A geek with a hat » NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo day19, so not gonna make it

Swizec — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:20:24 +0000

For the past few days I’ve been writing like mad, today especially, mad mad amounts of writing!

But then I found out it took me seven fucking days to write a proper day’s quota, that is to say, I only wrote a bloody 1700 words. But anyway, here they are.

NaNoWriMo day 12 – sloooowly, very slooowly

Swizec — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:27:20 +0000

Only wrote something like 500 words today, it just did not want to flow. Blah, I’m not winning this thing by a long shot and if it goes on like this I won’t even reach my stated goal of 25k words. Fail.

NaNoWriMo day 10 – where the fuck did the week go?

Swizec — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:09:23 +0000

It’s been a while since I wrote anything for my Gonzo Steampunk Vampires, which is a shame since this story actually seems to be turning out a lot better than anything I’ve ever written (although it’s still mostly crap) and as a reader of my brain I’m, surprisingly, starting to get a sense that there’s something deeper behind the front tale. That there will be some meat on the bones of this story.

All of this makes me yay!

What does not make me yay is my complete and utter failure at writing. Despite having to write every day I haven’t done anything in so long that today when I wanted to do some writing during a break between lectures I … I … I forgot where my story was. I completely and totally forgot what I was supposed to write!

But in any regard, here are the 724 words I managed to muster today, hope you like ‘em

Moe rushed into class; wet under his nose, shoes pooling with water and the dumbest look on his face ever imaginable. A draft pulled the door from his hand and shut it closed. A deathly quiet filled the lecture hall.

NaNoWriMo day 4+5, it just takes determination

Swizec — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:54:12 +0000

Today I actually fulfilled the daily nanowrimo quota! That’s right my little poison berries, I wrote 1568 words! Well alright, that’s a hundred words short but hey, more than ever!

In today’s passage you might notice a certain Professor Foglio, I feel like I should mention this is a nod to one of my favouritest steampunk webcomics. I’d tell you which, but that’s just silly, literary references are for careful readers who then appreciate them properly.

However, interesting tid bit, professor Von Tropp – noticed all over the place in what I’m writing and actually a somewhat important character to the loose storyline I’m aiming for – happens to be my pseudonym used in the … I’d say few, but it’s just one … thing I wrote for Steampunk Magazine.

Ze today’s writing:

The bats let out a little squeak when Moe gave them the water. Who

NaNoWriMo day3, when nothing happens

Swizec — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:42:12 +0000

: Image by bootload via Flickr

It is now 04:42 and it’s about time I head off to bed since Wednesdays do in fact still exist, I don’t know whose bright idea this was, but they had it and now we have it.

Yesterday I complained about falling asleep too early to do any serious amount of writing. Today however the problem is quite the opposite – I don’t seem to be sleepy at all and yet, I have written even less than yesterday. The inspiration just wasn’t there and yes, I know, NaNoWriMo is all about making us write even when inspiration is low and just fucking get on with it mister writer! WRITE god damn it!

Well I didn’t. But I have read a whole bunch of interesting questions over at Stack Overflow and answered some of them (if you haven’t read on twitter, I’ve decided to start paying-it-forward by answering at least one question a day). I also have created a spankingly fresh LinkedIn account.

If nothing extraordinary like me getting an inspiration in the moment after head-hits-pillow and brain-shuts-off happens this lapse in concentration makes me roughly 4000 words behind official schedule. \o/

Who knows, tomorrow I might actually do something about that.

PS: I’m delaying this being posted to catch the early crowd on twitter, yes, I’m that lame.

NaNoWriMo day2, time goes quick

Swizec — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:35 +0000

Last night was a bit unproductive because I fell asleep smack in the middle of inspiration and managed to write less than 300 words. The funny thing now is that there are already two days of writing behind us and I’ve not even fulfilled the quota of one

That’s right, only 920 words of garbage in two whole days!

It was a cold November morning. An early snow covered everything in twenty centimeters of white fluff last night and Moe was caught completely by surprise. His shoes were old and torn; his coat was really just a warm … ish … sweater he

NaNoWriMo day1, or how strange inspiration can be

Swizec — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:13:36 +0000

Honestly, it doesn’t happen very often that inspiration would strike me at half past two in the morning and make me go do some writing rather than going to sleep. In fact, it hasn’t ever happened before.

So the NaNoWriMo adventure began, I didn’t write quite the 1667 words required to make the 50k goal, but I did write right until the point where inspiration ran out. Let’s call this a prologue, or perhaps it’s not really that and it will turn out into something different. I have no idea what I’m doing here, so don’t expect me to be too far ahead of anyone reading this. I’m just as much a reader here as anyone.

They were somewhere around Barstow when the Bats first shouted

Gonzo Steampunk Vampires, Halloween and Beards

Swizec — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:10:35 +0000

Emo Swizec

Yesterday was Halloween and as tradition goes, no this has got nothing to do with the americanisation of Slovenian culture, we’ve had halloween or some variation thereof for many centuries before america was ever discovered, people are supposed to dress up in scary costumes.

This year I decided to partake, it happens sporadically, and after a lot of deliberation I finally decided I’d dress up as an Emo. It worked out fucking perfectly, got confused for a female at least five times and I’m told I looked downright 16 … why I got liquor so easily though might be evidence against such claims. Unfortunately this is the only image I’ve got, I also had an emo backpack, emo fingernail job and some other tidbits that made me bloody awesome!

Halloween being the last day of October brings us to another topic – NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo is an annual event that started nigh on ten years ago in the US and soon spread over the globe. The goal is to write a [short] novel of 50k words in a single month. You’re supposed to write write write without fussing too much over perfection and details, those are for some other time. My first attempt was way back in 2005 when I actually managed to win by producing some utter garbage. Right the next year I failed.

For some reason or another, insanity being most likely, I’ve decided to write a novel this month. Of course I’m not going to win because I simply don’t have enough time and midterms will be starting in a few weeks. Yay. I also have no idea what I’m going to write about, but I’ve settled on doing something Steampunk in a Gonzo style (due to time restrictions) and the basic premise being Vampires, because @tamejhna said so. We’ll see what happens, but hopefully I’ll produce a novella of about 25k words, worthy of being published in Steampunk Magazine … been a while since I published anything there.

This month being November brings us to yet another bit of madness. Beardvember!

The first I learned of beardvember was through Paul Southworth (@southworth) and his rants underneath the Ugly Hill comic, it’s still a bloody shame he stopped drawing that). The idea here is that you leave your face to run wild with hair for a month and see what happens. If you’re silly enough you also take a photo every day and then make a gif from it, which I’ll attempt.

So, uhm, yes … THIS. IS. MADNESS! (completely unrelated to a certain popular meme of old)