I'm Not Going to Lie to You...

From the start of November all the way up to the release of Wrath, most of what you're going to be hearing from me is Frostsaber rep and NaNoWriMo. But is that really a bad thing? I think not. Both have a few things in common.

1. A hellacious, nightmarish grind.

Going from neutral to exalted is 42,000 reputation points. The goal of Nanowrimo is to grind out 50,000 words worth of a novel/novella. No matter how you look at it, that's a lot to cover. Considering that both the time before wrath hits and Nanowrimo are approximately 30-ish days in duration, that's 1400 reputation points a day, and about 1667 words. Not to bad, but once you realize that you have to sustain that pace for thirty days, it gets pretty bleargh.

2. Both are perfectly bloggable.

It's only been day two of my Wintersabering exploits, and it feels a bit faster than say, doing SSO dailies, since the rep gain comes in with turn-ins that don't count towards the daily limit. So instead of a giant surge in rep gain at the end of a day, it's a steady stream of rep that can stop and start at a whim, allowing me to blog about whatever is on my mind.

Coincidentally, one tends to think about a lot of things when going through repeated motions.

With regards to the writing project, just by reaction alone, as well as the small subset of bloggers participating in said project, I believe that it is perfectly understandable to be able to post snippets of what I'm writing in my off-wow time. Besides, it's good writing practice, and it should help me improve as a blogger as a result.

About That Novel

I still haven't settled on an idea for what I want to write, since there are a few things that are contributing factors towards what I want to write:

Firstly, the allowance of writing derivative works means that I could spend the month writing fanfiction. This may seem like the easy way out, since I write about what I know and particularly like, but that's something that I'd do anyways.

Secondly, the (extremely) thin chance of finding representation for publication of works done during NaNoWriMo is an intriguing inspiration to write and see how far I can go as a writer. For me, I understand my skills as a novelist; bad at usage of literary devices, but a good command for continuity, and extremely creative/experimental storytelling. If I am capable of improving my weaknesses (simply by reading and writing more), then I'm sure that one of my stories could be interesting or intriguing enough for someone out there to take a chance.

Thirdly, my attraction to both roleplay and fanfiction has combined into this blurred where a lot of my post ideas regarding my RP characters, particularly Wimzig Wintersprug (and Leyola Swiftwillow especially, since she is not on an RP server) has shifted into this sort of stab-in-the-dark-like quality of a post, that feels like fanfiction of a character that I play, often based on RP encounters that occur in-game. It's a strange thing, but to actually use one of these two characters in my november novel is not actually a bad idea at all, especially considering the first point that I made about fanfiction in the first place.

So where does that leave me in regards to a general idea of the noval that I am about to write in a few weeks? I mentioned the following ideas on the wow blogger Nano group:

- a video gaming champion's rise to fame, mostly narrated through the meta-ficticious games that he plays.
- a big bank heist, narrated multiple times from differing character's viewpoints.
- a murder-mystery in a fantasy setting (think LotR meets CSI)
- the fall of gnomeregan

It's a somewhat varied list, but the bad part is that there's more going on my head plot-wise with other ideas that are just as, if not more, enticing to write about. ARGH. Just watch, the day I actually settle on an idea is the day that I get stuck on how to go about writing it. It always happens.

Such is the life of a writer.

Random Thoughts While Grinding Wintersaber Rep

There's only one NPC present on Frostsaber rock, but the faction name is "Wintersaber Trainers." Where are the other trainers? Does his pet count as another member? If so, does that mean that this pet teaches other pets as well?

I really ought to switch to skinning. All these guys going down fast makes me feel bad about wasted hides.

Winterspring is just beautiful. I can only imagine what Northrend will bring. A cryophile's wet dream, for sure.

If I ever level a hunter past 60, those chimaeras would make pretty neat pets.

I switched back to 0/0/61. Despite Arcane Meditation, I'm still getting some intense damage per mana. Instead of passive regen, I'm getting shatter combos like nobody's business. With the reduced aggro radius, I can stand a few feet away from my target, Nova, then shatter combo for a one-shot kill. The distance between mobs also helps with mana regeneration.