Thank You - Come Again

Look at this mess. An unwashed, wild-haired filthy beast of a woman. And it smells funny, too.

 

Well that was yesterday. Now, I'm back to my more spiffy self (as seen in the picture). Both funny and not so funny things happen in life, not only when you're trying to write a story in only a month but all the time. It sounds like back-alley psychology, doesn't it. I reached the 50k goal in NaNoWriMo yesterday, but the plan is to also finish the story before Nov 30th ends. And then one of the not so funny things happened on Monday, the kind of thing that made me temporarily forget all about my plans. My hubby had this horrible biliary colic, and it came right in between Artie Kendrick's attempt to flee from his parole violation and me, writing about it. He's the main character in my fantasy story. But since hubby is the main character in my life story, he always trumps Artie.

The whole incident made me obsess about other things for a while, but I'm not grateful for that kind of distraction. Doc said he should be fine. We're still waiting for the results of the blood test to hopefully eliminate a more serious underlying cause.

No, I'm fine now, really. Gained two pounds due to eating nothing but crap. I have stopped looking in the mirror with the lights on. My desk shows a striking resemblance to John Nash's wall, plastered with teeny tiny notes written in pencil. The annoying thing is that other work starts to pile up, and I have been staring at it for two weeks now, hoping for an extension; or wishing for it to magically disappear.

But hey, I'm fine. My throat feels like someone skillfully acupunctured it in several places at once. My back hurts. My cheeks have started to feel numb against the chair. Other than that I have no legitimate excuse to stop now and be a winner by word count only. Three more days.

NaNoWriMo: Trash and Tragedies

So, I realized something today. Once I have written down something and locked it as far as the story goes, it is hard, not to say close to impossible for me to "un-think" it. I don't like to drop ideas, partly because I'm lazy but also because I tend to consider myself grandiose enough to deem everything I come up with a treasure.

Today I had to tie in some loose ends, and frankly, some of the ideas just didn't make sense anymore. So, while it is hard to say goodbye to "story trash" it's better to drop it than to keep something that would screw with the basic idea for purely nostalgic or ego reasons. I realize now, that this story is far from what I wanted or expected it to be when I started writing it. It is simultaneously the only thing and the worst thing I will have finished thus far. Yes, this realization was quite painful.

I naively underestimated how much there was to learn when I started writing for an audience bigger than myself and the potted plants in my room. But I'm not waving the flag of defeat, quite the opposite. Now I feel like I can really get started. This was the thing holding me back towards actually becoming a (real) writer.

Nah No Write More

After having written chunks for NaNoWriMo, what could be better than - right - blogging about it as a distraction? The thing is, since my fingers are already in training, there is no reason why I shouldn't  write more, and get them in really good muscle shape for tomorrow. I figured that it's the same as cultivating horny skin on your fingers when playing the guitar.


Thus far, the writing-a-novel-in-a-month experience has been positive. I am not as behind as I thought I would be after having a late start. This is a completely new story I am working on. I had several ideas for what I wanted to write, one was a semi-biographic 1990s inspired homage to grunge music (a crossing between Almost Famous, My So-Called Life, and snippets from my own life), and I might still write that some day, but for now, I need a more plot-driven story with some room to freestyle in between pivotal points, worthy of at least 50000 words.


So, surprise, surprise, I'm writing a fantasy story, and it will be titled Anoethau.

The hero is a bit older this time, male and an ex-convict... after all the "girl action" on The Days Adrift I'd say this is more than welcome. And it feels good to write about manly things for a change.

The difficult thing is that with the goal of having a certain amount of words in the end, I can't edit as I go along, which is something I usually do. This challenge is about finishing something, and doing the editing afterwards. You wouldn't believe how hard that is...I am a neat freak, and I need cleaned up sentences, not the verbal excrements of a first draft. I have to force myself to not look back all the time, which is a challenge all in itself.

We'll see how it goes.