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Post by Thorn on Oct 23, 2018 19:21:11 GMT -5
As in previous years, I'll be writing more in the spirit of NaNo than actually going for the whole OMG WHAT AM I DOING I HAVE REGRETS huge novel challenge. November Task List... Werewolf Story*Edit/refresh my memory on the nine published chapters.
*Do final edits on chapter 10 (esp. the choppy point where I melded two chapters together!), and post.
*Finish + edit chapter 11, post.
*Get 12 drafted, at the very least.
*Calamity's 'voice' still needs work, I may need to write a seekrit side-story to find it (or maybe one of the OCtober prompts will help me here.) Space Fantasy Novella*I need to do another draft but don't think I can manage that and Werewolf, both.
*Just do what I can.
*Will set more concrete word targets etc before long.
*Need to focus on: more character + relationship development, better foreshadowing.
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Post by Thorn on Nov 3, 2018 7:14:09 GMT -5
Updates 3/11: (I'm on task one: Werewolf Story) *Finished recapping old chapters before November, thank goodness.
*Looks like there'll be 13 now, not 12.
After a few days' break from it, I returned to chapter 11 and did another round of editing. I'm starting to finally be happy with it! I do need to edit back in a line I took out- I need to find a way to do it which isn't clunky, but it provides a nice point of contrast with something in the previous chapter.
Things I have managed to finally almost balance in this chapter (which is sitting at 2300 words.) (mild spoilers I guess?) *Two separate conversations between Floren and Percy.
*Not mood whiplashing too hard between two equally not-happy, but still distinct, moods.
*Other characters as they move around the scene.
*Toning down the fact that everything sucks so it's not just a formless mass of sadstressed people being sadstressed.
*But hey, the next chapter is a fun one and I'm excited to work on that! New PoV, and my fave to write so far (sorry Percy.)
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Post by Thorn on Nov 5, 2018 18:40:43 GMT -5
So I did almost get Chapter 11 of Werewolf Story edited to acceptable-ness yesterday! And was gonna edit again and post it today but...my heart just isn't in it right now, and there's too much brainfog. I have a nice morning tea with friends tomorrow and then will have four hours between getting home from that and needing to leave again for work, so hopefully I can get it posted then.
It's gotten to the point where I stare at it and can't even tell if it's good anymore, because I've read the same passages six thousand times ("Do you have time to talk?" onward until "Even if the rest of them didn't look so nice right now" I can almost perfectly recite because I had this section drafted months ago, before even chapter ten!)
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Post by Thorn on Nov 6, 2018 11:49:21 GMT -5
Posted chapter 11! FINALLY. Two to go and then I'll move on to space fantasy, if I get these done by the end of the month. Things I'm happy with:*I get to write my two wolfy characters next chapter! They are such fun and hate each other.
*Percy's personality as a whole. He's just so sick of trying to care about people who don't care about him, but he's gonna keep doing it anyway!
*I managed to cut out a bunch of unnecessary dialogue.
*Some of these passages I wrote months ago and they are finally out in the wild, which is a good feeling.
Things I'm not happy with:*Abrupt change in direction/tone towards the end of the chapter.
*I had to cut a line I really wanted, because it hinted at a beautiful contrast between two sets of characters.
*Ended up having to cut a half-explanation of why Simon wasn't un-evilled as quickly as Floren (he'd been a werewolf for longer is the most likely answer, but since Mildred doesn't actually know there probably won't be confirmation either way.)
Unsure about my feelings: There was originally a part where Floren spoke to Riley all like "Hey, I sent that letter! I'm so glad they sent someone to help us, you're awesome!"
