...This, dear friends, is what I currently wish to do. I have less than three chapters to the end, and I've even written the final chapter. But I HATE THIS NOVEL!!
*throws a temper tantrum*
*breathes*
Ahem. So. Let us now proceed to do a calm and logical analysis of last week, aka the Week of Much Writing.
The Week of Much Writing. Ha. Yeah, well. It wasn't the Week of Much Writing so much as the Week of a Fairly-Decent-Amount of Writing. Since I posted on the 3rd, I've written 5,792 words on HNOT - which is actually not bad, but is also not as much as I intended. Like I said, I still have 2.5 chapters to go.
But seriously? Urgh. I have Teh Hatez big time. I'm sick of the MC being whiney and immature; I'm sick of the plot going in circles (which I think it isn't, actually; I've just stared at these chapters so many times they feel repetitive), and I'm sick of the whole thing. It's so tempting just to write:
And Bystar stole the Key and took it to Mercury, and Mercury ran to the Eye. She used her power to sense the Mystery Man and sic'ed Bystar on him. Deviran and Chiara tried to stop Mercury until they realised she was helping them. The Flare came, Mercury knocked herself out trying to channel it, but got the Mystery Man and destroyed the demons and saved the world. Yay.
And then cut to the final chapter, which I have actually written.
Please? Can I?
No?
The main problem here is that I loathe writing the climax of any story. There's so much pressure to Get It Right; it's supposed to be the culmination of everything that's gone before, and it's usually an Action Scene, which I'm terrible at. Actions Scenes always come out mechanical and forced the first million times I write them :P So, I vote we have novels with no climax. Who's with me?
*crickets chirp*
*sigh* Right. Back to the keyboard, then. Only I'm currently at the keyboard, so it's more like stay-at-the-keyboard-and-not-get-distracted. Or something like that.
2.5 chapters. It's not really that hard, is it?
Showing posts with label HTTOTW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HTTOTW. Show all posts
09 August 2010
03 August 2010
The Week of Much Writing
So, it seems that the slump might actually finally be over. I've written consistently for the last two and a half weeks, and How Not To Take Over The World (affectionately abbreviated to HNOT) is nearly done! I'm so excited :o)
Unfortunately, I haven't been around on the net a lot lately - school has been back for two weeks now, and it's been a flurry of lesson planning, extra-curricular, and a whole bunch of out-of-school stuff as well. The good news is, things are settling down :) The better news is, this semester hasnt' been anywhere near as stressful as last semester - I'm actually getting the hang of this whole teaching thing ;) :D hehe.
But the funk is well and truly gone: I'm tremendously excited about writing at the moment. Where a month ago, everything I was working on was stuck, now things are flowing and the muse is hyperactive. Edits for Jesscapades begin on Sunday (Liana and I are working through a schedule together, in an effort to keep us both on track), Marked (previously The Hunter Hunted) is nearly finished being edited (although it will be put aside to make way for Jesscapades for the next couple of months), a new story, Secret Breaker, is firing on all cylinders in my head and involves much shiny, like werewolves and secret detection and lies and betrayal and forbidden blood magic and invisible tattoos and kidnaps and and and... O:) *shines*
Yes. I'm excited to think about starting Secret Breaker.
But the best news, at the moment, is that HNOT has only four-and-a-half chapters to go. If I work really hard this week, I can get it done before I start editing Jesscapades on Sunday, and THAT would be AMAZING.
Hence, this is The Week Of Much Writing. I have 4.5 chapters to write in what is essentially now 4.5 days, and each chapter is somewhere between 2 and 3k. I haven't written in those kind of quantities since I was working on Sanctuary in March, but I wrote 2300 yesterday, which is more than I've written in a day since Easter. So it might just be possible.
Here's to trying :D
Also, I take great comfort in the fact that Liana also has to finish her current novel before edits on Sunday, and even more pressingly since she's finishing the novel she intends to edit ;) So I am not alone in my Week of Much Writing. Misery loves company, after all O:) :D
Feel free to join in with the Week of Much Writing, if you like. I'll report my progress on twitter using the hashtag #muchwriting - I'll be looking out to see if anyone else is there too :o)
Unfortunately, I haven't been around on the net a lot lately - school has been back for two weeks now, and it's been a flurry of lesson planning, extra-curricular, and a whole bunch of out-of-school stuff as well. The good news is, things are settling down :) The better news is, this semester hasnt' been anywhere near as stressful as last semester - I'm actually getting the hang of this whole teaching thing ;) :D hehe.
