Writing while Traveling, and NaNoWriMo

It's a funny thing to write while traveling. Between absorbing all the things you see and hear and smell and taste and touch, you also have to continue writing a book that, for me, has absolutely nothing to do with what's going on outside your little world.


Writing while traveling takes discipline... almost more so than at home. At home I can waste time all day if I want... while traveling I may not have a plug or the location to be away from people talking and questions about the story. I was in a car for four days straight... and it felt ridiculously rude to pop out a laptop and start writing. So I didn't.


This means that I didn't write for four days. Part of this reason is that I was sick on Thanksgiving, which was ridiculously amazing-- I didn't visit one of the monasteries and instead spent the day trying to figure out how to watch High School Musical.


I didn't even like High School Musical the first time! I watched it out of a duty to figure out what's going on in the mind of tweens who are nuts about it. I think I was a tween when HSM came out... hence the research. While I only saw half(ish) of HSM, it was enough to realize that it's a cute movie... but not award winning. Zac Efron was freaking young though.


November 30th came and went... I think I wrote maybe 1.5k? A very measly drop in the pot compared to the 10k days I had in Lhasa... (8k+ three days in a row is exhilarating)... but I didn't care. I broadly sketched what happened in the scene and declared that there was not enough space.


And after that... I couldn't find anything else to write. I knew exactly what I needed to write, but I couldn't find the words. I couldn't even type properly. It was like my fingers had forgotten the keyboard in 5 days. So I stopped and went off to lose brain cells on something else.


Why? Because, though I'm about... 35k behind, I know I can catch up by the end of the 2011 year... at which point I will have 400,000 words of semi-coma-inducing genius. In 2012, it will be better-- 1,200,000 words of less-semi-coma-inducing genius.


Usually the best place to write is in the hotel room after a long day of doing nothing... or the train station, or the train, or on the street waiting for the streetlight-- I planned about 500 words a day this way in Japan on my iTouch. Those words formed the backbone of a lot of my characters, and so at home I could focus on the details instead of the basics. I also figured out a lot of motivations... and found out that Gerald is a victim, not a villain. He was very clear on that.


Thoughts on NaNo'11


It was ridiculous, to say the least. I wrote the book in a total of four countries and about six cities.


Japan: Tokyo Wrote upstairs in a tatami mat room.


China: Beijing Wrote in a hotel room
Xi'an Wrote in the hotel room... kind of
Xining Wrote a bit in a hotel room


Tibet: Lhasa Wrote a ton in the hotel room


Nepal: Kathmandu Wrote very little


The most productive place? Lhasa. I have no idea how. I spent a week in Beijing and only 5 days in Lhasa... and yet Lhasa's word count beats out Beijing's by about 6k. I think it's mostly because that is when I got my breakthrough-- Gerald would help Frederick, and he would be pretty normal when not attacked by the voices. It catapulted Gerald out of his one-man story and into something else, which for some reason made things much more interesting.


I'll be updating "What NaNo has taught me" with this year's notes, but this NaNoWriMo has been an adventure.


I realized that planning too far forward is one of my downfalls, that I like having a lot of characters (really), and that writing during vacation is actually pretty easy. I was writing in a lot of different places all the time, and I did a ton of word wars with the lovely people over at Write Write and Write! and NaNoWriMo Word Wars and NaNoWriMo WordSprints on Twitter.


So that was fun.


I only hit about 90k in the Blood Feud, which is slightly annoying, but I did hit 98,089 words... which means that September is the only month I made my quota... yes, it's rather annoying, but... -__- I'll get 135k in December to make up for it all. I hope.

What NaNoWriMo Has Taught Me

We are in Tokyo, and I am not sure whether or not I should up my word goal for November. My father would say a very emphatic "NO." Me? I'm not so sure. As some of you may know, I'm a chronic overachiever in the reading/writing realm... and sometimes that even translates to schoolwork.


The current word goal for The Blood Feud is 300,000. I want to see if I can focus on a story for 300,000 words... without adding filler, pointless discussions, or strange revelations in the middle of oatmeal.


It's three times as much as I have ever written for a novel before; the last novel (NaNo'09) I tried this on ended up being an exercise in 'how much crap can you put in before you hate it?' (Looking back on it, of course. As I was writing it, I think I only had a very dim idea that things would not work out in the revision phase. Of course, I didn't listen to that little voice.) That book continues to not have a title. Its working name is In Which There Is Edward or NaNo'09, which are terrible titles, but literally the only ones I could think of that didn't prompt a gag reflex or a tweaked eyebrow.


However, if I think about it... that book was written when I was 14. Not many 14-year-olds decide to write a hundred-thousand word novel in 30 days. Not many finish it in 28. Perhaps it's forgivable, then, that the plot was terrible, that most of the dialogue revolved around my two main characters, who bickered incessantly... and I'm getting off track.


