NaNoMongering 22: The Long Dark Winter of the Soul

I suppose that since NaNoWriMo is now over, I should do a wrap-up post about what I learned, and stuff. Well, that's in here, but fair warning: there is a fair amount of fluff. The last few days were...eventful. Thus, you all get another word vomit post about things that happened to me.

In no particular order:

Yesterday, I finally got a job! I start in about a week and a half. So...yes. That. And...

The Long Dark Winter Of The Soul

On the 26th, I did a mad 4k dash, and won NaNoWriMo.

I am very happy about this. I have won NaNoWriMo before, and with higher word counts, but this was a different sort of victory.

This is the first OLL event for which I wrote every day, without skipping a single day. There it is, my beautiful graph! No ugly plateaus!

This actually makes me feel so much better than any number ever did. Even on those days when all I could squeeze out was 100 words, it was like a pat on the back from my Narrator, as if he was telling me that he's still there, and isn't going to go away any time soon.


If there was one thing I learned from this, it was that perseverance pays off. I can feel my novel existing in the aether, ready to be defined on the page. The pieces slowly click into place, snap by snap, gear by gear, slowly turning. One day the beast will awaken.

I don't expect it to happen for a while yet, but it doesn't matter. What I need is not a higher word count in less time; when I push that hard, I get burnt out, and I take a break that ends up lasting for months, during which time I lose all connection with what I started. I need my novel to stay alive, and that it will, with time, patience, and perseverance. Since I won, I have been writing a little every day, at a slower pace, one that I can keep up. Just a thousand words a day, until this thing is done.

A finished draft. I don't have it yet, but I will soon.

So thank you, OLL, for making it possible for writers like me to push themselves to start. I know I often blame Doctor Who for Dark Arcana's existence, but it was NaNoWriMo that really pushed me to come up with an idea in the first place.

Key word from the first sentence: start. Of course, my goal now is to finish Draft 1, but after that, there is still more work ahead. I will probably leave Draft 1 buried in soft peat for a month or two, but in the mean time, I will start working on a new project, maybe Deus Ex Machina, or the second book of Dark Arcana.

So, to sum up, the Fall Rush to start is done, and now comes The Long Dark Winter Of The Soul, and hopefully the Spring of Completion. This is the long, slow road to polishing the turd I have into something that more nearly resembles the shining vision I have in my head. Write Draft 2. Revise. Edit. Rinse. Repeat. My life is basically one long tunnel at this point.

Dark Arcana: The Amber of Time.
It sounds grand.
This is going to happen. It's going to happen, isn't it?

By the way, all this vomit I vomited just now? Chuck Wendig says it far better than I do, in Here's How You Flush Your NaNoWriMo Efforts Down the Crapper. (Language warning.)

Random Dark Arcana Related Word Vomit

Yes, there is more word vomit. During the past few days, I also "discovered" three new plot bunnies, and two plot segments! I'm only putting in hints here, because I have yet to flesh these things out.

Bunnies:
Religion.
Readers, Characters, Reality.
The Tunnel.

Segments:
The Cave. Dreams.
Shopping as an extreme sport.


On a side note, I discovered an interesting subplot for Dark Arcana. Okay, interesting is putting it mildly.

This was sheer mindfuckery, of the sort that makes one write it all down.
And then go vomit in the trash can.
Poor Ethan and Caliiry. I'm afraid that they are in for a rough time.

Speaking of rough times, my other little terrors have been acting up too. Yesterday, they all started scaring the crap out of me by having a surprise Disney cosplay party in my head. The worst part is that these characters actually don't look at all like the characters they chose. Just like a real cosplay, they are different people, but...it worked.

The Cast:
Aurana: Belle. *prances around imaginary library*
Ethan: The Beast (He hates his costume. Ethan: YES. In the name of Chaos, Author, WHY?)
Caliiry: Maleficent (She loves her costume. Caliiry: No I don't! What is this Vickie nonsense? Frag you, author. Me: (whisper) She secretly does like it.)
Hermeticus Octodyne: Frollo. (HO: *smirks* Why yes, I AM enjoying this. Me: ...Why, Hermeticus Octodyne, why?)
Oscar: Cinderella (He loves messing with me.)
Wei Lao: Mulan. (Really, Wei Lao? Just because you're the one Asian girl? Isn't that a bit... WL: ...You mean, because Mulan is awesome, and so am I? Then yes.)
Claire: As herself, because she's too cool for this foolery.