But the funk is well and truly gone: I'm tremendously excited about writing at the moment. Where a month ago, everything I was working on was stuck, now things are flowing and the muse is hyperactive. Edits for Jesscapades begin on Sunday (Liana and I are working through a schedule together, in an effort to keep us both on track), Marked (previously The Hunter Hunted) is nearly finished being edited (although it will be put aside to make way for Jesscapades for the next couple of months), a new story, Secret Breaker, is firing on all cylinders in my head and involves much shiny, like werewolves and secret detection and lies and betrayal and forbidden blood magic and invisible tattoos and kidnaps and and and... O:) *shines*
Yes. I'm excited to think about starting Secret Breaker.
But the best news, at the moment, is that HNOT has only four-and-a-half chapters to go. If I work really hard this week, I can get it done before I start editing Jesscapades on Sunday, and THAT would be AMAZING.
Hence, this is The Week Of Much Writing. I have 4.5 chapters to write in what is essentially now 4.5 days, and each chapter is somewhere between 2 and 3k. I haven't written in those kind of quantities since I was working on Sanctuary in March, but I wrote 2300 yesterday, which is more than I've written in a day since Easter. So it might just be possible.
Here's to trying :D
Also, I take great comfort in the fact that Liana also has to finish her current novel before edits on Sunday, and even more pressingly since she's finishing the novel she intends to edit ;) So I am not alone in my Week of Much Writing. Misery loves company, after all O:) :D
Feel free to join in with the Week of Much Writing, if you like. I'll report my progress on twitter using the hashtag #muchwriting - I'll be looking out to see if anyone else is there too :o)
18 December 2009
Why, Hello, Internet!
Oh, so this is what you look like! I'd quite forgotten.
World, let me introduce you to the wonderfulness that is Australian internet: we have Limits. As in, download limits. Monthly download limits. And, because most of you live in places that are lucky enough not to have to deal with limits, let me elaborate: every time you visit a web page, you're downloading things into the temporary memory of your computer so that the page (text, graphics) can be displayed. The more you browse, the more internet you use.
This month, we ran out. Oops. When we run out, our speed switches back to dial up, which those of us who used the net when it first existed will remember is rrrrreeeeeaaaaalllllllllyyyyy sssssllllllooooooowwwwwwwwww........ So, I could download things (and thus view webpages), but it wouldn't let me upload things (eg twitter, blog). Blah. Silly thing.
ANYway. I'm back now :) And in the spirit of December and all things reflective and goalish, I'm doing a Merc and changing my December goals O:)
I wanted to squee about this on Monday, but, for obvious reasons, couldn't:
I finished The Hunter Hunted!!!!!!!
Yay!!! HH, as it's more commonly known, is also known as 'the tiger one', or 'the tiger novelette'. You can read the blurb for it here. Much happy fun :) I finished on Monday at just over 21,000 words, and I've decided that it's a nice length to use for the revision course I'm currently taking - so that's what I'm doing.
Naturally, this will impact my original goal, which was to have HNOT finished by Christmas. Ha. Ha, ha-ha ha. So far this month I've written nearly 4k on it; I need another 25k-ish to finish. Ahem.
So, revised goals are thus:
* Finish at least the first three lessons of the revision course using HH (the first one is way long).
* Aim for total wordcount for the month of 20k (am at 10k presently).
* Of that, at least 6k on HNOT, to bring it up to 60k, which will leave ~20k to be finished in January :)
Sound like a plan? I think so. I hope so. The Muse is curled up in her little white bed, snoring her head off at the moment. And my characters have all decided that it's holidays for them, too; they're hanging out at the boat house drinking grape by-products and hanging christmas wreaths, and generally being totally slack bums.
What amuses me is that half of them think it's a northern hemisphere christmas, complete with snow and grey weather, and the other half are determined to have a good old Australian beach christmas. Consequently, the landscape keeps flickering back and forth like a really bad old film o.O Characters. They're bizarre.
Anyone else having to rethink their December plans due to Life/Busyness/Christmas/The End of The World(TM)?
World, let me introduce you to the wonderfulness that is Australian internet: we have Limits. As in, download limits. Monthly download limits. And, because most of you live in places that are lucky enough not to have to deal with limits, let me elaborate: every time you visit a web page, you're downloading things into the temporary memory of your computer so that the page (text, graphics) can be displayed. The more you browse, the more internet you use.
