Coile

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One of the things that's nagging me is that with the tight deadline I'm keeping more redundant text than I should be and, worse still, I'm actually adding to it to justify its presence. I'm not sure if I'd call it padding but it is taking away some of the focus.

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The good side of redundant text is that you get to experiment where that particular bit should actually fall and makes you think better what is really relevant. Both immensly helpful things when the editing starts.

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24,874 words to go.

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With you I compete directly. I see your figures and I *know* that it's within my reach. Stase sets the bar for me, you set the immediate goal.

Now, back to writing. I feel like the scene is finally moving...

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Still running way behind. I can only write now when calm and that's taking a lot of effort with all the ****storm at work and the Parent's imminent arrival.

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Sorry to hear that, mate. Still, you have 13k done already and two full weeks to go, plus an additional two days. Still, it's just 2300 words a day and if the mood is right, the calm moment lasts, a good spur of creativity can amount to that in a relatively short time.

You're still in the race. I'd give an encouragement cookie if I had any. I, uh, tend to snack.

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30k hit, and the best part is, I've finally reached the juicy plot nonsense - I'm back in the zone, dudes!

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Extremely good going there, Stase! I must admit I keep my eye on your wordcount and with a tint of jealousy have occasionally managed to squeeze a few more hundred words out just to get a bit closer to your number. Keep it up, I like to look up and push harder inspired by an example.

Soon I'll bust 25k. I hope.

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I'm now so far behind I'm beginning to doubt that I can actually do this.. 50,000 seems far too far away.

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When I did my first NaNoWriMo I was not sure I could do it. It was a struggle. This time around I feel way more confident about achieving the goal.

My advice, for all it's worth, is to keep writing. Aim for the 50k. If it becomes evident that you won't hit it, write still. You have a story to tell and this is the perfect month for telling it even if you won't achieve the Big Number.

One point of this month and this project is to give a frame in time in which to write. This is the month when I play less as I write. I post less, I don't write many recaps, in general I cut away from my other leisure activities in order to have the time to write. And that time is well spent.

Let November be your excuse to cut back on other things and further your story. All the way up to 50k, or maybe 40k, or set your mark at 20k. Raise the bar so that it is a challenge and then go for it. You'll be surprised how much you really can do in a month. At least I was, in 2003. It's a good feeling and well worth striving for.

Would this be the right time to mention that also Dustine's singularity is called Bob?

If there is a general "Bob mating season" going, this is about the right time to go visit the old man back at home and wait until the "heat" dies down.

Maybe nightmare isn't the best word to describe it because it's a good nightmare for me. I think Max's choice of the word challenge fits me best too. I've found out that most days meeting the quota is not a biggie, or that writing just happens while I dodn't even notice. I type a paragraph or two and suddenly there's 700 words more, then another 700 words.

With maybe three chapters so far I've hit a block and had to fiddle with other parts or procrastinate with the timeline in order to find the right approach. The search for ND-3 was one of those which was odd since it was stuff that happened. I knew where it all was going. Still describing a meeting was like lighting up ice. Then I started to write about youth sport in Skyway and got over one block.

This time around this is far easier than three years ago but it might be because of English language uses more words to say something than Finnish. This might be a bit biased example, but illustrates the point nonetheless.

"Hellion-jengiläiset kävelivät Atlas-patsaalta juna-asemalle." That's 4 words in Finnish.

"The Hellion gang members walked from the statue of Atlas to the train station." 14 words

When describing something in Finnish I could rack up say 250 words, while in English I'd be knocking close to a thousand. In that regard I'm having it easy and stressfree (or is that stress free, two words?). Except I've magically fallen a bit behind right now and there's 2750 words to chug out before the end of the day.

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Good Lord. I should have known I'd find such a hotbed of creativity in my own back yard.

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Almost 3k to do tomorrow - must get quota...

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For I, too, am in deep with the NaNoWriMo nightmare (everyone who's behind word count surely calls it a nightmare...).

