In which I blog to avoid writing.

I am not sure that I've mentioned this, but I'm writing Karma Police in five POV*s. Why, you ask? Because I'm crazy. DUH. *cough* Anyhow, yes, each of my five MC^s are taking turns telling you what is REALLY going on. (I also took a brief jaunt into letting Ewan's mom talk, but that's only because she's faded and hopeful and brutally honest, and I heart her. *cough*)

ANYHOW. This is rather different for me. I've written three other stories before, and DNL, seriously, I had no idea what I was doing. I don't even know what I did. It was fun, but yeah. Plot? I LAUGH in the face of plot. And then there was Merchant's Daughter, which was only slightly better, and by the end of it I was sticking inside Adelheid's head, come what may including passing out in the middle of important scenes. (Easy way to end a scene? Noooo, I'm sure I wasn't thinking of that.)

Then there was Expendables. Oh, Expendables. My poor, deformed, mortally ill child. You need so much surgery... I don't even know what I was doing at first. It was Nano, okay? Then I wrote a serious portion of the story during a deep funk/exploring the grieving process (it's fun!) By the end of it the thing had been riding me so long it was just like opening a vein and letting the story gush onto the page. Messily. And there was pain. Characters talked on top of each other, so I just wrote it that way. I changed POV* mid scene- mid PARAGRAPH. I don't even know what I was doing. SO MUCH SURGERY.

And now I have Karma Police! Which I am trying to keep under control.

Never mind that I avoided one bit lump of write-many-many-many-words-on-me-noew-plz by throwing in a handy dose of amnesia, and avoided another scene that wanted to turn into five mini-adventures by, uh, wait, I didn't avoid that, did I? My bad. *cough* Aren't Zeppelins shiny? And TRAINS. And suspenders. Heheh. Suspenders.

*drifts off into a trance, staring at suspenders*

So yes. *cough* Control. I'm trying to keep control.

I even have an outline, isn't it shiny?

Yes. I'm colour coding POVs. So I can keep track of when someone new needs to talk. ^_^ And anything indented means it's a flashback.

Am I INSANE?

Er, yes, clearly. SO clearly.

But yes. I'm really enjoying the comparison between POVs, though you probably won't. *evil chuckle* However, it does mean that when I do finish a scene, it's not easy to just DIVE into the next one, because most of the time the next one is inside someone else's head. So I have to eat some chocolate, and listen to appropriate music, and braid my hair- er, well, maybe not, but it's HARD, okay? *whine whine whine*

I really should to traumatize Nanami now. KThnxBai

Footnotes: (Because my little sister mentioned she might be reading this now.)
*POV - Point Of View
^MC - Main Character

DONE AND DONE.

Not that I celebrate in the slightest. WHOOO.

The day's stats;

Word Count: 1979

Scenes: 2 and a bit (Don't you love specific numbers?)

Tea consumed: I think I'm on mug three. And water. That's why I'm head-aching! Dehydration!

Things done other than writing: Um. I'm dressed?

General satisfaction: High. Very high. *beams*

I know this story needs a lot of work, but I think it's workable? I don't love it in the way that I love Expendables, which is just part of my SOUL, but I think MD and I can get along. We might be able to work things out. I actually even have a slight idea of how to edit this uneven tale into submission. :D

Oh, fine, have an excerpt. *beams* It's so bad..

(This is as romantic as I got. I'm SO pro.)

EPILOGUE:

Adolph carefully walked along the top of the castle wall, approaching the slim woman in grey who was watching the courtyard and the marsh alternately. “How are you today, betrothed?”

Adelheid turned and smiled slightly. “I am well, thank you, Adolph.” She brushed some hair behind her ear. “It is a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

He stood next to her and looked out over the marsh, which was showing a little bit of ice around the edges. It had snowed last night. “If you like freezing to death.” He sounded gloomy.

Adelheid laughed. “No, I like NOT freezing to death. That’s why we have massive fireplaces, and halls, and all that! Yes?”

