[work in progress]

I DID IT



i will post a retrospective of how it all went down, along with the most recent part of it, later. at present my brain is a little tired and i am going to play some video games or something, but i am like the happiest person ever right now.

50,217 words. not finished. i intend to eventually, though, because right now harvey and louie are pulling off an incredible rescue and that would be a cruel place to just stop.

22 HOURS
18 CONSIDERING THAT I HAVE WORK

LESS THAN 18 CONSIDERING THAT I REALLY NEED TO SLEEP AND ALSO BUY TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER STUFF
AHHHHH

sorry about the caps. had to get it out of my system. I actually feel much better now.

At present, I need about...
um
math
3800 words or so. And I'm done writing for tonight. I brought the chapter to an end, and for whatever reason, I have a lot of trouble ending a chapter and then continuing to write. I tell myself I'll do some before work, but let's be honest, I very probably won't.
But I am hellbent on finishing. The quality has gone downhill in recent pieces, I can tell. A lot of tonight's is just bizarre and disorganized and makes that "inner editor" cringe. But there will be time to edit later. Like in December.
which is technically tomorrow.
FFFFFUUUUUU

oh right i was going to put up the latest chapter.

note: there is no way this story is going to finish in the next 4000 words. i hope I can find the motivation to stick with it, though. I love my pirates. I even love Cole. He's honestly grown on me.


( chapter 13 or something i don't even know anymore )

-----

This was supposed to be a Harvey chapter. Somehow it turned into a Louie one. I swear it was an accident. I LOVE YOU HARVEY ;-;
In my defense, he's totally getting his turn to do the clever scheming. It was overdue.

it's now officially the 29th and i haven't written all night and i don't feel like i can. i feel...weird. not sick, exactly, but sort of hyper and shaky and i can't focus. i am not enjoying this one bit.

ehghjk. i'm going to have to really, really write a lot tomorrow and sunday. this is too close. it's making me anxious, but for the life of me i can't think straight tonight.

i'm going to post chapter 12 now. it is rather long and serious and cole has his Big Important Moment.

( going under )

why can't i thiiiiink tonight ghlkjghfsgf

seriously can you believe how close it is to the end?

I was just about to post the newest bit, which brings me to approx. 44K, but it seems I forgot to post 11. I'm not sure how I managed to do that.

Well, er, here it is. I actually just finished chap. 12, but I'll post that tomorrow later today. It's a little much to put it all into one post and expect anyone to actually read through all that at once.

Lessee here. Chapter XI. In which Jonathan and Malcolm have an actual civil conversation and only annoy each other a little. mostly.
( Chapter 11 )
----------

you don't piss off the cook, man.

also: bri and i have decided that jonathan at some point has an opium addiction. i'm not sure if it's canon* in this story; i have enough subplots and character drama as is. but if i can't fit it in here, i will write it into a one-shot someday. i want to do those for pretty much all these characters, because i love them dearly.

chapter 12 is a very srs bsns cole-pov chapter and includes The Big Redeeming Epiphany. i still haven't decided what happens AFTER the Big Redeeming Epiphany, but I don't have to figure that out till, uh...
later today.
yeah i'm gonna go sleep on it now.

i will say this: chapter 13 is probably going to go to harvey. fuck yeah. poor guy hasn't gotten enough screen time, despite being one of my favorite OCs ever.


*tee hee we have a 'canon'.

also: I think the spanish in this is generally right. I make no guarantees. If it's wrong, feel free to correct me, just in case I do someday edit this thing.

40k!
THIS IS MY HAPPY FACE :)

no i don't care that that still means i'm behind, IT'S A BIG NUMBER AND THAT'S FINE WITH ME. I was genuinely worried for a little while. I mean, I am determined to finish this. Being on break and having finals behind me and shit means I have absolutely noooo excuse not to finish this. But I was afraid this was going to end up being an "OH GOD IT'S THE 29TH AND I HAVE TO WRITE 20000 WORDS NOOO" kind of deal. And now it's not. Yar har.

I am on such a creativity binge tonight. I don't know where it's coming from. I was in a HORRIBLE mood last night and much of today. I seem to have rebounded tremendously because I am writing like a motherfucker. I also went back and checked who's gotten how much facetime, cause all of a sudden Googledocs has a built in "selection-only" wordcounter. This fills me with glee.

As it stands, the only major character who hadn't had a chapter before tonight was Malcolm, and I'm writing his right now.
Harvey's had the shortest one, but I promise he'll get some proper attention. Asher's had the most, unsurprisingly. He is the protagonist. And he got that hella long exposition chapter at the beginning. So he's had three chapters, Louie and Cole have each had two, and everyone else has one. Malcolm's is probably almost done. He's talking to Jonathan right now. Civilly, no less. They can in fact have decent conversations, once in a while. Of course, they're still not holding hands and being bffs here. "Civil conversation" in this setting pretty much means that Jonathan has made only passing mockery of Malcolm's religion, and Mal's only called him a pendejo once. That's pretty good for them.

