Escaping the Dreamscape NanoWrimo Victory! (update)

      As of a few minutes ago, I just validated my word count for this April's Camp NanoWrimo session, winning with just over 100 thousand words. This month I worked on two novels in particular, "The Beginning of the End", which had a solid 9 thousand words written for it, and a new novel titled "Escape from Dreamscape", which has the other 91 thousand words. As you can tell, I found this novel particularly interesting and fun to write, so I expect I will be continuing it in the future. 

      Honestly, this very well might have been the hardest month of NanoWrimo I have ever done, despite having completed this same word count of 100 thousand twice already, once a year ago, and the second time last July. Of course, for as busy as I might have been last year, (and not this summer) I was far busier with other things this April. It was exam period once more, except this year I had a lot more work to do for class. Beyond just school work, I also had a new relationship that started and that took a lot of my time, as can be expected. I had friends that were leaving the school for good that I had to spend time with and say goodbye to, and I still had to somewhat upkeep my own apartment and other affairs. Worst of all, I was battling some of the worst procrastination habits I have ever had. 

     In fact, when I handed in my last paper on the 25th of April (a 17 page paper on the Necessity of the Fall in William Blake's poetry), I was 20 thousand words behind. Exhaustion kept me from writing on the 26th, and I only got 6k done on the 27th, and that only put me back to being 20k behind. At this point, I was at 70k words written with three days left to write. So, I made estimations as to how much I could write in a day and organized entire days to write in. On the 28th, I wrote at 1667 words per hour for 8 hours, giving me a solid 13 thousand words done. The 29th, I did 6 hours at the same pace and gave myself another 10 thousand words. And just today, I did 4 hours to get the final 6.6k. I will link the stats for the month below. 

     "Escape from Dreamscape", the novel I spent most of the month working on, is the first NanoNovel of mine (besides "The Beginning of the End" or its predecessor) that is not love-based. It's about Blake Tessier's journey through his own subconscious slowly remembering what happened to him, what his life was like, and waking up from his slumber. In order to do so, though, he has to pass through separate parts of his subconscious and retake control of the Dreamscape part by part. The first part is the one I have been working on and is a fantasy world in which he finds himself uncovering a conspiracy in the royal court and having to fight off the greatest enemies that the kingdom has ever faced. That part alone still has a lot to go, so I suspect the novel will become a series as a result. 

    Anyways, with all that being said, I think I am going to go lie down and try to re-enter reality slowly. All of this writing has exhausted me, although I do have plenty of poems that I feel I might post this May. Take care, and, until next time,

-Zero

Campnanowrimo.org
Stats for this month's challenge: http://campnanowrimo.org/campers/kunazero/stats

Waiting for a Diagnosis (poem)

Their diagnosis

is not a death sentence.

I do not see

the silky fabrics of death

draped around your head,

nor their pale blues and blacks.

I can still see

light beaming from you.

It rejects defeat

and concealment.

But you can't see

your face in the mirror:

your eyes are too dark.

Everything frightens you.

You will come to see,

one day down the beaten road,

how petty the sands of anxiety are

compared to your torrential power.

Their diagnosis

is not your death sentence.

-Zero

Camp Nanowrimo April 2015 (update)

     This April I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). As I did last year, I'm writing 100,000 words split across a few novels. This year I have it less structured than last year, as I did not spend very much time at all planning it out. I simply placed the rewrites I have been working on, as well as the unfinished novels of mine, on a scrivener file and organized it so that each "Day" section is equal to 1667 words, which is half my daily word count.

     As it is already part of the way through April, I have already started this challenge. Due to being fairly busy right around the beginning of April, I immediately fell behind. This month, I think, is the first time that real life has held me back from being on time at all so far. I have been working on it all morning and am making good progress in catching up. Luckily for me, exam period has just begun, leaving me with plenty of free time to work on the novels I chose for this challenge. However, not all of my novels were started before the month started.

     This Nanowrimo, I'm starting a new novel titled "Escape from Dreamscape". For me, it's a bit of a last minute novel idea, as I had not been planning or focused on the coming Nanowrimo much at all in March. However, thus far, this novel, along with "The Beginning of the End" and "Kuna Zero: A Wanderer's Tale" rewrites, has been my main work of the month.

     As the title suggests, the novel is about Blake Tessier's escape from the land of Dreamscape, which is the land one enters when they are dreaming. The whole of the novel is intended to be his journey through his subconscious, gradually regaining his memory of his real world life, and gradually retaking control of his mind. I think I will have it split into four parts, or worlds that he has to go into and conquer in a way. As it stands right now, Blake and Damia (his guide towards his own awakening) are in a fantasy land full of magic and strange beings. They're just now learning how to engage with the world on its own terms and fight like heroes of a fantasy world would.

     Anyways, I should be getting back to training them for the eventual battle they will have to fight in order to retake this part of Blake's imagination once more. Take care, and until next time,

-Zero

Campnanowrimo.org