Dares as Plot Devices
Friday, October 31. 2008
Not dares carried out by characters. Dares accepted by the author.
There's been a thread in the NaNoWriMo forums for a month now about character quirks. People stop by, drop off a couple of interesting character traits, pick up a few, and head back to their writing caves. Some of these quirks are truly odd, yet people "snag" them anyway. I think they must be daring themselves to somehow make these quirks work in their novels.
I sort of believe, from a noveling standpoint, that this is a reasonable strategy, even if it does smack of college creative writing classes. (Well, nearly all of NaNoWriMo so smacks, one could argue.)
I did a bit of this kind of thing to myself this week. I was pondering on the nature of hyperspace in my multiverse and how it would work, and decided there needed to be some entity who rules this realm. (With "demons" as Openers for faster-than-light, there needs to be a "head demon.") I had already established in the thumbnail sketch of my protag that his own brother had disappeared decades ago through a set of circumstances for which the protag blames himself, but which is revealed later to have been an "alien abduction." This is a bit weird, because the same mechanism (well, it's really being shanghai'ed for duty on a passing spacecraft) is what draws the protag off Earth and into the larger universe. This cannot be a coincidence, but how deep is the connection of the character and his brother to the rest of creation? I haven't chased that line of thought to the end yet (and I won't until I'm actually cranking out words), but in the spirit of combining disparate ideas it occurred to me that it would be entertaining if the brother is actually the ruler of Hades / hyperspace.
Doesn't make much sense on first think-through. So there's the challenge, and I've dared myself to make it so.
Now, it'll either work or it won't. The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that one needn't end up with a linear narrative on 1 December, just a collection of 50,000 words that all go into the same novel. If I chase that plot rabbit and it turns out to be a 'possum instead, I can retrace my steps and try something else, without penalty. So I'm not risking very much by taking the dare, but if the "edges" of the idea add drama and uniqueness to the story, I've gained a great deal.
Of course, things can get out of hand if one is willing to try to incorporate every wild idea that pops up, so some discretion is called for. But this one intrigues me enough to try it on and see if it fits.
Less than 24 hours to go. I'll start writing before I go to bed tonight (after midnight local time!), and tomorrow afternoon is the Orlando-area kickoff meeting at a local coffeehouse. I'll blog next from there.
Not dares carried out by characters. Dares accepted by the author.
There's been a thread in the NaNoWriMo forums for a month now about character quirks. People stop by, drop off a couple of interesting character traits, pick up a few, and head back to their writing caves. Some of these quirks are truly odd, yet people "snag" them anyway. I think they must be daring themselves to somehow make these quirks work in their novels.
I sort of believe, from a noveling standpoint, that this is a reasonable strategy, even if it does smack of college creative writing classes. (Well, nearly all of NaNoWriMo so smacks, one could argue.)
I did a bit of this kind of thing to myself this week. I was pondering on the nature of hyperspace in my multiverse and how it would work, and decided there needed to be some entity who rules this realm. (With "demons" as Openers for faster-than-light, there needs to be a "head demon.") I had already established in the thumbnail sketch of my protag that his own brother had disappeared decades ago through a set of circumstances for which the protag blames himself, but which is revealed later to have been an "alien abduction." This is a bit weird, because the same mechanism (well, it's really being shanghai'ed for duty on a passing spacecraft) is what draws the protag off Earth and into the larger universe. This cannot be a coincidence, but how deep is the connection of the character and his brother to the rest of creation? I haven't chased that line of thought to the end yet (and I won't until I'm actually cranking out words), but in the spirit of combining disparate ideas it occurred to me that it would be entertaining if the brother is actually the ruler of Hades / hyperspace.
Doesn't make much sense on first think-through. So there's the challenge, and I've dared myself to make it so.
Now, it'll either work or it won't. The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that one needn't end up with a linear narrative on 1 December, just a collection of 50,000 words that all go into the same novel. If I chase that plot rabbit and it turns out to be a 'possum instead, I can retrace my steps and try something else, without penalty. So I'm not risking very much by taking the dare, but if the "edges" of the idea add drama and uniqueness to the story, I've gained a great deal.
Of course, things can get out of hand if one is willing to try to incorporate every wild idea that pops up, so some discretion is called for. But this one intrigues me enough to try it on and see if it fits.
