Decent writing advice

13 Tips For Actually Getting Some Writing Done and I found it pretty inspiring. I also found her post Quiz: Are You a Moderator or an Abstainer?, equally useful for the health portion of my life.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 98

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 3286
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 125185
What I hate about my writing: Absolutely nothing because I FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT!
The Good: Finished the first draft in four hours and fifteen minutes of writing time today.
The Bad: I’m not sure about the final word count because of editing issues. I always strive to trim about 10% off the first draft, but those aren’t the editing issues I’m talking about. It took all the way until the last day of writing, but I finally fixed a few holes that had been bothering me: like the name for Cain’s base in the Greater Kells.
Fave DG line: “I’ve already had three different confirmations and didn’t even have to go buy a pregnancy test.” She set the teacup on a delicate end table beside the sofa. “So there’s a baby on the way.”
Fave Cain line: “The family who didn’t do anything to gain her trust so she would tell you she was attacked? The family who manipulated her schedule and servants so she couldn’t make any personal decisions about her life? The family who never told her she would never be abandoned again and that getting married didn’t mean she was being banished?” His nostrils flared. “What support did you ever offer your daughter?”
Fave Raw line: “Pregnancy makes all females miserable.”
Fave Glitch line: “What is patient doctor confidentiality?”
Fave Azkadellia line: “I wish I could have seen his face. Ev has always counted on us to side against the Gnome King with our treaties and marriage alliances.”
Fave Jeb line: “So you get paid for buying furniture for someone else? I will never understand the Other Side.”
Fave Queen Galinda line: “Aedan was the only choice! He would have made things easier for her with the court. You don’t think I haven’t noticed how they treat my daughter? With him at her side, they wouldn’t dare snicker at her. What can the Tin Man do, glower them into submission?”
Fave Ahamo line: “I’m going to be a grandfather!” He whooped as he stood up and caught the Queen’s hands, spinning her around. “Our baby girl is having a baby, Galinda!”
What I'm looking forward to: Finishing all the maps! The yank the Nonestica before map apart for the Great Upheaval and add in the elements from Tin Man to create the map of the O.Z. for DG and Cain’s present. Yeah, I went over the screencaps to see if that helped me lay things out. I’m beginning to think that the only instructions the visual affects guys were given on the landscape was “make it not look like Kansas.” So we have mountains and waterfalls galore. Actually that’s not the hard part to work with. Figuring out where to put the Fields of the Papay so the buggers are hedged in by water and the heroes still have the cliff to jump off of, that’s the hard part. I’m proud of how I figured out where the Gap across the O.Z. goes. :D Last two maps needed are Kingsport before the novel and after the events of the novel. Three maps left to do. *Whimper* I said I was looking forward to this?
What I'm not looking forward to: Writing the Faulkner paper, editing this monstrosity of a novel. Seriously, I’m proud of it, but I don’t think I have ever written anything this big before.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 97

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 2237
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 121899
What I hate about my writing: I still have to go back and end Chapter Thrity-eight.
The Good: After some unproductive struggling to find the end for Chapter Thirty-eight, I jumped ahead to Chapter Thirty-nine, the one with the 566-word note on how it goes.
The Bad: Missed yesterday.
Fave DG line: “Rebellious exhibitionism?” So this is what glitching felt like, DG decided she didn’t care for it. “I need a travel storm to get Dr. Phil.” She turned to Cain’s impassive poker face. “This wasn’t part of my mission statement.”
Fave Cain line: “I knew his expression would be worth it!”
Fave Raw line: “Humans not like Viewers. Madness can result from being with humans when too young.” Cain’s scarred eyebrow rose, and Raw gestured with his hands before he could speak. “Sprite not mad, odd.”
Fave Glitch line: “DG?” She grinned and he wrapped his thin arms around her in a hug. He closed his eyes. “Oh that was a bad one. Wyatt Cain all dressed up and calling himself a lord.” He squeezed her tighter as he stiffened. “Glitching hasn’t stopped; he’s still dressed like that.”
Fave Azkadellia line: “DG? DG, I’m going to kill him. No killing is too fast. We’ll get some of those zapping prods. Are you ill?”
Fave Jeb line: Jeb clenched his teeth in a manner she was very used to seeing on a different jaw. “Don’t go in without me.”
Fave Queen Galinda line: “Dorothy Gale, have you lost your mind? What under the stars possessed you to arrest a foreign dignitary like that? There are proper channels to deal with incidents. Ambrose, why did you let her do this? How are we ever going to explain it to Aurissau?”
Fave Ahamo line: “What is wrong with her? Somebody do something useful and send for the Royal Alchemist!”
Fave Aedan line: Keep your hands off me!” He snarled, but that didn’t keep the soldiers from grabbing his arms and holding him fast. “Do you have any idea what I could do to you?”
What I'm looking forward to: Finding the ending to Chapter Thirty-eight. Finishing all the maps! The yank the Nonestica before map apart for the Great Upheaval and add in the elements from Tin Man to create the map of the O.Z. for DG and Cain’s present. Last two maps needed are Kingsport before the novel and after the events of the novel. Three maps left to do. *Whimper* I said I was looking forward to this? Right now it’s looking like I’ll finish the text before the maps.
What I'm not looking forward to: Writing the Faulkner paper.

