Nanowrimo Update 1
I’ll only be doing these on Mondays unless something major happens, so don’t worry about being flooded with Nano thoughts all month.
Of course, Nano only just started on Friday. I’m happy to report that I have kept pace with my word count each day, and am in fact a bit ahead of the game. That, however, is not unusual for the first week or so. introductory chapters tend to go quickly, and allow for more word usage per session. Meet up with me again a week from now, and see how my pace is then.
Perhaps the main victory of the first few days of this attempt is that all of my main characters have been introduced already. I managed that in less than 5000 words. From the beginning I knew I’d have to be more efficient about such things in order to get a mystery off the ground, and I’ve stuck to that. I won’t say I introduced all of them in a unique way. I used a tried a true method in most cases. But baby steps. Everybody is present and accounted for early. I’m pleased with that.
I’ve also, if I may say so myself, established some degree of the relationships between several of the characters. The scene I am currently working on should allow for more such things, but I’m at least off to the races in that regard. I’ve also foreshadowed the location of the murder. Perhaps too clearly, and perhaps not, but Nano is no time to worry about such things as they happen.
Also, my plan to have the murder take place at roughly the ten thousand word mark seems for the moment, feasible. I’m not there yet, but I think I can get there in a few more thousand words. So far so good.
I must admit,however, the speed with which I’m establishing everything so far is making me a bit nervous. Two reasons for that, and they are in a sense opposing reasons. First, I am nervous about getting to the meat of something so quickly without exploring certain things first. In my long fiction I tend to linger in certain places near the opening of a piece, but I don’t have the luxury to do as much of that here. So I’m hitting some important notes early, but I wonder if I’m cutting things too quick sometimes.
The second reason I’m nervous is, like I said, somewhat the opposite; I fear by moving so fast, I’m adding extraneous words in places just to make sure I am not leaving out anything in my speed. Sounds like a paradox, I know. But trust me, I can be both concerned about not giving enough, and yet using too many words. For words have an economy all on their own, and one can spend a million of them saying nothing at all. I don’t think I’m doing that, but I wonder.
Yet I cannot stop and wonder. I must move on. Already I can tell that this new take on Nano that I’ve adopted this year is making the experience feel different. Nano has never really stressed me per se, but I am with this one a bit. Can I work out such a detail-oriented story as a mystery in the time and space I have? Was it an error to go with this genre for this exercise? Can I just plow through and finish because that is the whole point of Nano? Can I ever get over the fact that this is not one of my official novels, and just have fun with the thing?
So many questions after just a few days of Nano. Few answers.
Another big question is about tomorrow night. For the first time in my Nano history, I will be participating in a write-in. A group of local writers is getting together at the local library for a few hours to work on our Nano novels. Writing under “pressure” as it were. Not only have I never done Nano in public, in front of people before, I have never written anything in public in front of people before. Everything I write, fiction or non-fiction has been written at home, or at family homes. So another question will be, can I accomplish any kind of serious writing in front of other people, in a public setting, on a lap top I only use once in a while?
I wanted Nano this year to be a different kind of challenge for me, and so far it has been, on multiple fronts. Some mental resistance is inevitable, but I’m not quitting. I just sometimes wonder if I made too many new things too soon.
But I guess that’s how we learn. Sometimes, anyway.
Halloween Night and Nano Eve
Two year ago today, I posted my thoughts on how introverts could actually gain a great deal from a full-on Halloween celebration. Though I did end up using that face paint the other day, (it wasn’t great quality), I still have not done much on Halloween over the years, and certainly not much since posting that entry. Last year I don’t think I did anything at all, other than carve the pumpkin.
Still, I remain fascinated by it. It is not my favorite holiday, as it is for several of my friends. I can, however, understand why it might be. You’d think as a child I’d agree with them. A night dedicated to putting on costumes and getting a bunch of candy. And it was fun, but even then, when I heard people say it was their favorite holiday I remember thinking, “it’s just candy and dressing up.”
