Saved! (or not)

After not writing for about a week, and only picking at it from then on, Morbid Curiosity has been saved sacked. I re-worked the ending into something that actually yields clues (and doesn't upset me). Actually, the ending I came up with was total crap and the whole thing is going in the trash. However, the 50,000 word challenge is pretty well in the toilet -- but that's okay, because at least I'll come out of it with an outline. I'll probably tackle the prose in a month or two and do my own 50k challenge (which I've done twice).

I'm also very excited about my other projects: still working on my short story for Generations, which I hope will be nice and light after writing mysteries for so long. I also remembered I started on a graphic novel of Metropolis, which, after watching the newly restored version on TV the other night, really deserves to be finished.

After all the drama that's kept me away from writing this month, I'm eager to get back to it. Also eager for a pause in drama.

(edited 3:49pm)

A Rebuttal

I've read a few articles like this since the beginning of November: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-gresko/national-novel-writing-mo_b_781313.html

If you don't want to read the article, I'll sum up: A number of people find no value in National Novel Writing Month because at the end of the month, people are not left with a quality product. If your aim is to write crap, why do it?

It's not untrue, but it's a shallow way of thinking about the real goal (at least to me).

1) Practice makes perfect

Go on. Draw it.

Even if you know you're not going to sketch a masterpiece, you  might sit in a park and draw that squirrel over there anyway. Sometimes we do things because we like to. Even if (like me) you want to be a professional writer, any chunk of time I designate for writing is good practice for later, and I might end up with something that turns out well.

2) Mad Skills
By the time I heard about NaNoWriMo for the first time, I loved writing, but I had never gotten to the end of a novel. I'd started and thrown away dozens. NaNoWriMo claimed that not only had a few people written 50,000 words in one month, but thousands of people did it every year. As as challenge to myself, I jumped in, convinced it wasn't possible since every idea I'd ever had fizzled after no more than 20,000 words.

"Silence your inner editor," the website said. That made me as uneasy as the wordcount. After finishing the first chapter of a novel, one of my favorite parts was going back and touching it up. But then I kept working on the first chapter and never progressed. So I tried it. I wrote an outline to help with the time restriction, and on November 1st, started with chapter one. I made plenty of mistakes, but decided to plow through and fix it later.

Every writer has a different method for getting things done. What I learned from NaNoWriMo is what works for me, and I might not have figured it out on my own. Though you will not end up with an industry-ready manuscript at the end of the month (I'm still editing the first novel I did in a month), you will learn things, get a lot of practice, establish a writing routine, and (hopefully) have a good time.

~sigh~

So NaNoWriMo is kind of a bust this year. I couldn't get my story to work with me -- nevermind the fact that I didn't think I wanted to write it in the first place. I got about 9,000 words into it before I dropped the thing. I guess I didn't have enough material to get me through when the murder victim was murdered to when they catch the murderer. And it's even more upsetting because I had such a good time writing those 9,000 words, which ultimately got me nowhere. (Practice makes perfect?)

... So I moved on

In addition to spending lots of time on Photoshop, I got an idea for a short story thanks to a project my dad thought of: three people from the same family, but different generations writing about a common theme and posting their stories on a blog. Sounded like a good idea to me!

And so, the short, non-mystery idea was born. All my other stories have dealt in some way with crime, kidnapping or death (which is all well and good as long as you're standing in the Mystery section at the bookstore!), but this one will have none of that, despite the sort of sinister cover I came up with. In the spirit of not spoiling my story for those of you who will read it on Generations when it's done, I won't tell you what it's about - but I will tell you the group topic has to do with keeping my characters away from home.

1904, here I come!

One of my scene settings is an abandoned subway station in Toronto (pictured above), LITTLE KNOWING that the day after I chose this place, a "secret subway stop" in New York was revealed. While it wouldn't make a good place for my characters to stop, I think I'll be going next time I'm in town. Just take the 6 and stay on past the Brooklyn Bridge stop, and you're freakin' time traveling!

25,000 words removed

The first novel (in recent times) I finished and thought was decent totaled about 25,000 words.  It was a mystery -- decent one, if you ask me, but because of its stunted growth, I couldn't find a home for it except in a corner of my hard drive.  I can't bring myself to recycle the character names (although a few of the story elements have seeped into other stories), so maybe I'm not done with it yet.  Maybe I'll re-write it into something longer, or maybe once I've got a novel or two in the "S" section at Barnes and Noble, someone will be interested in publishing this novella.

Awake didn't share that story's fate (at least not yet).  Back a few blog posts, you'll see that I ended the novel at a grand total of 120,000 words (which is too long for a first-time novelist to get picked up by anyone), but let's face it: in a first draft, a good 10 - 20% of the text is crap.  So far, I've read through the entire story (parts of it were painful), and trimmed a lot of useless word-padding.  Starting at the beginning again, I'm steamrolling the entire thing, taking out unnecessary paragraphs and re-wording almost everything else.  So far, the words I've cut from this novel equals about 25,000 words.  If you remember from one paragraph above, thats about enough room to write a completely separate story.

