NaNoWriMo - I'm digging this story
Best laid plans...
I'm only 12K words into my NaNoWriMo story... barely what I had scheduled for the first week's worth but I can't really blame myself, been super busy with work and pregnancy stuff and just being a house dad for the most part, making the effort to slip into the role and be ready come January.
The story has undergone some revisions, bouncing ideas off Mrs. Preggo. I shouldn't be surprised but I somehow still manage to be. There's really nothing like getting feedback from someone who knows you and how your mind works. I really like the twist that came about from the late night discussions with my wife. I keep talking and she just asks questions, inadvertently poking holes in the story, making me think about fixes and really shepherding me into a tighter narrative.
My writing group bailed. Utter desertion. I really need to find a local group.
I'm leaning towards hitting that 17K limit for WoF submissions, but I get the feeling I'm going to blow past it (if I really sit down and do it). But I might submit an abridged version in that case.
Since the mind won't stop just because I should be doing other things... I've been jotting down some recent nightmares I've been having. Most of them sound like writing prompts but here's one I think works as a paragraph story.
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Do not stare into the doll's eyes. The creature that looks back at you will pull you into its world and feast on your soul piece by piece until you can no longer do anything contrary to its will. Forgive me.
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Yeah... sounds like a 2 am writing prompt. Haha. The dream was literally a creepy closed off room (like in Metallica's Unforgiven video... god, I'm old.) with a creepy old man and a doll's face embedded into one of the walls. When I looked into its eyes they were real eyes staring back at me and I was pulled into some sort of other dimensional space thingie that was dark and horrible and full of pain and I felt myself being gnawed at. Then I heard the old man's voice. And I woke up.
It was quite unpleasant.
I read the requirements to get into Sanderson's writing class at BYU, not that I'm thinking of going (although it would be cool, it's just not in the cards). It's pretty intimidating. Finish at least two novels, chapter submission, essay and questions. Gotta get cracking and make time for writing.
I started reading Mary Robinette Kowal's "Ghost Talkers" it's been pretty good so far! Only about a third of the way into it. I like her style a lot and am looking forward to picking up more of her stuff. I really enjoyed her story in the Shadows Beneath anthology.
I took my usual fantasy break when I finished Brent Week's 4th Lightbringer book, which was... like... the best way I can contextualize the feelings I was left with is The Empire Strikes Back. At the end, you know, folks are battered and bruised, things aren't really alright, our heroes took a hit.. and we can't wait to see what happens next. I'm really loving this series.
I was sorely tempted to dive right back in either with Jim Butcher's new series or Michael Sullivan's but those are just the first books in probably 5 each... I'm torn. Currently the series I'm in the middle of are:
Sanderson's Stormlight Archive
Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (of course)
Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle
Week's Lightbringer
Lynch's Gentleman Bastards
Well's John Cleaver
Sanderson's Mistborn
Sanderson's Rithmatist
I'm hesitant to get into yet another epic series... particularly since there's all the ongoing series that have standalone books, right?
Butcher's Dresden Files
Correia's Monster Hunter International
Rollin's Sigma Force
Preston & Child's Gideon Crew
Preston & Child's Pendergast (although I'm a bit fatigued on Pendergast)
And of course the other 144 books on my 'To Read' list on Goodreads...
I usually use one of the thriller series as palate cleanser between epic fantasy books/series, and I did so recently with the latest Pendergast book and now with Ghost Talkers but I can feel my will crumbling to resist peeking at Butcher and Sullivan's new series.. I was lucky because both Codex Alera and Ryiria Revelations + Chronicles were done when I picked them up...
eh... what's another decade waiting for books?...
- Chair!