Category: Nanowrimo

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Strokes of brilliance?

First off, the Awakenings part of this entry–I’ve written the ending.  I know, right?  I’m probably months away in writing and years away in posting from the end of the whole story, which will quite frankly probably span about fifteen years of in-character time (much more compressed in the writing, I promise!  I really have no real intention of having days take up as many chapters as Day Zero did, I swear.), but I’ve already written the ending.

The ending, of course, sets up everything for the eventual sequel (which I may or may not start writing long before Awakenings has ended), Ambrose, which is about Lin, Thom and Marin’s son, and his eventual adventures in the world that his parents witnessed the birth of.

In essence, Awakenings is about not only survival, but witnessing the return of magic and wonder to the world–the reawakening of preternatural things that modern science could not understand and had almost managed to destroy.  It’s about figuring out what kind of power your inborn affinities hold and about how you can affect the world around you through the strength of your will.  It’s about friendship and love and starting over at the end of everything.  It’s about not giving up even though you want to, and the power of love.

I know where the first year will end, too, but the road to getting there is going to be fun (and maybe depressing, sometimes), to say the least.  I’m partway through the writing of Chapter 8, which will be hitting the site throughout July (it may run into August, but we’ll see what happens there).  I’ve got notes on things that happen throughout the storyline at large, but not everything has a set time frame.  Things will happen, I imagine, as the muse instructs.

I hope it keeps talking and doesn’t run off with Katie’s inner child to Tahiti, because that would be bad (though oddly fitting, since it’s conversations with Katie that made me write Awakenings in the first place).

 

Other random bits…

Finished reading Perfect Shadow by Brent Weeks.  If you have not read the Night Angel Trilogy, read it.  Then read this Durzo Blint novella.  It was simply awesome and I read it in…probably about two hours, all told.  Maybe three, but I was distracted by people.

Evil people.

 

And finally….this. (Mostly for you, Bits.  Consider it payback for Iridescent. Which is pretty much Thom’s song for Marin, by the way.)

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Awakenings update – on to chapter 2

So the prologue and the first chapter of Awakenings are complete and posted to the Awakenings website.  The prologue introduced readers to the narrator for the first person segments of the tale, which will occur roughly every other chapter.  Marin Astoris was getting ready to move to the East Coast to begin graduate work when the world ended.  Seperated from her friends, she found herself alone miles from campus with no way to get back except her feet.

Chapter 1 took readers back to the university campus that had been Marin’s home for five years.  Six survivors climb out of the wreckage of a library at the heart of campus to find the world they knew is already dead.  The sky is red and fire lazily drifts down.  Whatever’s happened has already started to reduce the buildings around them to ruins.  Earthquakes and other tremors shake the ground.  Survivors slowly hook up with each other, some opting to stay, others opting to leave.  Many realize that something truly bad has happened, though few realize to what extent.

Three of Marin’s close friends, Kellin, Rory, and Drew, all realize how dire the situation is.  They can feel that the ley lines criss-cross the small midwestern campus are writhing, twisting and changing as the fragments of an exploded asteroid rain down onto Earth’s surface, changing the planet forever.  They set out on the grim task of checking parking lots and nearby M-45 to check the damage and to assess how many corpses they might end up looking for over the next few days and weeks.  Many still hold out hope that it’s a localized event, but these three know better, and some of the rest suspect the same.  As chapter 1 draws to a close, Kellin, Drew, and Rory are headed down to do a cursory check of some of the buildings on the north end of campus before they head onward toward M-45.

Chapter 2 resumes Marin’s point of view and narration as she stumbles up the highway back toward campus, with little memory of most of her hike.  All she is aware of is pain–both hers and that of the very fabric of reality–and a driving need to get back home to the university and her friends.

Chapter 2 will comprise most of the entries for the next couple of weeks and give readers a little more taste of the awareness that Marin, Kellin, and others have of their surroundings and things left unseen to the naked eye and unfelt by the unawakened.

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Chapter 3 is done and on to chapter 4, in which Reece encourages Ky to spill her guts, and Ky is going to. Not sure if I’m going to work more on When All’s Said and Done or if I’m going to poke around a bit on Awakenings or noodle on a new short story project.  What I decide remains to be seen.

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Writing is for fun!

Redrafting slowed down a touch today in part due to my oversleeping (again), but I’ve cracked the 12000 word mark, so I’m counting it as a win.

Other writerly pursuits have gnawed upon me today, culminating in a serial fiction project!  Awakenings is a serial novel to be published online, written by me.  It’s available at http://awakenings.embklitzke.com.

Happy reading!

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Mid-chapter three rambles

It boggles my mind how Ridley could have had no place in the original draft of this project and suddenly, he’s stepped up big-time.  He’s offered me a major opportunity, however, through his relationship with Julia, to explain the Institute, what they do, how awful they really are.  It also means Ky isn’t trying to sugarcoat things as much as she would if she was simply explaining matters to Reece (or foisting it off on Matthew, which was also a distinct possibility).

Ridley is amazingly protective at this stage, mostly of Julia, but also of himself.  It’ll be interesting to see how he works everything out, and if he works everything out enough to be helpful to Ky in her fight.  I have a feeling he will be, since that’s where it feels like it’s heading.  But we’ll see.  I never know when it comes to these things.

Brandon helped me through a quandry this morning regarding a later issue in the draft.  It was a question of who gets rescued when.  I think we’ve sorted it out.  Either way, Ky’ll be gut-punched.  I decided that gut-punched and functional was preferable to gut-punched and a mess, and that it would probably be better if Matthew was functional for at least a dozen chapters before I snap him in half.

Folks who have read the original draft know exactly what snaps Matthew Thatcher in half.

And now it’s off to work for me.  Six hours of bleh.  My father doesn’t seem to think we’ll be busy on account of the weather.  I think he’s crazy.  Last day for Real Women Dollars = bloody well insane at the store tonight.

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Two chapters down…

Chapters one and two down, now on to chapter three. Reece decided to involve herself in affairs a lot sooner than I’d anticipated, but characters seem to want to do that to me lately.

Had a really awesome idea for Hadrian’s rescue, though, very different from the original draft. I’ll have to see if it works out in the draft as it’s formulating itself in my head. It involves Ky ‘slipping between moving vehicles. Very risky, but with the potential to be very, very cool.

Will update the previous post sometime later with the full When All’s Said and Done playlist as it stands right now.  Some songs may survive, others may not.  For now, time to punch out a couple hundred more words before the long, late mid shift today.

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Some When All’s Said and Done music…

Thought I’d share some of the theme music for When All’s Said and Done.  Some of it’s old, some of it’s much newer.

The original songs for Kyle and Hadrian:

Kyle and Hadrian’s song: When I’m Gone, by 3 Doors Down

Hadrian’s song: Building a Mystery, by Sarah McLaughlan

New song for Kyle and Hadrian: Broken, by Lifehouse