2012 NaNoWriMo Winner

It feels pretty good to have crossed that winning-line, even if the last 2000 words were entirely world-building in nature.

I found myself left with a situation where I'd completed Poisonroot and certainly didn't want to ADD anything. I couldn't count words I edited out, so I decided to add some world-building ideas that will find their way onto this blog in good time.

However, my laptop is announcing that my time is short battery-wise, so I will simply post my stats and my winner stamp and be done with it!

I love the acceleration. I'm fairly sure I didn't write a massive chunk on Day 10, but instead failed to update it in time before midnight rolled around.

From the beginning I had flu, so that explains how far behind I was to begin with.

Towards the end: Acceleration! I was a few dozen words over the par every day from about 17 onwards, but it didn't really show until day 25.

Here's my winner's stamp!

And with that, good night!

Poisonroot - Epilogue

A text completely without swearing or sex. One with a solid story arc, a couple of slightly smaller ones, a secondary character with a viewpoint that we see occasionally and a solid set of characters.

I am fairly pleased with this. I hope you've enjoyed it. Please let me know either way! I value my readers beyond all else.

Update: Changed the names on the brothers grim. Seemed a bit awkward. Originally they were Prime, Second, Tertes, Quad and Quinary. Now they're Prime, Secundus, Tertius (still not sure on that one, but Tertes sounds too awkward and Tertia sounds like a girl's name), the recently-deceased Quadra and Quinary. Let me know what you think.

Poisonroot - Chapter 29

Oh my goodness.

It's finished. It's finally finished. Now, a corollary to that; NaNoWriMo is very much NOT finished yet. I am ahead of par, to the extent where I could, in fact, take a day off. I won't, of course; that would be stupid. But I'll be writing something completely different for the last couple of days of NaNo because Poisonroot is DONE.

The last chapter... I'm proud of it. I'm not often pleased with my writing, but Victor's character has started to change in so many subtle little ways. I think he's still a bit of a bastard under the surface, but it's more that he's starved of contact with other people, or he's deliberately starved himself. Forced to communicate daily with Trip and Lauren, things have changed for him.

Anyway. A sequel is definitely coming.

Enjoy! I know I have.

By the bye; ALL of Poisonroot is in First Draft status. The editing needs to start soon, and then it will be time to think about trying to publish this. At that point, unfortunately, all the posts will need to come down, or at least be denuded of their Poisonroot content.

So, enjoy it while it lasts. The edit won't be coming up on here to save me time, though I plan to still post on here.

Poisonroot - Chapter 28

So I can finally add the missing chapter of Poisonroot, the one I wrote when I was having mild writer's block. It detailed the aftermath of the fight, and was another Interlude chapter... except this time it isn't an interlude.

This is essentially the start of chapters that are Anila-centric but are not interludes from the main action. I foresee a sequel to this (am, in fact, already planning a sequel to this) where Anila is a main character with her own POV chapters, alternating with Trip.

Anila is a wonderful character, with great motivations and a real mystery surrounding her. Who is, or was, her father? Is she some sort of experiment gone wrong or a real human child? Will she be able to find Victor and Trip, or will something else come up?

Find out in Tangleroot, starting soon!

There's at least one more chapter of Poisonroot to get down first, though, and an epilogue. And, of course, a NaNoWriMo to win!

Poisonroot - Chapter 27

Whooooooooooo! Epic fight scene is epic! Ok, so I listened to almost the entire Portal 2 soundtrack (Songs to test by) while writing this. It's actually really good for writing epic scenes. Lots of electronica-assisted soaring orchestral riffs.

This is quite a wonderfully epic scene for me and it's already got me thinking about how I can top it in the future. Tricky stuff. My inspiration for the Hork-construct monster is part Chernabog from Disney's Fantasia, part 18 colossus from Shadow of the Colossus and a healthy dose of body-horror from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

PAM is entirely grown from the D&D campaign. Thanks guys!

Poisonroot - Chapter 26

Almost done, I think! Can things get any worse for Trip and company? Rennin swoops in the save the day and Sabir kicks ass, but will it be enough?

Poisonroot - Chapter 25

Chapter 25, and the end is in sight for Trip, Lauren and Victor! What surprises await them? How will they deal with this new threat? What is High Father Hork going to do now that he has his own personal army?

Find out in the thrilling conclusion, over the next few days!