This month, we ran out. Oops. When we run out, our speed switches back to dial up, which those of us who used the net when it first existed will remember is rrrrreeeeeaaaaalllllllllyyyyy sssssllllllooooooowwwwwwwwww........ So, I could download things (and thus view webpages), but it wouldn't let me upload things (eg twitter, blog). Blah. Silly thing.
ANYway. I'm back now :) And in the spirit of December and all things reflective and goalish, I'm doing a Merc and changing my December goals O:)
I wanted to squee about this on Monday, but, for obvious reasons, couldn't:
I finished The Hunter Hunted!!!!!!!
Yay!!! HH, as it's more commonly known, is also known as 'the tiger one', or 'the tiger novelette'. You can read the blurb for it here. Much happy fun :) I finished on Monday at just over 21,000 words, and I've decided that it's a nice length to use for the revision course I'm currently taking - so that's what I'm doing.
Naturally, this will impact my original goal, which was to have HNOT finished by Christmas. Ha. Ha, ha-ha ha. So far this month I've written nearly 4k on it; I need another 25k-ish to finish. Ahem.
So, revised goals are thus:
* Finish at least the first three lessons of the revision course using HH (the first one is way long).
* Aim for total wordcount for the month of 20k (am at 10k presently).
* Of that, at least 6k on HNOT, to bring it up to 60k, which will leave ~20k to be finished in January :)
Sound like a plan? I think so. I hope so. The Muse is curled up in her little white bed, snoring her head off at the moment. And my characters have all decided that it's holidays for them, too; they're hanging out at the boat house drinking grape by-products and hanging christmas wreaths, and generally being totally slack bums.
What amuses me is that half of them think it's a northern hemisphere christmas, complete with snow and grey weather, and the other half are determined to have a good old Australian beach christmas. Consequently, the landscape keeps flickering back and forth like a really bad old film o.O Characters. They're bizarre.
Anyone else having to rethink their December plans due to Life/Busyness/Christmas/The End of The World(TM)?
01 December 2009
Fuzzled Like A Fuzzly Thing - November's End
Wow! It's December! Can you believe it? I can't. The year has gone so unbelievably incredibly fast that it's almost too much to contemplate. So today that means we're due for a November wrap-up :)
I do apologise for my lack of posting on Friday and my late posting today. The last five days have been made of sheer insanity, what with training new people at work, spending a day making gingerbread houses, engagement parties, birthday parties, bridal showers and so on and so forth.
The good news is it's all over and everything went well, huzzah :)
So, back to November and the Ultimate Question: Did I, or did I not, win Nano?
A theoretically simple question, with a complicated maybe-maybe not answer. How can it be complicated, you ask? Well, it goes like this.
In November, I wrote 50,894 words. Of that:
* 1528 were on Hunter Hunted;
* 49332 were on HNOT; and
* 34 were on Jess. Yes, 34. That's right :P
Soooo. We can look at this in three ways.
1) The total word count for November is 50k+. Win.
2) The November wordcount for HNOT is less than 50k. Lose.
3) I actually wrote 686 words of HNOT before November; the total wordcount for HNOT is 50k+. Win.
Personally, I decided that the extra words in 1) made up for the false addition of words in 3), and entered HNOT for a win :D I squeaked in with (according to their count) 3 words and 5 minutes to spare, after an insanely busy day wherein I did a whole bunch of stuff plus wrote nearly 4700 words - my biggest day ever!
I do hope you all don't think too badly of me because of this :D hehe. To celebrate, I did a wordle of the manuscript so far.
So, what did I learn from the process this time around? Mostly that 1600 words a day is really Not That Bad any more. This time, I mostly didn't struggle at all to keep up with the wordcount (though having 2 days off per week helps; mind you, I had that in '07 as well). The first time I did NaNo the word count nearly killed me; I was writing an average of 175 words a day in 2007, peaking at 391 words/day in May.
This year, I'm averaging 376 words/day, peaking in September with 667/day. In effect I'm writing double what I was two years ago on average - which is actually quite a nice thing to know. Huh. *pleased* :o)
Aside from sheer wordiness, this NaNo has been a really squeeful experience for me in terms of writing progress. For the first time ever, a novel is flowing properly for me, and it's been absolutely fun to write. I always knew writing a novel was supposed to be fun; but now I know how that feels. Thanks to techniques I learned in How To Think Sideways and learning to really listen to my characters and let them direct the plot rather than forcing them into a mould, the book has been practically devoid of middle-of-the-book blues, and interesting things keep happening. It's all terribly, terribly exciting! :D
Where to from here? In December I hope to finish HNOT (another 20-30k required) and also pick up HH again, which I haven't touched since November 8. I'd really like to finish it this month if I can, and given it only needs another 5k-ish, that should be do-able.
