Write, damn you!

[elaby]

I'm feeling really weird about my Nano this year. So far, it's more boring than a sock in the corner. All those things that I read on the forums and in the promotional stuff about "just write and see what happens" - when other people do that, it seems like exciting and unexpected things happen. When I do that, nothing interesting at all happens. People walk and look at the sky and remark to themselves on the nuances of sunlight at that particular point of the day.

I'm having a hard time "just writing" this year. It's not like my inner editor is telling me to -- *totally distracted by Norma Desmond being melodramatic in her iTunes* -- telling me to go back and change things. My inner editor is much more forward-thinking than that. S/he is telling me that events need to progress intelligently, that I need to set up stuff for later incidents, and that before I write that scene where they go fishing, I have to know how the hell people fished commercially before they invented motorboats or how anybody fishes at all when they're not doing it with lobster traps or a fishing pole and bait. S/he is telling me that I can't skip around, and that if my characters are boring, I have to develop something to make them interesting instead of, say, dropping a giant meteor or a vengeful flock of killer albatrosses on their heads and seeing how they react.

I also have the annoying impression, one I don't necessarily believe but can't get rid of now that I thought about it, that this is going to be one of my "bad" Nanos, like the one I didn't finish in my first year of grad school. It was bad because I didn't have any feeling for any of my characters except for one who was already dead when the story started. I've only introduced two characters so far, and they're okay, but I don't like them all that much yet. I can't remember how I felt about the Nano characters I really like after the first three days, so I don't know if I felt the same way... but for some reason I feel like - this being my fifth year doing Nano, I should come up with something significant and well-written and brilliant (or at least with bits of brilliance, not just loads of mud) on the first try, not just... padding to get my word count.

I'm just going to hurry to parts I think I'll find fun to write. If other characters come in later who I like more, I'll make them the main characters. *shrugs* It's happened before. I feel sort of bad, because it tends to happen like that when I start out with female protagonists and then throw in some males ones who I'm much more interested in. But now is not the time for self-analysis!

Now is the time for eggplant cutlets and spaghetti. *goes to help caitirin with dinner*

[edit: Eggplant had! Mmm. Also read part of our No Plot, No Problem noveling kit, and I feel less whiny and sorry for myself.]

Comments

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

mine has stalled, for now. I've been ridiculously busy at work, and during today, and it's now 11pm and I'm *tired*

whine.

but! only a couple of days behind, so it's still salvageable. I might not hit 50k, but I do want to carry on. My main problem is that I want to go back and edit. Must. Not. Edit. Yet.

We can do this. Write some of the fun parts! Edit it together later.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Yes! Writing the fun things is a great idea! And definitely, even if you don't reach 50K, don't give up. You'll write something! Try to meet your goal every day even if you didn't the day before. Catching up is good, but if you at least try to write the 1660 words (or however many it is) you'll have quite a bit.

[caitirin.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And it doesn't have to be made of awesome. In fact it can and often is made of awful! But there's something to work with in there!

Making clay, right! Forget not the making clay. You gotta have clay to sculpt the master piece. We're all making clay.

[caitirin.livejournal.com]

Do I have to fly to England and poke you with spoons?

(You can do it! Just don't give up because you get behind early on. kay? Promise me you won't just throw in the towel. Keep your towel and keep hitch hiking.)

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I'll continue! I promise!

(got a trip to london next week = 5 hours onna train...)

just not tonight. Tonight is for sleepingzzzzz

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Sleeping is a nice idea :) And good for you! Just keep writing even if you fall behind!

How about we all promise that we'll still be writing our novels on the last day (or one of the last few days if something wacky happens IRL on the 30th) even if we miss a few days in between? I promise!

[glamhag.livejournal.com]

Everyone's doing better than me. I haven't even started yet.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

You still have a chance! You're not that far behind at all!

[raechel]

*hugs* Maybe leave out the technical stuff for now? Write the fun parts. That's what I'm doing until I really get a feel for where I want the story to go and how I want it to go, then I'll get into the technical "boring" stuff. Crap or not, this is for you and it is supposed to be fun.

