NaNoWriMo : Demon World part 3 & Tips 2

Yesterday I didn't write.I know that's bad, but as I said in the previous post things like "life" happen and sometimes it makes it difficult to concentrate on writing even when you want to.
But of course today I caught up.
I'm at 10061, which is not only right on track for my 2500 words per day schedule but also two days in advance for the normal NaNoWriMo schedule. The first 10000 words are easy and hard to get at the same time. Easy because the beginning of a story is mostly clear in the mind of the writer, hard because you are not yet using your potential writing inertia and you still need to go dig up for motivation looking at the mountain of words in front of you.
All Novels Drafts 

So you have to break the mountain into small pieces. Be happy with every couple of words you right. My tool to do that and this is the tip of the day is :  
Update your word count on the NaNo website every 5 minutes. 
And by that I mean, write with your NaNo stat page open, every time you take back your breath and start thinking after a sentence or a paragraph, update your word count. That way you will see it grow slowly and it's very motivating. Even 100 words more, even 50 words more deserve to be updated, because after all, all you have to do is to write an easy 100 words often enough.

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NaNoWriMo : Demon World part 2 & Tips 1

Here is the second part of "Demon World" which was written yesterday. I didn't mentioned it earlier but I set my daily word count goal to 2500 instead of the normal 1667 words and there is a good reason for it.
When I first participated to NaNoWriMo three years ago, I had only until the 20th of November to get to 50000 words as I was going to Peru on 20th of November. Therefore I needed to write more than usual. I realized then that it was actually a very good idea and it was also very motivating. It's motivating to see your word count rise and even more motivating to see it rise quickly. It also gives you a sense of security, even if you miss one day of writing, you will still be on track. Of course you want to write every day, but everybody can have to stay in bed with a fever, or have to attend a party or have homework/work to do.
All Novels Drafts 

I decided to give tips on how to win NaNoWriMo  after winning it three times and winning other writing contest of the kind (JanNoWriMo, Script frenzy, JuNoWriMo, AugNoWriMo) I finally feel qualified.
So the first tips is : Write as much as possible as fast as possible
Nobody here is asking you for quality writing (yet, novel editing month is in March, don't ruin it) what you need is quantity, what you need is to get to the finishing part of your novel, what you need is to get to 50000 words, so if you have to add a grocery shopping list to your novel, go for it (more on that later). 

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NaNoWriMo : Demon World part 1

It's November first and like all first of November it's the start of NaNoWriMo.
This year I'm participating again and I decided to blog about my progress on a daily basis (last year I did it only on a weekly basis) so that you can check every day if I successfully achieved my word count and read the new part of the new novel. 

My new novel is called "Demon World", it's a direct sequel to "Demon Soul" and "Demon and Fairy".
I say direct sequel because all my novels generally use the same characters as secondary or main characters but the difference this time is that the main characters from "Demon Soul" and "Demon and Fairy" are the main characters. The setting is also few weeks (months, day...) after Seti and Sahel came back from the Fairy World. If you want to read the first draft of the previous novels, look here and here.
All Novels Drafts 

So if you are not afraid of unedited text and crazy English that at time might make no sense, meet with the first part.

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Japan : 目黒寄生虫館

En français
In June, I went to the most disgusting museum in Japan, 目黒寄生虫館 (Meguro Parasitology museum).
The museum presents specimen of divers virus and parasites and the effect they have on human or animal bodies. Most of the explanations are in Japanese but hopefully I had friends with me to give me all the sordid details, as a revenge, I explained the text from old European books even though it didn't feel so yummy.
Curiously, we still manage to have lunch afterwards.
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Writing Fever : I like useless characters

Yes, yes, yes, I like useless characters. 

Every one of you who ever tried to write a novel, or a story, or something, anything really, involving characters, probably, mostly likely, definitely came across this advice : 

"Develop your characters, every character need to have a role and purpose, use your characters and don't forget them in the middle of the story." 

Not really formulated like this but you get the idea. 

 The thing is....hmmm... NO... so let me explain.

First thing first, what are the ideas behind this advice ?

1) Writing should be straight to the point.

2) There is a lot to write so only write useful things.

3) Why would you write about a character nobody will remember?

4) Why would you spend monstrous time developing a character who will appear only for half a page?

5) People are going to get bored with reading you if you get into digression all the freaking time.

A lot of people seem to think that if something doesn't literally bring anything to the story's plot it is not worth mentioning. But my point is, useless characters are everywhere and they are the background workers, the reason why part of the plot can actually hold. (I like to leave clues about my next novels, which might or might not be written) in the current one. (Anyone cares to look for them ?)

So here is why I think you should use and overuse useless characters. (Other than it help your NaNoWriMo word count)

Next time you walk in the street  count the number of people you see and figure out the number of useful one for you to get from point A to point B. See what I'm saying, you meeting a friend and just saying hello on the way home is not going to bring anything to your destination. Maybe you'll even forget that you met him when you arrive there. Does it mean that those people should die ? Certainly not. Every one of them have a background role and probably did something, at some point, that helped you, or help someone to do something that helped you, or helped someone to help someone to help someone.... to help someone who helped you.

See where I'm going there ? 

If you walk home at night, you're more likely to want the street to be filled up with people than to have one man standing in the dark corner of a door step, all dressed in black, watching you until you finally turn in the street corner.... damn that street never seemed so long. 

Same when you watch a movie, how many of the actors present on the screen actually got a line and how many of them are just called "the woman in black" in the credits. 

Thinking about it, I don't see why novels shouldn't be populated. Accientally making one useless characters jump in can bring a little fun when you get bored with writing or don't have any idea. 

And think about it, no matter how bad it is everything can be corrected if you don't like it.

Maybe I tend to over populate my novels, I don't know. I have a lot of characters ready to use and I like to have them walking around even when they don't bring anything to the story. I like to have them interact and annoy the main characters with their little "useless" life. 

And that friend you run into when depress walking home after a long day work, might be the one brightening your life with a silly joke. 

How many of you died reading the long long.... long fish and plant list in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" ? But nobody will dare to say that it's a bad book. (or maybe someone will.) It's not useful but the fishes are there to be known and seen.

How many of you died reading never ending description ? It's not really useful either but it gives you a nice feeling of the surrounding even if your characters never make it there.

I believe that adding moving characters, even for a short time, can brighten your story.

So LONG LIFE USELESS CHARACTERS!!!

(At worse, they will give people something to talk about.)

Cyrano de Bergerac : Que dites-vous ?… C'est inutile ?… Je le sais !
                                      Mais on ne se bat pas dans l'espoir du succès !
                                     Non ! non, c'est bien plus beau lorsque c'est inutile !
 ( Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand, éd. Pocket, 2005, acte V, scène 6, p. 200 )

"Demon soul" contest : Winners announcement

About 2 months ago was the start of the "Demon soul" contest.

It is now time to announce the winners : 

1) Yuma Murata (Japan) for his short story "A winter day"
2) Gregory Armstrong (US) for his demon portraits.

They will each receive a signed copy of  Demon Soul


Another contest might be hold next year, stay tuned.

Japan : Japanese traditional music

En français
In Mai, I had the chance to be invited to a concert of traditional Japanese music where my friend was playing shakuhachi. The shakuhachi is a Japanese traditional wood flute. My friend was playing only at the end of the concert so I had time to first enjoy other instruments, such as koto, an very complicated string instrument.
Here is a part of the concert.
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