Wolf's NaNo Journal - 150k! - FINISHED!

[Deleted]

M U S E   M I S P L A C E D

Pitch:

Jericho Bryant, a world-renowned writer, has written hundreds of books—at least a dozen of which are among the bestsellers and of which at least one has topped the list for more than seven years straight. Yet, for no apparent reason, he has lost his fire and hasn’t even touched a keyboard or a pen for months. He is desperate to write again, yet he has no soul for it.

He is soulless…
               …yet he must write.


Amaranthine, a muse, awakes senseless in a strange world. Without knowledge of where she came from or where she must go, she must wander the world, searching for that which she has lost, for that which she must find, for that which must find her.

She is lost…
               …yet she must be found.


Born to thieves, Sol is left alone at the age of sixteen when his father dies of illness. Unable to remain in his home, he is forced to leave to keep upon the path of survival. The trials he shall face will test his strength and taunt his fate, but if he is to live to leave a legacy, he cannot fail.

He is orphaned…
               …yet he must survive.


A mere boy, Daggar can do nothing right but steal bread and brandish his knife. A seer upon the streets of which he roams has long foreseen his future, though, and she foresees him king.

He is a thief…
               …yet he must rise to the crown.


Primary character profiles:

Jericho Bryant: In his mid-thirties, he is a writer struggling to break back into the business.
Carmen Sinclair: Also in her mid-thirties, she has been Jericho’s editor for years.

Amaranthine: A muse, she is separated from her charge and must find a way to reunite.
Mirth: A mentor, he meets Amaranthine and offers to guide her.

Sol: The son of thieves, he must survive in a world he knows little about. He is seventeen.
Angela: A girl met in the woods, Sol knows little about her.

Daggar: A boy of but fourteen, he is destined to bear the crown.
Selina: A thirteen year-old girl born to the streets, she bears an innate connection to the moon.


Secondary character profiles:

Adhara: A young girl, Amaranthine chooses to give her inspiration.
Rigel: He is Adhara's older brother.
Sena Sarin: She is Adhara and Rigel's mother.
Dean Duhr: He is Adhara and Rigel's father.
Princess Kuddly Kandy Kane: a character made up by Adhara and the muse; she lives in the Karephree Kingdom
Captain John Wort: a pirate in Adhara and Amaranthine's story
Crewman Libor: another pirate
Crewgirl April: She was born in November, and call her Pril

Celeste: A witch, she is Angela's grandmother.
Drogo: He is a resident phantom of Celeste's home. He wears a red shirt.
Mictan: He is a skeletal spirit, an alter-ego of Drogo.

Seer: She foretold Daggar's rise to the throne.
Yarom: He is the leader of the thieves.
Gabrielle: She is Yarom's sister.
Keturah: She can throw the cards, as Seer had been able to/
Jeremiah: Another thief, he is a close friend of Yarom and Gabrielle.
Nekoda: One of the younger thieves, Seer told him he was "marked"...
Enosh: Taught by Seer, he is able to conduct the services of the spirits.
Various thieves: Zadok, Hazael
Sherah: Another witch, willing to assist Daggar's quest
Zephaniah: Sherah's mother, she also runs the witches' guild
Julius Issachar: a king's knight and the leader of Quey-fell Arante
Avimelekha: the Princess of the kingdom.
Gomer: Avimelekha's maidservant.


Dated "summary":*

It is about a famous writer who has not written in years. He finally gets angry and attempts to write, but what he writes... isn't the best of his work. I have no idea what his name is yet. He has a female editor friend; her name will either be Carla or Carmen.
His part of the story is told in first-person.

Then there's Amaranthine. She's his muse, who left him. I haven't decided upon a reason why, but I expect it to end up involving a major plot twist at some point...
Her part of the story is told in third-person.

Finally, there is the author's novel, and occasionally its prequel. The prequel is called "Dagger's Crown"; it is about a thief, named Dagger, and his rise to...well, the crown, apparently. The novel being written is, as of yet, without a title, as is its protagonist without a name. This story takes place years after "Dagger's Crown" and revolves around Dagger's son, who is a thief as well.
These parts of the story are told in second-person.

