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December 11, 2008

NaNoWriMo 2008 - Recap

So the 2008 NaNoWriMo Edition is in the books.

I didn't make the goal of 50,000, crapping out at about 47,000. In the end, some of my delays early on cost me, and on the final day it was obvious that only a Herculean effort would get me to 50,000. Which I wasn't against, but the other thing that dawned on me was that I was at least another 10-15,000 words from getting to The End.

So, given that I wasn't going to actually get to those magical words, I decided to try to keep my pace of 1500-2000 words/day and complete the novel sometime in mid December.

Here's a chart showing where I left off:

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my progress, though I am bummed that I am not yet finished.

Just over a week out from the end of NaNo, and I've probably managed a grand total of 1000 words. Talk about a slump. I was hoping to keep the momentum going, but several forces have conspired against me (major new responsibilities at work, Christmas shopping, and tons of snow), and I have completely petered out. Plus, I have to think the letdown is in part related to no longer having the specter of NaNo shadow over me with its persistent focus on wordcount.

The trick, now, is to get my momentum going again. What's left of December should make for an interesting time -in addition to wrapping-up the novel, I need to get my next entry for WotF complete. Doh!

November 3, 2008

Narrative Structure & Iron Man

The other day I was watching Iron Man again (the first time since I picked up the DVD) and while it lacks the visceral punch of the latest Batman epic, it is a great movie.

***SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't seen this movie yet, cease & desist now and go BUY IT. Seriously.***

I really enjoy the very beginning - you know, where Robert Downey Jr. (aka Tony Stark) is riding in the Humvee with the soldiers, blaring AC/DC's Back In Black, and charming the soldiers with small talk. Great opening, and then absolute chaos as they come under attack. Stark flees the vehicle and is summarily knocked out by shrapnel from one of his own missiles.

Fade to black...

About five minutes have passed in the movie, and then we are suddenly in full-on flashback mode. We're given the lowdown on Stark, a bit of characterization, and then the lead-up to the attack. I didn't have a stopwatch on me, but I would guess it is probably 15 minutes before we get back to "present day".

This is akin to starting a story with a page or two of action, then two chapters of backstory. Such a story would never get sold (though I wonder what the novelization of Iron Man looked like).

We've all heard the advice about avoiding flashbacks so close to the beginning of a story. It's a bit of a catch-22, as we need to start as close as possible to the action (the inciting element that kicks the whole thing off) if not in the very middle of the carnage. So what you end up with is the need to work in backstory elements over the first few chapters, piecemeal, so as not to scare the reader away.

So why is it that Hollywood, or the visual medium in general, can get away with this? This mechanism is especially popular on TV with action shows - Alias was notorious in it's use, and I've recently seen both Chuck (Love that show) and the new Christian Slater vehicle (My Own Worst Enemy) employ this technique - by showing the hero in some impossible predicament, jumping back a day or more, and then working forward to that moment in time, all the while keeping the viewer in suspense.

I have some theories on this. One is that TV and even movies can be consumed much faster than a book, or even a short story. The viewer does not have to wait as long to get resolution, to see how the seemingly at-odds elements tie together, and therefore it becomes a bit of added suspense. Also, by their very nature, the visual mediums can not get as in-depth on descriptions - characterization and setting can be shown in the sweep and pan of a camera - so they can skip to the point. In summary, it's all about speed.

But does that make it right? Does it make it good storytelling? I don't know. I think it's still a high-wire act to attempt, regardless of medium. And sometimes it comes off great - the detour in Iron Man affords us a chance to see Stark as he is - smug, smart, self-assured, womanizing, and most importantly, unaffected or uncaring of his actions upon the world. Which then sets up the great character change that first starts in the dark cave, with the car battery wired to his chest.

But I still won't be attempting this manuever in my writing.

November 2, 2008

NaNoWriMo 2008

Another November 1st, another year of NaNoWriMo.

I've been planning on participating since the end of last year's NaNo. I even had some lofty plans about outlining and doing preparation. But, funny story there...

The good news is that I didn't procrastinate in favor of other, non-writing, activities. Rather, I was polishing up a batch of short stories for submission, and never found the time. Oops.

I had a rough idea on what I wanted to write about - the premise anyway. But I was hoping to do some outlining. Now, I'm just going where my keyboard takes me.

If I can get ahead of my wordcount goal for the day, I'll carve out some time to map out where I am going. We'll see - after Day 1 I had 1668 words... the target is 1667. :D

As of this morning, I've got another 600 words, so am feeling pretty good so far.

October 21, 2008

The Race

Since getting more focused on writing, I've discovered the WotF forums, which are populated with like-minded individuals. Discussions are lively and informative.

One recent nugget I discovered is the concept of The Race, as it relates to writing. It's something that Dean Wesley Smith points to as the kicking-off point for his career and those of other successful SF/F writers such as Kevin J. Anderson and Geoff Landis. Here's a link to DWS' blog talking about it.

