Exodus: Final Word Count

79,525 / 79,525 (100.0%)

Wow. Some five months after the end of NaNoWriMo 2005, the first draft of the story I started then is finished.

This is also the last 'official' story in the Moonlight & Shadow arc. Even though nobody died, I think for now, this is the last story they have to tell. Like Arrow in the Night, which the end calls back to, it's also a collision with Bridge of Silver. That arc still has more stories to tell, by a lot (and actually, so does M&S, but this is chronologically the last one). No more stories where Terre and Marcus are the central characters, even though Cassie still has one more story under her belt.

When I first envisioned this, I wasn't sure it would last out to 50,000 words (I thought it would peter out around 30k), but here it is, just under 80k. Wow.

Now I will set it aside until subsequent drafts (where I will likely improve the pacing near the end, among other things), and find something else to work on.

Well, happy birthday to me…

Well, I gave myself a birthday present, apparently.

Tonight, I broke 80,000.

Barely (as in reaching 80,001), but it's still something of a milestone met.

Of sorts.

I know I shouldn't really be counting it a milestone until I reach 100k, but I'll take what I can get when I can get it. 

Yay me! 

More Colonization Dreams character-notes

I was thinking about Donna this morning. Part of this was surely because I had "Hand Me Down" on endless repeat, and that always gets me to thinking about Donna. At least two scenes I've written about her have revolved around that song in one way or another, so maybe it's understandible. Maybe.

Something clicked for me last night

Something clicked for me with Albert Wilder and Anne Shea of Anarchy and Rapture, and while that's all well and good, the timing could have been better. Why couldn't it have waited until I finished Exodus to click? :p

Edited Notes for Brendan and Anton

Well, in my profile for Brendan and Anton for Body and Soul, I listed their ages. I went from there to the Mars launch, did some calculating, and actually figured out some dates for them.

Another milestone hit

50,016.

Yeah, this is the first real milestone of the brand that I’m used to.

It took me a month and a half (more or less) of working on various projects in various arenas rather than the crazed writing on one project in a month’s time, but I still made it.  Since I’m in the 250k club, though, I still have a long way to go, but this helps.  Also helping is the knowledge that I’m going to do NaNoWriMo again this year, and I will make the 50k (bares teeth).

It’ll probably also help to have those other projects in the same universe at least closer to completion so at least I know where the universe is going and where it’s already gone.  On that note, I think I’m either going to take a break and nap or write some more.

Chapter 18 of Exodus is far from done, after all.

Victor Black, Donna Thomas, and other lovelies

I think of all the characters that are showing up in Colonization Dreams, Victor is one of my favourites.

Victor, Brendan, Donna… Even though in my own way, I love all of them.  They’re all fun or interesting to write in their own ways.  But Victor, being the mentor and later, teammate of Brendan and Anton, gives an interesting perspective.  He also is an interesting character altogether.

I keep saying that once I finish up one of my characters for Body and Soul 100, then I’m going to flip over to one of the other characters.  Donna is probably going to be next, though.  What little I’ve written for her (mostly in pieces to non_plot and lyric_plot) shows an interesting history that I’m looking forward to delving into further.  Heh, ironically, I need to let Brendan show up in one of the pieces to one of those communities, which is strange for me to think about since I do so much writing for Brendan and so little writing for Donna.  She does have a bit of a crush on him, though.

Victor’s coming in a close second, though.  I don’t even know what his situation is, so that he disappears.  I know what the others’ are, but not his.  He’s a bit of a mystery.  A lazily grinning, laid-back mystery, but a mystery all the same.  I want to find out about him.

And with all these characters I want to explore and find out more about, I really wonder whether Colonization Dreams will remain as little more than a short story about an expedition team to Mars.

I always do this.  Get a short story idea, start fleshing out characters, and having a full, breathing novel on my hands.  I’m still going to try to keep from doing that, but I don’t know whether it’ll be possible.

Three months out…

Three months out, I’m finally seeing the end of Exodus.

By that, I don’t mean that I’m finished.  I won’t be for a little while, because in my head, with the way things are going, there’s at least three more chapters left to write.  However, that’s the closest to completion I’ve gotten on any of my NaNoWriMo novels so far.  So that is progress.

Of course, afterwards there’s the grand editing scheme, but that can wait for a little while.  Right now, I just want to get it finished, and hopefully finish at least one of the other, earlier ones before this year’s NaNo starts up again.

I’m terrible about starting things and leaving them unfinished.  For this thing, it’s important that I finish.  I want to see the full stories and I want to have access to the facts of the universe before I start branching out and writing something else in the universe rather than making it up as I go along.

Quite some time ago, I had all the pieces of this particular section of the universe just come together in my head, like a jigsaw puzzle that I finally found the most important pieces of.  So even though I don’t have all the pieces together yet, I have a better idea what the picture’s going to look like when I’m done.   It’ll still surprise me, I’m sure, but that’s part of the joy of writing for me anyway.

NaNo ‘06 plans, part 1

This morning, much to my surprise, the general premise of this year’s NaNo novel popped into my head.

I knew the location. I knew the time-frame. I knew the universe because so far, I’ve always written in the Anarchy and Rapture universe and until I run out of story ideas, I’ll probably continue to do that. Mind, it likely won’t be always Terre and Marcus, because I think I’m close to running out of stories for them and I don’t want to push it too far. The thought of not writing those two after so many years of doing exactly that sort of scares me. I’m really attached to them, but I don’t want to run it into the ground.

Damn. I think I’ve gotten lazy over the years regarding the whole character planning and development thing. Then again, there is the Brendan and Anton thing that I’ve been doing over the past month or so. So maybe not so lazy. Just attached. But considering that they’ve been running around in my head for the past ten years (wow, has it really been that long?), maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised at that.

Anyway, premise. Right-o. And expect more revisiting to this idea over time, as it’ll get more specific as the year goes on.

Inane thought

Being a part of the 250k Club for NaNoWriYe is personally like NaNo for the lazy. Or the time-strapped.

Both of which I’ve been this January.

Sigh.