Tin Man: Pirates Notes 05

Icarus_chained’s ideas on headcasing and the iron suits

Oh boy, she gave the plot bunnies and muse something to chew on. This is what I had shared on my previous history of the O.Z. musings.

So it took a while as I was fighting with the map to realize I could keep the events and chunk out the numbers he put with them. Well, keep most of the events, I think Dorothy got stuck much like Ahamo did. It deviates from Baum too, but once Ozma got to the throne, she was able to control travel storms and immigrated Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to the Oz. DG ends up—without having to get crazy with year/annual calculations—being Dorothy and Ozma’s great-great-great-granddaughter. All the other people in the Mausoleum? technically are DG’s ancestors from Ozma’s family tree. Since Dorothy played a critical role in unifying Oz and killing a couple of witches, she was given a burial of honor there. I shortened the times that the Wizard held power and how long Shell is the Emperor Apostle, and changed Ozma’s birth date so not to have to deal with the fact she is supposed to be the same age as Elphaba.

Though if someone wants to take that and run with it, if Ozma the baby was hidden in the magic limbo world that DG met Dorothy in, that could have stopped her aging.

Also while working on it, I discovered that the Great Upheaval happened 109 annuals ago. And this really caused it to sink in just how shitty the people of the O.Z. and surrounding countries have had it for longer than that.

First there was the Great Drought the coincided with Elphaba’s birth (or was caused by her, Maguire is vague about it in interviews). Then the Wizard took over and reigned in a horrible oppressive fashion. Civil war broke out and only stopped because Dorothy’s house landed on the separatists’ leader. Then she goes and accidently kills the next closest person the common people and Animals have for a champion, but she gets rid of the Wizard and really wants to help the people who are suffering worse than she ever saw back in Kansas.

There’s a lovely dance for the throne and we end up with the Emperor Apostle, who in turns takes all the great ideas the Wizard used and ups the ante. I can see him creating both headcasing and the iron suits and making them tools of the government. Adds jezabel_faust’s ideas to this train of thought. Before he was Emperor, he would go into Southstairs and drug and rape the female prisoners. Fun guy, Shell is. The Munchkins have enough and declare open war, which splits Oz. Vinkus tribes don’t participate even though their lands are declared part of the Loyal Oz. Gillikin tries to stay as neutral as possible. The Quadlings are ignored, but I think more end up on the Munchkin side than don’t.

In all of this mess, Ozma and Dorothy end up rebellion leaders and restore Ozma to her throne. Oz, reconnected with its Queen, ends the Great Drought. Five years of internal peace, but facing external threats. Roquat squares off with them three times, and fare so badly in the last one that he takes his mountain into the ocean to be as far away from Ozma and Dorothy as he can get. This is the Great Upheaval and it had some drastic effects on the landscape of Oz (the Gap across the O.Z. for starters).

But once they recover from that, there is 92 annuals of peace and prosperity for most people. Then the Great Famine started, and the youngest Princess died. Five annuals later, Azkadellia has overthrown her mother and declared herself Sorceress. And it’s open warfare once again.

