The Watchers

I've been pulling together the information on 'The Watchers' in the Worlds Apart series so that future references to them can be consistent. I remembered that there were more verses in the Riddle of the Fie, that Grando relates to Bella, than I ended up having in the final version of the first book. While more verses were interesting to me, they slowed the story down for no real payoff so I cut them out.

For anyone who's interested here is the full list of verses, the additional verses are in italics:

Came the host upon our shore,
with lance of light declared they war,
inner bright at once destroyed,
cast adrift in darkened void.

Came the host upon the sky,
Storm of clouds drawing nigh,
Sere the coast with falling fire,
billowing clouds rise ever higher.

Came the host upon the mount,
Numbering beyond our count,
Rent the peaks, blinding eyes,
Fill the ether with their lies.

Came the host upon the sea,
Wave of death no time to flee,
Wall of fire, wall of foam,
Nothing left of hearth and home.

Came the host upon our land,
Blackened earth and glassy sand,
Trees of fire and fields of ash,
Dreams of life gone in a flash.

Came the host ‘pon Watcher’s seat,
with mighty fire they did defeat,
as winked out, the Watcher’s eye,
the host was felled from the sky.

--
A.I. Marin

NaNoWriMo Final Results

NaNoWriMo finished on Monday the 30th of November and I managed a total of 85,066 words on my official word count. I'm pleased with the results of my first time participating, however I believe I can do more words next time.

The plan I had for a story when I started only covered about the first 10k words I'd written. By the end of the first day (7k) I already knew I was in trouble. I had no clear direction to keep writing in. On the second day I spent some time planning and my word count was low but I ended up with enough of a plan to reach over the 50k mark.

Once I hit the goal of 50k on November 15th I relaxed and took it much easier from there. The story I wrote played out just under the 60k words. Rather than go back and add padding that would just slow the story down I worked on book three of the Worlds Apart series and counted those words in my total. It may not be totally legit but I wanted to see how many words I could reach.

I think I should be able to hit 100k if I have a plan for a story that runs to that length and if I keep pushing for the whole thirty days. That's my goal for next year, have a story plan long enough and push for the whole month to try and hit 100k. As a supplementary goal I hope to hit the 50k before day 15 to beat the mark I set this year.

Onward to NaNoWriMo 2016!

A.I. Marin.

NaNoWriMo Success

I achieved 50k words earlier today. I'm very happy with my success so I guess I want to share some of what I've learnt while writing 50k words in 15 days.

When I started, I wanted to go for the pantser badge which is to write without any planning. however I found that I can write a lot faster and more effectively with planning. Not exhaustive planning but simple point form notes about the story and characters.

I've been trying Scrivener for this NaNoWriMo and I've found that I love it. It works very well with my process or at least the process I have for writing fast for Nano. I've also been using the Scapple note taking / roughing out tool for writers, made by the same people who make Scrivener. I find that it also works very well for the way that I think and write. With these two pieces of software and an appropriate set of rough notes on where to take my story I've been able to be more productive than I ever thought I could.

I've found much to my surprise that I can write up to four and a half thousand words after work. That is a volume I just didn't think I could achieve. Now that I know I can achieve more I'm hoping to be more productive in general. Before anyone asks, no I don't get any kickbacks from this software or anything for endorsing them, I've just found they work exceptionally well for me. End. Of. Story.

Here's to more writing ahead but also more planning to make it happen easier and faster.

A.I. Marin.


Links:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple.php

NaNoWriMo Update

It's nearly two weeks into NaNoWriMo and my word count is going well. As of last night (day 11) i was at 35,567 which is a little short of twice the target of 18,333. I'm going to try and catch up to twice the target over the weekend. Overall I'm confident I'll reach 50k by the end of November. I'm actually hoping to reach 80k for a first draft.

I'm writing what i originally intended to be science fiction with an urban fantasy twist but the story has ended up being more like urban fantasy than anything based on science. So for now I'm going to label it Urban Fantasy i might try to bring back more of the science flavour into the story during editing.

For those that are interested, the working title is "Dimensional Parasites". I'm not sure I like it so the title may well change later. The synopsis I listed on the NaNoWriMo site is below.

An accident at a particle accelerator puts physicist Devon Moore in hospital. He wakes up with only partial memories of the accident and a strange woman sitting in his hospital room. She asks what he remembers and offers a warning, someone might come to kill him. She flees when hospital staff enter the room to see to their patient.

Another stranger tries to kill him by tearing him apart but a flash of light intervenes and Devon wakes up in the park outside the hospital in his paper gown and no memory of how he got there. Weak and bleeding he waits on a park bench for his killer to find him again. Instead he is found by a woman in leather and more piercings than a punk rock band. With little choice but to accept the only help that's being offered, Devon climbs on the back of her motorbike.

A small group of conspirators fill him in on what is trying to kill him and how they think he survived. Physicists like Devon believe that string theory unites everything we know about the universe in a mathematical model with eleven dimensions. The accident at the particle accelerator has pushed Devon into the other dimensions, he can see into them and be seen by whatever already lives there. Devon has become a D-Walker of unknown abilities. The parasites from the other dimensions are after him because they sense his powers. Life has changed and this is only the beginning. Devon must survive the parasites and learn to defend himself while a more insidious threat stalks him.

 A.I. Marin.

1st of November, starting NaNoWriMo

It's 8am on Sunday morning the 1st of November. I'm about to start my NaNoWriMo attempt.

I've decided to give Scrivener a go as my writing and editing tool (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/index.php). I've been using MS Word for many years, so I'm kind of curious about other editors and Scrivener is designed with authors in mind. I'm about to start the Interactive tutorial, an investment in time I'm sure will pay off. The better you know your tools, the more you can focus on the task not the tools.

Here goes!

A.I. Marin

NaNoWriMo 2015

Ive signed up for NaNoWriMo for the first time. This November I'll be writing something new from scratch. Doing something new rules out working on book III of the Worlds Apart series, because I already have over 60 thousand words for that.

I've decided to do lighthearted science fiction / Urban Fantasy. More details later but I'm excited to make a start on November 1st.

After November I'll be working on Book III - When Worlds Collide, until I get it finished.

A.I. Marin.

Book II - The Weight of the World

Just a quick note to say that Book II of the Worlds Apart Series is out. To celebrate Book I is free Thursday to Saturday 24th October.

Book I - A World of Difference, available on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/pmlzev6
Book II - The Weight of the World, available on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/nnuqjxg

Book III: When Worlds Collide is in progress.

A.I.Marin.