User:Tiakall

tiakall

• participant in Nanowrimo since 2004 (winner since 2004)
• Former ML for Atlanta (2009-2012), Gainesville (2007)
• Moderator for Shoutouts, Fanfiction, Appellation Station, Beyond 50k, Life After Nano, Worldbuilding, and Social Media.
• founder of JanNoWriMo and participant 2005-2011
• 27 total Wrimos, 2.82+mil collective wordcount
• rumored to be a ninja, despite her claims
• For those that remember user IDs, mine was 40568

Novelling Escapades

Nano 2004

• Title: Mimicworld (v2)
• Genre: Fantasy/sci-fi
• Wordcount: 50k

Ah, first nano. The memories. I had actually heard about Nano back in 2003, but since November had already started I didn't sign up. Now, I sort of wish I had. This story was the second draft of a fanfic I had started in high school, until I realized that the original characters were way more interesting than the canon cast. This had 20k chapters, only made it a third of the way through the plot, and was filled with references that made me feel like an otaku (for some reason, I don't really like setting my stories in places specific enough to be identified in the real world.) I managed to finish around 7:30PM on November 30 (which would make it my latest win before 2010, which I made at 11:30PM) but thanks to the antiquated wordcounter, had to be manually verified.

Nano 2005

• Title: Empty Rooms
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: 65k

The first novel I actually finished, ever. (Before this, my longest finished work was a prequel story for Mimicworld which ended around 20k.) I came up with the plot in a week, and now that I look back on it, it seems pretty disjointed. I totally had plans to edit this, but my beta reader kind of crushed my dreams. Well, I'm a bit older and wiser now, but I still can't find a decent beta reader.

2006

JanNo 2006

• Title: Death Agents
• Genre: Supernatural/fantasy
• Wordcount: 50k

This was another story that actually was born as a fanfic. I really like this, but I am having major problems fixing the "evil" characer. Actually, I think I should just scrap the plot idea I had and come up with a new conflict, assuming I can fix him.

Nano 2006

• Title: Dear Editor/Writing Themselves
• Genre: Metafiction/fantasy
• Wordcount: 50k

• Title: Beautiful Tragedy
• Genre: Tragic fantasy
• Wordcount: 50k

Oh, the first multi-novel year. It wouldn't be the last.

Dear Editor was a really fun idea involving characters writing the editor to complain about their story (and thus reveal the plot and characterization more indirectly). Good idea...very difficult to execute. I got 13k in, realized I was through my designated plot, and did a "sequel" in a normal style where the characters went looking for their plot. This one is on my website - if you read it, just skip directly to Writing Themselves.

Beautiful Tragedy was backstory for an RPG character that I had been meaning to write for a while. Since I finished the first novel early, I jumped right into this. This was one of the years they did the Lulu offer, and I actually got off my butt and got this one printed. It still sits on my shelf. I'd like to put its sister story Bitterness (from 2009), the two Festivalis stories (Sol Invictus and Feralia, below) and the three Wonderland novels (also below) in print for me since they're all stories that can't be actually published.

2007

JanNo 2007

• Title: Spare Some Change?
• Genre: Magical girl/post-apocalyptic
• Wordcount: 59k

The characters are good and the idea is good. But midway through a story is not the time to discover you're writing a postapocalyptic world. I want to do a second draft (and considered it for Nano 2011) but I need to fix some plotholes.

WHRN 2007

• Title: Sol Invictus
• Genre: Modern fantasy
• Wordcount: 26k

One of my friends did two stories in a fantasy series over the last two Nanos using our mutual characters, so I decided it was my turn despite not actually planning to do a novel during Write Here, Right Now. I'm surprised by how short this is as it feels much longer.

MarOctNo 2007

• Title: Feralia
• Genre: Modern fantasy
• Wordcount: 31k

No, MarOctNo is not a real writing challenge, and demonstrates how long it takes me to write without Nano pushing at my back. And four years later, I still don't have it edited! This was a sequel story to Sol Invictus.

