amazon_syren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amazon_syren) wrote2007-10-06 09:25 pm
amazon_syren) wrote2007-10-06 09:25 pm
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On Nanowrimo and my Marriage
Well... Today has been fairly productive.
By my standards, at least.
I posted two new chapters of "Live Truly, My Heart" (110 pages, and counting! Woohoo!) as well as an angsty Trin/Switch one-shot. Also, I had choir practice and tidied the kitchen.
Go me! :-D
I realize that, perhaps, my standards for 'accomplishment' are a bit low.
But, then again, maybe not. :-)
Of course, this is not the subject of this entry.
No. I want togripe talk about Nano and why I do it.
See. Last year, I wrote a YA fantasy novel for Nano. It had a decent premise, but it was full of plot holes.
Note 1: I mean the kind of plot holes that universes get lost in, okay? Not the kind of thing where you go: "Oo! Yeah! I should have mentioned X back in chapter three!" and then go and add a sentence (or even a paragraph) and everything is more or less tidy and fine. I mean the kind of thing where half the story doesn't make any sense unless you re-write the other half. Completely.
So I decided to let it go.
Yes. I'm giving up on a good plot idea.
It's not like I can't go back to it if I ever feel like trying that story again. I do, after all, still want to write a story that avoids applying gendered pronouns to one of the main characters (not the protagonist).
However, right now, I can't salvage the draft that I did. So I'm not inclined to worry about it that much.
It's pretty clear to me, however, that I do have a bit of a 'button' about the subject. Because it bugs me when Paul says things like "Are you gonna finish it, this year?" of my doing Nano.
Note 2: To finish Nano? You write 50,000 words. Of dreck, if necessary. The idea is to end up with a draft and just enjoy the fact that you were able to produce it.
So, technically, I *did* finish it. And early, I might add. :-)
The thing is, Paul is a very goal-oriented person.
I am not.
I am a very experience-oriented person.
As such, Paul looks at stuff like Nano and goes "The goal is to publish a novel at the end of the month". Which isn't exactly the case. But it's how he sees it. The goal hasn't been achieved unless you've put something good through Lulu or whatever and can say "Here, have a copy of my latest novel", or what-have-you.
Whereas, in my case, while I can go "Must write 2000 words a day for the next thirty days! Must, must, must!" and do it, the point for me isn't publication. It would be totally, utterly *awesome* if I wrote something good enough to edit into a publishable manuscript. don't get me wrong. But I'm not going to tear my hair out of a recreational activity if it turns out not to be, well, profitable.
I figure that if, five NaNos from now, I've honed my novel-writing skills to the point where I *can* tell a reasonably plot-hole-free story in the space of a month, then good. :-)
The "Live Truly, My Heart" epic fic, for example... There's not a whole lot of difference in style between that and my Polly/Mal Saga. Except that I'm writing this one from beginning to end, rather than writing it in dribs and drabs, tossing down a story whenever one turns up in my head and filling in the blanks as I go.
This has its own set of challenges - like having to come up with Dramatic Interest for each chapter, rather than writing a bunch of well-spaced Exciting Bits (and then filling in the blanks with sex, um...) - it means I can't skip ahead to the next 'naturally occurring' good bit but, rather, have to actually think about plot and rhythm and such-like.
This is tricky, sometimes (I'm sure there are three or four chapters in "Live Truly" that are a tad on the dull side, just because they were mostly taking place inside Trinity's head and all she was doing was Angsting over figuring out this Polyamoury business.
(Chapters 11, 12, 16 and 17 could all use a little work in that department, I think. ;-)
Anyway. What makes going from start to finish *easier* than the 'do a scene any-old-where' method is that you already know what's happened already. There aren't (theoretically) any hidden blanks that you'll need to fill in later on, just because you neglected to find that bit of the story when you were randomly writing out scenes.
With this in mind, I can happily say that "Live Truly" works as good practice for novel-writing, if only because I have to keep track of what's been done before in order to explain what comes next. In some sort of an orderly fashion, no less.
Something I may have to try this NaNo: Plot arcs. Coming up with some sort of a concrete time-line about what all the little climaxes are supposed to be. Before I start writing the story. Just so I can have an idea of what I'm writing *towards* when I do start telling the tale. :-)
I've got this lovely book that interviews various authors of children's and YA fantasy books about being a writer and How To Write and what-not. It's quite handy. Some of the authors literally can sit down and write out the whole story, start-to-finish, and only need to polish it once before it gets published.
Other authors - like the illustrious Terry Pratchett - take a much longer approach.
Terry, for example, goes through about five drafts.
Draft Zero is the one that he starts out with, and which never sees the light of day because it's just that horrible.
Every time.
Draft One is him telling the story to himself. This means he has to *know* the story in order to tell it. So he says "write out the plot synopsis by the time you hit about page 20 of Draft One... otherwise you won't know what's going to happen and the story will just sort of trail of and die". More or less.
Draft Two is him telling the story to his editor.
Draft Three is What They Come Up With Together
and
Draft Four is for Polishing.
Then you do the good copy, and you're done. :-)
Personally, I'd like to get to the point where I can do Draft One of a novel and not have it be a complete mess of a Draft Zero - if only because I haven't quite figured out how to sort out the good bits from the copious amounts of chaff in order to *get* a Draft One out of a Draft Zero.
Anyway.
That's me Yammering away about Nano. Lot's of fun to be had this November. Yes, indeedy, yes. :-)
In other news: I will *not* be going to Brunch tomorrow. I forgot what weekend this is. ;-)
Instead of Brunch, I will be spending lunch time with my in-laws, and dinner-time with my mother. There will be mad amounts of turkey. Just insane. ;-)
Anyway. I'm absurdly tired now, so I think I shall toddle off to bed. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
By my standards, at least.
