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NaNoWriMo, here I come... and other musings
Okay. I tried this once before, but my o-fic muse refused to stick with me long enough to really get anywhere. But this time, I think, I stand a decent chance.
Yes, I know I'm crazy for even considering this, but I'm gonna enter this year's NaNoWriMo, and work on a fantasy novel. I once had it 3/4s done in first draft form until my daughter Súl and I sat down for four hours and brainstormed together. Over that time, so much of the background of the story was put together, as well as a much more complex and interesting plot. It's been sitting for a little over three years, waiting for me to finally decide to toss everything I had written before (about 45k words) into the trash wholesale and start over from scratch. For some strange reason, I was a bit reluctant about it - as you can well imagine!
Earlier this year, I found the notebook with the ten pages of notes. Lately, I've taken all those notes and plugged the information into Maple (my outlining software.) I have the story fairly well plotted framework-wise now; I just need to do a bit more world-building and character-building before I really ready to sit down and just WRITE the thing.
I've announced my intentions to my family - to generally positive response - and now I'm announcing it here. I'm hoping that by putting it out there that I'm actually gonna do this, I'll feel motivated to carry through with it. Heaven knows I have thrown together a 50k novel in less than a month - at least when it comes to fan fiction. Both "Spoils of War" and "Hidden Valley" came to me over the course of little more than a week, believe it or not.
The thing is, those were incidents where the Muse was pushing and pushing HARD. This time, the impetus behind the effort will be my desire to get this thing pounded out and into a shape where most of what's needed is editing and beta'ing for typos, redundancies, that sort of thing. I gotta not get caught up in going back and reworking and staying on the "get it down" road.
In the meanwhile, and in the few days remaining before that starts, I'm gonna try to finish up that old Pretender novel once and for all and maybe even the last chapter of my Broadchurch fic. AND do the remaining prep on "Phoenix".
Wish me luck when the time comes. I could certainly use it!!!
Was incredibly lucky enough to live close to where the monks from the Drepung Gomang temple (associated with the Dalai Lama) created a sand mandala at a local community college. I was able to watch it being created - an amazing process that took about 3½ days to accomplish. This is what they created:
And then yesterday, I and about 500 others watched them "deconstruct" (as in demolish) it. First they ran a ritual implement through it at cardinal points and the corners, and then went after it with 3in wide brushes until it was a pile of sand about 2in high and 7in in diameter in the middle of the board.
What an impressive lesson on impermanence and letting go that was!!
They made letting go of the beauty they'd created look SOOOOOO simple:
I have some of the sand from the mandala safely tucked into a little amulet necklace. Even my learning disabled son JJ enjoyed watching them make and then destroy the mandala. He even was with me last night for the closing ceremony of the monks' visit here.
Needless to say, today is an "up" day...
Yes, I know I'm crazy for even considering this, but I'm gonna enter this year's NaNoWriMo, and work on a fantasy novel. I once had it 3/4s done in first draft form until my daughter Súl and I sat down for four hours and brainstormed together. Over that time, so much of the background of the story was put together, as well as a much more complex and interesting plot. It's been sitting for a little over three years, waiting for me to finally decide to toss everything I had written before (about 45k words) into the trash wholesale and start over from scratch. For some strange reason, I was a bit reluctant about it - as you can well imagine!
Earlier this year, I found the notebook with the ten pages of notes. Lately, I've taken all those notes and plugged the information into Maple (my outlining software.) I have the story fairly well plotted framework-wise now; I just need to do a bit more world-building and character-building before I really ready to sit down and just WRITE the thing.
I've announced my intentions to my family - to generally positive response - and now I'm announcing it here. I'm hoping that by putting it out there that I'm actually gonna do this, I'll feel motivated to carry through with it. Heaven knows I have thrown together a 50k novel in less than a month - at least when it comes to fan fiction. Both "Spoils of War" and "Hidden Valley" came to me over the course of little more than a week, believe it or not.
The thing is, those were incidents where the Muse was pushing and pushing HARD. This time, the impetus behind the effort will be my desire to get this thing pounded out and into a shape where most of what's needed is editing and beta'ing for typos, redundancies, that sort of thing. I gotta not get caught up in going back and reworking and staying on the "get it down" road.
In the meanwhile, and in the few days remaining before that starts, I'm gonna try to finish up that old Pretender novel once and for all and maybe even the last chapter of my Broadchurch fic. AND do the remaining prep on "Phoenix".
Wish me luck when the time comes. I could certainly use it!!!
Was incredibly lucky enough to live close to where the monks from the Drepung Gomang temple (associated with the Dalai Lama) created a sand mandala at a local community college. I was able to watch it being created - an amazing process that took about 3½ days to accomplish. This is what they created:
And then yesterday, I and about 500 others watched them "deconstruct" (as in demolish) it. First they ran a ritual implement through it at cardinal points and the corners, and then went after it with 3in wide brushes until it was a pile of sand about 2in high and 7in in diameter in the middle of the board.
What an impressive lesson on impermanence and letting go that was!!
They made letting go of the beauty they'd created look SOOOOOO simple:
I have some of the sand from the mandala safely tucked into a little amulet necklace. Even my learning disabled son JJ enjoyed watching them make and then destroy the mandala. He even was with me last night for the closing ceremony of the monks' visit here.
Needless to say, today is an "up" day...