One Thousand And One Parsecs

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Ten

Words written: 2,820
Total words written: 14,200
Stories written: 2
Total words behind: 2,467

I finished my second story today, and it’s pretty dang terrible. But that doesn’t matter, because it’s nanowrimo! On to the next one.

I was having a hard time coming up with a story idea that I actually wanted to write, so I decided to break out the Mythulu cards and give it a whirl. My wife got me the Mythulu starter deck for my birthday this year, and while I’ve played around with it a bit, I haven’t really used it yet to come up with a story.

So to start, I picked one card from each deck and came up with this:

Salt
Abandoned + Hive
Monk
Frenemy
Klepto
Scales

And at first, I thought “what the heck kind of story is that?” But then I started playing around with it a bit, and decided to throw some space whales into the mix, because I’ve been meaning to write a story about space whales for some time now. And it all started coming together, but I decided that I needed another character, so I drew a character card and a trait card, and came up with “wandering peacekeeper.” I also needed another card to modify “salt,” so I drew a texture card and got “rust.” And believe it or not, that’s exactly what I needed to come up with a pretty dang awesome story.

At least, I hope it turns out to be awesome. I’m about 500 words in, and I’m liking it so far. Will probably finish it tomorrow. But whether or not it does, I’m definitely going to try out this story generating method again, because it’s a lot of fun!

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Nine

Words written: 2,130
Total words written: 11,380
Stories written: 1
Total words behind: 3,620

Still running behind, unfortunately. It’s going to take some effort to catch up, let alone build a buffer for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I expect I’ll finish my second story tomorrow. It’s a decent one, though it probably needs to be reworked a bit. Not sure whether I’m going for a humorous touch, or a more serious approach. But the clash between the two may work to the story’s benefit.

What I’d really like to do is knock out some flash fiction pieces, but I need some good story ideas for that. Thankfully, the more I write, the more ideas I seem to have.

I Have A New Book Blog!

So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what reading goals I want to set for 2021, and I decided as a part of that to keep a regular book blog where I post all my book reviews and keep a regular reading journal. The first post is now live, and you can check it out at 1001 Parsecs Books. Enjoy!

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Seven

Words written: 2,827
Total words written: 9,250
Stories written: 1
Total words behind: 2,417

My first story is done! It is so terrible. Really needs a massive rewrite, but not now! On to the next one.

Since tomorrow is a Sunday and I don’t write fiction on Sundays, I’ll be taking the day off. Still behind, but the gap isn’t actually that bad. I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to catch up by the end of next week.

I hope NaNoWriMo is going well for you too!

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Six

Words written: 2,285
Total words written: 6,423
Stories written: 0
Total words behind: 3,577

Catching up slowly! I think I finally have a good idea how this first story should end. It’s a bit of a monster and definitely needs a good rewrite, but it’s also a very good start.

Fairly busy day, too. Family dinner with the in-laws took up a good chunk of the evening, and I made granola today so that took up a fair bit of the morning. But I still managed not only to get the writing in, but a couple hours of publishing tasks too. Bodes well for the rest of the month.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Five

Words written: 235
Total words written: 4,138
Stories written: 0
Total words behind: 4,195

Remember, remember, the fifth of November! Yeah, I didn’t do so much writing today. It was a Thursday, so I wrote and sent out my email newsletter, went to the library with Mrs. Vasicek and Princess Hiccup (we go to the library every week on Thursdays), and had a rather lengthy writing group meeting online. So yeah, falling behind. And Mrs. Vasicek tells me it’s 10pm and we need to go to bed, so that’s all for now.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Four

Words written: 1,482
Total words written: 3,903
Stories written: 0
Total words behind: 2,764

It’s only day four, and I’m already playing catch-up. This doesn’t bode well. But I did manage to get almost 1.5k words in, which isn’t nothing. Also, spent three and a half hours catching up on publishing tasks, which is also important. Perhaps even more important than NaNoWriMo.

This first story is giving me a bit of a struggle, but I should be able to finish it tomorrow or the day after. It definitely needs a heavy revision, but I’ll worry about that later. Still haven’t given it a title.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Three

Words written: 1,791
Total words written: 2,421
Stories written: 0
Words behind: 2,579

Decent writing day, though it would have been better if I hadn’t been so distracted in the evening by the election results. I suspect I’m not the only one doing NaNoWriMo this year who had that problem.

I would say more, but it’s late and Mrs. Vasicek is pulling me away from the computer to go to bed. Also, we have a baby who sleeps in until 6am if we’re lucky. Signing out.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day Two

Date: Monday, November 1st
Words written: 630
Total words written: 630
Stories written: 0
Words behind: 2703

Off to a bit of a rocky start, but it’s not as bad as it appears. Counting the words in my other WIP, I made about 1,600. Just had to tie it up at a good stopping place, but now that that’s done, I should be able to focus on NaNoWriMo.

The first story I’m writing is a fantasy piece pulled from an outline for a longer novel in the same universe as The Sword Keeper. I have very little idea where I’m going with it, and since I don’t want to draw it out longer than a few thousand words, that could be a problem. It has a great opening line, though:

“Everyone secretly wants to be a slave. That is the universal truth that no one wants to admit. Those who deny it simply haven’t met their true masters yet.”

I think I can finish it tomorrow, or at least get halfway. The thing about short stories is that when I get into the zone with one, I can knock off four or five thousand words easily. It turns into a race to the finish line, and since the ending is so much closer with a short story than with a novel, that enthusiasm feeds on itself until it’s done. If I don’t finish this one tomorrow, I’ll almost certainly finish it the next day.

NaNoWriMo 2020 Day One

Date: Sunday, November 1st
Words written: 0
Total words written: 0
Stories written: 0
Words behind: 1667

The first day of NaNoWriMo was a Sunday this year, and I generally don’t write on Sundays, so no words today! Looks like we’re off to a delayed start.

It gets even better, though, because I had hoped to line up all of my November writing group submissions by October 31st, but last week was a bit crazy with the baby waking up at all hours of the night, so I still need to finish about 1,500 words of the next chapter in my WIP before I can lay it aside. So really, I’m more like 3k words behind, since I need to finish this chapter up before I can focus on NaNoWriMo.

So yeah, if you’re also running behind, know that you’re in good company! Now, off to write…