So far, the edit is going well.  The characters are showing me how they feel rather than me having to say it, so reading through a newly polished chapter is giving me guilty feelings of glee, enjoying my own work.  Of course, for the past 2 days, I've had plenty of time to edit because the city has been shut down by piles of snow.

Besides writing, I've been working my way through Denise Mina's Garnethill, which is a good read so far (I'm about 3/4 finished).  Stylistically, I'm not enjoying the omniscient point of view, but hey -- she's not trying to cater to me.   For me, it's the ending that really matters, so here's hoping it goes alright.

Also, who isn't interested in the final season of Lost?  I'm pretty excited about it, especially since I can't predict what's going to happen.  It's either going to end really well, or it's going to be the biggest letdown ever.

Grand total: 120k words; just under 450 pages

Whew!

Well, that's done.  I finished the novel last night after pouring 6,400 words into it yesterday.  That's a lot!  But after all that, all the hard work, pushing through the boring parts ... I think the ending tied together really nicely.  I don't think I've left any loose ends, but I'm sure my test readers will tell me if I did.

Editing is going to be an adventure, though.  Not only have I never written 450 pages of anything before, I've never had to make 450 pages look presentable before!  I guess I'll tell you all about it when I get there.  For now, I'm leaving it alone to marinate in all its awesomeness.

And it's weird what music I got hooked on while composing this little (*cough*) tale.  Lady Gaga and Falco.  Why?  Maybe I went a little nuts toward the end of the novel ... but after a while, I was like, "I've really gotta listen to Bad Romance again!!"  So yeah.  Some crazy pop music lead to my crazy word count.  And now I've gotta come down off it somehow.

Still going

115,302 words.  412 pages.

That's the grand total at the moment.  Yep, I'm still working on the novel, and I'm actually ready for it to be done.  Once I've gone back over the thing with a heaping dose of editing, it's going to be a fantastic story -- and depending on how many test readers I get for my first draft, I'll be able to see how well it goes over with my "fans".

I'm even starting to think about other stories to write.  All of them these days have some sort of mystery to them -- just can't figure out how to end a literary novel.  Maybe I should read some more of them?  I don't know.  They're so beautiful, but with me, they ramble.  Just like I'm doing now.

I did it!!

Self-imposed goal of 100 thousand words has just been met!  Take THAT, self!  Told you I could do it.

Now, all I have to do is put an ending on the story. Actually, that might take another ten thousand words.  But hey, since the goal has been met one and a half days early, I'll get to the end when I get to it.  But I'm hoping I'll get to it by next week or so.  Don't want to drag it out and eventually abandon the thing.

300 pages??

I have never in my life written 300 pages of anything, but today I reached it.

The story is shaping up nicely, and I really think I'll hit 100 thousand by the end of the month.  There's still 7 days left, right?  So I guess I've got about 2,400 words per day left to do.

Now let's get back to it.

Plugging through

210 pages so far.  59 thousand words.  You'd think I'm a little tired of writing right now, and you'd be correct.  But it's raining outside and ... blah blah.  Saving my words for the novel.  Not much else to report. Even though it's at the good part where stuff really starts happening, I'm having a bit of trouble keeping focused.

Passing 50k!

Just a quick note -- just realized I passed 50,000 words!

Very productive

Had a very good time at the write-in on Sunday.  It's not very often I get to hang out with people I have anything in common with (I've got to be honest -- most of my friends live out of town).  So, apparently, being around my fellow wrimos increased my productivity, and I did 5000 words with them.

The story is coming along.  I'm at 45k, and not even halfway through my outline.  My only real problem is that my characters are acting awfully wooden and they aren't talking to each other very much.  I have all 5 of my main characters introduced to the reader and to each other, but they aren't as friendly as I thought they would be.  I'm hoping they'll cooperate more when I edit the thing.

I've been averaging 5000 words a day since the 1st ... do you think I can hit 50,000 by the end of the day?  I think that would be sweet.

Hey!

My word count widget is working!!

Halfway through

I'm officially over halfway done with the NaNoWriMo challenge, and it's only been 5 days.  Also, after I type a sentence or two, I instinctively press "command S", no matter where I'm typing.

The story is nowhere near halfway done, though.  I've finished 89 pages (double spaced), 26k words, and I'm about 20% through my outline.  I'm having a wonderful time doing this (obviously).  Provides the perfect escape from my life.  Yeah, that's not so exciting at the moment.  Cubicles, you know?

No interesting procrastination stories today, because I've actually been pretty diligently writing.  That said, I'd better get back to it because I've only done five thousand today.  Yup.  I'm a dork.

And there goes the command S again.