Less than 24 hours to go. I'll start writing before I go to bed tonight (after midnight local time!), and tomorrow afternoon is the Orlando-area kickoff meeting at a local coffeehouse. I'll blog next from there.
There's been a thread in the NaNoWriMo forums for a month now about character quirks. People stop by, drop off a couple of interesting character traits, pick up a few, and head back to their writing caves. Some of these quirks are truly odd, yet people "snag" them anyway. I think they must be daring themselves to somehow make these quirks work in their novels.
I sort of believe, from a noveling standpoint, that this is a reasonable strategy, even if it does smack of college creative writing classes. (Well, nearly all of NaNoWriMo so smacks, one could argue.)
I did a bit of this kind of thing to myself this week. I was pondering on the nature of hyperspace in my multiverse and how it would work, and decided there needed to be some entity who rules this realm. (With "demons" as Openers for faster-than-light, there needs to be a "head demon.") I had already established in the thumbnail sketch of my protag that his own brother had disappeared decades ago through a set of circumstances for which the protag blames himself, but which is revealed later to have been an "alien abduction." This is a bit weird, because the same mechanism (well, it's really being shanghai'ed for duty on a passing spacecraft) is what draws the protag off Earth and into the larger universe. This cannot be a coincidence, but how deep is the connection of the character and his brother to the rest of creation? I haven't chased that line of thought to the end yet (and I won't until I'm actually cranking out words), but in the spirit of combining disparate ideas it occurred to me that it would be entertaining if the brother is actually the ruler of Hades / hyperspace.
Doesn't make much sense on first think-through. So there's the challenge, and I've dared myself to make it so.
Now, it'll either work or it won't. The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that one needn't end up with a linear narrative on 1 December, just a collection of 50,000 words that all go into the same novel. If I chase that plot rabbit and it turns out to be a 'possum instead, I can retrace my steps and try something else, without penalty. So I'm not risking very much by taking the dare, but if the "edges" of the idea add drama and uniqueness to the story, I've gained a great deal.
Of course, things can get out of hand if one is willing to try to incorporate every wild idea that pops up, so some discretion is called for. But this one intrigues me enough to try it on and see if it fits.
Less than 24 hours to go. I'll start writing before I go to bed tonight (after midnight local time!), and tomorrow afternoon is the Orlando-area kickoff meeting at a local coffeehouse. I'll blog next from there.
Influences
Thursday, October 30. 2008
Less than 48 hours till the starting gun fires on NaNoWriMo '08. So how am I spending my time? Reading.
I really ought to do some more planning and plotting (and I will), but now is a good time to re-visit some of my important influences from the past, and try to re-ingrain some of their goodness. To "walk the Pattern" again, so to speak. Then when I get to the center, I can go anywhere in the multiverse... What I'm reading right now:
FICTION: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny. I first read the Chronicles of Amber when I was in the ninth grade, and it's only on a re-read that I'm noticing how much Zelazny's writing style has influenced my own. Second sentence of the novel: "I attempted to wriggle my toes, succeeded." Any Critter who has read any of my short stories would probably recognize that sort of sentence construction. I only realized this morning whence it came.
What I've always loved the most about the Amber series is how Zelazny gives the impression of so much happening behind the scenes and beyond the immediate control of his protagonist, Corwin. The reader always has the sense that there are half a dozen things Corwin could be tracking down or fixing or addressing in some way, but he generally chooses a seventh, different action to take at that moment, which often leads to even more loose ends. The plot is never unwieldy, and everything is tied up neatly by the end of the story arc; Zelazny's way of storytelling works well, and makes for compelling and engrossing tales.
I'm very interested in bringing the same craft to my own novel, so I'm boning up on Z's technique before I step up to the starting line this year.
NONFICTION: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card. I don't care for the title, because it makes the book sound like a primer for the masses, but it's really not. Card collects many little nuggets of wisdom in one slim tome, making this perhaps the single most valuable work for a spec-fic author to read. Yes, I already know this stuff (I have been chasing editors for more than a couple of years now), but it's hard to keep it all in one's head at the same time when there is a day job involved. Once I start writing for a living, I'm sure everything will be second nature. But just at this moment, a refresher would be a good thing.
Besides, I don't think I've read the book cover-to-cover since before my cousin Chris borrowed it for something like eight years.
Less than 48 hours till the starting gun fires on NaNoWriMo '08. So how am I spending my time? Reading.
