Well I did it.

This was one of the most difficult NaNoWriMo's ever. Even last year I had more direction and far less inner critic to block my path. And to make it worse, I was busy as all get out and easily distracted. Somehow in the final week, I managed to buckle down and write my butt off to make it to 50k.

My story is far from finished, but I'm honestly too tired to care. In a few weeks or maybe a month I'll look back at it all and figure out what I can salvage. But not now and certainly not tomorrow.

A few things I've learned from this year:
1. Write and don't worry about how good or bad it is.
2. Plan in advance, it's really really helpful.
3. It's never too late to finish (well...until Midnight November 30th).
4. This is just the first draft, the goal is simply to get it out of you head and onto the paper.

Alright...I'm done thinking about NaNo right now.

G'night.

2010 - NaNo #5

Alright, I've signed up for NaNoWrimo 2010 and I officially don't know where the bulk of this year has gone. But wherever it went, it simply flew by.

As for what I'm writing this year, I don't know yet. I may do a rewrite or something completely new. Not that I haven't forgotten "Icarus", which has been haunting me like a ghost - waiting for me to return to writing its story, but I'm not sure I'm ready to do a rewrite yet. Especially not during NaNo.

I'll have to think about this one.

Possible breakthrough

Gave myself some time away from "Icarus" to think clearly. It was to the point that I was nearly obsessing on how to make a part of the plot work (my MC has a set plot, but there is a much larger plot that she'll be involved with that needs to be figured out).
And sure enough, a possible plot came to me. I'm still getting out all the kinks, but I may just have my solution.

As for my upcoming Nano story, it should be a lot of fun. Let's just say it all revolves around a steampunk pick up line that goes terribly wrong (random example courtesy of the forums of Brassgoggles: "I've got an enormous zeppelin, want to see it?" Or "I've got a zeppelin, you have nothing to lose, wanna see the world?"). And the hilarity ensues. It'll definitely be more silly and mature in the adult humor category. And Nano dares will only make it more ridiculous.

Now true to what I said before, there will be minimal planning. Character elements and a few antagonists with goals, but no plots. Aside from the set up, it's all up in the air.

I can't wait!

Weaving plots is complicated...

The background/historical elements of the plot have been churning around in my head for the past couple of days. Slowly and surely things are starting to fit into place, but it's still a lot of work and questions. And even more questions.

Like what would convince people that an accident was an terrorist attack enough that they would willingly fight back and start a war?

Or how does one make a city hard to find/enter if people once knew where it was? Is it possible to make a stationary city able to travel or even fly?

So many questions...and hopefully I'll soon have some answers.

Otherwise, things are going quite well considering I have been busy with other things. Maybe, just maybe I'll have enough of the story together that I can start rewriting a chapter or two from the beginning of the novel.

We'll see.

Making it serial...part 2

So right now I'm thinking about my book in two ways [just thinking...no set plans yet].

1. Cram it all into two or three books.
2. Adjust the story to make it fit a serial format.

It really could go one way or the other, as both options have their positives and negatives.

If I go with option one, I have to streamline the story and really trim it down so that it's not overwhelming, but it means only splitting it between two novels instead of multiples. So I'm still going to be limited.

If I go with option two, I can take my time and really explore my world and characters--the question is would people want to read the series beyond the first book? If that's not the case, then I don't really get to tell my story.

Sigh...

On another side note, I finally finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I began before Nano--it's one of my required books before I can read my novel. I will be posting my reviews/comments about these books in the Excerptlopedia as I finish them.

That's all for now.

Writer's Block is a curious thing...

So after my last post, I thought I was truly stumped.
Of course a few hours later, I started thinking and out of nowhere the wheels of inspiration started moving again.

And suddenly...a flow of ideas.

I will not mention them, for fear of jinxing myself before I really figure out the full plot. But I will leave you with these few thoughts.

My breakthrough came by looking at alternate scenarios for the original story, like the opposite game. Basically I thought to myself:

What if Theseus had not come yet?
What if the Minotaur wasn't killed?
What if Daedalus and Icarus escaped?
What if Icarus didn't die?

All of these opposites have helped me create an alternate universe for characters based on the Greek myth.

Key themes I plan to deal with:

Choices
Mistakes
Forgiveness
Secrets/Lies
Gender roles
Power/Playing God

Tehee! That's all for now.
I shall reveal my grand scheme later.