NaNoWriMo & Omens

While I was writing my first novel for NaNoWriMo, I received a phone call from my friend Jake. He delivered the news that someone I had dated for a short period of time had died on an overdose. (I blogged about this back then.) The point being that I had been writing for a few weeks about regret and death and ends. I'm not saying that her death was a sign. Heck, she'd died a year and a half before I heard about it. But perhaps Jake's call was. Or I at least took it as one.

I just this week decided what I want to write this year. Stories and dreams and memories and beginnings. Today I get a Facebook message from a woman I dated back in 1989-1990. She's been looking through old, old papers and found a file titled "Tales to Sleep." My memories of that file is pretty slim and vague. They were short stories I wrote for her. Specifically to be read out loud to help her get to sleep. Bedtime stories. Fairy tales of sorts.

She wrote me to ask if I wanted copies (if I didn't have any, which I don't). And to tell me she was going to read through them to see if any her son might like to hear in the future. She's been married for awhile now and her son is one. The idea that those stories were all but lost but now have been rediscovered and might be read by/to her child fills me with joy. The whole concept of the stories and their rediscovery fits right into what I want to write about. Eerily so.

And I am taking it as a sign. The NaNoWriMo muse is definitely looking out for me.

Stories

I think I've stumbled upon what I am going to write for NaNoWriMo. The inspiration came from a weird place, as ideas often do. I was on the subway the other night, attempting to read. A lone empty 20oz. plastic soda bottle (most likely Sprite but hard to confirm since the label had been torn off, leaving just the white remnant scraps that are usually left) was rolling back and forth through out the car. Just enough fluid remained to make it's journey and trajectory erratic and unpredictable. It was late and no one in the car cared to be bothered by the bottle as it made its travels to and fro. Occasionally a passenger, when confronted by the vessel rolling up to them like a cat begging for attention, would kick it away or try to nudge it under the benches in vain hope that it would remain there.

For some reason I spent a fair amount of time that bottle and the people. I began to think about how it is pretty and odd and playful and how everyone was all but pretending it didn't exist. I pictured the scene, describing it in my head. And then, for no reason, I thought, "The pooka next to him fiddled with his Nintendo DS, tiny fox claws making tik-tac noised on the buttons."

The whole idea is still being fleshed out in my noggin. It is a world idea I kind of like. Nothing very original. I plan to treat it a bit different than I've seen before. Kind of Alien Nation meets War for the Oaks. Honestly not all the different in tone from the books I've written before... except probably more marketable. Somehow my biblical revisionist New York romantic comedy horror genre wasn't setting the lit world on fire.

Anywhozits, there is still a month left before November. Plenty of time for me to change my mind or to realize that the idea is shallow and totally lacking subtlety.

NaNoWriMo '08

My straight up fiction writing has been lagging lately so I've decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I have no idea how considering how my schedule is a lot more packed than it was in '05 and '06 (I took last year off), but my brain needs a jump start.

This year I want to do something unrelated to my previous books which have all been New York male-chick lit/horror/Biblical revisionism (once described as "Nick Hornby meets Edgar Allan Poe"). But I'm having a hard time deciding what. So let's vote in the comments.

Here are some options. I am fully open to taking suggestions (since nothing has sparked any particular fire in me). I don't have to decide until Oct 31st. Sometime in late October I'll post my top few choices and let my readers (all five of you) pick.

• A 15 year old girl who's mom drags her to boy bands because mom wants to hook up with them. (This is just a fragment on an idea.)
• My take on a zombie apocalypse. (I have no idea what I'd do. I only have on scene in my head that is actually conceived for film.)
• Something sci-fi. (I have no idea what this would be but it would probably involve war.)
• A dark family comedy/drama (ala Geek Love or whatever).
• An Alice In Wonderland/Phantom Tollbooth child sucked into alternate world fantasy thing. (This would be easiest.
• A time travel story. (I'd love to do this but to do it well would probably take more careful plotting than writing 50,000 word in 30 days would allow.)
• Erotica. (Want to see me go crazy? Watch what happens when I try to write 1,700 some words of porn a day.)
• A romantic comedy. (I'll need more to go on than just that.)

Oh, and this is old but I finally looked at it.

Good B-Days, Great Practices & Secret Meetings

Last night I went to NaNWriMo friend Jeremy's birthday party. I was tired and a touch cranky when I got there but quickly started having a great time. This sounds the tiniest bit pathetic, but I am getting a lot better at meeting new people. If improv has done nothing for me, it was made me more confident chatting in bars. I think I may have even flirted! Yes! The shock of it all! (Of course, I may be wrong. I'm so out of practice that I'm not sure I recognize "flirting" anymore.)

