Nanowrimo!

FF7. WIP. "Wutai in the West."

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 00:56:38 GMT

[t]itle: Wutai in the West
[r]ating: PG-13, at the mo'.
[w]ordcount: ???
[f]andom: FFVII
[p]airing: Godo/Cho, OC/Cho, Zack/Aerith
[s]ummary: An aging empire too stubborn to know when to back down. A rising corporation with too much power for its own good. The clash of old and new. A more serious look at the Wutai War. "Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind..."
[n]otes: Chapter One, excerpt.
Add. Note: "Regular speech", (thoughts), and "#Wutaian speech #"

I've found truth to be
I've found rivers there
And the world keeps on spinning, round and round
So I lay still and wait
Will we ever have the words?
Will we ever meet again?
All the worries, will slip right away
And even through, all of the clouds disguise the sky
And the reasons aren't clear why
When will we ever find clues to guide us?
Where will we ever find words at all?
— Clue, Gungrave: Beyond the Grave opening theme

One: When Games Become Reality

This is the truth: the end is the beginning is the end is the beginning. The world is neither flat nor round, because it is not real. The only real thing in the world is the One, and there is nothing that is real that is not part of the One. If you can touch it, then it doesn't matter, because it will eventually decay, and the One cannot decay.

You are either unreal or part of the One. Take your pick.

Yeah. I thought so.

O

There has always been The War. People have always been dying. Always. Every day, a guard leaves the Palace and does not return. This is the way of the world. This is how it has always been.

The War is a hard thing to comprehend. It doesn't seem to have any reason for existing. Everybody hates it, everybody curses it. But nobody refuses to go off and die in it. Sane people would wonder about this, foreigners would wonder about this, but that is simply how things are.

The War has no reason or rhyme to it, it takes who it pleases and whisks them away, to (if they're lucky, whispers Chekhov) come back without an arm or a leg, or maybe undamaged but with a haunted look in the eyes and no time (never any time, nobody whispers at all) for a little girl with her grandmother's hair and her mother's face.

Here then, is the truth. There has always been The War. Always. She does not remember a time when there was not The War.

But she is not concerned with The War. She is concerned with her porcelain doll, and the crack that runs down the back of the doll's head. She does not know how to fix it, or even if it is not too broken to fix, and there is never any time.

Never any time.

Her mother has not stopped carrying her naginata for the past three months. It goes with her everywhere. With it, her mother could unhorse and kill Wutai's best samurai.

Without it, her mother would braid her hair with flowers and sing to her.

Singing. Her mother doesn't sing anymore. Her mother used to sing to her as they brushed each other's hair. Her mother used to hold her and sing. It used to be that her mother was always singing something, the newest song on the city's only radio, or one of the beautiful hymns to Lord Leviathan, or a simple sailor's shanty.

But now her mother walks with her naginata held in her right hand, and does not sing.

She stares at the crack in the doll's head and decides that it isn't worth it to try and fix it. It also isn't worth it to ask for a new doll. There will be no new dolls this year.

She will make do. Ninja always make do, especially cute little ninja with pug noses and their fathers' smiles.

I

"General Sephiroth!"

The speaker was the runner for the far edge of the camp— as usual, the far southern edge. For some reason, the ruckus always started on the far southern side of the camp.

Considering that they had camped south of the so-called Heavenly City, Sephiroth found this a bit odd.

But Sephiroth stopped his conversation with Zack anyway and stood to find out what the commotion was. Probably the South Wutaians had driven a herd of monsters toward the camp again, but Wutaians were unpredictable.

"You can't keep doing this every time, 'roth." Zack mumbled around his pencil.

"They can only strike successfully if we relax our guard."

It was a game, of sorts. Sephiroth would tend to the disturbance, and Zack would try to talk him out of doing so. The problem was, neither one of them could always tell when the other was joking. Games tended to become reality.

"You're going to run yourself ragged."

"I'm already ragged. Try another one."

In anything but a game, he would have balked at calling himself ragged. A general was always in control, or at least, always said he was in control. Loss of dominance was weakness. Confusion was weakness. Emotion was weakness. Fatigue was weakness.

Weakness was death.

"Chain of command. You're breaking the chain of command."

"We don't have a chain of command. That's why we're losing the war. Try another one."

Zack thought for a few moments. "It could be a trap."

"If it's a trap, I can deal with it. Try another one."

