My Journey With Dakotashi, Part II: NaNoWriMo

I love NaNoWriMo. There is something about writing 50,000 words in one gigantic mass of creativity that really appeals to me.

The idea of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. That's approximately 1,667 words a day. You can plan and outline as much as you want before November, but you can't count any words written beforehand toward your total.

From past experience, I knew that I have trouble writing without an outline, so once I had my world and my main character it was time to get started figuring out what would actually happen in my story. As you know from my previous posts, I still write a lot by hand in notebooks, especially to plan and to brainstorm. 

I wrote several synopses of the plot, constantly asking what ifs, refining and developing the story. In June 2010, driving home from Ocean City, Maryland I had two epiphanies that changed what I had been thinking before. One had to do with Dakota's motivation and the other connected a secondary character more closely with the main plot. I continued to summarize and question and come up with ideas to make the story better. 

During the summer I also started writing voice experiments. I couldn't actually write the story (not and adhere to NaNoWriMo's honor system), but I could experiment with the narration from Dakota's POV as long as I started from scratch with those moments when November came around. It was during these voice experiments that I came up with a particular plot element and a character associated with it who has become one of my favorites. I'm not sure either of these would have come up if I had just started writing and not given myself the time (in preparation for NaNoWriMo) to take my time figuring out what was going to happen and to experiment in this way. 

I was also using Scrivener during this time to visually plot out my scenes. Scrivener is an amazingly flexible tools for writers of all stripes who want to be able to plot, outline, write, organize, edit and collect research in one program. You can tailor it to fit your particular needs. Dakotashi, however, would be the first time that I planned and wrote a novel from scratch using Scrivener.

Scirivener has an awesome feature called the cork board that mimics the classic plotting technique of using index cards to detail scenes and move them around. It's a lot easier on Scrivener, trust me! However, at the beginning of a project when my idea is still tumbling around in my mind collecting subconscious detritus and gaining mass, I still like writing in my notebooks--I haven't really started thinking of something as specific as a scene yet. However as NaNoWriMo grew closer, my scene ideas grew more detailed and found their way onto Scrivener where I could easily edit and move them around. 

Scrivener became even more useful to me during revision, but there were two tools that were immensely useful to me even while writing my first draft. Scrivener allows you to use color-coded "pins" with your index cards and also to "stamp" them. For one of my earlier books I use the pins to show POV. For this book, with only one POV, I didn't need to do that, so I decided to use the colors to indicate what plot thread and/or theme each particular theme was related to. Since the story takes place in a concentrated period of time, I used the stamps to show what day of the story it takes place. At a glance, I could see how many scenes were taking place during a day and what plot thread they were related to. 

NaNoWriMo went smoothly and I got to a point in the story that is still approximately the half way point today. After writing the first half, I think I worked on something else for awhile. Before NaNoWriMo 2011, I realized that I did not have a good enough handle on my villain so I spent more time working out exactly what was happening with him, even adding index cards for his actions, even though he would never have scenes written for him. Since there is a large mystery element to the story and I'd never written a mystery before, I also looked at all the clues that Dakota would find and what he would know when. 

During this second NaNoWriMo I decided that it took too long to retype things into my computer so I didn't do as much writing by hand. I also ventured out to write-ins for the first time and found them enormously productive. I still had 4,500 words to go on the last day, but I made it to 50k. I was really close to end of the story at that point and knowing myself, I might have pushed through to THE END as well, but I don't remember for sure. Altogether, I wrote 104,000 words. 

In Part III of this series, I'll talk about my revision process. 

My Journey with Dakotashi, Part I: Origins

While reflecting (and bragging!) about my writer's retreat experience, I took a look back at the four notebooks I've filled with notes about this particular book and decided to put some thoughts down/chronicle my journey before I forget everything about it entirely. I already didn't recall that my first notebook began in January 2010.

I usually only date the beginning (and maybe the end) of each notebook so the timing of what I wrote down inside is generally a mystery, however, I can manage an overview. 

The Idea

It was January 2010. I had recently completed my second writing (I actually rewrote it in 1st person) of another of my books for NaNoWriMo and was ready to tackle something new. A new-year's resolution may have been involved. I'd had the idea of combining cultures inspired by both Japan and England into one world/country for a long time, but with no story or characters attached.  

I finally hit on the idea of having exiles from a Japan-like country conquer parts of an England-like country. (This of course removes North America from the equation, but don't expect me to eliminate chocolate from my world!) The story, however, would take place hundreds of years after that, giving plenty of time for the cultures to intermingle--or not as the case may be. 

