Nano 2009 wrap up

Finished writing my 50,000 brand spanking new words today, which successfully completes my sixth successive nano. This year was a tough one, and I learned a big lesson. Do not write the second half of an unfinished novel when you have rather large problems with the first half and you've done zero planning on the second half. It is so much easier to start a novel for nano. There's all that room to explore and you can just go with the flow. Finishing a novel though... I was tying up threads when I wasn't even quite sure yet how everything comes together. I needed more thinking time than I could spare and still meet my word count.

That aside, every scene had a critical change, and every chapter ended on a cliffhanger, and my muses did not let me down once, but kept me going even when I thought for sure I had nothing to write next. Several things surprised me, though not in hindsight. Typical. The subconscious knows what it's doing. I so liked where the second half went, that when I start novel revisions, a good chunk of the first half will go out the window so I can work with the new directions I uncovered. I also left off tonight right before The Scene, aka the cool scene that made me want to write the novel to begin with, the scene I've been writing towards since day one, so continuing through the last bit to complete the first draft won't be hard.

Random things about this year's nano:

• I had two zero word count days this go-round.
• On the rest of the days, the least I wrote was 313 words. The most was 3149. Considering the previous years where I always had some 4-6K days, this was definitely the slow and steady year. I also finished later in the month than I've ever done. Only one day to spare.
• I was never able to write before work or on lunch break. Most writing was done between 8-10 pm, and 99% of the time I was in bed by 10:30. Which is a really good reminder that 1) I can work a full-time job, 2) eat/walk the dog/do chores/watch movies/read/have a life, and 3) still write that much a day and be in bed on time.
  
• The day's I felt most stuck ended up being the days I got the most words in.
• I watched nine new movies during November.
• Most listened to music while writing was James Newton Howard's score to The Water Horse.
• This is the first nano I didn't skip dinner at least once.
• The internet is by far my worst enemy for stealing away writing time. More discipline required in that department, yessiree.
  

All in all, a tough, frustrating, but ultimately quite satisfying nano session. I'll be able to use most of what I wrote, and my P.O.W. novel is *this* close away from a completed draft.

Continuing with the no-happy-endings trend...

Knocked two more movies off my list of "Famous Movies I've Never Seen and Should" this weekend: "The Defiant Ones" and "The Third Man." The first I loved, the second bored me.

What surprised me most about "The Defiant Ones" was the people/problems the two escapees encountered on their run for freedom. Not one was what I expected. Like that town? Aiiiieeee! Wasn't anticipating that at all, but Lon Chaney Jr. sure made me grin and cheer. He was my favorite part of the entire film, in a film where everything was well-done. It cuts right to the chase (literally) and stays there until the end.

"The Third Man," on the other hand... Sigh. On the surface, this movie should be everything I like. Noir, shifty ambiguous characters, cover-ups, very cool shadow visuals. Only it wasn't, or it wasn't enough. For a movie with a lot of character... it lacked character. For me, there wasn't enough to latch onto to get involved with these people. The movie didn't particularly give me any reasons to care what happened to any of them, and as none of the actors make any of my favorite lists, I didn't have an inate investment in them to carry me through where the film failed. On the other hand, those sewers? Awesome. Reminded me a lot of "He Walked by Night" which was filmed a year earlier, only those European sewers are cooler. I liked Trevor Howard too.

However, watching "The Third Man" had lots of other good repercussions. I had to lie there on the couch after it ended analysizing exactly why it didn't work for me and a movie like "Kiss Me Deadly" does. The film also brought me back to the post-war Vienna of "Four in a Jeep". Didn't realize how much that situation intrigued me until I saw it again, and it also helped me realize why the setting in my POW novel has remained so vague and unformed. A lot of stuff for the novel clicked into place after watching this movie.

It's interesting that the stuff we don't like is often more useful than the stuff we do.

Tuesdays aren't so bad either

Okay, settling into the swing of morning writing a little better now. So far, very little frittering this week, during my 8-11 time.

