Apparently, Ethel's Staying Around.

Okay, short post seeing as how I am desperately trying to reach 100,000 by the end of tonight. will it happen? I don't know, but I'm looking at a marathon sleeping session during the Xmas holidays.

Quick update on this week, I went out Friday night without really wanting or needing to, and now I'm behind. Okay, okay, only by about 4,000 words, which I can make up in a couple of hours on a really good day, but it also means I won't have much time at all to make up for it if I slow down at any other point during this month.

Also, Ethel. This lovely old lady has decided to muscle her way into my story, and is now staying around, it seems. I don't know where she came from, apparently she lives a couple of floors below Bryson in his apartment building, and likes to engage him in conversation. My guess is that she's just lonely, but I'd hate to see her hurt because of Bryson does.

Which is, more than likely, what will happen.

At 94k out of a possible 100k.

Love and toast. x

NaNo Starts, Blogging Stops.

And I completely expected it to happen. There, I said it. I'm going to be brutally honest right now and clarify the fact that, while I am posting this, I could be writing another 500 words or so to my NaNovel. However, I am a serial procrastinator, so I am actually finding the time to blog, one week into NaNo. Useful, actually. I might just start doing this, and document each week's progress in one, tl;dr blog post. So, week one of NaNoWriMo 2010:

- Week one got off to a roaring start with my predicted word count being reached, if only because I stayed un until midnight to write, and somehow gotto 10,770 by midnight. How I did that is beyond me, but I was trying to get to 11k. That last 230 just escaped me.

- I realised that my word processor was set to U.S spellings instead on U.K, but have kept it that way, seeing as my novel is set in an American Speaking country (not sure whether it is the U.S yet, or just the novel world's equivalent of America. I'll get back to you on that one.), even if it does make it a little more awkward to write. xD

- I also realised how boring my plot is at the beginning. It probably wasn't a good idea for me to spend so much time setting up the location and characters, but that said, I think I can work with it. Why not - after all, juxtaposing Bryson's mundane, day-to-day life with the action taking place in the last two-thirds of the story could be an interesting thing, if not the most beneficial for the reader. I need to start questioning how many people will actually want to trawl through a good 50k+ of ... well, not much. Some sex, some drinking, and an interesting conversationargument involving a cupboard, but other than that ...

- And on the subject of a cupboard, Bryson decided to let me know that he may be a closet homosexual on Friday night. The best part I'm seriously considering it, and it makes a frightening amount more sense than I thought it would. Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing, I just need to consider how many signs point one way or the other, weigh them up, and then decide.

- He also decided to let me know that he won't speak with the same complex lexis as I had expected him too. Instead, he's going to aggravate his employer and be more witty than he needs to be, alongside Laciey, who had miraculously grown a smart mouth and seems to want to listen to music by a fictional band with a dead bassist (some obvious referencing going on there) all the time, rather than actually showng any interest in weaponry.

- Cole has slipped precariously into the background, in spite of the fact that he was begging to be in the forefront during the planning phase. Silly Cole. If you want a lead role, get your ass back in the story. :)

- In spite of all this, I'm enjoying it. Okay, so I've ad a weekend struggle, seeing as I haven't actually been at home to write, and was hoping to hit the magic 50k long before today, but that said, I have my reasons. And as I say, I'm a serial procrastinator. Now, time to get on YouTu--I mean get on with writing ...

Have fun NaNoing, all. :)

Hello, Blog. I Believe It Has Been A While ...

In other words, life climbed on top of me, pinned me to the ground, and forced me into unconscious submission. And my goodness, that sounded better in my head.

Anyways, with what I can only assume has been a 4-day-energy bender behind me, I'm almost ready to begin NaNo. Of course, I'm feeling a little ... distracted. I'm replaying Thursday night (Avenged Sevenfold/Stone Sour at Birmingham NIA) over and over in my head, and re-watching footage of the night on YouTube ... this is, of course, something that needs to stop before NaNo begins.

That said, the outlines are complete. All that is left to do is, 1. Make a book trailer, for fun, and 2. Write it. Unfortunately, my blog must feel a little ... left out. So I'm paying it a little attention, at least. I'm actually really pumped to start NaNoing already. Just another 3 hours or so to go, and I don't know if I can or will last out, but damn it, I'm going to try it. Even if it means I'll be borrowing money for cans of Relentless Energy Drink in the morning ... less than 7 and I'm still safe, aka. not likely to have a heart attack.

