I blame my mother.
I discovered recently, while chatting with my mom via skype (yay 2 cents a minute to the US from Japan!) that she also stays up ridiculously late to get work done and finds that she works best a. once everyone else is asleep and b. when she's coming down to the wire and has to produce quickly in order to meet a deadline.
Which means I just had a huge bit of my eccentricity explained away by genetics. Well damn. That's boring. But, also interesting. The nature vs. nurture debate is always an interesting one, and I find it strange that until this recent conversation with my mom I'd had no idea that she had the habit of staying up late to get work done after others had gone to bed. (I did know about the last minute deadline bit, but still.) It took me 28 years to find this out, and exhibit the exact same behavior. It strikes me as strange to think that there's a night owl gene, but that would appear to be the case.
Right, so that said... True to form and genetic inheritance, it is indeed 3am and it's time for me to get back to work on my novel. I'm at 57,208 words and I'd like to get to 60 or 65k by Tuesday at midnight (and more importantly get to the end of the plot). Things are indeed wrapping up. I think it's quite reasonable to think that I can wrap up the plot somewhere around the 60,000 word mark. I like where things are going but... I need to make sure I don't freeze up at the end. Endings are so difficult. Generally, once you set everything up they play themselves out pretty nicely. As I recently said to my partner in everything "Writing the ending is like setting up a really elaborate set of dominoes, it takes a lot of careful planning and painful work to set it up, but once you flick the first domino it generally takes care of itself." As to whether or not that quote is of my own making I'm not entirely sure. At this point I've read many a motivational essay on writing and it's possible I've snagged it from somewhere without realizing it, but at the time I considered it original and I can't actually remember reading it anywhere.
So, that's my one nugget of writing wisdom for the day.
Which means now I should get to work... I don't know... is everyone else completely asleep? **hears metaphorical crickets chirping and rain, wind and hail pattering on window** yeah I think so. Better get to it then.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
50,000 words, check. Finished novel, not so check...
Well, it's now November 24th and as of yesterday at around 10pm I passed the 50,000 word mark. Yay!
But that's only about 75% of the plot, so I still have a ways to go. Still, it's one big accomplishment and I'm quite happy with it. I think that the finished novel will be around 65,000 words or so, and I think I can get there before the month is out, but to do so is going to take some serious work. Of course, that means I probably should have written something today... ahem... well, today was busy with quite a lot of things that weren't writing and I'm afraid there was no way around that. But, now... well now I have some time to write before I go to bed and I should get to that.
First, though, I'd like to tell you a little a bit about how well things are going. Because, that is, after all, why I decided to write this post.
My plan is working. Using NaNoWriMo for this novel has quite effectively shut up my inner editor and things continue to flow. So far I even, *gasp* dare I say it?, LIKE 90% of what I've written so far. I shudder to think about it. Of course, it remains to be seen if any of it holds up to the revision, but I haven't felt like I've been churning out crap much. That is always reassuring. So, I'm excited, and hopeful and starting to feel a bit nervous about the thought of getting this novel out into the world. But, I also feel confident. I think this is a solid idea, and I think that I'm doing it justice with my writing. I'm pretty sure, that I've learned a lot from the three novels that I've written so far and I only hope that my revision skills (which are close non-existent) manage to cohere in time to get this thing in shape. We shall see.
I'm seriously considering taking Holly Lisle's revision course in the not too distant future (though it'll have to wait til I've finished my TEFL class) but that's a 22 week course and I'm hoping to finish revisions on this book a tiny bit faster than that. So, I think I'll use one of my other novels for the revision course and then apply knowledge gained from that as needed to this novel.
Right. That might not have made any sense to anyone. But here's hoping that either a. it did or b. it didn't but that's ok because no one is reading this anyway, or better yet c. it didn't but that's ok because whoever is reading this finds me witty and charming and is willing to forgive the occasional spewage of nonsense.
That said, it's time to get back to writing. Yay.
But that's only about 75% of the plot, so I still have a ways to go. Still, it's one big accomplishment and I'm quite happy with it. I think that the finished novel will be around 65,000 words or so, and I think I can get there before the month is out, but to do so is going to take some serious work. Of course, that means I probably should have written something today... ahem... well, today was busy with quite a lot of things that weren't writing and I'm afraid there was no way around that. But, now... well now I have some time to write before I go to bed and I should get to that.
First, though, I'd like to tell you a little a bit about how well things are going. Because, that is, after all, why I decided to write this post.
My plan is working. Using NaNoWriMo for this novel has quite effectively shut up my inner editor and things continue to flow. So far I even, *gasp* dare I say it?, LIKE 90% of what I've written so far. I shudder to think about it. Of course, it remains to be seen if any of it holds up to the revision, but I haven't felt like I've been churning out crap much. That is always reassuring. So, I'm excited, and hopeful and starting to feel a bit nervous about the thought of getting this novel out into the world. But, I also feel confident. I think this is a solid idea, and I think that I'm doing it justice with my writing. I'm pretty sure, that I've learned a lot from the three novels that I've written so far and I only hope that my revision skills (which are close non-existent) manage to cohere in time to get this thing in shape. We shall see.
