NaNoWriMo ended - I didn't

November came and went, as Novembers are wont to do.

Five times I've "done" National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The first three times I "won"—in that I crossed the finish line represented by November 30th with more than fifty thousand words under my pen. The fourth time I came close, a sprint at the end pushing me to over forty-nine thousand words.

This time I'm almost fourteen thousand words short of the goal. I wrote for twenty-nine of the thirty days. A good run, spoiled only by the day after Thanksgiving when I went to the well, and it was dry.

Part of my reason for doing NaNoWriMo was to remember to write (almost) every day. And I hit that mark. Another part was to get the follow-on from my flash story, Timeshare, out of the back of my head and into the world. I hit that mark also—though there is more to do there.

Still, it would have been nice to get the fifty thousand words out. Didn't happen. I'm not going to weep into my single malt scotch over it. Rather I'll continue writing in December.

There are the remaining Goldberg Variations to get down on 'paper'. There are thirty thousand words of a story I've been writing for years now to get off actual paper and into electrons. I like the story, and the heroine, too much to leave them languish unread. Plus I found the story when I unpacked a box last week!

To all who essayed NaNoWriMo this year—Huzzah!

On to December.

The end's in sight - if I use binoculars

So, if I write 3,000 words a day for the rest of the month, I'll make it.

I got off to a good start, and I've written every day so far this month, but I'm still behind. The "written every day this month" is an improvement over other years. But I'm 18,000 words short of the fifty thousand. And six days to write them.

The story is working out. It's coming to something of a climax. I'm a little worried that the climax may be arriving too soon. But I've yet to get there so things may work out in the end.

The story is certainly the start of a series. I think this first part gets the main character, and "friends", from the fire into a frying pan. There are more adventures to have.

But first I have to get across the fifty thousand finish line. And do it without having to do an eleven thousand word day on November 30th. Doable, because I've done it in the past. But it's preferable to spread the words out a little more than that.

Onward...

Day 12 - Leading from behind...

The 12th day of…NaNoWriMo has just come and gone, here in the Midwest at least.

I should be at a shade over twenty thousand words now. I am, in fact, at nineteen thousand, two hundred forty. Not particularly bad. Other years things have been worse at this point.

The writing is going well. Some additional minor characters have turned up. They shall strut upon the stage, contributing to the action while there, and then fade away. In truth, at least two of them are slated to not fade away. Their end will leave a larger mark than that.

The story seems to be working. There's a strong possibility that it will reach a satisfying conclusion—but the characters will go on. Ricardo Alvarez won't reach his timeshare salesman by then end of this book.

There's room for a second one. And who knows after that?

I'm typing this year rather than, as in past years, writing the story longhand with a fountain pen (or three.) A change is as good as a rest…as the saying goes. And, also, I didn't get enough of my act together to get set up for writing the story.

I type at about the same rate as I write—around one thousand words in an hour. I'm taking the "write the next sentence" approach to the structure. Meaning I don't have one, a structure I mean. Nor an outline. Just the next sentence. Then the next. Then the next.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

It's working for me. It may not work for others.

However you're doing it, I wish all NaNoWriMo writers the very best for this insanity.

And it's only the 3rd day...

In a previous year, a friend of mine suggested pacing...pacing...pacing was the approach for which I should strive during NaNoWriMo.

This advice came on the heels of a flat-out sprint in the final day to cross the 50K marker. I heard, but didn't heed.

This year, although early days yet, is going better. The first two days have turned in over 1,900 words each. That's almost 300/day more than the required number to reach 50K in 30 days.

I had two characters going in—although one of them isn't set for appearance until far into the story. But he's present—serving as a goad to the main character, driving him forward.

Very soon after beginning I acquired five more characters. One of them's already dead. But I realize he's going to serve as driver for another character's motivation—not to mention open an avenue for our 'hero'.

Me? I'm just along for the ride. I'm fascinated by the early twists the story's taking and, equally so, by the storytelling foundation that's arising out of the words.

I have a general idea of where the story might go, but I'm not going to force it.

Not by Dark Alone

To the left is the cover of my first long format work. Science Fiction, for I love the genre and always have.

I recall my younger sister saying, "Science Fiction? No. That gene skipped me."

And it's true. I and my other two siblings inherited our father's love of the genre. But the third in the family, no.