Nano 2007

• Title: Mimicworld (v3)
• Genre: Fantasy/sci-fi
• Wordcount: 138k

This was my second crack at this story, and my first attempt at 200k (it was either that or the end of the story, and I ran out of story first.) I tossed out the 2004 draft and picked up the story almost where I had left off with the first one (determining most of those events to be completely unnecessary.) And this time, I actually finished it. This was a great first draft, but I discovered the narrator character didn't work at all, so I have a lot of replotting to do. When I do the fourth draft, that will probably be the one that has the plot all in place and will just need prose editing from then on.

2008

JanNo 2008

• Title: Divine Right of the Heavens
• Genre: Semi-historical fantasy
• Wordcount: 60k

Samurai vs. aliens. I really should have just stuck with the most basic concept and gone for "so bad it's good" but I got entangled in details and lost the drive to actually finish it. The story is dead, but I might return to the basic concept someday.

NaNo 2008

• Title: 108 Shards
• Genre: Magical girl/supernatural
• Wordcount: 54k

• Title: Bad Prophecy
• Genre: Twisted high fantasy
• Wordcount: 50k

• Title: Ghostwriter
• Genre: Supernatural/lit-ficish
• Wordcount: 58k

Of these three, only Ghostwriter wasn't a total wash. I liked (and still do) the concepts behind the first two, but the implementation just did not work. Ghostwriter is one I'd like to do a second draft on, but I have to figure out some timeline issues (and do some more research on the publication industry.) It's also the one that I wrote a pitch for in Pitchapalooza:

Naomi Worn is sure she's got the next Great American Novel, so why let a little death get in the way? Following her ill-timed death, she meets Baijiao Li, a boy who can see ghosts, and persuades him to help get her novel out to the world. While Baijiao struggles with the dreck of a first draft and an industry he knows nothing about, Naomi learns the ways of her new, semi-transparent lifestyle. But the world of the paranormal is filled with things that could bring an end to Naomi, Baijiao, and both their dreams. When her very existence puts Baijiao's life at risk, Naomi can only turn to her greatest strength for help: the ability to create.

2009

JanNo 2009

• Title: A Means of Connection
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: 63k

• Title: A Means of Foretelling
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: 29k

Yay, quest series! I also started a third one but didn't bother to finish it. This was largely an excuse to play around with a setting I wanted to do a real story on (that I eventually would with Stepping Stone in 2010) and used characters that have appeared in numerous other stories I've done. Foretelling is actually a prequel involving a FMC I use quite a lot....

NaNo 2009

• Title: Billy and Mandy and the Lost Plot Device
• Genre: Comedy fanfiction
• Wordcount: 50k (exactly)

• Title: !! (A Brilliant Move)
• Genre: Alice in Wonderland fantasy
• Wordcount: 62k

• Title: Bitterness
• Genre: Tragic sci-fi
• Wordcount: 52k

• Title: Endless Worlds
• Genre: Video game novelization
• Wordcount: 123k

I decided after my victory in 2008 that 2009 was going to be the year I hit my dream goal of 200k. The plan was for four stories, and thanks to one of them running about twice as long as all the others, I, uh, way overshot that.

Billy and Mandy and the Lost Plot Device is an idea I'd toyed with for a long time, but had never sat down to hash it out. Straight up comedy, I discovered, is actually quite hard. But it came together really well and I keep meaning to put it up on my website. I also got to play around with all the cheap word padding techniques that I'd never had an opportunity to play with. I would love to make this into an audiobook one of these days - I make a decent Irwin.

A Brilliant Move (!! is a chess algebraic notation for those who are curious) was a story spawned off a shared Alice in Wonderland-based world that focused on the White Court. I didn't know at the time that this world was going to expand as it did. I really seem to like stories that focus on Ameko as the FMC.

Bitterness, like Beautiful Tragedy, is the backstory of a character (two, actually) from an RPG I'm in. Like Beautiful Tragedy, it's not the happiest of tales. Due to the nature of the RPG they sort of have to end with death at some point or another, but I suppose I could have been a little nicer. ...Nah.

