Biker Mice From Mars: Turbo 6

Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

New words: 1096
Total words: 8967
What I hate about my writing: Being under word count pressure because I was stupid.
The Good: I got the full hour minimum under my belt today.
The Bad: Because of yesterday, I still have 1411 words that I must do today to be on track.
Fave Charley line: “Stop that. Your hard head will dent it.”
What I'm looking forward to: Getting on track and starting the next scene. I’ll be that much closer to Turbo and Charley meeting.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finding my fears to be true, I don’t have enough story for 50,000 words. Trying to bring this spat scene to a closure but one that doesn’t give closure to the characters and their fight. Charley needs to be conflicted of what she believes Throttle feels. Deep down she knows the truth and just how much he loves her, but the insecurity will be useful.

Okay, it actually seems like I have transitioned past this fear pretty well. Only it sucked that budget crunching ate so much time today, and I still have to finish it at home because I left important paperwork pertaining to it there (like the electric bill, phone bill, etc.).

Biker Mice From Mars: Turbo 5

Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

New words: 338
Total words: 7871
What I hate about my writing: Trying to work with no real sleep. I finally went to bed after I listened to McCain’s concession speech. I had to hear that or an acceptance speech before I truly believed it. Then my alarm goes off at 2 a.m. and Obama’s acceptance speech is being given. Wow, he really wanted to make sure all the results were in. And I’m glad I’m not in Chicago right now. *Snort Okay, I found out much later in the day, it was a repeat and he gave the acceptance speech at 11 p.m.
The Good: I got thirty minutes in.
The Bad: I got thirty minutes in.
What I'm looking forward to: My full writing hour.
What I'm not looking forward to: Getting back on the word count I should be on.

Biker Mice From Mars: Turbo 4

Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

New words: 1819
Total words: 7533
What I hate about my writing: No issue today except I wish my brain would work faster with a keyboard. It doesn’t seem like I have to stop as much with a pen. I’m sure I do, but I’m used to typing something already completed, no waiting for the brain to come up with the next sentence.
The Good: Meeting of the bad guys is finished. Did you know that Limburger figured Tala out? The Limburger crew is fun in their incompetence, but some times, I think that weakened their effectiveness as bad guys. I like to add in the menace again.
The Bad: Time to get the plot into motion. I hope it goes naturally and doesn’t feel like I’m jerking the characters into place.
Fave Modo line: “Cheese, bro, and I thought Vinnie had a talent. No wonder you two kept acting weird.”
Fave Limburger line: If those rampaging rodents really wanted to get rid of him, all they had to do was stop blowing up his skyscraper. The Council would replace him with someone else who could meet quotas.
Fave Turbo line: “My, my, how they have gotten under your scales. Believe me, I have experienced their antics first-hand too.”
What I'm looking forward to: Charley meeting Turbo scene. Three scenes away.
What I'm not looking forward to: Charley and Throttle’s starting to fix things scene. The scene I’m on. I have funny things in mind, mainly to torture Throttle, and I hope they work.

I think I may have found my rhythm in the morning. For starters, I stopped doing the yoga DVD until I get stronger. So I’m doing leg raises, ab crunches, shoulder exercises to strengthen my left shoulder, and push-ups. I wrote for thirty minutes, stopped to do the workout, and wrote again for another thirty minutes.

Music helped to. My usual morning routine is to have talk radio on in the morning. Well, it splits the concentration when I’m trying to compose. I turned it off in the office and turned on the fanmix folder as it stands now, and the story moved better. Or it could be I just have too much fun writing Limburger. I’m going to keep experimenting with it.

Though it’s kind of sad that I do like writing Limburger, but I don’t really use him much as a villain. Seven out of twenty-five stories where he actually figures into the main plot as the guy to defeat. He shows up more than that but like he does in Turbo, comedic relief and part of the universe.

Now I’m off the computer for a while as I rearrange the office slightly and finish October’s budget review. Maybe since I’ve been in Chicago for four days I can figure out where the numbers have gone screwy.

