Day Twelve Report

20k, for great justice! I’m flying now. Currently standing at 20027, and boy, it feels good. And I’m pretty early tonight, too, which means I could probably polish off another couple hundred words to be ahead for tomorrow.

Some more serious plot movement going on–today Anabelle learned about the magical competition for students that will take up the final portion of the novel, and is already formulating plans to A) use it as sweet vengeance, B) defy odds and get together a team from her school that will beat the schools that draw mostly kids with superior talent and C) manipulate one of her teachers into coaching the whole thing.

I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of Anabelle’s character. In the first two chapters or so she just felt kind of limp, and a little too introverted, but now she’s shrieking and holding grudges and manipulating people and making diabolical but actually plausible revenge plots and being completely and utterly delusional.

A couple samples:

Day Ten Report

Week two now in full swing, and I still managed to get my desired wordcount (standing at 16705) despite having only 15 minutes of free time with my laptop before 9:45 pm. Nice. Not quite as ahead as I’d like, but at least I’m on pace, and have one less thing hanging over my head.

Found interesting new technique: diary entries. I tried to avoid having Anabelle rehash the whole last two chapters, but instead went a bit deeper into her thoughts on them, and added a new layer of pretentious and holier-than-thou. A small portion of the entry:

The food is… edible, but… Anabelle paused to think about what she ought to mention next. She wanted it to sound good, of course. This could someday be used for archival purposes in teaching young children about the early years of Anabelle Emitan the Great. Nothing too embarassing. It should be true of course — but a few embellishments probably wouldn’t be disputed if her memoirs ever went to print.

Really, she’s just a bit ticked that her roommate still hasn’t let her back into their room, even though they had a nice heart-to-heart. Although in actuality, she’s just assuming that the door’s still locked–it actually isn’t, and she’s just assumed it is because her mattress was still out in the hallway. And she’s going to be out there for twelve more days before she realizes that she’s actually not locked out. Ouch.

Day Five Report, Part II

Six o’ clock and I’m already ahead on wordcount! 8454, boo-yah. This is a-ma-zing. Maybe I can write some tonight and then manage to go really far tomorrow. If I can get to 11000 tomorrow, that would be awesome. (Leeway is good. I like leeway.)

I’m surprised–I’ve been turning out decent-sized chapters, which doesn’t happen a lot. I generally struggle to get them more than 1200 words, but I’m writing 2500+ per chapter consistently.

Also, I didn’t post a snippet yesterday, I think, so here’s a really big one! I like this part, I think Anabelle’s character shines through here. I often have trouble writing her because she’s so different from me, but I think I got her here.

Just squeaked by…

But still managed the word quota for the third day in a row. 4863, even if I did have to stay up until midnight. Pretty good for not being able to write barely at all during the day, too, and spending most of my free time at school doing layout coding.

Snippet of the day:

In fact, she [Anabelle] could barely remember the shy, mousy, six-year-old Filiana that she’d met at a state dinner once upon a time. Anabelle, perplexed by the younger girl’s silence, had badgered and bothered her until Filiana spoke at last, if only to tell her to please shut up and stop pestering me if you know what’s good for you, my daddy is an advisor to the King and he can get your head chopped off. Not put off in the least and realizing something they had in common, Anabelle had, as any well-trained lady would, used the opening to start a conversation.
Well, sort of. If a proper conversation opener involved anything like oh yeah, well my daddy is one of the King’s advisor’s too, and he’s also the most powerful mage in the Kingdom, so you’d better be the one watching your step! and No, my daddy’s a better mage! No, mine!

I keep trying to make Anabelle into an introvert, and she’s supposed to be an extrovert. Augh. This, this is why I write characters that share a lot of characteristics with me. They’re easier to write.

Day Two Report

2800 words down, 493 words to go for today’s quota, and I think I may very well manage it! The story’s finally picking up, and Anabelle’s developing some personality. I’m excited about having her interact with more of the other characters, though–most of the first few chapters have her working alone. I just sort of have to work on channeling Tamaki-sempai, Renge and Regina George all at once.

Amusing snippet for today:

Abruptly, she sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and strode to the door, putting a hand on the handle. Taking a deep breath, she thought, I am strong. I am talented, clever, and intelligent. I can handle anything the world throws at me. She opened the door.
“What do you mean we’re practically bankrupt?!” her mother screeched downstairs. “We spent it all–”
Anabelle shut the door again. Maybe it wasn’t quite time to start handling everything.