You may have wide eyes now, but that is what I want. I want to use this contest to write in all three narratives, in one work - I enjoy all of them, and second person is actually rather amusing, both to write and to read. It'll definitely be an interesting piece. Most of my present long works have a dozen points of focus, so this one, having only four, will actually be a bit relaxed. I sometimes think, considering my work on my trilogy, that I divide groups of people much as Tolkien did...but that is not NaNo, and I'll leave it be for now.

* Though in this "summary," the spelling is Dagger, the final spelling actually is Daggar.

[Deleted]

Preparation:

I. Finish current writing projects

A. Finish Avalie*
B. Finish NeoQuest article

II. Write chapter in novel [not for NaNo]**
III. Write October's "Legend of Zelda" short story
IV. Submit "The Edge of Darkness" to Strange Horizons
V. Read choose-your-own-adventure book for better understanding of second-person

* "Avalie" has been a stubborn story, one that I have been struggling with to put on paper. Once more, she has built a wall before me, and I feel now it is in my best interest, and that of the story as well, to let her rest a while before finishing it.

** The chapter was deemed complete at 9,131 words. I wrote it in a matter of five days of writing.


Dares taken:

To use a word-of-the-day each day. (I will be using the word of the day from dictionary.com.)
I did this, from day one to day thirty.

Dare: Have an entire scene spent picking flowers.
Bonus Points: Picking flowers somehow is vital to the plot.
Double Bonus Points: If the MC uses them to defeat the bad guy.
Tripple Bonus Points: If the bad guy uses them to defeat the MC.
I missed triple points, but, who cares? I had expected this scene to arrive early on, yet it came in at the end.

Dare: Have a character who exists solely for the purpose of being killed.
Bonus points if they know this, and it's not a major plot point.
Double bonus if the character always wears a red shirt, and seems oblivious to this fact.
His name is Drogo and he has an alter ego named Mictan. Though the fact that he dies endlessly is a major plot point, his knowing it is not, so I think I grab all points for this one!

Dare: Have a character play with a wet sponge!
Double Points: If other characters join in.
Triple Points: If the sponge is actually the long lost spirit of the character's great and evil ancestor and wreaks havoc upon the world.
Well, the two characters weren't exactly "playing," more arguing over who would bathe whom... and the sponge really didn't become a great and evil ancestral spirit, though it was an excuse used when Angela cut Sol's back with it. AND, she said it with total honesty... so, perhaps I will return to the sponge later in the story. ^_^ ...perhaps...

DARE: Have one of your characters have a daughter named "Angela."
This was actually done accidentally...but, it still counts! ^_^ ...I think.

Include a flood in your novel somewhere.
Bonus if you kill off half your cast of characters in the flood.
Double bonus if they come back in the very next chapter and act like nothing happened.
Quadruple bonus if it's not a zombie novel.
I missed double points. They all come back, yes, and this isn't a zombie novel, but, alas, it was not the chapter directly after the other. There was one in between. Alas.

Have a character fall in love with some inanimate object.
Bonus if it's not a stuffed animal or doll, but a sink or something similarly random.
In searching for new dares to pick up my writing pace, I stumbled upon this one... and I saw that I had already done it. The "similarly random" object was the characters in a novel.

Have a character muse on the naming of 'plot bunnies'
Bonus if said character would like to neuter their own plot bunnies, because there are too many.
Double bonus if they end up writing a story that is such a mish-mash of genres that it doesn't fit under any.
Triple bonus if that story actually makes sense!
Though the story the character is writing has nothing to do with the plot bunnies themselves--it is the basis of the book on many levels--it is a mish-mash of many genres, but it will make perfect sense at the end. I hope.

Dare: To have at least five cups of tea consumed
Bonus Points: If the same characters drinks all the teas
Double Bonus Points: If five of the teas are peppermint, chamomile, earl grey, chai, and green tea
Triple Bonus Points: If the teas play a vital role in the plot (symbolic or actual)
Well, this was the single dare I made this year, as I had figured I'd secretly connect my major MC's (Jericho's) obsession with tea to anyone's piece who took up the dare, and with every obsession, although he has had many more teas than just these five, he's at last had all five in the story, so there. lol.

