So what to work on now

Now that I have (gratefully) taken my post-NaNo break, I'm ready to start writing again; however, this is the first time in many a year I desire to write with a purpose. You see, I posted a list the Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary things forum, and on this list involves two primary goals:

Completing my 2009 novel, and completing my 2008 novel. I'd like to complete the 2008 novel for CreateSpace's free proof offer for NaNo winners. I've missed this offer (or the similar one from Lulu) every year, and dangit, I want this book in my hands, even if not published yet, for sheer vanity's sake.

Now, I'm struggling with the desire to finish my2007 novel, Heaven's Bounty. It's such a GOOD story, and now I've finally figured out where I want to go with it, after letting it sit for a year or two.

This is why I'm not a published author yet. It has nothing to do with the quality of my work; I'm convinced that my prose is as good or better than anything you'll see in Barnes and Noble. It's the fact that I don't finish novels, and therefore am unable to submit them for consideration.

So that's my goal for the coming year: to complete a minimum of one manuscript, and polish it well enough for submission to agents.

Not a publisher, mind you; Like Editorial Ass, I believe firmly in the power of agents to help authors in more ways than just finding a good editor.

But to do this, I have to not only finish a novel, but polish it well enough to put through my critique group, and then polish is MORE into perfection.

But now my dilemma is I have multiple novels that I want to work on. I'm going to finish them all, but in what order?

What I have:

1) My first love, my original. The Story that Had to be Written. I'm currently working on handwriting the second draft, which I'll then transcribe into the computer. This is the one I'd like to have for the CreateSpace offer.

2) The sequel to the previous one; I know, I know. In all fairness, I HAVE finished the first one, when I was 15 or 16... I know how the first one ends.

3) This year's. This one is the one about the widow who ends up as a Queen, and then has to take her husband's assassinated soul, memory, and skills and avenge his death and take back his kingdom. It's FUN, but it's lying fallow again, victim of 50k disease. Mortos Rex.

4) 2007's novel, Heaven's Bounty. It's a sci-fi piece about a winged bounty hunter who is captured, wing-clipped, and raped (dark stuff) and set free by her friends, then seeks to find the source of her deceased captor's freakish shapeshifting powers, powers her love also seems to possess. This one is so much fun, and the voices for all those characters have started up in my head.

5) Of course, Double Edged Sword, though a good chunk of it has gone missing. That's a hard one to write though, and when I get back to it, it's going to be like pulling teeth. Good story, just delicate work.

I dunno. I'm going to work on them all... but which first? My bones tell me I need to finish this year's novel FIRST. It's what's most recent in my mind, and dammit, it would be nice to finish a NaNo novel the same year I started it.

But Heaven is calling...

With great inspiration, I write

Last night, I got inspired. You see, the night before last, I hada dream. It was a dream that hung with me all day, and I started thinking about it.

So I started writing. After a total 2.5 hours worth of writing? I'd jumped from 21,705 to 30,474. I hit my stride, and this story has exploded. It's not really related to my current NaNo, but I did the cheesy old trick of "meanwhile, in another part of the universe." This one, I fully expect to hit 50k before the month is over, so I'm keeping the words. To see my erratic performance this year, click the widget to open up my progress report.

I love this. This is how NaNoWriMo is supposed to feel. 8,776 words in 2.5 hours, so excited I can barely contain my enthusiasm or stop writing. I was up till 2 AM last night. That's what I missed. I will post an excerpt from the piece I'm working on, and tell you more about it as it gels soon. For now, I must WRITE.

Today, I'm about to embark upon the terrifying prospect of upgrading my computer from Windows Vista to windows 7. I found a deal that offers a copy of Windows Home Premium or Windows Professional to students for $30. So I've downloaded it, and now, all I have to do isfinish backing up the rest of my files. I'm uploading all my non-music stuff to dropbox (which, by the way, thanks to all of you who checked it out... thanks to those referrals, I now have 5 gigs of free storage instead of 2. It's going to take about five hours to upload all of my remaining photos, but they'll all be safely stored, and in no risk of erasure by the upgrade.

I'm moving all my music over to the desktop PC. It's got over 200 gigs... it can handle it. I love modern technology. I can't believe I'm sending over 12 gigs of music through the air to the PC nearby, while I sit here and type, and while I'm uploading pictures to another storage site. how awesome is that?

So I'm going to take advantage of my remaining hours of backups to write, write, write, and see how much further I can go.

And here, for your interest, is my progress towards my goal of 100k. I'm still a bit behind where I should be, but a couple more nights of writing like last night, and I should be caught up with no problem.

Let's see if we can't get a little less red in there, whaddya think?

Onward!

NaNoWriMo 2009: First day's progress: slow but steady

I didn't get as much of a boost as I was hoping for, this go round, but I've set a comfortable pace that I think I can actually maintain.

