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melannen ([info]melannen) wrote,
@ 2007-11-01 23:28:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:accomplished
Current music:The Colbert Report
Entry tags:computers, links, nano

More blather
Everybody's posting their NaNo stuff, and it's all so much better than mine that it's making me all depressed. D:

I have 4,230 words, but that's mostly due to forcing myself to push through even when I knew that I was just spewing crap. Also, I installed wc.exe for word count of .txt files (it's part of the unixutils package that lets you use all the nifty unix command-line utilities on a windows command line.) Unfortunately, I forgot exactly how to set it up to work as a right-click menu option in windows explorer, so I've been forced to actually run it through the command line ... which means I have a record of just how many times a day I check wordcount.

Anyway, did I mention that it's all crap? Well, just to prove I'm actually writing (and, of course, to grovel for ego-boo) here's the first few lines of the first chapter, one of the few bits I'm actually okay with:

Studying and working in the dark, stuffy confines of the spirit tent always gave Fari headaches. Pama told her that some of the greatest shamans among the People were given headaches, terrible pains in which they experienced raptures or saw visions, and she thought that Fari's headaches were a sign that she would grow into a great leader for the tribe.

Fari thought Pama was full of shit.

The great shamans of the People might very well have had headaches that gave them visions, but all Fari got was a stabbing pain behind her eyes and the burning desire to get outside of the heavy felt walls and breathe clear night air and the plain light of the stars. She didn't believe that she needed to sit inside the tent to recite the chants and rituals or crush and sort the herbs or to stitch amulets, either. It wasn't like other people in the tribe were going to sneak up to try to overhear the mysteries; nobody else *wanted* to know the mysteries; that was why Fari was the one stuck being Pama's trainee, and was sitting in the dark studying while everybody else was out around the campfire.
.

Feel free to critique my first-paragraph-writing skills.


(Post a new comment)


[info]kaesa
2007-11-02 05:50 am UTC (link)
Well, so far I like your main character. (Can we switch? Mine is incredibly whiny, and not as funny as yours.)

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]melannen
2007-11-02 03:58 pm UTC (link)
Whiny is fine to start with, as long as they get it knocked out of them eventually. :D

I actually wasn't expecting Fari to be nearly as snarky (or as profane!) as she seems to be until I started writing her - I was expecting whiny. The voice fits her character perfectly, sure, but I keep having to remind her that "n00b" is not a slang word she's allowed to use in the bronze age. :P She may yet convince otherwise, though. She doesn't take orders very well.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]b_jellybean
2007-11-02 11:37 am UTC (link)
Well, I like it! Also, anyone who gets 4k+ in the FIRST NIGHT is worthy of high praise. damn prolific people making my 1268 look even more awful

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]melannen
2007-11-02 03:59 pm UTC (link)
You're about where I was last year! Probably where I'd be this year if I didn't have [info]kyabetsu sitting next to me egging me on yesterday.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


pishbadlarr
2007-11-02 03:37 pm UTC (link)
I like it too! I really like how it made it really easy for me to visualize the setting. What I'm visualizing may be completely wrong, but at least it's there, which is more than I can say for some published books. XD

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]melannen
2007-11-02 03:59 pm UTC (link)
Really? Cool! I always feel like I don't do nearly enough with description, so that's good to hear.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]lindentreeisle
2007-11-02 11:49 pm UTC (link)
I am writing now and it is shite.

If that makes you feel any better.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]melannen
2007-11-03 12:03 am UTC (link)
It does! Thank you.

But then, I have not written at all yet today, so your shite is still better than my nada. :P

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]lindentreeisle
2007-11-03 11:38 pm UTC (link)
Me neither, today. I got 789 words yesterday but that's it so far...meh.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


 
   
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