At 50,000 words (according to my word processor) and 50,004 words (according to the NaNoWriMo word count validator), I crossed the finish line, on November 28th, 2014. My last sentence was "Sir, you're under arrest."
Since NaNoWriMo is over, the schedule will return to a more normal cadence on this blog. Anyone who hasn't yet won: good luck to you this November! Anyone who has won: congratulations! We did it!
All right, well, that was it. Now time to upload the Winner's banner at the top of my blog.
-JW
Friday, November 28, 2014
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Weird Wednesdays: 5 Facts About National Novel Writing Month
All right, well, you readers of my blog know by now that I am participating in NaNoWriMo, and it's Weird Wednesday, so I thought, "Why not combine Weird Wednesday with NaNoWriMo?" So, without further ado, here are five facts about NaNoWriMo.
Monday, November 24, 2014
A NaNoWriMo Pep Talk & My Thoughts on Mockingjay
I'm penning this a few minutes before midnight Monday on the beginning of the fourth and last week of November. I'm here to talk about National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo.
I'm only about 800 words behind as of Sunday, and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. Just keep pounding out words, and you'll make it, if you haven't already. And coffee does help (me, at least). I chug at 8 o'clock and start typing on the nights I'm behind. It also helps to have a really good song on loop. For me that's the Hanging Tree song from Mockingjay Part One.
Yes, I watched it; I'll give my spoiler-free review in just a paragraph or two. Right now I'm talking about NaNoWriMo. I'm here to tell you that Week Four is like the climax of your novel. It's when you sprint for all you're worth, staying up all night to bang out those words on your poor, overused keyboard, using your momentum to churn out words like a boss.
Whether you're at 0k, 20k, or 40k, you can still make it this week. Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing. Cling to writing. This month, you are your novel. You must complete yourself by getting the dang thing over with. Revision can wait; homework can wait (if it really really has to; I don't advise skimping on it though); TV can wait; laundry can wait. Just write until you're up to your eyes in the piled filth of your messy room. Write until your brain cramps and starts having fits of delirium. Write until your eyes bleed and then keep writing (don't actually do this; if your eyes start bleeding seek medical assistance immediately).
Writing isn't an act of leisure. It's an act of bravery, of hard work. It's your job this month. You're stuck with your novel until you reach 50K. Then you're done. No one even cares if you revise it or you just move on to the next project or you just decide never to write a book again. You did it, this once, and that's what matters.
Sprint to the finish line with me, folks. Win NaNoWriMo.
-JW
Now my short, spoiler-free review of Mockingjay Part One.
It was the best movie in the series, people. Okay? It was freaking great. Not much action, but it was even better because of that. It dealt with PTSD, war crimes, morality, propaganda, lots of great issues, and still packed it into an entertaining, enrapturing film. It was great. Really heavy on the darkness though. Just warning you. And having read the books, I can promise you it only gets darker in Part 2. Mwahahaha.
I'm only about 800 words behind as of Sunday, and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. Just keep pounding out words, and you'll make it, if you haven't already. And coffee does help (me, at least). I chug at 8 o'clock and start typing on the nights I'm behind. It also helps to have a really good song on loop. For me that's the Hanging Tree song from Mockingjay Part One.
Yes, I watched it; I'll give my spoiler-free review in just a paragraph or two. Right now I'm talking about NaNoWriMo. I'm here to tell you that Week Four is like the climax of your novel. It's when you sprint for all you're worth, staying up all night to bang out those words on your poor, overused keyboard, using your momentum to churn out words like a boss.
Whether you're at 0k, 20k, or 40k, you can still make it this week. Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing. Cling to writing. This month, you are your novel. You must complete yourself by getting the dang thing over with. Revision can wait; homework can wait (if it really really has to; I don't advise skimping on it though); TV can wait; laundry can wait. Just write until you're up to your eyes in the piled filth of your messy room. Write until your brain cramps and starts having fits of delirium. Write until your eyes bleed and then keep writing (don't actually do this; if your eyes start bleeding seek medical assistance immediately).
