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Post by Rikku on Nov 16, 2011 2:21:20 GMT -5
^__^ <3 Aw, you guys. That sorta thing motivates me like anything. Thanksandhuggles. Right! So. Today I got up about four hours after I went to sleep, because I do my best writing in the earlier part of the day. In this case I did my best drowsing-blearily-and-occasionally-collapsing-and-for-some-reason-watching-The-Lion-King in the earlier part of the day, but you can't have everything. >.> But! Yep. Finally managed to start writing in the late afternoon. And I do mean finally. I've been in the same scene for, like, four days. @_@ I do not enjoy that. So yep! Now we're moving forward. The scene in question involves ... um. Well. Saint sorta charms his way into a hotel. For no real reason except that he's been kicked out of his flat and kinda wants a shower, and also possibly to steal someone's clothes. And. Yep. That ... that's this scene. That's all it is. xD; The next scene's gonna be fun, though? We get to meet Corby Carson, an incubus who's fond of the 30's, and thus cool things like fedoras and moonshine and jazz. Looking forward to meeting him, I don't really know who he is yet. Things are always more fun when you throw in some conflict! =D I think tomorrow I will make Saint be attacked by a - a hotel spirit! An evil hotel spirit. *scours for snippets* ... Eh. xD Just have a bit from the beginning of this scene, I guess. “I told you,” Saint said. “I can’t go to a date looking like something that’s been run over by a giant cat and then deep-fried in pond scum. It leaves a bad impression.”
“Yes,” said Noah, slowly, “I can see how it would, but – why a hotel? Are you looking for work?”
Saint grinned at him. They were, indeed, standing at the façade of a very magnificent and grand hotel, the kind with lots of pale shining stone, lush potted plants and a severe excess of lavish balconies. It was impossible to describe it without the word ‘historic’ filtering its way in there somehow. “Oh, for shame,” he said. “I think freely! Remember? I wander around as I like, and take what I like, and sleep where I like, and steal strangers’ possessions from inexplicably expensive hotels when I like.”
“Thieving?” said Noah, sounding approving.
“Oh so very thieving. In this particular little task I will, however, require some incorporeal aid …”
While Noah was gone Saint amused himself by scorching the leaves of the elegant pot plants arrayed in front of the hotel and trying not to look like he was loitering. Which wasn’t that hard; it was still rainy and stormy and generally unpleasant, so someone hanging around outside the hotel wasn’t too inexplicable, though it’d make more sense for them to hang around outside somewhere more interesting, or enter a delightfully eccentric boutique or a café with a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. This was Cuba Street, after all. It overflowed with delightfully eccentric boutiques and cafés with friendly, welcoming atmospheres. Though probably none of those were historic.
Noah returned just as Saint was perfecting his unloiter, which involved staring anxiously outside and making occasional small dashes out of the protective cover of the canopy and then quick dashes back, as though testing whether the rain was, indeed, still wet. He was rather proud of it. It had, he felt, an air of authenticity.
“Is that some sort of strange dance?” said Noah. “People are staring at you.”
Saint stopped unloitering and sighed. “You have no respect for proper infiltrative techniques,” he said, reproachfully. “I suppose you wouldn’t, being dead, but still. There are standards. Honestly. If you were Bond-James-Bond’s cheerful ghost companion you’d probably ask him why he needed his martinis shaken rather than stirred for, anyway, and berate him for bashing a villain over the head with a genuine fifth century antique.”
Noah blinked. “I don’t think I would,” he said. “And cheerful? Really?”
“You smile a lot,” said Saint. “In a mildly unnerving sort of way. I’ve been assuming it’s just a dead thing. Like how skulls are always grinning, but … fleshier.” |
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Post by Rikku on Nov 17, 2011 4:43:01 GMT -5
'But, Saint decided, you should never discount perfectly good survival strategies just because they have an irregular rhyme scheme.'
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Post by Tam on Nov 17, 2011 8:28:19 GMT -5
'But, Saint decided, you should never discount perfectly good survival strategies just because they have an irregular rhyme scheme.' Well. That seems like sound advice to me. =DDDDD *runs away very fast* |
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Post by Rikku on Nov 17, 2011 14:39:49 GMT -5
'But, Saint decided, you should never discount perfectly good survival strategies just because they have an irregular rhyme scheme.' Well. That seems like sound advice to me. =DDDDD *runs away very fast* xD Less-than-three so very very much. <3 |
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Post by Zylaa on Nov 18, 2011 22:28:30 GMT -5
'But, Saint decided, you should never discount perfectly good survival strategies just because they have an irregular rhyme scheme.' Well. That seems like sound advice to me. =DDDDD *runs away very fast* XDDD I didn't even get it until I read Rikku's response. I must be tired. |
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Post by Rikku on Nov 22, 2011 15:27:25 GMT -5
*grins* I believe I reached 50k at around about this point the first year I did NaNo, too. Funnily enough I was writing urban fantasy set in Wellington at the time. It is nice to think that I have Gotten Better.
