Camp NaNo July 2018: Week 4

2018/07/31 Jay ArgallLeave a comment

21 July

Target Page Count: 67.88

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 79

Started chapter 5 today. This is a chapter that I’ve been looking forward to writing for a while!

22 July

Target Page Count: 71.06

Pages Scripted: 3

Total Pages: 82

Nothing much to say today.

23 July

Target Page Count: 74.29

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 86

I managed to put in a bit of worldbuilding & foreshadowing that I hadn’t planned.

24 July

Target Page Count: 77.52

Pages Scripted: 5

Total Pages: 91

Ended up writing more than I planned to today. And I’m now 90% done! That’s exciting.

25 July

Target Page Count: 80.75

Pages Scripted: 0

Total Pages: 91

Decided not to write today due to headaches and general tiredness.

26 July

Target Page Count: 83.98

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 95

So close to being done!

27 July

Target Page Count: 87.21

Pages Scripted: 7

Total Pages: 102

Finally done!

28-31 July

Though I did write a little bit during these days, I decided not to add the pages to my total page count.

Overview

I won four days early!

There were a couple of things I learned this month:

I am very, very bad at remembering what panel layout I had in mind a few days after I’ve written a page. This is not a good thing, since I’ll eventually have to draw the comic. The solution: I have now implemented a panel layout into the header of all of my pages.
My outline doesn’t give me nearly as much content as I thought it would. I’ve had to merge several chapters in order to have one 20-page chapter.
Scrivener is a great program, and excellent for comics. I have a folder for each chapter, and a separate file for each page. It’s great!

Other than Camp NaNoWriMo, what did I do in July?

I got a Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so I’ve been playing a lot of that in my free time.

I haven’t written anything else. I did draw three pages of the prologue of The Land of Two Moons. I drew some things.

Other than Camp NaNoWriMo, my July was pretty uneventful.

What do I hope to accomplish in August?

I’m going to script 2 comic pages per weekday. That’s 43 pages, which is roughly two chapters. I finished chapter 5 on the 27th, so I’ll hopefully be done with chapter 7 by the end of August.

Although…I haven’t even started plotting chapter 7 yet, so that may be a bit of a problem.

Currently, I don’t have any plans on touching The Book of Immortality. I have a plan on how to edit it, but I don’t have any timeline for working on it. But I do plan on getting back to it!

The next blog post will be on August 31st.

Camp NaNo July 2018: Week 3

2018/07/21 Jay ArgallLeave a comment

14 July

Target Page Count: 45.22

Pages Scripted: 3

Total Pages: 60

Started chapter 4!

15 July

Target Page Count: 48.45

Pages Scripted: 1

Total Pages: 61

Just one page today. I wanted to take a small break from overachieving.

16 July

Target Page Count: 51.68

Pages Scripted: 3

Total Pages: 64

Not much to say today.

17 July

Target Page Count: 54.91

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 68

Nothing interesting today either.

18 July

Target Page Count: 58.14

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 72

I got to finally write part of a scene I’ve had in my head for a while! Feels great.

19 July

Target Page Count: 61.37

Pages Scripted: 3

Total Pages: 75

I finished chapter 4! It was a shorter chapter than the previous ones, but adding more pages would have just been dragging it out unnecessarily.

20 July

Target Page Count: 64.60

Pages Scripted: 0

Total Pages: 75

I decided to take an actual break today and write zero pages. Partially because I’m 75% done, but mostly because I’m dealing with incredibly sore hands/fingers from drawing.

Overview

I wrote 18 pages this week. That’s lower than in either of the previous two weeks, but I don’t particularly care since I’m so far ahead.

Counting today, there are 11 days remaining to write, and I need to write 25 pages. That’s less than 2.5 pages a day, and I’m expecting to hit that goal a couple of days before the 31st.

The 31st is also when my last progress report is going up. See you all then!

Camp NaNo July 2018: Week 2

2018/07/142018/07/14 Jay ArgallLeave a comment

07 July

Target Page Count: 22.61

Pages Scripted: 6

Total Pages: 30

I finished the second chapter! Now I’m going to get to write the parts where the plot really starts kicking in.