[jongleur-gerard.livejournal.com]

"...more boring than a sock in the corner." Ugh, great, now you're distracting me with story ideas.. :P And I can't even sneak this into my nano because A) my main characters( and only characters in the story so far) ar Imps, who wear sash/toga things, but that's it, maybe belts.. but no shoes or socks.. B) the MC's are in a dinghy in the middle of the sea( being dragged in the wrong direction by something which has come up under the boat) without a corner in sight, and even when they get to the mainland, they'll be in the woods and not see any Humans for a while, so still no socks and no corners.
Sorry those questions aren't helping you move forward. You'd think with what you had for characters, it wouldn't be that hard to have the sister run off, and once you have that, you've got a whole world of dragons, dragon people, danger, romance and possibly the odd swashbuckler to liven things up? Just breathe and start sprinkling the chaos. You've got enough to work with.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I should really do that! The problem is that I don't really have much of an idea where the story is going, so if I don't write most of the parts first, I won't know where anything is going to end up. I don't have very many "fun" scenes already thought up ^^;;

[elaby.livejournal.com]

She IS going to run off, and I've always been planning that, but it's just that I always feel I have to do X, Y, and Z before I get there. I guess that's my inner editor I have to fend off.

Depending on what kind of boat it is, the boat might have a corner!

[elaby.livejournal.com]

And the questions you gave me WERE really helpful :) It's not that I don't know things about my characters or that I don't have a place to move to, it's that I find my own stuff boring and was kind of thinking it was going to stay like that (not because of anyone else's suggestions, but because of my writing.)

[jongleur-gerard.livejournal.com]

Yes! Exactly. Escpecially at the start, if silly introductions and setting the mood of the world stuff is keeping you from doing anything, I can see that being discouraging and making you feel like your characters are boring.. because that's the boring bit. That's the bit that's too much like real life and everyday crud people are trying to get away from when they read your story.. Just set them free, let them do their exciting things. You can come back and edit in specific reasons/ fights/ the fishing boat coming back mostly empty again later. Really. I have consulted the NaNo gods and they say "To heck with 'X, Y, Z' if they're slowing you down. Get on with it!!"

[jongleur-gerard.livejournal.com]

oh the boat, yeah.. I've called it a dinghy, but it's really more of a big bowl that's been stretched in one direction, like a banana split bowl, without the bottom stabilizer thing. They're not exactly great sailors, but that's okay as their boat is now sunk and they're only halfway to the mainland.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Woot! Thank you! I was thinking that I have to establish normalcy before I can throw people into chaos, but to heck with normalcy during Nano!

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Uh oh! Sounds like they need a new boat, or a convenient and very large sea turtle :)

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

ok, I'm in!

[jongleur-gerard.livejournal.com]

I ROFL in the face of normalcy.
My main characters are 2 no-collar worker Imps raised in caves and a teenage human magess raised in a magi-tech city.
My plot surrounds protecting a river of sludge which is the Imps' food source.
My main characters just avoided death by tightrope walking, and one of them just threatened the end of the Impire by eating three birds eggs. It wasn't even a special bird.
And the main bad guy hasn't even shown up yet...

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Woot!

[elaby.livejournal.com]

I ROFL in the face of normalcy.

That needs to be iconed or something XD

Dude, your novel sounds like SO much fun! The Impire *giggles*

[coastal-spirit.livejournal.com]

Just sending encouragement and hugs. Keep it up; this is probably just one of those days. The inspiration will come and you'll be outa there like a shirt!

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Thank you :) I feel a little bit better about it now, and I should feel more better (more better? Jack, get out of my head!) about it after I write tonight's stuff, which should get into the fun part :)

[raechel]

Heh, I am running out of fun scenes but I now have a plot idea so I guess everything works out.

How is it working on your end? I've been checking your word count every day and you seem to be doing really well but it never hurts to ask? *cheers you on*

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Hee, thank you! I've gotten into some action now, and I'm liking my characters a lot more (I added some, too). It's going a lot better :)