Friday, November 11, 2011

Important Africa News and NaNoWriMo Log

If you follow my blog or read it, please read the first part of this post.

Well, the clock is ticking.  In eight days, I'm getting on a 22-hour plane ride to Liberia.  Just a few days ago, we bought our plane tickets.  Who knows what will happen?

You'll see a decrease in blogging, if I'm able to blog at all.  But I'll find some way to keep you all updated.

So you have eight more days of blogging, and I'll be pretty active in the next few days, since I'm staying with my grandparents. It's been fantastic, folks.  Thank you so much for being my followers and reading this blog!

Oh, and did I mention it?  I'm going to try and finish NaNoWriMo before November 19th.  *gulps*  This should be interesting.

So read on, folks, the drama continues.  For the glory of the King!

--


DAY 9 & 10
(Nov. 9 & 10)

CURRENT WORD COUNT (today): 20,400
WORD GOAL: 20,400

Thought of the day: Midnight writing time. What you do when you're desperate.

[12:15 AM]

I'm combining these two days.

It's been a LONG day. We bought our tickets to go to Africa.

Which means I have ten (nine, now) days to write the rest of my novel. I need to get to 20,000 words today. (Which is "tomorrow" in normal speak.)

So I've implemented new goals that would allow me to accomplish that. And yes, that does say that I need to write SEVEN THOUSAND words in the next 24 hours.

It's complicated. And I got the plot hole fixed. I'll tell you the rest of the story later.

For now, it's after midnight and I'm WRITING.

Hoping it doesn't kill me,

GERONIMO!

And wow, I can see why people love Apple. These Apple headphones are unbelievably good! (OO) Wow.

And I admit, this fix to the plot hole is remarkably similar, now that I think of it, to a Doctor Who reference.

Shadows. The shadows are growing.

HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Give me word count or give me death, plot! GAR!

[1:00 AM]

Well, I'm around 13,400 words. Every little bit helps, I suppose. But I'm not giving up and going to bed yet :|

Also, Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack is so epic and catchy, it's distracting. I can't listen to it without paying attention to the music instead of my novel. XD

[1:30 AM]

Maybe it's just because it's 1:30 at night, but I'm writing a scene that's a little creepy, and it's giving me shivers. (OO)

[1:45 AM]

I'm around 14,400 words right now and turning in. I'm freezing and tired too. And the scene was a sorta creepy. *shivers*

The lights are going out...

[11:30 AM]

Coffee! Ah, extra-bold coffee is brilliant. Can I just say, Sumatra blend coffee from Starbucks is PHENOMENAL?

My stomach is warm and full of coffee, so I'm ready to write. :D 6,000 words today! ...hopefully...

I'll need to turn of this PotC music first, however...

Mmmm...I wonder....

Look at me! No plans, no plot, and no weapons; and oh, I don't have ANYTHING TO LOSE. So if you're sitting up there, Procrastination, with all of your silly little villains and silly plot bunnies, and you've got any plans on taking my novel, TONIGHT—JUST REMEMBER WHO'S STANDING IN YOUR WAY! Remember every day I ever stopped you, and then, DO THE SMART THING!

Run for your life! The Sadaar is here, trenchcoat and fedora and all! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHGHHHH!

^Doctor speech revitalized and revised to fit a writerly battle.

Let's get going. :D

[12:10 PM]

I'm at 14,900, and I'm going to go take a shower and then help Dad outside for a little bit. Be back soon.

[1:55 PM]

Dad's on the phone right now, so I'm going to take this opportunity and write some more.

[2:10 PM]

Hit 15,000. 5k to go!

[3:50 PM]

Grandpa just came out to the farm. And guess what he brought with him?

THE ERRANT KING. Wayne Thomas Batson's newest! FIVE HUNDRED PAGES of epic epicness! (OO)

And it gets better:

MY NAME IS IN THE BACK.

GAAAAAAAAAAAH!



(Manny's picture.  Hence the purple outline.)

Along with Vrenith and Manny's names. :D And I believe my name pick (I created a name for Sir Batson to write as a character) is also somewhere in the book.

And now I have motivation to write 5,000 words tonight. :|

Must...read...eeurgh...

[4:50 PM]

All right, I ate lupper (we never had lunch, so I'll probably just have a snacky thing for supper) and I'm raring to go.

The Errant King looks wonderfully tempting right now... >_<

[5:05 PM]

Broke 16,000. Let's GOOOOOOOO!

Group of People A has now met Group of People B. They must band together and head east.

Why east? Well, they'll figure it out. I just need to find an incentive. >_>

*finds it* Bwahahahaha!

[5:30 PM]

16,500 words.

[5:35 PM]

I caved and read The Errant King's prologue. So epic. :D And Vrenith is a character in the prologue! D:

[6:00 PM]

Well, I finished the chapter and now I'm in a bind. I'm not entirely sure where I'm going next.

