Writing Progress

50,178 / 200,000 words. 25% done!

ONE QUARTER = AWESOME.

April is going to be tough for me; my buffer has been depleted, so no more blowing off three days in a row just because.

Reading and Rocking on a Friday Night

For my own reference: links of interest. (Both pertaining to the whole 'Rihanna is back with Chris Brown' thing.)

- What It Doesn't Mean
- Putting Yourself In Someone's Shoes

Now that I've got that out of the way, on to lighter fare. Fact: playing Rock Band has done very funny things to my taste in music. Here is a list of songs that I have downloaded that I never thought in a million years I would like, much less listen to repeatedly.

• System of a Down - Chop Suey (I always thought this song was too hardcore for me. But it's one of the best most fun songs in Rock Band. I got attached after singing it a hundred times or so.)
  
  
• AC/DC - Let There Be Rock (I've always had a massive aversion to classic rock for some reason. This song, however, was too infectious for me to resist. Again, great guitar and fun to sing too. It comes together really well.)
  
  
• Judas Priest - Painkiller (I'm still getting used to the crazy vocals, but the guitar solo = WOW. Just... WOW. I just want to jump around and air guitar when I hear it.)
  
  
• Steely Dan - Bodhisattva (I knew this song only vaguely and it's actually really groovy and jazzy and fun to sing as well. It's the sort of song that makes you wish you could jam.)
  
  
• Modest Mouse - Float On (I have a bunch of Modest Mouse songs but I hate them all, but this one I actually like. It's the music that does it for me. But the singer's voice still annoys me a bit.)

Still trying to get through the book Consumed by Benjamin Barber, but it's hard because it's so dry. Also, I don't really agree with the author's ideology, but I'm trying not to hold that against him. His theories are interesting, in any case.

Eh, might as well throw up a progress bar while I'm here...

42,801 / 200,000 words. 21% done!

Passed 40,000 on Monday. I've been doing well lately; I've exceeded my quota so thoroughly that technically I don't need to write a single word until the 19th of this month. I like having a little bit of leeway like that.

Progress And Such

Since the last word count bar I tried failed so badly, here's another:

26716 / 200,000 words. 13% done!

Much better. I have cracked 25,000 which is a great milestone. Here's an excerpt from my latest idea.

As soon as the sun sank beneath the horizon, I was back in action. Hidden underneath layers of straw was a small knife that I could barely grasp in my talons. If I could have used my beak to hold it, I would have. But my bastard owner had decided to bind my mouth shut as punishment for biting him earlier. And so I was left with no choice but to use my wretched claws instead. The knife was horribly dull, barely putting a dent into the bars of my cage. I pushed harder with the knife, metal noisily screeching against metal. Noise was the last thing I wanted; Qadir would bind my feet and clip my wings if he found me trying to escape like this. So I eased up on the pressure, slowly dragging the knife back and forth across the bar, praying to see some kind of chink in my prison. The light slowly faded, giving way to a dark night. Shadows were creeping across the vast treasure room when I realized that the knife was doing absolutely nothing. With a frustrated (but muffled) squawk, I tossed it through the bars of my cage, where it landed on top of a filigreed jewelery box.

I wished for a moment that Giedre was still here, to tell me that it was better to stay calm and unruffled, to tell me that I'd certainly be free one day, she was sure of it. But she was gone now and I was alone without a friend for the first time in five years. It was true that I knew I would one day be free of this place, that I was destined to lead a life of wonder and magnificence, but it was nice to hear it from someone else besides myself every now and then.

"Simmer down, Nisr. I'm trying to sleep."

Go to hell, old man. I fixed my steely gaze on Bilal, wishing I could screech at him through the darkness. Sensing my foul mood, he grumbled about my bad attitude, his grizzled form curling up on a carpet of indigo and gold that was his home. There were others in the vault, imprisoned treasures such as myself, but no one else spoke to me. I was too fiery, too stubborn, too willing to go too far and earn Qadir's wrath. If it was within their control, they didn't speak a word to me; Qadir was the strictest of men and they dared not get in his way.

Me, on the other hand? I wasn't afraid of Qadir. I'd seen worse than him. I had no qualms about testing his patience.

I have no idea where it's going but it's holding my attention for now. The best part? I have two main characters and when I write them I actually have two different voices. Awesome!

I Cracked 20,000!

This is nifty; nice little word count meter to show my progress with GYWO...

22229 / 200,000 words. 11% done!

As usual, I am behind. I need to put in some serious writing over the next two days before things get out of control. :|

Back On Track

After being seriously behind (I didn't even make my quota for January) I have worked hard and am now ahead of my required total word count for GYWO: 18,787 / 200,000. Hooray!

Then again... so very tired. *collapses into bed*

Turn For The Worse

Good lord, I am a great deal behind on my writing quota for GYWO. I should have around 14,000 words by now but I'm only at 10,715. And not much of that has been dedicated to writing The Last Breath. *disgruntled face* I've been reduced to gathering my word count from my random blogging instead of fictional pieces, which is something that I wanted to hold off on.

Detours Are Fun

Hmm. I joined GYWO so that I could finish my novel, but it seems like I am simply using my daily word count to write other little things. Anything but my novel. Still, I'm doing well so far: 6,124 / 200,000 words as of today.

Long-Term Plans

I joined this online group called Get Your Words Out, where I pledged to write 200K words for the year 2009. I definitely think this will turn out better than my previous NaNo failures because my quota turns out to be ~550 words per day. Quite doable. I'm currently trying to finish a few one-shot stories I was writing, but once I get those out of the way it's back to finishing up my novel. I'm currently at 665 words out of 200,000, hahaha.

Here's to a brand new year of goals and challenges.

Writing Progress

50,178 / 200,000 words. 25% done!

ONE QUARTER = AWESOME.

April is going to be tough for me; my buffer has been depleted, so no more blowing off three days in a row just because.

I Still Have Hope

NaNo is over but that doesn't mean I've stopped writing. Thus far I have completed three full chapters and am on to the fourth.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 18,041

Familiar Grounds

Not gonna turn this into a big explanation; I have given up on the idea of winning NaNo.

I haven't written anything since November 12th and I'm just fine with that. I'll keep working on it, but I don't intend on keeping up with the other NaNoers.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 17,218

NaNo Progress Report

I had no laptop on the weekend, so I am disastrously behind. To keep on track, I need to write a total of 16,670 words by the end of today. At the NaNo boards, Chris is urging everyone to at least crack 15,000. I don't think I'll have any problem breaking that milestone, but I'm almost at the part of the story where things slow down and get angsty and... I'm not sure how things will turn out. We'll see.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 14,770

NaNo Progress

Wow the NaNo boards are absolutely fucked right now. Pages keep timing out and you can't enter your word count. Boooo. I want a fancy widget! Oh well, I guess this will have to do for now.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 1,685