Talanic

I managed on these boards a few years back, but am going through some medical stuff right now and will be bowing out. But I might be able to muster the energy for a story or two. My wife, on the other hand, is doing a double Nano. And she hit 30,000 words today.

Welcome to the thread! If you're just here for the stories, just skip on down to the spoiler tags; they're compressing things so that I can fit updates into the first post as well as posting them below, without interrupting potential discussion. I'm trying NaNoWriMo this year; while I played with it previously I never made a serious attempt, and the one novel I have finished took me upwards of five years for a measly 60,000 words - not because I can't write quickly, but because (among other reasons) I was learning. So here begins my first real attempt at writing a novel in 30 days, begun at the stroke of midnight on November 1st. Myth Taken, aka The Story So Far (does not count towards NaNoWriMo): And the first writing for NaNoWriMo is an aside story in the same setting. The Primals are likely to get very little direct exposure and this struck me tonight during my shift, so I had to get on with it: Interlude: A Fable November 1st. Words: 1000 on the dot. Remaining for Day: 667. There will be another update after work tomorrow, but pretty good start for the first hour of NaNoWriMo. Chapter 1 - November 2nd Chapter 2: November 3rd. Possibly not the only update today - I hope not, as it's only 1048 words and I'm falling a bit behind, but my arms are bothering me. November 4th, morning: 725 more words. I have to head off to work now, but I'm feeling much better than I have over the last few days. I'm falling behind but I still think I can pull this off. Updates up to the afternoon of November 5th: November 5th, evening. November 6th and on, sadly, will have to go in future posts, as we've hit the size limit. If you see any mistakes, please let me know - I may not have time for much editing on the fly, but I'll do what I can. Also, I'm more than a little prone to depression, so if you like my work, let me know; it can make a world of difference to know that people actually care about what I'm doing.

Hey everyone. NaNoWriMo 2017 has arrived and I'm participating this year. Some of you will remember two years ago, when I posted my entire NaNo project every single day. I had a lot of fun with that, and intend to repeat the performance this year. The catch is that I'm doing a complete rewrite of the book, taking it in a different direction. Sam and Hewn are coming back, but they will be joined by different friends, contest some different enemies, and some of the rules have changed. Even the original short story is somewhat different - and hopefully better. Of that short story, only 310 words were actually written today and count for NaNo. I will hopefully do another post later today, or catch up tomorrow.

No single thing happened that was bad enough to keep me from coming back. Just a lot of moderate to small things. Most of it related to how badly staffed work was - a situation that should be getting better this week, the first time I've closed the store with a partner in nearly two months. I love the job, I love the people, but the hours can be grueling, especially when you don't have anyone else to help. On top of that, I've been struggling with a medical issue - the kind that is actually quite easily treated, but treatment's going to be lifelong and they're still figuring out the dosage. Long story short, I have to inject myself with steroids - the dose was every two weeks, but it just got changed to every ten days - to correct the most straightforward problem possible: a steroid deficiency. Said deficiency causes persistent exhaustion, depression, weakness, lack of coordination, and a host of other really obnoxious things. Hopefully the ten-day dose will help me recover. Rest assured that I don't intend to stop updating this - though Nano is now over, I'm going to see this through. It just might take me some time. Atop my desk is a box my wife filled up with unspecified cool things. I'm only allowed to open it when I hit 50,000 words. She finished Nano with 75,000. Can't say I'm not jealous, but she's pressing on to finish her novel before resting on her laurels.

You're a bit behind schedule but it's never too late to start. The challenge of National Novel Writing Month is to write 50,000 words (preferably worth of novel, but anything counts) only in the month of November.

Well, scattering bonded Dust where an enemy (or victim, at least) will get some on their clothes and you can track them, roughly. And remember, if you do go the golem route, practitioners are limited by how much of this rock dust they can carry versus how large the thing they want to animate is (assuming there's reason not to keep it animated and walking around with you all the time - perhaps it's best to make it always a projection of the mage's mind).

November 9th: 1953 words. No more complaints about nanowrimo from me. I'm not hitting 50k in November, but I'm going to keep going until it's done. Heavy workload the next couple days, so things may be rough, but I'll keep truckin'.

If there's no other type of magic, then Dustmage is an unnecessary specific title. If there are other types, then it's important. Hmm. Take some Dust and bond it. From Dust, create. I think I like the idea that a Dust bond is (or can be) permanent better. Like, with your strength of will, you bond a specific quantity of Dust and that's what you have to work with. If it's scattered Dust, you can sense it, call it if it's in range of you, and it will slowly make its way back, but while it's missing your power is lessened. With Dust, you can make constructs that scale in power based on the mass of Dust that you can will into shape. If you're not particularly good, you can only make something insubstantial; it takes focus and understanding to create something that's actually solid. You need to pass a specific threshold of density to instill a construct with sight, hearing, motion. A higher threshold grants it purpose, and still higher grants it greater intelligence, agility and durability. The highest tier allows the mage to send his or her own consciousness into the construct, effectively piloting it. If the construct is destroyed, the only thing lost is the dust that is presumably now held by the mage's enemies.

