NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 22

 Wordcount:  Daily = 2,364 , Total =  40,660
Percentage: 81.3 (111% of target)

Almost done! Two chapters or so to go. Phew!

It is very late and I am very tired, but my fingers just keep tap-tap-tapping. Today I got to write the fun scene - where Tiriki and Dragon chase each other around a Science Fair:

 

Tiriki spread his wings as a large shaggy beast sprang from behind a project board. He sprang into the air a heartbeat too late, and Dragon batted him to the ground.

“Hello birdie,” crooned the cat. “I hear it's time for lunch.”

  Tiriki lashed out at Dragon, his savage beak raking against her delicate nose. She yowledm drawing back and giving him enough room to wriggle free. He ran, flapping his wings to get himself airborne. Up, he rose, one flailing claw catching the edge of a helium balloon, suspended in the air. The display it was attached to rose too, and the cat leapt, crashing into it. Bird, board and kea crashed into an upright ant farm, in an explosion of feathers and fur. The plastic casing tilted and fractured, spilling soil and ants across the hall floor.

Tiriki recovered first and struggled free, disentangling himself from the string and flapping into the air. Dragon glared at him, teeth bared. She still trailed her lead.

“I'll get you,” she snarled.

“Hahaha,” chortled Tiriki. “I would say you've met your match, because this kea you ain't gonna catch!”

He dove low then, infuriating the feline and making it spring at him once more. With a fast flip and a turn, he evaded capture, but crashed into a complicated structure of pipes and bowls. Tubing split and water cascaded out, drenching the cat and puddling on the floor.

“You lice-ridden chicken!” She screeched, shaking herself. Her fur was plastered to her body, making her appear half the size she once was. “You mangy featherduster.”

“Hey, fish-breath,” Tiriki taunted her from his perch atop a low table. “Catch this!” He picked up a potato, and flung it at the feline. This would have been a little more succesful, had it not been attached to a small clock with copper wires. Tiriki tripped over one of the wires and tumbled off the table with an indignant squawk.

Dragon leapt again, her claws out and deadly. Tiriki rolled on his back, lunging out with his own sturdy talons and grazed her across the belly. For a moment they tussled, until he managed a well-placed peck and struggled free once more.

Off he flew, across the hall, with Dragon in hot pusuit.

The chase was on!

Alighting atop the terranium, Tiriki called “here kitty, kitty, kitty,” and exploded into the air as she pounced. He kicked out at the terranium at the same time, pushing it forward and tipping it over. It crashed onto the cat and the lid fell off, spilling green frogs. They fled, ribbiting their distress.

Tiriki dive-bombed Dragon, talons outstretched, in his best impersonation of a falcon. She twisted, snapping at him and he seized her lead in his claws, dragging her across the floor and through a puddle, before the lead slipped through his claws. She hissed and yowled, slashed and spat, but all to no avail.

From exhibit to exhibit, the kea and the cat crashed. Littering the floor with broken glass, shattered plastic, dirt and water and sand and many other things besides. The sunflowers were knocked over, the frogs ate the ants, a dozen little yellow chicks joined the fray. It was utter, complete and delirious chaos. Tiriki loved any minute of it.

Several times, Dragon got close to catching him – he even lost a couple of tail feathers, before finally, exhausted, he settled up in the rafters and began grooming his feathers.

In the hall below, only a handful of exhibits remained standing. Many were smashed or knocked over, broken and battered. Water mingled with dirt to make patches of mud and scraps of wood and straws and cardboard lay in tangled, mangled piles. Amongst the rubble, five chickens fossicked, happily munching up the ants and six frogs played in the puddles.

Dragon sat in the middle of the floor. Her striped fur lay flat and wet in patchs, spiky in others. Scraps of paper and plaster stuck to her. She glared up at Tiriki with as much hatred as a feline could master.

Then, quite calmly, she began to groom.

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 21

 Wordcount:  Daily = 953 , Total =  38,296
Percentage: 76.6 (109% of target)

Not much wordage done today. Still, Science Fair time! I'm pretty tired tonight, so I think bed is not far off.