I've been trying to avoid flowery prose throughout, and I think I've done okay (except for Asher's dialogue, which doesn't count cause lol) but I have to say, this chapter has produced one of my favorite descriptions: Malcolm's skin as "cinnamon-toned". Cause it totally is. I like that.


...lmao speaking of wordcounts. I just rambled for like ten minutes. If you're still reading, god bless you for your patience. Here, how about I shut up and just post the rest of chapter 10? As you may recall, it left off with the Vissray's engine being like BOOM and Cole being like "THAT FKIN PIRATE IS BEHIND THIS" and going to discuss said matter with him.
"discuss." yes.
It's kind of long, what with all the exciting airship drama and also Cole and Asher going at it like...like people that argue a lot, I DON'T KNOW. Actually, it's mostly Cole arguing. Asher's just kind of like "^_^ my this is a strange set of circumstances", because he is a dandy and a popinjay and other unflattering things.

( Once this was all settled, Cole was going to personally see to it that he was taken down a notch. )

These two may be my favorite dynamic to write in the history of anything. And I am so happy with how they're each turning out. I don't think Asher has crossed the eccentricity border into being annoying, and Cole is serious and unamused without being a total robot. I was so afraid of that happening. I don't want him to be a bad guy. Antagonist, yes. But he's a good man. And so's Asher. They just have very different ways of going about it.

also: my anxieties about not knowing anything about things like history, or science, or how ships work, has faded. because this is fiction. and by god they work however i want them to work. i can at least picture what i'm talking about in my head, which i figure is good enough.

I'M LOST ANDY'S GONE THEY'RE GONNA MOVE FROM THEIR HOUSE IN TWO DAYS AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT

my god, why can i quote that movie
oh, right, because it's awesome and i don't care if it's old by now. ANYWAY. This is actually a good time to panic because I have around 32k
and that places me four or five thousand words behind where I should be. ffffff. I've had too many lazy days. Hope is not lost, but the pressure's definitely on.

Chapter 10 isn't done yet, but I'm going to put up what I have so far. I've powered through like two thousand words tonight, I think.

in which: all is not well aboard the vissray. action! drama! dun dun dun.

( You know, I like writing Cole a lot more than I'd expected to. )

----------

cole h8 pirate
course, asher's kind of being a dick. cause he can.

Like I said, there will be more of this chapter, and then...I'm not sure who gets the next one. I suppose it depends on where this one cuts off. Someone from the Osprey crew, definitely (but, er, I guess that was obvious.)

On a sadder note, my writing buddy/boyfriend/the guy who created Cole and also Harvey - seems to be abandoning his novel. This news made me go like this: :(
BRI IF YOU'RE READING THIS GO WRITE SOMETHING PLZ
seriously i know i technically know what happens to vincent and warren and everything but it's just not the same

edit: oh man am I going to have my work cut out for me in december. I keep seeing plotholes an airship could disappear into. the one that's bugging me right now: just how long is it taking them to get to newport? i mean, I think I can safely say it's been maybe...two or three days from Asher's capture to the present moment. I'm just not sure I've been consistent about that in the story.

mostly I just want to make sure Asher had time to annoy Cole, befriend some navy guys, and grow a ilttle bit of pathetic blond stubble.

This one's a long one (heh heh long) but it's pretty swell, if I do say so myself. Wherein we find out a little bit more about our beloved protagonist. Such as that he is a dandy who demands access to proper grooming equipment, and also has a bit of a political streak. And a backstory! I think his parents might have been revolutionaries or anarchists or something. Something like that. It would explain a lot.

This chapter contains heavy amounts of verbal sparring and sarcasm. Bri, I think you'll like it. I feel like I got Cole right. You can confirm or deny as needed.
Next chapter will probably be Cole's. THINGS ARE AFOOT.

( In the brig. )
-----

I'm not technically caught up, but I'm closer than I was. And I passed 30k! Baty's saying to aim for 40k by Monday night. I'd like to meet that. I can't believe it's actually...not winding down, per se, but it is all downhill from here, as far as the month's concerned. Hard to grasp. I would very much like to finish this novel, this year.

edit: oh man, as I look back on this chapter, I really REALLY want to edit it. But that would cost me words that I cannot afford to lose. Must...hold off...till December...

Yeah, so, I didn't like where that one ended. And then I didn't write for like two days, and now I am getting more and more behind and NOOOO.
I am going to finish this, dammit. I want to follow Baty's example and go for 30k by day's end. We'll see if I can pull it off. I say I can.