Last night's trauma left me with a pitiful start: 200 words by the time I went to bed. In all fairness, it was the Lortab that left me drowsy and unable to focus, that combined with general exhaustion from a long day and pain from the sprained ankle.

Today has been a frustrating day dealing with malfunctioning forums, although I have been incredibly impressed by their performance thus far. Failures to load aside, they're staying up and reasonably zippy, given that this is our highest traffic day, and in years past, this always meant CRASHING or completely unusable.

I wrote in drips and drabs, starting and stopping my writing timer so I could keep track of how much actual time I wrote. Most of it happened after 9, when the girls went to bed. Final results?

60 minutes of writing, 3,737 words total. I need 3,334 per day to reach my ultimate goal of at least 100k. My full goal: 100k or a complete novel. Preferably at least the former, combined WITH the latter. I'd really like a complete novel, more than a particular word count, so if I hit 90k and it's done, I'll be happy.

i'm starting the story slowly, with the interactions between my two MC. They're twins (don't groan, please). One is albino... but she suffers from the same maladies real world albinos do. She's damn near blind, and has to wear a cloak any time she's outside, or she'll get a severe sunburn. This is a fantasy, so she's learning to use magic to compensate, but it's imperfect, and she's definitely a bit handicapped.

Her brother is the protective sort, very outgoing and physical, she's introverted and academic.

I've also introduce the other MC, the third member of their Hunter's Triad. This thing really has a bit of a YA feel this first chapter, even though they're 22, because they haven't yet become Journeymen, and are still students. That's definitely not the focus I'm going for, though. They'll be out in the world and their age and student status will be left behind.

I'm trying to decide if I want three POVs or not... there will be at least two, Sara and Larath, but I'm trying to decide if I want to pull L'varen in. I guess it'll depend on how strongly he comes through for me. Right now, he's a bit more clownish than I intended. He'll get more serious, I hope.

Things are flowing smoothly, a good sign. I was already having trouble finding my characters last year at this point. They're coming through, and already feeling real.

A bit about them: They are both 22, and living under the shadow of very famous, skilled parents. Part of the point of this story is going to be them finding their own identity, outside of a famous family, and making a name for themselves. Sara is not as concerned with this as Larath; she's content with her books and her magic. He is more ambitious, and is determined to be a greater Hunter than his father, who is one of the best. i'm trying to design them to be not polar opposites, but complementary. They're close. I'm going to introduce more friction as the story continues, because I want their growing independence from each other and their parents to be a strong focus until the middle of the story, when it's going to become more about them dealing with the consequences of their family's past... through no fault of their own.

So, tell me about your stories. If you're doing NaNo this year, what is your novel about? What genre? How has your first day gone? I'd love to hear from you.

100k or bust! (I promise. For REAL this time. Honest.)

I have been wanting to double my wordcount goal this year. I said I was going to last year, but ended up damn near failing for procrastinating to the last minute.

So I made myself a nice motivational calendar.

I used an image from Moodflow - this website also has some lovely mood/ethereal music, if you're looking.

I created the calendar itself from scratch in photoshop. Overall, I'm really pleased with the results.

I think I'm going to use some of his other images to do some more. I'll probably do 50k calendars as I have the time.

Low-rez thumbnail: (Click for 1280 x 1024, 265.43 KB high-res version)

Oooh, a plot bunny - Want it?

I had this idea on the way to the grocery store a few minutes ago, and it would be so fun... but I just don't think I can do it justice.

Someone discovers they have the ability to see digital data... as in, if someone sends a text message, they can see the contents, and watch it as it fires off through the air towards the nearest cell phone tower. They can see the broadcasts as they pass a radio tower.

It shouldn't take you much effort to see the danger of something like this to someone in today's digital age. The character is effectively blind, or housebound, since digital everything is well... everywhere. They certainly can't drive, and might very well live out in the middle of no where in an old farmhouse with no electricity just to get relief.

But we know you can't have a protagonist without conflict. ;) The digital age comes to them. Or someone wants them - probably the government, for the powerful ability to see and interpret the data. Imagine a spy who can break codes without any equipment, or who can eavesdrop on an official's cell phone conversations just by standing nearby.

This character would find themselves in the middle of a lot of unwanted attention. Now, where you want to go from there is up to you. Maybe they're running, trying to find a place to hide. Maybe they're looking for the ihghest bidder. Maybe they're loyal to their country, and are willing to do anything to help. Maybe they're just trying to learn to control their ability, or develop technology that allows them to filter it.

So the sites are down...

I always feel a little bereft with that happens. Like I don't know what to do or something.

So I'll talk about this year's novel!