I don't recall my reasons for deciding on Regency England (the broader time-frame, not the actual 9-year Regency) as the inspiration time period, but it probably had to do with Gail Carriger's The Parasol Protectorate series (which is actually urban fantasy meets steampunk in Victorian England), Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (alternate history set during the Napoleonic Wars--with dragons!) and the numerous regency romance novels I have read over the years (favorite authors being Mary Jo Putney, Mary Balogh, Julia Quinn and Sherry Thomas). Of course, there is no "England" in my story. It's more of an alternate shadow-England.

There are lots of interesting things to explore in his world/time period, fertile potential for story ideas and conflicts. There is the clash between the two cultures, a war (not necessarily French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars, but some kind of war), politics, the disparity between the the classes and of course, the main character himself and all his backstory. 

The Character

I wanted this book/series to be different than the ones I've written before. I was inspired by these long urban fantasy series that go on and on, following one character having multiple adventures (Jim Butcher's Dresden series; Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse), but, unlike Gail Carriger, who I mentioned above, I didn't want to write an urban fantasy during any time period. However, the concept of a long series (hopefully!) required a character interesting enough to sustain interest over multiple books. 

My solution was to think of someone with such a rich backstory that an epic story could be written about his life before my story even starts. Unfortunately, I can't say too much about him without spoiling the story. Rest assured Dakotashi, or "Dakota" for short, lives between two cultures, two worlds and has a mysterious, layered and painful past. He is ripe for all kinds of conflict and angst. 

I'm probably also heavily influenced by Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vokosigan series, even though it is science fiction/space opera, because Mile Vorkosigan is an amazing character, who has the type of adventures--a little mystery, a little romance, a little politics, a little war--that I want my character to have over the course of the series. 

The Magic

Normally, the magic is something that I think of right away with my ideas/story concepts. It wasn't like that this time. I did some early research on Shinto and got some ideas for some Japanese-inspired magic and already planned on some Druid-inspired magic. When I first started writing I still had no idea what the magic was going to be like. I had the vague idea that it would be tied up with religion. 

I started my first notebook for Dakotashi in January 2010, but I think I had already made some notes elsewhere, possibly in Scrivener. The first backup from Scrivener I could find was from February 2010. I was planning on writing the first draft for NaNoWriMo in November 2010, but first I needed a plot to go along with my world and character. I'll be tackling that next part of My Journey with Dakotashi, in Part II: NaNoWriMo.

Writer's Retreat

Last week,  I took the opportunity of a new fiscal year and a fresh pot of vacation hours to go on a personal writing retreat. I found a place in an isolated little village in Vermont and did nothing but write, revise and research for five days. This was helped by a spotty internet connection and no cell service.

I was able to finish the big rewrite of my book that I have been planning for over a year and made some other bigger revisions that I only thought of recently as well. This included a 40k-word section rewritten/revised. Of that, 16k words that were either new scenes or completely rewritten.

I also started some research of Heian Japan and Regency England that will help me add layers of detail. To help with this I also read some about description and setting and did some exercises.

I got A LOT done.

I loved the opportunity to get large swaths of my book revised. I could really see the big picture and see how things fit together, how they should fit together but didn't, and how they could fit together if I wanted them to.

The death struggle

First I have to say how much I love the way James Scott Bell talks about writing and that I highly recommend his books. He explains things in a way that click with me.

One of the things he like to talk about is the death struggle. This is the conflict that locks the protagonist and the antagonist together for the length of the story. Now literary/character driven writers need not call foul. This struggle isn't always a physical death. It can also be psychological (think Holden Caufield or any romance novel) or professional (think police/lawyer stories, even mother trying to help/rescue her child). And yes a story can be more than one, which brings me to my point.

I'll let Mr. Bell explain the rest to you himself if you check out his books. I just want to introduce the concepts so I can brag about how my book is going to be ALL THREE!

Physical Death
Circumstances make the antagonist thin my MC is dangerous to him, so he tries to get rid of danger by killing the MC.

Psychological Death
MC has someone in his life that he doesn't want to disappoint, in part because he feels he owes this person a debt and in part b/c he is desperately seeking this person's approval so he can feel like he belongs. If my MC can't figure the problems of the book out to help this person, he will die a little inside.

Professional Death
This one is a bit of a stretch and might be more applicable in future books with this MC. Ties into the psychological death above. He can view his relationship with the person he doesn't want to disappoint as like a job with duties and responsibilities he can't ignore. If he does ignore them he'll have failed (died) at his "profession."