The shorter man sighed. "This is about the dumbest word game ever. Just go."

Sephiroth saluted (a distinctly mocking salute, of course, because it would be unseemly for him to salute Zack seriously) and left.

It turned out that the disturbance was neither a monster attack nor a brawl. The disturbance was a small, lithe woman clad entirely in black.

This was new.

Sephiroth grabbed the runner by the shoulder. "Go get General Zack."

The runner saluted and did his job: he ran.

Moments later, Zack arrived on the scene. He caught sight of the woman and stiffened.

It wasn't often you saw a ninja in the camp. Sephiroth didn't doubt that the camp had a ninja infestation problem. But a decent ninja— you didn't actually see a decent ninja if he didn't want you to see him.

"# Who are you? #" Zack asked.

"# My name is none of your concern, Isutanaa. You will die, for the indignity you have forced upon my people! #"

Isutanaa. Easterner. There it was, that bizarre Wutaian accent, the way it angled its r sound and dropped the r sounds from other languages.

"# But how am I to know the plight of your people if I do not so much as know your name? And what purpose would killing me serve if I do not know the plight of your people? #"

"# Don't lie! You needn't know my name or the name of my people to know what you've done to them! Ripping the masks from their faces, hanging them upside down as if you have a right to make them do penance! #"

Sephiroth watched the woman's eyes. The pupils had dilated, and something about her speech was... off.

What was that bulge in her stomach? Did he smell... gunpowder? What the hell was going on here?

The woman's hands cradled whatever it was she was hiding in her shirt.

And then he put it together. "Zack, don't go any closer. Zack, stand back!"

But Zack, trying to get an answer out of the ninja, was moving closer.

Sephiroth surged forward, grabbed Zack by the back of his collar, and dragged him backwards.

The ninja exploded. Bits of sharp metal and Wutaian woman cascaded around them, as well bits of Shinra soldiers.

Sephiroth, from behind a tent, sighed. He should have seen that coming. Yet another suicide attack. There had been so many, and he should have seen it coming.

FF7. WIP. "Wutai in the West."

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 21:34:05 GMT

Suburban Philadelphia, PA NANO meetup

Fri, 05 Nov 2004 17:57:20 GMT

Event: Saturday Nano Meetups

Place: Borders Cafe @ the King Of Prussia Court Mall

Date: Nov. 6th 2004 and every saturday throughout November's Nanowrimo challenge

Time: 1pm-ish until whenever!

come together and write/chat/freak out over your word count with other area nano-writers!

[x-posted]

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:54:59 GMT

I'm sharing my efforts online as I go along.
[Exegesis Mine: It Happened One Day by Kay Jamora]

Almost that time again!

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:14:45 GMT

I'll be doing a fantasy story about an RPG character's history. I just need to do a little more worldbuilding, some universe-building, and hopefully come up with an outline.

I've written 5000 words of it so far by the seat of my pants, and I have no clue what happens next. (Yes, I know that whatever I write before Nov doesn't count for the word count. I just want to write the story.) Last time I had no clue, the story stayed unwritten for a month.

How do you break through plot snags... those places where the story did something you weren't expecting and you have no clue what to write next?

announcement

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 10:44:36 GMT

heretowhere Is a new community for writers and for those who wish to help writers. Are you stuck? (we will not talk here about the notebook full of opening lines I have). Do you want opinions? Or do you need to know that pertinent fact without which you cannot go forward?

On the other hand, do you like playing critic? Or showing up your vast amount of trivial knowledge? Or perhaps you just have a piece of trivia you think would make a good story. If any of the above is you, then feel free to join.

nano monthly meetup

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 18:52:31 GMT

hi folks.

i'm the co-liaison for toronto and we had such a great group this year we have found ways to continue to occasionally spend time with eachother until next nov.

here's hoping you can make some use out of this meetup:

registering with meetup.com is free. it's a great service to meet people on a variety of topics. nanowrimo is just one of them.

congrats on nov being over. see you next year, or perhaps at a nanomonthly meetup.

spread the word!

**crossposted to several nano communities**

In case you were wondering

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 19:22:42 GMT

Yes it can be done..although I have realised that at close to 74k words I have barely begun the novel in its finished form.

New here!

Sat, 08 Nov 2003 01:24:00 GMT

*waves*

Hi! I'm new here! This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo!