I cut it for pacing but it was a nice character moment for them both, and I hope I saved it somewhere because it would be useful for later reference. I used Floren's surname in it, after asking my brother to suggest one which went well with both 'Florentine' and 'Nicholas', and deleting this section does give me more time to rethink what this surname might be (since I wasn't 100% satisfied with the original, it seemed a bit too long), which is nice. |
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Post by Thorn on Nov 7, 2018 6:50:01 GMT -5
Doing some work on chapter 12 today. The ending needs to be changed- it's good, but no longer makes sense- and there are large gaps in the middle where I was like 'ehhh I'll fill this in later.' (it's still doing better than chapter 13, which at present is about a paragraph long.) I like listening to music while I write, especially if it's just editing. Today I'm starting with ' Wolves Without Teeth', by Of Monsters and Men, because I like a pun. Or, not quite a pun. Whatever this is, now that I'm writing about wolves. (It's a good song though. The title is an excellent metaphor for anxiety- and the song itself very much has this vibe, yet the rhythm is very soothing and it's one of my comfort-listens for sure.) EDIT: This morning's additions, in a nutshell. Wolf 1: I'M HAVING AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS LIKE RN. Wolf 2: Bruh you do you, but you look like you're about to attack them. If we die because you can't get your freaking facial muscles under control, I swear, I'll haunt you forever. And afternoon's contributions... Neglected characters: HEY WE'VE BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME SHE TOTALLY DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT US. |
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Post by Thorn on Nov 9, 2018 20:48:47 GMT -5
Today's work:
*Did a little writing exercise on Tumblr, to examine what 'small things' make my main characters really happy. It was a fun exercise! Should still probably do this for Calamity: have only examined Percy and Floren so far, and the latter isn't even a main character.
*Current chapter word count: 1940.
*First word: it
Last word: son
*Number of crying characters (they do this all the time): 1 (arguably 2.)
*My current favourite PoV character to write is Percywolf.
*Current favourite character to write overall is Floren (hence why they got included in the writing exercise when poor Calamity is much more prominent!)
I think I'll need another few days to complete this. At worst, I should get it finished my next full day off work (Wednesday.) But I think I'll be done by then.
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Post by Thorn on Nov 14, 2018 17:03:22 GMT -5
Suppose I should update!
Been working slowly on this- I'm running a d&d sesh tomorrow (not NTWF-related), so my focus has been more towards that the past couple days. But I did another round of revisions this morning! Managed to cut down the last section, which needed to be shortened anyway because...well...it trails into a weird PoV which is tricky to write but I can't really get out of it, because I need this portion in order to wrap up earlier sections, if that makes sense?
...but somehow the chapter is now sitting at 1986 words which is longer than earlier??? I suppose I did add some stuff right before the start of that last section, since I'm working on the transition between the two (it's a tricky one.)
Two normally nice characters are being jerks, which is really fun to write because I like working on different sides of the same character. Their views are totally justified, which is even better because most people aren't going to stay super nice in the face of Weird Werewolf Stuff/General Adversity!
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Post by Thorn on Nov 18, 2018 5:07:41 GMT -5
Update for yesterday: Stuck a dividing line between the last two sections of chapter 11 because stuff it, tying them together properly would take too long and either have too much boring small talk, or too much sustained Awkward Silence.
Fixed a very obvious oversight in chapter 11 which I had somehow, regardless, failed to notice (regarding who knows which bits of info.)
Changed the focus of certain actions in the final scene because I realised three of the characters had been entirely ignoring the fourth. And it wasn't even like I could say the characters were being all "oh, we'll give them space!" It was me realising "oh shoot this character is here, nobody really checked in with them, what do." So when I get home this evening, my focus will be paving over that, haha.
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Post by Thorn on Nov 23, 2018 21:48:19 GMT -5
I DID SOME STUFF.
I'm so slow. Will be lucky if I finish this month (sorry, my lovely space ladies!)
It's almost there but something still feels...off, but I don't know what to do about it.
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Post by Thorn on Nov 25, 2018 14:33:46 GMT -5
A lot of stuff's been going on and it's hard to focus on writing.
I'm going to do some warm fuzzies tonight to try take my mind off stuff, hopefully manage some werewolf edits after that.
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