Writing isn't an act of leisure. It's an act of bravery, of hard work. It's your job this month. You're stuck with your novel until you reach 50K. Then you're done. No one even cares if you revise it or you just move on to the next project or you just decide never to write a book again. You did it, this once, and that's what matters.
Sprint to the finish line with me, folks. Win NaNoWriMo.
-JW
Now my short, spoiler-free review of Mockingjay Part One.
It was the best movie in the series, people. Okay? It was freaking great. Not much action, but it was even better because of that. It dealt with PTSD, war crimes, morality, propaganda, lots of great issues, and still packed it into an entertaining, enrapturing film. It was great. Really heavy on the darkness though. Just warning you. And having read the books, I can promise you it only gets darker in Part 2. Mwahahaha.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Mad Mondays: NaNoWriMo Update (Week 2)
If you look to the right, you'll see my word count meter. I'm nearly on target, but it seems I'm floundering a little.
Which is fine. I'm treading water and preparing to catch up soon. National Novel Writing Month, 2014, has been exciting so far!
First, it's my first time writing a mystery novel. Never mind that my plot is not suspenseful in any way, shape, or form, and that my characters are blander than brick walls--it's still been really fun so far. A step outside of the Science Fiction/Fantasy biosphere has proved to be a great step. It helps improve my writing and show me untold possibilities about what I can write.
Second, I haven't written fiction in bulk for quite a few months, and this is helping me get back on track to writer-dom.
Now, let's talk about Week Two. It always gets a bad rap from WriMos, specifically because it tends to be the week in which a lot of writers lose their will, their gumption, their motivation. To me, it's my week of epiphany. Week One is always dull and boring, an uninspired pile of drivel written to propel myself forward until the end. I start thinking, "This is a great concept!" but from the first page, I know it's going to be crap. But I write anyway, and inevitably, at the end of Week One I slack off. But then Week Two happens. I have to catch up and the fight or flight instinct kicks in and I find myself sprinting back to the goal line to slam the ball into the net. With the bulk of writing I'm doing to catch up, I grant myself new inspiration. My characters grow. I realize the concept, not in the mind, but on the page (well, word processor, not page).
And from then on, NaNoWriMo is pretty easy for me. Even now, I'm having more fun than in all of Week One. My advice is: let yourself give up, but then come back and try to catch up as hard as you can. Unless you're one of those people who's already over 20,000 words by Day 8. To those people, I have one thing to say: You are crazy mutant lizard aliens.
-JW
Which is fine. I'm treading water and preparing to catch up soon. National Novel Writing Month, 2014, has been exciting so far!
First, it's my first time writing a mystery novel. Never mind that my plot is not suspenseful in any way, shape, or form, and that my characters are blander than brick walls--it's still been really fun so far. A step outside of the Science Fiction/Fantasy biosphere has proved to be a great step. It helps improve my writing and show me untold possibilities about what I can write.
Second, I haven't written fiction in bulk for quite a few months, and this is helping me get back on track to writer-dom.
Now, let's talk about Week Two. It always gets a bad rap from WriMos, specifically because it tends to be the week in which a lot of writers lose their will, their gumption, their motivation. To me, it's my week of epiphany. Week One is always dull and boring, an uninspired pile of drivel written to propel myself forward until the end. I start thinking, "This is a great concept!" but from the first page, I know it's going to be crap. But I write anyway, and inevitably, at the end of Week One I slack off. But then Week Two happens. I have to catch up and the fight or flight instinct kicks in and I find myself sprinting back to the goal line to slam the ball into the net. With the bulk of writing I'm doing to catch up, I grant myself new inspiration. My characters grow. I realize the concept, not in the mind, but on the page (well, word processor, not page).
And from then on, NaNoWriMo is pretty easy for me. Even now, I'm having more fun than in all of Week One. My advice is: let yourself give up, but then come back and try to catch up as hard as you can. Unless you're one of those people who's already over 20,000 words by Day 8. To those people, I have one thing to say: You are crazy mutant lizard aliens.
