Introducing the story that made me an author: Hell Warriors

Hey guys and gals, Belart here.  Corny intros aside, I'm here to tell you about something near and dear to my heart and that is my first still unreleased novel, Hell Warriors: A Hero in the Flames.




Hell Warriors has been an important project of mine since 2008. I've been drawing characters for it since like 1998. I finished my first draft for it in some old ratty school notebooks back in 2008 when I lived alone and did nothing but write, work, draw, and play videogames. Hell Warriors has always been a story about badass demon hunters. In that first story, we are introduced to 3 of the youngest core members: BRAK, Devilin, and Creepy. BRAK is the only human member of the group and was raised by the group's leader, Sergio. Before meeting Sergio, BRAK grew up alone in Detroit, living under different aliases that lived different lives connected only by violence. BRAK's new name is currently an acronym of all of his previous aliases.

BRAK is currently raising Devilin, the self proclaimed son of the devil whose appearance and powers back up his claims. They have a mean back and forth relationship, with Devilin adopting many of BRAK's worst habits, though at the end of the day they have a brotherly bond. BRAK is also looking after a young ghost boy named Creepy, whose family was brutally murdered in front of his own eyes. Together the three attempt to reign in demonic crime in Detroit, while the rest of their allies are overseas tackling another problem.

I've decided to upload my third or so draft of the book to Wattpad so that others can read it before I drastically alter the story for official release. I am satisfied with this story as it is and enjoy how it reflects much of who I was back then nearly ten years ago. But I don't think it's viable as a consumer product. I do think it's a very fun story that has a strong narrative and some interesting themes and I do think a lot of people will enjoy it as is. Hell, nearly a thousand people have already begun to enjoy it on Wattpad already. So please check it out and let me know what you think of it. I'm looking forward to updating the story in the near future.

Hell Warriors 2010

A Dragon Ball Fanboy vs Akira Toriyama and Toei: Vegeta Fans, Be Afraid

Unsubtle Metaphor!!!

So after some thinking in the bathroom (the best place to think), it's become apparent to me that Vegeta has inherited Piccolo's former role in Dragon Ball Super, right down to his benevolent relationship with Goku.  Piccolo has inherited Tien's former role, and Tien...well Tien's still Tien. 

Okay, now stay with me on this one.  Before, Vegeta was always the loose cannon, the one who wanted to kill Goku when he got a chance.  He only kept Goku around as motivation to get stronger.  "I won't let you kill that clown cuz I reserve that right for myself" was always something he said to villains who would try to get the better of Goku.  Now he and Goku are best friends in Dragon Ball Super and Vegeta has softened up considerably even compared to the Buu saga.

Hmm...I wonder who used to always threaten to kill Goku once they were done beating the bad guy to then being his mellowed out close friend?  Well, you can say that about a lot of Goku's friends but Piccolo was in that role not too long ago and look what happened to him.  Vegeta has mellowed out a lot in Dragon Ball Super, just like Piccolo before him, and now that he's been defanged just like the Namek was, I fear that he is destined to follow the same route as Piccolo.  Just look at the facts.

Just before his ultimate combat irrelevance, Piccolo had three massive upgrades in power.  The first was on Namek when he fused with Nail where he briefly became the strongest fighter, the second was after his insane training with Goku that boosted his powers to near Super Saiyan levels apparently, and the third came when he fused with Kami and briefly became the strongest warrior in the show, even stronger than Goku.  That was twice in the show that he surpassed Goku.  Now let's look at Vegeta's trajectory of power.  He had apparently surpassed Goku in power during his fight with Beerus.  Once Beerus slaps Bulma, Vegeta forces him to use 10% of his power or something like that.  Visibly he seemed to give the God of Destruction more trouble than Super Saiyan 3 Goku.

That's a big jump in power from the Buu saga.  Then once Goku attains the god form from the ritual, Vegeta does his own personal training with Whis and once again seems to surpass Goku during his training.  I'm not sure how his power stacks up to Goku now that they've been training together, but so far that's two major power boosts he got over Goku, not counting what he got in the Buu and Cell sagas.  So that follows what Piccolo did, but it doesn't prove anything really, not yet anyway.

