Week One: An Exercise in Will Power

Total: 35 hours.  (The following are approximates)
Writing Warm Ups: 4 hours, 45 minutes
Daily After-Writing Edits: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Enthusiastically Novel-Writing: 24 hours, 28 minutes
Staring at a Blinking Cursor: 2 hours, 13 minutes
Drooling, Staring off into Space, and Imagining Myself Enthusiastically Novel-Writing: 1 hour, 9 minutes

Writing Warm-Ups produced two letters (one mailed, one not), two poems, five short story beginnings, and two diary entries.

However, the Escaterra Project is about writing a novel.  58 pages, 16,986 words.

I've been talking about writing this novel for a long time.  Years.  Obviously, talking isn't writing, and for years, I have always found excuses to not write and instead think and plan and world-build.  This summer, I've decided, will change all of that.  From 9am to 5pm, but a lunch break at noon, Monday through Friday, I am working on The Escaterra Project, an effort to write the entire novel in the twelve weeks I have between junior and senior years of college.  I can spend 35 hours on the computer every week without a problem.  I could be a professional internet time-waster, but for 7 hours everyday, my internet is turned off, and the only program open on my laptop is a fresh Word Document.  When I started on Monday, I was slightly terrified about how well it would work, "best laid plans" and all that.  I powered through and above are the results.

Going into this summer, I had no intention of blogging.  I've tried to start blogs before, but never got so much as 1 post done.  By Thursday, I had made so many Facebook status updates about it that I decided I might as well try.  I'll be updating at least weekly, sometime between Friday evening after 5pm and Monday morning before 9am.  I'm not sure yet exactly what I'll be writing about beyond the general premise of documenting my writing process over the summer.  I'll write a little about me; I'll write a little about my novel.

Now, for the little about my novel...

The working title is Prophecy.  Because, oh hey, it involves a prophecy, as fantasy novels often do.  Clever, right?  Escaterra is the name of the world in which it takes place.

The Gods must choose their champions to save the world from certain destruction. They could select anyone to save the world from the apocalypse.  They could choose Ariy'Ala'omand, the warrior prince of Hakatha already dedicated to the cause.  Or Ashalana, the queen's friend and confidant, whose envious and corrupt rivals in court have her sent on a far off mission.  Or the nameless woman of the secret band of exiled politcal adversaries and criminals who plans to lead them from their wilderness hide-out to rebellion at the city gates.  Even the crazy old woman outside the walls of Souzarzum or the much-despised, apathetic Sorcerer could become saviors.  But the Gods instead will choose a pirate, an apothecary and a recluse. They just don't know it yet.

In the coming weeks, I'll be filling you in on more (as it actually gets written).

Quote of the Week:  Will Save  (Note: apologies, these will be very rough.  I will choose them for the theme, not because they are magnificent examples of prose.)

For those who don't know, I'm a huge fan of tabletop games.  For those of you who don't know much about tabletop games, here's a lesson for you:  Will Saves "reflect your resistance to mental influence" (PHB 3.5, 136).  Someone trying to intimidate you?  Roll a Will Save.

This past week has just been one major Will Save for me against the intimidation of the project I was taking on.  So, here is an example of a successful Will Save I wrote on May 18th:

"Even if Contierra had access to a weapon, she wouldn’t know how to use it against them; she was terrified of all manner of beast, and had she a choice, Contierra would live a much more luxurious life in which she was required to do none of her own work. But Contierra ci’Mublim sáh’Hailiphusahabiro imci’Niha had defied her father and lord, had successfully stared down a land pirate twice in her life, had lived through the worst attack in the living memory of Hakathans, and had just willingly hung off cliff for three hours – a simple man with a crossbow was not all that intimidating."