Discouragement

Have you ever used the writing software at Pangurpad.com? It's a pretty cool system focused on making everything as simple as possible. It allows easy-access notes with categories for characters, places, and items, as well as branching timelines of events--but other than that, it's just a plain and simple screen to type on with the ability to save onto the site's cloud server. That means your entire work is kept online and you can access it from your account on any computer.

So then, explain to me this: how me clearing my browser data somehow totally deletes the file. It's a good thing I backed up my novel a couple of days before, because even the small amount I did lose, 4000 words, is pretty much the death sentence for my novel. After some creative copying and pasting I got back to where I was in terms of word count, and wrote a nice little speech about how angry I was. Five minutes later, when I came to continue what I was working on, it was gone once again.

I have no idea what the problem is, but I haven't got a single word on that page, and frankly, I don't have the time to look for more writing software. My rant even declared that I didn't want to go through with my plot anymore, and that's even more true now. I feel completely defeated right now. What am I supposed to do if I'm physically not being allowed to write? My plan was to just summarize the ending of the story and write a shorter one for the 9000 or so more words I have left. Now I haven't the faintest idea what to do. I'm certainly not going on right now, and my methods for finishing it just might not be 100% legitimate but at this point finishing at all (short of typing random nonsense) is a miracle.

The bottom line is, my text editor hates me.

Plot Transformation

As anyone who's read this blog over the last month can see, the novel I'm writing places an pretty heavy emphasis on the main character Matthew Lothyre and the mystery of his strange-looking hat. The first conflict besides Matt's poverty is early antagonist Pat's attempts to steal the hat.

An earlier discussion also mentioned that the semi-rich, occult-loving girl Natalia Derinde essentially took over the plot with her strange behaviors and her deep connection with the mysterious dark spirit Leth. But what I didn't realize was that it wasn't her that was making things interesting--it was Leth himself.

Suddenly, my book is about Leth and his sister Parla in their competition of influence over people of Earth. Whoever can get their followers to win in a series of arbitrary yet heated contests with virtually no rules will take complete control over some important matters in their otherworldly home. Matt and Natalia keep their importance as the main players on Leth's team as this battle, apparently taking place over many human generations, comes towards its climactic end.

Obviously this still leaves a lot for me to work on, since that's still not the most thrilling plot you can ask for. I mean, the stakes are completely vague, and... well, okay, basically a lot of things are just vague. But that's something for another draft.

I wasn't really considering taking this too far, but if I can reconstruct my plot from some of its scattered pieces after this is done, then I might just have a decent novel on my hands. Due to the large number of posts about it on this blog (and how many people have just started reading this because of a certain NaNoWriMo Facebook post!) I can't exactly back out of the project now. I've invested not only my own time in it, but also what I suspect to be a fair amount of interest from others.

It will be a ton of work to revise it into a presentable form, but it's not as if I don't have other things to do in the obligatory don't-even-look-at-it period. The blog you see before you will probably die down a bit after this month is over, but it won't go back to the barren state it was in for a long time beforehand.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Objects

STRANGE-LOOKING HAT

Matt is the proud owner of this strange-looking hat, which has a special function so secret that nobody, not even the narrator, is allowed to know what it is until the appointed time.

It looks a lot like a black pirate hat. On the left side is some sort of golden satellite dish, while on the right is a colored feather that is the be changed every day of the week. However, since only a few hours have passed so far in the story, only the color for Thursday is known: purple.

DARK TOME

Natalia carried this black book closely with her for quite some time early on in the story.

She is sure that its contents are not meant for human eyes to see, and even if she wanted to look at it, there is in fact a lock on it which she doesn't have the key to.

Still, due to its apparent connection to Leth--perhaps on orders from him--she was very concerned with keeping it on her person at all times, right up until she failed to do so, which she lamented as a terrible mistake.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Places

SMELTON

Where Matt was going before running into Pat. Also where Natalia lives. It's a pretty big city, which is known to contain many stores packed next to busy streets, a towering library, and a very large supermarket called *sigh* All-Mart.

DARGUS

Matthew's hometown, right across the bridge from Smelton. He didn't have much luck there, and he's not planning on going back there. It might be important later, and it might never be mentioned again. Who knows?

NATALIA'S HOUSE

A big, lavish house, this is where Natalia spends most of her time. Its three floors haven't been fully explored yet.

The first floor contains her living room, which features a large TV, a couch, and a coffee table; her kitchen, which is furnished with new appliances and a minibar; and several other rooms, currently unexplored.