Also, I'm taking Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel course, so I plan on working through that with Jesscapades :) Who knows? Maybe this time next year I'll have not only 4 complete novel drafts (TBAEO, my first nano; Jesscapades; HNOT, this year's novel; plus a draft for next year), I might have two edited drafts, too! (Jess & HNOT) Fingers crossed, and here's hoping :o)
So. How was your month? If you entered NaNo, did you win? What was the most exciting thing you learned? And what do you plan to do in December?
I do apologise for my lack of posting on Friday and my late posting today. The last five days have been made of sheer insanity, what with training new people at work, spending a day making gingerbread houses, engagement parties, birthday parties, bridal showers and so on and so forth.
The good news is it's all over and everything went well, huzzah :)
So, back to November and the Ultimate Question: Did I, or did I not, win Nano?
A theoretically simple question, with a complicated maybe-maybe not answer. How can it be complicated, you ask? Well, it goes like this.
In November, I wrote 50,894 words. Of that:
* 1528 were on Hunter Hunted;
* 49332 were on HNOT; and
* 34 were on Jess. Yes, 34. That's right :P
Soooo. We can look at this in three ways.
1) The total word count for November is 50k+. Win.
2) The November wordcount for HNOT is less than 50k. Lose.
3) I actually wrote 686 words of HNOT before November; the total wordcount for HNOT is 50k+. Win.
Personally, I decided that the extra words in 1) made up for the false addition of words in 3), and entered HNOT for a win :D I squeaked in with (according to their count) 3 words and 5 minutes to spare, after an insanely busy day wherein I did a whole bunch of stuff plus wrote nearly 4700 words - my biggest day ever!
I do hope you all don't think too badly of me because of this :D hehe. To celebrate, I did a wordle of the manuscript so far.
So, what did I learn from the process this time around? Mostly that 1600 words a day is really Not That Bad any more. This time, I mostly didn't struggle at all to keep up with the wordcount (though having 2 days off per week helps; mind you, I had that in '07 as well). The first time I did NaNo the word count nearly killed me; I was writing an average of 175 words a day in 2007, peaking at 391 words/day in May.
This year, I'm averaging 376 words/day, peaking in September with 667/day. In effect I'm writing double what I was two years ago on average - which is actually quite a nice thing to know. Huh. *pleased* :o)
Aside from sheer wordiness, this NaNo has been a really squeeful experience for me in terms of writing progress. For the first time ever, a novel is flowing properly for me, and it's been absolutely fun to write. I always knew writing a novel was supposed to be fun; but now I know how that feels. Thanks to techniques I learned in How To Think Sideways and learning to really listen to my characters and let them direct the plot rather than forcing them into a mould, the book has been practically devoid of middle-of-the-book blues, and interesting things keep happening. It's all terribly, terribly exciting! :D
Where to from here? In December I hope to finish HNOT (another 20-30k required) and also pick up HH again, which I haven't touched since November 8. I'd really like to finish it this month if I can, and given it only needs another 5k-ish, that should be do-able.
Also, I'm taking Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel course, so I plan on working through that with Jesscapades :) Who knows? Maybe this time next year I'll have not only 4 complete novel drafts (TBAEO, my first nano; Jesscapades; HNOT, this year's novel; plus a draft for next year), I might have two edited drafts, too! (Jess & HNOT) Fingers crossed, and here's hoping :o)
So. How was your month? If you entered NaNo, did you win? What was the most exciting thing you learned? And what do you plan to do in December?
21 November 2009
Taking Over The World By Contest
Like so many other authors I know, I've been letting myself get totally distracted with the joy that is Wordle. Actually, not distracted so much as using it for bribery - every time I finish a chapter or two I can create a Wordle :D
Having just finished chapter 12 of How Not To Take Over The World, here's my current Wordle:
Yes, there is an atrocious number of words such as 'like', 'glanced', and 'just', but that's a problem for editing, not nano-ing - and it makes your task a lot easier >:)
Task, you say? Why, what task?