*grins*

now i dont feel so alone. I didnt start until Nov. 4, so I'm sorta behind. Though I am at...*checks word count*...11,148. I'm doing a fantasy/sci fi-ish story. What's everyone else doing?

~Sara~

Fri, 07 Nov 2003 23:24:11 GMT

Is anyone else having trouble sticking to a topic? I've never written lengthy fiction before, so maybe it's just me. I've written about 8,000 words so far, so i think i'm doing okay by word count, but only a couple thousand really seem to fit together, and it's all pretty random. help?

More Wrimos!

Fri, 07 Nov 2003 04:16:26 GMT

Hey! Taking a little break from writing, I decided to join this NaNo community! :D

My novel mostly fits into the fantasy genre, but crosses the line into horror just a little.

I have 10,019 words right now and I'll be going back to writing as soon as I post this entry.

I lj-cut my chapters and post generally once a day. If you'd like to read my novel all you have to do is friend this journal. If you friend me I'll friend you back and probably check out your novel as well :D

Good luck everyone!

I'm writing an article about NaNoWriMo. Please help!

Thu, 06 Nov 2003 23:59:03 GMT

Hello fellow NaNoWriMo-ers!

I am currently doing a survey for my college sociology research methods class on participants of National Novel Writing Month. If you could please fill this out and email it to me at celticair1@aol.com I would gladly appreciate it. I will not share your answers with anyone but you are free to talk amoungst yourselves about the survey. Thank you for your participation! I will be posting an essay based on this project sometime in early December.

Here's the survey:

1. What genre do you usually write in?

2. What genre are you planning on writing in for the NaNoWriMo Challenge?

3. Have you ever done the NaNoWriMo challenge before?
A. Yes
B. No

4. If yes, did you finish the challenge?
A. Yes
B. No

5. Have you ever published anything you've written?
A. Yes
B. No

6. How often do you usually write?
A. Frequently
B. Occasionally
C. Rarely
D. I've never done creative writing before.

7. How did you hear about NaNoWriMo?
A. Word of mouth
B. Internet search engine
C. Link from another website
D. Other

8. Have you met friends from NaNoWriMo that you talk to on a daily basis?
A. No, not yet.
B. No, it's not a social thing for me.
C. Yes, a couple.
D. Yes, lots!

9. What is the biggest reason for competing in NaNoWriMo? Select all that apply.
A. I want to get something published.
B. It's something I'm doing on a whim.
C. For the group spirit and motivation I receive from fellow writers.
D. Other

10. Have you ever had writer's block before?
A. Frequently
B. Occasionally
C. Rarely
D. No, I've never had writer's block before.

11. In your opinion what is the worst contributor to writer's block?
A. No time
B. No ideas
C. Lacking self confidence in writing skills
D. I don't get writer's block.

12. How often do you read books for your own enjoyment?
A. Frequently
B. Occasionally
C. Rarely
D. Never

13. Where do you do most of your writing?
A. At home
B. Away from the home

14. Do you think you'll finish the NaNoWriMo Challenge?
A. Yes, of course!
B. Yes, I'm pretty confident
C. I'm not sure
D. No, it's hopeless.

15. What is your age?
A. Up to 19 years old
B. 20's
C. 30's
D. 40's
E. 50's
F. 60 and Over

16. What is your gender?
A. Male
B. Female

17. Do you work?
A. I work full time.
B. I work part time
C. I am not employed at the moment.

18. If you do work, what is your current occupation?
A. Managerial/Owner
B. Professional/Technical
C. Sales
D. Administrative Support
E. Craftsmen/Production
F. Machine Operator/Assembler
G. Laborer/Helper
H. Farm/Fish/Forest
I. Food/Health/Personal Serv
J. Protective Services
K. Private Household Services
L. Other

19. Do you go to school?
A. I go to school full time (12 - 22 credit hours).
B. I go to school part time (under 12 credit hours).
C. I do not attend school at the current time.

20. Do you have any children at home?
A. No.
B. Yes, I have one child.
C. Yes, I have two children.
D. Yes, I have three children.
E. Yes, I have more than three children.

21. What is your ethnicity?
A. African-American
B. American Indian
C. Asian
D. Caucasian
E. Hispanic
F. Mixed Racial Identity
G. Other

22. What is your current completed education level?
A. Doctorate/Professional
B. Masters
C. Bachelors
D. Associate-academic
E. Associate-occupational
F. Some college
G. High school diploma/GED
H. 9th-12th grade, no diploma

23. Do you have any comments on this topic or this survey?

HELP!