And the poor Slippers who don’t have any of this baggage of history can’t understand why there’s a freak out from everyone over things like the Gnome King or witches. Yes, I am including DG and to some extent Ahamo in that statement, though I think Ahamo’s general way of surviving such things is “Lavender Eyes thinks it’s bad news and Ambrose agrees with her; okay, it’s bad news.”

*Sigh* If I don’t watch it, I’m going to end up doing stories to cover this backstory. :p Which normally, I wouldn’t mind sticking in the idea folder, but O.Z. stuff has a way of expanding faster than bread dough with too much yeast.

Which kind of leads me to my next point, getting annoyed with Tin Man Meta. I’ve accepted the fact that because of Live Journal differences, I will never be able to state anything there. For the most part, this is a good preventative measure for me. Cause I find myself reacting way too emotionally to points brought up in the “bad fanfic conventions, fail!characterizations, etc.” department. When I have to remind myself “They aren’t talking about my stories; 9 out of 10 never even bothered to read Dragons and Ninjas because it’s not on their precious LiveJournal” (I have issues with company policy and think it’s dangerous to make it the primary hosting for any fandom community), I don’t need to be able to respond because it won’t be pretty.

So yeah, the rest of what follows probably falls into justification rant territory. I think there’s some good stuff in it, but I’m biased.

I call bullshit on the opinion that Cain needs decades of therapy before moving forward with his life, so all Cain/DG ship fics are bad and must die in burn in fanfiction hell (so the fics from the one stating this opinion are the only ones that count as valid—DAMN, I feel snarky about this today and I can’t even point to one post that set it off. It just seems to be this pervasive superior attitude I feel when it comes up.) And I will cop to yes, I feel that they are picking on my ship and what I write about and what I try really, really, really hard to make damn plausible with the context of fanfiction and the limitations of the universe.

That said, what really upsets me about this view is I think it does a disservice to Cain’s strength of character as portrayed in the miniseries (even with all of its plot and backstory holes). Cain was shown captured and beaten, they heavily implied that his family was tortured and maybe even had their deaths faked in front of him given his absolute certainty they are dead, and shoved into an iron suit which kept his body in physical shape while he watched a projection of that day over and over again for annuals. Eight is a number agreed upon by most of the fandom. This is horrific torture; Cain has a nightmare later of Adora’s death and it turns into a projection on him. Yes, he has issues (just like all the other characters), but I don’t think those issues mean he needs to check into the nearest available psychiatric ward.

I actually like the theory that the iron suit is a sensory deprivation device, and Zero’s addition of the time loop project helped keep Cain sane. It has a delicious sense of irony because that was so not Zero’s intent. He knows he’s watching a projection; hello, he’s a cop, a trained observer! Even if he had a bad week or month, he would reason out that it never changes and it never stops eventually. It gave him time to mourn his wife and son, and plan what exactly he was going to do to Zero when he got out. And this is exactly was Cain was ready to stride off to do after DG and Glitch save him and he realized he was free. Yeah, we got time lapsed right over that bit, and I do think it took a while.

Only whatever trait in Cain that led him to becoming a police officer and led him to resisting a tyrant’s rule won’t allow him to abandon DG—who honestly doesn’t know anything about the dangers of this world—with only a convict for protection. So he reluctantly agrees to guide her after her parents.

DG has an affect on Cain, no matter if your opinion falls under romantic shipping or they’re just friends. DG insists on saving Raw from certain death—a position a Tin Man should automatically take. She instinctively turns to Cain for protection (just try to convince me that doesn’t stroke a male ego unconsciously *snort*). Cain puts DeMilo in his place when he gets lewd interacting with DG, a response all on Cain and not due to DG jumping behind him for protection. And then she suffers a blow no one should, and finds out her parents lied to her for as long as she can remember. She is a good if exasperating person, and she’s only exasperating because he wants to get her safe and sound anywhere so his conscious won’t nag him as he puts a bullet in it after Zero’s dead and she keeps delaying that outcome.

