NaNoWriMo tips

As you're trying to write 50,000 words this November as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), you might appreciate these tips...

I have found that you should...

Plan and plot. Ideally you started this before November 1. But, if not, sketch out, even in one-sentence form (I'm using index cards on my ipad), which scene you’re writing every day and what needs to happen in that scene. You could do this each Sunday for the coming week, so you know where you’re headed and don’t have to slow down to figure it out.

Write every day. When you can, keep going past 1,667 words. But when you just can’t write or just can’t write all 1,667 words, give yourself a break and know it’s okay. Just try to get caught up at the end of each week so you don’t feel behind as the new week begins.

Don’t edit. That’s what December’s for! Seriously, try not to even let yourself go back and read what you’ve written. Do whatever you need to suppress the internal editor—the one who insists you go back and take out all those examples of “just” “so” and “very.”

Save research for later. Want to write fast? Don’t let yourself get bogged down in research and fact-checking. Make yourself a [bracketed note] to check the facts later, but otherwise keep writing. For now, it doesn’t matter. Move on.

Peer pressure. Use social media networks to keep you honest and on task.

Word tricks. Always avoid contractions and hyphens, spell out words and acronyms. Those couple extra words could make the difference for you!

Nanowrimo

So I've got my first day done and it's was something like 1800 words. But I find today that my story is going in different directions that I had envisioned. Weird that. And I am needing to write between classes, which means I need to keep the story going in my head between writings. Not easy.

But I am happy with tons of encouragement I have gotten from my friends on Facebook.

Right now I am at nearly 800 words written today. All of them written away from my laptop, and on my iPad. Right now I'm in a cafe between classes and trying to get to a 1000 words. Then dinner and over to my girlfriend's house. And then finishing off my 1600.

I have just put down the cash for a place alone in malasana. That will, for this project, be a godsend. I am not getting much sleep or writing done at our piso right now. Living alone will help a lot.

That's enough of this for now, I need to get back to my story.

Cheers

Movember

Happy Halloween!!

Last Weekend

This is my last weekend before I starting writing my November novel. I'm hoping to get a one bedroom, so I can get quiet uninterrupted time to write after work. I love my flat mate but I need to be able to write, and sleep, without worrying about disturbances. And, for those who don't know, I am a light sleeper. We will see how that goes....

Madrid is...

As we did two weeks ago, I would like you in three or less words, tell me what "Madrid is..." to you.

Serializing November novel...

I don't know if I have guts to do a Dickensian turn here. It's going to be so raw. Yikes!

NaNoWriMo Checklist

Writing 50,000 words in a month is daunting to many writers.

Getting started

Register on the NaNoWriMo site.

Find a local region to join.

Add writing buddies. Find a local friend through the local region who can keep you accountable and motivate you (also helpful if you can do this for them as well).

Supplies

Notebooks – buy the surplus back to school stuff. Maybe find one that fits in your pocket or your purse.

Pencils – In those early outlines (if you’re an outliner) you’ll be erasing a lot. Buy stock in eraser companies as well.

Pens – FOr when you start your draft, because there is no deletion in NaNoWriMo.

Highlighters (optional) – I don’t use highlighters during NaNo. I do use them for edits, and I like those retractable ones. But we don’t edit during NaNoWriMo.

Smart Phone (optional) – Use your phone’s notes app to jot down plot changes, dialogue, or character ideas.

A writing space – Living room, bedroom, Starbucks, etc. This is where you’re going to write. Make sure it’s somewhere you’ll be able to sit for long periods of time. Comfort is priority here.

NaNoWriMo

I am currently compilling characters, plot elements, chapter titles, and story lines for Nov kickoff.

NaNo

I am building my characters for my November's novel writing. Right now, I am constructing my hero's backstory. Then I will move on to rest of the people who will be in my story. I have read that best to use all archetypes and have them already prepped for November 1st.

Occupy Gotham

Madrid is ...

I asked people to finish this sentence "Madrid is ..." with 3 or less words. I am going to make it a semi-monthly entry. The below response are the first...


Dirty

To be lived.

the Spanish Capital.

isn't what you think.

a great guirilandia :)

in Spain, maybe.

my birth place.

Getting onme tits

J and J's

a dream world

Path/sidewalk/pavement (delete according to nationality) blocker central

a hot mess

Jay Greco hotter than balls

Fucking awesome..? Party town?

Freaking amazing!





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Banned Books

This week is Banned Book week so get out and read something you're not supposed to....!!!......