Biker Mice From Mars: Turbo 3

Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

New words: 1813
Total words: 5714
What I hate about my writing: I can’t seem to write fast enough.
The Good: I finished Scene #4 in long-hand, because it is easier to write on paper while handling the checks on the paying job.
The Bad: Two hours of typing time to get 1813 words. That equals 906 words an hour. And that wouldn’t be that good if I didn’t already have Modo and Throttle’s scene finished on paper. I’m all anxious about Charley and Throttle’s spat in Scene #3. It just doesn’t feel very organic. I’m not going to fret over it now, just noting that I might need to go back in editing and tweak it. The improv exercise of conflicting motivations might be useful for that scene. Now if I could only remember what book I read it in.
Fave Throttle line: “What does baseball have to do with this?”
Fave Modo line: “This will probably take jewelry to make up for. Though Charley isn’t much for jewelry; maybe you should buy her that air compressor she’s been eyeing.”
What I'm looking forward to: Finishing typing what I have written. And doing a scene from Limburger’s POV. I reread Shatter Your Illusions to have a scene fresh in my mind when Modo refers back to it, and I really enjoyed all the asides I wrote from Limburger’s POV during the first fight.
What I'm not looking forward to: I need to ramp up my fight scenes, especially with the battle bikes. After rereading Shatter Your Illusions, I think I’ve let my descriptive narrative coast by lately.

And I keep writing until I reach 1700 words a day or more. I liked it better trying to keep it to two scenes a day, but as I discovered last night, I'm not at my writing best by the time I return home. When you don't remember why you set a timer and what to do when it goes off, it's time for bed. Plus I need a cutoff to say "that's great for today, now go do something else like your budget."

I didn't want to write any of the manuscript for Turbo in long-hand so I could discover how fast I can compose on the computer. But I found out at the paying job, it is quicker to jot down a sentence in the notebook while waiting for the computer program to finish its process, rather than pulling up Word and timing myself. Timing myself because I am tracking how many writing hours I spend writing Turbo, a factor of how fast I can compose on the computer and how much time I need to carve out of my day for my writing time. If I only have an hour a day available, I need to scale back my word count expectations. If I have to reach this amount of words for a deadline, I need to set aside this much time. Right now, I have no clue what my baseline is for any of it, which make me create unrealistic expectations. Luckily, I really don't have to do any calculations for this because the Excel marathon tracker does it already. :D I just have to fill out. But it's easier to time myself with the stopwatch at work if I just do it while at lunch.

It would all be easier if my brain didn't run away with the scenes faster than I can keep up. I kept coming up with great stuff for Modo and Throttle to say, and then got scared I would forget it. *Shrug* Still debating how to handle my days off and weekends. Writing extra is good, but so would be finishing other projects. Well, tomorrow depends on how long I spend in line to vote and how long I spend at school.

Biker Mice From Mars: Turbo 2

BMFM: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

New words: 2105
Total words: 3901
What I hate about my writing: Not with writing, but I’m pretty annoyed I couldn’t get up on time. Time change not working in my favor so far.
The Good: Turbo’s introduction scene is completed. If anything, his issues and personality quirks haven’t come out fully. I think I’ll save his hard-on for gore for a later scene.
The Bad: I was woefully under par on the word count when my first hour was finished. I went ahead and finished the scene in fifteen-minute chunks. That plus getting the lyrics I plan to quote got me 405 words over what I needed to do. Judging by what I’ve done so far, my scenes are running around 850 words and I need to complete two a day in order to keep the word count up. Because I’m now officially out of things to quote, unless I decide to add one more song in. :p
Fave Turbo line: Throttle had Tamara’s motor head all right; it would only be more obvious if they had moved into a Harley-Davidson dealership.
What I'm looking forward to: Charley and Throttle’s spat and his apology scene that comes after Modo knocks some emotional sense into him. Don’t understand the female species? Ask Modo for help, and if he can’t, you are really screwed!
What I'm not looking forward to: Getting up at 2 a.m. tomorrow, damn time change. And keeping Tamara’s identity a secret until the big reveal. It’s cool if a reader guesses before hand, but I really want the emotional wallop. Now I’m curious to see how many people remember the foreshadowing, past-shadowing comment Throttle told Charley in Let Us Give Thanks.

Is anyone else having issues trying to log into the official NaNo site and update their profile? For some reason I keep getting timed out and it takes forever to just get logged in, not even counting getting the site to go to where I need to update word count. Does it run better in IE or something? It’s powered by Drupal; crap, is it just that many people on it? Ah, found the notice on the main page, they hope to have it smoothed out completely by Monday.

Secondary head-scratching moment here: what the hell is up with me and crazy stalkers lately? Let Us Give Thanks and Turbo were planned in all the creepy glory back in 2000, but then I followed that with the Evil Jack series and Ichiro in Tin Man: Dragons and Ninjas. And there’s a thwarted rapist who gets a little obsessive in Tin Man and Pirates story that I started. Zy’s antagonist also obsessive, but not entirely his fault. Hell, even my bad guy in Strix is obsessive, but not in a sexual way thank the gods!