Adolph didn’t sound convinced. “You still have to go outside. And then your nose freezes.” He looked at Adelheid as she chuckled. “Are you, happy, about Christmas?”

She looked at him, and then looked down at her hands. “Um.”

Adolph took the hands, carefully. “I didn’t really have time to ask you before, Fraulein Independent. But you can obviously carry yourself well in court, you don’t panic in emergencies, you speak as many languages as I do, you look lovely, and you’re smart.” He cleared his throat. “Is it such a terrible thing, to marry a friend? Oh, and I’m fabulously wealthy. Does that help?”

She chuckled, and looked up, rather red in the face. “I’ll be honest, it does help, just a little.” She brushed at hair that didn’t need to be tidied. “But I wouldn’t mind if we had to live in a town house either. You’re the best I’ve found yet.”

Adolph grinned. “Good. I don’t want a mopey wife.” He continued grinning cockily as his betrothed glared at him. “Moping equals rebellion! And trying to tickle you into submission is just tiring, not to mention beating, I mean, wow.” He shook his head. “Much better to be happy.” 


“I’m happy I can keep you from being so inconvenienced, friend.” Adelheid responded dryly.

Adolph chuckled. “Being married to you will certainly be fun! Brrr, it’s cold. let’s go inside.” He held the ladder steady for her as she climbed down.

But if you'll excuse me, now I need to go sleep and regrow my brain. Oh my fearsome quaver, it's only 11 days till Nano? PANIC STARTS NOW.

"All I want is tentacles..."

Wordcount: 1296

Scenes: 3. Kinda?

I really wanted to finish this last night, but even with the addition of Pepsi, I was still tired. And I wasn't writing anything good, so now I'll write it in the morning! GO GO GO!

RITTER SEBASTIAN IS GOING DOWNNNN.

Adeleid inclined her head to him. “Danke, Hoheit.” Her shoulders went back, and her head up. “It once was part of a pair, but I say to you now, a man came to my house, and by secret means obtained the pair to the glove, and stole it. I accuse that one.” She pointed directly at Ritter Sebastian.

There was an audible intake of breath, and fixing of attention on Ritter Sebastain. The Emperor looked at him. “Ritter?”

The man laughed incredulously. “I’m sorry to deprive you of a scandal, Hoheit, jeerharten Frauen, Herren. But I have never seen this woman before in my life. She must have the wrong person.”

“No,” Adelheid remained adamant. “I know the man. It is certainly him.”

Ritter Sebastain started to laugh again, and then downgraded it into a chuckle. “I swear, Fraulein, you have the wrong man. I’ve never seen you before.” He looked around him, and his smile faded in the face of the room’s mood. They didn’t believe him, that was clear.

In the back of the room, a whisper started. “The executioner’s already set up...”

I don't know what drugs I was on last year, but I need more!

Word count 1544.

Scenes: 3

Whooo! Only one scene and two epilogues left! *celebrates furiously*

*falls over*

Nothing worth an excerpt, though...

Yesterday's celebration was clearly premature.

Wordcount: 138

I'm not even joking. *sigh* I'm so close to the end, and so easily distracted! Maybe tomorrow will be better? Maybe? *crosses fingers* If I put in a decent day, I bet I could finish this story in one day?!?!?! OMG FOR REALZ? *is fired up now*

Also, I inadvertently compared those who entered Nathan Bradford's beginning paragraph contest to tone-deaf asthmatic rats. I should mention now that not EVERYONE who enters is in that category. (Unless you like that description, in which case, more power to ya.) The 2000+ entries do contain some serious rats, though... *cough* And some stellar phenixes. Yay Phenixes!

I need coffee...

*throws flaming confetti*

Word Count: 794

Scene: Done and DONE.

I finished the scene that- as mentioned- I'm pretty sure I'm going to cut. Of course, now that I'm done with it, I start making exscuses for the poor thing. It's not THAT bad! It has good points! There are some good lines... Kinda...

