The After-NaNo Manifesto

Last night, after the glow of happiness dimmed, I realized that I suddenly had a huge NaNo-shaped hole in my heart. I don't have The Big Deadline to work toward, to dream about. I couldn't let it roll around on my tongue like a marble - something hard and tangible. And now...well, now what?

So I looked over my NaNo manifesto. It helped me through many a moment of WTF Am I Going To Do Now, and motivated me. Especially that "I'm going to finish this MF-er" part.

Only...that's the issue now, isn't it? I haven't finished it. I wrote the 50,000 words, but the book is nowhere near done. So I realized at 5am this morning when I finally began to drift off to sleep, that the NaNo-shaped hole has transmogrified into a Novel-shaped hole that can, indeed, be filled.

So, leaving off where I did with the NaNo Manifesto, I have some new rules for my After-NaNo Manifesto.

1. I will finish this story. The story, not just a word count. It's rude as hell to create leave a creature mostly skeletal and minimally fleshed and soulless. Those kinds of creatures have a nasty tendency to haunt and terrorize. Or fester and rot and stink to high hell and kill you that way. So I will finish this story.
   
2. I will attempt to write on this story every day, but will be lenient with my soul if I should miss a few days, especially during holidays.
   
3. I will set word-count goals and celebrate when I make them. Perhaps not 50,000 words per month, though. I'm not writing the Narnia series, here.
   
4. I will maintain the fun. I will work on sections that I want to work on, rather than trying to plow through chronologically.
   

So that's it for now. I'm sure I'll devise more rules as I go, but these are the biggies. 

All the original Manifesto rules still apply. ;)

Goal Attained

All over Well...the numbers game is over. I finished the 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo tonight, copied and pasted like mad to get the words from WriteWay into Word, went through a mad spellcheck, then validated it.

And...laughed like mad. Because I got the word count in a month. Because I'm not finished, just beginning, the whole thing is sketchy, skeletal, nearly soulless. It's a shell. And ALL over the place. But the goal was met. The first goal.

So now what? No deadline, but still so much left to do. I'm afraid, now, that the whole thing is going to get swept aside, that it'll remain...part of a story. Just another stump.

I need another manifesto. The after-NaNo Manifesto.

Let me get right on that tomorrow...

Nearly There

Word Count: 36,266

I might actually "win" NaNoWriMo this year. After three attempts, I might actually write a 50,000 novel in a month. OK, let's be more realistic for the situation. I might write 50,000 words of a novel that is going to stretch much further than that.

But here's something else that has bothered me for a while. Once November is over, and the rush done, and I have another however many words to go until this story is finished, am I going to stick with the momentum, or will I "take a break" and never get back to it?

Maybe tonight's not the time to be thinking about this. Tonight, I'll think about finishing before Thanksgiving.

Cultural/Racial Diversity in Characters

The gaps are closing, the characters materializing before my eyes, and I'm beginning to realize how flimsy some of them are. I've also realized how much my protag depends upon her male companion, which is NOT my intention, so that much change. And I've realized that my whole character list is white. I mean, I haven't written in anyone who isn't, well, white. And I need to change that. I did change that. One of my favorite characters is now Indian.

Deal is, I've written a world where the slave trade didn't materialize and cultures were encouraged to continue unhindered (except for human sacrifice), based roughly on the best parts of the Roman empire. People of color are there and in abundance, but I just haven't created that part of the narrative world yet. Granted, I'm just trying to get protag and company from one scene of action to the next, and I know that I can add details later, but what bothers me is that the crux of the novel is, once again, in the hands of white people (one of which is the one who causes all the snafu in the first place), and that's not really what I want. In a world where an empire crosses multiple cultural and racial boundaries through trade, etc., the purely European white majority wouldn't exist as heavily as it does in many of the books of this kind that I've read.

So, that's something to consider as I push toward that 50,000 word goal.

You know, I still don't know how this story is going to end.

Word Count: 31,111

Triple Espresso Shot Mocha

That's what I ordered this evening when my friends and I went to our favorite local coffee shop for some Bananagrams, Phase 10, and hot beverages. This was after a lovely sushi lunch.

