Four Days In!

So normally I would post on the first day my word count with an excerpt of what I'd written so far. I didn't have the internet yet on the first day, so that didn't happen, and I kind of forgot until now. :D

So interesting things about my NaNovel so far. When I started it at midnight, it suddenly decided that it wanted to be told from first person. I've never done that before, I always write third person with multiple perspectives, which is not going to happen here. It'll be fun to see how this works out.

In a desperate attempt to find a name for my characters, I searched all those name meaning websites for a cool name and none of them seemed to work and my character hated them all and I finally just told him to shut up, you're Roy from now on! So he's Roy. And the other is Dan, Dan was less argumentative about his name as well, but none of them were as good about it as Ari was. Ari was the first name I thought up for her, she loved it, and it stayed. This has reflected her personality I think so far in my novel.

Sometimes browsing the NaNo forums can be dangerous. I hadn't really planned far enough for anything bad to happen in my novel, but then someone in the forums was asking for ideas about something terrible to happen in their novel, I shouted out an idea, and then I realized that I loved that idea and am trying to find a way to implement it into my novel. Those poor characters. I'm not sure if I will do this, or if something else will happen, or if it will just be sunshine and lollipops the whole time, but I don't really want it to be the latter. My bad guys need something to do, and they love that first idea that I had.

I really should be writing my novel instead of this. Especially since I have been issued a challenge to have a higher word count than the person challenging me by Monday. I just need a sledgehammer to get past this minor barrier of a writing block (just a tiny one) and I'm good to go.

Just About Two More Days

NaNoWriMo is nearly upon us! I am super excited and quite scared actually. This is the least prepared I've ever been for a NaNo. Even in the first year when i didn't do any paper planning (I didn't jot down any notes) I still knew more about that story than I know about this one! Last year I had a similar scare in that a few weeks before it started I didn't know what to write, but once I found out what I was to write, I made pages and pages of notes. This year I have a concept, some dragons (always important), and maybe the first chapter vaguely outlined in my head.

Now I blame my general unpreparedness on everything that's been happening in the past month, a month I usually reserve for NaNo preparing. Foreclosure is my new least favorite word. Its gotten me down in the dumps, a mind frame that I am generally unfamiliar with. Then, to add to that, I've been all sorts of sick this week, and sometimes being sick gives me a great excuse to stay up and write ("Why aren't you sleeping?" "I can't sleep, I'm sick!") this time we've also been moving all of our stuff out while I've been sick. And this is probably only half of whats been on my mind! Needless to say, my NaNo Novel has been taking a back seat in a month where it is supposed to be driving.

Okay, that's enough crying. I usually get the pre-NaNo jitters. Two years ago it was the "omigosh I've never done this before am I crazy?!" jitters. Last year it was the "My plot is paper thin and I don't have nearly enough in it to fill up 50,000 words, I'm going to fail so bad!" jitters. This year its the "Oh crap, I haven't planned my Novel nearly enough! What am I going to do?" jitters.

I haven't had as much time to plan this novel as I might want. This is bad, but not word count threatening. I have proven in times past that I can fly by the seat of my pants, and often doing stuff like that adds great bonuses to my word count. So take that jitters! I strike you down with my sword of confidence and past experience! BWA HA HA!

I feel better now.

The Devil's Runner Chapter 2

So I know that its almost NaNoWriMo, but I wanted to get this little bit done before that started. And yes, all other Devil's Runner posts are part of chapter one, this post is the start of chapter 2. An interesting note, while I am usually a planner, The Devil's Runner has been completely by the seat of my pants. No planning has been done with this story so far, and I still don't really know who this Jenna girl is.

~

Jenna could tell immediately that something was wrong. She was comfortable for one thing. She normally woke on a cold stone floor; this was most definitely a mattress. That was another thing; she was warm instead of cold. Wonderfully warm. There was a wool blanket covering her. Jenna almost laughed at herself. She had become so accustomed to her cell that not being in it felt wrong.

Jenna’s eyes shot open. She wasn’t in her cell?! She slowly sat up; looking at the room she was in. It was a humble room with sparse furnishings, only a little desk in it besides the bed she was in. What really caught her attention was the window. She could see outside. It was so beautiful. She could see a little meadow out of her window and there were scattered flowers and what looked like a rabbit. Jenna turned her head and jumped as she saw an older woman staring at her.

“Up and about are we? Its about time, you’ve been sleeping there for hours and hours. I was getting worried I was.” The woman said.

Jenna found she couldn’t speak. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten here or who this woman was and she found that she was terrified. She tried to remember what had happened, but she had done almost nothing but sit in her cell for so long that that was all she could remember.

“You’re a curious one child, I’ll tell you that. I’ll go and get you father and tell him you’ve finally awoken,” the woman said before standing and leaving the room.

Her father? How could that be possible? Hadn’t her father died the day she was captured? She was sure of it. Then what was going on? She didn’t think she was dreaming, she had never gotten a sound enough sleep in her cell to allow for it. So what was going on? Before she could really wonder and start to panic about her situation, the door opened.

