NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 01, 2003

My neighbor signed up

imageA little after ten this morning my neighbor Robin and her girlfriend Amy stopped by. They wanted to see my new floor. Hard not to see it since pieces of it are in the front yard. I told them they could see it installed in the house too.

Robin started her novel this morning. She already has 1,500 words. I’ve been trying to get her signed up for several years. I found out about NaNoWriMo at her birthday party back in ‘01 - one of her guests mentioned that there was this thing were you write a novel in a month. Several months later there was an article in the LA Times that confirmed this, so I signed up. Somehow I thought she would, too. Then last year she took off to travel around Europe for a year. Something she calls Slow Motion Tourism. Anyway, apparently traveling around Europe without a job is too time consuming to write a novel. So, when she got back a few months ago I started bugging her. Obviously a year of traveling means that you HAVE TO write a novel.

Turns out that the desire to write the novel that she didn’t even know she wanted to write was too much and she’s in. 1,500 words in.

Oh, and she’s also considering getting the bamboo floors too ...

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:40 pm     NaNoWriMo

I’m not ready!

imageWell, when it started, pretty much anywhere in the world, I was asleep.

I went to bed last night at 10:30 PM. And I got up at 8:00 AM. It’s almost nine and I still haven’t written anything yet. Well, this.

I’m not ready. I just realized how unprepared I am. I don’t have some new headphones for my laptop to listen to music. I ripped some music, but I haven’t created playlists yet. I’ve got things to do today! I’ve got more workers coming to the house and an appointment to get my hair cut (I can only figure I scheduled it for today because I knew that I wouldn’t do it later in the month.)

I don’t have little treats hidden away in my laptop case. Ginger Altoids, a Luna bar, some Advil, that topical anti-inflammatory cream that makes my hands feel better when I’ve been typing in the damp cold. My desk is literally piled with crap (the piles are literal, the crap is just an all-encompassing word for stuff that I’m not fond of).

And here I am rambling about this. I could just be writing.

Oh, I have no coffee, and no milk. And even if I did, I don’t know where I put the coffee maker yesterday. Maybe they’ll give me coffee at the salon ... do you think they’d fill my travel mug for me before I go?

Maybe I should start with a shower.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:59 am     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

The Secret Hope and Dream of Wrimos

imageI don’t know if anyone has actually given voice to this before. But here goes:

I have this secret hope (well, it’s not much of a secret if I post it in my blog) that my novel will be great. I have this weird faith or delusion that my novel will turn out great. That my ramblings under a deadline will be a work of pure transcendental genius.

Maybe it’s because I’ve kind of being coasting along with my writing for a great many years. I don’t find writing or revising terribly difficult. Writing a play, for me at least, is not that hard. I just have to be very motivated by a rich idea and then do it. Does that make me talented? I don’t think so. I think that everyone is a writer inside, but they’ve put up barriers to letting ideas come out, or allow themselves to get distracted before the ideas come to fruition.

I just wonder if I’m going about this wrong. If I should be trying harder. Or maybe it’s the not trying but the doing that makes things what they are. (Do or do not, there is no try - Yoda)

Or maybe I’m just an egotistical elitist who believes that my slightest thought is valuable and should be shared the instant I have it.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:13 pm     NaNoWriMo

Enemy Mine

imageI have a nemesis for November now. His name is Graham and he lives in the UK. You can visit his journal and see how he’s doing! Leave him a nice note in the comments. I even put him over on my Wrimo blogs list.

I know, some folks don’t like the term enemy or even nemesis. Maybe adversary? Oh, is that still too contentious? Let’s face it sometimes we need a little competition in order to complete a huge task. And that’s all NaNoWriMo is. Sure, it’s all huggy and supportive and whatnot, but sometimes you just need someone to kick your butt. And maybe it’s leading by example - Graham has a full-time job and maybe he’s able to do more words per day than I am, so I’ll just work a little harder to keep up with him.

And I suppose it’s going to work in reverse, too. I wouldn’t say I’m a role model, but I can certainly testify that it can be done and has been done by thousands of people and my life is pretty much an open book and I’m willing to talk about all the tricks I use to get through NaNoWriMo.