So when Father Vue tells DG to go to the Mystic Man, Cain figures his duty will be done at that point. Her parting shot “You’re a Tin Man, not a killer” hits home, even though he manages to ignore it up until hearing she is in danger as Zero’s new target. By the time he is confronted with the shell of the Mystic Man, it is pretty clear that Cain is not a stone-cold bastard even though he’s trying to maintain that image. Not for the people he cares about and DG has been added to that list with the Mystic Man, and to a lesser degree with Glitch and Raw—he doesn’t accept them fully until after the Tower rescue and escape. Would a man so on the edge of a psychotic breakdown be as gentle as he was with the withdrawal-suffering Mystic Man?

Yes, Cain gives in and has revenge-addled moments, most notably at the Northern Palace. His hopes rise especially after Ralph confirms Zero’s story. But even once they are dashed again after seeing Adora’s grave, he doesn’t turn on or take it out on this new group he has bonded with. He accepts DG’s comfort. He does tell Raw off, but not as harshly as he could. After the Realm of the Unwanted, he is freely giving out hugs! That’s a huge leap for the guy who didn’t know what to do when DG pounced on him in the Tower.

*SNORT* But I suppose all this is supposed to be shuffled onto sucky writing of the miniseries and not any growth of the character, who according to the archetype is supposed to realize he has had a heart and compassion all along. I’m willing to leave it to individual writers as too how long it takes before Cain decides to have another romantic commitment, if any, after Adora, but I don’t think the five month or the annual long wait I’ve used so far is out of line considering what growth the miniseries projected.

Unrelated side note, icarus_chained reasoned out Raw’s speech logic exactly along the ideas I was using but hadn’t articulated yet.

EDIT: OKAY, I think I have finally figured out what goes wrong with the damn links. I usually type posts in Word and then cut 'n paste. Word has smart quotes turned on, and for some reason whenever I add HTML codes and then cut 'n paste, Blogger adds in this URL and screws up the link. They should all be fixed now. Just click refresh if it doesn't work for you.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 96

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 1476
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 119662
What I hate about my writing: Getting distracted by a new shiny issue that isn’t really an issue and forgetting to sync my files.
The Good: FINISHED THE ORIGINAL MAGUIRE MASHUP MAP!!!!!!
The Bad: Yeah, that Maguire distraction: I worked out most of his timeline without having to reread all the books. And now I’m thinking there will probably be a book for to deal with the whole Tip issue. Needless to say, when I started plugging his numbers into what I had already worked out, massive math failure. Which really sucked, because I love the political atmosphere he gives Oz in his books, and I wanted to include it in my fanon.

So it took a while as I was fighting with the map to realize I could keep the events and chunk out the numbers he put with them. Well, keep most of the events, I think Dorothy got stuck much like Ahamo did. It deviates from Baum too, but once Ozma got to the throne, she was able to control travel storms and immigrated Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to the Oz. DG ends up—without having to get crazy with year/annual calculations—being Dorothy and Ozma’s great-great-great-granddaughter. All the other people in the Mausoleum? technically are DG’s ancestors from Ozma’s family tree. Since Dorothy played a critical role in unifying Oz and killing a couple of witches, she was given a burial of honor there. I shortened the times that the Wizard held power and how long Shell is the Emperor Apostle, and changed Ozma’s birth date so not to have to deal with the fact she is supposed to be the same age as Elphaba.

Though if someone wants to take that and run with it, if Ozma the baby was hidden in the magic limbo world that DG met Dorothy in, that could have stopped her aging.

