Mad Mondays: The Blog Awakens

Welcome, readers.
So the new Star Wars trailer looks awesome, just gotta throw that out there. But anyway, I'm not going to talk about it, there's not much about it that I want to say, except that I'm super pumped for the movie.

Anyway, this Mad Monday is kind of special because it's the first Mad Monday after NaNoWriMo, and also conveniently coincides with the first week of Advent. Just as the church year (for some of us; depends what church calendar you're following) begins at the end of November, my blog sorta does the same thing. NaNoWriMo is like the end of the blog year. So, I want to start this year off strong, with regular content, cute plushies, giant bananas of death, glow-in-the-dark blankets, and cheese.

Thank you for reading!

-JW

P.S. Everybody remember the postman (christened Ted by Hyperlinkzer)? Well, guess what, he's coming back. Weekly challenge will be for you guys to find him on my blog. I'll hide him somewhere new every Mad Monday. Winner might get a reward of some kind, I'm not sure what yet. Anyway, I've hidden him somewhere on the website for this week! Search the blog, ye readers. Find Ted and comment with his location.

I WON NANOWRIMO!!!!

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

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.

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.

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

I'm back--hopefully for good. Announcements/Updates

So, yeah. Inkweb has kinda been thrown by the wayside for a while now, while I've been focusing on NaNoWriMo, Iron Wyvern, and life in general. But I'm back and I'll be following my schedule a bit more regularly than before.

So, before I begin in earnest, a few announcements/updates:

1. I've got a dog!!!
His name is Oliver, he's a Boston Terrier mix, and I got him around the beginning of summer. Anyway, I just had to tell everyone.

2. The schedule will be changing very soon.
Please bear with me as I get back into my stride. Blogging regularly requires a lot of work. I'll post schedule updates as I figure them out.

3. I'm no longer that much of a pantser. I will soon be changing my Pantser logo and replacing it with a Planner logo. (I have no idea how long I'll be a Planner, I may flip-flop at some point.)

That's about it for this post. Thanks for sticking around if you already kept track of Inkweb. If you're a new visitor, thanks for visiting and I hope you come back soon!

(Almost) A NaNoWriMo Kickoff!

I'm here at midnight to bring you an exclusive NaNoWriMo kickoff post! I've got my stockpile of candy and YouTube videos while I wait. This post is going to be a journal post. As I begin typing, it's 10:05 p.m. Central Standard Time. I've just eaten a piece of candy, and now I'll go surf the web for thirty minutes.

...

10:32 p.m. CST. Getting tired, actually. Do I still want to stay up until midnight? Gonna watch some more videos.

...

10:51 p.m. CST. Ugh, I want to go to sleep! I shouldn't have stayed up last night, then I'd be refreshed for NaNoWriMo. Oh well. But I'm only an hour away...

Okay, I'm going to bed. November is almost here, 'tis the season for writing like crazy. Night.
-JW

Announcement: November Noveling

Okay, readers of Inkweb, I have, on the spur of the moment, at the flip of a coin, at the roll of a die, decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month is quite fun, and although I do not have the faintest inkling of an idea what to write, it will still be fun to try. I've completed it once before, and also Camp NaNoWriMo, which was the more successful time of the two.

However, readership, I will not abandon you! My schedule will remain largely the same, except for one small detail:

DURING THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, I WILL NOT BE POSTING SHORT STORIES.

Well, that's the major change for the month. I will still post HyperLinkzer's suggested story this Saturday, November 2nd. I will still be posting cat monologues and fact lists and poems, and, of course, mad things (maybe even novel excerpts) on Mondays. But I will not be posting on Saturdays this month.

Toodles!

-JW

Camp NaNoWriMo - Mission Successful!

I have succeeded at Camp NaNoWriMo! I wrote a grand total of 60,931 words this month, with an additional 20,000 before the month began to bring the novel's word count up to...drumroll please...

80,931 WORDS!!!!!!!!

And it turns out I got my word goal just right! At that exact amount of words, I finished the first draft of my novel. And now, to unveil the TITLE!

Broken Thief: The Taskforce, #1

WORD WAR!!! Camp NaNoWriMo

Aye, me buckaroos! I be doin' the NaNoWriMo this yarr month! But it be bein' no pirate book, arr! Nay, 'tis me stupid accent t'at's gettin' ye all riled up fer a pirate book. Nae way! 'Tis sigh fie! What mysteryful science coul' be made inturr fiction, I nae know, but 'tis!

