Weekly Wrap Up

Hey, everybody!  We are TWO days away from NaNoWriMo.  Get ready.

I wrote a fan fiction one-shot this week.  Was pretty exciting, since I got to try out the technique of telling a story backwards.  I think it's a new favorite of mine.  I'm glad people are liking it, because I love it.  And it was so easy to write.  I love it when things are easy to write because you're inspired.

Rewind (a backwards love story) - "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." - Soren Kierkegaard.

The answer to the question of will I be starting NaNo at midnight on November 1st? is no. At midnight, I will be at various Halloween parties, and the next morning, I will be sleeping off the night's effects.  Halloween only comes once a year, and it only comes four times in college.  Live it up.

The answer to the question of what is my costume? is ANIME GIRL.  Be prepared.  There will be pictures, and they will be amazing.  There is a lot of pink.  There will be pink hair extensions, fishnets, pink skirts, and pink hair bands with poofy pink flowers.  

A friend, greenconverses, will be doing a guest post sometime in the future.  When? Whenever she feels like it.  What will it be about?  Something to do with writing, naturally. She is a splendiforous writer, and she spends utterly too much time listening to me whine about writing.  I would consider her my best friend that I've never met.  We have entirely too much in common, and it's kind of scary.

I would like to see the MJ movie "This Is It."

I'm just pointing that out.

Have a great weekend!

Dun Dun Dun...Outlines

So I know you're wondering how the NaNo regional meeting went.  Everybody was really nice, blah blah, duh, of course.  We writers are nice people.  90% of us are fantasy writers.  *facepalm*  Oh well.  I will think of it this way: we're all part of the in-crowd.  It's pretty surreal being able to talk face-to-face about subjects that I normally only relate to Interwebby writers. We're going to have write-ins twice a week.  I'm going to try really hard to make it to at least one each week, but no guarantees.  Distance matters too, as not all of them will be on campus, and I hate taking buses.

In the world of my new, titleless baby novel, I've been outlining.  Very seriously.  Me, the serious writer, outlining.  I have two story maps (incomplete), a T chart, the beginnings of character biopses, and several pages of just free form notes.  I haven't even started the notecards yet.  You can't ever have too many roadmaps, right?  Errrr yes, so I admit I've probably been a closet plotter this entire time, masquerading shamelessly as a flier (by the seat of my pants, although this phrase never made sense to me--how can you fly by the seat of your pants, unless your pant seats have wings or some kind of mystical butt pixie dust?).

Anyway, since I've been reading Gail Carson Levine's blog religiously, I came across a post about notes.  You might want to check this one out.  Apparently, she takes notes during her writing process as a kind of diary/workbook/place to vent your hatred of your stubborn characters.  What amazes me, is how extensive her notes are and how messy.  And how she mentioned that books like The Two Princesses of Bamarre (which I conveniently have in my desk as a reference for a model YA fantasy novel), were "horrible, uncooperative monsters." What?  The Two Princesses of Bamarre was...bad at some point?  I know they say first drafts are never perfect, but somehow, I imagined GCL birthing beautiful novels through mental regurgitation, thoughts appearing on paper effortlessly, all while merrily munching on dark chocolate without gaining weight.  Well, the fact that this isn't true, gives me some perverse joy at knowing that everyone, even GCL, has to struggle.  Is this wrong of me?  Probably.  But she never has to know.  

Now I have notes too.  It's kind of a relief that no one has to see them except me, because they're so disorganized and incomprehensible.  But I bet GCL's are ACTUALLY color-coded with gel pens and decorated with glitter.  I bet hers go in neat lines and read like calligraphy. 

So now, I must ask again: plotter or flier?  What are you?  Have you ever tried the other method?  Do you believe GCL's shenanigans about struggling?  Surely it is a lie to make us feel better!

TGIF

So last night, instead of sleeping (which incidentally, led to me sleeping through my alarm clock this morning and missing discussion...mehhh), I wrote.  A lot.  I guess when the inspiration  hits you, it's like responding to a cocaine addiction: you just NEED TO OPEN MICROSOFT WORD AND TYPE THINGS, PRETTY THINGS.  It's nice when that happens, but for some reason, it always happens at one in the morning or later.  

