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Post by Celestial on Nov 10, 2009 15:22:52 GMT -5
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am out of ideas for plot but at least we have a proper title!
*celebratory music*
...GAAHH!! I'm so bad at writing romance! >___< It burns me so much!
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Post by Zylaa on Nov 12, 2009 0:24:45 GMT -5
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am out of ideas for plot but at least we have a proper title! *celebratory music* ...GAAHH!! I'm so bad at writing romance! >___< It burns me so much! Iiii haven't even tried to write a romance scene in one of my books in years. >___> *high five of lack of romance writing* Oh and your modified WWI song is epic. XD |
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Post by Celestial on Nov 12, 2009 7:40:26 GMT -5
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am out of ideas for plot but at least we have a proper title! *celebratory music* ...GAAHH!! I'm so bad at writing romance! >___< It burns me so much! Iiii haven't even tried to write a romance scene in one of my books in years. >___> *high five of lack of romance writing* Oh and your modified WWI song is epic. XD *high fives back* Hooray for hopeless romance writers! x3 Thanks. Even though I did it when I was a bit too overcaffienated... |
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Post by Celestial on Nov 12, 2009 14:11:06 GMT -5
I have nothing better to do during my procrastination peroid so I'm going to make a list of dares I simply have to have in my NaNo. Dare 4: Start one of the paragraphs/chapters with the line "The sun shines brighter on a town that is not already on fire"
Dare 8: Create a completely original and new type of vehicle, and describe it in detail. (Ramiel, by default. x3)
Dare 11: Have a narrator for your story.
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Bonus points: If the narrator is one of the characters of your story. (The ending)
Dare: Work in song lyrics at random parts of your story, so they make sense in context.
-- Bonus: If you can fit an entire song in.
Related too...
Dare: Have a character burst into song in public.
Obligatory Dare: EPIC EQUIPMENT, PLEASE DO NOT USE
Dare: When one of your characters gets mad at someone else, have them use the line "There are a lot of hatred!"
Bonus: If this is a character who speaks fluent English. (For the purpose of the story, fluent German.)
Dare: Include misc. references and quotes throughout your NaNo.
Bonus: If they make sense in context.
Double above-bonus: If they sound like something that would be said anyway, and thus may not always be easily identifiable. (Obscure references are my forte)
Dare: Have some character, at some point, say "It's okay, I'm a doctor!"
Bonus points: If the situation at hand has nothing to do with doctoring.
Double bonus: If the character isn't even a doctor. Is it sad just how many of these involve Feathers in some way? xD |
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Post by Celestial on Nov 14, 2009 16:35:30 GMT -5
So I used a pointless dream sequence. xD God help me, I used a pointless dream sequence. On a slow writing day but still, a dream sequence.
Granted, it gave me a chance to give the character some more UST with his love interest and a little foreshadowing but I hate this dream sequence. It comes out of the blue and isn't needed. It shall go in the editing process. That I can promise. At least it ate up some words on my wordcount and gave me some fun. (Gragh, why don't you just admit you love her? >_< Just because she doesn't act proper and is completelyunlike anything you expect a woman should be doesn't mean you have to deny it!)
In other news, I've worked in song lyrics. The Real Folk Blues and sounding like vague foreshadowing FTW. <3
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Post by Celestial on Nov 16, 2009 14:42:19 GMT -5
Excerpts...read at own risk. ^^
[spoiler=Ramiel in action...] Everything was ready by nightfall. To my surprise I didn’t feel tired but invigorated as ever at flying with Ramiel in such challenging conditions. But I was still glad that I had slept during the journey.
There were lights around me, from fires and from lamps inside the huts. I had a good-enough guide for taking off and landing. The night was also a beautiful one with a full moon. It would be a double-edged sword; on one hand, I could see them but they could also see me. It just made the job all the more interesting.
The air under the Ramiel rushed past as we began to take off. I held a smuggled map tightly between my legs, not letting it escape. The lamp was strapped down next to my seat and rattled a little in its bonds like a restrained mouse. I paid it no heed, concentrating on getting my lovely angel into the air where he belonged.
A couple of hops, a skip and a jump and I was back in the air again. A small smile curled at my lips but I had no time for celebrations. Ramiel climbed further and further, his enormous wings scooping out air as though it was snow. The starry sky rushed towards me in greeting but I had no time for their playfulness. I turned the steering and the rudder’s pistons filled with steam, turning it so that Ramiel was flying towards the trenches of the enemy. They would see this coming. Or they would not. I just had to rely on the Lady herself. There was no other way to go about it.