I say Jeremy is NaNoWriMo friend but he is now an improv friend. I met him doing NaNo last year (although we only really talked at the afterparty and a post-NaNo gathering). But I re-met him while attemding a make-up improv class (for the class I missed going to Mexico). It's good too because he makes me laugh.

Last week's Sunday practice was a bit of a bummer. We were all off. Actually, I can make no claims for anyone else. I was off. (Most of the consenus was that we were all off... although I thought Larry was on.) Todays practice was better. Much better. I felt a out of my head and just had fun. I also felt like I reconnected with some ideas I had forgotten... Keep it simple. Be specific. No need to go to crazytown. All of these things I've known, but I haved been doing them. Don't try as hard. Stop focusing so hard on game. Play it real. That is the big on. Play it real.

Tonight I went to a meeting. I can't talk about it. Exciting stuff though. I wish I could tell you, but I can't. Sorry.

105,365

I'll be going to Julep to celebrate. I will NOT be drinking a lot. But I will have one mint julep and sip it like a southern gentleman.

NaNoWriMo - the hard slog, great rewards

Well, I crossed the big 100,000 word line early this morning.

crazy Man, it has been hard. Not hard as in hard to get out the words. I've had little problem actually writing this time. But it wasn't the same magical joy as last year. Maybe I am already a bit jaded. But I think it is actually that the structure was so less set this time... and became a muddled mess. My transitions are all over the place. At times I do crazy event slipping into event. At times I do huge time jumps. I'll have 5,000 words covering 5 minutes of scene, followed by 500 words in which the main character has three jobs, dates and breaks up with a woman and witness a murder.

It is going to be an editing nightmare. It will probably end up being an entire rewrite. That is a bit disheartening. But there is a lot of good stuff scattered through out all of the pages. And I have finally put all of the disparate files together.

I now have 36 or so hours to wrap it up. I am very close... and not. This book needs a long ass prologue. It wouldn't if it were better written. Ah, well. No work today, so it is all writing and then a movie.

Video Games vs. Poloitics vs. Improv vs. The Novel

I realize that this last week has been all about video games. And the week before was all politics. And improv, for the most part, as as been getting a short shift. And the novel has been hardly mentioned at all. But it all makes sense.

Last week was perhaps the biggest week in video games ever. Do next-gen consoles were launched... two consoles with totally different takes on what folks want. And the launches went so differently (PS3 - riots, shootings, muggings, massive reselling on eBay, story after story of people getting ripped off on eBay; Wii - hugs and love and people dressing up as Link and Mario and Wiimote). I've been checking the up on the Next-Gen Console Wars 3 times a day. And I never even posted about the Halo 3 news.

Before that was of course a pivotal election. With much wackiness but a lot less contested than I expected. It was a lot more Wii than PS3.

And then improv has been over for a week. Well, class is. My lovely lovely group is still practicing on Sunday afternoons. And I have signed up for my Level 401 with Michael Delaney. I am excited and a bit scared... everyone seems to love him as a teacher but many have made comments about how it took them a whole other class to get them out of their heads afterwards.

And the novel... I am still plowing through it. I am really trying to get to some sort of end. It is still in a few files right now, so I am unclear on how many words I actually have. I've been focusing on getting a daily word count, but haven't been focusing on my total word count. We'll see what I end up with.

But the other reason I haven't been writing about writing is that this story is both less personal and more personal. Less personal because I am not writing about a character based so much on me and events that so closely mirror my life. But more personal because it comes most closely to my views on religion, God, suffering, morals. But it is harder to right about because it is less about story, less about discovering "joy," which was what last years novel was about. This is more about discovering... "the soul"? Not sure.

So it is still going, and going strong, so no worries.

KHAAAN!

I am spent from writing all evening. It's going a bit better.

I wrote some fun scenes tonight. Conversation with all of the babies left in limbo after the Church got rid of Limbo. The torture of a lawyer (no, worries, Papa Six... I promised a friend I would torture her ex... and he happens to be a lawyer). A glimpse of Heaven. Last night I wrote a sex scene, which is such a pain, but at least it was funny and not horrific. A lot less drinking in this book. Almost none.

I hope to get to Mexico tomorrow or Sunday. It's going to be a combination of the wedding I went to in October and a school trip I took in high school. It will be similar to the Burning Man chapter in last year's book, but less trippy and more horrific. A combination or horrific and beautiful. That is kind of the contrast I am working on in this story. Extremes and extreme points of view. I have also turned 180 degrees on the whole Job thing.