POW proceeds swimmingly (over 52K now), and I even got a fanfic story edited.

Mondays are good

Stuck on DTD. Need some shuffling done. A few things need to come in much earlier, and I haven't quite managed to reorganized the blocks in my brain yet. Needs some pondering time, and there's still a couple questions my betas asked that I don't have the answers for, and that isn't good, as I can see I will indeed have to answer them, and in the beginning too.

So, switched to POW and got 1000 new words written, the first new words since nano ended. I've revised a fair amount of the beginning, but have not advanced the story any until today. I was quite pleased that the main character's voice was easy to slip into again. Easier than DTD is right now, but DTD's issues are structural in nature, not voice or style.

"I like livin'..."

How sad is it that I pop into my own blog a couple times a day just to look at the picture I put in the previous post? But it's a pleasant interruption from work, which is threatening to overwhelm me, so I'll take all the distractions I can. I showed my sister part of "Jeopardy" yesterday for the Dirty Dozen connection, and she was quite shocked and delighted that he was such a hottie in his 30's. But she and I like mostly the same look in our men, so I knew she'd dig him too.

I have a rough outline of the last half of POW done now, and more new words on a fanfic story. I have two fanfic stories left to write (well, two and a half), and then I'm done. They're pressing stories, stories that are driving me crazy to get them down. Don't think I've ever had that with any of my previous stories. I just wrote them for the fun of it. These last two, I have to write. Unfortunately, I also have to write the conclusion to Murder's Melody. Or maybe I'll just pull that story for good and let it die a hard and painful death in the incomplete files. I know what happens, I just can't get motivated to work on it with these other stories horning in.

What I'd really like to do is just sit down on a Sunday and finish off the second draft of "In Little Stars." Turn off the internet, stop watching my weekend movies with hot, drool-inducing actors, and finish the damned thing. Then finish "Blood of the Air." Because both are eating up valuable brain cells that I could be spending on POW and the DTD rewrites, but they won't go away no matter how hard I try to shove them into the cellar. If anything, they get stronger in my head each day I delay working on them, and my focus even simply working on an outline for POW was sketchy. I haven't been grabbed by stories this hard in ages. And it's a perfect pair of stories to end my C! fanfic career on, too, particularly BotA. I dig that!

Now, I just need to stop talking about it and get writing so they're outta my head already! Go! Shoo! Shoo!

Eureka!

So, on the plane ride home, I did some POW thinking... and finally -- finally! -- things fell into place for the last half. I have the last line (which made me grin and grin), I understand what the other main character is doing, I figured out it's more of a noir mystery than anything else, and that let me pace the events I had more evenly and with purpose. Me very pleased. Me ready to continue writing on it now.

Only thing I haven't light-bulbed on yet is the setting. I want it to be cars and hats and trench coats and all 1940's, because I just can't envision it in another setting. And yet I cannot seem to explain such a thing logically within the context of the story. Is it an alternate 1945 with magic? Is it some random fantasy world and that's just where thing's have developed? I can't bear to change it to some more medieval-ish setting, I desperately want that 40's look and feel. I just can't figure how to explain it in the novel.

Et voila!

And so, I finished off the rough draft of a fanfic story tonight. It wasn't the one I'm supposed to be working on (MM), alas. But I don't care. I finished the draft! It's a remarkably short fanfic story for me, so once I got going and realized how close the end really was, I just pushed on. It was one of those times where I didn't let myself stop typing, just kept going until I had it all down.

The coolest thing was that this was mostly out of the blue writing. I've written nothing on this story for nearly three weeks, and the last session was a couple hundred words or so, that's it. But I got about 700 words last night, and tonight, another couple thousand and that was that. Story over.

Now, of course, it needs some major revisions, mostly to flesh things out, but I'm very happy with it overall. It's solid action and suspense and strategy and... tanks! Did I mention the tanks? Dig it. (train dodge) For such a small story, I packed a lot into it. I'm not sure it ever lets up.

