Day Fourteen, Part Two - Finished!

Woohoo! Finished within the deadline on 50,248 words!

I really didn't think that I was going to make it there for a while. It was really hard going and there was one day that I wrote nothing at all! I thought that that would finish me off, but I was able to claw back on the last weekend.

Looking back now, if I had started planning in October and started writing at the start of November with everyone else then I think that I could have finished quite comfortably well within the deadline.

As it was, I started late (about halfway through the month) and I finished early (in Australia we're about 12 hours ahead of America, so I had half a day less). I would have had a little more time if I'd gone by US time instead of local time, but it was simpler for me.

I'm going to put this event on my calendar for next year so that I don't forget it. It was a lot of fun, even if it did eat up all my free time and cause me a bit of stress at work.

I'll also see about doing something else with writing. This may have left me mentally drained, but it felt really good to be doing something creative.

It wasn't as rewarding as building something physical with my hands, but hopefully at least a few people will read it and enjoy it.

It'll take me a few days to convert to html and get it up on my website, but I'll do that over the weekend (hopefully!). I'll probably also convert to pdf so people can download it rather than staying connected.

Right now - off to bed!

Day Fourteen - 46,071

It's the 30th today and I've got just under 4,000 words to do by midnight tonight.

Why am I not typing right now...

Day Thirteen - 42,217

Right on the downhill slide now. Deadline is midnight this Friday, and I'm getting pretty darned close.

Even if I don't finish by Friday, I technically still have until noon on Saturday since the deadline is midnight Nov 30 in America...

Day Twelve - 39,455

Ohh... had a bit of a slump. Didn't get much done on Monday (as expected) but didn't get a lot done on Tuesday either! Grr, and it's coming down to the wire. Just over 10,000 words in about three days.

Should be fun.

In related news, this morning I had such a brilliant idea that it woke me up and I was forced to write it down. This will be the start of yet another project, but I have a good feeling abut this one.

More news to come on that one, probably in early December - after NaNoWriMo is over.

Day Eleven - 38,515

So close ... so close ...

Inspiration is running a little low. I've crossed the first act and I'm wrapping up the second act but you're not supposed to introduce any new characters in the third act so I want to make sure that its structured properly,

So far, it's not shaping up too badly. I'll definitely want to add it to the site once I'm done, even if it does take longer to convert to html than it will to actually write the thing...

Day Ten - 36,213

Wow, put in a damned good showing over the weekend. Was writing solid almost the entire time so now I've caught up to where I was meant to be.

Still anticipate not being able to write much on Monday, but should be able to make it up on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Looking good... (knock on wood)

Day Nine - 28,413

Well, I'm past the half way mark.

I'll need to pull in a similar showing again as I did yesterday in order to catch up, and then I'll probably fall behind again on Monday, but it's going to be darned close.

It would have been nice if there was another weekend before the 30th, but I guess it's not to be. I'm going to be pretty close come midnight, but it's too close to call yet.

Wish me luck!

Day Eight - 20,890

Still waaaay behind. I'll need to do about six thousand today and six thousand tomorrow to catch up, but I don't think that that's going to happen.

Still ging to give it a damn good showing though.

Day Eight - 20,890

Still waaaay behind. I'll need to do about six thousand today and six thousand tomorrow to catch up, but I don't think that that's going to happen.

Still going to give it a damn good showing though.

Day Seven - 19,959 (zero)

Aaargh! Couldn't think of anything to type on the morning shift and then was too tired to do anything on the evening shift.

Now I'm about five thousand words behind... hopefully this weekend I'll be able to make up some of the lost words, but I have the sneaking suspition that I won't be able to crank out 50,000 by midnight, Nov 30.

I could easily do it by Dec 15 (thirty days after starting) which would be the same as having started on Nov 1 instead of Nov 16, but that's not the same thing...

Day Six - 19,959

can't sleep ... have to type ... can't sleep ... have to type ... can't sleep ... have to type ...

Day Five - 16,678

Phew!

Have fallen behind, but that was expected for the monday night. Was able to recover some and I'm back on track as of this morning. So I should be able to stay with it. If I can get ahead during this weekend, then that'll absorb the lateness next Monday.

If I'd started this on November 1st with everyone else, I could probably have finished by now...

Day Four - 12,178

Oh dear, falling behind.

Only managed to do around 800 words yesterday, instead of 3,500. I'm supposed to be on 14,200 or so right now.

Gonna be busy tonight...

