NaNoWriMo 2012: Days 21 - 23 and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I spent the day hanging out with family and generally stuffing myself with delicious food. It was a good trip and I enjoyed seeing everyone (especially the cousins' four cats!). But, as anticipated, I wrote hardly anything.

However, I planned ahead for this, remember? So I'm still technically on schedule! I was able to write in the car on the way there and back, hence why I managed to stay on track and am ending the night slightly ahead.

Day 21: 593 words written

Day 22: 0 words written (but a fun photoshoot!)

Day 23: 880 words written

Total words written: 38,517

Excerpt:

Clasping my hands behind my back I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Be careful, Alice. “Since the tech department is so busy I’ve been trying to handle all the minor problems in MLab.”

 His left eyebrow twitched.

“However, I ran across an odd glitch that I can’t solve.”

I had his full attention now and I thought I could feel several more pairs of eyes and ears trying to listen in.

“What was the glitch?” he asked, switching from bored to full troubleshooting mode.

“I ran into it while checking the recordings we have. You remember the big fuss recently because we recorded signals which sounded like a language?”

“Of course. Please continue.”

“I went to pull up the first recording to analyze it once more and it wouldn’t play properly. The file kept jumping and skipping so much that the audio was garbled.”

“Isn’t that just a case of a corrupt file?” His interest was visibly draining.

“That’s what I thought at first as well. So, of course we keep multiple copies of our recordings. However, when I checked each of these files they also exhibited the same behavior. Even my own personal copy was damaged. I thought that perhaps the recording system was at fault. But every other recording before and since then is fine—except for the other two recordings we have on file in the same language.” I sketched quotation marks in the air around the word with my fingers.

“That is certainly odd.”

“But the oddest part is that each of the other two recordings exhibited less noticeable glitching with the most recent being the clearest. And when I checked every copy they all exhibited the same level of glitching as the original file.”

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 20

Today wasn't the sprint that I hoped it would be, but I still wrote more than I've ever written on a Tuesday for the entire month. (On a side note, I'll be leaving on our Thanksgiving trip tomorrow so I doubt I'll be able to post until we get back on Friday.)

Words written today: 1,970

Total words written: 37,045

Excerpt:

I blinked in the strong light after the dimness of the lab. When I looked down, Kitty was rubbing her eyes and squinting.

"Here's your rock" I handed her the two pieces. "Aren't they pretty now?"

"Yes, they are." She caressed the smooth surface. "Now they don't look dirty and they're so shiny."

She turned first the large one, then the smaller one over in her hands, examining them while we walked. Before we entered her family's quarters she held out the smaller stone.

"For me?"

Kitty nodded. "I don't need two. I want you to have it."

"Thank you!" I took it and hugged her. The stone covered about half my palm and was crisscrossed by veins of different color. It was also roughly tear drop shaped. "I'll make sure to put this in a special place and keep it safe." I beamed down at her. "But it's time for you to go back to your Mommy. I have a lot of work to do." Struck by a desire to warn her, I knelt down to look her in the eye and whispered, "I might be able to talk your Mommy and Daddy into letting me take you down to Earth for a visit in a week or two. Why don't you pick out some things you'd want to take and some clothes and pack them? Just in case I can convince them."

Her eyes lit up. "Sure. I wanna come!"

"Okay, but don't tell your Mommy or Daddy about it. Pack your bag secretly. You can do that, right?"

"Mhmm." She nodded enthusiastically.

"Good girl. I'll tell you later whether I can take you or not. Be a good girl today!"

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 17

The villains have finally shown themselves and the pace of the story has accelerated into a gallop. That and the desire to get ahead for Thanksgiving is drove me onward to my highest words written in one day this month. My MC basically spent the whole time spilling her secrets so it was nice to finally get all that out on the page where the readers can see it.

Words written today: 4,180
Total words written: 32,550

Excerpt:

"Good afternoon, (scientist #4). Everything running smoothly?"

He jumped slightly and his gaze traveled up until he saw my face. "Ah, good afternoon, Dr. Oglethorpe. Um, yes. It is going well.” He pushed his glasses up. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, you can pull up that recording of the transmission that just came in and let me listen to it. (signal scientist) wants me to listen to it.

"Oh, alright." He tapped on the console to reach the file folder with the recording. He clicked on the wrong one at first and had to backtrack to the right recording. "Here you are." He handed me a pair of headphones.

