CHARACTERS(Updates as story progresses)
Because of Gaia's limited ammount of clothing from the 18th century, these dolls are designed more based off the character's personality than their actual looks.10.3.06. - Some Good Advice
(Minus 27 days to NaNo)
Mood: surprised Today I created a
thread asking for advice on my NaNo's plot and recived some amazing advice from Endrael and encouraging words from Lea. Endrael made me realize that I've been thinking of the story too much in terms of the MC's developement and because I was thinking of him first I became blinded to the events around him. The MC isn't that special, anything can happen to him, good or bad. I wrote down some of Endrael's advice in my note book, but my hand is still hurting from banging that plank of wood in the haunt last week so I couldn't everything down. With the thread bookmarked and linked in this journal, I should have pleanty of time to jot everything down later.
I also had my MC fill out a
job interview. I only did it for kicks and giggles but it feels like a good example of how my mature MC talks, which is something I'll need for NaNo.
10.4.06. - To Outline or not to Outline?
(Minus 26 days to NaNo)
Mood: burning_eyes Made myself a banner today. It'll go in my sig on the NaNo forums. I may use something different for Gaia and it may change later in the season once I have a concrete title, but for now this is what I'll be using.
![User Image](https://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/sarge2005/theparkerproject2.jpg)
I've been surfing the NaNo forums all afternoon. After my first 10 posts I was excited, worried, and absoultely terrified of November. There's so much that can go wrong and I've worked so hard on this novel... no, scratch that. If I'd worked hard on it before now it would have been finished a long time ago, and while it would have certainly been much crappier four years ago at least it would have been done and I have absoultely no excuses for not finishing it or at least truely commiting myself to finishing it. I have to remember that,
no excuses. As a wise old Jedi once said, "Do or do not. There is no try." That shall be my motto from now on.
I came across some intriguing articles on the NaNo forums, it is certainly a more helpful and understanding writing community than Gaia. Perhaps part of why I failed the year before was that I spent too much time around my friends on Gaia, most of whom flaunted that they'd given up on their novel early and didn't give me very much encouragement. I'm not saying it was their fault I failed, the fault was mine and for many reasons, but this year I don't want to casually play the odds.
Two of the articles I've read on the NaNo forums were all about outlining.
The Snowflake Method looks like a solid formula for 'growing' a novel, but it seems awfully complex and I worry it would take a lot of the fun out of writing the novel when the time finally comes. It has a lot of benefits too, so I'll have to tread carefully and see what good I can take from it. This article, titled
Just a Phase, was written by someone who claimed to have written a 101k novel in ten days. TEN DAYS. It seemed too good to be true, and indeed it was, for the author of the article turned out to be the kind of person who's able to write a soild 100k in 55 days without an outline. Witchcraft I say!
Aside from the articles I found, everyone on the NaNo forums seems to suggest outlining before November. I've already got some character and world building notes jotted down and I found the process rewarding and fun, but the idea of plotting out an entire novel before hand still seems kind of scary. I'm a 'by the seat of your pants' kind of writer. Everything about my stories I learn through the process of writing the first draft and under normal circomstances not a drop of ink gets spilled until I write the first chapter. Where has this technique gotten me in four years? We-ell... eh, nowhere.
neutral I have a scarse few short stories and no compleated long term projects. All the people who've recommended outlines have compleated novels in their signatures and tons of NaNo experiance, they seem to churn out 50k a month just for grins.
At the beginning of Januaray of this year I began writing my novel
The Office of the Dead--you guessed it--by the seat of my pants. And when I began I said to myself, "I'm writing this novel for myself, my family, and my friends. It is a learning experiance not to be taken seriously." A learning experiance. And as NaNo approaches I realize that, even though I never compleated my novel, I learned a lot from those first 59,901 words. If I'm going to meet or beat that word count this November I'm going to need
SPEED,
KNOWLEAGE, and
DEVELOPEMENT. The only way for me to have these things by November 1st is with an outline, but I don't know which method will work for me. I guess I better
try to find out.
