I'm hoping to do a more substantial post, but alas, I'm way behind on my third day of NaNoWriMo. I have only written approximately 1,140 words in 3 days. Last I checked, Chris has clocked in about 4,000 words. I bet he has progressed further as I type this. The man is putting me to shame. ;p You go, Man!
One would think with the way I ramble, word production would be easy, yes? No. I self-edit. A lot. I keep rewriting sentences, words, scenes - which is why I am still only on two pages, with two scenes, introducing some of the major characters. They haven't actually done anything interesting yet.
So far, I have my young Shadowhunter, Julian Knight, (I am stealing from my favourite Gabriel Knight PC game for the whole Schattenjager backstory) coming into a futuristic city. The year is 2047 AD. He is a reluctant hero, having to pick up the mantle after his older brother (the previous anointed Schattenjager) went missing. His quest is somewhat self-serving, as in spite of his genuine concern for his brother, he also really want to be able to return the job of the Schattenjager to his brother.
Meanwhile, a High Vampire, the elected overlord of the same city, is murdered. This creates a power vaccuum at the highest echelon of the vampiric society. Two exiled vampire-sorcerors return to the city. A civil war between the vampire family ensures.
I just have to write it. And I have to stop re-reading what I write and then going "Oh, it sucks."
Meanwhile, I have gone and signed myself up for dailylit - where they send you books via email or RSS in installments. You get to choose if you prefer to receive them daily, on weekdays only, or alternate weekdays. You even get to pick the time to receive the installments.
I tend to do this a lot - sign up for things without really thinking about - simply out of curiosity, to find out what's the big deal. Sometimes I get myself into trouble, but sometimes I discover really fun things by acting on a whim. Anyway, it's just more emails. Book installments will certainly be more relevant than all the viagra and penis enhancement spam-ads I keep receiving.
TO IDIOTIC EMAIL SPAMMERS: I HAVE NO PENIS! GO AWAY!
Back to the subject of dailylit: I've signed up to receive Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence (in 82 installments) and Heinrich von Kleist's Penthesilea (in 35 installments). When I read the first installments in my email, to my surprise - Penthesilea is in German. Oops. Time to unsubscribe.
Anyone else is receiving books via email? Are you loving it?
6 comments:
Good luck with NaNoWriMo! Thanks for swinging by. :)
I'm still stuck with 300 words and it's already 3rd Nov!! Like you, I self-edit a lot...
I'm at about 500 words after 3 days, yikes.
It's only November 3rd, you have tons of time to catch up! And trust me, I'm sure I'll slack big time on the weekends.
It also sounds like you've done some awesome planning whereas I've done absolutely none. Your story rocks! I'm just kind of going with the flow and parts of it are total crap...but I figure I'll just go back when it's over and edit then. The first day, I was self-editing ALOT, but I stopped myself and now I just type and the story sort of forms itself...it's fun!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets viagra and penis enhancement emails...I was beginning to take it personally :p I've heard of dailylit. I need to check them out. If there's anything I should invest in, it's FREE BOOKS!
Like Chris said, there's still plenty of time for NaNoWriMo! You'll catch up for sure. But yeah, it's probably a good idea to avoid doing much editing during this month... the important thing is to get that rough first draft done.
I've read a few things through dailylit... for me it works better with short stories, poetry, etc. I've found that with full length novels I tend to grow impatient.
I just finished Trojan women through Dailylit and am now trying The Aspern Papers by Henry James. As for NaNoWriMo, good luck. Maybe try turning down your computer monitor so you can't see the screen to read what you've written? Or look at it as a first draft, which it is, and in which you are entitled to write badly. That's what revision is for after all!
Thank you everyone for the encouragement, and of course the reassurance that I am not alone on the slow word-count for NaNoWriMo.
I am wondering if I can finish though.
I think I may be sticking with DailyLit for a while. It allows me to read at work. *gasp*
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