“Drab, Pulsate, and Tendril.”
“Shouldn’t you be doing that at home, Ben?” I dumped another pile of dishes into the sudsy side of the sink.
“Seriously. What kind of words are these?”
Continue reading Suzie’s House 296 : Yes, I Do Have a Family
|
|||||
 Loading ... |
It’s National Novel Writing Month again. It’s kind of funny they should call it that when people from all over the world do it at the same time. National? Which nation? Anyway, the idea is to write a book in November. We’re talking rough draft here. My rough drafts are always really, really rough. I’ve been known to throw the whole thing away and start from scratch. Sometimes more than once. For instance, last year I worked on a dragon oriented book for NaNo. I’d already written the book once, and had the plot mostly ironed out that way, but had chosen the wrong point of view, so I tossed out the original manuscript entirely, and wrote it for NaNo from scratch. I hit the 50,000 easily enough by the end of the month, but didn’t finish the manuscript until the end of December. Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2012
This manuscript – tentatively titled Watching Uru – was something I did for the Camp NaNo National Novel Writing Month event for August. About a week before we were supposed to start, I thought I’d give this idea a try. I’d had a series of re-occurring daydreams involving a particular character. These daydreams mostly resolved into individual scenes, but they weren’t necessarily related, and I didn’t have a central premiss. I wasn’t at all sure this was going to work. I opened up a spreadsheet and put each scene on a row in a particular column. There were about twenty of them, all told. I then looked for something that might be chronological about them, something that might be a theme, and anything even remotely resembling a plot. To my utter amazement – it had it all, and didn’t even have any scenes that had to be eliminated due to timing or logic conflicts. Everything could be made to fit. I then added some scenes as connective tissue and fill in, numbered everything in the order in which I thought they should appear, and did a data sort to automatically put it all in order for me. I love spreadsheets for stuff like this. I then went through and added approximate dates to show the chronology in a different column and in another put in what point of view the scene should be in. Normally I would go on to add GMC and emotional arc information for each scene, but my week was up, so I skipped it and went straight into the writing. A few days later, I’d had some ideas for the way things should go, and certain details had an impact on the plot, so I went back to the spreadsheet. I removed some scenes, re-arranged a few, and added a few, all while still keeping my word count high. I went through the same process two more times before finishing the book. At the end I mostly just winged it. My word count got slow, but it wasn’t worth messing with the spreadsheet again. Finally, I thought I was right at the end, so I put aside everything else in my life to focus on finishing. I pushed hard, but couldn’t finish it in one day. I finished it the next day. If only all the books I write would come together so easily. So that’s why I was so slow getting back to you a few days ago. My head was totally in a different world. Now I’m ready to get back to… um… reality?
I’m Writing right now. Summer version of National Novel Writing Month. they say 50,000. Shooting for 75,000. Doing well so far. Been 10 days. 21 to go. And I’m on schedule.
I’ve become a NaNo addict. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every year in November. The idea is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in one month. This is the third time I’ve done it. Why? Because of the library. Yeah, yeah, the library is there all year long. What does it have to do with NaNo? Well, a bunch of us get together in the library to encourage one another to get our words written. I have discovered that I can write much more effectively when I am sitting with other people who are also writing. I focus better, and take it more seriously. I can do as much in two hours as I normally do taking all day. We meet once a week. I can’t wait until the next one. The first time I wrote the rough draft of Remember Me. It’s a Suzie’s House book and too deeply entwined with the Suzie’s House story (It’s about Ben’s mother) so that I’ve struggled with the revisions, but I’m hoping to have it come out this coming year. The next NaNo book I wrote was actually two, as Crazy Love only took 40,000 words and I had time left. I went on to Start Beautiful Spanish Hussy, which I haven’t finished yet. This year it’s a fantasy book about dragons and dire wolves and a girl’s quest to find her father. I’m shooting for 100,000 words, but I’ll count myself a winner if I get the first 50,000 done. If you’re a novelist, have you ever tried NaNo? How did it work out for you?