1 Scary Stories (Series) Alvin Schwartz
2 Daddy's Roommate Michael Willhoite
3 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou
4 The Chocolate War Robert Cormier
5 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
6 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
7 Harry Potter (Series) J.K. Rowling
8 Forever Judy Blume
9 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson
10 Alice (Series) Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11 Heather Has Two Mommies Leslea Newman
12 My Brother Sam is Dead James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
14 The Giver Lois Lowry
15 It's Perfectly Normal Robie Harris
16 Goosebumps (Series) R.L. Stine
17 A Day No Pigs Would Die Robert Newton Peck
18 The Color Purple Alice Walker
19 Sex Madonna
20 Earth's Children (Series) Jean M. Auel
21 The Great Gilly Hopkins Katherine Paterson
22 A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle
23 Go Ask Alice Anonymous
24 Fallen Angels Walter Dean Myers
25 In the Night Kitchen Maurice Sendak
26 The Stupids (Series) Harry Allard
27 The Witches Roald Dahl
28 The New Joy of Gay Sex Charles Silverstein
29 Anastasia Krupnik (Series) Lois Lowry
30 The Goats Brock Cole
31 Kaffir Boy Mark Mathabane
32 Blubber Judy Blume
33 Killing Mr. Griffin Lois Duncan
34 Halloween ABC Eve Merriam
35 We All Fall Down Robert Cormier
36 Final Exit Derek Humphry
37 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
38 Julie of the Wolves Jean Craighead George
39 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
40 What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters Lynda Madaras
41 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
42 Beloved Toni Morrison
43 The Outsiders S.E. Hinton
44 The Pigman Paul Zindel
45 Bumps in the Night Harry Allard
46 Deenie Judy Blume
47 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes
48 Annie on my Mind Nancy Garden
49 The Boy Who Lost His Face Louis Sachar
50 Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat Alvin Schwartz
51 A Light in the Attic Shel Silverstein
52 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
53 Sleeping Beauty Trilogy A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54 Asking About Sex and Growing Up Joanna Cole
55 Cujo Stephen King
56 James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl
57 The Anarchist Cookbook William Powell
58 Boys and Sex Wardell Pomeroy
59 Ordinary People Judith Guest
60 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
61 What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons Lynda Madaras
62 Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume
63 Crazy Lady Jane Conly
64 Athletic Shorts Chris Crutcher
65 Fade Robert Cormier
66 Guess What? Mem Fox
67 The House of Spirits Isabel Allende
68 The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline Cooney
69 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
70 Lord of the Flies William Golding
71 Native Son Richard Wright
72 Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies Nancy Friday
73 Curses, Hexes and Spells Daniel Cohen
74 Jack A.M. Homes
75 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo A. Anaya
76 Where Did I Come From? Peter Mayle
77 Carrie Stephen King
78 Tiger Eyes Judy Blume
79 On My Honor Marion Dane Bauer
80 Arizona Kid Ron Koertge
81 Family Secrets Norma Klein
82 Mommy Laid An Egg Babette Cole
83 The Dead Zone Stephen King
84 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
85 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
86 Always Running Luis Rodriguez
87 Private Parts Howard Stern
88 Where's Waldo? Martin Hanford
89 Summer of My German Soldier Bette Greene
90 Little Black Sambo Helen Bannerman
91 Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
92 Running Loose Chris Crutcher
93 Sex Education Jenny Davis
94 The Drowning of Stephan Jones Bette Greene
95 Girls and Sex Wardell Pomeroy
96 How to Eat Fried Worms Thomas Rockwell
97 View from the Cherry Tree Willo Davis Roberts
98 The Headless Cupid Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99 The Terrorist Caroline Cooney
100 Jump Ship to Freedom James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier



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How Firm a Foundation

How Firm a Foundation (Safehold) by David Weber

Hatred is a poison, but anger—good, honestly-come-by anger, the kind that stems from outrage, from the need to protect the weak or lift the fallen or stop the cruel—that’s not poison. That’s strength. Too much of it can lead to hatred, and from there it’s one slippery step to self-damnation, but never underestimate the empowering strength of the right sort of anger.”



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Germline

Germline (The Subterrene War) by T.C. McCarthy



I didn’t give a shit, not about the stupid.

==========

the kid aged without my noticing, but when I looked at him closely, I saw it in the way he carried his carbine—not like a weapon, a separate piece of kit, but like it had grown out of his body. It was meant to be there. On one hand, it was sad to see him warped, but on the other hand, it was a necessary thing, because if we made it out and he wound up back in the world, at least he’d be alive; the warping would keep him safe. And a life twisted was better than no life at all.

