Words

In *glances at the clock* 45 minutes I'm going to start my new book. I say 'new' because I write one, or at least part of one, every year & have since '03. I, and at last count a couple hundred thousand other people, subject ourselves to this peculiar insanity ever November by trying to write a whole novel before the month is out.

The official target is 50,000 words. And if you think that sounds crazy or impossible, know that you're not alone. Every year people from supporters to bloggers to even the participants themselves think NaNoWrriMo (The National Novel Writing Month, nanowrimo.org) is insurmountable. It certainly sounded that way to me when, all those years ago, my friend IMed me, frantic, a 9:30 Halloween night going "OMG! I just agreed to do this thing & you have to do it with me!!" I'd never heard of NaNo (which was in its third or forth year, I think, by that point) & had never written, even collectively, 50k words. I didn't think I'd ever be able to finish, and as it happened, I was right...that year. My first NaNo novel was about 13k & change. Nowhere near the mark, but more than I'd ever written on anything in my life & I was amazed I'd managed it. Since then I've had varying degrees of success each go 'round (I skipped '07 entirely, I just blanked so hard!). Thus far I have two wins to my name, but even on years I didn't I always meet someone new, I always learn something I hadn't known before & I always get, at least part of, a whole new book. And so long as those three things keep happening, I'll keep coming back every year, win or lose.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, for one, I have *glances again at the clock* another half an our before Kickoff in my timezone & I've got a bit of nervous energy to burn. For another, I just like words. I think they're important. Linguistics, the very study of language, is a branch of philosophy. Words aren't just random sounds & shapes that happen together, they're the iconography of thought. We, as a species, are communicative. Storytelling's in our blood.

Language, it seems, has been getting the bum's rush of late. Soundbites, TXTspeak & life in under 140 characters is becoming the way of things. It doesn't have to be like that. Words have power, they're living, evolving things. Don't believe me? Every year a group of words is deemed archaic enough to be pulled from the dictionary, while new ones, and indeed new meanings to old ones, replace them. When was the last time someone said something that totally made your day? When was the last time a word hurt? They say sticks & stones may break bones, but words will never hurt you, I think they have that backwards. Physicality comes & goes, but the marks from words can last forever.

So, in honor of NaNoWriMo, choose your words with a little more care, write something longer than a tweet, fatten up your vocabulary. You can do it. You may not know it, but you're a born storyteller.

Another Year, Another Book

Is it just me, or did Kickoff Night come up out of nowhere this year?? Yes, logically I knew it was always there on the horizon. I tend to start mulling my next novel over just after my birthday in August every year, but for some reason this year's just went from a hazy shape in the distance to standing there staring me in the face in, seemingly, nothing flat.

So from my timezone Kickoff's just under three hours away. I have only the vaguest inkling of what my book's about this year, but that's not at all unusual for me. This year it's less about the words in my head than it is a picture that's been parked in my mind's eye for a couple of weeks now. I have this image of a girl looking out from the front of a boat & as the scene pulls back you see it's a flying ship & back further still that it's part of a fleet of flying ships cruising over a steampunkish cityscape. So, I'm going to start with the girl. She's clearest, then hopefully working on her a bit will help me find who this flying navy is & where they're going. Wish me luck. Till then, I have a couple hours left (and am feeling surprisingly calm considering I have a basically blank slate, lol) & there's a few things I have left to do before I start.

See ya after ;)

New year, new novel

Hallooo gentle reader! Ok, first off, I know...I said I'd brb & that was months ago so at this point I'm likely talking to myself, but...*shrug* RL got a little crazy this summer. I'll spare you all the gory details & just leave it at it involved a trans-Atlantic move prep for some of my relatives & a scary series of hospital stays & a long recovery for another. It just wasn't the smoothest of summers & for that, I beg your indulgence. But, I'm back now & Kickoff is mere hours away. I hope this summer found you all well & one or two of you are still loitering around & you're all jazzed & ready for tonight's event(s). I know I am..., lol, or as ready as I ever am pre-NaNo.

Tonight I'm hoping luck will be on my side as I'm also sitting with my cousin's kids this evening. Cross your fingers that I can get a room full of sugar crazed young'uns chilled down to a dull roar by midnight! I've weeded down to 3 story idea, so we'll see which one shows up to get written when the time comes.

Ok...*takes big, deep breath* gotta go get the last of my prep finished & a few errands run before I take off tonight. I'll write more later & this time, barring catastrophic collapse of the internet or my demise, I should be able to hold to it this time. See ya 'round Kickoff.

TWO MINUTES! AAAAAHHHH!!!!