I really ought to do some more planning and plotting (and I will), but now is a good time to re-visit some of my important influences from the past, and try to re-ingrain some of their goodness. To "walk the Pattern" again, so to speak. Then when I get to the center, I can go anywhere in the multiverse... What I'm reading right now:
FICTION: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny. I first read the Chronicles of Amber when I was in the ninth grade, and it's only on a re-read that I'm noticing how much Zelazny's writing style has influenced my own. Second sentence of the novel: "I attempted to wriggle my toes, succeeded." Any Critter who has read any of my short stories would probably recognize that sort of sentence construction. I only realized this morning whence it came.
What I've always loved the most about the Amber series is how Zelazny gives the impression of so much happening behind the scenes and beyond the immediate control of his protagonist, Corwin. The reader always has the sense that there are half a dozen things Corwin could be tracking down or fixing or addressing in some way, but he generally chooses a seventh, different action to take at that moment, which often leads to even more loose ends. The plot is never unwieldy, and everything is tied up neatly by the end of the story arc; Zelazny's way of storytelling works well, and makes for compelling and engrossing tales.
I'm very interested in bringing the same craft to my own novel, so I'm boning up on Z's technique before I step up to the starting line this year.
NONFICTION: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card. I don't care for the title, because it makes the book sound like a primer for the masses, but it's really not. Card collects many little nuggets of wisdom in one slim tome, making this perhaps the single most valuable work for a spec-fic author to read. Yes, I already know this stuff (I have been chasing editors for more than a couple of years now), but it's hard to keep it all in one's head at the same time when there is a day job involved. Once I start writing for a living, I'm sure everything will be second nature. But just at this moment, a refresher would be a good thing.
Besides, I don't think I've read the book cover-to-cover since before my cousin Chris borrowed it for something like eight years.
I really ought to do some more planning and plotting (and I will), but now is a good time to re-visit some of my important influences from the past, and try to re-ingrain some of their goodness. To "walk the Pattern" again, so to speak. Then when I get to the center, I can go anywhere in the multiverse... What I'm reading right now:
FICTION: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny. I first read the Chronicles of Amber when I was in the ninth grade, and it's only on a re-read that I'm noticing how much Zelazny's writing style has influenced my own. Second sentence of the novel: "I attempted to wriggle my toes, succeeded." Any Critter who has read any of my short stories would probably recognize that sort of sentence construction. I only realized this morning whence it came.
What I've always loved the most about the Amber series is how Zelazny gives the impression of so much happening behind the scenes and beyond the immediate control of his protagonist, Corwin. The reader always has the sense that there are half a dozen things Corwin could be tracking down or fixing or addressing in some way, but he generally chooses a seventh, different action to take at that moment, which often leads to even more loose ends. The plot is never unwieldy, and everything is tied up neatly by the end of the story arc; Zelazny's way of storytelling works well, and makes for compelling and engrossing tales.
I'm very interested in bringing the same craft to my own novel, so I'm boning up on Z's technique before I step up to the starting line this year.
NONFICTION: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card. I don't care for the title, because it makes the book sound like a primer for the masses, but it's really not. Card collects many little nuggets of wisdom in one slim tome, making this perhaps the single most valuable work for a spec-fic author to read. Yes, I already know this stuff (I have been chasing editors for more than a couple of years now), but it's hard to keep it all in one's head at the same time when there is a day job involved. Once I start writing for a living, I'm sure everything will be second nature. But just at this moment, a refresher would be a good thing.
Besides, I don't think I've read the book cover-to-cover since before my cousin Chris borrowed it for something like eight years.
Novel (Syn)Thesis
Wednesday, October 29. 2008
In How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Orson Scott Card says, "All but a handful of my stories have come from combining two completely unrelated ideas that have been following their own tracks through my imagination." What could be better than two unrelated ideas...but three?
- A hard SF fantasy. I want to create a fantastic world where everything has a reasonable scientific explanation. I've always thought colliding these two genres would produce some interesting eddies.
- FTL travel as a portal to the underworld. Asimov wrote a robot story once where FTL travel caused humans to "die" briefly. What if "hyperspace" were Hades? Of course, ships traveling through it would (usually) come back...
- Magic based on music. Years ago I wrote up a whole fantasy setting based on using sound to produce magic. Can I come up with a scientific explanation, and use this system within a hard SF story?