That's right. I'm writing a science fiction novel this July for Camp NaNoWriMo. It's the beginning of a trilogy of epic galactic adventures featuring my main character, whose name is Mr. TOP SECRET! That's right, I'm not telling you, because his real name is actually part of a plot point. Crazy, right? Kinda like Doctor Who, or James Bond. James Bond, because when he says his name, we know he's going to be ordering a martini soon, and if he doesn't say his name is "Bond. James Bond" in the movie, then it isn't a real James Bond movie, right? And Doctor Who because, well, duh! Doctor who?

So, I'm writing and writing, and I wrote 9,000 words yesterday! Woo-hoo! Now, I'm going to be gone for the next few days, up in Missouri where the Cardinals play (whoop; I love baseball) and the sun shines all day. Forget this Oklahoma nonsense. Anyway, while I'm gone, I want to instigate a word war challenge thingymabob!

WORD WAR CHALLENGE THINGYMABOB!!!

WRITE!!! Write anything you want, and write as much as you can. Then, on Monday, comment with your word count, and I'll make an announcement with the rankings, as well as word count from now till then. Okay? Let's do it.

This is a contest, but only if you want it to be. You can be competitive and try to beat my word count (trust me, guys; you won't :P ever.) but the main point of this contest is to have fun, write, and maybe even learn something while we're at it.

WORD WAR BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out Joel's essay on the Holy Worlds Blog:
http://www.holyworlds.org/blog/?p=1338

Song 2

The title of this post will seem completely unconnected to anything I'm writing about hereafter, but trust me, it is. It's connected with how I got the inspiration for the plot of my July novel.

Yes, I am participating in the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I know I told T. Granger, one of my followers here on Inkweb and a good friend, and Z. Baner, also a good friend and follower of this blog through JTZ Baner, that I would be waiting until November to put into action my very first novel of this genre, but inspiration struck, and, well, when the muse takes hold, it can get very hard to wait for the right moment to put pen to paper, face to desk, fingers to keyboard, plot bunny to burrowing, brother to bed, and mind to the task. Not necessarily in that order.

So, I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo. What's that? You looked up my blog, you can look up NaNoWriMo. So there. I've posted the links several times and I'm not going to do it this time. So open a new tab, look it up, and then read on.

Anyway, for my July 2013 project, I am going to write my very first science fiction novel. I believe the genre I will be writing in will not properly qualify as space opera, seeing as it only has a few main characters, a few not-necessarily-so-bad-after-all bad guys, no gigantic space armadas, and tons of nachos. Also, no Sith Lords. But it involves space travel, lots of planets throughout the galaxy, and stereotypically cannibalistic tribal warriors, as of my thoughts so far.

As a special sneak peek, I'll tell you a little bit of what I've thought out so far. It involves a man named (blank) who is on the run from (blank) and happens to find a young companion named (blank) on the way, who comes along with him to help on his quest to (blank), along the way being shot at, flung across the galaxy, trapped in the airlock, and declared the god of death by a bunch of stereotypically cannibalistic tribal warriors, not to mention flying through asteroid fields and all that good stuff. I've got a few details to sketch in, but I've got half a month to do it, and then the writing starts. So what am I telling you this for? You can help me along the way.

I need a character. This character is a galactic police officer and needs to be a compelling character. So, here's what I need:

• Name for said police officer (along with gender; plus, he/she has to be human, so make it reasonable)
• Planet of origin for said police officer
• Description of planet of origin for said police officer (he/she has to be human, though, so make it inhabitable)
• Description of said police officer (i.e. height, skin color, etc.)
• Quirky small fact about police officer's likes/dislikes

Got it? I'll pick my favorite and announce whose answer I've picked in an upcoming announcement. Get your answer to me by email: smiling_pint@yahoo.com

Joel out. *static crackles*

Announcement: Concerning Camp NaNoWriMo

www.nanowrimo.org

www.campnanowrimo.org

During the month of April, I fought a long and arduous struggle with several powerful dark creatures: Writer's Block (Wielder of the Blank Page and Evil Overlord of the Slowly Shifting Word Count), Distraction (That Dancing Llama at the corner of your eye who entices you with cotton candy and cookies, only to destroy your whole manuscript when you approach in hopes of treats), School (I won't even go into that; suffice it to say it impeded my word count very much), Despair (at the meager size of my word count), and, perhaps worst of all, Sickness. I came down with some bad poison ivy, coupled with a fever, around the second week of the month.