Side note: I had real trouble not having Victor swearing in this. I'm tryin' t'keep it fam'ly friendly, I'm guessin'.

Listened to nearly all of the Final Fantasy XI soundtrack while I wrote this at 10pm at night and I got told off for getting Sue and Chippy 'right in the feels!'

Me too, y'know. Spent a lot of time in that world, and learned a lot about worldbuilding from it!

Poisonroot - Chapter 24

Ok! So I can share a post now, as the last two were either plot from after the current canon or background-related info.

I kind of had trouble moving on after the last chapter. It's taken me most of three days to write Trip and co. away from the cozy semi-safety they were in at Lord Rennin's. Poor Trip; he's not had a pleasant time of it recently, and things are only going to get worse.

I've been reviewing my stats on NaNo and I've discovered I've been almost bang on par or over it since Day 11. That's 13 consecutive days. I think I can actually do this again. It's almost miraculous considering how bad last year went.

Anyway, enjoy the next chapter! Things are definitely moving towards... A CONCLUSION!

Poisonroot - Chapter 23

Today has been crazy. We made bread at work; the kids thought it was great. Hell, I thought it was great! Only... cooking is incredibly tiring work when you're doing it all day in a school.

Got my words done though. Half of this was written in a Brick Lane cafe called Kahaila. I can only kind of half recommend it; they chucked us out after twenty minutes because it was closing time, virtually no warning. No posted opening times either. When I mentioned it might be nice to put them up, the lady looked at me as if she'd never thought of it before.

The rest was written at home over a pie and chips.

Now off to kill people in artful ways in Hitman Absolution, which arrived in my mailbox this morning. How I've managed to avoid putting it in the PS3 up until now, I don't know...

Poisonroot - Chapter 22

Just broken 30,000 words on NaNoWriMo! Feeling pretty good :D

Music; what do you listen to while you're in the writing groove? I listened to the Bastion soundtrack for the first half of this, the Braid soundtrack for the second half. They've both got good points and bad points; I need something quiet, not too beat-y, interesting but not more interesting than the writing. Nothing with words. That is a definite no-no.

There was an interesting Twitter discussion the other day with Sonia Leong asking what people listened to. I waded in with the Death Note anime soundtrack (not all the tracks, only some of them) but it was interesting to see that I also listen to some of the other things that were mentioned; Shadow of the Colossus, Braid, Bastion, a lot of Final Fantasy, Tron Legacy, all that sort of stuff.

To be honest, I have a 'quiet music' playlist that contains 2.4 hours of tracks selected from loads of different things. They're all quietish, all good 'background music' and, most importantly, all things I like. I use them when I'm teaching too. It's therapy for me and the kids have never heard any of them before.

Anyway! Today's chapter.

Poisonroot - Chapter 21

Wow, this was hard to squeeze out. Like a cat trying to pee out of a sewn-up bum, to borrow from Sir Terry Pratchett. We were busy all afternoon with guests, then it was 'well let's eat some pizza and watch a film' and that turned into 'lets have three Coronas and watch a second film'. We watched The Big Lebowski, which is weird but good fun, and Stardust, which is also weird but good fun, and both weird and good fun in different ways.

I finally got my wordcount updated on the NaNo site at four minutes to midnight. Close run thing. But seriously, it took about five hours to get 1670 words out.

Hopefully there will be other, easier, days.

Poisonroot - Chapter 20

Managed to get this chapter out amongst doing work for work, making bread for work and making cakes for Sue's work. Work work work. At least this was self-inflicted. Anyway, it's ten past late o'clock in the evening. Bedtime for tired writer/teachers.

Poisonroot - Chapter 19

Halfway through! Good grief, and what a day to actually pull ahead of the par for the first time this year. This set me wondering; is it an anticlimax to just finish the last chunk on the last day, exactly on par? First time I completed NaNo, it was with a mammoth 10k on the last Sunday of the month. That was actually the 28th, so I finished early and in style, mainly because I'd been behind almost all month. This time it looks like I'm bang on par. We shall see!

Poisonroot - Interlude 3

Sneaky sneaky stuff from Anila here. I love her character; religious zealot, daughter who desperately wants to impress her father, highly-skilled agent. She's great.

Warning: Mild defenestration.

