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[JBCrowson]

NaNoWriMo Vlog Day 11: Who Should I Kill Today?

TLDW:

Daily Word Count: 2,486
Total Word Count: 23,723

Today I am playing the extremely fun and wholesome game of, "Which One of my Beloved Characters am I Going to Brutally and Mercilessly Kill Off?" Originally, I had a character in mind that I was planning on killing off at the end of book one, but the more I think about it, the more I think this character has a lot more story to tell and a lot of potential to grow and develop, so I don't want to kill them off just yet.

But, for plot reasons, and to establish a grimdark tone, I do want to kill off one of my main characters by the end of the novel... So that means carefully considering all of my characters and deciding which one to go Old Yeller on. It's really hard! I'm considering coming up with a brand new character just so that I have somebody to kill off.

Never love your characters too much. I would counsel against adding a character just to kill them. If you can't decide who to kill off now, why not make a situation where several could have died, and wait until book two to reveal who survives and who doesn't.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Never love your characters too much.

Alternatively, become a psycopath and enjoy killing the characters you love...

My solution to your problem is to simply leave the decision to when I need to make it. I can't capture all small nuances in my outline, so there comes a point where I know roughly what will happen (like an important character dying), but I don't know the details (like which character). And that's fine. It can be a surprise for you just as much as for your readers. You'll see which character makes the most sense to kill off when you get there.

 

[Dankolisic]

1. Title: Erah - The secret of Ridgepeak
2. Genre: Dark middle fantasy
3. Blurb: Aeliz is a young clan descendant who finds a mysterious and terrifying truth about his land and history, from his bloodline to the core of their faith. After attending the first year of the Path, his life, his mindset and his mental strength are put to the test. Will his adventure shape a new world or will he fall and be forgotten like most of his ancestors?
4. Status: 105k words, 20 chapters, 345 pages, Times New Roman 12
5. Sharing: Except for some chapters of brief synopsis, will not be available till finished, expanded, shortened, edited and then published. Also, written in Croatian, so even if published, it could still take a while for translation.

 

[Daan Doornbos]

But, for plot reasons, and to establish a grimdark tone, I do want to kill off one of my main characters by the end of the novel... So that means carefully considering all of my characters and deciding which one to go Old Yeller on. It's really hard! I'm considering coming up with a brand new character just so that I have somebody to kill off.

Never love your characters too much. I would counsel against adding a character just to kill them. If you can't decide who to kill off now, why not make a situation where several could have died, and wait until book two to reveal who survives and who doesn't.

I agree with JB.

Alternatively, you could do a 'John Snow' (gets killed, then gets resurrected later on), but don't know if that fits with the setting.

 

[tenebrae]

Week 1 (Nov. 1st - 2nd, lol): 2877

Week Two:
Nov. 3rd - 9th: I'm sitting at 10,084

Had some personal things arise this week, and homeschool has been rough. (9th grader is just finishing up Algebra and it's been... a little dicey. Ha. So, all in all, not a bad week.)

This week may be even less, considering I'm going to be trying to post *every* day on my social medias/blog. Say a prayer for me

 

[Avery Moore]

Never love your characters too much. I would counsel against adding a character just to kill them. If you can't decide who to kill off now, why not make a situation where several could have died, and wait until book two to reveal who survives and who doesn't.

That's an interesting idea, but I already have a pretty solid idea on where I want my book to end, and that would require knowing who was dead. Would make for an awesome cliffhanger though.

Alternatively, become a psycopath and enjoy killing the characters you love...

I like this idea more!

You'll see which character makes the most sense to kill off when you get there.

Yeah, that's probably a good plan. Keep writing and decide when I get there.

Alternatively, you could do a 'John Snow' (gets killed, then gets resurrected later on), but don't know if that fits with the setting

Nah, this character very much stays dead. Basically, it establishes the main antagonist of the series. A creature called "the leech" that routinely kills off members of this particular guild, draining them of everything except skin and bone. The protagonist's goal through most of the story is to kill the leech, but nobody can figure out who/what it is. Anybody who sees it ends up dead.

 

[Avery Moore]

NaNoWriMo Vlog Day 12

TLDW:

Daily Word Count: 118

I'm dying of man flu. Everybody press F to pay respects.

 

[dollyt8]

NaNoWriMo Vlog Day 12

TLDW:

Daily Word Count: 118

I'm dying of man flu. Everybody press F to pay respects.

Sorry to hear that! Get some rest! I just found out that my family has Covid, which means I'm probably going to be sick soon since I've been spending a bunch of time with them I know it's that season, but life seriously stinks sometimes.

 

[Avery Moore]

Oh wow, major congratulations! I would be happy to get a mention. I'm hoping to get to the halfway mark tonight! Fingers crossed.

So I'm making my next Congratulations video on the 15th if you'd like to be in that one. Would just need the most recent update on your word count.

If anybody else would like to be in the video, I'd be happy to include you too.

 

[pmmg]

I've been waylaid this week, and seems like I will be tonight as well. Ppl visiting ate up my time.

