First batch of NaNo merch!

It might sound insignificant, but I was a proud donor for National Novel Writing Month during it's Double-Up Donation day! Which basically means I get cool stickers along with my angelic halo! Today I got a letter in the mail from NaNo, containing the most awesome stickers and bookmark combo. Check it out!

It almost feels like NaNo ended so long ago and I'm just flying on fumes that November left in its wake. So far December has been really slow for actual "writing." I haven't added any extra words to my novel in almost two weeks. Instead it's been an entire redesign of my plot and novel structure - and I love what I've done to the story! I've added at least 5 more conflicts to the story in which the characters overcome. I introduce more world-building, to make the setting come alive. I've moved scenes around to put more action in the beginning, letting my characters discover the story themselves instead of me (the writer) telling it point-blank. 

So as slow as my novel might be progressing, getting these silly little stickers in the mail really brightened my day. It was a nice reminder of ALL the content I've already written - I have a really solid foundation for a book. 

It's also my first time as a writer, and I'm accepting the fact that my first draft has taught me so much! It taught me that until I get more practice, I can't keep my first draft the way it is. I'll be cutting and changing a lot of what I wrote. And every time I look at the cute stickers on my desk (and eventually my winning NaNo T-Shirt!!), I know that I have already took the biggest leap into making a novel. I've accomplished a lot! 

Is it silly to be motivated by a bookmark? Of course not!

Let's see the rest of this day out with a smile!

I bought Scrivener!

Today I used my 50% off coupon from winning NaNo to purchase the
Scrivener writing program. I've spent most of today watching tutorials and setting up with my novel format.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!

This program was made for planners. Recently it's been hard for me to keep track of my outline, notes, character profiles by flipping through various Microsoft docs while writing. This program keeps it all in one place. I can make notes on everything! I love notes :D

I have so much freedom to continue writing now, I feel so giddy! Those virtual note cards are so cute. Rewriting my outline with note cards and little documents in Scrivener has also helped me to consolidate everything  - now I can delve quicker into conflicts and I added more of those as well. Like, a new character that commands a band of daemon hunters!

I've gone from a 32 chapter novel back down to 29 chapters, at the same time while adding more content. Maybe just the better visualization of my novel structure was all I needed to get my inspiration back!

Now that my Scrivener project is setup, I still need to copy my text into the appropriate sections and find out what my new total word count is. I'm only going to copy the writing that I like, without any strikeouts! That will be left in my Word docs and I'll continue to fix those up later. (I still need to figure out a really funny and failed proposal attempt for Isaac!)

My next blog will post my word counts and progress with Scrivener. From then on, I feel more than confident to continue writing on my novel. It needs to be finished and now I'm so excited to continue!!! Yay!!!

Time for reflection

I've missed a couple days from my blog and it's time to fill in the gaps! For the last couple of days since I made my story outline, I've taken the time to reflect on the story and do some research.

Even though I've chosen a path of events, there are still so many solutions swimming around in my head. I needed some time to let that commotion settle, so I can see my story clearly from this point on and feel confident about the direction I'm taking.

What is my main plot?
I've written my plot and story outline, but I wasn't really sure the "type" of plot I was going for. Was this a mystery, solving clues about the world? Or was this a "journey" plot, where characters needed to travel from point A to B?

So far, I've just looked at events and structure to determine what my plot I was. Recently I looked toward my characters instead - why are they in this story? What are their motivations? And what was the "theme" of the story I wanted to tell?

Doing some research, I came across this link: Discovery Plots
I found out that the main plot type I like the most is:

• "Discovery Plot:" It has a focus on characters and their quest to understand who they are. 

There are common questions like: who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning to life? A discovery plot shows answers to these questions using characters and situations that seem real and concrete, instead of using philosophical abstractions.

When I read through that material, I realized that I was using mostly philosophical abstractions. I was preaching to my reader and providing answers without having the characters do anything but accept the facts. That will make the whole story seem flat.

Another point in the article stated:

• A hard struggle shouldn't result in a trivial change. Nor should a trivial struggle turn into a major change. The degree of upheaval mirrors the depth of the [character's] revelation. 

Looking back at my story, I think was guilty of using lots of trivial changes. The characters were mostly successful at everything they did and it didn't seem to change them for the better. Everyone and every thing was so...goody-two-shoes.

Where was the conflict?? 

Then there is the matter of using sub-plots. 

Aside from the main plot of discovery, other character's need to explore their feelings and dreams. They have things they want to accomplish. Each of them could have a subplot to add to the story. I recently watched Brandon Sanderson's lecture on his plotting method. 

His plot needs a constant sense of progression. If you need to move the story forward, but the next big plot event is still a ways off, weave in a sub-plot or character story to fill in the gaps. So I took a look at my story and have identified some subplots:

1. Jason's curiosity to find out what happened to the old civilization (the old world)
2. Jason's new relationship with another girl...
3. Shiri's desire to find her real family
4. Isaac's desire to win over Shiri's heart and perhaps learn more about his mother's disappearance
5. Introduction of a villian...

All of that being said...
So now I've had time to reflect on my story and it's current state. I am glad I took that time. Now I can see my outline as still too strict: it's a series of events instead of meaningful conflicts that allow the characters to participate in the story. I don't want my characters to just do what they're told. I want them to take over and make choices!

There will be some big changes coming to my manuscript. At this point, I don't think I can just leave the first half of my book the way it is and not fix it....now I see it being too messy. Seeing as how I haven't been able to writing productively in over four days, it's clear that I will just give in to my urge to rearrange what I have and set it in order. Sure that means editing a little. 
But I think I have to at this point. And it makes me excited to do it and get back on track with the remaining chapters!!

Outlining - Again!

I've really been itching to finish my story just so I can restructure it, arrange the chapters differently, and make sure everything flows correctly. Honestly I love revisions! It's like a logic puzzle where I can make my story pieces fit exactly how I want and clean up my language.

So today I indulged myself and worked on my story outline for the last time! I started with the three-act structure described by KatyTastic, but then I added in some extra chapters just for "explanations" and more reaction time for the characters.

I went through my story first and then created my outline. Previously I was doing it the other way around, but trying to cram my story into an outline structure just wasn't working.


I'm happy to say that I finished my novel outline complete with 32 chapters.  This is the structure that I've made (without my story notes of course!)