Brainstorming time, I suppose!

[7:05 PM]

Well, I tried doing what I did last night, but it didn't work: mostly because it's a lot earlier and there's cars outside, and also Beatrice got sprayed by a skunk. She STINKS.

Speaking of which, let me tell you a story. It's a true story. It happened last night.

--


(Me, in my trenchcoat and beat-up fedora.)

Last night, I was in despair. While I was really happy that we had bought our plane tickets for Liberia, it also meant that I had to complete NaNoWriMo in the next ten days. And I had a giant plot hole that was killing me.

As I stood by the water heater, I glanced around the room. Vren was writing, Ryebrynn was on the computer.

My computer's screen had just busted out of it's plastic and needed to be fixed, and Dad was in the process of fixing Manny's computer. He had computer guts spread all over the dining room table.

So I had no computer. No fix for my plot problem. And ten days to write 40,000 words.

What would I do?

I jammed my thumbs in my pockets and did my best to look dramatic. "Sisters, desperate times call for drastic measures," I said. "It's time. Time to put on my trenchcoat."

So I turned, running dramatically up the stairs. I burst into my room and leaped over the piles of junk and boxes, reaching into my closet and taking out my trenchcoat. I put it on and buttoned up. I grabbed my battered fedora and crammed it on my head.

I ran back down the stairs and flew into the dining room. "The greatest novels come from the depths of despair," I said. "I'm going looking for Inspiration." and then I pushed open the door and went out into the night.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and strode across the yard, to the road. And then I walked down the gravel road, the full moon shining down on my fedora.

As I walked, I pondered my novel. I contemplated the deep questions of life.

And then, I heard a car coming.

I weighed it for a moment. Okay, so there's a tall, six-foot guy wearing a battered fedora and a trenchcoat walking down the road at eleven o'clock at night.

Yeah, probably won't go well with the farmers that live around here.

So I turned and ran like everything, my trenchcoat dramatically flying behind me. As I ran, I realized that this was just the thing my plot hole needed: something to chase it off the road. Figuratively speaking.

I reached the yard, and inspiration struck: the pieces fell into place, and my novel hole was solved.

All because of a car, a trenchcoat, and a fedora at eleven o'clock at night.

--

It was fun. :D

At any rate, I tried doing the same thing (minus the car) but the skunkified Beatrice smell chased me back instead, in the light of a full moon.

Hold on...

A moon. THE moon. At night. But before it rises. A waning moon.

The time after sunset and before moonrise. The dark.

The long walk.

OHHHHH YES.

Fixed! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! The walk has done it again! HA HA! Praise the Lord!

D:< Game face! It's time to get serious and GET WRITING.

[7:35 PM]

I want to read the Errant King so bad. :P

I need to write, though. I went downstairs and talked for a bit, and the minutes just fly by! O_o

[8:50 PM]

I'm somewhere around 17,000 and I just finished eating supper-snack-thing. Eggs-over-easy and some sausage. Mmmmm!

[9:40 PM]

I'm writing a winding-down scene. It's one of those scenes that helps the reader relax a little bit after nonstop action and yet provides vital information. ^_^

[9:45 PM]

Hit 18,000 words.

[10:20 PM]

Word warring with Vrenith. It's a write-until-you-reach-your-goal war. Vren has 2,500 words left to write, and I have 2,200. But she writes faster.

D: Let's write!

[11:40 PM]

Vrenith won, but I won't tell you my word count until I reach my goal. :|

[11:55 PM]

20,400 words exactly! I got my goal! D: Epic! That means I wrote 7k today (if you include 24 hours ago, midnight to two o'clock this "morning"). Even if you don't include that, I still wrote six thousand or so.

But now it's midnight, and I need to go to sleep. No reading the Errant King tonight. *sigh*

I only had 300 words to go when Vren won. The only reason I didn't get done sooner (after Vren won) was because I finished the scene. It made the word count just under 20,400, so I fiddled around with it until I had revised it enough to where I reached 20,400.

DAY 11
(Nov. 11)

CURRENT WORD COUNT (today): 20,400
WORD GOAL: 24,100

Thought of the day: Word wars! :-o

[10:50 AM]

Time to rumble! I've got 3,700 words to write. I can do it *nodnod*

And also, I discovered that I'm going to stay at Grandma's house this weekend. That equals internet and word wars. :D Hurrah!

All right, time to crank up the soundtrack and get some writing done.

[11:30 AM]

Well, I don't exactly know how it happened, but I didn't get any writing done. O_o And now I need to take a shower and help Dad outside.

I'm hoping it's not one of those days where I work outside until it's late...

[5:00 PM]

Well, I worked and then came to my grandparents house to stay. I've been using internet, so no writing yet.