Day three - 11,345

My shoulders hurt, my wrists hurt and my brain hurts.

I don't think I've evr written this much in one sitting, or enjoyed myself so much.

Now, how to get the rest of the month off from work...

Day two - 7,036

Ow, my fingers....

Okay, I'm keeping pace so far - let's see how I get along after the weekend.

Back to the writing....

Day one result - 3,420

First day and already I'm falling behind.

The good news is that it's now the weekend which will give me more time to type. I'll need to get ahead over the next two days since I won't have as much time on Monday night but I'll be back on track on Tuesday.

Overall, not looking as bad as I thought...

Had the urge, now the result!

Well, in my last post I had this big long whinge that I had a desire to create and no outlet.

Well, this morning I found one - NaNoWriMo!

That's the (Inter)National Novel Writing Month (of November). The idea (if you can't be bothered clicking that link) is to write a novel in one month.

That's 50,000 words in 30 days.

However, since I only found out about this today (the sixteenth) and I'm insane, I figured I'd give this a go starting today.

That's 3,572 words per day as an average.

Why am I still sitting here? I need to get typing!

The urge to create...

It's been bugging me for months.

The urge to make something. Actually, I think that it starter much further back.

Like, a couple of years ago.

At the time I was working in pizza delivery and troddling along happy as a clam. Then I bought a drum kit. It was pretty cool since I bought it out of the tip money that received at work and it was the second big purchase of something that was all mine (the first was a car).

As it turned out, a drum kit was a really dumb idea. It took up a huge amount of space, it had no volume control and was generally impractical. I was reasonably good at it, considering the amount of time that I spent practicing and that I didn't get any proper lessons. Not good enough to make anybody want to sit down and listen, but it was a good outlet.

Once that had sat and collected dust I then bought a bass guitar. I figured that since it had volume control I wouldn't have that as an excuse to not practice. As it turns out, I sucked. Sorry - suck, present tense since I still do. I couldn't get my fingers to respond fast enough to make anything worth listening to.

I probably could have gotten real good if I'd gotten lessons and practiced every day, but I ended up just giving the guitar and amp to my brother (who did practice).

Sometime after that (and still working in pizza delivery) I saw an ad in the paper: "cast and crew wanted for local film production." Seemed good. I already knew that I was bad at acting, but I figured that I might give it a go and apply as crew.

As it turned out, the film was being made by Nextwrold Studios, an independent studio here in Perth. That was an absolute blast! I quit my job and spent five or six months running around the city doing guerrilla film making and meeting loads of interesting people.

As it turned out, the film was never finished but it did teach me a whole load of new skills. I stayed with that studio and made a bunch of video clips with them (some of which are visible on the videos page of the site). I still had to get a day job in order to not live on the streets and eat out of garbage bins, but the road was laid.

After a while, I tried my hand at making my own films. Since I didn't have a camera, I figured that I'd make a brickfilm (a stop motion film made with LEGO for the uninitiated). That turned out ok, but the process was too drawn out and slow. I wanted something with some faster results.

So then I turned to webcomics. I made a couple of different comics (visible on my site), most of which were pretty crap. Some people liked one, but overall I had some trouble with the whole concept of drawing the same thing over and over again.

So lately I decided to try out CGI comics. That would enable me to build the sets and characters once and then use them as much as was needed. I was even set to drop a few thousand on a bunch of computers in order to set up a render farm. Of course, I kinda overlooked the minor detail that I'd need to build everything - and that takes ages! It took me four hours to build a single pawn for a chess board!

*sigh*

Anyway, I had thought about building something physically. Either sculptures or puppets or marionettes or something. I have no idea why I want to create so bad, but it's there and it's driving me nuts!

So far, my main "outlet" has been reading webcomics. But I want to be a producer, not a consumer.

I'll keep you posted (both of you that read this) if I come up with something to actually get passionate about. maybe I'll just join a gym and work out. Or get a girlfriend.

I've heard those can be fun....

First plot on the farm

Just a small bit of news today.

I picked up a new PC which will be the first computer on the render farm. I also now have 3DS Max 7.0, which I have no idea how to use.

So that's the first item on the cards for now.

I figure that this first PC will let me use and experiment with 3DS enough to be able to get something of interest going with it. The final goal of course being to get a CGI webcomic going that has sufficient complexity to be interesting.

It'll be an uphill battle since most people are pre-disposed to not liking 3D webcomics, but that's the ride I'm signing up for.

Let's see how it ends up...