Now this is what I fear, for you Vegeta fans.  Taking into account Vegeta's drastic personality change, and his similar powerups over Goku, compared to Piccolo.  I feel that he will soon be replaced by a character that will inhabit the role that he once did.  It will be a character who is bloodthirsty but somewhat reformed like he used to be.  It will be someone who's a fan favorite antihero, like he used to be.  Someone who will be Goku's new rival.  Yes, Vegeta isn't a proper rival for Goku anymore.  Once you train with Goku, that's it, he's done with you as a rival.  It happened with Piccolo.  They lost that element of danger in their relationship, just like Vegeta has now lost.  I mean look at this:

They're sitting on a couch together.  Remember whose character decay came an arc after hanging out at Goku's house and partnering up with him for a driving test?  If you said Piccolo, you'd be right.  Unfortunately, this kills a lot of Vegeta's appeal with many of his fans, I think.  Now I think many of his fans will gravitate towards the new badass on the block.  My prediction is Hit or Frost.  One of them will join the Z-Senshi and Vegeta will be tossed aside while Goku gets new forms and fights stronger baddies.  The current Vegeta has a new sort of appeal with fans, but those other fans who prefer the bloodthristy badass who waxes poetic about battle and killing will flock to the new guy who gives them that.  That's it, unless Vegeta somehow returns to his roots and sharpens his fangs again.  As a Piccolo fan, I'm always hopeful that he'll sharpen his again one day, but my hope has been constantly dying out since the Buu saga.  Now it looks like it'll die completely once he's thoroughly trounced by Frost in the tournament.  For you Vegeta fans, I hope it never reaches that point.

The one thing that can save Vegeta

What can save Vegeta is the fact that he has an easy reason in the story for himself to stay close to Goku's level.  He's a saiyan, so he can easily remain at least one step behind Goku like he's been shown to be so far.  Don't count on that to save him in the end though.  Remember how irrelevant he was in GT until the very end when he used a plot device to gain relevance again.  Sure, when possessed by the current villain he gained a powerup to compete with Goku, but right after he was irrelevant again on his own.  Also look at Gohan.  Being the strongest unfused Saiyan at the end of Dragon Ball Z didn't stop him from being an utter joke in Super did it?  Oh, I'm so afraid for Vegeta and his fans that it's not even funny.  Unless he gets some of his "edge" back, I'm just sure he'll be relegated at best to "Goku's backup".  At worst, he'll be the new Tien along with Piccolo and old Tien.  Let's hope it never comes to that.

As always, thanks for the browse my glorious readers!

Dragon Ball Super Insults Your Intelligence, Akira Toriyama Lost It, and Toei Blows: Part 1: Battle of Gods

I think Toriyama and Toei should call everything from the two new movies along with the anime and manga Plot Device Z: Battle of Deus Ex Machina, Plot Device Z: Resurrection of Inconsistency, and Plot Device Super respectively.  With Dragon Ball Super, it now feels that Toei and Toriyama are barely even attempting to create anything remotely coherent anymore.  We have barebones art and animation quality for the anime, a manga that moves too fast, and three different sources of canon for the show.  I'm only considering canon important in this regard because it affects the future of the show and things are now diverse enough (Tagoma, god healing, Ginyu's return) that its inclusion in one canon should affects future storylines in other canons (such as Goku not being able to heal after getting shot in FnF).  That's all just to say that all of this new Dragon Ball content is definitely disjointed and feels poorly planned and executed.

Now Let's Recap starting from Battle of Gods in 2013.

BoG was filled with some awesome ideas, great comedy, and some pretty awesome new characters in Beerus and Whis.  I loved the movie, but that didn't stop me from groaning at the inconsistencies I saw and wishing for just a little more from the movie.  As far as inconsistencies go, it had the least offenses compared to all the new content since "Yo, Son Goku and Friends Return!"  Regardless it did have some pretty big inconsistencies.  There were also a lot of missed opportunities that could've made the experience so much better.

