Oh bother

Last day before nano... and I'm seriously considering changing my novel. Gah! "Why don't you do me a favor and shoot me." My novels keep getting tougher and tougher, in subject matter and in depth. Now, this is a good thing, we're supposed to take on more. How else do we grow as writers without reaching farther? But I have doubts about whether anyone will want to read this one except me.

Oh crud

Nano starts in five days.

Oddly, the score to Waterworld has been great outlining music for this novel. I say odd because that's not a score I would have picked as appropriate just off the shelf.

Am having trouble with setting for this book. I cannot get a handle on it. Okay, that's not exactly true. The POW camp is very clear in my mind, as is this one particular street in the city (not sure why that exact street or what I'll use it for, but I can see it!). It's the later action... it has no locale yet. Very unusual, as the locations are part of the foundation of a story for me.

Dang. Read the top of this entry and realized again how little time remains before I actually have to start cranking out words. Lots of 'em.

Eenie Meenie Miney, Moe?

Okay, read all notes on both potential nano novels, still vacillating, but now swinging back to POW. Had the right piece of the puzzle fall in my lap today. Watching/listening to a commentary on the 1948 film "Act of Violence" (excellent movie, btw), and the commentator began discussing identity, how it related to the two main characters, the noir genre, and the director. Takes something that simple sometimes, but I realized that's what a big part of POW is about: identity. I just couldn't label it until today, but now that I have, the novel just became much clearer in my mind. This pleases me greatly.

I've started compiling lists of names for it. It's stupid, but lack of the right names can be one of those annoying things that can really stall a project. And during nano is not the time to stall over something dumb. I'm not talking the main characters -- they're all already named. I'm talking the extras and secondary characters. But calling characters Jack 1, Jack 2, Jack 3 just doesn't cut it. Hence the name lists made up in advance. Need a character name? Just open the file, scan until something jumps out at me. Done. And in a fantasy novel, the flavor and sound of the names is important. Average novel potential name list for me needs 50-100 names in it. I won't use even half that, but I've got to have the selection at hand. Even that many's sometimes not enough, and I'll have to fish around elsewhere to supplement the list. Place names too... usually need a lengthy list of place names to choose from.

Draft!

Ahhhhh, sigh. The bliss of finishing something. It may be first draft, but it's still done and ready for editing. Some plot points and characters don't quite follow smoothly yet, as I wrote it out of order, but it's all there, all 10,000 words.

And now! Now, that it's out of my brain, I can start some serious nano thinking. Once again... too many projects and none of them screaming for attention. They're all exciting, I want them all done, but that extra 'write-me-now' spark is proving elusive. Leaning now, not towards the P.O.W. novel, but a YA book that was supposed to be last year's nano book, only Variance booted it aside. Gonna take a couple nights, review the notes on each book, see which one grabs me.

Dances with Fish

Wild... I was looking for this short story I have started, and as I was hunting through the files, I found one with a rather complex little SF short story outlined within. Characters, the world, everything. And I had no memory of it at all. I vaguely remember a couple things in there, but the bulk of it is brand new to me now. Wonder if that will make it easier or harder to write?

Not an auspicious beginning

Okay, so on my birthday, I wished for one thing. That my muse come back from whatever extended holiday he's been enjoying and work with me, damn it. In turn, I promised focus and industrious work on whatever he gave me.

So, big (BIG!) note to self: 'Dear Deb -- when making such promises about writing, do not -- repeat, do not start off your first writing night by watching any movie where Aldo Ray goes shirtless. It renders your brain (and most of the rest of you) to mush, from which it takes hours to recover. And little to no writing will get done, and you will just get pointlessly angry. Reading. Reading's the ticket. Thanks.'