I'm nano sprinting with myself today- ten minutes on, ten minutes off. I hope to break 40k today. If I do, I'll post a big long chunk of story and you guys can peruse it.



Dear Elissa the Red!

I challenge to you to reach the 40k mark with me today! Today would be a great day to catch me online and sprint with me. Or, you could let me win in a crushing defeat. It's your choice really.
Most fondly,

your enemy.

I have had breakfast. I have rolled up my sleeves. I have the "Top Gun" soundtrack blaring at top volume.
Now, I write.

I'm reading "Sin and Syntax", by Constance Hale. She breaks the book down into two parts: word types and sentence structures. Now I can't talk without second-guessing myself. I like her book, I like her writing style, and I like the way that "Sin and Syntax" has taught me about grammar. I want to go back and erase everything that I've ever written, but since that's not feasible I'll just wave the white flag of humility and eat crow. Tomorrow I will pay penance at the library by learning how to diagram a sentence. Maybe I'll learn to enjoy good grammar when I see it.

Only, now it's not about Bloomingflax any more! This year for NaNoWriMo, I'll be writing about ships with biological components that need to be seduced into moving through organ music.

Oh, dear Lord, this is difficult. Everytime I open up Bloomingflax, I find myself embarrassed and unable to go on. I've opened it and shut it ten times so far this morning. The inconsistancies in my narrative voice alone are enough to kill me. And that section where I describe the members of the Bloomingflax Crochet Circle? Pure shit. I remember when I wrote that section, I wrote it out of desperation, trying to fill my word count, casting about for things to say- and yes, it is so dreadful it will likely do me no good.

The opening scene with Tim and Joe is so good, it's hard to see that first section with the crochet circle, where suddenly my narrative voice becomes self-indulgant and giddy.

Plus, I know absolutely nothing about Jews or Mormons, and here I have one of my main characters struggling between those two religions. I need to do some research in that area.

It's okay, I can handle this. I just need to go in sprints rather than marathons, until I submerge myself so thoroughly into the editing process that I just sink into it.

I'm going through Bloomingflax, using this as a guide:
http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/#2

It's an excellent essay.

So, I want to write two novels this year. One will be written in November, but I'd also like to work on one throughout the year. It might be interesting to re-tell a fairytale in a quirky setting. Perhaps an altered history/present/future could offer some interesting possibilities. I'd also like to focus on getting deep down into the psyche of my characters. Perhaps I could tell the story of The Little Mermaid from the perspective of a prostitute who aims to become a nun, set in 1950's Poland in which Hitler has won the war? *blink*

Well, you get the idea.

I do know that I want to focus on at least on introspective character who organizes her thoughts in a whimsical, humorous way, rather than dragging herself down into a black sludge of angst. I definitely want to explore a character's fantasy life. I'm also open to the influences of some of the better-done animes. Scrapped Princess and Escaflowne come to mind.

Definitely, I'm not cut out for subtle. Over-the-top appears to be my method of expression, so I might as well stick with it.

So, I'm reading "Charisma Inc.- Risky Venture". It strikes me that this book is only about 30k words. I wonder if I could come up with an adventure series for young girls. =)

Having set Bloomingflax down for a few days, I've been thinking about methods I could use to edit it. I'm going to be following the steps outlined in this webside:

http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/the_snowflake.html

I think that following these steps will help me develop my characters and justify the plot points.

Here's my one sentence summary: In 2025, a small town crochet circle in a conquered America sparks a revolution led by a proseletyzing fifteen-year-old boy and the woman he secretly loves.

Some General Statistics That Might Be Of Interest
Total Words Written So Far 50,041
Total Hours Spent Writing 39.50

Avg Words Written Per Day 2382
Avg Hours Writing Per Day 1.88
Avg Words Per Hour 1266
Avg Morale Per Day 6

Number of Words Remaining 0
Number of Days Remaining 9
Number of Hours Remaining 0.00

Bloomingflax is going "friends only". If you wish to be able to read it, e-mail me at wendyaragon at hotmail dot com, and I'll friend you. Or just friend it in the next day or so, and I'll friend you back.

Cross posted to Mshathvri.

This is my National Novel Writing Month Journal. I plan on posting sections of story as I write them- in an effort to deny myself the luxury of editing. Once I've posted it, the writing is there, to add to the word count. This writing is not to be altered until National Novel Editing Month in March. Be warned, since I have no outline, my novel may not be written in chronological order- on the other hand you will get to experience the journey of writing a novel out of order with me. =)

Critiques are not welcome in this journal, due to the nature of the endeavor. Positive remarks, encouragement, and perhaps even snide remarks about how much higher your word count is at the time are. =)

This journal is Friends only. If you'd like to read the contents, friend me, and I'll consider friending you back.

Happy Nano-ing everyone!