tetradecimal

17,342! Plus a little extra I wrote in a notebook.

That is like a third done! I just have to massively make up things for the battles. Oh god, the battles.

Also: WHO WOULD STEAL A BABY ALPACA? Okay, I realize I asked, "WHO WOULD STEAL A CAT?" in a F_W thread or something and got like a billion "I did!" answers (which sounded to me mostly like taking in unwanted or threatened animals, which would actually be rescuing). But. But!

The little alpaca's mother spent most of Sunday morning in a panic, roaming the pasture searching for her lost baby, he said. ''Every time I see her she walks up to me crying,'' he said.

NUOOOOOOOOO

So does anyone want to read my daily discharges of NaNo?

Generally, I'm writing for speed and get things down as I think of them, so they're
(a) basically raw, unedited thought process and
(b) out of order, because apparently writing in a linear fashion makes my brain lock up.

Let me know!

Also, the bird update: Mom says the bird trying to eat her fish had a big, long beak, but no long neck or long legs (which you'd expect from a heron). So in other words, aquatic bird life according to my mom:
.

So, my NaNo planning continues. I cheated and wrote some on the plane on the way to and from New York and the introduction where Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. Mostly because I started feeling bad about how I was killing these people off and started giving them personalities and whatnot. Also, it is way, WAY easier to write your stupid novel when there isn't anyone sitting next to you >___<.

It kind of goes in fits and starts. I'm good at going on and on at describing things when I have a clear mental image, but it's tough when I don't actually know what I'm going to be describing. I especially have no idea what kind of Cool Strategic Battle Things are going to happen. I guess RPGs don't really go over strategy as it relates to actual battles very much. I mean, I can't write about how Fighter X moves three squares up and two squares left.

But I want people to actually stop and think, "Hey, that's pretty neat." Like in Suikoden II, your army's strategist has you attack the Big Bad in a night ambush. He eventually hacks his ways through about EIGHTEEN of your most badass party members, then escapes to this grassy knoll, where he finds a wooden amulet hanging on a tree branch. He opens it, and the fireflies trapped inside start to fly off.

And then your strategist has his crack team of archers shoot at the sudden light.

What's even more awesome? The amulet belonged to the resident little party urchin whose family was killed by the Big Bad. Oh, the video game retribution!</dweeb>

Well, I'd settle for a cool way to use environmental conditions. This is like the only time I've ever wanted to be a history buff.

Oh: yesterday, I saw someone paying full price for a Dan Brown hardcover.

So is anyone doing NaNo? I am, but I'd like someone to be my writing contest rival and then later we have an epic duel for like two or three episodes and then band together against a common foe do it together with. You know, like an exercise partner or something.

I heard the Phillies are... uh... going to the World Series? Or maybe I'm confused and it's the superbowl. The Phillies are the Eagles, right?

I actually developed some mild respect for football (the sport, not the NFL) after watching Eyeshield21. Before, I pretty much thought the whole thing was a yawn. But now I know what a down is! I'm sure real life is significantly different and my love for specific positions (running backs, linebackers, quarterbacks) is completely misplaced now. I'm including QBs, because I'm pretty sure none of them are awesome like Hiruma.

Now the only thing that I need to get interested in real football is articulate, passionate players who are adorable and have inspiring backstories! ...yeah, I'll be waiting forever.

If we're talking about baseball, Ookiku Furikabutte!

Now if only they'd make inspiring, hilarious anime to educate me about other sports. Let's see... tennis is covered by Prince of Tennis, soccer... well, I'm sure between Whistle and Captain Tsubasa they have that covered, basketball is... okay, I need to watch Slam Dunk, seriously. But I watched Dear Boys! They don't have hockey, do they?

( NaNo, Final Fantasy, and other stuff )

[Unknown LJ tag]I tried to do NaNo last year, but the site was so incredibly clogged with traffic I never got to update anything (patience with overloaded servers = not me). I also looked around for handy little charting tools, but they were mostly geared toward self-reporting, which sounded particularly lame. Score myself? Booo!

So I have maybe 15,000 words just sitting around from last year, which I think I'll just continue this year. I found that words add up reallllly slowly, so you either have to have A LOT of stuff happen (my story: really not that huge), or do the Stephen King and go into pages and pages about nothing characterization and exposition. I'm just kidding, Uncle Steve don't gouge my eyes out with a dull spoon

So I guess I might just turn it from "girl runs around and has adventures" to "...in the middle of a big war woooo Suikoden!"

Suikoden usually involves living in a (relatively) peaceful country until an outside country and/or enemy from within destroys the existing order, forcing you to wander out on your own and collect a super-sweet army all from scratch and eventually taking down said outside country/enemy from within. Also, you have 108 recruitable characters. It also involves a lot of "...or IS it!" moments. Potential allies that might give you too much of an edge either don't ally with you at first or give you only limited support and that sort of thing.

By contrast, Fire Emblem seems to consist of varying MacGuffins (there's really only one kind of MacGuffin in Suikoden), "A monster has appeared!" and "Your Ephraim* princess is in another castle!" No offense or anything. I know you have to pad your battle count.

* I think Ephraim would make a good princess.

So anyway, NaNo. I'd like to make it a strategy RPG game in disguise lololol, but I don't actually know anything about strategy. We'll see how it turns out. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROJECTS, K?

I want to play Okamiden.