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It's a nightmare even on those rare days that quota is just a bump in the past. Fortunately it is a thoroughly invigorating nightmare that I refuse to wake up from before 1st December.

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Ah, procrastination's great.

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I used to be lazy. This month I procratinate. I'm considering going back to lazy on December again.

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Good luck to all, and to anyone daring to skip the weekend's writing by coming to Memorabilia, you have your opening line - "Hey Rockjaw, how's that word count coming???"

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That'd be skipping a weekend of writing and paying the rent for a month as I'm from elsewhere. But I promise to hold one minute's silence of not writing during that weekend to commemorate my handicap.

Rock on, mate! 50k might be a long way still, but so is the end of the month too.

....that's my mantra that keeps me sane, however sane is defined this month.

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Uhm.. What about the streaking, Coile? What about that, eh?

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...I had sort of hoped that was 'bygones'.

It's insane what the papers can write without *any* shred of truth! (Better shuddup now. People looking for ideas what to draw and all.)

Paragon Inquirer presents the Filthy Tempest:

"Subaiku does Steel Guard! And a bunch of other people! 'Fifty a month isn't that much.'"

"Coile's marriage breaking admission on Nightsparrow: 'I liked to interact with her.'"

"Dustine breaks free from her own cult and succumbs to decadence: 'I can eat a donut if I like!'"

Relevance? Uh, if you Dove fall short on ideas...

Correct!

#1 Won't you die tonigt for love?

The rest:

#2 These boots are made for walking
#3 I only have eyes for you
#4 I'm timeless like a broken watch

I got to 20k and since then I've started two chapters with just 500 words combined. Can't get them moving. Bleh. So, have to force it. 30k before the end of week 2 is starting to be out of the question, now to just hang on and keep with the original quota.

Welcome to the black parade

You might wake up and notice you’re someone you're not,
If you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see,
You can find out firsthand what it’s like to be me,
So gather 'round piggies and kiss this goodbye,
I encourage your smiles,
I'll expect you won't cry
- My Chemical Romance

My time and creative juices are still directed mostly to my NaNoWriMo novel but this just in:

Sword of Deceit! The horrible truth revealed!

I can hardly wait to see where this all goes but right now there's some prepping to do for Croatoa TF. Like, uh, writing a completely unrelated novel passage taking place in the sixties.

Woohoo! It was a long drive but now the behemoth of a chapter is done. 4200 words. Now just a little nip of the next chapter and 20k is cracking!

After all the zergling hassle I actually napped for a bit and then went to run a mission with folks. And sleep after that. However I know how this chapter runs and I figured out the remaining arc for the grandfather and a nice intro for Andre's dad too. After that it gets scetchy again.

Last night I went back and wrote Chapter 0. It seemed that all the pieces set in the past worked well for the readers but the current day bits were hard to get into as the situations weren't much explained. So I wrote a 1800 words of intro that hopefully describes the main characters as well as their current situation to reasonable degree.

Now I'm almost at 3k with the next chapter and no end is in sight yet. Positive spin of it that I'm 1k ahead of the 1700 words a day schedule, but woefully behind the attempt to crack 30k by the end of week two. Situation wasn't helped with zergling activities stretching far into the night.

Still, all in all, 18k done or so, maybe a bit more tonight before hitting IG. Or after.

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*Gasps* My own thread being used for references already! I'm honoured

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Why settle for anything else except the best, eh?

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..the truth about The Sofa Weasel Conspiracy came out. Pyr was somewhat distressed to learn that she'd slept out of her apartment for days as a result of fear of non-existent weasels, and worse, that she'd told all her friends about it.

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Ahhahahaa! Should Winter be found intact enough to appreciate this there's going to be no end to abuse inflicted on poor Pyr. Unless Pyr ripostes with a guilt trip over Winter vamoosing in the first place.

By the way I thoroughly enjoyed Spellsong's description of Winter to Searing Red in Pocket D. Something along the lines "take impulsiveness, add crude language and some calamity. Voila! Instant Miss Winter."

...that took place while Coile was downing shots in a brisk pace, except the shots were not whiskey but tea...

