For those of you brave enough to read this year's Nano work, you can download the entire thing here (369 kb, rtf) or go to the 2004 novel page to read Beads of Horn Silver in individual installments.
And here's a description for those of you who want to know what you're getting into: Horror-lite. Two journalists are off to a small farming community to do a story and find out the reason behind their editor's illness. Strange things happen, plenty of innuendo gets thrown around, and in general hijinks ensue. Includes drunk bingo ladies, cats, and cast iron skillets not used for their intended purposes.
Writing a novel in a month can be both fun and depressing. Here's a bit of my advice for keeping the depression at a minimum and making sure that you finish the darn thing:
*Write every day. I know on my word count page I only list how many words I upload to the website on a particular day, but I do write every day, no matter what. Even if it's just five words, write! Unless you know you will be able to binge write successfully, don't do it. Break things into more manageable chunks and you will be able to accomplish something.
*Don't read the forums. I broke this rule all the time, but if you're an obsessive compulsive person who must read and respond to every post, stay away from the forums during November. Not only will this feed into procrastination, a lot of the threads can be really depressing for people who haven't written as much as others.
*Go to writing meet-ups during the month. This isn't possible for everyone, but if you can, you should go. Not only will you be able to meet and get encouragement other people doing this crazy novel writing thing, you will get a lot done during your writing sessions.
Well, that's it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to post it here.
I didn't write as much as yesterday, but I'm slowly getting there.
There's a thread on the forums called "Unintentional Innuendo". I think it's a hoot to read. Of course I'm not going to submit anything for that thread unless people want to read an entire book. My whole Nano novel is littered with innuendo. That's what makes it so funny, really.
From my other blog: I also figured that at the really slow pace I'm making on Nanowrimo (and I also realized I'm user number 42!), I need to write about 3k a day to reach 50k. This is really bad. The previous years, I was pretty much finished by this time.
Tommorrow, even though I will have to visit lab for a little bit (yeah, I know I should be staying at home during the holidays, but bacteria don't take any vacations), I will try to spend most of the day writing. The problem this year is several-fold: I'm really busy at school and lab, too many social engagements, and severe procrastination. I'm also not very enamored with my story this year--definitely not as enamored as I was with previous stories--but I'm already over 30k with it. Too much invested to back out now.
Well, I'm nowhere near the goal I set for myself yesterday but at least I didn't completely slack off. Besides, I had to do some cooking. And laundry. I know writing a novel in a month is important, but eating and having clean clothes is important too. At least I did some writing while I was doing laundry, but it felt really weird writing at the laundromat. Not only were the chairs uncomfortable and the television annoying, but other people were actually there doing laundry. I don't really write very well with other people around.
I am desperately trying to catch up this weekend. My personal goal is to write at least a thousand more words tonight and get at least 40k before Monday. I'm also mostly staying away from the Nano forums so I won't procrastinate as much.
From what I've heard from next door for the part of the day I was at home, I'm anticipating another one of those really crazy fights in the middle of the night that my schizophrenic neighbors are fond of having. I really don't want them invading my novel (the bingo ladies were bad enough, but the neighbors are worse) so I'll be using my handy-dandy earplugs tonight.
This week has been an incredibly bad week for writing. Not only have I been busy in lab and finishing writing my qualifiers, but there have been social engagements which I could not get out of. I am really looking forward to the weekend for some writing time.
I've written something today, but I won't have time to put it up in html format until tomorrow. I've actually written something every day so I guess I'm not really slacking off. I will probably hit the halfway point sometime tomorrow. Right now, I'm listening to the wonderfully beautiful soundtrack to Finding Neverland. The movie opens today, but I actually saw the film two months ago at a film festival. I highly recommend it--extremely sentimental, but in a good way.
As for progress, technically I'm ahead, but I feel like I'm stuck in a rut because, ahem, of my writing I have to do for school.
So I was thinking about why the Bingo Club suddenly popped into my novel. I mean, I didn't plan very much, but I never expected them to appear. Maybe it's just my subconscious desire to have fans. You know, other Nano-ers have their characters do cameos in other people's works or have other people's characters read their novel in those novels and some people even have Yahoo! fan clubs filled with people hanging to their every word and others have fans who illustrate their novels as they go along or people writing fanfics of other people's novels...
Rather depressing now that I think about it. I wish I had someone who could illustrate my stories. I would only totally mangle everything with my horrible stick figures.
I've also noticed that there are a lot of teenagers complaining about parental readership--you know, even though their parents want to read their stuff, they don't want them to because of risque scenes. Which is totally understandable. Parents don't want to believe that their kids are growing up. But writing is both harmless and subversive. There's a fine line between the two. I aim for "harmless". I'm very open about my writing habit but I don't pressure (or even ask!) anyone to read my stuff. As a result, I don't have parents, let alone anyone else, breathing down my neck, demanding to read what I'm scribbling on paper or typing on my word processor. If you act secretive or rebellious about it, people will think you're writing something bad, so of course they'll want to read it.
It's like a lot of other things. Make something forbidden and everyone will gather around like flies to honey.
So far, this year's Nano novel is more humor than horror. I keep on telling myself I should buckle down and get serious, but my characters are having none of it. They think they can take control of the situation because I don't quite know where I'm going with the story.
So the latest chapter I've put up is mostly conversation. Which is okay. There are words in conversation. To be honest, this stuff was hard to write--especially since I had about twelve different people to concentrate on at the same time.
