Once upon a time, I was running a D&D game. And about a third of the way through, I had an epiphany. The Muse sang to me a aria of inspiration, of clarity. I knew where things were going! I understood the plot that had been, hitherto, murky and unsatisfying. It all made perfect sense!
I started to write …
… and two games sessions later, I realized that the Muse was feeding me the plot from Star Wars. Not in a Campbellian “Hero of a Thousand Faces” meta-way, but major, unmistakable plotty bits that would have had, when revealed, occasioned at best a Cease and Desist from Lucasfilm, and, at worst scorn and laughter and derision from my players.
My left-handed right-sided brain tends to work in gestalt, long on broad concept, short on details. So I do occasionally find myself discovering that a brilliant idea is simply something I’ve previously seen with the serial numbers filed off by my corpus callosum. It’s frustrating as all hell.
I had an idea the other day that completely changed what I wanted to do with my protagonist in my NaNoWriMo novel. It made perfect sense, on several levels — but after a few hours of pondering it and running along with how it might influence the conflicts and plot lines, I realized that I was actually adopting a character in a popular TV series and making him (in some ways) my protagonist. Which is not what I was looking for.
The advantage I have here is that I haven’t started writing yet. Which means I can evaluate what that all means, and make the protagonist not a clone of the popular TV character, but someone in his own right, who shares some traits in common, but for very good and understood reasons. Or I can decide that it’s too derivative, and not do it. Or I can start that way and then demonstrate why a radical change in the protagonist is completely warranted.
But knowing is half the battle.
By the way, I remain terribly daunted by all of this upcoming NaNoWriMo stuff. Not daunted as in, “Oh, no, I am going to back out of doing NaNoWriMo because it is too challenging for me.” (I only do that in GMing games.) No, more daunted as in, “Jeez, let me fret myself into a frenzy beforehand, even though I know I’m going to be fine once I get into it, or, if not fine, then capable of handling the pressure.”
The NaNoWriMo folks actually have a lot of support group stuff in place, in terms of meet-ups in the Denver area and the boards and all of that. Being a terrible introvert, my own inclination is to depend eschew such public interactions and hunker down amidst friends and family. But I might keep my eyes open for an opportunity somewhere along the line to interact with others. We’ll have to see.
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Roger Zelazny said:
I try to write every day. I used to try to write four times a day, minimum of three sentences each time. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s kinda like the hare and the tortoise. If you try that several times a day you’re going to do more than three sentences, one of them is going to catch on. You’re going to say “Oh boy!” and then you just write. You fill up the page and the next page But you have a certain minimum so that at the end of the day, you can say “Hey I wrote four times today, three sentences, a dozen sentences. Each sentence is maybe twenty word long. That’s 240 words which is a page of copy, so at least I didn’t goof off completely today. I got a page for my efforts and tomorrow it might be easier because I’ve moved as far as I have.
It’s something I’ve quoted before, but I’ve been thinking about it re NaNoWriMo.
Obviously 240 < 1500. But the principle applies.
I’ve noted in myself that I write best at a sprint. The Muse starts poking me, and it just flows. If I get interrupted, or have to feel like I’m multitasking, I just can’t do it. It’s one reason I get very short when I’m writing (even something as trivial as emails or blog entries) and get interrupted. It makes me wonder if I need to plan on moving my laptop upstairs so that I can write without interruption or worry of (a) being distracted by family life in the family room, or (b) snapping like a rabid wolf over same.
At any rate, I’ll probably take Zelazny to heart in this, and set an alarm for four times a day to actually check my writing during NaNoWriMo Just as a prod to actually do some writing.
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NaNoWriMo and the prospect of a story are clearly doing their work in my subconscious, because all of a sudden, bits and pieces and dribs and drabs of ideas and thoughts and like a kid on a sugar high. Which means I have lots of pieces of paper from wherever I happen to be at the time the muse starts screaming into my ear in her high-pitched babble.
Which is a good thing, I suppose, since it’s material for the story. But it does complicate things a bit, since some of the ideas are off at odd tangents.
