A couple of days ago, my beta, JK issued me a challenge. That challenge? Reach the 20 000 word mark by the end of the month. And do you know what? Even with a few bumps in the road I have managed to do that with just over four hours to spare.
What makes this even more exciting is that I only reached the 10k mark on the 15th of this month – that means I wrote 10k – doubled my total – in half a month. If I keep this speed up that means I can write 20 000 words of a draft a month. And that can result in one 80 000 word novel in four months.
And that means my goal is completing the first draft of Lionheart before NaNo – where I plan to write as much of The Circled Green as possible – is a very distinct possibility indeed. Let’s hope that is the case after all, so JK can have plenty of stuff to beta. 
In the meantime: 20 000 words! Yippee!
The right-inset image was brought to my attention via the Allison and Busby blog. It’s a t-shirt from CafePress with the phrase “vampires prefer brunettes” – a reference to the line said by Edward in Twilight
And it made me think, on characters, author appeal and funny.
Now, while one of my vampires (the adorkable perfumer-slash-assassin Daniel) does have a preference for brunettes, it’s more a case of a particular brunette. It’s made very clear that Charlie’s weakness is redheads, while Lauren’s current partners have leaned more towards brown/black. Rivka’s longterm lover (the one she turned) is a blond.
As for Jared and Athanasios… they’re like Captain Jack Harkness. Anything with a zip code.
But really, in the end the only colour that really matters is red… because when it comes to vampires, it’s what’s inside that counts.
While watching my Twitter feed go by, I noticed that Robbie was posting tiny snippets from the work he was currently reading. Since I was on a big Lionheart kick at the time, and we had been discussing Doctor Who and concepts like the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, I decided to post a tiny snippet of my LH draft.
Unfortunately, Twitter has a limit of only 140 characters. So when I cut down the fragment I wanted to post, it ended up having an… alternate interpretation.
“Unless it’s bigger on the inside?”
“”That it is,” he said, sliding his hand inside so far it went up to his shoulder.
As you can imagine, removing the context took it into what could be interpreted as Rule 34 territory.
Here is what the scene actually looks like, when it has context – as allowed by being able to have more than 140 characters.
“Nah, no problem,” Will replied. “You’re able to carry all your baggage?”
Leander reached under the table to pull out a shoulder bag. It was a smooth, black leather, with several pockets on either side and a long strap to carry it with. “This is all I have.”
Will scoffed at the sight. “No way you have all your stuff in that. Unless,” here his eyes narrowed, “it’s bigger on the inside?”
Leander flipped open the flap that covered the main compartment. “That it is,” he said, sliding his hand inside so far it went up to his shoulder. It was impossible for it to fit in the bag without some magic cast upon it.
And this is why context matters. Because without it, even I have naughty-tinted glasses.
So, I’m working on Lionheart. Which is all sorts of yayness. As you may have seen, I reached the 10 000 word mark late last week; right now I am sitting at just over 13 000. And since it is Tuesday, I am going to share a little snippet from Lionheart. 
“What do you remember?” Leander prompted.
“Darkness,” was her reply. “And from it, something reached out and grabbed me.” Leander was surprised she was so calm. She was so young, so small – others in her place would be a mess of tears and sobs. “Mummy was screaming and crying. Everyone screaming. No. Wait.”
“What? What is it?”
“Mummy is screaming. Is.” This was beyond calm now. This was an utter absence of everything – the fire, the passion, the determination, the emotion – that made Eithne not just a big annoyance, but simply Eithne. “Why is Mummy screaming?”
I wrote one novel last year – Blood Bound.
I am hoping to write another this year – Lionheart (book one).
Failing that, I would like to have written the majority of that book, and have a lot of another also done. That’s because there is this one thing.
I’ve decided to do NaNo this coming November. For the first time ever.
Don’t worry, there is method to this madness of mine. At least, I think it is madness… no wait. It’s madness.
See, I have so many ideas in my head that they are fighting to get out. As my beta has summed up, when it comes to stories in my head there is “one wizard, one ghost, two fairies on the backburner, the occasional prodding of a mermaid, a superhero, and an entire string of vampires”. And that’s not including fleeting ideas like Earthshakers and the one about the Museum of Time.
Of those ideas, only one – Blood Bound – has been completed, and even that story morphed very quickly and easily into an entire series, with several books already with outlines forming in my head.
Of the rest, only Lionheart, The Superhero Diaries and Bones have had anything written. And the latter two have been bumped back to “secondary” status.
So why am I doing NaNo this year? Basically to get as much of one idea out and done as I can. I don’t expect to write a full 50 000 words for The Circled Green – my Victorian era faerie story – but I can use it as a means of motivating myself to write a fair chunk of it. 20 000 words of TCG in one month? A heck of a lot better than anything else I have done.
But right now I am working steadily on Lionheart, and using Write Or Die to help me along. My big problem is that I am far too easily distracted, and WOD helps keep me focussed by reminding me when I am starting to wander. I wrote 700 words today, and over 400 those in under the 15 minute time period I allotted myself with WOD.
Imagine what I can do if I do that more than just once a day… I might not be so crazy after all.
With Blood Bound, I found I had four main milestones before finishing: these were at the point of the story where the total was 10k, 20k, 40k or 60k words.
And today I have reached the first of those milestones for Lionheart. I have reached 10 000 words, and have clocked over into having a five digit wordcount for this story.
So hooray! *dances*
(Oh, and as explanation for the variant of the poopcat meme, and why it says 9000 instead of 10 000, the explanation for the “It’s Over 9000!” meme is available on KnowYourMeme.com. I think I may have found a new addiction.)
I need to meet more people.
I was sitting at my computer, like I seem to be doing for the majority of my time these days, mindlessly searching. “Searching for what?” you might ask. Well, my answer is a pretty simple one.
“People.”
For a blogger, I think I’m both insulated and divided. I’m insulated because, well, I don’t “talk” (read: comment) to many other people, and other people don’t talk back. And I’m divided because I hang in three main groups, in three different places. I follow authors on my livejournal, book bloggers via On The Nightstand, and everyone else here at Catherine-Haines.com.
It’s an odd feeling, as sometimes I feel like I am at least two different people, if not three. And that all of them are very lonely. I/We all sit around and lurk on various places. I/We want to comment, but it’s hard to find something that I/we have something to say about.
And I know everyone hates really simple one-liners, those “love the layout!” comments that don’t match the entry. So it’s back to lurking once more.
That’s why I am writing this post. I know you have to give a little to get a little. What I want to get is communication, blogs to read and blogs to comment on, and I suppose communication is what I can offer to give back. But what I would like from you is a starting point.
Who do you follow, who do you read? Those who do know me, who do you think I should follow, that I might like?
I have a spare Dreamwidth code to give out. If you want it, contact!