I flew for some time, occasionally glancing at the map to figure out where I was. The moon lit up the surrounding area quite well and I could see enough through my periscope if I flew low enough. Much of the landscape showed the scars of war through shell holes and demolished trees as well as broken buildings that littered the ground mournfully. I kept flying, trying not to think about whether I was flying in the right direction.
A few dim lights appeared beneath me as I recognised the German Front Line. A few peopled looked up in stunned silence. I glided over No Man’s land and descended as I reached the Allied lines. I was so low to the ground that I could have brushed against a tree that had survived the vicious shelling of the lines.
As soon as I was above them, I unleashed the bombs that were stored inside Ramiel’s belly and tail. I swooped up sharply as soon as I felt them come out, not stopping to listen to the explosions that ensued beneath me. Shouts of panic and the screams of the injured echoed out in the enemy trenches but I did not allow myself to feel any remorse. Bullets slammed into Ramiel’s body but did nothing to harm anything.
I turned around; flying in a zig zag as best as I possibly could to avoid enemy fire. Like a preying bird I swooped down and unloaded more bombs onto the heads of the soldiers. I was now deliberately flying along the line of the trench, even though it was not perfectly straight beneath me. Parts of the unstable mud brew collapsed and soldiers never awoke from their sleep. I was overtaken by the thrill of the hunt and laughed as power rushed through my head and into my muscles. Ramiel did a turn to avoid a shell seemingly on his own but it was not aimed at him. Light flooded the sky as a flare came to life.
The light slashes across my eyes and for a few moments I was blinded. I pulled Ramiel up as steeply as possible, flying over the trench and towards the artillery positions. Another shell was fired and Ramiel swerved out of the way, letting it pass beneath his wing. I hunkered down and flew down towards them, grinning with the adrenaline of the situation. They were so close now, struggling to reload. I swooped up suddenly, sending a rush of wind towards the gun. Bombs were released from Ramiel’s tail. They fell upon the gun and released the flames that consumed it. Shells exploded as they were eaten by fire, causing more damage to the lines.
“The eagle comes and goes, to somewhere much higher,” I whispered in my blood thirst as I turned around, unleashing more fiery carnage upon the guns. It was a small part of the line but the sight of the artillery going up and leaving nothing but mangled metal gave me great joy.
The flare was sinking fast. By chance, the periscope showed me a man that was taking aim not at Ramiel but directly at the cockpit. Viciously and forgetting all decorum, I swooped towards his trench.
“When the silence grows, can you hear it sniper?!” I cried in hot blood, dropping a bomb right into his trench. The power of destruction was intoxicating but at the same time, I did not want to picture the man dying down there. I wished to remain human and survive this war. Who knows, perhaps that wasn’t too much to ask?
I returned to focus more on the guns with the last few bombs I had left. Some more shells were fired my way, one even clipping Ramiel’s wing. Feeling unstoppable, I delivered my last payload of bombs. They smashed into the guns lining the trench and reduced them to shreds of metal and shell. Out of this inferno I emerged with a Ramiel covered in bullet holes but triumphant.
In my glorious victory, I laughed. My first bombing run at night was a huge success but it was because I had caught them by surprise. Next time, I wouldn’t have such an advantage.
Nevertheless the battle had been a success. I had destroyed a good portion of the artillery along this small stretch of trench and in this bit by bit war that could mean everything. Perhaps tomorrow the infantry could capture this trench and achieve a small foothold For my first night mission, I was pretty proud of myself.
[/spoiler]
So indecisive about my title, annoyingly enough. xD Hopefully, I'll be happy with this current one and all will be well. But I do want to get the title right this time and make it something beaufitul which evokes loss, love and steam. ^^ That's just me, all finicky.
Relocated my action to France and here is where the story's pace picks up and becomes a bit more exciting. So I'm coming in and story time is October 6th 1915. I still have to include a zeppelin battle in there and get more head with my sub-plot about Ramiel's engine. Because after Loos, nothing major really happened until 1916 and while that goes on, I can develop more romantic (ish) subtext. =D Yay?
Also, because their current stationing is not far from Verdun, except Celes to poke her nose into that too. x3 Yay?
Oh boy, my NaNo is reaching new levels of suck. xDD
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Post by Celestial on Nov 17, 2009 15:35:22 GMT -5
[spoiler=More Ramiel...with zeppelins!] “You’re not getting past me,” I whispered and lunged right at it recklessly. To be honest, I don’t know why I did it. The crews were firing their machine guns at me but I paid them no heed, twisting and hiding behind their own balloon to get out of the way. They were smart though, never firing if I strayed too close to the hydrogen filled weight that supported them. I had no guns of my own, no matter how much I wanted to have them and all my weapons were a few bombs in my tail section. But I had to make do with that I had.