But it's Friday now, so all is right with the world.  Tonight is the first regional meeting for NaNoWriMo 'round these parts, so I might get to see some writers IN REAL LIFE for the first time.  I don't know any writers that I've met in person.  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  Unless some of my friends are harboring deep, dark novelly secrets.  I'm pretty sure they're not, though.

I wanted to share a cool discovery I made last night.  Cool for me--maybe everybody else already knew about it.  Gail Carson Levine has a blog.  Besides the fact that it's GAIL CARSON LEVINE (Ella Enchanted, Fairest, Two Princesses of Bamarre, etc.) who is way high up on my list of favorite authors, she blogs only on how to improve your writing.  YOUR writing.  She posts every Wednesday about a new topic, usually a question posed by a commenter.  Occasionally, there are fun exercises she puts up too.  It's very cool and helpful.  I have to rein myself in from wasting hours by reading all of her posts.  Since, you know, she's a best-selling author and all, she probably knows a little bit about good writing.  Did I mention that it's GAIL CARSON LEVINE?  

Next week, I'm going to try a new technique with my writing.  Instead of shooting from the hip all of the time, I'm going to...outline.  I usually plan novels according to what is going to be in which chapter.  This time, however, I'm going to write up every scene on notecards and let them go as they will, dividing by scenes instead of chapters.  I think this will lend a better sense of pacing to the story as I go along.  For NaNo, I mean.  And I'm guessing that I will write faster if I know where the story is going.

Have a good Friday!

How Do I Get To Know My Characters?

Question by Rebecca.

Well, let's see.  I don't interview my characters.  We don't really interact.  Maybe in my head, right before I go to sleep, where no one can see the jumble of insanity going on, I will think about asking him/her some questions.  

I think what I tend to do instead, is go through an ordinary day, and imagine how characters would interact with an environment or situation if they were in my place.  I let myself imagine the snide remarks they would make (if they're the kind of people who would make snide remarks) and how they would feel about a scenario.  One at a time, of course.  I don't need an entire cast crowding my head.

Some of them are more amusing to spend a day with than others.  I designate characters as "the one I would want to be with if we were going to a party" or "the one I would want to be with if I had a huge exam and needed a ton of patient tutoring" or "the one I would want to be with if I was in a crap-tacular mood."

I really, really hate looking for pictures of my characters.  They look so distinct in my head that I can never find just the right picture.  And I also don't like pictures because they're very cut and paste about looks.  If I do look for them, I prefer paintings or sketches.  They give a dreamy quality to the character, a more fictional feel that I like.

But since I feel the need to physically represent a character for you, here are some pictures. They're not perfect, but they're about as close as I can get, I guess.

This is Megara from Across The River Styx.  I call her Meg for short, but nobody else does.  She is the MC and the first-person narrator.  This particular representation of her has green eyes, which is important.  Not to the plot, but to the way she looks.

This is Elladora from the NaNoWriMo project.  I call her Ella.  Most people do.  She's not even the MC, but I just really adore her.  I think she's my favorite character so far, out of everything I've done.  This representation of her has the upturned nose and short brown hair.  That is, apparently, really hard to find.

The pictures are actually of Rachel Hurd-Wood and Tatiana Romanov.  Tatiana usually looks so sad, so I found a picture where she...doesn't look AS sad.  Ella is not a sad person.  Really not.

Also, I am registered for NaNoWriMo under Icy Roses, so if you're participating too, look me up so we can be buddies!

Monday: Sometimes Nonsense

Tuesday: me

Wednesday: Girl With A Notebook

Thursday: Flames and Shadows

Friday: Somewhere Nowhere In My Kingdom

The New Project

Long time, no see.  Busy, busy. 

Since I'm participating in NaNo now, I figured I would need a project. That's kind of important, right?  I was just going to do the fan fiction story, but I'm already a good 20,000 words into it.  That's 20,000 words I can't include in my word count.