*bounce* Here's the deal. You write me a sentence using (mostly) words from my wordle, post it in the comments, and you'll be entered in the draw to win a copy of the e-magazine Greatest Uncommon Denominator, issue 3!
Yay! Contest!
Are you excited? I am :o)
Rules:
1) Write a sentence using (mostly) words from my Wordle and post it in the comments. To see a bigger version of the Wordle and thus more of the words in it, view the Wordle here.
2) I get to decide what 'mostly' means. Pretty much, it means you can use small words like at, is, the, and, etc - and not much else, OTHER THAN THE WORDS IN THE WORDLE.
3) If you tweet about the contest, that's +1 extra entry. You MUST INCLUDE @Inksie in the tweet so I can see you've done it :)
4) If you're already a follower or become a follower, that's +2 extra entries.
5) And finally, if you blog about it and leave a link to said blog in the comments, that's +3 :)
6) The prize is a PDF version of GUDmagazine Issue 3.
7) THIS CONTEST CLOSES ON DEC 1. The draw will be held shortly after that :)
The contest is open worldwide (since if I restricted it to my home continent it'd be a very small contest :P).
And finally, an except B-) Beware, it's rough - NaNo rough.
Muffled grumbling sounded inside the courtyard, and then the doors that hid the courtyard from view swung open and a lovely, dark-haired woman glared at him. "What do you want?"
"Pardon me, Ma'am," he said, sweeping into a graceful bow. "I am here to meet with the Spawn of Evil that rules this place."
"Are you just?"
Why did the woman look so amused? Did she not realise that she stood within the walls that shielded the most evil being known to man - the Overlord? He cocked his head, trying to read her.
Perhaps she didn't realise. There was a feral gleam in her eye that didn't feel quite sane; maybe she had no idea who it was that held her imprisoned.
Reth edged towards her, hands held out placatingly. "There, there," he soothed. "It's okay. I've come to save you."
The woman's face spasmed. Poor creature, he thought. She's probably been warned that if she tries to escape he'll kill her. "It's okay," he said softly. "I can help you."
The woman tilted her beautiful face, full lips pouting slightly. Her eyelashes drifted closed before she peered up at him, soft and ripe and full. "Yes," she breathed. "Perhaps you can. Tell me your name?"
"Reth," he said as he reached the portcullis, pressed his palm against it, reached through the bars towards her. "My name is Reth."
She spasmed again, and he thought his heart my break in his chest.
"I'll help you," he whispered. "Tell me where the Overlord is. I'll fight him, and I'll set you free."
"Oh, I'm sure you will," she whispered back, capturing his hand in hers and caressing his palm. "I'm sure you will."
He blinked at her, delighting in the way her lashes fell softly against her cheek as she examined his hand, the way her off-balance stance emphasised one hip, the way the cut of her dress revealed everything and nothing all at once. He sighed. The world's most perfect Damsel in Distress.
Reth curled his fingers around hers. "Tell me, damsel sweeter than air. Where is the foul beast that has you trapped, that I may slay him and carry you home?"
The woman's nostrils flared. "Oh," she said. "I don't think you need to bother with him any more."
She was trying to protect him; how sweet. "But lady, I must, for how else can I win your assured affection?"
The woman looked him over. "How about we start with the shirt?"
"What?"
Footsteps interrupted their exchange.
"Overlady? Why are you chewing this man's hand?"
Reth stared at the intruder, a wizened old man bearing the stench of evil. His jaw twitched. Surely this was he, the foul monster who held the lady trapped.
"Overlady?"
The woman sighed, dropped Reth's hand, and turned to the man. "Ainor, you really do have the most apalling sense of timing, you know that?"
The man called Ainor pursed his lips, chin and upper lip turning white. "Be that as it may, Oh Lady Most Evil, I would still like to know what you are chewing on a hand that patently belongs to a Hero."
The woman wrinkled her nose. "I was nibbling, not chewing. The difference being that one is sensual, the other canabalistic. And it's practically in the rules that the Evil Overlady gets to seduce the Hero." She pouted.
"Whatever your Evilship insists." Ainor bowed.
Reth watched the interchange with a growing sense of dread. "Your... Evilship?" he said hesitantly.
The woman turned to him, teeth bared in a vicious smile. "Yes, my pet?"
He opened his mouth, fisted his hands, and stepped away from the portcullis, shaking his head. "But you're the Damsel in Distress!"
