First Week of NaNoWriMo

 

• I think I wrote the words, “shrill scream”  way too many times in my draft so far. That and “unintelligible words”.
• I want to punch my main character, Derrick.
• I want my novel’s setting to be in a world of endless night and woods (somewhat of a tropical rainforest). NOT Medieval England. Why is my environment molding into Ye Olde England??
• Where the heck are all my other characters? Am I scribe for Derrick’s Diary?
• I’m loathing my plot right now. Where the heck is my Muse, anyway?
• I probably should have written Sentinel of Mirrors, instead.

 

Let’s be real. (You can always count on me to deliver ;)).

I’m at 7,883 words in, 2k behind! This is Day 6. I’m about to take an emergency break today and realign my plot GPS and vertebrae before I go Rambo on this novel.

At first, I thought that I was the only one going through this, but turns out I buddied with the hardcore writers. Some of my buds are already at 20 and 30k! (These be British folks. What are you guys eating?)

After rummaging through the Forums, I found that quite a few folks were in my position.

*huddles in a corner*

My perfectionist side is getting the best of me. Must not relent to delete entire file! Must not relent to ninjas and unicorns!

(My apologies if this is filled with misspellings and whatnot. My mind’s about to go supernova!)

Peace out. Gonna oil some wheels and tighten some screws.

 

Hello, hello? Anyone out there in my shoes (or have any tips you’d like to share)?

NaNoWriMo: The Quest

[Recent Microfiction]

“B-But you’re dead!” He cowered. She furrowed her eyebrows and slapped him across the face. “Get it together, Al!”

***

He fights so fluidly. No hesitation. Did the romance of flesh and metal poison him? I long for his forgiveness, Dr. D.

***

“You alright, lass?” I nod, catching sight of the black rag flapping on the mast. Jolly Roger. I should have drowned.

***

“Can ya please control yer kid?” The young woman shrieked at me. Mimi stomped. “I am not a child! I am 400 years old!”

***

She shrugged. “As much as I want to, I can’t take all of the glory. You just couldn’t resist Brooding Pretty-Boy.”

_______________________

NaNoWriMo.

It’s coming!

(And I’m pretty excited.)

My piece, Chaos Standard is coming along. Check out my synopsis! (It’s slightly vague and tentative.)

I’m also searching for some writing buddies who are involved in shades of the fantasy genre, and are going to take their writing seriously (as in, no unusual appearances by ninjas and rainbow-unicorns to make up for words at zero-hour!). I’m all for light-hearted adventure pieces, though! If you’re particular, Standard is sort of an epic-fantasy sword-and-magic-storm. A bit darkish in mood and atmosphere (literally), but there’ll be good times and warm moments. I may not be able to respond to emails on a daily basis due to my occupation as a college student, but I can throw some hellos/updates/links via Twitter.

If you’re interested, you can nanomail my profile, warriorcomplex (in link above), or leave me a message in the comments or from the “Contact RNR” page.

But anywhoo, regardless of who’s with/not with me, I’m still rolling, hehe.

 

Alas! Something Wicked This Way Comes.

It felt like millennia. My consciousness dreamed of stars. Backup systems hummed, until a word flared engines to life.

***

Dear Diary: I’m about 500 light-years away from what’s left of Earth. Dammit. All I wanted was some crab rangoon!

***

“Miss? You have all-natural hair products? My hair’s kinda …” She slid off her cap, revealing coiling locks.

***

[Recent Microfiction]

———————————————————-

“It’s coming. Brace yourselves!”

“What’s happening, ma’am?”

While doodling around on the Internet in the midst of a study break, I stumbled upon a word. A word that drained the blood from my cheeks. Turned my lungs to lead.

A whisper in the dark.

“N-Na-NaNoWriMo …”

[Cue Otherworldly Scream. Moon eclipses Sun.]

Something wicked this way comes, y’all.

Just kidding! (I did panic, though.)

I’m Oh-Em-Gee-ing. What am I going to do? I skipped out on NaNo ’09 and ’10 due to tons of schoolwork, but I don’t have an excuse this time around–my schedule is much lighter. It’s not about the time, though. It’s about the piece. And I WANT to do NaNo this time around.

What am I going to write? I don’t want to use Sentinel of Mirrors for NaNo–she’s too sensitive for rough, cut-throat writing. No, no, no. SoM requires delicate handling. I do have another novel idea in mind, though, from my first (and failed) NaNo attempt (NaNo ’08), renamed Chaos Standard. This is not as adequately prepared as SoM, but I’m so much more at creative ease using this piece. (I actually started writing this piece in 2007–got 40 pages into it. It was cliche-ridden, so I set it aside for a rainy-day complete rewrite. Been remolding and tweaking the plot.)