“Finally awake are you? I suspect you really needed that sleep after what you went through.” The man in the door said.

It was that Devil’s Runner person. That’s right; he had tried to rescue her. He had succeeded at it apparently. Jenna almost stopped breathing at the thought. Could it really be true? Was she truly free of that terrible place? It was so hard to believe.

Poking his head into the room, the man who had carried her in the prison looked in and asked, “Is she alright?”

“Come and see for yourself,” the Devil’s Runner said.

The man walked in and shut the door behind him. “Are you alright miss? You seemed awful scared back in that pri-”

The Devil’s Runner put his hand over the man’s mouth before he could finish speaking. “That’s a secret remember? We’re a travelling family, not prison escapees.”

The man nodded and the Devil’s Runner removed his hand. “Sorry, I’m not quite used to that. Anyway, are you feeling well?” he asked Jenna.

Jenna was free! Of course she was feeling well. She could ever remember being this happy. Tears started streaming down her face even as she nodded a yes.

“Oh, why are you crying? Don’t be sad,” the man said.

“I believe that those are tears of joy, Dmitri,” the Devil’s Runner said.

“Really? Oh, well that’s good then!” Dmitri said.

So his name was Dmitri. Jenna finally knew what to call him. Through her tears she found herself staring at him and looked away with a hiccup. How did that always happen when she looked at him? “So tell us miss, what’s your name? We’re all quite curious,” the Devil’s Runner said.

Jenna opened her mouth, but then closed it again. She couldn’t speak, her voice was gone. She hadn’t spoken for so long, could that be why she couldn’t speak now? Jenna tried again, but nothing came out. She wanted to speak; she wanted to tell Dmitri her name and wanted to speak with him. Her tears stopped being tears of joy.

“She can’t speak,” Dmitri said softly. “Why can’t she speak, how are we going to find out where to take her if she can’t tell us?”

“Calm down,” the Devil’s Runner said as he unexpectedly left the room.

Jenna and Dmitri watched him go and then turned back to look at each other. They stared for a few seconds before quickly looking away, both blushing. Jenna wished she could speak; it would make this whole thing so much easier. She also wanted to learn more about this Dmitri.

The Devil’s Runner walked back in holding a quill, a bottle of ink, and some parchment and handed them to Jenna. “I assume that you can at least write?” the Devil’s Runner asked.

Jenna could remember how to do that, she was certain. She dipped the quill in the ink and started to write on the parchment. Her hand was shaky and her handwriting was worse of because of that, but she thought it at least legible. Jenna finished and showed them what she had written.

“What in the- what is this?” Dmitri asked, reducing Jenna’s self esteem by just a little.

The Devil’s Runner took the parchment and studied it a bit before laughing. “You’ve written this in High Rountasian. Haven’t you been paying attention to what language we’re speaking?”

Jenna had of course realized what they were speaking, Lower Gaddle-Speak, she had just written in her native language without really thinking was all. She had thought that everyone could read that language, she was apparently wrong. She motioned for the parchment back, but the Devil’s Runner shooed her hand away, “I can still read it lass. So your name is Jenna then?”

Jenna nodded and noted that Dmitri mouthed the word to himself. She motioned for the parchment back, intending to use it to ask some of the many burning questions that had plagued her since waking, but the Devil’s Runner shooed her hand away again.

“So, if you can understand us, and write in another language, then you’re definitely bilingual. That is a rare trait even among the high born,” the Devil’s Runner said. Jenna noticed a glint in his eye, and suddenly wondered why he was called the Devil’s Runner. “You must be a very important person indeed.”

The Devil’s Runner handed her the parchment back and she immediately started writing again, this time making sure to write in the correct language. She wanted to ask about them, but didn’t want to seem rude to her rescuers and asked instead what had happened and where they were before handing the parchment back to them.

The Devil’s Runner looked annoyed. “I was going to ask you something, but you finished writing your questions before I could ask mine. No matter, what happened is that this young man,” he motioned towards Dmitri, “was arrested and imprisoned for crimes that I committed in the Fortress Prison, which isn’t a fortress at all, and was locked away in the same cell block as you, lucky for you, since I was feeling generous enough to rescue everyone in that hallway. I broke you all out, it being made a bit more difficult with your hysterics, and we travelled to the nearest inn, which was still very far away, and have been waiting for you to wake before continuing. We are in the Deserts Reprieve, an Inn in a little village in Gaddlemont.”

Jenna had listened with growing horror. Not only had these people not come to rescue her, something she had assumed from the beginning, but they were criminals. But worse than all that, she was in Gaddlemont, a terrible and treacherous country that was more than one thousand miles from her home in Rountasia. Jenna slowly fainted.

NaNoWriMo's 10 rules and regulations (aka Commandments)

Some post on the NaNo forums talks about our own personal 10 commandments for NaNoWriMo. So yes, I'm stealing ideas twice over with this post :D

NUMBER 1!
Thou shalt not stare at the page for any longer than five minutes without putting words upon it! It mattereth not if those words are utter nonsense, just so long as they are written.

