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That’s right, a trippy dream sequence from out of left field sparked most of today’s number.  Off to watch more football!

Managed to build up a pretty  decent cushion for the week ahead.  At my father’s recommendation (I didn’t tell him anything about the story) I decided to write the ending this weekend.  It was liberating in a way.  As it stands now, I don’t really like it, but the nice thing is that I know longer have impossible expectations for it.  I discovered that I was expecting the ending to deliver a powerful punch to the reader, and the reality is that even in great works of literature I don’t believe many of the endings to be as strong as other parts of the story.  So, yes I kinda hate it, but I can always change it.  And it has given me direction, and helped to outline character arcs for the MCs of the story.  I also managed to write Plot Point 2, as well as some build up  around the relevant scenes.  I think this is great, as I can get some of the necessary elements out onto paper and dissect what I need to add to make it work.  Its like building a binary tree, you add a level and keep going, to infinity if you like.  So, I am probably at level 3 right now, a root node, 2 sub-nodes, and 2 sub-nodes off of each of those.  The four bottom nodes are 1st Act, Plot Point1, Plot Point 2, and Act III.  Forgive the computer programming analogy.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Tiny, Inc. is a front for military weapons development.  Development
of a new generation of weapon is costly, and required greater funding
than the government could provide through traditional methods.  You
see, the same scientists responsible for driving back the first
intergalactic attack were also responsible for protecting against the
second.”
“The second?”  All eyes look towards Klan.
“There was no second,” someone challenged.  Macks thought it
may have been him.
“Not yet.  But it comes as surely as the stars stay suspended above.
As sure as the Restoration, the second wave comes and it is greater
than the first.  Far greater, and far deadlier.  You think we are
zealous fighters, yes?  But you have not seen anything yet.  For you
do not understand the true nature of the threat.”
“What is the true Nature?” Macks found himself genuinely curious.
Salah crossed the last distance to the golden-tipped ‘bot.  A sudden
burst of urgency tugged at Macks heart.  “What is it, Klan?”  The man
was taking too long to answer.  Salah was powering up the death ray,
and his mirror would be no defense against that.
“Tell me now, Klan”  he commanded.  “Tell me the true nature.”
“Betrayal,” he breathed.  Butternut vaporized the man where he sat.

Thanks for following along!  All you NaNoWriMos keep it up

Still working on today’s word count. Since this is the first weekend since I started this madness, it is also the first chance I’ve had to consider where I want this word train to go. While trying to document the stations we’ve passed and scenery we’ve witnessed, I churned out a quotable for your edification (after the jump):

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Rough going on Friday night, but I still managed to get over where I’m supposed to be, which is 10k even.  I had some time to go back through my novel (down, inner editor, down boy!)  to chart the major players, settings, technology, and other stuff I am showcasing so far.  I also was able to put a little more thinking into where this novel is going, how I am going to add something new to the Space Adventure genre, what that newness is actually going to be, and how to keep it fresh and interesting for the next 40k.  Good luck, NaNoWriMos!

Looking forward to the weekend where I’ll have a chance to pad the word count, organize some thoughts, and figure out where all this brilliant writing will come to a point.  Stay tuned!

Late night.  Tired.  Yes it was less than 1667.  Tomorrow.  Bed.

Shout out to all the NaNoWriMo’s who have reached 6,000 words!  In honor, rather than a brief excerpt, I will look back over where I have been:

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Still on the second chapter, spent most of today working on a chase scene.  Starting to feel slightly constrained by the characters / setting / plot / etc.  But that’s a good thing, right?  I think that people really shine when they are given artificial barriers that they have to overcome.  I think you’ll agree I don’t have to look far to come up with examples that back that up.  Today also had alot of run-on sentences and even more typos (I need a better keyboard for this!).  But I’m pumped I was able to do at least the 1,667 / day that we need.  Until further notice my story is at least going to take some broad organizational concepts from the ‘Adventure Master Plot’ as described by Tobias in his book, ‘20 Master Plots‘.  So far it has a bit of flavor from Star Wars, The Mummy, and the Fifth Element.  Today’s excerpt (I spell checked it, be thankful for that):

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I recently discovered a cool use of the ‘Tag Cloud’.  Somebody already suggested this would be a useful way of making sure your fiction doesn’t bog down in the same words.  Check out mine here.