That Feel When...

At the point where I just sit back and wonder how this project grew to include such things as giant robot minotaurs, mystical sciency bullshit, god-like AIs, using buses as battering rams and five-year-old mountain gurus and whether or not they are silly in a good way, or just plain silly. Ah well, as long as I amuse myself...mission accomplished.

I'm over 500 pages of writing now. I ended up finishing a few difficult points, which makes me happy. Not chapter 12 though. I decided that this chapter can rot in the backlog until I'm done everything else, even though I keep telling myself that it's really not all that hard to write. I keep jumping between chapters, so theoretically at least 5 of them will be done around the same time. Also, all chapters have WRITING in them...but are in various stages of completion (incomplete chapters ranging from 10%-98% done).

270832 words and counting.

Fragmented

Current number of chapters being worked on: 5
Number of chapters finished since the new year: 0

Shit.

Chapter 12 is still unfinished.

Balls.

Finally!

I haven't been this pleased about writing in quite some time. I finally figured out how to handle Dedrad's Interlude, and it makes me super excited about the project again. I wrote an original version a couple years ago, and it really sucks. I'm going to keep it on file because it has some useful elements in it, but ultimately it's being scrapped in favour of this new look into his character. And again, I've added a couple new characters that theoretically I won't mention again until book 2. We'll have to see. I have a potential place for them in an upcoming chapter, but I don't know if it will work or not. I'm just happy to actually be going somewhere with it as it's been a major block since I wrote the damn section.

Now, chapter 12 just needs to magically come to me and all will be well. My writing is so segmented right now, even more than usual. Working on 3 or 4 chapters at once in bits will either be good for me (as that's normally how my thought process works) or extremely bad as events and ideas will get jumbled up along the way. We will see. Thankfully, this is what editing, and re-editing, then more editing is for. Then I send it to other people who also edit it, and then I edit again. And so on. I'm just happy about this one victory.

Uh oh....

So in my efforts to write Jason's chapters, a new character was born and I'm not sure if I like her yet. Though, she is working hard to finally help me develop some character, though I think she should develop herself if she's going to be sticking around for awhile. I'll see how this turns out, and hopefully I won't have to scrap the whole endeavour when I realize how bad of an idea it was. Then again, I need a few more women in my story. It's a little lop-sided at the moment.

Welcome to the cast Kelly Garth. May your pig-tails and chipper attitude survive the final cuts.

Meanwhile...I seem to be writing three chapters at once. I can tell this is going to end well. Before you know it, characters and events will be crossing space and time to invade other parts of the story they are not welcome in. I'm looking at you Kelly.

Architects

Broke 200 pages a couple days ago. I think I only really realized the significance of that milestone today, especially since I've finally reached and surpassed one of the points of this story that has been playing in my mind over and over again for many years. It took a slightly different shape than I had pictured it for so long, but it works better. I still have no idea how I came to write it the way I did. My mind is...strange. Maybe I melted my brain when I got heat exhaustion in Rome.

Currently sitting at 115,000 words at the moment. I still have a couple of small gaps to fill in for the juggernaut that is chapter 16. Let's see...we have a battle, an escape, a journey, a confrontation and a consultation all in one chapter. There's a hell of a lot of information that I packed into a couple of pages with intersecting thought processes, but it really all needs to be told from one perspective. The only other option I could think of would be to put the next interlude between the escape and the latter half of the chapter. Actually...that might work. I need to refer back to this post I think. For now, I'll leave it as is.

I reread a lot of what I wrote while I was travelling and noticed that it really wasn't that bad. My writing style has evolved some, and some slight changes (that I can thankfully pick out without too much difficulty) need to be made, but for the most part, it's fairly solid. Chapter 1 needs to be rewritten and chapter 3 needs to be heavily revised, but the other chapters are easy enough to work with and edit as is. This is good considering that this version, most of it technically version 2, not 3 (in the case of the first 4 chapters and the one interlude) was written about 3 or 4 years ago. I'd have to look back at my posts to figure out how long I've taken between each chapter to determine my work ethic for the last few chapters. Based off of my past motivation levels, I have BREEZED through chapter 16, monster that it is, in less than a couple weeks (if you ignore the 5 week hiatus in the middle, where I actually continued to work on it, in my mind and in its review on my e-reader).

So theoretically, after tonight (or tomorrow based on how long this tough little part will be) I will have chapters 1-11 and 13-16 finished. Chapter 12 is still a huge problem for me, but I will need to finish it within the next couple of weeks if I am to continue the narrative. It's...a little more crucial for the final 13 or so chapters that need to come. I'd like to say I'm close to the end, but I'm really more like 60% done. A few of the chapters to come WILL be short (the only chapter that will match chapter 16 in length I believe should come much later...near the end).