An Hour Away

Ok, it's nearly midnight....Yikes! I;m anxious & unfortunately really tired tonight. Most NaNos I'm about bouncing around the room near midnight. I hope I can kick some of that excitement up soon. I got about 3 hours sleep today, but I am NOT QUITTING till I hit my 1667! Bed can wait. I can sleep when I'm dead. Well, actually I can sleep in the morning when I go home cuz I have nothing that needs done tomorrow, woohoo! But, it's a long stretch of dark between then & now & in that time, I'm hitting that 16671 unless the cieling caves in on me or something.

Cross your fingers for me, cuz maybe once I get going, I'll just keep at it & forget the tired & it'll all jkust be story. That'd be nice....a big, fat, 5k Day One. Anyway, got a few things to take care of before kickoff. I'll post the results once I'm done for the night. And to my fellow NaNoers, may your word counts overflow! Good luck!!

On the day before...

Ok.....*big, deep breath* to channel Jim Morrison for just a sec here, the time to hesitate is through. NaNo '08 is nearly upon us. I'm feeling...lol, excited-overwhelmed-apprehensive-nervous-hopeful, all kinds of things. I still have loads to do; get my goodies & music together, set my char list, try'n drag the chair back into my room so I don't have to type on the bed all the time (way to tempting to nap that way!)

Anybody else have any big pre-noveling plans? I've also gotta come up with a word a day, lol. A friend of mine from my X-Men game asked me to give her a word every day in Nov so she'll have a go-to in case she gets stuck, etc. I gave her a warm up word to play around a couple paragraphs with today. Today's warm up word was 'scintillating'. We'll see how she does with it.

Oh! Thanks to my 'NaNostalkers & their pointy sticks at the ready, lol. I may not always take the prods gracefully, but atm, I appreciate the sentiment, lol.

So, I've been trying to figure out why I decided to start this, ya see...I don't usually blog. I know a lot of people do, I even read something the other day about the tens of thousands of blogs that are started every day...they're just not mine. It's twofold, I suppose. On one hand, I've always liked the idea of journals & this gives me something a bit more active than the usual 'called my sister', 'had to work' kind of entries. And, on the other hand, there's the accountability factor. It's considerably harder to punk out on your novel when it gets tough if you've got a crowd waiting there to ask about its progress.

Granted, I suppose that theory works better with more than two readers, but hey...I'll take what I can get. So, if you happen upon this corner of cyberspace & decide to stick around, feel free to poke me with a stick from time to time through out November. It'll annoy me after a while, but it's probably good for me, lol. Anyway, gentle reader, it's 11 in the morning & I had to work last night, so I'm off to bed, lest my brain melts out my ears.

See ya tonight ;)

8 Days to Nano

I was a baaad novelist last night. Closing in on a week from Kickoff & I didn't so much as crack open a single page for research last night. Bad writer, bad. To be fair, last night I was a bit out of it. Has anybody else ever gone to grab a couple Tylenol for a headache & nabbed the P.M. kind instead?? No?....I figured as much. That takes a whole special kind of stupid, lol. Anyway, I spent half the night feeling all buzzed & spaced out, which is always just how you want to feel an hour before work. Go me.

Every year I have friends tell me I'm completely nuts for doing NaNo, but I came to a realization. NaNo, to people that like it, is sort of like Christmas when you're little. You wait for it all year, the closer it comes the more antsy you get, you see people you like but haven't seen since last year, when it finally arrives you can't tear through paper fast enough, about halfway through your momentum flags & your energy dips a bit & you're just ready to be done for the year & once it's over you're spent & a little dazed. But, once it wears off a few days later you just start eyeballing the calendar all over again.

Am I saying that NaNo is like being overstuffed with ham dinner, a bit buzzed from too much eggnog & frayed from hours of having your personal space invaded b an ever widening circle of annoying relatives?...Well, only sometimes. Lol. Once a story really gets going it'll pull you along, regardless of other things. You can be busy or tired, it doesn't care, it just wants to hit the page. When it gets going you'll find spots that just drag you along whether you knew they were coming or not, twists & dialog just pour out without you even knowing they were lurking back there. When the story gets the characters talk to you, all the time, each clamoring for attention & page time & bigger scenes & better dialog &...&....

And the sick part of it all, much like too much dinner & annoying relatives on Christmas, once it's over you're really sorry to see it go.

9 Days to NaNo

OK, I've got a few things behind me on my way through NaNo prep. I've got a few notes worked out on who's going to be who, how certain chars will be introduced into the story, who'll be sniping at who & over what. Some nice basics. I've got files set up for my novel & one for notes, I've got my minimum word counts all scribbled onto my calendar(Ty to whatever benevolent soul was more ambitions than I & did the math on that, lol). Also, as per Chris'(NaNo's founder) suggestion in his book, 'No Plot? No Problem!'. I sat down & wrote my Magna Cartas.

