This is a short comic that was scripted and drawn from January to March 2018 and originally posted to Tumblr. It features characters from The Land of Two Moons and can be seen as a spiritual predecessor to that story. While it includes the same characters, it is not a prequel to The Land of Two Moons.
NaNo 2018 Week 4
22 November
Target Word Count: 36,667
Words Written: 36,687
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 16 pages (converted to 3200 words)
Finished chapter 24 of The Land of Two Moons and started chapter 25. I had to create a bunch of new characters for this next part of the story.
23 November
Target Word Count: 38,333
Words Written: 38,487
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 9 pages (converted to 1800 words)
Finished chapter 25 and started chapter 26.
24 November
Target Word Count: 40,000
Words Written: 40,187
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 0.5 pages (converted to 500 words)
- The Land of Two Moons script: 6 pages (converted to 1200 words)
Finished inking two pages of chapter 1. I’m also almost done with scripting chapter 26.
25 November
Target Word Count: 41,667
Words Written: 41,787
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 8 pages (converted to 1600 words)
Finished chapter 26 and started on chapter 27.
26 November
Target Word Count: 43,333
Words Written: 43,587
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 9 pages (converted to 1800 words)
Finished chapter 27!
27 November
Target Word Count: 45,000
Words Written: 44,187
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 3 pages (converted to 600 words)
Today was a rather difficult writing day for no reason at all.
28 November
Target Word Count: 46,667
Words Written: 47,187
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 15 pages (converted to 3000 words)
Finished chapter 28, which ended up being much longer than a normal chapter due to it containing an action sequence. Also started on chapter 29!
29 November
Target Word Count: 48,333
Words Written: 49,787
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 13 pages (converted to 2600 words)
Wrote a lot more than I planned to.
30 November
Target Word Count: 50,000
Words Written: 50,387 (50,388 according to the validator)
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 3 pages (converted to 600 words)
Won and finished chapter 29!
Overview
I won and validated at 5:00 PM on the 30th. That’s much better than last year, when I won at 11:30 PM.
Instead of writing a whole bunch about how it was really hard to keep on track at times and how much I really love The Land of Two Moons, I’m just going to end this blog post with saying that I’m happy I won and I’m going to continue working on this story until it’s done.
NaNo 2018 Week 3
15 November
Target Word Count: 25,000
Words Written: 24,487
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 3 pages (converted to 600 words)
This is the first day this year I’ve fallen behind!
16 November
Target Word Count: 26,667
Words Written: 26,087
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 8 pages (converted to 1600 words)
Finished chapter 22. I was hoping to get more than 26k, but ended up being too tired.
17 November
Target Word Count: 28,333
Words Written: 29,987
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 12 pages (converted to 2400 words)
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 1.5 pages (converted to 1500 words)
I’m back on track! I also started penciling chapter 1 of the comic.
18 November
Target Word Count: 30,000
Words Written: 30,187
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 1 page (converted to 200 words)
Finished chapter 22. I wanted a break, so I took it easy today.
19 November
Target Word Count: 31,667
Words Written: 30,187
Did not write today.
20 November
Target Word Count: 33,333
Words Written: 31,987
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 9 pages (converted to 1800 words)
I’m behind, but I did manage to write more than 1667 words.
21 November
Target Word Count: 35,000
Words Written: 33,487
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 5 pages (converted to 1000 words)
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 0.5 pages (converted to 500 words)
I wrote a lot less than I wanted to, but I was anemic for most of the day. That messed up everything, not just my writing.
NaNo 2018 Week 2
8 November
Target Word Count: 13,333
Words Written: 14,064
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 5 pages (converted to 1000 words)
Still taking it easy today.
9 November
Target Word Count: 15,000
Words Written: 15,064
Breakdown:
- The Land of two Moons script: 5 pages (converted to 1000 words)
Finished chapter 18 of The Land of Two Moons and started chapter 19. What was supposed to be one chapter (chapter 16) has turned into four (chapters 16-19).
10 November
Target Word Count: 16,667
Words Written: 19,064
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 20 pages (converted to 4000 words)
Finished chapter 19 and chapter 20. I also introduced a character that I completely forgot about. She’s supposed to be a major character, so this is pretty bad.
11 November
Target Word Count: 18,333
Words Written:
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 1.5 pages (converted to 1500 words)
Did a bit of figuring out where exactly my script is going. Since I introduced the new character yesterday, I had to add in another chapter that explained some things. That’s what I’ll be writing tomorrow.
I also finished redoing the last of the prologue (!!!) and started on the chapter 1 cover.
12 November
Target Word Count: 20,000
Words Written: 21,511
Breakdown:
- The Book of Immortality editing outline: 247 words
- The Land of Two Moons script: 1 page (converted to 200 words)
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 0.5 pages (converted to 500 words)
Outlined chapters 27-30 of The Book of Immortality. Started on chapter 21 of the script of The Land of Two Moons and finished the chapter 1 cover I started yesterday.