Then I decided I might go ahead and actually finish the second draft of ATRS (yeah, yeah, I know; I took a three month hiatus from it), but it's so close to being done that it would be kind of pointless to spend all November doing it.  All I really need for that is a one week writing boot camp, and it'll be complete.  I know exactly what's going to happen, what needs to be written.  I am just L-A-Z-Y.  I'll do that in December, I think, when the dust has settled from NaNo.

I had two major ideas that I was deciding between.  One was the "sequel" (more appropriately, companion novel) to ATRS, which was going to be a real challenge, with two POVs and in present tense.  It would be good for me to experiment with different styles of writing.  This would have a darker tone, older YA or possibly adult.  At the same time, I opened up the three chapters I had finished of "Steam" and reread them.  They're--well, they're actually pretty good.  I liked them a lot.  I hated the fact that it was elemental fantasy (fire, water, blah blah), and it had a distinct, Tolkien-esque high fantasy feel.  Not my cup of tea right now, not at all.

I wanted to do something lighter and happier for NaNo.  Not something archaic and epic.  I wanted to do YA, not adult.  And I really wanted to do urban fantasy, or maybe steampunk if I was especially ambitious.  

Well, I decided.  Ever since coming up with "Steam" (in a very odd and vivid dream), I was mostly attached to the characters.  The plot was kind of quirky and had potential, but all I wanted to do was spend time with the people populating that world.  I spent days drawing up character charts to get to know them better.  I never do that.  And I thought, well, why not put them somewhere else and see what they do?  So the revamped plot is not an urban fantasy, sadly.  It's still set in a fantasy world, but it's much...tamer?  Fairytale-like, I think.  More Robin McKinley and less Lord of the Rings (not that I could ever measure up to anything Robin McKinley writes or J.R.R. Tolkien, for that matter).  The main character is a male fairy (because there aren't nearly enough of those in the world).  I'm a bit worried because I've never written a male MC before, but it will be a fun challenge.  Perhaps I will put up a blurb when I write one (I am oh so horrible at writing those; it's definitely a skill I need to work on if I ever want to attempt a query letter).  

Oh, it has fairies and witches and princesses, and everything I've ever wanted to put in an ideal novel.*  I'm so excited to begin.  Hopefully, by winter break, I'll have the drafts of two novels ready for intensive editing.  I shall take them with me to China where I will have no Internet, so--editing galore!

I know I have total ADD when it comes to projects, and I'm hoping NaNo will give me a chance to just WRITE without thinking about how good or bad it is.  I can always worry about that later, but sometimes, my Internal Editor sends me to a grinding halt.  It's a very annoying thing.  I need the chance to just be able to churn out the crap, so to speak.  After all, every diamond starts out as a piece of coal.  Er, I think.  I'm not that good at geology.

*The only thing it's missing is talking animals, so maybe I should just go all the way and add those too.

What Makes A Memorable Character?

I AM ON TIME.  The question for this week is: what makes a memorable character?  Or alternatively, what makes a character memorable FOR YOU?  Because we all have different tastes, after all.  This would be a good time to go ahead and admit that while I did enjoy Pride and Prejudice, it was not one of my favorite! books! ever!  Some people (some of my friends, in fact) have an unhealthy obsession with this book--namely, with Mr. Darcy.  I mean, sure Mr. Darcy is cool and all, but he's kind of the typical douche/bad guy (interchangeable in some situations, but I'd go with the first for P&P) who changes for the girl because he loves her. Boring.  Lame.  Misleading to girls in real life.  The only reason I like Mr. Darcy is because he's portrayed by Colin Firth, and let's just be honest here: that's an objective kind of hot.

So, I'm going to go over MY criteria for what makes characters memorable for me. 

NOTE: This really applies to what I think makes a memorable hero (villains are a whole 'nother ball game that maybe we can handle in another week).

1) I'm a bit on the fence about complaints.  I don't like whiny emo people (exhibit A: Harry Potter in Book 5).  If you're going to be whiny, at least have a sense of humor about it.  If you're going to be whiny and not be funny, then you are no longer memorable to me.  In fact, I don't even know if I'm going to finish reading your story, dear MC.  I finished HP5 barely, because I had already invested 1000+ pages of love in Mr. Potter, and if he was going to have his hormonal cry-fest in one book, well, then I could deal with that.  