The point is, every year in NaNoWriMo, I learn something.


NaNo'08


Sabanoud Doeslayer : 50k
In this first year, I had known about NaNo for about a year and six months. I did not participate in 2007 because I'd found it in June, thought "Oh, cool!" and then promptly forgot about it until something like the 5th of November, when my 12 year old brain decided it was impossible to do with an eight thousand word debt. (I don't know what I was thinking either.)


So when I found the NaNo site again in October 2008, I signed up promptly... and spent most of the time leading up to NaNo waffling around and looking lost. I'm not sure if this is a common phenomenon for NaNo Newbies. But keep in mind: I was a 13 year old who had never actually written anything complete in her life... except for maybe three stories which have been buried in my mind as: "Never Talk About. Ever." And who signed up for the YWP site at the same time because she wasn't sure she could hit 50,000. (I think I had a 20k word goal there, which mid-week one was updated to 100,000, and abandoned when I reached Week 2).


I finished NaNo'08 on November 19th, at something like 10 am, with a 50,100ish manuscript.


The Lessons:

• NaNoWriMo is achievable. 
• I like writing.
• I like writing even more when there is
• a deadline
• a large word goal
• Writing a character playing Solitaire is harder than coming up with plot.

The Aftermath:

• Sabanoud Doeslayer was hastily edited for typos and sent off to our family's Kindle, where I forced my father, my mother, and my sister to read it. My brother, too young to read (or so we thought), was exempt.
• I tried editing it, but... it was a quest plot. One of the things I've learned since NaNo'08 is that I'm not good at writing quests. I need character dialogue.
• It has been relegated to the "Proof That NaNo is Achievable" folder.

NaNo'09


In Which There Is Edward: 100k


In the second year, I was ready and waiting for November with anticipation when October arrived.


However, after waiting around eagerly in Romania, waiting for a plot to come out... and ending up with... nothing, October 28th I sat down and patiently wrote down, on paper, lots of strange plot ideas (hero falls in love with villain... pink talking ship... Title? Note: Your True Love Is Ugly <- this title persisted until I had to tell people about the book, at which point I changed it to: I have no idea what the title is yet), until I had the basic premise.


The basic premise morphed from a simple story into something quite convoluted (mostly because my brain inserted a talking wind spirit who tried to kill my MC and a mirror-watching [think TV] witch that turned my MC into a frog when he tried to mess with her Plan... and should I mention the time-hopping and the fact that my MC somehow spawned... a baby?!), and when November was over... I couldn't set it down. I'd promised my family they would be able to read it.


In Which There Is Edward (a better working title, no?) was finished November 28th. At about 6 pm, with exactly 100,000 words on the NaNo counter. I was very proud.


The Lessons:

• Brainstorming for a plot is a wonderful way to get one
• 10k days ARE possible (I'm not sure how big my word count was on my best day, but it was above 10k, and perhaps something closer to 15k. And there were TWO of them)
• Time travel is HARD to write
• Perseverance:  I learned to push through the slumps of "Week 2"-- those terrible days that hit (and last) anywhere from Day 2 to Day 29-- when you don't understand why you started writing the story in the first place. When you start thinking that NaNoWriMo is a waste of time. (it's not!)
• I discovered Scrivener and the Dvorak keyboard-- and have been using them both ever since. 

The Aftermath:

• In Which There Is Edward was printed out at my dad's office printer and was edited half-heartedly manually, before being typed up on the computer. The beginning was fixed, the ending was fixed, and it was shared with my family.
• My sister commented on the typos. My father fell asleep every 2 pages (it was not his fault-- he was exhausted). My mother critiqued it, saying that the bickering (and there WAS a large amount of bickering) was overdone. My brother? LOVED IT.
• I'm trying to edit it... but the plot is so overworked and complicated that I have no idea how to start. It's going to be edited for 50 hours in January. If that doesn't work... well, there's always February to rewrite the whole thing.
• It has been sent to the "To Edit" folder.

NaNo'10


Revenge and Grey China: 83k


By NaNo'10, I had learned of the amazingness of NaNoWriMo... and was stalking the NaNoWriMo forums from October 1st, looking through dares and 'adopt-a-lines' for inspiration.


October 4th, I had my premises: "A villain's fiancé breaks it off, so she decides to get revenge on him." and "Allegra conks a billionaire on the head with a teapot and is surprised to find he is desperately in love with her."


Those are not the original sentences, of course. This NaNo, I planned almost obsessively: taking a combination of the Snowflake Method and the Phase Outlining method (by Lazette Gilford, author of NaNo for the New and Insane).