My goal is to have the novel completed by the end of my weekend - that is to say, saturday night. I am currently approximately 3 chapters from the end. I shall then go back and flesh out some of the duller chapters, trying to establish Raweke and Totoa better as characters and further delving into the rivalry between Pakari and Tiriki. Also, write a lengthy amount of info on the Kea and briefer blurbs on the Kaka, the House Sparrow and some stuff about parrots as pets and bird smuggling. This is essentially the skeleton of my story, now to add some more flesh to its bones. Also, I need to make sure it flows properly, given the vast amounts of cut and pasting of text that I have done. There is also a short story - "Entering and Breaking" and maybe the tale of Ka, Ki and Po.

If I still haven't achieved the 50k by then, I'll be most surprised!
And maybe write some more on my lemur story to finish my NaNo goals.

In today's extract, Tiriki meets a cat at the Science Fair:
There will be more from this murderous b**ch later!

He was not the only non-human in the hall either – lying in a basket, a collar and lead attached to its throat, was the biggest cat that Tiriki had ever seen.

She perked up her ears as he was carried past.

“Biiiiir-die,” she purred.

“Hey Jessica, you brought your cat along,” Josh stopped, and spoke with the human, a young female, standing near the cat.

“Sure did,” she said, running one hand over the cat's shaggy head. “This is Dragon. She's a Maine Coon.”

“She's massive!” His eyes flicked over the board. “You've trained her, like a dog?”

Jessica nodded. “Sure have – she can fetch, and do other tricks too. Even count!”

“Well, my bird knows some tricks too.”

The girl tried to peer into the cage. “Is that a kea?” She asked.

“Smartest bird in the world,” declared Josh.

“And don't you forget it!” Tiriki added. “Smarter than any cat!”

“His name's Kaha,” continued the boy. “My dad's been looking after him. He was hurt pretty bad.”

“Hello Kaha,” crooned Dragon. “You think you're so clever, don't you?”

“I don't think it at all,” declared Tiriki, “I know it. And my name's really Tiriki.”

“Mine is Princess Diamantia Rosella the third,” replied Dragon, “but humans just don't understand it. They give us silly little names to match their silly little minds.” She began grooming her foot. “I've always wondered what a parrot would taste like.”

“Now that you mention that,” replied Tiriki, “I've always fancied a taste of cat.”

“Oh look at them,” Jessica commented, “it's almost as though they're talking to one another. I wonder what they're saying?”

“Maybe they're becoming friends?” Josh asked, looking hopefully at Jessica. Tiriki could sense that he admired the girl, fancied her even.

Princess Diamantia Rosella aka Dragon licked her lips. “I do love to kill birds,” she purred, eyes half closed. “Feeling their little bodies give beneath my powerful jaws, hearing the crunch-crunch-crunch of their broken bones. Oh, and it is so fun to play with them first. Watching the panic as their little heart race-races along, fit to bursting.” She grinned at Tiriki, showing her pearly white fangs. “Sometimes their hear does give up, and they die too quickly,” she continued, “that makes me sad. Their pain is just so delicious, so divine. Do you know how many birds I've killed?” She opened her eyes fully, yellow and evil. “Many,” she continued. “Oh, so many.”

Tiriki shuddered. He knew cats, like most mammals, were murderous beasts, but he had never realised how truly sadistic they were.

“Well, I'd better get him set up,” said Josh, hoisting the cage up again. “Say goodbye to your new friend, Kaha.”

“Good riddance,” Tiriki growled. “Murderer.”

“Bye-bye birdie,” crooned the cat, “I'll slay you later.”

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 20

Wordcount:  Daily = 3,475 , Total =  36,602
Percentage: 73.2 (109% of target)

Update: Wordcount:  Daily = 4,216 , Total =  37,343
Percentage: 74.68 (112% of target)

Reclaiming my lead! Some of this was written after my blogpost last night, but much of it was this morning. If I continue in this trend, I might even make it to 40k by the end of today!

