National Novel Writing Month

National novel Writing Month, Day 4
Word count: 1,745

Specifically, I caught a cold. At least I hope it’s only a cold since it’s flu season and all. It was weird how suddenly it happened. There I was in the middle of the afternoon tech-supporting away and feeling perfectly normal. Then I sneezed violently a few times and just like that I had a cold. My nose was so runny on the SkyTrain ride home from work it grossed me out.

I sit here tonight with a headache, tired, and with a nose that can’t decide if it wants to be stuffed up or runny, so it switches off constantly between the two. I have written no more words on my stalled story or new story or whatever story. I sit here with my mouth hanging open, not because I am stunned by my lack of progress with NaNoWriMo this year, but because it makes it easier to breathe.

I will take drugs and sleep, just like Elvis. But I will stop before getting carried away with it like Elvis. Then perhaps tomorrow I will feel better and write a million or so words to catch up.

National Novel Writing Month, Day 3

Another day, another bunch of imaginary words written.

Strictly speaking, that’s not true, as I wrote a few words over lunch, tinkering around and trying to ignite a spark. Alas it was not to be. I’m not anywhere near giving up, though. I’m reasonably confident I will find a way to turn my spark-less attempts into a raging bonfire or at the very least a robustly burning match.

If I’m still writing tortured metaphors tomorrow night, I’ll allow myself to move into Stage One of panic. If it comes to that, I’ll describe what Stage One is tomorrow.

On the plus side, I tinkered at lunch even though it was sunny again. I did not allow myself to be seduced by the evil yet pleasant weather. That’s got to count for something, right? I say yes.

National Novel Writing Month, Day 2

When you’re on fire, your skin crackles and peels, your guts boil and explode and…wait, this is a metaphor. Let me start again.

When you’re on fire with your writing, you get that itchy “gotta get back to it” feeling where your mind keeps going back to the story while you do other things and you fairly trip over yourself sitting back down at the computer or, if you’re Harlan Ellison, a 70 year old typewriter, diving back in to see what happens next, to enjoy the thrill of the ride.

Now take everything I said in the above a paragraph and reverse it. That’s how I felt about returning to my novel today. It’s not a bad premise–weird guy who keeps a weird journal and maybe has some kind of supernatural writing ability that causes weird (and bad) things to happen–but it simply isn’t grabbing me. I co-opted the characters from my short story “The Dream of the Buckford County Church” (itself a failed expansion into a novel back in NaNo 2012) as the protagonists and so far haven’t really gotten a handle on them. One is maybe a little a more sarcastic than the other (so more like me) and the opening scene has them cracking wiener jokes around a campfire. It’s not exactly my finest hour of creativity.

So today I am taking a break, mulling over what to do. Start over with the same story? Drop in different characters? Grab some other loose premise or situation and truly start over? Give up and cry into my pillow?

I am as yet undecided, but I know if I don’t have a course set (reset) by tomorrow the endeavor is likely doomed.

The pleasant weather isn’t helping, either. I have in the past written during lunch but with the sun out and the choice of either getting out into the fresh air and power-walking for an hour or staying cooped up inside and writing, I have been opting for the former. The decision to write at lunch is easier when it’s making like a monsoon. I don’t like walking in monsoons. It’s still an excuse, of course. If you want to write, you write. If you’d rather walk, you’re more a walker than a writer, aren’t you? Walking isn’t something you tell people you do. “I heard you were doing that National Novel Writing Month thing. Are you a writer?” “No, I’m a walker.” [blank stare] “But I do write sometimes! When I don’t bore myself with my own words.” [blank stare turns uncomfortable, eyes shift looking for an escape route]. “Come back, I want to tell you about this crazy squirrel I saw out on my walk. Where are you going? We’ll catch up later, okay? Okay!”