 

[dollyt8]

So I'm making my next Congratulations video on the 15th if you'd like to be in that one. Would just need the most recent update on your word count.

If anybody else would like to be in the video, I'd be happy to include you too.

Cool, I'd love that! Currently at 46,713 words. I'm hoping to be at 50,000 by the end of the week, but I've only managed 300 words today because I've been so sick. Yep, I woke up fully sick with Covid. Anyone else get horrific migraines from Covid? Just me?

Also I've hit another issue. I need to do a believable prison escape for not one but two of the characters simultaneously from different prisons, and I feel like this is something I should have planned during Preptober because prison escapes are really challenging for me to write (I've tried before and they sucked.) The trouble for me is figuring out a way to have my characters escape without making the bad guys/prison guards look completely incompetent in the process. Anyone have any advice or some examples I could read that don't involve making a tunnel over the course of many months and might be helpful?

Some additional context: Prison escape #1 is being enacted by a bunch of powerless people who are trying to fight against folks with magical powers. Magical power folks can control various aspects of the volcano, and the powerless folks are imprisoned within part of that volcano. One thought I had is that they could use existing tunnels that have been dug by various creatures (a big part of the story is that emberlizards are a creature that make tunnels throughout the volcano), but I'm not sure if that's way too convenient.

Prison escape #2 is being enacted by two extremely smart and capable assassins rescuing their friend; however, their friend is powerless and extremely ill at the moment, which kind of complicates things. They do have a way to "revitalize" their friend, but they're going to have trouble getting past all the very capable mercenaries at this very secure stronghold. Tools at hand include ice magic and a shadow cloak that allows teleportation but only for one person.

I don't know how useful any of that info is or if anyone can help, but I'd be extremely grateful for any advice at all.

 

[pmmg]

Two prison escapes from two different location at the same time, and not suspend credulity? uhhhhh....

I mean, just one would still be unlikely. Your gonna run the risk that your prisons are not all that prisony.

In scenario 1, if a giant lizard thing broke in and attacked, that might cause a lot of confusion and make passages fro people to take advantage of. How tough are they to kill?

in scenario 2, extremely skilled seems like enough to make it plausible.

 

[dollyt8]

Two prison escapes from two different location at the same time, and not suspend credulity? uhhhhh....

I mean, just one would still be unlikely. Your gonna run the risk that your prisons are not all that prisony.

Very true! I think the second one could actually be eliminated with the way the plot is going, but the first one is kind of important. It does fail, actually, but it's not supposed to fail until right towards the end. So maybe that helps with the fact that two prison escapes would require you to suspend credulity.

In scenario 1, if a giant lizard thing broke in and attacked, that might cause a lot of confusion and make passages fro people to take advantage of. How tough are they to kill?

Good thought! Not sure how they would attract a lizard to make that happen, though. I'll have to think about that. They're very tough to kill.

in scenario 2, extremely skilled seems like enough to make it plausible.

Yeah, the main issue is that although they are extremely skilled they're also going up against elites.

Thanks for your input!

 

[dollyt8]

Two prison escapes from two different location at the same time, and not suspend credulity? uhhhhh....

I mean, just one would still be unlikely. Your gonna run the risk that your prisons are not all that prisony.

In scenario 1, if a giant lizard thing broke in and attacked, that might cause a lot of confusion and make passages fro people to take advantage of. How tough are they to kill?

in scenario 2, extremely skilled seems like enough to make it plausible.

In fact, I think I've decided I'm going to significantly change the scenario 2 escape. You're absolutely right; I think having both of these escapes occur basically around the same time in the book just doesn't work. Instead I think I'll have him released but because of a serious disagreement among his captors he ends up having to fight anyway right after his release, which will let me accomplish the main purpose of the original scene I planned (a really cool fight scene with some innovative methods of self-defense and important character moments) without stretching credulity quite so much. So again, thanks for your input!

 

[Avery Moore]

Cool, I'd love that! Currently at 46,713 words.

That is absolutely amazing! Can't believe you've almost done the full 50K in only two weeks. That is absolutely nuts!
So sorry to hear you got Covid though. I'm still feeling pretty rubbish too so we can be sickly writing buddies! Forcing ourselves to sit upright long enough to turn our computers on, drowsily prodding at the keyboard in a half asleep stupor and inevitably giving up after half an hour of unproductive nonsense and then crawling back to bed.

Also I've hit another issue. I need to do a believable prison escape for not one but two of the characters simultaneously from different prisons, and I feel like this is something I should have planned during Preptober because prison escapes are really challenging for me to write (I've tried before and they sucked.)

Hmm... Interesting dilemma... Potential escape methods depend on a lot of things.
1. Are there other people on the outside who are trying to break them out?
2. Is there a different key for each cell or one key for all the cells?
3. How adept are the prisoners at things such as sword fighting/lock picking?
4. Could they have possibly snuck anything into the cell with them?
5. Do either of them know any kind of magic that could be useful?
6. Would it be possible to cause some kind of prison riot?
7. If a prisoner pulled the old slap a slice of bread against the guard's key to get a mold trick, would they have access to anything they could use to make a copy?