She rolled her eyes. "Sweetheart, do I look distressed?"
And that's it! Go! Enter ye contest! :)
Having just finished chapter 12 of How Not To Take Over The World, here's my current Wordle:
Yes, there is an atrocious number of words such as 'like', 'glanced', and 'just', but that's a problem for editing, not nano-ing - and it makes your task a lot easier >:)
Task, you say? Why, what task?
*bounce* Here's the deal. You write me a sentence using (mostly) words from my wordle, post it in the comments, and you'll be entered in the draw to win a copy of the e-magazine Greatest Uncommon Denominator, issue 3!
Yay! Contest!
Are you excited? I am :o)
Rules:
1) Write a sentence using (mostly) words from my Wordle and post it in the comments. To see a bigger version of the Wordle and thus more of the words in it, view the Wordle here.
2) I get to decide what 'mostly' means. Pretty much, it means you can use small words like at, is, the, and, etc - and not much else, OTHER THAN THE WORDS IN THE WORDLE.
3) If you tweet about the contest, that's +1 extra entry. You MUST INCLUDE @Inksie in the tweet so I can see you've done it :)
4) If you're already a follower or become a follower, that's +2 extra entries.
5) And finally, if you blog about it and leave a link to said blog in the comments, that's +3 :)
6) The prize is a PDF version of GUDmagazine Issue 3.
7) THIS CONTEST CLOSES ON DEC 1. The draw will be held shortly after that :)
The contest is open worldwide (since if I restricted it to my home continent it'd be a very small contest :P).
And finally, an except B-) Beware, it's rough - NaNo rough.
Muffled grumbling sounded inside the courtyard, and then the doors that hid the courtyard from view swung open and a lovely, dark-haired woman glared at him. "What do you want?"
"Pardon me, Ma'am," he said, sweeping into a graceful bow. "I am here to meet with the Spawn of Evil that rules this place."
"Are you just?"
Why did the woman look so amused? Did she not realise that she stood within the walls that shielded the most evil being known to man - the Overlord? He cocked his head, trying to read her.
Perhaps she didn't realise. There was a feral gleam in her eye that didn't feel quite sane; maybe she had no idea who it was that held her imprisoned.
Reth edged towards her, hands held out placatingly. "There, there," he soothed. "It's okay. I've come to save you."
The woman's face spasmed. Poor creature, he thought. She's probably been warned that if she tries to escape he'll kill her. "It's okay," he said softly. "I can help you."
The woman tilted her beautiful face, full lips pouting slightly. Her eyelashes drifted closed before she peered up at him, soft and ripe and full. "Yes," she breathed. "Perhaps you can. Tell me your name?"
"Reth," he said as he reached the portcullis, pressed his palm against it, reached through the bars towards her. "My name is Reth."
She spasmed again, and he thought his heart my break in his chest.
"I'll help you," he whispered. "Tell me where the Overlord is. I'll fight him, and I'll set you free."
"Oh, I'm sure you will," she whispered back, capturing his hand in hers and caressing his palm. "I'm sure you will."
He blinked at her, delighting in the way her lashes fell softly against her cheek as she examined his hand, the way her off-balance stance emphasised one hip, the way the cut of her dress revealed everything and nothing all at once. He sighed. The world's most perfect Damsel in Distress.
Reth curled his fingers around hers. "Tell me, damsel sweeter than air. Where is the foul beast that has you trapped, that I may slay him and carry you home?"
The woman's nostrils flared. "Oh," she said. "I don't think you need to bother with him any more."
She was trying to protect him; how sweet. "But lady, I must, for how else can I win your assured affection?"
The woman looked him over. "How about we start with the shirt?"
"What?"
Footsteps interrupted their exchange.
"Overlady? Why are you chewing this man's hand?"
Reth stared at the intruder, a wizened old man bearing the stench of evil. His jaw twitched. Surely this was he, the foul monster who held the lady trapped.
"Overlady?"
The woman sighed, dropped Reth's hand, and turned to the man. "Ainor, you really do have the most apalling sense of timing, you know that?"
The man called Ainor pursed his lips, chin and upper lip turning white. "Be that as it may, Oh Lady Most Evil, I would still like to know what you are chewing on a hand that patently belongs to a Hero."
The woman wrinkled her nose. "I was nibbling, not chewing. The difference being that one is sensual, the other canabalistic. And it's practically in the rules that the Evil Overlady gets to seduce the Hero." She pouted.
