For those non-writers among us, Write or Die by Dr. Wicked is a simple application built for the simple purpose to encourage writers to WRITE, and do nothing else. Today, I managed 1459 words in 45 minutes. True, there were times when I had to stop and think because I was drawing a completel blank, and the application did eat an entire sentence of mine, but it was the most productive I had been in a single sitting for NaNo in a long while.
There are those of you who would say "It's only bee a week. What's this chick talking about?" To you, I would say "WRITING, FOOL!"
Not that I want to be mean, but it's been my experience that people who aren't writers think writing is SO EASY. They expect you to sit down and just churn out words because you claim to be a writer. Heaven forbid you develop a block, because then they want to know HOW you could possibly develop a writer's block if you're a WRITER.
The thing is, writing is, to quote a tweet by Sarah Dessen earlier today, a lot like "building a fire.... Easy to get going, harder to KEEP going. And never enough kindling." When you've got a good idea and you start out, everything's going good and smooth and it's the easiest thing in the world to sit down and just tap tap tap on the keyboard or scratch scratch in a notebook. But sooner or later you kind of run low on steam, you know what you want, but you can't seem to figure out how to get it out there, then your fire dies......you're tired, losing sleep, got a seemingly insurmountable block that just WON'T go away........and you're back to wondering what the hell you got yourself into.
Of course, every writer hits and feels these things in different stages, and to varying degrees, but that's the jist of it. And now you're all wondering what the heck this rant has to do with that Write or Die thing I was going on about earlier, right. Here it is.
Write or Die is just that: Write, or Die. Well, not you, obviously. But your words. And I think that's great motivation. You can set your time limit and your level of leniency, then get straight to tapping like a mad man. Or woman. Take too long, and your words start to disappear. It's an amazingly nifty little device, and Dr. Wicked deserves some kind of award for it. I adore what I've come up with on it today, and I'll post it for your viewing pleasure.
An Excerpt from "So Far Down" my NaNoWriMo Novel
"Crap," Kael said from behind her. She turned to glare at him, then focused her attention on the man before them.
"I can see how that would give you the right to barge in here," Amory began. "And I'm terribly sorry we've trespassed like this, but the thing is, we've got no money, we-we're not from around here - "
"The thing is, what's the big idea, huh?" Kael snapped, nudging Amory out of his way as he came to stand in front of the once again trembling man. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking, sir? Really?" He spun wildly, pointing towards the bed with his knife. "What if we had been busy on that bed? What would you have done then, huh?"
The motel owner was terrified, his eyes frantically jumping between Kael's face and the thigh length blade he was waving around.
"Kael!" she said, grabbing his arm and standing on her tip toes to reach his ear. "This is already really bad, ok?" she hissed. "Let's not make it worse."
"Well, that's kinda hard, don't you think? He's about to wet himself no matter what we do," Kael shot back.
Amory shot him a withering look, and turned back to the portly man. "Is there any way we can smooth this over without calling in the authorities, maybe, sir?"
Behind her, Kael snorted, and gathered their things together. "fat chance that," he mumbled. He gripped Amory's tube bag, holding it up to his face as he looked at it curiously. He was impressed, vaguely. She could, apparently, shoot an arrow. Or, at least she made it look like she could. She had notched the thing with her eyes half open, so maybe she wasn't as hopeless as he thought she was.
Behind him, the man was babbling away, stuttering over his words in fear. And Kael couldn't really blame him; he knew he made a pretty fearsome sight, even before his shiny new tattoos. He sighed, and ran a hand over his face. Just when they had faded enough for him to go outside.....
"Come on, 'Mory," he said, slinging the pack over his shoulder. "We've got to see a guy about some silver arrows."
he headed towards the door, hooking the girl's arm along the way, even as she tried to calm the man down enough for him to say more than a few words. "Ok, that was rude!" she said, slapping at him and trying to pull away.
"Yeah," he conceded,, "but it was necessary. You'd have been there all night, and he still would have been too petrified to do anything but sit there and gape like an idiot."
Amory walked with him in silence for a while, before his grip loosened enough for her to yank her arm away. "Do you have to be so mean all the time?" she asked, disgust lacing her voice.
"I'm not sure. I'll schedule a nice day in my calendar, and get back to you, yeah?"