But I soon found that planning was not always the best way... I faced many slumps throughout the month-- caused in part by large word count goals per phase which were unrealistic and much too strict: if I didn't hit the word goal, I would go back and add description and flesh out the scenes. In a way, this was good: I got a... 500 word bit to 3000 words (and improved it in the process), but I did not enjoy this NaNo as much as the others, with their highly wonderful pantsing.


I finished November at 66k, and continued writing into December.


The Lessons:

• Being too strict about a phase's word goal is not conducive to motivation. It is, however, wonderful for description
• Setting too high a word goal for a phase is not conducive to motivation.
• The Snowflake Method is fantastic.
• Planning is good.
• Push through!

The Aftermath:

• Revenge and Grey China spawned a sequel before I even started writing it. As such, I did not share it with anyone except my critque buddy on PonyIsland before sequestering it away to try and write the sequel. Secrets and Green Eyes was finished (ish) at 40k in October 2011, but it still needs many, many more words. 
• Writing the sequel
• In the "To Write" folder

July CaNaNo'11

Dashboard: 45k

With Camp NaNoWriMo, first edition, I could barely wait. I mean, this was NaNoWriMo we were talking about. In JULY.

 I had a story I'd started ages ago that I wanted to finish, with only 5k on it, and I figured... why not? It wasn't as if I had anything better to do, and I already had experienced the entire 'experience' of NaNo-- three times, I might add.

The story fell apart. This was not because I did not start a new story. Rather, it was because, as I began writing, the story started being less and less like a love story (which I like writing), and turned into more and more of a tragedy (which I don't like writing).

Okay, maybe it was because I didn't start a new story.

I did win July-- mostly because I hammered out a couple of short stories during the month and put them into the word count.

But Dashboard? Relegated to the 'don't think about' folder.

The Lessons:

• Knowing when to give up: while this may not sound good, it is. You have to know when going on is pointless. I had been hating the story for about 10k when I simply decided it wasn't worth it. And this was on July 30th, too.

The Aftermath:

• Immediate planning for AugCaNaNo'11
• Immediate delegation to never look at again folder.

August CaNaNo'11

Princess Winnipeg: 60k

I'd had this idea... sporadically. It just showed up mid-July and demanded to be written. This has never happened before.

So, August 1st, I woke up early, and hammered out a large amount of words. Describing the dragon? We'll set down 1k for that. It turned into 5k. Riding off with the prince into the sunset? There's another 2k. Meeting the witch? Sure thing. Another 2k.

While these may not be the actual NUMBERS, the idea it conveys is the same: Princess Winnipeg was a lovely little story that grew quite easily. All I needed was to keep writing.

It morphed about halfway into something really strange, like most of my pantsed novels tend to do-- Winnipeg, the main character, died by a dragon's claw and was promptly sent off to Death, who is very nice and kills people by giving them a kiss on the forehead.

I finished Princess Winnipeg at 60k on August 21st, whereupon I went off promptly to a religious camp.

Came back with just 4 days left... and then sporadically decided, with the help of the Write Write & Write group, that I would get to 100,000 words in the month of August.

And DID.

The Lessons:

• Planning is not necessary.
• Dialogue is helpful. Do not overdo the bickering, but do it artfully. And things will grow around that.

The Aftermath:

• Princess Winnipeg is waiting patiently on my computer for a full editing
• Will be edited come March 2012. 50 hours. *gulp*
• Sent to "to Edit" folder.

NaNo'11


The Blood Feud: 90k during NaNo


This novel came about from my yearning to write something Romeo-Juliet-ish after reading Juliet, by Anne Fortier. I sat down and from my fingers spewed something rather unlike what I had been expecting. The book follows about eight people through their lives over almost two months as they battle with or against the blood feud that has been racking their families for nearly 200 years.


What they don't know is that their ancestors concocted the blood feud for fame and fortune... and that they shouldn't be at war in the first place!


Some of the words this year were painful-- excruciatingly. This year I slacked off a bit and quite enjoyed it, playing Civilization V in hours that might have definitely been better used... but when I simply didn't have the energy to literally tackle the words onto the page. On other days, I managed to get enough motivation up to write 8 to 12k... I never actually got past what I consider my record of 15,000 words in a day. Having written that in 2009... I wonder why I haven't hit it yet. One of these days... before next NaNo...


The Lessons:

• Planning too far ahead causes slumps and annoyances. If I must plan next year, I'll plan my characters and settings, and only a small amount of plot.

The Aftermath:

• The Blood Feud is awaiting completion in early December, and will be edited in May 2012

I'm waiting for next NaNo to figure out what I'm going to do... I'll be all over some random corner of the globe then.

