Lying About History Turns Into Magic Words
Today's NaNoWriMoing was dedicated to one thing - justifying my existence in the whole experience in more than one way. With my limited word count, I was hardly setting a good example for anyone else reading this. I wasn't even justifying my talking up the Chicago/St. Louis 2005 Word War in my signature on the site.
But there was good news on so many fronts today that I'm actually somewhat proud to be posting tonight. The best news of the day is that the Chicago/St. Louis 2005 Word War is now officially on as both MLs (or all three technically) posted the challenge on the respective Regional Lounge threads.
Chicagoans who want to sign up for the Chicago side of the war (which we will call "the good guys," as much as it pains me to borrow terminology from the White Sox broadcasters, otherwise known as the worst baseball radio broadcasters on Earth) the topic is available at http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14909&forum=22.
I'm not typing in the St. Louis link because aiding and abetting the enemy is something that strikes close to home with my novel topic. :)
So far we've got 17 out of 50 participants for the Chicago team signed up. And I'm proud to say that our roster that's equivalent to the New York Yankees (though we're not nearly well paid enough for our endeavors) includes both rosemilk and squirrelgirl22 who are the murderer's row of my friends list both approaching 8,000 words already. :)
Now, not to be negative but so far St. Louis' word count of the people they have signed up looks a little anemic. reliantfc3's region has done a great job of drawing in their top people, but we've drawn nicely from the middle. And we slow-and-steady win the race types are the ones that are going to finish, right? :)
For my part, after signing up I've actually written 1,755 words. This was my goal today, sort of. I knew I needed to get on the first page of Chicago writers and at the time I finished writing at 7:30 p.m. this evening, I had accomplished that feat. I'm since dropped back down to 55th but that's just going to urge me on more.
I am now justified in being on the team since I would be in a natural, non-self selecting top 50.
So, now I feel justified in screaming the slogan that I invented for NaNoWriMo 2005's Chicago team:
Chicago/St. Louis Word War 2005 - COME ON CHICAGO! Register, Write Early, and Write Often!
Perhaps when I finish this entry I'm going to go for an even 5,000 (putting me back on the magical 1,667 words per day).
Though it's not going to help in the personal word war with reliantfc3. The standing of which are currently:
reliantfc3: 13,146
incendiarymind: 4,392
Still a cakewalk for St. Louis but at least I've gotten out of the starting blocks. We'll call it a stumbling start. But I am an excellent closer. We'll see what happens when I write 15,000 words over Thanksgiving weekend again while I shut myself off from my family. Let's see her do that. :p
---
Today's total word count was actually 2,104 since I squeezed in 349 words at lunch at work also. This is a lot different of a strategy than I adopted last year where I would only write in big chapter blocks. This was mostly due to the fact that I was blogging every chapter as I wrote it. My average chapter length was about 1,500 words and everything seemed rushed.
Another of my NaNolutions this year (one day I'll have to write them all down) was to make my chapters as full as possible. And, chapter one accomplished this at 3,330 words - nearly 700 words longer than last year's longest chapter.
But in this fleshing out the situation that each chapter involved (instead of having it feel like a vignette) is that it felt like I was taking forever to finish chapter one. Now I've set the bar pretty high for the upcoming chapters. I keep thinking ahead to the ideas I have for later chapters and wonder if there's really enough depth to them to keep it going.
Though while I was walking home from the train today, I realized that I hadn't been doing the one thing I set out to do - write an alternate history fiction novel!
Sure I had some snappy dialog in the present but I realized I needed to take myself out of third person limited, get into a narrator role and actually present some interesting alternate history and justify the fact that I categorize my novel as historical fiction. Thus my second justification of the day.
And at the start of chapter two (the first 305 words), I present the first of this change in perspective - the creation of Detroit as it looks in the novel.
"Detroit was divided in two by one of the few streets in the city that had not changed names after the War of 1812, Woodward Avenue. Being a primary battleground in the war, the British though it for their own good to change the names of any thoroughfare in town which might remind the Americans of the War of 1776 or the historical figures that had inhabited the area between the "grand wars."
The British, however did decide to keep the plan set aside after the Fire of 1805 to build the wheel-and-spoke city design intact, even though the outlying buildings of the city around Fort Detroit were razed in a fierce battle in 1814 that finally ended the Michigan Territory’s run in the United States after the British had captured the territory with their attack on Mackinaw Island on July 17, 1812 and the Americans had briefly taken it back the next battle season.