"Thanks." I slipped them over my ears. Static, then a soft half beep before the message began. "This is (alien freighter #2). Virus confirmed." Static. "Measures are being taken to prevent spread of virus, but the ship is beyond rescue. We are evacuating." Garbled static voice and which faded into normal background static.

The ice that had frozen my hands was now spreading up my arms to the rest of my body. Ship beyond rescue? Evacuating? That sounds like a very late stage 2 infestation. This is not good at all. I tapped (scientist #4) on the shoulder and asked him to replay it. I wasn't able to divine any more information, but the words were now memorized in my head.

Until next time!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 12

Barely anything written today. My word count is quite pathetic. But, I wrote something and my MC finally finished that story which I've now realized is going to require some major editing and splitting up across the novel to work. Bah. The editing comes later. Now onto the main plot again.

Words written today: 337
Total words written: 22,008

Excerpt:

I wasn't able to sleep until four in the morning that night. And even then I couldn't stay asleep for more than an hour. The nightmares were back in full force with louder and louder swarms of clicking. I shrugged it off best I could in the morning though the dark bags under my eyes told of how tired I was.

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 11

Well, at least I was expecting not to get much written today. But I'm still proud of myself for getting this much done. My MC is still telling her story, but I think it will finish tomorrow.

Word written today: 1,118
Total words written: 21,671

Excerpt:

"But, it was time to go back before the sun came up. They were almost back to the colony when the human girl noticed something that hadn't been there before. There was a long, glowing green line from the mines to the colony. She told the aliens and they were surprised. So the alien boy flew closer, and what do you think it was?

"It was a long, slithering line of the glowing creatures from the cave! And they were walking towards the colony. The alien boys were horrified that the creatures were out of the cave. The creatures were almost at the colony and none of them knew what would happen when the creatures reached it. Everyone was scared."

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 9

Today wasn't a day of heavy writing, but I wrote more than yesterday! My MC, Alice, has finally figured out that the villains are invading and so the plot's definitely thickening.

On a side note, I was looking at my stat page and was startled to see that I only had in the lower 30ks left to write. I really hadn't looked at it since I hit 10k.

Words written today: 2,257
Total words written: 17,348

Excerpt:

"This is the (alien race #1 freighter), Captain (freighter captain) speaking. Who sent the message offering help? We did not transmit a distress call. However, your message is appreciate as we have recently had several secondary systems shut down and the main systems are starting to malfunction. Please send assistance if able."

The words were replaced again by static, but this time I thought I heard a secondary sound, similar to Morse code, extend beyond the message and then stop after a split second.

They didn't send the distress call? I frowned. But it originated from their vessel. And their systems are beginning to malfunction? Is it a coincidence? And what on earth was that sound?

I tapped (scientist #2) on the shoulder. "Can you play it again please? It sounded slightly different from the last signal that we recorded."

"Sure.” She brought the file back up. “How do you think it differs?"

"I'm...not sure.” I hesitated. "I'll see if I can pinpoint it further by replaying it as many times as necessary. I'll let you know if my suspicion is correct."

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 4 and 5

Ok, I'll admit it. I completely failed on Sunday. Zero words written on that day. I don't know why, but I didn't feel like writing anything. Thank goodness I was ahead. But, I'm back on track for Day 5! And...*drum roll* the villain is upon the point of being introduced! I spent most of the day chronicling Alice Oglethorpe's mysterious illness though. I do wonder what could be wrong with her...(well, I don't, but you have to!)

Words written today: 2,763
Total words written: 11,389

Excerpt:

I gave up and lay down on the bed, curled into a tight ball, fighting with all my willpower to keep my limbs still. The room slowly darkened in front of me. I clenched my fists and pulled my legs closer to my chest. Breathe. Just keep breathing. I repeated it over and over until I heard a noise from outside trying to break into my ears. I focused. The noise was a voice. Who...?

"Alice, breathe! I shall get the medicine. Hold on."

I jerked my head up and down the tiniest amount. I couldn't spare more concentration for any physical effort greater than that. I had to focus on taking my next breath and taking it in the proper place and time. A breath in the wrong dimension didn't help my body here. Stay in one place. Breathe. I'm on the moon. Breathe. In the colony. Breathe. Must stay here.