ACT I – Setup: Introduce problems

Setup – Introduce hero in the ordinary world
1) Introduction of hero
2) Inciting incident
3) Immediate reaction of said incident

Conflict – A problem disrupts the hero’s life
4) Long term reaction to incident
5) Action
6) Consequence of taking said action

Resolution – Hero’s life has changed directions and pushed into the new world
7) Pressure and stress
8) Pinch – plot twist that he can’t ignore
9) Push – into the new world whether he likes it or not

ACT II – Conflict: Play around with problems

Setup – Hero explores and experiences the new world
10) Hero enters the new world!
11) Inciting incident to introduce differences in new world
12) Experience events in the new world
13) Finish these events and find the call to action, the reason to be a hero!
14) Gain new weapons, powers, or abilities. Time to experiment with them.
15) Before you kill yourself, time to get some training with those abilities

Conflict – Hero encounters crisis of the new world
16) See the different between new and old worlds
17) Problem brings them together
18) Build up to the midpoint (contemplation and thinking of choices. No action yet?)
19) Midpoint – things change or a false victory
20) Reversal – what the midpoint changes for the hero (what is the false part. The crap part!)

Resolution – Hero is now dedicated to finding a solution
21) Reaction – how hero reacts to the change within himself
22) Action – time to take action for himself!
23) Dedication – how completely dedicated to finding solutions!

ACT III – Resolution: Everything falls apart, but hero puts it back together!

Setup – A dedicated, transformed hero faces problems so great that victory seems impossible
24) Trials – they face things they never have in the old world. It’s good they are so dedicated now!
25) Problem drives them apart – another plot twist that makes things even worse
26) Darkest moment – no hope and gonna give up!

Conflict – Hero must find the power within and take action
27) Power within – hero has to find it!
28) Action – now THEY are the ones making stuff happen. They have control!
             a. Self-sacrifice or symbolic death?
29) Converge – the previous action now forces the plot to converge and come together

Resolution – Hero fights and the battle ends (hopefully he wins!), resolving the quest
30) Battle!
31) Climax – point of no return
32) Resolution – what happens after the climax? How do they return to their world? Answer all questions, or leave a cliffhanger for next book!

==================

Right now, I'm just starting Chapter 16 and my word count is above 60k. I can see there is a lot of information packed into the middle of the story, and I can't help worrying about it. Will that make my story feel boring in the middle? Or am I just not identifying events correctly as I write them? Those questions come from my "planner" personality, that likes to take over my brain from time to time. 

That's why I decided to print out my outline and leave it on my desk as I type along. That way I can see where I'm going and do my best to stay on track. If I can fit more events into a single chapter during Act II, then I'll cross it off on my sheet. 

There won't be any story excerpts or word count updates for today either. My plan is mostly to sprint and try out different scenes that are on my outline. I want to play around with events and see what I like. I'm hoping that will jump start my creativity for writing the second half of the story!

No more false declarations....I promise!

Lately I've been typing up my blog posts in the morning, and writing in the afternoons. I did this because I usually used all my interesting words in my story, and there just wasn't anything witty left to blog about.

However.

This combination has turned out to be rather...disappointing. I definitely felt guilty about being super determined to have a huge word count and failing horribly at it. That's why I want to formally apologize to the world:

I will no longer declare my goals before I reach them!

From this point on, no matter how excited I might be at 10am, I will not set any word count goals for the rest of the day. Or rest of the month! Only honest descriptions of my writing experience will stick to this blog for the rest of eternity. *wink*

So I just finished writing for the evening. I pulled through and got my new word count at:

60,606 words!  I hit a new landmark, and finished up two chapters. 

EXCERPT

Hmmm...and as much as I think about an excerpt today, I kinda want to go out of order. I wrote a piece about Isaac's past that I like, just haven't fit it into the main story yet. Here is a tidbit about his backstory!

==============

With fully bellies and warm bodies, the three of them felt the weight of the day on their shoulders. At first everyone collapsed on their separate beds. But Isaac sat with his hands behind his head, looking up at the painted ceiling. “What do you guys think? Are we really sleeping in a completely different world right now?”

Shiri sat up, pulling the blankets around her as she sat crossed legged. “Well, there I still don’t know for certain. But this place does seem different. I just…feel like I’m being tricked into believing some fairy tale.”

Isaac was silent for a moment. “He said that people could get trapped on this side. That some people get lost in this world and never come back. I wonder what happens to them.”

Shiri wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She scooted herself out of bed and padded the floor over to his spot on the floor. She sat, wrapping her blanket around her knees. “Are you talking about your mother?”

                “It did cross my mind, yes,” Isaac closed his eyes. “It’s been almost six years since she disappeared into the forests. Most people assumed she drowned in the stream, and the more superstitious said the mists took her. But my dad, he never stopped believing she was alive. But if I think she was trapped on this side the whole time ….”

                Shiri pulled her knees closer to her chest. “Can I ask, what happened to her?”

Isaac sighed and shifted his hands behind his head. From his expression, Shiri thought he didn’t plan to answer. But instead he took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling again. “Back when my dad first started salvaging, he and my mom would go to the ruins scattered close by. They searched for replacement parts, hand-held machines, little things they could refurbish and sell. It was just before he took on any apprentices.”

                “Yeah I know. I think I only saw your mother a couple times before…”Jason trailed off.

                “Anyway, their business wasn’t doing so good. Their local deposits of salavage had been picked clean. They needed some fresh supplies or their money would run out. My dad sent letters out to his friends in the other villages, asking if they were willing to share information about new ruins. Lucky for him, the old Shelden family reported a downed freighter ship near the railways where they lived.

               "My parents were thrilled. They went straight to work on that old cow, fixing it up and dreaming of the day she would fly again. That’s when they invented the idea of the Waymakers – merchants of goodwill that can transport goods to other people no matter the distance! I was excited too. My sister and I made bread and warm tea for our parents when they would work long hours. Soon there was only one part left to replace: the stupid engine converter.”

The air in the room changed with Isaac’s silence. Shiri could tell that the meat of the story was coming next, and yet she regretted wanting to know what it was. The teenage guy sitting in front of her was annoying most of the time, but he was strong. Reliable. And now she was the one who made him look so angry and weak.

                “Another hovercraft of an older model was found farther away from our town. Normally a group of five men at least were needed to travel that distance, to carry supplies and defend against the animals. But my father was too impatient – too stubborn – to wait for the caravan. He convinced my mother and me to leave early. He said we should travel the roads before the rains would wash the wreck down into the valley.