See-sawing back-and-forth throughout the entire war, the British finally decided to establish a garrison there only rivaled by that in Montreal. Throughout the 1800s, the city was built up around twin settlements on both sides of the narrow Detroit River. Both defended by the fort on the west bank of the river and both depending on it for their livelihood.
In 1885, when Canada requested the United Kingdom give them a port of the Detroit River, in order to avoid an inner-commonwealth dispute the British divvied the east bank of Detroit from the west and East Detroit became part of the Canadian portion of the North American commonwealth, as it had been before hostilities began earlier in the century. The mayor of “West Detroit” was given permission by the crown to drop the geographical notation and the name Detroit was retained on the United States side of the new border."
This, however, is where I hit a slight stumbling block. I need to come up with a map of what Detroit looks like in the alternate history. All of the French named street can stay the same and I'm keeping Woodward Avenue, Grand River Avenue, and Gratiot Avenue (and many smaller streets). But Jefferson Street has got to go - the British would never allow the name of the third American President to be a major street in Detroit.
What I really need is a real map of what downtown Detroit looked like in 1815. I found a few maps and some interesting links on Detroit history including:
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/1812/detroit.htm - a timeline of military engagements around Detroit
teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/0000006c.htm - the articles of surrender for Detroit from 1812
www.historydetroit.com/maps.asp - downtown Detroit maps through the years
But even the third link doesn't have a full size map with all of the street names. I could say that when I go home for Thanksgiving I'll pick up one at the Detroit Historical Society (on Woodward Avenue no less) but by then it will be too late.
If anyone from Detroit can find me the full sized wall map of the third link above I will pay you cost, shipping, and labor - of your choosing - it's worth the cost of keeping me sane!
---
Finally it looks like things are looking up on the writing front in general! I was able to justify getting a laptop by checking my e-mail on a regular basis (wi-fi cafes then become part of the job) while I'm on the road.
So I will now be able to do neat like write a chapter in Central Park (although it is a little cold for that considering how long my chapters are this year) or write parts of a NaNoWriMo in four different states (Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York).
But frankly I'm just happy to be able to write at all without having to pay for an internet cafe and annoying my friends by coming to New York City and being anti-social.
November three is a magic number for certain! Or at least it's good for my NaNoWriMo morale!
But there was good news on so many fronts today that I'm actually somewhat proud to be posting tonight. The best news of the day is that the Chicago/St. Louis 2005 Word War is now officially on as both MLs (or all three technically) posted the challenge on the respective Regional Lounge threads.
Chicagoans who want to sign up for the Chicago side of the war (which we will call "the good guys," as much as it pains me to borrow terminology from the White Sox broadcasters, otherwise known as the worst baseball radio broadcasters on Earth) the topic is available at http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14909&forum=22.
I'm not typing in the St. Louis link because aiding and abetting the enemy is something that strikes close to home with my novel topic. :)
So far we've got 17 out of 50 participants for the Chicago team signed up. And I'm proud to say that our roster that's equivalent to the New York Yankees (though we're not nearly well paid enough for our endeavors) includes both rosemilk and squirrelgirl22 who are the murderer's row of my friends list both approaching 8,000 words already. :)
Now, not to be negative but so far St. Louis' word count of the people they have signed up looks a little anemic. reliantfc3's region has done a great job of drawing in their top people, but we've drawn nicely from the middle. And we slow-and-steady win the race types are the ones that are going to finish, right? :)
For my part, after signing up I've actually written 1,755 words. This was my goal today, sort of. I knew I needed to get on the first page of Chicago writers and at the time I finished writing at 7:30 p.m. this evening, I had accomplished that feat. I'm since dropped back down to 55th but that's just going to urge me on more.
I am now justified in being on the team since I would be in a natural, non-self selecting top 50.
So, now I feel justified in screaming the slogan that I invented for NaNoWriMo 2005's Chicago team:
Chicago/St. Louis Word War 2005 - COME ON CHICAGO! Register, Write Early, and Write Often!
|
Perhaps when I finish this entry I'm going to go for an even 5,000 (putting me back on the magical 1,667 words per day).
Though it's not going to help in the personal word war with reliantfc3. The standing of which are currently:
reliantfc3: 13,146
incendiarymind: 4,392
Still a cakewalk for St. Louis but at least I've gotten out of the starting blocks. We'll call it a stumbling start. But I am an excellent closer. We'll see what happens when I write 15,000 words over Thanksgiving weekend again while I shut myself off from my family. Let's see her do that. :p
---
Today's total word count was actually 2,104 since I squeezed in 349 words at lunch at work also. This is a lot different of a strategy than I adopted last year where I would only write in big chapter blocks. This was mostly due to the fact that I was blogging every chapter as I wrote it. My average chapter length was about 1,500 words and everything seemed rushed.