And they’re not even tricks. I’m not one for word-padding. I like to joke about it, but I don’t really indulge in using lyrics or quotes. I do, however, just go on incessantly. The “trick” if you can call it that, is to just keep typing. If you’re stuck, just move on. Go to a place that you know, skip to a spot in the story that you can tell. Leave a little asterisk or something there and go back later. It’s in all the books on writing, especially if you’re a disciple of Natalie Goldberg - you just have to go with it.

Sure, my novel will look something like a stream-of-consciousness version of a really wordy outline. But I can attest that it is readable in the most basic of ways. Anything beyond that is gravy, baby.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:56 am     NaNoWriMo

Friday, October 17, 2003

Where Do Ideas Come From?

imageWell, I think I’ve settled on my new novel idea. I’m loathe to discuss it here, I think the more I talk about an idea, the less I need to write it all out.

In short, I’m combining the tale of Saint Dymphna and one of the more obscure Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Allerleirauh, into a sort of alternating chapter novel. One takes place in the gritty 7th century in all its primitive pre-industrial iron-age glory and the fairy tale chapters will take place in that other pretty realm of stories. I have no clue if it will be interesting to anyone else but me.

The good thing is that I think I picked a story of the perfect length for NaNoWriMo. Last year’s story really needed to be conceived as a full novel. This story seems perfect for a novella.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:46 pm     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, December 12, 2002

Epilogue

imageIt’s been a few weeks and I’ve been quiet.

I can’t say it’s because I’ve been all typed out or anything.

I’m looking forward to reading other novels as we start NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month - which takes more than a month).

This is what I think about NaNovels. I think, by and large, they are fantastically readable things. I know everyone thinks that a novel written in a month can’t be good. And if you think about it like a real novel, a novel that’s been crafted and edited and proofed, then no, it’s not going to meet those standards. But I’ve found them to be logical enough. The writing from moment to moment is good and the writers come up with very inventive things. Yes, there are long passages that have nothing to do with the plot or the characters. Mine has entirely too much shrugging and quipping in it. (According to the Word AutoSummarize feature.)

But I love the journey. That you go into a NaNovel expecting one thing (probably things similar to what the writer expected) and you end up somewhere rather different. They’re indulgent and refreshing. Probably more honest and less manipulative than a polished novel.

I’m going to go print one out now. If you have a NaNovel that you’d like me to read, please send me an email. I’d love to take a look at it and I can give very gentle first comments. (Or I can be brutal, if that’s what you’re looking for.)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:17 pm     NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 30, 2002

Help! I can’t stop writing!

imageWell, I’ve meandered myself into a wholly unsatisfying but final ending. I’ve killed off two of the five main characters. Destroyed The Russian Watercolor Plates.

It is done. For now.

As I like to say, I’ve ruined a perfectly viable idea for a novel this month.

There’s always rewriting. Or better yet, there’s always starting over.

You can read it in its entirety over there. Just click on The Russian Watercolors. And I’ve also posted my status spreadsheet, too. Though I can’t figure who finds a spreadsheet of someone’s word count interesting. Oh, me!

Final tally today - 9,504 words today. I’m going to go have some leftover turkey and watch a DVD!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:31 pm     NaNoWriMo

And still going

imageI did my 10K yesterday and I’ve now hit 50K and verfied my novel. I’m going to keep writing until I finish the damn thing. But I wanted to come over here and change out my participant icon to the loverly winner one!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:57 pm     NaNoWriMo

Still going

imageI’m not going to post much here, except to say that it’s midnight and I’ve written some 8,700 words so far today and I’m still going. I might finish this evening, I might just hit 50K and go to bed or I might just go to bed. Hard to tell at the moment. What I do know is that I will finish before tomorrow night at midnight.

Yup.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:12 am     NaNoWriMo

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

See, whenever I get encouraged ...

imageI guess I got a little optomistic there. Which I think is usually okay, but there’s a rule somewhere that says that you’re not supposed to share that with the universe.