Lastly, I know, almost with 100% certainty how I will end this book. I think I will be happy with this ending. I want it to be an ending that leaves it open for the second and third books I have planned open, but at the same time with enough of a conclusion that I don't have to panic too much in beginning the next step. I don't even think I SHOULD be thinking of the next step yet considering I've been working on this for EIGHT YEARS. I started this when I was 15 or 16. I'm 24 now. Granted, I needed to hone my writing skills...am still honing them in fact. Honestly, I think they will always be in a perpetual state of honing. There is no perfection in my writing. Though if I have to be egotistical, just this once, I have delivered some damn good one-liners. Well, at least I'm entertained by them.

And it's all about having fun right?


My that was long-winded.

Plodding Away

I've been trying to write Jason's chapter again. I don't know why he's so difficult to write. Maybe it's because I can deviate much from what I planned on being said and done at this point, especially with how important the information in this chapter is to the story. I have a lot of the dialogue down, a lot of the character traits and I've even developed some plot points in my traditional writing manner, but still, the chapter remains unfinished. I think my other problem is I haven't got a "feel" for Jason's character yet. I want him to be more than an arrogant and angry. He needs to be likeable enough to count as a complex character and to have the ending I am planning MEAN something.

My philosophy in writing is that both sides of conflict need to have a face, a personality, a cause and a legitimate reason for why they do what they do. I don't believe in the archetypical villain who plots away in his tower with his only motivation as "I am evil." WMRR isn't that kind of story.

As for the next two chapters, I have a good idea of how they'll go down. I also finished a lot of the dialogue for a chapter after the next interlude (Myra's), which makes me feel better about not having done as much in the last month.

My video production has been difficult as well as I have just been BUSY. October was brutal in terms of being busy and being sick. I have had stomach issues for two weeks now, so I'll hopefully be seeing a doctor next week about that. Hopefully I don't have some infectious disease that will wipe out all of humanity as we know it.

Catwalks and FRANCE

I seem to have a strange liking for catwalks. They're everywhere...taking over my soul.

Oh and I'm done Chapter 14, catwalks and all. Again, I'll need to fix the ending, but I like the strange way it has turned out. The plot is similar in events to version 1, but the rest comes down to location, location, location. I think I managed to write 15 pages on this one, which was WAY longer than I anticipated. I may have some clean-up to do later, but I'm on a roll for now. Also, I still need to fix Chapter 12.

Word Count: 92,631
Page Count: 162

Also, I just realized that the next page in my document starts with MEANWHILE, IN FRANCE. I'd be tempted to keep it for the sake of randomness, but I have no idea how it would fit into the chapter.

Not again...

Every year. EVERY year for some asinine reason I either forget or can't participate in free comic book day again. I forgot to go again today. I slept in because I was so tired, started playing some video games and then I looked over at my comic book and it hit me. Picture me screaming clichéd Hollywood "NOOOOOOOO" as I fall to my knees and crumple into a ball on the ground and roll around like a wounded animal. Yes, wounded animals roll around. On the ground. Screaming NOOOOOOO.

So...my plans were thwarted again, but at least I get to go on vacation tomorrow for a week so I'm not too upset. Probably won't get much writing done, so I'm trying to pump out at least a little bit today. I have a new plan to apply for manuscript writing. Despite my forgetfulness, I don't give up easy. I'm thinking work stories this time around. They seemed to be my most successful ones from my other writing classes. I need an outline and some writing done on it. I'm also thinking of using completely new material. I won't recycle like I did last year.

WMRR has been going through some changes. I know EXACTLY how I want chapter 12, so I just need to do the rewrites and filling in for that. We'll see how silly it sounds when it's finished. Chapter 13 is done, but needs a better ending. The one I have at the moment is pretty awful. Chapter 14 is off to a good start, but I have one hurdle to flail over before the words flow the way I want.

It's going to be intense guys. So, very, intense. I am super excited.

My geek week would have been over today with free comic book day so...yeah. Comic con, Avengers midnight premiere, cosplaying and posting tons of LP videos have shown me that I've fully embraced my nerd identity. I'm so proud of myself.

Avengers was the most amazing movie of my life by the way. Well...maybe second most amazing. Lord of the Rings is hard to beat.

Look What I Did!

I spent the last two days being terribly sick (and it was a pretty bad flu...I don't think I've ever been that confused and disoriented in a long time) and managed to get WAY behind in school work, and a little further ahead in writing. I wrote more of Chapter 12 and I think I have the Popular characters pretty much established the way I want to. I need to do a little editing on the back end to make sure that two of the characters are mentioned more...and I think make Jason look a little less like a raging psychopath.