This story — more about it at this link — began life as a National Novel Writing Month exercise. My first. As such, it suffered from early KjM writing, to say nothing of the tricks NaNoWriMo writers get up to to make their word count.

It needed to marinate for a couple of years before an actual story could be made of it.

When I was younger, traveling to school on city busses, I had the experience of sitting off to the side of a group of people my own age — all of them signing. Utter silence. But much hilarity, excitement, animated conversation going on five feet from me. And I was as one deaf. I knew nothing of what was going on. The image, the feeling, have stayed me to this day.

What would it be like for a non-telepath in a race of telepaths? What could such an individual bring to society? What would one like that see that others might miss?

And so, Alphard, the protagonist of this story.

If you get to read the story, I'd love to know what you think. Honest!

Best of FridayFlash Vol. 2 - Fountain Pen Day/Weekend - NaNo 2012

My copies of Best of Friday Flash, Volume 2 arrived yesterday. I was very pleased to learn, earlier this year, that my story was to be included. "Intimate Strangers" was written for Valentine's Day, if I remember rightly.

I was fortunate to have one of my stories chosen for Vol. 1 also. The Friday Flash twitter meme has been a rich source of validation for me as a writer, a great spur to my writing and a really good community to have been part of.

All honor to Jon Strother for the idea — and to those who work with him at FridayFlash.org to pull the whole thing together.

And, most importantly, to the writers and readers of the flash fiction produced each and every Friday. So much talent from all points of the compass.

The book is available at the publisher: emergent-publishing.com and the paperback can be had at Amazon.

ooo000ooo

November 2nd was Fountain Pen Day — though, on facebook, they promise that it's really all weekend. Good, because I'm late to the party ('tis ever thus.)

As usual, I find myself tip-toeing (skulking?) about on the fringes of such things. But, anything to draw more attention to these functional works of art that fountain pens are. Happy to help.

ooo000ooo

November is also the time for the yearly madness that is National Novel Writing Month. I've participated in this for four years in a row — last year missing out on a "win" by a few hundred words.

The results of my first foray into NaNoWriMo are currently being copy-edited. The book will be available before the month is out (ever the optimist.) As it turns out, my copy-editor is pleased at the cleanliness of the copy. For that I am indebted to RjC — who is possessed of a fine eye and a good sense of story.

There are too many things going on right now for me to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Packing up our lives here in the Bay Area is a large part of that. At least we have managed to secure a moving company. The 1,800 mile trip looks like it's possible.

There goes that optimist again.

For those who are NaNo-ing this year — Allons-Y (or, you go, I'll stand on the sidelines, cheering.)

Interacting with an earlier me

I'm deep into editing, with the assistance of another set of eyes, my science fiction novel. Actually, this is one my my science fiction novels. The first one I completed.

And there's the rub. It's the first one. It dates from the NaNoWriMo nonsense of 2008. It was the first NaNo I'd participated in. It's a long time ago in many ways. Editor Unleashed, the blog and forum created and run by Maria Schneider, was still extant then. I even had a guest post there about my NaNo experience. My claim to fame was I was writing my novel by hand, with a fountain pen.

So, a long time ago. And it shows...

Over the years, I've gotten better. I like to think I have. That my writing, by dint of applying craft, by practicing, by writing, has gotten better. By "better", read 'readable'. Not legible - there's much more work still to do about my handwriting.

But 'readable'. Short, effective sentences. Far fewer sentences becoming, because of the piling-up of explanatory - and often sub-sub-subordinate - clauses such as this one, something of an obstacle course for the hapless, or even really interested, reader.

We've discovered far too many sentences such as the above. I don't write like that today. Not nearly so much, anyway.

Some of my early writing, even before November 2008, was formal in tone. Particularly when doing dialogue. I know I've improved there. Its ghosts walk yet in this novel.

I take heart. I can see, and hear, that my writing's improved. I can measure the distance between what I know now, and what I clearly didn't know then. Or, if known, scarcely applied.

There's much work to do to carve this novel into shape. Others I've written since aren't as bad. But I like this story. I like the characters. I won't let my ineptitude get in the way of their playing in the sun.

"They call us Dark" will see the light of day.

The Ninety-Eight Percent Solution

I've participated in the madness that is NaNoWriMo for four years, since I first ran across it in October, 2008. It's always been a blast. The first year, I enjoyed the story I was writing - that, to my shame, I find I am still editing.