Inconsistency 1: Kaiosama's planet is back without any mention of how it returned.  There was enough padded time in the movie to explain this.  They could've even handwaved it by saying that King Kai remembered that he could restore himself (stupid, I know), but to not address it at all was problematic.

Inconsistency 2: Bulma's Age being 38.  Almost forgivable, as women lie about their age all the time, but the movie never really treated it as a joke or had another character call BS.  Most of us fans know that Bulma is supposed to be much older at this point in the series.  By the time of the Buu Saga, she is definitely pushing 40 already at the bare minimum.  If you consider the timeline she should be in her mid forties.

Inconsistency 3: Vegeta's SSJ2 beyond SSJ3 rage boost.  Nothing ever said that this wasn't possible so it's more of a contrivance than an inconsistency, still it's kinda lame considering how it wasn't even explained properly.  I like what it did for Vegeta's character, but it just breaks much of what we've learned about the show and with no real explanation.  I mean, this sort of thing is what makes these new additions to the series horrid to me.  If you're going to break the show, as in things we know are already established, such as SSJ3 being leaps and bounds ahead of SSJ2 then for the sake of the fans, at least do it with a proper explanation instead of a wink and a nod and we barely get that really.  Casual show breaking is the theme for 2015 Dragon Ball it seems.  Oh and where was a boost of this nature when Trunks from the future died?  Vegeta seemed more angry back then, but he never got such a huge boost, never even went SSJ2.  Seems like a plot boost to me.

Inconsistency 4: This one's mostly for those of us who keep track of Battle Power, but no one else really cares.  But having Gohan having such a low showing against Beerus compared to even Buu was unnecessary.  This was a guy who was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of Vegeta, Buu, and even Goku as an SSJ3.  How did he diminish so quickly?  I rate this one lower than the others because its very possible in-universe that Gohan slacked off a lot and Goku and Vegeta caught up and surpassed him in the years between the end of the Buu Saga and BoG.  It's just so jarring considering how power has worked in the show so far and how far ahead of everyone else he was.

Missed Opportunity 1: Not including Tarble in the movie.  Including Videl's Saiyan fetus in the god ritual was just laughable.  This would have been a great opportunity to include Vegeta's brother into the canon and even as a regular character in the movies.  Why introduce a character that you'll never use again Toei and Toriyama?  Though Tarble's existence is a bit of an inconsistency in itself in many ways.  They could've even had Supreme Kai get Tarble via Instantaneous Movement, since the Earth was in danger.  I guess that when I think of it, I'm fine with no Tarble.  Since all he brings to the series is unneeded questions.  What sucks here is that they mention him in the movie.  If he just wasn't canon to the movie that would be fine, but he's instead mentioned then replaced with an unborn Saiyan baby for no reason at all really.  I had to scratch my head at such a strange decision.

This folks, is a grown ass man in his late 30's :-)

Missed Opportunity 2: Having such a lame and unbelievable way to achieve Super Saiyan God.  So according to this nearly any group of "righteous" Saiyans can achieve this form as long as they have the correct number of people.  And what does "righteous" even mean if an unborn fetus can contribute to the ritual?

Missed Opportunity 3: Not introducing a cooler look for Super Saiyan God (though the form has grown on me and I prefer it waaaaaay over the lazy Blue Super Saiyan God form.  They should've done more with a fire motif IMO even with the hair.  Think of how cool it would be if Goku's hair became more and more like fire as he progressed in power.)

Missed Opportunity 4: Making Gohan so weak.  Would've been much better to have him put up a better fight than at least Buu.    I think Gohan and Vegeta shouldn've had the same showing against Beerus, with both putting up decent fights, but then have Vegeta surpass him with the rage thingy.  That way it shows that they were initially still somewhat close at least, instead of having Gohan be a complete scrub.  Remember, Gohan was way above Vegeta in the Buu arc, like in a whole other ballpark.