Anyway, here's the bit I tacked on. I like the ending now. It's more...action-y.

( wherein louie is one smart cookie )

-----

SCHEMAN GAEMZ

I have started to figure out how this is going to work. It's not quite the "Asher sabotages something" route that Brian had suggested, but that was the point of inspiration.

Bonus illustration of the day: Isabella, who so far has only been a passing mention in this story. I would love to work her in some time, she's delightful.
Pic is worksafe, but it's, you know,
( pinup-o-licious )

eryeah.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? I passed 25k today. Finally got off my ass and wrote and passed the halfway point. Aw yeah.
I don't know why this scene gave me so much trouble. I love Harvey and Louie to death. I love their relationship and both of them and everythingggg.
Whatever, the point is that I wrote it.
Short chapter. I think the next one is going to involve Asher being very unhappy on the Vissray.

( in which harvey does not call louie a damsel )

--------


And, as a super special extra bonus, a preview of (probably) the next chapter:


( asher: pirate. scoundrel. dandy. )

current wordcount (I really should write more tonight augh): 25,548
(where I should be: 28,334. I'M DOING IT WRONG.)

But catching up, I swear. I'm at almost 24k. I'm supposed to have 26.6 by day's end. No problem.
In this chapter: Jonathan is as coooold as ice </foreigner> and Malcolm is a terrible Catholic.

( Chapter VII )

That ending? Totally for you, Brian. I'm having an interesting time writing those two; I want their little tryst to be sort of ambiguous, like you could read it as "oh he just beat Jonathan up", if you weren't looking hard enough.
I'm sure they'll get a dramatic reveal later on or something. And by dramatic reveal, I mean something like...
Louie: Could you guys keep it down next time? I couldn't sleep last night.
Jonathan: Oh? Yes, certainly. Sorry.
Malcolm: :O

Also: did a proper illustration for the chapter preceding.



( which is behind the cut! )

navy h8 pir8s
pir8s h8 navy
o yes.

I am a little behind, wordwise, but with any luck I won't be completely conked out tomorrow on the train, and can get in a few hours of writing then. I haven't decided who the next chapter is going to be seen from. My first instinct was Louie, but she already got a turn. By all rights, it should be Jonathan or Malcolm's go. Thoughts?
Of course, if I have any common sense at all, I'll write that before I go to bed, lest I get any further off track...
ANYWAY.

DUELAN GAEMZ.
God, I fucking love writing Asher. His dialogue always makes me lol.

( chapter what is this six or so )
lol captain pirate

oh oh oh a special bonus illustration, from when this plot was first conceived:

( mad artistic skills behind the cut )
Current wordcount: 21,295
Tomorrow is the halfway point and that is BLOWING MY MIND.

I do not write them much. Generally those are left to Brian, who has an eye for such things. But there was no getting around it, so without further ado, epic skybattel.

I actually think it came out okay. Wordy, but it's NaNo, so that's a good thing.

( Chapter V )





A little of that dialogue and pretty much all the action was ganked from an rp Bri and I did some time back. I hope I kept the general spirit of it intact.

as for today, I have written pretty much nothing. I don't know why I'm stumbling over Asher, of all things - his voice is usually the easiest to write from. I'm going to chalk it up to being sick and a little moody, and will catch myself up tomorrow.

Okay, so I spent a few days resting my creativity (by which I mean being lazy and uninspired) BUT. I have caught myself back up, thanks to the magic of a whole bunch of word wars last night. I am currently on the ~*dramatic aerial battle*~.
However, I'm already doing the same thing I did last year and getting behind myself in excerpts.
General question: should I keep posting the entire thing, or would people rather see snippets?

In any case, here's Chapter IV. All of it, so this one's kind of long. Featuring: the skypirates about to be reckless.

( the morning after )

yeah jensen thinks a lot.
But like I said. Next chapter! Aerial battle! Tell your friends!
Sneak preview:

"How's she holding, Haisley?"
The man at the Vissray's helm looked up from the gauges he'd been watching and chuckled.
"Steady, sir. Just as she was ten minutes ago."

He's awfully lovable. Louie loves him. Unfortunately, it's sort of a brotherly love, which is not what he's after at all. Hence the 'you poor bastard'.

Featuring a really rough illustration of approximately how this chapter starts out.

( Chapter 3 )

d'awww
Next chapter is decidedly more cheerful, I promise. I'm actually at the end of it now, but I don't want these posts to get too long.
In other news, I am so totally on track and it's awesome. I am actually a little ahead of where I need to be. Aw yeah.

Current wordcount: 13817

man, I really don't want to go to work today.