She stomped ahead of him, mumbling some unflattering things under her breath. Kael smiled as he watched her go, not worried in the least. He figured he should be, considering it couldn't possibly take the werewolves this long to track them down, and that that Horowitz woman was no doubt not far behind. But he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. Everything was......well, not good, but as entertaining as they were going to get for a long time. With so much hanging over their heads, it was good to not feel anything, even if it only lasted a few minutes.
"Hey, head a bit to the left, alright?" he called after his still fuming companion. He would be paying for this later, he was sure. Amory spun around and sent him a glare he could see even in the dark of the trees standing over them. "You have beautiful eyes, do you know that?" he asked jovially, reaching her and falling into step. "They really shine in the moonlight," he said, giving her a winning smile.
Amory's eyes narrowed further. "You are infuriating."
"I know," he chirped. "get it from my mum."
They walked on in silence, or as silent as was possible with Kael breaking into song, whistle, or dance every few minutes. A professional mind doctor would probably tell him this suppression of deep emotions was unhealthy, but he liked to think that with his three and a half centuries on the planet he knew more about it than some shrink. Not that he would ever say that to a shrink, ever. It was perfect evidence to have him shipped off to an asylum, and then where would Amory be.
Dead, that's where.
"Will you shut up?" said girl asked, a bit of amusement coloring her voice. He looked over, surprised, to see her fighting a grin as they passed under a thin patch of tree leaves, the moonlight filtering through to dapple her skin and hair. She was beautiful.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, his mouth going dry. "I didn't realize I was speaking aloud."
"Yeah, you were always dim-headed like that."
Kael spun, reflexively pushing Amory behind him, even as she drew an arrow and notched it. The thin young man behind them smiled, showing off his fangs.
"I never thought I'd see the day when one of the Boar turns its back on the House." He shook his head in exaggerated sorrow. "Why'd it have to be you, Kael? Why it have to be you?"
He hard, derisive laughter bubbled up and filled the space they had been boxed into. Around them, people emerged out of the shadows, forming a rough circle around them. Amory spun where she was, holding her bow ready to strike.
"Is the circle some kind of tradition with you people or something?" she asked. Kael could almost grin, if his good mood hadn't been rapidly waning; her voice didn't even tremble once! It was something he had to make sure they celebrated later, once they got the hell out of the mess they were in.
His eyes met the cold gray ones of his old tormentor, and Kael felt a tingle of apprehension. Raegan was an unmerciful twat, one who had taken great pleasure in beating him up or just generally making him miserable for as long as Kael had been a member of the Coven. Add the fact that he had been the youngest, and therefore the preferred of all the Children before Kael's entrance to the fact that he was Elder Yuta's favorite pupil, and you had all the motivation a young vampire would need to make his life hell.
But things were different now. Kael was alone. There was no one to run to, no one to curb the sadistic little freak when he got too rough.
"Kael?"
The sound of her voice jolted him from his thoughts, and a hard, cold weight settled in his stomach. Amory. How the hell could he protect her from Raegan and his minions. "Still here, Ams," he said softly. He could feel the edge of her arrow holder pressing int his back, and felt a tiny ray of hope spring up in his chest. "You any good with that thing?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
"You think I'm going to tell you know?" she asked incredulously. Kael almost laughedand what have, if his stomach hadn't fallen to somewhere beneath his feet. If Amory could think he sounded like an idiot even now then it couldn't be as serious as he was making it seem.
"What's the matter, Kael?" Raegan taunted. "No retorts, no snarky comments on where I should go stuff myself, really? What," he said, walking forward till he reached the light. "Are you scared?"
Kael didn't answer, except to pull the kukri blade from its hidden sheath. There wasn't much he could say. he wished his heart was still beating, since that would explain why his hands were trembling and his knees felt weak. flashes of him being mercilessly beat on and ridiculed by the idiot standing in front of him raced through his mind, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't think of anything else.
Around her, the assembled vampires stood in their circle, as silent as the dead, which she supposed they were, so it kind of fit. But they just stood there, and it was starting to freak her out. And Kael wasn't being his usual obnoxious self, and that frightened her more than anything. She met the dead eyes of the girl standing directly opposite her, and smirked. Rule one of winning, as taught by her father: always smile; it confuses the enemy.
