Camp NaNoWriMo Progress Report

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This month’s camp project is going well. Unlike my June project, I’ll probably finish sometime this month.

The downside is I’m pretty sure this project of mine is going to be a novella, not a novel. That’s actually okay though, I like this story and I like how it’s turning out, so it will be what it needs to be and no more.

My writing process has been interesting. I’ve been writing at night, and then I get into bed and brainstorm while falling asleep. It sounds strange but it’s working well for this project. I tend to come up with ideas when I’m just on the verge of unconsciousness, and then I wake up and write them down. Not every idea is a good one, but a lot of them are. When I go to write the next day I figure out which ideas to incorporate and where.

I’ve also been doing a lot of drawings using GIMP. Some are inspired by the writing, and some of the writing is inspired by the drawings. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in writing before, but again this is an odd project for me and it’s all meshing really well with this particular story.

I also have a playlist of music that reminds me of the story and the characters and how they are, and I listen to that a lot. It keeps me in the right mindset.

How are all of you nanos out there doing? What do you do for inspiration?

Tips for Camp NaNoWriMo

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Looking at my WordPress dashboard, it’s clear to me that a good deal of the traffic coming to my blog in the last few weeks is from people looking for NaNoWriMo tips. I mostly post updates about my own work, with a few exceptions where I talked about general tips, so I decided to try to post something more along the lines of what those readers are looking for.

When it comes to NaNoWriMo (and writing in general) there’s not really a right way or a wrong way. I could spout (and have spouted) lists of rules on grammar and spelling and word usage and on and on, but breaking those rules won’t necessarily make your book bad any more than following them will make it good. That said, when you approach NaNoWriMo, there’s a good chance you haven’t written much (or anything) before. That’s part of what NaNo is meant to change.

So here are some basics:

1. Write every day. Write a blog post, write a poem, write utter nonsense as it pops into your head, just write. Think of this as stretching before a run; you’ll get your creative juices flowing, get your fingers moving, and get yourself relaxed and comfortable and thus in a position to write. As a bonus, since the goal of NaNoWriMo is to just finish a novel, not necessarily a publishable one, you might even be able to run that “utter nonsense” I mentioned into a NaNo winner. The chances that said project will be particularly good may not be high, but you’ll never know until you write it.

2. Don’t freak out if you fall behind. Don’t freak out at all really, but if you find yourself a thousand or two thousand or ten thousand words behind, don’t flip your keyboard and walk away from your computer. Just take a minute, breathe, and figure out what’s keeping you behind. Are you stumped? A lot of people will tell you to throw a plot twist from left field to keep you on your toes. It’s sound advice that works for a lot of NaNo participants, but it’s never really worked for me. Give it a try and see how it goes, and if it works, great. What I normally do in that situation is just brainstorm. Usually when I write something I keep notes on some iOS app or another (usually just the stock Notes app, though I’ve used list apps and mindmap apps as well). Any thought I have relating to my story I write down. Should I find myself unable to progress, I get the list out and go over it and try to figure out where this story is going. I also write down ideas I’m not sure I’ll use, and sometimes one turns out to be the perfect thing to put into my story. It’s kind of like the above advice, but a little bit less random, which keeps my story a little more coherent than if I just make something up on the spot.

This doesn’t always happen immediately, so like I said: Don’t freak out. Here’s my current stats page, for example:

As you can see, I’m a little behind. The NaNoWriMo website does a lot of math for you, and it’s a good way to keep things on track. At this rate I’ll finish halfway through September, which isn’t a NaNoWriMo winner, but that stat will change if I write a little more. A little can go a long way with NaNoWriMo, and in my case 1652 words per day would have me finishing on time. Now think of this: If instead I write 1700 words per day (less than fifty extra) I’ll finish a day sooner. And if I throw in an extra 150 per day and do 1800, I’ll finish in 24 days (and currently I have 27 left to go).

If you find yourself behind, don’t feel compelled to rush and catch up. Adding a few hundred words per day might sound like a lot, but an average page tends to fall near 250 words, so if it helps you to think in terms of pages, writing an extra page per day can not only get you caught up quickly, it can put you way ahead.

3. Write now, edit later. It’s better to have too much in a first draft and cut away than have too little and need to tack scenes on later. This is especially true when it comes to NaNoWriMo. The goal is 50,000 words, which is actually pretty short for a novel, and anything too much shorter will usually not be a publishable book, unless you’re going for middle grade. That said, don’t be afraid to fluff things up for your NaNoWriMo project. You can (and should) always cut things down a little bit when you revise, and you never know when something you add now will turn out to be not fluff but setup for an epic plot turn 30,000 words from now.

