38 posts tagged “writing”
Alright. So it's Riley.
Now I need to just block out my week, and find time to get to 5,000 words before I land in Europe for my very busy week of work.
I've always thought of the Navidad story as something that did NOT come from Riley's voice, but if he is that engaging a character, that I'm reprising him... then I guess I'd better get into his head and talk like him, rather than just describing his oddness.
I have to be the oddness.
Despite the egregious license taken with the NOUN "novel" by the folks at NaNoWriMo, I am going to participate in this event in a few days.
Yes, I'm going overseas on business trip for a week smack in the middle, but I'm thinking of trans-Atlantic flights and odd jet-lagged hours in a hotel room and a dearth of internet connectivity (that's free), and there you have a few hours in the day to make up for the trip.
Hungary. I'm going to Hungary.
Stay tuned. I won't be writing anywhere else about my writing. The NaNo forums are horribly slow this year. I might post one or two things but that's about it. I might write protected entries, so let me know if you want to be a friend, etc.
I need to see if there's a newer version of Scrivener. That was a very useful thing last year.
Writing. I was just going to get back to my novel, when tragedy struck. Really. That is not a line from a novel, but maybe it should be.
I'm leaving the city where my novel is set, so I am soaking up a lot of ambience and character from the streets, hills, people and places... I hope to capture it faithfully. And make up the rest seamlessly.
I'm getting a laptop and thus will have the opportunity to "write anywhere." Right. We'll see.
So, yes, my plan is to do a mini-NaNo in July. It will be NaNoRevMo. National Novel Revising Month, though I still have about 30 or 40% to add to the novel to make it coherent. And July because I hope to be unpacked at my new house, settling in but not yet distracted by soccer, karate, etc. My work year cranks up hard in October, so I need to be done with Parked in Tucson by then. Done enough to show, anyway.
If you're reading this, hope you're having fun and/or being productive and all.
IN my last post, which was far too long ago, I mentioned a Petri dish wherein some new wonderful good thing was growing.
I can say with gladness and gratitude that it indeed has grown and is real.
Here's the thing:
* I am moving to Dallas, Texas with my son.
* We will live in my brother's house, which he was going to sell but didn't get around to it in his last days.
* I secured permission to telecommute with my current job, so I don't have to quit and look for a new one.
* I have plans to homeschool said son at least for the summer, if not for all of sixth grade and possibly seventh, depending on my success.
All the shoes that needed to drop in order for this to happen dropped with minimum effort, but never at the moment I thought they would. I prepped and sold my current house (closing on June 5), I took care of some annoying credit issues to secure a new loan, and I moved my job description more toward what I have been doing for free all these years. There are some other things that I would like to see happen, but now that I have gotten the hang of the Cosmic Supply Company, I'm just not going to push it. I placed my order, and I know it will be filled.
The only real "problems" now are deciding if I take with us or sell the piano and my parents' bedroom set. The former has massive sentimental value and potential for future musical endeavors; the latter is convenient to have but not really my style, very bulky to move and somewhat redundant. If it weren't for the high cost of moving stuff across country, I might keep it and decide what to do. But then again, I wonder if it's worth something to someone and I could put it on craig's list to help defray the cost of moving?
In any event, the forecast for more creativity and more time to write is very very sunny.
It is rather strange that a plan is evolving wherein I'll have more time to write. Strange because it's actually growing in a Petri dish right now, never expecting it to be able to sustain viability outside the lab, but who knows? Frankenstein was never expected to lead an agrarian life either. (Go read the real Frankenstein. By Mary Shelley. :-)
Still dealing with stupid things that require faxing of death certificates and taking time off work. And a lassitude that hampers a real good belly laugh. Its name is probably Guilt, which is normal but oh so heavy and unwelcome a visitor in my life right now. I need Atlas.
Also assessing the past year of "dwindling access to the community" as the geriatric shrinks like to phrase it... and how my dad wasn't all that tuned into what my life was really like and how I was spinning a tidy little fiction for him. And how I might write that novel, since I'm not really living it.
I am finally back from the holidays, from holidaze and family matters (of the snarky and hurtful kind). My father is doing well and should come home to the "new normal" in a week.
I haven't even LOOKED at my NaNo manuscript, and that may be very good. I did read a novel over the holidays and really appreciated it for its standard narrative with one innovation. Ultimately, I don't think it was all that earth-shattering, but it was diverting and interesting. The Coffee Trader by David Liss
As far as writing goes, I will either have NO time to write in the upcoming weeks, or all the time in the world. Heh. This is the busy season for my job, and things won't simmer down until Feb. 1. After that, I will have loads of time or the same as usual, which isn't enough...
but as they say, and as NaNo proves, if you want something done, give the job to a busy person.
(I did end up writing a bunch at my other blog: http://www.lizardlodge.com/aspic/blog.html The Aspic & Spooon. Which was enjoyable.
More as the saga continues...
I've been scarce. The brain drain of NaNo made it so my life sorta backed up and all the little accordian folds have been barfing up their hidden treasures/errands/events/dramas, and I've been dealing with them.
The mss is printed out, here next to me and unedited. I still need to do more writing before I go back and edit. Still in writing/creator mode. DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU IT'S TIME TO EDIT, until it is.
love and kuesse,
Jay
but not finished... this is an incomplete first draft, rather an embarrassment to my literary executor if I get run over by a bus tonight.
BUT!
I have 50,558 words and I will tie up some loose thoughts later tonight. But I'm done for about a week or so. I got stuff to do, people!
I'll take a victory lap from now until Saturday night when the local TGIO party is. And then it's xmas cards, house clean-up, xmas tree, shopping, yoga, quilting, stuff.
I'm rather amazed at myself. I really was ready to quit at 25K. and even though there is a lot of stuff in this draft that will undoubtedly get chucked out, it's there now, adding flavors to the novel stew. (Like bay leaf!)
Time for some choccies. Reese's anyone?
Current word count: 49632 (99.26 %) with 3 days left, with current pace, expected to finish in 2 days.
You know, I have to say that I have the makings of an interesting, possibly funny, possibly literary novel here. But not at the moment, it's not a novel. It's like cats being gathered by Animal Control from a hoarder's house. It's like marbles at the Capitol Rotunda. It's like on open bag of linguine falling out of the cupboard.
But it's fun and it's mine and I'll get to play with it for weeks to come.
must.sleep.now.
While Friday and Saturday were all about throwing all kinds of crap onto the screen and making it stick (for now), last night and today have been all about getting back to that weird writing place that I love. Telling stories in a rambly style that is the way people talk and think (in my world). It's GREAT fun.
Had lunch with a friend who threw some ideas my way, but mostly we talked about stuff for which we already have a shorthand and foreknowledge... so it was like just coming into the middle of the decades long conversation.
Had a drink later with a newer friend who is sharp, witty, hawt, funny and full of his own kind of stories. He pitched me a character, and by the time I sat down at the keyboard later that night, I had her voice and her story. And I found a way to put her in Tucson. It was such fun. This morning, the main MC spoke to me from inside his heart and soul. That was an honor.
And I have 45K now. I'll "win" NaNo but I have about half a novel. There is still much to be done with these people... I'm thinking 80 or 100K. Still, I'm not.there.yet, so I press on for four and a half more days, and then party like it's 1999, and get the house ready for the holidays.