2) Be a person of action.  Don't let action happen to you.  You are the hero!  Do something, go somewhere, kick some ass.  Because if you're not, then maybe you should switch places with your sidekick and save us all the trouble of suffering through x-pages of watching you get your backside slapped around by circumstances out of your control.  Nobody wants a weak hero. You're not even real, so do something that will impress me and make me remember you.  Do something that nobody else would do.  

3) Really noble people.  I will admit, this is blatantly something that applies directly to me.  It is entirely possible that you like heroes who run in shades of gray (which is fine; I like them too, but not so much as the noble ones).  I find that I particularly like heroes who are always striving to do the good.  Who are rarely conflicted by TEH EVIL even if it threatens to win overwhelmingly.  Who doesn't like a good stalwart underdog?  My theory as to why I prefer noble heroes is that the world needs noble heroes, and they always seem to be the ones people admire the most, you know?  It takes a lot to be so committed to the light.  

So there it is.  Here are some of my favorite heroes, in no particular order:

1) Harry Potter

2) Ella (Ella Enchanted)

3) Scarlett O'Hara

4) Percy Jackson

5) Coraline (Coraline)

6) Esperanza (Esperanza Rising)

Hmmm.  It occurs to me that I should read more books with male protagonists.  I will work on that.

Electronic Doodads

So how do you feel about the Kindle?  Because everybody seems to be freaking out about it, and I guess I haven't really formulated an opinion on this thing.

Maybe I am slowly feeling the effects of aging and not being able to catch up with technological advances.  I'll admit it: I don't have a Kindle, or any other kind of electronic reading device.  I know some people who do, but most of us carry our books around to class like old fashioned Abe Lincolns, uphill both ways.  

Coming from someone who doesn't even like electronic textbooks (because I don't like reading on computer screens, yet I find the one hobby that makes me sit in front of computers for hours at a time), I probably won't be investing in a Kindle anytime soon.  I don't have a virulent hatred for them, I am kind of indifferent, slanting toward vague dislike.  Yeah (on my spectrum of love/hate).  I have heard that it is not unpleasant to read on Kindles, I suppose.

But I am a little afraid of everything getting digitized.  Not that paper books won't exist anymore, but I'm sure the sales will decrease.  I like having paper books.  The only thing I find objectionable about them is how many I have, and how obnoxious it is to move them/store them when I go somewhere.  I don't like how when I go to China for a couple of weeks, I only have room to bring one book in English, so me and that book--we become best friends.  Seriously.  This happened with Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mirror Mirror, and to a certain degree, Lord of the Rings.  It would be pretty cool if I could bring more.

What about libraries, though?  Would they carry less paper books?  Would we develop some system to check out electronic ones?  The real question is, would I be able to experience the embarrassment of walking into the children's section and pulling out a tattered copy of The Titan's Curse?!  I don't think so.  If I had the electronic version, I totally wouldn't have to be flashing the cover of it on my desk and looking like an overgrown five-year-old.  I guess it could be worse.  I could be a thirty-year-old man, and then, I'd really look like a pedo.  I'm wearing this loose, baggy plaid shirt which isn't helping out the situation (it's Sunday; don't judge me).

Anyway, as long as I still get my paper books, I'll be okay with life.  I'll be sad when my books get pirated (if I get published), but that is a worry for another day.

Present Your Work To An Author of Your Choice

Because I would never be able to choose just one, here are two, and two that you might expect if you know me at all:

1) Donna Jo Napoli.  She's a graduate of Harvard (mathematics and Romance languages) and got a degree in linguistics from MIT.  She is now a professor of linguistics...somewhere in Pennsylvania, I think?  I'm not sure.  I think she does workshops for writers, which is more than a lot of authors do.  She also happens to be my favorite author and has been for many years.  I've never met her, and I don't know very much about her, but I know that she is the most stylistically perfect writer I've ever had the good fortune to read.  And I hope that someday, I do get to meet her.  (And maybe attend one of her workshops.  I'd probably leave crying, but it would be a good kind of crying.  The kind you look back upon fondly later.)