Any fellow Wrimos out there know how important the second week is. You can catch up on the first week, but if you don't stay on track for the second, it all falls to pieces. I still managed to write quite a lot (I was aiming for 75K, and I cranked out enough to put me in position to conquer 50K). But after my second week, I basically gave up, and only managed about 3000 more the rest of the month.

I have won NaNoWriMo before, last November in fact. But Camp NaNoWriMo, the April session at least, was not in my destiny. I had several essays and projects to write in school, as well as the dreaded ALGEBRA, worst of all horrors, so that when I came home I was exhausted by the time I finished homework. All these factors I've mentioned combined to beat me to a pulp this April. I only managed 30K the whole month. Which isn't bad, considering the obstacles. But it's still far short of the intended goal.

However, in July, I will try again, and there won't be school to impede me. Hopefully, I'm healthy, too. The phoenix will rise again!

Announcement: Camp NaNoWriMo

Welcome to Inkweb! I've decided to post about my experience so far of Camp NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo, to those who don't know, stands for National Novel Writing Month and is a non-profit organization devoted to getting your novel written. National Novel Writing Month takes place in November and is a challenge for you to write 50,000 words in a month.

Camp NaNoWrimo is part of the NaNoWrimo project, taking place in other months of the year. Note: It is not a real camp, it's only online. For this one, the target word count doesn't have to be 50,000 words, it can be anywhere from 10,000 words to 999,999 words (although I do not recommend the latter option) and it doesn't have to be a novel, it can be short fiction, nonfiction, a script, or whatever you choose.

I decided to participate in the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo and floor the accelerator, taking my novel's word count to 75000 words, which is turning out to be harder than I thought. Currently I'm about four thousand words behind but that's not the worst I've been and I think I've got it in me to come back. I believe my whole month will be like a surging tide: I'll write like crazy and get up to the target, and then be exhausted and take a break to do other things like school and fall behind about 5000 words before writing my way back into the game. AAAAGGGGHHHH. I'm feeling exhausted already, and it's only the end of week 1.

On top of that, I lost my flash drive so I don't have a big chunk of my writing from the last few days. I've continued in a different document but it's weird not having half my project. I hope I can find my flash drive and add in everything else to the document before the end of the month.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from the part of my novel that I haven't managed to lose, incinerate, or crush under a tractor:

"The city of Brasilia was packed. Alabaster buildings were stuck so close together that in some places the road wasn’t quite as big as the Jeep; pedestrians and bikers were everywhere on the road, and sometimes there would be a fruit vendor squatting with his fruit stand right in the middle of the road.

Birds were everywhere, in every nook or cranny known to man. There were bright colorful birds obviously from that region, and there were darker colored, less vibrant ones as well; they perched on poles and wires, they flocked together on windowsills and bicycles; they filled the air with an incessant flapping noise that stirred up the air into a miniscule whirlwind of currents. Feathers fell through the air like snow, adorning the ground in great green, red, yellow, black piles. There were parrots and parakeets, macaws, a hawk or two hovering high overhead, but the crows gave by far the most clear impression. They were giants, black hulks crouching on telephone poles in groups of about two or three, never a whole murder all together at once, but definitely sticking to each other. While the other birds frolicked, these black-beaked birds sat silently like dark angels staring at the children of light."

-J.W. Ball, In the Trappings of Lost Gold

And, JTZ, please don't spoil the ending in the comments. I didn't even want you to know the ending for this, but you looked at my notes anyway, so, oh well.

Please visit Iron Wyvern and Coal Ridge, everybody! Links here:

www.ironwyvern.blogspot.com

www.ancientryme.blogspot.com

And don't forget to answer the poll at the top right!

NaNoWriMo 2012

Dear Readership,

It pleases me to announce that I have completed National Novel Writing Month, for the first time in my life! I have a total of 50,127 words so far, and even though I've beaten my goal, I still have plenty of loose ends to tie up still, so it will probably be around 60,000 to 70,000 words when I'm done with it. I am planning to self-publish it on the Kindle.

Now that I've written it, I should be able to post more of Inspector Wolfe. Yay!