Hmm, I don’t think I’m getting away from it any time soon. Not counting the three listed above that I still have to finish, I still have two more stories to go in the Evil Jack series before Jack meets justice. Then the next story in the Wars Are Won series will feature Karbunkle that I should really consider using his POV for. At least I have thirteen to do in that series that should be more straight up fighting the Plutarkian adventures. But maybe I should expand into a different genre for at least one story, something that encourages different traits in the antagonists.

BMFM: Turbo 1

BMFM: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Metrics time now that I have actually started writing.

Metrics
Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

New words: 1796
Total words: 1796
What I hate about my writing: Actually, nothing today.
The Good: I made the word count on the first day, score! Finished the first scene and started on the second.
The Bad: 800 of those words were from the disclaimer and the already written flashback of Vinnie’s. I’m worried about my routine. Today, I spent an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the total, but I broke them into fifteen-minute chunks to not screw my hips and back up by sitting too long at the computer. Would I get done quicker without interrupting myself to stand up and do laundry? And I’m feeling ambivalent about the just completed first scene. Is it the proper place to start the story? Is everyone in character? Is it believable that Throttle and Charley haven’t been anything more than cuddling and kissing in the six months between stories?
Fave Modo line: “Whatever is in your head should just stay there. You let it out and they’re both gonna kill you.”
What I'm looking forward to: A closer to the reality routine I will have to work with tomorrow—i.e. getting up the same time I get up Monday through Friday—and fit in writing with the rest of my morning routine. Today has been an odd day.
What I'm not looking forward to: Getting up at 2 a.m. tomorrow, damn time change.

I feel so freaky about the whole butt in chair. I don’t want to be antsy if antsy is keeping me from getting the words out of my head. But at the same time, I don’t want to tie my body into knots that will need therapy to untie. So is it cheating and resistance if I put the timer on and go for fifteen minutes, then get up and put on a load of laundry or wash a sink of dishes before sitting down for fifteen minutes again? Especially when the chore doesn’t take fifteen minutes to finish?

My safest bet will be to start working out along with NaNo. Urgh, I didn’t want to be tracking that along with tracking words and money and housework. But the only effective way to make sure body is healthy is to use it. *Headdesk What good is winning NaNo if I spend December in traction?

2 am – 3 am = writing time
3 am – 4 am = exercise time
4 am – 5 am = getting dressed puttering around house time
5:30 am – 6 am = leave the house time (if I leave after 6 am I will be late for work)

Damn, this schedule scares me. Is it any surprise that all I want to do when I get home is eat and crawl into bed?

There are tricks I can start doing regularly to make my mornings run smoothly (packing lunch and setting out clothes the night before, etc.). The trick is remembering to do them each night before I go to bed.

Anyways, time to wrap up this post and finish everything else I have to finish for today.

NaNo Prep 2

BMFM: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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Have to seriously wonder what I have gotten myself into when I got my first email from my home region’s ML—I think it means motivational leader. I’m just not into lording over another group with who gets the better word count. I loved the idea of a write-in on November 2nd, spending time and insanity with actual people and not just virtual ones, until I remembered I have no laptop.

Onward regardless. I have three things to do to consider myself prepped for NaNo: fill out the marathon template file for Turbo, create the Master Story Summary, and create the fanmix album.

I don’t remember where I got the marathon template, but it’s a great little Excel file with nifty tracking features built for NaNo tracking purposes. It can be used any time you want to give yourself a deadline to reach a word count goal, which is what I have been using it for. This is actually the first time I will be using it for its purpose.

Master Story Summary took three days to complete due to me not waking up with the extra hour to write. I hope the time change works in my favor as far as that goes. But yes, I have outlined the entire story to find I’m planning on thirty-three scenes, worked out the time line for the narrative, and the POVs to use and when to use them.

So now that I’ve tried the Master Story Summary three times (twice now before the story was written); used the standard topic and sub-topic outline method taught in schools; gone over scenes in my head while driving the commute; taken notes of upcoming stories in emails, IMs, blog posts; I am an outliner is rather plain. Even when I’m winging the narrative, my brain accelerates and asks questions about what is ahead.

Of all the methods, I like the Master Story Summery best. It can be detailed or not as you need. It is telling the story without any embellishments, unless you need to take notes. With Turbo, I found myself taking a lot of notes on how conversations at the end are going to go.