“Shall we call it good for today?” I tried not to appear impatient, but my time is always very, very short. It’s hard enough making myself write. I don’t need to waste time talking to a kid who isn’t interested, though I have accepted Ben’s determination. If he were going to change his mind about being a writer, he’d have done it by now. Poor kid. Continue reading Suzie’s House 221: “But I’m Better, Right?”
Lisa laughed harder than Ben thought she should, but he couldn’t say anything because he meant for her to laugh when he told her about fighting Gene over who got to do the dishes, so… yeah. Continue reading Suzie’s House 212 : Waving Around
Ben read a chapter or two, then put Fahrenheit 450 down and stared into space. “I want to write something like that,” he muttered. “Only not like that.” He stared some more. “I want to write something that good.” He pulled his spiral notebook close. It was already open to a blank page. Continue reading Suzie’s House 190: Fahrenheit Inspiration As those of you who have stopped to read my Welcome page know, I’m adding a new feature here in Alice’s Restaurant. Actually, it’s a feature I’ve had in place for a long time, but haven’t made much effort to exorcise before. Namely, I’m going to be featuring other writers on Mondays. To start, let me introduce you to Ann Pino, who writes and posts some wonderful Science Fiction. For the last few weeks I’ve been enjoying Steal Tomorrow, which is available both on her site, and through Amazon. Now she has a new book coming out. Please welcome Ann.
The idea for Maelstrom knocked around my head for a long time before I started writing it. Susan Helene Gottfried had once told me in frustration that she’d have better luck getting her rock and roll novel published if the roadies were werewolves, and I was charmed by the idea. Why not, I wondered, write about an entire rock band of demons? I pitched the idea to Susan as a possible web fiction project, but she had too much on her plate, and honestly, I was caught up in dark, angsty Steal Tomorrow at the time. Then in September 2008, Hurricane Ike hit and although I was well-prepared, there was something about living the makeshift life of one of my fictional characters for a week that temporarily soured me on the post-apocalyptic fiction which was my usual genre. I needed to keep writing, but I needed something radically different. I dusted off the idea for Maelstrom. I’m embarrassed to say the characters came to life right away and practically wrote the novel for me. The band kept me in stitches as they put their poor human manager, Ricky, into one ridiculous situation after another. I giggled during office meetings and I sometimes couldn’t sleep for all the crazy things the band was planning to do to make Ricky’s life miserable, all the while insisting he make them famous. As for Ricky, how was he supposed to turn these misfits into superstars? And more important, how was he supposed to handle his growing feelings for the sexy djinn guitarist who didn’t believe in love? Ultimately, this novel came to be more than just a romp; it became a story about how our lives can turn for the better, even when things look pretty grim. I hope some of my readers see past the hijinks and take away the same message I got from writing it— your lucky day might come disguised as a disaster, but if you give it your best shot, you just might see your dreams come true. My author blog: http://www.ampino.com
It was the beginning of July when Ben caught up with me the first time. By then I’d already forgotten my agreement to read something he’d written. No doubt this was a good thing, as I’m sure I would have flinched when I saw him coming if I’d remembered. Not that I’m unwilling to do critiques, mind you. I have no problem at all doing critiques for my critique partners. These are seasoned veterans of writing – people I know can take my comments without freaking out, and give as good as they take. It’s critiquing for the starry eyed that makes me uncomfortable. You don’t get much more starry eyed than Ben. Continue reading Suzie’s House 155: Throwing Lightning Bolts
“Gene, cut it out.” Ben took the ice cube from Gene’s hand. “She doesn’t like it.” “So what? I do like it.” Gene tried to take the ice cube back, but Ben kept just out of reach. Not that Gene was really trying anyway. It wasn’t like he cared all that much. He grabbed for it again anyway. “I said cut it out!” Ben actually looked serious. “What are you two talking about?” Diane glanced nervously at them right before sliding the last batch of cookies into the oven. Continue reading Suzie’s House 147: Nervous
“Vin!” Miranda took the remote control out of his hand and levered him to his feet. “Diane’s here. You haven’t meet Diane yet, have you? Come on. I’ll introduce you.” “Diane?” “Yeah. She’s a good friend of Suzie and me. She used to baby sit Ben when he was little. That’s why she’s here. She’s going to take care of Ben and Gene while the rest of us are gone.” “No wild parties, huh? What if she likes wild parties?” He gave Miranda an appreciative swat on the butt as they left the den. If she was anything like Miranda, they might well come home to find a keg in the back yard. Miranda laughed. “Wait until you meet her.” Continue reading Suzie’s House 146: Introductions