If the past is any indication, some interesting and unexpected focus will occur once the starting bell rings. Until then … please don’t throw out those little pieces of paper with incoherent scribbles on them, honey.
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I’ve been slowly gathering together material for my 30-day novel. While on the one hand it feels a bit of a “cheat” (it’s not, officially) to be doing this sort of prep, the fact is I don’t feel comfortable completely winging it (the nature of the story is such that there’s background that needs to be set and explained, and a fairly large cast to be fleshed out).
On the other hand, while I have a rough outline and idea of what I’m doing (and even a title), I don’t really have an outline. Worse, I don’t (like in a number of previous novels, as well as campaigns) have a good idea of what the climax or conclusion look like. That’s worrisome, but that’s how it goes.
I do believe, on the other hand, that I am going to make the effort public, i.e., share the Google Doc I’m doing this in with anyone who cares to read. So folks who want to follow along (and offer encouragement! please!) can do so. And, who knows, maybe you’ll be reading the next Great American Novel. And if that doesn’t pan out, I do have some inexpensive real estate in Florida that you might be interested in …
I have to confess, I’m in minor dread about November. I was looking at some previous NaNoWriMo efforts, and seeing how much 1500-2000 words actually is, and pondering doing that for 30 days straight. Daunting. I mean, I can ramble and digress with the best of them, but I do want to tell a story. I just don’t know where it’s going.
So more details on where that all will reside (and how to find the latest-greatest) as we get closer. I still have another week to fret until Sunday, 1 November.
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I’ve installed TwitterTools on this WordPress blog so that when I post something here it will automatically generate a Tweet in my Three_Star_Dave Twitter stream, with a “Doing Write” prefix. I’m going to use this blog for (talking about) my NaNoWriMo effort this year, and through the magic of TwitterTools over on my main blog, it will then cross-post links of posts here to over there.
And if my configuration is successful, this post should be the first time so posted. Stay tuned!
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It’s been a while since I posted anything here. Too busy, too frenzied, too stressed, too distracted, too … everything to actually do any writing.
So, of course, since I’ve demonstrated I can’t actually spend any time writing, I think I’ll join NaNoWriMo this year.
Yikes.
The question is — what to write about.
I’ve had a Psiclone story rattling around in my head for a while. Or less of a story and more of series of images and scenes. I have no good idea where it’s going.
I’ve also wanted to do a Donne & Donne tale. Again, no real ideas there, aside from wanting to do it.
And, of course, I’m torn between the NaNoWriMo ideal of “No plot? No problem!” and just winging it, and wanting to do all the prep work and research and outlining and mind-mapping and all that which I know I should do if I were really serious about writing.
And, of course, I’m terrified that this is all a huge mistake.
So … we’ll see.
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Today’s 100 Words:
Welcome to talk radio. You’re on the air.
My entry:
“And, line three, Steve – you’re on ‘Midnight Truth!’”
“Hi, Dan, long-time listener, first-time caller.”
“What’s on your mind, Steve?”
“Global Warming, Dan. I think it’s aliens, maybe the Grays. That way they could destroy the economy, human civilization, make us defenseless. Maybe just to keep us locked on Earth.”
”An interesting theory,” Dan said, cutting off the call. He looked beyond the glass. His broodmate was already comming the intervention saucer, reading off the reverse-Caller ID address from her monitor.
Dan smiled, toothily. “Let’s see if anyone else out there thinks Steve’s hypothesis makes sense. Our number once again …”
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Today’s 100 Words theme:
It’s a celebration!
My entry:
How do you celebrate saving the world? Especially when almost nobody knows you’ve done it, and most of the ones remaining who do aren’t exactly jumping for joy?
For Chrys and me, it meant a drink at Buttons, in a small booth towards the back. Doubles, no less. Canadian for me, something green for Chrys.
Chrys smiled, raised a toast before sipping. “Well, you did it.”
“We did it,” I corrected. “We’re in this together. That’s what it says on the door.”
“To us, then.”
“Who’s like us? Damned few, and they’re all dead,” I quoted.
“But we still live.”
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