Not everything works for every writer. Chances are you’ll know better than I or anyone else on the internet what does or doesn’t work for you, but you usually won’t just know it, you have to try a few things and learn what gets the gears going. But it won’t hurt to try things that work for others and see if they also work for you. Hopefully you can find something here to help you along your way.

If anyone else has any tips to add, feel free to leave a comment. What works for you? What do you do when you find yourself behind?

Six and Seven

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I don’t normally like talking about things before I’ve finished them, mostly because I’m paranoid, but I think I need to work past that. Getting word out is part of the writing process, so that’s something I need to get better at.

My Camp NaNo project is nowhere near completed, but I have a good feeling that I can see this one through to the end of at least a first draft. Normally when I finish a first draft I sit on it for a few months and then come back to it. This one might take even longer. Hopefully the story will turn out as well as I think the first few pages have. That said, I’m currently working on:

Six and Seven

Six and Seven

The underworld is a cold, dark place where ash falls like snow and there’s always an itch you just can’t scratch. In the distance loom seven chimneys, visible no matter where you are, like giant watchful obelisks.
Two lost souls learn there’s a way out of the underworld by climbing up through one of its chimneys, but you can’t just walk up to them. Distance isn’t physical here, and progress is made by learning. As Six and Seven search for clues to remind them who they were and how they got here, the chimneys draw closer, but knowledge comes with a terrible price. Keeping in line with this dark place’s dark humor, it’s a price Six and Seven might not be able to pay.

 

Besides working on the novel, I’m hoping to throw together more artwork like what you see up there. I know it probably won’t be included if this thing ever gets published (authors rarely get much say) but sometimes drawing helps inspire me (even though I’m really bad at it) and I have a lot of ideas for related artwork.

I’m still debating whether to post excerpts. I’ll probably post a sentence or two daily on my facebook page, which you should see a link to either on the sidebar or below this post.

So what are you working on? Let me know in the comments, and good luck!

August Camp NaNoWriMo Day 1

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I’m off to a great start! Last night on my way to bed I decided to sit down for a minute and write the opening lines of my camp project. That “minute” turned into a “short while” and I wrote over 1400 words, putting me just under where I should be for the day. This project is interesting so far but I’m not sure how many more thousand-word bursts of random inspiration I’ll have.

Writing almost the whole day’s average in one sitting last night doesn’t mean I get the day off, though. I usually spend most or all of NaNo way behind, and it might be nice to be way ahead for once, so hopefully I can nurture this head start and keep it running.

On the Eve of Camp NaNoWriMo

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August Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I’m still not sure I’m ready, but I am going to attempt it. Why not try? The worst that can happen is you don’t write a novel, which is probably what will happen if you don’t attempt it (well, it probably won’t happen for a while, anyway). If it turns out I’m not ready for this project, no big deal. I’ll try again when I am, and I’ll likely have a better understanding of what went wrong, and I may even have a nice start to work from.

I finished reading the QueryShark (http://queryshark.blogspot.com) archives. I’ve drafted two different queries using the things I learned, now I’m going to sit on them for a while. Hopefully I’ll still like at least one of them in a week or so, and then I’m considering submitting to the Shark myself.

To all those participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, good luck and have fun!

Pre-August Camp Update

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The August session of Camp NaNoWriMo (http://campnanowrimo.org/) begins in about three and a half days. I finished revising my manuscript weeks ago, so hopefully I’ll focus more on Camp this month.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure I have any ideas fleshed-out enough to start working on in three days. I do have ideas though, and I’m going to give it my best shot, but if I sense trying to get this thing written out in 30 days or less is ruining my manuscript, I won’t hesitate to give up on NaNoWriMo and let my project breathe freely.

I’ve turned my thoughts to this project over the last few days, and I keep a list of random thoughts and ideas relating to it. It’s a sort of brainstorming thing I do; I have my main characters down pretty well and I know the basics of the story, but I’m not sure how it’ll get from one point to another. So I spend time thinking about the setting, the world in which this story takes place, and things that exist in it and how these characters would react to them. I don’t always use everything I write down, and in fact much of it never comes up at all, but it’s there in this world and it makes the world a little bit more alive, which in turn makes the characters a little bit more real. Hopefully I’ll have enough to start working with in three days.