1. Include a game of questions (from Whose Line) in your novel.
This was taken on totally by accident...but, still, I did it.

Name a character/thing Kuddly
She was named by a seven year old. Stop looking at e like that!

- Have a character named after another month not commonly used as a name, like "October" or "January".
---Bonus Points if they don't have a "normal" sounding nickname (Like calling "January" Jan all the time.)
This part was thought up by Amaranthine the muse. Blame her. lol

Progress (word of the day in parenthesis):

November 01: 2104 (prevaricate)
November 02: 7052 (ostracize)
November 03: 6252 (fillip)
November 04: 5777 (apocryphal)
November 05: 5631 (harangue)
November 06: 5447 (copse)
November 07: 6138 (obfuscate)
November 08: 693 (agrestic)
November 09: 11,366 (congeries)
November 10: 1802 (peripatetic)
November 11: 6848 (turgid)
November 12: 5024 (idyll)
November 13: 8227 (ad ovo)
November 14: 5059 (gauche)
November 15: 4059 (inexorable)
November 16: 5137 (putative)
November 17: 5082 (dotage)
November 18: 6386 (bootless)
November 19: 5172 (proclivity)
November 20: 5175 (exacerbate)
November 21: 5107 (subaltern)
November 22: 5085 (mollify)
November 23: 1662 (trencherman)
November 24: 5155 (avoirdupois)
November 25: 5338 (inclement)
November 26: 5125 (travail)
November 27: 5331 (equivocate)
November 28: 6182 (redact)
November 29: 3771 (vapid)
November 30: 18,235 (galvanic)

Total words written:

169,445 words - finished!

[Deleted]

Well, it is now five minutes after the end of day one.
I am quite pleased that I was able to write today, as I had thought I would not be able to.

Anyways, I plan to post three excerpts here, one of Jericho, one of Sol, and one of Amaranthine.
So, with no further ado, let the excerpts begin.


Excerpt #1 (Jericho):

There is a certain source of inspiration, I feel, that is hard to come by. It is not a sort of inspiration that is limited, nor is it a source of inspiration that is infinite. It is merely, to say it as logically as I can say it, is a source of inevitable inspiration.

Beginning a piece is quite inspiration.

Ending it is equally as so.

Yet, in the middle, that inevitable inspiration is at times hard to come by.

It is in my belief as a writer that the inspiration prior to an idea is endless and infinite. With no definite shape, all things can come from the abyss and set itself upon the blank page, after that first word, of course. Yet even ignoring such a fear as that of blank pages, the inspiration that inspires one to begin a novel is endless. It has n shape, it has no form; it merely is.

Likewise, the inspiration at the end of the novel is limited. It is not as infinite as the inspiration towards the conception of the piece, though in many ways it is equally as endless. His inspiration, however, is limited, as it must conform to a set doctrine of circumstantial evidence. If set in a medieval setting, this inspiration can only inspire in medieval manner. If set in space to the tune of indefinite variables of science, this inspiration is as restricted as the uncertainty principle. Equally as possible, if the story is strung upon lines of realism, the inspiration can no longer induce dragons or aliens as particulates of the final developments of the plot.

Taken as a whole, with prior inspiration infinite and final inspiration limited, the inner inspiration—that which is drawn upon during the body of the written piece—must be deemed inevitable, but quantized. Therefore, at the beginning of the novel, anything may happen, though as the novel progresses, the consumed inspiration will increase or decrease in set quanta depending on the variable aspects of the plot’s progression. What might begin as realism might progress to fantasy (with an equal increase in quanta) or what may at first seem science fiction might be proven literary (with an equal decrease in quanta of inspiration).

To devote endless hours of research on the mechanics of inspiration, however, would nullify the greatest property of inspiration: the fact that it is beyond logical, scientific explanation. By not knowing the source or stature of inspiration, it is a holy thing sanctified by mystery and enigma. To degrade it to a mere science, however grand as it may be, would still cause the inexplicable compulsion to action that inspiration inspires to become an obsolete facet of the scientific probabilities henceforth gained by the experimentation of such varying subjects as young children or senile adults.