I direct you to this thread: CLICKY

All the answers are there.

I'm @Coile if you want to give a shout.

Edit: an edit had been posted while I was posting, so edited this as well. Take it as a greeting. =)

This chapter got some good feedback (whereas feedback about some other chapters made it obvious that a completely new intro is needed, so I'll do a Chapter 0...) so I'll post this. Continues the first day in Paragon City.

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[u]Chapter 7 – Catch a wave[u]

The beach was seething with people. Every single one of them with superpowers. Coila had trouble believing her eyes. All of them were heroes, notable people of Paragon City, each doing their part helping out others. Now she stood among them, was in fact one of them. The laminated card in her belt radiated the power to change the world.

For once Coile was quiet. The grandness of the occasion did not escape him. Whether or not he liked it he was now a part of this and something about his life had irrevocably changed. They both had their purple and black uniforms on, both sporting their homage to their father, the anarchy A. Of course the meaning was different.

ND-3 stood behind them and assessed the potential danger level. Even if Talos Island where the beach was presumably was a rough neighbourhood for up-and-coming heroes the children were reasonably safe. ”Go on and meet new friends. You will need them. Stay out of trouble and above all, have fun.” She looked directly at Coile as she said ‘out of trouble’.

The young man waved his hand dismissingly. ”Sure mom, don’t I always? Besides, it’s a damn beach party. What could happen?” ND-3 rose to her full height which left most assembling people in shadow. ”Mind the language, young master.” Coila nudged her brother with an elbow but not too hard. She was still too overwhelmed to really instill abuse even if there was a good excuse. ”Sorry mom.”, said Coile.

Coila kept glancing around as she spoke, ”Hey Coile, did you see that?” Then she again darted away and Coile ran after her waving his hand to their mom. ND-3 shook her head attempting to simulate a life-like movement and angles. ”Kids. That’s what you still are, both of you.” If she had been capable of emotions she would have felt sadness over the childhood that had now come to an end. She knew it, Zirgei knew it. The two younglings running around the beach would come to know it soon enough. She just wished it would not hurt too much.

The beach was a classic golden and white one with fine sands and salty sea breeze ruffling the hairs. It never occurred to the siblings that their full armour suits were out of place. They were themselves so out of place that their attires changed nothing. Finally they stopped to just stand and look around. They knew no one. For Coila this was one of the rare occasions that she had left their home farm in years. Coile being a year older had had more time and freedom to move about but his experiences were worth of only a very little. He had never been particularly good with people.

”Hey! Who are you?”, said a perky voice right behind them. Coile swung around his heart racing. ”Don’t DO that!” There was no one. ”I am Pyranha!” Coila turned around too and saw a short girl standing right next to Coile. She was wearing bright red two piece bikinis, just as red as her spikey hair was. ”Hello shortie.”, she said. A lifetime of ribbing at a clod of a brother had cemented a certain kind of mindset on her and she needed to consciously break away from it. Otherwise her instincts were to offer miniscule insults.

The girl who had introduced herself as Pyranha looked up at the two people who seemed to be lost in every possible way. Sure, she wasn’t very familiar with the city either so far but these guys looked to her like they had never crossed a street before. She dismissed the impolite behaviour and tried again. ”Are you new to the city?” It was screaming obvious that they were. She hoped that she had never been that dazed herself, their bewilderment was so blatant that it was borderlining funny.

”Yeh, so what if we are?” Coile crossed his arms defiantly. ”Sheesh! Chill out!” Pyranha began to wonder if it was really worth it to talk to these two. She smiled as she spotted the emblems. ”Hey! Anarchy, yay!” Coila shook her head. ”No no, it is to honour our father and stands for android.”

Pyranha took a step back and looked at the siblings evaluating them anew. They appeared to be twenty or so, maybe a little under. Both had a plate on their faces, on the right side with a hole for the eye. One would have expected more precision from constructs. These two just seemed to be so erratic that she had to ask, ”Are you androids then?” Coile scoffed.