==========

You forgot more than you remembered, but you remembered more than anyone should.

==========

the real horror of it all was time, and how slowly it passed, giving you ticktocks to think about the millions of ways you’d buy it—slow or fast, dirty or clean—and then when the action ended, you had more time, slow days to remember everything you saw, and if you couldn’t remember it at that moment, it didn’t matter; those things popped up in nightmares so that someone had to shake you awake

==========

“You’ll take, eventually. It’s not going to settle in for a while. But one day you’ll forget about everything except the good stuff, and believe me, there was good stuff, and even the ones you lost won’t be so scary to think about anymore, and then every once in a while you’ll start smiling again.

==========

Most of us are on our own, except for when we’re not.”


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Fear the Future

I was playfully dismissed by a friend earlier when I explained that the new novel Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson.

By the end of 2007, a UN report found that there were 4.1 million robots around the world working in homes. That is, there were more robots than the entire population of Ireland. But the projection for growth is even more startling. In 2004 the number of robots was 2 million. By 2007 it had doubled. Looking forward we see the numbers expanding at even a higher rate. By 2010 groups see 55 million personal robots in the world. And this is the beginning...

South Korea announced that it wants to put a robot in every home by 2013.

One in ten auto workers is a robot. And Toyota has made known that it wants ALL of its workers to be robotic in the future.

No one has to look to far from the nightly news and you will see numerous reports of robotic attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq. It maybe one thing to robotize factories but putting robots into the military has far reaching ramifications. One of those things will be the divorcing of the impact of war from the warrior. Will conflict be easier because it? Or will war be less bloody for the evolution of mechanical? The increasing reliance of robots by the US military in the Long War and, I am certain, in future wars.

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Robopocalypse

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I loved it! Not as structurally gripping as World War Z, but nonetheless a fantastic ride. I can't wait for the movie in 2013!



View all my reviews

A great book cover and book...

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Jerod Gibson Star Wars posters

New Game of Thrones posters

Feast for Crows

Words are like arrows...once loosened, you cannot call them back.

He understood the way that you could sometimes fall right into them, as if each page was a hole into another world.

I prefer my history dead.  Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.

Words are wind.

His strength, his speed, his valor, all his hard-won skill...it was worth less than a mummer’s fart, because he flinched from killing.  Remember that.

Beneath the gold the bitter steel.

Learn three new things before you come back to us...

Learn three new things before you come back to us...she always did.  Sometimes it was no more than three new words of the Braavosi tongue.  Sometimes she brought back sailor’s tales, of strange and wondrous happenings from the wide wet world beyond the isles of Braavos, wars and rains of toads and dragons hatching.  Sometimes she learned three new japes or three new riddles, or tricks of this trade or the other.  And every so often, she would learn some secret.

It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones...

Technorati Tags: Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin, Quotes, Favorite, Book, Fanatasy

Ghost Story

I’m looking forward to the new Harry Dresden novel.

Books of the Future

September 2011

 

How Firm a Foundation (Safehold 5) by David Weber (Tor)

 

A Beautiful Friendship (Honorverse YA) by David Weber (Baen)

 

January 2012

 

A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington/Torch/Saganami) by David Weber (Baen) – will be split in two

 

In the Mouth of the Whale (Quiet War Universe) by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)

Favorite book

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New music

I finally got around to Grammy winners. I got lady antebellum and lady gaga. Both songs, need you now and born this way are great.


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Iron Jackal

So this is the new cover for the Chris Wooding book.  I asked him about it and he said it had been leaked.  And he would have words with art dept.  I pointed out that it looked a lot like Desolation Road by Ian MacDonald.

Technorati Tags: Book, Bookcover, Coming Soon, Chris Wooding, Iron Jackal

Storm of Swords

...in battle discipline beasts numbers nine times of every ten, father had once told him.

Bedding...is not wedding.

The north is hard and cold, and has no mercy.

I count no day as lived unless I have loved a woman, slain a foeman, and eaten a fine meal.

For the oak recalls the acorn, the acorn dreams the oak, the stump lives in them both.

Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit.

It does not matter how brave or brilliant a man is, if his commands cannot be heard...

Valar morghulis was how they said it in Valyria of old.

Technorati Tags: Book, Fanatasy, Favorite, George R.R. Martin, Quotes, Storm of Swords

A Game of Thrones

If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him look into his eyes and hear his final words.  And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

A ruler who hides behind paid executioners son forgets what death is.

