< FeroxLog >

PREAMBLE

I’ve entered NaNoWriMo which if you don’t know is basically a group personal challenge to write a novel (50,000 words) in 30 days starting November 1st. That equates to about 1667 words a day. Anyone can enter (it’s free) and it works on the honor system: no writing until midnight November 1st and you only have 30 days to write a minium of 50,00 words. There aren’t any real prizes for completing it other than a warm fuzzy feeling in your gutty-wuts.

From Nanowrimo’s site:

One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is the way it spreads the agony of creation throughout a large community of co-sufferers.

You can’t argue with that.

I have the basic concept for this novel already. It’s a fairly simplistic one that occurred to me while talking to a friend a few days ago which works out well for Nano since I only have about 10 days to kind of plot out the thing. Against my usual style I’m not pre-planning anything really and consciously avoiding making any physical notes about the story.

I have the basic idea, the foggiest idea of the characters and a few specific events I’d like to happen but other than that…nothing. Usually I write reams and reams of notes for anything I write and still semi-subscribe to the idea that you can anti-whittle a novel through accession by making more and more detailed outlines. This time however, I’m going to just chunk it all down on my word processor each day and see what happens.

I’m not of the Stephen King school of thought that writing is like “unearthing a fossil” but due to the time limit and the fact that the only requirement is raw output for Nano it’s going to be fairly unstructured. Fortunately, given the basic high concept of the novel it’ll have few paths to wander down out of my control. This best thing about this (other than the utterly meaninglessness of it, and hence the fun) is that there’s no re-write required. I love that

When (if) it’s done I’ll post the full text here as a zipped download as donationware for anyone that wants it. Imagine that, a free novel.

On this page I’ll keep you posted on what happens each day starting sometime after midnight on November 1st. Eek.

—-
DAY 01 - WORD COUNT - 01,824
—-

Ok. The clock has started. I have the opening paragraph in my head. Time for a quick night’s sleep and pounce on the keyboard tomorrow morn after a coffee infusion. Stay tuned…

Chapter one is begun. The main characters, so far, are Terri a young and upcoming actress with only one big hit film under her belt. Phil, her boyfriend who is the son of a politician and Dutch, the drummer of a popular Goth band who is trying to work out some recent personal problems.

So far there’s a lot of he thought this, she thought that stuff and little dialog. I’m quite happy with the bits of dialog that are there so far though. It ended up being an in media res opening but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think I’m missing some general the color of the sky and the sound of the ocean description but that can come later. I wanted to try and dive right into the characters heads this time instead of setting up the imagery first. This way I can cheat a little and just say things like “the yacht” and let the reader fill in the details themselves. That’ll save me some work overall, plus it lets me focus on the characters and their actions more.

I feel some of the descriptions that are there are a bit weak but if time permits I’ll go back and shine them up a bit. I’ve been pretty loose with character descriptions which bugs me more than it should. I’d like to have the characters well described but since this is still chapter one there’s time to describe them in this chapter or in the next chapter at the latest.

I really want to avoid being too loose with the contextual and character descriptions because then the novel would seem like I’m trying to pen some sort of arty fartsy character study which I’m not, nor am I a fan of, so I need to add in more descriptive things about the characters physically at least. Also, I’d like to get more into and clearer with their thoughts. There’s some good stuff there already but it seems to distant to my liking I wanna get deeper into their heads. But there’s time for that.

Overall Terri is turning out to be the most interesting character, she has this duality thing going where she says one thing and internally admits another, although she let this slip out verbally to Phil once but he didn’t really pick up on it, in fact he misinterpreted it

I have since writing the above, gone back and re-read the chapter. It’s better than I initially thought which is interesting because as writers know, with time comes hatred of your own work, at least that’s usually the case. I tweaked a sentence here and there and altered a word or four. I just need a handle on what Dutch’s deal is for the next few paragraphs.

—-
DAY 02 - WORD COUNT - 03,390
—-

Day two gone. I’ve hit 3,390 words. Going by 1,667 words a day the least number I could have written and felt good about it was 3,334. Not bad though, cranking out over 1600 words in less than two hours. I guess I’m planning, unless something extraordinary happens in the story, to sticking with about 1667 words a day until I hit the 50,000 word requirement. Beyond that is gravy.

