A 2007 NaNoWriMo Journal

There! Won!

2007-11-30T21:58:00.000-06:00

This was the hardest NaNoWriMo I've ever done. My first novel did not work out well -- didn't get past the first idea stage. The horror novel, next up, was worth about 14,000 words but ultimately I did not want to write horror (probably related to my not wanting to read or see it).

So it's over, and I'll have more once I'm caught up on sleep and everything else. For the moment and want to concentrate on shorter works, poetry, and anything that let's me use contractions and small, sharp sentences.

Ciao!

Kablooie!

2007-11-09T20:12:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, it just doesn't work. I was writing this horror/thriller, and it just got too depressing for me. 14,000 words down the drain (but the idea saved for another day, perhaps).

Older kids still on track, but youngest couldn't keep up with the sibling pressure. She's tap dancing in sneakers now, instead. AAAAAaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!

Okay, more words, faster. If I need to, I can steal the book in progress as a horrible, long, typewritten monologue of the author.

Heck with the Web Site!

2007-11-05T23:04:00.000-06:00

Technology may be pivotal to societal change, but it also sucks. However, we proud lushguins have no need for such fey tools such as web sites. On we writeward!

I'm @ 13,600, and the elder two kinder are ahead on their word counts.

The youngest, alas, has fallen, an early victim of writing ennui. So spousal unit has at least someone to chat with that's not fully engaged in the insanity of word counts, plots and aching wrists.

Speaking of which, time to go sleepy-bye!

90,000 Unguided Authors

2007-11-03T19:51:00.000-05:00

Whoo. 7,750 words so far, with a target of 11,000 today. Okay, maybe by tomorrow. The only fly in the writing ointment (aside from pesky day jobs, family and the vagaries of laptop sudden death) is that the NaNoWriMo web site is just useless.

The last two years I kept a fairly low profile. Not much jabber. But it was nice to be able to read other folks' ramblings, and keep up with their word counts and foibles over the net. A real community of writers.

Without the web site we're left to our individual (literary) devices (pads, laptops, desktops, Alphasmarts, etc.) but, except for meetings, and the odd e-mails between NaNoers that know each other outside of the month of November, it's been a quiet experience. Too quiet.

Yeah, I know, it's only the 3rd day. But there's a lot of initiative and zing falling by the wayside. A lot of folks won't complete, because they didn't have their fellow hatchlings, newbies, mentors, cheerleaders, or others to comfort them through the first scary week. (Chris says it's week #2, but I think if someone ends week 1 substantially behind, it's all over but the shouting unless they are one heck of a dedicated person.)

So, Chris, get the !$##@# site up, will ya? (Sorry, I know I have a halo, but it just came out...)

Huh, cool little glyphs...

2007-11-02T15:10:00.000-05:00

Hadn't seen this before. Not as interesting as their previous logos. It very much calls to mind their thumb print poster distributed last year.

(Maybe it's jealousy at not having a working manual typewriter of my own.)

2 Busy 2 Write. Must. Write. Novel!

2007-11-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

By yesterday evening the clan had:

2 of 3 starting their writing bang @ midnight
All 4 of us have written something
Those of us counting have pulling in about 11,000 words

There's a space alien story, a jewish horror/thriller, the epic and majestic life of a young cat, and I really don't know the 4th one.

Gee I love this month!

Tick Tock

2007-10-31T23:27:00.000-05:00

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)

2007-10-30T20:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-28T11:25:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-22T20:27:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

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!")