So my book should be super exciting and emotionally moving, as well as complex, right? We will see.

Stuck

I was doing really with my revision for awhile. I studied my story and identified things to move around to make it more exciting and character relationships and conflict to mine to make it more meaningful. I went through scene by scene and figured out how to make it better or if it should be cut, moved or combines with other scenes. I rewrote my synopsis several times, adding new ideas as I thought of them and determining how to fit them in. I started the rewrite getting all the way through the first major change in my main character's life.

And now I'm stuck. I could say that my job is sucking out any extra energy I might have to devote to creative endeavors. I could say that I went into crunch time for the show that I was in recently and had practice almost every night.

But the truth is that those are just excuses.

I think I'm afraid that because I've been having some trouble with these scenes, I'm going to have to rewrite them again. And the whole point of all the work I've done already is to avoid unnecessary rewrites.

But this is stupid. I've been careful and I know that some more revision will be necessary anyway--even if I breezed through these scenes it would be--and if I need to do more to make it better than that's just what I'll have to do.
I need to write through it. The scene I am on will not only deepen the characters in it, there is a major thing that happens that seems relatively small at the time, but actually sets the major conflict of the book in motion. And soon I will get to the point of no return, where my protagonist is locked into mortal battle with the antagonist.

I just need to immerse myself again and then everything else should follow.

Revision: Plan of Attack

I went to a writer's conference in March and the main goal that I came away with was to be more methodical with my revision. I can't tell you the number of times that I had a new idea that changed everything in the middle of a revision thus necessitating a revision of the revision. I have no desire to rewrite large portions of my novel multiple times. I don't want to be unrealistic--some of that is bound to happen, but my goal was to keep it to a minimum.

So then I came up with a "Plan of Attack." I'm hoping that I can use it in the future as well, keeping in mind that other books might need different things.

PLOT/GENERAL
1. Go through scene by scene and update outline, also note scene type, objective and result. Using this, identify 10 weakest scenes and think of ways to improve them, combine them or cut them.
2. Find places where character/theme can be explored. Map out how main character (MC) will change over the course of the book and match to these scenes and more if necessary.
3. Identify places to strengthen signpost scenes. (See work of James Scott Bell for more info)
4. Identify major clues and connections and when they happen. Map them out and make sure they make sense and are in the right order.

CHARACTER WORK
1. What are each character's goals and how might that add to tension/conflict with MC, even friends and allies
2. Look @ MC relationships with other characters, esp ones that change and make sure that progress makes sense
3. Identify scenes that may need major work

SCENE WORK
1. Based on previous work put all scenes in order
2. Cut weak/unnecessary scenes, or outline how to make them stronger
3. Following clue, theme and character maps revise scenes as necessary

VOICE WORK
1. Imagine random moments in the book and write snippets of MC thoughts, giving them as much attitude as possible. Get at least 20 to 30 of these.
2. Match to appropriate scenes and work in
3. Go through all scenes, heightening the attitude of MC voice

After major revisions

DIALOGUE WORK
(Review various exercises to help)

EXPOSITION/DESCRIPTION
1. Highlight all instances of description and find places where description should be added
2. For each, think of emotion/mood to evoke and use that as a lens to write/rewrite description

BIG MOMENTS
1. Identify 5 big moments and read them over.
2. Brainstorm 10 ways to heighten the moment
3. Pick the best and do it

FINAL TENSION AND POLISH
1. Throw all pages into the air
2. Pick one and find a way to increase tension on that page
3. Look at whole page and tighten language, etc.

That's a lot, isn't it? Is it overboard? Perhaps. I'm in the scene work, actual revision stage. Doing the previous steps already allowed me to move things around some to make story better.

Alot of this I've already done in past revisions, just not so systematically, but one thing that is new is the idea of voice snippets. I will definitely use this again as it really allowed me to capture my MC voice, without worrying about what is going on in the scene outside that moment.

I can do this. I will do this.

12 Days of (Ravens) Christmas

Okay, this is a little silly, but with the holiday season, I thought putting a Ravens spin on a classic Christmas carol would be a great way to celebrate. What can I say? I'm part singer, part writer and bleed purple!

Some lines are just general football-related, but I managed to get some specific Ravens references in also. Offense, defense and special teams are covered. Obviously assume all references are positive for the Ravens. ie forced fumbles refers to fumbles forced by our defense, not fumbles by Joe! ;-)
It's been a special season so far and hopefully that will continue! Go Ravens!!!