The Master Document of Plots and Characters

Because I am telling so many people about The Blood Feud, I've compiled this master list of all the characters and plots.

The book currently has six main story lines, along with various ancestors' sub-plots, which feature as letters/short stories between main bits of narrative.

Main Plot:

Two families war against each other in a sham blood feud that no one knows is fake.

Then there are the characters (some of which have not been included). 

Main Characters:

Frederick Martin: Frederick is the Martin Head of House. He is a careful, conscientous man who weighs everything before responding to it. He has never believed that the blood feud has any sense whatsoever.

Marie Martin: Marie is a free spirit who firmly believes in trying something just to see what it's like. She hates dates and would rather be riding a fast horse or eating an exotic food than sitting in at a meeting. Her younger brother, Frederick, is convinced she's going to die some day from too much excitement. Marie is the Martin Ambassador and thus often goes on business trips to the other estates.

Grigory Martin: Grigory is 19, and will take any dare you give him,  be it jumping off the roof, eating a pound of grapes in ten minutes, or walking on coals. He's the youngest of the main Martin's: Marie is his older sister and Frederick is his older brother. 

Natalie Lundquist: Natalie is the beauty of the Lundquists and is their pride and joy. She works at the hospital as a Morale Booster: a person who sits and talks to patients to boost their morale. She is 19, and has a bad temper.

James Lundquist: Natalie's older brother and Head of Lundquist House, James is brutally killed by Gerald Hughes, thus foisting the estate onto his second cousin, Henry Lundquist.

Gerald Hughes: George's great-grandfather is George, and his grandmother is Arianna Martin, who married Daniel Hughes, who has Sirius Hughes, who had him. Gerald is schizopherinic, and he hears voices in his head that tell him to hurt people. His story is about struggling with his growing insanity.

Henry Lundquist: Henry Lundquist is a quiet, careful young man who does not enjoy adventure. His left eye is brown and his right is blue, giving him a lopsided look. Henry is the Lundquist Ambassador starting November 2^nd, 2011, because no one else wanted to be and because he was the only one silly enough to say "Yes."

Jakob Anderson: The black, 5'11" journalist with dreadlocks that is paid to write stories on the Martins and Lundquists. He is working for the Martin Informer— a newspaper almost on the line between the Martin and Lundquist Estates. He is engaged to Eleni Carlson, and is working his tail off so that they can get married.

The Ancestors:

Thomas Lundquist: The founder of Lundquist Estate, Thomas lost half his lands to his best friend, Joshua Martin in a night of gambling. The same night, Lundquist Manor burned down. Thomas Lundquist has a few secrets secreted throughout the walls of Lundquist Estate. He married Athena Rothspar, and had three children.

Joshua Martin: Joshua Martin built Martin Estate with limited funds. The house is therefore added on to whenever there is money left, and it is somewhat mis-matched. Joshua Martin married Katherina, having courted her on a tree on the grounds of Martin Estate. Daniel, Richard, and Isabelle are his children.

George Martin: The great-grandson of Joshua Martin, George Martin died suddenly in a carriage collision— smashing head-on into Arabella Lundquist's carriage. His wife, Victoria, and he had Alexander, Aiden, and Daniel.

Arabella Lundquist: When Arabella married David Lundquist, she inherited an entire estate.She had George, Harriet, and Nicholas. She died in a carriage collision on June 12^th, 1960 with George Martin.

Minor Characters:

Roxanne and Rebecca Lundquist: Clairvoyant twins, Roxanne and Rebecca are Henry's aunts on his father's side. They speak in riddles, finish each other's sentences, and generally confuse the other members of the family. They receive communication from the dead by telegram, and flesh out the ancestor stories.

Judith Martin: Marie, Frederick, and Grigory's mother, who offers hot beverages and large shoulders to cry on.

Eleni Carlson: Jakob's fiancée, Eleni has a disease that will prove fatal if she doesn't get medical attention. She is in almost constant pain.

Jolene Artemis: Frederick's girlfriend.

Chad Artemis: Artemis Head of House.

Sandra Artemis: Central Hospital Director

The Plots:

Natalie/Grigory Story Arc:

Natalie and Grigory have known each other for nearly six months in close quarters, and they absolutely hate each other. When Grigory gets sent to the hospital for an emergency stay, Natalie is the one chosen to keep him company.

The two cannot stand each other… so how is it that Henry is finding heart-shaped notes around Lundquist Manor, and why does Frederick feel as if he hears his brother calling "Nat" in his sleep?

Marie Martin Story Arc:

Marie's brother, Frederick, sets her up with an epistolary dating service. As Marie juggles various deaths, she writes to three men, all of which seem wonderful.