Am about to go to work now - thanks to my manager for letting me start an hour and a half later (due to working an extra two hours last night with IT stuff).

Tiriki's about to go to school. Wish him luck! (Or to be precise, wish JOSH, the boy taking him to school, luck. He's gonna need it!)

But first, the escapades in the Bird Shed.
Matilda is a red-tailed black cockatoo, and Major is a Major Mitchell cockatoo. Both are Australian. I shall have to go through later and Aussie-tiss Matilda's speech. Shouldn't be too difficult, after I did the magpies in "Aroha's."

They're having so much fun, Tiriki realised, the other birds should join in too. He flew up to the line of cages and hopped along, lifting latches and shunting bolts, sliding doors and undoing twisty ties. Doors swung open, or were pushed up, cages opened.

Very few of the birds came out, most stayed huddled in their cages, gazing at him with slightly frightened eyes.

“Come on,” he encouraged one, “come out and fly!”

“We can't,” muttered a bright pink cockatoo, a galah. “I've never flown in my life. I might fall on my face.”

“It's scary,” said another, “bad things happen out there.”

Tiriki laughed. “What bad things? Flying isn't hard, you're a clever bird, you'll figure it out.”

'No,” said a sharp voice, “she won't.” A large black cockatoo alighted on the cage bars above him, and slid the door shut with her foot. “She'll stay right here, in her cage, where she belongs.”

He rounded on the cockatoo, a female. “What are you doing?” He snapped.

She rose her crest and glared at him. “Stopping you from doing too much damage,” she replied. “These birds are captive born and bred. Look at them,” she nodded at a parakeet, who was careening around the room, as fast as a feather in a wind storm. “They've no control. You let five-eights of birds fly loose in here, and there'll be mid-air collisions, broken wings and shattered spines. Not a pretty sight. And if any are misfortunate enough to survive and get outside? They'll starve. Or freeze. They're domestics,” she said.

“What about you? You're not going crazy.” Tiriki's own head-feathers rose with his ire. He did not like being told what to do. “I don't remember opening your cage,” he added.

“No,' she replied, “I'm not. I was hatched in an open-flighted aviary. And you didn't. I let myself out, to stop you making a mess of things.” She ducked as the parakeet whizzed past again.

“Wheeeeeee!” He cried, “I can flyyyyyyyyy.”

“Me too!” Another parakeet was moving across the floor, making weird little flapping hops that didn't quite succeed in getting her airborne.

The black cockatoo shook her head. “It's just embarrassing,” she sighed. “That our kind should be reduced to this.”

“But if you can let yourself free, why are you still here? Why don't you just leave?”

She laughed. “It ain't as easy as that, my little freshwings. The world out there,” she nodded at the door, now firmly shut and probably bolted, “is more wire. There's no escape that way.” She paused, and lowered her beak close to his ear. 'But me and me mates, we're planning our escape. Only, we can't take 'em all – most of 'em would be liabilities. But you,” she nudged him in a friendly manner, “you're from outside, aren't you?”

“Yes,” Tiriki agreed.

“Come with me,” she took flight, gliding down to the counter top where the two kea chicks were still at play, now rolling a small ball to one another. Tiriki followed, having to drop suddenly to avoid being struck by the cavorting parakeet. He landed beside her and watched as the out-of-control bird plunged straight into another free flying parakeet and the two of them tumbled to the ground in a cascade of feathers and fowl language. He crashed straight into the hop-flying bird and sent her tumbling too.

“I'm okay, we're okay!” He crowed, as the three birds staggered to their feet and stumbled about.

The cockatoo shook her head. “Just embarrassing,” she repeated. “I'm Matilda, by the way.”

“Tiriki,” Tiriki replied, frowning at her. “Ain't that a human name?”

Matilda bobbed her head. “I told you,” she said, “cage born and bred. And this is Major.”

