Been pecking at this the last few days with minimal forward motion, which is ironic since I’m in the section where I need to go backwards to progress. Yep – flashback time! The way I’m structuring it right now is a section in the present, a flashback, and the result of the first portion combined with the motivation from the flashback. Every time I type the separation asterisks, I hear the flashback noise from Lost.
I remember reading once that flashbacks were tricky things to write simply because people could get lost in the transition, so I do everything I can to make it clear that there is a scene break followed by information that makes the transition clear without being jarring. Yep, I’ll admit – tricky.
Word count increased to over 17k. Two days of writing coming up soon; need to cross 30k by Thursday to get back to goal. Ugh.
While watching CNN this morning (only news channel on Sling) I saw a journalist (Mr. Cuomo) ask a Congressman about the Paris attacks. 30 seconds really caught my attention. They went something like this:
Paraphrasing for the most part, but that’s the gist. So much to unpack here. Lemme start with Congress.
Losers. I know it isn’t nice, but there it is. Don’t say on the one hand that the President’s plan sucks while on the other hand you refuse to debate the real issues. Democrats, you are so busy pointing fingers at the Republicans and telling them they’re all kinds of mean that you ignore the mirrors in front of you showing your own flaws. Republicans, you’re so busy saying you’ll do something “next time” that you’ve practically grown roots and and started putting out leaves. Your jobs are pretty simple, Constitutionally speaking: put up bills, debate them, vote on them. Republicans in control have failed on the first part (do nothing); Democrats on the second part (deem and pass, anyone); everyone has failed at the third. Losers, one and all.
Mr President, you’ve been so busy arguing against the representatives of the people that your hands are nowhere near clean in this area. Nearly every time the Republicans talk about issues important to them…and the citizens who voted for them…you say it’s a non-starter or something. You’re quick to jump on anything that happens which offends you or your base and are even faster to praise things that polarize your party, but rarely do you extend the opposition an olive branch. You’ve extended these to our traditional enemies such as Cuba, Iran, and Russia more than you do your fellow citizens. Shame on you.
Journalists, you have failed on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin. When just seven percent of journalists identify as republicans, the bias is clear. More? Check here, here (cites above material), and here (older for comparison). When you eat, sleep, and breathe a single point of view, you miss and misrepresent the truth as it is to be the truth you want to see. Rush and Sean do it too, and you excoriate them for it. It isn’t your job to defend the President – he’s a big boy with unlimited media access, he’ll be fine. It isn’t your job to defend Democratic candidates – let them speak for themselves. It isn’t your job to make fun of how people look on one side of the political spectrum but let it slide on the other (The View anyone?). You complain about Republican tax plans non-stop, but where’s the realism on the Democratic side? Free everything? Sure, why not.
Everyone here has abdicated their responsibilities in favor of looking good. Congress won’t vote because then they have to defend those votes. The President won’t work with Republicans because they’re mean and it’s hard. Journalists freeze out anyone who isn’t in on their groupthink sessions, then wonder why people are so stupid as to believe other things.
Shame on you all.
With all that said, I’m personally willing to forgive and forget if you’ll just GET OFF YOUR COLLECTIVE ASSES AND GET TO WORK! Mr President, put in the time and effort to doing what needs to be done. Get your hands dirty. Drink with your opponents and find/make commonalities. Congress, take a look at the crap storm we’re dealing with here outside of D.C. and put in some thought. Make tough votes. Be willing to lose your job for what you believe in and be proud of that fact. Journalists, put down the water buckets and pick up your thinking caps. The load might actually be heavier than carrying someone else’s water, but you’ll find that spark of satisfaction in your chest far outweighs the lump of depression you’ve been disguising as smugness for so long. Find the truth and tell it. Don’t tell a version of it, tell it like it is.
We can come back from this. We’re better than this. Take the reins, give them a flick, and let’s get moving again!
Have to take a moment out from writing to celebrate the 10,000 word mark. Not so much because I hit the number, of course, but because I get the badge of honor from the NaNoWriMo site Again, oddly motivating.
I genuinely have no idea how long this book should be in terms of pages or words. I have an inkling on chapters, but only because it looks nice on paper. Will have to see how the story grows before I make any type of commitment.
Modified the formatting a bit but still looking for something snappy in the between pages section. It’s a little thing, granted, but good to think about nonetheless. It’s like how the eureka moments come on – we think on something, put it aside for a while, and move on to something else only to have the answer come back and smack us full in the face! Fun…not the fish smacking so much, just the eureka moment.
Since the last two posts didn’t go through right, figured condensing them into one rather than reposting late.
