National Novel Writing Month: Unfinished novels rated

Here are my unfinished NaNoWriMo novels, as reported yesterday, and how I’d rank them on a scale of 1 to 10 pounds of James Patterson novels, with 1 being “Don’t bother” and 10 being “Get James Patterson to co-author this ASAP.”

  • Low Desert. Not much meat on this one. I envisioned a literal interpretation of the Rapture, or something like it, with characters meeting in the desert at the end for some undefined purpose. Rating: 3 pounds of James Patterson novels.
  • The Dream of the Buckford Church. Other than the hook of “weird shit happening in a creepy old mountain church” and the main character being drawn to it in a dream, there was little else here. Some sort of ritual stuff that needed to be stopped, maybe? Still, I liked the dreamy/terror vibe it had going in the short story version. Rating: 4 pounds of James Patterson novels.
  • The Mean Mind. The most complete of all of the unfinished novels, the overall story was actually outlined (even if it got vague toward the end), but was maybe a bit too grand in scope. Scaling it back might make it work better. Rating: 7 pounds of James Patterson novels.
  • The Start of the World. Ignoring the unintended riffing off The Dark Tower, this had a good hook, a sense of doom/world collapse, but the specifics were mostly ignored. Rating: 6 pounds of James Patterson novels.
  • Weirdsmith. Sort of a latter-day The Dead Zone, except this car accident survivor finds a blank journal that lets him write things that actually happen. I had nothing more than this to go on, so there’s much work to do here. Rating: 3 pounds of James Patterson novels.
  • Last Exit. The initial premise was worked out, but the overall outline was never completed. The character finds himself slipping through portals into a desert, among other places, before always returning back to his bed/waking, while someone or something acts as a guide of sorts. For what purpose? you got me! Rating: 2 pounds of James Patterson novels.

The clear standout here in The Mean Mind, which has the bonus of also having a cool title with multiple meanings. In my next post I discuss how viable reviving it is, and talk about some of the other story ideas I have kicking around.

National Novel Writing Month 2018: Unfinished stories that could be finished

A story begins with an idea. It might be something as simple as an image, a “What if?” scenario, a certain type of character demanding to speak. But all stories start somewhere and it’s not usually via a helpful muse bringing the story down from the heavens on a velvet pillow, fully-formed and only needing the writer to simply record its magnificence via keyboard, typewriter or legal pad (R.I.P. Harlan Ellison).

Sometimes brainstorming can yield worthy nuggets. Other times it’s better for its entertainment value. Or attempts at entertainment value.

Keeping a journal of ideas (or the modern tech equivalent, like a note-taking app) can work.

Occasionally you can reach into the past, to unfinished or unsatisfying projects and either finish or rework them. For NaNoWriMo this would be cheating, but you’re in no danger of having a NaNo police officer arrest you for breaking the writing law.

I’ve drawn on all of these things to write stories, both for NaNo and otherwise. My success has been inconsistent and when a story dies, it is usually a long, drawn-out process. Usually it’s because the story loses direction–through lack of planning. The lack of planning is often rooted in a fear that plotting things out will kill both spontaneity and interest. This isn’t true, but like most fears, it’s hard to shake off.

Last year’s effort, which yielded a record zero words, was based on two things: a title and a vague, one-line elevator pitch. This is not enough. There’s no way this would ever be enough, unless some kind of writing miracle followed on November 1. And on the next 29 days. That did not happen.

The option that gives me the most to work with from the outset is to revive a stalled or incomplete story. My NaNo history is littered with these:

  • 2010: Low Desert. This was originally a short story called “Hello?” about a man who returns from a camping trip to find the city–and presumably the world–empty of all people. I wrote very little on this for NaNo and the short story ending wouldn’t work for a novel-length treatment. I had loosely planned out the rest of the story, but ran out of gas before getting very far.
  • 2011: The Dream of the Buckford Church. Also originally a short story. This really didn’t go anywhere and my ideas for the expanded version were as vague and mysterious as the short story (not a good thing).
  • 2012: The Mean Mind (winner) I wrote 50,000 words on this so yay me. But I didn’t actually finish the story. This one I outlined to a certain extent, but I had some doubts about some big plot elements and the ending was still ill-defined (do you see a trend here?)
  • 2013: The Start of the World. A guy who can see glimpses of a parallel version of our world is told by a mysterious truck driver that he is going to “restart the world.” There will be three signs, then off he goes! As a high concept, it worked and I wrote several chapters, but I had on idea where it would go, other than somehow he would keep the different worlds from intersecting, which would be really bad. I wrote this while reading The Dark Tower series and it definitely shows.
  • 2015: Weirdsmith. This has a somewhat convoluted history. It started as an (unfinished) play and the title character was a psychotic killer insinuating himself into the lives of a couple who “rescue” him when they find him injured in the woods. Somehow it evolved into a story about a man who nearly dies in a car crash and after a long recovery finds a blank journal and when he writes in it, things happen. What things? Details, details. It’s like the first half of a really exciting elevator pitch and then the person giving the pitch gets out of the elevator and you never see them again.
  • 2016: Last Exit (or Last Stop). I love altered reality stories. This one had a guy in tech support start noticing lots of small details in his daily life seeming a bit off. Eventually, he starts following a strange cat that leads him to a weird buzzing blue portal that leads him into a desert. He always seems to end up waking up in bed, so he becomes convinced he’s just having a weird dream or dreams, but eventually things start to happen that blur the lines between the waking world and what he thinks are dreams. And then who knows, because I never got past the first few scenes.

