Goss' Nano Saga

[Gossamer]

Nov 4th

Okay, so I find myself missing a whole day of Nano writing yesterday, and today my idea was to start a daily post checking in on where I am and how much I have to do. This will force me to constantly think about my Nano. Isn't that the whole point? I can also complain about plot twists, ideas I have, and where I'm going with what. Hopefully I can also lay out pieces that involve horribly complex magic that others who understand it more, can comment on it, and hopefully help me work it out.

So far... I've wrote obsessively, fell into a trap Tarot warned me about - rereading my writing - and rewrote most of it. *lol* So my actual 6,500 words should be somewhere more like 12,000 but I haven't really got there yet.

I actually started using DrWicked's Write or Die website, because it does really punish you if you stop. My facebook buddy Liz sent it to me.. and if I hear the banana song one more time I might throw up. Of course, I did produce 2,700 words the first day using it in an hour and a half.

• So.. goals so far, no more rewrites - I can do that when its done.
• Add into the Wiki that Yshul is actually Morwen's daughter (don't ask.. seriously) and an
• Alvina that ascended to Goddesshood through stealing her way there.
  Update my Nano account to add synopsis and experts..
• Switch perspective and check in on Avala to see how shes doing offworld.

[Gossamer]

Nov 5th

I wrote today. My word count just hit 10,140. I truthfully feel like shit though. I'm writing shit. I'm exhausted, tired of worrying, and fighting with my hubby because he just blew an entire years worth of vacation (a week after he got it) to fly back to his brother's wedding. This is the second wedding this year from the second brother, in three months, and I'm mad at his entire family for the expense and lack of thought for folks not living in the chicago area. It sounds selfish. I should let it go. But his brother has been living with this girl for years, and been dating for most of their lives. They could have planned a lot better. I'm not a big family person. I'm probably the last one to understand, but I'm still mad.

Then today I found out my uncle died. He's younger than my mother, only 58, and had a massive brain tumor. It's hit her hard, so shes been on the phone a lot. She had to read about it in the paper, since her other brother didn't call, and neither did crazy aunt bunny. I feel really bad for her. An older sister shouldn't outlive a younger much-dotted on brother.

I'm not one to worry overly much, but right now I'm all stressed out. Work has gotten completely dead - right in the middle of christmas - even in the forth quarter. I'm home alone, and wouldn't you know it about an hour after I dropped my hubby off at the airport to fly home to a brother's wedding - we had a windstorm and lost power. Stuff is strewn all over the yard, and we had a gust soo powerful it knocked the empty (very large) garbage can over onto the grass off our back patio cement slab. I worry when hes not here. And I get lonely. It shouldn't be important. I should just let it go. But I can't. I'm still furious.

My main problem is remembering where my characters are positioned. Are they sitting, standing? What is their hair/eye color... I started out with Lynara blond but now she has dark hair. She's not the perfect Kelvic yet, her daughter is, but because of time constraints she has to be sent instead. It's plan B, but not the best plan they've come up with.

And then there's Avala. I've introduced her and the familiars the kelvics were made from. That made the story interesting. It was almost as if one perspective is on one side of the coin, another on the other. And its interesting how the two sides are working to get united back together. Lynara takes one look at her and bonds - I had no idea she wasn't truthfully and fully bonded to Marcus. It becomes the kind of friendship all women deserve - the type we used to have back in the days of quilting and canning and the keeping of secrets from the menfolk.

Anyhow... I should have posted this last night. I just hit preview though instead. I hate it when that happens.

[Gossamer]

Nov 6th

I can't get GP's widget to work, but I did finally update my NaNo count. When your mad, its fairly easy to write. You can write and write and write and somehow you feel better. It's also easier to write when your husband isn't home for some odd reason. There's no distractions.

Today's friday... and I hope to have most of the weekend to write. So far I stopped going back and rewriting. I keep telling myself I can do that after wards, and its seriously working.
DrWicked has helped... a lot. I love Liz for that... seriously do.

I need to post a few things here, but it will probably not be until tomorrow.

[Gossamer]

Nov 7th

I'm ecstatic. I'm first off getting the entire weekend off (My boss said Good Job, take a break!) to do pure NaNo (and maybe a tad of Mizahar). I seriously want to double my word count, nap copious amounts, and go to a late pm write-in at a starbucks for our Lewis County Group. It starts at 7pm on Sunday, which is perfect since I need to leave for Seattle to pick up my hubby at the airport around 930-945ishpm so that gives me two hours to NaNo with great folks before I go get him.

So.. rather than blather here, I'm going to go get a jump on it and write a couple thousand words.

[Gossamer]

Nov 8th and 9th

I've written all weekend. I've written until my fingers bled. I've hit 20k. I'm going to die now.
Seriously. Okay, maybe not so seriously. But I am going to start putting some fun buttons in my signature after NaNo is done. FB has inspired me. And I truthfully cannot be serious any longer. My brain is gone. My mind is gone. My creativity is all tapped out. I feel like I grew a third arm out of the center of my back. I want a cookie and I'm out of sugar.