And amazingly, I don't think it'll take long to do the second draft either; everything's there and in place. It's just a matter of immersing in the characters and running with it.

This is all build-up to kicking into gear on the second half of the POW novel. I worked out the next couple of scenes in it, so I'm basically ready to go on it. This just makes me bounce up and down in my chair. Cuz being stuck on it just sucked. Now, I haven't solved my bigger dilemmas, but each step forward might take me closer to the answer I'm looking for

Absence of the muse does not make my heart grow fonder

But interestingly, the story I most want to work on after a break from writing is the broken POW novel. That fascinates me, that despite the fact that I can't figure out the critical missing pieces that would let me finish it, it still compels me. It haunts me nights, the voice of the protagonist so clear. Now if only the other lead would be as forthcoming. Ciphers I don't need.

As a concession to that driving need to write the book, I tried appealing to muse#2 to come back and drop me some hint. I've all but given up on him, but that's typical for our rocky relationship. However, the other muses are no help, so it's back to #2. Maybe that will appeal to his ego. We'll see how things fare.

"It's Christmas, Theo, it's the time for miracles."

Today, I started in on POW rewrites, not necessarily by choice -- wasn't going to work on this one until the new year -- but because the beginning came to me. And I can write words that sing! Boy howdy, after nothing but what feels like forever of bland and mundane, I found the main character's voice today. And rediscovered how much joy writing can be when you're on.

Merry Christmas!!

Halfway through December. I did not keep up the momentum of nano, but that was because I couldn't get my mind around what happens next in the novel. I'd look at my outline, but nothing would come out when I sat down to write. So, I read a lot. Finished two novels, and am partway through a third.

Really, my brain is rather obsessed with the 50k it already has and editing that. I feel like I need to get it in shape, stop carrying the true story only in my head and have the paper reflect what I learned on the nano run. Been spending a fair amount of time rolling it around without much conscious thought. Letting the images and feelings run, letting the subconscious control the pathing. It has been solidifying nicely. Had one nice realization about one minor but important character. I feel a little surer of the voice I want now. I still can't figure out whether to go with my sort of alt-1940's world with the automobiles and suits and modern conveniences, or switch it into something more classically magic-oriented. I lean towards the former, because that's how the story was conceived. But that doesn't mean it serves the story. It just means I like it. And the world-building of that alt-1940's is a bear and brings some potential reader baggage I want to avoid. But... ? When the right setting gives me a zing, I know it'll be time to write.

The rest, as always, is a matter of sitting down and doing.

2007 nano wrap up

So, another nano completed. What do I have to show for it? 50,000 words I can't use, for one. Okay, that may be exaggerating. There was quite a bit of dialogue I rather fancied. And the story is still sound. But I never once got in the groove, that place where the language flows and you know you're writing stuff that will survive the edit. That freedom and immersion in language eluded me. It was an exercise in the mundane.

But that's okay. I knew that would happen from the get-go, and I accomplished what I set out to do -- get a first draft that explores the ideas I had and shows me what I don't want to do. I learned a lot about what doesn't work in this book. My brain is already trying to edit, refining and removing the dross, nailing down what I really want the final draft to do. Not letting it, not yet. Want to finish the second half of the book first because without knowing how it truly ends up, what's the point of revising?

Alas, I don't quite know where the second half goes yet. Good thing nano ended when it did! LOL! I have a bunch of broad notes, but I can't see how to get there in detail yet. I think another focus shift is in order.

So, music listened to while writing the first half:

"The Secret of NIMH" - Jerry Goldsmith (90% of the time was this score)
"Justine" - Jerry Goldsmith
"All the King's Men" - James Horner
"Just Cause" - James Newton Howard
"Ransom/The Chairman" - Jerry Goldsmith

On word counts, the most I got in one day was a little over 5000 words. I had two days of zero words. I found it worked well to get about 500 words in before starting work. Then I could do the standard 1600 after work and end up with around 2000 for the day.

