Day 6: 1,697

Day 6's Word Count:  1,697
Nov's Total:  ~16,205

Discoveries: 

• I discovered my middle turning point after I did some summary writing last night.  It surprised me.  I mean, I knew it was going to happen, but I never planned on it being in this novel.  I guess I always pictured it more as a thing that happened between novels.
• That when I got to thinking about The Spirit, thanks to the last post, I realized other influences it was having on my work.  I didn't originally plan on Walker having a big affect on women--just this one family.  See, Walker is supposed to gain an useless ability, well, mostly useless one that can get him trouble or help him out of an odd jam in an odd fashion.  Having a Don Juan effect over women around him fits the bill.  Not necessarily a romantic-only effect.  No, just having an unnatural halo effect on women would work.  And it would fit nicely with some other dangling plot thread, too boot.  Now all that is left is to see how hard or easy it is to pull off :-)
  
• That, thanks to some company and a major sinus/allergy headache, I barely got my words and a summary written.  So, oops.  No snippet.  I'll do my best to get it up this weekend.
  

Day 5: 1,860

Day 5's Word Count:  1,860
Nov's Total:  ~14,505

Discoveries:  

• I discovered another neat character, inspired by Plaster of Paris from the movie, The Spirit.  You see, I get characters and things knocking around in my head without a proper home.  It seems like this series is hoovering them up the way my dog hoovers up his food.  So once I really got the connection, I remembered a scene I wanted this homeless character in, and now I have to leave a note to myself to revise something: the first scene where my PoP inspired guy (Grips) meets Walker.
• That the original guy who was going to be the escort (not Grips mentioned above) is now going to have to wait his turn to arrive.  He's related to Walker's forgotten past and is currently MIA.  I'm thinking his movement from MIA to IA may be what prompts memories to come back to Walker, because these two characters are connected like none other.
  
• That sometimes you wish you could don a pseudonym.  What I'm writing in this novel and next is a little embarrassing at some instances and little taboo at others.  I am pushing the envelope on my comfortable levels, and that would be fine if it were just me an anonymous audience looking on my work.  If my family and friends, however, were to read it or another novel of mine . . . . I don't look forward to their reaction, no.
• That once you change something about your characters, previous plotting goes out the window.  Hopefully in a good way.
• That I forgot to prepare for my snippet today.  So it will be belated, I'm afraid, as I try to find something worthy of snipping.  Like I said, my writing is not pleasing my internal editor this month.
  

Day 4: ~1,701

Day 4's Word Count:  ~ 1,701
Nov's Total:  ~10,645

Discoveries:

• I discovered that my original goal of 80k words this month wasn't going to work out.  So I've changed it to 50k.  This way, I have more time to plot and plan everyday too.
  
• That part of my plotting and forward movement problem is Walker is a pushover in the first 10k.  It's cute in a few scenes, but afterwards, he needs to get some gumption going on.  Once I decided that, I decided that a key event that needed to be at the 25k mark, doesn't have to be.  And out of the blue, a new idea came to me that caused me to lol, which means I am on track again.
• That I want a fourth novel idea that is a marriage of the Walker universe and a completely different novel idea.  You see, Walker gets a certain special horse in novel two.  That horse kept ending up resembling my fae mount in another novel I was working on.  So I quit fighting it, and now, not only is it the same species, it's the same horse--with the same rider/MC.  And surprisingly, it works out better that way, I think.
  

Eh, not many discoveries, but they were good ones.

Day 3: ~2,986

Day 3's Word Count:  ~ 2,986
Nov's Total:  ~10,947

Discoveries:

• I found out that I may have a dreaded trilogy on my hands.  Let's see if I can't make it a quartet instead.  I like my even numbers, yes I do.
• That the plotting is getting harder:
• because turning point number one has to happen at 25k words into the novel to make the novel balanced in length.  The problem?  Since I haven't had time to do an outline, I have to try to fill out the area between only about a day before I write, and I'm not satisfied with what I'm finding coming up with so far.
• because of trying to write fast-paced and unexpected, like my inspiration, the Transformers movies and Harry Dresden books.  But after my first real action scene, I'm not sure if I'm cut out to write action thrillers.  Not sure this novel is cut out to be one either.
• That if I get 50k early, I am going to slow down and instead of focusing on writing 80k rushed words, I am going to have 50k honed words.  That appeases the muse and inner editor.
• Finally, that my "hungry ka" idea-based enemies (instead of zombies) need a make-over.  While the twist that they are devastatingly beautiful is neat, they also need to be devastating.
  

Day 2: 2,838

I don't think my little progress graph is working, at least not on this computer, but here it is from the nano site itself:



Day 2's Word Count:  ~ 2,838
Nov's Total:  ~7,966

Discoveries:

• It's hard to plan just a day ahead.
• That the words are coming harder, a sign that my inner editor is not as satisfied editorially with my work as we were on Saturday.  But I'm going to take Edittorrent's suggestion, and trust myself to fix it later.
• I must be on a self-imposed challenge to see in how many chapters I can get Walker, my MC, nude.  Let's see now:  
• In the first scene, he's just stepping out of the purification pool when his sometimes-wife arrives to abduct him.
• In a later scene, his sometimes-wife has him strip so she can make him courier something.  (See my previous, linked blog post to know what "courier" means exactly.)  He also wakes up naked in bed afterwards, along with her.
  
• Later, he is told to strip and stand for investigation, at the border of his world and another, on the suspicion he's been infected by the plague.

Well, that's it.  Happy writing everyone.  I survived Day 2!  Let's see about Day 3!

Link-a-Day: Prompts

Last week, I delved into word origins for research and inspiration.  How about another type of inspiration?  Prompts.

These can be words, scenarios, or pictures that are meant as warm-ups, to get your creative energy flowing.  But more importantly, there is no weight attached to them.  Just as warm-ups for your body won't get you fit, writing exercises won't get you published, but they do get you ready for the real deal.

Here are a few more resources, from other prompt sites to places where you can find or make your own: 

• Prompt Romp
• Picture Prompts
• Flickr:  Last Seven Days
• The First Line
• A Word A Day
• Think Map Visual Thesaurus
• Quick Story Idea Generator 

Enjoy!

Day 1: ~5000 wc

I survived day one, even after doing research for half the morning.  Egyptian research, the inspiration on which I am building my culture.


Wordcount:  ~5,000 words, but that sounds a little high.  But it's all on my laptop, so I can't verify.


Discoveries: 

• That I'm slowly getting a handle on Walker's voice (he has a sense of humor that reminds me of Six in my novel Lab).
• That the research overtime was worth it.  Egyptian culture works really well for this story, what with their religious beliefs on different aspects of the soul. Oh, and also that now that I started writing the novel, I don't seem to have enough reference books?  Never mind I have about six or seven books that cover Egyptians exclusively or at least extensively, and Wikipedia and other sites a click away . . . .
  
• That I can handle writing prominent females so far, as long as they aren't my view point character.  Case in point, the minx that sold her "husband" Walker to a vampire harem (back in the nebulous character history).  And her daughter.  Heck, I better be able to handle it, seeing as how most people in this novel from the thaumaturge to the Walker's supervisor/mentor are of the female persuasion.  The only other principal character that isn't, is an escort, and my intentions are to make that guy make the minx look good.
• That Walker's having fun (well, more people are having fun at his expense); the novel's having fun; I'm having fun :), despite this idea being thrown together and apart, like a tossed salad, at the last moment.

Well, that's it so far.  More when I get home and write.