On a more sober note, these are both songs that I haven't listened to in forever. Yet, they remind me of a certain tragic stage in Ethan and Aurana's plot. *Sad silence*

Hinder - Lips Of An Angel

The Offspring - Gone Away

Speaking of songs that I haven't heard in AGES, this one sort of reminds me of Ethan...sort of.

Hoobastank - Crawling In The Dark

The Battle of the Battlestar

Backstory: My sister and I are polar opposites. I could make a long list, but the relevant point is that literature and TV-wise, my sister doesn't like science fiction AT ALL. She's even iffy about fantasy. Anyway, I have been trying to get my sister to watch Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica for months. Doctor Who is a lost cause. She just flat out doesn't like it, even after the first three episodes of 9. Inconceivable! But, well, marching to the beat of a different drum and all that, she managed to subvert my mission for a while.

Then yesterday, tragedy struck. For her.

Sister: Want to watch The Office?
Me: Okay.
Sister: ...Aw, there's no new episode! Must have been because of Thanksgiving.
Me: MUA HA HA HA HA, NOW YOU ARE WATCHING BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
Sister: *internally groans* -__________- *resigns herself to it, because she made the mistake of not having a back up program, and now there's nothing else on*
Me: Challenge accepted! *gleefully starts up the first episode of BSG*

Episode 1, 15 minutes in:
Sister: *bored, texting on her phone, and vaguely glancing at the TV*
Episode 1, 30 minutes in:
Sister: *occasionally forgets to look bored, only checks phone half the time*
Episode 1, 60 minutes in:
Sister: *computer and phone utterly forgotten, leaning forward in chair*
After Episode 1 over:
Sister: "That was better than I thought it would be."
Sister: "And...OMG STARBUCK! She's AWESOME!"
Me: ^___________________^ "Told you."

My work here is done.

NaNoMongering 21: Hey Hey You You Get Off Of My Back

There is an OCD gremlin on my back. It clings to me with little slimy toady arms, and it's got spurs on its boots. It's biting my ear, and presenting to me an impossible writing plan, in triplicate, in three tiers.

Nine hells. Ugh.

Unfortunately, the only way I will get it off my back is, of course, if I do one of the impossible plans.

The goal: 50k.
Present state: 44.7k.

300 words away from 45k. Being that close is the strongest annoyance. The first step is to attain 45k, and reach a round thousand and 5k number mark. The next step is to finish at least 2k words today, which is a daily goal. More OCD gremlin kicking, because that would put me at 47k, and I prefer even thousand number marks, like 46 or 48k. Of course, I can't stop at 46, though, because that would mean writing less than 2k today, and also leaving me 4k away from 50k, making it harder to catch up. Time wise, I have no excuse not to finish today. Even if I hit 48k, the 50k mark adds another layer, because again being that close but not getting there will annoy me. It doesn't help that 50k is where I should have reached today.

But it means that I need 5.3k written today in order to completely silence the demon gremlin, AND get it off me. Everything else will quiet it, but it will still be there, telepathically nagging. I want this thing off me NOW.

Then again, I shouldn't complain.
It could be worse.

Doctor Who, Turn Left, Donna Noble

Doctor Who, Turn Left, Donna Noble

What? Someone once said that this was going to be a serious writing blog, with no more pointless word vomit and random pictures? No? I don't remember this at all.

Time to crank up the word machine. I have Cradle of Filth's Cemetery and Sundown stuck in my head, out of which I got two good titles for possible stories: When Waking Worlds Collide, and Dawn of the Underworld. It reminds me of all these scary caves I see in my dreams, and makes me wonder if they're  all really part of one giant cave, and I just see different bits each time...

But first, pie.

