Memories of What Never Was Chapter 12 Draft 1

Memories of What Never Was Chapter 12 Draft 1 can be found at the bottom of this page if you feel so inclined to read it.

This chapter has Kriss and Brand getting to know each other.

NaNo Word Count: 5165 (right on track so far)

Memories of What Never Was Chapter 11 Draft 1

So I took a couple weeks off writing because work has been somewhat ridiculous, and to save up a bit of energy for this years NaNoWriMo thingy.  I figured I might as well use it as a stick to prod myself to finish up the first draft of this rewrite.  So, seeing as how today is the first day of November, and the competition is on, I've finished Chapter 11 of the first draft of Memories of What Never Was and if you so fee the great urge to read it, you can do so by clicking here

For anyone unfamilliar with it, National Novel Writing Month is an internet self challenge that happens every November (Nanowrimo.org if you wanna join in, or find out more).  Basically, everyone starts out with the same goal, write 50,000 words in a single month.  That may seem like a lot, or not that much to some people.  For reference, a normal, mainstream novel is usually about 90,000-100,000 words long, A young adult book is usually around 75,000-90,000 words long, with stuff like epic fantasy novels being more like 200,000.  So, basically, it's a self challenge to get yourself half or more done with the first draft of a book in a single month.  And there are prizes for everyone that finishes.  Seeing as how I already had a little over 45,000 words written, I figure I can get pretty close to finishing the first draft this month if, work allowing, I keep up with it.  We'll see what happens.

So, with this chapter I introduce a new little idea I had with Brand in this latest version of this story.  I figure the prophecy of the chosen one who will save the world has been done to death if fiction, so I took that and turned it on it's head.  Brand is actually the one who is prophesied to destroy the world, and he's got heroes and champions coming out of the woodwork to try and murder him everywhere he goes to save the world from him.  I came up with this idea around 3 AM or so while suffering from insomnia and thought it was clever.  We'll see if it actually turns out to be clever or not once I'm done.  It's just that there's so many stories out there about the chosen one who will save the world, including the original version of this one, and I sat there and thought to myself, well what about the other guy, you know, the one he's supposed to be saving the world from.  Also there's a bit more character development for Kriss here.


NaNo Progress: 3100 words

Memories of What Never Was Chapter 10 Draft 1

So I made some very minor edits to Chapters 2, 3 and 7 so I re-uploaded those to my site, and I also finished up my first draft of chapter 10, you can find them at the bottom of this page.

this chapter has a pretty huge amount of character development in it.  It basically is what gives Brand his reason to fight, and shows Kriss and Raven just how evil the people they've been hunting down for the last 7 years truly are.  The rest of Brand's powers and abilities are shown off here, as well as the consequences he faces for using them, and Kriss' power is really given it's first real showing here as well. 

Memories of What Never Was Chapters 7, 8 and 9 Draft 1

So, there I was, writing full speed ahead with the new changes I planned to make to the story, and then I got to the big opening action scene and went... huh...  So, I knew that I wanted to have an action scene, and a few things that I wanted to happen during it, but I had no idea how to string those things together into an actual scene.  It took me a while to figure it out and get it written.  Well, there was that, and the new deal that the Post Office made with Amazon where we are now delivering 80% of their packages in the USA instead of the 20% we had been before the deal.  This deal basically saved the post office from bankrupsy prety much completely, so I know I really shouldn't complain about it, but I've been working 2-3 extra hours every day because of it, and with all of the bigger, heavier packages I've suddenly been getting, and all the carrying them to doors and stuff, it's really been wearing me out, and when I get home, the last thing I've been wanting to do is sit down and work out what's going to happen in this action scene.  But I'm getting used to the extra work now, and I finally just sat down and plowed through it this weekend.

Soooooo, I've got the first drafts of Memories of What Never Was Chapters 7, 8 and 9 posted on my website, and you can read them by clicking Here.

Hopefully, now that I'm past the part I was stuck on for so long, I can finally get back into a more regular writing schedule and churn out more chapters more quickly.  For the most part, the rest of the book isn't going to play out much differently than the first rewrite attempt did.  There will be a couple of added things here and there, but mostly, it's going to follow the same flow.  I'll probably be rewriting a lot of it, changing up the prose and such, but for the most part, the events will stay the same. 

New, improved, revised (yet again) beginning to Memories of What Never Was

Okay, so, like I said last week, I've been revising the beginning of Memories of What Never Was because I wasn't really all that satisfied with how it was turning out.  I was trying to keep the things I'd already written intact in the new version of the story, but they weren't really working with the new story, and needed to be tossed out and changed up a bit, and I also felt that the beginning of the book was a little too boring and a little too heavy on exposition to keep someone's attention, so I decided that I needed to introduce who the characters are and what they're capable of in a much more exciting way, using something I already had in the story, but in a much different way that I'd previously written it, and then expanding it into a huge and somewhat complicated action sequence that does the job of introducing people, places and things, with the added bonus of actually being fun to read.