Another of my NaNolutions this year (one day I'll have to write them all down) was to make my chapters as full as possible. And, chapter one accomplished this at 3,330 words - nearly 700 words longer than last year's longest chapter.
But in this fleshing out the situation that each chapter involved (instead of having it feel like a vignette) is that it felt like I was taking forever to finish chapter one. Now I've set the bar pretty high for the upcoming chapters. I keep thinking ahead to the ideas I have for later chapters and wonder if there's really enough depth to them to keep it going.
Though while I was walking home from the train today, I realized that I hadn't been doing the one thing I set out to do - write an alternate history fiction novel!
Sure I had some snappy dialog in the present but I realized I needed to take myself out of third person limited, get into a narrator role and actually present some interesting alternate history and justify the fact that I categorize my novel as historical fiction. Thus my second justification of the day.
And at the start of chapter two (the first 305 words), I present the first of this change in perspective - the creation of Detroit as it looks in the novel.
"Detroit was divided in two by one of the few streets in the city that had not changed names after the War of 1812, Woodward Avenue. Being a primary battleground in the war, the British though it for their own good to change the names of any thoroughfare in town which might remind the Americans of the War of 1776 or the historical figures that had inhabited the area between the "grand wars."
The British, however did decide to keep the plan set aside after the Fire of 1805 to build the wheel-and-spoke city design intact, even though the outlying buildings of the city around Fort Detroit were razed in a fierce battle in 1814 that finally ended the Michigan Territory’s run in the United States after the British had captured the territory with their attack on Mackinaw Island on July 17, 1812 and the Americans had briefly taken it back the next battle season.
See-sawing back-and-forth throughout the entire war, the British finally decided to establish a garrison there only rivaled by that in Montreal. Throughout the 1800s, the city was built up around twin settlements on both sides of the narrow Detroit River. Both defended by the fort on the west bank of the river and both depending on it for their livelihood.
In 1885, when Canada requested the United Kingdom give them a port of the Detroit River, in order to avoid an inner-commonwealth dispute the British divvied the east bank of Detroit from the west and East Detroit became part of the Canadian portion of the North American commonwealth, as it had been before hostilities began earlier in the century. The mayor of “West Detroit” was given permission by the crown to drop the geographical notation and the name Detroit was retained on the United States side of the new border."
This, however, is where I hit a slight stumbling block. I need to come up with a map of what Detroit looks like in the alternate history. All of the French named street can stay the same and I'm keeping Woodward Avenue, Grand River Avenue, and Gratiot Avenue (and many smaller streets). But Jefferson Street has got to go - the British would never allow the name of the third American President to be a major street in Detroit.
What I really need is a real map of what downtown Detroit looked like in 1815. I found a few maps and some interesting links on Detroit history including:
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/1812/detroit.htm - a timeline of military engagements around Detroit
teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/0000006c.htm - the articles of surrender for Detroit from 1812
www.historydetroit.com/maps.asp - downtown Detroit maps through the years
But even the third link doesn't have a full size map with all of the street names. I could say that when I go home for Thanksgiving I'll pick up one at the Detroit Historical Society (on Woodward Avenue no less) but by then it will be too late.
If anyone from Detroit can find me the full sized wall map of the third link above I will pay you cost, shipping, and labor - of your choosing - it's worth the cost of keeping me sane!
---
Finally it looks like things are looking up on the writing front in general! I was able to justify getting a laptop by checking my e-mail on a regular basis (wi-fi cafes then become part of the job) while I'm on the road.
So I will now be able to do neat like write a chapter in Central Park (although it is a little cold for that considering how long my chapters are this year) or write parts of a NaNoWriMo in four different states (Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York).
But frankly I'm just happy to be able to write at all without having to pay for an internet cafe and annoying my friends by coming to New York City and being anti-social.
November three is a magic number for certain! Or at least it's good for my NaNoWriMo morale!
posted by incendiarymind at 7:42 PM
1 Comments:
Sorry babe, can't help you with 'cool' places to write as I am not cool. I know there are some Starbucks and the Barnes and Noble on 53rd and Lexington is a pretty fantastic place to write (and eat). I write at my desk at work, I get a lot done there. But good luck and keep that laptop charged!
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