Velocipede Adventures!

NaNoWriMo Chapter Titles

I like silly chapter titles. I like silly chapter titles that start with “In Which…” and then describe what happens in the chapter. I intend to use the style in this year’s NaNoWriMo, as I did in the past two years. Last year’s chapter titles had a few gems. They are as follows. [Commentary bracketed and italicized.]

• In Which Marko and Kirsanov Illuminate the Nature of Their Reality.
• In Which Arthur Jones is Exactly the Kind of Man You Would Expect Arthur Jones to Be. [Turns out he was not the kind of man I expected him to be. See below.]
• In Which Marko and Kirsanov Abuse the Laws of Physics for Fun Alone, Which is Far More Valuable than Profit for Them Anyway.
• In Which Arthur Jones Faces the Ramifications of What He Has Done.
• In Which Arthur Jones Gets Far More than He Bargained For, Which is Often the Case in this Kind of Story.
• In Which Marko and Kirsanov Do Some Stuff, I Haven’t Figured Out Quite What Yet. (They Debate Their Options, That’s What They Do.) [You can see how this chapter-naming convention does wonders for the word count.]
• In Which Arthur Jones Returns Home To His Wife and Child.
• In Which I Will Name The Chapter After Starting to Write The Chapter, Because I Once Again Am Unsure of What Will Occur. [Whoops, guess I didn’t do that.]
• The Corruption of Marko DeLornighe. [You can tell shit gets serious in this chapter because it doesn’t fit the pattern.]
• In Which Arthur Jones Speaks to His Creation.
• In Which Arthur Jones Brings His Brief Yet Important Story to a Close Through Sheer Force of Character In Authorial Spite of His Introduction as a Boring Character. [It’s what I get for calling him boring in the first place.]
• Epilogue: In Which What Happens After the Story is Explained to Provide a Firmer Conclusion While Still Suggesting that the Story Continues. [I sure did explain what an epilogue is there. I sure am explaining the joke in these brackets here.]

NaNoWriMo 2011 Final Thoughts

NaNoWriMo 2011 is super-officially over now. I just got back from the Thank God It’s Over party for our region. So no more super wordy posts about computer people with weird names popping up on your dashes. This just leaves me free to write super wordy posts about other things instead.

I’m very happy with how things turned out this year. I’m excited for editing this, but that will have to wait until much later in the month. I need to let the story sit for a while so I can come back to it fresh. I also need to finish the semester, but that’s not really important, no one cares about that. My goals for editing the story are as follows:

Read More

27. Chapter Eleven Concluded. Epilogue. The End.

They stood silently out in that hallway. Some of them glanced at each other and gave nods. Most of them glanced around and tried to take it all in, having never been any where near this high up in the building. After a whole, the shuffling and weight shifting began. The murmurs followed. No one stood near Arthur. He could have swung his arms out all around him if he had wanted to. He had absolutely no desire to do so whatsoever. He kept his arms pinned to his side, his back straight and stiff, his gaze steadfast in front of him. He knew what he was going to say. He had just written it all down. Talking to that computer program felt strangely, not unpleasantly, not completely unexpectedly, like talking to a part of himself. It had felt good. After all these years, after all the thoughts he had begun these past few days with “after all these years,” the program turned out for good after all. It was what he had always wanted. Something untouched by The Management. Something that was his own handiwork. Sure, it had been built largely upon the years of sweat and toil by people far more talented than he, but he had brought it to life. He felt sure of that, that it was his touch and tinkering, his influence that had brought forth its intelligence.

Now he just waited for the confrontation. Now he waited for the final blow. (Continue Story.)

********

It’s over. 50,000 words. I finished the story. The words “THE END” have been written. I will write up reflections about the experience after I tend to the work I have been neglecting in favor of this story, or perhaps when I want to continue to procrastinate on all that.

Writing Music: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou soundtrack; various old timey Christmas musics; Sigh No More, Mumford and Sons

Words Today: 2818

Words Total: 50,848/50,000

26. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven.

 Arthur Jones paced around the halls in front of the office. He wasn’t going in that room, not unless there was some reason for him to be in there. At the moment there was not, but in addition to that, he could not stand to be in there when they were torturing the minds within his program. They would call him if they needed him. It was much cooler out here anyway, and he could hear himself think.

And what did Arthur Jones think? He barely could. He felt betrayed, though he could find no agent of betrayal in all this mess. Everyone here was just doing their job. Kruczynski had misled him, but that wasn’t betrayal. That was buying time. And what were these things he was feeling so defensive, so protective over? Some electrons zipping around inside a box? Did they really all constitute an intelligent mind. He wanted it to. After ten years, if that was what he had been working on creating this entire time, it would be a miraculous accomplishment. But it wasn’t a question he could answer right now, especially not just staying out in the hallway and pacing. He didn’t want to find out the way the programmers and administrators in there were trying to find out. Not only did it seem cruel, it was unnecessary. Each time he heard the cries go up from the room, cries of frustration every time they had to restart the session with new parameters for M.D., he could not help but shudder.

They called him in eventually. Arthur didn’t know how long it had been. He did not know what he had been neglecting upstairs. Victor Johnson could tell him on the elevator ride back up to the office when this was all over, or up to The Management office if they actually decided to fire him. He would be completely unsurprised if they did.

(Continue Story. Click Read More for commentary.)