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 19: Blog Hop - The Next Big Thing

Introduction:

I almost forgot about this. I know, right, bad Agent Double Oh Zero! Well, it's still November 21st in my time zone, so I guess I haven't technically missed the mark. Anyway, I volunteered for a blog hop. This one is called The Next Big Thing, in which the participants answer questions about their Works In Progress. I was tagged by fellow NaNoer NicoleT.

And now, without further ado, let me introduce you to my baby holy terror of the seven hells Plot Hydra novel series, Dark Arcana.

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

1. What is the working title of your book?

The title of the series is Dark Arcana. The current book, the first, is tentatively titled The Amber of Time. For the rest, I am throwing around possibilities, such as The Octodyne Inheritance, The Clockwork Monk, and The Wells of Acheron.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

It is almost entirely the fault of Doctor Who that this idea exists. In October of 2010, I suddenly decided to do NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. I immediately knew I wanted to play around with time travel. I started off with certain concepts from Doctor Who which piqued my imagination, and started expanding them. The idea of an agency that sat outside of time, where the members played with timelines, was fascinating. My initial plot bunny started off as a short historical science fiction time travel story with an element of romance. The main characters were an arrogant scientist and a spunky smart-mouthed heroine, and the enemy were a race of alien gargoyle-like beings who went around changing past events for their own ends. It was supposed to be a quick throwaway thing, but over the course of November, it developed into anything but. Now I have an entire hulking Plot Hydra on my hands.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Science Fiction. Fantasy. Steampunk. Can anyone say genre patchwork quilt?

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Ethan Brooke (MMC) - No clue. He has green eyes, and dark blond hair. I guess someone who looks like that, but not just anyone. I sort of have his face in mind already.
Aurana Lockhart (FMC) - No clue. She has medium toned skin and curly red hair. An actor who looks like that, I guess.
Oscar Tenebrous - Matt Smith
Jonas von Drachenmire - Tom Hiddleston
Madam Pulovski - Eva Green
Caliiry ren Tandoraen/Ante ark Helain - Milla Jovovich
Pergator - No clue. Maybe voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, maybe not.

There are a whole bunch of other characters, but the list is too long to include here, and I don't know who would play them anyway. Although...it is kind of sad that I have no idea who would play my main characters.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

In a sentence? Impossible. Well, here goes...

Everyone in the universe is after a maguffin called the Amber of Time that will allow them to have complete mastery of history.

Complete crap, I know.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am thinking of publishing this the traditional way. I want a paper copy, and I want to see this in actual bookstores!

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Oh, am I supposed to have finished? ...I haven't. Two years and counting. Well...that is, if you include all my first drafts, most of which I have abandoned. The latest first draft... 21 days and counting.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

To my knowledge, there really is no other series which is exactly like this one. That is, there is nothing I could point to and definitively say 'if you like this, then you WILL like my series.' Mind you, I think this is a good thing! However...

In terms of certain subjects and recurring motifs, Dark Arcana reminds me of the His Dark Materials trilogy, by Phillip Pullman, most especially the last book, The Amber Spyglass. Dark Arcana has a similarly diverse cast of both human and non-human characters, all of whom are battling for dominion, some for survival. His Dark Materials also has multiple universes.

In terms of plot development, Dark Arcana subtly follows the Hero's Journey archetype. Certain characters go through a transformation from human to superhuman (sometimes metaphorically), as they gear up to face the Big Bad. In that respect, it's reminiscent of such stories as Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars.

In terms of conflict, I suppose... A Song of Ice and Fire. The genre is completely different, but like ASOIAF, none of the characters in Dark Arcana really fit into 'good guy' and 'bad guy' categories. Each person has their point of view, and their motive. Each is capable of being a great hero, but also a great villain. That's not to say that they are all equal. Some are more villainous than others, while others could almost be heroes...in different circumstances. Basically...there is no telling who will win. However, in terms of actual content/genre, Dark Arcana actually more steampunk/science fiction than high fantasy.

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Doctor Who. I absolutely love that show. At the time I came up with the idea, I had just finished the 10th Doctor's episodes, and I absolutely loved the vast variety of worlds, ideas, cultures, and philosophical questions that came up. The things that struck me the most in this case were the parallel universe, the fact that the Doctor was the last Time Lord, and the Weeping Angels. In the show, time travel was mostly restricted to just the one universe. The Doctor was a lone god. The Weeping Angels were mere monsters.