-JW
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Throwback Thursdays: The Fisherman
Welcome, readers, to Inkweb! It's Throwback Thursday, and today's poem from another century is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "The Fisherman." Enjoy (or don't, and comment telling me why).
The Fisherman
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The water rushed, the water swelled,
A fisherman sat by,
And gazed upon his dancing float
With tranquil-dreaming eye.
And as he sits, and as he looks,
The gurgling waves arise;
A maid, all bright with water drops,
Stands straight before his eyes.
She sang to him, she spake to him:
"My fish why dost thou snare,
With human wit and human guile,
Into the killing air?
Couldst see how happy fishes live
Under the stream so clear,
Thyself would plunge into the stream,
And live for ever there.
"Bathe not the lovely sun and moon
Within the cool, deep sea,
And with wave-breathing faces rise
In twofold witchery?
Lure not the misty heaven-deeps,
So beautiful and blue?
Lures not thine image, mirrored in
The Fresh eternal dew?
The water rushed, the water swelled,
It clasped his feet, I wis'
A thrill went through his yearning heart,
As when two lovers kiss!
She spake to him, she sang to him:
Resistless was her strain;
Half drew him in, half lured him in;
He ne'er was seen again.
Monday, November 3, 2014
Weird Wednesdays: 5 Facts About The Lord of the Rings
Welcome to Inkweb! Today is Wednesday, which means 25 Facts! Today's topic is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. By this, I really mean The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. Obviously, the following contains spoilers. I repeat:
The Following Contains SPOILERS for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, & The Silmarillion! Beware!
Click below to read on. You have been warned.
Mad Mondays - When Robots Attack
One of my favorite theories for the end of humanity is the idea that robots will gain artificial intelligence and conquer the human race. Of course, this is highly unlikely, but an interesting concept, one that has been explored through years in all different sorts of media. I've compiled a list of movies, comics, TV shows, and books that concern what would happen when robots attack, so to speak. Let's start the countdown!
#5: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (and the movie)
Just about no one has never heard of HAL, the rogue computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
#4: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (and the Marvel comics)
Ultron is a perfect example of a rogue AI. From the Marvel comics and in the upcoming movie Age of Ultron, he is deeply malevolent toward humanity.
#3: Blade Runner
Harrison Ford stars as the blade runner, working in the future to take down rogue AIs known as replicants, who appear human.
#2: The Matrix
In The Matrix, robots have taken control of humanity, enslaving them in a dream world known as the Matrix, and using their life force to power robokind.
#1: Battlestar Galactica (the newer series)
Battlestar Galactica is a TV show about what happens when a society that has already won a war against robots (the Cylons) has to face them again, in smarter, deadlier form. In this series, the different models of the Cylons either appear robotic or human, but the problem is that there's no way to find out if someone is a human-model Cylon or not.
So that's it for Mad Monday! Please note that The Matrix and Blade Runner are rated R. :)
-JW
#5: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (and the movie)
Just about no one has never heard of HAL, the rogue computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
#4: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (and the Marvel comics)
Ultron is a perfect example of a rogue AI. From the Marvel comics and in the upcoming movie Age of Ultron, he is deeply malevolent toward humanity.
#3: Blade Runner
Harrison Ford stars as the blade runner, working in the future to take down rogue AIs known as replicants, who appear human.
#2: The Matrix
In The Matrix, robots have taken control of humanity, enslaving them in a dream world known as the Matrix, and using their life force to power robokind.
#1: Battlestar Galactica (the newer series)
Battlestar Galactica is a TV show about what happens when a society that has already won a war against robots (the Cylons) has to face them again, in smarter, deadlier form. In this series, the different models of the Cylons either appear robotic or human, but the problem is that there's no way to find out if someone is a human-model Cylon or not.
So that's it for Mad Monday! Please note that The Matrix and Blade Runner are rated R. :)
-JW
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