42 posts tagged “writing”
Ok, it's been nine days and while I may still write yet tonight, I have 13,500+ words under my belt.
It's still not in a linear fashion, though I do have a master plan for five parts of this book (Prologue, Parts 1-3, Epilogue). I am having flashes of scenes that happen, and so I write those and then stick them in the section they will go in later. That's the beauty of Scrivener, the software I'm using. It can hold all these bits, you can storyboard/corkboard them, and still keep them all in one big editable pile. But there is also room for research. So when I go to the web and look up something, like "sheep in sweaters," I can cut and paste an image or a link, or text from that page, into my notebook under the research section. And it doesn't become part of my word count, but it's right there at my finger tips.
I just wrote this bit:
It seemed that one of the parents was concerned that live animals at the nativity scene might scare smaller children in addition to posing a public relations problem for animal cruelty. Another complaint had been rumored but not yet surfaced to either minister that the Blessed Virgin was allergic to wool, and therefore, they needed to put up some kind of barrier between her and the sheep, or perhaps, as the rumor went, fashion some kind of sweater for the sheep.
And yes, there are sweaters for sheep. There are certain breeds and varieties of sheep that are shearless. Either they are combed for their fiber, or big chunks are harvested off by hand, or they are given drugs which cause the fleece to fall off in one massive piece. Hence the sweater to keep it on until it can be retrieved. The nativity sheep aren't any kind of special sheep, but the idea of a sheep in a sweater is just too much.
I like having little inane moments and thought pictures in my work.
Ok, I know I'm fully involved in this novel for a couple of reasons:
1. I am irritated and annoyed with how I'm not making a lot of visible progress. It's like the water behind the dam is building up. I'm doing research and finding all sorts of cool connections. My characters are talking to me and clamoring for attention like a trio of bad therapy clients, leaving me voice mails, IMing me, emailing and begging for attention. (I'm not a therapist, but that's how I imagine bad, needy clients to be.)
2. I have 17 other great ideas and revelations on other ongoing projects. I'm going to write those down too, perhaps having several documents open at the same time and inching my way toward milestones.
I don't think I get my pedicure today. I miscalculated on the word count, counting 1,800 words twice as I had duplicated them in the several documents I'm using as my "draft." Using Scrivener again this year, and I am settling into how it feels. The corkboard, note cards is useful, and the "Edit Scrivenings" will be great when it comes time to organize this mess.
Right now, I have a page each on each main character, a page on each bit of wiki research I am doing, and several different pages on themes, topics and big ideas that I want to incorporate.
Oh, and of course now it's time to go somewhere and I'm trying to figure out how I can take my laptop to church. Um, no. Not good.
So after church, grocery shopping and dog walking, it's back to the keyboard.
I'm at 7,269 for the first day, but since I logged it after midnight, it's showing up on NaNo as a two-day total. Meh. Don't care.
Got everything outlined, have the three characters on separate courses that will quickly come together, and am beginning to draw some comparisons, add in some of the symbolism, and did some research via travel books. Thing is, the little village in Mexico isn't exactly a tourist destination, so I have to extrapolate.
Not this month, but perhaps in the coming three months, I want to take a road trip down into Mexico, and explore a place like I'm creating. I want to get it RIGHT.
Time to write. I'm doing National Novel Writing month again, and this time there are alligators nippin at my ass to get it done, make it work and make it good.
I can do this. I've been in training my whole life.
I have 3450 words right now, and plan to get a pedicure at 10K. That could be tomorrow, which would be nice.
Trying to decide on the "parental rating" of my novel. But I may not worry about that now. If one character cusses as much as his real life basis does, then we've got a rather salty major character. But then again, his counterpart, major character deux, might react and blush and be the audience/conscience.
Enough chatter about it. Time to do.
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...
