Past the 50k mark

Current WoS wordcount: 56471.

My writing is so hectic these days - I’ll produce 3,000 words on a Saturday, then nothing for the following 5 or 6 days. Ah well. As long as I can write and take my story where it needs to be taken, I’m happy.

I reworked part of the plan for what will happen next. In half a chapter, my group of characters will be in Calan, capital of one of the most Kazaran-unfriendly realms on the continent, and I’ll be able to have fun with the local representants of the Church. Why, telepaths in a city where they’re outlawed, two strangers coming from a continent rumored to be the Demons’ turf, a High Inquisitor wanting to make sure the summer Concilium goes as well as possible, a half-Kellenin* thief (I don’t want to call them Dark Elves anymore), followed by three pure-blood Kellenim* looming over the Archbishop to fulfill a goal known by themselves only? That can only be fun.

Two secondary characters have made an appearance, too. Marcus of Trano, secretary to Archbishop Averen of Calan, and a man who holds… quite an amount of secrets when it comes to the Kazaris. I can’t wait to have him and Kheril have their little meeting. And Domio, roaming swordsman with a certain loyalty to the Guild of Thieves (or, rather, to its Master Agas Blackhand). Always useful to have a swordsman in town, really.

* If anyone were ever to wonder, Kellenin=singular, Kellenim=plural. No ’s’. That’s how korai language goes (for this form of words).

Niltoy | word+count | writing

Unstuck - Sort of

Current word count on The Wall of Silence: 43902.

I think I’ve finally managed to find a way out of my frustrating scene. After pondering the matter more at length, I realized one thing - both my groups have their little secrets to hide. Ren and Kittin still believe the Watchers are after them, while Kheril and his friends are on a diplomatic mission which, if the Church was to learn of it, would likely be interrupted through violent means. None of them wants to be questioned about their motives and destination, not by someone they’ve just met, and this wariness, I decided, could very well lead to a temporary statu-quo, a ploicy of “no questions, m’kay?”. It’s logical. It’s udnerstandable. After all, at this point, all Ido wants to do is make sure our two young techies don’t die from their wounds, and all the techies themselves want is to not be caught by the Watchers. I think they can reach such an agreement for, say, a couple days. After this, the pressing questions will really roll in, but not before something else happens.

This said, I’m now deep into a combat scene, and I’m seriously rusty when it comes to these. I absolutely need to put some pressure on my little characters (15 people against, uhm, 5 - among which one is heavily wounded, one is blind, and one is a healer with a strong respect for any kind of life. That leaves Iswann and Kittin as potential fighters. Niiice.). At the same time, even though he won’t use his power to kill/maim/wound/dominate mentally, Kheril is quite the strong man in his craft, and I also need to let it appear that if he stands there in the corner channelling energies, it’s not just to look cool.

Well, back to the fight, then. Let’s see what Iswann will do, now that his weapons are unsheathed.

NaNoWriYe | Niltoy | word count | writing

Frustrations

I’ve just understood why, without me noticing it at first, my writing has somewhat slowed down - and by this, I don’t mean the problems with my dead hard drive, but something more general, with different roots.

I’m currently stuck at a scene I absolutely hate, yet a scene that is essential to the story. The one where my two groups of characters meet, and realize they come from different places, places that shouldn’t be in contact with each other to start with, places about which each involved party has its own beliefs/ideas/legends. It IS an important scene, one that has to happen at some point, since this little bunch of characters wear signs of not originating from the same continent, and it would be totally out of character for them to not ask at least a few questions. On the other hand, my attempts at writing it have, so far, all been pretty dull.

I could distillate the information in-between action scenes, but I’m wary of burdening the reader under too much action, under combat chained to pursuit chained to combat, or anything close to that. I could write your average sit-around-the-campfire evening and have the characters honestly answer to each other’s questions, yet this is a) too much exposition all at once, b) revelations that are spoon-fed too early and too fast to the reader. I’m pondering trying a mix of both methods - a beginning of discussion, followed by an interruption, from which other relationships/a spark of trust could emerge.

In a way, I’m even glad that I’ve ran into this problem: I know that when I manage to overcome it (because I WILL overcome it, I’m not giving up!), I’ll get out of it with a new experience under my belt, and a very valuable one at that.

Right now, though, I’m just at a loss about how to make all of this interesting. * cringes *

Niltoy | scene | writing

News From The Writer

No no no, I’m not dead! It’s just been not that exciting to keep several blogs updated in the past months, especially as I was doing mucho rewriting and editing, and as such there wasn’t anything new under the sun, as we say here. However, I’m not gone, and if time allows it, I’ll be back into NaNoWriMo as well this year!

First, here’s some of the reasons why I’ve been away for so long, and an insight on what’s going to happen in the next months/years.

Second, here’s what happened recently, and completely crushed my attempts at writing, due to not being exactly thrilled about the “event”. As of today, I’m starting to recover some of the files, and I could already lay my hands (totally by chance, hahaha) on some of my old versions of the Wall of Silence (formerly called Lord of Mirrors). This is some comfort, and I’m feeling the juice come back slowly, after these weeks of anguished waiting.

As for NaNoWriMo, I’m not sure yet of what I’ll do. I nevertheless want to try again, and in English as well, if only because it’d make excellent practice for college and for my exams. That’s the really good side with this kind of studies, really - anything that makes me practice English is good!

Oh, and as a slight update on WoS: I’m 35.000+ words into it (close to 40k, in fact, but I can’t remember off the top of my head right now). That’s not bad, and now that I’ve gone on with the plan and with (yet again) new ideas, I should be able to write more and faster.

As you can see, I’m not giving up on Niltoy & Co, but I seriously have problems keeping up with forums and the likes, so please don’t mind me if I don’t visit there during extended periods of time… *sigh*

Niltoy | update | writing

A Few Changes Of Scenes

Current word count:

13,113 / 100,000 (13.1%)

I had to rework some things, to make they fit better. I know I’d better keep that for the editing part, but it didn’t make much sense, and just thinking of it was already irking me, hence the changes.

I get easily frustrated at scenes that I feel should fit in, yet once written, suddenly they appear as useless, or needing to be presented in a very different way. It’s annoying. At least it’s fixed, now.

NaNoWriYe | planning | word count | writing