Gerald Hughes

Gerald Hughes is hearing three voices: Hera, who criticizes everything he does and everyone he sees; Thor, who finds something to be angry about in the smallest things; and Pluto, who is convinced that Gerald needs to kill people. 

As Gerald is put under house arrest for crimes he didn't mean to commit, he struggles with Hera, Thor, and Pluto— and ultimately himself.

Henry Lundquist

When Celia Lundquist, Ambassador, was murdered, Henry reluctantly became ambassador, hoping fervently that he'd be able to resign just a few months later.

But when the Lundquist Head of House is killed, Henry finds out that he is next in line for the estate. Going from simple man to ambassador to head of house has never been easy, but it's worse for Henry, who has never wanted to be in the spotlight.

He can't possibly abdicate: there's no such thing, and besides, the only other inheritor is a distant cousin so far removed that he's practically on the Martin's side.

To add to his problems, Henry's letter-writing is deteriorating and he's been rejected by one of the women he really thought was the one; his second cousin, Natalie, is fraternizing with the Martin boy, and people are dying, left and right.

James Lundquist

James Lundquist has always been a good leader, even if he is very young. But when his ambassador, and then two other prominent family members are killed, James becomes incensed and storms to Martin Manor to demand one of the largest blood payments in history.

What he doesn't know is that Pluto has been waiting for him… and Gerald is ready to kill.

Jakob Anderson

Jakob Anderson has troubles: his rent is due, his feet hurt, and it's hot enough on the streets to melt a candle. On top of everything, his fiancée, Eleni, is dying.

When he got the Martin-Lundquist column, he thought it was the best day of his life, and one of the best opportunities he could have ever had.

When he trips over a toy on the staircase and falls and breaks his leg, he thinks it's just bad luck: after all, Frederick's been nothing but kindness. But then he gets to his apartment, and he gets kicked out because it's booby-trapped.

And a knife was perilously close to his ear one morning when he woke up.

Suffice it to say, Jakob Anderson can't wait for this story to be over.

Frederick Martin

Frederick has never believed that the blood feud is real: it's just too nonsensical. The beginnings of it have almost been lost in time, but when Frederick finds a little note in his desk that hints at answers to the questions that have been plaguing him, he begins searching for more.

And what he is slowly finding out is that everything he's known is untrue…

The Blood Feud

Many people think that the blood feud started because Thomas Lundquist lost half of his estate to Joshua Martin and then his estate burned down.

But what Frederick is now finding out is that that isn't the whole story…

Interpersed between various points of view from the other characters are the stories of the ancestors: those that were affected by the blood feud, but are now dead.

Please note that this is a sort of master document, and that it may not be clear: in which case, please tell me, so I can fix it!

Jakob Anderson and Secrets of the Houses

With 22 days until take-off, and 37 days until the start of NaNoWriMo, I've realized a couple of things:


(1) Information Overload is Bad.  Why? Because if you overload, you can't concentrate, and your outlines begin to suck, and then you don't learn any psychology. Also, you get stressed. 
(2) My novel is going to be work-intensive. I probably should have realized this when I came up with the story of a blood feud and a minimum word goal of 200,000 words, but I have a talent for not realizing things lately.


And… what have these two realizations come down to?


Well, addressing number one quite quickly, I'll be reviewing my Psychology up until we leave, and then working at that as we're gone. So instead of an enormous amount of pages every day, I'll be reviewing a small amount, and working at it better and more thoroughly. "Overlearning," as it were. And I have grammar down pat; I'll probably finish it before I go to bed tonight.


And, number two: Thanks to ikerrivercast, I have one of my plots nailed down rather well, I must say. And I have one of my characters figured out nicely.
Meet Jakob Anderson, who is a struggling journalist with foot and rent problems. He's been given one of the bigger columns in the Redland Informer, namely to report on the activities and whereabouts of the various members of Lundquist Estate and Martin Estate.
As Jakob starts reporting on the blood feud, he's suddenly drawn in: Frederick Martin uses him to uncover a plot of secrets, Natalie and Grigory use him to carry love notes to each other, and the clairvoyant twins, Roxanne and Rebecca, tell him ghastly stories of the future.
Jakob isn't absolutely sure that he's in trouble, though, until he breaks his leg tripping over a skateboard at Martin Estate, and even then he's not convinced until his landlord kicks him out because Jakob's apartment was booby trapped.
As Jakob tries to keep himself alive, he's dragged around by Frederick Martin, who is convinced that he's found a secret that is fundamental to the blood feud.


And I'll stop there, because 1) I'm not sure exactly what happens next to him, and 2) I might change it, even if I did know.