Anywhozits (I should patent that word... I think of it as uniquely mine), I am going to crawl into bed with a pint of rocky road and watch Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. I have never been a big Star Trek fan, especially Original Crispy, but lately I've been jonesing to see Wrath of Khan. I don't know why. It may be a reptilian brain thing.

Withdrawal

It as only been two days, but I already feel withdrawal kicking in. I am trying to write up a storm. I haven't been updating my word count, in part because I'm feeling jinx by it for some insane reason. Also, I've started jumping all over the place chronologically and the book in currently in seven separate files.

Anywhozits, I am off to Harold night at UCB tonight. I need my fix.

Where do they come from

More writing. Suffer suffer suffer. Joseph is doing a bit better, but only because I have to build him up a bit. He's got a part time job at the telemarketing company from Four Borders (no Dave doesn't work there anymore). But that job is going to lead to something more political, His girlfriend has also arrived from MA, so he's happy about that. I promise not to kill her... but not much else.

It was Wednesday so it was sketch class. I had written a bunch of sketches, tossed a bunch out. Settled on one idea, took a stab at it on Tuesday but t just wasn't happening. Then I put it off until 3 hours before class. I tried it again, did some quick edits to get it under 2 pages. Seem to go over well. Armando literally had no notes to give me. None. Said that there was probably reworking that would be done once it was being performed, but not much top do just on the page. Felt good... just not all that helpful.

And again, my ego is usually fine and needs no fluffing, thank you very much.

Anywhozits, I like to see what sites people come from to me lil' ol' blog. Many of these are from random Blogger blogs due do the random "Next Blog" button on the navbar. So let me honor a few of those here before I crash for the night.

I'm A Little Teapot from Debbie in Oklahoma. She likes, well, teapots!

Sai Shyam Page from Sai Shyam in Banglore, Karnataka, India. They actually linked to this site in their first post, but I think it was a test as that page has been deleted.

Donde Quedan Las Palabras from Diego Antonio Vivas Jiménez in Santiago de Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. I think that translates to "Where did they leave the words?" I don't know.

The Incurable Allure of Carrots by Mr. Tangerine in Chicago, Illinois. Some very entertaining poems and stories and pictures.

The Phoenix Hearse is by an aeronautics engineer who loves her cars. She has a special feature once a week called Bitchy Monday. Guess what day it is on.

Gears of War and I'm a whore

Remember a month ago when I played Gears of War for a few minutes? Well, it's coming out in a few days. I have to say that the hype machine on this one has gone a bit crazy... but considering it is releasing right at the PS3 and the Wii launches, it is no surprise. The two pronged attack of Gears and Viva Piñata (warning: if you click through to the Viva site you will have a horrible song inserted into the deep recesses of your brain) plus a info blitz on the no-release-date-yet-announced Halo 3 and the launch of the 360 HD-DVD drive all seem to be Microsoft's defensive strategy. We'll see how it works.

Although, since the PS3 is only launching with 400,00 copies in North America, I don't see how the PS3 won't sell out. So it is a question of whether folks denied the PS3 (or possibly the Wii) will pick up a 360 out of frustration. Seems less like an issue in the first three weeks than an issue for around Thanksgiving.

Anywho, I'm a video game whore. Just sayin'.

Here is a pretty standard video game trailer. Very Lord of the Rings-ish.
I much prefer this one. Thank you for not setting it to heavy metal. I hope game PR people/makers are beginning to release that not all gamers are 13 year old boys.
It has actually been awhile since I was excited about a video game to be honest. And I have plenty of questions about Gears' gameplay. But I most not let it distract me from the damn book.

Writing, Insomnia, Random bits

I've been writing, on and off, all night. I haven't been talking about the book much, I know. It's... a very different experience. Last book was a cathartic joy. This is... haunting. The world surround Joseph O'Clock is a twisted and dark place. The comedy I was shooting for is still there, but it darts around in the shadows. It is a scary book. Not frights, but there is a beast underneath the books skin that wiggles and squirms, itching to break through.

Allen NoLastTime from Four Borders had it easy. But that was in part because his book was about rebirth and over coming loss. Or at least accepting it (or defying it). Joseph's path... Man, I don't know what I, Emelphin and Quill (full name Qilzhqtylrophffffftcough) are doing to bore Joseph.

The first moment I realized that the book had delved into something I didn't quite understand was when Samantha attacks Stephan in the school yard. I knew the scene was coming, knew it was coming from the moment I conceive of the story. But her ferociousness surprised me. The way she scattered the colored chalk at her feet and was upon Stephan's back, her teeth sinking into his shoulder. Joseph's panic, his sweaty hands, the box slipping to the concrete. Bobby flailing at Samantha, desperate to protect his on friend. The screams from the students and the yells from the teachers as Joseph finally gets the box and press the buttons to all three children. Their bodies convulsing as the electric shock surged through their bodies.

