#sunward

"...People don't actually think I look like that..."

It’s been more than a week now since NaNoWriMo ended, and while I meant to write this sooner, I got distracted by shiny things (I got a new phone and a Fitbit on Cyber Monday). So, a bit delayed, but here goes: 

Despite having nothing more than a cast of half-formed characters, an extremely rough idea of a story, and a little developed setting, I got off to a pretty strong start with writing 2k+ words a day during the first four days. I don’t recall having ever had such a strong start with NaNo before. 

Of course, I started lagging a bit, hitting a slump in the second week that would have been hard to recover from if I hadn’t padded my word count in the first week. 

At some point, I began making little notes on what was going to happen in the next scene or further along the way, and that’s when I turned from a pantser to a plantser, which is new to me, and something that has absolutely helped me with this year’s NaNoWriMo. 

I hit the 50k mark on the 29th and where I’ve usually stopped writing dead on previous NaNos, I managed to add a bit more on the 30th. 

I’m far from done with this project. I’m no good at estimating how many more words are needed, but at a wild guess, I’d say this novel still has a good 15-20k left in it on the first draft and many more to add in a rewrite (because, let’s face it, NaNoWriMo is more like a huge outline than a first draft). 

In conclusion, I love the characters, I love the plot, and I love the setting. I want to finish this novel. I want to rewrite it. I want to revise it. Edit it. And revise it again. Whether I want to take it further than that remains to be seen. 

Project: Sunward Daily word count: 3,032 Total word count: 18,040 Notes: Ooof! Orlando sucker punched me today with a bunch of background information. Holy mother... 

I hope today’s excerpt isn’t too spoilerish, but it seemed only right that it’s what’s to be shared. And I’d love to hear input on whether or not this is a good way to get it out there that a character is trans? Constructive criticism is definitely appreciated on this one. Thanks! 

Excerpt:

Orlando had been different. 

Project: Sunward Daily word count: 939 Total word count: 25,352 Notes: Hit the midway slump pretty big, but still managed to get nearly a thousand words in and reaching to 25k halfway spot. Sweet! 

Excerpt:

Project: Sunward Daily word count: 1,064 Total word count: 43,538 Notes: Another slow day, but getting soooo close to The Heist (as I’m calling it now, though all that’s being stolen is data). I think the reason I’m struggling a bit here is because silly pantser me has very little idea of the details of the plan... Hopefully, my characters know what they’re doing and will tell me along the way. 

Excerpt:

"That's all?" one of the others said - a woman taller than Blue with blonde hair cut short - her pale grey eyes fixing Blue with an amused glimmer. "Sure. We'll get right on that, why don't we. Should have it all for you by morning, no problem." The sarcasm practically dripped from her voice as she spoke, but before she could get to the denial stage of her speech, her partner took over. 

"We can get it," the other woman said, this almost identical to the other one in height and bone structure, but complete opposite in skin and eye colour. "It'll take some time, but we can get it. Question is, how badly do you want it?" 

KAI GRUMMOND

Full Character Name: Kai Grummond Nickname(s): K, Babyface, Baby, Trouble Profession: Comms/Navigation Officer of the North Sky

Age: 28 Gender: Male Orientation: Ace Face Inspiration: Jeremy McClain

Eye Colour: Green Hair Colour: Brown Height: 168 cm Build: Slender

Personality: Outgoing and friendly, Kai can also be rather flamboyant at times, but he is completely loyal to Captain Zerhouni and the crew of the North Sky. One of the most intelligent people on the crew, he's fluent in seven languages, can get by in many more, and has a grasp of mathematics that makes him capable of plotting a course with the same degree of accuracy as the ship's AI (though admittedly, quite a bit slower). And Kai is certainly not afraid to flaunt that intelligence, not only with crew, but with strangers as well; something that has gotten him into trouble more often than not.

History/Background: From an early age, it was clear that Kai had a higher than average intelligence, excelling in particular in language and maths. As such, he was drafted into the Gifted Children programme when he was just four years old, which put him on the path to some of the more shady areas of Martian military and political intelligence agencies. To this day, much of what he learnt in his years in the programme is classified, and not something he himself particularly likes to talk about.