However, there will always be that moment of longing for an artist—whether of words or pictures or musical notations—to find a way to bottle inspiration, to keep it constantly available so the down time of creation can be set aside once and for all to an endless aficionado for the symphonic ways of palatable process in setting forth expression.

Yet as mere humans, we must all too often be left to wonder if that inevitable inspiration that is somewhere may perhaps linger at the start of the next song playing on our processor’s hard drive or is lying I wait at the bottom of our chamomile-blueberry tea cup.

Left to wonder so infinitely, the human mind is more comparable to prior inspiration that to final inspiration, and perhaps that is the reason why it is so difficult for many artisans to find completion in their work. Bred only to seek out and admire their inspiration, they find it more reliable and more pleasing to linger amid the infinite inspiration of prior conception than the inevitable or final inspirations found later on after the prior inspiration has been restricted and quantized appropriately.

Left to obsession, however, an inspired mind will be degraded, deformed, and degenerated to nothing more than the ganglia of a slug, or perhaps of a spider as that possesses more organized beauty. However, no matter which invertebrate your are diseased into, you will find the working of higher thought—that which is capable of more profound creation—to become as obsolete as inspiration would become if it were scientifically proven and implemented as a mere facet of primordial existence.

So, as terribly difficult it is for an author to abandon such rampant inspirational wondering, I must now restrict my own inspiration and leave it quantized in my mind of Sol’s world. I still have yet to decide upon a title for his trials, yet in time I suppose I shall.

For now, however, my only task is to ensure that he has much of a trial at all.

Excerpt #2 (Sol):

You stumble. You trip. You tumble. You fall.

You land on your back, your head spinning. You moan uncomfortably, refusing to open your eyes. You allow yourself to breath for a moment. The knife on your hip shifts menacingly, but its blade is concealed and cannot cut you. You think.

After slicing apart the rabbit, after being dragged through the forest, then spoken to by an unreal woman, you had been so beside yourself, you cannot safely recall whether you had snapped your knife shut or not. You feel it shake within its sheath, a strap of leather tied ‘round your leg.

You lift your right hand reluctantly, tendrils of pain coursing through your body as it moves in slow motions. You let it hover through the air, closer to your leg, closer… A hand grabs yours. It is soft. It is that of a woman’s.

The hand pulls you up.

Before you, at the end of the horizon, a woman in rags, as filthy as the dirt you lie in, stares upon you. Her eyes are half-living; one stares at you dazedly, the other rolls around unpredictably. The woman’s swaying, placid, demented swaying, startled you into paralysis.

She cackles, unable to keep her head aloft, and as she sways longer, she speaks to you.

“So as the sun, so be it thee
“Cursed for all, and cursed it be
“So seem it dead,
“So seem it thee.”


You open your eyes. The canopy above you is bright with the sun of day, and a gentle wind rattles the leaves, sending cascading shadows dancing down through the air and into your eyes. You blink in relief, your breath harried and tense.

The vision of the woman lingers in your mind.

You slide your arms beneath your back and stretch out your spine. Slowly, your curve it forwards, using your hands to propel you upwards until you are able to sit steadily upon the dead leaves of eras passed by in the aged forest.

Before you, there is no wizened woman. Nor is there a young beauty who might have grabbed your hand and pulled you up to see the witch, the prophet, the seer.

Your father had warned against all three. Witches, more commonly good, magical folk than evil hags, were trustable, but not to a thief. They criminalized such acts and felt inclined to punish if threatened or acted upon. Prophets falsely told the future and demanded sacrifice, loyalty, and explicit devotion to a single figure of unlawful truth or pure deceit. Seers were always accurate forecasters of the future, yet rarely did they find it fitting to foretell a fruitful fortune.

In his day, your father had dealt with all three.