Enough about that. Third thing I wanted to accomplish before go time was the fanmix soundtrack for the story. If you’ve read any of the other BMFM: Wars Are Won By Those Who Dare stories, you probably noticed I include songs. Technically, it does make them songfics since I quote lyrics, but I like to think they’re done right. Songs add flavor to the story but you can do what one reader did “I skipped right over them without noticing they were songs.”

But only recently was I introduced to the idea of packaging the mp3s into a zip file, make a cover and turn it into a soundtrack. I was just a few songs short and even that wasn’t true, since I had music in the inspiration folder that probably wouldn’t see lyrics quoted in a story. I decided to grab the music so I could put it on the mp3 player and tune out distractions while writing. My goal was at least ten songs, some of which will be quoted in the narrative and some that wouldn’t be.

BMFM: Wars Are Won: Turbo Fanmix

1. ”Biker Mice From Mars” by Will Anderson and Rick Ungar, sung by Jeff Scott Soto – theme of the cartoon that I’m building the series from.
2. ”Remember the Heroes” by Sammy Hagar – theme for this series and source of the series title.
3. ”Leader of Men” by Nickleback – this is one of Throttle’s theme songs. One of the first songs I picked for BMFM inspiration too.
4. ”Wayward Son” by Kansas – another theme from Throttle. The first series was so influenced by 70s and 80s classic rock songs, you are required to go to that era for influence music.
5. ”Leather and Lace” by Stevie Nicks and Don Henley – Throttle and Charley’s love theme for this story and I knew it would be quoted in Turbo the first time I heard it.
6. Children of the Sun by Billy Thorpe – intrigued by the title, I downloaded and it went to BMFM inspirations.
7. ”Obsession is Such an Ugly Word” by Alesana – this band makes some of the strangest punk rock I have ever heard (not that I’m very knowledgeable in that genre), but the lyrics and the angry guitar chords make this Turbo’s theme.
8. ”This is Usually the Part Where People Scream” by Alesana – also Turbo’s theme and the lyrics make it a perfect taunt for him to throw at Throttle.
9. ”No More Tears” by Ozzy Osborne – Turbo is not a happy character and he is not up to happy things. Ozzy channels that.
10. ”War Pigs” by Black Sabbath – fighting music!
11. ”Children of the Grave” by Black Sabbath – more fighting music. And I had just bought their Greatest Hits album to get a copy of “Iron Man.”
12. ”Nothing Can Come Between Us” by Sade – Charley’s theme in this story. Character’s theme songs do change, namely because I keep finding new songs that apply to them. There will probably be more songs from Sade in the future, cause DAMN she has great love songs!

Twelve songs, not too bad. And this order may or may not be the final order the album is put together in.

Well, it’s time for me to get to bed. I have a busy day tomorrow, getting 1700 words written before I do anything else. I’m ready for it though.

NaNo Prep 1

Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won: Turbo

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I’m going to skip over the wishy-washy decision making. It was sad, even for me. The cons list for even participating in NaNo descended into a list of general fears and not even the entertaining ones. Then there was the what to write dilemma that almost made me come up with a fourth choice and find my D4 to roll.

Here I am KLCtheBookWorm, official NaNo participant.

Once I realized that everything cycling through my head was the Perfect Girl terrified of screwing up, I blew a raspberry at her and jumped in. I went with BMFM: Turbo because of the three I was considering, it best met the guidelines. I still have too much world-building and plot-building to do in Strix, and I already started the next Tin Man story. Yes, I know I would be the only who would actually care that nine chapters are written out in longhand, but I would care so there you have it.

BMFM: Turbo only has one scene written because I used it for an example in a writing tutorial, but the background is solid in my head. My only worry is it may be a shorter story than 50,000 words. If that actually does happen, I decided to type the Tin Man story until the end of November.

I do have a little bit of prep work to do before November 1st. I charted out my goals, and all the projects to finish before I say “yes, it’s done.” I decided labeling things like “Second draft” or “FF.net version” works best as GTD projects. Then to fill out the official participation form, I need the comprehensive concept:

Turbo arrives in Chicago, and secrets Throttle has kept buried for most of his life now threaten Charley in the sequel to Biker Mice From Mars: Wars Are Won By Those Who Dare: Let Us Give Thanks.

I’d like to have the Master Scene Summary done before I start writing, but if it doesn’t happen, I’m confident I can write this story without one.