[To be sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. For those who don't know, the patten is to sing each day and all the days previous. So Day 1, then Day 2, Day 1, then Day 3, Day 2, Day 1 etc etc.]

On the first day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me Ball So Hard University. ***

On the second day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me two interceptions.

On the third day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me three field goals.

On the fourth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me four forced fumbles.

On the fifth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me five touchdowns.

On the sixth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me six sacks by Sizzle.

On the seventh day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me Seven Nation Army

On the eighth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me eight touchbacks.

On the ninth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me nine bombs downfield.

On the tenth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me ten pass deflections.

On the eleventh day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me eleven leaping catches.

On the twelfth day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me twelve fu man chus.

***(Optional Variation of first line for very last time through: On the first day of Christmas the Ravens gave to me Ball So Hard to the Superbowl!)***

Happy Holidays everyone!!! Go Ravens!

Post NaNo Update

I apologize for being late with this. I went on vacation for Thanksgiving for like 10 days and it totally disrupted my flow (although it was a great vacation).

I got to 41k before I left for vacation on Saturday, November 19, which was averaging over 2,000 words a day. I pushed myself so hard during the beginning of the month so I would be able take a break and enjoy my vacation. And I'm glad I did. I was able to write about 4,000 words over the course of my vacation, but stalled my first day back when all I did was watch Ravens videos on Hulu.com and catch up on some missed TV.

So when November 30 rolled around, I still had 5,000 words left to go. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, especially since coming back from vacation at work always puts me in an extremely bad mood at work and I was feeling uninspired. But I had a productive lunch hour, continued writing immediately after work, and crossed over the 50k mark at a write-in.

Once I got home I pushed through to the end of the climax and rushed through an epilogue, enabling me to type the words: "The End."   

That's four year's in a row!!

Thanksgiving with the Harbaughs and a Rainy Day in Clevland

[Started a post about the Thanksgiving game and never posted it, so I'm combining a few thoughts on that one with a few thoughts about yesterday's game.]

RAVENS VS 49rs
Great complete team win by the Ravens on Thanksgiving. I was in Florida without access to to NFL Network, but we found a great sports bar to watch this game and the previous Bengals game. Mad props to Beef O'Brady's. They have TVs with sound in each booth. Wish I had something that near me at home.

Anyway, I'm beyond thrilled. Besides the last game @ Cincy this was the game I was most worried about left on our schedule. On paper at least. As we've seen this year, the Ravens are capable of losing to ANYONE on the road.

So my post-game thoughts.

1. Loved the balance. If you look at his stats, some people might say that Ray Rice had a bad game. Stats are beside the point. The run kept their defense honest so they could not completely key on Joe Flacco and helped to wear them down and also helped open up the pass.

If you looked at his stats, some people might say that Joe Flacco didn't have a spectacular game. Stats are beside the point. In a defensive battle like this against a team that doesn't make mistakes (that INT was only Alex Smith's 5th on the year and they didn't fumble at all) it wasn't the time to try for 300 yards passing. Joe had success moving the ball and had one excellent drive for a touchdown where he made multiple plays on 3rd and long. While not an "elite" quarterback, that was an elite-level drive. If he can string more of those together (keeping balance with the run) on a more consistent basis over the next couple of years maybe his name will be in that conversation without it being controversial.

2. Loved the way the defense stepped up without Ray Lewis. 9 sacks, tying a franchise record. Dominating performance against one of the best teams in the NFL. Kept Gore contained. Creative blitzes. Disciplined, hard hitting football. Although they stepped up when necessary to get the win last week, they did not look this good. There are so many players that I could mention, but I'm going to stick to Ladarius Webb and Cory Redding. They both stepped up big time. If our D can keep playing this way... well, good things should happen!

RAVENS @ BROWNS
I've read people say that it was an "ugly win," but it was beautiful to me. Yes, we missed field goals and could have put it away much earlier, still had trouble in the red zone and there were other blips as well, but we won against an inferior opponent on the road, which has been our "Achilles heel" this season. Using our run game, we completely dominated the Browns, it just didn't show up on the scoreboard as much as we would like.

1. Ray Rice is awesome. Enough said.

2. So is Ladarius Webb. I'm glad he's back to playing at the level we all expected his rookie season before his injury. Can't wait to see what he does next year after a full off-season. Between his injury setting him back some and the fact that he never really played corner before his pro-career, I think the sky is the limit for this guy.