In Year Two (2009) I tried something I hadn't tried before - writing from multiple points of view. Three main point-of-view characters, trying to keep them all balanced in my head.

In the third year, I took one of my Goldberg Variation flash stories and expanded it into a novel. It, actually, has the potential to become a series. I knew the ending I wanted to reach, but wasn't sure I have enough novel to get there. I tried something new here also, filling out initial character studies and blocking out the main scenes (at least for the first part of the story). There was always the intent to block out more scenes during the month of November. Didn't happen.

This year, year four, something new occurred. I didn't complete the fifty thousand words in the allotted time. I got close though, 98%. Nine hundred and some words left to write, but not the time in which to write them. As it turns out, the story is huge. There're a lot more than nine hundred words left to write to tell it properly. They will be written, at a slightly more leisurely pace than what went on last night.

This was the scene last night, shortly after midnight. My right wrist was tired, my shoulders stiff and my poor pens were worn out. Given I had to write over 7,000 words in the evening, I decided I wasn't going to stop to refill any pen that ran out of ink. Happily I had enough pens to hand meet the need.

From the top left: a Sheaffer Valor - black and palladium finish, Waterman Carene - black and gold, Aurora Optima - red with gold nib, Pilot Vanishing Point - blue carbonesque finish and the Edison Urushi Herald.

All did sterling work. The vast bulk of the words during the month were written with the Sheaffer. It's been a while since I used it and t'was good to take it out for a run. The others played backup in case I needed it. And last night I did.

So, I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year. Still, getting to 98% of the goal - that's not bad by any measure.

Notebooks, pens and NaNoWriMo

I am late to this.

The above could well be a comment on many things in my life, but let's just go with Scribbles Blog Hop, Noland edition on Tony Noland's Landless site.

Earlier this month, some eight days or so ago, a group got together to blog about their use of pen and paper, notebooks and journals, in their writing process.

Pictures and discussions ensued. And I'm late to the party.

So be it.

I've mentioned on this blog, and in comments on others, that I use a notebook and one of several fountain pens when writing anything larger than flash fiction (and sometimes even then). There are several reasons, chief among them being I get distracted easily. With the entire Internet (or an appreciable part thereof) but a click away, I need to go "old school" to give me a chance to concentrate.

It works.

In addition, I enjoy writing by hand and I get to use those functional works of art, my fountain pens, for their purpose: the capturing of thought.

Battered - Unbowed

My main notebook is a leather notebook case into which I usually slot a 50-page Levenger ruled pad. It has good dense paper, which takes ink well.

On the left of the pages is a wide margin allowing for notes and ideas as they hit me while writing something else.

I was given the beautifully soft leather cover over 10 years ago, and it has aged with use. Exposure to California sun has caused fading. Its surface has recorded the hard knocks that life deals out. Character marks one could call them.

I like them because they show that I'm making use of the gift that was given and, while I do try to take care of my things, daily use leaves its mark on all of us, in one way or another.

Small Notebook

I have a second notebook that I generally carry with me. It's smaller, more suited to capturing the random thought (of which I have many) as it goes by. I recall when at a doctor's surgery a couple of years ago, awaiting the results of an outpatient procedure, I wrote a flash fiction story in the notebook.

I found it useful to divert my attention from what had just occurred, and what might subsequently. The story was published - and nothing untoward occurred resulting from the above-mentioned procedure. Everybody wins!

NaNo in progress

Right now I'm in the middle of my fourth NaNoWriMo effort. As in previous years, I am writing the fifty thousand words by hand. While tackling NaNoWriMo by hand has its virtues, it's not without its challenges. Writer's cramp (not to be confused with "block") is one of them. The issue of getting the first draft computerized is a second.

For that I use Dragon Dictate to get my words into files - adjusting the text along the way. A form of editing that doesn't feel like editing. It's an easy way to get a second draft that cleans up some of the nonsense that spilled out during the thirty days of November.

I am behind in my word count for NaNo 2011, but not egregiously so. Onward.

En un pueblo de la Mancha...

I am currently reading Don Quixote, in translation for my Spanish is no longer up to dealing with the variant in use at the time of Shakespeare. Once it may have been, for I lived in Spain and was, for a time, fluent in the language. But that's now in the past.

