Progress

I have set a goal for my “bad” story. I want to finish it at around 40,000 words by November. At that point, I plan on starting a different, “good” story for NaNoWriMo.

Currently, I have about 8,000 words. If I write an average of 1,000 words per day, I will meet my goal. I have chosen to make my goal flexible, however. While I may write over 1,000 words on some days, on others I write none. Part of the aim of this is to make myself a more disciplined writer, but I am at a point where I am able to not follow this plan perfectly and still live with myself. Which is itself a victory for me. So I am winning already! :D

That emoticon is only half sarcastic.

Something that held me up when writing today was naming. On the one hand, names should sound natural and fit the person they are given to; on the other hand, I really like it when names have extra meanings. One of the things that I am learning while writing this abomination of a novel is to strike a balance between those two concepts. At least, I think I am finding a balance. I want to avoid everyone being named John and Jane, but it does not make sense to have characters named Aries and Amaterasu in a contemporary Earth setting. I believe I got it right with George, who, in addition to having a pronounceable name, alludes to St. George.

I must admit, when I found out I passed the 8,000 mark, I got a little excited. 8,000 is close to 10,000 which is a quarter of the story I plan to tell. I can only hope that as I pass more milestones, the exhilaration continues. Ideally, I will become addicted to the rush, and will be compelled to write out of habit. Muhahaha!

First an emoticon, now an evil laugh? What have I become?

A hack, probably.