The really fun thing about NanoWrimo is that is it’s utter pointlessness. There’s no deadline, no one looking over my shoulder and what I write is of no importance to anyone, most importantly me. It really exemplifies the power that being your own worst critic can be and what a hinder it ends up being. Because all that really counts regarding a NanoWrimo novel is word count it’s fairly easy (at least so far) to jump in and start banging away at the keys. I’m being more of a creative typist than a writer but that’s okay for this project.

There’s a definite sense of not having to think ahead too much with each chunk. Because it’s all about word count there’s no pressure to make anything super special or at least special enough this first run through. There’s no demand to make things click together with precision and aforethought. Writing a nano novel is so unlike writing a real novel. Writing a real novel is a bit like camping or skydiving in that I feel you really need to plan certain aspects of it out before you dive in. You’d be a fool to go hiking without taking some gear with you or at least having an idea of your route. There’s a certain sense of invincibility in writing this way, no wonder people like Stephen King write most of their stuff this way. It’s easy and without pressure. But, I do definite feel the story and the characters suffer when created this way. I think a certain degree of pre-planning is necessary when writing anything of significant length.

Terri is shaping up to be an interesting and smart character. She seems very observant. Dutch seems to have some trouble he’s trying to avoid but it hasn’t been revealed yet and Phil seems lost but at least he knows he’s lost and is still on the fence about it. There’s a fourth character I’d like to introduce but I haven’t yet. There’s a gimmick with him but I’m not sure I can pull it off without some of the aforementioned pre-planning, so we’ll see. Three people seems a bit lonely so far though.

The second chapter is started and I think I’m going to get more into the whole backstory here for a while, maybe even the next chapter, then really try and take off with the meat of the story. I wrote today’s bit while listening to Kenji Kawaii’s Avalon soundtrack.

—-
DAY 03 - WORD COUNT - 05,072
—-

Over five thousand words now. Geepers. I think I’m padding it a bit with some descriptions now but that’s okay. There’s still plenty of story left to get into the visceral nitty-gritty character interaction and dialog. I think I’m missing some omniscient descriptions which I really want to have overall to give a sense of depth to the story and a feeling of weight to the whole thing.

Dutch is turning out well. He’s now forty-ish and content. However there is a problem that he’s worried about that I have the foggiest idea about what it is. I ended one chapter with a pretty intriguing tease about it.

Phil is still no-where’s man. I haven’t gotten into him at all other than he’s the bored rich politician’s son. I’ll have to cover him sooner rather than later.

Terri had her big descriptive moment just now and it turned out surprisingly well. I like the little gimmick I used to describe her. Basically she’s describing herself so we not only get a physical description of her we also get that description filtered through her thoughts which ended up holding a lot of detail about her personality.

Still no show on the fourth character yet although in my mind I know where he is and what he’s doing. I may intro him very soon and his first action will speak volumes about him, hopefully.

So far I’m sticking to around but more than 1667 words a day. It’s not a bad amount to bang out actually. Just when it feels like it’s taking a while (it’s all about output right?) you realize that you’re way over halfway and sliding to the finish. I’ve been starting later and later when I write. Since I like to get my 1667 words in in a day, I try to finish before midnight. Tonight, counting interruptions like a few important phone calls and laundry I need for tomorrow, I banged out my daily count in about 3 hours. That’s not so bad.
Tonights music - the Dead Ringers soundtrack (the cronenburg film)

Oh, here’s the current question on the nanowrimo’s front page:

“Stephanie, you’re expecting a baby on December 1st (Congratulations!) What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of being pregnant during NaNoWriMo?”

Yeah. That’s important.

—-
DAY 04 - WORD COUNT - 06,883
—-

I started late tonight and didn’t finish until about 1:30 am. I broke two things tonight: One, I didn’t end the chapter when I reached my word number goal (which was 6,668 and I hit 6,883 when I stopped) and Two, I completely ignored the “show it don’t say it” rule.

Now, I usualy think it’s a sound enough rule but it mostly applies to films in my mind. I think there’s a lot of value to be had when you have a character telling a story within your story, especially an imporant one like the story Dutch is now telling Phil. It’s the story behind his big problem which I’m very very close to revealing. Essentially this chapter is one long dialoge, 90% of which is Dutch talking, between Phil and Dutch as Dutch tells the story of what happened on the night of the incident. I think breaking the show it don’t say it rule works here because of two things

One, it’s early enough in the story that the characters are still being revealed, their traits, personalities and so on.