A splendid cockatoo cruised down to join them. His plumage was a delicate pink, with bands of a brighter shade adorning his crest and wings. He bowed his head at Tiriki in greeting.

“Pleasure to meet you, outsider,” he said.

“How did you get out?” Tiriki sputtered. “I didn't open your cage.”

“We cockatoo have our ways,” Major replied, his dark eyes gleaming. “We are not as foolish as we lead the humans to think.”

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 19

Wordcount:  Daily = 1,589 , Total =   33,127
Percentage: 66.25 (104% of target) 

This is the closest to the actual target I have ever been in NaNo. This time last year I had a word count of 42,786, in June's Socnoc I was just under 40k, and in 2010 I was on 43,479 - so I am around 10k less than what I normally have at this stage. I've gotta up my game! But as you can see, I am still ahead of the lead, so that's something.

I've also been writing this story in a different manner from my previous ones - usually I start at the beginning and write until the end - but here I've been jumping back and forth, fleshing the story out here and the story out there. So... we'll see where it goes.

Also, I just added up all my blog posts for November to see what their word count amounts to - and deleting the extracts that I cut and pasted it comes to 6,379 words. Therefore, if I wrote in my blog less and my story more, I would be On Track with previous experiences.

Still, in 2002 and 2004 I had given up at this point - so that's something.
And in 2003 I had 45 117 after deleting around 5000?!!!
I guess I didn't have a full time job then!

Had to stay at work until 8 pm tonight because it is the phone system change over. This was not conducive to writing, although I did take my laptop in, I thought it would be better for me to deal with stock, on account of the fact that they were paying me to wait for the techies to finish doing their techie stuff. Then I had to test to make sure the techie stuff had worked.  Did a bit of writing on my break, further developing the characters of Rata and Maia, the kaka sisters.

“Come on,” said Rata, “follow me, I'll show you around.” She nudged him with her head and took flight, Maia and Tiriki following after her.

It did not take long to fly the circuit of the enclosure.

“This is the feeding table,” she explained, landing on a large wooden platform, over which rose a little roof. “The Provider fills it with seed every evening, and usually puts greenstuff and sweetstuff on it in the mornings. I like the orange bits the best – carrots and oranges.”

“I prefer apple,” added Maia.

There was one of the males feeding there as they landed, a large and powerful specimen. He regarded Tiriki with ill disguised contempt.

“This is Toka,” Maia said, landing beside him and lowering her head so that he could preen her. “He's my mate.”

“And don't you forget it,” muttered the large kaka. Tiriki shivered at the aggression in his voice. A few sparrows clustered around, gobbling up the fallen seed and Toka chased them away.

“And here's the sweet-water,” Rata hung from one of the inverted glass jars, licking at the liquid that spilled from it. “It's full of sugary goodness,” she explained, flapping her wings to keep balance.

Tiriki flew up to the tops of one of the enclosure's trees. Its trunk had been bisected a full beak's width from the wire ceiling.

“The Provider trims them,” Rata explained, joining him. Sugary water glistened on the tip of her curved bill. “To stop them breaking through the wire. Tiriki flew up to cling upside-down from the ceiling, but the wire was thick – too thick for even a strong kea beak to damage.

Whoever created this cage, he though. Did a very thorough job.

“Come on,” Rata called, “there's more to see.” Once again, she was off, Tiriki took after her. Sure, it wasn't that big a cage and he could show himself around, but he rather enjoyed her effervescent company.

“And these are the nest boxes,” she said, landing on a tall wooden box, attached to the trunk of the tree. “This is Maia's,” she added. Tiriki stood on the little perch and peered into the small hole.

“Cosy,” he said. There was a simple latch and hook attached to the front. “Is that how the human opens it?” He asked.

Rata nodded, opening her beak to say a little more when suddenly Toka flew at Tiriki, bowling him from the perch and sending him sprawling.

“Stay... Away... From... My.... Nest!” He said, speaking slowly and loudly, as though he considered Tiriki an imbecile.