And I also got so busy with the map and waiting and waiting for the program to save or pull up a new tool, I forgot to sync the files. I finally got that done tonight.
Fave DG line: “Do you want to tell him, Wyatt? Or should he wait for Jeb’s I’m-smarter-than-my-father version?”
Fave Cain line: “Central City Palace is the seat of government and home for the current ruler, so that leaves Finaqua and the Northern Palace. But both have such bad memories for you, I just thought you’d prefer the fixitupper with the Grasslands view.”
Fave Raw line: “No. Cain shoot someone, I have to heal. Not fair.”
Fave Kalm line: “Hard for Viewers to be round humans for long time.”
Fave Sprite line: “I do just fine.”
What I'm looking forward to: Confrontation with the Queen. Finishing all the maps! I’m finally on making the corrected Maguire mash-up taking care of the cardinal direction issues. Next would be fitting the mash-up map on the continent of Nonestica, which will become my necessary map from before the Great Upheaval. The yank that map apart for the Great Upheaval and add in the elements from Tin Man to create the map of the O.Z. for DG and Cain’s present. Last two maps needed are Kingsport before the novel and after the events of the novel. Four maps left to do. *Whimper* I said I was looking forward to this? Depending on how insane I get this weekend, I may finish either the text or the maps.
What I'm not looking forward to: Crap, still need to do a little research on Kiamoko’s physical description. I glossed over and I think it was probably attacked. There’s no way that much damage could happen to ruin a castle in around a hundred years without help. Writing the Faulkner paper. Something screwy happening with the computer tonight because it has been happening every night this week, I’ve had a couple of nights off.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 95

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 345
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 117611
What I hate about my writing: Time management issues.
The Good: Reached Chapter Thirty-eight.
The Bad: Hey, a number got skipped! No, not really. See I had done 45 minutes of typing finishing up Chapter Thirty-seven and the metrics post for yesterday at home last night while working on the map. Then the electricity blinked and the computer shut off, and by the time I got the computer back on, all I cared about was getting that damn map finished to the point where I just have add the missing towns and fix the cardinal direction problems. So I never even reopened Word and I forgot to save what I had done onto the flash drive, so I will have to post when I get home.

And if you don’t end up reading these out of order, just ignore the above.

Dangnabit! I got distracted by Maguire timeline research and only got 11 minutes in typing. And it is all Wyatt Cain’s fault. He had to go and contemplate the actual generations between DG and Dorothy.
Fave DG line: “I hope you aren’t going to get hung up on me walking or climbing stairs or fixing my own food. I’m just pregnant not helpless, and it’s better if you exercise.”
Fave Cain line: If only she knew. DG probably didn’t have any idea of the history of this place, but she would go poking at everything. He strode off to look for his wife.
What I'm looking forward to: Confrontation with the Queen. Finishing all the maps! I’m finally on the last touch ups to the Maguire original mash-up combining the maps found in all three books. Then I need to make the corrected Maguire mash-up taking care of the cardinal direction issues. Next would be fitting the mash-up map on the continent of Nonestica, which will become my necessary map from before the Great Upheaval. The yank that map apart for the Great Upheaval and add in the elements from Tin Man to create the map of the O.Z. for DG and Cain’s present. Last two maps needed are Kingsport before the novel and after the events of the novel. Five maps left to do. *Whimper* I said I was looking forward to this?
What I'm not looking forward to: Naming the older Viewer. Crap, I need to do a little research on Kiamoko’s physical description as well as make sure I’m spelling it right. And one of these days I’m going to have to work out just how canon Maguire’s plots are to my personal fanon. Writing the Faulkner paper. Something screwy happening with the computer tonight because it has been happening every night this week.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 94

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 1036
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 117841
What I hate about my writing: Catching up with myself.
The Good: I finally got this post done and my files combined.
The Bad: I missed doing it for almost two nights in a row.
Fave DG line: “You did tell that Corporal to stop guarding the tent, right?”
Fave Cain line: “I did and if he didn’t follow orders, he certainly got an earful.” He chuckled harder into her hair, “Actually, the whole camp probably got an earful.”
What I'm looking forward to: Finding Kiamoko, seeing Raw again, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen. Think this will take two chapters to complete.
What I'm not looking forward to: Writing the Faulkner paper. Finishing Vinkus area on the Maguire mash-up map. Provided nothing screwy happens (like my computer deciding it needs to reboot), I think I can finish it tomorrow night.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 93