I’ve started going back over the archives at QueryShark (http://queryshark.blogspot.com/). So far I haven’t come across anything I didn’t read before (maybe I did finish reading over them and I just don’t remember) but it’s worth a second read anyway. I’ve already stumbled across one tip I actually don’t follow in my own query letter. I feel like I have a good reason for not following it, but don’t we always feel that way about a mistake we’re in the process of making? I was sure I was right yesterday, but I’ve been thinking it over and now I’m leaning toward “maybe I’m wrong”. But I’ll keep reading the archives and writing down anything my query does contrary to the Shark’s advice, and then I’ll go over it a few times. Obviously the Shark won’t always be right and every agent has different opinions (which is why it’s important to check each agent’s page for what they do or don’t like) but that blog has a lot of priceless knowledge and information and is probably right more often than not. I’m also actually considering submitting my own query now, if I feel like the archives alone aren’t getting my query to where I’d like it to be.

That’s about all going on in David World right now. What are you up to? Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo next month?

New Page Idea – Writers’ Resources

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After receiving my kajillionth rejection letter the other day I decided to re-think my query letter (of course it’s entirely possible that agents just don’t like my first ten pages, but that’s a beast of another color). Wondering where to begin, it occurred to me that I never finished going over the archives at QueryShark (http://queryshark.blogspot.com/). I read over a lot of them but I’m pretty sure I never got to the end.

Reading over the archives is a requirement for submitting to the Shark, but that’s not why I’m doing it (the shark only bites for queries that contain something the blog hasn’t touched on, which I’m pretty sure mine doesn’t). I’m doing it just because it’s full of great advice.

If you’ve never visited the site, you should probably browse the archives as well, especially if you feel like your query letter is off, or strange, or just underwhelming. In all honesty, it’s one of those websites pretty much every prospective writer should frequent. And I realize that I have a lot of such sites in mind, from blogs to sites to twitter feeds.

So I’m thinking of putting up a new page on my blog. I try to give advice to writers, but my publishing history consists of two short stories, and one was a contest winner. This way, if you don’t believe me, you might find some use for my blog in a list of links to other, more credible sources of information.

Of course, having information won’t automatically make you the best writer ever, but it’s a nice first step. Probably a nice first hundred steps. The rest is up to you, but it helps to have something to go by.

What do you think? Should I make a page for writers’ resources? Have any sites or sources you think I should add? Where do you go when you need advice on writing? Leave me a comment.

June Camp NaNoWriMo Final Update

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As you can probably tell, things didn’t go as planned for Camp NaNoWriMo. I apologize for not giving more updates, but the fact is there’s nothing to update on. I wrote over 10,000 words for my camp project and I’m actually starting to really enjoy the story and the characters, and I do plan to finish it, but I’ve been working on revising another manuscript. I should finish that tonight or tomorrow, and then I’m going to focus on querying agents for that as well as writing.

I haven’t given up on The Lament of the Land, but I did put it on the backburner. Revising needed to come first, and sure, it cost me Camp NaNoWriMo, but there’s another session in August. I will hopefully be taking part in that, though I’m not sure yet if I have any ideas that are developed well enough. I have over a month to plan, though, and I hope to see you then. Thanks to anyone who took even a passing interest in my Camp progress or in my blog in general, and hopefully in August I’ll have a solid idea I can devote all of my time to.

Moving on from CaNaNoWriMo (I just made that up, I think I like it), revising went well. I’m almost ashamed I submitted the manuscript to anyone as it was, there were way too many commas and a lot of repetitive sentences. In the end I cut about 1000 more words, bringing the total to a near-solid 50,000. More important than word count, I feel like this draft is much stronger and more coherent, and it was a great pleasure to revisit this story and these characters and to spend time in this world again. I hope in the near future you’ll all be able to pick up a copy and read it and see for yourself, I can’t wait to share this world with you.

Camp NaNoWriMo Week One Progress Report

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The first week of Camp NaNoWriMo ended a few days ago. As of today I’m a little behind, but I’m okay with that. I’ve been busy revising a finished manuscript and I’ve made some great progress there. I’d like to get caught up on this project soon, I’m still confident I can finish on time and with the right number of words.

For those participating, how are you doing?

Pre-E3 Comments

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E3 is coming up in just a few days (June 5-7) and I’m excited for some things, curious about some things, and a little worried about others. Here are my thoughts on the expo.

Sony

I’ve owned every current generation console but the PS3 is the only one I subsequently sold. To be fair, when I had it there were few games available. I played Resistance, which was fun but very short (took maybe 5 hours to beat) and had little replay value. I played Folklore, though I use the term “played” loosely because in the two hours I had the disc spinning in my system I think I played for maybe fifteen minutes, and the rest of that time was spent watching cutscenes and scrolling through text. I rented Uncharted which was a lot of fun but wasn’t a good enough reason for me to keep the console.