I thought: What if, instead of just the one universe, there was a whole mess of universes with different laws linked together into one huge multiverse, and changes actually spawned a new timeline, rather than changing the old one? What if there were a whole group of beings (human or otherwise) with the power to mess with the multiverse like gods, and whose job it was to guard history from...harm? What if there was a race of sentient beings who were biological time travelers, and natural predators of the stream of causality, and thus needed time travel in order to survive?

From there, my imagination exploded, and...Dark Arcana was born.

I suppose, after that, my characters inspired me to continue writing. Dark Arcana, though born almost entirely out of Doctor Who concepts, was never Doctor Who fanfiction. Although I freely admit that I based my MMC, Ethan Brooke, on the 10th Doctor, he soon took on a personality of his own, and pretty much took over the entire series. The same happened with Aurana Lockhart, my FMC.

Now I have to tell their story.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The story is actually multiple genres, depending on whose point of view it is, and what world it is. To Oscar, a peasant child, everything appears as fantasy. To Ethan, who is familiar with science at least up to the 19th century, everything is steampunk. To Caliiry, a Time Agent from the far future who is familiar with advanced tech, everything is explained in almost hard science fiction. To Aurana, a slave with mental blocks installed, magic and tech don't exist. To still others, the use of magic and tech do exist, but are both gross blasphemy against their religion. In this sense, Clarke's law applies: that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

However, it goes beyond that. The story logic allows for different worlds to have different laws of physics...or not physics. In some worlds, magic exists, and science flops, and in others, science dominates, and magic is impossible...and every shade in between. The resulting discrepancies in perception fuel conflict between the characters.

I realize that in all this, I have mentioned precious little about what the series is actually about, so I will attempt that here. There are actually multiple levels of conflict.

The backdrop conflict is between the Time Agents and the Nocharen Sideas. The Time Agents make up a group called the Guardians. They are just regular humans, but they have been pulled out of their own natural history and placed in a facility outside regular time, in order to serve and protect the existence of all sentient species in the multiverse, as well as preserve all the scientific knowledge therein discovered. The Nocharen Sideas are a group of shapeshifting extra-universal aliens, who travel up and down the time streams of the multiverse, and who feed on the energy of temporal paradoxes. Being so at odds in their natures, the Guardians and the Nocharen Sideas are locked in a perpetual time war that has raged through all of known history. The repercussions are felt even within the worlds...

The mid-level conflict takes place in 19th century Terra, where both tech and magic coexist...if not quite peacefully. A few powerful nations have suddenly made striking advances in both. The exception is technophobic Engleter, where the use of both is strictly regulated by the Lord Protector. However, when a power-hungry diplomat from a hostile neighbor tries to overthrow the Lord Protector,
Suddenly, world war looms on the horizon, as nations battle for religious and political supremacy...

Ethan Brooke is a self-titled disciple of chaos and brilliant mad scientist, whose only quest is higher learning, and whose passion is for justice. In the midst of a superstitious society that censures the arts he loves most, and makes them downright illegal, Ethan secretly works on his pet project, a lens to reveal truth. When Ethan uses his invention to acquit a wrongfully accused criminal, the country erupts in chaos. Ethan has always longed to prove that not all those who seek knowledge are necessarily greedy for power. His powers fully exposed to the world, he finds he's unwittingly given the would-be world dominators the perfect weapon with which to quell the dogs of war: himself. Unless he agrees to help develop a superweapon that will protect Engleter's future, Ethan Brooke faces punishment for his unsanctioned practice of the sciences: death.

Aurana Lockhart is a slave of the diplomatic but dictatorial Lord Protector of Engleter II. Provided with wealth and comfort, she is still at the blind mercy of her master's whims. Subconsciously aware of the chains, she still fears to escape, for it means death. Then, a foreign diplomat attempts to overthrow the Lord Protector, and reestablish the forces of tech and magic in Engleter. Seizing her chance in the chaos, Aurana escapes by the skin of her teeth, unknowingly taking with her the AWESOME MAGUFFIN that is the source of all Engleter's blocked magical power. All she wants is to live quietly, but the price of freedom is dear when one's very existence threatens the balance of politics. Thus begins the Hunt...and she is the prey.