”Of course we aren’t, don’t be daft! Do I look like my mom, huh?” Pyranha didn’t quite know what to actually answer. A huge, hulking female robot appeared next to them. ”Oh look, you have made a friend already.” She tilted her head down to the short girl who had to almost lean backwards to see the robot’s face. ”I am ND-3 but you can call me Nadia like the kids do. How do you do?” Pyranha blinked and waved. It looked like Nadia’s head was somewhere up in the stratosphere. ”Hi! My name is Pyranha.”

Somewhere nearby Coile muttered, ”She is not my friend.” If anyone heard him they declined to comment.

”Now I must tend to some things that your father has asked of me.”, said ND-3. ”I will see you two in the morning, the latest. Be well.” She moved her hand in an arc, turned around and accelerated to a good running speed almost instantaneously. Coila bellowed after her. ”We will, mom””

It took a moment for Pyranha to digest this. ”So, your mother is a robot, but you are not androids? How did she give birth to you?” Just as Coile was about to blurt out something snippy his sister cut in. ”She is of course not our biological mother. But she raised us from since we were babies.” She kept a thoughtful pause. ”We never knew our real mother. If she existed, that is.”

Now Coile inserted his two cents worth. ”Of course we have a mother! She must have died right after you were born and dad just never showed us a picture of her.” He was very annoyed by this subject. Coila remained quiet. There was not much use discussing this again, at least not when he was in that sort of mood. ”We are not androids, robots or grown in tanks! We had a mother!” In a much quiet voice he repeated, ”We had a mother.”

The afternoon lost its shining sun into the flames of dusk and finally twilight claimed the beach. Some people left while some new came by despite the slight chill of the night air having already claimed the sandy scenery.

Coila was a staring at the sea gloomily arms crossed and back bent forward although she should not have been feeling cold. Her brother was idling a few paces behind her as if standing guard. It was perhaps morbid curiosity more than any form of compassion that urged Pyranha to approach them once more. Silently she glided next to the grouchiest guy she had met in a while and nodded towards the brooding girl. ”What’s with her?”

For a moment it seemed like there was a better chance of getting an answer from a solid stonewall but then Coile said, albeit a little distantly, ”She is missing her girlfriend. Which is stupid since they saw this morning and Kitia is coming here tomorrow.” It was no shock to Pyranha, first because here she had already met her fair share of girls who fancied girls and secondly her best friend Claire was like that. The next part however caught her off guard. ”She used to be my girlfriend.”

Pyranha turned to look at the boy. ”Excuse me?” Whether he had meant his sister’s girlfriend or his sister it was positively bent nonetheless. What kind of hicks were they anyway? Now Coile was staring at the sea too. ”She was my girl when we were younger. Then she left me and became an item with Coila.”

All Pyranha could do was shake her head slowly. There had to be some inbreeding involved, or some other kinkiness. Then she said aloud the thought that had just come to her mind. These two had bugged her all evening long and the chance for a little payback was just too tempting to be allowed to pass.

”So, you’re saying that you suck so much that your girlfriend left you, swore off all men for all eternity and became a lesbian?” The innocent tilt of her head was just to add insult to injury. It worked wonderfully. Even in the darkening night Coile’s face reddened to a point where he could have stood beside a firetruck without anyone noticing. ”No! I mean, she did, yes, but, uh…” He was desperately looking for anything to say, be it a snappy comeback or a plausible explanation, or even a mercifully acceptable excuse. All he could manage was, ”Maybe she was always like that.”

This time Pyranha just rolled her eyes and kept her mouth shut despite the wicked urge to voice her opinion of that theory which went along the lines ”Yes, she was always a lesbian and that’s why she decided to start her career with a guy as striking as you.”, but that would probably have led to some shouting and the calmness of the evening was too delicious to let a jerky guy disrupt it. Instead she patted his arm once. ”Sorry to hear that.”