10.6.06. - Practice, Practice, Practice
(Minus 24 days to NaNo)
Mood: pirate Last night I wrote a full 26.5 pages in my note book practicing in first person with my MC (on the computer, that would probably only be between 5 and 10 pages, but it feels like a lot at this point). A few pages in I hit my stride and everything went great up until around 11:30pm when my pace started to slow and by 12:30am I had to stop, but I made a lot of progress and even uncovered some potiental plot holes in my MC's backstory that need patching. All in all it was an inspiring practice sesson and I'm feeling even more confident about winning NaNo this year.
The Parker Project will be a novel written in the style of a collection of stories tied together by characters and theams. I've already got a few ideas for chapters to add into the book, but I don't have enough ideas to write a compleate novel. Using the snowflake method as a guide, I'm going to build some new ideas starting with theams.
First I'll write down a one word description of each theam I want to have in the novel. Then I'll describe that theam in a short paragraph, getting in all the little theams that make up the big theam which I want to present. After that I'm going to take each of my theams and write a short summery of a short story that fits into that theam (in a way that either complements or contraditics the theam), at least four story ideas per theam (depending on how many theams I can come up with), and later I'll go back and pick the stories I want to use and continue to expand on each. Once that's done I can decide which order I want to write the chapters. I've got 24 days to go, pleanty of time to finish.
I just hope I have time to finish the short story for Jile's contest.
sweatdrop 10.16.06. - Blah
(Minus 14 days to NaNo)
Mood: gonk Haven't done much work on
The Parker Project lately, not sure if I'm getting lazy or (God forbid) losing intrest. It's probably for the best though, they say you're not really supposed to work on NaNo until one week before November, and we're getting pretty close to that deadline.
Did some role playing in the
Character Interview thread using Attie and Lucas, and that was pretty fun. I'll have to stop by this thread more often, it's much more fun than the other get to know your characters threads and it's helping me work on my dialouge.
mrgreen 10.25.06. - Carry On My Wayward Son
(Minus 7 days to NaNo)
Mood: neutral This journal entry is titled after a song that reminds me greatly of my MC, especially the chorus. It also happens to be the song stuck in my head at the moment.
It's 1:48am. I should be asleep, but I can't. I'm too nervous, failure is on my mind. It shouldn't be, I feel confident, but I also feel as though confidence is a worthless emotion. I wish I'd written something eariler today. I would like to write now, but I'd much rather sleep so I can have an early start tomarrow and work on my NaNo.
I spent $34 dollars on classical music today (or rather, yesterday) to help me through November. I hope it helps.
I also came up with a make-shift title for my NaNo today, but I'm not sure if I like it. The banner came out kind of nice though.
![User Image](https://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/sarge2005/MoaFVcopy.jpg)
I think it's hard for me to slap a lable on Lucas's story because his character has been with me for so long. Lucas represents my common sense, my compassion, and my sense of humor. I hope all this will come through during the novel.
I don't really have high expectations on the novel. At the least I expect to finish it. Quality hasn't really entered my mind.
10.26.06. - Plot Bunnies Bouncing in my Head
(Minus 5 days to NaNo)
Mood: blaugh What the title says.
3nodding I've compleately changed the beginning of my story. Okay, not
compleately compleately, but it's very different than what I had origionally planned and hopefully les predictable.
I've also been working on story boarding the rest of the novel on note cards. I'm still worried about everything running a little long, but I'm sure I can do it.
I'll add more to this when I get home. (Maybe.)
11.8.06. - My Wordcount is 13337
(Wordcount: 13,337)
Mood: sweatdrop I hit 10k two days ago, right on schedual. Cheers! *sips a Moutain Dew* Also, new banner and title.