If I do end up bailing and my writing continues to atrophy, I’ll invest energy into the best excuses instead, like:

• the switch back to standard time messed me up–who can write when time itself is changing?
• I’m freeing up time (which totally changed, see above) for that acting career I foolishly abandoned
• writing is just a fad, I refuse to be a sheeple
• no matter how much I tried, I could not make the premise of “shit squirrels” work
• writing, shmiting
• it’s not like we’re going to face a book shortage if I stop
• I probably would have eventually turned to writing werewolf sex novels, anyway

National Novel Writing Month, Day 1

After a day of doing everything but writing, I finally sat down around 8 p.m. and managed to crank (think more of a hand-crank here) out 1,745 words, putting me safely if not excessively above the 1,667 word minimum to keep on track.

I’m not terribly enthused by what I’ve written and the story itself is not really exciting me. We’ll see how things evolve. Or devolve. If I can get myself back into the habit of writing fiction on a daily basis, it will be a win regardless of whether or not I end up wanting to bury this particular effort in a shallow grave (which would be ironic as it features a shallow grave).

With a whole two hours before National Novel Writing Month 2015 officially begins here on the west coast, I have finally settled on an idea for my novel. Woo!

I have decided to revive and modify an unfinished play I wrote back in November 1991, Yes, 24 years ago. A note at that top of the document reads “Reformatted to Word for Windows 2.0: June 11, 1993.” I think the original version was written on papyrus scrolls.

I’ve elected to not bring over any of the actual writing and just start from scratch, taking the broad strokes of the plot and going with that. I may also jettison some of the main characters in favor of new ones. I haven’t decided yet but I’ll find out tomorrow as I begin this latest 30 day excursion into writing madness.

Oh, the novel is called Weirdsmith. The blurb on the NaNo site is as follows:

Last year I used WriteMonkey for NaNoWriMo and it worked well enough–I hit 50,000+ words with it and encountered no issues along the way. It’s a text editor with full markdown support, perfect for people who want a writing tool without a lot of distractions.

The one thing it lacked was a tablet version, specifically one for iOS. I do have iAWriter on my iPad, which can read WriteMonkey files (they’re just text, after all) but I’ve never been comfortable with swapping between different programs for a single project. That ultimately led me back to Word, as I can use it on my desktop PC, my Surface and now on my iPad (where it will primarily serve as a place to fix typos and such, not for any serious writing). I can even use a version of Word online if I happen to have Internet access but don’t have my own device handy.

I had briefly considered using Scrivener again. I used it in 2013 and while I suffered a huge data loss with it, it was my own fault for switching which copy of my story would be backed up on the cloud (in this case Dropbox) and which would be my local copy partway through the month. Even without that bit of bungling, I was never entirely comfortable with the way it spreads your project among a variety of files, and the lack of an iOS version hurts (it is in development but not due until 2016). I will miss a few of Scrivener’s features, like the progress/goal indicator and the way it easily lets you move scenes around. I have to admit I’ve never actually moved scenes around, though. I’d probably accidentally delete half of them with my luck. Also, Scrivener is such a massive toolbox I sometimes find myself spending more time tinkering with the various tools instead of just writing. While Word also has a ton of features, very few of them are directly applicable to writing straight-up fiction, so it ends up being less distracting.

None of this is to take away from Scrivener, which is a fine program. I’m just a weird and easily distracted kind of person.

For notes and other miscellany I am using OneNote. My story and notes will live on OneDrive and be backed up on my desktop and Surface, as well as a USB stick.

The only thing I need now is an idea. I have one more day to grab one. Plenty of time!

…I am still in search of an idea, like Leonard Nimoy in search of the Loch Ness monster, except with less traveling to Scotland, prehistoric aquatic dinosaurs and Leonard Nimoy.

I’m not concerned about having something to write because ideas are cheap and plentiful, my worry is that if I just grab whatever in order to start writing, it won’t grab me and my effort will fizzle out. On the other hand, if that happened I could return to last year’s still in-progress novel, which I quite enjoyed working on.

But no! I will find a snazzy idea and I will write one corker of a 50,000 word novel by November 30. Or else!

Or else I won’t. Ahem.

With one week before NaNoWriMo begins and my idea still not quite pinned down I remain cool as a cucumber (which, as has been established, terrify cats for some reason). I’ve been here before and in my six previous attempts I never failed due to lack of idea.