I also decided to merge the next two chapters, since they take place on the same day and there really isn’t enough content for two separate chapters.

08 July

Target Page Count: 25.84

Pages Scripted: 5

Total Pages: 35

Another decent writing day! I’ve started on the third chapter, which happens to be the last chapter of the first “part” of the story. At the moment, I have no idea how many parts there are going to be.

09 July

Target Page Count: 29.07

Pages Scripted: 1

Total Pages: 36

Only one page today! I decided to take a bit of a break since I’ve been overachieving recently.

10 July

Target Page Count: 32.30

Pages Scripted: 5

Total Pages: 41

I wrote a lot more than I planned to today!

11 July

Target Page Count: 35.53

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 45

I originally merged chapter 3 and chapter 4 because it looked like there wasn’t going to be enough content for two separate chapters. But now that I’m writing the new chapter 3, it looks like I might have to split them up again.

Also, I’m almost at the halfway point!

12 July

Target Page Count: 38.76

Pages Scripted: 6

Total Pages: 51

Turns out that yesterday’s concerns were for nothing. I’m back on track to end this chapter at a normal page count.

13 July

Target Page Count: 41.99

Pages Scripted: 6

Total Pages: 57

Finished chapter three! The first part of this story is done!

Overview

Overall, I think this was a pretty good week. I wrote 33 pages, as opposed to last week, where I only wrote 24. I finished chapter 2, then started and finished chapter 3.

Onward to next week!

Camp NaNo July 2018: Week 1

2018/07/07 Jay ArgallLeave a comment

01 July

Target Page Count: 3.23

Pages Scripted: 6

Total Pages: 6

It is day 1. I have already changed my goal from 31 pages to 100 pages. For those of you who remember Script Frenzy, 100 pages in 30 days (it was held in April) was the target goal. Since July has 31 days, I have it slightly easier than I would if I was doing this in April.

02 July

Target Page Count: 6.46

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 10

Properly started chapter two today. I also figured out a way to briefly introduce a character and plot point that’ll be important later on. It’s something I was having trouble with as it would seem to come out of nowhere when they’re supposed to be properly introduced, so it’s great that it worked out this way.

03 July

Target Page Count: 9.69

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 14

Today was a pretty uneventful writing day, though I did manage to work some more things out. There’s a bit more foreshadowing now than I originally had in my outline.

04 July

Target Page Count: 12.92

Pages Scripted: 3

Total Pages: 17

Another uneventful writing day.

05 July

Target Page Count: 16.15

Pages Scripted: 3

Total Pages: 20

Again, an uneventful day. At least the plot is moving forward.

06 July

Target Page Count: 19.38

Pages Scripted: 4

Total Pages: 24

Made good progress on the current chapter.

Overview

This week started out pretty strong and ended with me forcing myself to write, but somehow managing to keep ahead of schedule. I’m really hoping next week is going to be better.

June 2018 Overview

2018/06/30 Jay ArgallLeave a comment

What did I do in June?

I wrote 9,698 words with a goal of 10,000. I didn’t make my goal, but I did finish my script! The Book of Immortality is complete at 104,099 words.

This is the first thing I’ve finished since mid-2016. It’s also the first thing that I’ve written since mid-2015 that I’ve actually liked, so I’m pretty proud of myself for not getting discouraged and sticking with this the whole way through!

I also finished scripting the prologue and first chapter of The Land of Two Moons, a story I’ve been plotting out for the past few months.

What do I hope to accomplish in July?

I’m going to be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo again. I’m going to continue working on The Land of Two Moons, and I have a goal of 31 pages. That’s an incredibly easy goal I could hit in a week if I really wanted to, which is why I picked it. I want to take it easy after finishing The Book of Immortality.

However…I’m having a seriously difficult time coming up with an adequate summary. Even trying to put a genre on it is pretty difficult. It’s not that I don’t know what’s going to happen – I totally do – but that it’s hard to do it justice in a paragraph or two without feeling disingenuous or deceptive.