13 November
Target Word Count: 21,667
Words Written: 22,037
Breakdown:
- The Book of Immortality editing outline: 126 words
- The Land of Two Moons script: 2 pages
Outlined chapters 31-32 of The Book of Immortality. Didn’t get a chance to write very much today otherwise.
14 November
Target Word Count: 23,333
Words Written: 23,887
Breakdown:
- The Book of Immortality editing outline: 600 words
- The Book of Immortality rewrite: 1.25 hours (converted to 1250 words)
Outlined chapters 33-40 of The Book of Immortality. The editing outline is done! I started rewriting the first chapter. It’s pretty awkward, since I’m going from a script to prose and present tense to past tense.
NaNo 2018 Week 1
I decided last-minute to treat The Land of Two Moons as a normal ScriptFrenzy – a goal of 100 pages in a month. Since a normal script is around 20,000 words, I’ve decided to have 1 page of script = 200 words. I still have a goal of 50,000 words, though!
1 November
Target Word Count: 1,667
Words Written: 1,709
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 6 pages (converted to 1200 words)
- The Book of Immortality editing outline: 509 words
Finished chapter 14 of The Land of Two Moons. Outlined chapters 4-9 of The Book of Immortality.
2 November
Target Word Count: 3,333
Words Written: 3,509
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 9 pages (converted to 1800 words)
Wrote most of chapter 15 of The Land of Two Moons. I also managed to tie some plot things together and make it a previous event look like foreshadowing. It definitely wasn’t foreshadowing when I wrote it weeks ago, but it definitely is now.
3 November
Target Word Count: 5,000
Words Written: 6,864
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 6 pages (converted to 1200 words)
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 1 page (converted to 1000 words)
- The Book of Immortality editing outline: 1,131 words
Finished chapter 15 of The Land of Two Moons and started on chapter 16. Outlined chapters 10-26 of The Book of Immortality. I now have a good idea of what events I do and don’t want to keep in the second draft. I wrote quite a bit of filler during last year’s NaNo that needs to be taken out.
4 November
Target Word Count: 6,667
Words Written: 11,064
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 21 pages (converted to 4200 words)
Finished chapter 16 and 17 of The Land of Two Moons. I went to a write-in today and wrote 21 pages while I was there. That brings me to a total of 42 pages that I’ve written for The Land of Two Moons. 42 pages in 4 days!
5 November
Target Word Count: 8,333
Words Written: 12,064
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons comic: 1 page (converted to 1000 words)
Redrew page 6 of the prologue. One page to go!
6 November
Target Word Count: 10,000
Words Written: 12,264
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 1 page (converted to 200 words)
My hands started getting numb pretty much as soon as I got home from work. Also, I got really distracted by waiting for election results. But this is why I used the weekend to get ahead – to make sure I wouldn’t fall behind even after missing a day or two.
7 November
Target Word Count: 11,667
Words Written: 13,064
Breakdown:
- The Land of Two Moons script: 4 pages (converted to 800 words)
Decided to take it easy today as I still had some problems with my hands/wrists.
October 2018 Overview & NaNoWriMo Plans
What did I accomplish in October?
I did a lot of editing. I decided to go back through the early chapters of The Land of Two Moons and put them into the 2-panel-per-page format that I’ve been using for the latest chapters. Those early chapters comprised parts 1, 2, and most of part 3.
The result? Well, Part 1 used to consist of a prologue and 3 chapters. It now consists of a Prologue and 5 chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 needed to be split into 2 chapters each, as they were getting way too long for my liking.
Part 1 is 157 pages long. Comic pages. Comic pages that I will eventually have to draw. It will, at minimum, take me around a year and a half to draw 157 pages.
This is after me cutting out all the fat, too. Everything here is essential to set up the plot and character development.
Part 2, on the other hand, started out as 3 chapters and ended up as 3 chapters. It has ended up at a much more reasonable 94 pages. Part 3 also stayed at 3 chapters, and is 87 pages.
So, writing-wise: I finished the first two chapters of part 4 (chapters 12 & 13). I am currently in the middle of chapter 14.
Artwork completed in October
I didn’t draw this much as in other months – mostly because I wrote and edited a lot.
I’ve also been doing a series of black & white portraits of the main characters of The Land of Two Moons. It’s helping me figure out what kind of shading style I want to use for this comic.
NaNoWriMo Plan & Goals
I’m doing something very different this November. I’m rebelling!
It’s something I’ve done for multiple Camp NaNoWriMo sessions, but never NaNoWriMo proper. I realized that I haven’t had enough time to think out the plot of the original novel, and I wouldn’t get anywhere if I tried to write anything past the first act. I am not much of a pantser, unfortunately.
These are the tasks I want to complete during this NaNoWriMo:
- Write the first act of Mujin’s Journey (novel, WIP title). This should be around 10-15k words. The series of events is pretty set in my head, so it won’t conflict with any other ideas I come up with.
- Continue working on the script for The Land of Two Moons (webcomic script). I only expect to write 4 chapters during NaNo, with each chapter being around 2000 words long.
