4560 Boyz

Voidious: NaNoWriMo Winner!

2004-11-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

Well, that about does it. Final word count of 50,225. There's plenty of editing and revising in store for this thing, but for now, here's my final submission to National Novel Writing Month:

To A Trained Eye draft v1.0
Word Count: 50,225

It's been real :) Peace.

Voidious: Sprint to the Finish

2004-11-29T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm at 47,500 words, and I'm just about to sit down and finish this story up. It's been an interesting month... started out strong but steady, then got a surge of video game addiction about halfway through the month, but I've managed to still stay on pace for the most part, and it looks like I will be successful.

Props to Mike and Matt for at least giving it a try ;) Hope we can all finish next year. I'll post again later with my final draft.

Voidious: Day Twenty Three

2004-11-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

Closing in on the home stretch here...

To A Trained Eye draft v0.24
Word Count: 44,054

Voidious: Day Twenty Two

2004-11-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

Just finished a mad writing session, and find myself well beyond 50k pace for 11/22 (today). Here's my latest draft... the story has really come a long way, and I must say I'm proud of it, even though it's still pretty far from polished.

To A Trained Eye draft v0.22
Word Count: 41,778

Enjoy.

Voidious: Day Twenty One

2004-11-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I completely fell off and played a bunch of video games last week... tonight, I finally sat down and did some more writing, and almost brought myself back to pace. Here's my latest:

To A Trained Eye draft v0.19
Word Count: 34,161

Voidious: Day Fifteen

2004-11-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest: To A Trained Eye draft v0.17

Word count: 29,019

Voidious: Day Fourteen

2004-11-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

Still a few hundred words ahead of "50k pace", here is my latest draft. Almost halfway to 50k.

To A Trained Eye draft v0.15
Word count: 24,278

The story has really taken shape, and I've gotten a lot of great ideas mid-stream while writing it. Let's hope they keep coming ;)

Voidious: Day Twelve

2004-11-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm about to start writing a bit more, but I figured I should post what I have. About 40% of the way to 50k, and I'm pacing for 50k, so it should be about 40% of the story, too.

The diary form is interesting, and I don't think I'll be writing another diary-based story for a while; but I've had the idea for this story for over a year, so I'm glad that I'm getting it done. It's tough to try and write it in an appealing style while keeping it distinct from my own writing style.

Anyway, here it is: To A Trained Eye draft v0.13
Word Count: 19,900

As always, comments/suggestions welcome.

Voidious: Day Nine

2004-11-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest.

To A Trained Eye draft v0.11
Word count: 17,379

Man, it feels good to be a couple thousand words ahead of the game! (Hint hint, guys! ;-) )

Voidious: Day Eight, Part II

2004-11-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, just had a sweet writing session with Matt, and got a bunch more done. Commander Miker seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

To A Trained Eye draft v0.09
Word count: 15,502

I'm hoping my progress will somehow act as a "motivator by induction", the way an electric charge can be induced through the air to other conductors close to it. Seems possible.

Voidious: Day Eight

2004-11-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I failed miserably at doing NaNoWriMo last year, but things are certainly going a lot better this year. I just crossed the 25% barrier and the 8 day pace for 50,000 words, and I feel like the rest will only get easier and more fun to write.

Without further delay, here's my latest draft: To A Trained Eye draft v0.08

Word count: 13,355

Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Matt: Day 7

2004-11-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

I-think-I-can-I-think-I-can.... Well I'm lagging behind a bit (a lot) but i'm up to 4428 words. I really hit a wall that second day trying to advance the plot, so I decided to go back and flesh out the stuff I'd already written. I'm happy I did too, because I think this current version is much improved from the first day's work.

Hopefully y'all agree!
enhanced110704.doc

p.s. Special thanks to Voidious for upgrading my OpenOffice software!

Voidious: Day Six

2004-11-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, this story's actually starting to take shape. Word count: 10,413.

tate_draft_0.07.oo.doc (.oo = OpenOffice doc)

Enjoy.

Voidious: Day Four, Part II

2004-11-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

Got a bit more done, and brought myself a few hundred words over "50k pace" for 4 days.

Here it is: To A Trained Eye... Draft v0.04

Word count: 7,061.

I'd definitely appreciate any comments/suggestions on my work so far... I'm pretty pleased with it, but I've never written a diary-style story, so I'd greatly appreciate any criticisms.

Enjoy.

Voidious: Day Four

2004-11-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'll probably write some more today, but I wanted to get something posted for now:

tate_draft_0.04.doc

Word count: 5,343.

Mike Day 2

2004-11-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

Click here for day 2. 3,194 words.

Voidious: Day Two

2004-11-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

Moving right along... here's what I have done so far.

tate_draft_0.03.doc

Word count: 4,258. I'm really feeling good about how this is going so far; I know it may seem boring, but it's a 50k word novel (well, it will be), not a short story.

