Well, as we progress into the month of November, I think it is proper that I give away a bit of the story about Dragon Dance.
How I got the idea for it-
I sketched some kid's face with a horrific mask over it in the shape of an oriental dragon's horns. Kinda ended up going off of that (the mask shows up later in the book).
Some of the characters-
Well, Reiki is the main character of the story. In the beginning of the novel, he gets poisoned with dragon's blood in place of his father, and ends up almost dying. He survives, although his hair and eyes change color. He ends up getting kicked out of his parent's house and living on the streets for a few years, until Ikki, current master of the Dragon Dance style of sword fighting picks him up and turns him into his apprentice. Reiki is a very interesting character to write, he has almost a split personality with next to no conscience about his actions, however, he is very just.
The next character is Master Ikki, who is completely crazy. He tends to give his apprentice quite a few meaningless tasks to complete, and tends to ramble on about completely worthless topics.
One of the characters I just came up with is Kurotora, aka Black Tiger (yes, geeky name). He's a kid that Reiki ends up saving, who was genetically engineered by one of the Lords in the story (more on those in a future post). Kuro seems to be a shy person who tries to avoid confrontation, however, he has an attitude towards others that he tends to hide. Since Reiki rescued him, Kuro will do just about anything for him.
The setting-
Earth, in the future. Still working out a lot of the details, however, the place the story happens in is a very large city surrounded by a forest.
Where I'm at-
I managed to write 5000 words so far today (I still have another hour to get more done!), bringing me up to a total of 21,078. I'm still behind, but starting to catch up!
Showing posts with label Dragon Dance Nanowrimo National Novel writing month. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dragon Dance Nanowrimo National Novel writing month. Show all posts
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
50,000 Words in 30 days
If you keep up with this blog, you'll know that lately most of my posts have just been about what I'm doing, namely focusing on this little thing called NaNoWriMo.
This blog post is going to be a little bit different. I'm going to write a bit about keeping up with word count, and the true meaning behind a rough draft.
So, you have a story idea. You go into November, armed only with an outline, a couple of rough character sketches, and your trusty laptop. And you find that you are falling behind on words. That 1667 words per day has become a monster, a final boss that you have to challenge.
And you can defeat it!
NaNoWriMo, in addition to being a great writing exercise, is perhaps the best way I have found to teach yourself the true meaning behind a rough draft.
Rough drafts are meant to be just that: Rough.
I never really believed in the school of writing really rough drafts. I always paused over sentences, phrases, and you know that one word that always manages to stay just out of your grasp? Yeah, all of those, combine, were my greatest enemies.
NaNoWriMo makes you reach beyond that. It forces you to realize that even though you are a writer, not everything that you write is going to be amazing. In fact, not even any of it that you should write is going to be an amazing best-seller on your first try. Having to write 1667 words in a day requires you to throw away all inhibitions about whether or not the word you use is the perfect word for your character's action. You don't just "hmm" and "hahhh" about whether its the right word, you just write it and hope for the best!
So, in closing, I suppose that there should be a moral to this story, and the moral is right as rough a draft as you can. Otherwise, 1667 words will take you all day to write.
This blog post is going to be a little bit different. I'm going to write a bit about keeping up with word count, and the true meaning behind a rough draft.
So, you have a story idea. You go into November, armed only with an outline, a couple of rough character sketches, and your trusty laptop. And you find that you are falling behind on words. That 1667 words per day has become a monster, a final boss that you have to challenge.
And you can defeat it!
NaNoWriMo, in addition to being a great writing exercise, is perhaps the best way I have found to teach yourself the true meaning behind a rough draft.
Rough drafts are meant to be just that: Rough.
I never really believed in the school of writing really rough drafts. I always paused over sentences, phrases, and you know that one word that always manages to stay just out of your grasp? Yeah, all of those, combine, were my greatest enemies.
