11 Nov 2013

NaNoWriMo 2013 - Week 1 Update

The first full week of NaNoWriMo has come to an end.  Time to check in on how I'm doing.

As I mentioned last time, I ran into multiple problems that were frustrating but, as it turned out, not NaNo ending.  The glasses have been temporarily fixed through the sacrifice of a pair of reading glasses from a pharmacy.  The netbook's problem has been discovered - a malfunctioning touchpad - and was avoided for the past week.  No new problems have come up since then.

I had three days where the writing output was below par.  One day, the words just weren't coming.  After fighting to get not even 500 words down, I took a break and went to get a tea at Tim Horton's.  That was the best idea I had that Monday.  When I returned, I got another 800 words in before calling it for the night.  Wednesday, I knew I wasn't going to get much done.  That evening was last session of the current season of D&D Encounters, and I wanted to be there to run the wrap up for Team Yakuza.  The players had a blast and used clever tactics to defeat Bhaal's Chosen One.  They even wanted to continue the campaign, with two PCs taking over the Thieves' Guild and all four being given patents of nobility.  Nobles get very thankful when their lives are saved from murder gods.  What I didn't expect, though, was to get almost 500 words written afterwards.  I consider those bonus words.  Then there was Friday.  I had the netbook open at work to clean out the fan, thinking the problem was heat.  Well, at the time, I had it down to either overheating or the touchpad.  Cleaning out the dust and gunk on the fan helped; the heat flow is better.  So, I thought about it while waiting for the others during the pre-game food court gathering and wrote sacrificial dialogue.  I was expecting a failure.  I got it.  Three lines of dialogue lost, easily recreated later.  But, nothing written.  I was too tired, thanks to a cold, when I got home Friday night.

With three days of low output, that meant the other four days needed to be busy to even have a hope of keeping close to where I needed to be.  Fortunately, I wrote over 2000 words each of those four days.  I used an older laptop to keep up the pace, one where it had lost functionality in the lower two rows of its keyboards - the space bar and zxcvbm./ - during NaNoWriMo 2007.  I also scored some surplus USB keyboards to use instead, so writing 2000 words?  Not a problem.  This left me about three hundred words short of being on track.  All things considered, not bad.  I've overcome worse deficits.

Here's where I am now:
Chapter 1: Complete.  I introduced Ione, the core mystery, and the main villain (not that he's identified as such yet).  Featured some action and an explosion.

Chapter 2: Complete, but needing work.  Supporting characters introduced, Ione's real work introduced, Karen introduced, Diesel introduced.  Some background info.  During the break I took Monday, I realized that some cats have mystic abilities.  Right now, it's subtle; I'll have to get Jack to make reference to it somehow.

Chapter 3: Complete.  Introduced Ben.  Let Ione finally have her breakdown.  Introduced Amy and the rest of Ione's family.  Another action secquence.  Introduced a complication.  Trying to show that Ione has an adventurous streak without coming out and saying so.  Mysterious stalker makes an appearance.

Chapter 4: Complete.  More setting up of the plot, with a bit of misdirection.  An example of a mystic cat.  Finally getting Ione closer to meeting Jack.

Chapter 5: Complete.  Introduced Jack, finally.  Let's call this the Jack chapter.  First use of a place holder.  I really don't know much about men's high fashion.  A suit is a suit to me.  Probably should separate Amy's part into a new chapter, but the juxtaposition seems right at the moment.  Could also be cut if needed, but that will affect later dialogue.

Chapter 6: Complete.  Gave Ione a chance to be normal before throwing a new shock at her.  Discovered that the University of Waterloo's math department's colour is pink; the pink tie important to the department, too, thanks to a prof and his preference for odd ties.  (Thanks to mathtans for the info!)  More Ben.

Chapter 7: Complete.  More Jack.  In fact, Jack's personality is developing well.  A lot of little details coming out, but without context.  Jack asks for Ione's help, then gives her a choice that should be easy for her to answer.

Chapter 8: Complete.  Girls' night out.  Ben returns.  Ione gets suspicious.  Gangnam Style appears, with appropriate commentary.  Established Ione's lack of church-going.  Need to find a name for the band, but a placeholder (Sex Bob-omb) will do for now.  Small info dump.  The return of of the stalker, and mysterious help.

Chapter 9: Started.  Ione has made her decision.  Karen gets filled in, letting her be the reader avatar.  Planned ending is to have Ione arrive at the airport with the stalker right behind her.

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