark that had all my character notes on it and the stones I plan on putting in, so hopefully I can find that before it becomes necessary. Mostly, the stones have to do with balance of passion and energy. I decided the fairy changed Galen into a dragon because of her religious order: the order is all about harmony, balance, and unity, and dragons generally are none of those things.
So far, though, Eva is still not showing any depth. Well, she's showing a little ability to manipulate and talk through things, which I can hopefully use, but she's in more scenes than Galen and does a lot of things (or at least says a lot of things), but has no character development, aside from being resentful of her older brother. Kind of. I know what I'm doing with that, I just need to flesh it out properly.
Anyway, I still have an hour left, so BACK TO WRITING!
Monday, November 3, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 3: BEHIND ALREADY??!!??
Current Day: 3
Target Page: 21
Current Page: 17
Current Approximate Word Count: 5000-ish words
Place in Story: Galen and Eva are about to meet properly for the first time.
So, technically, I'm not behind on the word count. According to the NaNoWriMo Official Word Count Calculator, I am right on track. According to the Wild Card Personal Not Falling Behind Standards, I am WAY behind. Okay, not WAY behind, but significantly enough behind on my target of 2100 words a day that I'll need to stay up tonight, probably. The trouble is, I know exactly where I fell behind - I can tell precisely where I had an hour or two here or there and I did not use it for writing. I really wish I was not at the point of falling behind already, but I hope I can recover from it.
I know that many of my friends are a lot farther behind than me - quite a number of them are around 0, according to their reports. I cannot afford that if I want to win. I also cannot afford to keep up with this word count procrastination, but I also need to sleep. This is a lot of internal debate.
For now, back to trying to pad my word count.
Target Page: 21
Current Page: 17
Current Approximate Word Count: 5000-ish words
Place in Story: Galen and Eva are about to meet properly for the first time.
So, technically, I'm not behind on the word count. According to the NaNoWriMo Official Word Count Calculator, I am right on track. According to the Wild Card Personal Not Falling Behind Standards, I am WAY behind. Okay, not WAY behind, but significantly enough behind on my target of 2100 words a day that I'll need to stay up tonight, probably. The trouble is, I know exactly where I fell behind - I can tell precisely where I had an hour or two here or there and I did not use it for writing. I really wish I was not at the point of falling behind already, but I hope I can recover from it.
I know that many of my friends are a lot farther behind than me - quite a number of them are around 0, according to their reports. I cannot afford that if I want to win. I also cannot afford to keep up with this word count procrastination, but I also need to sleep. This is a lot of internal debate.
For now, back to trying to pad my word count.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 2: THE DAY I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK (and also weird dreams)
Day: 2
Page: 15
Target Page: 14
Word Count: 4200-ish
Place in Story: ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE, EVA! DO IT! DO THE THING!
I've just realized a bit of a problem with my plot: Galen might not want to turn back into a human. So, as a solution, I'm going to make Eva very empathetic and do the building for everyone else in the castle. Seeing as she has only ever spoken to a hedgehog and a raven and a weird guy in a dream, she can't really say for sure if she's willing to build for Galen or willing to build for everyone else in the castle. So far, it's looking like she's going for everyone else in the castle, because there are ways for Galen to permanently be a dragon if he wants to.
I really need to improve Eva as a character. I haven't established her voice at all, and she has no real reason for staying aside from a willingness to help people. I need to have a stronger motive; willingness to help is usually secondary. But what should her motive be? This is what I must ponder tonight.
Page: 15
Target Page: 14
Word Count: 4200-ish
Place in Story: ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE, EVA! DO IT! DO THE THING!
I've just realized a bit of a problem with my plot: Galen might not want to turn back into a human. So, as a solution, I'm going to make Eva very empathetic and do the building for everyone else in the castle. Seeing as she has only ever spoken to a hedgehog and a raven and a weird guy in a dream, she can't really say for sure if she's willing to build for Galen or willing to build for everyone else in the castle. So far, it's looking like she's going for everyone else in the castle, because there are ways for Galen to permanently be a dragon if he wants to.
I really need to improve Eva as a character. I haven't established her voice at all, and she has no real reason for staying aside from a willingness to help people. I need to have a stronger motive; willingness to help is usually secondary. But what should her motive be? This is what I must ponder tonight.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
NaNoWriMo Day 1
Day: 1
Current Words: 1500
Current Page: 5
Target Words: 2100
Target Page: 7
Deficit: 2 pages, 600 words
Things that have Happened So Far: Eva has entered Galen's palace because it's rainy and cold. Galen's servants welcome her. Galen might not agree. He's kind of a brat.
Things That Should Happen Before Bed Tonight: Galen and Eva should meet. The challenge shouldn't necessarily be issued, but they should meet.
So far, I feel like this is a slower NaNo start than normal. I need to fix that tonight. That might be a downside of starting NaNoWriMo on Saturday: there's a lot of things I have to do on Saturdays. Homework. Service. Stuff like that.
Also, the NaNoWriMo word count updated seems to have crashed. They should fix that.
As you can tell, I'm tired. I need to go write and go to bed.
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