I flew in front and around the gondolas, performing the most daredevil acrobatics I could. Inside I could see captains shouting orders and gunners taking aim at me. With a flick of the controls, I was on the other side of the great beast and taunting them again.
This waltz went on for a long time but I realised that all I could do was stall. But a retreat would be murder; it would only follow me and pick me off at its own will. I could only stand and fight here, if it was the last thing I did.
Death passed through my mind. I told him there were better things to do with my life.
The lamp struggled weakly in its bonds. I grinned sadistically as I looked at it and feeling the matches from my cigarettes bumping away in my breast pocket. Flying over the zeppelin and giving myself a brief respite from the constant bombardment, I untied it from the cords that held the lamp in place. Carefully, I lit the match and took out of the metal sheath that separated the flame and gas from the atmosphere outside. The match was inserted. I turned the ignition key as quickly as I could. It lit up.
There was a flame. I smiled as I watched it flicker for a brief moment and returned to Ramiel’s controls. He slid off from the balloon and I circled around the zeppelin, watching for the youngest looking, most inexperienced and rash machine gunner.
I flew past a young man gripping the gun. He was tense and seemed eager to get any action in this war, as if it was still an adventure. I dove right towards him, the controls only a faint push away from swooping up. Not for a single moment did the thought of what in the hell I was doing cross my mind.
He saw me and began shooting. I swooped out, seemingly to avoid the fire. Bullets slammed into Ramiel and he seemed to cry out in pain. The wings were peppered with shots. I saw the gauge register a steam drop. A hydraulic line had been cut but I didn’t have time to worry about that. I only prayed that my lovely Ramiel had enough courage and endurance to carry this through.
I flew over the balloon and turned as sharply as I could. Ramiel scraped the top part and to my great satisfaction, above the roar of the engines, the cry of escaping steam and the grinding of the gears I heard a ripping sound. Hydrogen began escaping out of the holes left by the machine gunner.
I had a few seconds to spare. Looking at the gauge, I saw that the hydraulic system supplying the landing gear had been completely shot through. I cursed loudly but only shut off all steam to it, rerouting it instead to Ramiel’s wings. I would worry about landing if I managed to make it back. I flew away from the zeppelin, to a distance which would give me some time as I threw the lamp.
“One,” I whispered as I flicked off the metal covering separating the flames from the outside world.
“Two,” and I threw down the lamp towards the balloon, praying that by some miracle it would go. Otherwise I had no hope.
“Three,” I said and took off as fast as I could; climbing as though I wanted to touch the stars themselves. For a few seconds nothing changed. Then flames erupted beneath me, swallowing all around them. I pushed Ramiel further and further away, my heart wanting nothing else but to get out of this inferno.
At last I was above the German line, where the heat could be tolerated. I took a few seconds to look behind me. The flames were eating away at the skeleton and the gondolas as they fell on No Man’s land like meteors. Despite myself, I grinned widely and almost manically. This crazy plan, hatched without thought for Ramiel or myself had worked.
[/spoiler]
Getting a machine gunner in his zeal to shoot through a zeppelin ballon and then exploding said zeppelin with a gas lamp: I don't care how improbable this is, it is awesome. (In my defence, this is NaNoWriMo, zeppelins exploding because they got a gas lamp thrown into the hydrogen and the thrower surviving isn't the craziest thing that can happen.)
So, yeah. My plot is running out of stuff very quickly. xDD
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Post by Rikku on Nov 17, 2009 17:28:28 GMT -5
Plots do that. xD If in doubt, start describing minor characters. In minute detail. In rhyme. If nothing else, it's funny.
Or you could blow more stuff up. =D That works too.