That said I introduced a lot in Chapter 12 and brought a whole other plot thread to the table. I have the middle part to fill in and I need to fix a few points to make them flow better, but Chapter 12 is about 500 words short of being done (which is nothing). That said, I need to start thinking about what I want to do for the next five chapters or so. This is a huge turning point and A LOT of stuff is ganna go down. This next little bit is going to be fun, but it's venturing into waters that I haven't fully explored yet. From about Chapter 15 and on, it's going to be all NEW material. Nothing I've ever written for WMRR before.

In other news...

YouTube got mad at me over the summer for some music I posted...way back. Truth be told, I forgot that I had posted it, and now I have a black mark on my account. It may go away in six months, but it might not, so I can't post videos longer than 15 minutes now. I also can't make the videos "unlisted" or change the licensing on them...which is kind of weird. At any rate, I'll be posting some of my longer videos on another account now. I'm going to start being VERY careful about what I post on YouTube now, because they're pretty anal about what's kosher and what's not. I'm just upset that I didn't take it down before this all happened.

EversorFatalis' Channel

Let's Play Dungeon Siege videos are up at the above link if anyone is interested.

Zzzzzzzzz

I haven't made a post this month, and I'm going to be away for the rest of it so....POST!

Not much has happened in terms of writing for WMRR. I've mostly been freaking out about the portfolio for manuscript writing and if the idea is feasible for this term. I'm running out of time, so looks like I'm just going to have to stick with it. I like the idea, I just may need research I won't be able to conduct based on finances and the time available. I think the road trip idea will work, I just need to outline it, work out the specifics and find two models of writing to base my own writing on. Man when did writing get so hard?

In other news, the Writer's Guild of Alberta is offering a free membership to students, which I think I'll be taking advantage of. I've been quickly learning to take the opportunities handed to me, because I've missed out on a lot because I've been to lazy or lacking in confidence to do so. I'm still upset that I didn't go to see Robert Kroetsch in Canmore, because that would have been his last event. So there's some helpful advice for all you writers (and people in general) out there. Take the opportunities when you can get them. Those opportunities, and the contacts and connections you make all come back to help you out when you least expect it.

As for WMRR...chapter 12 kind of came to a screeching halt when I realized I'd have to do a little more military research and have a complete picture of what I want discussed, what I want to happen, and what the chapter is going to bring to the story. This is a critical chapter. I know I can come back to it when all is said and done, but what happens here is going to affect a lot of what happens later.

IT'S FREAKING ME OUT MAN.

Video

Video

Video

Down to Business

Editing business that is. So far so good is my report. I've only edited three papers (two people), but a lot of people seem to have taken the tags on my posters. And posted other stuff over them...but that happens at the uni. Which reminds me of a genius advertising scheme, but I'll get to that in a moment.

I'm convinced that I'm a terrifying editor. I get a little nuts about the edits at times. I was supposed to edit another paper of someone's, but after I gave them the first edit I never heard from them again. In my defence, I received the paper late Sunday night when it was due on Monday. I didn't have time to do the type of content edit I would have liked and ended up skimping a little on the comments. I was up all night preparing for presentations and document analyses, so I was a grouchy bitch all day. A lot of the time when I'm tired I look extremely sick. I might have frightened my poor customer off.

So back to the advertising. Some sort of poetry event is going down at the university (I'm not sure what that's about, but let me explain) and to promote it the people organizing it have torn down other people's posters, turned them and wrote the name of the event on them. The event is entitled: Deface. It's offensive and awkward, but at the same time enticing. That and it's a great way to get attention. It's either arrogance or brilliance...probably both.

All in all, not a bad week despite my exhaustion. I even got a small bonus on my last edits. Either he thought I did a good job or was grateful for doing the one so late, but it certainly made my day.

I've actually been working hard on WMRR over the past few weeks whenever I've had time. I have my fourth short story to complete, which has been fun to write so far. It's about bowling. Bowling can be surprisingly sexual. I was shocked. As for WMRR, my order of writing is a mess. I am essentially writing four chapters at once (chapter 10, 11, 12, Dan's Interlude). Let me just say that Dan's part has been going exceptionally well. I have the first portion and part of the middle done (middle is hand-written on paper in my notebook). I still need to add a lot of details concerning free-running. I'm still working out how to write 10 and 11 (half done 10...it's a short one, and I'm only done about five sentences in 11). I haven't started 12 yet, but it's going to be quite different, told from the perspective of a character I haven't introduced yet. It's going to be a fun one, especially when I introduce his status and how he fights. OHHHHH THIS IS FUN. Insert excessive amounts of smiling faces here.

Also, my spelling is getting better. I made it through this entire post without my spell-check underlining anything. Go me.