Honestly, I don't really have the enthusiasm about this win to go much beyond that. The run game looked great and the pass rush continued to produce sacks and rushed throws, but other than that the team didn't look great. I hope we can continue to win against the less than stellar teams left on our schedule (including the Browns again), but at this point I'm not going to expect the team to look dominant against them. I'll wait for the final game against Cincinnati (hopefully!) and the playoffs for that and be happy.

NaNo Update

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, but here is where I am:

I've broken 35k and have a total of four scenes left on my list to write.

Also, what was a very minor character has surprised me and not only do I think I can spin off a short story about him, but he solved a plot issue that was worrying me.

A lot of WriMos have been talking about "plot bunnies" and characters taking off and doing things they didn't expect. When I outline, which I have to do pretty thoroughly to get through NaNoWriMo, that type of thing usually doesn't happen to me. But I do discover little details about the characters and fill in the gaps in plot (like above).

Another observation: There have been a couple scenes that I've had to struggle through and was absolutely sure that what I was writing was absolutely terrible, but when I went back and reread to them to refresh myself to write a related scene, they really weren't as bad as I thought.

Getting close!

I broke 20k today

Oh, blogosphere, it's been a few days since my last confession...er... post.

Yesterday was the first day that I didn't hit the 1,667 quota. I only got in what I wrote at lunch. This had to do with my late night after the Raven's HUGE win over the Steelers. I know there is a sweeping song in some musical somewhere and if I could recall it, I would quote it here. Hahaha. I remained obsessed with Raven's coverage all day Monday, was exhausted and yet still didn't get to sleep until much too late.

Then today, this lack of sleep caught up with me. Not a good day for many reasons. I didn't write at lunch and I didn't go to the write-in like I was planning and I was feeling pretty lame and unproductive. But I stuck it out, skipped Glee and cranked out just over 2,000 words this evening so I could break 20,000 words. I knew getting to see that number would give me proper motivation.

Coming up in the book I have some emotional angst, a duel, threats from the equivalent of a mob boss, another duel (this one impromptu, unlike the first) and a kidnapping... all leading up to my climax, which includes... oh, well, I'm not going to risk spoiling that. ;-)

So lots of excitement (and hopefully another 30,000 words) to come.

Good News and Bad News

The good news: I'm still doing great at NaNoWriMo. I'm up to over 17,000 words, which means I'm way ahead schedule. My stats page says I only need to write about 1,300 to finish on time and that so far my average per day has been almost 3,000 words.


The mixed news: I have had to push through a couple of scenes. This means that they are not catching my attention enough to really enjoy writing them, which means that a reader certainly won't get really absorbed in reading them. This fact tells me that there is something going on in these particular scenes that will take some revision. It's not a huge deal.

For example, in one scene, my main character is seeking some information. I don't think I have the opposing character's motivations worked out well enough to make that scene really snap yet. But he will be involved later in the book, perhaps the later scenes will shed some light on this earlier one. I intend this character to be a thorn in Dakotashi's side for many books to come, so he needs to be fun to write! I didn't concentrate enough on setting him up during my brainstorming sessions because I was focusing more on the actual villain for this book.

The (possibly) bad news: At this rate, I'm afraid of running out of scenes to write before I get to 50k. This is only a problem if I'm worried about winning NaNoWriMo this year. It just means that this book isn't 100k. That's fine, as my real goal is to finish the book, right?

So far I have written approximately 13 scenes. (A few of them have been broken down into more than one piece that I haven't given a separate scene document to in my Scivener binder. One of these scenes was a surprise to me that I didn't have planned ahead of time.) I have 16 more scenes planned. If I estimate a little more words than the 17k I've written for the 13 scenes I've written so far, let's say 20k, that will be a total of 37k, not really anywhere close to the 50k needed to NaNoWriMo.

Well, I knew this might happen when I decided to finish the book I started last year instead of starting something new.

What can I do to try and add more words as I go? Well, one of the 16 scenes I have planned is actually the climax, which will turn out to be more than one scene for sure. I'm just not certain what's going to happen so I haven't planned it out yet. I figure it will come to me. I hope it will anyway. And then there are the requisite tying-things-up scenes after the climax as well. So that should add a pretty hefty chunk to my estimate.

Also, I can make sure to write more description. It's not my favorite thing to write and requires a lot of effort on my part to think of, which is why I tend to give it short thrift during nano, but I'm far enough ahead in my word count now that I can afford to spend some extra time on descriptive details if it will pile up some words for me. And it will be good for me too.