There are a lot more and a lot better games out now, but nothing I’d be willing to buy the system again for, especially now that I have an Xbox 360. That said, some games come close. What I’m looking for from Sony is a lineup that finally crosses that threshold. The Last Guardian might have been the game to do it, but the likelihood that we’ll see anything from it is pretty low. I don’t want to use the term “vaporware” but things are not looking great for this game. The Last of Us also looks very promising, and I think if any developer is going to bring me back to the Playstation, it’ll likely be Naughty Dog. I’m a sucker for Studio Ghibli, so Ni No Kuni is high on my radar. Then there’s Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, Sony’s inevitable ripoff of answer to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. franchise.  I’ll keep my eye on this one, but Sony doesn’t have anything remotely close to the franchise-specific fanbase Nintendo has, and most likely at least one character in this game will have appeared in SSB already (Solid Snake). Besides that, Masahiro Sakurai (the man behind Super Smash) is a gaming genius, and I don’t think Sony will reach the same level of creativity we’ll find in his series.

Overall, I’m mildly interested in what Sony has to offer.

Microsoft

I have some interest in what Microsoft is doing with Halo 4, but beyond that the company will have to pull some surprises to catch my attention. The Fable series never reached its potential with me, and releasing a Kinect-exclusive title is not going to fix that. I’m far more excited to see some third-party games for the Xbox. What I expect to see is two days of people talking about how great the Kinect is and why I should buy one, which in my view is two days of wasted time. Back to Halo 4, Bungie isn’t developing this one, but I like to remain optimistic, so I’ll keep my eye on it. Overall I’m uninterested in what Microsoft has to offer, but factor in third-party games and we have an entirely different story.

Nintendo

Nintendo is probably going to have the most of my attention. They should be announcing final details on the Wii U. Unfortunately, I expect the Wii U to be about the same as the Wii: It’ll be great for a year or maybe two. After that, Nintendo’s competitors will release systems twice as powerful, causing Nintendo to hemorrhage third-party support. The tablet controller will hopefully move the industry away from the motion control pit it has fallen into, but basically we’re replacing one gimmick with another. Sure, some games used the Wii’s motion control the right way, but nearly all were by Nintendo itself, and the mass amount of games left over primarily consisted of shovelware. The Wii U’s tablet controller might do the same, though it seems like the touch screen is being viewed more as an accessory than a tenant (considering it can be entirely disabled while using the tablet screen as the console’s main screen). Something else I’m concerned about is the system’s 1-2 controller limit. Yes, I know you can connect up to 4 Wii Remotes, but what’s the point? It hasn’t worked so far; you can use any controller for Super Smash Bros. Brawl but the game is still nearly unplayable with anything but the Gamecube controller. Using the 3DS as a controller seems feasible, but only if the 1-2 controller limit doesn’t still apply (as in I can use a Wii U tablet, my brother can use a Wii U tablet, and my sister can use a 3DS all at once). I would also like to see DVD support. I feel like I’m really not asking for much here. I know it’s a video game system, but being able to watch movies without switching out my HDMI device would be awesome. I really want to know for sure Nintendo is going to do the right things when it comes to online play. I’m sick of friend codes, and I’m sick of having one profile per system. We were promised these things would be fixed with the 3DS. They were not. I still need friend codes, I still can’t talk to people I’m playing with despite the system having a microphone built into it, and there are only a handful of games that can even be played online. I don’t play online often, but it would be nice if I didn’t have to jump hurdles those times I do.

Nintendo’s game lineup will surely be promising. There’s a new Animal Crossing, which I’m mildly excited for. A new Fire Emblem will definitely have my attention. Rumor has it we’ll hear about a new Pikmin, which I can’t wait for. I’m not expecting any news on new Zelda or Super Smash games, but either would be a very welcome surprise.

Overall, I’m most excited for Nintendo’s conference.

Third Party

There will be a plethora of other games announced, demoed, and detailed at E3, so I won’t talk about them all. I’d like to touch on some of my favorites so far, though. Bethesda’s Skyrim will be getting its first big DLC, Dawnguard. I’ve seen the trailer and it looks awesome. Elder Scrolls Online has my interest as well, but if Bethesda really wanted to blow me away they’d give us some info on Fallout 4. Fallout 3 is the reason I bought an Xbox, it’s probably my favorite video game of all time. However, Skyrim just came out last year, so I’m not expecting anything on a new Fallout for a while.

