Did a Map, Bailed on NaNo

Yesterday I came home and drew a map for the next part I planned to write.  Took me better part of the night to draw it.  I could have just drawn a rough sketch and left the map for later, but drawing maps is something I can do as I watch something.  Because of drawing the map I didn't get any writing done.  While I'm very glad I got done what I got done over this past week, but by yesterday I was spent.  I'm probably just a lightweight, but I made a decision to not do NaNo. 

Drawing maps, layout and editing don't count toward word count.  While I plan on putting more effort into getting my writing done, producing more content for Manor, adventure and my campaign I don't, won't be beholden to a word count.  Like yesterday, I missed the day writing and then spent most of the morning today beating myself up over it.  Dumb.  Waste of a perfectly good Saturday.

Now I'll continue to plow away at campaign and have fun with it instead of feeling an obligation that made it no fun.  Just to show you I wasn't blowing smoke/sunshine or whiskey up your ass here is the map I worked on. 

There are a series of ruins located near where the party will start.  This is the first.  I can't go into too much detail because my guys are probably reading this.  I like how this one turned out.  Tonight I'll write the numbered areas...and not count how many I did, but set the goal to complete them. 

Falling Short

Yesterday, Day 5...I didn't get to my 1700 words.  Nope.  I wrote 1059 words for the Village of Bad Water I'm working on.  It's okay.  No one panic.  I got this.  Today I've been writing, but also working hard on the layout of Issue #5 of the Manor.  I need to give a thorough once over and then hand it to my very capable proofreaders.  While I can't count that as writing I'm pleased with the progress. 

Back to work.  I need to produce.  And I think I've got a pretty good idea for some of the villagers...

Day 4 and I Already Hit the Wall

I'm a fricking lightweight.  Last night was the 4th night and I already wanted to pass on doing my writing.  Tired from work and just wanting to watch Netflix...nope.  Whisk coached me into starting.  Grind.  Grind.  That's me grinding on my writing...not the other kind.  I know, TMI.  Fast forward, around 10:30pm I had the b button buried in my forehead from falling asleep and hitting my head on the keyboard, but I got my 1700 in last night.

What I worked on is the village of Bad Water.

I believe I posted this map a little while ago.  I'm going through and adding who is in each building their background, secrets and possible adventure hooks with the hard working villagers of Bad Water.  I got through 11 buildings last night and just started working on the next batch.

Back to work.

Home Ruling NaNoWriMo for Gaming

Like a good game system that gets house ruled, that's what I've done to NaNoWritMo.  I've taken the concept and skeleton form of it and then applied my own house rules.  I am not writing a novel.  I did this in the past and while the exercise was interesting and fun, its not something I'm interested in right now.  What I am doing is applying those 50k words into gaming.  Yesterday for example, I wrote nearly 2500 words for the 5th Manor.  The first draft is nearly done now.

Some of the other areas I'm applying my 50k words is the campaign world I've been tinkering with.  I've done some work on this morning, a few hundred words, but tonight I'll need to sit down and pound out at least another 1500 words.  No revising.  No editing.  Just producing now.  I can second guess myself in December.

I'm using NaNoWritMo to develop a writing habit.  An expectation of myself.  I love to write, but rarely give myself the chance to do it.  NaNoWriMo focuses your attention on the writing and makes it a priority.  While I may not have a novel at the end of the month, I will have a lot written for my gaming world.  Some will be for publishing purposes, but most of what I do this month will be for me and the Monday Night crew. 

Off to work.  Hope to get some good writing time in afterwards.  Either way I will be hitting my minimum goal of 1700 words.

A Practice in Self Flagellation

Day one of NaNoWriMo started off shaky.  I thought I had an idea of where I wanted to start, but when I sat down everything seemed simple, stupid and worst of all, boring.  But I kept hitting the keyboard until it stopped boring me.  Yes, I will blame my keyboard for now. 

I have a timer I use when I write so I can keep track of how long I've been at it.  Especially when doing the 50k words in a month.  That breaks down to 1666.666 words a day.  See, even the devil own NaNoWriMo.  That's why its such a pain. 

After two hours I got in 1700+ words.  I'm looking to get a minimum of 1.7k words a day.  Ideally I would like to get in 2.5k words a day so if I need to take a day off I have a little breathing room.

Do I like what I wrote so far?  No yet.  I think there are kernels of some fun characters, but not enough there at this time.  As for place, it's so generic.  I need to get into more details of the area and a little background. 

I plan on going back and writing for a little while longer.  The great thing about NaNoWriMo is it is focused on producing.  I, like many people get caught up with the details, get hung up on small problems, fiddle with crap that doesn't matter.  This month its about producing content.  The details be damned now.  Your job is to apply ass to chair and keep typing until the blood drips from your eyes and tips of your finger snap off.  Or for most of you, until the coffee runs out. 

Blog Ambush and NaNoWriMo

Looks like the whisk has redecorated my blog while I was at work.  She giggled behind me as I brought up my page.  She likes that I don't like the spiders with the bows.  Then I found out she changed my icon when I comment on other people's blog.  And the title of my blog, Halloween Manor.  Apparently she had a lot of time on her hands yesterday.

At least there are no falling witches and ghosts.

Tomorrow starts NaNoWriMo.   I plan on doing it this year.  A few days ago I had no idea what I was going to write about, but now I've got a few ideas I think I'll run with.  It'll be a story based in the campaign world I'm building and this exercise will help me flesh out the world in more detail.  When I free write I come up with the nuances of cultures and customs that bring a world to life.  I won't go into much detail, one, because its bad mojo to talk about it before hand and two, I still know very little of what/who I'll be writing about.

Anyone else out there feeling brave and going to join this masochistic exercise?

Oh, and almost forgot.  Have a great Halloween!