I should probably address that tomorrow. My wife got it immediately - a Hogwarts pact is an agreement that if one of the two were to somehow get into Hogwarts, the other would be entitled to at least a tour and preferably holiday visiting rights.

Thanks, both of you. I'm not feeling great - medical issues that I hope will be addressed sometime around the end of the month - but your encouragement helps remind me of how much fun I have with this. This chapter's kind of difficult because there's a lot of information being dumped, but I'm trying to both inform the reader and inject personality and life into the characters. I hope it's working.

BONUS UPDATE: 544 words! Either the evening of the 6th or the morning of the 7th, whichever you prefer. Heh. Checked back for responses and realized I'd let it sit half an hour without actually POSTING it...

I did manage some more writing in the past couple of days, but they're not actually making it into that scene. While I'm going to count them for nano, they're not showing up at the current point in the story. Current update: 1300 words.

Morning, November 4th. 237 words. I have a split shift today. I'm about to leave for 11-2, and then i go back for 5-2. Tomorrow I work 11-8. I'm not certain my work schedule will allow me to actually complete nanowrimo this year, but I'm going to keep at it.

You're right about the original story. The wash of the Nuckelavee's approach messed with the gate, cutting off escape and reinforcement alike. Morning November 3rd. 745 words and a heck of a day so far. While trying to perform a brake job, I managed to tear a c-clamp in half. I'm not even sure how I did that.

November 2nd update: 1777 words. 2087 total, behind by about 1300. Uncertain of the chapter breaks, but I didn't have any last time. Life's not giving me an easy time this year but I'm not out of the running yet. Also, it's great to see that I'm remembered fondly. You can think of the previous book as an outline of probable events of book 2, with this being the new book 1.

A few years ago, I did nanowrimo on this very forum. Although I've been gone a long time for various reasons, I'd like to do so again. Having an audience is the greatest motivation.

Mentioning things - as in having a character be a fan of Firefly or Star Wars - is essentially a form of advertising for the fandom in question. I don't know of it ever being prosecuted, and don't think it would draw attention. Having a character declare himself to be the Flash carries a lot more baggage than that. Can this character run fast enough to time travel at will? Can he phase through solid objects, create tornadoes by running in circles? If not, he's not that much like the Flash, and an "I'm fast. Really, insanely fast," would do. If so, however, he probably is copyright infringement on the Flash.

Glad to hear it. Version 2 is in progress; I'm taking my time with it, trying to refine it. The strange part is buying a book, considering that we're doing this entire conversation over the internet. Babynames.com has been quite useful for me.

Shailroarvith. Too long for a person's name in conversational use, but what if the culture in question is like that? It's not unheard-of for cultures to have a tradition of long, formal names that are rarely used in full. Shailroarvith could be a character's formal name, used on official documents and circumstances, while friends would call her Shail.

For me, it's somehow tied into names. I once had to write a scene where one of my protagonists was being awakened by a maid. I knew the maid was not just a housekeeper - the keep in question is staffed entirely by rejuvenated, loyal veterans - but I still had her as just a bit part that probably wouldn't recur. Then I realized her name was Kailyn and her full personality emerged. She wasn't there to bow and scrape, but to joke and flirt, to test and train - to prepare her charge for introduction into the staff of the keep while subtly vetting her as a potential romantic interest for their employer. She went from a bit part to someone who's constantly trading jibes and witticisms with the other characters, and steals most of the scenes she's in. All that from a name. In my current work I was originally trying for a horror piece. It started with an intrusion into an extradimensional manor house, where the protagonist is soon trapped. A statue guardian comes to investigate and...introduces itself as Hewn. In my mind, no evil stone minion would call itself Hewn. Just like that, the story flipped from scary to adventurous. Hewn's not a bad sort and neither is his employer; in fact, Hewn's a gentle giant (well, he's 5' 4" but he weighs nearly seven hundred pounds) with an inferiority complex. His brittle nature and easy repair means that he tends to be the one to soften up bad guys, but is usually in pieces by the time they've won - and his obvious inhumanity means he's had to fade into the background as history marched on. He's the Eternal Sidekick to a group of Eternal Champions. I don't know why, but learning a character's name is a huge part of learning who they are. I'm trying to name my protagonist's roommate but haven't come across the right one yet, and it's driving me nuts. I know her rough personality, I know her college major (mechanical engineering) and how she's stuck at a dead-end job while she's studying. I know she likes building things with her hands and she collaborates with the protagonist to create simple automata for their apartment. But until I figure out her name, I won't feel like I know who she is.

I keep my work as google documents. It allows for easy commenting on specific passages and even has a built-in chat program. I'll provide three links to my works-in-progress, as well as updates here. The first is the novel in question, second draft. If nobody minds, I'll post it in thousand-or-so word chunks here as I review the text, but will (possibly) forge further ahead in the google document, presenting prose here after it's had a once-over. The second is a group of vignettes, used as section breaks. They explore the setting more and are the only things not in first person. My original intent was to have them be stylized (fairy tale, Arthurian, historical essay, gospel) but I'm not sure the style really sunk in once I got going. They're in first draft, but will be posted here when they would be used as section breaks. The third is a full first draft of the novel. It's not all remaining canon and you can skip it; of particular note, what ending is there will be changing quite a bit, as there is no denouement. I've downloaded The Dark of Night, and will try to have some analysis up tomorrow.