                Trouble was, the rains did come. Storms followed them all along the roads, but my dad refused to turn back. By the time they got to the wreck, the waters had already risen too. When my mother reached into the engine core, the water mixed with the exposed wiring and caused a small fire.  Frightened by the flames, she slipped from the machine and landed in the gushing mud.

               "The weight of her body caused the edge of the cliff to cave in. I tried to reach out to help her, but I wasn’t strong enough,” Isaac had to pause. He swallowed and slowly continued. “She fell down the hill and into the flooded stream at the bottom. My dad forgot about me and just leapt in after her. He dug through the mud with his bare hands for so long. The rain was coming down harder and I kept crying for him to come back up. I was so pathetic…”

                “Come on, you were still so young. You couldn’t have done anything,” Shiri spoke.

                “Her body was never found. My dad came back to that spot every day for the next six months, sometimes camping out there for a week at a time. He never found anything, and he never got over her.”

==============

A new goal for December

I've set aside today to be a full-length, full-blown day of word explosions *BAM* Yesterday I decided to finish my novel's first draft at the end of this month. It's my personal goal to enter 2015 with a giant stack of paper that I can call my book!

So today the fires of NaNo will reignite. If December was marked as another writing month called "NaNoFinMo", today's par would be:
13,333 new words!

Add that to the 50k from NaNo, that should put us around 63k today (no pressure Vals!)

Since November finished, I've brought my new word count to a beautiful 8,471 new words. It will be child's play to bring myself back up to par with a full day of writing, crazy madness that I shall summon from the deepest parts of my mind!

Or the empty bottom of my Lego coffee cup :D

My latest writing technique has changed over the last week. My mornings have now started with cuddling on the couch with a blanket and coffee, looking through various blogs on my iPad. As I'm too buggered to move after thirty minutes, I've pulled up my note app and just started typing out the next set of notes for my novel. The last couple times I've done this, I've typed at least 800 - 1000 words. When I finally feel the urge to rejuvenate my caffeine levels, I email my notes to myself. Get up, grab another cup of coffee, and sit down at the computer to extend my notes into dialog and descriptions.

Today was no different - except the notes I took were for a rewrite. The scene I ended with yesterday didn't make any sense. Why would a character that wanted to earn your trust suddenly attack you and then say "hah just kidding." Nooooo not a good idea. So my Monday will thus begin with CUTTING words out, but I'm confident the scene will be better in the end.

Word count for the day:  8490  words....
(*Update* lol at my funny arrow comment: <--- this will be so huge and awesome. just wait for it!)
I'm too guilty to highlight the numbers. Maybe people will gloss over this updated word count and not realize that it's only like 20 extra words from what I had before. I guess that's what I get for deleting almost 1000 words today. Ewww - I just couldn't stand the thought of yet another strikeout paragraph is my doc.

EXCERPT

So....characters are chilling in their room for the night. But the excitement is not over yet!

===============

The last couple hours blurred in Isaac’s mind. The events passed too quickly for him to catch one and remember what really happened. He had almost convinced himself this whole day was a dream until Jason bolted up from the couch and stared at the door. No one moved. Jason took a single step and brought up his wrist with the new watch. Then with a single action he waved his right hand forward and used his left to grapple it. “Expand!”

Gold mist escaped his lips and floated down to his arms. The watch untangled itself and straightened out of its spiral, a golden sword falling heavily into his left hand. Jason grasped it and swung it forward, ready to strike.

Shiri yelped and caught her foot on the edge of the giant mattress, falling out of the bed. “What’s going on, you guys?” she sputtered.

Isaac scrambled up from his seat, almost tying his angle in the strap from his rifle. He stumbled forward onto one knee, but still managed to cram the gun into the indent of his left shoulder. He squinted with one eye and lined up his sights along the muzzle, pointing toward the door.

Clearly noticing the commotion for the first time, Jason twitched and turned around to see his comrades sprawled out on the floor. He frowned and gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands. “Isaac, why are you pointing a gun at me?”

                “Get out of the way! If there’s a monster coming through, I wanna hit it between the eyes!”

                 “Monster – you mean a daemon is out there?” Shiri cried out. “You can’t be serious. Not again!”

                “Whoa, really? How can you tell?” Jason asked, but got into a solid stance.

                “Isn’t that why you took your sword out? “ Isaac asked

                “No, I was just testing something.”

A drop of sweat ran down from Isaac’s forehead. He held his gun steady, but glanced up at Jason studying him. “So, there’s no impending attack behind the door?” Isaac asked.

                “Uh, not that I know of.”

Isaac relaxed his grip and set the gun back down on the floor, followed by a long breath of air. Shiri finally crawled out from under the bed. “Seriously, both of you almost gave me a heart attack,” she yelled. “What was that all about?”

                “I just wanted to test out some theories about how these elemental weapons work. I figured if you could use a single word to shrink it into something else, the opposite word would return it to normal. Looks like I was right!” Jason grinned triumphantly. He hiked his sword up a little to prove his point.

Isaac threw his gun onto the floor and stood up making weird sound effects with his tongue. “Of all the…gah…Jay! Have a heart man!” Isaac complained, flailing his arms around to emphasize his words. “After what we’ve been through, you can’t start swinging a magical sword around all of the sudden! “

                “I can assure you, there’s nothing magical about it – “

                “Whatever,” Isaac cut him off. “I just want to live through the rest of this day. Hopefully when it’s over, I’ll just wake up from this bad dream, lying in my bed at home and not remember anything about beasties trying to chop my head off.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Isaac saw Shiri shuffling around on the ground. He turned to see what she was doing. Her right hand was covered in a blue fabric glove with electric pulses dancing across the tops of her knuckles. She had a curious look on her face. She stared at her glove and took a deep breath.

                “Shiri! Didn’t you hear what I just – ”

A big blue bubble of electricity expanded into the room, enveloping Isaac by the ankles and dragging him into the air by one foot. Half of him floated near the ceiling like a balloon, while his hair barely brushed the floor. He reached for the legs of the couch to pull himself down, but ended swinging side to side like a pendulum. Shiri ran forward help, but she couldn’t touch him through the bubble. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for it to do that!” she exclaimed.

                “I don’t care if you’re sorry, just get me down from here!” Isaac cried.

Shiri whimpered and repeatedly mashed different buttons on her glove. Instead of helping, the barrier only grew larger. Soon it caught one of the stadium chairs, sucking it into the bubble. It circled around Isaac’s waist like a deadly satellite.

She burst forth another stream of apologies and ducked out of the way before the bubble sucked her in too. Jason jumped over the couch and cleared it as he landed next to Shiri. He grabbed her wrist and examined the small display on top of the glove.  