So, anyway, I've posted the Prologue and chapters 1-6 of the newest version of Memories of What Never Was here if you feel the great urge to read them.  I'm off of work through next Wed, so I expect to get a lot more of it done over the next few days while I don't have the distraction of having to go to work.  The next chapter is where things are really going to start diverging from the original version, and so will probably take more time to get finished, but I'm off for a whole week with nothing else to be doing, so I should be getting it cranked out pretty quick.

Adventures in Road Rage

Sooooooo, a little update on Memories of what never was.  I decided that the beginning I had planned out wasn't really working, and that it needed a bit of changing to something that better shows off who and what the characters are, and what they're capable of.  So that's what I've been working on and why I haven't posted anymore chapters, I'm outlining a new beginning, and decided what, from the original beginning, I want to keep, and what I want to toss out.

Now, onto Adventures in Road Rage...

So, I was driving home from work today, light up ahead of me turned yellow, I was too close to stop without screeching my tires, so I sped through.  Someone in a big white truck in the left turn lane on the other side, leans on his horn as I pass like he thinks he's important or something.  Because, apparently, having to wait 1.7 extra seconds to turn is just too much for him.  He does a U-Turn and follows me to the next light where I stop.  He gets out of his truck all red-faced with veins all bulging from places they're not normally supposed to bulge from.  Right off, seeing this dude in my side mirror coming for me, I can tell that he's got way more muscle than brains, and probably spent his childhood picking on kids like me.  If there's one thing in this world that I absolutely hate, it's a bully.  If there's two things, it's mayo and bullies, but if there's just one, it's definitely bullies.

I could tell that things were probably not going to turn out very well for me if I just sat there, so I reached into my pocket for my trusty, postal issue pepper spray.  We use it to get rid of dogs, but it works just as well on people.

The guy storms up to my window and starts yelling at me about something that I'm sure makes perfect sense to him, but makes absolutely no sense at all to a rational, even semi-intelligent human being.  I told him that I'd be sure to let him know when I start to care, and that I'm sure he'll get over himself one of these days.  I'm kind of a smartass that way.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, this big, brainless douchebag leaned in to punch me through my window, and I let him have a face full of pepper spray.  He made a very satisfying scream and dropped to one knee beside my door with his face in his hands.  This put his head at just the perfect height, and I really couldn't help myself, so I pushed my door open as hard as I could.  It hit him in the face, probably broke his nose from the amount of blood, and knocked him flat.  I jumped out, and grabbed a folding shovel I keep in my back seat in case I get stuck in the snow, and went about expressing my displeasure with his attitude and assumptions that I was just going to sit there and allow him to bully me.  I got in a couple good whacks before someone from another car grabbed me and stopped me.  Big, muscly bully was on the ground in a fetal position and crying by this time, and I really couldn't bring myself to sympathize with him or even feel all that bad about going postal on him.  I've long felt that bullies are worthless wastes of human life, and this guy was really no exception in my estimation.

So the police arrived shortly after, got the story from me, asked witnesses to verify that was what happened, and arrested the guy who tried to punch me, asking if I wanted to press assault charges.  Which I most certainly do.  I asked if I was in trouble or anything, and he told me that four witnesses saw the other guy take the first swing, so I was clearly defending myself, which is perfectly legal.  He eyed my work ID hanging around my neck and said, "remind me never to F%&k with a postal worker.  You're like half that guy's size and he's in the back of my car bawling like a baby."

So yeah, could I have handled that better?  Definitely.  But, you know what, I was bullied so much as a kid, that it just sets me off like nothing else can.  It's really the only thing that gets me mad enough to do violence to someone else.  In my experience, bullies will NEVER leave you alone, unless you beat them mercilessly into submission.  If this guy is going to be so childish as to think that real life is still elementary school and he can push around anyone smaller than he is just because, he's going to find out very fast that I've had enough of playing that game, and have absolutely no patience or tolerance for it.  I will fight dirty, and I will make sure that he understands that if he ever attacks me again, he is going to end up crying in the back of a police car, on his way to a holding cell for the night.  I had my fill of being bullied.  I will not be bullied again.

Memories of What Never Was - Chapter 3 - Draft 1

So I've finished up the first draft of Memories of What Never Was Chapter 3, and if you're so inclined, you can read it at the bottom of this page.

This chapter hasn't changed much from the previous version of it.  Mostly what was added were a lot more character building moments for Kriss, to show how truly messed up she really is inside.  Most of the dialog is the same, but a lot of her inner thoughts and feelings are different, making the dialog mean something completely different in places, by giving it a completely different context.