Anyway, there you have it! It's been exciting to see my word count climb up and check of the scenes I've had planned in my head. Hopefully, in week two, which is usually much harder than week one, I can continue the trend. Really, if I can finish my book AND get to 50k before my Thanksgiving vacation, that would be really, really awesome.

One more thing: GO RAVENS!!!! Let's beat the Steelers tonight.

First Write-in a Great Success

It's been a long day. Work is, well, it is what it is right now.

But, I've been a writing machine today! I wrote close to 1,500 words at lunch and then I went to my first write-in and wrote another 1,959 while I was there. That's close to 3,000 words today. My total is 10,272 so far. This might be my best start to NaNoWriMo yet.

With that much writing, I may need to rethink taking my computer with me. I won't normally get 1,500 words at lunch time so what I write then isn't much to type up and doesn't take me long, but 3,000 is a bit much. Also, the word wars were hard writing long hand because I tried to write faster and I couldn't physically go any faster. lol. It was also hard to count words. When I was typing I kept track and my totals for the 10 min word wars were less than 400 each time, which isn't horrible, but not terrific either. One person got up to 1,000 words! In 10 min!

But bringing my computer offers challenges, mainly due to the fact that my computer doesn't hold a battery charge anymore. If it's unplugged for more than 3 seconds, it yells at me.

On another note: Bruce from Baltimore Beatdown says my It's Steelers Week post is "very good." Check in the comments if you need proof. I am officially not a football idiot. ;-)

And another: I should not have had a caramel macchiato at 8:30 p.m. even it was the drink i thought i would like the best, but with the fewest calories.

And finally: I don't think I'll be getting much writing done tomorrow because I'm meeting a friend and her adorable new baby for lunch and going to my first Terps basketball (exhibition) game of the season with my brother tomorrow night. So it's a good thing I'm ahead. I expect if I don't hit a stumbling block in my plot, I'll be able to get a lot accomplished this weekend.

Got distracted already...

I got through over 5,000 words yesterday in 4 sessions. One right after midnight, then a short one at lunch (I spent most of the time writing yesterday's blog post lol), one after work and another after my break for Glee and The New Girl. It is clear that I don't have much of a life right now!

Lots of dialogue so far. Those scenes usually go pretty quickly for me. I can tell already that I'll need to make one of them a bit more antagonistic when I go back and revise. Crap! And I just thought of a way to do that!! If I don't write it down right away, I'll forget: Dakotashi needs to try to convince F to try and convince Lord N to call of that thing with his uncle and F proves reticent. Is that cryptic enough?

Today at lunch I got distracted by reading blogs about the Ravens. I did get a few words in, hopefully I can go full steam ahead after work. The write-in I was planning on going to got pushed back and I don't feel like handing in Baltimore until then, so I'll just go home. But tomorrow, I'll go to my first write-in in Columbia!

Nanowrimo…it's on!

So Nanowrimo has officially begun! I thought I'd take a few minutes of my lunch break (before I start with the serious writing) to update my progress so far and go over what I think my process will be. It's going to be fun with a few new technological tools in my pocket.

Last night I stayed up waaaay too late and got in my first quota, working from midnight to almost 2 a.m. and getting out about 2,300 words. When I can I like to push past the daily quota of 1,667 words to make up for whatever tough patches are in store for me this month. (Vacation with my sister and her kids at our parents' in Florida? And we are driving down!) My hero was being questioned by the police, so it was a fun scene to write.

Like I said, I have a few tools that I use, several of them new.

1. Notebook. I don't like lugging my computer around with me and I really find that the words flow better writing out longhand.

2. Scrivener. That said, I don't think I could live without Scrivener for outlining, counting my words automatically and yes, typing right into the program. It does save time typing up what i've written in my notebook. I use dropbox and an additional copy of the program on my work computer to keep me productive when I can sneak a minute or want to stay at my desk for writing at lunch.

3. This year, Scrivener is allowing me to do two awesome things. Previously, I might have printed out summaries of my upcoming  scenes or written down the next few in my notebook to reference, but this year with my driod phone (and it would actually be easier with an iPhone, but that's not what I have) and a combination of simplenote and the flicknote app on my phone, I can carry around all my upcoming scenes with my electronically. Since simplenote actually only syncs the body text (not Scrivener's index cards) I did have to copy the scene descriptions for each scene which I will replace with actual text. I can sync that as well and see what I wrote the night before so I know i'm starting in the right place etc. I could also write directly on my phone if I wanted and sync that back in directly to Scivener.