Read More

24. Chapter Eight Concluded. The Corruption of Marko DeLornighe.

Arthur pondered for a bit, then ordered Johnson, “Get me Kruczynski.”

“Kruczynski?”

“I want to talk to him.”

“Very well.” And Johnson went off to get Kruczynski.

He leaned against the wall as he waited and tried to mull over what had been presented to him, but humble servant Victor Johnson was a quick servant indeed and presented Kruczynski before Arthur before the latter could get beyond Okay, so.

“Jones.”

“Kruczynski.”

“You wanted something?”

Arthur glared at Johnson, who promptly scuttled away. “I’m trying to wrap my head around all this,” he said.

“Mmhmm,” Kruczynski hummed with that, “Yeah, so?” intonation.

“What are we doing with this thing?”

“You tell me, boss. You wanted your freedom with this.”

“It’s getting out of hand.”

“I’ve noticed.” (Continue Story)

********

Yeah, I lied about it all being Chapter Eight. But this is a good thing. I think Chapter Nine is my favorite chapter. This is where terrible things happen to unsuspecting people. I loved playing with the writing through repetition. This chapter is definitely one that I want to keep in this story, whatever it turns out to be.

Writing Music: Aim and Ignite, fun.; Funeral, Neon Bible, The Suburbs, Arcade Fire

Words Today: 3070

Words Total: 45,128/50,000

23. Chapter Eight Continued.

“Kirsanov. You are acting like a mad man. Calm down, let’s go inside.” Marko wondered if perhaps that was what they had actually changed. Maybe they had partially changed Kirsanov’s mind, just as he had been ranting about, and the inaccuracies of their electronic neurosurgery had driven him to this condition.

“What, are you afraid that I’m making a scene?” Kirsanov retorted.

“Yes. You are yelling.”

“Then let a scene be made! What does it matter if they all hear the truth? You hear, professors? We are playthings within a machine! We are constructs of a computer at the mercy of the programmers above! You’ll see, you all will! You will notice the cracks in reality that reveal the true nature of the world! Understand that you are nothing within yourself, you are simply representations of what someone has imagined and that they can change their imagination with a whim. A whim, I say! That is all any of us are! That is exactly how fragile this world is, as fragile as a whim!”

During his speech, his pontification, several professors down the infinite hallway poked their heads out to see what the ruckus was about. No one approached though. It wasn’t that no one dared, but rather that Kirsanov had cried wolf with similar volume about his revelations many times before. Interested parties listened, disinterested ones returned to their work and muttered about tenure.

“Are you quite finished yet?” Marko asked. (Continue Story.)

********

The rest of the novel will probably end up being in this chapter, maybe with an extra chapter of denoument.

Writing Music: Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons.

Words Today: 2030

Words Total: 42,033/50,000

20. Chapter Eight.

CHAPTER EIGHT

In Which I Will Name the Chapter After Starting to Write the Chapter, Because I Once Again Am Unsure of What Will Occur

“Marko?”

“Yeah?”

“I just realized something.”

“What?”

“Something terrible.”

“What?”

“What if it’s already started?”

“What’s started?”

“What if they’ve already started changing the world? How would we know?”

“We would. I know. We just would.”

“You say that without thinking, man! Could you honestly tell? With all our experimentation, we could never just feel that they had changed things. You didn’t know when I made a clone of you the next day at all.”

“Wait, you made a clone of me?”

“See what I mean? Exactly!”

(Continue Story. Click Read More for commentary.)

Read More

19. Wife and Child Continued/Concluded

“Arthur?”

He did not stir. He was fast asleep in the rocking chair. (Continue Story.)

********

This was written during Drinking Brunch with Writing (and Drinking), so it is almost entirely crap. People think and argue about things, is basically all that happens. Despite having a chapter named for them, I think Arthur’s wife and child are pretty useless overall. They’re not really in here long enough to provide any sympathy points. I’m pretty sure that the story I’m writing here can be told as a short story. I don’t think it needs to be as long as a novel. But I will continue writing it in order to find out!

Writing Music: None.

Words Today: 3381

Words Total: 34,576/50,000

17. In Which Arthur Jones Returns Home to His Wife and Child

CHAPTER SEVEN

In Which Arthur Jones Returns Home to His Wife and Child.

The celebrations ended. Arthur was taken to a new desk in a new building. His new office was not a closet this time; he faced a window that looked out onto the wastes of the city, the areas that used to be lively and populated but that had since fallen into dereliction. They left him alone in here, and he approached the glass tentatively to better examine the view. The land appeared crispy and brown, like intermittent waves of organic decay had washed over it. Arthur Jones breathed deep. His chest expanded and touched the chilly glass. He shivered but did not shudder. He let his eyes lose focus until he tired of this dalliance and examined his new desk.

It was a rich and smooth, almost dark black wood. He was afraid to touch it. He took his place in the high-backed chair and contracted his body until he felt as small as he possibly could in his chair.

Here he was, high up in the corner office. Here he was, the big man sitting in the big chair. Here he was, Arthur Jones, Executive Director of Technological Emergence Arthur Jones. Here he was with everything he had been told to want. (Continue Story.)

********

I don’t know anything about babies or being a parent or anything, but I think I will write secret messages in murals on my kids’ walls. I want to see their reactions when they find them. Also to let them know I love them, imaginary future beings that they currently are.

Writing Music: “Alice (Disney Remix),” Pogo; “Que Sera,” Wax Tailor

Words Today: 1327

Words Total: 31,194/50,000