After We Descend

NaNo Counter: Day 8

2007-11-09T18:41:34Z

Progress
Words Today: 1903 / Words Total: 16426
Percent Complete: 33%
Most Words in One Day: 2776 / Least Words in One Day: 833
# of Pages: 24
# of Word Wars Won: 3/8
Most Words In a Word War: 789
Least Words In a Word War: 299

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 4
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 2
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: Okay, to be honest, my favorite line last night was from the Studio 60 strike fic I was writing, but since that doesn't count for my NaNo... "And for that matter, you're always around! When do you ever do homework?" ... "What? It's a valid question!" Just... oh, Nate.
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: This last chapter? Much longer than previous chapters. They just keep growing. It would've been shorter, but then Tamara and David got into an argument... and they went on... It's okay, though, because they're adorable.
iTunes reads my mind: Again, most of my writing time was spent watching Burn Notice. I had a reason, but I've forgotten it now.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 4041 / Pages: 7
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 2
City Magic
Word Count: 11501 / Pages: 16
Named Characters: 4 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 1
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 1
Times I've giggled/awwed at Nate: 3 / Tamara: 1 / David: 4
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 5 / Gratuitous Banter: 4

NaNo Counter: Day 7

2007-11-08T07:19:21Z

Progress
Words Today: 2776 / Words Total: 14523
Percent Complete: 29%
Most Words in One Day: 2776 / Least Words in One Day: 833
# of Pages: 22
# of Word Wars Won: 2/5
Most Words In a Word War: 782
Least Words In a Word War: 299

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 4
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 2
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: And with that realization, whatever instinct had been pushing her to the attack whimpered and ran off to hide, leaving her with one screaming, icy, deadly-sharp thought in her mind... Run.
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: The scene with Nate wandering into the shadow city turned out much longer (and much prettier) than I expected. I love the shadow city dearly, and any chance to write it is a joyous thing. Also, the title of that chapter pleases me. All of my chapter titles please me, which is a strange thing. Usually my chapters aren't titled at all, because I just fail at that, but these are coming very, very easily.
iTunes reads my mind: iTunes is strangely unperceptive today. I don't know what to make of it.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 4041 / Pages: 7
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 2
City Magic
Word Count: 9649 / Pages: 14
Named Characters: 4 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 1
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 1
Times I've giggled/awwed at Nate: 2 / Tamara: 1 / David: 3
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 4 / Gratuitous Banter: 3

NaNo Counter: Day 6

2007-11-07T09:17:59Z

Not my best day ever, but I managed one scene...

Progress
Words Today: 833 / Words Total: 11747
Percent Complete: 23%
Most Words in One Day: 2756 / Least Words in One Day: 833
# of Pages: 18
# of Word Wars Won: 0/2
Most Words In a Word War: 782
Least Words In a Word War: 299

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 4
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 2
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: "What looks?" "You know it. The 'someone please rescue me from these maniacs' look, with a touch of 'I'm contemplating bloody murder and kind of liking the idea'."
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: Tamara was surprisingly cooperative today? Maybe she was just being nice to me.
iTunes reads my mind: I did not listen to music while writing today, mostly because it would have made me cry. Instead, I watched several episodes of Burn Notice.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 4041 / Pages: 7
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 2
City Magic
Word Count: 6821 / Pages: 10
Named Characters: 4 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 1
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 1
Times I've giggled/awwed at Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 3
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 3 / Gratuitous Banter: 3

NaNo Counter: Day 5

2007-11-06T07:04:22Z

Progress
Words Today: 1701 / Words Total: 10914
Percent Complete: 22%
Most Words in One Day: 2756 / Least Words in One Day: 1699
# of Pages: 16
# of Word Wars Won: 0/2
Most Words In a Word War: 782
Least Words In a Word War: 299

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 4
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 2
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: At last, she looked up at him, with big, wide brown eyes that could break a heart. If he actually had a heart, if he didn't only look human.
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: I talked with Lee and worked out some plotness. That was nice. And it means I get Tamara's narration for a good chunk of the novel (I am SO not letting David narrate at all - it would be all italics and exclamation points and OH GOD).
iTunes reads my mind: "Manic Monday". Which just... amuses me because the first chapter and a half of City Magic takes place on a Monday, and just... poor Nate. It's a bad day for her.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 4041 / Pages: 7
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 2
City Magic
Word Count: 4194 / Pages: 6
Named Characters: 5 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 1
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 0 / Tamara: 0 / David: 0
Times I've giggled/awwed at Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 3
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 3 / Gratuitous Banter: 2

NaNo Counter: Day 4

2007-11-05T04:34:29Z

Progress
Words Today: 2426 / Words Total: 9213
Percent Complete: 18%
Most Words in One Day: 2756 / Least Words in One Day: 1699
# of Pages: 14
# of Word Wars Won: 0/0
Most Words In a Word War: 0
Least Words In a Word War: 0