4. The other thing that scrivener is allowing me to do is carry the first half of my book (that I wrote for Nanowrimo last year) around with me on my nook! So if I can't remember a character's name or what they said in a certain scene, I can look it up immediately if I want.

My basic procedure is this: on weekdays, write as much as I can in my notebook longhand at lunch and after work wherever I go if I don't go home. Then when I do get home, type it up in Scrivener. This not only refreshes me as to where I am, I also like to add more as I go. When I work like that it's usually pretty easy to pick up the thread of the story and keep going. 

I am off to a good start, but it's a long month and a lot of words to go. Good luck to me and all the other wrimos out there. Let your words flow and don't look back, just keep writing!

It's Steelers Week!

So I had been planning a followup post to my very first Ravens game and professional football game in general, but after suffering through that dismal performance in Jacksonville, I didn't feel up to it.

After yesterday's comeback win against the Arizona Cardinals, while still disappointed with our inconsistent play, at least I feel a little more confident going into the Steelers game Sunday night.

Given that nanowrimo starts tonight at midnight, and I want to get a good jump on it this first week, I thought I'd make an early post about the game.

So I am by no means an expert in football, but I have a few of the ever-popular "keys" to the game. We know that the Ravens defense is amazing and the offense has a lot of potential, but the Steelers offense right now is playing at a more consistently high level, so most of these deal with the offense.

1. Run the ball successfully. A lot. The Steelers have a great defense, but right now their pass defense is strangely enough a better this season. And we have Ray Rice, who can make something out of what looks like nothing. Running the ball lessens the chance for turnover and has the potential of running a lot of time off the clock while the Steelers offense is off the field.

2. Get Joe Flacco into a good rhythm early. Yesterday we saw Joe play very well out of the shotgun (don't ask me what that actually means…seriously) and with a "sugar huddle." I don't know if we need to do either of those things right off the bat, or just get a few short completions in whatever formation to start, but getting his confidence and rhythm going early should help with possible longer passes later.

The run and the pass can feed off each other. If that can happen, I think we can be dangerous.

3. Rack up the sacks. And hits. And hurries. We are great against the run and Big Ben and the Steelers are becoming more and more pass focused. If we can get to him and disrupt his rhythm, we can neutralize some of their effectiveness as an offense. But as always we need to beware of his ability to extend and make a big play.

4. CUT DOWN ON MISTAKES AND PENALTIES!!!!!! The offense especially (but all phases have been guilty) of making stupid mistakes, not focusing and committing penalties. How many false starts did we have Sunday at home? Penalties will kill a drive. They will make the opposing offense's job that much easier and have huge impact on field position. This is something that really needs cleaned up. I don't expect the Ravens to play perfectly, but they need to be focused and smart.

4b. Protect the ball. It's possible that the team with the fewest turnovers will win the game. No fumbles. No interceptions. 

Honorable mention: Protect Joe Flacco. The reason this is not one of my keys is that I'm not sure our O-line is capable of protecting Joe for sustained, long periods of time. That's why running the ball and getting the ball out quick is so important, it lessens the pressure on the line, who will be facing the crazy blitzes and the serious pass rushers of the very solid Steelers D.

Pounding the ball, getting Joe in rhythm so shots down field will have a better chance of being successful, and keeping the Big Ben in check so the game remains close is what i think we need to do. This might be obvious to some, but keys to the game usually are.

Whatever the game plan turns out to be, hopefully it turns out to be an epic, hard-fought game. GO RAVENS!!!!!!        

Breakthrough

The breakthrough I had last week really helped me move forward with my outline. I concentrated on what was happening with the villain's perspective. I started with what was going on behind the actions he had already taken within what I had already written and also moved his plans forward, which really helps me add complications for Dakota in the next part of the book.

I also made plans to change some things within what was already written to tighten things up. By tightening up what I really mean is connecting more things together. Whatever I can do to make elements of the plot and different characters overlap and weave together makes the story that much better, in my opinion.

So I have what the villain is doing mapped out, but not much about what Dakota will be doing beyond some broad threads. Next step: break these broad threads into possible scenes. Once I do that I can move them around and see what order seems to work best and weaves everything together the best way. I can also look if there are any that can serve double duty (be combined into one scene instead of two). Scrivener is a great tool for this.

Finally, once November rolls around next week, I can actually start writing the scenes. Actually I could start writing now since I'm not starting at the beginning of a story--as long as I don't count the words toward my nanowrimo total--but I want to save the wordcount for November so I can get as close to 50k as possible, so even if the book doesn't end up being 100k, I'll still be in pretty good shape to win.  