Excerpt #3 (Amaranthine):

Amaranthine stepped at last from the street. It was night by now. Thus full moon watched over her. She turned to it, a tear rolled down her face, and she said, “I shall miss your ambience… when I am gone.” She smiles to the moon, and for a heartbeat of a moment, she sees her smile back.

The moon, so loftily suspended within the heavens. Distant at the time, she hung silently yet soothingly, shedding sweet light upon her subjects, her children of the sun. She shone with silver light, a halo strung upon the sky around her.

Clouds nor aircrafts plagued the sky and instead it was as clear blue and as deeply blue as the depthless emotions of the churning sea. So little of it mattered now, now that her fate was sealed. The muse would find herself enthralled, enthroned, by desperation, and would cease to exist.

“Such silence do you offer me,” Amaranthine whispered. “Such sweet, sweet silence…”

The moon dared not to answer.

Amaranthine lowered her head, more tears swelling in her eyes and finally breaking past the shorelines of her face and melting down her skin. Without meaning to life, without life to meaning, she was nothing more than a fading specter. A spirit doomed to be darned.

Still, though, there was a flicker of hope within her soul, what little heart there was left to the muse. Her hope burned small and dimly, hardly more than a candle’s feeble flame. Yet still, she knew deep inside her aspired senses, that even a flame could birth a wildfire.

If only, if only she could find within herself the brush to ignite.

[Tashni]

Wow, that's a bold project to take on for NaNoWriMo! Have fun with it. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress come November. ^_^

[Deleted]

Yep, I'm quite excited about it. ^_^ *adds Tashni as writing buddy*

[Tashni]

Wow, Writingwolf this is going to be really neat! All of those characters will be interesting to follow. I can't wait to see how you write a muse. They're so mythical, but there is so much that can be done with them. (Like in that Sharon Stone movie, is it called "The Muse"?)

[Deleted]

Thanks, Tashni!
To be honest...I'm really interested in seeing how I'll do the muse as well... My idea is that I will elaborate upon everything, and make even the most mundane, dull things appear amazingly wonderful and inspired, with lots of color and vivid imagery.
I don't think I've seen, or even heard of that movie...shame, though...

There is but one last day till NaNo...two until I can write...

I bid you all good luck!

[Belle]

I'm liking this, Wolf. ^^ I'm seeing it as a magical realism kind of metafiction type. I'm really interested to see how this is going to go. p:)

Good luck. ^^

[Tashni]

micrody said:

I don't think I've seen, or even heard of that movie...shame, though...

Well, seeing as you're writing about a muse, you might get a kick out of the movie. LOTS of cameos by famous directors.

[Deleted]

ladyariel32 said:

I'm liking this, Wolf. ^^ I'm seeing it as a magical realism kind of metafiction type. I'm really interested to see how this is going to go.

Good luck. ^^

Thank you. ^_^
Yes... magic realism is quite similar to what I have in mind, and Jericho's part will probably be a lot like metafiction. I just...had simply...never heard of it before.

tashni said:

micrody said:

I don't think I've seen, or even heard of that movie...shame, though...

Well, seeing as you're writing about a muse, you might get a kick out of the movie. LOTS of cameos by famous directors.

Probably so... Too bad I have neither the time to spare or any idea ho I'd find a copy. How old is it? Maybe it'll be at the library...

[Deleted]

My CT went quickly, and because I was excused from school for of it, I will have extra time to write today!

* * *

4:53pm

Well, I have spent the last three and a half hours writing and I have written a total of 4600 words in that time, give or take a few. I am pleased, yet I want to try and write another 3400 today. I know -- that's CRAZY! For this first week, I want to write 500 words a day to get a good start, and yesterday I was only able to reach just a bit more than 2000.

I'm feeling exhausted right now, though, and so I must let myself take a rest. I think I'm going to go battle some mroe tombstones on Neopets and then read what my other writing body has written until I am kicked from the computer for my younger brother and we can clear of some previously recorded television programming. Well, soo... I'm off for now. ^_^

* * *

9:30pm

Well, I did not reach my desired goal for today, but I only missed it by a few hundred words, which isn't very much, I think. I am, however, quite pleased with what I did get written today.