NUMBER 2!
Thou shalt be encouraging towards, and only slightly competitive against, those who are also participating in the National Novel Writing Month.

NUMBER 3!
Thou shalt not take a week long break like thou has wont to do in past Nation Novel Writing Month excursions. Such breaks only serve to add stress and a mad scrambling nearer to the end of the month. Seriously, don't.

NUMBER 4!
Thou shalt remember that there exist other persons in thy household who likely will wish to converse with thee and in turn inquire into thy writings. Thou shalt not ignore these persons, and often their advice on thy novel with be highly valuable.

NUMBER 5!
Thou hast a canine companion that requires sustenance just as much as thee. Thou shalt feed thy canine and also take it outdoors for walks.

NUMBER 6!
Thou shalt not be afraid to kill a character. Thou must remember that three character are essential and should still be alive at the end of thy novel, but all the rest may be treated as cannon fodder as thou seest fit.

NUMBER 7!
Thou shalt avoid that loud and overly large PlayStation 3 that is in thy possession until thou hast gone above and beyond thy word count goal. The same goes for the Wii. Thou shalt not give unto me that look.

NUMBER 8!
Thou shalt remember to remove thy flash drive from the computer upon finishing thy writing. Thou dost not want a repeat of prior incidents.

NUMBER 9!
Thou shalt not forget other personal goals that still bear great importance, even if thou art participating in National Novel Writing Month. Remember, time is quickly disappearing.

NUMBER 10!
Thou shalt write a remarkable novel, even if it needs polishing after the month is over.

That was funner than I expected.

Dragons in The Dragon Ambassador

I wasn't paying attention to the world around me today because I was tired, and while I was zoning out, an idea came to mind, and from that idea, I solved a lot of the problems I had with my novel. These are some of the notes I've made so far for The Dragon Ambassador.

Every magical race has a defining characteristic and an antithesis race. The antithesis race’s defining characteristic is the opposite of the other race. An example would be that Dragon’s characteristic is courage, thus their antithesis, the Shadow Serpent, are creatures of fear. In general, there is a race with a good characteristic and a race with an evil characteristic. There are exceptions, like Elves, who are creatures of boredom, and their antitheses, the Sugar Imps, who are creatures of Excitement, neither of which are evil.

Dragons:
Antitheses to Shadow Serpents, Dragons are beings of courage. They will never run from any situation and will often charge headfirst into them. Since they are huge fire breathing lizards, this caused some misunderstandings and humans came to fear dragons. They can only communicate with other beings that have an equal measure of courage, something that is very rare, and so they had almost no way to communicate with the people who were hunting them down. Often, if there was a human courageous enough, they would be hunting dragons instead of trying to listen to them. Hunted nearly to extinction, they went into hiding until there came a day that an ambassador could be found to speak for them.

Shadow Serpents:
Antitheses to Dragons, Shadow Serpents are beings of fear. They are constantly in hiding from the rest of the world. They stick primarily to the shadows, and as such, their eye sight has diminished, but their other senses have increased. They magically hold shadows to themselves, so that if they should venture into the light, they are surrounded in blackness and no real detail about them can be seen. They are shaped similar to dragons, but it is unknown how far the similarities go. Because of their extreme fear of everything surrounding them, they have developed a hatred for most things, but they are too scared to do anything about it.

Things to Figure Out Before NaNo

So, before NaNoWriMo there are quite a few things I need to figure out about The Dragon Ambassador. Perhaps writing out a list will help me come up with a solution to these problems.

~I need to decide if this will be a more Modern Day Fantasy (like Fablehaven) or if I should create my own Fantasy world like I usually do. At first I was going to do the modern fantasy, but I really like making my own fantasy world. The problem with that is that its time consuming. But still fun.

~I need to finalize the dragons in my story. In every story I write with dragons, they are different, and that is one reason I like writing them, I can always do something new with them. So I need to figure out how my dragons work in this.

~I need to figure out what other fantasy/mythological creatures will be in this story. I know a few, but its good to know what my world consists of.

~I need to name my characters. Always hardest part for me.

~I need a conflict. Right now this is still just an idea with no real plot. Plots are quite important.

~With conflict, I need antagonists. Someone eval must be present to mess things up for my good guys.

~I need to decide on the point of view. My options are having it all from the point of view of one very important character, or splitting it between three very important characters. I've never done a story with just one view point and I want to try, but I'm not sure if this story will allow it.

Thats a pretty good list. I'mma stare at it now and think about it for a while. I'll update this later with a post about my Dragons when I'm done shaping them.

NaNoWriMo 2010!

I know this is my second post today, but no one really pays attention to my book list and this is important. I just realized that its almost November. That means its almost National Novel Writing Month. This will be my third NaNo and I decided long ago what I will be writing. It's called at the moment The Dragon Ambassador. I'll post a few more posts later on about some of my plans for it. Why not now? Well become I haven't really formalized any plans in my head yet :)