WHY did I need that much caffeine? Because I had to catch up. It was Day 15, the official halfway point, and I hadn't hit the 25k word count yet. But I wasn't stressin' because I knew I needed girl time as much as I needed typing time. And because I've been nearly faithful to my NaNoWriMo Manifesto, I'm not bashing my head against the computer screen. I'm having FUN! I'm regularly reapplying duct tape to the mouth of my inner editor and just plain enjoying the process of getting my little story out of my head and onto the screen.

I've even stopped stressing about potential plot changes. This time a week ago I was doing plot diagrams in my head while wondering why sleep eluded me. I think I've changed a few minor plot elements because they just felt right.

I've jumped over major plot points because I'm not "there" yet. I've written scenes based entirely on the music playing on Pandora at the moment. I've toyed with the idea of adding a dragon to the mix.

And a few minutes ago, I saw, for my first time ever, the balance of words written tip over the number yet to write. I'm more than halfway done.

Triple Espresso Shot Mocha aside, though, I'm freakin' exhausted. I'm going to check FeederWatch Cam and then go to bed.

OK, so I lied...

Due to an insane case of insomnia exacerbated by one of the trees in front of my apartment falling over from the severe wind, I ended up sleeping all day yesterday, and a rather large part of today. SO I haven't been writing. So my vow of never taking another day off zizzled in 24 hours. Alas.

Though, I inadvertently determined a few character traits by scouring Pinterest steampunk related boards. My protag is going to have an incredibly sarcastic perspective of the Continent's rapture with all things steampunk (and the fact that less than a quarter of what passes as steampunk does anything whatsoever). Everybody but EVERYBODY is going to be an "Adventurer" or "Adventuress" or "inventor" or "explorer" as stated on their calling cards. With only a paltry few who have the guts and genius to survive any real adventure, invent anything worthwhile, or explore any place beyond their general neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, back in my Protag's home citadel, it's not a trend, but a kind of junker's way of life. And she really is an adventuress, really does encounter danger where "run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint" is pretty damn good advice. So when she encounters the "stylish" and rather risque steampunk clothing in the Continental stores, she's baffled and amused. The only "adventure" the wearer of these gowns would encounter is a torn stocking or scuffed boots.

Am I picking on steampunk a little? Yeah. I have to. It's in my blood to blast what I love. Mainly, I lampoon the viral trend that sweeps the Continent even though they have no idea where it came from and don't know what to do with it in reality. But for those who live that life by necessity, the trend is silly, superficial, and sometimes rather crass. And useless.

SO while I haven't physically added to my word count, I have found some ingredients that will add richness and will, in time, help the word count to soar.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

Week Two...

That's IT! No more "I'll catch up" days. No more. I hate looking at my "at this rate you'll be finished by" date sometime in early December. NO! To quote Paramore "I REFUSE, I REFUSE, I REFUSE!" It shall be done in November.

Now that I've stopped flopping around about my plot, I can just write. Which is great, except sometimes I have the mental capacity to write in the quasi-Victorian style, and sometimes I don't. And I've also managed to write myself into quite a corner. I might have to leave this section alone for a bit as I fill in bits of crucial "when did THAT happen" narration. And it's all pretty skeletal as well, with hardly any introspection and little to no real character development.

Eh, I'll figure the rest of that out later. Right now, let's just figure out how exactly to get from point C to point J.

Tomorrow. After I sleep a little.

Word Count: 18,861

Sacrifice Word Count for Much Needed Socialization

OK, so I took a few days off on the novel because I needed human interaction and I really needed to get out of the house. So the word count has suffered. I can catch up quickly enough.

And since I slept for a couple of hours earlier this evening, I should be able to stay up all night again, clacking away.

Total count so far: 16,787. We'll see how that's changed tomorrow morning.

Fire Bad. Tree Pretty.