The hubby is coming back tonight. He won't recognize me... nor the house.. nor the brainless monster I've become.

[Gossamer]

Nov 10th/Nov 11th

I took a break on Monday. I needed it. My wrists were totally trashed from my writing frenzy this weekend, and I'm back solo at work (it's too quiet for two people but fairly busy for one person) so I'm coming home a little more tired than usual. I've decided I really need to push push push to get through this month. I might make my 50K (I hit the official 20K this weekend - should be around 22-23k today/tonight - and need to update my word count but every time I go to do it something is wrong with the NaNo site). I'm really excited about my book, but I keep having to make 3x5 cards with character notes on it that act as a roadmap so I don't forget what people's names are (correct spellings, descriptions, motivations, relationships, etc). And if I loose my roadmap, I'm going to DIE.

This has been the hardest thing in the world for me to do. Normally I can write write write, but it feels so uncontrolled. It's absolutely crazy. The people that talk about their NaNo's are right in saying that its an uncontrollable literary vomit fest. And truthfully, my hardest thing is distraction right now.. boredom.. you get bored of typing... and the need to rest my wrist (Matt has volunteered to type more if I don't finish before the surgery) since he thinks hes not going to get it done now (due to the wedding, and various other computer breakdowns - he's on his second harddrive). I get a hint of my own frustration reading Tarot's NaNo blog... so I don't feel all that bad really.

But still... I'm going to be bald by the time this is over.

[Gossamer]

Nov 12/13

I'm feeling incredible pressure to finish. I have to finish early, and I'm developing a cold that my hubby got on his wonderful trip. I've given up things for writing. I feel horrible - I'm guilty if I write instead of say post for Miza or clean the house or let horses out etc. I'm guilty if I don't write for NaNo. I took Monday off, since I was burned out, and started again on tues.. It's been a struggle with my wrists. It's been a struggle with my discipline (tv is so much easier!). I've had to recognize things about myself... my strengths and weaknesses. I have some of each. I'm good with description and organizing outside of the situation. I'm bad at introducing a ton of new characters. My Novel doesn't have a ton of support staff. It simply has a few kelvics, a lot of familiars, Marcus, Avala, her supervisor, a team of rogue Alahea Magicians that think Marcus is somehow still fighting the war. It has a lot of Djed thrown around, a really really close family connection, half of which are Gods...

And I've learned not to do it all at once. I'm good at the carrot and stick analogy. I will pick out a carrot.. in this case going to see 2012, if I do my work. And I've learned that sitting down to write 2k words is a breeze if you don't worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation, plot, description, narrative, etc.

If you care about those things its harder.

The biggest 'fix' I'm going to have to do for my novel is timeline wise. I keep doing flashbacks in the book, which can work when done well, but in this case, are sometimes almost like an afterthought in order to 'catch the reader up' on what is really going on. I switch to italics in text to keep up with the timeline changes, so hopefully that will also be a visual clue to the reader (as well as 5 months back, two years back tags) that will help.

I also love Avala. She's just about the coolest character I've come up with yet. I want to play her as a PC, but instead I think I'll somehow tie my own PC into that family and that will explain why my pc's mother is like she is. Zilvia could be a modern day Marcus Kelvic except she doesn't have the inherent divinity flowing through her veins like the son of a Goddess does. She's a lot of Albrae (one of my favorite all time NPCs) with the 'killer' weeded out. And shes now bonded to a Kelvic, one I didn't expect to actually ever meet her. How in the world did that happen? And hes not one of the big badass predator kelvics either. He's something far different. Marcus should be ashamed of himself... but knowing him, hes not. Marcus has developed this attitude, and I can actually see where it comes from (hanging around with his mother and grandmother) that life is fleeting and designed to be tampered with. And I also realize now that although he made the Kelvics to search for Avala, he also did it because here's this kid... mother a goddess (who sure.. stole her godliness but who cares right?), grandmother is a goddess.... and who's he? More or less hes a glorified Alvina with a lot of washed out blood (Yshul wasn't exactly the best mother either)... so hes constantly trying to prove to everyone else that hes fine. And then there's the thing about his leg. Im keeping that knowledge until the end of the book... how it happened, why it can't be healed... and then hes got this awesome world-trotting sister who isn't afraid of anything because she is somehow under the mistaken impression that the Suvan Government will survive long enough to come fetch her ass. Its a good thing Marcus is around.

My book takes place about 6 months (minus the flashbacks) before the Valterrian and ends of course with the destruction of the world. We're going to see it happen from someones perspective that wasn't in Suva - has no idea whats going on because of the remoteness of his/her location, and learn why the kelvics dispersed and survived... and got so deeply embedded into almost all of the human subraces. It was very very simple. Their mission never quite ended. And although Humanity benefits from Marcus' work, the kelvics themselves have to suffer generation after generation of a drive they simply just don't understand.

Pretty cool... but the sad thing is... 50K isn't going to do it. I will finish NaNo. I know I will, but my book wont be done when I cross the finish line.

[Gossamer]

Nov 18thish and all the days between...

