{"id":201,"date":"2008-11-02T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-02T16:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/?p=201"},"modified":"2017-04-08T20:57:02","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T03:57:02","slug":"national-novel-writing-month-2008-entry-blood-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/02\/national-novel-writing-month-2008-entry-blood-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"National Novel Writing Month 2008 Entry: Blood Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

So … it once again is National Novel Writing Month<\/a>, the tenth edition of the yearly “contest” to write 50,000 words in a new novel in one month. I’m going to tweak that a bit: I’ve been working for the last month or so on Blood Rock<\/a>, the sequel to last year’s Nanowrimo entry, Frost Moon<\/a>. Blood Rock is a return to the world of “skindancer” Dakota Frost, a magical tattoo artist living in an alternate Atlanta, and it’s quite fun to get back to her universe. I’m already 25,000 words into it … so for my Nanowrimo entry, I’m going to push this through to the end, roughly 75,000 words. The intro:<\/p>\n

From the outside, my baby blue Prius looks as normal as can be: a streamlined bubble of a car with an aerodynamic rear-hitch bike rack, humming along on a hybrid gas\/electric engine. <\/span> She couldn\u2019t scream \u2018liberal soccer mom\u2019 louder if she was a Volvo plastered with NPR stickers. <\/span> Peer inside, however, and you see something completely different. <\/p>\n

In the driver\u2019s seat, yours truly: a six-foot two woman with a purple-and-black Mohawk \u2013 short in front, a la<\/em> Grace Jones, but lengthening in back until it becomes a long tail curling around my neck. <\/span> Striking, yes, but what really draws your eyes are my tattoos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting at my temples, a rainbow of tribal daggers curls under the perimeter of my Mohawk, cascading down my neck, rippling out over my arms, and exploding in colorful braids of vines and jewels and butterflies. <\/span> Beautiful, yes, but that\u2019s not why you can\u2019t look away \u2014 its because, out of the corner of your eye, you saw my tattoos move<\/em> \u2014 there, they did it again! <\/span> You swear, that leaf fluttered, that gem sparkled. <\/span> It\u2019s like<\/span> magic!<\/em><\/p>\n

Why, yes, they did move, and yes, they are magic. <\/span> Thanks for noticing. <\/span> All inked at the Rogue Unicorn by yours truly, Dakota Frost, best magical tattoo artist in the Southeast.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beside me sits a five-nothing teenaged girl, listening to a podcast on her iPod. <\/span> Normally she\u2019s dressed in a vest and Capri pants, but today she\u2019s in a shockingly conservative schoolgirl\u2019s outfit that clashes with her orange hair and elaborate tiger-striped tattoos.<\/p>\n

At first what you see is easy to interpret: an outsider trying to fit in, or a rebel suffering a forced fit. <\/span> But then your eyes do another double take: are those \u2026 cat ears<\/em> poking out from beneath her head scarf? Did they<\/span> move<\/em>? <\/span> And is that a<\/span> tail<\/em>? <\/span> My God, honey, could she be one of those \u2026 what are they called \u2026 \u201cwere-cats\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why yes, her ears did move, and yes, she\u2019s a weretiger. <\/span> But didn\u2019t your mom tell you it\u2019s rude to point? <\/span> She has a name: Cinnamon Frost. <\/span> And she\u2019s my adopted daughter.<\/em><\/p>\n

Both the Prius and the weretiger in its passenger seat are brand new to me. <\/span> I met Cinnamon only two months ago, visiting a local werehouse to research a werewolf tattoo, and ended up adopting her after a serial killer damn near killed her trying to get to me. <\/span> I picked up the Prius right around the same time, a little splurge after winning a tattooing contest.<\/p>\n

The adjustment was hard at first: Cinnamon took over my house and tried to take over my life. <\/span> But my Mom had been a schoolteacher, and I\u2019d learned a few tricks. <\/span> In the first few weeks after she moved in I put the hammer down, never smiling, setting clear boundaries for her<\/em> behavior and<\/span> my<\/em> sanity. <\/span> Finally \u2014 when she got past the point of the tears, the \u201cnot-fairs,\u201d and the most egregious misbehaviors \u2014 I eased up, and we once again shared the easy \u201cgee you\u2019re a square but I like you anyway\u201d camaraderie we\u2019d started with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we were peas in a pod; whenever I went out she tagged along, riding shotgun, listening to her audiobooks while I jammed to Rush. <\/span> The two of us look as different as can be, except for the identical stainless steel collars about our necks, but one minute seeing the two of us laughing together and you\u2019d think I\u2019d been her mother for her whole life.<\/p>\n

But today my sunny bundle of fur was feeling quite sullen.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d I said, patting her knee softly. <\/span> \u201cOne<\/em> of them will accept you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So how much do I need to write each day to do this? Some Python<\/a> (apologies to the J<\/a> fans out there, but my J installation was acting cruftly today and I’m just as fast if not faster coding in Python): <\/p>\n

\n
>>> for day in range(1,31): print \"Nov %d:\\t%d\" % (day, 25000 + (50000 \/ 30.0) * day)
...
Nov 1:  26666
Nov 2:  28333
Nov 3:  30000
Nov 4:  31666
Nov 5:  33333
Nov 6:  35000
Nov 7:  36666
Nov 8:  38333
Nov 9:  40000
Nov 10: 41666
Nov 11: 43333
Nov 12: 45000
Nov 13: 46666
Nov 14: 48333
Nov 15: 50000
Nov 16: 51666
Nov 17: 53333
Nov 18: 55000
Nov 19: 56666
Nov 20: 58333
Nov 21: 60000
Nov 22: 61666
Nov 23: 63333
Nov 24: 65000
Nov 25: 66666
Nov 26: 68333
Nov 27: 70000
Nov 28: 71666
Nov 29: 73333
Nov 30: 75000<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I’m currently at 26,744 words, so I have a lot to do today.  For those people who are starting at word 0, here’s a slight variant of the above you can cut and paste to make your own writing progress chart. <\/p>\n
\n
>>> for day in range(1,31): print \"Nov %d:\\t%d\" % (day, (50000 \/ 30.0) * day)
...
Nov 1:  1666
Nov 2:  3333
Nov 3:  5000
Nov 4:  6666
Nov 5:  8333
Nov 6:  10000
Nov 7:  11666
Nov 8:  13333
Nov 9:  15000
Nov 10: 16666
Nov 11: 18333
Nov 12: 20000
Nov 13: 21666
Nov 14: 23333
Nov 15: 25000
Nov 16: 26666
Nov 17: 28333
Nov 18: 30000
Nov 19: 31666
Nov 20: 33333
Nov 21: 35000
Nov 22: 36666
Nov 23: 38333
Nov 24: 40000
Nov 25: 41666
Nov 26: 43333
Nov 27: 45000
Nov 28: 46666
Nov 29: 48333
Nov 30: 50000<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Have fun, everyone!<\/p>\n
-the Centaur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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