Sun, 02 Nov 2003 18:34:49 GMT

I did about 500 words yesterday, and they didn't even work for me. I'm not used to writing lengthy prose at all, but I do work really well under assignments and writing excericises:
My plea to you all is this- does anyone have a good excercise or method to get themselves writing on topic- my novel is very free-form, so I don't have to stick too closely to an outline or anything, I just need to get myself started.
help me? please?
mrph.

first excerpt

Sun, 02 Nov 2003 13:59:50 GMT

My novel is about a small fundamentalist Christian college that is having a 5th reunion for the graduating class of 1998. The first excerpt is from the boyfriend of a graduate.

She’s a good one, basically. I mean a little flaky, maybe, but who isn’t these days. Who has time to be solid, these days? My wife crawls out of bed in the afternoons, slaps her face on, spends the evening hunched over the computer and the whole night crying. I coax her. Mena, come to bed. Mena, eat something. No, being miserable is like one of her principles. Did I mention my wife is very principled? She has principles about all sorts of important things, like you can’t eat this or that on a Friday, and you can’t wear this, and Heaven forbid you say a word you’re not supposed to! Heaven is very big with her, incidentally. I knew that when I met her, I mean I knew she’d been a Jesus freak as a college student, but you figure people change. Look at me. I’m certainly not as stupid as I was in college. I was a socialist for three months, then I was a Green. I’m still a Green, practically speaking. And I’m very open minded. You could say liberal. And not bad bleeding mind liberal either. I won’t confiscate your money for South African peasants or ban your racist rally, because some of us are actually enlightened, and recognize that you’re entitled to whatever misguided bullshit way of thinking you so choose. That’s the American way!

But my wife. She means well. Sometimes she gets sad, you know, sad like we all get. She’s in graduate school, studying music education. She plays the piano. Not shabby, either. If she could get a little Gershwin under her belt – but it’s mostly these dirges about Jesus this and Holy God that. Our merciful Father, save us thy sinners from thy vermin and thy simmering hellfire. How very inspiring. Just imagine I’m up her, midlecture on the Descent of Man, about to drive the point home about the missing links between the apes and Austrelopithecus, and there goes the refrain of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” that I can’t shake from my brain. Yeah, living with Philomena is going to be good for my career.

Now she wants to drag me to this thing, this reunion of hers – I think they’re calling it an Assembly of Christ, which is typical (plus Assembly of Prostletizing Egocentrics doesn’t quite have the same ring) – and I have to cancel my appearance at the annual Biological Sciences Convention because Philomena’s therapist thinks this trip would be good for her. I’ve been prepping this presentation three weeks now. I’ve even got the Powerpoint slides. But I’m going to the Assembly of Christ, for Philomena’s sake, so she can’t run back to the head doctor with yet more evidence of what a shitty husband I am.

Look, it’s not the Jesus-mongering that bugs me. Jesus was a good guy. A: He was a liberal. B: He loved everyone, even the whores. Philomena could do worse. What I don’t appreciate are all the fucking rules. She can’t have sex without pissing God off! (What is He, jealous?) She can’t like normal things. It’s all sin and death, isn’t it. All from a nice Jewish guy in the desert who wanted people to be peaceful. Ah, Philomena – she’s so beautiful, but she just needs to loosen up. You just want to shake her. Live a little, Mena! Don’t be dead at 33 like that guy you pray to. Yes, she prays. She doesn’t do it in front of me or when I’m around, like I’d flip out or something, which I find insulting considering I’d do nothing of the sort. I’m going to be supportive even if I think it’s nonsense. Because, okay, if there were a Big Guy upstairs, don’t you think He’d already know He was something special? He’d need you to tell Him how great and wonderful He was? Otherwise He’d have low self-esteem? Or get pissed at smite someone? That’s the thing. You can’t be merciful and life giving and then go around smiting folks. Or condemning them to Hell if they believe in Krishna or witches or drinking heavily to stay strong. I mean, hey, You made them, so what do You expect? Obviously there were a few kinks in the design specs, huh, Big Guy?

I keep telling Mena she should come to my lectures. Maybe she’d realize that there’s more to the story of the world’s creation than a couple of fruit trees and a snake.

