NaNoWriMo 2014

Yep, I'm doing it again.

They say you don't learn to write novels, you learn to write this novel. They say every novel comes to the writer in a somewhat different way.

In my limited experience, this is true.

My last novel had strong characters that were easy for me to write, but there were times I couldn't see what happened beyond the scene I was working on.

This novel I'll be starting in two days? I have a strong sense of the over-arching plot, large vistas, the big picture stuff. What I don't have is characters! This is scary for me. You can't tell a story without characters.

First drafts suck. This is another thing they say that is true. They also say a first draft is the writer telling herself a story. Subsequent drafts are the writer telling others the story. What that means is I can start with a major info dump of all these big vistas, describe the plot as I currently see it. Start with the panorama view, then zoom in.

And that's when those characters better start waving at me to tell their stories!

Got my fingers crossed and my stash of coffee.

Portland!

I finished the story I mentioned in my last post. By the deadline!

The reason for that deadline: I was flying to Portland, Oregon to meet up with my on-line writing group. We were each to bring a story to share. It was our first time being all in the same place.

The visit was amazingly fun. Lots of talking. Many photos were taken. Here's just a sampling.

Cannon Beach on a glorious cloud-free day. I bought All the Earrings.

The following day: Multomah Falls

A tree near Horsetail Falls. This one could be a prompt for a story! 

In our search for lunch we crossed Bridge of the Gods to Washington state. So I've been in Washington. For maybe a half hour. The photo was taken in Oregon, looking across the Columbia River to Washington.

The next day was an inside day.  First stop was Voodoo Doughnuts. The filling on this one was raspberry. The sugar rush lasted several hours. 

We had to go to Powell's Books. This is the entrance. Enticing, isn't it? And the store delivers on that promise. So. Many. Books!

Flying into Portland, I saw Mount St Helens and friends out one side, followed by Mt Hood on the other side. I was in an aisle seat so didn't get pictures. Flying out of Portland I had a window. Here's Mt Hood.

It was a marvelous trip. We discussed so many things, including our plans (or lack thereof in my case) for NaNo in November. Maybe we can make our getting together an annual thing.

New Inkwell Entry

I had today off from The Day Job. I planned to work on a short story that has a deadline of September 26. Instead I dithered. A lot. Reorganized my Safari bookmarks. Cleaned up the laptop desktop. Read over the stories and story fragments from two recent NaNoWriMo rebel years (2012 and 2013). Copied out the pieces that looked promising.

One of those stories was set in The Inkwell world. (See the tab at the top of this page. It's a story I wrote jointly with Dixiegirl, started during NaNo 2009). So I did a rough revision and posted it HERE.

That September 26 short story? No progress. I believe I have effectively spent my day in that well-known phenomenon: displacement activities. Well, it's not bedtime yet...

Reading Update

Here are the books I re-read since the beginning of May:

N.K. Jemisin, The Inheritance Trilogy (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of Gods). Epic fantasy. Not earth Medieval Europe based, wonderfully developed characters. Naha is a favorite.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Sharing Knife Series (4 books: Beguilement, Legacy, Passage, Horizon). Fantasy/romance. Has a great depiction of riverboat culture.

Kate Elliott, Spiritwalker Trilogy (Cold Magic, Cold Fire, Cold Steel). Epic fantasy. I love Ms Elliott's worldbuilding. An example: an intelligent species based on troodons.

Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens. Because it's a delightfully funny apocalypse tale.

Elizabeth Bear, 2 books: Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water. Urban fantasy. Inventive combination of classic Fairie, the Morgan/Arthur myth, mages, werewolves, and a dragon, centered in New York City. Her Morgan is my favorite Morgan ever. And Ms Bear gives the kelpie realistic horse-like behaviors when he's in human form.


Here's what I read that was new for me since the beginning of May:

C.J. Cherryh, The Morgaine Saga. A collection of three SF novels; interplanetary time travel and culture clashes.

N.K. Jemisin & Hiromi Goto, Systems Fail. A collection of short stories and essays published for WisCon38, where they were the Guests of Honor.

Ursula Vernon, Toad Words and Other Stories. Ms Vernon tells delightfully original fairy tales. She is also very good at re-imagining traditional fairy tales. If you're unfamiliar with her work, starting here would be a good choice. Then read Digger (beginning of the story)  - just sayin'.

I finished Toad Words today. I think I'm ready to tackle more new books now.

I Wrote A Post for My Blog!

The day job has been claiming an increasing amount of my time since around the middle of June, leaving me tired and with few active brain cells come the weekend. Training five people at the same time with little help will do that. If they'd started at the same time, I could have trained with easy, lecture-like sessions. So their starts were staggered. A week or two apart. I mostly get to say the same stuff five times over!

Writing has been sporadic to non-existent.

I did read many books - well, that should be re-read many books. Didn't feel up to the thinking required when reading one for the first time.

I consider re-reading as writing research. When a book is well done, I just devour the story. It takes two or three tries for me to be able to pay attention to how the author managed that magic! So during the re-reads, I flagged pages that might help me with the revisions I have looming.

My novel and a short story need revising. I'm up for critique in September. Last time it was my turn I had to pass. I will not do that again.

Also, I'll start posting here more often. I have a target of once a week.

My plans haven't been working out very well recently. I still make 'em. Maybe I'm the Overly Optimistic Poster Person.

WisCon 38 is over :(

I returned home today from this year's WisCon.  WisCon LINK

It was an amazing weekend. The Guests of Honor (GOH) and the Tiptree Award winner's speeches were beautiful, provocative and kickass. I cried and cheered along with 1000 friends.

That's how WisCon feels. Like you're there with friends. The atmosphere is welcoming, inclusive. It's easy to strike up conversations, you can wave and say "hi" to someone you saw in the audience at a panel and most likely they'll return the greeting. Con friends.

So. Pictures or it didn't happen, right? Here's the view from my hotel room, because View. It's the Wisconsin capitol building near sundown.