So, I'm thinking I need a small to-do-list, as I have had all this week. I'm sure there is something I need to do this Halloween night. I'm just not sure ... what ...

*Stares*

Wow. I think my outlines may actually be longer than my novel this year. My plot outline alone has nearly 10,000 words, and I've only written the first 22 chapters out of 30. I dread to look at my location notes and character sheets.

Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating when I say my outlines will be longer than my novel, seeing as I aim to write 200,000 words this year. But all the same ... this is more than I expected to write. Maybe I'm just being a little more ... obsessive ... about what is going into my outlines this year; I'm being a lot more meticulous about having details I know I will need to remember and write down. Maybe my outlines are just a little too wordy, but I don't ... understand them any other way. Rest assured none of this actually contributes in terms of word count to my novel - I have suggestions for what characters will say, but but actually what they will say. There's nothing I can physically list from my outlines into my novel but all the same ... *faints*

So why, then, do I just plain feel like I'm going overboard with this? I know I need it, so that I don't get completely lost, but ...

... So You're In Love Now? Oh. Great.

I love it when this happens; characters deciding, suddenly, that they're in love.

No, really. This time, at least, I love it. Because for me? it means I can milk it for all it is worth and THEN punish the couple. >D ... I mean, one of the characters didn't have a particularly pretty ending ahead of him, no matter which way you spin the situation. But now ... now, it just makes sense on SO many more levels! Now, he'll probably actually be missed.

Normally, however, not so great. I torture my characters, probably more than I should; they rarely end up with happy endings regardless, but this year ... I'm just feeling as though I'm being extra sadistic. Is this a good thing? Only November will tell, but somehow ... I don't know. I mean, these people don't live in a great place to begin with. The Universe hasn't blessed them with particularly fun lives, although they do make the best of what they have, I guess. All the same, these are the characters that will hate me once November rolls around, and when it's though? They'll hate me more. And when time comes for a sequel? Well ... don't even get me started.

I think I have issues ...

Oh, Right. Outlining. I Forgot About That.

o_o;

Yes. Yes I did ... which I'd hardly call putting myself at an advantage, now. I forget why I haven't actually been outlining. Partly, it might be the lack of access to the computer I've had - I say that, and mean that while I've been able to get on, I actually haven't been sitting down for marathon periods of time and just plain plotting. This, I think, comes from one stupid bodily requirement: sleep.

Being tired =/= no plotting and no plotting =/= hitting a wall during NaNo. I found this out the hard way my first NaNo. I had the 'tasks' for my main character up until chapter 5, at which point I hit the wall and stopped writing. For 10 days. I looked at my chart when I returned for NaNo '09, and there was this ... flat surface. 10 days worth of not updating. Not writing. Until then, I wasn't doing so badly (aside from the days where I'd written maybe 300 words). Last year, I had all my chapters planned out and subsequently did well for it, although I think, in retrospect, this was as much down to purple prose (and lots of it) as it was planning. It's not like the plot was the best thing I could have come up with ... I was just far too proud of it at the time ...

Anyways, yeah. This is turning into a ramble. :) so ... yeah. Uh, hooray for dreams, though? The really messed up, disturbing, why-did-I-even-dream-that? kind. Not that I thought it was disturbing at the time ... more a case of not being able to figure out what on earth was going on. :) all I could grasp was that it was in a city (good, I need that), and that someone was throwing couches and people out of the window, alongside trying to ... uh, eat faces, I think. o_o; thanks, Inglorious Basterds, for that scalp-cuting scene that probably inspired that part. Maybe I'll modify it a little before using it ...

Shameless Plugging

Just as I've linked to this blog on my 'life blog' (even though my life seems pretty boring at present), I'm linking to my 'life blog' here. It probably won't be updated much, or it might be, depending on whether or not I have anything particularly ... um, anything I find interesting to say. So:

http://www.toriivengeance.blogspot.com/

If you do feel the urge to have a looksee, I don't mind. :) I'm shamelessly plugging the thing after all.