Here's the girlfriend:
Over in this house, I’ve made this family I call The Blessed. There’s a mother and a father and two kids, and the father is a priest even though the game doesn’t list that as one of the occupations. I guess they pick careers that have regular opportunities for worldly advancement, and most priests don’t have much worldly ambition. So his job according to the game is a medical technician. They help people, too. And on the job, if someone’s very ill and dying, he could administer Last Rites. He only makes 200 or 300 an hour, but since I have the cheat code and can get them as much money as I want, he technically doesn’t need to earn anything. And the two kids are both A+ students in school. They don’t even need to study. The way it works is, when you first start out, you have to have them study for a while and get their grades up, and make sure they go off to school in a good mood. But after a while it lists them having a full group of bars – there are these bar displays at the bottom of the screen that tell you how their relationships and jobs and physical possessions are rated – and then you just worry about keeping their moods up, and making sure a parent is available to cook.

So that’s the Blessed family – Reverend Blessed, Mena Blessed (no, she’s not supposed to be me – I mean originally she was, but then I created a Philomena that’s really me) and the kids, Jared and Josephine. Now they have to have friends, because you can’t advance in careers or keep up their social happiness scores unless they have friends. So Mena’s best friend Judy Trudebaker lives across the road. Originally there was a Trudebaker house that I had to delete because the Lola sim ran off with Hamlet from the Shakespeare house. So I got rid of that one and made one with just Judy. The trouble with the game is that the characters just don’t have any morals! You can make them nice or mean, outgoing or shy, neat or messy, but you can’t make them control their impulses. Like I was so focused on having Stern talk to Macbeth and Juliet, to get more family friends, and they have to have a relationship score of +45 or +50 to count as family friends. And suddenly there was Hamlet proposing to Lola! The game doesn’t care if they’re married or have children! Then Stern’s social score plummeted to the red, and he slapped Hamlet. Total impulsive, childish behavior. I’m glad I deleted both those houses. There were too many Shakespeares anyway. I thought if I made a Hamlet and an Ophelia, they’d be a couple, but no – she had better conversations with King Lear. Go figure.

I did make a house with me and Cal in it. I bought them a chemistry set, since Cal’s a scientist and all. I read on the internet that if you have them drink the potions from the chemistry table, their personalities can change. And it’s true. I had the Cal sim drink one of the potions, and suddenly he started always cleaning up the dishes and mopping the floor in the bathroom. His Neat Score went way up1 I thought it was funny since the real Cal is a total neat freak. Everything has to be organized and nothing can ever lie around on the tables, even if you just leave it for a minute and you’re going to come right back. I always thought there was this stereotype about professors that have piles of books and papers in their offices and can’t ever find anything. Cal must be the one who is the exception that proves the rule!

The Philomena sim wears this great purple dress. She looks like a princess! Actually, I did make their house a castle. I used the stone floor tiles and the stone wallpapers. It’s very gray, but then I gave them the bright red couches and tapestry wall hangings. The light fixtures are all candelabras. It’s very romantic. If we had the money, I wouldn’t mind living in a house like that! But no – a music teacher and an assistant professor don’t exactly qualify for pricey European castle living. We could probably rent out the dungeon on our combined salaries, and then we wouldn’t have any entertainment but to string each other up.

I used to have this other house – this stone mansion near the Blessed, actually – that was inhabited by a psycho. His name was Randy Psycho. (I knew this guy in college named Randy, and while he wasn’t exactly a psycho like in the strictest sense of the word, he certainly was odd. I often prayed for him and particularly for his future wife!) I wanted Randy Psycho to be a real serial killer, like the kind you read about on crime shows, and lure people into his basement and do evil things. I was curious about what would cause someone to become such an instrument of Satan, how it would impact the rest of the neighborhood or the world. Of course the game isn’t designed for that, so it was a disaster. To trap the people I would have to pause the game, select the building tool, and draw walls around them, then hit resume. So now they were literally walled in. And these stupids didn’t even realize they were trapped! They would walk around, try to start conversations through the walls, or offer back rubs to Randy Psycho. And they’d ignore any furniture in the room with them, like collapse into sleep on the grass even with the army cot planted right there. Not at all how I’d imagined. I mean, wouldn’t people get frantic and practical in a situation like that – or even realize they were trapped in the first place? Maybe there are even some folks suffering in Hell who don’t realize it’s Hell and that they’re meant to suffer.