I'd like to keep that approx. hour of writing first thing in the morning as I head into December.

Only 10K left now

All right! 5000+ words written today, which not only caught me up but got me beyond where I technically needed to be. Interesting stuff today. I started out with one goal-scene in mind, but by the time I got there, things had changed and that scene wasn't possible. Then I aimed for a second one, and danged if that one didn't fall through too! So be it. Realizing that 50K really will only put me at about the halfway mark to novel completion. I'm going to attempt to keep going, maybe not up to nano speed, but as close as I can until I hit the end. I did DTD in 3 months, no reason I can't do this one. I really really need to see where it's going because I have a feeling I can turn it into something very cool, but not yet. Not at this stage where the characters rule the show and not me.

Also had a new C! story idea. That one will keep awhile, but it rather intrigued me. I think it might actually be a re-working of another C! story idea I already have partially mapped out. I do tend to keep coming at an idea that I love until I find the best characters and plot to tell it. That's half of what P.O.W. is... ideas I skirted around in both DTD and Variance now coming to the forefront.

Ack!

So, 32K and 62 pages into POW and an unknown character just appeared. A woman, no less, and I'm wondering 1) where she came from, and 2) where she's going, because she's obviously not in any of my outline notes. Ahem. So, how's she tie into things? How much does this change? Clearly, she's trouble with a capital T. But I'm not sure what kind. Does she have her own designs on Mitchell? Is she working for Stark?

I'm very intrigued by this unexpected chick, and I will let her go wherever she will.

Those odd coincidences

So, seems everybody's talking pov this weekend. Writer blogs I frequent, as well as new ones I followed links to. All of it appropriate, as I'm still debating how I want to tell this tale, except no one's saying anything that either 1) gives me some new fuel to contemplate, or 2) made the light bulb go off yet. It's just all really good recaps of what I already know, the kind that makes me nod and go "yep."

And I'm writing a book about a POW Camp survivor, and today, I met one from WWII. Now that's an odd coincidence. I'm never prepared for these kind of encounters, so I mostly let him talk. I couldn't think of the questions I really wanted answered while I was sitting with him, even the simple ones, though now, they're flowing in an endless cycle of question marks. Naturally. So, maybe that just means I need to go back and speak with him again.

Had my best writing day yesterday, even after all my various attempts to fail. Exceeded 4000 words and got myself nicely caught up. Got 1700 today, so I'm staying in line. I'm wrapping up chapter six, sitting at 56 pages single spaced. I didn't make it to the scene I thought I would, but that's good, as tomorrow should be easy to jump into.

It's the little things

Fourth best word count night since starting nano. First person is working out okay, and so far it's far better than third had been. Even got some other writing done on the side yesterday without impacting nano that much. I'm looking forward to the next couple nights of nano. There's a drunken brawl to write and a hate rally. Not to mention an unexpected reunion, an arrest, and then an unpleasant reunion. I can't hear the dialogue yet, but I can see the scenes, which means it should flow fairly easily.

Had a thought of perhaps telling one character's past story and one character's present story simultaneously, in alternating chapters. Not sure yet whether the second story is necessary or truly serves a purpose, but my brain is having fun playing with the contrast, the added suspense, plus having a way to do a slow reveal that's necessary for the ending. Will see how it plays out.

It comes a little clearer

Ah, see! Now the stuff I was hoping to discover is appearing. Yesterday, I got a couple hundred words, but that was it. I didn't even try for more. Just ate dinner, called it quits, and went to bed before 9 pm. Today, I'm already up to 2000. Taking a break now until evening to let some new stuff gel.

I knew the voice was wrong, so I switched to first person. That helped. Mitchell's much clearer now. I also had a problem between my notes (he was quite bitter there) and what was coming out on paper (he was turning rather heroic). I knew the latter was all wrong, but what could I do? That's what was coming out when I was writing. Today, he started edging around the bitterness I wanted.

