Reyl Writing

I'm not doing Nano this year :( If I start to feel better I'm going to get some editing done on Lycan's Grace. But I don't have the energy or momentum for a writing marathon this month.

Good luck to those of you who are going for it!

Incoming Nano! I need plot ideas. I'd like to write standard fiction this year, instead of a genre piece. Something set in Canada, with queer and multicultural characters. But I need plot! Hrm... I'll have to mull this over by the end of the month so I can plan October outlining.

My memoirs are going well. Thanks to a friendly competition with __forgetmenot__ aka Prophetwriter, I am way ahead on my word count. I'm not posting the writing on LJ for obvious reasons, but here is the breakdodwn of how it has gone so far, word count wise.

1 Nov: 5138
2 Nov: 2966
3 Nov: 2944 so far

This is a grand total of 11,098 words, double what I need to actually be on track for fifty thousand. I'm hoping that I'll finish early and get a start on my queer crime investigation novel.



Edit 05 Nov

Here's a nifty progress meter:

Lyrics for Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral" (1994)

This album came out the year I left home and was something I listened to over and over again. It has inspired the title for my runaway story.

I've decided to write about when I left home. It was a very difficult time for me, and very painful for me and the people I hurt. I'm trying to document my memories of that time, as well as my current reflections and feelings about what happened.

Because of the very personal and sensitive nature of this story, I won't be publicly posting it. I will be offering a copy of it once it is finished to people who knew me at the time and want to read it. I will be glad to hear their thoughts, feelings, and memories about that period of time -- once I'm done writing the story. I do want the first draft to be only my memories and emotions, so I can really capture that. I may edit in other people's points later on. I actually think that the difference between what I perceived at the time and what actually happened is very important. That's part of why I need to write out what I remember first.

I may offer you a read, I may not. So friends, be patient. I will still be posting word counts and progress reports on how Nano is going. My outline is done, so I'm ready for November 1st. I think.

*deep breath*

I still think I should do the Downward Spiral story, but part of me wants to just have fun and write a queer crime investigation story. What do you think?

I'm settling on a concept for NaNoWriMo 2006; Downward Spiral: a runaway's journey.

It will be my recollections of what happened when I left home in 1994. I think this is going to be a difficult story to write, but it is definately something I want to capture. Once it is written, I want to talk about it with people who were there at the time, and maybe get their perspective for a part two. I know I was very short-sighted at the time, and had little idea of how my actions affected others. I've gained much perspective in the last twelve years, but I want to keep the writing as "in the moment" as possible. My goal is to get across how confused and unprepared I was for the real world. I want to portray unrealistic fears and anxiety that drove me, as well as the strange beauty and friendships around me that consoled me.

I think it is important to get this across in a narrative way, without too much navel-gazing or excuse-making. There will definately need to be some contextualizing but I'm hoping to accomplish that with a certain amount of description or dialogue. I do need to figure out what form of narration or perspective to use. First person narratives usually rub me the wrong way, but I'm not sure how to get around that in this case. I need some kind of context for story -- why is it being told and to whom? Am I going for a non-fiction feel, exploring what happened and that sort of thing, or is this a more fictional narration, telling the story to someone like a relative or friend who has some imperative reason for needing to know. I've thought of doing it in a confrontational way, a fictionalized challenge from someone close to me at the time, wanting to know what really happened. But at the same time, that might be too personal, fictionalizing someone else's reactions.

I still have much to think about. Your suggestions are welcome.

I had an idea for what my 2006 Nanowrimo novel should be. I'm thinking of doing a series of "unsent letters" to people in the past. You know, reflections on bad things that may have happened, what I've learned since then, apologies, fuck off and die messages, and that ilk of thing. I'm just afraid it isn't very novel-like. Perhaps writing it in a journal-type style with flashbacks of what events seemed like to me at the time might make it a bit more narrative? It seems like a good, theraputic writing project but I'm not sure if it is right for Nano.

Another idea I had was to write in a different style every day/week (depending on how many I can think of during the planning stage.)