"How about you just stand aside, Kael?" the first vampire said from somewhere behind her. That Kael wasn't even moving worried her more than anything. And that vampire's voice was really starting to work in her nerves. "Take a seat and watch me bleed your little human dry, why don't you?"
"Kael, do me a favor and shut him up?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice.
There are those of you who would say "It's only bee a week. What's this chick talking about?" To you, I would say "WRITING, FOOL!"
Not that I want to be mean, but it's been my experience that people who aren't writers think writing is SO EASY. They expect you to sit down and just churn out words because you claim to be a writer. Heaven forbid you develop a block, because then they want to know HOW you could possibly develop a writer's block if you're a WRITER.
The thing is, writing is, to quote a tweet by Sarah Dessen earlier today, a lot like "building a fire.... Easy to get going, harder to KEEP going. And never enough kindling." When you've got a good idea and you start out, everything's going good and smooth and it's the easiest thing in the world to sit down and just tap tap tap on the keyboard or scratch scratch in a notebook. But sooner or later you kind of run low on steam, you know what you want, but you can't seem to figure out how to get it out there, then your fire dies......you're tired, losing sleep, got a seemingly insurmountable block that just WON'T go away........and you're back to wondering what the hell you got yourself into.
Of course, every writer hits and feels these things in different stages, and to varying degrees, but that's the jist of it. And now you're all wondering what the heck this rant has to do with that Write or Die thing I was going on about earlier, right. Here it is.
Write or Die is just that: Write, or Die. Well, not you, obviously. But your words. And I think that's great motivation. You can set your time limit and your level of leniency, then get straight to tapping like a mad man. Or woman. Take too long, and your words start to disappear. It's an amazingly nifty little device, and Dr. Wicked deserves some kind of award for it. I adore what I've come up with on it today, and I'll post it for your viewing pleasure.
An Excerpt from "So Far Down" my NaNoWriMo Novel
"Crap," Kael said from behind her. She turned to glare at him, then focused her attention on the man before them.
"I can see how that would give you the right to barge in here," Amory began. "And I'm terribly sorry we've trespassed like this, but the thing is, we've got no money, we-we're not from around here - "
"The thing is, what's the big idea, huh?" Kael snapped, nudging Amory out of his way as he came to stand in front of the once again trembling man. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking, sir? Really?" He spun wildly, pointing towards the bed with his knife. "What if we had been busy on that bed? What would you have done then, huh?"
The motel owner was terrified, his eyes frantically jumping between Kael's face and the thigh length blade he was waving around.
"Kael!" she said, grabbing his arm and standing on her tip toes to reach his ear. "This is already really bad, ok?" she hissed. "Let's not make it worse."
"Well, that's kinda hard, don't you think? He's about to wet himself no matter what we do," Kael shot back.
Amory shot him a withering look, and turned back to the portly man. "Is there any way we can smooth this over without calling in the authorities, maybe, sir?"
Behind her, Kael snorted, and gathered their things together. "fat chance that," he mumbled. He gripped Amory's tube bag, holding it up to his face as he looked at it curiously. He was impressed, vaguely. She could, apparently, shoot an arrow. Or, at least she made it look like she could. She had notched the thing with her eyes half open, so maybe she wasn't as hopeless as he thought she was.
Behind him, the man was babbling away, stuttering over his words in fear. And Kael couldn't really blame him; he knew he made a pretty fearsome sight, even before his shiny new tattoos. He sighed, and ran a hand over his face. Just when they had faded enough for him to go outside.....
"Come on, 'Mory," he said, slinging the pack over his shoulder. "We've got to see a guy about some silver arrows."
he headed towards the door, hooking the girl's arm along the way, even as she tried to calm the man down enough for him to say more than a few words. "Ok, that was rude!" she said, slapping at him and trying to pull away.
"Yeah," he conceded,, "but it was necessary. You'd have been there all night, and he still would have been too petrified to do anything but sit there and gape like an idiot."
Amory walked with him in silence for a while, before his grip loosened enough for her to yank her arm away. "Do you have to be so mean all the time?" she asked, disgust lacing her voice.
"I'm not sure. I'll schedule a nice day in my calendar, and get back to you, yeah?"
She stomped ahead of him, mumbling some unflattering things under her breath. Kael smiled as he watched her go, not worried in the least. He figured he should be, considering it couldn't possibly take the werewolves this long to track them down, and that that Horowitz woman was no doubt not far behind. But he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. Everything was......well, not good, but as entertaining as they were going to get for a long time. With so much hanging over their heads, it was good to not feel anything, even if it only lasted a few minutes.
