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)?

I Heart Ned

**Spoilers for Game of Thrones book (and show–but ahead of that)**:

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Ok, Eddark Stark made some pretty “cringeful” moves for the sake of honor. (Forgive me, Ned, I LOL’d). But he’s still the World’s Honorable, Somewhat Greatest Father in Westeros (wait … yes, I think?). A summer ago and it still hurts.

You know, the Starks are  the Family Next Door. They have their issues, but they’re not as screwed up as everyone else. Their kids don’t deserve this. Yes–not even Sansa (as much as I can’t stand her).

I’ve only finished Game of Thrones (on next to Clash of Kings), but my hope is in Arya Stark. Hopefully she’s breathing and sane in the end (no spoilers, please!). Tyrion’s great, too, once you get past the jerkness and the Lannister stigma.

I like Danaerys, also, but I’m wary of who she’ll sic her dragons on. Power corrupts, and the Song of Ice and Fire Series has corruption on steroids.

 

 

It’s Been Done Before

Uh oh, Spaghetti O (yeah, I committed necromancy. I raised a horrible 90s phrase from the dead!)

People have said that speculative fiction–well, literature as a whole–is mostly derivative. But I still think I may be in some sort of a bind. Major, minor. Perhaps it’s of my own making … *shrug*

I’m working on my first “serious” novel (40+ pages of worldbuilding, plot notes and extensive outlines, and about ten start-overs. This is surely it!). I’m pretty sure that many individual ideas and concepts within were/are utilized by writers. One particular idea, however, may be old or may be fresh as ever. Not sure.

The world of my work-in-progress is loosely “steampunk” (some suggest that the “steampunk” brand can only be used if your tale is somewhat historical fiction. Most typically take place in the Victorian through 1930s eras); in actuality, the technology of my novel’s world doesn’t really run on steam or what we think of as fuel, so perhaps it doesn’t apply at all.

There are certain airships in this sea-influenced island-world, Verdigar, called orca-craft: massive, metallic ships in the form of killer-whales, used for trade by affluent merchants and corporations, and in combat (battle-orca) by the opposing States. This is a new technology–highly expensive to make and run.  However, while lurking on my favorite book-review sites, I came across this one book by Scott Westerfeld called Leviathan, and it mentioned airships of that sort–I’m not entirely sure if they are “metal-airship whales” or “genetically modified whales” (the series sounds pretty awesome, though! Methinks that’ll be on my summer reading list).

I preceded to worry and nagged my sleepy sister about the whole thing. Will I have to trash the entire idea? If I go through with the orca-craft, will I be sued? If that doesn’t matter, will I be burned alive by an army of angry fans? (haha at the last one).

Is it only acceptable when everyone’s doing it or when the idea is broad (such as elves: you have wood-elves, biker-elves, Keebler-elves etc., but elves have been around for centuries)? I mean, I’ve never come across metallic airships designed to resemble whales in literature before. Or have I?

Somewhere, somehow writers are bound to come up with the similar ideas and concepts. That’s pretty likely. There’s no such thing as originality. I’m just trying to figure out the level of acceptability before treading into “You’re in Trouble” Territory. I’m a broke college student!

Pretty-Shiny Distractions and Whatnot

I love advanced thinger-magingers. The only thing separating me from splurging on pretty-shiny gadgets and software is money. Oh–and financial priorities. (Yay for college!)  But .. the thing about pretty-shiny thinger-magingers (PSTM for short, good grief) is that I’m fine with the old broke-down way until you find out a PSTM for that exists.

I was pretty ok with organizing my WIP notes in Word, but stumbled across praises of Scrivener, an enticing software program for organizing novels in progress by chapters, scenes, and whatnot (look it up at your own risk! It looks so good!). The Royal Bank of Rowan is going through some tough times, so I can’t spill $40+ on un-necessities. I’ve been eyeing another program–free–called yWriter. Aesthetics aside, it looks functional, so I guess I’ll try that out, hehe.

I didn’t realize what I was missing (apparently) until I read the features and reviews for these programs. I guess I’ll give yWriter a try. A little more convenience and organization won’t hurt …

[Flash forward 6 months: Rowan in fetal position on floor, laptop next to her. She mutters “Must. Get. More!’ over and over.]

My Love/Hate Relationship with Lord of the Rings

This was going to be titled “My Love/Hate Relationship with Tolkien”, but that kind of didn’t sound right. Plus, I’ve only read the LotR trilogy and a bit of The Lost Tales (?), so it would be kind of one-sided, I guess. I dunno, specificity is good.

Yeah, so, I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I love the books, I love the movies (to tell you the truth, The Two Towers movie introduced me to the books. I started with the prequel, The Hobbit). I couldn’t call myself a fanatic, since it seems as if that is associated with buying/owning hoards of merchandise and spilling rivers of quotes and facts like breathing air. Plus, my peak of fangirlness was years ago in freshman year of high school, anyways (along with my Orlando Bloom fangirl meltdown … YES, I hearted Legolas! No shame in that!)

The peak and decline was (and is) attributed to my life being consumed in college, the complexities of life, I guess (hehe, haven’t read the books for a while, just saw a bit of The Two Towers yesterday on TNT–boy, was I overly excited), and my recent education of my miseducation of race. Uh-huh.

You may be saying to yourself, “What does LotR have to do with race? I mean, it’s fantasy, you numb-skull! Not everything has to be about race!” But my little grasshopper, you may be surprised: a lot of things in this world are influenced by race/race-relations–but that’s a discussion for Someday.

Anywhoo, it is hard for me to face the facts, since a part of me loves my LotR very so. The other part, however, cringes. I mean, c’mon, the fair, pure, wise, magnificent Elves (all are pale-white and most are blond) are the pinnacle of the Middle-Earth races. The darker Southron people are oh so evil and chilling with the villain, Dark Lord Sauron (in the movie, they look stereotypically Middle Eastern–that didn’t sit right with me). And according to the claims of some, Middle-Earth’s continent may be based on Europe and Asia.

Um, so …. the orcs. My friends and I used to joke around that the orcs were black, and we’d be orcs in Middle-Earth or something like that.  Some say that the orcs are analogous to Mongols.

So, all of this information would suggest that my dear-friend Tolkien was a … xenophobe racist. My I Heart LotR Side says, “That’s ridiculous!” but my LotR Eye-Rolling Side says, “The facts, my dear! Judging from the Eurocentric time period and location in which he lived, that would be most likely. Need a hug, hun?”

And it makes me wonder if all the carbon-copying that fantasy writers have done over the years correlates with the level of “race-failure” in their work? NAH, I do think that’s a fart of ignorance on their terms.

Don’t get me wrong–I still think that Legolas is full of awesome-sauce and squeal when LoTR is on the tube. I will also be seeing The Hobbit movie when it comes out.

LotR was, and still is, one of the catalysts that inspired me to write fantasy. For that, I am grateful.

~ All that aside, I’m working on an incomplete flash-fiction piece that I rediscovered in last summer’s notes, newly-titled Winds in their Hands, Fire beneath their Feet (yes, I did get to board Inspiration-Express last night. I really wanted to work on Sentinel of Mirrors , but I fear my over-enthusiasm for worldbuilding has gotten the best of me. I will prevail!)

EDIT 5/18/11: Upon further research, I discovered that the Haradrim are the “oh so evil, chilling with the villain” stereotypical Middle Eastern characters. It’s been a while since I’ve read the trilogy (2005), so I’m not exactly sure if they are classified as Southron, or if Southron people are entirely different. This, too, may be a future post.