Which of course, it is, in a way. But ironically, as I have gotten older, I see more promise and potential depth to All Hallow’s Eve than I did even as a child. As I mentioned in that post two years ago, it’s a time to allow some people to explore something they are not with their costumes. It allows others to be perhaps more genuine to what they really are on the inside. The whole gamut of human personality, (and indeed, personality other than humanity) is explored on Halloween. It’s an exercise in both imagination and in a sense, empathy.
Even if kids don’t know it, that’s what they are doing. They are firing up their imaginations by being the pirate, but they are also putting themselves in a position to think like a pirate. Or they at least ask themselves how a pirate would act in this situation when walking up to this house for candy. They are, for all intents and purposes, showing a degree of affinity for a character. Even one that they would not really want to be like themselves. New perspectives for a young mind. And for older folks too.
That’s one reason I think it’s particularly fun that Nanowrimo always starts the day right after Halloween. Many people even begin their Nano book at the stroke of midnight, as October 31 expires. I often wonder how many people over the years have sat at their computer just after midnight, still adorned with remnants of their Halloween costume, and start creating the world and people of their November novel.
Makes sense, right? A day like Halloween, dedicated to exploring, imagining, and relating to some aspect of those we dress up to resemble, leading directly into the first day of basically doing the very same thing, except from the other side of the table. A writer imagines, visualizes, creates and presents in some fashion a scenario. A life form. An adventure with whom they, (and hopefully future readers) can relate.
I’ve done more Nanowrimo than I have Halloween over the last few years, but hopefully tomorrow I can still make use of the power of modern Halloween to give life to something that is lifeless without my creative participation. I don’t often get to do that by way of costume on October 31, but come November 1, I’m going to try to make up for it by writing another novel. Even if it is an “unofficial” one that few people will be reading.
I still hope to one day wear an expensive and complicated Halloween costume to a party, though. One of these years it has to happen, right?
Calm Before the “Storm”
I will be doing Nanowrimo this year, as I’ve said already. What i haven’t said is that I won’t be working on any other fiction between now and then, and probably not any other fiction during November either.
Not working on anything else during Nanowrimo is a personal preference, and one whose benefits I assume you can determine on your own; it’s a lot of writing to do in a month, and the more you can concentrate in it, the better. Even if it is just for fun.
Not writing anything for the final week or so before Nanowrimo however, is a decision I wanted to go into with a bit more detail here.
Granted, that’s not a lot of time. A week to ten days, as I said, to not be working on any fiction at all. But I felt I needed the break. Fiction writing, at least for me, benefits from breaks and taking a hiatus here and there. This seemed like a good time to do so.
As I have said here on the blog before, I agree that a writer, particularly of fiction, must have discipline. Stories and novels don’t write themselves. If a writer isn’t careful, it’s easy to slip totally into the “contemplation” or “percolation” stage of an idea(s), and never getting around to the work of writing things down. That momentum can be difficult to overcome once it sets in. That’s why I took this ten day or so break from writing new fiction so close to Nanowrimo. I know there is a definitive deadline in the near future that will require me to get back into the habit in short order.
But after working on fixing a highly flawed partial draft, as well as completing about 15 short stories on the year so far, (not to mention a draft of a one man stage show), I was feeling a little numb. Discipline is one thing, but being mechanical is something else, and I’ve been approaching that lately. A week or so off will hopefully freshen things up in the fiction part of my brain for a while.
I advise all fiction writers to take these breaks. Pick a few days to a week or so when you are not working on something under a deadline, and do know writing. It may sound like a heresy, but I truly believe that most dedicated writers, in an effort to be productive and to avoid the inertia of doing nothing actually go too far the other way sometimes. The take off so fast for so long, so constantly that it’s more inhibiting than liberating.
Like trying to wiggle your chin after you’ve been out in the winter’s cold for a while; it’s stubborn and taught from the chill. Come inside and half some soup of some tea for a few hours, and try wiggling you chin again. (Or whatever metaphor works best for you.)
The point is, take a few days off sometimes. You fiction on the other end of it will probably be fresher.
Computer Shopping
I hate doing it. Mainly because no matter how many times I read about it, I still don’t fully grasp the nature of memory, RAM, processor speed as it pertains to what I need. I know that higher numbers for each of those means better, but I hate the idea of spending money on more than I need. I have no concept of how many gigs is suitable for what I do, or how fast the computer should be to give me what I need. None. And it’s hard to research something that is so specific to an individuals needs.