You’ll be able to see my status here. I will also be updating my progress on Twitter, and posting compilation posts on this blog every Saturday (and at the very end of July):

1st Post: Week 1, 1-6 July

2nd Post: Week 2, 7-13 July

3rd Post: Week 3, 14-20 July

4th Post: Week 4, 21-31 July

I’m not going to work on The Book of Immortality at all this month.

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To anyone else doing Camp NaNoWriMo this July, good luck!

May 2018 Overview

2018/05/31 Jay ArgallLeave a comment

What did I do in May?

For The Book of Immortality, I wrote a total of 10,030 words this month with a goal of 10,000. I made some good progress, plotwise, in my story as well. My script is now sitting here with a wordcount of 94,401 and 35 chapters.

Because of this, I’ve decided to adjust my goal to 125,000 words, like I mentioned in my previous post. I don’t have much else planned for the rest of the story – it’s winding down at the moment, so it’s more than likely that I’ll be finished before I hit 125k.

I’ve also been plotting out and researching for a new story, which is a spiritual successor of sorts to The Gate at the End of the World. It has many of the same characters , but in different roles. The setting and plot is also incredibly different.

What do I hope to achieve in June?

I’m planning on writing 10,000 words for The Book of Immortality. Since there are 21 weekdays in June, that works out to 477 words per weekday.

I’m also going to continue working on the new story. It needs quite a bit more work before I can start writing it. Maybe I’ll do that for NaNoWriMo this year?

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My next post will be on June 30th. Until then!

Camp NaNo April 2018 Week 4

2018/04/30 Jay Argall1 Comment

Since April ends on the Monday after the Saturday I post my progress reports, I decided to just have this post cover the rest of the month.

22 April

Target Wordcount: 11,000

Words Written: 11,090

Total Words: 80,387

A good writing day! I actually got all of my writing done before noon.

23 April

Target Wordcount: 11,500

Words Written: 11,516

Total Words: 80,813

I wrote a little less than 500 words today, but I’m still on track, so it’s good.

24 April

Target Wordcount: 12,000

Words Written: 12,005

Total Words: 81,302

Again, I wrote a little less than 500, but I’m still on track.

25 April

Target Wordcount: 12,500

Words Written: 12,508

Total Words: 81,805

Wrote 503 words today, pretty early (for me) in the day. Now what am I going to do with the rest of the afternoon/night?

26 April

Target Wordcount: 13,000

Words Written: 13,088

Total Words: 82,383

Wrote 580 words, hit 82k, and started chapter 31. I’m starting to think my original goal of 100k might not be enough…

27 April

Target Wordcount: 13,500

Words Written: 13,625

Total Words: 82,920

Wrote 537 words. I also reached 415 pages in the Word document, which is kind of…a lot.

28 April

Target Wordcount: 14,000

Words Written: 14,010

Total Words: 83,309

Wrote 385 words. Also reached 83k.

29 April

Target Wordcount: 14,500

Words Written: 14,522

Total Words: 83,821

Bit of a late writing day today.

30 April

Target Wordcount: 15,000

Words Written: 15,127

Total Words: 84,371

Done and validated!

Overview

Overall, I made pretty good progress on my novel! Although…I think my original goal of 100,000 words is not nearly going to be enough. I’m almost to the 2/3 point, so perhaps it would be more reasonable to move my goal up to 125,000 words.

Of course, that’s something for me to do at the end of next month, not now. Who knows if I’ll suddenly decided to pick up the pace.

So other than that, what did I do in April?

I moved into an apartment and I’m living on my own for the first time in my life. Other than that…not much.

I drew a couple of concept art sketches finished two grayscale pieces, one of which can be viewed on my Tumblr here.

What do I hope to achieve in May?

I’m going to go back to the word goal I had in March – 10,000 words spread out over the weekdays, of which there are 23. That gives me a weekday goal of 435 words per day. That’s lower than my March and April minimums, so it should be very doable.

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My next post will be on May 31st. I’ll see you then!