The interesting stuff comes from the interference patterns between these ideas. I have to come up with a way to make all these bits work together as a cohesive whole. It won't be easy, but it'll be fun...and it should give me plenty of ammo to use in November.
In How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Orson Scott Card says, "All but a handful of my stories have come from combining two completely unrelated ideas that have been following their own tracks through my imagination." What could be better than two unrelated ideas...but three?
- A hard SF fantasy. I want to create a fantastic world where everything has a reasonable scientific explanation. I've always thought colliding these two genres would produce some interesting eddies.
- FTL travel as a portal to the underworld. Asimov wrote a robot story once where FTL travel caused humans to "die" briefly. What if "hyperspace" were Hades? Of course, ships traveling through it would (usually) come back...
- Magic based on music. Years ago I wrote up a whole fantasy setting based on using sound to produce magic. Can I come up with a scientific explanation, and use this system within a hard SF story?
Right, So What's Up with the Name?
Tuesday, October 28. 2008
NaNoWriMo does not, in general, produce good literature.
How could it? It asks over 100,000 people (in 2007), the vast majority of whom are not published authors, to engage in a frenzy of typing (not necessarily writing) at a level well beyond anything many of them have experienced before. These people haven't trained for the event; in fact, they're mildly encouraged not to prepare.
It's akin to asking a multitude of couch potatoes to suddenly and collectively get to their feet and complete a marathon. Not necessarily all in one go, mind you, but to complete it, even if it takes days or weeks, because then one can say one has accomplished something.
This is not, by any means, a bad thing.
NaNoWriMo gets people, bad writers and good, started. It starts creative juices flowing. It helps people determine whether or not they like to write. It creates art (which isn't always pretty, in any medium). It provides an achievable goal, and a sense of accomplishment. It's fun.
And believe it or not, sometimes it does produce good literature.
Not in a 50,000-word month, certainly. But some authors have used their NaNoWriMo output as the basis for published novels. Others have used NaNoWriMo to practice and hone their writing skills, and have gone on to produce wonderful and completely unrelated prose.
I run. Once a year I do a marathon or half-marathon (depending how crazy I feel that particular year). It motivates me, and it keeps me focused and healthy. I view NaNoWriMo in the same way. I might produce a Frozen Puke Fountain during those thirty frantic days, but it's within my power to thaw it, clean it up, and make it something special.
I believe those people who dismiss NaNoWriMo miss the point. It's not the output on paper (or bits on a hard drive) that's important. It's the process, and how it changes each participant. It's not always pretty, but it is always effective.
Oh, and we have synaesthetichaze to thank for the vivid mental image that is this blog's title.
NaNoWriMo does not, in general, produce good literature.
How could it? It asks over 100,000 people (in 2007), the vast majority of whom are not published authors, to engage in a frenzy of typing (not necessarily writing) at a level well beyond anything many of them have experienced before. These people haven't trained for the event; in fact, they're mildly encouraged not to prepare.
It's akin to asking a multitude of couch potatoes to suddenly and collectively get to their feet and complete a marathon. Not necessarily all in one go, mind you, but to complete it, even if it takes days or weeks, because then one can say one has accomplished something.
This is not, by any means, a bad thing.
NaNoWriMo gets people, bad writers and good, started. It starts creative juices flowing. It helps people determine whether or not they like to write. It creates art (which isn't always pretty, in any medium). It provides an achievable goal, and a sense of accomplishment. It's fun.
And believe it or not, sometimes it does produce good literature.
Not in a 50,000-word month, certainly. But some authors have used their NaNoWriMo output as the basis for published novels. Others have used NaNoWriMo to practice and hone their writing skills, and have gone on to produce wonderful and completely unrelated prose.
I run. Once a year I do a marathon or half-marathon (depending how crazy I feel that particular year). It motivates me, and it keeps me focused and healthy. I view NaNoWriMo in the same way. I might produce a Frozen Puke Fountain during those thirty frantic days, but it's within my power to thaw it, clean it up, and make it something special.
I believe those people who dismiss NaNoWriMo miss the point. It's not the output on paper (or bits on a hard drive) that's important. It's the process, and how it changes each participant. It's not always pretty, but it is always effective.
Oh, and we have synaesthetichaze to thank for the vivid mental image that is this blog's title.
