Another Day in the Writing Realm

I managed to hit a little over 1K today. I finished the last chapter I was on for critique; now I just need to do a very, very rough edit on it before I submit it for critique.

It needs a lot of help 😛 I fear even a rough edit won’t do much of anything.

I have a difficult time writing the chapters with the antagonist POV. Mainly because this man is fairly twisted and sadistic. He’s the kind who gets a certain kind of high watching other people in pain. It’s hard for me to get into a mindset like that because it’s so disgusting to me. But, in order for this guy to not seem like a cardboard bad guy, I need to have my mind venture there, as much as it’s not that fun.

I do have a chapter or two where I am going to show a more human side to him. For example, much of this aggression stems from a neglected childhood where he was an orphan and had to do practically anything to stay alive. Also, much of the motivation behind him finding my MC and in effect torturing others has to do with his deep desire to belong (one of the main themes of the book). He’s trying to prove himself to his “boss”, the formidable leader of a terrorist organization. He’s never belonged anywhere and that’s where he’s found his niche, so to speak, so he’s willing to stop at nothing to get what he wants.

I haven’t done any chapters that show that side yet, but they’re coming (actually one will probably be in the earlier chapters, one that I’ll  have to go back and write–much of the first ten chapters is being changed around and rewritten extensively).

Anyway, next few chapters I’m back with writing my MC again. Thankfully. 🙂 And then I still have to figure out how I want this book to end: whether or not I need to keep one POV for the sake of the last few chapters (otherwise it’s going to be very dull) and where I may need to re-add or rewrite other chapters with that characters’ POV.

Ah, the life of a writer! 😛

To Reach 50K Tomorrow…Or Not?

I’m less than 4K away from being an official winner of NaNo.

I am hoping I can reach the 50K mark tomorrow,  but that means it’ll have to be a slow day at work, for I really won’t have time afterward to work on it. We’re going to the in-laws for dinner then off to the church to set up for Thanksgiving the following day. And then I have to come back and make brownies…but that may end up waiting until Thanksgiving morning depending on how late it is (I don’t really want to be making brownies at 10 o’clock at night…)

Apparently I wrote slightly more than 4K today, not realizing it. I hit the part where my MC was kidnapped and the scene got rather violent with people being stabbed through with swords, sliced in the side, and some fingers sliced off. I’ll probably need to expand the scene more since I’m really horrible at writing action scenes, but the basis of it is there.

The next part will be hard to write as my character is being held hostage. She won’t be kept in a hovel or anything–actually she’ll be kept hostage in rather luxurious surroundings–but it will be hard for me to write where she’s living in constant fear and possibly getting smacked around a bit.

Apparently my actual “historical” character, Mitsuru Toyama, is becoming more of a bad guy than I planned for. He’s slowly taking over my initial antagonist’s role…and may be the true bad guy in the story. My antagonist is still there, but I’m thinking he’s going to become more of a character to pity in the long run as he is pretty much selling his soul to be accepted by Mitsuru.

I should probably do my research and see if this Mitsuru Toyama guy is as bad as I’m making him…but considering he was the leader of an ultranationalist group that employed terrorist tactics and blackmail to gain power, I’m thinking I’m not far off base. Not to mention he was involved in nearly killing the prime minister in 1889… Oh and the fact that the guy was pretty much one of the key players in eventually turning the country towards World War II years down the line with his desire to take over the Asian continent.

So things are going well on the writing front and I’m thinking there’s probably another 15 or 20K before I type “The End.” Then comes the long process of editing…and researching. Oh, they profound joy.

Official Word Count: 46,509

Another Word Count Update from Yours Truly

Ok I’m beginning to run out of creative titles for these posts 😛

Anyway, today seemed easier to get the word count out. I managed to get 2,505 more words written, which surpasses my goal of 2K a day. Today I wrote a scene where Kaiyo finds out about her father’s roots (that he too is also illegitmate, just like she is, which of course doesn’t sit well with her). That was an interesting scene, though I need to punch it up a bit later on.

And the first time since I’ve started NaNo, I wrote a chapter from the antagonist’s POV. It ended up flowing even better than the earlier stuff I’d written today, probably partially due to the fact I involved myself in a 30 minute word war with my sister. Anyway, I’m especially excited about the scene because I’m actually using a real person from history to be a part of it. The man Kaemon, my antagonist, goes to see is Mitsuru Toyama, the leader of the Dark Ocean Society or the Genyosha.

What really  makes me excited about it (I know, I’m a history geek) is that everything flows so well! He was known to have involvement with organized crime groups (like what Kaemon and Kanamoto, Kaiyo’s father, are a part of) and was seen as a very influential figure, as he was very ultranationalist. In fact, he was also implicated in the attempted assassination of the foreign minister Okuma Shigenobu in 1889. So of course I’m using that in my novel, as Kaemon’s gang/organization were the ones responsible for carrying it out (no one knows who actually threw the bomb, so this is where I get to really use my artistic license!).

So yeah…I get really pumped and excited when I find little tidbits of history that fall into place exactly where I need them to be 🙂

Ok that’s it for today!

Official Word Count: 14,074