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Post by Celestial on Nov 17, 2009 17:30:50 GMT -5
Plots do that. xD If in doubt, start describing minor characters. In minute detail. In rhyme. If nothing else, it's funny. Or you could blow more stuff up. =D That works too. Second option please. <3 Explosions are, if anything, awesome. |
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Post by Kathleen on Nov 18, 2009 23:30:12 GMT -5
I find Joseph (your main character, he is called Joseph, right? >.>; Dang I need to remember things better) a very fun viewpoint. xD
Exploding things is kind of cool, and hey, nothing in my NaNo is very probable at the moment, either. =D
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Post by Celestial on Nov 19, 2009 12:10:39 GMT -5
I find Joseph (your main character, he is called Joseph, right? >.>; Dang I need to remember things better) a very fun viewpoint. xD Exploding things is kind of cool, and hey, nothing in my NaNo is very probable at the moment, either. =D ^^; Actually, Joseph's viewpoint is the fairly mundane one and he's only had one excerpt posted on here (first one). The ones that involve flying are Catherine's viewpoint. (>> Yes, I have multiple first person narrators. It is a descision I'm coming to regret.) NaNo: the enemy of the laws of novel physics. x3 |
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Post by Kathleen on Nov 19, 2009 22:43:03 GMT -5
I find Joseph (your main character, he is called Joseph, right? >.>; Dang I need to remember things better) a very fun viewpoint. xD Exploding things is kind of cool, and hey, nothing in my NaNo is very probable at the moment, either. =D ^^; Actually, Joseph's viewpoint is the fairly mundane one and he's only had one excerpt posted on here (first one). The ones that involve flying are Catherine's viewpoint. (>> Yes, I have multiple first person narrators. It is a descision I'm coming to regret.) NaNo: the enemy of the laws of novel physics. x3 This is obviously a memo to me not to name names because I'll only get myself in trouble. xD *tries to amend it* I like the first-person narrating the bits about Ramiel! =DD Pshaw. Who needs physics? xD I am reading this awesome book, Physics of the Impossible, which is really helping with my NaNo. That is, I'm totally ignoring it and bashing ahead with whatever I want to do. <3 |
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Post by Celestial on Nov 20, 2009 17:54:49 GMT -5
^^; Actually, Joseph's viewpoint is the fairly mundane one and he's only had one excerpt posted on here (first one). The ones that involve flying are Catherine's viewpoint. (>> Yes, I have multiple first person narrators. It is a descision I'm coming to regret.) NaNo: the enemy of the laws of novel physics. x3 This is obviously a memo to me not to name names because I'll only get myself in trouble. xD *tries to amend it* I like the first-person narrating the bits about Ramiel! =DD Pshaw. Who needs physics? xD I am reading this awesome book, Physics of the Impossible, which is really helping with my NaNo. That is, I'm totally ignoring it and bashing ahead with whatever I want to do. <3 xD And this is a memo to me to make the narrator easier to identify. Catherine says thanks but the next thing she says has been spoiler'd. ^^ Sorry. >3 Awesome! Besides, we can always get this in editing. |
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Post by Celestial on Nov 21, 2009 15:02:38 GMT -5
From Wikipedia:
...But in my novel Joseph invented a surveilance balloon that was used to sneak a peek at the forces massing and thus be prepared for the invasion.
=D Holy fajita, I changed the course of history with steam! What do you mean the outcome was the same? >> *proud* I declare this novel a 'screw history' novel from now on. I'm too lazy to research.
Finally, finally after 40,000 words introducing a deconstructionist element along with the tank. xD Man, I could cut out about 30,000 words of all the stuff and end up with a lovely novel. Also, I kind of like how Ramiel is described as almost having a soul, for my own little purpose. The drawing of Catherine's mother on it does help matters a little. ^_^ *brick'd*
Random character who is awesome also introduced. Need to kill him off before I become too attached to them over my boring MCs. >>
New plotline for Brandt, yay. <3 And awesome planned too. Finally figured out a reason for the ending too.
Whoot! Now to write this stuff. xD 9 days to go and 2 years of plot to do.
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Post by Celestial on Nov 24, 2009 12:27:25 GMT -5
I'm finding myself skipping over more and more sections, much to the dismay perfectionist inside me. But it all has to go if I'm to make the deadline and churn out a complete rough draft. It's hard and most definitely not a pretty sight but at least I know exactly what is wrong with it and what I have to edit out. On the other hand, I'm never in my whole life doing a historical novel again. Too many fiddly bits and too many small details which can't just be handwaved. But I've had fun and with a lot of refining (I'm not joking or exaggerating here when I say that) maybe this will become a half decent published novel. I've also made a decision that if I do try and publish, I'll try to visit the battlefields again if possible. It would certainly allow me to put the final gloss on it. If not, I'll just have to make do with what I have. First I have to finish this. Urgh, schoolwork is piling up and my imagination is running dry. I swear, I'm not going to write for a month after I finish this. When I finish my NaNo (read: Not reach 50k but finish), I'll have a whole day all to myself. =3 No work, just treats. Let's go. *grabs  ,  and  * EDIT: Just read an article on Langemarck cemetary. I wish my NaNo could summon up such tears but no, it is bland as anything. >__< |
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