The Magna Cartas, for there are two, are lists to help guide you along in your writing for the month. One lists things that when you read them in other people's work you generally enjoy seeing. These are things that you should try incorporating into your own novel, as if you like reading it, you'll likely be good at writing it. The other are pitfalls & quagmires, things that in others' writing makes you cringe. These things should be avoided at all costs whenever possible.

My MC1:
3rd person past - it's habit. I write in my 'off season' for an RPG & that's their preferred structure

Dystopian - I only really realized this a while ago, but a lot of my favorite stories have a least a slight lean into dystopia.

Broken people - most of the chars I write in things tend to be "damaged" in some way. World weary, abused, middle child syndrome, too long under the burden of command, etc, etc.

Conflict - Cuz like the commercials says, conflict's good for drama, right? lol

Intrigue - Not always knowing things is fun, a li'l mystery, a li'l Cloak & Dagger. I like that.

The 3rd Act Twist - And just when you think you have it all figured out....BAM! Lol, I love that.

Heroes - Average, super, unwitting, nonconventional...I just like the good guys.

Otherworldliness - If you were to take a look at my bookcases & movie shelves, you'd see sci fi, comics & fantasy filling most of it. Now, I don't -have- to have elves, mages, mutants, spaceships, etc in everything, but I do enjoy stories that're a few degrees off regular life.

Underdogs - Who doesn't root for the li'l guy?

Action - *shrug* what can I say...Spaceships, superheroes & stuff that blows up. I'm a weird girl.

Pithy dialog - I love getting engrossed in really snappy, smart back & forth. It's great when a writer has good timing, a great sense of humor & a decent vocabulary. I wish that happened more often these days.

Suspension of disbelief - now this one's a bit harder to quantify. It's that engrossing power that a good story has to make the real world fall away. I'm not sure if I'll be able to write it, but I love when I read/watch it!

Strong female chars - *shrug* what can I say, I put together my own computer, entertainment system & the furniture to house them. Why shouldn't the chars? Lol. I know the just-trading-on-their-looks, woe-is-me, some-big-strong-man-come-save-me group isn't going anywhere anytime soon, I'm just not that interested.

My MC2
Long, overly wordy prose - There are certain writers I've read(or in some cases, attempted to read), big, famous writers, who's style is just like slogging through a muddy field to my mind. I'm all for description, but 3/4 of a page to say 'red dress' is too much! Blech!

Bland language - Ok, I admit, this blog & its accompanying novel when its time comes, aren't scintillating fonts of effervescent prose most days, but still...'Nice', 'interesting', anything with '-ly', the list goes on. I realize in a first draft these handy go tos will happen, but that doesn't mean they won't be the first to be shown the door during any rewrite.

Sex scenes - I know, the romance industry makes billions, I'm just not interested in watching(or reading) people go at it. Sorry. I guess I just prefer my own expiriences & fantasies to other people's.

Lack of realism - In any genre there's a certain veneer of reality that can be applied. No matter how big the dragons, how lasergun laden the starships, how camped up the pirates, it can be there. I know not everything is a documentary in life, but still... It goes back to the suspension of disbelief in MC1. I need to be able to at least come within spitting distance of buying the story.

Technology really sucks sometimes

GAH!!! I just wrote this huge post for one of the forums & my browser ate it right before I was going to post!! *bangs head into desk*

11 Days to NaNo

So, I could be wrong (cuz you never can tell until you're actually writing), but I think I just thought of the start of my book. What's more, I think I thought of the start of my book, plus TWO backups! Wahoo! Which reminds me... I haven't told you what I'm writing yet.

Ok, here goes. I was watching tv a while back & saw a commercial for something or other that was a god's name/likeness; Mercury cars, Venus razors...you get the idea. So I got to wondering, if I were an old god & saw my name being used to shill for *insert merchandise here* how would I take that? Is it a testament to the iconic power of these beings that even after centuries, sometimes millenia they're still considered to hold enough sway that their names carry weight like that? Or, would they be irked by the notion that once they were loved, feared, etc by hundreds, even millions (and, with some gods, still are in the right circles) & now are being traded on to peddle somebody's stuff. If you were a god, would you be ticked?

So I started thinking about an old god in the modern age seeing things like that. Then it went further, what kind of things would a god do now? Would they still, after all these eons be working in 'their field' so to speak? Would Zeus be a tv weatherman? Would Eros run an online dating service? What would you do in this modern age if you'd come from the ancient world & what's more, how do you reconcile going from who you were -regardless of the times- to who you'd be now. Clearly there's no Thor swinging his hammer recently, no Anubis wandering the terminal ward in hospitals, no Apollo riding his chariot across the sky...is there? Are they still out in the world? "What if god was one of us?"