I, for one, would not want to be that person. As it is, I’m living in sin with Cal. But I’m not corrupting him, since he only believes in science, and science doesn’t tell you how to behave in bed.

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:34:00 GMT

Fragment...
I'm too tired to work on what I was working on...but this came out of the depths of my subconscious. What do people think?

Safana gazed westward to the setting suns. Milor, the redder of the two, was about to dip below the horizon. Senph's smaller golden orb hung over and slightly south of her brother. The dance of evening had begun. It was Safana's favorite time of day. Her pupils were narrowed to slits against the light of the double star, but she did not wince from the pain. Soon enough her eyes would reflect the single tiny moon, Anatya.

Her bondmate-to-be, Akhil, came out to the balcony to join her. His tail curled around her waist in greeting. She kept watching the horizon, but her thoughts brushed gently against his with welcome.

~You wake early,~ he told her. ~I looked for you in our denchamber and could not find you.~ His powerful current surged through his tail and over her body, giving her a sense of his mind after the way of their people.

Milor's lower edge disappeared. Safana stroked one clawed hand over Akhil's tail. ~Forgive me,~ she thought. ~I love watching the littermates go to sleep for the night.~

She glanced at Akhil. His pupils were barely visible, squeezed shut against the uncomfortable light. His colors were the silver and white of unhappiness, but his thoughts were tender. ~There is nothing to forgive, bondmate-to-be. I worry that your scales will be burned by their rays. Will you come in soon?~

She let her scales flush into the colors of affirmation. She had not chosen Akhil to be her bond, but if the Line had given her the right to choose she might have picked him anyway. None in the Line had any doubt that he would be an excellent broodfather to her litter when she had one.

A wind blew, unusual for this latitude at this time of year. She felt her colors changing to concern. ~Are there reports of storms coming, Akhil?~ Safana asked, peering to the west. She saw no evidence of a cloud.

The taller male shivered, his frill rising and darkening as if challenged. He replied in the negative. ~The air feels wrong,~ he told her. His tail uncoiled from her waist, cutting off the flow of his thoughts. Safana felt her own tail twitching to follow him, to hide in the depths of the denkeep. Milor was almost totally below the horizon now, and Senph's edge was touching. It was the wrong time to be hiding. They should be readying themselves for the hunt. She felt her own vestigial frill twitching.

She began to turn toward the balcony entrance when a sound caught her attention. She looked back at the suns and her body went cold and pale. Something metallic threw off Senph's light in the sky, glinting a harsher silver than Anatya's soft glow. It looked a lot more like the ceremonial blade Safana would use to cut Akhil and herself during their union. It was unfamilar and unwelcome.

Sefana took a deep breath and began to bellow a high, piercing ululation. She could sense the denkeep coming to life and to arms at once. The invasion warning had not been given except in teaching during Sefana's lifetime. The denkeep was a peaceful place. Natural aggression among the People was kept at bay through ritualized combat and strict protocol. Still, the colony juveniles would welcome a chance to change their status through hunting and combat.

Sefana's colors were ash. If she was correct and the Line-memory led true, this would take more than bloodied frills and ritual blades to settle. She needed time and quiet to access the Memories. She only prayed that time would be granted her. She watched the metallic object go lower and lower, finally resting somewhere in the hunting grounds to the southwest.

Senph disappeared totally, leaving only Anatya's cool light for Sefana to see by. She felt more than saw or scented Akhil standing behind her, along with the DenMother.

"Did you see it, Mother?" she voiced without turning.

"I saw it, daughter. Does your Line have a name for it?"

Sefana hesitated. "I need time, Mother, to understand the Memories."

"You have until deepest dark, daughter. May the blessings of your Line go with you in your meditations." She heard the Mother turn to go.

"Mother?" she burst out, turning, her colors still whitened.

"Yes, daughter?" the DenMother asked calmly, stopping but not turning back.

"Do not send the juveniles to hunt this thing. The Memories are clear on that much. I know it will cost you to restrain them, but restrain them you must."

She heard Akhil's startled whistle. She was surprised at her own boldness.

The DenMother tilted her head in amusement. "So easily as that? You must be certain, daughter."

"I am, Mother, I am."

"Then go commune with your Line and I will think of a way to stall them after your cry." The DenMother disappeared back into the denkeep.

Sefana looked at her bondmate-to-be. His frill was still dark and congested. "I will guard you as you commune," he voiced gruffly. "No one will come near."