![User Image](https://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/sarge2005/bloodink.jpg)
I think I'll be coming up with these all through November. This novel has always been the most difficult when it comes to forming a satisfactory title, but I think I'm getting close. The small black text at the top says "Blood that was spilled in the past, ink would now flow to remember." I didn't come up with it.
xp Otherwise the novel is going well. I'm most happy with the learning experiances my MC is going through, I feel like I've succeeded in creating a feeling that nothing is certain and there are always new lessons to be learned, which will continue to expand throughout the novel. First-person POV is a challenge, but it's do-able. I find that the story is actually slowing down a lot more than I thought it would for character developement, but I don't mind that much since I think it will be essental later on when the reader starts seeing Lucas suffer. My only issue with the ammount of deep character developement I'm doing is that it is taking longer to get to the pivitol chapter in which everything changes and Lucas
truely sets out on his adventure. This is reaffirming my early belief that the novel will not end with 50k, but rather will continue on to 100k or even 250k. Those numbers scare me, but they aren't just for show. I have a lot to cover and I feel like it will all pay off in the end. This is a story I want to tell, I mean I
really want to tell it. If it takes 250k for me to get my message across, then so be it. I'm going to need to buy more printer ink.
When I look back at this journal I want to know that I struggled. Getting to 10k was tough, there were times I didn't know how a scene would turn out and times when I became nervous, but I always kept writing and I always made it in the end, even when I was behind I caught up in a few days and I did so through perserverance. I know I can do this. Lucas's story is not an 'if', it is a 'when'. Remember to listen to the music that inspires you, even if it's lame, take long walks to clear your head, stay up late at night, spend time with your friends and family, take it easy, try your best, have fun. Just keep on truckin', keep on truckin' no matter what and you'll finish.
heart But I'm feeling a little burned out right now, so I'm gonna spend some quality time goofing off.
EDITEDThat was a fun RP session. I was reading the children's version of Black Beauty while my friends and I role played and I found it to be very relaxing.
3nodding 11.12.06. - Obilgatory 20k Entry
(Wordcount: 21,425)
Mood: cool I could be celebrating, but I'm just too zen.
cool I wrote about 3.4k today, rounded up. It's true what Bradbury says about being drunk on writing. (I also made these tektek avatars of my characters today. I don't think anyone cares, but they were kind of fun to make.)
Tomarrow I plan to spend some time with my friends and do a lot of plotting on the chapters to come. I created a storyboard on the inside of my door with a sheet of paper hanging over it so my mom, who is currently my only reader, can't see what's going to happen next. Oh yes, a sheet of paper. That's top security right there.
11.13.06. - Burnout?
(Wordcount: 24,113)
Mood: neutral I tried to take a break from my NaNo earlier today, but after finishing
Black Beauty and beginning Mary Shelley's
Frankenstine I'm finding it hard to turn my back on my novel. I don't think that working on it lightly will do me harm. Yesterday I was having such a hard time that I made a new mule for Lucas, so I could practice his voice with my friends in the Eleventyone, and it seemed to work out well. I hope I won't have to resort to it again, though.
For my own benefit, I am going to write a description of Lucas's style of writing and keep it here for future reference:
Quote:
Lucas has a sense of humor that comes out in his writing and likes to tell stories in the style of a joke, with the punchline at the end. His style is a bit modest, he tries never to be over dramatic. (I'll add more to this later. I'm at a loss right now.)
I expect it will be another 15k at most before the story kicks into gear and we see Lucas really start to develope. I'm looking forward to it.
11.18.06. - THUNK!
(Wordcount: 30,391)
Mood: pirate 30k time. Cheers! I don't have any ice cream or anything to eat in celebration this time, but I feel like I don't need it. 30k is it's own reward, and pleanty more story to go.
3nodding I just sent a copy of the first half of chapter six to my friend, whose been reading my story from day one, even way back when I couldn't make it past the first couple of chapters. If my book gets published, her name will have a spot on the dedication. I love you so much, you know who you are.
heart But I hope when you read this next chapter you scream at the page, because the s**t is about to hit the fan. Horray plot!
Tomarrow (or, rather, later today. I'm typing this at ten past midnight) I'm going back to the house of a local writer here in California to do some more cat sitting. I'll give you a hint: he's not Dean Koontz or Ray Bradbury. Boo-hoo.
crying No, seriously, he's got some great books. The last time I stayed at his house while he was on vacation I was bombarded with writing ideas, most of them for the novel I'm writing right now, and I hope I'll feel the same magic when I go back this week. The last two days have been a blast. Apparently Lucas likes the song
Shadow Stabbing by Cake. He always did have great taste in music, and it brings out his voice. I hit the zone at around ten o'clock tonight (or, rather, last night) and kept going until the clock struck tweleve. Heck, even I'm shocked at the route this story is taking, and I knew it would go this way all along. I've added the first half of chapter six to the hard copy of my story and I really hope I get to hear my mom bark with laughter or scream at the page when something unexpected happens. I can't wait!