I’ve got a really great excuse for not writing for the rest of the week - it involves a trip to Chinatown, some strangeness and then a call to 911 and a visit from the paramedics. Though I likely won’t let it deter me from my goal (damn supportive people in my life being damn supportive!). Mom is staying the rest of the week with me, and other relatives are already in town or winging their way here. This cuts into available writing time severely, and I’m quite exhausted as it is and it’s only Tuesday.

But, I was feeling like I’d written myself into a corner there for a while, and I think talking about it with my mother may have solved some of it. So, if all goes well, I will write a bit this evening after everyone’s gone to bed. But I’m not going to say that I’m optomistic. I have learned that much.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:20 pm     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

This is the way the whole month was supposed to go

imageIt’s the twentieth. Two thirds of the way through the month and finally, today is the way the whole thing was supposed to go. I worked in the morning from home, I went into the office for a while, then on my way home I stopped at a coffee house (PsychoBabble again) and sat there for about an hour and got myself 2,566 plot advancing words.

That’s what I thought I’d do this month. A little work at home, a little work at work and a little work on the novel on the way in between the two.

But I guess the real point is that I’m on track and the plot is moving and the words are flowing free and easy.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:31 pm     NaNoWriMo

Monday, November 18, 2002

Things are perking up

imageSorry, illness abounds this weekend. Though I didn’t come down with this flu-thing myself, it certainly causes a sleepless night or two when there are others in the house with it.

The good news is that I got some stuff done this weekend. You’ll see that I’ve crested the thirty thousand mark today. The most amazing thing about my 5K day is that it only took me two and a half hours to do it. That’s a whopping 2,100 word per hour average. Sometimes those ding-dang words just pour out of me. Mostly because I don’t have time to milk them.

Saturday I wrote for two hours up at Bean Town in Sierra Madre and ran into two other wrimos. Then Saturday evening I was back at Silverlake’s own The Coffee Table for three hours. I didn’t get much writing done there, my battery crapped out and I forgot my power cable. Last night I sat at the dining table and squeezed out a scant 1,000 words before bed.

Today I wrote at Espresso Mi Cultura in Hollywood on Hollywood for an hour before rehearsal and at PsychoBabble on Vermont in Los Feliz for another hour after.

The story is getting bogged down in NaNoNess, and the fact is, I’ve got plenty of story left for the last twenty thousand words and I can just let go and stop typing Bureau of Printing and Engraving all of the time. Call it BEP or something. Or just the Bureau.

All files are updated here now, so you can read the glorious hundred page (space and a half) tome-in-progress or check out my stats in the cybelestatus.xls file. Do, please, understand that the file that you read here is rough, very, very rough. I’ve not proofed it in the slightest and I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve noticed some typos, especially when it comes to homophones. I do know the difference between “know” and “no” and “knew” and “new”. I just hear things in my head and transcribe them. Sometimes I catch it as I go, sometimes I don’t.

I’m getting really jazzed about things because it practically writes itself. If I can just do 1,500 words in an hour, I can probably do a little work in the evenings this week without losing steam on my other projects.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:34 pm     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 15, 2002

Getting back in the groove

imageI went to the doctor this afternoon. This is what the MRI results were:

    “The medial meniscus demonstrates degenerative signal of the posterior horn. There is mild irregularity of the inferior margin which is due to degeneration.”

But it wasn’t all bad news, I spent a good two hours at the Silverlake Coffee Company on Glendale Blvd. A very good two hours. I blasted out 3,366 very nice, coherent words. My total is actually coming up to an acceptable level.

I promised myself I couldn’t leave the coffee house until I hit twenty thousand words, and I did just that.

I celebrated with some ice cream after dinner and installing the new network card on my laptop. Yay for networking!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:45 pm     NaNoWriMo

Monday, November 11, 2002

In the groove

imageI was supposed to have a database meeting this morning. I got up early and did lots of data entry to get ready for it, but about fifteen minutes before, it was cancelled. No matter, I had back-up plans, which was a rehearsal for one of my plays. I went. And I felt so good afterwards I headed off to The Coffee Table in Silverlake for a little lunch and writing. I was there for scarcely and hour and I got over a thousand words in (along with a full meal).

