KJToo

In a testament to my geekiness, I’ve started yet another collection on Squirl. In addition to my DvDs, Xbox and PC games, I’ve now got 170 of my CDs cataloged on the site as well.

Yeah, I’m a dork. No surprises there.

Posted November 21, 2006 Comments(10)

Short of a miracle, I don’t think I’ll be hitting 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’m going to keep writing Out of the Shadows because I enjoy the story and perhaps I’ll make it halfway to the goal. If I manage that, I’ll be happy; anything beyond that will be icing on the cake. The writing will continue into December and beyond, until the story arc is finished, and regardless of whether or not I think I’ll make 50K, I’ll keep posting daily updates.

Today was a lot of violence without any over character development or introspection as I wrapped up the (immediate) tale of the not-dead prostitute’s abducted daughter. There may be future repercussions for some of the characters involved, as the abduction was related to the death of the other prostitute. The dead one.

Tomorrow there should be little or no violence, as I plan to focus on the aftermath of my protagonist passing out in an alley following the rescue of a suicidal man from the tallest building in Cleveland, Key Tower. There are clean sheets and bacon involved, not to mention an attractive redhead.

Posted November 20, 2006 Comments(5)

It’s 3:45am on the 19th of November and for the first time in several days the word count in my NaNoWriMo progress tracker has increased. Granted, it technically only increased by 250 words, but that’s because I didn’t want to update my word count until what I’d written in Out of the Shadows exceeded what I’d written Yesterday’s Tomorrow. All 9,575 of the words represented by that progress meter are new words, written since the 15th.

Researching how to relocate a dislocated shoulder earlier today made me very paranoid about my own shoulders. Don’t try to reach something behind you while seated, kids. Really. Just… don’t do it. Ugh.

Tonight, I dislocated and relocated a very bad man’s shoulder, killed a hooker, and drove a Cadillac Escalade to Lakewood. Tomorrow I’ve got acres of ass to kick if I want to get that kid back.

P.S. The non-dead hooker’s daughter is named Eve, at the suggestion of Rae Lamond.
P.P.S. The guy who got nailed with a baton, kneed in the crotch and then tased is named Mick. Sorry, Mr. Bradley.
P.P.P.S. You’ll get yours soon enough, Mr. Miller.
P.P.P.P.S. Who else wants a piece of this?

Posted November 19, 2006 Comments(3)

I thought I’d post a little excerpt of Out of the Shadows as an example of what I was talking about yesterday. This snippet of introspection is the result of a scene taking not one but two turns I hadn’t anticipated when I began writing it.

I like simple crimes: someone getting mugged in the park, a hold-up at a convenience store, a drug deal; stuff like that. Stopping these types of crime is usually just a matter of figuring out who the bad guys are and hitting them until they fall down. That’s typically followed by an anonymous phone call to the police and then I’m on my merry way. I don’t stick around to talk to the cops or the victims; I don’t like a lot of attention.

Crimes that are “stopped” generally qualify as simple; crimes that must be “solved” do not. I tend to stay away from crimes that must be solved because I’m not much of an investigator. I don’t have a crime lab back in my secret lair - hell, I don’t even have a secret lair - nor do I carry a forensics kit with me in my duffel bag. Leads and clues simply aren’t my forte. If you want someone punched in the face, I’m your guy; if you want something investigated, you’ll have better luck calling the Hardy boys.

Sometimes, what looks for all the world to be a simple crime turns into something complicated; an excellent example would be assault and battery on a prostitute turning into kidnapping and extortion. The problem is, once I get involved I can’t just turn away after I’m done hitting people, no matter how much I’d like to. Sure, it would simplify my life, but I wouldn’t feel like one of the good guys anymore.

I just realized that I could have gotten two more words if I’d used “Scooby Doo and the gang” in place of “the Hardy boys”. We’ll see whether that would have made the difference between glorious triumph and crushing failure come the end of the month.

Posted November 18, 2006 Comments(2)

Now that I’ve broken out of my metaphor, I’m discovering that Out of the Shadows allows me to let the story wander without completely derailing the main storyarc. The main character is a nocturnal vigilante and there are plenty of opportunities to tell mini-stories that have little or no impact on the main plot, but still allow me to explore his character.

Twice now I’ve begun writing a scene with a general idea of where I wanted it to go, only to have an unexpected element come into play and take things off in a new direction. Last night, the protagonist sprang into action when a woman was being assaulted. He dispatched the assailant easily, only to find himself on the business end of a pistol being wielded by a second assailant who had not been there when I started writing the scene.

I’ve been jumping back and forth between these miniature adventures (call them side quests, if you like) and the main story for two days now, and 6,500 words later I’m feeling very good about the story so far. I’ll update my official NaNoWriMo word count when my new story surpasses the one I began on 01 November.

Posted November 17, 2006 Comments(2)