Endless Worlds is a novelization of Dragon Quest II, with a number of details changed/added. While replaying this game on the Gameboy, I noticed that there really isn't much plot, so I decided to make one up as I went along. The three heroes are named after characters in other works I've done, so details of them got dragged into the story as well.

2010

JanNo 2010

We don't talk about JanNo 2010.

NaNo 2010

• Title: The Rose Piece
• Genre: Alice in Wonderland fantasy
• Wordcount: 68k

• Title: Fairy Teller
• Genre: Fairy tale metafiction?
• Wordcount: 45k

• Title: Art of the Commander
• Genre: Sci-fi drabbles
• Wordcount: 64k

• Title: Stepping Stone
• Genre: Fantasy litfic
• Wordcount: 71k

So in 2010, I decided I wasn't going to go for the bat-poop crazy goal and would settle for a nice, low 100k. Yeah, that didn't work. Thanks, sushi and Hype.

The Rose Piece is the second in the Wonderland novels I've done (A Brilliant Move being the first) and while it takes place a year later, it's not really a direct sequel since this one focuses on the Red Court and their issues. And, uh, there was a lot of implied sex in this one... Like the first, the title is also a chess reference (Rose being a piece in fairy chess).

Fairy Teller I really enjoyed, and I'd like to push it to second-draft status. However, it really needs more meat on its bones and I'm not sure where to attach that meat.

Art of the Commander became my third project of the month when I decided to drop the video game novelization I attempted (another Dragon Quest one, but since this one actually had plot, I kept coming back to doing the same things the actual game did, which bored me to tears.) A sort-of spinoff of the novel in the month I don't talk about, it was just a bunch of scenes I felt like writing focusing on one of the secondary characters. I've since realized that the failnovel would have been much better if I'd made this guy the main character.

Since sushi and her co-conspirators had already observed that I am fail at saying "no" to a wordcount challenge, they managed to rope me into the first #50kweekend. I knew all three projects were wrapping up at that point and there was no way I'd get another 50k out of them. For a story whose plotline was so hastily put together (and subsequently ignored), this may have well been pantsed. I did win the #50kweekend, but realized I was nowhere near the end of the story. At that point, I was around 230k, and decided 250k was a nice round number. If I recall, my exact words were "20k on two weekdays? WHY THE HELL NOT".

FiMo 2010

• Title: Stepping Stone (continued)
• Genre: Fantasy litfic
• Wordcount: 29k

The first time I ever had both an excuse and the inclination to do FiMo! I had a hard time sitting down and making myself finish it though, even though I really wanted to see the ending...it's just not the same without Nano.

2011

JanNo 2011

• Title: The Epic Little Notebook
• Genre: Short story rebellion
• Wordcount: 61k

After the year we don't talk about, I decided to do something different and try writing short stories (which I hear are easier to get published). My goal was to do a short story every day, which is a lot harder than it sounds, given they ranged in size from 400 words to over 7000. There are about eight or so I thought deserved editing/had a shot at publication, but since then I've gotten cold feet about them.... I think it's way easier to write a novel than a short story, actually!

Camp Nano 2011 (July)

• Title: Poisoned Pawn
• Genre: Alice in Wonderland fantasy
• Wordcount: 60k

The third of the Wonderland series, this one focused on the enemy kingdom of Wonderland. The main siblings were pulled from an RPG (the same one as most of the characters in the other two) and I enjoyed getting to develop them further. Whereas the theme with the Red Court fic was "lots of sex", this one was apparently "lots of people getting killed, often brutally". I'm sort of worried what will happen if I write a fourth.... Once again, the title is a chess term.

NaNo 2011

• Title: Nine-Pointed Star
• Genre: Fantasy/sci-fi
• Wordcount: 63k

• Title: Skipping Stones
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: 30k

• Title: Memoirs of an Advice Columnist Space Dragon, OR How I Didn't Let The Unicorns Keep Me Down
• Genre: Comedic science fantasy
• Wordcount: 27k

• Title: The One Who Received Power
• Genre: Historical(?) fantasy
• Wordcount: 70k

Ah, Nano. Things never seem to go as expected....