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 519
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 116805
What I hate about my writing: Catching up with myself.
The Good: Reached Chapter Thirty-seven, and over half the cast have made their exit.
The Bad: I have caught up with myself on smut. Man, I hate typing smut when I think anyone can peek over my shoulder.
Fave Kaliko line: “Take care of yourselves on your journey back.”
Fave Spencer line: “Come visit Pingaree as soon as you get a chance.”
Fave Dani line: “Don’t forget the strength you’ve found out here. And prove your mother hen wrong, pullet.”
Fave Jenkins line: “You two didn’t do too badly for a pair of landlubbers. Not too bad at all. And I don’t have to play midwife again,” he muttered.
Fave Betsy line: “If you ever need a favor, I will pay it. We Slippers have to stick together, after all.”
Fave Malachite line: “Remember, play dodge ball. Now head for the horizon.”
Fave DG line: “Political metaphor. I’ll explain later.”
Fave Cain line: “I’ll be sure to remind you that you said that when the baby has kept you up all night.”
What I'm looking forward to: Finding Komiko, seeing Raw again, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen. Think this will take two chapters to complete.
What I'm not looking forward to: Writing the Faulkner paper. Finishing Vinkus area on the Maguire mash-up map. Provided nothing screwy happens (like my computer deciding it needs to reboot), I think I can finish it tomorrow night.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 92

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 2013
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words for part two of draft: 57883
Total words: 116286
What I hate about my writing: Me and the timer do not always see eye-to-eye.
The Good: Found an hour and fifteen minutes today. And had to break the draft into a third part.
The Bad: Really wanted to find more and make up for previous delays.
Fave Cain line: “If I admit thinking wasn’t a factor, would you stop laughing?”
Fave Malachite line: “I still don’t understand what you did.” Malachite rubbed his whisker-covered chin. “You didn’t access that much power to shove Langwidere across the tent.”
Fave DG line: “Like we do anything according to plan. I’m never going to plan anything again. I’ll just say what I want to happen and then try my best.” She nodded sagely, “Decisive mission statements and other people who Murphy likes can do the planning.”
Fave Betsy line: Betsy grabbed her husband’s head and kissed him hard. “You’re thinking too loud,” she told the stunned man. She turned back to Cain and DG with a wink. “We’ll go distract their majesties until supper.”
Fave Jeb line: “Sorry.” Jeb took another deep breath. “I’m lying; I’m not that sorry.”
What I'm looking forward to: Finding Komiko, seeing Raw again, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen.
What I'm not looking forward to: Fighting with the %$#%&* graphic program tonight. I was trying to get the last three puzzle pieces into place on the commercial breaks in Desperate Housewives and all the programs I had open on the computer decided to crash at the same time. So I’m still stuck on the original Maguire maps mash-up and haven’t even gotten to correcting the mistakes, much less the fun of turning it into the O.Z.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 91

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 408
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words: 114273
What I hate about my writing: Getting distracted.
The Good: Yeah for progress.
The Bad: Boo for only fifteen minutes.
Fave Kaliko line: “We are please to meet other Topsiders with your same qualities, Lord Wyatt. Greetings, Captain Cain.”
Fave Cain line: Enjoy the teasing. I made sure it’s an inherited title.”
Fave DG line: “Thanks a lot, now you got me in trouble.”
Fave Spencer line: “You’re supposed to be on the ship.”
Fave Jeb line: “That’s really the Gnome King?”
Fave Sprite line: “Must travel road with Cains. The Shaman said to.”
What I'm looking forward to: Jeb’s hysterics, finding Komiko, seeing Raw again, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen.
What I'm not looking forward to: Having to console myself that once the original mash-up map is done, fixing their mistakes will be easy. And tearing it apart for the Great Upheaval will be fun. Yes, it will be fun!

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 90

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 587
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words:113865
What I hate about my writing: Being too tired to type what I have already written.
The Good: This chapter is full of fun little moments.
The Bad: I am so drained and have no idea why.
Fave Kaliko line: “We hope to develop an alliance with the Land of Ev like we have with the Outer Zone.”
Fave Malachite line: “Right, introductions,” Malachite clapped his hands. “Your Majesty, this is Lord Langwidere, Ambassador for the Land of Ev. Ambassador, Kaliko the Painite, King of the Gnomes and the Archipelago.” Langwidere blinked stupidly at both the human and the tall gnome. “There has been a dynasty change.”
Fave DG line: “What are you trying to imply, Lord Langwidere? That I cannot be trusted with the welfare of my realm? After I helped save it and the whole world from eternal darkness?”
Fave Betsy line: “With guests like that I can see why you don’t like balls.”
Fave Jeb line: “To let Ev move on in since we ran the slavers out.”
Fave Langwidere line: “Does your mother know about this?”
What I'm looking forward to: Jeb’s hysterics, finding Komiko, seeing Raw again, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen.
What I'm not looking forward to: Writing the Faulkner paper. And fighting more with the graphics program. I better get some acknowledgement for all this hard work it is turning into.