I apologize for the blatant Buffy quote, but that's about how I feel at the moment. Over the last couple of days, I've chugged out nearly 4 thousand words on my Nano novel, and my brain won't let me rest. For instance:

Tonight I wrote and wrote and wrote. Brain decided it was through with thinking and I shambled off to bed drunk zombie style. I floated in that blobby world between sleep and wake for maybe an hour.

Then, an idea hit me. An idea so mind-blowingly perfect for my story that I couldn't risk the sandman whisking it away or having it dribble out of my ear as I slept. So I got up, drunken zombie walked to my computer, and started clacking away again. That was at about 11pm Thursday. 4 hours later, here I am, in the wee morning hours AGAIN, having squeezed nearly all the juice from my cranial spaces, leaving just enough to write this post. I'm dangerously close to "Fire bad. Tree Pretty" once more.

Maybe I'll get two hours out of this sleep attempt this time.

It's only Day 8. Save me from this madness!!

How do you write your characters?

I'm several good scenes and most of a prologue into my NaNo novel, and I've discovered something about my characters.

Most of them are pretty skeletal right now.

I have an overall idea of who I want then to be, but since my real goal at the moment is to get the plot out before I talk myself into changing something major, I've pretty much glossed over the characters, dropping little hints now and then, but not really fleshing them out.

Last year, when I was prepping for NaNoWriMo, I did all this character analysis (part of the writing program I use, so why not?) in order to really understand my characters. And while that was helpful, I spent an inordinate amount of time fretting about demonstrating these little character ticks while I was working on laying out the plot. If I had months and months to do this kind of edit-as-you-go writing, I'd have been ok. But my word count was deplorable simply because I couldn't get things out.

So this year, I'm letting the characters kind of exist for the most part until I get the plot out, and then I'll start adding in those endearing or annoying or nauseating traits when I have to start plumping up the word count.

Not to say I'm not recognizing some of the character traits already. Some are just...cardboard at the moment, or paper dolls. They serve a purpose, perhaps demonstrate some of their ultimate selves in tiny glimmers.

So, how do you write your characters? Do you plan them out first? Let them write themselves? Maybe a little of both?

NaNo Update

Going well. Lots of words. Manifesto is helping immensely. Don't care about spelling. And I think I've changed narrators three times. owell. I'm enjoying the hell outta this. 

Day 4 - nearly 8000 words and I haven't started writing today.

It's not pretty. It's not completely fleshed out. It's skeletal and the dialog is kinda...cardboard. But I can work on that all later. When the words are out. When the ideas are out.

Last night, I was trying to go to sleep after midnight, and I had a flash of conversation for the story, and I had to get up and scribble it down before I forgot it. I've lost many a glorious passage through swearing I would remember it overnight. Not this time. I wrote it down as fast as I could, because the words were materializing before my hands could scrawl them on the page.

I had forgotten how amazing this feels. Here we go with a few more hours of writing, a few more hours of dissolving into this little world in process, a story that refuses to stay on track, but seems to work nonetheless.

Raise your oversized mugs of straight espresso, folks! I need a battlecry!

My NaNo Manifesto

I tried to sleep tonight. I really did.

But then I started thinking about little details for my NaNo novel and suddenly I couldn't shut down. So I left my nice warm bed and came out to the living room to start clacking away at this year's story.

But not before making some rules for this year.

1. If I decide at one point that I want to shift from 3rd to 1st person, I will not waste time revising what I've already written.

2. If I have a "what's the damn word" moment (which happens a lot with Fibro fog and pain meds), I will find a close approximation and go from there. No scouring the thesaurus for "just the right word."

3. I will NOT let my failed previous attempts discourage me.

4. I will NOT make this a deep, thought-provoking exploration. It's gonna be action. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be apocalyptic steampunk fun with little consideration of the exact hows and whys. It's going to have some blatant references to Doctor Who. Because I want it to.

5. I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this story. I'm going to throw some twists and flips and WTFs in.

6. I'm going to finish this MF-er.

So, there are a few of my rules for NaNoWriMo 2013.

Now that I've written more than my daily allotment of the story and set up my rules, I think I'll go ahead and sleep. Yes, indeed.