And now, the estates. Both Martin and Lundquist Estate hold many secrets about the blood feud and about the many family members that have lived in the house at one point or another. Thomas Lundquist, the founder of Lundquist House, has the key to the secret of the blood feud hidden in tubes in the walls. Joshua Martin, the winner of Martin Manor, has his own gambling debts that he'd rather not anyone know about.


One day, Frederick Martin, the current owner of Martin Manor, breaks a wall, and finds a piece of paper that hints at a bigger secret. A secret that Frederick has been wondering about for a while. It doesn't make sense to him, you see, that so many people would be fighting over something that happened nearly two hundred years ago. So he's been wondering… why the blood feud?
And this little piece of paper gives him a hint. When Jakob shows up, Frederick has just found out that a majority of the clues to solving the mystery are in Lundquist House, and he sends Jakob out after them. 
What neither of them feel very comfortable with is that it seems that the houses are watching them, waiting for them to make a mistake, so that they can swallow them up.


Because the secrets the houses are keeping are not the sort the ghosts haunting them seem to want to come out.


I'm looking forward to finding out exactly what the secrets are, and the entire histories of both Martin and Lundquist Estate. In some respects of the story, I know (almost) exactly what's going on, but in others I am clueless.
Like Natalie and Grigory's story. WHAT, exactly, is preventing them from falling desperately in love?
I'll be exploring that later.

Around the World... and MilHalfy... and a Blood Feud

I'm going around the world with my family... as people may or may not know. We leave October 16th, 2011, and should be back January, 2013. We'll be going everywhere, practically, but that's besides the point.

The point is, I'm making up my own little challenge (if 'little' can be used as an adjective for this kind of project), and writing 1,600,000 words in 16 months. I dubbed it MilHalfy, short for Million and a Half. The challenge started on the first of September, and I am happy to say that I am kind of on track. Though perhaps I should be a bit aheader.

Anyway, I have a new story at the moment (Kathy and Co. has been relegated to a "When I can Sort Through This" Pile at the moment-- it should be finished by the end of 2012 though), whose working title is The Blood Feud.

It's about two families, the Martins and the Lundquists, who are engaged in a blood feud, believe it or not. It's going to have a really intricate plot, with a Romeo-Juliet complex, a duel (ending in DEATH), revenge, the paparazzi (for it all takes place in Modern Times-- which is code for I Don't Have Time to Research), online blogs, cellphones, an island in Malta, future-seeing twins, a psychopath murderer kept under wraps, and two ghosts... whose great grandparents invented the blood feud as a sham to propel the families to fame and fortune.

These two ghosts are some of my main characters: George Martin and Arabella Lundquist think they are still alive, and don't think it strange at all that they don't look a day over fifty, even if they're about ninety five each. They are the masterminds of all that has been happening lately with Grigory Martin and Natalie Lundquist (the Romeo-Juliet complex), James Lundquist and Gerald Hughes (the duel), and the twins, Rebecca and Roxanne.

Things would be normal, relatively, if the alive members of the clans knew that the blood feud was a sham, because then things would all be 'made up' and people would live quite comfortably. But it seems that whatever George and Arabella think up actually happens, with catastrophic results.

There's a lot of stuff to look through in this world at the moment, because I quite possibly might suddenly decide to SHIFT it all from modern times into some other world I've been working on, and the psychopath murder could quite possibly simply disappear. I'll probably have a plethora of background info by the time I actually start writing the book, but I'm looking forward to entertainment for quite some time: My word goal for this novel is twice as much as I've ever written: 200,000 words. And that doesn't include the 50,000 words I'm estimating the planning and word-building will take.

After I finish this, I'll probably start work on some of the other novel ideas that have been waiting around, but that got pushed off unceremoniously in favor of The Blood Feud.

First Day In...

The first day in, and I spent... 80% of my time studying for the SAT.

On one hand, dismal scores (I guarantee you that if I checked them over... twice, instead of stopping as soon as I finished the last question, I would have gotten frabjous scores instead.), on the other hand, dismal word count.

I was aiming for 5,000 words, but the scenes seem to be NOT writing themselves, unlike what I was expecting. Which, obviously, was that they would write themselves. They're not. Happily, however, the first scene of NaNoWriMo went 355 words over the goal. (words in outline times 36, i.e. 1044).

It's about the DATE... and Robert is rather strange to Kathy. (the next scene, though, seems to me even worse. XD)

Here's a sneak peek:

Robert showed up at the door that day in his characteristic suit and tie. He was punctual, as usual, and even Lucinda had to smile, albeit grimly, at the nervousness on his face.

"Hmmph." Lucinda said. "You’d think you were proposing to her TODAY, instead of having done it two years ago."

Robert hadn’t a chance to answer before Lucinda turned away from him to call Kathy. Sighing, Robert let himself in as Lucinda shouted up the stairs.