The title of this entry is dedicated to the sound my manuscript makes when I slam the edge against a table to straighten the pages. It's fifty pages long and the plot is pure gold. PURE GOLD. There are a lot of places were the writing itself needs a face lift, continuity errors, plot holes (I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure the little buggers are in there) and all the usual stuff you find in a first draft. Once again I shout out to TOotD, the unfinished novel that taught me to never expect anything good from the first draft. I feel like I'm incredably lucky to have
The Parker Project for this year's NaNo. I can't believe how well it's turning out and I'm still looking over my shoulder waiting for the NaNo gremlin to strike. He's there, watching me...
Did I mention I'm a day ahead?
11.21.06. - Nearing the end of Part One
(Wordcount: 35,035)
Mood: mrgreen It occurs to me that I only have nine days left. It seems like such a short time to me, yet I've already proven how much I can accomplish. I'm ready to win.
Of course I can't really call myself a winner until I've compleated the entire novel, and this is only part one. Here's my prediction for the breakdown of the novel:
Blood InkPart One -
A Series of Mistakes: 40k - 50k
Part Two -
The End of the Road: 30k - 50k
Part Three -
???????????????: NO IDEA
Keep in mind that I origionally predicted Part One would only last until 20k, so I could be compleately and utterly wrong about this. I know that Part Three will be the shortest, it's just there to wrap things up in perperation for the sequel. Yes, there will be a sequel--not for want of a sequel, but because I simply have too much to say. You can't shut me up. I'm not sure if I'll keep this journal going after NaNo ends. It's been a source of inspiration for me all month long, so I figure I might as well keep up a good thing, but since the next two parts of the novel don't technically count as NaNos perhaps I should make a second entry. I'll decide later, and I have few doubts that lazyness shall prevail and I shall continue this journal right here until the forseeable end of this novel.
11.30.06. - DONE! (But not really)
(Word count: 50,006 [Even though Word says 50,040])
Mood: burning_eyes Can I sleep now? More later...
Well it's over now. No, it's not really over. I still have 100k to go.
smile Now if only I knew what's going to happen next. In order to make 50k I had to sacrafice the last chapter of part one (which I messed up on) and skip to part two, but now I'm not sure where to go. I need to do some more planning and look back on where I've come from before I can figure out where this story is headed.
The Princess Bride is on right now, and if there's one thing I love most about this movie it's the way it celebrates its characters. The film allows all its characters to be themselves and gives each of them a moment, more than one in fact, to shine with all their might. I hope to do this with my novel. I love stories like this. Love love love love love love love.
heart 12.07.06. - Chapter 2.1
(Word count: 50,409)
Mood: biggrin I guess I'll be using this journal as a quick place to scribble notes from time to time.
I've decided what chapter 2.1 (chapter one, part two) is all about. It's about Lucas needing to make the first decision about his future: will he become a vampire slayer to avenge himself and his mother and take out his hatred, or will he become a passifist? This is an important chapter because it's the first chapter where Lucas really, truely gets all the information and has to make a decision all by himself. It will also decide how much he cares about other vampires, if his dream to become one of them is still in tact. In order to make this decision he needs to see both sides of the arguement, in this case hate and tolorance, and that is what I will show him.
1.2.07 - Needing a place to think
(Wordcount: 56,617 - soon to be cut harshly)
Mood: neutral gonk cry The reason I haven't been on Gaia lately is that I've just got too much on my plate. Physically my portions may look small, but I feel extreamly stressed over all of them.
I'm starting to wonder if I should start over with this thing again. I know that starting over is probably the worst thing I can do, but I plan to start over anyway when I begin the second draft, so I don't see what the big deal is.
neutral I'm the kind of writer who likes to open up a fresh page when she starts a second draft and use the first draft purely as reference. In most of the short stories i've written I begin the first draft on paper, then move it to the computer and allow the draft to change as I'm writing, sometimes altering the plot compleately. I think I should be able to say, "To HELL with your rules of first draft--as long as I'm getting it done!"