Sefana did not want to find these memories. For the first time, she dreaded being memorykeeper of her Line. She let her colors indicate affirmation and followed him into their denchamber, but the image of the silvery knife in the sky stayed with her all the way back.

Building realistic characters

Thu, 09 Oct 2003 07:41:10 GMT

(Hi all! I found this place doing a search for "nanowrimo" as an interest. Nice to meet everyone. I'm 25, and the last time I wrote a novel I was 9 and handwriting it; I assume it'll be easier this time around. In the interim I've written a handful of short stories and a lot of songs. I've also worked as a newspaper and fiction editor, among numerous non-writing-related jobs. My personal NaNo goal is 2000 words a day, and since I often exceed that in my regular journal, rosefox, I figure that won't be a problem; it's going to be much harder to step on my tendency to edit as I go. To learn more about me, check out that journal or keep an eye on this one.)

A friend pointed me to dailysoulsearch, where a question is posted every day to help you to think and learn about yourself. I started using it to help me develop realistic and well-rounded characters for my novel, and it's fantastic! Just thought I'd share that resource as a way of saying "hi". I look forward to seeing what everyone else has to share.

Sat, 27 Sep 2003 20:47:19 GMT

I've just created a new Nanowrimo community: nanowrimopa. It's for Nanowrimo-ers who live in Pennsylvania. :)

It's Over!

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 05:27:55 GMT

(cross-posted)

I feel like I should be uncorking champagne and singing "Auld Lang Syne" right about now. NaNoWriMo is officially over. I had an insane amount of fun, and I fully intend to do it again next year.

To those of you who finished, congratulations!! To those of you who did not, don't stop now, finish it anyway! :) I reached the quota a few days early, and in December and January, I fully intend to edit it and add in all of the parts I left out.

::starts singing "Auld Lang Syne" and getting weepy-eyed::

Goodbye, November 2002. You were one of the most interesting months in my life so far.

Sat, 09 Nov 2002 10:52:46 GMT

(crossposted)

If anyone feels the need to procrastinate at this hour, would you mind visiting my novel (http://nanowrimomadness.blogspot.com) and maybe emailing me with comments?

I'd be happy to do the same for whoever wants some feedback.

Thanks!

things going only moderately well

Mon, 04 Nov 2002 02:02:35 GMT

Having notes in an lj and using a diary-x to store the updates is taking a long time itself, time that I'm not writing the novel. :(

Also, I'm writing fanfiction, and the characters are giving me trouble. I've never written in this fandom (Angel the Series) before, and I can tell I'm getting some of the voices wrong. Angel sounds too...his sentences are too complicated. Lots of clauses. He sounds too much like me. Cordelia sounds bizarrely like Buffy. And *NSYNC ... I don't know who *NSYNC sounds like, but it's not the members of *NSYNC, really.

However, writing 2000 words/day does seem possible. I was hoping to be able to write a lot on the buses. It seems like I'm only getting about a quarter of the daily quota on public transport, but that's better than nothing, right?

Current word count is just under 4800.

Current Stats...

Sat, 02 Nov 2002 05:23:42 GMT

The working title of my NaNoWriMo novel is, See You At Union Square

General Plot: Several people are homeless and living in New York City. They become like a family of sorts and meet up once a week at Union Square to check-in with each other. The story is told by Brooke Lynn Masterson, a.k.a. Pixie. Sub-plots include child prostitution, drug usage, HIV, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, homosexuality, and the meaning of "family."

Opening Sentence: There are many different kinds of families.

Current Word Count: 607 and still writing

Baltimore, MD kickoff

Thu, 31 Oct 2002 23:10:48 GMT

We're meeting up at XandO's coffee bar tomorrow around 7'ish. It's at 3003 N. Charles St, and is reachable on the 3 bus line (and the 11, if you don't mind walking a few blocks). Ask for Nano. Someone may have the gumption to make a little sign.

Addresses for novel? Process?

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 19:39:42 GMT

I created zvi_writes for notes for this novel, and I'm going to use my diary-x writing notebook to hold the story (or pieces of it, anyway). Anybody else have a special blog or website for NNWM?

dec 1

Sat, 01 Dec 2001 23:48:48 GMT

well... this has been a neglected spot. So did everyone/anyone finish? Myself, I squeeked by with 50,092 words or something.