2) Rick Riordan.  I know he's too busy to function, but I'm such a fangirl, I can't help but put him on my list.  I think he has a mad good understanding of pacing, which is something I struggle with regularly.  He is also brilliant at dialogue and voice.  I've (kind of) met him in person, and he seems really nice.  I guess all authors must try to seem that way while on tour, but he used to be a high school teacher so he can't be a total hermit, right?  High school teachers also understand...you know...feedback.  So he'd probably offer good advice.  In my hypothetical dream world, of course.  Like I said...too popular to function.  Anyone who has that much love for Greek mythology though--I think we can get along.

...And now, I am apartment-hunting with my future roomies so pray that the rain stops and wish me luck!  

I'll post next week's order when I get back.

*Edit* No sorry, I was not apartment-hunting for a day and a half, I just forgot about this shindig.  :-(  But here it is:

Monday: Me

Tuesday: Somewhere Nowhere In My Kingdom

Wednesday: Flames and Shadows

Thursday: Girl With A Notebook

Friday: Sometimes Helpful Nonsense

NaNoWriMo: Yes, It's Time

Check your calendars, everybody.  It's October 6.  But I guess some people are far more prepared than I, because there are already 15,000+ people signed up for NaNoWriMo 2009. National Novel Writing Month is when everybody goes into a mad scramble to try and write 50,000 words in thirty days (if you are successful, you "win").  So I had this post planned out explaining why I was not going to participate this year (I have never participated before; only found out about it last year).  

Firstly, NaNoWriMo is kind of populated with people who don't know what they're doing (in terms of getting published, not necessarily writing well).  As in, I know I can't query now until at least February, because I don't want to be in the flood of people who do it right after NaNo thinking that quantity = quality.  There is a definite uptick in querying in December and January solely because of this November phenomenon.  Secondly, I physically cannot write 1,600 words a day, which is the average you need to achieve (roughly) to reach that magic number of 50,000.  I can't.  I have never written that much for more than two days at a time. Thirdly, I'm in college.  Is this explanation enough?  There are not enough hours in the day. Also, who wants to write during Thanksgiving?  That's when I'm going to be writing my semester thesis, anyway.

But all of this rational thinking clearly went out of my brain, because I am going to sign up anyway.  Because believe it or not, it is actually on my list of things to do before I die: participate in NaNoWriMo.  I'm going to make it a goal to win too--before I die, I mean.  Not this year.  HA.  I'm hoping for between 25,000 and 30,000 words, and that's a lofty goal. Maybe I should make it part of my schedule to wake up an hour before class to get writing in then?  Time will tell.  You would be surprised how quickly your priorities change when your alarm clock goes off in the morning (brushing your teeth and putting on real clothes suddenly seem like unnecessary fussing)--but I'm sure all of you know this from personal experience. Morning is not a good bet for anything.

Anyway, I think NaNo is a good thing for people who are aware of the intensive rewriting/editing process to follow once you've obtained your 50,000 words.  I would never show a rough draft of an original work to a single soul.  Ever.  Because I would probably cry in shame.  And so would the reader.

So here is my post that was meant to be a post about how I was not participating.  I give up. You win, November.  You win.

Friday Freedom

I finished the Thomas Becket/Henry II in-class essay test today.  You know what is NOT a good idea?  Studying the night before in place of sleep ("Oh it's okay, I have time after The Office; it's okay, I have time after Community...").  I thought my brain was leaking out of my ears by the time the test was done.  

Goal for next week.  Bind, gag, and stuff my Inner Editor into a box, put the box into a safe, set the safe into a cement, and then throw the cement block into Lake Michigan.  I can find her again after I'm done with this draft.  You know...since I've done so much writing this week...

Fun book quote of the week from my friend Jill at lunch on Thursday: "If Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings got wasted, had a one-night stand, and then abandoned their love child in the woods, that would be Eragon."  I think I died laughing.

...Sorry, Eragon fans.

I made my week better by going to the mall with a friend and buying clothes from Forever 21.  I feel shallow, but new scarves improve my mood.  I have a scarf weakness.  I can't control myself around them.  Maybe I should go to therapy.  Since college students have so much money for frivolous shopping...

Have a good weekend, everyone!