NaNoWriMo 2009 – An Update 10/11/2009
Well we're now into week 2 of NaNoWriMo, and I managed to resolve my problems that came about at the end of last week. I say temporarily, because despite introducing a brand spanking new character, to whom I switched to, so I could imply the extent of the problem with my protaginist, without gettimg bogged down in detail, (and the logic of how long healing should take), I still wrote in the troubles just later in the process.
Two thousand words dropped for nowt, and probably another thousand to erase the second mistake.
I do have a plan though, and it is a cunning plan, go back again and undo the difficulties, limit the protaginists psychological difficulties (which are what would take too long in the time wise to deal with), but keep the secondary character. Kind of a sidekick to help out my protaginist through the couple of days recovery he needs (I've also undone shooting him in the legs, and instead had the bullet nick his brachial artery).
This should mean my character is less on his own, and has more interaction, and I can up the humour a bit. I'd much rather my characters were funny people than the narrative, or situations. Gallows humour is good, especially in procedural crime writing.
So, recovery is in sight - but I do have some monster writing sessions between now and this Saturday. Which is fine, I don't mind the pressure, it's only when deadlines become tight that I really put my foot on the gas and blast those monster wordcounts out. I had hoped this year woukd be different - but events conspired against me.
Meeting up with other NaNoWriMo'ers helps - it's where I found mysels thinking out the solution to my plot problems. It was a good meet up on Sunday, (7th November 2009), some new faces and old. It's enough to make you believe writers are generally smart, talented, driven people, who are genuinely nice, friendly, and social - until you remember I was there 
, brutish talentless oaf that I am.
The only way to hit 100,000 is going to be by being diligent, and erm... Deadlining with an all nighter on Friday - yes my bad, but we each have our ways of writing afterall.
NaNoWriMo 2009 – Week 1
Well we're now seven days into NaNoWriMo and I've only achieved 13,000 words so far. This is actually to plan, yet now we're going I can't help but feeling I'm falling short. Today is Saturday however, and I planned in most of my word count for Saturdays and Sundays (because I'm not lucky enough to be able to live without earning lots and lots of money).
In my defence (against myself, since I'm my own harshest critic), there has been a lot of drama to trip me up along the way. From car thefts, work, and family - all neatly working their way into my writing time, and mindset.
I shouldn't be bothered, the plan was for 20,000 a weekend, with and extra 5,000 on a Friday, and we've not had a full weekend yet - but I want to do more, be faster stronger as a writer.
I'm not helping myself however, trying to exercise and write at the same time isn't easy, and it's taking it's toll. The Friday just gone, I should have done 5,000 words, instead I slept. Oops, my bad.
It just means today (Saturday) I have to hit 15,000 to be sure of my targets.
Actually, I do realise I'm being unfair, everytime I think about it, I ramp up the amount of words I need to do each week (and subsequently each day), because of how badly I'm doing. It's not just to contemplate for being bad now, it's to compensate for things being just as hard later. I know that if I could get away with it, I would probably set myself a target of 50,000 words a day this weekend. Which isn't unachievable really - think about it, assuming I slept for 12 hours, out of the 48, and wrote for the rest - I'd only need to achieve 52 words per minute consistently.
Of course, that's not likely since I'm here writing this, oops. 15,000 today and tomorrow is fine - it'll get me to 42% of my target, which does give me room to relax for the rest of the month.
I am my own hardest task master... I've as many psychological issues as my main character - but he's paranoid delusional, since I started writing his life has now gone quite psychotic. The irony is, I didn't mean to do that, all I did was shoot him, and he's gone nuts. Oops.
So now I've got to get him functional, get him out of hospital, and somehow have him run (a bullet passed through both thighs, and at one point he starts bleeding out). Oh hum - well here goes.
The good thing with a 100,000 word count target, if I don't finish this in 50,000 I can push it to 60,000 and then have a nice shorter to finish the challenge with.
And if you think I'm a harsh task master this year? Next year will be 50% harder... and you don't even want to know about the year after that.
Where’s the Inspiration?
A man walks onto the scene, he strolls with forced assuredness, yet you can read in his body language he's not as confident as he'd like to be, he eyes the megaphone in his hand cautiously, before coming to a step. He lifts the megaphone up, taps the small end, then raises it to his mouth, before clearing his throat, "Ahem!", then he queries, "Is this thing on?", his words boom out of the megaphone's big end. He laughs nervously in response to the annoyed stairs he receives.
The man stands there a few moments before finally seeming to get the confidence to raise the microphone to his mouth again, as he megaphone reaches position this time his cheeks take on a bit of velour, and his eyes seem ablaze, he takes a deep meaningful breath, and speaks into the megaphone,
"Right, listen up," now all eyes are on him, only they're attentive rather than annoyed, "I demand to know where my inspiration is! I think it's wholly unfair that you've abandoned me right now. I need you, I can't write without you. Without you these pages are blank, and what words come are empty.
"Inspiration I've never needed you so bad, I've got all these things to do, and you've abandoned me, given up the fight, and now I stand alone against the tide of battle.
"I beg you return to me your charm, your talent. Words are meaningless without you!"