Nine-Pointed Star is set in the same universe as Beautiful Tragedy and Bitterness (in fact, this is the third generation of the same setting in Beautiful Tragedy). Unlike the other two, though, it won't be as depressing. I got a good start on this one on 50k day, although I failed the actual challenge, but in the end, although I finished it, I'm going to shelve it - the story turned out with way too much of a YA feel for what I was actually aiming for.

Skipping Stones was started during a week 2 crash (over Princess Midas, which I discovered had a great bit character but lame main characters) and consists of a side story and Nexus sequel. Although I got to 30k, I lost my enthusiasm after about a week and have serious doubts as to whether this is the story I want to do as a sequel to Stepping Stone.

Memoirs... that got started because cosmam insisted on a story about space dragons. Originally it was supposed to be a lit fic-ish combination of question/answers in Dear Abby style (something I've always wanted to do) and a memoir, interspersed with bits of her daily life (such as interactions with her neighbors), but then I suddenly acquired a plot and it all fell apart. I definitely like the idea, but I need to figure out what the plot is doing.

The One Who Received Power started a lot like last year's 50kweekend project did: the plot idea came to me four days before the event started, a hasty outline was created and then promptly veered off of, 50k was hit in 3 days and the tia went "It's STILL not done?!". Unlike last year, though, I'm not going to FiMo this one, basically because I have no idea how it's actually ending.

2012

Screnzy 2012

• Title: They Fight Crime
• Genre: TV parody
• Wordcount: 100 pages

My first official Screnzy (and also my last), I promised the guys at ARTC a radio play and actually managed it. I like how the majority turned out, but it's still in revision hell because I don't know how to redo the ending in a way that's less copyright-violation-y.

Camp Nano 2012

• Title: The Five Worlds
• Genre: Science Fantasy
• Wordcount: 80k

After two false starts of 10k each, I switched over to this idea - a sequel to the 2004/2007/2012 novel. It's not finished, but there's going to be a lot reused wholesale for the next draft. :D

Nano 2012

• Title: Mimicworld (v.4)
• Genre: Science fantasy
• Wordcount: 76k

• Title: Pocket Humans
• Genre: Dark-ish Pokemon fanfiction
• Wordcount: 104k

• Title: 50k on Writing 50k
• Genre: Nonfiction how-to
• Wordcount: 26k

This year, instead of pretending I'd take it easy, I decided to go ahead and set a goal that scared me. This year was going to be the year of the rewrite - Mimicworld and another previous novel (Fairy Teller, which I ended up rewriting for a later Nano). The Pokemon fanfiction came by surprise - after failing to raise anything for a public fundraiser novel, I needed something that wouldn't want to be published, and fell back on an idea I'd been kicking around for a few years. At first I thought it wouldn't be long enough, but then great things happened and not long enough turned into "WHEN WILL IT END". As is the tradition for 50k weekend, I came up with an idea just prior to it. Although the fanfic was the only one I finished in November, the next draft of Mimicworld was finished the following January.

2013

Camp (April) 2013

• Title: Digimon Travelers
• Genre: Science fiction/adventure fanfiction
• Wordcount: 48k

• Title: Fairy Teller (v.2)
• Genre: Fairy tale metafiction
• Wordcount: 42k

The first plan was just to work on the Fairy Teller rewrite (which I had drafted an initial re-outline for in December) and do 60k, but then I got bit by the fanfic bug. So I decided to do 60k on the serious fic and 30k on the fanfic. And when I actually got to writing, I ended up with the proportions above. Oops. Well, the serious fic did eventually finish (at 54k) and the fanfic is currently at 60k and still going....

Camp (July) 2013

• Title: Digimon Travelers (continued)
• Genre: Science fiction/adventure fanfiction
• Wordcount: 60k

I had plans to do two novels in Camp July, but I ended up only continuing work on Digimon Travelers.