Do they even count as excerpts if I'm posting the whole damned thing (at Brian's request)? Alternately, should I post less? Alternately alternately, does anyone care one way or the other?

Well, whatevs. Right now I am almost at the end of chapter 3, which is the Harvey, You Poor Bastard chapter. But for now, let's round off chapter 2, which is the Louie Is A Pimp chapter.

This is...so vague it's practically worksafe. I have no problem writing explicit stuff, but I don't plan it for this novel, and Louie's presently too drunk to be a proper narrator anyway. Anyway. If extremely innuendoed lesbian sex bugs you, go no further. Otherwise, hop in.

( Mercy be, you're a lady! )

girls kissing girls
not kissing yoooou

current wordcount: 11066. HOORAY FOR PROGRESS.

Tonight was going to be the first night in weeks that I could get a full, comfortable night's rest.
And then I woke up at 7 in the morning, gripped by the need to write something. what.

anyway.
Chapter 2 is now well underway, and I am actually caught up. Right now I am past where I should have been yesterday, and have the rest of the day to write the...1200 or so I need to meet today's goal. Awesome.

IN THIS INSTALLMENT: DRINKING AND WOMEN. Mostly drinking. Louie is totally about to score, though.

( Chapter II )

Current wordcount: 8778

Hey, Bri. Am I writing Harvey properly?

holy crap word wars are THE BEST THING EVER. I am actually on schedule for the first time since I started. I need about 1000 more words by this time tomorrow; I've started measuring my days a little oddly, since I'm not exactly sleeping. Well, okay, I am sleeping. But it's usually about 4 hours, and it happens in the evening. Point is, it makes the whole morning-to-night thing obsolete.

anyway. I have made some considerable progress via warring and these bizarre early-morning creativity bursts. Featured tonight: Asher hates planning and doing boring jobs, Harvey is putting his hands where he shouldn't, and the first description of the undercities!

I have actually written more after this, but this is where the chapter breaks. I'll put up Chapter 2, or what I have of it, with the next batch. Look forward to it, it's from Louie's POV and there is drinking and woman-ogling.

ahaha i love writing asher he's such a dandy

( They were getting out of the doldrums, and that trumped everything else. )

Current wordcount: 7366

Twice now I've had my best spurts of writing early in the morning, after working all day and night. Explain that one. Eventually, this sleep schedule (or lack thereof) is going to kick my ass, but I don't even care because I am ALMOST CAUGHT UP. 4408 words right now.

Included the last paragraph or so of the previous excerpt, just for context's sake. So if it feels like deja vu, well, that's why.
Hey, Bri. Your comment on my last excerpt totally inspired a bit in this one. Muchas gracias.

( S'pose it's doin' us no good t'daydream. )

Three cheers for Ben Finn, captain of the Deus Ex Machina Peregrine!


EDIT: A side note: My USB port has been giving me trouble and corrupting documents. I swore a streak that would have done Harvey proud this morning when I found I'd lost about a day's work on two of my final projects. Fortunately, there are the internets, and someone on my f-list mentioned Google Docs. I encourage you to check it out if you're planning to write from more than one place. Less annoying than emailing back and forth, less unreliable than CERTAIN FLASH DRIVES I'M LOOKING AT YOU EDWARD

oh come on like you don't name your hardware

MUCH EDITING HAS HAPPENED HERE

I'm on kind of a roll right now, which is terrifically exciting. I mean, I'm still behind, but now I'm only one day behind. Oh snap! Yes! I did just cross the magical 1,667 line and I didn't even realize it. Fuck yeah.

So, here it is as it stands...currently at 1770 2288 8D and counting.

Tragically, that's about where I need to leave it for now, cause...boo, work.

I am delighted to say that this first excerpt includes Harvey swearing, which is one of my very favorite things.
( Upward )

and I'm already freaking out. I've written next to nothing. I can't come up with a good start. I know where in the plost I'm starting, but not where in terms of viewpoint, mood, tone, ANYTHING.

dggsdfljhfgkhldlkj fuck fuck fuck

i refuse to fall behind


on the bright side, i just worked out one plot issue. i was trying to figure out how the osprey would contact the peregrine, since it's not like you can exactly send mail to a pirate airship (or from one). i think the peregrine is going to run across them while they're stranded in the doldrums, and asher already knows the captain, and there you go.

edit

okay, it's 6 now and I'm going back to bed so I don't spend another day in exhausted-uncreative-zombie mode. i have just shy of 1000 words.
i feel much better now that i've actually written something. a ~700 word deficit isn't that hard to make up in one day.

wanna hear the first sentence?



Miles above the ground, on the deck of a ship silhouetted violet against the setting sun, Captain Asher Lee was not happy.