The Last Public LJ Entry Devoted Completely To NaNoWriMo I Promise
I think that I'm taking my added time this year for NaNoWriMo a little bit too lightly. Last year I didn't start until the fourth so part of me seems to say, "you completed 65,653 words last year only writing 21 days in November so why can't you do it again this year?"
That part of me really needs to shut up because I'd like to maintain a little more of my sanity this year.
Today was a mixed bag of results for "Stars, Bars, and the Crown" as I completed 1,647 words -only 19 less than the pace that, in theory, all NaNoWriMo writers have to hit per day to complete 50,000 - but combined with yesterday that still leaves me almost 1100 behind where I should be (especially if I only plan to write 25 days or so).
Still I'll take it because I made really good progress in other areas. For one thing, Liam now has a last name. I decided to rip it straight off from a city in England to really give him the air of a child of aristocracy. Liam Hedley II is now the official name of my MC.
I also established that his father is Sir Liam Hedley I. I was going to make him just a powerful businessman but I think to knight him makes the tension that will exist between father and son and the suspicion that having a father in such hallowed places will create between Liam and the John Harper Society will be worth the extra ceremony and pomp.
Thirdly, I created the female supporting character (who, based on my past novels will end up stealing the show) who is the love of Liam's life (not to mention fiancee), Mia. Mia has no last name yet but she's crucial to Liam in the fact that she's great at reading crowds and knowing what it's safe for Liam to say. And she's got the best two lines in the novel so far,
"We’re supposed to be in this together right? They don’t let you have visitations when both of you are incarcerated in political prison."
and
"Maybe because I love walking the fine line between the front page of ‘the papers’ and the front page of a dossier with ‘Enemies of the Commonweath’ in bold print on the cover."
Yes, I have again fallen in total love with my own main female character creation. Damn me being allowed to have them say exactly what they're supposed to say at exactly the right time.
If only we all had that power in real life. :)
Finally, the university the novel takes place at (at least as far as the beginning action before it shifts to Victoria) has a name - and the novel has a location in general. It's Detroit University (not to be confused with the Catholic, real life University of Detroit). Liam's role there, besides being a graduate student in history, is the Chairperson of Detroit University Students United Against War In Transjordan.
I kind of figured the novel would end up taking place in Detroit (even though I put off officially setting it there). Mainly because it's a good way to keep me from having it take place in Chicago - one of my fallback traps in each NaNoWriMo I've started (even last year's that took place in Europe had the main characters as two people who met at UIC).
Detroit is perfect because it was a flashpoint in the War of 1812. It would also be somewhat isolated from where the British would really be looking out for a potential revolutionary action to occur - it would more likely take place in New York City or Boston. But it would also not be so backwater that nothing would happen there. It would probably be the dominant city in the western end of the alternate history United States.
Chicago runs the risk in my timeline of being part of Indian Territory since Blackhawk pretty much came in and kicked the behind of the American troops in the Illinois Territory and the British, had they forced a surrender would probably want to reward him. Of course the British screwed the Indians in the real War of 1812 almost as much as the Americans, but this is alternate history. ;)
---
The challenge between Chicago and St. Louis has picked up steam on its second day. Though, sadly, the steam seems to be more on the St. Louis side (but hey, the sorry Blackhawks beat the sorrier Blues 6-5 today so at least we have something to be proud of). I thought that perhaps the Word War would draw more people in. And it did but on the St. Louis side - in the form of the_cyr.
Well, what's good for St. Louis is good for NaNoWriMo as a whole I guess.
Though I made the mistake of challenging reliantfc3 to a one-on-one word war. She has 10,000 words and I have 2,000 (and she's probably writing right now while I play with LJ). Hello United Kingdom, meet your Argentina. Sure we're both going to be world (word?) powers in the end but I surrender the Faulkland Islands to you now.
Up to the second standings:
reliantfc3 (shouldn't you be spending all your time doing St. Louis ML things?): 10,175
incendiarymind: 2,288
Tomorrow I'll actually avoid the chat rooms, message boards, and alerting my roommate that there was a centipede on the wall of my bedroom and having him drag the cat in to eat it (which seriously took 20 minutes of shenanigans) - it was just that kind of distraction day - and set my word count goal at 6,000.