Now, I simply must decide...
Do I want to post Amaranthine and Sol's excerpts from waht i wrote today, or wait a bit longer?

Everyone's opinions on this would be appreciated, as I can't decide on my own...

[Belle]

I read your excerpt on your NaNo profile and I must say, Wolf, that was excellent prose. p:) Something I wouldn't expect as being done during NaNo. p;)

[Deleted]

Wahoo! Thank you, Belle! Thanks a lot! ^_^

Might I ask...why you would not have expected something such as that to be done during NaNo?

* * *

5:25pm

Well, I have written almost 3100 words already today, which is about half of my total goal for today. Anyway, I have to give my hands a rest for a while. So, therefore, I am heading off to read the excerpt from another of my writing buddies. But then, then I shall return! *maniacal laughter*

* * *

11:54pm

Ah, such sweet longing (my present catch-phrase, go figure), such sweet desire to do more, yet such sweet simplicity telling me to go at last to bed. I was able to reach my goal of six thousand words, and I actually topped it by 252 words, go figure. In addition to the sense of accomplishment at reaching my goal, I am quite pleased with what i was able to write today. I was able to introduce another character, one that I had previously, until last night, not thought would exist, and also to spend 900 words talking about chamomile tea. Seriously, it was 902 words. ^_^ lol. Seriously.

It's a pleasurable idea as well to know that wrote chapter 15 through 25 as well. In my trilogy, it can sometimes takes weeks to write a single chapter, and hardly can I ever write a single chapter in a single day. Yet, those chapters are quite near the count of 10,00 words, whereas few of these chapters reach 1000. I tend to change the narrative and present character often, yet it somehow fits flawlessly, I feel.

To think, in a matter of three days, I have reached 15,00 words.

Perhaps I have taken this too seriously...
Perhaps I have found this competetive writing to be too propelling...

[Deleted]

I've only written 3,857 words already, yet my goal is 5000, and hopefully I'll be able to top that and reach a solid 6000. Yet, I feel suddenly quite tired. I know I could take a break from writing to do some reviews, yet I feel to... out of it to read much anyway. So... I must linger before the computer and start writing.

Maybe I'll prepare another excerpt to add.
I do want to add on for Amaranthine, and eventually one for Sol, as well...

Well, to a writing I must go...

* * *

8:39pm

Well, after a nice bout of writing, I decide to add an excerpt for Sol, even though I had originally thought I'd add his part after a bit of Amaranthine's story, but things never go exactly as planned (his story is going a direction I had never, never foreseen!). I've also just changed Jericho's excerpt to one that better shows proper first-person tense and also shows a different facet of his being, as opposed to that facet shown in his first excerpt. I've also gone on a limb and accepted a new dare. ^_^ Come on, why not?

I seriously, seriously think I have I have probably taken this whole thing too seriously, yet the point is to find the initiative to write and have a lot of fun doing it? Right? Right?!

If so, I think I haven't taken it seriously enough. lol.

* * *

11:39pm

Ah, the sense of writing is so lovely, especially when you have broken into the proper stream of inspiration for your story. At first, I had been telling Sol's tale with an air of realism, though he's finally found my core and his bit has become a bit more, a lot more, actually, fantastic than I had foretold. Of all of them, his story is surprising me the most. I guess, though, that his tale was the one least planned for before this all began.

Now... onto tomorrow, I must prepare for work tonight.

Arevua...or however you'd spell that. ^_^

[Deleted]

Well, I got swamped today with unexpected things, but I was still able to write nearly 5000 words, which was enjoyable. My one story-in-the-story has actually grown and progressed quite nicely, and I have a few ideas I can apply in the future. ll very devious, all very good.

It's...it's just a shame that I was able to get done nothing else I had hoped to be able to do today...

Oh, I also added my final excerpt-- the one from Amaranthine's story. It's a bit short, but sufficient. :)

* * *

10:37pm

Well, in waiting for cable to catch up with it's schedule, I was able to write a bit more. I am quite pleased with this recent work, so maybe today was not as much of an overall lost as I had thought...

I am still disappointed, though, that I will be unable to do my reading today...