The final rays or what remained of the daylight yielded to the demands of the stars. It was finally time to head back to the hotel. There been girls with cat-like features, secretive beings with hoods, robots far more advanced than their mother, masks and capes, introductions and even more discussion and Coile got a phone number from a girl. Despite the small sized redhead girl being rather miffed about their behaviour by the end of the day it was still not a bad first day for two fresh arrivals to the Hero capital of the world.

Some of you have received this already. Some may have not. Hear hear, this is the gospel. Chris Baty from NaNoWriMo.org spoke thusly:

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Dear NaNoWriMo Participant,

Hi there! It's Chris Baty again. And if you accepted the challenge in last week's email, you opened a comfortable word-count lead right out of the gate, increased that lead in the first weekend, and are now sailing far ahead of pace, preparing to plunge into the 20,000s.

You are looking good, feeling great, and your back is slowly accumulating an array of "kick me" signs, placed there by your fellow participants as you sprinted past us. A few signs, though, are a small price to pay for victory. And you *are* going to be victorious. If you are a day or less from 20K, you have everything it takes to win, and win big. Keep it up. Don't slow down. We admire you, even if you made us feel so bad about ourselves that we had to put those signs on you.

But this email is not for those doing exceptionally well. It's for the rest of us---authors with underdeveloped word counts, overdeveloped novel-guilt complexes, and sensational procrastinating abilities. Because we are the ones who are going to begin having serious misgivings about this whole escapade in the next seven days.

Why?

Because it turns out we are too busy to do this.

Or because a crisis has brought some novel-eating turmoil into our lives.

Or because our stories are really, really bad, and we're wondering why we're sacrificing so much of our time to produce a consistently crappy book.

It all adds up to the fabled Week Two Wall---a low-point of energy, enthusiasm, and joie de novel that strikes most NaNoWriMo participants between days 7 and 14. This is when our inner editors, who largely turned a blind eye to our novel flailings in Week One, return to see how things are going. And their assessments are never kind.

The plot is draggy. The characters are boring. The dialogue is pointless, and the prose has all the panache of something dashed off by a distracted kindergartner.

If you're feeling any of these things---or find yourself starting to feel them this week---know that nothing is wrong. In fact, you're likely on track for a great NaNoWriMo. Just lower your head, pick up your pace, and write straight into the maw of your misgivings. If you are thinking about quitting, DO NOT DO IT IN WEEK TWO.

If you have to quit, do it in Week Three.

I'm serious.

Because if you quit in Week Two, you're going to miss an amazing moment---the moment when your novel begins to click. You'll miss a genius plot twist you can't foresee right now that will suddenly elevate your book from a distressing mess to a sort-of-tolerable mess. And then you'll miss the euphoric breakthrough that follows that twist, when your book improves itself all the way to not-half-bad.

Not-half-bad will make you scream, it feels so good.

And you know what? The more you write, the better it gets. So make it a priority to write in torrents this week. Allow your characters to change, and have change forced upon them. Follow your intuition, even if it leads away from where you thought your book was heading. And know that writing a novel is like building a car. Your only job this month is to create a clunky machine that will eventually move people from one place to another. If your beast rolls at all at this point, you're doing great. Pretty prose, snappy dialogue, brilliant metaphors---they're all part of the high-gloss paint job and finishing touches we put on *after* the body is built.

In December, we'll have nothing but time for adding flames to our hoods and airbrushing a majestic eagle or pair of sunrise stallions on the sides of our new rides. For now, the 20,000s are calling, and we can't get distracted by the small stuff if we're going to get there. In the challenging confines of Week Two, our books will truly be built. Characters will evolve. Plots will unfold. It's going to be difficult at times, but once we make it into (and out of) the 20,000s, everything gets much easier. And envious tales of our literary feat-in-the-making will begin circulating amongst our friends, family, and co-workers.

At which point, we'll probably find a note or two on our backs as well.

It'll be awesome.

Keep plowing onward, brave writer! Good things are coming. I'll be back next Wednesday for some thoughts on Week Three.

Dreaming about my airbrushed eagle,

Chris
NaNoWriMo
8400 words and counting

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This is the spirit, folks! Write, write hard. Don't mind the quality because the whole point of NaNoWriMo is to get to the fabled 50k. You have the rest of your lives to write quality, this is your shot to being a Novelist. This year. This month.