                “Just try to calm down and use the same word to shrink the glove again,” Jason urged her.

                “I can’t remember what to say,” she spat, her lip trembling.

                “The word was ‘reduce.’ All you need to do is make it small again,” Jason clapped a hand on her shoulder. “You can do this.”

Shiri took another breath, but it stuck in her throat. She swallowed and thought yelling might be the best way to say it. “REDUCE!”

The bubble waivered and finally popped into blue sprays of confetti that disintegrated before it hit the floor. Isaac’s ankle was released and his shoulders hit the floor first in a loud crunch. Shiri ran over to him first and fell to her knees. She reached out both hands to help him up, but Isaac swatted her away in one swipe. “I just got done saying don’t DO things like that!” he gave an angry huff. “Does nobody listen to me?!”

                “I said was sorry like ten times already,” Shiri pouted. She rubbed one finger over the aquamarine ring on her middle finger. “I just…wanted to see if my glove would respond the same way as Jason’s weapon did.”

                “It’s definitely interesting the way the element reacts to both of us,” Jason started and looked over at his sister. His eyes sparkled. “How did you activate it?”

                “Seriously? I almost got brutally injured and all you want to know is how she did it?” Isaac rolled onto his belly and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He turned away from them, rubbing the lower muscles in his back. “You guys are heartless.”

===============

Actual writing on a non-writing day

Look what my friend Valerie sent me!

She said that she'd send me the sunshine and she kept her promise! My muse, the blue sky, has finally returned to me. Hopefully I can get some good writing done today instead of scribbling in my notebook or typing on my iPad. 

In my story, I'm at a point where my characters get a chance to rest and reflect on everything that happened to them so far. I've given them two different reactions so far: the first is that they just accept everything at face value and think it's awesome. The second is that they freak out and pretend everything was a bad dream - they want to completely forget. Both of those seem...fake....at least to me. Today I'm going to try the more logical reaction: mix a little grumpy with unbelief, then add a dash of excitement. One of the characters will have a negative reaction, while the other produces a positive response. They can test out their theories, and build a truth for themselves. It sounds logical at the moment!

For writing after NaNo, I've started a new document. It begins in the middle of Chapter 14 where I left off. So far it's clean, without any brackets, highlights, or comment balloons. I've reached a new word count of:  4,715 words since NaNo!

Let's do some math. I finished November with: 50,387 words. 

So that means my story is officially 55,102 words long. Woot!

MAGICAL EXCERPT LOCATION

The next logical piece of writing is the "finally some answers" scene, that describes the realm, their weapons, and daemons. Unfortunately that writing is covered in notes and needs serious editing before I allow anyone to read it. So...pretend you know SOME of the answers and kinda skip to after that conversation. Here the characters are ready to crash for the night.

==============

Sun walked away from the circular platform.Vertical windows draped into the wall and made the fuzzy blue carpets seem purple in the fading sunlight. Sun turned to stare out the windows and frowned. Jason could see miles of grasslands and forests that extended past the institute, but nothing that would cause her expression. It looked really peaceful out there, like the new world they stumbled into didn’t really exist, and that the warrior standing next to him was a just senile, middle-aged woman. Although the man completely on fire to his right stopped that illusion rather fast.

                “I don’t like how it keeps getting dark so soon,” she whispered, furrowing her eyes and staring at her hands. She curled her fingers into fists and tensed, like she was ready to punch through the window.

                “It’s not your fault, child,” the fire spirit replied without looking at her. He seemed to be focused on the forests as well. “Now then,” he turned back to the group, his face changing to a brighter flame, “it’s obvious that the forests are much too dangerous to travel at night. I suggest you spend the night.”

Sun breathed a last heavy sigh and forced a smile as she turned back to the group. “Make sure you keep your weapons with you at all times. Let me show you how.” Sun took out her silver sword and pointed the blade at Isaac’s chest.” Before he had time to finish his sputtering response, she spoke a single word. “Reduce.”

Thin strands of golden dust escaped from her parted lips and swirled down to rest on her blade. As her lips closed on the last syllable, the mist created a symbol Jason never saw before. It glowed brightly and then melted into the silver metal, instantly causing the sword to change shape. It quickly retracted into its center and formed an intricately carved silver bracelet, sitting neatly in the palm of her hand. She slid it over her left wrist.

                “You see, words control everything here,” she spoke with confidence.  “It’s another rule of this realm. Words have the power to manipulate both physical and spiritual laws. Try it on your own weapons.”

Jason was stunned. “So if I understand this correctly,” Jason spoke and took a step away from the woman, “our weapons respond to both our touch and certain voice commands?”

                “How truly crude and scientific your mind must be,” the fire spirit frowned, “but yes, you are technically correct.”

He didn’t know how it was possible to change the composition of metal, but Jason just saw it happen before his eyes. Isaac simply shrugged his shoulders, while Shiri examined the underside of her glove. “What the hell, might as well try it. “Isaac offered. They all stretched out their weapons at the same time. “Reduce!”

Golden mist fell from their lips in a short puff before disappearing. The sword in Jason’s hand twisted around his forearm and shrank around itself. The hilt of the sword flipped up and the liquid-looking blade circled around his wrist. Numbered digits suddenly displayed from within the metal. Jason stared at his brand new digital watch!

Shiri’s glove had melted into the top of her hand, the rubber and circuits wrapping around her middle finger into a beautiful blue ring. Issac’s gun…was still a gun. Confused he looked between his companions and then shouted at his weapon again.

                “Erm, I guess you don’t have an elemental weapon,” Sun said apologetically. “But I believe you can press the bottom red button to make it more compact.”

Isaac turned the gun in his hands and noticed the red button near his thumb for the first time. He pressed it and the bottom of the gun flipped into itself. The barrel retracted and the gun folded up from a rifle into a pistol. “That’s it?” he complained. “So I’m the only one that has to carry a weapon by hand?”

                “Well you did make the choice…” the fire spirit started to explain. Isaac cut him off with a swing of his palm. “I know, I know. Whatever.”

=============

NaNoFinMo - First official writing day!

Sticking with my awesome writing buddy Valerie, we have decided among ourselves that we still need a weekly challenge to keep our novels going. I got to pick Monday and Thursday as the official days we can get together online and motivate each other to keep those word counts rising.

And what do you know, I need to go out of town today for a meeting. It never fails, me! Why do I always pick the bad days! Are Thursday's just haunted for writing?