MA Exam Part 2

I PASSED PART TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unless I get told differently, I should be walking in December, after I finish the Faulkner paper for the Fall semester. So I am one more step closer to the pictured event.



So what does this mean for my writing schedule? I haven't gotten that far yet. Planning out my project schedule will have to wait until I get home and can take an uninterrupted look at the calendar.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 89

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 534
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words: 113278
What I hate about my writing: Only fifteen minutes; I am so sad.
The Good: Look it’s a Jeb! And a new character!
The Bad: I didn’t get as much typing done as I needed to, I was steady taking long-hand notes. progress should pick up.
Fave Cain line: “Tell them we’re here, Corporal.” – I love the interplay between Cain and the hero-worshiping and brighter-than-he-looks Corporal. Must look for more opportunities to show it.
Fave Malachite line: “At least, we’re making progress.”
Fave DG line: “Which Captain was sent to find us?”
Fave Betsy line: “A relative?”
Fave Jeb line: “This adventure’s been good for you, DG. You’re practically glowing.” – And no, he doesn’t know when he says this.
Fave Langwidere line: “Captain, all the Land of Ev requires from you is contact with your superiors, who would be able to give the assurances you are unable to provide. It would be a shame for the long alliance between the O.Z. and Ev to end over a simple misunderstanding of territorial boundaries.”
What I'm looking forward to: Jeb figures out what’s up, finding Komiko, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen. Finishing the map project so I can’t actually write at home.
What I'm not looking forward to: Writing Faulkner. *Sigh* The world is a difficult place sometimes.

And we have a new character! Introducing Lord Langwidere, Ambassador for the Land of Ev portrayed by Joss Ackland (remember the poor ambassador from The Hunt for Red October movie?).

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 88

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 1521
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words: 112744
What I hate about my writing: Nothing!
The Good: The world is a lovely wonderful place when the words flow out and the only stress I have is the image file is a little too big for the graphics program to handle without freezing up.
The Bad: It just happens to be the start of the combined maps from Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. I think I’ve figured out how to attack the problem from another direction, but I’ll have to experiment more when I get home.
Fave Spencer line: “What’s a movie?”
Fave Cain line: “Entertainment on the Other Side like a play.”
Fave Kaliko line:“What is a play?”
Fave Malachite line: “When pirates clear out, they clear out.”
Fave DG line: “This world has two suns, three moons, flying monkey bats, living rocks, talking chickens, and lunch pails that grow on trees! Can you blame me for thinking the pirates are real pirates and not Disney pirates!”
Fave Betsy line: “There’s no secret handshake, Lord Wyatt. And we were all trying to blend in.”
Fave Sprite line: “Captain,” Sprite cried piteously. “Sing her the song, please!” – Actually, this bit was influenced by an incident with my baby sister when she was older than two. There are tourists with pictures of her hanging off a Universal Studios lamppost singing “I’m hungry” while I was trying in vain to get her off of it. Right outside the King Kong ride if you want to check.
Fave Treasure line: “Pirate song, pirate song, pirate song.”
Fave Dani line: “Nothing that I know of. But you two forgot to get any wedding presents for the wedding we’re all pretending to have gone to.” She clucked, “And your vows were so touching too.”
Fave Jenkins line: “You didn’t figure it out? I thought we’d given ourselves away a hundred times. Your husband figured it out.”
What I'm looking forward to: Meeting Jeb again, finding Komiko, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finding out if I have to write the Faulkner paper or not. Testing the graphics program to see if I will be able to create the map I would like to create. :p