Upstairs is her bedroom, as well as her walk-in closet and a room set aside specifically for her to worry about her appearance. There's probably more up here too.

The basement is separated into storage and her ritual room, where she speaks with dark spirits on a daily basis.

MATT'S DREAMHOUSE

This place probably doesn't really exist, as it seems to be only an object of Matt's fantasies. It consists only of a bedroom and a bathroom, and is also furnished with a microwave in case he'd like to make ramen. It's heated for comfort, but doesn't have any other features at all.

He would also like it to be located somewhere that is near both a library and a laundromat, so he doesn't have to buy his own entertainment or appliances beyond the microwave

He figures if he makes only a small wish, life will give it to him.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Characters, Part 2

LETH

This spirit is so mysterious, it hasn't been indicated if he even truly exists. However, he does seem to exert a lot of control over Natalia's mind, and according to her he is a very intelligent master among the dark forces.

His plans can be complex or deceptive, or as simple as ordering her to beat up the next person she sees. His ultimate goal, naturally, is unclear for now.

STEPHEN MCENVAR

This young man was nice enough to supply Matt with food and clothing when they met at Stephen's campsite.

He seems friendly enough, but claims to have a shadier side. For one thing, he smokes underage, and apparently has a rocky relationship with his parents, which is why he camps out rather than staying at home.

It's almost as if he doesn't like getting compliments at all.

DANIELLE FANG

Chief of Police in Smelton. There's not much about her, but she seems to be very serious and efficient when it comes to her job. However, because she's done so well in the past, she has the idea that Smelton is now a safe place. This complacency may just be her undoing...

NaNoWrimo 2011: Characters, Part 1

MATT LOTHYRE

This down-on-his-luck man has nothing but his strange-looking hat and a neverending supply of trouble. He has no ties to the world and nowhere to go.

He's 24, but stress has made him look older already. He is scrawny from starvation, with short brown hair, a long nose, and thick, pouty lips.

He dreams of living in a small house near the library, but he has trouble finding a job due to his complete lack of any known skills. He could probably get something if he was willing to give up his hat, but it appears to be far too important for him to part with.

NATALIA DERINDE

This gothic-dressing woman lives in luxury near the lab where she works as a data analyst. In her spare time she relaxes extravagantly and performs dark rituals in the occult shrine in her basement.

She has pale skin and grey eyes, with long, very straight, silvery white hair. She always wears black, usually complete with a cloak that she carries. She is very concerned with appearance, and seems to be attracted to herself.

The most important thing to her is pleasing the spirit Leth, even though he often tricks her.

PAT

Not much is known about this strange person--not its gender and not much of a name. (Pat doesn't mind being referred to as an it.)

It owns a car and is quite fascinated with hats, as well as beer. These can sometimes get in the way of its job, apparently in some sort of office, working under its mean boss Bob.

It's trying to steal Matt's strange-looking hat.

More Fun With Natalia

It's been a couple more days and a couple thousand more words. Natalia is still completely taking over control of my novel while Matt lays in the hospital doing nothing.

She started off as a detestable foil to Matt, having everything while he has nothing. The house he wishes he could have is nothing compared to the one she lives in, yet she stays there by herself and never has any friends over. She's too lazy to even clean up after herself, and she's convinced that what she sees in the mirror is the most beautiful thing in the world.

But Natalia's main appeal is in her occult obsession, which has been connecting her with a spirit named Leth for a long time. At first he's just giving her instructions (and letting her forget them), but yesterday he did something new: he lent his power to Natalia to make her into a suddenly feral creature, escaping her kidnapping, and murdering everyone involved.

This settled a question that I've been asking myself for a long time: is Leth real, or is this story firmly rooted in a strict realism with a bit of silliness on the side (making Natalia simply crazy)? Obviously, since she was able to bend her limbs in ways she's not supposed to and bite through someone's spine, this has become very, very serious.

Oddly, there's now a chance that because of the killings she'll have to leave her home and run from the law, which puts her in about the position that Matt was in from the beginning. That could mean our two main characters, who after 16,000 words still haven't met, are about to start working together. But who can say for sure? We'll just have to see.

I want to start posting the notes I've been taking that are mostly just to test this year's writing implement, which is PangurPad. Still, I wrote those notes in such a way that they are to be read, and there's not any information in there that would really spoil my story... yet.

Hats and Their Owners

A week has come and gone since NaNoWriMo started this year, and I've mostly forgotten to keep this blog updated with my progress, but luckily here's some more about it beyond that little bit you got in the first post.