Blergh. Even though I'll be stuck on a train for almost three hours, I will use that time to write instead of complain! I'll have my trusty iPad and I'll use it to make an extra story chapter - not play Candy Blast Mania
(*I promise*)

Speaking of chapters, I've struggled a lot this week with finalizing my novel outline. I've been trying to shove my story into a perfect little three act format complete with 27 chapters. And it's just not working! This is the split between planner and pantser that I've continually run into. It seems that if I try to plan too far ahead, I get myself stuck. So I wrote down my plot without chapter numbers and I put away in a separate file. Not gonna look at it! For now, I'll just keep in my memory and just write whatever the heck I want! Perhaps that's just a lesson I need to figure out since I'm a newbie writer.

That brings us to the next chunk of story story writing. When I stopped NaNo, I brought my characters into the parallel realm, gave them some awesome weapons, and showed them some of the rules of this new world. Things are not always as they seem! So the next part to write is recording their reactions and training them how to fight some baddies.

I made a brick of notes yesterday around 1400 words, so I'm gonna focus on expanding that into story content. Today I wrote... --->200 words....<---- On notebook paper. And....I'm too tired to type them. Well. Note to self: don't schedule writing days on train days!

Good luck with writing everyone!

--->EXCERPT<---

Well. Let's just use an older excerpt from NaNo then, shall we? I don't even think what I wrote today could make any sense if I were to type it up. So...yay! Character's have their cool magical weapons! Time to test them out.

================

The beast was much smaller than the one they had seen outside and it looked more like a dog than a bull. That didn’t stop the imminent fear of dread crawling over Jason’s skin. “I present to you the ultimate scientific test,” the scientist pronounced with great exaggeration. “Every trial you’ve faced so far has prepared you for this battle. Use your new weapons to defeat this daemon!”

A shuffling scratched at the microphone and it sounded like Sun had grabbed it in a hurry. “Don’t worry,” she tried to reassure them. “That one’s just a baby, practically harmless!” That didn’t stop the beast from shooting a fireball right past Jason’s head.

                “This is insane!” he cried out.

                “Didn’t the grass and sky just materialize, along with the daemon?” Shiri asked.

                “Well yeah, but that fireball felt really real. And might have fried my hair.”

The creature curled up on a little grassy spot in the middle of the room. Once white flowers were now black and steamy. Jason held his sword in one hand and danced around the creature, looking for an opening. He jabbed the weapon in front of him, but quickly side-stepped to the right when the creature growl. They followed each other’s stare, the daemon’s back now exposed to Shiri.

“Well just distract it or something, I have an idea,” his sister suggested. She looked at her glove, little blue energy lines starting to race across its surface. He saw her eyes light up and she took a fighting stance, legs spread apart. If she was going to attack, he needed to distract the daemon. Jason gripped the padded hilt and lunged at the beast, swiping the blade horizontally over its belly.  The blade bounced off like hitting rubber and sent violent vibrations up both arms.

                “Confirmed! Even if this room is fake, that creature is here in it with us,” Jason said.

                “It looked like you didn’t even scratch it!”

                “Ya think?!”

 The creature seemed to grin as it lowered itself into a squat. Jason thought it was about to attack, but instead the beast shuddered, new muscles popping out from all its joints. The legs grew longer and the torso shot a meter into the air. It probably grew a whole new set of teeth too.

                 “What did you do?” Shiri cried out and rolled to the right. Not knowing what else to do, she lowered onto one knee and aimed her glove at the demon’s rear. Energy crackled and congealed into a small bubble, emerging from the front of her fist. It didn’t travel far before it waivered and popped.

Now Jason was sure he heard the beast laugh. Again it stretched its limbs in a downward crouch and its red eyes glared at them. It’s chest popped forward and it’s paws grew the size of truck tires. A large whip of a tail drilled out of the creature’s back and chased Shiri as ran to join Jason. Now the daemon was the size of the house, just like the giant hammers they dodged from the first trial.

                “These weapons are completely useless after all!” Jason yelped and dodged another fireball with Shiri right behind him. “If this thing grows any bigger, we are gonna get stepped on before we find a way out of here!”

The man on the intercom finally came back to life. “That is very strange. I can assure you that the weapons recorded a 100% match against your DNA patterns. They should be working.” He stopped to think for a moment.”Perhaps you haven’t activated them yet?”

                “Activated? You mean there’s a power button somewhere?”

                “Remember the weapon is made from an element now bonded to your DNA. It will react however you direct it. So…how do you feel right now?” the man asked.

Jason pulled his sister to the ground so they could miss the giant leather tail from ripping them in half. “How am I feeling?” Jason barked back, his face buried in the dirt. “Scared out of my freaking mind! I would really like an exit about now.”

The demon dog scratched at the dirt and sprung from his hindquarters. Jason skin pricked around his neck with the vibration of the creature’s passing. The beasts back foot kicked out before it landed. Jason tried to get out of the way, but it hit him square in the shoulder. His teeth vibrated so hard they almost flew out of his mouth as he flipped over backwards.

He was expecting to spit up blood when he landed, but his teeth kept buzzing. It felt like –

Jason started to theorize out loud. “Okay, since that idiot of a scientist isn’t going to help us, let’s try to think this through.” The daemon’s tail slammed into the ground, sending a spray of grass and fake flowers into the air. “In the previous test, he wanted to test our reflexes. There was a pulse combined with a danger. “

                “And it feels pretty dangerous now!” Shiri rolled to the right.

                 “Remember what happened to your glove! Before it looked like it created some type of energy bubble before. What were you thinking about?” Jason offered and jumped closer to her position on the ground.

                “Honestly, I thought it was getting ready to fire some type of laser beam. “ she replied. “I felt the energy building up in my hand. But nothing happened.”

                “Wait that’s not true. That’s not what happened!” Jason had to think, but it was really hard when a demon dog was trying either to bit your head off or crush you like an ant. “The glove gave off an energy pulse when the creature was still small.”

                “Before I was afraid of it – “her voice trailed off. She picked up a fistful of dirt and let it slip through her fingers. She saw the grass clippings smudged against her shoes. And now she noticed the vibrations tingling across her lips. “This place isn’t real,” she whispered to herself and closed her eyes.

================

NaNoFinMo....?

National Novel Finishing Month?
I wanted something witty to mark this December as the month I will FINISH my novel! Last month was an amazing eye-opener to my ability to write and make my story come alive on the page. And even though 50k words sounds like a lot, I found that I had only written half of my original idea! There's no way I'm going to stop writing until the whole thing gets done on paper...well, virtual paper.

