FanaticalPupil.com

I swung a deal with my hosting provider for GiveMeTheRock.com and got to add some extra domains and databases to my plan… so now I have FanaticalPupil.com! Quick get to it before I throw Google Ads all over the place!

10,000 Words Pt. 2

So, I’ve been working on this Friday Snippet project now, instead of the other one for which I’d already written 10,000+ words. But, I’ve now reached 10,000 words in what is called The Nine Mothers. This time, the 10,000th word was: she. Brilliant! Couldn’t have been “ignoring” or “blinking”, both of which came shortly before it… nope. She. Awesome.

I guess it’s very similar to my getting the Completionist achievement (Complete the majority of the game) in Mass Effect by telling Conrad Verner to go back to his wife on Earth. Yup. It wasn’t fighting the Geth, or defeating Saren (for the first time, at least), or even doing anything that involved shooting or using biotic powers. Nope. I just talked to the guy enough to convince him to return to his wife. Thank Yeewwwwww!

Friday Snippets: Does anyone do this anymore?

I seem to remember having 4-5 blogs that posted pieces of WIPs on Fridays… but I only saw one in the feed reader today… that one was enough to remind me that I actually have some good WIP to post now, though. So, hooray for that. And here goes (with the disclaimer, of course)…

This is © copyright 2008 by me, Nels Wadycki. I hope this doesn’t mean I’m giving up the first publishing rights. But then, it’s first draft stuff, and will probably be completely reworked, but hopefully not thrown away.

Not Even A Mouse

Josephine awoke to the high pitched, staccato beeps that White Home tended to make when he was straining to compute something. She was ten floors below the AI’s main work room on Sky Mountain Station, but the sounds carried through the ventilation shafts, and Josephine was a light sleeper. She flipped the covers back with a sigh, and went out to catch an elevator up to the Brain Stem.

Milestone: 10,000 Words

I hadn’t realized that I’d actually passed my previous best of ,8300 words for a “project” on Feb. 10th, but according to the spreadsheet, I got to 9,000 on that day.

And now, I have topped 10,000 words for a project/manuscript for the first time. My 10,000th word? Date. It probably won’t end up being the 10,000th word in the manuscript, though, since I’m writing a scene ahead of where that will probably actually be.

I won’t celebrate too much, since that only brings me about 10-11% of the way to completion, and I’m still 190 words behind on my average daily goal. But if I manage another 2,400 words (ha!), I’ll be all caught up.

Also, WordPress 2.0’s feature that allows you to dynamically add categories is a little dangerous. Granted, it’s still not as easy to do as on Blogger, but I can see myself ending up with about as many categories (aka labels) as the dude who writes Cousins of Ron Mexico. Of course, I suppose I could add a category every time I post and after 10 years I’ll only have 70 categories. So, not too bad.

American Hero (Wild Cards Online Series)

Since there was a brief mention/discussion of George R. R. Martin (wow, 3 weeks ago now; didn’t seem like it was that long ago), I thought I’d throw it out that I’m reading the American Hero series now (via Google Reader). I’ve actually got 3 serials (I guess you could call them that) in my Reader now. It’s working out okay, but I feel like none of them are getting as deep into a story or setting as they would in a real book. I guess that each piece has to be pretty short for people to be able to keep up with them, though.

So far, Shadow Unit is the most interesting to me, and actually feels like it has the most depth despite having the shortest pieces. I guess when I say “depth” it’s not the actual presented depth, but more of a feeling like the story will eventually be the deepest. American Hero just doesn’t seem like it will be anything more than the reality show it’s presented as, and I feel like they could have played up the reality show stereotypes like plot and production more, instead of just basing it all on character stereotypes.

Three Unbroken seems like it could be a deep story, but I just have no idea where it’s going. I’m not quite a quarter of the way through, but I don’t see anything happening beyond a bunch of space/future type warfare.

Pressing On

Trying not to get too distracted by Super Tuesday results so I can catch up on word count. Need another 300 words to get back to my average goal of 495 words/day.

Is “trying not to get too distracted” grammatically correct at all?

Progress. Real progress.

I’ve set a new goal of 495 words/day. That was 2 days ago. So far, I’ve got 534 and 583 for those 2 days. It took me about an hour to do each of those (9 words per minute), and I’m getting the feeling like Tom Morello did when he was practicing guitar.

At first, I was practicing about an hour a day. Eventually, after I graduated from college, I was practicing about 8 hours a day. By practicing regularly, rather than playing six hours on the weekend and letting the guitar sit all week, I saw a steady growth and developement in my playing from that persistence. Once I recognized that was happening at an hour a day, then I kicked it up to 2 hours a day, and then to four hours a day. It was to the point where it was really obsessive. I would not play one hour and 56 minutes a day, I would play two hours a day. Come hell or high water, if I had a 103 degree fever, I would play two hours a day. If I had a big exam the next morning, and it was 2:00 in the morning, I would play until 4:00 in the morning, without exception.

So, I don’t really like realistic books

I started reading Cast of Shadows by Kevin Guilfoile. It’s very well written (and set in Chicago!) and I want to like it, but it’s just too realistic. It was creeping me out. Well, not really creeping me out, I guess, but just making me uncomfortable. Which I’m sure it’s supposed to do. But I had the same kind of experience with The Bone Collector (which is surely not even on the same level), and though I ended being okay with that book, I didn’t get over the uncomfortable feeling of it being too realistic. I don’t want to be worried every time I get in a cab that the cabbie is going to kidnap me. And, for now at least, I don’t want to think about the horrible thought of cloning an unidentified killer, and letting him grow up in society, just to see what he looks like.

So, now I’m trying to decide between three “first of a series” books: Pawn of Prophecy, The Scions of Shannara, and A Game of Thrones. I’m leaning towards the first because I know that the series is only 5 somewhat shorter volumes, as opposed to the Heritage of Shannara, which is 4 slightly longer books (though the total probably isn’t that much longer than the Belgariad), and The Fire and Ice series which starts with an 800+ page book, and has at least 4 books.

Are all writers this scatter-brained?

Or is this why maybe I shouldn’t be a writer?

I like writing. But as I’ve sort of indicated before, I like to change my mind a lot. And I’ve just come up with a way to do a project I’ve been working (aka noodling) on since high school (I believe). If I’d actually been writing it since I came up with the idea, I’d probably be finished by now, but I obviously don’t work that way. I don’t really finish things. It’s always been a problem with my writing. Too many ideas, and not enough enthusiasm to get any of them to completion.

This latest one is still in the sci-fi genre (mostly), but will make use of blogs as a delivery mechanism. It’s kind of an experimental way of writing (I think). Of course, I don’t really have the sort of writing experience and/or resume to be trying something experimental. But maybe since I’m still a rookie and all fresh-faced about it, then now is the time to try to pull it off. And probably fail miserably.

i can see myself in your eyes

Good thing I’m so handsome.
And your eyes are so clear
internally flawless
but not colorless
Certainly a cut above
as they cut through me
straight to my heart.

Metaphors fall to their knees in my brain
pleading to be used
but I don’t feel

no matter how many synapses they cross
no matter how many syllables they bear
no matter how unique their words

that any are worthy
of being compared
to the eyes
that I look into
when I see into your soul.

I can read your mind
and I can feel your heart
but when I see through your eyes
I can see forever