The version I'm reading is a recent translation from 2009 by Edith Grossman, someone known for her translations of Latin American, rather than Spanish, literature. As the editorial review states: "...an honest, robust...Quixote for our times."

I've been drawn to the character of Don Quixote all my life, at least since I first encountered him. A long time ago, and far away, I had a VAXstation with the name DonQ. The company I worked for, Digital Equipment, had a world-wide network of computers before the world-wide-web was available. Each computer on the Easynet (as it was known) had a unique name - limited in the number of characters you could use.

I was unable to name my computer "Don Quixote" because of that. It's possible even "Quixote" was too long. Memory no longer delivers the details as it once did.

The idea of this madman wandering the world, seeing differently to all around him, has a definite appeal. Even knowing that the man was indeed mad, and the world was not as he saw it, does not take away - for me - from the appeal. Perhaps a quixotic view in and of itself.

It doesn't hurt that the book is regarded as the first modern novel and the finest, and last, of the very novel type Cervantes set out to satirize. There's something particularly elegant about that - which also appeals.

The image above is a Picasso - a print, you understand. It hangs on the wall of the office in which I do much of my writing. For a while it was the wallpaper on one of my smartphones.

Speaking of writing...I'm getting prepared for NaNoWriMo 2011. Prepared, or panicking. One of the two.

I've made sure I have sufficient writing pads for my words and ink for my fountain pen. This year I'm taking my Sheaffer Valor for a run across 50,000 words in 30 days. I have plenty of ink, and I may need it. In testing the pen this evening, I discovered it lays down ink quite generously. There'll be some bleeding through the page - and not just the writer bleeding red as he scrambles to the finish line.

There's still more work to do on my outline so I have an idea that will last through the 1,667 words per day. I'm certain the story's there, but I'd best have some basic bones in place on which to hang the meat of the tale.

To all engaged in this madcap endeavor, I say "Buena Suerte". It's a quixotic kind of adventure, no?

Getting ready for November

We're mid-way through the month of October. And, as you can tell, I managed to recover my MacBook. I'm not entirely convinced about the new version of Mac OS - Lion. But, it's up and running now so I no longer care.

There was a time I would, but now I simply need computers to, what's the phrase?, "just work".

Halfway through October means only about 15 days to the start of November and the madness that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

I'll be working again with pen and paper, so the lack of a functioning MacBook would not have been a huge problem. I am really hoping not to do what I did last year - have to sprint madly at the end. In truth, 1,667 words per day is not a lot - given I managed over 11,000 on the last day of November last year!

So, the intent is to go the steady route. Let's see how that works out.

During NaNoWriMo 2009, I wrote the first book of a two-parter (although there's a third percolating at the back of my mind - but, for the moment, it can stay there.) This year I'm going to write the second part, picking up a few months after the last scene of the first.

I have some ideas about the plot. Some of the characters, those who made it through the first, return. There are some new ones.

Right now I'm working out the plot trajectory/points. I am not an outline kinda guy but I am going to "block out" some of the main areas of the story as the narrative will unfold from (a minimum of) three different points of view - as the first story did.

I'm using, as I did for NaNoWriMo last year, an application named Index Card for the iPad. In addition to its corkboard metaphor, it can turn the cards into an outline.

The outline can be imported into Scrivener, giving me some structure on which to hang the text.

For the moment, I've just drawn the lightest of character sketches, color-coded according to the narrative's point of view character. When I lay out the different scenes, I'll maintain the color coding. The theory being I should be able to tell at a glance how balanced the story is.

I'll let you know.

To all those embarking on NaNoWriMo this year - good luck, and keep writing.

Don't do what I do (or did, anyway)

There are traditions in NaNoWriMo as in many things we humans do. And I'm known as a sucker for traditions - or any form or rite or ritual.

One of the traditions is a "List of things I learned doing NaNo". Tempting as that may be, it has as a basis the assumption that one has learned. That's stretching things in my case.

I'll do with the simpler "post mortem" analysis of how the month of November went. If you look to the right on this blog, you'll get an overview of how things went. On a day-to-day basis - not nearly as well as they might.

I began with some preparation, a few (brief) character studies, a (small) set of scenes and how they would play out. The intent was not to do a full outline of the story, but to get the bones laid down. The meat would come (ever hopeful as I am) during the month.