Missed Opportunity 5: Not having some other new, cool character introduce what Super Saiyan God is, rather than Shenron Ex Machina.  Maybe an actual "righteous" Saiyan other than the main cast.  Even Old Kai would've made sense here, but then again people would've asked "where was this knowledge during the Buu saga?"  To which you could counter that there weren't enough Saiyans around. They could've even done something cool with Tarble, had him be like an intergalactic archaeologist and find something on the legend to bring to Earth, something to expand the lore.  I personally like the new righteous Saiyan character idea the most.

Missed Opportunity 6: Making the Super Saiyan God transformation so complex yet not taking the time to properly explain it.  So its temporary and you can lose it, but if you're skilled enough, you can absorb it?  And when you absorb it, you can fight in normal form, but still have similar powers?  But are you weaker in the non-red form?  Goku seemed to be putting up a slightly better fight or at least comparable fight even when he looked "base" or just "normal Super Saiyan."  We are told that he absorbed the power, but come on!  We need more than that to understand if his final god form transformation at the end while absorbing Beerus' attack even did anything.  Besides a power up and invisible ki, does the form do anything else?

Missed Opportunity 7: Calling the new Saiyan god form Super Saiyan God instead of simply calling it Saiyan God or just God Form.  Now every dragon ball fan looks stupid saying stuff like Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan Blue.  They're really doing all this with no planning aren't they?  Sloppy.  Super Cyan and Blueper Saiyan is hilarious though.  But seeing as how this is an error really, I like to call it Blooper Saiyan hohohohohohohoho...hu.

Missed Opportunity 8: Super Saiyan God as a concept literally comes out of nowhere.  There has never been any mention of this in the show and it's not even blended into the existing lore smoothly in the movie.  Beerus literally wakes up screaming random nonsense.  Hell, even Vegeta, Saiyan lore master, doesn't know about it.  It would have been cool if they just retconned the Super Saiyan of Legend to be the Super Saiyan God and made all the other forms of Super Saiyan be inferior offshoots, but it seems us fans are far more creative and imaginative than Toriyama and Toei nowadays.

Just retcon this...

...into this.  Not hard considering all the other retcons introduced.

Missed Opportunity 9: Retconning Frieza's destruction of planet Vegeta to an order from Beerus.  It diminishes Frieza's character and does absolutely nothing new for the show.  It doesn't even add to Beerus at all.  We already know Beerus is great at destruction, now he just seems like a conniver which goes against his established character as someone who kinda just likes to blow stuff up, fight, and eat.  He's just kinda like an unrestrained Goku in many ways.

All that said, once I actually sat down to watch the movie, none of it seemed to matter.  I simply put all the inconsistencies and dumb additions to the Dragon Universe out of mind and enjoyed a fairly good movie.  Since I was starved for new Dragon Ball content and the movie had just about everything going for it including action, comedy, good art, great animation, and pure nostalgia; I was easily caught up in the hype and my body was ready for the next installment.  So I'd say in the grand scheme of things, that BoG wasn't that bad.  It seemed to set a new tone for the series, one that I was a little leery about, but way more excited for than anything else.  So if I can overlook inconsistencies and missed opportunities of this nature then I can certainly overlook whatever may come next, right?  Well, what comes next is Resurrection 'F', a movie that could use the tagline "50% of the stuff you love with 50% unnecessary and unexplained world breaking horse shit."  Or even better, "You'll love the action and the colors, but everything else is lazy as hell with no research done by our staff!"

Honorable mentions: Pilaf and crew seeming to only get one wish from Shenron (I don't really care.)  Same with Shenron simply leaving after it answered the question about SSJG.  I think it was done for simple comedy affect and it doesn't even seem to count as a wish really, but who knows since it was also unexplained.  Beerus being tender enough with his slap not to splatter Bulma's whole existence over her party guests.  I mean, why would he care?  You know how much holding back he would have to do to not kill her with just a touch?  I just chalk it up to BoG Beerus being a fairly amicable guy, despite Bulma's actions being highly disrespectful.  All in all, it just doesn't bother me that much.  There's probably more inconsistencies, but I can't currently remember them.

A few questions for indie author Alexandra Engellmann aka that author in the red dress.