Capcom definitely has my attention with Resident Evil 6. RE4 is another of my all-time favorites, and a predictable and sometimes plain stupid story didn’t hinder RE5 from being ridiculously fun at all. RE6 looks very promising, bringing back zombies (and mass amounts of them) as well as the meeting of Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy fans have been waiting for for over a decade. Revelations for the 3DS saw a return to form for the series, keeping the over-the-shoulder perspective but bringing back the claustrophobic, atmospheric terror earlier games had. The game also kept many moments of all-out action, bringing the best merger of the series’ two forms yet. Hopefully RE6 will continue this (I can see Leon’s story being fear-oriented and Chris’s leaning closer to action) as both formats work very well for the series.

EA’s Dead Space 3 is a game I’ll keep my eye on. Dead Space is probably the most frightening video game I’ve ever played. The game mastered atmosphere, reminding us that a quiet, echoing knock can be leagues more terrifying than a big squishy baddy running toward you, or that a giant mutated creature can be scary but sometimes you can be more scared by what turns out to be nothing at all. Dead Space 2, while a lot of fun, was an epic failure on that front. The atmosphere and suspense were all but gone, replaced by increasingly tough bad guys running at you from the shadows. It was a bit of a letdown, but the creative enemies and weapons (javelin gun hehehe) and the more character-driven story almost made up for it. Almost. I hope Dead Space 3 can reconcile the two.

Square Enix will hopefully drop some info on Kingdom Hearts. Dream Drop Distance looks fun, and rumors are circulating about a collection which would feature all of the games thus far, all leading up to Kingdom Hearts 3. Besides the numbered titles, the rest of the series seems to have tremendously lost track. Where KH1 and to a lesser extent KH2 were designed to be a seamless blending of the worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney, the handheld entries have turned it into the go-to series for those of us who thought The Matrix needed a little more Winnie the Pooh. The games remain fun, which is arguably the most important thing for a video game, but the story has become convoluted to say the least. I’m hoping for a Kingdom Hearts 3 to get the series back on track.

What I’d like to see less of:

Motion control. When the Wii was announced I saw limitless potential. Maybe 5% of that was ever realized. Sony and Microsoft then took it further, and all three of the companies got it all wrong. Nintendo seemed to be on the right path for a while, but things went south fast, culminating in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. MotionPlus was supposed to save motion control, but instead it over-corrected it. When Skyward Sword works, it works beautifully. Unfortunately, this is marred by instances of the Wii Remote being utterly unable to respond to what I’m actually doing. What could have been the best Zelda ever turned into a frustrating, sometimes unworkable monument to the failure of motion-controlled gaming.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve lost a game because I sneezed or a dog walked in front of the motion sensor bar. I have no interest in the Kinect at all, which is good because the room my Xbox 360 is in is both too dark and too small to even use one. Sony’s Move is a cheap Wii-mote ripoff and doesn’t even pretend not to be, and while the consensus is that it functions a little better, it isn’t really useful in any way.

Motion control was meant to bring a layer of depth to video games that hadn’t been achieved yet. Instead it brought a gimmick of epic proportions and legions of useless shovelware. These days, Sony and Microsoft lifting off whatever new “feature” Nintendo comes up with is basically a staple of the gaming industry. I very much hope that with the Wii U, Nintendo gets this controller thing right. When a video game company leads the market with an innovation that is actually useful (see: shoulder buttons, analog control, rumble support) things are better for all of us. The motion-control plague inflicted upon us by the Wii is nigh unforgiveable. Luckily, the touch-screen-as-companion is an innovation already tested and proven true by the DS and 3DS, and again I see that potential I saw when the Wii was first announced (if I can’t play Fallout 4 with the Wii U tablet as my own personal Pip-Boy 3000, what good are either of them?) but only time will tell.

I don’t want to hear about how cool Reggie Fils-Aime is, nor do I want to hear about how cool Kevin Butler is (which is decidedly worse considering he doesn’t even exist). I don’t want to hear about how the Kinect is the future of everything and the best thing ever invented and I should buy one. I certainly don’t ever want to see a 3DS-launch-like sexism parade, and announcing a system without actually revealing anything but the controller is kind of like announcing a new car by showing pictures of its steering wheel. E3 shouldn’t be about a company’s beefed-up accomplishments. It needs to be about video games. The big three console makers should take a page from third party developers and just show us the games.