And I never expect Samantha to get back up and turn on Joseph, blood on her lips... and the standoff that followed.

And it has gotten darker since then.

This has always been my problem with the whole Judeo-Christian "God has a plan/God works in mysterious ways" thing. Either you have a benevolent God or you have one that functions on such a different level that "benevolent" has no meaning. But the God in the Book of Job accepts Satan's plan to torture Job... just to prove a point. It is not a test of Job. It is a pissing contest.

Perhaps that's what this whole series is: Why SixSider thinks God is an ass.

Anyway, I didn't intend to write about all of that. I meant to mention somethings that have bothered me with elections coming on Tuesday.

- The election ads have gone insane. I don't even get the Republican ones. The Dems ads all seem to be just listing Bush's campaign promises from 2004. Not listing things he didn't do... just listing them. And then there are the mass of apologies this year. Alan Hevesi's "I was stupid" ads over the last few days are particularly entertaining.

- The whole "What do we call Hilary Clinton?" question is interesting. I know I refer to her has Hilary, which I realise is wrong. But we always refer to First Ladies by their first names. I don't know how we break ourselves from that.

- Obama. I'm torn. There is no one out there I would rather vote for in 2008, but I have no idea how he'd react to a national campaign. I have no idea how he'd actually run the country. He is farther left than the his image actually is. I'd hate to see him have to bend center for the Presidency... and I really don't think Senator Clinton is electable.

- I haven't been looking to closely, but why has gas prices dropped so much over the last ten months? What changed? The conspiracy theorist in me wants to know.

- Cheney is going hunting during the election. 'Nuff said.

- Oh, John Kerry. You would have thought the word "Us" would be a uniting word. Not a word that ends up destroying any career you may have had left. Of course, he did leave "Us" out and that was his problem.

- Haggard. First, whenever I quickly see the head lines, I see "Haggar admits to buying meth, getting gay massage," and I picture that funny little viking. But beyond that, is he going to blame it on booze too? Or being molested? I'm not saying these folks weren't victims, but take some damn responsibility!

- And what is it with the 11th hour outing of Republicans? What the hell happened? Foley, Haggard, Mark Hyman (a maybe), Charlie Crist (another maybe). I loved Crist's response to the a gay-marriage question: "“Marriage is a relationship like my mother and father had, like I had before I got divorced.” Apparently the 50-year old bachlor was married for a very short time in 1979. Man, if all of the closeted Republicans came out they might find they'd have a whole new power base.

- George Allen should be given a tv show. We'd be just like Borat. Send him to Bangkok and Bombay and Sierra Leon. Call it "Delirious George."

- Hussein's conviction. Actually, I have nothingto say on the subject. I'm just glad that Trial of the Century is over. I'm sure the next one wis only a few years off.

NaNo Blues

I made a huge push last night, but I still feel way behind. Grumble grumble.

Slow novels, annoying subs, great classes

The novel is starting slow. Almost painfuly so. I don't want to get into it right now because there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful. But it does feel like I am climbing up a steep slope, believe that their is a much easier climb if I can just get past this first part... but not being able to see over the ridge, I can't be sure.

Sketch class had a sub teacher. He had good notes, but I felt like he thought he was running a group of writers for a specific show, and not a beginning sketch class. He also got very flirtery with the one woman in class. Whatever.

Improv class last night was frakin awesome. Just good work by everyone. Very very funny. I personally felt very in the moments. There were times in my scenes were I suddenly let myself give into emotions (in the scenes I got to kind of cry and in the group game I initiated I got have a ranting outburst). And suddenly I understood so much of what I was missing. I felt like I was gifting myself and gifting my partners. It was a great feeling.

reLAXed

Waiting in LAX for my return to JFK.
Will give full update on Mexico trip sometime tomorrow... with photos!
But right now I am sunburnt and happy. And getting so darn antsy to start NaNo-ing. Still not to late to sign up folks. Write a novel this November. I dare you.

Pre-NaNo Inspiration

I'm in the Tea Lounge trying to finish writing my sketch for class. Meanwhile, I've been trying to find a "best friend" for my novel's main character. And I am listening to a Kurt Corbain-look-alike play guitar and play Wheels on the Bus for a gaggle of under 4 year olds and their West Indian nannies. He seems to be enjoying himself, but what if he was more like ol' Kurt? What would have Kurt been like if he had never formed Nirvana and became a coffeehouse children's music performer? But still shot herorin?