--

Some things that have inspired me in my writing craze:








Hmmm.  I just realized that it's all PotC soundtrack.  Which I haven't even seen. O_o  Interesting.

And also the Doctor's Pandorica speech, which I've already posted earlier.  I can shout it word-for-word now to the entire world.  ;)

How's it going with you folks?  Tired of NaNoWriMo yet? ;)  Keep going!  You can do it! *nodnod*

Over and out,


12 comments:

Ninja Tim said...

Your dedication is incredible, Sir Jake. 7K words in 24 hours, an entire novel in less than a month! O_o (and with a trenchcoat and awesome soundtracks to lend you Inspiration of course; totally didn't expect the 1st soundtrack to turn out the way it did, just started dancing once it kicked in!)

Whoa! Your NAME is in this book! That's amazing! I must find this book of which you speak! O_O

Tis sad to hear that you are finally off to new lands and places, and that blogging must be different than before. But all things are ordained for a reason, and all things work together for the good of those who love God. I will be praying for you heartily in the days to come, my friend, both before and after you've boarded that fateful plane...

Continue to fight the good fight, to write the good write (ignoring grammar from time to time is good for the soul), and to do great things, be it conquering Procrastination each day with your Pen of Doom, seeking out Inspiration in a fedora and trenchcoat, or living your life wholeheartedly for Christ.

May God continue to bless you. (and may the elves ever be with you too)

Anonymous said...

Your story reminded me of a few days ago when my brother ran home from church at 11 o’clock at night in a poncho and sombrero.
Kinda coincidental?

Hannah Joy said...

That story was HYSTERICAL. Oh. My. Gosh. I read that aloud to my sister and we were both CRACKING. UP. That is so EPIC.

And writing...a book....in less than a month????? *pants* YOU ARE MY NEW HERO. *will write today for sure*

And all the best wishes for Africa! What an epic journey! Keep us posted!

@Anonymous: That's hysterical too!

Jake said...

@Ninja Tim

Thank you much! I try. ;) Yes, that first soundtrack is incredible. XD Sometimes I just want to put it on repeat.

Wayne Thomas Batson is an epic author. You should definitely check him out. :)

Thank you! We definitely need the prayers. :) Moves like these depend on the prayers of those who send us.

May God bless you as well! Write well, my friend!

@Anonymous
I should like to meet your brother someday. XD Running around at night and looking ridiculous is one of the many pleasures of life!

@Hannah Joy
Glad I could make you laugh. ;)

If you need a word war, shoot me an email. I have internet for a while and I need to write 6,000 words today (because I failed to write 3.7k yesterday). O_o

RED~Scribe said...

Okay, so Blogger either ate my comment, or you deleted it... *ponders*

Anyway, check out the fourth PotC movie's soundtrack -- it's got a heavy infludence of Spanish. :D

I, too, salute you, Sir Jake, at shooting to finish your novel before you move. I may be emailing you around Monday-ish for one of those famed word wars.

Your trenchcoat story had Leauphaun and I in hysterics. Are you going to keep taking your late night Inspiration strolls in Africa?

Jake said...

Blogger issssss hungrrrry...

;)

I never saw a comment, so it must've been Blogger.

Thank you! Well, I'm not entirely sure if I'm even taking my trenchcoat. I doubt that I'll ever be wearing more than one layer of clothing in Africa. I've never even heard of it dropping below sixty there...

Hannah Joy said...

Well, if you don't want your trenchcoat, I do. ;-) I'd wear it in 100 degree weather. It is that cool.

I say take it. Even if it just hangs in your closet, that should be inspiration enough. ;-D

Word Wars...that could actually be really helpful. I shall see, I shall see. Or you could just post a big word wars on your blog. :-D

Mikaela said...

Dude...you got your name in a book! How did you do it?!?

Anyway, Whovian fans unite! I get a lot of inspiration from that show.

And that was a great retelling of your life. Loved it! *thumbs up*

Christopher said...

You know, you could do a blog-wide word war on this blog for tomorrow night. Just an idea.

Hope you have fun on your Africa move!

Hannah Joy said...

I agree, Chris. That's a good idea. :-)

whisper said...

That narrative with the trench coat, storming dramatically out into the night - it was all glorious and brilliant. XD Enjoyed it much.

Brianna said...

is that passage actually from Wayne Thomas Batson's book? my name is in it too!! haha!!
i saw the PotC once... i don't recommend it, but I do recommend Sherlock Holmes. tis wicked...
but back to the book, is that like in the acknowledgements, or what? what do you mean that you cme up with a name that WAYNE THIMAS BATSON USED IN HIS BOOK?!?!
I love the door within trilogy, but for some reason, i was slightly saddened at the end. maybe i don't read enough allegories. xD