"Hey, head a bit to the left, alright?" he called after his still fuming companion. He would be paying for this later, he was sure. Amory spun around and sent him a glare he could see even in the dark of the trees standing over them. "You have beautiful eyes, do you know that?" he asked jovially, reaching her and falling into step. "They really shine in the moonlight," he said, giving her a winning smile.
Amory's eyes narrowed further. "You are infuriating."
"I know," he chirped. "get it from my mum."
They walked on in silence, or as silent as was possible with Kael breaking into song, whistle, or dance every few minutes. A professional mind doctor would probably tell him this suppression of deep emotions was unhealthy, but he liked to think that with his three and a half centuries on the planet he knew more about it than some shrink. Not that he would ever say that to a shrink, ever. It was perfect evidence to have him shipped off to an asylum, and then where would Amory be.
Dead, that's where.
"Will you shut up?" said girl asked, a bit of amusement coloring her voice. He looked over, surprised, to see her fighting a grin as they passed under a thin patch of tree leaves, the moonlight filtering through to dapple her skin and hair. She was beautiful.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, his mouth going dry. "I didn't realize I was speaking aloud."
"Yeah, you were always dim-headed like that."
Kael spun, reflexively pushing Amory behind him, even as she drew an arrow and notched it. The thin young man behind them smiled, showing off his fangs.
"I never thought I'd see the day when one of the Boar turns its back on the House." He shook his head in exaggerated sorrow. "Why'd it have to be you, Kael? Why it have to be you?"
He hard, derisive laughter bubbled up and filled the space they had been boxed into. Around them, people emerged out of the shadows, forming a rough circle around them. Amory spun where she was, holding her bow ready to strike.
"Is the circle some kind of tradition with you people or something?" she asked. Kael could almost grin, if his good mood hadn't been rapidly waning; her voice didn't even tremble once! It was something he had to make sure they celebrated later, once they got the hell out of the mess they were in.
His eyes met the cold gray ones of his old tormentor, and Kael felt a tingle of apprehension. Raegan was an unmerciful twat, one who had taken great pleasure in beating him up or just generally making him miserable for as long as Kael had been a member of the Coven. Add the fact that he had been the youngest, and therefore the preferred of all the Children before Kael's entrance to the fact that he was Elder Yuta's favorite pupil, and you had all the motivation a young vampire would need to make his life hell.
But things were different now. Kael was alone. There was no one to run to, no one to curb the sadistic little freak when he got too rough.
"Kael?"
The sound of her voice jolted him from his thoughts, and a hard, cold weight settled in his stomach. Amory. How the hell could he protect her from Raegan and his minions. "Still here, Ams," he said softly. He could feel the edge of her arrow holder pressing int his back, and felt a tiny ray of hope spring up in his chest. "You any good with that thing?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
"You think I'm going to tell you know?" she asked incredulously. Kael almost laughedand what have, if his stomach hadn't fallen to somewhere beneath his feet. If Amory could think he sounded like an idiot even now then it couldn't be as serious as he was making it seem.
"What's the matter, Kael?" Raegan taunted. "No retorts, no snarky comments on where I should go stuff myself, really? What," he said, walking forward till he reached the light. "Are you scared?"
Kael didn't answer, except to pull the kukri blade from its hidden sheath. There wasn't much he could say. he wished his heart was still beating, since that would explain why his hands were trembling and his knees felt weak. flashes of him being mercilessly beat on and ridiculed by the idiot standing in front of him raced through his mind, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't think of anything else.
Around her, the assembled vampires stood in their circle, as silent as the dead, which she supposed they were, so it kind of fit. But they just stood there, and it was starting to freak her out. And Kael wasn't being his usual obnoxious self, and that frightened her more than anything. She met the dead eyes of the girl standing directly opposite her, and smirked. Rule one of winning, as taught by her father: always smile; it confuses the enemy.
"How about you just stand aside, Kael?" the first vampire said from somewhere behind her. That Kael wasn't even moving worried her more than anything. And that vampire's voice was really starting to work in her nerves. "Take a seat and watch me bleed your little human dry, why don't you?"
"Kael, do me a favor and shut him up?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice.
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