Sorry about the crappy vague summary. One day I will nail down just what this book is about, so that I can write an AWESOME synopsis without giving away the whole plot.

Unfortunately, regarding other blogs, I suppose this is a bit of a dead end. I'm not a huge blogger, and most of the ones I know have been linked already. I will update as and when I do come across some others.

Anyway, to those who actually made it through this giant block of text: thank you. To those who didn't...I apologize. I am far better at word vomit than I should be. XD

NaNoMongering 18 - Holy Guacamole

I wrote 4.5k words today.

Whew. Talk about unexpected word vomit!

I hardly dare even to cross my fingers at this point, but...guys...I might have the beginnings of some semblance of a plot! Scenes might just be starting to clump together!

Of course, it's the beginning, and the writing is crap, but...maybe if I hang in there long enough, something will emerge.

Maybe.

Ok. Must cut this off here. Literally falling asleep in the middle of words.

Signing off with a photo of a tube of rolled up paper.

NaNoMongering 17: The Correlation Conundrum

Dark Arcana. The clock of the world ticks, setting the wheels of the spheres in motion. 

I'm listening to Disturbed.

That means I'm really bored.


This is the phase where I absolutely hate my novel, because it's drivel. Either the scenes are all worldbuilding, or they're all conversation.

Currently, Ethan decided that instead of running around in hallways in the afternoon, he'd rather run around on the rooftops at night trying to both evade and meet aliens. I'm not sure what he's after, honestly. He's taking Aurana along, and while she's with him, she could not be more of a wimpy weepy damsel in distress if she tried.

When she's alone, all she does is walk along an infinite street, looking for something, but never finding it. Well, it's ostensibly a Tor Qveth meeting, but even though she keep panicking about being late, she seems to think it's okay to stop for tea and a bun (with jam), read a newspaper, and get oddly hypnotized by seven dots in an advertisement for no reason whatsoever.

Oh, and then there's Oscar. He needs to cross the bridge in order to get to the gate house or something in order to get an Arcaen knife for a little stunt he plans on pulling soon. Knowing Oscar, he'll go above and beyond what is required of him.

Except I have no idea how to get him past the guards. They won't let anyone through at night, but Oscar can't go during the day because he has to work. His powers are useless.

On top of that, I am having some worldbuilding issues. A couple of my spheres are starting to resemble each other. However, each still has its own unique flavor, and taking away one of them would take away an important element of the story. Maybe I'm just making too much of it. Maybe it's okay to have two tiered cities where it's really hard to travel between different levels, especially when the architecture is so different, they're in different countries, and one stratification is more metaphorical than the other.

What's really driving me up the wall is that I have two princes of two different magical nations who are running around as civilians (Iain as a ranger, and Ozan as a monk) who both want to build an empire. However, both the magic systems and culture are so different that putting one in the place of the other would quite defeat the purpose. Or am I worrying about too much too early? I mean, what's the use of building an empire if there is no one to contest the conquering, right? Maybe the fact that they're both equally right. After all, Ozan and Iain are both princes of nations which are highly developed centers of magic and culture (each of which are vastly different for each). They would both fear that one would subsume the other.

...uh....oh.....oh............dear...................

But still, can I really include two princes in disguise? Or is this just a sign that the situations are only similar on the surface, but that further complexity will surface as I keep going? In that case, it would mean I'm doing something right.

Or drastically wrong.

I'm getting quite tired of it.

I know how you feel, facepalming Loki.

Time to go scrounge up some food.

NaNoMongering 16: My Mind Palace Is Full of Oompa Loompas

I should be writing. Supposedly some nice motivational pictures should get me moving.

Instead...I am procrastinating by looking at a whole list of them.

Richard Castle 'You Should Be Writing' Screensaver

In fact, what is happening is this:

Then this happened.

Uuuuugh. /Shudder/ You. Get out. I need to go to my mind palace.

Off to write!


Edit: I am now at 33,333. Excellent.