I was thinking about calling it "Hats and Their Owners," and that's the tentative title I'm using for now. However, it's actually only half about the man in the strange-looking hat now. Although the next character to be introduced was a creepy, nongender person trying to steal the hat, it was the one after that who managed to take over at least half of the story.

Natalia is pretty much the opposite of Matt, the main character. She works in a lab making tons of money and spends almost all of her time in her lavish home, either relaxing or... communing with occult forces. It's one of these mysterious spirits that drives her half to madness as her story begins to play out: she's been given a very important mission by one of them, but she can't remember what it is!

Other things that this novel has proven to include are a near-drowning experience, extreme vanity, a campfire, a rage-induced beating on a store worker, fantasies about the perfect tiny house, kidnapping at the hands of small children, and finally, a short car ride taking place entirely in rhyme.

Despite all these fun shenanigans, I'm starting to have a bit of trouble. I had no time to work on it on Sunday (yesterday), so now all my hard work getting ahead has been canceled out. Unfortunately, I'm starting to face the reality that every Sunday might as well be counted out of my writing schedule. That takes away 4 days total, increasing the amount of writing I have to do each day as I go on. But today, for whatever reason, I can hardly seem to get out even the normal goal. I'll keep trying, but I still have a ways to go.

Of course, this is about where it usually gets kind of difficult each year. There's nothing new about that. I have to remember this, but I also can't use it as an excuse not to do my best right now thinking I'll make up for it when the end is near. Being behind doesn't feel good, and I have more people watching for my success than ever.

One Hour of NaNoWriMo...

Tonight I stayed up past midnight so I could get an hour of writing in before I head to the kickoff event tomorrow morning. It turns out that I was able to get exactly one day's work done in that time. I'd like to celebrate the beginning of this event by sharing part of that with you.

The man was not so concerned with his appearance as that of his rather strange-looking hat. You see, his hat had a special function. It was a secret function, so secret that even I, the narrator of this novel, have not been offered the privilege of knowing anything about it. But it would seem that this secret function was very important.

As I have said, the hat looked very strange. It had what appeared to be a golden satellite dish sticking out of one side, and a purple feather on the other. He changed this feather every day, but this purple one happened to be his Thursday feather, and today was indeed Thursday. Not that that mattered, as he had no job or anything that depended in any form upon the days of the week.

In fact, he only owned the raggy clothes on his back and this very hat, which in structure seemed similar to some sort of pirate hat and was black like one. However, it did not have a design on it, much less a skull and crossbones. So it would appear that its very secret and special function was not to serve as any sort of sign that he happened to be anything such as a pirate.

He did love the sea, however, but it was not for sailing or treasure or anything on a ship. He did not want to be involved in any naval battles or anything fancy like that. It was just that he liked going to the beach. In fact, he liked the beach much less for the water than for the sand. Sand was his favorite substance, and he enjoyed it much more than anything. He sometimes wished that he had a house with sand for the floor, although he then admitted to himself that that would be far too dirty a dwelling.

Still, he wished he had any house at all. As I have already said, he definitely did not have one because he did not have anything at all besides his strange-looking hat with the very special and secret function that neither you or I are likely to find out about any time soon.

If it had been that useful, however, he would have had some way of making money, I would think. And he really didn’t: he had no education and no family to speak of. Well, he did have a high school education, but this was today’s world, in which that hardly counts for anything when looking for a job. He had tried donating blood plasma for a small stream of income, but that was barely enough to feed himself with, and he wasn’t able to do that anymore now because his impoverished state of being was having awful effects on his health.

He was only 24, but he had the face of one who was 42 instead, due merely to his aforementioned health problems. His short brown hair was disheveled, at least as much as could be seen under the strange-looking hat with the special function. Which, by the way, he never ever took off, no matter what. Even when he slept he left his hat on.

Anyway, back to the point of the preceding paragraph, his wide brown eyes looked around the underside of the bridge he happened to be standing under. I don’t know why he was standing under a bridge, but we will get back to that later, once I’ve finished describing his appearance.

He had a long nose and thick, pouty lips that hadn’t smiled in weeks. His half-starved body was encased in a plain brown t-shirt, the only one he hadn’t been forced to sell for his survival. His jeans were ragged and covered in patches made from half of an old, ripped-up sweatshirt he’d been using. The other half was currently being used as a scarf, and was a faded black. There had been a little bit left over as well, so he had lined the inside of his worn sandals with it.