I'm seriously considering taking Holly Lisle's revision course in the not too distant future (though it'll have to wait til I've finished my TEFL class) but that's a 22 week course and I'm hoping to finish revisions on this book a tiny bit faster than that. So, I think I'll use one of my other novels for the revision course and then apply knowledge gained from that as needed to this novel.
Right. That might not have made any sense to anyone. But here's hoping that either a. it did or b. it didn't but that's ok because no one is reading this anyway, or better yet c. it didn't but that's ok because whoever is reading this finds me witty and charming and is willing to forgive the occasional spewage of nonsense.
That said, it's time to get back to writing. Yay.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
It's November and we all know what that means...
That means it's time for me to write a brief blog entry explaining NaNoWriMo so that I can procrastinate a bit from actual noveling. Yep.
So, for those who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. And that means that I and few other hundred thousand people (well only about 160,000 or so) have signed up to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. (For more info, check out www.nanowrimo.org.)
It's something I do every year since I first heard of it back in 2007. It's incredibly useful if you've ever wanted to write a novel but have found that you lose steam after the first 70 pages and wind up never finishing them. At least I find it useful.
This year, I'm putting it to particularly good use. You see the thing that NaNoWriMo is best for is getting you to turn off your inner-editor (you know, that little voice that keeps telling you your work is crap and eventually makes you give up in frustration at how horrible you are and how stupid you must have been to ever think you could have completed a novel). NaNoWriMo helps you gag him, tie him up and lock him in a closet for a month while you get work done. Then you can take him out and let him look at things once you've finished your first draft. I am in particular need of this service this year. I am working on something that someone other than my mom or boyfriend is ALREADY interested in reading before it's done. The truth is that person has been interested since back in February and I should have knocked this out a long time ago. But, my inner-editor went NUTS as I tried to write. Constantly telling me that this wasn't good enough for publication, that the guy who wants to read it would hate it, and that I was an idiot for thinking I could ever develop a plot that would sell.
Right. So that needed to stop. I know better. I was eventually able to talk myself down. But, in the meantime I've written over 70 pages (handwritten) that make me cringe and I can't get past the whole writing for someone else thing. Or I couldn't. But that's why I'm making the project a November one. When you have to knock out 50,000 words in one month, it's a lot easier to shut out any objections and JUST FUCKING WRITE. For me. What I turn out in November is always just for me. I have no one else in mind when I write at this pace. Sometimes that turns out quality prose, sometimes I have to churn out a couple pages of crap just to get to the next good bit in my head. But that's what editing is for.
This month, so far so good. It's only day 2. I was a tiny bit ahead yesterday, today I want to get solidly ahead. I love writing like this. I love the deadline, I love the word count motivator, I love just diving headfirst into the story and not worrying about the results. The results are generally good. I'm excited. I'm in love with my story again. It's a nice feeling.
So, having dutifully procrastinated in writing this post (a long standing and effective part of my writing process is procrastination) I am going to get back to writing.
Sorry if this post doesn't make a ton of sense. Good luck to all those who decide to do NaNoWriMo! See you on the 30th.
So, for those who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. And that means that I and few other hundred thousand people (well only about 160,000 or so) have signed up to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. (For more info, check out www.nanowrimo.org.)
It's something I do every year since I first heard of it back in 2007. It's incredibly useful if you've ever wanted to write a novel but have found that you lose steam after the first 70 pages and wind up never finishing them. At least I find it useful.
This year, I'm putting it to particularly good use. You see the thing that NaNoWriMo is best for is getting you to turn off your inner-editor (you know, that little voice that keeps telling you your work is crap and eventually makes you give up in frustration at how horrible you are and how stupid you must have been to ever think you could have completed a novel). NaNoWriMo helps you gag him, tie him up and lock him in a closet for a month while you get work done. Then you can take him out and let him look at things once you've finished your first draft. I am in particular need of this service this year. I am working on something that someone other than my mom or boyfriend is ALREADY interested in reading before it's done. The truth is that person has been interested since back in February and I should have knocked this out a long time ago. But, my inner-editor went NUTS as I tried to write. Constantly telling me that this wasn't good enough for publication, that the guy who wants to read it would hate it, and that I was an idiot for thinking I could ever develop a plot that would sell.
Right. So that needed to stop. I know better. I was eventually able to talk myself down. But, in the meantime I've written over 70 pages (handwritten) that make me cringe and I can't get past the whole writing for someone else thing. Or I couldn't. But that's why I'm making the project a November one. When you have to knock out 50,000 words in one month, it's a lot easier to shut out any objections and JUST FUCKING WRITE. For me. What I turn out in November is always just for me. I have no one else in mind when I write at this pace. Sometimes that turns out quality prose, sometimes I have to churn out a couple pages of crap just to get to the next good bit in my head. But that's what editing is for.
This month, so far so good. It's only day 2. I was a tiny bit ahead yesterday, today I want to get solidly ahead. I love writing like this. I love the deadline, I love the word count motivator, I love just diving headfirst into the story and not worrying about the results. The results are generally good. I'm excited. I'm in love with my story again. It's a nice feeling.
So, having dutifully procrastinated in writing this post (a long standing and effective part of my writing process is procrastination) I am going to get back to writing.
Sorry if this post doesn't make a ton of sense. Good luck to all those who decide to do NaNoWriMo! See you on the 30th.
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