- Finish the editing outline for The Book of Immortality. I wanted to complete this task in September, but it did not happen. I also wanted to complete it in October, but…it still didn’t happen. I will be writing a 3-4 sentence summary for each of the remaining 37 chapters that do not have summaries. This will probably end up totaling around 1000 words.
At most, that gets me 24,000 words – barely halfway to the 50,000 goal! But there are some other tasks I want to include that don’t produce a wordcount!
- Drawing comic pages of The Land of Two Moons. I saw someone mention counting each comic page as 1000 words in the NaNoWriMo forums, and I’ve decided I want to do that as well. I’m breaking this down into pencils (the sketch of the page) being worth 500 words, and inks (the finalized page) being worth 500 words. Since I hate drawing an entire page in one sitting, I’ll probably do a bunch of pencils one week, then ink those pages in the next.
- Editing The Book of Immortality. That editing outline is one of the tasks I plan on knocking out first, so I’ll have the rest of the month to edit. Each hour of editing will count as 1000 words.
It’s unlikely that this will also get me to 50,000 words, unless I somehow become a master of time management overnight (very unlikely). That’s why I also want to start worldbuilding and plotting two other projects: Let the Sky Remain Unbroken and Tenebres Library. They’re both future webcomic projects that have been bouncing around my head for a few years. They’re now at the point where I’m satisfied with my ideas, and I want to start writing.
Obviously I’m not going to start writing something new when I’ve got enough WIPs to handle, so that’s just why I’m plotting them.
But…isn’t this too much to focus on in one month?
This has crossed my mind. A lot. It is, in fact, quite a bit too much to do. This isn’t even close to what I would try to do in a normal month – but then again, neither is NaNoWriMo. When I’m writing a normal script or novel, I try to aim for 500 words per day, weekdays only. That’s around 10,000 words a month.
NaNoWriMo’s always been about going above and beyond what I feel comfortable with, so I’m going to give this impossible plan a go!
Like in previous years, I’ll also be doing weekly blog posts.
Unlike previous years, they are not all going to be posted on Saturday. Here’s my current schedule:
Update 1: Days 1-7, posted on November 8th
Update 2: Days 8-14, posted on November 15th
Update 3: Days 15-21, posted on November 22nd
Update 4: Days 21-30, posted on December 1st
September 2018 Overview
So! What did I accomplish in September?
The Land of Two Moons
I wrote 40 pages. This means I finished chapter 8 (which was in-progress at the end of August), finished chapter 9 entirely, and started chapter 10, which I am already halfway through.
I’ve been looking at my “outline” (it’s really just a list of events and plot points that I need to get to, roughly in order) and it seems that I may have to move some events forward chronologically. There’s no real reason not to, and the only other option is a timeskip, which I really don’t want to do.
The Land of Two Moons is supposed to be a script for a webcomic. I was previously scripting about 5-7 panels per page, but with the start of chapter 9, I changed this to be two panels per page – one on top of the other, split roughly in the middle. Now that I’ve been doing this for a while, I can say that I like it a lot more! I feel like there’s less filler & fluff in what I’ve been writing.
Of course, when I’m editing the prologue and chapters 1-8, I’ll have to go and fix those pages to fit this new format. Perhaps I’ll be able to entirely throw out or rework some scenes that I felt were weak when I was writing them.
The Book of Immortality
I started working on an editing outline, which means I’ve been writing a 2-4 sentence summary of each chapter and also taking note of what I need to change or remove.
I’ve only gone through four chapters. Four out of forty. I’m only 10% of the way through this.
Oops?
NaNoWriMo 2018
I’ve figured out my rough plot, named all my main characters (though I may need to create another one), started work on a galaxy map, and drew a character lineup!
Artwork
I also drew a bunch of art this month. All of them were originally posted on my Tumblr and on Pillowfort, which I joined at the beginning of September.
October is NaNoWriMo prep month…
And there’s still quite a lot of preparation I need to do. First and foremost, I need to figure out a working title for this project. Right now I’m just calling it “Nano 2018”, which is okay at the moment. It won’t be okay when it isn’t NaNoWriMo.
I also need to name a few more star systems (this is a space opera) and figure out the exact route the main characters are going to take through the galaxy. That shouldn’t be so bad, since it’s not nearly as difficult for me to do that as it is to think of a title.
I am bad at titles.
But there are other things to do in October!
I just remembered that Inktober happens in October. I don’t know whether or not I want to do it. If it wasn’t the end of the month, I would be leaning toward “yes”. I may do a few ink drawings, but I don’t be doing one every day.
I also want to continue working on my editing outline for The Book of Immortality. If I outline a couple of chapters each Saturday and Sunday, I ought to be done with the whole book by the end of October. Then it’ll be ready for editing, which will happen…sometime. Maybe in 2019, depending on how long it takes me to finish this year’s NaNo novel.
The next blog post will go up on October 31st! I’ll see y’all then.
