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NaNoWriMo 2011: Hopefully more active than last year...

Wed, 2011-10-26 02:43 — kierduros
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Okay, so the 2010 NaNoWriMo push never really got anywhere. I got very wrapped up in all sorts of other (mostly unpleasant) things.

Partially because of that, I have a whole lot of free time on my hands this year. So, hopefully I'll actually have a word count to speak of.

I'm not yet sure if I'll run with the 2010 idea of using the Seventh Sanctum generators as prompts for the novel or if I'll go back to 2009's idea of Tarot-based plot.

Either way, there will be something this year.

So, stay tuned... or, better yet, subscribe to the newsletter I've got setup so you'll always know when I update this thing. (And, maybe, just maybe, you'll get a few other bonuses along the way, too...)

Chapter 5: Playing the cards

Fri, 2009-11-13 00:55 — kierduros
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Every step of the way, each new card spread is pointing directions for the story and revealing the plot. Little by little I get more ideas for who these characters are and what they've done before, are doing now, and will be doing as the plot progresses.

As usual, though, sometimes it's tricky to tell exactly what character is supposed to appear in a scene.

At first glance, this chapter's spread appears to be one of those times.

  1. Seven of Swords (inverted)
  2. The Hanged Man
  3. Strength
  4. The Sun (Inverted)
  5. Wheel of Fortune (inverted)
  6. Knight of Swords
  7. King of Shields (inverted)
  8. The Universe
  9. King of Swords
  10. Six of Shields (inverted)

No matter what, there's some interesting progressions--especially since I'm using the Celtic Cross and Staff spread (which, as time goes on, I'm thinking may not be the best spread to use for this sort of exercise... at least not in the general chapter plotting area).Read more

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Day 4, only a week late...

Thu, 2009-11-12 03:13 — kierduros
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OK, finally got to just over my minimum for Chapter 4. That only leaves me about, oh, 10,000 words behind (give or take a thousand). Still better than previous years, though. I'm up to just over 7,000--which puts me not too far away from the most I think I ever managed to crank out during a NaNoWriMo.

So, not bad at all, actually, when put in context. :)

Counting these blog entries, I'm over 10K words.

Anyway...

In this past word dump, I seem to have introduced one of my "go to" background groups: a still kind of mysterious terrorist organization. They first appeared in my writing years ago in a story set in the far-flung future where they were greatly opposed to humans leaving the planet (or something along those lines... never did finish that story).

Based on some other bits that have come to light as the words pour from my fingers, it seems they may know about some things that most people in the world do not... and things that our main characters are going to be discovering (or, in at least two cases, re-discovering).

Only two chapters left in this section of the book. Which should work out pretty well as I've got one more main character to introduce and then I have to bring them all together so the real story can get started.Read more

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Halfway on Day 4

Mon, 2009-11-09 04:19 — kierduros
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OK, not even 800 words for the weekend. This is bad. But I acomplished some other things, so that is good.

I did let myself be distracted by an interesting idea. See, this year I'm writing this more or less post by post in a quick Drupal site I set up. (I set up Drupal sites all the damn time for work, so it's no problem to throw together something quick for personal use.) At least, the original idea was for it to be a quick and simple site. Just a blog and the story.

That idea lasted until I got sick of flipping back through the blog or story posts to find character, business and other names and facts. So I've come up with a set of content types that will interrelate and keep track of a number of things.

First and foremost, I'm going to have a full listing of every character that gets introduced and reference the story posts they appear in. Same for businesses or organizations.

Then there will be a running list of annotated reference links that will generate both from blog posts and in-story citations (a real benefit of writing in a "live" environment is the ability to link what may be esoteric information--like acronyms or historical references--to deeper information on other parts of the Web, giving the reader a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the writing).Read more

Day Four: Behind but Trying!

Fri, 2009-11-06 04:05 — kierduros
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Yeah, didn't get anything new cranked out today. Was more than a little preoccupied with other things... like queezing enough space into the budget for a spiffy new Droid phone. That should show up on Monday. I'll be able to write during my commute again! And read.

This is good.

The next spread for the coming chapter has been drawn. Behold!

  1. King of Shields
  2. Ace of Swords
  3. Two of Cups
  4. The Sun
  5. Five of Shields
  6. Four of Swords
  7. Six of Cups
  8. Death
  9. Six of Spears (inverted)
  10. Eight of Swords

Again, I'm not sure right off the top what characters are involved in this chapter, but I'm suspecting (once I further inspect the cards) that we may finally see Solomon Mercado (our Knight of Shields) or Kristy Roth (our Queen of Swords) make an appearance... there certainly is the space for them here.

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