NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 18

[ladyseishou]

Day 18 - 12 days remaining

I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.

— Henry James



So some say that adjectives and adverbs are overused and the sign of weak writing. Of course Your Mileage May Vary on this but I say balderdash! Adjectives and adverbs add spice and color and clarity… write the scene as you see it using the words that come to you easiest and best!

Second guessing your word choice at this stage kills the spontaneous nature of telling your story. Or think of it this way: all those “weak” adverbs and adjectives will work very nicely as placeholders until later, during the revision process, they may be redone as simile or metaphor or red-penned as fodder for the thesaurus. Or maybe… you might decide it was just the right way to write it after all.

Today’s word count is 30,006! And time to break out another 10K milestone prize if you’re on a mini-reward system! Quixotic questions? Clarifying comments? It’s all good! So keep writing!

Comments

[cheyinka]

I'm really delighted with the scary vision I just wrote - this was on day 17, technically, but I figure it can go here too.

"As [a foreign priestess] was chanting the blessing over the troops," Abbot Ajaguz said, so quietly that Anyitak had to strain to hear him, "she suddenly had a vision of giant hailstones, each the size of a human man's head, striking each of the troops. She saw herself behind them, and knew somehow that these hailstones were falling after the blessing had been completed; in fact, when she awakened the next dawn, she thought that this part of the vision had really happened, and only knew it hadn't because there were no crushed soldiers in the healing tent. After the vision of hailstones, her vision continued and showed her a figure wearing either a long tunic the color of dried blood, or a once-white tunic that had been dyed by dipping it in blood, and she saw the figure speaking with three shapeless forms, like tunics hanging on a clothesline to dry. The forms seemed to suck all the light out of the field where they and the figure were conversing. One of them turned her direction, and before she could flee a hailstone came out of the sky and crushed her."

"When she awakened the next dawn," Abbot Ajaguz continued, in a more normal volume and tone, "she knew four things: first, that she must find a Way-Station, and rather than attempt to convert it into a traditional temple, she must join it; second, that she must tell someone of her vision; third, that she must warn the person she told that he would need two archers, two warriors who used other weapons, two priests, and one more person besides; and lastly, that neither she nor the person she told could be either of the priests or the remaining person. She decided that it would be best if she just went to one of the two monasteries of the Way, and of course the person she told was myself."

[ladyseishou]

Very cool and the imagery is certainly creepy... Well done!

[insomniac_tales]

I've been writing in google docs and I realized that it had inflated my wordcount by at least 1k. Not too bad, considering I'm ahead of where I need to be anyway, but I'm only using the validator to update my wordcount from this point forward.

Not feeling so great today physically, but I think if I just lay in bed and maybe kick out a few more words I won't consider it a total loss. Keeping it real at 42,944.

[ladyseishou]

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that you're under the weather *sends healing wishes and good thoughts*
You certainly don't need to worry about your word count!

Feel better!

[down]

42,036 - about half of my words today wandered off into describing motion sickness exacerbated by magic-issues and introducing three characters not-from-earth to mint imperials. Um. ...Grounding details? XD; Only just getting into my expository dialogue - I think my brain is taken up by flailing over whether to drag my lurker-by-nature self into yuletide. ^^; But that means I know what I'm writing tomorrow. ^^

[ladyseishou]

A good looking word count there! And it sounds like you had fun writing today! Yuletide can be fun and I'm sure that you'll make somebody very happy. But the best thing you can do for yourself is to go ahead and decide one way or the other or there may be massive flailing rather than writing...

[lassarina]

41,265.

and my partner had to sit me down tonight and get me talking about the novel so I would start liking it again instead of wanting to throw everything out the window. (I'm at the end of the plot--there's more than enough to keep me going another 9K, but mostly I just want it all over and done with.) He succeeded, but mostly I am in angry-flail mode. Which probably just means I need sleep. ^.^;

[ladyseishou]

That's a beautiful word count! And I know what you mean about wanting it all over - I think almost every writer goes through something like that. Happy to hear your partner was able to talk you through it (kudos to your partner!).

Sleep! Take a walk and reconnect to the world then channel any leftover anger towards your antagonist (or protagonist) and finish things up! Good luck!