Ben's NaNoWriMo Log

Beginnings added Sep 23, 2005
I got it in my head to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I haven't come up with a title yet, but I'm sure something will come to me as time goes on. It's a fantasy novel, and I'll come out and admit it right away: it's the backstory of a character from my D&D campaign. Yes, I know it's lame, but I've had more practice writing character stories than anything else. I've omitted anything obviously D&D-related from the story, and i's set in a homebrew world. Most of the things that are being left out (elves, dwarves, monsters, etc.) are only present in the game to keep it in line with the normal D&D experience; I run a pretty humanocentric campaign. This is not to say that there won't be any fantastical elements in the story, just that you won't necessarily find them in any rulebooks. As I was never really intending to use this world for anything other than gaming, there are a few fairly obvious lifts from other sources. As it is, I doubt this will ever get anywhere near being published anyway, so I just won't worry about it. If you're interested in getting some background information, you can check out the campaign pages. Ideally, I should be including anything important within the story itself, so if you don't want to wade through all that stuff you don't have to. One of the main reasons I'm actually trying this is because I've been writing up the story of the current game as it progresses. You can read it here. Obviously, it's got a lot more D&D content, but I've tried to keep terminology out of the story itself. The novel is the story of Sarah Caldwell, who is the mother of Rachel Caldwell, one of the characters in the game. Up to this point Sarah has been an enigmatic background personality, and I didn't give much thought to her motivations until I started planning this story. I was having to come up with a lot of names when I was designing characters, and Sarah is actually named for a girl I dated very briefly in college. The "chapters" link will show the chapters in order, without comments. I've never been good at finishing things I try to write, so this is going to be a good challenge for me. Part of me is apprehensive about letting others read the story, let alone as it's being written, but another part of me knows that this sort of diary is a very useful motivational tool. Whether anyone reads or not, there will be a theoretical They who will see if I slack.
category: /legend/notes | permanent link

Chugging Along added Sep 23, 2005
Chapter 9 puts my word count just over 10,000. Judging by my outline, at this rate I'm going to run out of story before I hit 50,000. This means I'm going to need to expand or, more likely, add a section to the outline. I'm not exactly sure where it's going to go, but I should reach a good stopping point by this weekend. I'm not going to have access to the computer on Saturday at all, so I'll use that day to brainstorm new material to add. I'm not worried about falling behind on word count, as I've been keeping up with my 2,000 word a day goal. That should give me a little wiggle room to have slack days. For anyone just finding this page, the category links in the sidebar will allow you to read everything in chronological order, with or without these notes.
category: /legend/notes | permanent link

Is That A Novel In Your Pocket? added Sep 23, 2005
I had to do some running around this morning, but I knew I would have some time to kill at my parents' place during the early morning. I had gotten a free 64MB MacAlly USB FlashDrive as a freebie when I bought my copy of Panther, so I finally decided I'd found a good use for it. I shoved a copy of the textfile and jEdit on the drive and away I went. I got Chapter 4 and the beginning of Chapter 5 done awhile sitting around waiting for the rest of the world to wake up. Current Word Count: ~4800
category: /legend/notes | permanent link

Over The Hump added Sep 23, 2005
I've hit the halfway point! Huzzah!
category: /legend/notes | permanent link

The Home Stretch added Sep 23, 2005
With only a few thousand words left to go, I've finally forced myself to come up with a title: The Legend of Black Sarah. Not the best ever, but it'll do. It actually looks like the story will go over the 50,000 mark by a few thousand words, but that's much better than falling short. I wonder if anyone's actually reading this?
category: /legend/notes | permanent link

Finished, Sort Of added Sep 23, 2005
I have passed the magical 50,000 word mark, though there are still two chapters left to go. I probably could have finished yesterday, but I spent much of yesterday working on this. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish up the rest of the story even without the looming deadline.
category: /legend/notes | permanent link

That's All, Folks! added Sep 23, 2005
Final word count: 53,731. I don't know if I'll ever go back and edit this thing. I have no problem with editing as I write, but I don't like going back and changing things I've already written. I'm pleased with it for the most part, though that may change if I decide to go back and read through all of it again. Comments and questions are welcome, either through comments here or email. Thanks for reading, if anyone actually does so.
category: /legend/notes | permanent link