As it turned out, I never got more than the handful of scenes together. I kept telling myself during the month that I should take the time to create more scene sketches. Didn't happen. The ending of the story came to me about the middle of the month. However, I was quite concerned that I didn't know how to get from where I was to where I could see the story end. For a long time I was uncertain the story had fifty thousand words in it. Again - wrong.

I did add one or two more character sketches as I went along - largely so I could remember their names.

The other pre-NaNo tradition upheld was the buying of some new Levenger writing pads. It would not do to run out before the month end. Given the number I bought, there was no danger of that happening.

I had planned to use my Visconti Homo Sapiens fountain pen for the entire 50,000 words. Not so easily done when the ink runs out before the idea does. In such cases I just grabbed the nearest one with ink, and continued. There are parts of my novel written in a delicate shade of green and others in a rich navy blue. These courtesy of two Aurora Optima fountain pens.

I discovered it is best not to write a huge number of words with a pen where it's not possible to see how much ink has been drawn in at the last filling - or how much is left. The Homo Sapiens is a joy to write with and, even at speed, makes my handwriting look good. But the uncertainty of how much ink remained finally got to me.

I fell back on my excellent black and gold Waterman Carène. A beauty of a pen, and a beauty to write with.

But I let the time get away from me, in a most unforgivable way. The last day was a long-distance sprint. If that description seems to contain a contradiction, so be it. It also describes the eleven thousand plus word day quite well.

However, as can be seen, I made it. It was very difficult to come down from the high the day after. And, why would I want to?

Halfway there, and not...

November 15th and 25 thousand words should be in sight. And they are. Have I mentioned I'm longsighted?

I made up a good deal of ground over the weekend, Saturday in particular. There's more ground to cover. So far, the story is hanging together. Again, as with last year's NaNoWriMo novel, the story perspective shifts between the major characters.

I can already see some of the revision I will have to do - sharpen the focus on the main character. She does, however, come into her own in the latter half of the story. You know, the half (and some) that I haven't written yet.

Still, I have reached (or passed ) one milestone. I've filled one writing pad already and have begun the second. There will be two others filled before this exercise is done.

In other news, I filled in a survey on participating in NaNoWriMo run by Evolve Journal. They published my responses in Question and Answer form at Evolve Journal.

Onward.

The Dark came in on the Heels of the Rain

Well, perhaps Daylight Savings Time ended in a less apocalyptic fashion - but then, I never liked rain.

Out and about, dancing from puddle to puddle, between raindrops and far more serious rainshowers. Errands to run and a new MacBook Air to lust over. No, I haven't bought one. But I'd like to, for I remain a sucker for good design. Another time, when I have more money and better excuses.

Errands to run indeed. And a NaNoWriMo novel to avoid writing (sigh). I, for all my good intentions and preparation, am behind. Plenty of time yet to catch up - and isn't that the most seductive thing you ever heard? Well, not really, but you get my point.

As a further, and creative if I say so myself, approach to procrastination, I gave my blog a facelift yesterday. Nothing extreme, it's still recognizable, but a cleaner look was the goal.

I did get some writing done in the late afternoon, while listening to mournful Celtic medieval music. It turned out to be the perfect atmospheric background. I don't know what I'd do if I ever decided to try write comedy.

I hope all my American friends enjoyed their additional hour. I know I did.

Ready? Set! You gotta be kidding me...

And November is just over the hill - a little under half an hour from now (here on the "Left Bank", that is). Thirty days of writing like crazy. Not really so much for those who have been writing constantly every day.

Sigh. I am not among them. Certainly not anything like writing 1,666.6666 recurring words a day. I had also planned that I'd have an outline ready on which to build this year's story. So Kevin, how'd that work out for you?

Well, I've still got about 30 minutes left, OK?

I have something. Not a full outline. Ideas, some scenes, some thoughts on characters, some background.

I used a package, Index Card, on the iPad to get some ideas together. It can export to RTF (no, not RTFM, that's something else entirely) so I'll pick it up in Scrivener on the Mac and create additional structure. It's been exported so I'll get to it. Just as soon as I finish this blog post, honest.

As the month goes by I'll expand on the structure, taking into account where the actual writing has taken the story.

I have the start, some ideas about how things progress and what backstory is needed, and a vague idea of how it ends (the good guys win - what else? Although...not all may survive.)