The title this year is Pride of the Hunt - It's the second novel of the series, possibly a trilogy. The first is Spirit of the Hunt, and follows the adventures of a shapeshifter nomad and a vampire. Don't worry, vampirism isn't a big deal, and dammit, I started this thing over a decade ago, so it wasn't cliche then. Anyway.

This story follows their children, twins Sara and Larath. Those of you who have roleplayed with me in Pern clubs may recognize his name. I borrowed it from this story. ;) Originally, they were albinos. In my old age, I am recognizing that this is ridiculously unoriginal, and the reason I did it in the firstplace was because it was cool... now there's no need for me to do stuff likethat because it's cool, since I'm so awesome as a writer. I'll probably cut that. I may have one of them albino, but if I do, it will come with all the attendant health issues. I'm leaning towards not, though.

Anyway, this follows them as they return to their mother's clan to learn more about their heritage. This will probably involve some kind of magical rite to give them access to the kind of powers she has or something along those lines.

On their way back, however, they encounter problems... one of their parents old enemies, bent on vengeance for the death of his son at their hands. Their father specializes in rogue vampires, you see... those who have started killing for pleasure, or who have otherwise violated the covenant the species has with humanity that allows for a peaceful coexistence.

Beyond that, I don't want to spoil you, but suffice it to say this will not be an easy struggle, and there will be Deaths.

Also appearing will be L'varen (you may recognize that name, too - same thing. he was my bronzerider at Azov, and transferred him to Cibryen for a time for a plot. Larath was the name of his dragon. Both names come from this story, originally) a shapeshifter of a different clan, whose magic is limited to only single animal forms, as opposed to their mother's clan, who have access to more. He'll be Sara's love interest, but I'm not focusing on their relationship as much as the familial relationships.

I'm actually looking forward to this. Now, I just need to push through and finish the FIRST book so I can work on this one. I do know how it ends, already, but I'd like to have it finished first before starting on the second.

NaNo Question of the Day

Join me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/Dragonchilde) to ask the NaNo Question of the Day... ask me a question about NaNoWriMo, and I'll answer it. Just add #NaNoQoTD to your tweet to help me find it!

Ask anything about NaNo... rules, history, popular topics... whatever you've always wanted to know! If I don't know the answer, I'll find one (or make it up!)

And the season begins!

Launch went off beautifully. Our new cloud-computing systems have really held up very well, and in fact have made for a smoother launch than ever! bugs have been around, but nothing that drastically affects anyone's ability to surf the site! I'm absolutely thrilled.

I still don't know what I'm going to write yet.

At the moment, i'm working on a point-and-click development of a Live CD SUSE linux CD - for NaNoWriMo! I think it would be fun to have my own NaNo OS, you know? If it turns out really well, I'll offer it on the forums, too (Man, I love Linux.)

I've got more site-related stuff to juggle, so I'd better get back to it, but I'll post a longer, more detailed blog later. Until then, I leave you with this:

To Meta or not... that is the question

Well, today is the day we're scheduled to relaunch the NaNo website. I'm excited; I love the feel of a freshly-wiped forum, that new-forum smell. Just like your NaNo each year, the forums start with a clean slate, too!

I still don't know what I want to write. I've thought about writing a meta-novel, a piece about a NaNoWriMo mod. If I did that, I could count all my forum posts fromNovember in my word count! It would be a mind-numbingly boring piece. However, I could do evil things to my least-favorite spammers. That would be a plus.

I've also toyed about with asking my husband to decide what I want to write about this year. He's always got good ideas, but he's just not a writer, so his execution sucks. He tried NaNo once. Got 1500 words, at least. That was kinda neat... I wish he'd do it with me.

I've thought about invoking the Zokuto clause this year... I mean, I've won several times, one year in just 10 days! I have nothing left to prove. ;) I'm also not an ML anymore, so I don't feel compelled to stick tot he rules. However, I wouldn't feel right validating, and frankly, I want to legitimately win every year. I'm just too damn loyal to nano to join the ranks of the rebels! It wouldn't feel right to me. I mean, I've spent so much time telling people on the forums "yes, you DO have to start from scratch, no, you CAN'T write 50k words and claim a win." that it would feel hypocritical of me to not stick by the rules. Having to set an example and all that.

Oh, the burden of responsibility!

Who knows. You're lucky... you get to see my thought process as I write it. not everyone gets that view!

The dragon awakens from her slumber

Did you miss me? I missed me. It's been almost a year now, and it's about time for NaNo season to come! We're gearing up and making big changes to the site.

In even bigger news, though, I've finally broken through my nearly one-year dry spell! I bought a nice blank journal book, and have been writing by hand. I'm up to page 72! the story is going well, and it's an old favorite.

Keep your eye here, I'm working on some amazing updates for my blog, including a new look and feel, twitter updates, and more!