nanowrimo

All Flames Cast NaNo Update – Week 1

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We’re officially one week into NaNoWriMo. I’m in a bit of an interesting spot with it, at this point. I totally missed Days 1 and 2, but splurged these last couple days to catch up to the pace I want. If I were going for the 50,000 word count, I’d be pretty much set. At over 16,000 words, I would be very happy with that progress.

Unfortunately, I’m aiming for almost twice the normal number. I really want to finish All Flames Cast this month. With today being the first of my “Surge Days”, I’m beginning to see the enormity of the task at hand. I have done a little over 7000 of the 10,000 I want for today so far, and it’s been draining. It’s gonna be tough to meet this goal. I just have to hope that the momentum of things carries on, and I can pack it all in.

On a happier note, I do have to say that I’m enjoying this different writing experience. While I’m writing this book straight through, one character at a time, by nature that means that the narrative pacing is going to be uneven, at least for how I’m writing it. Right now, I’m getting close to finishing Harael’s story. The chapters I’ve been working on are fast, action-packed, and have a lot of intense emotion. It’s going to be weird, once I finish his arc and move on to Tymun’s…because I’ll be going from writing climax chapters straight back to writing setup chapters. The pacing shock there might take some getting used to, but I’m planning on the personal momentum of finishing an arc to carry me through the earlier Tymun stuff that I need to rewrite.

Either way, check back in next week for the Week 2 update. Between now and then, I think I’m going to be posting a book review, so keep an eye out for that!

All Flames Cast – Harael VII

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The fog was finally beginning to thin out when they crested the ridge and looked down into a long, narrow valley. Harael could see a small lake, nestled against a sheer cliff along the east side. The village itself stretched along most of the length of the valley, hugging the shore of the lake for much of its breadth. As they made their way down the trail, winding back and forth against the slope, their view became clearer and clearer.

By the time they reached the bottom, Harael couldn’t help but stare: the valley was mostly brown, of course, but the winter couldn’t fully grasp the pines coating the far slope. Tall and oddly angular, they gave the area a sort of green fur unlike anything he was used to in Letaal—or even in his hometown of Arbor, many miles north of the capitol. The peaks, rising high ahead, were crowned with white. Continue reading

NaNoWriMo – All Flames Cast Edition

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As many of you know, November is National Novel Writing Month. Now, I’ve never participated in NanNoWriMo in the traditional sense before. I’m usually immersed in a project already—as I am now—and I prefer to move at my own pace. I’m not the fastest writer in the world, and I generally like my first drafts to be cleaner than usual. It takes time.

However, this year I’ll be undertaking a kind of NaNo of my own: finishing All Flames Cast this month! This is a pretty big goal, and I’m already starting behind the ball a bit, as I was out of town and away from my computer for most of the weekend. As of this writing, I’ve written about 2,400 words so far in November; to finish All Flames Cast, it looks like I’m going to need to do about 80,000-90,000 words. That’s a lot, but I can bear down when I need to. Broken down into 3,000 words a day, it looks a lot more manageable.

I’ve also already planned out several of what I’m calling “Surge Days”, where I cleared my schedule and I’m setting a goal of 10,000 words. With those, I’m confident that I can meet my goal.

In celebration of the end (hopefully) being in sight, another, final, Harael chapter will be going up later today. I haven’t fully decided yet, but there is a good chance I will start posting more Tymun chapters in the future, but if that happens, I’m guessing that won’t be until the end of this month or in early December. There will be more updates coming as the month goes on.

Anyway, good luck to all of you NaNo people out there, and happy writing!