I’m going to spend a month fixing parts and oiling gears for the November War: plotting, outlining, and hard-core musing. I tried “winging-it” last time …

***

Um, so are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Are you a NaNo veteran (successful or failed) or new to the game? Want to share how you prepped (or planning to prep)? What methods did you use to make it through last time around?

Microfic: Bite-Sized Stories with No Calories

Around 1 am, my great-great grandpa showed up on my doorstep, wielding an automatic crossbow and a grimace.

I want a normal life.

*

“I was human, once.”

“Well, then, what are you now?”

“Invincible.”

*

“Spell ‘anomaly’.”

“Anomaly. M-a-d-e-l-e-i-n-e. Anomaly.”

***

For the past three days, I’ve posted these lines on Twitter under #amwriting #microfic, partially inspired by a post on Wired (do check it out–famous authors’ six-word stories! So many good ones … ) and previous experiences with micro-fiction. I would’ve posted with the hashtag #sixwords, but alas, my word-counts were out of control. I wanted the flexibility!

I wanted a cool way to get quick literary exercise while waiting for class to start, taking a quick break from studying, waiting for the academic adviser, etc. Twitter’s 140-character limit was a nice challenge to undertake, too.

Perhaps this will be a daily thing. I may post each week’s progress on this blog on Mondays.

(The last two lines remind me of dialogue snippets from movie trailers, teehee!)

A Drive like Dried Prunes

Confession: It’s been a while–two months, perhaps–since I’ve touched any of my WIPs or typed a word of fiction. According to some overly purist writers and their zealous rhetoric, I am NOT a writer, and I should be stripped of my hobby, flogged, and forced to commit ritual suicide.

(And my alter-ego flips their pseud0-bohemian backsides a well-earned birdie.)

While everyone and their mommas are super-excited about their work, I sorta feel like dried fruit. And like some bored couples, I guess, I don’t want to give up on a relationship because “juicy” isn’t there.

(My dry season is probably related to work, preparing for school, and perfectionist pressures of mine–which are probably related to my worldbuilding and outlining obsessions. And then I tend to compare myself to others. Bad, bad, bad.)

What’s a writer to do when the drive is gone? When pounding away on keys doesn’t work? When leisure/studious reading doesn’t jog the mind? When they’ve left fifty messages on some muse’s voice mail? When quitting isn’t an option?

(Maybe I’ll try to write a story from scratch with no preparations whatsoever.)

Blog-Scheduling and Whatnot

Since May 11th or so, I’ve posted daily thoughts, revelations, and experiences. Blogging has been sort of an outlet and mode of “accountability” for me, in a way (as corny as this sounds), constantly reminding me that I’m on a mission. It keeps my fingers going when I’m about to bang my head on my keyboard out of angst and frustration.

I find it utterly hilarious that I’ve kept things going for about 26 days, now (last time I started a blog, I posted three times and then deleted the whole thing). This daily habit drilled some discipline into me and drive into my works-in-progress, hehe. However, I do want to keep this enjoyable, so I’m re-evaluating (and I may start working next week, also).

I’m thinking about readjusting from daily posting to posting about twice to three times a week. Perhaps Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

As for writing, I finally broke through a boulder in the road a few hours ago, so I’m zipping along quite fine at the moment. Anywhoo, I’ve reached a turning major turning point in my tale, and my mental-flow is nice, so I’ll get back to work!

Perfectionism is Counterproductive

(I’m typing this post with one eye. My right eye is blindfolded since it’son a twitch-fest. I guess I strained (?) it. Again. Maybe from looking at my laptop screen all day. Perhaps I should make an eye doctor appointment …)

I would tie my hands, but I can’t type with my teeth. This problem of mine dwells within my mind, anyhow.

I’ve heard of writers fleshing through entire novels (some not even giving characters actual names) and then going back to edit their work to par. That’s probably the most traveled and effective road in the realm of writing novels.

Confession: I, on the other hand, have this bad habit. It’s the habit of writing a paragraph and then editing it extensively–immediately after writing it. I exhaust myself trying to make the prose perfect there and then, and ultimately lose all the joy of writing that piece. I then press “backspace” until the pain is gone.

Have mercy!

Obsession with immediate perfection hinders a writer from writing. Rome was not built in a day!!

I’m putting myself on “Backspace-Watch”. I’ll start step by step. No editing until after a scene is complete. After that, it will be a chapter. Next, two chapters and so on.

(Ok, I may have to switch to the ye grande olde pen and paper. I think this laptop light is frying my retinas …)

Short Story in Action

As mentioned quite a few times before, I’m working East of West, a short story caught between science-fiction and fantasy. Yesterday, I had trashed all previous progress on the story due to issues with plot (worldbuilding and character actions not making sense), purpose (who would care?), and structure (how long should a short story be?). Today, I sat on a roadblock, not knowing what to do and where to go, and I paced around the kitchen trying to come up with some inkling of meaning for this story.