I will probably change the title at some point, but for now, it's not a priority.

It's All In Your Head?

2004-11-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

Day 1 nano done!!

Slightly under the 1,667 words needed to be on track for an average 50,000 / 30 days. Damn close tho :) Well done guys day 1 down!

A Chancellor is Born

2004-11-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

Well somehow this story is coming together, taking shape on its own like I hoped it would. Hopefully it won't peter out too quickly and maybe I can make it through this thing!

Meet "the chancellor", the lonliest old man to ever walk the earth:
enhanced110104.doc

Hope y'all dig!

Voidious: Day One

2004-11-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it's coming along nicely so far, but I'm going to have to start digging deeper into the "pool of creativity" pretty soon. Here's what I've got so far, 2,346 words according to MS Word:

tate_draft_0.01.doc

Beware: barely edited, barely revised.

So far, so good.

As The Starting Whistle Approaches...

2004-10-31T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well, November arrives in just under 5 hours for two of the 4560 Boyz (including me), and in under 7 for the other one. I'm planning to post my work in progress from time to time, and hopefully, if you've actually stumbled across our little NaNoWriMo web presence, you'll be interested in reading it. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Good luck to my fellow 4560-ites, as well as to all the other contestants of NaNoWriMo 2004. Let the fun begin! :)

Victorious Voidious

2004-10-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks as though I'm the only one of the "4560 Boyz" who came anywhere close to completing his week-long, 12,000 word NaNoWriMo warmup story. My story, tentatively titled "Destined to Nano", clocked in at about 16,000 words, about 6,400 of which I wrote today.

It's a fictional story about a high school kid that finds out about NaNoWriMo 2003 on October 31st, and decides to try it. Fun, simple, and pretty easy reading.

Check it out: nano_warmup1_draft1.11.doc

-- Iam Le Voidious

Nano Warmup - Mike day 1

2004-10-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Shinjuku surveyed the crowd through hookah smoke, lasers and strobes. Along the rim of the circular dance floor faces with their back to the wall glowed behind laptop LCD displays. From his perch he watched the hedonistic mass of flesh surge to a dissonant beat that was lost on him. Computer sitting on the table, black cigarette hanging from his lips, he clicked through to his network control center. The security monitoring page displayed 6 video windows, each camera transmitting in high definition. It was only a matter of time before the mark blipped on Shin's radar.

Link to word file.

Enhanced

2004-10-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

With our combined strength, there's nothing the 4560 Boyz can't accomplish.

Anyway, about my story:: I want to write about a man who augments himself--physically, psychologically, spiritually and technologically--to the point where he becomes a sort of demi-god. I want to show him gradually acquring power until he is the sole ruler of a world government, and at that point his subjects turn on him in one glorious, final battle. I'd like the story to span about 150 years, from WWII to 2100. One thing I like about the idea is it can encompass many different genres that i enjoy--spy intrique, military drama, martial arts/eastern spirituality, and sci-fi, as well as social issues like dicatorship vs. democracy, socialism vs. capitalism, etc.

I'd love to get people's thoughts on the following:

Is it appropriate for a novel to span such a long period of time?

Is the story too one-dimensional--i.e., man takes technology too far and pays the price, a la Dr. Frankenstein?

Is it silly to jump around in time? My thought is to start at the final scene chronologically, then go back a little ways in time, then again to this final scene, and then back even farther, etc. Lame?

Whaddaya think?

The Voidmeister

2004-10-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

The sons of 4560 have joined together... and together, we will destroy NaNoWriMo! Er... yeah. I figured I'd just take a moment to introduce myself: I'm Voidious, and I introduced these other 4560 fools to NaNoWriMo last year. I wrote 5k words the first weekend, then gave up completely in an effort to focus on school.

Anyway, this year I won't be so easily deterred. I'll be writing a journal/diary based story in the 1st-person; beyond that, I can't really say much more. I have the idea, but it would sound incredibly lame if I tried to describe it, so let's just see if I can pull it off. I'll most likely be posting excerpts here once the writing begins on November 1st.

Best of luck to everyone else participating in NaNoWriMo this year!

Future of Drugs?

2004-09-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

So do you think it would be too far fetched for my story to hinge around the future of drugs? Namely, the successes pormised by the human genome project - drugs tailor designed to our genes and brains. I'm thinking my main character will be a hyper rich guy who gets in on the ground floor of the design of these new drugs, and has one designed for him to unlock his spiritual realm. Stupid? I hope to draw parallels to the way LSD came onto the scene. Also, would the guy being rich impact the fact that he becomes a heavy user of these new drugs during the story?

NaNoWriMo 2004 and Beyond

2004-09-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

4560 Boyz have established this spot on the web to discuss writing for National Novel Writing Month 2004. Our thoughts will be born, develop and die here.

Let's do this guys!