Quick update

Hi everyone

Two days in and I'm already a little over 11 thousand words.  Almost twelve thousand.  So far, I've only encountered two characters ... not even side, background characters are around.  Two people total.  I have no idea how I've got so many words with so few people ... I guess we'll see in December if what I've written is worth anything whatsoever.

That's all for now.  Got to get back to work.

Outlines, Audiobooks, and other rambling stuff

The Outline (again)

Yes, I got my outline to 50,000 words (and worked much too hard to make the number exact). It's excessive, and I'm guessing the finished product won't be much longer than that. Although, I've got to add all the dialogue, so that could take up a few thousand more words. I think the story itself is nice and solid now. When I wrote it before, I only got up to 40,000 words, and there were way too many plot gaps for it to be considered good at all. Ask me on December 1st if the monstrous outline was worth it.

Audiobooks

In an effort to keep my brain happily occupied at work while I'm doing things that don't require much thought, I've been looking for something worthwhile to listen to. I found a very good website called LibriVox, which specializes in making public domain (i.e. classic) books available free to the public. Today, I started listening to the German version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the guy who reads it makes me love the German language more than I thought I would (very expressive ... beautiful voice).

Yes, I understand a little German. In listening to this book (got through 3 and a half chapters before I went home), I understood about half of it. It helps a lot that I'm familiar with the story already.

But the website (LibriVox) has mostly English books. I haven't listened to any of the others yet, but I'm looking forward to letting my brain occupy itself with some classics while my hands sort the mail/email at work.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

I'd really forgotten how much I enjoyed this story. I've read it 2 or 3 times already, and saw a movie version of it (from 1945). I didn't like that movie because Dorian didn't show any emotions ... I don't think that's an accurate portrayal of the character because even though Dorian became evil, that doesn't necessarily mean he's got a blank face all the time.

I even got to thinking that my current project, Awake, is sci-fi/fantasy in the same way that The Picture of Dorian Gray is sci-fi/fantasy. That is, a tiny plot point is supernatural, and the rest of the story is rooted in reality. I enjoy reading things like that because I don't have to learn a completely new world or alien races, etc. (such as Lord of the Rings -- which I loved, by the way).

Awake is also a mystery in the same way that the TV show Lost is a mystery. There's no "whodunnit" to figure out, just a big "what the heck just happened??" As such, it's extremely difficult to categorize my story. Is it urban fantasy? mystery? literary ... something? Ah, you guys don't know because I'm not giving out any plot details, am I? I like that to be a secret because ... I just do.

I guess genre placement doesn't matter a whole lot, and I'm not worried about it. But when it comes to submission (It'll get to that point probably this time next year once I'm done with the tedious and numerous edits), it helps to pick out who to send it to. Anyway. Doesn't matter. Thanks for reading all this rambling!

Waiting

Even though my word count is climbing to a ridiculous level (mostly in part to the "distraction from reality" it provides me), it seems like I'm waiting on stuff right now. I have "The Silent Treatment" out there talking to agents -- although right now it's at one place which doesn't allow simultaneous submissions. They might like it, they might not. They're "going steady" right now.

I'm also really looking forward to November where I'll participate in my second NaNoWriMo. The outline I've been spending my free time working on (see above) is what I'll be working on during the challenge.

So stress, right? It's not fun. But sometimes writing is like going to another world ... even more than watching TV or a really good movie. Since writing takes a lot of thought and imagination, it often blocks the "bad thoughts" ... or at least I can incorporate said problem into some sort of plot. *

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I've got to say that the forums on that website have been extremely helpful. Whether I'm trying to figure out what a 911 dispatcher would say or just want to browse overheard dialogue, I couldn't have asked for a better help. Maybe this year I'll actually participate in the in-town gatherings ... meeting some 3-D people in a non-work environment would be nice!

Lest I start blabbing, I'll leave the update here.

*Note: Just because I use some of my own experiences in the stuff I write, there's always, ALWAYS enough fiction thrown in so that you can never assume I've gone through exactly what you've read.

It's come to this

I've posted my trusty word count widget to the right regarding my monstrous outline word count. I'm having so much fun with this story that it's bordering on addiction. Maybe this is bad for me.

This outline is almost a novel by itself

I'm over 34,000 words at the moment on the outline for "Awake". I've said this about previous projects before, but I'm not sure if the length of this outline means I'll have an extremely long novel when I'm finished, or if it means I've just about said everything I can say. We'll see.

The plot has gone past the climax now, and I'm working out how everything winds down to a satisfying ending. Thinking about using an epilogue.

Fif-tee thou-sand! *crash*

Ok, I did it.

ZZzzzzz.....

Word count

Ugh. As you can see, the word count is getting up there for this month. I'm right on track with daily quotas ... usually I can't stop before I reach 2000 words, and I make 3000 a day sometimes. But I'm running into a real problem! My outline is almost finished. I'm on the cusp of the climax and I still have 20,000 more to go. Did I skimp at the beginning? I might have been too excited to get started ...