Tiriki struck the ground, turned it into a roll and stood up, shaking the dirt from his feathers. “I was just looking,” he said. “Besides, it's not much of a nest if you can't hatch eggs in it.”

Toka appeared to consider that a dire insult, and dropped on Tiriki like an inelegant falcon. Tiriki tumbled out of the way.

“Toka, Tiriki,” came Maia's voice, heavy with pleading. “Please don't fight.”

“Why not?” Toka growled. “This little fellow's a right real upstart. Just out of his fledgling feathers and thinks he can do as he pleases. It's time somewhat taught him a lesson.” But he relented, flapping up to perch atop the nestbox and glare down at Tiriki.

“Come on,” said Rata, “I'll show you my box. Not that it's much use, at the moment, as I haven't got a mate,” she paused, stepping closer to Tiriki and eyeing him. “Yet.”

Tiriki shifted away, uncomfortable. “I'm only a yearling,” he reminded her. “Young and free – no mate for me.”

“Pity,” Rata sighed. “But I'll wait another year.”

Tiriki snorted. “Try three. That's how long it'll be.”

“Oh,” the young female looked disappointed, then she shrugged. “I spose there's not much point really, is there? It's not like we're anything more than brood hens. Lay 'em and lose 'em.” She gave him a friendly nip. “Come on, betcha can't catch me!” And then she was off again, flapping and clowning through the branches. 

(Rata's a flirt and Maia's in an abusive relationship)

 

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 17 - musings

"Tiriki's Great Escape" is a different sort of novel from "Aroha's Grand Adventure" although the two do intersect. "Aroha's" is very similar to the traditional animal style novel - with the main character travelling from A to B and having adventures along the way. I didn't wan't Tiriki's to be the same, and thus it is mainly set in two places - one being Arthur's Pass Village and the other be the large house of an aviculturist (bird breeding) who is engaged in illegal acts.

As such, Tiriki's story is a much slower one than Aroha's. There's less action and more conversation and I am not sure if it going to be as interesting to the younger audience. I suspect I shall have to go through it and fill in some more kea-esque pranks and develop some characters a bit better. Whilst I do have a vague idea of where it is going - and I think Josh is going to be instrumental in making sure the title is accurate, I'm not sure of its viability as a story.

Interestingly enough, I am experiencing the same difficulty with "Tail of Two Scions" in that when the character remains in one place it is harder for me to write. I think that says something about my abilities. Yet "Midsummer Knight's Quest" worked okay, despite the fact that the characters did not really travel that far at all. So, who knows?

Other difficulties I have found are: This novel is written entirely from Tiriki's PoV, therefore, if it doesn't happen where he is, he doesn't know about it. There's nothing wrong with this technique, but I am hoping that the side plots are not too obscure for the reader to notice. Currently I am tending towards having Tiriki attacked by several of the kaka (who are scared of change) and removed from the aviary, being returned to his cage in the breeding shed. Here he should hopefully get to meet the chicks at last. He can also watch Maxwell stuffing the eggs into a special carrying bag to transport them overseas. Maxwell will head off to engage in his illegal smuggling activity, and Josh will sneak in and "steal" Tiriki for his school project.

I kind of need for Tiriki's escape to involve exposing Maxwell's activities at the same time. I am thinking, perhaps, that he escapes from the cage whilst they are being carried home in the car, with Josh in disgrace.

I've just passed the 30k mark and will soon be heading back into the weekend Christchurch Write-in. Maybe I'll post some pictures of that later. I accidentally left my camera there, so I hope noone is misusing it!

Before I head out:

Wordcount:  Daily = 1,244 , Total =  30,849

Of the ten or so people writing here: At least two are writing HP fanfic, one is writing porn/erotica, one is writing dystopia, one is writing fantasy and the others have not disclosed their genre choice. Conversation seems to turn to the topic of Harry Potter fairly often.

Wordcount:  Daily = 1,933 , Total =   31,538

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 16

Wordcount:  Daily = 2585 , Total = 29,605

Percentage: 59.21

Edit: Managed to soldier on once I got home. I think at the moment the desktop is easier to write on than the laptop. It's funny how I switch between which one I prefer.

