Camp NaNo Day 26: Not A Good Week

I haven't updated all week because there hasn't been much to report on.  My output this week has been terrible -- for the last week and a half, really, going back to April 14-15-16 when my three stories were the three Acts of Grandpa Anarchy the Musical.  I never wrote Act 2, which was my story for April 15th, and I didn't finish Act 3 until Saturday the 19th -- but I did finish The Bane of the Black Spork on the 15th, even though it counted as my story for the 16th.

I was really worried about my production slipping during Norwescon but I did okay -- I did nothing on the 17th but I got Temple of the Dog written on the 18th, Grandpa Anarchy the Musical Act Three written on the 19th, and Startup written on the morning of the 20th (which counted as my story for Saturday the 19th.  For my Sunday the 20th story I read off titles from my story idea files until someone (Julesong) picked a title they liked, which was Grandpa Anarchy and the Fiendishly Foul Fetid Frog.  To this my friends suggested I add the subtitle Part Five of the Amphibiad Trilogy, so I did.

Ostensibly this story involved a battle with a giant toad demon in the middle of a city, but I didn't have much beyond that.  On the other hand, Temple of the Dog had involved the defeat of some kind of frog god creature.  Based on the "part five of the trilogy" subtitle, I decided to write one of those stories where' you're dropped into the middle of a much larger story and a lot of stuff gets thrown at you all at once, and you have to make sense of it all.  And I decided that this would involve a frog goddess (possibly the one from Temple of the Dog) trying to destroy the world.  I could use Non-Sequiter Lass again, a sidekick that I kind of liked, and I could throw in some other characters/stuff without really explaining everything.

Unfortunately on Sunday I was still 2 stories behind schedule, (needed to finish Act Two of the musical, and the above story) and instead of getting anything else done I went home and goofed off.  And I've goofed off (in the form of playing Guild Wars 2, when I'm not at work) for much of the rest of the week.

I finally managed to finish Grandpa Anarchy and the Fiendishly Foul Fetid Frog, Part Five of the Amphibiad Trilogy on Wednesday the 23rd.  By this point I had again decided to turn several stories into a series -- because this is my response to falling behind, it allows me to have a set group of characters and villains already figured out for the next few stories.  My story for Monday the 21st was originally going to be Grandpa Empathy, a play on the TV Trope called "We Want Our Jerk Back" in which an annoying character is changed or removed and everyone regrets the change.  Grandpa Anarchy is an annoying character -- but he's also a very good fighter on the side of good.  Having him become an empathetic, non-violent peace-lover when everyone needs him to fight seemed liked a good idea to write around.

I changed this into Grandpa Empathy at the Gates of Hell, Part Twelve of the Amphibiad Trilogy, and managed to finish it on Thursday.  But I really didn't like it or the story that preceded it.

Tuesday I woke up with an idea of making an all-female superhero group for my universe called the Iron Maidens.  Later on I couldn't recall why this was such a great idea, but in any case I made my story for Tuesday Iron Maiden Suprise, Part Fourteen of the Amphibiad Trilogy.  I am still trying to finish this one -- but I haven't written much today, so we'll see.

Wednesday's story became Crack Squad of Misfits, Part Nineteen of the Amphibiad Trilogy.  This one was based on a phrase from the back of a book at Norwescon.  It's clearly another famous trope, and I managed to work it into an idea that I like a lot, and works for the end of my "random pieces of a great quest" series.  I'll probably like it better than any of the others.  Whether I can go back and salvage any of these stories later on is anyone's guess -- the first two are kind of bloated stories without a point (which is why they become bloated -- I don't necessarily know where I'm going with the ideas, so it's hard to be concise).  Sadly, this story is yet unfinished as well.

By this point I'm so far behind schedule that I only have titles pulled from my story file for Thursday and Friday's stories -- I haven't worked on them at all.  For Thursday I have Past Life Sister, which is barely an idea; for Friday I have There Is No Try, which is nothing but a title (but conversely probably has more promise because the possibilities are wide open, I can probably come up with something); today's story is The Pompatus of Love, for which I actually have a bit of plot, but I'm not sure if there's a punch line yet.

So I am currently six stories behind.  If I wrote three stories today and three tomorrow, I'd still be a story behind.  But I goofed off most of today and it's past 9 PM now; I'll be lucky to finish one story today.

On the other hand, when I did this sort of thing for NaNoWriMo in November 2012, I only finished 24 stories for the month, out of 30 that I started.  So in reality I've been doing pretty well up til now.

*EDIT*  So I finished Iron Maiden Surprise.  It's 1,525 words and actually, I like it quite a bit.  It's not too long, it's not pointless or bloated.  I think it works pretty well.

*2nd EDIT*  Stayed up 'til 2:30 AM to finish Crack Squad of Misfits.  1,009 words.  As expected, I like it.  I think it works pretty well.

Now I'm feeling better, having finished two stories in essentially one day (if you don't count that it's after Midnight and technically already Sunday).