I've discovered something about myself that I always knew. If I take a break and walk away from something, it completely recharges my batteries and I'm good to go like a madwoman. Someone once told me it takes 18 days to create a habit, and thats probably true... while it takes tons (double if not triple) the time to break it. But the habit is firmly formed in me now, and even if I miss a day I don't miss a stride. I just feel... better somehow... better from all the madness. And I have been slightly mad this month... not in terms of anger, but in terms of writing. I miss my PC terribly, I miss moderating, which is really good because I was burning out there for a little while... and I know that by the time I get everything done I need to do by the 25th, I should be good. I need the whole weekend off again to finish up, and I hope they give it to me. It should be slow enough that it shouldn't be a problem.

I also learned some valuable lessons. I note everything. If I talk about a mountain range, I note it with its name and correct spelling. If I note a vendor, a road name, a city (especially those that aren't there anymore) I note it. It helps a lot. I got the idea from Gillar, who was talking to me about a project he was involved in before TSR folded. It was the Dragonlance Encyclopedia. It was where volunteers took a book from the DL series and went through and cataloged everything in it... cities, people, places, named magical weapons, etc... into this big list type thing for reference. So now I have my own 'Wildness Within' encyclopedia wherever I go.

And I'm making things up on the fly. Someone else who is doing NaNo said they were doing the same thing and feeling guilty about it. I'm not at all. Often I think maybe I should be, but there's no real reason for it. I wonder if its our personalities... they don't like to ruffle feathers, and I don't like to wait for responses or explanations on things that might just be annoying unimportant questions. Or it could be that I set my story in a time no one has written about in a setting that I'm making up as I go along so people get a first glimpse at the glorious beautiful breathtaking place Kalea will become in Modern Mizahar from its humble origins in the Suvan Empire. I'm glad I didn't set my book next to or anywhere adjacent to anyone else's in this case. It makes it so much easier.

And I think I'm crazy, but I already know what next years NaNo Novel with be about too.

I also solved the problem of keeping who/what/where/when straight. Rather than just breaking the book up into Chapters, I have started also adding subchapterlets (I guess you could call them? I'm sure there's a technical name) with location so I can clue the reader that... Wow... perspective change coming! It seems to read smoother that way.

Now, that leads to one big problem. Timekeeping. I have been fudging on this up until now... aka 6 months to Valterrian, etc, but I decided that like in all good dating procedures, we need some pre-Valterrian dating system. I really should (upon final revision) start a discussion thread on this... but I think I have it figured out too. Look, in BC times in our world, no one called it 2 BC - how would they know to call it that? We re-labled their dates after Christ. So, the way they'd call time pre-Valterrian would be pre-something and post something else. It made the biggest sense to make that into the founding of the sister nations.... so Before Founding (BF) and After Founding (AF)... now I just have to decide how old the Suvan and Alahea Empires were. They would be founded together, naturally, to lesson the confusion of when one was founded and when the other was founded.... though that still doesn't address where their people came from or if they were indigenous.. which I'm going to say no too... I think they came from someplace else. And all other races were an adaption or created in their image via the Gods ... but again, thats a discussion for later. I'd like to think they had at least 500 to a 1000 years after their founding and pre-Valterrian to get going... though more than a thousand I'd think they'd need significantly more technology than we give them... but maybe not? Certainy they'd have more arcane based technology.

Hrm.. its a lot to think about.

Anyhow, I'm on the downhill slide. I need about 10k more words to finish. I should have that this week towards the weekend easily enough... and maybe I can finish somewhere around 60, though I know the book wont be done.

I just hope... I dunno... i just hope maybe you all love Markus, Avala, Lynara, Zuliar and Kynari as much as I do. Kynari is supposed to save everyone... but its Lynara the imperfected generation who has a bigger part to play than I actually planned for.

[Gossamer]

Last Weekend of Typing for Jen!


Would you believe I stopped short of 50K by like 300 words... okay 200something and some large change. I just couldn't write the last few words to make it so! But I'm going to make it. I am looking at the finish line, staring at it, and can taste it I'm so close. There's only one issue. My book isn't wrapping up fast enough. I recently read one of my favorite authors websites on her journey of getting published... and found something astonishing out. You can't even hope to sell a book in this day and age (unless your famous) unless its right around 50K. So.. that means I need to get my arse in gear and wrap some things up... which are wrapping up nicely, but Im wordy and could do some different things to come to a close faster... without making it look like I just 'ended it'. One things for certain.. Marcus' story never quite ends. It's told in echos over and over everytime someone creates a Kelvic and asks any sort of questions about 'why'.

I'll cross the line tonight.

But I won't be done. Not yet.. not quite.

[Gossamer]

Nov 28th


Thankully both GP and Liz reminded me to validate my NaNo, which I did today. Thanks guys. I finished the story... and guess what? My favorite PCs got to experience the Valterrian first hand. That was kinda cool. I cant wait to spend a few more months cleaning the story up and then getting my proof. I can tell you from personal experience that its worth it! When I get it polished...I'll post a few chapters. Then if you like it, hopefully you'll pick it up for a very modest price in paperback on Amazon.