34 posts tagged “nanowrimo”
I don't like admitting it (who does?) but I'm not feelin' the NaNoWriMo this year. I know, I know. I'm supposed to "just keep writing anyway". It's the exercise in making yourself write, not necessarily the story that comes out of it. I know this and yet, I've just decided not to do it this year.
I will, however, fiddle around with this story idea a bit more, here and there. I think there's something to it (and hey, I DO have an ending for it!) and maybe it's more that I think it deserves more time/effort than a violent 30-day writing gorge can give it. Or, that's a hoity-toity excuse.
I do feel shame, and I do feel guilt. I read the cheering-on emails I get from Chris Baty and others and for a moment or two I think, hey, I'm only a week behind. Maybe....?
And then I think, don't be silly.
And then I think... well.... ..... maybe?
I've made the mistake of writing the "end" of my NaNoWriMo story.
It was in my head, and I was excited, because I'd actually come up with an ending. Which I didn't start out with - so you can imagine my pleasure. This freak of a story which I'd embarked upon without any knowledge of the characters or the world they live in (or, rather, die in, since I've already killed off half the cast) was just sort of flopping along, without any arms or legs, and while I pitied it, I kept on writing.
And then last night while at the gym (it's annoyingly cliche that my brain really DOES work better during exercise) I struck upon how this monster would actually end. So I rushed home and wrote it, while it was still all pink and fresh and gleaming.
And now I feel like I'm done. I know I'm not; I mean, there's a whole lot of middle-stuff that I haven't even considered yet. Step one, character. Step two, ?? Step three, result! It's the Underpants Gnomes of stories. I'm finding it incredibly hard to care about the middle stuff though. My brain has convinved itself that it's finished this story, and it wants to move on to the next one.
I sense the rest of this month of writing is going to be very painful.
So guess what? My Minchin-heavy blog will soon be filled with my so-entertaining moanings about writing. I shall write in order to procrastinate from writing. That's brilliant, isn't it?
I haven't really got much of an idea of what I'll be attempting... I mean, I do have an idea, but there's no plot to it at all. Which might be all right - in the past, when I've had a plot in mind, the characters just sort of went off on their own anyway and completely ignored my wishes. Rampant, they ran. I have no control. It's a damn good thing I'm not a parent if I can't even keep track of my imaginary people.
SO, you've been warned. I think that's rather nice of me, don't you?
Oh and also, if you want to join in, please do visit nanowrimo.org and sign up. It's crazy-fun.
Well, I finished my story tonight.
Problem is, I still need 3,000 more words to reach 50,000 words! This actually happened to me another year that I did NaNoWriMo - I ended up finishing the actual story, but needed to go back and fill in some new scenes and description and whatnot to meet the word count quota. It shouldn't be too hard to do for just 3,000 ... I can probably fit in at least another 1,000 tonight and then by tomorrow I can come up with something else to throw in there. (There's a bit with the rat people, or perhaps the Roocooli, that I could write more about... hmmm...)
All in all, I hate the story. My characters all suck and have little to no personality (of all of them, I like the supporting character of Hinkle the best - he started out as being pretty funny but by the middle/end he pretty much became nothing but a cardboard-cutout character, too, sigh!)
BUT, since I went into this as more of a writing exercise anyway, I suppose it's not too much of a horrible thing that I don't like the story. This year it was more about just making myself actually sit and write. It was hard to do, but I did it. (Well, I will have done it, by this time tomorrow!)
The bigger challenge presents itself next month... will I try to make this trainwreck of a story into something better? Part of me, actually, would like to re-visit last year's NaNoWriMo instead. I never did any re-writes or cleanups on that one, either, and I think it actually might have some potential. So maybe to keep myself interested, I'll actually just go back and give THAT story another look instead. And let this one sit for a while, simmering in the back of my mind, until I can fix it into something coherent. That's a possibility.
Hopefully tomorow you'll see a post here with my "Winner" badge in it. :) Wish me luck!