I have so many ideas and so much I want to say, which is why I origionally inteded this to be a trilogy, but I wonder if it really deserves that. Sometimes I look at
The Parker Project and think it would work much better as a single story. I'm also thinking more about using other points of view than what I origionally intended. Third-person has been tempting me for a while. I've also been wanting to bring my character in closure to the action in a first person perspective, by having the story told through journal entries he makes as the story is progressing, which I am experimenting with now and actually enjoying. Maybe NaNo was a bad idea. I wrote 50k, sure, but all I have now is the first part of a story I don't like and that I'm not even sure I want to tell anymore. I mean I look at the events of the first part of this story and think to myself, "Gee, isn't this all kind of background information? Shouldn't this be cut? Does the audience need to know?" I think the answers are yes, yes, and no, in that order.
I am glad I have it written down though. It's great background information for me to have and it taught me a lot about Lucas, and about writing in general.
I don't know what's going to make it to the final draft. I should say that right now. Even as I'm writing it, I can't point to a sentence and say, "This sentence shall make it to the final draft, and this sentence shall make it to the second draft, however will be cut before the final draft." I should just keep farting around until I find the pieces I need, and the story I want to tell. I have all these pieces and yet I have no idea how they fit together. That's the state of
The Parker Project and I need to accept that, at least until I've fixed it.
1.17.07 - "Okay... I think I'm spent..." - The Narrator
(Wordcount: Somewhere around 2k?)
Mood: Between gonk and blaugh Gaia needs a sleepy emote. I think I got five hours of sleep last night, which unfortunately had nothing to do with noveling, but I made up for that eariler today by writing for five hours straight. What I wrote is the first chapter of the second draft. I like it 100% more than I liked the first chapter of the first draft. After the five hours of writing my narrator (aka my muse) dropped at my feet and begged for mercy. I'd hate to think what he'd do if I ever wrote 10k in a day like some of these super authors. At the moment he's fast asleep in the back of my mind and making me wonder why I haven't hit the hay yet. It's only 7:51pm, but I am tiiiiiired.
I still have a lot of middle ground to sort out. I have maybe two or three chapters planned and a couple of others wandering around in the dark. Certainly not enough to fill an entire novel, but it's a start I suppose. As soon as I reach 10 pages double spaced I'm sending what I have to a real life editor I know. Her name is Sally and she's been a big help for me thus far, giving me a lot of inspiration even though she hasn't seen any of my work yet.
In other news I have an idea for a random little project I could do invovling one of my RP characters. Basically it'd all be to flesh out a very intense part of his life, with angst definately invovled. I figure between 30 and 40 pages single spaced. Don't know when I'll get to it, I'm letting it simmer for now.
I'm less than 100 pages away from the conclusion of
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz, the second book in the Odd Thomas series. I can't believe I'm already this close to the end. I know that the first 95% of a novel is setting up dominos and the last 5% is knocking them down but compared to the first novel it feels as though literally
nothing has happened. I mean, yes, there is plot. I can see plot. It's right there, see. *points* But nothing is really happening. The characters aren't reacting the way they should, they're far too calm and collected. I trust Koontz to do something interesting before the ending, but I don't think it will be anywhere close to the impact of the first novel.
2.9.07. - Final Update
Mood: stressed At the moment, my being pissed off has nothing to do with my writing. My current feelings toward my writing are
heart This will be my last update to this journal. I know nobody is reading it, but incase I'm wrong and somebody out there has been keeping up with me, I figure I owe this mystery person one last entry.
I'm still working on The Parker Project. I've returned to calling it The Parker Project because I trashed my last title. I don't know when it will be finished, there's a lot of plot building going on and I also have a few other stories that need to be worked on, so for now I'm taking a relaxed approach. I'm not sure if I'll even publish it anymore. I think I'll enjoy myself more if I return to the motto that sustained me during most of my work on
The Office of the Dead.
I'm writing for the enjoyment of my family, friends, and most of all, myself. Therefore I see no reason to update this journal anymore.