"KATHERINE! Your fiancé is here!"

It was only a moment before Kathy swooped down the velvet-covered stairs with a wide smile, and Robert caught his breath as he surveyed the vision she presented.

Shining dark brown eyes, auburn hair twisted into a bun, diamonds he’d bought for her… one day when they were simply walking and enjoying life… holding hands. It made what he had to do that much worse. Her dress seemed to sparkle, and as she drew closer he realized that it had sequins embroidered on it, the dark green material winking at him as if it knew…

But Robert shook his head to clear it and cleared his throat as Kathy reached the landing.

"You look beautiful." He said as he took her hand in his.

Kathy smiled brightly. "Really? I thought the sequins kind of… off-put it. Don’t you think so, Luce?" she asked, preening herself in the mirror. "My hair never STAYS." She said as a tendril fell from the bun. "Isn’t it terrible?"

"We’re going to be late, Kat." Robert said, looking nervously at his watch.

"Hmmph!" Lucinda said, turning and marching into the kitchen, where she commenced knitting furiously. "You enjoy yourselves!" she shouted from the kitchen, though her tone conveyed exactly what she thought of the business: a load of nonsense.

Kathy chatted about her plan for creating a forcefield around the earth as they entered the car. "You see, Rob, if I trap the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide within a highly dense force field, there really should be no problem with overwarming the Earth in… well I haven’t done the math for THAT yet, but think about it."

Robert nodded distractedly, and Kathy noticed because instead of offering advice— he was usually so good at that— he didn’t seem to be paying attention at all!

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Robert glanced at her as he pulled out of the parking lot. "Of course I am." He said automatically. "I’m absolutely fine."

Kathy rolled her eyes and stared out the window for the rest of the journey, wondering what in the world was wrong with him. Usually they talked and laughed… but today, it was as if something had gone wrong.

"Is there something wrong with one of your assignments?" Kathy asked as Robert stopped the car and tossed the keys to the valet of The Villain, the local villainous restaurant. Robert started— how had she known? And then quickly realized that he shouldn’t. He calmed down almost immediately, but Kathy had realized something, and her eyes narrowed.

"What? No, no, everything’s just fine."

"Have you GOT an assignment?"

"Yes. Er… highly confidential." Robert said, nodding to one of the greenclad doormen. The doorman nodded back and said "Welcome back, Mr. Gr—" Robert pierced him with a gaze as the other, older doorman said hastily. "We hope you’ll enjoy the special tonight." He said, opening the door.

"Thank you." Robert said, handing a small bill to the second doorman.

Robert chanced a glance at Kathy as the entered the dining room. She didn’t seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary, but then again, she was preoccupied with that PLAN of hers… a really brilliant plan— he almost wished he’d thought of it himself.

"We’re here, Kat." He whispered— she’d almost walked right past the table.

"I knew that." She snapped, then shot him a quick smile as she sat down in the chair he’d pulled out.

"Did you know, Rob, that the caterer wants DOUBLE the money? I told him a flat-out ‘no’. If he wanted double the money, I told him, I wanted double the food— we’ll just have to invite double the people. Don’t you think so?"

The waiter came and asked for their orders.

"Er…" Robert said, trying desperately to find something to say.

"He’ll have the chicken parmasiano," Kathy said quickly, "and I’ll have… the…" she skimmed the menu quickly. "Special."

"It has meat in it, Miss."

"So?"

"Nothing, I am merely required to say so." Said the waiter seriously.

"Oh. And… to drink, he’ll have…" she surveyed Robert, realized that he was going to be driving and that he already looked rather woozy, and opened her mouth.

"Ice— ice water." Robert said. "Lots and lots of ice water."

"He'll have the ice water." Kathy said, echoing him, "and I'll have just water— room temperature, please."

When the waiter had left, Kathy stared at him. "What IS wrong with you? Don't tell me it's an assignment— there's something seriously wrong, isn't there? You ALWAYS order the chicken parmasiano."

"Er… w-well, you s-see, Kat, I h-have this problem— and I really d-don't— I really should have written notes for this—"

"Is it about the wedding?"

"K-kind of." Robert said, starting to sweat profusely.

"Really? Because it seems to always be about the wedding. You know what? Let's put the wedding out of our minds and just enjoy the dinner. What's up at work?"

Robert groaned inwardly and tried to deflect the question. "N-not much. Er… tell me about that plan of yours again."

Kathy shot him a look, but she started talking about her plan nonetheless, raising an eyebrow whenever he asked a stupid question, which Robert thought was agonizingly often.

"Robert…" said Kathy after he'd asked another stupid question: ("So… er… what exactly is carbon dioxide?")

