And into week three!

Wow, week two was rough. Seemed to be that way for a lot of people. Hang in there, guys! :)

Currently rewriting the first chapter at the moment. I know, I know, wait until December, but I've never been one to follow that rule. So here's the new intro:

--

Time worked like the Domino Effect meeting the Six Degrees of Separation, and one wrong move could make the whole of reality collapse. They learned that the hard way the day the sky cracked open.

It started in Reims, France at seven in the morning. A thunderous SNAP like the sound of a bone breaking startled everyone, and more snaps followed in quick succession. People gathered to the windows and ran outside to see what was going on. Lights filled the sky, and it almost looked like billions of fireflies were coming in through the clouds. The lights formed a jagged line that pulsated and buzzed. It could have been fireflies taking over the earth.

It took four hours and twenty-three minutes for the cracks to cover the whole of the sky. By then, they didn’t look like cracks anymore; it was as if the atmosphere turned light yellow. Meteorologists tried to find records of this ever happening before, but such records did not exist.

Around midday, the lights suddenly went out, and nightfall blanketed the earth. People began to panic and worry that this was the end of the world.

--

And here's the song it was written to:



Dunno what that says about this story.

In character news, Rhemy is supposed to be the MC, but Oliver keeps trying to steal the spotlight. It's kind of hilarious, too:

--

Oliver didn’t answer because the elevator dinged again and the doors opened. They both ran right, seeing as running left would have them jump out a window, and kept running until they reached a large atrium where a young man, probably just out of school, was playing with some wires.

“STOP!”

“And shut the dooooooooooor!” crooned Oliver, clapping his hands over his heart and closing his eyes. “You’re the one that I’ve been fighting fooo-OOOOOO-oo-o-o-or… sorry. Couldn’t help myself.” He grinned at Rhemy’s exasperated expression. The would-be bomber looked more alarmed than anything.

--

Anybody else's characters behaving hilariously?

Week one.

Blog's been quiet this week. Most of that was because of NaNoWriMo, and also because of homework, of course. Had a paper due on Thursday.

It's been a bit of a struggle, but I've finally got my inner critic to shut up. Also, everybody needs to check out Your Heart, especially the Summer album. The music is just fantastic. In other unrelated asides, I doodled this picture of Rhemy and Oliver today:

Oliver is saying very quickly, "I figured out how to convert Cheetos into ROCKET FUEL! I AM AWESOME!" And Rhemy is thinking, "ADHD or just Evansly?"

Not much I can say about that.

So how's NaNo going for everybody?

NaNoWriMo 2010. It approaches.

Here we have a crappy picture of the main characters, Oliver Evans and Rhemy Starrett. Now. There's a NaNo thread where you can post your characters' PostSecrets, so I made a few of the biggest secrets/driving forces behind my story for this.

Character #1:

Character #2:

Character #3:

This can be a really great way to figure out your characters' motivations and get inside their heads. So I really encourage you to think about what your characters' deepest secrets are. :)

Also, can anyone believe that November is less than a week away? INSANITY.

NaNoMeme thieves are on the loose...

AT THE START: DO YOU:
Have an outline? Oh yes. Goodness yes.
Scene-by-scene? More or less.
Know how it starts? Yup.
Know how it ends? EPICALLY.
Have your climax in order? After some very intricate plotting, yes. I've been working on this since April. ^_^
Know your main characters yet? Rhemy "Les Rhemes" Starrett (my main-main) and Oliver "Evansly" Evans!
Have a particular tone in mind? Kind of. Just gonna go with it.
Plan to draw on your own experiences? No.

IS YOUR WORK GOING TO BE:
Funny? For sure, to balance out the seriousness.
Serious? Oh yeah, definitely.
Sad? The opening scene is at a funeral. So...
Semi-Autobiographical? You caught me. I am from the future.
Based on another story? No, but I've been using Oliver forever. Like since 2006.

HOW HAVE MUCH YOU PLANNED? HAVE YOU USED:
A paper journal? Yes.
Pens? No... I really, really hate pens.
Multicoloured pens? Even multicolo[u]red ones.
A computer? Where most of the planning is done.
Index cards? Nah, too easy to lose.
Bulleted lists? Yes!
Plot charts? Haha, yes.
Character charts? Nope
Character formulas? ...What?
Favourite writing resource? Write or Die.

ODDS AND ENDS:
A line you would like to use: I've been saving them on Facebook. TECHNICALLY, it's not writing if it's Facebook.

“Ah, Y2K. I love this time in history. Apocalypse theories, the Amish secretly gloating, people gathering supplies for the end of the world. They’re like little squirrels!” *Sees a lady loading an obscene amount of groceries into her car* “Crazy, crazy squirrels.”

“This is our weird-o-meter! It goes bloop-bloop when something’s wrong.”

“And this is my watch!” *Power pose!*
“What does that do?”
“…It… it measures time. What did you think it did?”

“It’s always been about the past with you and me. When’s it ever going to be about anything else?”

“We’re brilliant!”
“We’re adverbs!”
“Let’s save the universe by playing the six degrees game!”
“WOOHOO!”

A scene you would like to include: Oliver and Rhemy making fun of everybody in the year 1999. Oh wait. That's a different plot point!
A concept you would like to explore: The future.
A cliché you would like to avoid: Part of the story takes place in Germany 1944. You would think someone is going to try to kill Hitler. OH NO THEY AREN'T!
A character you would like to use: All the characters I have for the story?

FORWARD THINKING:
Do you expect to be able to complete it? Yes.
Do you intend to complete it? Yes.
Would you ever try to publish it? After a lot of polishing.
What do you expect to get out of this month of frantic writing? AWESOMENESS.