Camp NaNoWriMo for July 2017 is over. I "won" in the sense that I managed to write 15,000 words, which was my eventual goal after I downgraded from an initial goal of 25,000 words. It feels like I failed to win however, due not only to my downgrade of my goal (15,000 words in a month is really not a lot) but also because the last story I was working on is unfinished. Normally I only count stories that I've completed, but eh, I actually had written 15,000 words, just barely.
On the other hand I completed eight stories in four weeks, as opposed to none in June, so that was an improvement. I'd like to average two stories a week for August as well. Since I have to publish one a week on my blog, it's important to keep a good backlog handy for when I go through another writing slump.
The stories I wrote in July are: My Clone Sleeps Alone, Feeling Wordy, Games People Play, Another Time, Another Place, Clownface, There Goes The Neighborhood, Splitting Hares, Clown With The Golden Mask and Motivational Poser (unfinished). I started a couple of other stories based on ideas, including one called The Summoning in which a college kid summons a demon and gets Death Medal.
Back in June I posted a list of 11 story ideas that I might work on for the month of July. Here's the results from that:
1. Enigma. A story about what the Gentleman Brawler has been up to since the events of last summer's Secret Crisis Wars. Haven't worked on this.
2. Transformation Story. A story about lawyer Malevolent P. Brimstone's niece and Dahlia of the Black Moon Maidens. Haven't worked on this.
3. Them Bones. A story about a young Unpossible Man and a slayer known as Nathanial Slade. Haven't worked on this.
4. Tremor of the Earth. Haven't worked on this, it's not an idea yet.
5. Crystal Hart. Haven't worked on this, it's not an idea yet.
6. Snopes and Larpers. I finished this and retitled it The Games People Play.
7. Invictus. Haven't worked on this, it's not even an idea yet.
8. Motivational Poser. This one is mostly written, and should be finished this week.
9. My Clone Sleeps Alone. Finished.
10. The Dork Side of the Force. Haven't worked on this.
11. Another Time, Another Place. I wrote this. I didn't even have a title or story file for it in June.
What follows is a condensed version of what I posted for our Camp NaNoWriMo cabin for July 2017. The cabin was set up by Fontfolly, and he called it The Fools on the Hill. Other members were AmuseDreams, kliefox, MattCantWrite, Dolphins Sextant, and me. Dates are rough guesses since their cabin message system doesn't keep track of dates. (I also saved my posts from April Camp NaNo but haven't published them like this.)
June 30
Anyway I haven't written much in two months, but I've plotted about a half-dozen short stories this week... I think. "Plot" is a strong word for my story ideas mind you.
July 2
For what it's worth, I wrote some dialog for my story "My Clone Sleeps Alone". It's not even a coherent scene just yet, and I don't know what the ending will be, but it's a few hundred words so I updated my progress. ^_^ I also did some research on ocean depths, the Mariana Trench, and undersea colonization before deciding that my secret base would still be further below the surface than logic or physics should permit, but not anywhere near the depth of even the top of the Mariana Trench. :P Superscience and magic are probably involved!
Basically I'm trying to justify something that's ludicrous -- a secret base 2,000 meters beneath the ocean -- by pointing out how much more impossible it would be to consider building something even deeper. (Still not a full scene but I've written a description and the first part of the opening.)
July 3
Story is progressing very slowly, but I now have a full scene from the opening up to about 2/3rd of the way through, and I have a possible ending in mind. Not confident of the ending overall, but it's better than not having an ending in mind.
July 4
Finished "My Clone Sleeps Alone". I think it works, and I managed to squeeze in everything I wanted to -- the resurrection chamber and an explanation for it, Miss X, a reference to a new villain group... may need tweaking later; we'll see.
July 7
Struggling to write...
July 9
Working on a new Literate Lemur story that is kind of built around the word vellichor.
July 10
Finished a story I'm calling "Feeling Wordy" for now. Way behind on my goals, but at least that's something.
Was hoping to finish a second story today, but in any case I got a significant amount of writing done on a story that I originally called Snopes and Larpers (the name never actually made any sense) but which I am probably going to call Square One, or Games People Play. Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow and maybe work on Motivational Poser as well.
I have another story I want to work on which would involve the return of Hairsplitter Man, a villain that I put in one of my first stories and then never used again.
