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Fangleberry
My rambunctious little puppy is growing fast, particularly her pointy little teeth.
Ow!
Okay, the camera on my phone is pretty low resolution but, in my defense, Rose is actually quite fuzzy.
What’s not fuzzy is her set of chompers. She’s a growing dog and she needs to teethe.
Unfortunately, she seeks targets of opportunity over chew toys that are being provided.
I’ve had occasion to lift some heavy things of late.
Along with that unusual bit of exertion comes an agonizing level of pain.
NO THANK YOU
I could really live without that particular bit of trauma. It’s like being tossed back into 2019.
NaNoWriMo
Scrivener Bootcamp |
Scrivener Revisions (Bootcamp part 2) |
It may seem early to talk about NaNoWriMo, but the bootcamp video I’ve linked just above references it frequently. As such, I thought I’d throw a quick word in about it today.
The challenge began in 1999 and the goal is to write 50,000 words or more during the month of November. Editing and publishing prep would occur outside the scope of the challenge. The idea is to just bang out your novel in a month-long writing frenzy.
With about 1,667 words per day over the 30 days of November, you’ll definitely hit the 50K finish line.
That sounds like a lot. – Actually, it is.
I’ve achieved a few 6000± days working on the Sentinels, but it isn’t something I’ve been able to stick to. I’ll have to watch Chris Fox‘s video on how he writes 7000 words per day to see what I’m doing wrong.
Some differences between Chris and me are that he’s a morning writer and a plotter while I’m a night writer and I’m still warming up to the whole plotting approach. I am, by nature, a pantser. Unfortunately, that more often than not leaves me painting myself in a corner.
I’ve been migrating into plotser territory. Pretty good chance I’ll be staying there. I can use a loose skeleton of a plot to pants my way into a decent story. I did it with A Misfit Christmas and I’ll be doing it again this year with All I Want.
Deceivers
One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived. ~Niccolo Machiavelli
So, we’ve gotten to the point where the bad guys are going to start showing their sordid faces.
The Conclave is an unofficial shadow government that has had their hands on the reins of Empire City going all the way back to the original Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.
The truth of their situation is far weirder than most people can bring themselves to believe. That works as a kind of psychological camouflage for them.
Nobody would believe that these old money charity circuit types would be involved in criminal activities.
Nobody would believe that they are centuries old.
Nobody would believe how they stay that way.
Suspension of disbelief is the icing on the cake of speculative fiction. If the author says that some people can fly, people are okay with that. Within the scope of the story, they have their own perception of “reality“.
The Sentinels’ reality is a lot like our own in this world, except that they are aware of four people who do things that stand outside of everyday “reality” but conform to the idea of comic books.
Comic books came into being around the same time as they did in our world, so the Sentinels conform to the familiar idea of comic book superheroes.
The Conclave are very much not like that. People of that world may be able to cope with comic book superheroes jumping off the page but they’re totally not capable of coping with the likes of The Conclave.
The trick is to write these people to be as utterly monstrous and amoral as they are without nauseating my audience. It’s a fine balance to maintain. Should be fun tightrope walking on that line…
That’s all for today, I have to get back to the Sentinelsverse. People are waiting to do heroic or dastardly things.