About half an hour early, Diane walked up the steps to the porch of Suzie’s house with her over night case in hand. She paused in front of the door, trying to decide if she should knock or simply walk in. Before all those people moved in with Suzie, Diane wouldn’t have thought twice. She would simply have gone around back and walked into the kitchen, since that was where Suzie tended to spend her time. That was months ago. From what Suzie had said on the phone, everything was different now. They had started locking doors to keep murderers out. Then again, now that the killers were in jail, maybe the door would be open. Continue reading Suzie’s House 145 : Diane Makes Herself at Home
It was only a few months between the day I watched two red haired men run out of Cindy’s apartment during a party and the next time I ran into Suzie’s son, Ben, but it seemed like a couple of years had gone by. In that time, Ben had nearly been abducted by those red haired men, seen them arrested, been accused of insanity by a crazy teacher, sent his own father to jail for attempted murder, rescued his best friend from an abusive father, started summer vacation, and maybe acquired a girlfriend. In contrast, I had only written a couple of books, and done a lot of walking. Walking, if you’ll recall, brought my friends and I together in the first place. It was the reason for the party held at Cindy’s house. It was also what brought Ben back into my life. Continue reading Suzie’s House 143: A Walk in the Park
I went to my first ever live NaNo event this Sunday. Imagine a score of people sitting at a long table, all writing. That was it. No conversation, no joking, the only sound the clatter of keyboards, the scritch of pens on paper, and the rustle of snack wrappers. It was great! In an hour and a half (I was late arriving) I managed to eek out as many words as I’d done all day the day before. They aren’t going to show up on that NaNo meter at the bottom of my sidebar, though, because it was all outline. Still, I count it a significant step in my writing efforts because now I have some clue as to where I’m going with this story. Don’t know why my attempt to outline before failed, but I’m really glad to have what I do now. In the process I made a discovery. I don’t know the name of one of my characters. I could swear I gave Gene’s father a first name. Of course his last name is Thomas, the same as Gene, but I can’t remember his first name, it isn’t in the spreadsheet where I try to keep track of that stuff, and I couldn’t find it when I went digging through the archives for it. Maybe I’m misremembering, and never posted anything in which he has a first name. And no, I don’t count “Dad” or “Gene’s Dad” or any other such title. A lot of the episodes of Suzie’s House are written minutes before I post. There are (shudder) spelling errors all over the place. Yet, I have been quite proud of having picked up loose threads as I go. For instance, there’s a bit in there where Miranda has a bad encounter with the employees of video store. I picked up the thread on that several months later. There are a couple of mentions in the first three or four installments of Suzie’s House that I follow through on in Moving In. I try hard not to leave you hanging. But maybe I’m deluding myself. I really, really don’t want to give the man a whole new name then some day have a reader going through my archives point out I got it wrong. So, I’ll make you a bet. I bet $100 that you can’t find a first name for Gene’s father in my Suzie’s House archives. Be the first to leave a comment about it on any post in which his first name appears and you win. The offer is good for at least two weeks. I’ll update here if either someone finds it, or it’s been way too long with no one even trying, and I withdraw the offer. |
This week's participants: What is the Serialists? It's a chance to check out some great online fiction. Each Wednesday goes up where people who write connected fiction can share their latest episodes. Click on that link to get to the post where you can put in your own link. Here are some of the best: Want to get in the permanent list? Participate in the Serialists meme with a few points in mind, and you will be. |
|||
|
Copyright © 2013 Alice Audrey - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa 75 queries. 1.138 seconds. |
|||||
Sometimes things just come together for you. The book I just wrote was like that. Not so much the ending, which I changed three or four times as I went, but just the way the book came together as a whole was great. I’ve got a couple of Works In Progress that are like pulling teeth. To have one whip together so fast and so clean from a start with so little to go on was really fun.
Recent Comments