No, no there aren't. There really are not good lines. But I'm going to share an excerpt with you anyhow, because I haven't done that for FAR too long! *chortles*

Adele blinked someone’s blood out of her eyes. The clash of metal had stopped? It appeared the battle was over. There were so many people! So many people she didn’t know, and a few she did. Brother Hugo had twin swords in his hands over there. The swords would require cleaning, it was obvious. The Herzog had a short sword and a shield. There were a lot of archers, aiming at her. Aiming through her, at Ritter Amedeous, who was using her as a shield. He was talking, in a high, panicky voice, which she ignored.

Perhaps she wasn’t entirely emotionless, despite the calmness that was making her eyesight so crystal clear. She was rather angry, still. Adele spotted a torch on the ground and snagged it with a foot. He was still talking, triumphantly. Adele didn’t care about his triumph. She pulled the torch closer. He was still talking. Bargaining. She let the torch flame play around the hem of her skirt. It caught, a thread of flame licking up her leg. It hurt, but that didn’t matter. “My skirt’s on fire.” She announced clearly, cutting through the bargaining.

So bad... However! I entered the contest here, where you post the first paragraph of your novel. I do not, in ANY way, expect to win anything, but it still made me feel better. ^_^ I saw some of the other entries go by, and I was in awe. It's like entering American Idol. You don't make it up in front of the judges, but at least you know can hear and identify when you sound like an asthmatic rat, and you feel better about your singing. (Fun fact: I was entry 669, and now it's up to 919 entries. Whew!)

I should go write more of my winning, sparkling prose. Tah!

"I aim for pointless stubbornness." "I noticed."

Wordcount: 630

Scenes: Shut up, I'm not talking to you right now. Go away! Not listening...

I think I finally figured out why I've been finding these scenes so exiling hard to write. It's Because this whole little plot excursion is essentially pointless. It does not contribute to the main plot in any way other than cheap emotion, and is basically an excuse for me to kill some of my favourite characters. Having seen people die in real life now, I'm not as enthusiastic about this idea as I was when I thought it up, a year and a half ago. So this bit is the first thing that I'm cutting when I edit it. *nods* That's about it! I must finish it though. SO CLOSE TO THE END.

Hurrah for arbitrary figures!

Wordcount: 246

Scenes: 1.2

Every word I write is one I don't have to write again, right? Right? Oh wait....

I finally like my characters. Whoo!

Wordcount: 678

Scenes: 1

Also, I joined CC. That's about the limit of my intelligent commentary, at this point. :P

The Turtle Moves

Word Count : 593

Scenes: 2

"This is so turning into another Children's Crusade."

Oh, I forgot to post here yesterday! But I was really excited, because I finally managed a scene of Merchant's Daughter! Yes, "a" scene, but when you're as uninspired as I have been lately, that's a lot. And I'm sure Kemendraugh didn't have to hold all my RP characters in limbo or anything... *cough* *coughcough*

Yeah. So. Words. I had my words back yesterday. *hugs them* I LOVE YOU WORDS. NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN!

Ouch...

Word count in the last 11 days: 1,354
Scenes: 3

Yeah, I'm really inspired, can you tell? ;)

I'm Not Dead Yet!

So this is my WIP. Say hi to the nice internets, Merchant's Daughter!

And there's the outline for what I have to write. Um, I'm a bit dubious about how many words that will turn out to be, cause when I finished Nano, the mental outline looked strikingly similar. 200k later, I finally threw my the last of it together. So yeah. *nervous* But this is much simpler, and I have less characters to deal with!

Yeah, I'm still alive. That's the main point of this post. :P

My New Project

"Don't make me try and find adjectives to describe you."

It's almost the end of September? How did that happen? If find it especially of note because I intend to spend October in preparation for Nano. And I think I'm gonna need the whole month because of my unwieldily story which keeps morphing every time I look at it. (She's angry! She's sad! She's gifted! She's clumsy! They're snobbish! They're nice! They're noble! They're conned! He's trying to commit suicide! He's a secret enemy! And so on...)