July 11
Still struggling to get my Game story finished. I just don't think it's a great idea but I've written quite a bit of it and I want to finish something.
Meh. I finished "Games People Play" and in the end I kind of like it. Still haven't published a story for this week, either, but the good news is, 2nd story this week, so I'm making progress.
This is Grandpa Anarchy story #271 by the way. ^_^ Yesterday's was #270.
Did a bit of writing on Motivational Poser too. It's more than half done.
July 12
Did not finish anything today, but I got some work last night and today on Motivational Poser, and on Another Time, Another Place, which is a kind of spin-off story because I was pursuing two different conversations/ideas in one story.
July 13
Finished "Another Time, Another Place", which was the spinoff from Motivational Poser (which is still not finished). But now I need to write a story about Insane Pies before tomorrow night.
Also I adjusted my target goal since it was looking like I wasn't going to come close to 25,000 words.
I've always asserted myself as a villain because villains are always the more interesting characters in any story I've read growing up, and because the villain in any walk of life is the person who refuses to follow blindly and always wants to question things. -- Marilyn Manson
I haven't finished Motivational Poser.
I haven't finished my Insane Pie story.
I haven't posted a story to my blog for this week.
However, I thought of a kind of prequel to my Insane Pie story, and then I wrote it. I started "Clownface" this morning and finished it a few minutes ago. So Yay for that!
July 24
Didn't really write over the weekend but I sketched out two new story ideas last night and wrote maybe a third of one of them today. I want to finish it because I already know the ending. Also, it's a Kid Anarchy story. ^_^
Finished a story I started last night called "There Goes the Neighborhood". It's a bit long but I think it works.
July 26
Have written little in the last two days. Figured I'd need 3 more stories to reach 15,000 words, but I'm not sure I'll manage it.
Also didn't post anything to my story site, which takes time and I really feel like I should be writing instead. :/
Wrote a few paragraphs on a story called "Splitting Hares". I have more faith that I will be able to get this story finished, but I've skipped playing my game two nights in a row to write instead, and I've gotten very little actual writing done.
July 27
Finished "Splitting Hares" for what it's worth.
July 30
Well I goofed off a lot all weekend, but the plan is to finish The Clown With The Golden Mask tonight and maybe get Motivational Poser half written. Finishing both should get me to 15,000 words.
I might have to post one of my July stories this week too. :/ Although if I ever rewrite the Ring of Hanubatum I can publish that, maybe in two parts.
Finished The Clown With the Golden Mask. So that leaves one story I need to finish by tomorrow at midnight.
One story... of at least 1,643 words. >.>
Actually Motivation Poser is over 1,300 words already, and I still need to flesh it out and stitch everything together.
Worked on Motivational Poser a bit. I am at that point where I keep adding cool bits of dialog that pop into my head, but none of it advances the plot so I will have to cut most of it back out later. Really, the entire story right now is a conversation in search of a setting and and ending. Not much of a plot although my short-shorts never really hing on plot. The central conceit of this one is that Kid Calculus is trying to claim that he's unique among Grandpa's enemies because he has a well-documented tragic back story, while most of the others, you don't know what their motivation is...
..but every time he brings up one of Grandpa's enemies with no apparent back story or motivation, Grandpa explains their back story and motivation.
I needed a setting and I decided that this time, Kid Calculus is in a Volcano Lair. I've used one of those before for Baron Climate Change, and it makes more sense for him. So I added a whole discussion about the lair itself, but it's a tangent that doesn't actually add much to the story or lead into the main conversation, at least right now. So I may need to cut most of it.
I'm half-tempted to take this whole discussion about the Volcano Lair (and the lair itself) and put it in a different story, because it's a fun thing for Grandpa and Kid Calculus to discuss. But that would be weird because this entire story is itself a bunch of dialog about back stories and motivation that I had to remove from a previous story (Another Time, Another Place) because it was interesting but didn't belong in that story.
Still not sure about the ending but I should be able to come up with something by tomorrow.
There's also a whole side conversation about Grandpa's enemies talking too much, and if he could just find a villain that never talked, he'd make THAT person his arch nemesis so he could get some peace and quiet. That feels like it should be in its own story as well. >.>
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