Matakite is crazy. Now he's predicting death and destruction in Tiriki's future.
Not sure if he means some sort of predator - a cat or stoat might work its way into the aviary, or if he's just foretelling Tupato's treachery. We'll have to wait and see.

Matakite scrambled back to his feet, his wings started flicking uncontrollably. He peered up in Tiriki's general direction, although his pale eyes seemed unable to focus.

“Darkness,” he screeched, “darkness on the air. You must hide, for they seek, from the shadows death will creep.”

Reka shot Tiriki an apologetic look. “He gets like this sometimes,” she explained. She glided down beside her mate, and put her claw on his shoulder. “Mate,” she whispered. “Who seeks?”

“The claws of the night are sharp in the dark. Coming, coming. No time to wait, no time to lark.”

She nipped him, not hard, but enough to break his rambling delerium. “Who's coming?” She repeated.

Oh crud, I've gotten blocked... Tiriki's in the aviary with the kaka,who have sort of formed into two groups - the ones that want to retain the status quo - staying in the aviary where life is safe and food is plentiful, and the ones, the younger ones, that want to escape. So far the younger ones are Rata and Maia, the two females, and Matakite, a kaka who suffered from lead poisoning and sees glimpses of the future and is almost blind.

Alas, I'm not sure where the story is going - or how they're going to escape.

Bugger.

I'm at my first Write-in and it's a lot of fun hanging out with fellow writers - whose stories all sound rather more interesting than mine (pirates, sex, HP fanfic, dystopic futures...) and seem to be going pretty well - and I'm approaching the end of my story and have come to a stalemate.

Maybe I should go for a walk, but I didn't even bring a book for me to read while I do it. Maybe the good ol' walk and talk to myself should come into action.

Have a feeling I'm going to have to delete and rework the last 500 words.

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 15

Wordcount:  Daily = 1,217 , Total = 27,020

Percentage: 54.0 (108% of target)
 I didn't think I'd get any writing done today - I really didn't. I got up earlyish, to be sure, but spent the morning sorting out some calendars and Christmas cards for posting. Then I worked for like... forever... Thursday is my longest shift and by the end of it I was pretty knackered.

I guess I found my second wind.

It took me a while to get the kaka conversing properly - because I wasn't sure exactly how they would react to Tiriki. Then one of them starting spouting off about Chosen One's and so forth, and I decided to go with that. It might be cliched but *shrugs*.

So, Tiriki currently has a couple of groupies in the form of young female kaka - Rata and Maia.

Here's their story:

“Rata and me are sisters,” Maia explained. “We were stolen from our nest before our eyes even opened.”

“I remember the whole world being warm and my mother's gentle voice singing songs to me,” said Rata. “My belly was full and my head was heavy. Then there was noise, mother screeching, screeching. A strong and horrible smell that made my nostrils burn and my head feel even fuzzy. Then more screeching, and I was cold, then something grabbed me, wrapped tight about my body and I thought the life was going to be squeezed from me. Then everything was cold and smelt sharp and sterile and I could feel my sister beside me as we were moved, bump-bump-bump along. Still, in the distance I could hear mother screeching, calling out our names over and over and over again. I tried to answer, but my throat was sore from the burning smell.” She shuddered. “After that, we were fed and we were kept warm, but we never saw our mother, not ever. The first thing I saw – when I opened my eyes for the very first time, was the Provider's face staring down at me. It was so big it took up the whole world, and I thought he was going to eat me. So I squeaked and squeaked, but he just laughed and shoved a tube into my beak and squeezed some food into my gullet.”

 I guess Maia is into Tell and Rata prefers Show.

Rata is a natural born story-teller.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

And here's a paper on how Kea and Kaka play:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=bioscibehavior
Research for my novel!

Tiriki has just met the Kaka family. I'll find names for them in the Maori dicitionaries at work today - IF I have time!