There's an evil flesh-eating beastie looming ahead, and he has a RED PENCIL

[slipjig3]

Although official signup isn't for another week, it looks like I've committed my brain to NaNoWriMo this year.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get out of it.

The trouble is, the damned book really and truly wants to be written now, and given the amount of useless downtime at work with nothing even remotely better to do, I don't have much excuse not to do this thing. Plus, I've crossed two hurdles that pretty much guarantee this is going to happen one way or the other:

1) I have a title that I'm happy with. (The Noise of Endless Wars, from a Milton quote, if you must know.)

2) Someone asked me what the book was going to be about, and I told them.

Plus, the pieces are starting to fit together in my head, kinda. I've been working the grimoire (my NaNo brainstorming and organizational notebook) for about a month now, and I'm beginning to see the path of the story, not that the path is anything startlingly original or anything. I just wish new plot elements would stop popping up in my head and lingering: "Hi! I'm going to be a character in your book! No, you don't have a choice! And don't ask me how I'm supposed to fit, either. That's your problem, Writer Boy."

Also, since (a) this is my first attempt at genre fiction, and (b) I will commit hari kiri if it turns into cliché-ridden codswallop, I'm walking a bit of a thin line. It doesn't help that my protagonist already told me her name—Tala Kiernan—in no uncertain terms, which means I'm going to be fending off Mercedes Lackey comparisons in my head for an entire friggin' month. Luckily, I've already determined both that the story will take place in contemporary America and that Tala is the sort to use the word "fuck" a lot in casual conversation, so hopefully I can maintain the edge.

The other problem? I'm getting the sinking feeling that this story won't fit in a single 50,000 word novel. In other words, trilogy in progress. Sigh. issendai doesn't call October "NaNoOhShitMo" for nothing.

Comments

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Having done 2002 NaNoWriMo, I understand your pain.

Did you blog about your earlier NaNoWriMos? I'd like to see how you survived it before.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Isn't Tala one of the characters in Stargate Atlantis, also? *runs off out of thwapping range* Good luck with the writing, I love hearing about folks' NaNo experiences :)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

I did, but I lack the time to find the entries. This is my fourth go-around:

2003: Caleb. Signed up, then promptly ignored it. 0 words written.
2004: Didn't participate.
2005: Ordinary Talismans. My one success at NaNo, on a limited basis. I went in with a personal goal of just 10,000 words, figuring it'd be 9,850 more words than I'd written in the past year. Got about 12,000 words in, and may someday yet finish the thing, because it's got some of my best writing to date.
2006: The Elmsley Count. Had a great title, aaaaand not much else, which luckily only took me two pages to discover. A whole honkin' 1,000 words or so.

You participating this year? *hint*hint*

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Aiee, don't tell me these things! Seriously, my creative brain is fragile enough that'd I'm liable to throw the whole thing in the garbage. (Well, I'd likely stop myself from doing so, but still.) *thwaps you anyway*

Thank you so much for the well-wishes, hon. They're much appreciated (and needed *grin*). *hugs* You ARE going to be NaNo-ing this year, too, riiiight? *more with the hint, hint*

IMHO

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

Screw NaNoWriMo and just write the damn thing! It's not like you get a trophy or monetary prize for doing it all in November, it's just a catchy little gimmick to help people get started who otherwise wouldn't.

What I'm saying is: don't let NaNoWriMo dictate when you write. Let it flow through you, free of the confines of time and deadlines.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I still have my 2002 attempt linked on my desktop, saying to me, "Uh, dude, you gonna finish me? ...Huh? ...Huh?" It, um, needs some attention. Starting another NaNoWriMo would seem like cheating.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Nuh-uh. Doesn't work that way. If that's cheating, then I'm cheating by trying again with a new story after previous efforts have run aground. If you think like that, you're basically allowing a five-year-old event dictate whether you will ever write again as long as you live.

That, and you're being lazy.

So quit your belly-achin', get off your duff and do this thing. Sign up. Participate. Even if you don't finish this year's event, it can get you back in the habit of writing again, which you say is what you need more than anything.

*exhales* There. I feel better now.

Re: IMHO

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

NaNo doesn't dictate when I write; it dictates whether or not I'll finish the damn thing. See recent entry to that effect.

Re: IMHO

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

As you wish -- I don't know if your "writerbrain" works this way, but for me, if I wait I lose momentum. The more I wait when the idea is fresh in my mind, the more I lose and it disappears completely in a matter of days. Poof, gone. I would just hate to see that happen to you.

Who says the month has to be November? Yeah, I know, they do, but you could theoretically make your month October instead....

Keep us posted either way.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

O_o

...

...hmm.

OK. Message received. Something for me to think about.

(I never said I wouldn't write anything else ever. Doing my "Firefly at the Mission" entries got me seriously thinking again about tryin' the fiction again. The book I started in NaNoWriMo stands at -- let's see, let's open the file -- 42,575 words, not all written in November 2002 but continuing into early 2003. And I can see the ending. And I think I know how to get there. I need it finished; I want to get to that end. And as Neil Gaiman emphasizes, it's the finishing that's the big, key thing. The resultant novel, however long it is, will probably en toto suck, and I accept that. (I accepted that when I decided to title it with James Blish's term, The Idiot Plot.) But I want to see myself reach that ending, sucky path to it or not.)

Here's one thing: November is likely to be a month where I'm traveling at the start of it. Hint, hint (he hinted, hintingly). So I won't be lazy at the start of the month. Hmm. Maybe I make October my writing month. Or something, anything.

We'll talk more. You've already gotten me to reopen that Word file again. That's a start.