Thousands of articles popped up on the Google search, and I wasn’t planning on going through all of them (I mean, I want to write already!!), so I visited good ol’ WritersDigest.com’s Write Better section for a brief lesson. The articles refreshed my brain a bit, but I wanted to see a short story in action.

A few months ago, I had stumbled across a short story on Tor.com–Firstborn by none other than Brandon Sanderson. My sister had read Elantris and the Mistborn Trilogy and swore by them, so I had said “What the hey” and dug in. Long story short–I was impressed. And so, remembering my awe, I jumped to it again and analyzed its plot and characters (the main character’s purpose, the minor/major conflicts, and concepts). That jump-started some brainstorming, and I spent 45 min to an hour pacing around the kitchen and saying my thoughts out loud to keep the mind going. After jotting down a new “skeleton” for a previously fleshy tale, things started to shape up.

Afterwards, I took a break and skimmed through the comments to see what readers had to say about Firstborn. One reader suggested another story written by Sanderson, posted on the author’s website.

Have you read Defending Elysium? If you haven’t, you’re in for a ride …

The thickness of worldbuilding and uh–I don’t even know what to call it without giving spoilers (read the story and you’ll get what I’m talking about)–other concepts are personally surprising for a short story, since there seemed to be an unspoken rule or something that says you can only reveal so much about your world since there’s a short visit time for your reader. I’m glad that was proven wrong (there’s so much concept in East of West).

Not trying to be corny (hehe), but I found this whole experience of studying these short stories so ironic, because of the main character’s plight in Firstborn. Haha! I wouldn’t downplay myself and say that these are unbeatable, but there’s quite a lot to learn!

Fueling Up

As obvious as this is, I constantly rediscover the magic of reading (DUH!). It soothes some paranoia with my writing style and juices up the inspiration sponge.

Right now, I’m kind of in a book jam since I’m catching up on reading (this semester, every time I geared myself up for some leisure reading, I passed out from exhaustion. Revenge of the Late-Nighters).

Here’s what’s on the list so-far. I think I have to restrain myself from getting more books:

• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (Got this for Christmas. Didn’t get past Chapter 4, since I kept passing out from academic exhaustion. The concepts and magical system are quite interesting so far. Allomancy!)
• Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson (From the library. As mentioned before, I was hooked to the sample she provided on her website. Love the worldbuilding so far–on some summaries, it seems like there’s a whole lot more to discover. Something about bound-spirits in the center of the world coming loose. Ooh)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Quite a few people are highly recommending the trilogy. Judging by the wait–I was Hold No. 5 of 15 in the library system–the content must be on fire.)

I was also going to order Clash of Kings, second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin (that, too, I tried to read this semester with the same result), but I need to clear my list first. I read Game of Thrones last summer and gaped at the worldbuilding. (I’m also watching the show on HBO, hehe! Cheering for Arya Stark! She and Tyrion seem to be the only people keeping it real in that hellhole. But more on that later.)

Pressure of Perfection

I’ve read some amazing speculative fiction since I first realized I had a preference. Most of them contained high-class, mapped-out, thick, juicy worldbuilding of which a worldbuilding fanatic (as myself) could envy. These authors also possessed distinct styles, chose just the right words for descriptions, designed astounding, engaging characters, and have been recognized by dozens upon dozens of awards.

The stakes are high out there (thankfully), and that’s a bit overwhelming for a newbie.

Obviously, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

At the end of my fall semester last year, I was at a somewhat-not-all “ok” point in my writing, at the completion of a creative writing course. Due to the rigor of the next semester (had to change gears since I was testing the waters of a totally different major–computer engineering), I had to put aside my writing for a while. As a result, my literary creative muscles contracted. I regret not giving some time to write little 50 word flash-fiction snippets to give them a boost now and then. That definitely would have made the situation I’m in a little more lighter.

Fortunately, things are picking up! In the last few days, I’ve had to switch from novel to short-story to novel to another short-story to adapt with the shifting creative brainstorm (thank God that there IS a creative brainstorm!). Even though it slows down the process of getting one of these done, I don’t think that it’s always possible for a person to complete a short-story in one sitting. Well, let me speak for myself–that’s the condition for me, but perhaps one could if they’re entirely satisfied with everything, including editing (but I don’t think so).

I can only shrug.

Anywhoo, I’m on Short-Story 1, whose title changed once again. I prefer East of West to Tempest and Marquess. The former has more of a memorable tang, in my opinion. I can’t really label this short story science-fiction or fantasy. Perhaps “science-fantasy” … Don’t know how anyone feels about that label. Purists may protest, but I think it suits my story just fine. A zest of my old major is involved in the science realm (more like scientific ideas–don’t know if these are even executable). Can’t wait to see how it turns out, since I’m in the midst of an idea explosion … and dilemma, since I have two conflicting versions of this story. Perhaps I’ll mush them together, hehe.