Tick Tock

As of this writing, they've started writing in New York. I'm sure there's a hypercaffeinated college student somewhere out there in Europe who is frantically trying to get to 25,000 words by the end of the day.

We were going to join the crew downtown for the start, but son and I are too fried to go. So we're write from the comfort of our home.

Here's to the LushGuins, and to all of us setting sail on the insanity called NaNoWriMo!

Thou Shalt (Not)

Finally a title!

Not science fiction. And third person. And definitely fiction. I hope. I have plenty of material to draw from: a list of commandments, domain knowledge of the religion and geographic area and a good understanding of crime, police and the mechanistic infrastructure of both Judaism and law enforcement.

Which is a good thing, since in eleven days I'll be doing a reading from which an acting troupe will do an improvisation of what I have of the novel.

Gleep. 27 hours to go.

We're ducking All Hallows Eve/Samhain as usual this year. Then home, then off to the NaNoWriMo kickoff party, and then two hours of frantic writing. I've already arranged to
take November 1 off, so I should get enough of a headstart on my writing so that I should at least make my 50k.

Or so I delusionally believe.

Build Up, Let Down

My son was supposed to have a telephone interview with Chris Baty, but he never called. I'm letting him take care of handling the chasing -- it's a good thing for him to learn, and it's been his initiative. Hopefully he'll be able to corral Chris at some point.

He's got his book down; he's writing up notes. I'm looking forward to writing something, anything, that's not in 1st person. I've got a moral horror/thriller sketched, but I'm looking for something more. Maybe I can write something up in a different genre. Fiction in the real life? It'd be weird not to use SF/fantasy in my fiction writing.

Tonight's the local NaNoWriMo kickoff meeting (as it is in many places); I argued a 12-year-old into the meeting last year; I wonder if I can do it for a 9-year-old this year?

A House Full of Genres

Having multiple writers in a household makes the month of October a bit... strange.

"Hey, how about a climber whose skeleton is found, still climbing, on a cliff face?" (The grade schooler)

(Shrug) "A suspense book. (The middle schooler [who wrote two books in two months last year].)

"Oh, I don't know. I think an alternate history from the point of view of aliens? My friend xxx won't talk to me anymore if I don't write something." (The high schooler)

My spouse is the only one immune. Or maybe she's girding herself for being a 'writing widow' for yet another year.

(Notice my ducking around my novel. Still feeling around the nooks and crannies of my brain for ideas.)

At the Start, Again

After three novels in the same universe in three years I think I'm tapped out. That'll make for a strange novel writing this year. Maybe something emotionally complex, or obtuse... Chronicling the lives of intestinal bacteria? A study of the interactions between antisocial cats and lint?

Writing "word" in every sentence of a 50,002-word novel?

How about doing a 'torn from the headlines' novel: the same set of characters go through each 'found' trauma every day but, unlike the Simpsons, the stage never resets. In other words, if Bart kills the principal one day, Skinner's not back the next.

I've written my NaNoNovels to be publishable, but haven't -- yet. Should this be, or just an exercise in mental masturbation?

So many ideas, so little to hold them together.

(I know, I know: "No plot, no problem!")