-=deleted for the sake of my sanity=-

'What's that about?', right? Well, I just finished writing up a few paragraphs on the whys & wherefores of my plot, but then thought better of it. For any number of reasons, it's probably best not to let the whole thing out in one go. I'll post it, then something totally different will happen in the story &... Anyway. If it sounds like your kind of reading, I've got a spot only where I'm posting it as I write. Nanomail me *points to the 'My NaNo Profile' link to the left*

Lead Up to NaNo: 12 days to go

ignore the timestamp. I wrote it yesterday, but just now posted

Well, it's 12 days before my 5th NaNo. It's 11 in the morning & tho' I know I should, I'm not sleeping. I can't. My mind just keeps running over things & over things. Who am I using for the rest of the cast, what're they all doing, what're they like, what's the point of this whole story, I wonder if i got any NaNomail yet, I'm kinda hungry, no, food just means I'll have to go downstairs & mess around a while, maybe I should throw in a movie, or watch some of the stuff off the DVR, maybe i should start a new book, no can't start a new book lest, on the off chance, I'm not done before Nov, I should go to sleep, I don't feel like going to sleep, I'm kinda tired, no, I'm hungry, ugh.... this sucks!

Ya see my problem?

I've been trolling the boards lately & open this one up just a bit to a few people wanting to read. I'm still debating, providing they actually do read & comment, if I should save reading commentary till after. Might be better, but we'll see. If noone reads it it won't be an issue anyway. So this year I'm gonna take another whack at something I'd thought of a couple years ago. But, as I'm starting entirely from the ground up (haven't even opened the old vesion since last i added to it) I don't think it really counts as an ongoing project. It's the old gods in the modern era thing. So far the cast list is still up in the air for the most part & though I know the basic structure I'm using, the particulars of where & how the story will go are still a total mystery.

Ya know, there are times when this endeavor seems really crazy to me, lol. When I was a kid I remember thinking how it'd be really cool to write things, but whenever I tried I could never do it. There wasn't any big reason was so enamored of the idea, not that I recall anyway, I just thought it sounded so interesting, so fun...plus I really liked to read And this continued for YEARS. In high school I thought the idea of keeping a journal sounded awesome, but whenever i tried I'd write a blah couple of entries about nothing, then taper off & forget it. 'Writing classes!' I thought, would totally do the trick. If I took a writing class, I'd suddenly know how & what to write, right? No, not really. And if you don't believe me, ask the teachers that gave me Fs in their class when all I managed to do was stare helplessly at the blank page practically every time.

I didn't really start writing until my early twenties. My gaming group broke up & I missed it, so I started looking for a game online. In my 'oh it's just gaming' mindset, I completely blew past the realization I was writing a few nights a week for....lol, well for longer than my intellect likes admitting in public. I moved on to another game & in this one a small, but dedicated group & I wrote nightly. Wrote LOTS in fact. it was a girl from there that pointed me towards NaNo originally. She IMed me on Halloween '03 at....oh, like 9:30-10pm.

'Omg, you HAVE to do this thing with me!!' she tells me.

'What??' (cut right to the point, don't I?)

'A friend of mine talked me in to doing this thing & I know I can't by myself, you have to do this with me!!' She sends me to www.nanowrimo.com for the first time.

I go & read the particulars. 'You're kidding, right?'

'Please! There's no way i can do this!'

'Yeah, me either'. I read on. 'This thing starts in like an hour & a half! What'm I supposed to write about in that amount of time!?!'

'I dunno! i don't even know what I'm writing about! Please do this with me anyway'. I grumble & go to sign up. And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, strictly speaking, the rest is virtual literary flotsam & jetsam I keep squirreled away on a web board somewhere, but that doesn't really have the same ring to it.

My first NaNo, ironically, has been my longest. It was nowhere near the 50k goal, but it was soooo much more than I EVER thought i could write on a single piece. It was about a girl that was working on an archeological dig
where, little by little, she started just knowing things about the site she shouldn't, weird dreams plagued her & certain objects would trigger visions she couldn't explain. Eventually, it was going to be deduced that she'd lived there in a past life. There was to be some parallel between then & now; a similar problem she'd been having or a figure in her life that echoed someone from before, etc. I think occasionally of opening it back up sometime, reading through it & finishing. I'm not sure where i would have ended, but I do like the basic premise.

My second ended up being something completely different than I'd planned. I'd thought to do a WWII era anti-love story. But, as I sat down to type at midnight of Day One, something totally different poured out. I did several thousand words on a CSI fan fic. The premise, I think, came to me from something I saw on the Travel Channel, lol. They were showing a thing on Vegas & visited an indoor skydiving place & I remember thinking that'd be a tricky place to process for a crime scene, lol.

Writing is funny like that sometimes. You wouldn't think it as it's your words coming from your mind, but it really can surprise you. I love when that happens, when a char does or says something you never saw coming until you were reading it off the page. You can't sleep because all your imaginary people are chattering away in your head & WON'T SHUT UP! Lol, that one's both exhilarating & infuriating, lol.