Two, to cut to some flashback as Dutch recalls the events of that night, “Dutch could see it all clearly in his mind, in crisp clear relief. The three girls entered backstage, ecorted by the radio DJ who had held the backstage passes contest.” and then delve into describing them, Dutch’s thoughts about them, their thoughts about him and the situation, then move into descriptive action. It’s too cinematic for a novel methinks. I like the idea of Dutch describing the events as he saw them transpire, with his own mannerisms and lexicon. It not only fleshes him out more in terms of physicality and disposition it also informs us of exactly what happened that night as seen through his eyes. Which is important because there’s an element of ‘is it my fault or not’ to Dutch and the event which is something that would play just fine doing it the “showing not telling” traditional method but this dialog adds a layer of flavor to the event that only Dutch, the one it’s troubling, can provide as he tells it verbally to Phil.

I stopped writing for the night just before the big moment in the story intentionally so I have something to warm up with tomorrow. Since in my mind I’ve seen the event occur now (it hit me while I was waiting in a friend’s car earlier today) I can jump right in and get into the groove of things sooner. Plus it’s impetus to start writing earlier tomorrow.

One final thing, I know I’ve mentioned this before but it really is pretty surprising to see how fast 1600+ words sneaks up on you. The last half of it whizzes by for the most part.

I also had an interesting idea about this impromptu novel. Usualy when I write a novel or screenplay I have at least a general outline of what I’d like (but not necessarily limited to) to have happen. Since I’ve done so many outlines for pieces of fiction over the years I’m very familiar with how I tend to organize things, I can spot my own trends and derail myself if I want to or need to.

What well be very interesting to do is to make an outline of this Nano novel after it’s complete, retroactively. I have zero plans for a re-write so outlining the raw, unplanned output (remember one of my rules for myself in writing this Nano novel is No Written Notes, everything has to remain in my head, remembered or forgotten, for better or for worse) will be like outlining one large single story idea. I’m very curious to see how I’ll see places and structures that could use improvement after the fact. It’s a different methodology of writing for me so hopefully I’ll learn something from it.

Tonight’s Music was Chad Hoefler’s album “Twilight In the Offing,” btw.

—-
DAY 05 - WORD COUNT - 08,600
—-

I was reading over some of the excerpts from other people doing Nano and I have one thing to say: First person is for wimps. It’s too easy and you have the problem that you need to find a way for your first person character to know all the facets of the story which ends up being gimmicky. Try and actually push yourself. First person writing is a cop-out.

Dutch’s big problem is revealed and it’s more serious than I had intended. I think I may go back and make it even more graphic though time permitting. It ended up working nicely, he’s has one view and opinion of it and the ones that got him into trouble have another. I was worried about the technical machinations of it but it worked out well enough.

So next up is back to the main body of the story. I think I’ll introduce the fourth character in the next chapter then the real fun can begin.

I wish I had written a bit more to get more ahead of schedule but hopefully I can do that tomorrow or at least soon. I’d like to be 2-3 days ahead if possible.

Tonight’s music - Shava Sadhana’s album “Andask”.

—-
DAY 06 - WORD COUNT - 00,000
—-

OMFGWTF HAPPENED!? < — Needs an interobang

Well, I had a physical injury on the sixth day of the month (I’m writing this on 12/15/05) which stopped all writing and pretty much all brain function outside of “HOLY CRAP THAT HURTS”. It’s pretty much literally one of those injuries where you go to a doctor and go, “Doc, it hurts when I do this” and he replies, “Well, don’t do that.”

Over a month later I’m still recovering from this injury. However, I fully intend to finish the novel because I’m rather pervicacious like that and I have a particularly nasty ending figured out. I may put up the 9000 or so words I wrote before I broke myself for download but I may (deciding on how ouchy I feel) just finish it up, writing 1,667 words -or whatever the number is per day- each sit-down and then put the finished thing up for download. Stay tuned.

Ouch.

—-
DAY XX - WORD COUNT - 00,000
—-

It’s now like 4.5 months since my injury and while I’m still not 100% recovered (and likely never will be for the rest of my life, but my shoulder does this GREAT scary CRACK!!!! noise now that like totally grosses chicks out) I have been jotting down notes for the novel. So, very very soon I’m going to start up doing at least 1,667 words a day. Actually to up the ante a bit, I’ve decided to write not the 50 or 60 thousand words required by nanowrimo but actually hit a length that publishers and just about the rest of the literary world thinks makes for a novel…70,000+.