I'm trying to get back into writing regularly. Making myself accountable to a writing group can only help; I'd like to join.

Greetings! I'm working on expanding my Gatekeepers novel and could use some suggestions. In this setting, there are five realms that border the mortal one that we know: The Wild, home to talking animals. Asgard, source of most wizards and a good number of old deities. Note that these are entire planets and the name Asgard is not intended to imply that the Aesir control the whole world, just that they left a cultural footprint. Faerie, home of the elves...and the djinn...and anything else too good to be true. Pandemonium, a chaotic realm, home to the innocently dangerous Others, who cause death and destruction without understanding what they do. And Dis, a hellscape of undeath whose denizens usually allow people to explore until they're too far from the exit to escape. A sixth realm, Jotunheim, forms a buffer - and a bridge - between all the others, and was home to the giants before the realm was sundered. Mortals who defeated any of the beings from the other realms can wind up becoming immortal Champions. The titular Gatekeepers are a loosely-organized group of Champions that regulate the flow of traffic to the mortal realm - slaying giants, preventing faeries from kidnapping children, hunting down demons, shunting Others back to Pandemonium with a minimum of collateral damage, et cetera. Blocking mortals from visiting the other realms was more of a side effect than a goal, but there's good reason to prevent it; since mortals have no magic of their own, enchantments on mortals can be permanent, and they usually wind up exploited by the Aesir or Elves. The Gatekeepers don't keep the existence of the other realms secret, exactly, but they don't volunteer the information either; they just let the world believe what it wants. I could use some suggestions for more stories to work in. I intend for there to be about twenty Champions. Although not all of them will appear directly, I want to have them planned out. Currently, along with nationality and tale of origin (which might not be the tale of their first adventure): Enkidu (Sumerian, Epic of Gilgamesh) Scheherazade (Persian, Arabian Nights) Momotaro (Japan, The Peach Boy) Sakata Kintoki aka Kintaro (Japan, The Golden Boy) Jack of Cornwall (UK, Jack the Giantslayer (NOT the beanstalk) (He also wants to point out that he was Springheel Jack in the 1800s, but not Jack the Ripper) The Fates (Origin unknown, stories are Norse, Greek, Others - oldest of the Champions) Yorgi (Modern-day Turkey, St George and the Dragon (No, the story's not originally English...who knew?)). Note that none of them are under five hundred years old - although a few of them took a while before their tales became commonly known. Other tales that are considered history in one form or another: The Three Little Pigs: Ancient folk tale from the Wild, heavily garbled in the mortal realm; Father Wolf was the hero who saved the pigs. Ragnarok: Actually a succession struggle between Thor and Loki, written by the winning side, such as it was; the Aesir empire has been in decline ever since. (One character is Loki's grandson, via Fenrir. The root of the crisis was Loki's political marriage to Anga Voda, princess of the Wild, a shifter who claimed Father Wolf as one of her ancestors). The Greek and Roman gods: Zeus once ruled over Olympus. Jupiter was a high-ranking bureaucrat who found himself holding the reigns after Apollo's invasion of Dis led to a devastating counterstroke. He tried to reinvent himself and his cronies to fill the suddenly-open pantheon, but failed to restore order. Cupid and Psyche: He was from the wild - a swan shifter. She was an Olympian. It worked out, eventually. Hades and Persephone: He was a death god. She was a mortal. She is now a Champion with necromantic powers, but does not trust the other Champions - after all, nobody came to rescue her. Arthurian legend: Some elves were manipulating things behind the scenes. Oberon now wields Excalibur. Arthur did not, however, seek the Holy Grail; that legend came much later. Sorry. Quite tired. I hope this was readable.

Hmm. Odysseus, definitely, although I have a feeling that he either didn't join the Gatekeepers or didn't survive to the modern age. Siegfried reminded me of Sigurd (I had the two confused, probably because of Wagner), who is definitely in. Beowulf I will have to ponder, largely because I need to consider the nature of Grendel. If I can fit him into any of the worlds that's not Dis, then Beowulf would indeed have wound up a Champion; unfortunately mortals who defeat the spawn of Dis wind up degenerating into monsters as well - that's one of the main reasons that the Gatekeepers still consider demon hunting a high priority. He could wind up a cautionary tale. Regarding Siddhartha, he doesn't seem to fit with the Champions; they tend to be stuck in cycles of violence, and he wouldn't stand for that. However, reading up on him does lead me to the bodhisattva Sitātapatrā, a being that he charged with protecting everyone from demons and evil spells. Interesting. This is a bunch to think about. Thanks!

I'm out of town most of tomorrow. I'm not that good at drawing, but here's what I could manage: And it's for