As you can see, this list has a recurring theme of “What the hell happens next/how does this all end?” Trying to tease out which one would be the “easiest” to finish won’t be easy, but I will try…tomorrow.

National Novel Writing Month 2018: The theoretical plan for success

I am not ready to commit to NaNoWriMo 2018 just yet, but I do have a plan to follow, should I decide to do so. Here it is:

  • Have a plan
  • This is to say, not only have an idea, but have a story ready and planned out in advance
  • Planning means outlining. Outlining the whole thing. Even the ending.
  • Choose the writing program to be used
    • Current candidates: WriteMonkey, Scrivener, Atomic Scribbler, iA Writer
  • Develop a proper save/backup scheme that won’t result in corrupted files and a sad author
  • Do more testing of dictation to help speed up the first draft process
  • Write 50,000 words in 30 days between November 1-30, 2018

This concludes my plan.

I’ve highlighted the most important part in bold.

Winging in–called pantsing by NaNoWriMo folks–has not just failed for me in past attempts, it’s failed spectacularly. See my 2017 summary for an example. This year I am going to outline my story in advance. If I don’t have this done by November 1, I will not take part. Instead I will post an amusing cat picture on this blog that is somehow writing-related. Maybe I’ll do that, anyway.

Tomorrow I’ll post some of the story ideas I’m mulling.

Run 596: Fire danger low, slug danger high

Run 596
Average pace: 5:36/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 3:45 pm
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 28:11
Weather: Overcast, some sun
Temp: 15ºC
Humidity: 80%
Wind: nil to light
BPM: 168
Weight: 163.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 4560 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone 8

Last night we had a rare thunderstorm advisory for Metro Vancouver warning people to stay indoors due to the possibility of flash floods. It rained copiously.

It was still raining this morning and I planned on running in the rain for the first time in quite awhile. But I waited to see if the rain would ease up.

I waited and waited.

Close to 3 p.m. the sky had brightened and I figured that was as good as it was going to get, so I put on my long-sleeved shirt, donned my wired Ear Pods (not wanting to risk the non-water resistant Air Pods that cost about seven times as much) and headed out into a light sprinkle.

Weirdly, by the time I got to the river, it stopped raining and it stayed stopped for both the run and the walk back. At times the sun even came out.

Considering I nearly skipped running altogether, it actually went very well. It was about 15ºC, which is, as far as I’m concerned, the Goldilocks temperature for running. I did sweat a little, but only because it was quite humid after the rain. I went clockwise around the lake, thinking the trails on the south side would be in better shape after the rain, but there were only a few puddles in total that I had to deke around. The trail was generally in quite good shape and sparsely populated, though more were coming out after I was winding down from the run.

Speaking of coming out, the slugs were everywhere. For every puddle I dodged I probably dodged ten slugs. It’s to the point where if it rains, I expect to see slugs everywhere I go now.

The run went surprisingly well. I felt good, had no issues, and trucked along, snipping five seconds off the last run and coming in at 5:36/km. My BPM was up a fair bit, to 168, but still (just) below the max I’m comfortable with. I jogged the majority of the walk out of the lake, with one km even coming in comfortably under the 6:00/km mark. I’m probably ready to run farther now, maybe even back to doing a full 10K, but my knees scare me. Stupid knees. Still, they held up well today. Maybe they like the damp.

Here’s where I once again vow to run during the week, but it’s strangely hard to motivate myself. Maybe now that I’ve done a “rain” run it will be easier.

Book review: Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World

Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the WorldPost-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World by James Ball
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The biggest issue with Post-Truth is that the people who could most benefit from it will never read it. In fact, they’d likely just disregard it as more “fake news.” For someone like myself, there is little in here that is revelatory. I am only too aware of the rise of not just fake news (both real and imagined) but also what author James Ball calls “bad news,” which is not to say someone is calling to tell you your pet hamster Binky just had a very unfortunate accident, but is rather a description of news that is poorly researched and presented, or otherwise fails to meet the standards one would expect from a reputable news source.

Ball does devote a chapter at the end on ways to combat the rise of BS, but it is, perhaps by design, a combination of the obvious (“if you want to be trusted, be trustworthy,” “try not to succumb to conspiratorial thinking”), the somewhat depressing (entreaties to essentially dumb things down, wear your biases openly, and try to look anti-establishment even if you aren’t, because the tide has turned against the establishment) to the exceedingly unlikely (like asking people to go outside their bubbles. While on the surface it makes sense to step beyond your proverbial echo chamber–Ball advises following “thoughtful people” on the other side–it entirely skips over how one addresses or interacts with the more problematic people at the fringes that are driving so much of the BS into the mainstream. How does one even find a “thoughtful” racist, much less engage them meaningfully?).

Some of the suggestions are appealing, though. I particularly like the concept of the tech giants funding an independent news organization as a way to combat the death of newspapers and other news media. But even if such an organization existed, you would still have plenty of news media that are more interested in pushing an extremist agenda propped up by lies and distortion.

In the end this is a bleak book because, though Ball never explicitly says so, you are left with the impression that most people are easily-snookered idiots, and that perhaps we have only made it so far as a civilization because a strong minority has pushed against the ignorant masses. But for now the ignorant masses seem to be winning–or rather, allowing the autocrats they adore to win.

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Photo of the Day, September 11, 2018

The sunflower looms.

I went back and forth on whether to crop this photo or how to crop it. I ended up with a compromise where you can see the entire head, but with a lot of the extraneous background snipped away. I may post the mega-close version later.