Nano 2013

• Title: Commander and Crew
• Genre: Space opera
• Wordcount: 100k

One of my hardest years yet, as the wordcount will reflect. But I did at least get a good start on my epic space opera, which is looking more and more like it needs to be split into two books....

2014

Camp (April) 2014

• Title: Mai Gao Fen
• Genre: Asian steampunk fantasy
• Wordcount: 100k

My best count for a camp to get down a plot that very quickly went off the rails. I did manage to finish this one, but it needs a pretty big replot. Sigh. Decided to enter this one into Pitchapalooza, and it actually got on the website!

Iskandar said the world would be in danger if the artifacts weren't collected. Dei wasn't so concerned with that. The fact that he'd gotten one of those artifacts embedded in her body, to her, was more of a pressing problem. But even though it might do who-knows-what, both it and Iskandar left her questions she couldn't answer. Finding those answers was worth some small risk.

Iskandar's quest takes Dei and her sister across the Shoumin Empire they live in and its surrounding territories: the towering pagodas, the complex gearwork, the gowns and suits on the cutting edge of fashion. Dei's genius with clerical magic (and her sister's kleptomania) acquire them more of the artifacts, and new friends across the continent.

But there are things about himself that Iskandar hasn't told her. And there are things his superiors haven't told him about the items he's seeking. And she's not too eager to tell them that their precious artifact is camping in her abdomen.

Knowledge used to be the only thing Dei was interested in. Then she found people she was interested in. Now the knowledge she loves may ruin the people she's come to care about.

Nano 2014

• Title: Coroner's Club
• Genre: YA murder mystery
• Wordcount: 24k

• Title: Lux-and-darc
• Genre: Fantasy fanfiction
• Wordcount: 50k

• Title: Certain Qualia
• Genre: Science fiction
• Wordcount: 80k

• Title: Wandering Cameos
• Genre: Metafiction
• Wordcount: 46k

Yaaaay I didn't suck! Someone didn't do their research on Brazil, so the Brazillian fairytale got swapped out for a metafiction novel I've been wanting to do for a while (but didn't have a good plot for). Certain Qualia was the only one I didn't get done, and I'm not sure about the MC, so there's that. The current plan is to edit Coroner's Club in March and redraft Wandering Cameos (which turned out AMAZINGLY well considering the amount of pantsing that went on - it's REALLY good but REALLY rough) in April, and maybe edit Lux-and-darc for A03/FFnet posting.

2015

Camp (April) 2015

• Title: Wandering Cameos (v.2)
• Genre: Metafiction
• Wordcount: 54k

• Title: Heartless (v.2)
• Genre: Disney-esque YA
• Wordcount: 24k

This is apparently year of the redrafts. Both are in good shape now, though! Ran a tiny bit short on wordcount (despite the added subplots, Cameo turned up only 8k longer than the last draft >_<) so fanfic filled the gap.

Camp (July) 2015

• Title: Stepping Stone (v.2)
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: 75k

• Title: Pokemorphs
• Genre: Fanfiction
• Wordcount: 15k

I have never won a July camp when it's been the second session... UNTIL NOW. Original goal was 90k, and Stepping Stone (I have got to get a better title) came in lower (which is a good thing, the original draft was 96k) so I pulled out last year's July project and started drafting it all over again. Let's see if we can finish it this time!

September/October WriMo 2015

• Title: Pokemorphs
• Genre: Fanfiction
• Wordcount: 60k

This thing NEEDS TO BE DONE. And it's still not done - 3.5 chapters left. >_< To December and beyond!

Nano 2015

• Title: Patrollers
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: ???

• Title: Patrolmaster
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: ???

• Title: Rejects
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: ???

• Title: Bloodmage
• Genre: Fantasy
• Wordcount: ???

• Title: All the Stars in the Sky Are Universes
• Genre: Fanfiction
• Wordcount: ???

Here is the plan for this year. 300k. 50kday. LET'S DO THIS.