I have my best friend.

Back to the sketch. Jane is about to start nursing her dog.

My adopted newbie & my arch-nemesis

One of the fun things about NaNoWriMo is the community of folks attempting it. With the Film Challenge, all the groups are working independently without much communication between them (mainly because time is so short). But film is a joint effort. You are already joined in a group. Novel writing is usually a lone activity. NaNoWriMo, through write-isn and the forums, let's you share your joys and pains, victories and failures. You feel supported.

There are a bunch of ways this happens directly in a few ways. One is that alumni can "adopt" a new NaNo-ite. Just be there for them. Be there for questions, for support, for urging them on. I have one. So I posted in the adoption thread that I was available. Anne PMed me. She got her undergrad degree in theater and appreciated that I used to stagemanage. Nothing like having to tell a cast of actors when to go pee with out upsetting their pre-show rituals to learn careful prodding skills.

On the other side of the spectrum is picking an enemy. Someone to taunt and taunt you. To challenge you. To battle word counts against. Since I am thinking more and more that I will be shooting for 100,000 words this time (the novel as been forming more and more in my brain), I really need someone to push me. So I found the one person that seemed to also be shooting for big numbers. After I challenged her in the Enemies thread, this is how TrenchcoatPixie responded:

"Ash, you don't know what you're asking for. You've just set your eyes on playing chicken with a force of nature. You can't scare a tornado. Much less a tornado of words.

Oh yeah. Metaphors like that will riddle my NaNovel like machine gun rounds in a haystack. That machine gun? Mounted on the front of the car. That car? It has a gas pedal. That gas pedal? Pressed all the way down. That tornado? I forgot about it last paragraph. My verbositymobile caresses more dangerous curves per hour than any noir 50s gumshoe flick you care to name.

6,000 word nights? Don't make me laugh! My first year I did twenty thousand words in a day and a half to skate across the finish line in time. 6,000 words is when I start to warm up.

My soul is flintier than a Capsian-era quarry. It's on."

Oh, it is on!

Weekend Update

Just some wrap-up thoughts before I head to sleep.

The film challenge was a great experience. It has been a long time since I have acted, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. Since this was the first film anything I have realy done, I found it interesting how much I enjoyed it. Taking apart a performance done to tiny pieces actually appeals to me. I also got to meet some cool folks. It was just a very nice crew.

It has also made me hyped for NaNoWriMo. I am itching to write. I was planning on not going in with any idea, but while reading an article in the Village Voice recently I was suddenly inspired. I knew where it was going to start, I knew a bit about my main character and his immediate goals were. I have a working title (Job Wanted) and I have a decent grip on the tone (dark comedy) and themes (morality, faith, empathy). It is just a jumping off point. I'm not sure where it is going to go from there. It will be fun to find out.

SNL was of course a hoot. It is hard to be doing comedy and watch SNL and think "Mmmm, that could be me."

Practice today was rough for me. We all started a bit off (okay, very off) and Ben had to work his ass off to get us not in our heads. But even then I was just struggling. I was feeling blocked. I am trying to 'write' less while improv-ing. Sometimes I did okay, but I would often slip right back into it. I was terrible at "Yes...Anding" today. Sigh. I still had fun. I had some moments I was proud of. But it was still a struggle. Maybe it was just the tiredness level. I don't know. Now improv for me until next week.

NaNoWriMo time again

National Novel Writing Month is coming up again and I am diving back in. I have no plans on duplicating last years numbers as this year there is a lot more going on. But I am sure it will be about all I will be able to talk about for a while.

28 Days Later

97,494 words.
29 Chapters.
256 pages in Time Roman, 12 point, 1.5 spaced.
349 pages in Courier.

Deaths: More than I thought there would be, but less than there could.
Sex scenes: Almost 1.
My favorite charcter: Dave
My favorite scene: I really like the last one. It's sweet.
Most surprising scene to me: Allen and Dave after Thanksgiving.
Words I think I over use: turned, spun, nodded, bit, and slightly.
Why do I use them: The first two are dramatic. The last three are some moments.
Hardest scene to write, intellectually: The shopping cart race or The Met. Toss up.
Hardest scene to write, emotionally: Easy, Chapter 16. The whole thing.

Lost hours of sleep: Eh. Who cares?

The last chapter took long than I thought it would. When I thought I only had five pages left, it turned into 10. Maybe I didn't want to give it up. But I also wanted them to resolve things. Allen and Dave had some things to work though. Still do.

It's not high art, but I think it's fun. A good yarn, as they say.

Now, of course, I can't sleep.

But that's okay. You wanna know why?

Because I wrote a novel and I like it.