Memphis was wonderful. Really enjoyed staying at the Peabody - we got to see the famous ducks do their march from the fountain. Had lots of really, REALLY yummy food. Walked up and down Beale a few times, had dinner and listened to blues at BB King's. And then we went to Graceland, which was really cool and fun, and touching too. I'm not exactly an Elvis fanatic, but I think I'm like a lot of people my age, and there are definitely songs I like and you can't really grow up in America without being exposed to lots of Elvis over your lifetime. It was interesting and fun to see where he lived and how he lived. I'm very glad my husband and I were able to go - I do think it's something everyone should do once in their lives if they have the chance. :)
I didn't get much NaNoWriMo writing done. I caught up a little bit tonight, but it's going to take some extra plugging along the next few nights before I'm really and truly caught up. I'm not too worried though... my characters are all doing stuff and don't show signs of stopping anytime soon.
I'm hoping to get myself over to 21,000 after tonight. And I'll try to update whenever I can while we're on our road trip to Memphis this weekend. We'll see how dedicated I can remain when there's music and booze to be had...
Life is full - work, friends, and writing. Writing writing writing. Only now I've written myself into a corner that I'm not clever enough to get myself out of... so that part might just get skipped over and I'll just pretend my main character figured it all out in an incredibly witty, clever way. That's what re-writes are for, right?
I'm up to about 18,500 words on my NaNoWriMo story... my characters are still cardboard cut-out-y but at least they're out there doing stuff. I like Hinkle the best- he says funny things.
Winter is coming fast. All of our trees have lost their leaves and the skies are grey and gloomy. I feel like I didn't really even get to enjoy summer, and now there's 4 months of cold, ice and snow to look forward to. Sad.
On the upside - my new Tim Minchin DVD is on its way! It's called So F*cking Rock, because it SO is. Can't wait to see it, cos apparently my friend Shell, who was in the audience for the taping, has a special little shout-out during the interval. She's famous! ^_^
And finally since I haven't had one for a while, here's a vid of Tim talking about his new song 'Taboo'. Don't watch this if you haven't seen the song yet. Or better yet, go watch the song, and THEN watch this video. Warnings all over the place for language - def. not safe for work! But he's brilliant. You should watch it. You should.
Nanowrimo is going well - I'm creeping up on 10,000 words already!
I hurt my knee a few months back, and it's not getting better. :-/ This is a sign I am getting old, and I don't like it. Not to mention, I can't exercise properly, and I'm gaining weight!! The unfairness makes me flail.
My voice was among the hundreds of thousands crying out with joy when Obama won. At last. I'm excited about our future. California, however, should be ashamed of itself for allowing Prop 8 to pass. You have made an error.
Meanwhile, this will make you smile.
Second day of Nanowrimo is under my belt! I'm up to 3672 words, which is a little bit over the minimum of where I need to be. Yay! This particular story (an original fantasy this time - although I've had good luck with the "fanfic" style of stories, I thought perhaps I should try something all from my own brain this year) isn't flowing quite as easily as past stories, but I'm hoping it'll get easier as I go along. We'll see!
Right now my frustration is with the Nanowrimo website. It's so busy these first few days, I can't get connected so I can log my word count. Sigh. I'll try again in the morning.
The weather is finally feeling like autumn - and our trees are plunking all their leaves into our yard at once. Smells wonderful. I love this time of year, even though I hate that it's so short and that winter (which I despise) is so near. This year has gone by SO quickly! So cliche to say, but true.
We're having a Halloween party since it falls on a Friday this year. It is also my husband and my 5th wedding anniversary! Yesterday on a total whim we went to Best Buy and bought each other an eee pc. Eeee! I have named him Wall-eee. Very fun. I love being a DINK.
It will be wonderful to use while I write my Nanowrimo novel this November! I can take it with me everywhere, it is SO TEENY. Only problem so far is it's got Microsoft Works... and who the hell uses Microsoft Works, right? Gotta get Word on there somehow... bit of a challenge, as this little thingie doesn't have any disc drives. (Not entirely true - it does have a memory card slot and three USB drives. I will find a way.)
And speaking of Nanowrimo, I have no idea what I'm going to write. Not really worried though - something will come to me. I'm looking forward to it though!
Must get back to work - but no blog post is complete without a little bit of Tim Minchin, yeah? So here he is, singing about Donnie Darko!
