{"id":4351,"date":"2019-04-29T16:42:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T23:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/?p=4351"},"modified":"2019-04-29T16:42:40","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T23:42:40","slug":"viiictory-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/29\/viiictory-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Viiictory #23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Wow, I just won {Nanowrimo|Camp Nanowrimo} for the twenty-third time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For readers of this blog who have missed, like, 75% of my posts over the years, National Novel Writing Month<\/a> is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a new novel in the month of November, and Camp Nanowrimo<\/a> is its sister challenge in April and July. I adapt this to write 50,000 words on top of whatever I’m currently working on, and have been doing it since 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is my 25th Nano or Nano-like attempt, and my 23rd victory. (Interestingly, my two failures were times that I tried Nano on my own, without the motivation of the Nano “Validate your Project” button).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This month, because of friggin’ March, man<\/a>, I started out pretty far behind, compounded by my robot work<\/a> and the fact that I was working on JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE MACHINERY OF THE APOCALYPSE. This is less a novel than a series of loosely connected novellas, each slightly different in setting and tone, and has been my most research-heavy project to date. But, nevertheless, I got back on track and climbed the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interestingly, a couple of the days in there were my most productive writing days ever – 7,000 and 8,000 word days, right up with the 9,014 word day that I did once on the last day of Nano. I didn’t want to do that again – I wanted to take today off – so I powered through 8000 words on Saturday, finished with 2,600 words on Sunday, and leisurely wrote 2,000 words today unpacking a few of the ideas I had that were still fresh.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And now, the traditional excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo,\u201d General Weiss said, sitting down. \u201cYou desire to become one of my acolytes?\u201d
<\/p>

Jeremiah glanced over at him, trying to contain her glare. \u201cI desire to learn, sir.\u201d<\/p>


\u201cWhat I have to teach is not easy to learn,\u201d Weiss said, patting her leg. \u201cIt requires long-term commitment, supreme dedication, self-sacrifice\u2014\u201d<\/p>


\u201cAre \u2026\u201d Jeremiah felt her brow furrow, tried to control it. \u201cAre you aware of\u2014\u201d<\/p>


\u201cThe nature of your injuries?\u201d Weiss said. \u201cYes, I heard you were reckless.\u201d<\/p>


\u201cNo<\/em>, sir,\u201d Jeremiah said. She hit the switch to raise her bed until she could look the man more closely in the eye. \u201cI have been injured, repeatedly, because I have been sent into the line of fire without adequate support, repeatedly, and I did my duty, repeatedly.\u201d<\/p>


\u201cThe story goes is that you tried to leap across a city street, four stories up.\u201d<\/p>


\u201cNo, sir,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cA monster that had killed dozens was about to make its escape, and I leapt for it<\/em>, sir, dragging it down to the street, possibly saving hundreds more lives\u2014well, that\u2019s debatable, but I definitively stopped it, at least that is not in dispute\u2014\u201d<\/p>


\u201cNo, no, you\u2019re quite right about the outcome of the operation.\u201d Weiss rubbed his hands together. \u201cAnd whether I think you\u2019re reckless in the large, I would never dispute the actions of a operative in the clinch. But do you know why the enemy exposed itself to you?\u201d<\/p>


\u201cI \u2026\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t. We caught it, and tracked it\u2014\u201d<\/p>


\u201cYes, yes, and let\u2019s not dispute that either,\u201d Weiss said, leaning forward. \u201cA hypothetical. Imagine you had two operations running, physically separated, one large and important, one \u2026 less so. To protect them, you can run recon missions looking for the enemy, but the enemy might find them. You can run ten recces in the operation period. Where do you put them?\u201d<\/p>


\u201cEr, well,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cProportionally on the more important\u2014\u201d<\/p>


\u201cNo,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cYou run five<\/em>. All around the least important one. Why?\u201d<\/p>


\u201cEr \u2026\u201d What clues had he given? \u201cThe larger force, is well, larger. It can defend itself.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes. And?\u201d<\/p>

Jeremiah\u2019s eyes narrowed. \u201cYou want<\/em> the recces caught?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo, not really, but I do, yes.\u201d
<\/p>

\u201cBut the smaller force, exposed\u2014\u201d
<\/p>

\u201cAnd overwhelmed,\u201d Weiss said, \u201cby a mass mobilization of the enemy. Away from my primary force. Now the other five recces probe ahead of the main op, clearing the way while the decoy fights for its life. If done properly\u2014if the decoy force is given both a true objective and the best chance of success, their fight for their lives will only attract more enemy forces. If they win, you have a true two-front victory. If they fail, you don\u2019t even need to send reinforcements\u2014the moment the main force engages the enemy, the enemy will naturally pull back.\u201d<\/p>

Jeremiah\u2019s brow furrowed.
<\/p>

\u201cYes, yes, there are many specifics which would make this kind of plan succeed or fail,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cTo truly instruct you, we\u2019d need to work through many more patterns, then make them concrete for the kind of forces you will end up commanding\u2014\u201d
<\/p>

\u201cAll of them,\u201d Jeremiah said.<\/p>

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m going to command all of them,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cMy aim is to be Minister of War.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOho,\u201d the general said. \u201cThen we have a lot of work to do. Tell me why the thing exposed itself to you. Quick, now.\u201d<\/p>

“They’re\u2014” Jeremiah’s mouth fell open. “The things are wearing us down.”
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sounds like they have a lot of problems on that boat. The first of the stories in THE MACHINERY OF THE APOCALYPSE is already out: A Choir of Demons<\/a>, at Aurora Wolf. For the rest … well, you’ll have to wait a bit. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-the Centaur
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, I just won {Nanowrimo|Camp Nanowrimo} for the twenty-third time! For readers of this blog who have missed, like, 75% of my posts over the years, National Novel Writing Month…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,197,199,202],"tags":[67,179,91],"class_list":["post-4351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenges","category-fiction","category-steampunk","category-writing","tag-gaslights-and-rayguns","tag-jeremiah-willstone","tag-nanowrimo","ratio-2-1","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4357,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions\/4357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}