The video footage was grainy for a digital recording. A man stumbling down the street, knife in hand. A gruesome sight. Everywhere bodies. Blood, guts, everything filled the street, as if a veritable flood of the dead had washed down the hill.
    It may as well have. The man had a stubbly grey beard stained red with blood. His knife mimicked his beard. His eyes were open wide, as if he could see all, but he was expressely unaware of his surroundings. His song was weak from the speakers, but Kit could hear the worrds.

I've been so tired lately. Even when I get plenty of rest and take care of myself, I'm tired. I feel a strong need to look over my life and priorities and reorganize accordingly. My mind is totally off of NaNo and Disasterstrike. At this point I am not throwing in the towel, but I feel like it may happen unless an attitude change comes soon. My heart just isn't in it right now.

Today is the first day of NaNo that more than 3 hours has passed without me hitting my daily quota. This means the pressure will be slightly increased for the rest of the month unless I happen to pump up around 4k in one day. It could happen, but I'm not banking on it.

A good way to increase your discipline in NaNo is to avoid having a blog. If you must blog, don't fill it with pictures of a stunning young man. I wish I had taken this advice.

There is obviously only so much you can do in this regard, but I believe you'll find your discipline in NaNo will be improved by minimizing the influence of negativity in your life. I try to avoid people who irk me, food I dislike, music that annoys me, anything at all, as much as possible (moreso than usual).

    The moon rose and fell in an instant, the sun invading the sky to warrant a new day. Through it all, Kit's sleep was restless. He had told himself that it was a lie; Susan was merely trying to get back at him. But one thought floated through his nightmares. “You just don't know.”
    The mere fact that Kit had no idea who his father was prevented him from achieving any rest on the issue. For this reason, he found himself in Helena's office with a very wounded-faced Susan.

I really get way too into the "meta' elements of writing. Instead of focusing on word count or plot development, I'll instead fixate on something like "Oh man, this song would go so well with this scene." For example, I was just listening to Syringe by Emilie Autumn, and it clicked. That's totally Disasterstrike's theme song.

But since when did a novel need a theme song?

    “When people are speaking of the Disasterstrike killings, they are largely referring to those murders that are caused by the Yorrenites. Sometimes a murder by more 'conventional means' is attributed as a Disasterstrike killing, but for the most part, they are one and the same.
    “It is a bit difficult to describe a Yorrenite. Though our organization is formed and based around defeating them, we don't really know anything about their origins or motives.
    “Here's what it comes down to: a Yorrenite is a normal human male, like yourself, who is somehow attributed extra strength, speed, and becomes nearly impervious to pain. Those things in and of themselves mean nothing, until you consider that, upon obtaining these attributes, the person in question goes on nothing short of a rampage.”

Nothing like trying to create a reasonably believable story to make you realize what you don't know. Case in point: music. I don't know anything about music aside from what I like and what I do not like. Take a look at the first couple of paragraphs. You can count the amount of music terms that I know on one hand. Thank god for english courses that taught me words like "cacophonous."

The fine people behind NaNoWriMo thankfully have a "Plot Realism" forum on their site. I have yet to run any of my own questions by them, but just reviewing the threads there is entertaining and enlightening. If you ever wanted to know about the personality of alpacas or a good cheap hotel rate, the NaNo forums have you covered.

    Susan grabbed at the door handle, pulled the latch, and pushed at the door.
    Nothing happened.
    “Goddamnit!” Aiming her weapon, Susan fired a single shot at the door window. An unholy scream from outside leaked in through the window's new hole.
    Kitt was forced to cover his ears. “What in the hell!?” A low, deep humming filled the air.
    There was no time to respond. A sickening thud turned the single bullet hold into a large crack in the window. Blood smeared the glass. Another thud. The crack grew. A third. A bloodied hand broke through the glass, reaching at air. Susan fired another shot, causing the hand to dissapear out the window, its owner howling.
    Without hesitation, she pushed the door open and slammed it shut in a single motion, leaving Kit alone in the limo. The vehicle shook again a couple of times. Gunfire and howling meshed together to form a cacophonous orchestra of mortality. With each bullet fired, the limo's movements slowed a bit more, as if each shot was robbing the vehicle itself of life.
 