If you don’t know (and you don’t) I’m Belart Wright, indie author extraordinaire of the glorious book Average Joe and the Extraordinaires.  Today I’m going to ask a good friend of mine: Alexandra Engellmann, indie author...Sky Ghost-inaire..?  Sorry, I tried to use her book title in her intro, but it doesn’t have the same ring as extraordinaire.  Unwarranted egotism from me aside, she’s one of my favorite people on the planet and super interesting besides all that and this interview will show a side of her that you all aren’t even ready for.  Let’s begin.

BW: First and foremost, who the hell are you?  The people deserve to know.  First describe yourself in five words, then elaborate on that.  Don’t lie, the internet knows!

AE: Okay, here are the first five words that come to my mind. I am a:
 

bookworm
artist
storyteller
thinker
nerd

The first means that whatever the world out there holds, I’d prefer spending my time reading whatever gem I’ve just discovered. 

The word ‘artist’ describes much more than just an occupation. I see the world as a piece of art, and I live to find beauty in little things around me.
 

I prefer ‘storyteller’ over ‘writer’, because the last is too big of a word. You can write about anything, but what I do is share stories about my characters, many of which come to life on their own by some weird glitch in my brain that prefers to be thinking about imaginary things rather than real.
I like to think a LOT about everything that happens to me. I think my writing is a way to avoid thinking too much and keep myself distracted from obsessing.
And lastly, nerding out is my profession, and I love it.

BW: Okay with that out of the way, I feel as if we all know you a little better, but still we can always dig a little deeper.  I’ve heard it said that all writers are narcissists.  We’re conceited enough to think we have something important to say that the world should hear.  Why should the world hear your voice?  What have you always wanted to share?

AE: I don’t think it’s my voice they should hear, but the characters’ voices. I think it’s more about giving a life to someone who’s persistently asking for it in your head, about giving them a chance to show who they are and who they can be. And on the other side, it’s about entertaining people with all kinds of emotions they can find in your book. So, I guess it’s emotions that I’m sharing with the world.

BW: Okay, I went a little deep with that last question so let’s lighten it up a little bit...with more psychological questions.  So Pain and Marco, my two favorite characters in the Sky Ghosts series, have a very interesting relationship.  It’s a friendship that goes beyond normal boundaries.  There’s a lot of unspoken feelings that get communicated through physical means rather than verbally.  In my opinion, that’s the best kind of relationship.  Why was this the method you chose for their relationship?  What type of relationship communication do you prefer?

AE: I don’t think there are any boundaries for friendship, and I’m one of those people who believe and respect friendship way more than love that’s often too complicated because of selfish emotions we people bring into it. The friendship between Pain and Marco is the only type I’ve ever had and will always prefer. I’m very open to whoever I meet and can easily share personal things with any stranger if I feel like it, or if the conversation is interesting. I hate formalities and limitations, and it’s often hard to stop myself from saying what’s on my mind. It entertains me how shocked people are sometimes by it, especially those who aren’t used to laughing at themselves. I’ve never really chosen anything for my characters, including their relationships, so that was how it naturally unfolded in my mind.

BW: Continuing from that last question: what type of sick person imagines a relationship like Pain and Marco’s?  They’re animals!

AE: Me, the animal :) Considering their lifestyle, it’s impossible for them not to bring a little extra blood into it.

BW: Last question...for now.  So your action scenes in Sky Ghosts: All For One and Sky Ghosts: Marco had a grounded reality to them even though they involved superhuman combatants.  I attributed this to your descriptive style and attention to detail.  The action was always bloody and intense so that clues me in that you may have an inner warrior in you.  So I’d like to know what are your top 3 fighting disciplines worldwide?  And what existing fighting styles match your favorite 3 fighters that we’ve met in Sky Ghosts?  If none exists, make ‘em up.

AE: That would be boxing for Marco, because he’s one of those who can kill with a single blow.
Krav Maga for the sisters, because they have to finish the fight quickly without giving the opponent the chance to get hold of them, and also because they’d go for the vulnerable points.
The third one would be Taekwondo, and that’s certainly Ryan’s style because of its emphasis on kicks, which someone as tall as him would make really powerful.