Now that I've done some of the hard work of fleshing out characters a little more, that should be like butter. Of course, by that time reliantfc will probably be at 21,000 or something.
That part of me really needs to shut up because I'd like to maintain a little more of my sanity this year.
Today was a mixed bag of results for "Stars, Bars, and the Crown" as I completed 1,647 words -only 19 less than the pace that, in theory, all NaNoWriMo writers have to hit per day to complete 50,000 - but combined with yesterday that still leaves me almost 1100 behind where I should be (especially if I only plan to write 25 days or so).
|
Still I'll take it because I made really good progress in other areas. For one thing, Liam now has a last name. I decided to rip it straight off from a city in England to really give him the air of a child of aristocracy. Liam Hedley II is now the official name of my MC.
I also established that his father is Sir Liam Hedley I. I was going to make him just a powerful businessman but I think to knight him makes the tension that will exist between father and son and the suspicion that having a father in such hallowed places will create between Liam and the John Harper Society will be worth the extra ceremony and pomp.
Thirdly, I created the female supporting character (who, based on my past novels will end up stealing the show) who is the love of Liam's life (not to mention fiancee), Mia. Mia has no last name yet but she's crucial to Liam in the fact that she's great at reading crowds and knowing what it's safe for Liam to say. And she's got the best two lines in the novel so far,
"We’re supposed to be in this together right? They don’t let you have visitations when both of you are incarcerated in political prison."
and
"Maybe because I love walking the fine line between the front page of ‘the papers’ and the front page of a dossier with ‘Enemies of the Commonweath’ in bold print on the cover."
Yes, I have again fallen in total love with my own main female character creation. Damn me being allowed to have them say exactly what they're supposed to say at exactly the right time.
If only we all had that power in real life. :)
Finally, the university the novel takes place at (at least as far as the beginning action before it shifts to Victoria) has a name - and the novel has a location in general. It's Detroit University (not to be confused with the Catholic, real life University of Detroit). Liam's role there, besides being a graduate student in history, is the Chairperson of Detroit University Students United Against War In Transjordan.
I kind of figured the novel would end up taking place in Detroit (even though I put off officially setting it there). Mainly because it's a good way to keep me from having it take place in Chicago - one of my fallback traps in each NaNoWriMo I've started (even last year's that took place in Europe had the main characters as two people who met at UIC).
Detroit is perfect because it was a flashpoint in the War of 1812. It would also be somewhat isolated from where the British would really be looking out for a potential revolutionary action to occur - it would more likely take place in New York City or Boston. But it would also not be so backwater that nothing would happen there. It would probably be the dominant city in the western end of the alternate history United States.
Chicago runs the risk in my timeline of being part of Indian Territory since Blackhawk pretty much came in and kicked the behind of the American troops in the Illinois Territory and the British, had they forced a surrender would probably want to reward him. Of course the British screwed the Indians in the real War of 1812 almost as much as the Americans, but this is alternate history. ;)
---
The challenge between Chicago and St. Louis has picked up steam on its second day. Though, sadly, the steam seems to be more on the St. Louis side (but hey, the sorry Blackhawks beat the sorrier Blues 6-5 today so at least we have something to be proud of). I thought that perhaps the Word War would draw more people in. And it did but on the St. Louis side - in the form of the_cyr.
Well, what's good for St. Louis is good for NaNoWriMo as a whole I guess.
Though I made the mistake of challenging reliantfc3 to a one-on-one word war. She has 10,000 words and I have 2,000 (and she's probably writing right now while I play with LJ). Hello United Kingdom, meet your Argentina. Sure we're both going to be world (word?) powers in the end but I surrender the Faulkland Islands to you now.
Up to the second standings:
reliantfc3 (shouldn't you be spending all your time doing St. Louis ML things?): 10,175
incendiarymind: 2,288
Tomorrow I'll actually avoid the chat rooms, message boards, and alerting my roommate that there was a centipede on the wall of my bedroom and having him drag the cat in to eat it (which seriously took 20 minutes of shenanigans) - it was just that kind of distraction day - and set my word count goal at 6,000.
Now that I've done some of the hard work of fleshing out characters a little more, that should be like butter. Of course, by that time reliantfc will probably be at 21,000 or something.
posted by incendiarymind at 8:49 PM
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