I REALLY need to pin it down. But that means I need to get Merchant's Daughter mostly out of my head. Which therefore means that I have to try and get it done by the end of the month. And why am I writing this? Because I hope that, perhaps, I will be guilted enough by my public admission that I will actually finish it. Perhaps. :D

Doesn't hurt to try!

I was staring at where my finger wasn't....

Today I was editing Merchant's Daughter, (or the bit which I have typed, (40,00 or so)), and I am totally on a writing high. It's just so much fun! I kept getting kicked off the comp by other family members who wanted to use it, but it was still rather mind-blowing to work with a realized story again. 

It's funny. I can spend hours and hours writing without getting tired. :D

Sweet, innocent, harmless MEDUSA!

Word count I should be at: 37,097
Word count I am at: 37,588

I've been writing scenes I'm not really sure about for the last couple of days, but every so often I get a line that clicks another chunk of plot into place. So I don't want to totally write them off, but they're mainly mediocre, with a very few redeeming features. In comparison to the rest of my stuff, that is. We're not going to talk about how good they are in reference to actually good work :D

And I keep trying to find ways for certain people not to die. *cries* I won't tell you who they are, because I might find a way, and also I want it to be a shock if any of you end up reading Merchant's Daughter. I just need some casualties! And I don't want them to be pure "expendables."

Darn, darn, darn. *frowns*

You see, I've never actually killed anyone yet, so it's a new thing.

Anyhow, in other news, Ritter Sebastian has arrived, I've married Jana off, and Adelheid has turned out to be "such a man!" :D I'm glad. I was worried about her for a while, and now I like her again. Marching through the castle, terrorizing all the men. :P

"I've been reading over your shoulder for 10 minutes, and I still have no idea what's going on."

Word count I'm supposed to hit: 33,871

Word count I did hit: 34,212

Words written: 2,615

Caffine intake: By 11 am, I've ingested 2 coffees and a mug of tea. Let's not count more

Scenes: 3

Wow, I am a writing MACHINE today! Of course, this is probably due to the fact that I've been sitting in front of these screens for essentially the last 6 hours. I've been trying to front-load my word count, because I suspect I will not get much done on my working days. But still... *cough* It's time to go, self. Get off the computer.

I am also beginning to suspect that I am a little too fond of having my Characters say the opposite of what they mean. *mirthful grin* It's just, I seem to naturally include intrigue. Really, I don't plan for it, and then suddenly half my characters are being watched and have to communicate "other ways." *sigh*

However, I still quite like a lot of my characters. And those I don't like I'm either killing or sending to a nunnery. Hmmm, I didn't realize that was my plan until I wrote that. :D And Herr Bruno is still enormous fun to write. Check out his motivational style;

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I do not have enough staff to spare them to the inevitable loss of limbs and dismemberment I will make sure result from mistakes, so please don't make any."

Good times, good times.

"You think? Who gave you permission to do that?"

Word count I should be at: 32,258

Word count I am at: 31,597

I promise, it was entirely unintentional, but I now have a murder, Dietlinde got really drunk, and Adolph and Adelheid both know an important secret about each other and know that they both know. And they both also throw knifes really well. (This was a fun scene!) :D Adelhied also just watched the murder happen and didn't do anything, which is rather fascinating. 

Unfortunately, I now also have a bit of a headache, which certainly isn't due to the fact that I am getting most of my hydration in the form of coffee, for sure. *nods*. 

Ah, I am very happy to finally have that scene done with. I've been beating my head against it for something like three days!

It's time to break out the Chant.

Word count I should be at: 29,032 *cringes*
Word count I am: 27,077 *cringes more*
Title: Merchant's Daughter

I'm changing the title back, since it was too hard to explain.

And I now have a merchant singing in Latin. Yes, Latin. Did you know that you can find the entire Vulgate bible on the internet? I was quite pleased.

I have GOT to get up early tomorrow to write. No more excuses.