The audience looks rapt, his words have moved them, they feel his desperation, and they ponder borrowing the megaphone.
The man looks down upon his audience, upon their swept up faces, he watches the emotions play across their faces. Then a thought dawns in his mind, a realisation, maybe even epiphany.
What the man realised was this - inspiration is hard to achieve, but it can hit at the strangest moments, and all you can do is find the nearest waiting apparatus and take advantage.
Everyone has different things that inspires them to write, and inspires what to write. For myself these are most often two different events, for others they might be most often the same.
There is also another possibility one without the other, which can either be liberating or frustrating, for example:
- I may have a brilliant idea what to write, but no inspiration (will) to write it - so it all plays out in my head because try as I might I can't convert it into words. Obviously a form of writers block.
- Something may give me inspiration (the will) to write, but without any inspiration. Here my mind, and the paper is ab empty canvas, and I can just let my thoughts flow freely. Probably doesn't make for great reading, but it's fun and liberating for me.
Everybody is different when it comes to inspiration, I know all too well what holds true for me, is complete gibberish to another. In broad strokes, I have probably captured the general forms of inspiration.
In terms of what inspires me to write (gives me the will), it falls down to three categories: the outdoors (nature, weather, scenery, architecture, etc...), other people's creativity (a book, a film, a piece of music, also biographical information about a creative person, or someone who's faced adversity in their life), and challenges (nothing gets my creative juices better than a bit of competition).
Sadly these things aren't guaranteed to get me writing, but most often once I start writing it's because I was inspired to by one of the above.
In terms of my inspiration what to write, it's usually something close to hand, something I've imagined happening, my emotional state (yes, I can be a bit emo in my poetry), or a need to impress others so I can belong, and validate myself.
I've written about many things, from religion to coke cans, from fantasyic tales to mundane moments of life, and from historical events to nature.
Sometimes my indpirations puts me on the path to something specific, sometimes it's just the starting point, or catalyst for a cascade of ideas.
I will say this, whatever the idea, I do love it when it happens, it's a veritable joy to let poetry over take me, a joy and love that only falls short of sex.
As I'm getting older, inspiration is getting harder - dry spells last longer, but when the floodgates open, I feel sure the joy is deeper, as I come to appreciate it more.
Still I would live in those moments more if I were able to, giving myself over to the wild abandon of inspiration.
So I feel abandoned when inspiration doesn't come, and call to it from my megaphone, hoping to attract it back. For me my megaphone is going to beautiful places, reading and listening to music, and entering challenges - hoping beyond hope, inspiration heads my call and answers.
That's what inspiration is to me.
Evolution of a Writer
Charmander - beause everyone should be a Pokémon - or something like that
So Charmander gets in a fight, it's against a more powerful Pokémon, though his trainer is sure his Pokémon can handle it.
The battle rages, and indeed in a last ditch effort, Charmander gets the win. The crowds go wild, it's the little pocket monster that could.
Wait, but what's happening now? Why Charmander is glowing, what's going on? Suddenly the glowing shape of a small odd looking lizard is replaced with a larger odd looking glowing lizard, and as the glow fades, Charizard is stood there looking thoroughly chuffed with himself. He's evolved, become a better Pokémon, bigger, stronger, and smarter. Everyone is shocked into a stunned silence. His trainer starts clapping, and soon the auditorium goes nuts.
What's this got to with anything? Well after a fashion I think writers evolution is similar. Certainly my own is, I get stronger very gradually, but every so often I tackle something big - and win. The gradual improvement, the many small lessons learnt, and the sudden influx of effort and challenges pushes me to a new level.
I'll admit, it may be a confidence thing - I'm not a biased judge of my own ability, in the absence of Mr Horobin and Mr Barrand (my English teachers in high school), I can only presume to rate myself.
Every piece I write I get a little better, every review and edit nets me a few more lessons to avoid problems in the future, but every major trial tests everything I've learned, and gives me so many new lessons.
In terms of talent and experience, I evolve into a whole new monster, with new lessons to learn and embrace. I find the end of a piece of work, or project, the most exciting time, and I need to focus on that when the challenge seems too daunting, or I lose the inspiration (will), I have reasons to carry on.
It's true of most things in my life, I'm a far better analyst now than I was four years ago, there are periods of gradual improvement, and those moments where I've jumped to a whole new level.
Now I've turned myself into a fictional firey Japanese lizard, I think the job is done for this post.
P.S. I don't know Pokémon that well, if I've got the evolution wrong, aplogies to the diehard Pokemon fans out there.
Charmander - beause everyone should be a Pokémon - or something like that
My Poetry Writing Process
The fabled writing process, everyone has one, or one they prefer at least.
My own process keeps me sane, keeps me trying, and ultimately makes my work better. That's what I'm going to explore in this entry.
I've found, that in the past spending a few moments considering what my process is has made for better poetry. It prevents me trying to force myself to fit molds that aren't mine, which so far when I've tried has led me down paths of frustration. Having the desire to write a poem, and then destroying the will to write is a terrible thing.
Preface: Before I start exploring, it isn't fair to say I have one writing process, I have several - the aim of this post is explore my writing process for poetry, I will do another blog entry in regards to writing literature.