Since I won NaNoWriMo on November 29, I've been taking it easy and sleeping in. I've taken the time to watch some more Youtube videos on writing techniques. That made me focus my efforts on creating a brand new outline for the rest of my novel. I found out that while ACTUALLY writing, I went with the flow a little too much and kinda got myself off track. Even though I want to edit, like really really a lot, I'm not gonna do that yet. I still need to finish the rest of the story!

So things I've done today so far:

1. Create a new plot outline for the rest of my story, divided into chapters! (Again Katytastic really helped me out: Three Act Outline )
2. Fleshing out my characters - giving them qualities and traits.
3. Download a voice recorder app for my ipad!

I really like number 3! I tend to talk to myself a lot as I'm writing, but I can't type the words fast enough before I forget some things. So NOW I can record myself! Never again will I miss a word from my own geeky voice!

There are still a lot of questions still floating in my head about the story I'm trying to write - it feels like I'm mixing too many genres, that it will leave the reader confused instead of inspired. The story starts off with some sci-fi, techy stuff, and kinda leaks into fantasy. And things just get way freaky as the characters storm into a different realm all together. Can I actually combine sci-fi and fantasy like, that? Is that possible?

Fortunately I will deny myself from answering that until December is over, and my first draft is complete! Write on and new authors unite!

NaNo Day 30 - The Wrap Up

So it's finally the end of National Novel Writing Month. If you saw my winning video clip, I am totally beyond happy with myself for pushing through 50,000 words in a single month. There were a lot of things I learned about myself and how to keep on writing even when I didn't feel like it.

And I totally ordered my winning T-Shirt!!!!

Number one thing I learned about myself: 

It takes 76 CUPS OF COFFEE TO WIN NANOWRIMO!!!

1) Planner or Panster? It turns out I just have to use whatever works each day! There is no magical method that I've been able to cling to yet. I outlined my story, did some world building, and simple character profiles before NaNo began.  It turns out that WHILE writing, I let myself be led by inspiration way off course. There are parts of my outline that were lost and character relationships that changed. There's no way I could have made it through November if I had clung religiously to my first outline; instead the story flourished as I went with the flow of things.

2)  Writing techniques! I probably tried every single one. I have a little purple notebook that I use during the mornings to jote down story notes and chapter points. I tried index cards. I tried writing in the morning, during the night. Forcing myself and being inspired. Using both music and silence to inspire me. I think I NEED to have variation every day for my writing to work.

However I think the technique I've liked the best is:  expanding bullet points! I'll write a general idea for a chapter, and keep adding bullet notes in-between my main plot points. By the time I have a list of 25 points, I've already expanded into a whole page of text. Most of the time that works for me!

3)  Word sprints are your friend! Before this month started, I didn't even know what a word sprint is. But now I feel like it's a very necessary exercise to get into the flow of writing during the day. Just give yourself a time limit like 10 minutes, and just don't stop typing. Let the words flow and keep your fingers moving. Not only did this start me into the habit of writing for the day, I created new story ideas that I loved! Try out writtenkitten if you want to challenge yourself to a sprint!

4)  Research about writing technique! No, authors are not just dropped from the sky, stuck at the computer, and magically type out an award-winning novel without any type of writing experience. It was really helpful to me to watch Youtube videos like: Katytastic's three act novel outline, Brandon Sanderson's lectures on fantasy writing, and reading essays on character voice.

5) Have a writing buddy! Any one that's followed my blog knows I've gone through this journey with writing twinsie, Valerie! She's been there to support me every day during November, through blogs, excerpts, advice, and just spending silly time on skype. Going through this contest with someone else is a sure way to stay motivated.

6)  Murder your internal editor! I cannot count how many times I just wanted to stop writing to go back and edit the chapters I had. The text was boring. Characters were left out. The plot was too obvious. And it was so hard to just keep writing when I knew what I had wasn't good. Luckily I learned about the strikeout and bracket tricks!

• Strikeout Text:  If you don't like it, strikeout the text you have as a visual reminder that you need to change it. BUT! Don't delete it. Keep the word count and just come back to it later. Maybe you will change your mind about it
• Bracket Tricks:  If you really don't know what to write, like dialogue, but can't think of anything witty to say, use brackets! Like [...she told a joke about cheese right here...]. It's a complete time saver, you know the plot, and continue the story.
• Comments:  This is an extra one if you're using Microsoft word. I will highlight some text and place a comment balloon over it if something needs to be changed for later. I use comments instead of brackets if that text is important to plot, or to keep those facts in mind for another scene. 

7)  Cooking dinner! Is usually impossible when you are writing. I was totally horrible with my eating habits in November, most of the meals coming from the freezer or the crockpot. Yay for chili! And hamburgers! Not to mention I think that my fiance and I went out to eat like....at least twice a week. I would totally advise tricking your friends into inviting you over during a write-o-thon and having them cook so you can keep typing.

==========================================

So the list of my invaluable learning experiences will continue to grow as I continue to write. Like I said, my novel isn't done yet. I probably have another 50% more text to write! WOO-HOO!

It's a good thing my December will also be mostly quiet, so I can concentrate on it. I'll let you guys know if I'll post more excerpts, because like #6, I can't start editing yet! I have like 5 strikeout paragraphs and like 30 bracket sections I need to fill in!!! :O

So! Time to keep writing....well....actually today, I'm just gonna chill with my coffee cup and some YouTube. I think I deserve a day of rest. Peace out!

NaNo Day 29 - Time to be a winner!!!!

Holy cows in pasture. Do you know what day this is?? Do you? Do you have any idea what amazing, absolutely spectacular day this is?

Take a look at this picture of Microsoft word - look at it. 

THAT is from my NaNo Novel Document! That means today is the day that I'm a winner!!!!!!!!!!! Here is an awesome video to document my amazing winning moment for all to see and appreciate. I cannot believe this day has come, and one day early of the contest!

I have completed such an amazing milestone for myself and I am just so pleased to see this through till the end. My story is not finished yet, so technically there is still more writing to be done before the book is complete.

BUT!!!

This month of writing was one of the most amazing journeys that I've traveled so far and I couldn't have done it without a lot of prayer and my amazing writting buddy Valerie! You're my writing twinsie!