... Slightly relatedly. I am worried about adjectives. UM BUT MAINLY ADVERBS BECAUSE ADVERBS IS WHAT I MEANT BECAUSE I AM GOOD WITH WORDS AND TOTALLY KNOW WHAT ADVERBS ARE
>.>
we now return you to your scheduled post
Do they bug people? (Adverbs. Are you bugged by adverbs.) I mean, I've come across it in a lot of lists about unprofessional writing habits, and the first time I was like 'um, what, no, actually it is a fantastic thing', but. *shuffles* I can definitely see why it would be a problem. When folk are like -
"Hello," she said smoothly.
"Hello to you too," he replied grumpily, standing up irritably.
"Well aren't you a mister grumpypants," she said, snidely.
- or whatever then I can understand that it's irritating, but I use adjectives one heck of a lot, without even thinking about it. And. *frowns* They're good. I mean, part of the reason why we're told not to overuse them - just to let our saids be saids, not remarkeds or said-sadlies - is that the dialogue should be enough to stand on its own, that it should be contained within the dialogue how the character says it. That's true to an extent, but - this is prose. If this was something read aloud then the reader/actor could read the words with expression and we wouldn't need descriptions, obviously.
(... Well, except for humorous effect. xD "No, I'm not dead, just horribly disfigured," ... laughed the boy.)
But in written work? Sometimes they're necessary, surely. I originally found the concept of this sort of thing being unprofessional/amateurish writing really really strange just because adjectives describing actions and most particularly how people say things are helpful. They sort of ... set the shape of the dialogue, of the sentence. Let us hear it in our heads. Give it colour and tone. I can see why it'd be a problem, but I also find that really difficult to agree with.
Thoughts?
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Post by Tam on Nov 23, 2011 2:35:08 GMT -5
*grins* I believe I reached 50k at around about this point the first year I did NaNo, too. Funnily enough I was writing urban fantasy set in Wellington at the time. It is nice to think that I have Gotten Better. ... Slightly relatedly. I am worried about adjectives. Do they bug people? I mean, I've come across it in a lot of lists about unprofessional writing habits, and the first time I was like 'um, what, no, actually it is a fantastic thing', but. *shuffles* I can definitely see why it would be a problem. When folk are like - "Hello," she said smoothly. "Hello to you too," he replied grumpily, standing up irritably. "Well aren't you a mister grumpypants," she said, snidely. - or whatever then I can understand that it's irritating, but I use adjectives one heck of a lot, without even thinking about it. And. *frowns* They're good. I mean, part of the reason why we're told not to overuse them - just to let our saids be saids, not remarkeds or said-sadlies - is that the dialogue should be enough to stand on its own, that it should be contained within the dialogue how the character says it. That's true to an extent, but - this is prose. If this was something read aloud then the reader/actor could read the words with expression and we wouldn't need descriptions, obviously. (... Well, except for humorous effect. xD "No, I'm not dead, just horribly disfigured," ... laughed the boy.) But in written work? Sometimes they're necessary, surely. I originally found the concept of this sort of thing being unprofessional/amateurish writing really really strange just because adjectives describing actions and most particularly how people say things are helpful. They sort of ... set the shape of the dialogue, of the sentence. Let us hear it in our heads. Give it colour and tone. I can see why it'd be a problem, but I also find that really difficult to agree with. Thoughts? By your examples, I'm guessing you might possibly mean adverbs? *sheepish* But um no I totally agree with you! I think adverbs are useful and brilliant words, and I'm also thinking that anyone who says you shouldn't use them at all/in dialogue scenes is probably out of their mind. They can add a lot of flavour and create multiple layers of meaning when a writer uses them well (for example, ' "I just killed someone," he said' creates a rather different impression on me as a reader than, say, ' "I just killed someone," he said brightly.'), which is especially good if you're the sort of writer who likes to pack a lot of information into your dialogue beyond the words that are spoken. I mean, you can still overuse them, definitely. xD; Just like you can overuse adjectives or dashes or "said" (which, while not "dead" like they tried to teach me in elementary school, is certainly not godly enough to be omnipresent either), they just look ugly and feel awkward if you get too many of them on a page. I think I do overuse them quite a bit myself, because there are a lot off adverbs that just seem to match certain moods and tones in my head and I often include them automatically, even when the dialogue itself provides enough mood/tone to make the adverb redundant. But mostly I think it's just something to be aware of so that you can judge for yourself whether or not you need the adverb — not something to necessarily reduce/eliminate because they're inherently bad if you use them in any quantity. [/ramble ramble] Edit: Oh gosh. *headdesk* And congratulations on reaching 50K! <3 That was actually the whole reason I came here. Ha. Ha ha. Okay, sleep now. No really, way to go. How far do you think you are into the story? =D |