One thing I hope not to do this year is repeat last year's performance. Writing more than a third of the 50,000 words in the last weekend is not a good idea. This year I'll have to be more disciplined. Oh dear.

I'll be writing on paper with a fountain pen again this year. I have a stack of new pads and my Visconti Homo Sapiens pen. It has a fine nib that writes unlike any fine nib I've ever used. It's a joy to write with.

In other news...I received my revised Assignment 1 back from my novel-writing course instructor. Seems having two beginnings, middles and ends is not a problem. The idea and plot seem sound but work on depth and structure is required. Some of the questions my instructor asked have enabled me to see how I can build up my main character, and antagonist, to get a better-told story. I'm looking forward to how things develop.

One thing my instructor did say - this is the first time she's engaged with a student who had an entire first draft of the story already under his belt.

Let's see where this takes us.

To all who are engaging in the craziness that is National Novel Writing Month - Andiamo!

The bones of the world...

...or of story, at least.

I am, or have been, what some call a "pantser". Not "chancer" - although I have been called that also (and probably accurately at that) but "one who writes by the seat of his/her (his in this case) pants".

This is as opposed to those who plan, outline, stories prior to writing. There's a line from the book, and the film, "Starting Out in the Evening" by Brian Morton, that goes "I follow my characters around until they do something interesting."

And so it is. Certainly I've approached any short fiction I have written this way. I may have an idea for a character, possibly an idea for a situation, and - sometimes - an idea of the ending. But mainly I like to be surprised where "things" go.

The two first drafts I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2008 and 2009 were also approached this way. And I was surprised by some things the characters did and both drafts did get to where I had an idea they would reach.

However, it strikes me that this approach may not be enough. In truth, my opinion is that ONE way is seldom if ever sufficient.

I've read a number (nine?) of novels by Peter F. Hamilton. The most recent five are a story told over two novels and another story, in the same universe but set 1,000 years later, told over three novels.

The books are "Pandora's Star", "Judas Unchained" and the three books in the "Void" series ("The Dreaming Void", "The Temporal Void" and "The Evolutionary Void").

They are all densely plotted with a myriad of characters, ranging across many planets and a variety of species. Hamilton even has time to deal with the practical implications for society of functional immortality.

Multiple viewpoints, interleaved and interlocking stories, and a grand narrative going on beneath leading to a satisfying conclusion.

This was not done by the seat of Hamilton's pants. I don't know this, of course, but it's a fairly safe bet.

I don't know how to do this. How to create the architecture for such a story. But it is a wonder to behold and a joy to read.

I'm all about the "intuitive". I play chess that way - meaning I lose more often than I win. Though I remember one particular win...such joy. (I was asked, "But, what if THIS has happened THERE?" I had no answer - because "this" wasn't going to happen "there". It simply wasn't - and didn't.)

I have an intuitive grasp of computer programming and software architecture, and sometimes have to backtrack from my solution to explain "how" I got there to others. Of course, that isn't "how" I got there. But it is how someone else might.

And so with writing. Except, for something as wide-ranging and limitless as a novel...some architecture, some "bones" need to be in place. Certainly if I want to tell any large-scale story.

So I need to come up with an intuitive approach to story architecture, something free-flowing but that results in a structure that can bear weight. I'm going to tackle NaNoWriMo 2010 this way. As always, these things are a work in progress. We'll see what happens.

On an entirely different subject (yeah, intuitive with a grasshopper mind - and I want structure??)

My Aurora Europa came back from having the nib re-ground and the ink flow increased. The pen had been problematic since I bought it. Now, it just glides over paper.

Gorgeous.

I need a 45-day November

The end of the beginning. No, in truth, not even that. Yes, I "Won!" - where winning is defined as meeting a goal you've set yourself. You and hundreds of thousands of other people, that is.


The goal of fifty thousand words (or more) written during the thirty days of November (or less). I know, that "or less" should have been "or fewer" - but, then the balance of the sentence would be off. Rules? Meh!


Last year, when I did this, I arrived at the end of fifty thousand words, just a little over, and also arrived at a reasonable end to the story I had been writing. How tidy.


This time, as they say - not so much.


There are, easily, another twenty thousand words or so to find before the story is brought to something approaching a finishing point. And probably another story after that to bring the whole saga to a satisfying close.