I am starting to see vague outlines of something I might enjoy tackling in November. If nothing further materializes before next Sunday I will probably curl up in a ball, revive an old idea or in complete desperation use some sort of writing prompt, possibly even one of my own.

In the meantime, today I went to my first local NaNo event, a kick-off at Moose’s Pub in downtown Vancouver. After walking past it a thousand times I finally took the stairs down and went inside.

I came away with a snazzy Vancouver NaNo mug, a pin and four new writing buddies (the people sitting at the table with me). We chatted about writing, as one might expect, and it was interesting given the different genres we write in (horror, fantasy, science fiction and combinations thereof) and the age range, which probably spanned a good forty years. One guy, who said he writes non-fiction and who had not yet committed to NaNo–and who left early–may have accidentally stumbled upon the event, for all I know. Maybe he’s a Moose regular. It was slightly weird.

The rest of us enjoyed our food and drink and shared some of the usual frustrations and triumphs–the latter probably best highlighted by one of the participants actually having his 2009 NaNo novel published this year.

In all, it was an enjoyable outing and nice to meet others who share this zany hobby of mine. I plan on going to at least some of the write-ins during the month, too.

Now I just need to commit to that pesky and elusive idea.

Thirteen is the number of days before National Novel Writing Month 2015 begins. As has usually been the case since I started participating back in 2009, I have no idea what I am going to write about with less than two weeks to go.

As I have come up an idea every year I am not about to give in to panic.

My success rate of 3-3 might give someone of weaker constitution pause, but not me!

If the Conservatives win tomorrow’s election I am going to write about a post-apocalyptic Canada. EXCEPT IT WON’T BE FICTION. Dun dun dun!

But yeah, no idea yet, just a few vague notions dancing around the periphery of my brain, which is not a helpful place for them to be. Come on, notions, move out to where I can see you! Thanks.

Idea: A planet of talking cats. Novel name: Cat Fancy.

Pro: Would appeal to cats that enjoy reading novels
Con: Likely to get sued by owners of Cat Fancy magazine

Idea: A sequel to Moby Dick called Moby Duck. It features a duck.

Pro: Would appeal to giant white ducks and probably other ducks, too
Con: A bit niche without adding werewolves and/or vampires

Idea: Something intelligent and literary. You know, Booker Prize stuff.

Pro: A rich, nuanced story with lasting appeal that wins over critics and the book-buying public alike
Con: I could never write this

Idea: World of Warcraft fan fiction.

Pro: Even if only 1/10th of the WoW player base bought it, I’d be rich
Con: I could never finish writing this

Idea: Write something I know.

Pro: Material would have that ol’ ring of authenticity
Con: It would be WoW fan fiction. Or some schmuck trying to get a printer to work.

Idea: Something about parallel worlds.

Pro: I quite like the idea of parallel worlds/multiverse
Con: I tried this in 2013, lost a large chunk of my story and flamed out shortly after

This concludes my first force-myself-to-sit-down-and-brainstorm session. As brainstorms go, it was more of an intermittent drizzle but I still have sixteen days before the words need to start flowing so I’m at least several days from abject despair and/or panic.

The debate is whether I want to participate this year or skip it.

Pros:

• if I’m in a writing lull at the time (November 1, to be exact) it’s a great way to kickstart things
• I commit to a longer work that I may not have otherwise (short stories are so much easier because they’re, well, short)
• the camaraderie of toiling along with other NaNoWriMo participants is nice
• seeing the word count go up every day is more satisfying than it has any right to be

Cons:

• if I’m in the middle of a writing project, the necessary pause for NaNoWriMo can derail it
• a novel written in 30 days is usually not very good
• it’s easy to write 50,000 words in a blur; rewriting them takes almost the same effort as writing another book
• the camaraderie only takes you so far
• my NaNoWriMo bio is never as clever or witty as I want it to be

In the end I’ll probably take part if the first item in the Pro list is happening come November. NaNoWriMo is a great way to get rolling on some steady output when work/life/the universe has otherwise snuffed out your enthusiasm and smothered your muse with a pillow borrowed from the Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.