Buoyed by this, I went home and bought plane tickets for the holidays and then headed out to another coffee house, The Silverlake Coffee Company. I’d not been there since they opened, which was probably about six years ago. Most notably it’s across the street from Rockaway Records. Which for me is a very dangerous place to be. I did not go across the street, I did not spend endless hours sampling new and old music. Instead, I sat there with my little lappie for an hour and a half and logged almost three thousand words! I had a lemon bar.

So, tonight, I watch TV and fold laundry. I’m not exactly on track with the word count at the moment, but I know now that I can have 4K days that only take about three or four hours and that’s not entirely unworkable. I think I’m going to plan for three 4K days a week and the rest to be 2K days. So, by next Monday, that’ll put me at 36K - well within the new goal of getting to 50K by the 23rd. Whee!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:33 pm     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, November 10, 2002

Thanks to all who advised me capably

imageI think I’m ready to get back on track with the novel. I am going to ignore reality and have another Bureau of Printing and Engraving in the United States of my novel and it will be located in San Francisco. No editing involved, in fact, I may add some words that explain this previously unknown BEP facility (maybe it’s top secret, who knows?).

Onward. I’m off to CyberJava in Hollywood for some cafe-styled writin’ before rehearsal.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:06 pm     NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 09, 2002

Damn the Internet!

imageThis morning I started typing away on my little novel (which is still considered little at 10 plus words) and I decided to check the Internet for a little fact or two to help me with a scene I’m working on.

Problem is, I’ve had this nagging feeling in the back of my head about the setting of my novel and the fact that I’m taking on a fact based layer - with the counterfieting. I decided to set the book in San Francisco, because they have a mint there. Little did I know that there is a difference between a Mint and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Turns out there are only two locations in the United States that print currency. Washington, DC and Houston, TX. Neither of those, you’ll notice, are San Francisco.

So, I’m stuck. What do I do? Do I go back and edit to reset the whole damn thing in Washington, DC (which I know rather well, at least the museums). Or do I just continue on pretending that there is a Bureau of Printing and Engraving in San Francisco.

I’m very, very tempted to go back and edit. I’m thinking it wouldn’t take more than an hour or two. But I always think things will take less time than they do.

Oh, sigh.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:13 pm     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 08, 2002

Week two starts with some procrastinatin’

Good Heavens! I couldn’t resist.

I thought it kind of went with the theme of my novel. Founding fathers are on dollar bills ... right?

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:53 am     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Still more nothin’

imageI didn’t write.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:15 am     NaNoWriMo

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Posting and feeling okay about it

imageI did a few words this evening. Two hours, 1829 words. I’m not setting the world on fire. I ended up surfing around the web a bit. I found a great site for info about counterfieting. I was surprised at how many questions it answered for me. I’m getting a better handle on my Secret Service Agent character, Gregory Conklin. And I think I’m finding a way to put a little humor into the whole thing. Which will make it all much more bearable.

I’m not able to resist the editing thing. I go back and tinker with things. Thankfully I haven’t hacked anything else out since day two.

So, I’m at 7,988. I wanted to break 8,000 tonight, even though it means that I’m still behind. But tomorrow is a work at home day, so I may be able to get some stuff done while I upload.

The big thing was tonight I finally posted an excerpt on the NaNoWriMo site in my profile. I’d been resisting. I don’t know why. It’s not like we all have great expectations about our work we’re doing. I just don’t want folks to look over that particular block of text and start to wonder why they were in my company ... must reinforce, it’s the fact that I am fearless enough to not only post the excerpt, but the whole damn thing so far over there. Yeah for courage!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:51 pm     NaNoWriMo

Nothing ...

imageDay five is beginning and if you look to the left, you’ll notice that I haven’t written anything since Sunday.

Well, I have written, just not on my novel. I had to do a rewrite of a monologue for rehearsal. And in general, 1,400 words would not normally take me that long, but these had to be 1,400 good words, so that kind of ate up the morning.