I posted two new chapters of "Live Truly, My Heart" (110 pages, and counting! Woohoo!) as well as an angsty Trin/Switch one-shot. Also, I had choir practice and tidied the kitchen.
Go me! :-D
I realize that, perhaps, my standards for 'accomplishment' are a bit low.
But, then again, maybe not. :-)
Of course, this is not the subject of this entry.
No. I want to
See. Last year, I wrote a YA fantasy novel for Nano. It had a decent premise, but it was full of plot holes.
Note 1: I mean the kind of plot holes that universes get lost in, okay? Not the kind of thing where you go: "Oo! Yeah! I should have mentioned X back in chapter three!" and then go and add a sentence (or even a paragraph) and everything is more or less tidy and fine. I mean the kind of thing where half the story doesn't make any sense unless you re-write the other half. Completely.
So I decided to let it go.
Yes. I'm giving up on a good plot idea.
It's not like I can't go back to it if I ever feel like trying that story again. I do, after all, still want to write a story that avoids applying gendered pronouns to one of the main characters (not the protagonist).
However, right now, I can't salvage the draft that I did. So I'm not inclined to worry about it that much.
It's pretty clear to me, however, that I do have a bit of a 'button' about the subject. Because it bugs me when Paul says things like "Are you gonna finish it, this year?" of my doing Nano.
Note 2: To finish Nano? You write 50,000 words. Of dreck, if necessary. The idea is to end up with a draft and just enjoy the fact that you were able to produce it.
So, technically, I *did* finish it. And early, I might add. :-)
The thing is, Paul is a very goal-oriented person.
I am not.
I am a very experience-oriented person.
As such, Paul looks at stuff like Nano and goes "The goal is to publish a novel at the end of the month". Which isn't exactly the case. But it's how he sees it. The goal hasn't been achieved unless you've put something good through Lulu or whatever and can say "Here, have a copy of my latest novel", or what-have-you.
Whereas, in my case, while I can go "Must write 2000 words a day for the next thirty days! Must, must, must!" and do it, the point for me isn't publication. It would be totally, utterly *awesome* if I wrote something good enough to edit into a publishable manuscript. don't get me wrong. But I'm not going to tear my hair out of a recreational activity if it turns out not to be, well, profitable.
I figure that if, five NaNos from now, I've honed my novel-writing skills to the point where I *can* tell a reasonably plot-hole-free story in the space of a month, then good. :-)
The "Live Truly, My Heart" epic fic, for example... There's not a whole lot of difference in style between that and my Polly/Mal Saga. Except that I'm writing this one from beginning to end, rather than writing it in dribs and drabs, tossing down a story whenever one turns up in my head and filling in the blanks as I go.
This has its own set of challenges - like having to come up with Dramatic Interest for each chapter, rather than writing a bunch of well-spaced Exciting Bits (and then filling in the blanks with sex, um...) - it means I can't skip ahead to the next 'naturally occurring' good bit but, rather, have to actually think about plot and rhythm and such-like.
This is tricky, sometimes (I'm sure there are three or four chapters in "Live Truly" that are a tad on the dull side, just because they were mostly taking place inside Trinity's head and all she was doing was Angsting over figuring out this Polyamoury business.
(Chapters 11, 12, 16 and 17 could all use a little work in that department, I think. ;-)
Anyway. What makes going from start to finish *easier* than the 'do a scene any-old-where' method is that you already know what's happened already. There aren't (theoretically) any hidden blanks that you'll need to fill in later on, just because you neglected to find that bit of the story when you were randomly writing out scenes.
With this in mind, I can happily say that "Live Truly" works as good practice for novel-writing, if only because I have to keep track of what's been done before in order to explain what comes next. In some sort of an orderly fashion, no less.
Something I may have to try this NaNo: Plot arcs. Coming up with some sort of a concrete time-line about what all the little climaxes are supposed to be. Before I start writing the story. Just so I can have an idea of what I'm writing *towards* when I do start telling the tale. :-)
I've got this lovely book that interviews various authors of children's and YA fantasy books about being a writer and How To Write and what-not. It's quite handy. Some of the authors literally can sit down and write out the whole story, start-to-finish, and only need to polish it once before it gets published.
Other authors - like the illustrious Terry Pratchett - take a much longer approach.
Terry, for example, goes through about five drafts.
Draft Zero is the one that he starts out with, and which never sees the light of day because it's just that horrible.
Every time.
Draft One is him telling the story to himself. This means he has to *know* the story in order to tell it. So he says "write out the plot synopsis by the time you hit about page 20 of Draft One... otherwise you won't know what's going to happen and the story will just sort of trail of and die". More or less.
Draft Two is him telling the story to his editor.
Draft Three is What They Come Up With Together
and
Draft Four is for Polishing.
Then you do the good copy, and you're done. :-)
Personally, I'd like to get to the point where I can do Draft One of a novel and not have it be a complete mess of a Draft Zero - if only because I haven't quite figured out how to sort out the good bits from the copious amounts of chaff in order to *get* a Draft One out of a Draft Zero.
Anyway.
That's me Yammering away about Nano. Lot's of fun to be had this November. Yes, indeedy, yes. :-)
In other news: I will *not* be going to Brunch tomorrow. I forgot what weekend this is. ;-)
Instead of Brunch, I will be spending lunch time with my in-laws, and dinner-time with my mother. There will be mad amounts of turkey. Just insane. ;-)
Anyway. I'm absurdly tired now, so I think I shall toddle off to bed. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)