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 4
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 1
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: For some reason, I really like the line about Nate's dreams - She didn't sleep well, dreaming of darkness and shadows and some creature stalking her, just out of sight, something with heavy jaws and fearful claws and eyes that caught the scant light occasionally, and glinted with hunger and anticipation. It's not funny like most of my favorite lines, it just... makes me happy.
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: I played with one of Evie's characters to help me out with something later on in the story, and I'm so pleased by his interactions with Tamara and David. Also, I found a PB for David that I just adore. (Alright, it's David Tennant. He would seriously make the most ADORABLE, bouncy David.) Seriously, look at my icons for dirtyprettynyc. They are awesome.
iTunes reads my mind: "Hymn to Her" when I was playing with Nate and hunter-ness, which is just... I don't know, something about it clicks with this story and this verse and especially Nate, and it's hard to put my finger on what.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 3412 / Pages: 6
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 1
City Magic
Word Count: 3122 / Pages: 5
Named Characters: 5 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 1
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 0 / Tamara: 0 / David: 0
Times I've giggled at Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 1
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 1 / Gratuitous Banter: 1

NaNo Counter: Day 3

2007-11-04T14:52:14Z

Progress
Words Today: 1699 / Words Total: 6787
Percent Complete: 14%
Most Words in One Day: 2756 / Least Words in One Day: 1699
# of Pages: 10
# of Word Wars Won: 0/0
Most Words In a Word War: 0
Least Words In a Word War: 0

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 4
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 1
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: The line in which Nate compares David to a pomeranian. That made me laugh so hard it brought tears to my eyes.
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: Nate. Not only is her narration easy, it's funny. I am enjoying her point of view so very much.
iTunes reads my mind: A couple instrumentals from the Serenity soundtrack that perfectly fit the mood of the scene I was writing... I think it was "Into the River" and something else. And then the suite from "Chosen", which... is never inappropriate for Nate.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 3412 / Pages: 6
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 1
City Magic
Word Count: 2239 / Pages: 3
Named Characters: 4 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 1
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 0 / Tamara: 0 / David: 0
Times I've giggled at Nate: 1 / Tamara: 1 / David: 1
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 1 / Gratuitous Banter: 1

NaNo Counter: Day 2

2007-11-03T14:44:20Z

Progress
Words Today: 2332 / Words Total: 5088
Percent Complete: 10%
Most Words in One Day: 2756 / Least Words in One Day: 2332
# of Pages: 8
# of Word Wars Won: 0/0
Most Words In a Word War: 0
Least Words In a Word War: 0

General Insanity
Total Projects: 2
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 3
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 1
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: "You just made cryptic comments and... well... continued to be cryptic." That line alone makes me like Wander more. Annd He hadn't taken into account that she played lacrosse, and well, the gym teacher hadn't taken into account that Nate had a temper, and Nate hadn't taken into account that kicking his balls into his throat would get her stuck in detention until after the sun had set. Bad judgment on everyone's part. That just made me giggle hysterically. I adore Nate.
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: I forgot how easy Nate's point of view is when I'm writing actual stories with her as opposed to quick scenelets. My God. Nate. I missed you.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Word Count: 3412
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1 / Times I've Inserted Pointless Banter: 1
City Magic
Word Count: 540
Named Characters: 1 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've wanted to kill Nate: 0 / Tamara: 0 / David: 0
Times I've giggled at Nate: 1 / Tamara: 0 / David: 0
Gratuitous NYC Rambles: 1 / Gratuitous Banter: 0

NaNo Counter: Day 1

2007-11-02T04:15:19Z

Progress
Words Today: 2756 / Words Total: 2756
Percent Complete: 6%
Most Words in One Day: 2756 / Least Words in One Day: 2756
# of Pages: 5
# of Word Wars Won: 0/0
Most Words In a Word War: 0
Least Words In a Word War: 0

General Insanity
Total Projects: 1
NaNo-induced Freakouts and/or Breakdowns: 3
Notebooks Thrown Across the Room: 0 / Times Flailed at Characters: 1
Times I've Miscounted for One of these Tallies: 0
Favorite Line: "What would you ever do without me?" "Retain my masculinity, for one."
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise: Tristan being not-human. That was unexpected and annoying - but the story's better for it, I think.

Characters/Plottishness
After We Descend
Named Characters: 6 / Suicide Attempts, Near-Deaths or Actual Deaths: 0
Times I've Wanted to kill Tristan: 1 / Wander: 1 / Other Character: 0
Times I've Creeped Myself Out: 1

Introduction... ish

2007-10-31T21:43:58Z

Aevhanwood is an isolated village surrounded by thick forest. Village may not be the best term - that implies some unsophisticated, rural place where everyone spends their time farming or something. Aevhanwood is not that. It's just too tiny to be called a town, much less a city. The inhabitants have had time to shape the architecture and layout of Aevhanwood to their liking, and it's really a beautiful place, if you ignore the fact that it's surrounded by a forest that's deadly after dark.

There are... maybe thirty people who live there, and these people neither age nor die. They are, in all senses of the word, immortal. The people of Aevhanwood, centuries ago, made a deal with Death. Death would not touch them within the limits of the village, nor would she at all during the day (in the woods at night, all bets were off, therefore leaving the village is out of the question). There's just one catch.

They must send their children into the woods at the age of twenty, to spend the night. It's like a rite of passage. You know, the kind no one comes back from. They've been doing this for centuries, ensuring their own immortality.

And then there was Wander and Tristan.

This is allfireburns' NaNo for 2007, After We Descend, a fantasy/horror without magic. All other posts are friends locked. Please friend the journal if you wish to read it - if she recognizes you, she'll friend you back.