Today is one of my “go to work” days, so that makes working on the novel so much harder. I’m going to take the file with me and try to keep it open in another window, but I don’t have the greatest faith that I’ll be able to multitask that well.

Maybe I’ll just post more here later.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:32 am     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Finally some words

imageThis morning I got up early. Not really on purpose, I just woke up rather early and then, well, didn’t go back to sleep. Then I decided to go out and get some new headphones for my laptop to use while I’m writing (I’ve loaded about two gigs of MP3s onto the hard drive already). This is really a nice thing to have. So I loaded up all of my stuff and headed over to the Bourgeois Pig in Hollywood. I met up with three other wrimos. The good thing was that I was the first one there. I staked out an excellent table and got in about 1,000 words before the first one showed up.

The other cool thing was that even though there were four of us sitting at the table, all of us had in earphones, so the temptation to talk was slightly reduced and therefor productivity enhanced. That’s not to say that there weren’t several hours wasted on that socializing thing ... well, I wouldn’t call them wasted. I quite enjoyed it.

I had a bit of a breakthrough ... or maybe a red herring, but it was good territory to mine as I’m getting to know my secondary protaganist (Gregory Conklin). I’m having a little trouble getting into the meat of the story as I struggle to “set things up” in some satisfactory way and I’m still editing as I go. But if I continue at this rate, I’ll still make it in time and perhaps end with a better first draft than last year.

I’ve posted the 15 pages that I’ve got there on the link with my word count. That PDF file will evolve (in case you’re reading this in the archives) into the full draft as the month goes on.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:54 pm     NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 02, 2002

A few steps backwards, a good foot forward

imageWell, as I thought would happen, I have gone ahead and started editing my novel before I even get into it. Though I hate the prologue at the moment, I am keeping it, with the understanding that whenever I am blocked or feeling like I need to do some research or something before continuing, I can at least go back and work on that.

I deleted everything else that I did yesterday. So I started today at 517 words. I’m now at 2,968. Not entirely bad. I’m posting my word count chart thingy here: cybelestatus.xls. It’s not really that big a deal yet. But it will be.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:54 pm     NaNoWriMo

How to NOT make your daily word count

imageHere’s a handy tip. If you don’t want to make your word count goals, go to a great coffee house and try to write with your best friend.

At least I’m not able to do it very succesfully. Maybe as my priorities shift later in the month from important things like relationships to these trivial goals like finishing a book in a month. Then I’ll be able to blow off the guy sitting right next to me.

I’m thinking this writing out in coffee houses this November is not going to help me much. It was great last year because I didn’t know anyone. But this year I’m the frickin’ Municipal Liaison and I’ve now personally emailed everyone in the Los Angeles Basin.

The good news on the goals front though is the fact that I had a little meeting with my boss yesterday morning and told her that I’m only coming into the office two days a week for the rest of the month and then one floating day a week when I’ll work from home. Jeeze, I love freelance!

Okay, I’ve got an hour before I have to leave for rehearsal. Maybe I can do some catching up.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:40 am     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 01, 2002

Just a little taste

imageI stayed up until midnight so I could at least do a little before bed. Then I could wake up and know that I at least had 500 words in the bag for the first day.

And that’s what I did. 516 words. And the encouraging part was that it only took me 15 minutes. At this rate, it’ll only take me another 23 hours. Well, maybe I can’t just sit and write for 23 hours straight and have the novel. I don’t think I know much about what happens after this. But I do have about eight hours before I have to think about it again.

If you’ve come here to read it, well, give me a day and I will start posting the ENTIRE thing over there on the left as a PDF file. Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Should I post it as one file or break it up into chapters? Is anyone going to read this thing? Or am I just doing this to prove that I’m doing it?

Off to bed!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:23 am     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Binge Writing

image I’ve seen a lot of talk in places about writing habits. Some people seem to have it in their head that writers write. Writers are supposed to write every day. Writers are not any good unless they write every day for the rest of their lives. That sort of nonsense.

That’s what it is.

Writers are people and all people are different.