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Post by Rikku on Nov 23, 2011 3:43:23 GMT -5
By your examples, I'm guessing you might possibly mean adverbs? *sheepish* But um no I totally agree with you! I think adverbs are useful and brilliant words, and I'm also thinking that anyone who says you shouldn't use them at all/in dialogue scenes is probably out of their mind. They can add a lot of flavour and create multiple layers of meaning when a writer uses them well (for example, ' "I just killed someone," he said' creates a rather different impression on me as a reader than, say, ' "I just killed someone," he said brightly.'), which is especially good if you're the sort of writer who likes to pack a lot of information into your dialogue beyond the words that are spoken. I mean, you can still overuse them, definitely. xD; Just like you can overuse adjectives or dashes or "said" (which, while not "dead" like they tried to teach me in elementary school, is certainly not godly enough to be omnipresent either), they just look ugly and feel awkward if you get too many of them on a page. I think I do overuse them quite a bit myself, because there are a lot off adverbs that just seem to match certain moods and tones in my head and I often include them automatically, even when the dialogue itself provides enough mood/tone to make the adverb redundant. But mostly I think it's just something to be aware of so that you can judge for yourself whether or not you need the adverb — not something to necessarily reduce/eliminate because they're inherently bad if you use them in any quantity. [/ramble ramble] Edit: Oh gosh. *headdesk* And congratulations on reaching 50K! <3 That was actually the whole reason I came here. Ha. Ha ha. Okay, sleep now. No really, way to go. How far do you think you are into the story? =D Yes! That's pretty much my perspective exactly. Basically ... basically every word of that, really. xD And with the matching of certain moods/tones and thus automatic using, yes, I do that. Your thoughts are pretty much the conclusions I was reaching, so. Phew! xD Hee. Yes! Thank you. <3 I'm. Er. STorywise I have no idea. >.> There's a nice little handful of scenes that I know happen next, and I have a vaaague idea of the ending, but how long it'll take to get there I don't really know. BUt everything is introduced now! So, y'know, final stretch, probably. Er. Maybe. I do hope so, anyway. xD; Considering it'd be nice to get this draft done by the end of November so as to have a nice feel of completion. |
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Post by Rikku on Nov 25, 2011 2:32:55 GMT -5
*headdesk* Need to get around to working on this. It's not for lack of time - it's for excess of time, really. There's nothing else I need to be doing, so somehow writing turns into work. I'd really like to have this finished ... and also really like the experience of finishing it in the few remaining days I have, actually, because then I can sink super into the story and mmmm. <3 I was thinking I would have some kind of This Draft Of My Book Is Finished party. Drag my friends to a posh cafe, or more likely Burger King. Anyway, have some people describing Saint! Hinewai frowned. She sat down, because sitting down was what humans did to seem comfortable and relaxed and at ease, and because standing made people uncomfortable, particularly if the standing person was taller than them. Brooke stared at her anyway, which was irritating. Hinewai shifted self-consciously on the table. Perhaps it was the wrong sort of table to sit on? “Saint …” she said. Perhaps it would pay to be subtle. “I do not understand what you see in him. He is irritating and stupid.”
“On the plus side,” Brooke said, “he hasn’t taken over my brain with creepy alien-fae mind flute technology. That’s, y’know. Nice.”
Hinewai picked restlessly at a magazine. “Saint,” she said, “seems the kind of person to …” She paused, looking for the right words. “It’s as though,” she said, thoughtfully, “he thinks the universe is his plaything, his to do whatever he likes with; and as though he thinks he’s better than everyone else, but he doesn’t hold it against them, because they’re all very amusing and he’s a nice enough person not to mind.”
Brooke laughed. Ha! She had made her laugh. That was something. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s Saint. Going around calling everyone ‘pet’ in that sort of fondly patronising way he has, and he’s so dramatic about, like, everything. Double ham pizza with extra cheese. But once you get past the whole thinks-he’s-the-center-of-the-universe thing he’s … kinda nice, really.”
“Nice,” repeated Hinewai. Perhaps that was what she was missing?”
“Yeah. He couldn’t hurt a fly. Maybe really confuse a fly, or play some sort of nasty practical joke on it, but not hurt it. Y’know?”
Hinewai considered this, and then answered, “No.”
“Yyyyeah. Well. You wouldn’t know nice if it … did something … really nice to you or something I guess,” Brooke said, and yawned.