There are many tricks to maintaining an ideal writing environment. It's largely an individual matter. For me, I like to play music that serves as a soundtrack to my story. If I'm writing a peaceful scene, I need peaceful music. If I'm writing an action scene, I need music that is appropriately frantic.

It can get very specific. If style or pace of a fight is chaotic, the music needs to match. Not just any old rock song will work.

For Disasterstrike, I'm finding that I draw the most from Diablo Swing Orchestra. Their music is appropriately heavy in a prog-metal sort of way, but that "swing" element also gives it a certain amount of pseudo-jazzy class that I hope carries over into my story. The best example will be in the character of Walter Indigo.

Walter is a man of his work, though his casual nature makes him appear less passionate than you'd expect. He enjoys the pleasures of life and living, yet he's very capable, bringing an intensity to his work that doesn't show in his personality.

Another artist I've been utilizing a lot is Emilie Autumn. Her work is very gothic and beautiful. A talented singer and musician both. Her stuff can be quite intense in a more haunting sort of way. When I think of "the tune," I think of Emilie Autumn. Her music really represents the soul of all the characters in Disasterstrike. Since I will be delving into the nature of KIt's soul in the future, I feel that this is an important translation, especially since music plays a role in the story as well as out.

Even though NaNoWriMo is focused on dynamically producing a story, there is something to be said for preparation. If I had given NaNo it's due pre-November thought, I wouldn't have such glaring plot holes (how did the police get involved in James and Kit's crime?) and Kit would have a last name by now. Hell, you might even get to know what he looks like.

In my future NaNo adventures, I will plan the stages of my story and my characters, while maintaining a philosophy of flexibility.

    It was a tune he knew well. A melodious lure, it drew him into any state he needed. Calm before panic. Motivation in the face of sloth. When he hummed it, the tune came out nondescript and jarring, cacophonous and yet inspired. It twisted any sense of order into a perverse series of unexpected shifts in pitch, speed, consistency; rather, it lacked any of these things as it carried the listener away from the concept of mere sound.

Greetings and welcome to my NaNoWriMo LiveJournal. NaNoWriMo is a yearly writing event that begins and spans every November. The goal of every participant is to write 50,000 words for a novel. I have decided to start a blog to share my story and my experiences writing said story for 2007.

I have participated in NaNoWriMo only one year previously, in 2005. I did not meet the 50,000 word goal, but I have learned a lot about what it takes. What does it take, you ask?

Discipline. The nature of NaNoWriMo means that I don't need to worry about details that slow me down when I'm writing. All I have to worry about is putting my heart into 50,000 words. That leaves room for lots of discipline, and you sure need it. Depending on your creative output, getting that many words into a month can be a daunting task. In my opinion, the trick is making sure I get at least 2,000 words into my story every day.

Why 2,000? Well, it's just rounding up. It gives me a buffer. All the discipline in the world can't account for the fact that real life just happens sometimes. By putting in 2,000 words every day that I can, I hope to account for most of the time I will miss.

So what is my story? Poorly planned.

Just kidding (kinda). Inspired by a dream I had less than a week ago, Disasterstrike is a sci-fi/fantasy thriller. It tells of a young man who must face many demons. Some will be from his past. Some will come to him in the future. And many are very tangible and out for blood. Disasterstrike portrays a modern world being slowly torn by a mysterious series of murders that span the globe. How will a culture that finds value in safety and freedom reconcile this change? Well, hell if I know. I came up with this less than a week ago.

Everything I write here is for my own gratification. I am sharing it with you because I am gratified by attention.