Writing is not a sport. It’s not like you can train for writing. It’s not like good writing involves special muscles any more than bad writing does. Being a strong writer has nothing to do with exercise. It has to do with thinking. Thinking is what makes you a good writer. (And sometimes not thinking makes you a good writer, too.) Writing is drawing connections between things, making combinations and then showing them to us.

I say all this mostly as a rationalization. I am a binge writer. I write in huge vomitous spurts (if that’s a legal phrase). I will go months, even years without writing anything substantial and then I will sit down and in a matter of hours pound out a one-act play or a draft of a full-length within a week. Or, in the case of November, I will write a novel.

I write when my brain is full. Writing is a way of containing ideas for later use by others. I’ll have an idea. I noodle on it. I read about things related to it. I observe things that help me solve problems in it. I develop it in my head and then eventually it’s done and has to come out. Now, I know that not everyone works like this. And by no means is the thing done in my head. I don’t know every word, I don’t even know what’s going to happen.

Think of it this way: writing is like baking. I’ve got this recipe. I’m not even sure what it makes, but I put all of the stuff in it. I see what I’m putting in it and sometimes I add other stuff (you know, raisins would be really good with this, and pecans ... maybe a bit of lemon zest). Then I mix and pop it in the oven. That’s the typing part. It bakes and I wait. I type, I give it a sniff now and then and eventually it comes out and there’s a draft. I just know it’s ready and I need to take it out of the oven and taste it. Then I know what it is.

So, for any of you out there who feel guilty because you don’t have umpteen journals lining your shelves and you don’t work on a schedule of “five pages a day”, take heart. You can be a writer. You do have to write, mind you. But you don’t have to feel like not writing isn’t being a writer either. Eventually you let it all out.

Editing is another matter.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:07 pm     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

The Philosophy

image About two years ago I started living my life by a new philosophy. One that fits in perfectly with NaNoWriMo.

Basically, if you want to accomplish anything in your life, you’re going to have to start somewhere and you’re going to have to turn off that critic in your head that tells you things like, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” I’m not buying that anymore. My attitude is this: Make a list of the things you want to do and start doing them. Check them off. If you liked it the first time, then go back and do it again and do it well.

I wanted to write a novel. And I hoped to write a great novel. But let’s face it, even though I’m an experienced writer, chances were pretty damn good that my first novel was going to be rather weak. So why pour my soul into it? Why not get the first one out of the way and then either go back and rewrite it entirely or use that experience to go on and write a good novel?

I’m putting this into action in other areas of my life too. I’m in training (well, will restart the training after the knee heals) for the Los Angeles Marathon. I’m not even going to run it. I’m going to walk it. Which might sound like a cop out, but to walk a marathon takes about seven hours. That’s a commitment. And if I like it, maybe I will take up jogging and run it the next year. Or at least I’ll have my little medal and can tell folks that I wanted to be in a marathon, and I was in a marathon.

Lower your expectations. Broaden your horizons.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:32 am     NaNoWriMo

The New Report Cards Are Here!

image And I thought I was detail oriented.

It was on my list. I was going to create an excel spreadsheet to track my progress and create a little chart I could post and all. But someone done gone and beat me to it. Erik posted this thingy.

The scary thing is that I was so fascinated by it that I actually took all of my totals from last year and plugged them in to see how I did. Now, I know I finished. I finished a day early! Why would I need to plug last years numbers into the spreadsheet? I am such a pathetic nut sometimes. Anyway, as you can guess, the spreadsheet told me I finished. It gave me a swell graph and at the end of the month, my little pie chart was all one color because my novel was 100%.

As for an update on the whole knee thing ... well, it’s been five days and the dang thing still smarts. I don’t know why I got it into my head that I could just walk it off or something. But it’s getting better slowly. I’ll be working from home for the most part these next few weeks. So perhaps that means more frequent updates! Or additional complaining.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:10 am     NaNoWriMo

Friday, October 11, 2002

How Much is Too Much?

imageIt seems that many, many people are taking NaNoWriMo very seriously. Perhaps it is the fact that I know I can do it that I’m feeling a little cocky. I do have hindsight. But I also have this terrible problem of wearing these vision correcting rose colored glasses ... I forget that I must have struggled to finish. I look over some of my postings in my log and realize that I must have had trouble. I was 13,000 words behind on November 15th.