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Post by Rikku on Nov 29, 2011 6:01:42 GMT -5
whee frantic incoherent writing spree~
And tomorrow? =D Tomorrow I get to try and finish this book all in a big lump when I have only the slightest idea of how the ending fits together and ideally it will be quite a bit in excess of 10k still to go and I think this has stopped being good a little while ago BUT HEY. Writing day yay! Oh I am going to hate this book for weeks before I can look at it semi-evenly again. xD Oh well! After I have finished this book I will make triumphmuffins
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Post by Rikku on Nov 30, 2011 10:45:45 GMT -5
Not - not done, exactly. This is the sloppiest first draft I have ever written. xD Scenes all over the place. Notes scrawled in red. No climax. Yes I skipped the climax. I wasn't capable of doing it today! Hush! I didn't wanna ruin things!
But. I mean. I wrote, like, eighteen thousand words today, nearly. And granted, no, not today, because it's, like, quarter to give in the morning of the next day, but I was super lazy for the first part fo yesterday, so it, like, still counts and anyway shut up. BOOK DONE. But not really. But sort of. GOOD ENOUGH. i am going to go collapse now i think
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Post by Trilly (18426 words) on Dec 1, 2011 15:23:56 GMT -5
Congrats on finishing, anyhow! Or mostly-finishing. ^^ Do you get to eat the triumphmuffins now or later?
I am reeeeeaally curious about this story. >;D Can't wait to find out more, even if it gets published before I get to read it. And I applaud your 18000 word day (the best I could manage was 10000 XD).
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Post by Rikku on Dec 1, 2011 18:05:16 GMT -5
Congrats on finishing, anyhow! Or mostly-finishing. ^^ Do you get to eat the triumphmuffins now or later? I am reeeeeaally curious about this story. >;D Can't wait to find out more, even if it gets published before I get to read it. And I applaud your 18000 word day (the best I could manage was 10000 XD). xD I get to eat the triumphmuffins as soon as I get around to dragging someone else over to my house so I don't end up eating the whole batch by myself, absentmindedly. It is the kind of thing that I would do. And dude, of course you get to read it before it's published! I mean, the fact that I want to get it published means I am going to get as many folk to read it as I can for, like, feedback and stuff - I mean, if there's a scene that everyone hates, obviously it's a scene I'll need to think about - and though it'll be a while before I get to there, seeing as right now I'm in the 'several lazy months of editing and tweaking and forgetting about it occasionally' stage, and even if I eventually decide that, no, it is a rubbish book and I'm going to hide it on my server forever, you'll still probably get to read it if you want to, we've struggled through NaNo for, like, four years now. You have rights. My best before this was 13k. 10k is about as much as I can sanely expect to manage. I'm still slightly awed by the 18k. xD Mostly it came from not sleeping. (Soooo need to try NaNoWriDay some time ...) |
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Post by Trilly (18426 words) on Dec 2, 2011 13:57:50 GMT -5
Congrats on finishing, anyhow! Or mostly-finishing. ^^ Do you get to eat the triumphmuffins now or later? I am reeeeeaally curious about this story. >;D Can't wait to find out more, even if it gets published before I get to read it. And I applaud your 18000 word day (the best I could manage was 10000 XD). xD I get to eat the triumphmuffins as soon as I get around to dragging someone else over to my house so I don't end up eating the whole batch by myself, absentmindedly. It is the kind of thing that I would do. And dude, of course you get to read it before it's published! I mean, the fact that I want to get it published means I am going to get as many folk to read it as I can for, like, feedback and stuff - I mean, if there's a scene that everyone hates, obviously it's a scene I'll need to think about - and though it'll be a while before I get to there, seeing as right now I'm in the 'several lazy months of editing and tweaking and forgetting about it occasionally' stage, and even if I eventually decide that, no, it is a rubbish book and I'm going to hide it on my server forever, you'll still probably get to read it if you want to, we've struggled through NaNo for, like, four years now. You have rights. My best before this was 13k. 10k is about as much as I can sanely expect to manage. I'm still slightly awed by the 18k. xD Mostly it came from not sleeping. (Soooo need to try NaNoWriDay some time ...) ... I am remarkably pleased to have said rights. =D I would love to read it when it's suitably tweaked and primped and polished. And I really doubt it would be rubbish, even if you decided not to get it published. I mean, what usually happens when I read something I have to critique is I glee over all of the awesome or the funny parts of the characters and completely forget I was supposed to be finding suggestions to improve it. XD I am not the most discriminating reader. Last year I had 8000 words on the last day, so 10000 is the record for me. ^^ Out of curiousity, is there a set wordcount goal for NaNoWriDay? Or is it just a challenge to see how many you can do? |
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