How could it? It asks over 100,000 people (in 2007), the vast majority of whom are not published authors, to engage in a frenzy of typing (not necessarily writing) at a level well beyond anything many of them have experienced before. These people haven't trained for the event; in fact, they're mildly encouraged not to prepare.
It's akin to asking a multitude of couch potatoes to suddenly and collectively get to their feet and complete a marathon. Not necessarily all in one go, mind you, but to complete it, even if it takes days or weeks, because then one can say one has accomplished something.
This is not, by any means, a bad thing.
NaNoWriMo gets people, bad writers and good, started. It starts creative juices flowing. It helps people determine whether or not they like to write. It creates art (which isn't always pretty, in any medium). It provides an achievable goal, and a sense of accomplishment. It's fun.
And believe it or not, sometimes it does produce good literature.
Not in a 50,000-word month, certainly. But some authors have used their NaNoWriMo output as the basis for published novels. Others have used NaNoWriMo to practice and hone their writing skills, and have gone on to produce wonderful and completely unrelated prose.
I run. Once a year I do a marathon or half-marathon (depending how crazy I feel that particular year). It motivates me, and it keeps me focused and healthy. I view NaNoWriMo in the same way. I might produce a Frozen Puke Fountain during those thirty frantic days, but it's within my power to thaw it, clean it up, and make it something special.
I believe those people who dismiss NaNoWriMo miss the point. It's not the output on paper (or bits on a hard drive) that's important. It's the process, and how it changes each participant. It's not always pretty, but it is always effective.
Oh, and we have synaesthetichaze to thank for the vivid mental image that is this blog's title.
Hi There!
Monday, October 27. 2008
Welcome to the Frozen Puke Fountain, yet another pointless contribution to the blogosphere. We all like to spew, don't we? Well, I may as well throw my own bits into the ring. As it were.
I have three reasons for starting this blog. One is to track my own progress and growth as a writer. Another is to give my friends and family a means by which to do the same, should they have any interest in doing so. Hi, friends and family! A third is the vain belief that someone who didn't already know me might stumble across these pages and find them entertaining. Finally, there's some part of me that hopes this will help me become a better writer, with "better" more specifically meaning "published." Okay, four reasons.
Though my chosen genre is speculative fiction, I thoroughly enjoy writing parody and satire. One of my goals is to catalog the ways in which writing can be (intentionally) funny. Well, there's Humor Type #1 for my list: "compact implication of an unexpected idea." With one word, I made you think about blogs that you laugh at, not with (present company excluded, one hopes).
I'm writing here purely in a vacuum, with no background research to speak of, which is horrible from a scientific method standpoint but wonderful from a blogging standpoint. I can declaim terribly old ideas as though they were fresh and new because, to me, they probably are. I'm going about it this way for the joy of self-discovery, here meant in the mental sense and not in the genital sense. There's Humor Type #2: "unexpected word." There's one word in the sentence above that serves as a bit of a speed bump, and changes around your sense of where the sentence was going.
Where are these sentences going? Some of their close relatives will be going into a nascent novel I'll be crafting for National Novel Writing Month 2008. I did (and "won") NaNoWriMo last year, and found it a wonderful experience that isn't about writing a novel at all. Well, maybe a little bit. But there's much more to it than that.
Last year's effort was a spec-fic satirical work called 200 PC. It's about a future world where political correctness has been taken to extremes, and it follows the adventures of three twenty-first century people in this alien environment. Yes, it's over 50,000 words long; no, it's not finished yet. I produced 50K+ words in November 2007, and something like 2K words in the ten months that followed. I really do plan to finish that novel -- I do so love the characters, as well as the setting -- but not right now.
Right now, to follow the rules of NaNoWriMo, I must turn my energies to a wholly new work, and that's what I'll do, just as soon as 1 November arrives. Do I know what I'm going to write about yet? Not completely, but I have some ideas. Does that worry me? No. Because I learned something important last year...and I'll talk about it in this blog over the coming month.
Hey, if you've got nothing to do in November (or even if you do) then join us!
Welcome to the Frozen Puke Fountain, yet another pointless contribution to the blogosphere. We all like to spew, don't we? Well, I may as well throw my own bits into the ring. As it were.