Maybe if I did all of this more often. You see this is the first time in eight years I have done this. Eight years this month, in fact. No, I am not exaggerating; I have had this eMachines T6528 for eight years. The company had only just been sold then, and according to my recent research, it no longer operates, even as a subsidiary of something else. My type of computer, literally, no longer exists.
Before I got this, I hadn’t really shopped for a computer much at all. Usually I just inherited computers from family members who didn’t wait eight years to replace their desktops.
It has had its quirks and pains in the ass over the years, as you might expect from a bargain computer. (Which even when new, it was.) Many a times I have had to stop myself from putting my first through it. Yet with some expanded memory here and there, it has held up more than one would think given the time frame of its use. The fact that it remains functional enough for me to do my everyday computing on it falls somewhere between amazing and miraculous.
But it is time for it to go. I need to move on. Should have before now, I suppose. But money is always an issue. Almost as important as that though, is that I’m used to the damn thing.
Even if I had the money, I don’t think I could change computers every two years. (They say that is the national average.) I spend a lot of time on my desktop, and I get accustomed to its look and feel. Changing something so intimate so frequently is not my style.
Well, that’s almost true. I actually threw away the keyboard that came with this machine. I never got used to that. I went back to the keyboard I had been using for years previous. The key board, in fact, was inherited when I was in college. I have been using the same keyboard for most of my adult life. 99% of my fiction as well as my blog posts, (all three blogs I have kept over the years) was composed with this keyboard. They don’t make this thing anymore either. I doubt it will be compatible with the new computer, so its days are probably numbered as well. That will be the real thing to get used to. The physical sensation of writing each day with a new keyboard.
But then again it’s not the only thing one gets used to after working on the same desktop for eight years. There’s the specific pitch of the clicks on a keyboard. The screen resolution. A computer takes up a certain space in your room, and it becomes in some ways like a piece of furniture. You just don’t move it that much. You’ve perfectly calibrated the sound in the speakers the way you want it. Plus a lot of emotion happens near or with a computer. I don’t have an emotional attachment to it per se, but when I think that I have had the computer longer than I have had Facebook…when I realize how many people have come into and out of my life since I have owned this thing, it’s kind of profound.
All the love notes and fights that have taken place solely by way of this machine…this eMachine in fact that nobody makes anymore.
Not to mention all of my shit is already on here. The thought of moving it from one machine to another gives me a headache.
But not as much of a headache as what I have to go through to boot this thing up in the morning. This is one of the main reasons I can’t wait for a new one. Here is the process…
I push the button. It whirs and clicks to life, but it’s a bit of a lottery. You see about 50% of the time since I have owned it, it fails to boot up. Which means I have to perform a cold shut down and start over. (Never really a safe thing to do.) I’ll know right away if the next boot up is going to take by the lights flashing on the keyboard. But this is not the end. Because for whatever damn reason, if the boot-up is not successful the first time, it must be done twice in a row for the computer to function properly. Otherwise, the monitor goes nutty. So as soon as I know the second boot-up has succeeded, I have to perform another cold shut down, and boot it up yet again. I have to hope that the second one also takes. If the lights come on, I am good to go shower, and give it the 15 minutes it needs to warm up.
If, however, the lights do not come on, I need to cold shut down again, and again wait for two consecutive boot-ups to take. The record (so far) for times I have had to boot up and cold-shut down this thing before it got it right? Twelve. (12). Took me close to have an hour between booting up and being able to do anything on this computer.
If the new one boots up in less than ten minutes, it may just throw off my entire day.
I’ve been reading up on Windows 8, which any new PC comes with now. (I cannot afford the absurd prices for Macs.) Looks weird, but that’s what it is now. Same with Word 2010. Though I may look into some free office software that isn’t Microsoft-based. Either way, Word 2003 isn’t going to cut it anymore. I am very much used to that as well, but the world as a whole is moving on from it. If I don’t make the change now, it won’t be too long before my documents aren’t compatible with anything anymore.