Poisonroot - Chapter 18

Another new character, but this one serves a purpose. My wife quite rightly pointed out that I've introduced a lot of new characters recently; some of them are important. Some serve a purpose. Others will be discarded. I think it's important to have a healthy cast, but some of these will eventually be cut, either in editing or through the process of moving on from their part of the story and forgetting about them.

I like Matron Yohloh though.

Also: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN...

Poisonroot - Chapter 17

There was no update yesterday. D&D kind of interceded. I'm still virtually up to date though, due to the lengths of some of the chapters. I'm hoping to get ahead for the first time this week. Whee!

Poisonroot - Chapter 16

A new character, and a ladyfriend. Young. Rich. Potentially powerful. Also a bit wet at the moment; that might change.

Only a short update today; lots to do this weekend. Going to see Skyfall this evening!

Poisonroot - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 already! NaNo is going great, I'm a little behind due to getting flu (which I'll go back and edit later when the wordcount is right) but I'm still due to finish about the 5th of December, so I can pull that back no problem.

This showdown in the throne room is actually my second attempt to write this scene. In the first one I simply pulled it out of the aether; Victor was more likeable, Trip was a bit less empowered, the Duke was more obviously nuts, High Father Hork didn't exist and the daughter's name was Amanda. Oh, and Trip and Victor came in under their own steam, not as criminals.

D&D parallels this book very occasionally. In the D&D version of this scene the Duke was more noticeably mad. For reasons of plot, a good outcome for me would see them in the palace's prison, so the Duke made them dance for their freedom. Poor Chris, actually a good dancer in real life, totally failed the dice roll and ended up smacking a guard with his weapon. Result: Whole party in jail. Win for the DM because it advanced my personal agenda!

Poisonroot - Chapter 14

Oooh! Some Victor backstory. This is the commercial side of his backstory; there are far more things I could talk about but he seemed to be feeling particularly negative in this bit, so I focused on the sale and distribution of his stories.

Poisonroot - Chapter 13

Oooh. 13. Unlucky for some. Seems to be fairly unlucky for Trip and Victor but then it wouldn't be interesting if they got to the Arbour and there was a large 'to end plot, press here' button.

As it's unlucky for some, I want to take a moment to talk about people who deserve to be luckier than they are. I donated to NaNoWriMo last year, the year before and I will do again this year. Especially as a teacher, I believe in getting people writing, particularly children. Imagination is a wonderful thing and it's entirely too possible that a generation of imagination is being stunted by the plethora of media available. Now, believe you me, I'm not a technological zealot; I love my technology too, but it has a place, and that place is aiding the expansion of an imagination, not replacing it.

NaNoWriMo sets up writing opportunities for children, among other things, and that is why I donate. If my $10 can get a single child, or even half a child, writing a story that will enthuse them and make them see that life is totally worth it, well, that's worth any amount of money.

Anyway. Enough! Here's Chapter 13!

Poisonroot - Interlude 2

So another nice little excerpt from Anila's life. It's good to see things from another's perspective; it allows me to describe characters afresh and also keeps things from going stale. Also, I have plans for Anila. Plans.

Poisonroot - Chapter 12

Turns out my flatmate and very awesome friend Chippy is also doing NaNo. She needs some cheering on :D

Poisonroot - Chapter 11

Chapter 11! Short post today as we've got a lot on. I'm back at work and generally things are motoring but I still found time to do this, so that bodes well for future updates.

Poisonroot - Chapter 10

Still ill. However, Chris is down this weekend. An awesome friend, he was my best man at our wedding and he is ALSO doing NaNoWriMo! Wish us both luck ^^

Poisonroot - Chapter 9

I have the flu. Blegh. Proper stuff; joints aching, temperatures, loss of appetite, upset stomach, the works.

Anyway, next chapter of Poisonroot.

Poisonroot - Chapter 8

The Mayor of Everywhere is a character that we use in D&D. He's a short guy in a black robe with a book and a wonderful bald spot. Essentially he's the character we use when we need a mayor or another official.

He makes a cameo appearance here as the Mayor of Deep Round.

Poisonroot - Chapter 7

So, a challenger appears!

This year's National Novel Writing Month seems like the perfect excuse to come back to Poisonroot. Now, I know it's supposed to be a new piece you start, but the story of Trip and Victor is just too wonderful, and the world is just too rich, to let lie. So I'll be finishing Poisonroot during NaNoWriMo.

Here for you today is Chapter 7!