The Voice of Chaos. The Tick of Khronos.

It's December 1st. Yep. That time of year again. It is the time for doing things still undone.

The clock is ticking.

Time to avoid writing, and instead stare my eyes out at the TV shows I did not have time to watch in November.

Time to randomly subvert myself in the middle of something completely unrelated to writing, and then slap down words when I least expect it. In fact, I think I WILL do that to myself. I AM NINJA WRITER.

Time to start sketching my characters' clothes and places from the Five Worlds again.

Time to catch up on my reading.

Time to start several things simultaneously in order to accommodate my short attention sp

(I'm really hungry.)

an. And...hopefully finish them all.

Time to avoid as much of the ubiquitous Christmas music I can, and assemble my own delicious tunes: some for me, and some for Dark Arcana. This album would be perfect for Ethan, as he tries to track down what went wrong with history...I really must check out more epic cinematic music!

Listening To:



Time to subvert the topic of my own blog post. Speaking of which, here are the five worlds, along with two...places that are not places.

• Alpha: Nodus - The source of all things, but which is not the thing itself. The Inside. The Mind. The Inner being.
• 1. Calor - The age of the false gods. When the truth dies, and a new truth dawns. 
• 2. Engleter - The age of chaos. When truths and other truths collide in chaos, there is only the human, alone.
• 3. Quan Sai - The age of fire. When reason trumps emotion, and wrong and right mean the same thing.
• 4. Acheron - The age of darkness. In the void of truth, deception, chaos, reason, and emotion, there is only the night.
• 5. Grehai - The age of the human collective. When the nodes are scattered far in space and time, of sentience beyond truth, yet united. 
• Omega: The Wall - The final rest of all things, that which defines the thing. The Outside. The Outer being.

I have no idea what this even means. This is what happens when I let Dark Arcana do the typing for me. Now this damn hydra bunny is all smug because he knows exactly what he's talking about with all this fancy sounding philosophical stuff, but he won't tell me.

I think my blog posts have gone beyond editing.

This is utter chaos. Interestingly enough, each of these places matches up with a work of fiction that resonates in my head. WHY they resonate I can't very well say, but they do.

• Calor - A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
• Engleter - His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
• Quan Sai - Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra
• Acheron - Star Wars and Lord of the Rings
• Grehai - Neuromancer by William Gibson

Pretty soon, I am going to be bleeding all over the place about how this is the worst idea ever. Oh, hello, Chasm of Despair.

I'm glad to see you've warmed up my comfortable blanket for me.

NaNoMongering 20: Exhausted Elementary Epiphany

I wondered whether to include boring stock photography that was vaguely relevant... (TBC)

Yesterday I mused that I might be better off focusing on writing my novel, instead of obsessively aiming for 30 blog posts in November. No point in blogging for blogging's sake, when I have nothing better to add except to repost other people's content and to angst about my word count. The fact is, I have achieved my original aim, which was simple blog necromancy.

Behold the resurrection. Having established a habit of regularly scheduled quantity, the next step is quality. Now I need to post only when I have a good reason.

Having said that, a "good reason" can range anywhere from existential triumph to angsty epiphany to how having only 19 NaNoMongering posts is bothering me and my OCD compels me to round it off to 20. #iregretnothing

I have learned that having a set schedule for tedious activities breeds productivity. Now I choose to subvert my original plan with a better, more sustainable one: blog once a week. I will still have the schedule to kick my butt, but hopefully this means I will actually edit my posts now, instead of word vomiting all over the place. This is actually meant to be a semi-serious (because since when have I ever been able to take myself entirely seriously?) writing blog, to function as a tool for me to help me write more good. How else could I find that, having written 2k of explanation about my WIP, that I still don't know what it's about? All the heaps of inane off-topic drivel, rabid fangirling, angst, fudge posts, etc. may provide fun content, but they defeat this purpose. There's a reason Tumblr exists.

That's not to say I'll cut out all the fun. I can't guarantee that the occasional picture of David Tennant won't slip in. :-)

(cont'd) Or a cheerful picture of fruit that had absolutely nothing to do with anything. There. You get both.

It's still November, though, which means insanity is necessary. (Though with me, this excuse is like a hat on a snowman. Looks good, but hardly required.)

This is a little tune called Smells Like the Write Spirit.

Load up on puns
Bring your pens it's fun to lose and also win
I'm never bored, a sugar hoard
 Write extra late to pad the words

Nano nano nano nano nano
Nano nano nano nano nano
Nano nano nano nano nano
Nano nano nano nano nano

This is NaNo. Time to party!
Mr. Ian Woon is tardy!
I'm a pantser! Time to fly now!
Fifty thousand! NaNoWriMo!


Fearless fighter!
Puny writer!
From a zero!
To a hero!

Yeah!

The count won't come, I must rest,
For wars of words our will shall test,
Our little group will always grin,
And type a tale until The End 

Nano nano nano nano nano (X3)

This is NaNo. It's my story!
Plot a novel. That is scary!
I'm a pantser! How should I know?
Fifty thousand! NaNoWriMo!

Fearless fighter!
Puny writer!
From a zero!
To a hero!

Yeah!

And I forget just why I write,
Oh yeah I guess I'm just insane,
Our angst and doubt, make it hard to win,
We cheer and share the pain.

With the lights out, Midnight oil
Burns as we slave, sweat and toil!
This is stupid! This is pointless!
Aching fingers need some ointment!

Fearless fighter!
Puny writer!
From a zero!
To a hero!

Yeah!

NaNoWriMo! (X9)

Tune stolen borrowed from Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

NaNoMongering 12: Verbosity, Velociraptors, and Villainy, Part I

Part I: Verbosity

I'm not sure about the "Rightful King Hiddleston" bit, but Tom Hiddleston (if this is a real quote) is right.

I'm back. Oh, I'm back with a vengeance!

Travel back in time to the end of Day 11...

I have no idea how it happened.

Actually, I know exactly how it happened. The last bit just went by so fast...

After a busy Sunday, I finally sat down at 9:30 in the evening on Day 11, and slowly squeezed out a few painful, diahrreal words. Three hours later, I was only 1k richer, of butt-numbingly boring dialogue which in no way advanced the plot, and was sure to put the reader to sleep. Still another 1k behind my minimum goal for the day (20k), I was ready to throw in the towel.

Then I turned to Twitter in a last ditch attempt to salvage my NaNo-ly dignity, and word warred with a fellow NaNoer who happened to be online. It was only one 15 minute session and one 10 minute session, but this put me over 20k.

After that, my OCD, and the need to round off things I had left off in the middle, took care of the rest. Oh, I don't actually have OCD. It's just that when I look at my daily word count and total word count, I have an obsessive need to round it off at the nearest ,000 or ,500 mark. It especially bothers me when I am within 250 words of the next thousand count. When I'm in my stride, this often means that I often overshoot my goal when I try to pad on a few more words to hit the mark.

...Enter OCD again. Rinse and repeat.

The rest is history.

Present, End Day 12...

Wrote 3k more through a combination of word sprints, word vomit, and padding with random bits to cross my OCD marks.

I am now at 25k, the halfway mark, 3 days ahead of the NaNo goal, and 1k ahead of my goal.

Woo. Fucking. Hoo.