Writers are creatures of habit in many ways. As are actors. And in most cases I myself am as well. Since I am all three of those things, (writer, actor, and me) you can imagine there will be a bit of an adjustment period to all of this. But it’s for the best, right? I already have a nice, middle of the pack Dell picked out that seems to be suitable. I’m just afraid of making a mistake I have to live with for the next decade or something. These things don’t grow on trees anymore than money does.
But hopefully I can figure it out. It feels too much like luck lately that this computer hasn’t just blown up. I guess all mediocre things must end.
Nanowrimo 2013 Update
I am going to do it.
On the one hand, the higher standard I have set for 2013, (complete a story, and not just 50,000 words) is somewhat daunting. But on the other, more significant hand, I need to work on not being as hard on myself over such things. I need some more writing in my life that is simply for the exploration, and not the deadline.
Most of my writing this year has pertained to some sort of pre-existing obligation. Which is good; a writer must not wait until inspiration strikes before doing their work. Otherwise, very little fiction would ever get produced. One must work on something most days, and I do. That being said, this year I haven’t gotten to explore as much as I might otherwise like, because of deadlines I have imposed on myself, (and some from others.)
There is the much troubled Novel 2. While I feel confident I have fixed it to the point of being able to at least complete the rough draft sometime next year, much of my writing time was spend making such fixes in the broad outline. Then there is Flowers for Dionysus which is in it’s final few revisions, but still needed attention this year. That was more editing than writing, but it was still an obligation I set for myself. The novels have hung heavy over my writing mind this year.
Then there is the short story collection that I am writing as a companion piece to Flowers for Dionysus which I have spoken of before. It’s a series of ten short stories that take place in the same setting, and last week I completed the rough draft of story number nine. I have one more to go that I’d like to finish before I start Nano. (Another deadline.) It feels rewarding to have set such a goal, and I think i can edit those stories into something enjoyable. But it has been a specific goal I have been pushing towards for several months now. It’s taken a lot of mental energy and perseverance to get so many stories done in that time period. I’m proud of the accomplishment but again, it has taken some creative energy away from a few other things for a while.
Then there is the rather unpleasent experience I had over the summer with a freelance client wherein I had to adapt his atrocious screenplay into a novel in about six weeks. I got it done, he didn’t like it, and he tried to stiff me on more than one occasion. I got my money at last minute, and concluded I would never work with him again, but the whole experience was time and energy consuming, and I need a break.
Please understand that if I didn’t adhere to this level of self-discipline, I’d get a lot less writing done. In the end, a writer must write things and complete them. I can never allow myself to slide into a lackadaisical approach wherein I just write when it feels good, or when there is nothing better to do. I need to do things this way. That doesn’t mean though, that I can’t sometimes feel that I’m getting too far away from the adventure in my own imagination that writing can be as well, and lately I feel perhaps I have closed myself off to it what with all the work and the deadlines.
Enter: Nano.
The challenge may officially be to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I’ve added the extra goal of completing a whole story in that time. (I haven’t managed to do that yet in all three of my Nano attempts.) But the biggest challenge of them all may be letting myself just enjoy the process of whipping up a novel in 30 days. A novel that is not in my official bibliography as it were. This one is not intended to be part of the “Ty Collection”. (How’s that for pretentious?)
No, this one is about embracing both the thrill of trying to establish a plot quickly, (something I could use some work on in general), and having a good time along the way. Which means I need to not give a damn if I don’t get it done in the 30 days. There will be times when I will think this was a bad idea, but I must remind myself that I have plenty of time in my life to worry about the “official” works. For 30 days at least, I need to make it about frenzied creation. And of course the very act of doing that can, and hopefully will open up doors in my imagination which will help with the more official work I will be doing in the coming months.
I can tell you I am going to try my first mystery. (Mainly because you need to get on with a plot PDQ in a mystery.) I know the protagonist, the seven other characters, how the victim died, who did it, and why. I may sketch a few brief character traits, but no more. I don’t want this to become like all of the other complicated writing tasks I’ve given myself. Simple and fun. Process over product this year.
Ten days to go…and I have one more short story to write in the mean time.
Ty Unglebower 