Where the king does, the realm follows...

Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.

I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.

They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man’s laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death.

A bastard had to learn to notice things, to read the truth that people hid behind their eyes.

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not.  Make it your strength.  Then it can never be your weakness.  Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.

...a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.

Let them see that their words can cut you, and you´ll never be free of the mockery.  If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own.  Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore.

The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends...IT is not matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace...They never are.

Distrusting me was the wisest thing you’ve done.

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.  There is no middle ground.

Castles are not friendly places for the frail.

Technorati Tags: Book, Fanatasy, Favorite, George R.R. Martin, Quotes, A Game of Thrones

World War Z

 

Brad Pitt’s production company beat Leonardo DiCaprio’s company out for the rights to the book.  Pitt is set to star in the movie version written by J. Michael Straczynski.  Though Max Brooks says he has ZERO control over the production, he has said he is happy with the choice of Brad Pitt.

A Dance with Dragons

Dance of Dragons finally has a release date of July 12th.  Now I just read that he hasn’t finished the novel yet, so perhaps that will be moved AGAIN.  Well, 2006 was its initial release date, so maybe we shouldn’t complain so much.  There is  light at the end of the tunnel.

According to the publisher, the book will run to 900 pages.  So it will be about the same length of Feast For Crows.

Technorati Tags: Book, George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons, Fantasy

Technorati Tags: A Dance with Dragons, Book, Fantasy, George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, Coming Soon

The Hot Gate: Troy Rising III

At Salamis, another of those critical battles...the Greeks painted their ships with names like ‘Citizen,’ ‘Freedom,’ ‘Democracy.’  Even the Spartans, despite a rigid lifestyle that subsumed identity to the state, were freer than any Persian.

Islam brought with it that essential mindset that all men are slaves to a higher power.  The Persians it was Xerxes and Darius as god-kings.  Islam simply substituted Allah and kept the same thought-process.

Muerto Minisculo, the tiny death

Been there, got the scars.

Technorati Tags: Book, Favorite, Quotes, John Ringo, Hot Gate, Scifi

The other side of Lord of the Rings

So a Russian author in 1999 wrote the story of the Lord of the Rings from the point of view of Mordor.  Russian Kiril Yeskov wrote The Last Ringbearer, a novel that looks at the events of the Lord of the Rings from the point of view of a human medic and an orc scout, both who have pledged themselves to Sauron.  Apparently the Tolkien estate has been keeping this interesting story from the public for some time now.  But you can get the PDF here and see what you think for yourself.  Me, I will be reading it simply because I don’t like censorship AND I’d like to see this other perspective on these well know events.

new Safehold novel

David Weber’s official homepage promises a new Safehold novel, the fifth, late this year probably October or November. It is named How Firm a Foundation.

Technorati Tags: Book, Coming Soon, David Weber, Scifi, How Firm a Foundation

A Rising Thunder

So the new Honor Harrington novel is rumored to be published January 2012 and to be split into two parts.

January 2012

Technorati Tags: David Weber

Technorati Tags: Book, Coming Soon, David Weber, Scifi, Honor Harrington

a new Cassandra Kresnov series

Joel Shepherd is rumored to be starting another Cassandra Kresnov series.  If it is anything like the original, it will be a fantastic ride.

Technorati Tags: Book, Coming Soon, Scifi, Joel Shepherd, Cassandra Kresnov

A Beautiful Friendship

A new YA novel by David Weber centered on one of Honor Harrington’s ancestors.

October 2011

It is based on the short story by the same name coming in October. It centers on Stephanie Harrington, Honor’s ancestor that was the first human to be adopted by a treecat, the telepathic felines of Honor’s home planet.

Technorati Tags: Book, Coming Soon, David Weber, Honor Harrington, Scifi, A Beautiful Friendship

Embedded

Embedded that is due in March is about a reporter that is embedded in a chip on a soldier fighting a war on an alien planet. The soldier is killed so the reporter has to take over his body and get out alive by himself.

Abnett is not an author I read but this idea has peek my interest, as it seems others.  I seen a lot of chatter about this novel.  I guess the sales will be good.

Technorati Tags: Book, Coming Soon, Scifi, Embedded, Dan Abnett

A Hard Day's Knight

I don’t do reasonable!

Arthur is not dead only sleeping.

Cloned Celebrity Long Pig

Technorati Tags: Book, Fantasy, Favorite, Quotes, A Hard Day's Knight, Simon R. Green