And I am fried. My own fault, really. It seems I wrote over twenty-four thousand of those words across the long weekend we just had (and last night). Bad KjM.


Next November, yes gentle reader, I intend doing this again next November, I will have to come up with a better plan. The final sprint to the finish, while effective, is not reasonable (even in the context of the unreasonable-ness of the entire project).


Still. I did manage to get over fifty and a half thousand words of this story down on paper, however I achieved it. I am, as I was last year, as pleased with myself as "a cat with two tails".


The above "on paper" was not a linguistic throwback to earlier times. I am the throwback. I wrote the story, on paper, with a fountain pen - two actually. I ran out of cartridges for the first one, before I ran out of words, and time.

I find it satisfying, and freeing from distraction. And I love the fountain pens I have received as gifts from loved ones. They are functional works of art - and I love making use of them to tell tales.


To all and any who embarked on the NaNoWriMo challenge this year, with whom I contributed to the, more than, two billion words written in the month, a heartfelt congratulations for taking on such a wonderfully mad endeavor. The world needs such madness.


It has altogether too much of the other kinds.

The end of the beginning

50,176 words later my wrist is tired. I finished my NaNoWriMo marathon. I am giddy. It will take a little time to come down from this.

Earlier this week I wrote a NaNoWriMo-themed guest blog entry for Editor Unleashed that was published on Friday. Many thanks to Maria Schneider for the opportunity to give my thoughts on the topic. As I wrote there, what I have now is a rough first draft. But the task was to get the words out and down on paper. Now comes the difficult part (there is a voice at the back of my head asking "Are you insane? What was not difficult about 50,000 words in a month?")

The voice can keep quiet. The writing itself was a blast. I enjoyed following my characters on their adventure and am ridiculously pleased that the story hangs together at all. It even has a recognizable ending.

Now comes the craft. I have the block of marble. Now all I need is a Michelangelo and a good set of chisels. Let me get back to you on that. I'm still enjoying the current achievement too much!

Music, creativity - and reflections from the black pool by the wattle ford

Friday found us at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

What happens when you take the full choir of the San Francisco Chorus, add in the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the Pacific BoyChoir, arrange seven(!) soloists around the conductor with another placed elsewhere in the concert hall, fill the stage with musicians of extraordinary calibre and the rest of them, equally talented, behind the audience in "the gods" and stir it with the verve and vigor of an MTT?

You get Mahler's 8th Symphony, the Symphony of a Thousand, and you get transported for something under two hours to a place of beauty. And it stays with you.

As it turns out, the concert was recorded and will be released as part of the Mahler cycle that the San Francisco Symphony has been producing over the past few years. I look forward to sometime next fall being able to buy it. That said, even with the music system we have, reproducing the experience of Friday evening will be impossible.

Dick had not been well earlier in the week so we drove to the City, parking in the Performing Arts parking lot - on the level adorned with pink Viking Helmets! Made me feel quite at home.

...

I continue with the novel I am wearing out the nib of my fountain pen on. If I look at the number of words I have written and the number of words I should have written by now, I could become discouraged. But, I have fewer to write than I have already written to reach the 50,000. And the 33,000+ I have already written is far more than I have ever written in such a short space of time. So, everything is possible.

I'm even enjoying the story.

...

May his memory be eternal. So goes the prayer of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Eternal may be difficult but a good, long while yet, that I can manage.

Four years ago Saturday Dad died, on a trip to New York from Dublin - the town by the wattle ford near the black pool. So goes its full name. It was he who taught me that. Other things he would have taught me but listening was, then, not something I was good at.

We learned that together later.

Running...to stand still...

According to information on the National Novel Writing Month site, I am on target to complete my 50,000-word novel - in 17 days. That sounds quite good if one ignores the fact there are only a dozen days left in November.

As my sister remarked in a text message a couple of days ago, "family trait, needing a deadline".

So indeed it is. I never felt much like a White Knight. Far more Queen in me I suspect - though that may be a topic for another entry. I cannot forget, however, that it was the Red Queen who remarked to Alice;

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

And so it would seem I will need to run/write at least a little faster to arrive back at the same spot. I am tempted to respond as Alice did;

"I'd rather not try, please!" said Alice.

However, I shall pick up the pace - if only because I want to see how my characters get out of the trouble they seem to be spiraling into.

To leave off now would be to abandon them. And where's the fun in that?