And I found out some of the reason today. I already knew I going to be re-writing everything up to this point, but now I'm really re-writing it! In fact, I couldn't resist going back and starting to change some scenes around. (Stop me!! Can't get new word count by simply replacing the old! Grrrrr.)

Now, I'm more in sync with my notes, and I also understand more where Mitchell's coming from, which should get me through the next couple chapters. Then I think I'll smack another wall, probably around 30K.

And Dezane? Not sure where this came from, but he's very foul-mouthed when he's angry. Not something I expected from him, as he seems so educated and urbane, but no, he's all about expressing himself in four-letter words. Not sure where that's going, but it has resulted in a couple of very funny scenes between him and Mitchell (who rather prudishly objects to the language) so I might just have to leave it.

Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way

Still suffering inability to get the right voice down on paper. I'm currently writing in omniscient, which is a great surprise as that's not a pov I ever use. I like to get in someone's head and stay there. I can't get in these characters' heads. So, in this novel, so far, I'm mostly observing and pointing thing out as narrator. I keep trying to pull in tighter, and each time, I pull back, so from that aspect, it is a weird combo of povs as I experiment.

I keep getting the feeling it should be in first. I may even try a section like that, see how it reads.

And the other big problem is my lack of setting. I've been very careful to try and keep this as low-key fantasy as possible, mostly urban, and not much of that. And I think that might be exactly backwards. I'm coming to the conclusion that this story needs to embrace the fantasy aspects, head-on. That I can actually tell the story I want better for the fantastical and the contrast it allows, than for trying to steer clear of it. Hm.

How not to tell a story

Interesting. Nano proceeds, and I'm finding it quick and easy to get my word counts this year. However, the writing sucks. The story's events are exactly what I want, in fact, I've had some interesting surprises as I go along, all good. But I am not telling the story the way I want to. The voice is wrong, the pov might even be wrong. This actually fascinates me, how wrong everything's coming out. Not wrong, exactly, just not what I want. This will be the first time in the nanos I've done where very little will be kept from this first draft.

And oddly, that doesn't bother me at all. I think with this story and subject, I need to experiment a bit. I think I need to get the whole thing out before I can figure out the proper way to tell it. And I like that. I like that a lot. This time doesn't feel wasted at all. It feels like necessary discovery and learning time. It also frees me up during nano itself. The past few years I've stressed over the words, editing and chopping as I went. It made nano very hard, but it also gave me fairly clean drafts.

This time, I'm not worried over how any of it reads, and don't really care how lousy the sentences are. I just want to see where the characters take me so I can learn what makes this story so different in the actual telling. Why the straight-forward approach that worked on my other novels fails here. The sense that some important discovery about my own writing lies ahead makes me write faster and quibble less. It's quite cool and rather exciting. And oh-so-different from my normal writing experience.

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.

Marquee change. Again.

More mental reshuffling on P.O.W. Now the good guy (the lt.) has been re-cast. (as opposed to the good bad guy (the maj.) who changed shape a couple weeks ago.) I was picturing a John Kerr/Joe Cable type for the lieutenant. Young, fresh, rather naive, though still a good soldier. Nope, that's not working out at all. Watching the movie "Battle Cry" last night, I realized that was not the type I wanted. I wanted young, fresh, reluctant, and a good soldier. Someone who doesn't say "I don't know if I can do that but I'll try because I have to" and go in and do the job, but someone who says "sure, I could do that, but I don't want to, so leave me alone." Much better foil for the major, and then when The Scene comes... it's even more devastating. And that makes me very happy. It also now makes me excited about both roles, whereas the maj. was stealing all the thunder before. Now the lt. is his match.

Ahhhh, I love writing.

And oddly, the Aldo Ray character in the movie that inspired this switch is not at all like the lt. in my story. He's not reluctant, isn't a loner (I sort of got a William Holden/Stalag 17 attitude imposed on him, LOL!) . It's just that I can see him being the way I want in my story. That's usually the way it goes. Someone grabs my attention and I think, that's nice, but what if he was like this instead? And the new character is off and running.