4 posts from November 2008

Nanowrimo Winner 2008

It was only minutes ago that I stumbled over the 50,000 word mark curb and uploaded my 50,042 word novel to the NaNoWriMo website.
   
The journey was long and full of highs and lows. There were times when I thought I was writing something amazing, times where 3,000 words would fly by in an hour, but there were times when I wanted to quit, when I just wanted to delete the whole file and erase all of my crappy writing from the world so that no one would ever have to see it, times when it took twelve hours of sitting at the computer to barely get 2,000 words on the page.

Now there is the highest high I have felt since I began this adventure. Now I have written the first draft of my first novel. I have written 175 pages of crap, 175 pages of bad grammar, sentence fragments, plot holes, lifeless characters, and story threads that branch out and go nowhere. But the important part is that I did it, I wrote 175 pages. I feel like a writer, I am a writer. I thought I was a writer before, but now I feel like I have actually accomplished something, I have written a story at great length, a story of my own creation, a story which is mine and is full of characters that I created and have come to know over the course of my writing. I look forward to writing a more detailed second draft and learning more about my characters, the characters that are becoming my friends the more and more I write with them, the more I tell of their story.
  
This past month has been stressful, and now I feel the need to take a break and let my story settle in my thoughts. But the break won't be long. Though I am tired, my mind is full of ideas and excitement. I want to write this story again, but more true to what it is with all the loose ends tied up, proper story flow, and character depth and evolution that my story deserves. I want to finish and expand my story, and I will.

Thank you NaNoWriMo for giving me the kick in the ass I needed to start writing, now I don't think I will ever stop.

And 14,000 more words to go. No time to blog. Oy!

This is a little something I wrote for my girlfriend, Jill. It's basically Dark Tower fan fiction because I stole the idea straight from the series. Enjoy!

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And so one day I was just sitting here, typing away at my computer when I felt a little...something in the back of my mind. It didn't bother me at first, but it felt like someone was watching me. More, it felt like somebody was reading through my brain. I focused my thoughts on that feeling. I focused hard, then I focused harder. The feeling, the strangeness in the back of my mind was fighting against me. It was trying to push me away, to put my thoughts on something else. The presence in my mind began to fight harder, it was coming forward in my mind, it was trying to take me over.

            At this point I was seething with power, with the will to not be defeated. I felt like I was going insane. I felt like there was a war going in my head between two opposing forces, between good and evil, between God and the goddamned Devil himself. I didn't realize it at first but I was on the floor, twisting and turning and screaming because I was in a hot, fiery battle that I wasn't going to lose.

            “Let go.” the voice began to speak. “I am the one in control here.” It felt like someone was speaking to me, but there was no sound. This was all happening in my mind. What's happening to me, I thought. Am I turning into a schizo? Am I actually going crazy? “No.” The strange voice inside my mind replied. “I am another from a world other than yours.” I focused all of my mental awareness on that voice, trying to push it back. “Fuck you buddie,” I told him. “You're not taking me anywhere.”

            I was wrong. The strangeness with a voice stopped trying to come forward and instead it felt like someone with an amazing strength had grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me across the floor, but I wasn't in my living room anymore. As I lie on the ground upon my back I am staring at a shadowy figure that is blocking out an otherwise flawless blue sky. I move to get up and feel sand beneath my fingers as I notice the sound of waves crashing in my ears. I'm at the beach, I think to myself. I'm at the beach and some psycho maniac pulled me here.

            I get to my feet.

            “My name is Walter,” the figure said as I came to my senses and was finally able to see the tall man with the long, greasy black hair. “And your name is Arthur McMahon. Though you won't have to worry about that any longer. You see, Arthur. You are my ticket into your world.”

            “What does that mean?” I ask.

            “That means I'll be going through that door you were just pulled out of and you won't be going back to your world ever again. Your life is over.”

            “And what if I say otherwise?”

            “Well,” Walter started as if he were going to make a long speech unfurling his evil plot. “You see Arthur, I am a very powerful sorcerer, one of the most powerful in all the worlds. What you say has no meaning here because you are unable to stop me from attaining what I desire. You, being just a feeble little man, cannot do anything to harm me, cannot even begin to comprehend--”

            “Comprehend this motherfucker,” I warcried as my right fight fist launched like a rocket towards Walter's face. He tried to block it with his staff but my left hand was quick enough to grab it in time and twist it out of his wrinkly old hand as I felt my right fist blast into the sorcerer's face, shattering the bones like a hammer pounding down on a thin sheet of ice. He cast a flaming ball of godknowswhat from his right hand, but I dodge it and twist him around, shoving the big orby end of his staff up his ass and firing off what I would call a magic missile that blew his lower half to tiny pieces sending all the chunks of flesh flying into the ocean where a good two dozen gulls were ready and waiting.

            I stare and ponder for a minute whether Walter enjoyed the way I ended his life or not. He looks like a buttsecks kind of man. I turn myself around preparing to go back home. I see two doors in front of me. One is open with a view of the living room I was pulled out of. The door ten feet to the left is closed, but a gold plate on it is inscribed with bold, black letters that read Corvallis, Oregon. “Sweet, that's where Jill lives.” I say this to myself as I go over and close the open door to my living room which sure enough has a label of it's own that reads Bandon, Oregon. I open it back up to make sure it still goes to my living room, it does. I close it again and open the Corvallis door, stepping through.

            I show up right outside Jill's house and close the door behind me. I can't see the door after I close it, but when I think deep enough and focus on the thought of that door, it shows up, I can see it again. A bicyclist goes by and waves to me, but doesn't even take notice of the gigantic door standing in the middle of the lawn at my side. Guess it isn't there unless you know it is. I let myself forget about the door for a moment and sure enough, it disappears.

            I knock on the front door of Jill's house. She opens. “Oh, RT.” She's sounds surprised and excited. “How did you get here?” I smile and let myself in. “I've got a badass story you need to hear, Jill.”