Also, as expected, I'm not getting very much sleep this month. And what I do get is punctuated with nightmares. Unfortunately, I can't use any of them in the current story. Unless I add in a mad scientist...
I will probably not post my progress today as there are some other things that are demanding my attention at the moment. But I'm now over 20,000 words. That's two-fifths done if you're being really strict about the 50,000 word thing. The problem is, I don't feel like the plot is anywhere near half-way finished. But who knows what might happen.
Lots of people show off with their best line or worst line or funniest line. There are definitely scenes that I think are funnier than others, but I can't pick just one line--I'm too close to the work right now. Besides, I hardly re-read my work while I'm writing except to refresh my memory on a detail so I don't screw up too badly on consistency.
On word padding techniques: Some people try to squeeze in as many words as they can by also adding footnotes, long chapter titles, poems, acknowledgements, background notes, avoiding contractions, repeating themselves over and over, giving their characters absurdly long names, etc. in order to reach their goal. These people can do whatever they wish, but I can't help think that if you total all of this up, it really won't make up a significant amount. You might as well just write the 50k straight through without resorting to those tactics.
Of note: When I tally my word count, I do not include the title, poems other people have written, chapter numbers or names, divider symbols, copyright, or my name. I do not include notes of any kinds, I don't make acknowledgements, I liberally use contractions and I do not repeat myself over and over (at least not intentionally). My characters also have really short names because they're easier to remember.
A note on chapter naming: I make them up as I go along. I don't plan them ahead of time.
Future appearances of characters I have already introduced: The old ladies in the Bingo Club. The next time you see them, they'll be drunk*. Will there be any point in the story where any of them will be sober? Highly unlikely. They're funnier snookered. Peter and his golden cat-spirit Nemo will also be making future appearances. I'm not sure in what capacity, though.
(*The ladies will be drunk on the official Bingo Club liquor--Chili Beer. And yes, in real life, there really is such a vile thing called Chili Beer. Thankfully, I've never tried it. Just read really bad reviews for it.)
And is it getting scary yet? No? Well, it'll get scary soon. Hopefully.
This afternoon I was at the Dirt Cowboy Cafe (which for some reason, I always mentally think of as Dirty Cowboy Cafe) writing with some other Nano-ers. Of course, as expected with these kind of things, the guy who first suggested the write-in as well as time to meet never showed up. Maybe he was scared to meet people he first contacted online. Because, you know, online people can be a little kooky and scary.
On my own, I would have never gone into a cafe to work on writing let alone even getting coffee there because, well, I'm just not that kind of person. I felt really odd sitting at a table in the cafe, pounding on the keyboard of my laptop and occasionally sipping a mocha java. If I was wearing all black, it would have completed my transformation to a tortured artist who spends all her time lurking in coffee places.
Besides, it turns the act of writing into a social thing--to see and be seen--which to me seems like a completely oxymoronic activity. I've always viewed writing as solitary and somewhat narcisstic. Ah, it would have been much cooler if the cafe was completely filled with writers and not yuppies and students who are yuppies-in-training.
At least I got some words down. Definitely not as many as other people--my technique primarily consists of typing slowly because my thoughts are going slowly--but I've gotten the most done in one sitting since the month began.
Yes, I've been on the forums again. I've noticed that this year, a lot of people are obsessed with trying to avoid "Mary Sue" characters. From what I've gathered, a "Mary Sue" is either a character who is perfect in every way or an extension of the author with traits that the author wishes that he or she had. But since I'm one of those people who are more laid back about the whole Nano thing, I'm just thinking that these people are worrying too much. Just write and worry about whether your character is acting realistically or not in December.
But you can rest assured at least that my characters aren't me.
Other people are the types that need pictures of their characters before they start. You know, sketches, photographs, scrutinizing the models in clothing catalogues, etc. In their case, they come up with a character and then try to find the picture. In my case, it's more like I stumble on a picture and say, "Aha! That's my character for this year's Nano." Last year, I stumbled upon a picture of a woman riding the bus on the IMDB website who immediately became Verity. This year, a few months ago, I found a picture on a weblog I read semi-regularly of a woman and a man sitting in a cafe. For some reason, they amused me and eventually the two became Mel and Stuart.
And for those people who must get their excerpts critiqued for feedback (i.e. fishing for praise): November is for writing, not editing, but to each his own, I guess.
I've written something, but I won't be posting it until tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. I'm in the library again, but I wish that girl behind me will just shut up. Didn't she see the no cell phone signs on all the doors?
It's a weekday and what do you expect? I'm behind. But that's okay. I say that every year, but really, it is. It's just the 4th after all. Plenty of time. And I'm feeling very tired and cold. I hate it that the library windows are nothing but screens. It's November and it's New England so you know it's going to be cold--so put up some real windows! But the sad thing is that this library is at an Ivy League institution where you would think that there would be enough serious money to renovate the place. I don't know where all the money is going. Probably into student health insurance for all those whiney undergrads who are getting prescriptions for Prozac that they don't need.
Well, I've got some words down for the day. That's a good thing. However, the story is being more humorous than I initially intended. That isn't a bad thing. More like unexpected.
I'm also having a very amusing time reading other people's excerpts.
Summary: Two journalists working for a culture magazine aren't just traveling to a small farming town to cover an obscure harvest festival. Their boss is seriously ill after stopping by the town. The journalists want some answers: what and who is causing the illness and what does it have to do with a necklace made of horn silver beads?