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 87

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 2030
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words: 111223
What I hate about my writing: Nothing. Who knew getting rid of the stress would be so productive?
The Good: I finished the M.A. Exam Part 2! So now I can come back to this text.
The Bad: My deadline was set for May 22. According to the word count spreadsheet, I’ll hit the word count on June 10th actually.
Fave Cain line: “I think,” he said slowly as he set the piece of paper back on the desk, “I’m old-fashioned and would like a ceremony to go along with this. Why don’t you want one?”
Fave Malachite line: “I know how hard it is dealing with a parent who is convinced their way is the only way.” His gaze drifted to the wall that stood in front of his father’s quarters. “And it gets worse when they have the power to manipulate the pieces of your life like playing pieces on a chessboard.” DG pressed her lips together as his gaze returned to her. “There’s only one way to survive and be happy. Don’t play chess when it’s not your strength; play dodge ball instead.”
Fave DG line: “And me without any platinums,” she giggled at his glare. “What happened? I thought you were just going to sit on the beach with Betsy and the kids.”
Fave Betsy line: “It’s different from pirate leadership. You usually have to maim someone to get some respect.”
Fave Sprite line: “Won’t fit. Kingsport close to full.”
Fave Treasure line: “Me want cookie too.”
What I'm looking forward to: Finding out if I have to write the Faulkner paper or not. Getting through the transition so Malachite can give DG some political training, meeting Jeb again, finding Komiko, sprinkling some smut in all that, and confrontation with the Queen.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finding out if I have to write the Faulkner paper or not.

What I did to get through the readings for Beloved: It went much smoother when I took breaks and looked at something else. 15 minutes of text followed by 15 minutes of graphic manipulation. So I worked on illustrations!

DG’s ball gown – I took a long damn time working on this. Yes, that is Zooey Deschanel’s face. I don’t know what had happened to her the day it was taken, but it fit the mood I wanted for the image. Then by the time I finished the rest of the elements for the final painting, this figure didn’t work. Luckily, I found a back shot of this dress to work on the painting illustration and now I’m sharing this version with you.



DG’s emerald tailcoat – I learned a new trick with adjustment layers to change the color of this coat. And I was so glad I figured it out, because flood fill wasn’t cutting it.



DG’s pants – Yeah, I really didn’t need to do these, but I figured what the hell.



A sad attempt at the Tin Man uniform – If have followed Neal McDonough’s career, you know he gets roles with hats. Often goofy hats, which thankfully, Cain’s fedora is not on that list. However, I couldn’t put the domed bobby hat, which was period for most police uniforms, on his head. So it took a while to find an image of a period uniform that had a different hat. I painted the baldric and gun belt on top of it. The gun holster would still tie down to the leg and the uniform tunic would be cut to allow access to the gun.



DG’s first painting – In the first chapter, Cain sees the thirteen paintings DG did for therapy during the annual they were separate. Now I won’t be able to create all of them, *pout* but I’m going to do as many as I can. The first one I got done was Hilltop Café.


DG’s second painting – healed Papay tree.


DG’s third painting – the mirror portrait. I think I read three articles while working on this one picture. What aggravates me the most still? Besides using a lot of time on the first version of the ball gown that I ended up not using, there are no full-body shots of Zooey dressed as DG and smiling! NONE! Another thing that struck me as odd while I looked is even Glitch wasn’t grinning in the promo shots. That’s not right. I wanted DG the Slipper looking happy, but I settled for her looking resolute.


DG’s fourth painting – the Kansas farmhouse. And I think I have finally figured out the brush strokes art effect feature.

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 86

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 553
Total words for part one of draft: 57113
Total words: 109193
What I hate about my writing: I think everything went well today.
The Good: I got some typing done.
The Bad: I don’t think I’m going to make the deadline I had set up with the studying I have to do for the M.A. Exam.
Fave Cain line: “Apparently, I’m the only one left. Betsy got called to a meeting with the Navy, Sprite is keeping Treasure entertained, and the servants are all miffed about last night’s party.”
Fave Malachite line: “I thought I told them to loosen up and have fun.”
Fave DG line: “You did,” DG confirmed, “but I don’t think they took you that seriously when Wyatt and Jenkins had to pull you off the chandelier.”
Fave Betsy line: “You’re hungry,” Betsy set her daughter on her hip. “Daddy.”
What I'm looking forward to: Getting through the M.A. Exam Part 2.
What I'm not looking forward to: Getting through the M.A. Exam Part 2.