"Whatever your Evilship insists." Ainor bowed.
Reth watched the interchange with a growing sense of dread. "Your... Evilship?" he said hesitantly.
The woman turned to him, teeth bared in a vicious smile. "Yes, my pet?"
He opened his mouth, fisted his hands, and stepped away from the portcullis, shaking his head. "But you're the Damsel in Distress!"
She rolled her eyes. "Sweetheart, do I look distressed?"
And that's it! Go! Enter ye contest! :)
05 October 2009
So Long, September!
Wow, another month down. Is it just me, or is time really speeding up these days? I swear I just did a monthly review... o.O :D
Anyway. Accomplishments.
Regular Reader may recall that back in June, I set myself a challenge: Once Jesscapades was finished and I had a shiny, complete draft, I would give myself permission not to focus for the rest of the year; I could write whatever I felt like writing at the time, without worrying about progressing on any set thing.
Regular Reader will also know that sometimes I had a hard time remembering that, and tried to stress over it.
But! All this aside, this month has truly been the month of Write Whatever I Feel Like. And you know what? The pot theory actually works. This has been my best non-nano month ever. *grin*
Here's the stats:
Total Wordcount: 20,021 (whee!)
Main Works:
Jesscapades 2.0: 6,258
The Hunter Hunted (aka 'the tiger novelette): 5,857
Quest to Rebuild Jerusalem (aka 'the Pathfinder play): 2,439.
Other Random Miscellania:
Borderlands: 25 words. Yeah. I know :P hehe.
Short stories written from scratch: Forget (flash); Adam, Be A Star (flash); Dragon Tuesday (~2400).
Of those, Forget was revised and subbed.
Other random shorts tampered with this month: In Death (ending rewritten, then slashed down to make it flash); Festival of Souls (did a few hundred words and decided that this is going to be a themed collection of shorts); Afterwards (a short idea that's been lingering for a while - I wrote the beginning); Understanding (mainstream story from university; figured out how to fix it and started the rewrite).
Also, on the very last day of September I was reading through the blurbs for some of my stories-in-waiting, and stumbled upon this, which made me go squee:
Mercury, youngest-but-one of seven siblings, went to Evil Overlord school to be different. After all, her parents are accountants, her other siblings are all sickeningly good - and she had to get attention somehow.
Shame, then, that her parents seem to have forgotten all about her.But that's fine. Mercury will show them. Armed with her ferret familiar, Bystar, a stolen Key of Power, and the brains that got her this far, Mercury sets out to graduate at the top of her class so she can take over the city where her parents live.
And even if the invasion doesn't catch their attention, virtually exploding the world when she gets a bit too close to an Eye ought to do it...
So of course, I started writing that, too. I think I'll use it for my nano this year; appropriate, since it's book one (How Not To Take Over The World - HNOT) to the book two (To Be An Evil Overlord - TBAEO) I wrote for my very first nano in '07 :)
Submissions:
8 this month, 3 of which were either new subs or substantially reworked subs. Huzzah! This is my best subbing month yet B-)
Finally, Random Trends of the Month:
Souls. As in Festival of Souls (dead souls collect in the Tower every year until the Festival, when four people are chosen to lead them to the top of the Tower and to peace), Jesscapades (the souls in the glasses which smash and indicate to the Shards who their next target it), Afterwards (possession of souls - or not %-)), Dragon Tuesday (sharing souls, inter-dimensionality of souls) and random miscellaneous worldbuilding for my over-arching universe.
Voice. Lots of great voices coming through from my characters this month, including the MC from Forget, the girl Chay in Dragon Tuesday, Mercury from HNOT, and finally, Selene in Understanding.
YA. Not necessarily what I've written, but definitely what's been attacking the fringes of my mind recently.
So there you go: that's my random month! How was your September?
Anyway. Accomplishments.
Regular Reader may recall that back in June, I set myself a challenge: Once Jesscapades was finished and I had a shiny, complete draft, I would give myself permission not to focus for the rest of the year; I could write whatever I felt like writing at the time, without worrying about progressing on any set thing.
Regular Reader will also know that sometimes I had a hard time remembering that, and tried to stress over it.
But! All this aside, this month has truly been the month of Write Whatever I Feel Like. And you know what? The pot theory actually works. This has been my best non-nano month ever. *grin*
Here's the stats:
Total Wordcount: 20,021 (whee!)
