jack

So, I was too busy to actually spod about it, other than a constant stream of oblique hints (thank you, cheering section on twitter!) but I did nanowrimo.

I was confident I had MORE time, and ability to schedule a large chunk of time without dropping everything else. But I didn't know if I had enough, or if it was a sensible decision.

But I was excited to try a large personal project and see if I could do it. I've toyed with the idea before, but never felt like it was a serious possibility -- I was always too likely to push myself too hard and flare out, without any ability to pace myself.

I think it was about the most I could possibly manage in a month, without a really significant impairment of work or of all other social things. Not parkinson's law, but that was about as much writing as I could manage in a day, even under good circumstances.

As it happened, the first week didn't really get started, so I ended up writing 2k words a day for the rest of the time, but I stuck to that almost all the way through. And that was usually about right -- I had about that much ideas in my head, and I could mostly go ahead and write them, and after that, I had to *think* about what would happen next.

I really enjoyed the setting and characters, they did often come alive for me (waiting on reports if that actually made it into the fic or not).

When I did pause, it was one of a couple of things. Once or twice, because what came next needed a bunch of stuff to build a story out of (a bunch of characters for the protagonist to meet, or a problem for them to encounter). More often, but less fatally, because what I wanted to happen wasn't clicking, and I had to review what I intended, what was actually needed for the novel, and what I was attached to but could be compromised if it didn't fit.

Many thanks to everyone who expressed an interest in seeing the finished work. I noted everyone down just in case. I am really, really excited to share the novel, and am very serious about getting it to anyone who would like to see. But on balance, it really is better if I fix a lot of minor problems first (things like characters having names Placeholder1 etc :)). That should be fairly easy, but I officially took December as a break where I didn't have to write any more on it :)

Yuletide was comparatively easy afterwards :) I'd already come up with a basic idea, and it took a few evenings rather than just 2 hours to complete 2k words, so a lot slower than one day's nano writing, but still, finished without any last minute panic (go me!)

Let's see who I can be controversial to.

*-nomen

I painted myself into a corner by thinking of a couple of names I liked and then thinking what system could fit them, preferably also:

* Making people be referenced by the same name only
* Showing family ties
* Allowing cool names
* Not being too confusing

I thought "Wow, the linguists will roast me to a crisp for this one" but looking on wikipedia, it seems I've re-invented the roman system, if everyone were in the same clan. That is, people are usually refered to by a cognomen, which is either inherited or adopted, but may also have a praenomen for intimate use and to tell them apart.

Religion

Miracles from gods:

* You can use it as a nice metaphor for miracles from gods or God
* But the whimsical/impotent nature of the god would cast aspersions on God in such a comparison
* Why has Athiest Jack put religion in at all? Because it's cool and I get to explose Issues (TM) :)
* I can use it as an occasional "out" provided it isn't at the end of a story

5k words in four days. Action, characters, metaphysics, and sex, though never more than three at once.