There will be no excerpt for today either, since everything needs to be edited like CRAZY. So you'll just have to use your imagination for the rest of the story. Or order a copy from me :P

HAPPY NANOWRIMO TO EVERYONE AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

NaNo Day 27 - First draft is better than no draft

At first I was a little nervous to continue posting my excerpts on the blog, because the quality is REALLY going down. As I head toward the NaNo goal, I'm letting my sentence structure slip and I'm not caring how the scenes might be boring. Or how many "the man said" 's I'm using. BUT! Having a first draft with almost 50,000 words is better than no draft at all!

I didn't write much extra today, so I clocked in at  46,135 words! I did write a lot of notes and was able to wrap up a chapter AND start a new one. Tomorrow will be for expanding scenes!

So because we are finishing the day up, this post will be shorter to make room for the excerpt. Yay!

EXCERPT

So to recap: my main characters have been chased into an abandoned research center by a daemon, a large black beast that can shoot chains and fire from it's mouth! They also met a rather...curious scientist and his warrior bodyguard living inside. My main characters have agree to go through some experiments to create some "thing" to help them fight the daemons outside. Thus, Jason and his sister go into the next testing trial.....

===========

They sighed and whimpered as they went through the double doors to their next destination. This room was well lit and looked like another long hallway, this time fully covered in white tiles. A door marked ‘Exit’ sat at the back.  It looked relatively safe, but way too easy.

The first step Jason took turned the floor tiles red. An electric shock like fireants crawled up his arms and burned at his skin, but stopped him from yelling out. Shiri pulled him off the tile and the effect stopped. The tiles turned white again.

                “Welcome to Sensory Trial Level 2! Did you notice I’m using a different energy pulse this time?”

                “Yes I freaking noticed!” Jason yelled out. “You electrocuted me!”

                “Oh really? That must have been a malfunction. I’ll turn the power to a lower setting,” the man responded absentmindedly.

                “You wha…?” Jason was shaking, and smelt like slightly singed hair.

Then all the tiles in the room turned red and the room glowed with danger. The tiles changed their arrangement into a diamond pattern along the floor. Jason noticed some of their shapes were different as each one clicked into place: half were square and the other half with rounded corners.  He heard another clicking sound. A third of the red tiles were replaced with land mines.

                “Now I want you to find the correct pathway to the exit,” the man spoke with a hint of anticipation. “Use your instincts and don’t rely on what you see.”

                “I knew it. You are trying to kill us!” Jason exclaimed.

Well now they couldn’t rely on colors or sounds to lead them in the right direction. Every time they got close to a bad tile, the burning sensation would increase. Finally stuck into a corner between a very real-looking mine and six different tiles starting to burn their arms, Jason started to panic. “We’re stuck!”

Shiri was smooshed back-to-back with him, occupying the same tiny space on the tile. She breathed and repeated the man’s message again out loud. “He said…don’t rely on what you see,” she said slowly. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

                “That you want to me to test my lifespan by stepping a mine?” Jason quivered. “I don’t like that plan. At all.”

                “Well we can’t just stand here forever. Just…try it!” she exclaimed and pushed Jason with all her might. He gasped and tripped forward. Both feet landed on the mine and the metal monster started a horrible beeping countdown. Jason froze and Shiri instantly regretted what she had done.

Then the beeping stopped. Nothing happened. Jason blew out another string of curse words and then quickly apologized. “But never do that to me again, do you hear me?!” he blasted toward his sister. She side-stepped over to him with a huge smile. “You’ll thank me later.”

The two of them proceed toward the back of the room. He was grateful when his smug sister volunteered to take the lead. She started hopping on landmines like they were rain puddles and he cringed every time. In less than five minutes they were at the exit doors. Shiri was waiting for him to praise her magnificent performance. He just sighed and walked over to the touchpad out of habit. “Yes, yes, thank you for potentially risking my life to satisfy your curiosity.”

His sister just giggled and approached the other hand pad. “Why is it so hard for men to accept help from a woman?” she teased. Soon the touch pads were activated and accompanied by the cheerful robotic announcer.” Congratulations on completing the second test trial!” Metal straps zoomed out of the panel and held both of their hands in place. They couldn’t move!

                “NOW what?” Jason yelled outloud. Almost in response, the announcer continued. “Starting element enhancement procedure! Please stand by!”

Shiri tried to yank her wrist free, but it wouldn’t budge. The green touch panel started to glow red and the bottom of her hand began to spark. The purple element on her palm expanded, growing to reach through her fingers and wrap around the top of her hand. The color changed from purple to a darker blue. It stretched thin across her skin and it felt more like rubber instead of super glue.

Across the room Jason was punching the panel only to get a bruised fist. His arm was stuck in there and the element had grown up his wrist, spreading under his forearm. It extended far past his fingertips now. It felt like a piece wood tied to his arm. The substance changed into a more brilliant silver and was rock-solid.

                “Element scan complete!” the robotic announcer cheered.

                “I can’t believe the readouts I’m getting from the element’s transformation. Sun, come take a look – ah yeah you don’t care about the numbers, I remember,” the man cleared his throat. “But I’ve never seen chemical interactions like this before!”

                “You better release us now!” Jason yelled at the cameras.

The metal straps clicked off and the exit door open automatically. “There you go! I’m pleased with the results you are getting so far. The element responded to you better than I ever hoped,” the man exclaimed through the speakers. “There’s only one sensory trial left and soon the experiment will be complete.”

                “Good, I’ll be glad to get this splint off my arm,” Jason wiggled his left arm with disgust.” This thing is getting really heavy all of the sudden.”

                “Yeah how is this thing supposed to help us, again?” Shiri asked.

                The man sighed on the other side of the camera. Jason could imagine the man rubbing massaging his forehead. “Did I not say? I thought I did? Sun did I – oh well! These tests are to trigger the element’s integration with your vital statistics and DNA markings. Hopefully the end of the experiment will provide enough data for the element to evolve into it’s final pattern. I’m hoping that pattern will be something useful.”

                “Something useful?” Jason questions.” I thought you told us it could help us fight; you made it sound like a type of weapon.”

                “Did I now? Well I don’t remember using the word ‘weapon,’ my dear boy. The pattern created by the element is very unstable and impossible to predict.”

                “For crying out loud, that’s just great!” Jason punched his arm to the wall. Surprisingly the solid element pierced right through it. Shiri raised her eyebrows in surprise and came over to see the gaping hole.

                “Wow that’s kind of impressive,” she said, pointing at the silver plank glued to his arm.

                “Yeah I guess. Still, I want to get this thing off me. Let’s just go to the next trial and get this over with.”