I have three reasons for starting this blog. One is to track my own progress and growth as a writer. Another is to give my friends and family a means by which to do the same, should they have any interest in doing so. Hi, friends and family! A third is the vain belief that someone who didn't already know me might stumble across these pages and find them entertaining. Finally, there's some part of me that hopes this will help me become a better writer, with "better" more specifically meaning "published." Okay, four reasons.
Though my chosen genre is speculative fiction, I thoroughly enjoy writing parody and satire. One of my goals is to catalog the ways in which writing can be (intentionally) funny. Well, there's Humor Type #1 for my list: "compact implication of an unexpected idea." With one word, I made you think about blogs that you laugh at, not with (present company excluded, one hopes).
I'm writing here purely in a vacuum, with no background research to speak of, which is horrible from a scientific method standpoint but wonderful from a blogging standpoint. I can declaim terribly old ideas as though they were fresh and new because, to me, they probably are. I'm going about it this way for the joy of self-discovery, here meant in the mental sense and not in the genital sense. There's Humor Type #2: "unexpected word." There's one word in the sentence above that serves as a bit of a speed bump, and changes around your sense of where the sentence was going.
Where are these sentences going? Some of their close relatives will be going into a nascent novel I'll be crafting for National Novel Writing Month 2008. I did (and "won") NaNoWriMo last year, and found it a wonderful experience that isn't about writing a novel at all. Well, maybe a little bit. But there's much more to it than that.
Last year's effort was a spec-fic satirical work called 200 PC. It's about a future world where political correctness has been taken to extremes, and it follows the adventures of three twenty-first century people in this alien environment. Yes, it's over 50,000 words long; no, it's not finished yet. I produced 50K+ words in November 2007, and something like 2K words in the ten months that followed. I really do plan to finish that novel -- I do so love the characters, as well as the setting -- but not right now.
Right now, to follow the rules of NaNoWriMo, I must turn my energies to a wholly new work, and that's what I'll do, just as soon as 1 November arrives. Do I know what I'm going to write about yet? Not completely, but I have some ideas. Does that worry me? No. Because I learned something important last year...and I'll talk about it in this blog over the coming month.
Hey, if you've got nothing to do in November (or even if you do) then join us!
I have three reasons for starting this blog. One is to track my own progress and growth as a writer. Another is to give my friends and family a means by which to do the same, should they have any interest in doing so. Hi, friends and family! A third is the vain belief that someone who didn't already know me might stumble across these pages and find them entertaining. Finally, there's some part of me that hopes this will help me become a better writer, with "better" more specifically meaning "published." Okay, four reasons.
Though my chosen genre is speculative fiction, I thoroughly enjoy writing parody and satire. One of my goals is to catalog the ways in which writing can be (intentionally) funny. Well, there's Humor Type #1 for my list: "compact implication of an unexpected idea." With one word, I made you think about blogs that you laugh at, not with (present company excluded, one hopes).
I'm writing here purely in a vacuum, with no background research to speak of, which is horrible from a scientific method standpoint but wonderful from a blogging standpoint. I can declaim terribly old ideas as though they were fresh and new because, to me, they probably are. I'm going about it this way for the joy of self-discovery, here meant in the mental sense and not in the genital sense. There's Humor Type #2: "unexpected word." There's one word in the sentence above that serves as a bit of a speed bump, and changes around your sense of where the sentence was going.
Where are these sentences going? Some of their close relatives will be going into a nascent novel I'll be crafting for National Novel Writing Month 2008. I did (and "won") NaNoWriMo last year, and found it a wonderful experience that isn't about writing a novel at all. Well, maybe a little bit. But there's much more to it than that.
Last year's effort was a spec-fic satirical work called 200 PC. It's about a future world where political correctness has been taken to extremes, and it follows the adventures of three twenty-first century people in this alien environment. Yes, it's over 50,000 words long; no, it's not finished yet. I produced 50K+ words in November 2007, and something like 2K words in the ten months that followed. I really do plan to finish that novel -- I do so love the characters, as well as the setting -- but not right now.
Right now, to follow the rules of NaNoWriMo, I must turn my energies to a wholly new work, and that's what I'll do, just as soon as 1 November arrives. Do I know what I'm going to write about yet? Not completely, but I have some ideas. Does that worry me? No. Because I learned something important last year...and I'll talk about it in this blog over the coming month.
Hey, if you've got nothing to do in November (or even if you do) then join us!
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