Report From The Punk Rock AARP Meeting
When I got home from the Bad Religion/Pennywise/Sick Of It All/Murphy's Law concert yesterday night, I did the smart thing. Even though I was at a show with 20-year olds (and even a few kids who weren't born yet the first time I went to a Bad Religion show), I acted my age and went to sleep.
So the only writing that I got done yesterday was 581 words at lunch. Though this 1/3rd of a daily writing goal did put me about 15,000.
Tonight, however, begins the first real weekend I've had to write so I'm not getting demoralized. Oddly enough, this actually feels like the very beginning of the whole NaNoWriMo process for me. Since I was using all of my writing time in New York City to either write or get drunk, I haven't even doing anything on the NaNoWriMo forums except for Illinos::Chicago which I have been a lot more involved in than last year (another one of my NaNolutions).
On the official NaNoWriMo podcast for the week (which I finally got around to listening to today) it was mentioned (by Chris Baty himself I think) that while there are a lot of community aspects to the month, in the end it all comes down to you and your novel.
Well me and my novel are quite well acquainted but I really miss the aspect of hanging out on the forums (and especially in the chat room) that I had last year.
The entire reason that I participate in NaNoWriMo at this point (after all I proved before I ever participated in my first NaNo in 2003 that I could write prolifically and quickly) is that this is the one time of year that amateur, amateurish, and even published authors from all over the country can converse with each other about writing issues. It's like an online convention with a lot of homework. :)
I feel a little like I've missed out on half the fun in the first ten days of November not reading the forums religiously like I did last year.
And no, I'm not trying to distract others (especially St. Louis types) from their word count goals by guiding them away from their own writing, I swear. ;)
---
reliantfc3: 25,028 words (she matched my 4,000 words yesterday to retake her 10,000 word "head start")
incendiarymind: 15,093 words
2004 NaNoWriMo: 17,492 words
2005 NaNoWriMo: 15,093 words
---
So I'm almost at the 1/3 point in my novel writing for November (though nowhere near 1/3 of the story) or at least I will be by the end of tonight, hopefully. And I feel like something is missing though I can't quite put my finger on it.
My guess is that I don't really know my characters yet. Another thing mentioned in the official podcast (by the way, the first voice you hear on the "second week wall" interviews is the Illinois::Chicago ML snowowl) was that this is the week where you really discover your characters. Well the week is halfway done and I can only describe a couple of important characters like Liam's right hand man Callum and his fiancee Mia in vague terms.
I did some character plotting before November started but three of the four characters I carefully mapped out haven't even appeared yet. I know I'll get into the actual assassination plot before November ends but three of the six co-conspirators have yet to even be introduced and the only one who is playing a significant role so far that I gave a personality in October is Colm ("Recruit").
So my two goals this weekend can be summed up in three words (though I hope to write 6,000 or so):
Characterization
Proper nouns (as I mentioned yesterday I need to come up with political parties, newspapers, and the like for my alternate history)
This is something I would have done in New York City had I not had the laptop. While I'm glad I got a lot of words in, I think the third and fourth weeks would be easier if my characters actually had some substance at this point.
So the only writing that I got done yesterday was 581 words at lunch. Though this 1/3rd of a daily writing goal did put me about 15,000.
|
Tonight, however, begins the first real weekend I've had to write so I'm not getting demoralized. Oddly enough, this actually feels like the very beginning of the whole NaNoWriMo process for me. Since I was using all of my writing time in New York City to either write or get drunk, I haven't even doing anything on the NaNoWriMo forums except for Illinos::Chicago which I have been a lot more involved in than last year (another one of my NaNolutions).
On the official NaNoWriMo podcast for the week (which I finally got around to listening to today) it was mentioned (by Chris Baty himself I think) that while there are a lot of community aspects to the month, in the end it all comes down to you and your novel.
Well me and my novel are quite well acquainted but I really miss the aspect of hanging out on the forums (and especially in the chat room) that I had last year.
The entire reason that I participate in NaNoWriMo at this point (after all I proved before I ever participated in my first NaNo in 2003 that I could write prolifically and quickly) is that this is the one time of year that amateur, amateurish, and even published authors from all over the country can converse with each other about writing issues. It's like an online convention with a lot of homework. :)
I feel a little like I've missed out on half the fun in the first ten days of November not reading the forums religiously like I did last year.
And no, I'm not trying to distract others (especially St. Louis types) from their word count goals by guiding them away from their own writing, I swear. ;)
---
reliantfc3: 25,028 words (she matched my 4,000 words yesterday to retake her 10,000 word "head start")
incendiarymind: 15,093 words
2004 NaNoWriMo: 17,492 words
2005 NaNoWriMo: 15,093 words
---
So I'm almost at the 1/3 point in my novel writing for November (though nowhere near 1/3 of the story) or at least I will be by the end of tonight, hopefully. And I feel like something is missing though I can't quite put my finger on it.
My guess is that I don't really know my characters yet. Another thing mentioned in the official podcast (by the way, the first voice you hear on the "second week wall" interviews is the Illinois::Chicago ML snowowl) was that this is the week where you really discover your characters. Well the week is halfway done and I can only describe a couple of important characters like Liam's right hand man Callum and his fiancee Mia in vague terms.
I did some character plotting before November started but three of the four characters I carefully mapped out haven't even appeared yet. I know I'll get into the actual assassination plot before November ends but three of the six co-conspirators have yet to even be introduced and the only one who is playing a significant role so far that I gave a personality in October is Colm ("Recruit").
So my two goals this weekend can be summed up in three words (though I hope to write 6,000 or so):
This is something I would have done in New York City had I not had the laptop. While I'm glad I got a lot of words in, I think the third and fourth weeks would be easier if my characters actually had some substance at this point.
posted by incendiarymind at 11:44 AM
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