Day 21: dissecting your darlings

0:40
So, I hit 31879 words by midnight. Very happy about that. Still a little over 3000 words behind, but hey, I'm making progress.
I also finished Chapter Three.
I am actually going to call it an early night for once. I think I need to take a break...
Just for this morning at least! I think I, uh, earned it... (idk, I don't earn stuff these days...)
So I'm going to watch Vampire Knight Guilty and snuggo my kitten and just take a deep breath. Maybe if I get a good rest tonight, I can actually crank out more words and get an early start on my day.

0:51
Chapter Three is up on wattpad. For the curious, it is at a grand total of 10,098 words.
Loooooooong.
And shall require work in the editing phase... so it will be longer still.
I feel like I did a better job with Garnet's chapter by actually exploring his past a little bit. He was fun to write about.

20:40
Looking over some of the chapters, each has its set of strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, this means I need to go back and do a bunch of stuff to fix those weaknesses.
Orec's chapter has a lot of high paced action and then a major slow down with some drama and feelsies. All in all, it's pretty good, but I never really delved into the dynamic of WHO Orec is, which kind of makes the brother conflict not as strong on paper as it was in my head.
Kah's chapter has a lot of going back and forth between dialogue and dropped hints of plot as well as introduction of characters. Through dialogue and character thoughts, we get some characteristics of him, but again, we don't know WHO he is.
Garnet's chapter is... pretty darn perfect. I think I finally got a handle on the balance between dialogue, action, and description. I threw in enough character history to give a sense of who he was and how he feels about who he is, and him meeting a new character did not feel as random as it really was.
Hessir's has a good balance of dialogue and description, but I feel it does not have enough character depth SO FAR. The beginning bits were good with telling WHO he is, but the rest falls a little flat in that area. But that's ok, cause I'm currently writing him, which means I can go ahead and address this issue right now.

Showing WHO a character is, is oftentimes better than showing WHAT they are.



21:01

So, I'm thinking: "Man, my stats suck..."
Whelp...

YEAR ONE: Monsters of Deja Vu - 46,581words

Do you SEE that? o.o That... right there!

And yes, I would have won that year, but my computer had a major crash that wiped out my entire novel. Even my second copy of it. A few days later, I managed to salvage about 36,000 words of it, but the damage had been done.

Nevertheless, I strove on to win two more NaNos.

YEAR TWO: Death Eaters - 60,128 words

YEAR THREE: Through Struggle - 58,772 words

YEAR FOUR: Write This Down - 32,548 words and counting

Am I behind? Hells yah. Is it that bad?

(looks back at Year One)

Hells no.

22:42

Do I care if people like what I write?

Nope.

Yah know, if I care about what other people wanted, I would be another Stephanie Meyer: writing shit to appease the dumb masses, riding on a fad storm of Beliebers and 1D junkies. But I don't want that. I want to not care. 

I want to be like e.e.cummings whose poetry was turned down 29 times, only for the 30th to publish it and send him into immortality in the lit world. He dedicated that book of poetry to everyone who turned him down. 

I want to have fun. And if other people don't like it, screw them. They can go eat a Twilight novel. 

I don't say this to debunk all criticisms. I like it when people help me hone my skills. 

But the people loved Ceasar one minute, then bayed for his blood the next. I'm not going to 'write for others' because they are as fickle as the winds. It is MY creation, and by writing it on paper, I am giving humans a great privilege to share in my world.

Wether I become as iconic as J.R.Tolkein and C.S.Lewis, or even if I fade into obscurity like a million others, at least I will always be proud of my works.
So, I'm going to write for me.


23:59
I hit 35,079. I am on track! WHOOOOO!!!!
For other people who get really far behind: utilize that little count at the bottom that says "Words Per Day To Finish On Time". If you can write that much in a day, or even go over that count, you will be well on your way to getting back on track in no time.
ONLY EIGHT MORE DAYS!

Peace off, minions!