Dare to dream.

I was stalled at 13740. The entire afternoon + evening was spent with zerglings with simply no way to produce fiction. In the evening I more or less edited slightly a bigger chapter into two parts and pushed the first one out (as well as the next one on a different timeline).

Oh well, more words today. Missing quota just means more for some other day.

Oh hey, yay! It's 7 past 9 and there's coffee available. I'll go sneak and nick a mug.

I'd like to nominate the "Hammered in Anvil" series of comics. The ideas are far-out and had me smiling, occasionally laughing, throughout the series. Excellent!

The Thread

Some people seem to have hit the block. NaNoWriMo's way is to battle that block with wordcount and get the novel done instead of dreaming maybe one day completing it. If some folks can generate huge amounts of quality text at will all the better for them, but not all can. I'm one of those people. I need either a rush of inspiration or an external motivator, such as a nice shiny freshly printed certificate that says I achieved something. That I get to do it with loads of other kindred souls makes it that much more special.

Each writes his own way of course, and as long as new words appear all is good.

However, in NaNoWriMo the goal is to get a certain wordcount, so it matters. Maybe not to all, but to a lot of people. To me at least and hopefully to most of those who signed on for some once-a-year creative novel writing frenzy.

Keep it up, good folks. Keep it up. One quarter is behind already.

This is the second week now and the magical barrier of 10k is behind for most of us. The initial fuel has been used and the actual work begins. Now it's time to press on, grit the teeth and muster the fury to carry on despite hardships!

The second week. There is still the echo of the good results from the week one. You think this is hard? Wait until week 3 hits you in the face. That's the desert time with no water. That's the period when the end is far and the workload weights the heaviest. So I present you now with an additional challenge.

By the end of this week we should be at 25k by schedule. That's with the initial fervor of the first week compared against the roughest of all, the third week. I challenge you all to make a good dash right now when the second week is going on! Don't aim for 25k, aim for 30k! That's right, allow yourself some slack in the second half of NaNoWriMo. Struggle now, take it easier later.

Think about it, just 10k per week for the rest of the month. That's just 1430 words a day. Surely a nice break considering it'll get harder before it gets easier.

For me this means getting over 2000 words per day for this week. Am I going to do it? I sure as all nether realms will give it my best shot! When the enthusiasm fails rely on spirit. When spirit fails, rely on grit.

Don't give up, fellow writers. Press on. Remember, amidst all the drek there will be an infinite amount of beauty. Dare to dream on and strive for the finish. Just imagine - your own novel. How it feels at the end of the month. Thousands set out to do it. Thousands did it. And you're one of them. A proud, tired but of so very proud NaNoWriMo winner! You print that certificate out and scribble your name on it and the world is your oyster.

The only one you are competing against is you. Don't let yourself win. Win it yourself!

I have been slacking today, writing up some timelines that don't really matter that much. It's time to turn back to fiction. A whole lot of words need to appear on the screen today.

How about you guys?

I posted this on Creative but not all RP'ers read that forum. So, FYI.

Now that I have 10k words achieved and six chapters done (chapter 8 done, I just need chapter 7 now) I feel confident enough to post a link to the entire and ever growing work that is my NaNoWriMo novel.

However, before you dash off to take a peek, two things.

1) It is posted on Silent Tempest forum. Before you read anything else, please do read the forum rules. The reason is that despite some forum sections being unaccessible to the general public the content still can't be guaranteed to be for everyone. This is especially important to note in case you browse anything else on the forum. In order to read the novel you do not need to register. Please only register if you intend to mingle with us (Tempest & other screwballs) in-game too.

2) As a large part of the novel remains unwritten I can't say what will and will not be in there and in how much graphic detail. Safest bet is to treat the work as "mature content" and not read it if you anticipate you might be offended.

Summa summarum: Please read the rules, consider if you really want to read the novel.

Ready? Done?

Go for it: A for Android - the novel