The basic idea is turning Heinlein's Rules of writing into something measurable, by getting points for story submissions. As DWS describes it, you get:

- one point for every short story in the mail.

- three points for every novel proposal or chapters and outline you have out. (Only three points per book, not per submission )

- eight points for every full novel manuscript you have out to market.

And though, when doing this with others, there is an inherent competition to get the high score, the real competition is with yourself. In order to get your score up, you need to write, every day. DWS advises writing and submitting a story every week.

When DWS and his contemporaries were doing this at the beginning of their careers, those in the 50 - 70 range ended up making it as writers. Those that couldn't even generate 10 points never heard of again.

I have 2 points. Nuff said.

October 17, 2008

The Certificate

Got the certificate in the mail today. Man, is she a beauty or what?


Nice cardboard stock, K.D. Wentworth's autograph.. and, let's not forget, your-truly's name smack dab in the middle.

Yes, that is a wood frame encasing the certificate.

No, I do not think I am over-inflating the significance of this. ;)

October 9, 2008

WotF - Q4 Update

A strange thing happened after I sent the Q3 entry in. Though I felt it was my strongest writing, to-date, I stopped writing. The manuscript went into the mail on June 30, and on July 1 I took a vacation from writing.

I realize now that, as a wanna-be writer, there can be no such thing as vacations. No time off. No lollygagging. I have not earned that right, quite honestly.

Unfortunately, I didn't start on my entry for WotF Q4 until the end of August, leaving me roughly 5 weeks to complete. Plenty of time, right? And it was, as I completed my first draft with 2 weeks to go.

But then a funny thing happened. Though I still liked the story's premise, I wasn't satisfied with the direction I had taken it. Right around this time, I received word of my Honorable Mention for Q3, which was both a buoy to my flagging spirits, and also raised the bar for what I expected myself capable of. Now that I had a modicum of success, merely entering for Q4 wasn't good enough. I wanted to win, plain and simple, and I just couldn't see how my Q4 entrant could reach those heights.

So I broke one of Heinlein's rules. I re-wrote the story. Completely. This rewrite was flowing good, and it looked like I would complete the first draft and still have a few days for polish. Success, right?

Wrong. Though I felt like I was finally taking the story in the right direction, I just wasn't feeling the resolution that I was tunneling towards. So, probably 90% complete, I put the brakes on. Changed the direction again, salvaging probably the first half. I still felt confident I could get it done in time for September 30.

But, it just wasn't to be. The deadline passed. I kept working, slowly realizing that I had bitten off more than I could chew. The story concept was just too difficult, for me, at this point. To borrow from one of Stephen King's concepts, I didn't have the proper tools in my toolbox to unearth this story fossil. And, rather than risk ruining the idea, I decided to leave it half-buried, until my skills are up to the challenge. So, it goes on the shelf, for now.

This, I have realized, is a risk with my writing "style". I'm not an outliner. I start with a premise, play around a bit, then plow forward with the first promising take on that idea. This often means reworking the concept several times, and my subsequent drafts often end up very differently from one another.

I now recognize that if I am going to be serious about this whole thing, I need to spend more time planning up front. Brainstorming, considering different angles, etc. I don't think I'll ever be the guy who plots the whole manuscript down to scenes, but I do need more structure going in so that I don't just spin my wheels.

So not only did I miss on my goal to submit to WotF every quarter, but I missed submitting during the most important quarter of the year. Q4 was the last chance for the Aug 2009 workshop and ceremony. Now, if I manage to win WotF, the absolute best I can hope for is to be there in Aug 2010. Ouch.

Onward and upward.

July 15, 2008

Checking in on Goals

We're already midway through the year, so wanted to provide an update on goal progress. As a reminder, here are my writing targets for 2008:

1) Submit to Writers of the Future every quarter (no expectation on winning). Update: 50% complete - submit for the periods ending in March & June.

2) Complete NaNoWriMo (50,000 words baby) Update: 0% - NaNo isn't until November.....

3) Sell a short story to a Pro or Semi-Pro market Update: 0%. Have a couple of stories circulating, and have received a few positive rejections (still a rejection, but they encourage you to send another story).

Feeling pretty good, so far. Obviously, nothing can be done about NaNo yet. I'm on track for WotF, which is my big goal for this year.

July 2, 2008

WotF - Q3

Another 3 months passes, another WotF deadline looms. This time, the tale is a near-future, Science Fiction story called 'Shock and Awe'. Think Orson Scott Card's Ender series set in a time closer to our own, with a backdrop of high school politics.

It's my best writing to-date, so fingers and toes crossed!

April 2, 2008

WotF - Q2

As planned, I submit my story for Writer's of the Future, for the quarter ending March 31 (officially, WotF Q2). It's a story called The Last Chieftain (I'm terrible at naming stories), and is a fantasy tale. We'll see how it does!