But I can’t imagine being “prepared.” Perhaps it’s the fact that I write from my brain and not from my notes, but I can’t have chapters and outlines. Maybe I could, but somehow I think that’d take all the fun out of it. What if I knew what was going to happen, I mean, really happen in my novel? What’d be the point. I like writing to find out.

I’ve got an idea, I’ve got questions and the only way to answer them is to start writing and let that figure them out for me. I think writing is really a computer. I input ideas and the act of writing solves them for me.

But again, maybe I’m not doing this the proper way. I’m amazed to see that people have so much done already. How can you name a chapter already? How do you know that you have 14 chapters in the first place?

Well, I’m not even going to think about it this weekend. I’m off on a trip up the coast and I’m going to shut off my writing brain and turn on my paddling and hiking brain.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:45 pm     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

Well, waddaya know ...

I was posting in the NaNoWriMo forums today. Again.

I’m kind of torn about how to handle these public forums. I don’t know if people are serious when they talk about how scared they are about writing a novel, about how little support they’re getting, about how little they know about writing. Sometimes I think that it’s a kind of posturing, a way of soliciting supportive responses, even if you don’t really want or need them. But I’m a trusting soul; I answer as if they’re honestly looking for support. But then I think I’m coming off as some sort of pompous twit or something.

If I knew it all, I’d be a guru or something. And I’d practice what I preach.

But I do know this. You cannot write something that isn’t in you. But that doesn’t mean that you have to write about yourself. There is a huge difference between what you know and what you can find out. What’s inside of you is your experience, not just what you’ve done. I’ve seen too many novice writers limit themselves by writing about themselves ... plain and unadulterated. Yes, the story of a kid trying to come to grips with being different is interesting and universal. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t set that story in 14th century China with a young warrior trying to come to grips with his homosexuality in an Imperial Palace. Or set it with a leper at the time of Christ or a woman faced with losing her job after World War II when the men returned home.

I write to understand. The stories that pop into my head are more questions than anything else. I get characters that pop in there and then circumstances and then occasions and then conflicts. They perform for me, they have their lives and I watch and write it all down. If I don’t understand hate or intolerance, something in the back of my mind will construct a framework to help me understand in some small way.

Most of the things that have been popping into my head for the past year or so have been about faith. We can all guess what that’s all about. And some of them address it head on, but I think the more interesting approach is to go at it from another angle. Because that’s where the surprises come in.

I am looking forward to this coming month where these things will open up to me. I worry that I haven’t picked the right story to tell. But these characters and scenes have been following me around for some twelve years now. I’ve got to get them out soon. And who knows what it is that they have to teach me. Oh, I long for those moments where things suddenly click and I’m taken away from whatever keyboard I’m at and into that world.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:16 am     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, October 06, 2002

Why Blog the Novel?

Yes, why should I post my daily words on my blog?

Well, there are a few reasons.

1. Dissemination. It’s easier to just post it and have it be there. If someone else who’s following along wants to peek, they’re welcome to it. If I wanna look over it, I can, from any computer. Say I’m at work and I get a thought, there’s the whole thing, right up there on the web. All I have to know is the password to my blog and I can add to it or correct an inconsistency.

2. Honesty. These are my words and I wrote them. I am not having one of my characters read aloud from 1001 Arabian Nights ... This is not to say that folks don’t trust me. I write lots of other things. But it’s just a way to keep it all on the up and up.

3. Pressure. Let’s face it, I’m much more likely to write my daily words to meet your expectations of me than mine. So I’ll use my loyal following as a scape goat. I have to do my daily words because my fans demand it!

4. Vanity. I’m hoping you’ll like it.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:09 am     NaNoWriMo

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During November it's all about me writing a novel. Sometimes it's about whalewatching. You know, and then there's other stuff.