Main Works:
Jesscapades 2.0: 6,258
The Hunter Hunted (aka 'the tiger novelette): 5,857
Quest to Rebuild Jerusalem (aka 'the Pathfinder play): 2,439.
Other Random Miscellania:
Borderlands: 25 words. Yeah. I know :P hehe.
Short stories written from scratch: Forget (flash); Adam, Be A Star (flash); Dragon Tuesday (~2400).
Of those, Forget was revised and subbed.
Other random shorts tampered with this month: In Death (ending rewritten, then slashed down to make it flash); Festival of Souls (did a few hundred words and decided that this is going to be a themed collection of shorts); Afterwards (a short idea that's been lingering for a while - I wrote the beginning); Understanding (mainstream story from university; figured out how to fix it and started the rewrite).
Also, on the very last day of September I was reading through the blurbs for some of my stories-in-waiting, and stumbled upon this, which made me go squee:
Mercury, youngest-but-one of seven siblings, went to Evil Overlord school to be different. After all, her parents are accountants, her other siblings are all sickeningly good - and she had to get attention somehow.
Shame, then, that her parents seem to have forgotten all about her.But that's fine. Mercury will show them. Armed with her ferret familiar, Bystar, a stolen Key of Power, and the brains that got her this far, Mercury sets out to graduate at the top of her class so she can take over the city where her parents live.
And even if the invasion doesn't catch their attention, virtually exploding the world when she gets a bit too close to an Eye ought to do it...
So of course, I started writing that, too. I think I'll use it for my nano this year; appropriate, since it's book one (How Not To Take Over The World - HNOT) to the book two (To Be An Evil Overlord - TBAEO) I wrote for my very first nano in '07 :)
Submissions:
8 this month, 3 of which were either new subs or substantially reworked subs. Huzzah! This is my best subbing month yet B-)
Finally, Random Trends of the Month:
Souls. As in Festival of Souls (dead souls collect in the Tower every year until the Festival, when four people are chosen to lead them to the top of the Tower and to peace), Jesscapades (the souls in the glasses which smash and indicate to the Shards who their next target it), Afterwards (possession of souls - or not %-)), Dragon Tuesday (sharing souls, inter-dimensionality of souls) and random miscellaneous worldbuilding for my over-arching universe.
Voice. Lots of great voices coming through from my characters this month, including the MC from Forget, the girl Chay in Dragon Tuesday, Mercury from HNOT, and finally, Selene in Understanding.
YA. Not necessarily what I've written, but definitely what's been attacking the fringes of my mind recently.
So there you go: that's my random month! How was your September?
06 April 2008
TBAEO is... Number TWO??
So, in a random conversation over at Critique Circle, an exciting title for a story came up. And, because it seems vaguely related to TBAEO, it was shoved in my direction.
As you may or may not know, I've been trying to think of an alternative title for TBAEO for a few weeks now, and this /other/ title re-sparked the discussion about TBAEO - should I change it to match this fun new title, that will be the next book in the series?
Which of course lead to more title brainstorming... And the creation of /another/ title. (Confused yet?) Which apparently is book one.
Yes, that's right. Book one.
So, long confusing story short, it turns out that TBAEO is actually book two in a three book series. The first book, HNTTOTW, will be about Mercury and Bystar - and just exactly what did happen at the Eye - and the final one, WWTBAM, will relate the future adventures of Deviran and Mercury.
In the mean time, it's going to play havoc with my TBAEO rewrites, because I'll be thinking the whole time - but it's book two! I'm going to have to change so much again!
Not to mention the temptation to go play with shiny ideas rather than doing my homework %-)
As you may or may not know, I've been trying to think of an alternative title for TBAEO for a few weeks now, and this /other/ title re-sparked the discussion about TBAEO - should I change it to match this fun new title, that will be the next book in the series?
Which of course lead to more title brainstorming... And the creation of /another/ title. (Confused yet?) Which apparently is book one.
Yes, that's right. Book one.
So, long confusing story short, it turns out that TBAEO is actually book two in a three book series. The first book, HNTTOTW, will be about Mercury and Bystar - and just exactly what did happen at the Eye - and the final one, WWTBAM, will relate the future adventures of Deviran and Mercury.
In the mean time, it's going to play havoc with my TBAEO rewrites, because I'll be thinking the whole time - but it's book two! I'm going to have to change so much again!
Not to mention the temptation to go play with shiny ideas rather than doing my homework %-)
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