On NaNoWriMo (AKA Voltech the Liar)

Don’t worry, your pies are safe.  But I guess it’s about time for me to come clean.

With any luck, the truth will set me free.  Either that, or make some people very, very cross with me.

First off, I want to start by saying that for those of you who went all in with this year’s National Novel Writing Month, congratulations.  You deserve praise just for even thinking of taking part.  Doubly so if you actually wrote some words -- any amount, even if it’s just one.  Of course, if you’re one of those dazzling people who not only took on the challenge, but also broke past the 50,000 word barrier, go and buy yourself ALL OF THE PARTIES.  Or something like that.  You know what?  Just take this jingle -- you deserve it, hero.

If you’ll let me be realistic -- for once -- then it’s safe to say that even if you’ve got a 50k file you’re not even close to done.  Setting aside the fact that the file (the story at large) might not even be finished, there’s still the issue of figuring out what words need to stay, what words need to go, what words need to be added, and generally just deciding if your story’s got the juice it needs.  But I guess that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about, isn’t it?  Now you’ve got something to show off and work with.  And with any luck, something good will come of it.  Whether it’s just for practice, putting your ideas onto a computer screen, or just plain preparing your magnum opus, you’ve got the chance to do something fantastic.

I’ve got high hopes for you out there.  I wouldn’t be the Eternal Optimist if I didn’t.

And with all that in mind, I should probably be honest.  See, I’ve got this file.  I don’t remember when I started it -- in October, maybe -- but I didn’t get very far.  Maybe a few thousand words.  Not even all the way through a full chapter.  Maybe not even to the halfway point.  So I thought to myself, “Hey, other people are getting into the NaNo spirit.  Maybe I should pick up that file and try to beef it up a bit.  I probably won’t get that far, but it’s worth a shot.  I want to put some real effort into it.”  So I did. 

About half an hour before November ended, I checked the word count.  And apparently, the file reached 60,206 words.  A sick palindromic number.

…JJ, you wanna take this one? 

Yeah, that happened.  I guess it’s a byproduct of my “locomotive style”.  See, I’m the type that’s a slow starter -- I stare at a blank screen for a long time, then out of frustration I might just slap down a few words.  But as time passes, I end up getting going, and the flow’s all set, and the next thing I know…well, you’ve seen my posts here on Cross-Up, right?  Imagine that, only concentrated into a single file over the course of a month.  (I’d call it a NaNo win, but I don’t think it counts unless you say “I’m doing NaNo this year!  Watch me explode!”) 

It might seem like I’ve worked myself to the bone over that little project -- especially in light of the fact that Cross-Up posts have still come in -- but I really haven’t.  If you’ll let me pull back the veil for a moment, I should probably mention that posts can be (and are, more often than you think) written days or even weeks in advance.  It’s just a matter of scheduling them via Blogger, as those of you who use the platform may know.  Likewise, my locomotive style applies to writing those posts as well; it takes me a while to get started, sure, but I’ve found that it’s surprisingly easy for me to go from one thought and one paragraph to the next, especially when A) I’m pretty much just typing out what I’m thinking, as opposed to describing things or laying the groundwork for events to come, B) I’m yammering on about games or movies and whatnot, and C) some forethought has gone into the post beforehand, so it’s even easier.  It certainly helps that the ever-illustrious video game industry makes it so easy to harp on certain topics, because they keep dive-bombing into the same problems.

So, what is this mysterious file?  Well, I’ll tell you…later on.  It’s something that’s kinda-sorta important to me, but explaining its meaning is going to take some time.  You can look forward to hearing more about it soon, though; I’m thinking about doing an end-of-year post, and that’ll inevitably get a mention. 

By extension, I’ve been thinking about putting Cross-Up on hiatus for the holidays.  I imagine that not a lot of people will be rushing to check the blogosphere anyway, so that’ll give me a bit of breathing room.  Writing posts is simple enough, but that’s not all I’ve got up my sleeve.  Thing is, what’s up my sleeve is infinitely more…well, not difficult, per se, but tedious and time-consuming, so maybe I’ll slow things down for a couple of weeks (if not shut it down entirely) to get some stuff going.  That might be the best thing I can do right now, not just for the “mysterious file”, but also because I seriously need to implement some edits into I Hraet You.  Speaking of which, have you seen the guest chapters over on Memories of a Dimanagul?  If not, get your sweet bippy over there and read them!  They’re awesomeriffic!  Check the sidebar for a link, and go read now!  GO READ NOW, FOR GLORY!

There we go.  That should give me some good karma.

In any case, you can probably look forward to a bit more content in the meantime.  I’m done with Family Guy for the next thousand years -- as indicated by the finale post, which is the closest thing to a must-read there’ll ever be on this blog -- and now I want to move on to something positive.  I’m thinking it’s about time to do some quick posts on Wii U games; at the moment, the mere existence of them is enough to put me in a good mood.   But those are stories for another day.  Or days.

So I guess that’ll do it, then.  That should be a relative signal of the blog’s trajectory for a while yet.  What’ll happen next, though?  I don’t know.  Stuff, I guess, so look forward to it.

…But man, aren’t trains awesome?  Just look at this guy.

Yeah, he knows what’s up.