Done introducing new characters for now. Little ancillary ones, of course, but no new mains for another 12 chapters or so. Got a good read from my alpha reader with excellent feedback. Changes a few things in context, reinforces a few other things, helps with formatting, and above all great idea on keeping people straight for the readers.
Word count updated. At present rate, should finish the goal of 50k words on Christmas Eve. Not acceptable. Need to find another gear now that I’m finally shaking this cold.
Writing this one with an eye towards Kindle/iBook release only. Why waste time on an agent for a “throwaway” book, right? Right?
Home with the kids while the wife is off bringing home the real bacon. Side note: would love to bring home enough writing bacon that we could trade places 🙂
Picking at the keyboard between cleaning tasks and breaking up fights is interesting. It gives me a chance to think through what these characters will do and why in a different way. The disjointed nature of walking away after a paragraph really gives me a chance to express the disjointed nature of a character’s thoughts.
Short word count so far this morning for obvious reasons. Looking to crank out some this afternoon and evening. 2-3k would put me close to weekly goal. Maybe some additions tomorrow will get me on track.
Still sick but slightly better off than yesterday. Bah, who cares, on to the writing!
Wondering if I’m introducing too many characters at once but plowing through the fear. The brevity of the chapters is offset (I hope) by the method of time actually flowing as opposed to giving a snapshot of all new characters at the same moment in time. Hopefully this will act as a kind of secondary character. Time, I mean. By having time move along at a steady pace while introducing new characters, I hope to make things flow in a steadier, more understandable pace. Will have to rely on my alpha reader for some feedback there. Good luck, Kevin.
Am reaching the end of the book’s first day, which is actually set two days before something big happens. Everyone knows it, is no surprise, but it’s still tense. In this manner, I hope to bring the reader in without blowing all the action upfront. Again, go go gadget alpha reader!
Word count increased to just under 6k. Need to get it up to 10 k to get on track for 50k end. A 50k word book – that’ll officially be my shortest one ever.
Sick. Ugh. Up at 2 last night/ this morning when my brain switched on. Wife and I passed like zombie ships in the night as she tended to sick kids (while sick) and I retreated to the office to let her sleep. Traded places at 5 when I woke up on the office floor and stumbled to bed; she went to my office futon because I was snoring. Sorry babe.
Writing while sick is an exercise all to itself. I get inside my head and start to wonder if I’m over the top on some things or ignoring others. It’s like writing in bullet-time (think The Matrix) only reversed; instead of time slowing and letting me dodge bullets, it shoots past me while I peck at two or three keys. I don’t recommend it as an experience worth repeating or even doing.
Word count increased as the Sudafed kicked in. Hopefully it fits the rhythm of everything before it. Will learn tomorrow. Tonight is for some serious rest and relaxation. Ugh.
Going into this challenge, I was relatively blind. I knew the general backstory to my fictional land and a few of the cities that would be important to the story, but that’s about it. What I didn’t know was how to differentiate the book, how to make it unique in the fantasy realm. Would there be magic? Gods? Wizards? Dragons? I wasn’t sure, so instead of letting myself get bogged down in the fear, I just let it ride. Go get it, brain!
It did. I think I have a workable framework for moving things forward both in the sprint and the marathon stages. Super excited to see if it works and if I can pull it off. Should be fun.
NaNoWriMo day three is in the bag, and the word count has risen slightly. My one day of outside-the-house work was today, so the laptop was left behind. To compensate, I used pen and paper to scribble out some of the characters I’ll be introducing soon. Making the characters gave me better insight into their cities, which in turn gave me more insight on interactions between and among the cities. Feels good to scribble things out, to scratch out the bad and write in the good and see everything remain on the page. That’s one thing word processing has against it – once you delete, it’s gone (normally, of course; I’m not talking about seeing draft and crossing out and blah blah blah).
Tonight was writing night, the night I get out of the house, hit up a Starbucks, and caffeinate myself into creativity. Hey, it works. As long as I can ignore the people around me, I’m good, and that’s why God made headphones, right? One quick aside – why in the world does a tutor take up residence at the nice table in the back every freaking time? Same guy, same bunch of high schoolers, and I’m still not sure exactly what he tutors. He’s always eating or stepping away to get a drink or hit the restroom or just chatting and laughing with the high schoolers. If I were paying for these sessions. I’d better be getting more out of it than watching him eat his soup from a thermos!
Just a bit over a thousand words today as of 6: 30. I blame my kids…awesome little things that they are.
The hardest part about this challenge is creating things on the fly with less planning than I normally like. To make things smoother, I’ve decided to suck it up and use the modern convention of seriously short chapters with mildly detailed headings. Not what I’m normally comfortable with, but isn’t that the point of a challenge?