Alloy of Law, Beard Slap, The Future

I attended the midnight release of Brandon Sanderson's latest novel, The Alloy of Law, which is a sort of wild-west/steampunk rendition of his Mistborn world. They actually sold out of copies, but I was ok with that because I was getting it on Kindle anyway. I still stood in line for three hours to see him and have him sign my Arc of The Way of Kings as well as all my Alcatraz books for my nieces and nephews, who are getting this for Christmas (hopefully they don't read this blog and spoil it). Brandon is fun as always, as is Isaac Stewart  (who does the art and is currently out selling his middle-grade clockwork spider book that sounds awesome). So good times were had by all.

Regardless, I'm excited for this one. Mistborn is my favorite book by Brandon, and mixing that with steampunk can't possibly go bad. So we'll see how this one works out. 

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And now, BEARD SLAP. 

Not really relevant to anything, except that I have a beard that kind of looks like that one. Or will in a few more months. It's gettin' bushy.

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On a less positive note, Naught But Glass is going "not" anywhere. I haven't written in it for the past couple of days, mostly because I've been entertained by Batman: Arkham City and QI (Quite Interesting), a British talkshow/gameshow hosted by Stephen Fry. I've also just been generally disgruntled with this novel, which is making me think I might give it a guilt-free break for a day or so while I write up a Steelgods synopsis and figure everything out for all the billions of people I'm going to be sending it too.

That's it from my front. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim comes out on Friday, which will officially be the death of my productivity. I'm considering taking this month off; I have some sort of NaNoWriMo stigma that makes it so I can't write in November anyway. We'll see.

NaNoWriMo, Naught but Glass

So it's NaNoWriMo again, and we all know how I feel about that. My opinion regarding it hasn't changed, but yet again I feel oddly compelled to participate.

So I'm doin' it. Hopefully better than last year, where I did it for like a day and fell off the planet.

But as a specification: I'm not actually doing NaNoWriMo, I'm just using it as an excuse to start my book today. I'm going to keep writing until I finish it regardless of what month I'm in, and hopefully I'll finish it before the world ends in 2012 so I'll have accomplished my goal of three books in one year.

In other news, I've been preparing my queries and also am working on both a synopsis and polishing the first chunk of Steelgods 1 to perfection. I'm hoping to start sending those out by next week.

And now...my favorite episode of "Hey Ashe, Whatcha Playing?" Also, I now say "I'm doin' it" in the same way Ash does in this show because...it's fun. Hush.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, HAWP - Fallout: New Vegas HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

BONUS: We'll throw the minecraft episode on for fun.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, HAWP - Minecraft HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

So I'm failing NaNoWriMo. So sue me.

As I said previously, I always considered NaNoWriMo to be...dumb. Or, rather, not for me.
Well it seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, because I'm failing hard at NaNoWriMo.
I blame school. Since I got back from World Fantasy, I've had either a test or a paper every day. Today is literally my first free day since then, and I still have a paper due tomorrow at 11 in the morning.
Added bonus: Super Meat Boy consumes my life, and we just got Rock Band 3 (with keyboard!) so I'm going to be busy for a while.
All together, I am debating just working on planning portions for Effulgent Corruption and Gears of Anbar rather than actually write. I need to get back in an Effulgent Corruption mood for January (I LOVE that story, it just kills me because its so hard to write).

But yeah, I'm a failure, but at least I didn't fail in May or September with my other two books. So I have that going for me. I would really like to write another book (four in a year would be a nice thing to throw around when needed), but at this point I'm not certain how possible that is.

However, I am going to get Alphas out for Steelgods soon, which should take some time as well.

So that's it. I'm going back to playing Rock Band 3.

Feel their might : The Gears of Anbar begins.

It seems so soon, especially considering I'm fresh off of The Might of the Steelgods, but I have a document created (complete with new font and a space on my OS X dock) and so that means it's official: It's time for The Gears of Anbar for NaNoWriWhatever.

Few things to point out:
- We are dropping the collaborative project. It was just kind of stupid. Everybody is going to write their own thing, however.
- I'm going to tear through this and not care if it is terrible. I have to keep telling myself I had less planning for Steelgods 1 and it ended up ok, but it still is daunting. It will be nice to revisit these characters, though.
- I'm going to make this book as long as I darn well want it. I felt hindered in Steelgods 1 due to me trying to keep it under 100k (and finishing it within the month). Not going to happen with Anbar. 
- It'll probably take longer than just November, but I'm fine with that. I also have a goal of 1.5k daily (starting tomorrow) until the book is finished. I'm just too swamped with life at the moment to push myself further.
- This is more of a pet project than a serious one. Reason being it would never get sold unless Steelgods 1 was sold, so writing it is almost pointless. But I want to write it, and spending two months writing something I want to can't possibly be bad. Besides, I already wrote three books this year, I'm allowed some slack.
- Just because it's pet doesn't mean it's going to suck. I have a hunch it'll be better than Steelgods 1.

Next up, Alphas. I'm going to start sending out PDFs to those who have requested it, after I figure out my list of questions. I have a few that I wanted for sure, and I'll include them with the PDF. They also won't be as spoileriffic as Paradise Seekers' were.

Lastly, I wrote one sentence today. Yeah, whatever. I'll write more tomorrow. But here is that sentence.