Getting from here to there

After two posts about sports I thought I'd better get something about writing up. So nanowrimo is coming up fast and I'm starting to get a little worried. The same problems that have plagued since I stopped writing this novel after nanowrimo last year are still issues. I'm not sure how to get from where I am to where I want to go. In other words, I know how the book ends, but what happens next is a little fuzzy.

I've brainstormed about it a couple times and it's starting to work itself out, but it's slow going and I don't have a lot of time left before November. Still, I'll be stuck on a plane this weekend so maybe I'll make some progress then. I'm also thinking about working through some of the Breakout Novel exercises appropriate for this stage of the process.

What do I mean by brainstorming? Basically I'm ask myself a lot of questions. A lot of it can be repetitive because I like to lay the foundation again and again as I decide things and then ask more questions to build on that. From that I frequently think of random points that impact other aspects of the story and make leaps of intuition that help me solve my problem (especially after coming back to my thoughts after taking a break). For example, I've been working on figuring out how the magic behind the villain's actions works, so I can get my climax figured out. After a day or two break, I came back to my notes and realized something that can really help tie everything together.

I'm looking forward to being trapped on a plane this weekend. Hopefully I can get a lot of work done. I need to figure out how to do more work on my droid phone and be able to sync it up with scrivener, although I'll probably keep quite a bit of what I do in my notebooks.

Maryland Madness: Players don't change

I meant to put up a post sooner after the event, but I think I had to let my thoughts settle a bit. I had the awesome opportunity to go to UMD's Midnight Madness event with my brother Friday night and we had a great time. Here are my completely random thoughts about the experience.

1. For those of you who don't know, the whole midnight madness phenomena was started at Maryland by Lefty Dreisell 40 years ago.

2. Why didn't someone tell me Gymkana was competing on America's Got Talent? I would have watched and voted. From what I saw of the clip shown, they looked beautiful and amazing! Congrats to them.

3. Apparently, just like all-star games, defense is not required for these alumni games.

4. I believe Lynetta Kizer (women's team) has developed into a seriously well-rounded player from the time she started here. In my admittedly amateur viewpoint (and judging only from a scrimmage), she looks scary-good.

5. That Alex Len kid is insanely tall. I hope he makes it through waivers.

6. I reserve judgement on the men's team until I can see them actually play.

And finally, what actually struck me most is how much players don't change. They are who they are, I guess. Although given that that there was no defense, perhaps it's foolish of me to judge. Still, Vasquez still chucks up shots like there's no tomorrow, Byron Mouton still has a motor that never quits, Chris Wilcox is still extremely gifted athletically (but perhaps lacking in focus) and Steve Blake still distributes the ball before looking for his own shot. I wish Juan Dixon hadn't missed his plane. It was awesome seeing them all again especially Blake (probably my favorite Terp ever) and GV, who almost gave us a shimmy.

So we meet again

Veteran Mason seeking fresh start with Texans

This week former Raven Derrik Mason was traded to the Texans from the Jets. It will be interesting to see if he can make a go of it there after a rocky stay in New York. Although I have mixed feelings, I wish him well (just not this week against us).

As a frequent listener (and by frequent I mean every day on my way to and from work) of 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore, I listened to Mason every week of the season during his segment on Norris and Davis so I'm relatively familiar with him and he's a good guy.

So here's my mixed feelings:

1. He's a good guy, dependable receiver and leader in the locker room, but perhaps his voice was too strong. His catches did go up after the incident with Joe on the sidelines last season. And honestly, I just don't want to see anyone, especially one of our own players, grab our quarterback's facemask for any reason!

2. He plays like a Raven. He played with one arm, for a time he was our only legit receiver and he's the Raven's all time leading receiver (12th in NFL history), but his career can't last forever and he doesn't have that element of speed that we've been lacking to go with Joe's arm. It's too bad that we had to let him go, especially since he's still hunting that ring the Ravens have a chance at this season, but it opened the door for Lee Evans and Torrey Smith--I can't wait to see what they can do in tandem with Boldin.

3. Like I said, I wish him well in Houston, but the Jets? Come on! Really? We probably won't ever know if Derrik turned down a pretty good offer from the Ravens to come back after being cut or if the Ravens just didn't pursue him hard, but despite some rockiness on offense so far, I don't think anyone can doubt that the Ravens made the right decision. In Ozzie we trust!

So good luck, Mase. I hope this fresh start works out better than the last one, but this week... GO RAVENS!!! Maybe Kruger will tug your leg again. :-)