I'd definately like to write something episodical, where I can start and conclude a mini-story or sequence each day of writing. I want to use much less dialogue than last time, since it didn't accomplish as much as I hoped it would, and wound up being far too expository. My underwater world from Sea King didn't wind up as fully developed as I'd like. Doing some mythology or back story on that would be nice, but not exactly novel material.

Let me know what you think, what kind of story would you like to hear from me? What style? C'mon, help me here -- only two months until Nano!

I had another idea while reading that how-to-write-a-novel book. I was thinking of knocking some of the extraneous characters out of the main party. But the main idea: what about Sage coming to Stalagm in the first book instead of waiting for Kavreen to get to Terra? Then all of Stalagm civilization and culture would show more easily through alien eyes. Still not sure though.

Major things that need re-working:

- The writing style in general. I need to find the right voice.
- Kavreen. She's transparent. She needs to be the essential and cared-for character.
- Villains and Overcoming. Need a more tactile interaction with villains and what the main challenge to overcome actually IS. Aka Plot.
- Decreasing the amount of secondary characters. Increasing continuity of secondary character throughout the plot. Giving them more personality, especially the Old Wolf.
- Rethink the "deus ex machina" of Eli rescuing them.
- Extend horror and captivity in the beginning.
- Write in some of that background plot; knowledge of non "Lycan" shifters leaking. Viva la resistance ;)
- Introduce "strange" Terran references that will be obvious to the readers, but not in a cheesy way. Show the off-world culture that is part of Lycan life. This could add some interesting comic relief/irony.

For copyright reasons, only the first two chapters and the most recent chapter of The Curse of the Sea King are publicly viewable. It is the same with my last novel Lycan's Grace. If you want to read all of my works-in-progress, please leave a comment asking to be added.

It is official, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I've put aside the shifter novel I wrote in two parts over 2003 and 2004 NaNoWriMos. They still need to be edited, and there is some religious content I would like to add.

This year's NaNo will be something completely new and different. It has pirates. It has zombies. It has mer-people. It has zombie-pirate-mermen. I'm hoping to colour this one more gothic horror, and banish everyone's preconceptions of cute fluffy mermaids.

More to follow, I've already started on the story outline. Many thanks to demonalissa who created the concept with me originally. We were going to do this as a combined effort, but due to her hefty writing load, I'm taking it on all by myself :D

I'm really excited for this one, it is pure indulgence and fun.

I've been thinking a lot about my writing lately. Mostly about how I don't do enough of it, and how I should finish some of the projects I've started.

I looked at the Nanowrimo site today and realized that this month is National Novel Editing Month. Though less popular than the novel writing month, this is something that I had been planning on doing. I totally forgot it happened in March though. I finished the first draft of my novel in November, and haven't looked at it since. It follows me around everywhere, tucked safely onto a flash stick on my keychain (and backed up at home), but I have been ignoring it. I seriously need to do re-writes, edits, and incorporate some of the cultural elements I didn't have time to create intelligently while doing my yearly writing marathon.

There hasn't been that much to my blog lately either, which can be a nice excuse for lack of creative writing. Aside from the odd rant it has been mostly short blurbs of things irrelevant to those not involved directly in my life. I want to make an effort to make it a more interesting read. I've also been contemplating my friends-only status. I'd like to open up some of my entries to the public again, now that I'm not feeling so paranoid and/or stalked by my ex. Perhaps I should make a point of doing one post per week (or per day depending) that is public, about some of my opinions and ideas. I don't know. I just don't want to create yet another journal. Having a "public face" journal might be nice for self protection, but I'm not a person who believes in masks.

At any rate, I definately need to amalgamate the two parts of my novel, edit the content and dialogue, increase the depth and personification of the characters, clarify their relationships, and create the religio-political background that I want to weave into the story. It seems like there is still so much work ahead before I can consider publishing this creation.

A few years ago, my father said to me: "If you want to be a writer, just write!". Perhaps he should have added, "... and re-write, and re-write".

Sometimes I really wish I could afford to quit my day job. There just isn't enough time in the world.

Crossposted to my writing journal vinegarmuse.

Look, I did it! Yes, the last bit of the novel is total crap. So please don't read it... The book was finished, but I needed to round out my Nano wordcount. Hooray Hooray, no more sleep dep for me!

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