"It is said you do not know a man until he has lost all that once defined him."
-The Gears of Anbar - Prologue: Without Atonement

NaNoWriMo - Collaborative Book

I know I'm going to regret this, but I agreed with Derek and Jason (writing group 1.0...or I guess technically 1.2 since two people dropped off the face) to write a collaborative book in November. I have a hunch it is going to be...interesting, maybe terrible, but a lot of fun.
We figured out the basics of the world yesterday, which involves poison clouds and inversion layers that make people insane, and people who have to live on mountains above the clouds to avoid going insane. Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems.
How it will work is we each get a viewpoint character, each is a different civilization adapting to this world-altering situation. We then can do whatever we want with them, referencing whatever everybody else is writing at the time (as we are going to write all three at the same time). After about 20 days, we will spend the last 10 days figuring out the final act where everybody meets up and madness ensues. I'm guessing this is when the book is going to go from "decent" to "completely insane nightmare." Should be fun.
We should call it Deadly Clouds. The lamest title EVER. I love it.
The downside is this means you'll have to wait for Steelgods 2. Or you won't. I'm considering writing it over November AND December, as the NaNoWriMo book will only be allowed 30,000 words for my part, which won't be too hard for me to do. I can start The Gears of Anbar (and I'll have Alpha copies of Might of the Steelgods out by then) and work on it at the same time. Maybe it'll work. Maybe not.
Which reminds me, Alpha readers! Wait, that's for its own post. I'm just over 50% editing, and I beat down one of the crappy chapters. The next crappy chapter is almost here (and I have some necessary revisions for the last battle chapter), but other than that it's just basic edits. Again, this is why you have other people read it: they find crap that you can't, because I keep getting drawn into the stupid book, making editing an extremely biased affair.
That's it. Rock out.

NaNoWriMo

Here's a confession: I've always thought NaNoWriMo was stupid. I have literally no idea why the idea makes me so jaded. I didn't even know the damn thing existed until two years ago when somebody was like, "Hey! It's finish writing your novel month! ARE YOU GOING TO DO IT?!" At first I thought this was just some guy wanting me to finish my book (which it kind of was), but then I found out it was a real deal. Huh.

Let us now dive deep into the mind of Nathan Major, and try to find out why he thinks NaNoWriMo is stupid. Since I haven't really dug down to find whatever is spawning this deep-rooted contention, this might prove interesting. Especially since all my initial thoughts only produce positive correlations with the idea, but I still roll my eyes whenever anybody mentions NaNoWriMo. Hmm.

I think the first thing that bugs me is the fact that people do it and write something terrible. Now, I know this isn't fair at all to anybody. My first few books weren't great, and I honestly am a bit shamed that I touted them around as something halfway decent. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that has something to do with it. A lot of people, after writing their 50K, decide they are "real writers" now. They shove that thing everywhere like it's God's gift to literacy, when actually it's just some crappy thing you wrote in a month because everybody else was doing it. I don't want to read that. 

That kind of leads to what also might have me so jaded: everybody is doing it. Now, I'm willing to bet it has a fairly low % turnaround for people who actually complete their novels. I'd say 5% at the very best out of everybody who decides to try it. But, for me, knowing everybody else is going to write a book in the month kind of...cheapens it if I do it. I'm no longer being unique or special (Steelgod September, anybody?), I'm just doing it because it's a cool thing to do. I don't think of myself as non-conformist very often (I shop at freaking American Eagle, Aeropostal, and Apple Computers for crying out loud), but doing NaNoWriMo really seems forced. 

Actually, that might tie in to what is really, really the reason I hate NaNoWriMo. It's the same reason why I think "Black History Month" or "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" is so stupid: why can't we be aware of black history or breast cancer all the time? Shouldn't we be? Are we really so stupid we have to be reminded in order to get anything done, and then forced to have an entire month designated to that? NaNoWriMo is like that to me. It's something that, if you really were serious about writing, you should be writing or editing every day anyway. You shouldn't need to have some fabricated, titled month force you to write. If you have a great idea, write it now. I've heard people say they are "waiting for NaNoWriMo" to write something. Why the crap are you waiting? Freaking write that now! And don't tell me you are busy; I'll bet you money everybody has at least an hour a day to themselves. Get your butt off the couch where you are watching Sex and the City for the eighteenth time, and just do it. Don't make someone else make you.

Lastly, usually after NaNoWriMo, people just stop. They decide they are done; they've written a book! They'll write another next November. Again, stupid. If you really care about this, write frequently. Nobody got good writing one book a year. In fact, some people don't get good writing three books a year. Trust me. It takes a lot of practice. If you just write a 50k book every November, the quality will never improve. It'll just be crap forever. 

So there you have it. It still makes no sense. NaNoWriMo has tons of perks. It forces new-writers or those who have problems starting or trapped in outlining write. It gives people a finished thing to show off. Once you write one book, it is exceptionally easier to write more. It provides a community that will support and give feedback and force you to keep pumping out the words. It could also (for some of us) let you know that writing just isn't your thing; you aren't cut out for it. Look at how many good things there are for NaNoWriMo! 

So why do I still think it's dumb?

I don't know, so I'm going to test it. NaNoWriMo 2010: Nathan's doing it. He's writing Steelgods 2. Or Canyon Story. Or something else. Point is, I'm going to get all up in this. I'll sign up on the site or whatever. I'll try to get people to do it with me. Do community, all that crap, see if it really is all it is cracked up to be.

Then, when December 1st rolls around, I'll let you know how I feel about it.

This should be interesting.