===========

NaNo Day 26 - Still a day ahead

There are like...3.8 days left on my journey to write a novel in one month. I have come so far already. I really feel proud of myself with reaching 45,198 words as an epic milestone today! 

All I need to do is write 4800 words before Sunday and I'll be a winner in NaNoWriMo!!!!!
Woot!

And there is no possible way I have enough energy left to edit ANYTHING for an excerpt. I am so mentally drained and pooped. Thank you, thank you my amazing writing buddy for cheering me on today! It might have taken me like FIVE HOURS to write 900 words but gosh-darn it I did it. I did it without strikeouts or bullet points. I didn't leave in crap. Hey, I only used TWO bracket tricks. 

Keep going my fellow Nanites! keep it up! Power through Thursday, especially those of you who aren't celebrating the holidays. Let's get this done and win it!

NaNo Day 25 - I caught myself

I can't believe I just spent the last two hours wondering if I should edit my novel. I was actually considering it. I had found some amazing essays by "Chuck Palahniuk," which are amazing to read (go read them right now!):  http://litreactor.com/essays/36-writing-essays-by-chuck-palahniuk

I had my novel draft open and was looking through the chapters - I thought about revising my outline and doing chapter outlines....

Then I caught myself.

I looked at the clock and saw the last two hours of NOT WRITING fly past me. And now it's already past noon and I can't stop thinking about sandwiches. So now I have to waste another hour to go eat (while watching Youtube because that makes lunch way funner). Losing my morning to an "should i edit" fantasy is kinda discouraging, but it also strengthened my will power not to do it.


I will not edit goshdarnit until December, when it's official editing month, and I have my dragon-slaying-50k- winner tshirt!!

Just wanted to get that out of my system. What I did do this morning with a lovely 3 more cups of coffee was scribble some hand-written notes about the next scene in my chapter. At least typing them up will jump start me into writing again for today! I'll just have to suck it up that my morning is gone.

**UPDATE** I was able to get up to  43,534 words  today. I'm still a day ahead weee!

EXCERPT

Here is what the test is all about. Looking back at my excerpts, you probably have no idea why they are even performing trial tests in the first place. Oh the mystery! But hopefully you can still enjoy the writing. 

=================

The doors opened to reveal a dimly lit hallway. Even through the darkness Jason could tell this room was out of place. The walls curved around them to form a tunnel of hard, chiseled granite. The stone made a weird contrast with the neatly placed white metallic tiles under their feet. The only source of light came from the floor, a musty orange glow creeping through the tile cracks.  Jason couldn’t see but a foot in front of him.

The place was quiet and the orange ambiance made the place look haunted. They have no choice but to move forward. Shiri moved in front of him and stopped, starting to hum to herself in thought. When Jason joined her, he began to frown as a tingling sensation filled his mouth. His lips contorted and opened to expose his teeth like he just ate something spicy. “Hmm my lips are tingling!” he said out loud.

                “My teeth are buzzing too,” Shiri replied. She flicked her tongue over her teeth. Taking another step forward, she kept poking and prodding around her mouth with both hands. With her next step, Jason heard a faint click of a lock being released. 

A deep vibration began in the walls, along with the room’s audio system cracking to life. “Don’t move!” the old man’s voice blared out.

Shiri froze into place as a rushing sound of wind grew into the sweep of a hurricane; a giant wooden mallet the size of a house swung from one side of the wall to the other. In defense Shiri crossed her wrists to protect her face. Jason grabbed her elbow to pull her out of the way. In the moment, he swore the gray material on her hand began to shine. Then she screamed and fell backwards into his arms.

                “What in the world?!” Jason sputtered and inspected his sister’s contorted face. “Shiri are you okay?” His frantic babbling must have reached her and her eyes fluttered open. She looked weak and in pain. He cupped the side of her face with one hand, his touch making a fragile smile appear on her face. Now he was angry.

                “You have got to be joking me!” Jason yelled toward the corners of the room where he assumed the cameras would be. “I thought you wanted to test your experiment, not kill us!”

                “Perish the thought young man,” came the voice on the speaker, along with a snicker. The volume got lower like he was talking over his shoulder and spoke. “That was a bad pun wasn’t it? Ahem anyway - Now I did warn you not to move, didn’t I?” his voice came closer to the mic. “The data I just recorded from the element responding your vitals is amazing. Just listen to the rest of my instructions and you’ll be just fine! Carry on then.”

Jason started barking out insults when he realized there was no response. Shiri patted him on the chest and shifted to get up from his arms. “Hey it’s okay. I feel better now; I’m not hurt or anything.” Jason took her hand and helped her to her feet. She pulled on the muscles in her arm, looking to see if everything was still intact. “Yep, still in one piece.”

                “Maybe it’s better if I lead from now on,” Jason offered, his voice still tense.

                “Be my guest.”

Jason put his senses on high alert and led his sister forward into the room. As they did, the tiles behind them started to illuminate. The back of the room was now lit up in a bright green light, while the piece before them was still covered in shadow.

                “Let me explain what we’re trying to do here,” the old man spoke over the intercom. “Have you ever heard of a centuries old scientist named Ivan Pavlov?”

                “Err, not really,” Jason spoke and warily inspected each step before he took it.

                “The man was a brilliant researcher in the field of classic conditioning. He developed a specific reflex among animals when combining two different types of stimuli. Smart man, but I would rather test my theories on a more modern animal. Humans!” the man exclaimed with a sense of triumph. “I want test how well you rely on your senses. I will combine a specific energy pulse with a – shall we call it – dangerous situation. Will you trust your eyes or your senses to complete the trial successfully?”

                “What is that supposed to mean? That every time I’m about to get smashed with a flying a hammer, you’re gonna vibrate my teeth?!”

                “I knew you would pick this up quick!” the man said.

                “He really is one of our best volunteers so far, isn’t he?” the distant voice sounded like Sun.                 

                “I couldn’t agree more my dear.”             

                “Okay enough conversations,” Jason growled back. “Just tell me how to get out of this room in one piece.”

                “Oh well, it’s quite simple. Just get to the exit at the other side,” the man said in a thoughtful voice.

                “Right, easier said than done,” Shiri griped under her breath.

Jason ducked, ran, crawled and wall-jumped around seven different hammers that popped out of the dark hallway walls. Shiri screamed, fell, and did some kung-fu magic to follow behind him. Each set of floor tiles lit up the room as a hammer was passed successfully. Now at the end of the long chamber, Jason and Shiri limped over to the double glass doors they assumed was the exit. For a moment they just slid to the floor, exhausted.

=================