Well that's it for now folks.  Hope it was as fun for you as it was for me.  If you have more questions for Alexandra please go visit her at her website: www.engellmann.com or her twitter: https://twitter.com/engellmann or really anywhere you find her on these world wide interwebz.  She's good at responding.  You can find my own interview on her blog too.

Also check out her books via the links below.  Just click the picture link and it'll take you to each book's Amazon.com page.  Again, thanks for the read my glorious readers and til next time.

Book #1

Book #1.5

My NaNoWriMo 2014, The Phoenix Rises and the Phoenix Dies

I know that a lot of you out there are participating in the National Novel Writing Month and some of you don’t even know what it is.  I’ll give a shorthand explanation below.  But this is the tale of my early successes, ultimate failure, and the insights I’ve gained from it that I feel can prove useful to others such as yourselves.  So here goes.

The Goal: Write 50,000 Words of a Novel in a Month (November)

The Book: Average Joe and the Beauty (ending), Average Joe and the Side Story

The Plan: Pre-Write (Brainstorm, General Outline, Chapter-by-Chapter Outline, Research) For The Month of October, Start Contest On Time, Daily Incremental Word Increases During Work Days, Large Production Hikes On Off Days, Finish AJB, and Make Great Progress Into AJSS.

The Reality:

Soooo, things didn’t quite go as planned.  I started my prewriting late into October but still managed to make a nice amount of chapter outlines in a style that I was experimenting with.  My chapter outlines are typically vague when it comes to details regarding the setting and place in time.  I typically flow through a story and hit a point where it becomes important to know what time of day it is or what part of the month the characters are in for silly stuff like weather patterns, lunar cycles, and all the other continuity that we real life air breathers take for granted.  This new style of outline helped me keep track of all that with ease and made setting up scenes a breeze.  While more time consuming than my standard methods, this new style of outline has proven much more comfortable to me than I expected and has proven to be just as flexible as my previous outlining style.  As always, things changed once I started writing scenes for the contest so that flexibility in my outline was paramount.

The Phoenix Rises…

I only had about ten days of actual prewriting done for the contest, which is probably a generous number but those ten days worth of notes gave me a strong start for the contest.  What can I say, I’ve always been a last minute homework, project, and test crammer.  Hell, I completed last year’s NaNo only through some last minute miracle cramming so I shouldn’t be surprised.  I started the contest on day one and started writing early before I had to do whatever the task of that day was.  I opted not to do a midnight start for reasons I don’t remember.  I also don’t remember how each and every one of those first ten days went but I remember producing fairly well and then getting a huge mega boost on the sixth or seventh day from writing all night.  The site was down the first night so I was also behind on posting my actual word count by about a day.

…The Phoenix Burns and Learns…

I hit a snag when I ran out of outline.  I was also on a slow part of my story that required more setup and detail than I’d prepared.  It was here that I learned the awesome and crazy skill of “living in the scene”.  My general outline had character motivations, events, and outcomes.  The chapter outline I made up detailed the time, which characters were in the scene, who the chapter revolved around, where the scene was taking place, where the scene would end up, in addition to the character motivations, events, and outcomes of that scene.  What I didn’t have was what “living in the scene” gave me.  Living in the scene is an extra way of imagining your scene.  It can be accomplished through intense imagining of a scene which requires unwavering concentration.  I had to close my eyes at times and interact with the characters to see how they moved and interacted with the environment around them.  Acting out the scene (as quietly as I could or mentally) also became necessary during the intense final struggle of the book.  There was a lot of emotion and a lot at stake and I really had to dig into all that which slowed the typical breakneck writing process of the month.  I also had a unique creature at the end that I could only vaguely describe.  I had words to describe it but they weren’t visceral enough so I took time out to draw the creature.  It came out pretty good and all the words I needed came easily after.  