(a big part of the story is that emberlizards are a creature that make tunnels throughout the volcano), but I'm not sure if that's way too convenient.

I don't think it would be too convenient if one of the prisoners uses some kind of ingenious plan in order to lure the emberlizards to them... For instance, while all the other prisoners are trying to come up with a plan to escape, one prisoner keeps making these unbearably annoying noises that are driving the other prisoners crazy... But in the end it turns out that those noises were actually the prisoner cleverly mimicking the mating call of the emberlizards, who all tunnel towards the prisoners in search of a mate.

Tools at hand include ice magic and a shadow cloak that allows teleportation but only for one person.

My thinking is that the cloak would be extremely useful for whoever is using it, but the other assassin would be a hinderance in that scenario. So I'd suggest one assassin uses the ice magic to cause a massive distraction to lure out as many of the mercenaries as possible (or just set something on fire. That usually works) while the other assassin uses the shadow cloak to get to their friend.

 

[Avery Moore]

NaNoWriMo Vlog Day 14: Life Happens. Back to Writing!

Still sick but feeling a lot better than yesterday and actually managed to get some writing done.
Daily Word Count: 1,038
Total Word Count: 24,879

So close to that 25K! Presuming I don't keel over and die, I am pretty much guaranteed to get it tomorrow! Yippie! ^_^

 

[dollyt8]

That is absolutely amazing! Can't believe you've almost done the full 50K in only two weeks. That is absolutely nuts!
So sorry to hear you got Covid though. I'm still feeling pretty rubbish too so we can be sickly writing buddies! Forcing ourselves to sit upright long enough to turn our computers on, drowsily prodding at the keyboard in a half asleep stupor and inevitably giving up after half an hour of unproductive nonsense and then crawling back to bed.

Lol yep, that sounds about right.

Hmm... Interesting dilemma... Potential escape methods depend on a lot of things.
1. Are there other people on the outside who are trying to break them out?
2. Is there a different key for each cell or one key for all the cells?
3. How adept are the prisoners at things such as sword fighting/lock picking?
4. Could they have possibly snuck anything into the cell with them?
5. Do either of them know any kind of magic that could be useful?
6. Would it be possible to cause some kind of prison riot?
7. If a prisoner pulled the old slap a slice of bread against the guard's key to get a mold trick, would they have access to anything they could use to make a copy?

1. Could be. There's an emberforge (someone who can control molten rock and has a connection to lava) who feels very guilty for one of them being in the prison and might help with an escape.
2. The main subject of the escape shares a cell with 10 other people, but the thing is, most of them aren't trying to escape with him. However, the cells are unlocked during the day as it's basically a labor camp. Different keys for different cells though.
3. The main subject of the escape has limited ability to fight barehanded; no swordfighting capabilities or lock picking. However, one of the other prisoners who is helping him has lock picking capabilities and is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter.
4. Nope
5. Nope
6. Possibly. The main character killed a sort of "gang leader" in the prison, and that guy's friends would be happy to start a fight at any moment.
7. Didn't know this was a thing! But I don't think they'd have a way to make a copy. They do have skilled scribes who might be able to forge a permission order of some kind though; I hadn't thought about that before. This could at least get them a bit closer to the surface so they're all in the same place when the escape starts.

I don't think it would be too convenient if one of the prisoners uses some kind of ingenious plan in order to lure the emberlizards to them... For instance, while all the other prisoners are trying to come up with a plan to escape, one prisoner keeps making these unbearably annoying noises that are driving the other prisoners crazy... But in the end it turns out that those noises were actually the prisoner cleverly mimicking the mating call of the emberlizards, who all tunnel towards the prisoners in search of a mate.

Lol that's one idea! Another thought is that the emberforge might be able to drive the lizards towards them. Because magic in the story is about connecting to the volcano, not just controlling it, the emberforge can sense and change the flow of lava, so she could probably use those abilities to get the lizards in the right place.

My thinking is that the cloak would be extremely useful for whoever is using it, but the other assassin would be a hinderance in that scenario. So I'd suggest one assassin uses the ice magic to cause a massive distraction to lure out as many of the mercenaries as possible (or just set something on fire. That usually works) while the other assassin uses the shadow cloak to get to their friend.

While I've decided to change it to an out-and-out battle instead of a prison escape perse, I could still see using these tactics to gain an advantage in the fight (and get the main character out of it since he's still weak), so thanks for the suggestions!

 

[dollyt8]

NaNoWriMo Vlog Day 14: Life Happens. Back to Writing!

Still sick but feeling a lot better than yesterday and actually managed to get some writing done.
Daily Word Count: 1,038
Total Word Count: 24,879

So close to that 25K! Presuming I don't keel over and die, I am pretty much guaranteed to get it tomorrow! Yippie! ^_^

Wow, awesome! You've got this!