NaNoWriMo makes you reach beyond that. It forces you to realize that even though you are a writer, not everything that you write is going to be amazing. In fact, not even any of it that you should write is going to be an amazing best-seller on your first try. Having to write 1667 words in a day requires you to throw away all inhibitions about whether or not the word you use is the perfect word for your character's action. You don't just "hmm" and "hahhh" about whether its the right word, you just write it and hope for the best!
So, in closing, I suppose that there should be a moral to this story, and the moral is right as rough a draft as you can. Otherwise, 1667 words will take you all day to write.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The beginning of a novel
So, as the clock slowly ticks down the final hour of freedom before the beginning of NaNoWriMo, I want to take a moment to once again go over the insanity of the coming month.
First off, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. You write a 50,000+ word novel in 30 days, beginning midnight November 1st and ending 11:59 November 30th. That averages out to 1667 words per day, or approximately 6.667 pages per day at 250 words per page (what you typically see in a trade paperback).
This is the first year I am actively partaking in NaNo, and I will updating *coughs* okay, procrastinating on here and the NaNo forums.
The title of the novel I'm going to write is tentatively Dragon Dance, and if you keep a watch on this blog, I'll be revealing some nice little tidbits about the story and characters. I'll start out with the main character.
Reiki
Gender-Male
Age-approximately 21
Main Character of the story
Likes- Foxes, spicy food, spices, meat
Dislikes- Anything sweet, pigeons, birds, masks, pigeons, waking up early, bright lights, pigeons
Has Ornithophobia, especially around pigeons
The name of the city where everything happens is Alra. The world is based mostly on our wonderful world with a few modifications, most noticeably is the inclusion of random magical and supernatural aspects. And laws that allow the wielding of weapons in public.
The tentative rating on this story is going to be a little higher than my normal stories, I typically say 13+, but this time around I'm going 16+ just to be on the safe side. I'm not entirely certain how it will turn out, hence the upped rating, but we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out!
First off, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. You write a 50,000+ word novel in 30 days, beginning midnight November 1st and ending 11:59 November 30th. That averages out to 1667 words per day, or approximately 6.667 pages per day at 250 words per page (what you typically see in a trade paperback).
This is the first year I am actively partaking in NaNo, and I will updating *coughs* okay, procrastinating on here and the NaNo forums.
The title of the novel I'm going to write is tentatively Dragon Dance, and if you keep a watch on this blog, I'll be revealing some nice little tidbits about the story and characters. I'll start out with the main character.
Reiki
Gender-Male
Age-approximately 21
Main Character of the story
Likes- Foxes, spicy food, spices, meat
Dislikes- Anything sweet, pigeons, birds, masks, pigeons, waking up early, bright lights, pigeons
Has Ornithophobia, especially around pigeons
The name of the city where everything happens is Alra. The world is based mostly on our wonderful world with a few modifications, most noticeably is the inclusion of random magical and supernatural aspects. And laws that allow the wielding of weapons in public.
The tentative rating on this story is going to be a little higher than my normal stories, I typically say 13+, but this time around I'm going 16+ just to be on the safe side. I'm not entirely certain how it will turn out, hence the upped rating, but we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
NaNoWriMo Looming
So, you've by now heard me banter on and on about NaNoWriMo and the greatness it encompasses. Well, with only 11 and a half days left until the grand opening, I figured that it was time to start getting things in order.
First off, the title-
This year's NaNoWriMo piece is officially title...
Dragon Dance
Second, the character-
All I'm giving you is this song and the fact that he wears a mask.
Third, the story-
*CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTATION
... in other words, I'm not entirely certain what's going to happen with it yet. All I can tell you is that it is full flight action with fantasy elements mixed into it. I'll be releasing some story info as I write it, I should have the icon for the "cover" done within the next couple of days.
First off, the title-
This year's NaNoWriMo piece is officially title...
Dragon Dance
Second, the character-
All I'm giving you is this song and the fact that he wears a mask.
Third, the story-
*CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTATION
... in other words, I'm not entirely certain what's going to happen with it yet. All I can tell you is that it is full flight action with fantasy elements mixed into it. I'll be releasing some story info as I write it, I should have the icon for the "cover" done within the next couple of days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)