So I guess what I didn’t account for was the importance of the setting and how it affected everything in the scene.  The environment is a huge character and requires a huge amount of imagination.  Conjuring that much detail is tiring and should be a part of the prewriting if possible, I think.  If not you certainly can’t rush through building them, I know I couldn’t.  Anyways I kept writing but my daily word count plunged significantly and then came the days that I didn’t write at all.  Strangely though I didn’t feel guilty about my lack of writing like I normally did.  I only sat back and played videogames, particularly Dark Souls.  I didn’t even fret about it.  I kept on like that for a week before I picked up my pen and paper or touched the Average Joe files on my computer.  When I started writing again it flowed pretty well and I wrapped up the chapter I was working on much better than I expected.  But my word count wasn’t anywhere close to where it needed to be.  I felt that the story was definitely getting what it needed though and my ruminations felt natural.  I didn’t feel the need to rush that process to finish the contest.  NaNoWriMo was secondary and soon lost its significance altogether for me.  I still had a desire in me to “win” but my desire to be at peace and enjoy life was much stronger for the month.  So by the 20^th of the month I knew I could pull another miracle like last year if I really tried but I had no desire to do so.  I kept working on the book at a slow rate and by the end only mustered a little under 15,000 words.  Utter failure for the contest.

The Phoenix Fails and But Considers What He’s Gained

So I knew it was over by the 20^th day and my production had almost halted completely.  After a ton of heavy research I managed to complete this difficult chapter I’d been working on that was a huge departure from the rest in terms of setting and characters.  Now today on the 30^th I am officially tapping out and preparing to post my final paltry word count before the contest even ends.  But you know what—I’m okay with that.  Like last year, I have gained a tremendous about of insight into what makes me tick as a writer.  I’ve gained some invaluable tools in my writing process: like being able to live in a scene, using drawing to flesh out ideas and characters, and using (bad) acting to understand the physicality of the characters.  These techniques were born out of desperation, coffee, and lack of sleep but they’re better than the alternatives.  I plan to enter into next year’s NaNo but this time with much more powerful mental tools at my disposal.  As for now I will continue to pluck away at my projects.

NaNoWriMo Tips:

+Pick your NaNoWriMo project early.  I was going to write a completely original novel for the contest but changed my mind at the last minute because I thought what I chose would be easier and would align with my business goals.

+Outline your ass off!  Do it all year if you can.  If you have separate projects just for NaNo do it as early as possible.  Don’t just make a general outline, make a chapter outline as well.  Make it as detailed as possible, you can always change it if you need to but those details help the writing flow a lot easier than coming up with them on the fly.  October is a great month to outline as all of that research and those notes are fresh in your mind for November.  Just be consistent with it.

+Remember that editing is its own step, its own process.  Do your BEST to ensure that you’re not editing too much, you don’t want it to take too much time away from your writing.

+Try different techniques to visualize your novel, to see the action in your mind as you write.  Practice early, preferably during the outlining process.  Doing this can cut down on the changes you make mid-chapter.  Most of my issues arose because I had no idea how something looked or how a “crafte” (magic) felt, sounded, or how it affected the environment.

+Write out a detailed description of your environment beforehand along with a list words to describe it.  Admittedly I can’t even see myself doing this but I wish I did.  If you can’t tell already I have the tendencies of both a “prepper” and a “pantser”.

-Don’t play lots of videogames.  As a matter of fact, If you want to win unplug your XCubeStation 9 and have a loved one hide it.  If you have self-control, hide it yourself and then hire a mentalist to make you forget where you put it because we all know that you don’t really have as much self-control as you think.

-Don’t wait for a muse.  The act of writing itself helps get the creative juices flowing.  I am always surprised at how quickly I can get going even when I reaaaaaaaaally don’t feel like writing.

-Don’t do anything I did this year.  Basically all of my above tips amount to this.

So that’s my NaNoWriMo story this year, what’s yours?  Comment and link to your blog if you have one so that I can read your NaNoWriMo stories.  Thanks again for the browse and good luck next year!

My NaNoWriMo 2013

Part 1

http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-nanowrimo-story-part-1.html

Part 2

http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-nanowrimo-story-part-2.html

Part 2 ½

http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-nanowrimo-story-part-2_11.html

Part 3

http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-nanowrimo-story-part-3.html

Part 4

http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-nanowrimo-story-part-4.html

Part 5

http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-nanowrimo-story.html