"I don't want to say this, but you are obviously suffering for a nervous breakdown. I'LL drive you home and then just WALK." She stood up and called for the waiter.

"Y-you can't do that." Robert said, standing up hurriedly but digging out his wallet just the same.

"Of course I can." Kathy said, leaving as the waiter came up.

"H-here." Robert said, handing the man a hundred dollar bill and chasing after Kathy, who had almost left the restaurant.

He narrowly missed a corpulent, old, diamond-decked lady who aimed and missed at his head with her purse, shot after Kathy, who had now passed the doormen and was waiting for him with an air of extreme impatience. "I need the ticket, Robert." She said.

Robert hastily dug it out of his pocket— one did not argue with Kathy Summers if he wished to keep his body the way it was— and handed it to her silently.

"Here you go." She said, handing it to the valet, who examined it cheerfully and said that the car would be just a minute.

"Now, Rob, you make yourself comfortable and I'll drive you home." She said, removing her high heels and pulling her skirt up so that she could manage the gas pedal.

Robert gave up and leaned back and closed his eyes. It was no use. He'd have to write her a letter.

He nearly crashed through the windshield as Kathy launched out of the restaurant's driveway, but when he shot a shocked glance at her, she was biting her lip and looking carefully at the road.

Deciding against distracting her in case he really DID crash through the windshield, Robert grabbed the handle at the top of the car door and braced himself for any more sudden acceleration.

She parked the car, albeit not too neatly, in his garage, then got out and put on her high heels. "Bye." She said cheerfully as he got up woozily from the car.

"Do you want me to unlock the door for you?" she asked.

"No, no, I'm fine. Are you sure you don't want to take my car?"

"Goodness no, Rob! I'll be fine. It's just a mile."

"You're wearing three inch heels." He pointed out.

"So what? I'll go barefoot. Besides, I need a minute to myself— Lucinda will probably want to know all about tonight." She said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before turning and walking down the street in those ridiculously long heels.

And here's the weird thing. "I Write Like..." says I write like Stephen King. -_^

A Measure of Conflict

It's been done.

I have all the conflicts in the novel planned out. That's right. All of Kathy's, Allegra's, and even... *dadadaaaa* Lucinda's problems are mapped out. Daniel, Robert, and even "Osken" are featured as well, so that the entire novel will actually have a plot and fundamental characters with small quirks-- something none of my other novels have. (It feels nice knowing I'll be able to sit down and edit this one without trembling for fear of falling into a plot hole.)

Of course, now I have to flesh the conflicts out into scenes, but that's simple. I've already got two conflicts into about four scenes, which DEFINITELY means that my book may be overlong... but that's good.

A rather bad part about all this planning is that I have ideas not only for THIS book, but also the prequel and the sequel to it. You see, Kathy Summers has a bit of a history.

My health? Well, typing hasn't started hurting my wrists yet. Much. I'm looking up dares faithfully, finding romantic lines, opening lines, funny lines... basically getting ready to insert as much hilarity and silliness into the book as possible.

I am enjoying myself famously.

NaNoWriMo Approaching!

Yes, I know I'm supposed to be focusing solely on the SAT in November, but my brain (aided and abetted by my head, obviously), is refusing to concentrate on the SAT and is instead darting towards the novel I'll be writing.

It's called Revenge and Grey China, and will, no doubt, be one of the silliest bits of fiction ever written.

The book's synopsis, as featured on NaNoWriMo, is the following:

Kathy Summers, known as Katherine to her mother, has just been dumped. But this isn't just any kind of dumping. This is the kind of dumping when your fiancé of two years suddenly decides he can't handle marrying a member of the Villain Society.

After bawling her eyes out, Kathy decides to exact revenge.

She's got a basic idea: kill off the girlfriend, key the car, blow up the house, punch his face again... but the jig is up when her plans backfire, one by one: first the mega-punch ray malfunctions and starts slapping instead, then the dynamite gets soggy, and lastly, her villain mentor, Lucinda, receives a cat from a secret admirer.

But worst of all, her best friend Allegra is being followed by a love-sick millionaire, who's convinced that he and Allegra are soul mates, no matter how much Allegra hates him.

And we swear on the ex-fiancé's puffy left eye: the lovesickness has NOTHING to do with being hit on the head with Allegra's grey china teapot.

I'm proud to say it's gone through three edits already, most of them for vocabulary and wording. XD

Anyway, the book is divided up mostly between Kathy's story and Allegra's.

I still, of course, have to decide what POV I'll be using, (will it be Kathy or Allegra telling the story? Lucinda, maybe? And... first or third person?)

The REALLY terrible bit, though, is the fact that I am supposed to be outlining the entire thing in preparation for November, and I have no idea how I want the ending to end..

Ah well, that's for later, isn't it?