NaNo Countdown: 8 Days!

Hey folks, it's just about that time again! That's right, it's the time when we give up sanity, sleep, and friends all for the sake of our writing!

This will be my fourth attempt at NaNoWriMo and if all goes well I will "win" for the second year in a row. I'll be honest with you folks, I want to win, but I'm not going to be as devoted as I was last year. My schedule is fairly crammed with school and work, more so than last Fall, but I am going to do my best. I'll budget my time and take advantage of my 3 hour schedule breaks between classes/work.

I wanted to try something new this year, so I'm attempting a story unlike any I've ever done. I'm writing a sports book. A sports book. I don't even play sports! I also don't write a lot of realistic fiction, so this might be a challenge for me.

Caroline Reyes is a competitive inline speed skater training for the Nationals. In an attempt to gain an edge and clock in some extra track time (and after a few dares & challenges), Caroline tries out for a roller derby team—and makes it. Despite skating almost her whole life, derby proves challenging to Caroline. She'll have to learn how to skate on four wheels, play as a team, and most importantly: take a hit. But what happens when she has to choose between her dream and her team?

Tonight I finally figured out all the girls on the main team (The Rockin' Rollers), both their real name and their derby names. I love how much a derby name says about a girl, whether they're fun, sexy, or smart, even what their interests are. These girls love poetry, music, science fiction shows, and cooking. Never has naming characters been more fun.

If you want to friend me on the NaNo site, my username is typesetjez!

My Book is Not About Me

I have attended enough presentations and met with enough authors to know that a question that constantly pops up for writers is "Is this book about you?" Or "Is this character based on someone you know?" "Your character is gay, does that mean you are?" "Your parents are divorced, so are the ones in your book, is this about your life?"

The answer, usually, is no. My book is not about me. Yes, there will always be parts of the author in their book, because the book is a part of the author and it's impossible to completely separate the two, but on the whole, most novels are not the thinly veiled autobiographies readers expect them to be.

J.K. Rowling writes about wizards, but that doesn't mean she knows magic (though it would be awesome if she did). I am not a hermaphrodite, but that doesn't mean I can't write about one. And for any members of the secret service reading my blog, I do think our government could make a few chances, but I am not about to head up a coup.

Making up stories and creating truly believable fictional characters, though, that's what makes an author great. Give the author a little credit and believe in the power of their imagination and skill, because if they really did write all of their books about themselves, there would be no variation in characters, nor difference in plot. Things could get boring very quickly.

PS: If you ever do find yourself transported in real life to another dimension, world, or time via wardrobe, TARDIS, or hole in space, please do write your autobiography, I'd love to read it.

There are No Vacations from Being a Writer

On Wednesday night I completed my edits/rewrite of Zenith, packaged it up pretty & sent it off to be printed. What I didn't know is that CreateSpace, the website I had a free code for, requires 1-2 days processing, so it looks like I'll be paying for my copy after all. It only costs about $5, so I don't mind, I suppose. After all that work, I plan on rewarding myself with a copy.

Additionally, because I finished my edits, I also sent off a PDF of my novel to seven willing volunteers for beta-reading. I haven't received anything definite from anyone yet––it's only been two days––but so far the feedback has been good. However, none of them have reached the completely sucky last few chapters, so I'm not holding my breath.

Yesterday I could have relaxed from writing (and probably should have, considering I work a 12 hour split shift), but I couldn't. I've mentioned it before, but writing is not a job you drive to, clock in, do your work, clock out, go home, & forget about until the next morning; writing is a whole life process. Even as I drove to work yesterday, my mind was already trying to choose which project to begin on next. I wanted to do something with time travel that reflects my personal beliefs about the way time travel should be; I wanted a character with a particularly nice moustache; I wanted to try romance, since I've never successfully pulled that off. Before bed I ended up writing a 500 word drabble about two characters for a friend, just so I could write something (a need I rarely have when a deadline approaches, sadly). There are just no vacation time available for a writer.

This morning I woke up from a strange dream that ended up being the inspiration for my next project and immediately I began brainstorming and researching, picking out names. I need an androgynous name that can be mistaken as a male name, but is also not uncommon for females, but cannot be a diminutive of a different name. Currently I am leaning towards Sky with Cameron as my backup. This idea differs entirely from anything I've ever written and I am so excited about it.

Which brings me to my last topic of the day: all writers are lunatics. I've told you all this before and it's the title of my blog, so this really shouldn't be much of a surprise. After I created my list of possible character names I asked twitter & some friends which androgynous names they could think of, to gauge the connotations of each name. I received a lot of responses, for which I am thankful, but no one asked what the names were for. Even after I started hinting that I had a new story, no one asked what it was about. Like the lunatic writer I am, I went into this whiny state of Nobody Loves Me before finally texting Secret Agent Casye my idea. I could have just told everybody, I know, but I'm a lunatic, remember?

[Next up, research! I'm heading to the library later today to pick up some books, including Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness.]

The Damsel: Finished!

The Damsel is a short story, 3,335 words (about 9 pages in a paperback novel, or 14 pages printed out) about Ashton Monroe, a professional Damsel in Distress, who loses her job when the #1 hero falls in love, and everyone knows that Love Interest trumps Damsel in Distress. Now she has to find a way to break back into the business.

I absolutely loved writing this story, and it was much easier than a lot of the other things I've tackled lately. I came up with the idea at the start of a 6:30a shift at work and wrote it down. My coworker liked the idea and I was excited writing about it, so I brainstormed the rest of the day and began writing last night. I just finished, putting in 2,646 words today alone, which is pretty amazing for me. Ashton has such a strong voice in this piece and she is honestly the most fun I've had writing in a long time. I even stuck out first person for her, not something I'm exactly known for.

I'm really excited for people to read it, because I think I did a really good job this time. No clue what I'm doing with this, if I want to get it published or if I can, but if anyone wants to read it, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you.

The Conqueror; Creating Good Characters

Total word count: 15,079
Words written today: 1,005
Chapter(s): 12 & 13 (written in reverse order)

Last night I went to an event with John Green & David Leviathan for the release of their new book Will Grayson, Will Grayson and it was a great experience. I got to hang out with a lot of great people, discuss books and writing, and I got plenty of advice and got to hear from two experienced professional writers. One question that a fan asked was "how do you come up with such great characters, are they people you know or people you wished you knew?" John's answer was that it was a little of both, that when he was younger he would imagine conversations with people in real life that he never had the courage or opportunity to speak to. Sitting there in the audience I had this moment of connection, because I do that too.

I imagine every day "what would have happened if I said this?" or "If they were still here, what would we talk about?" I spend a large portion of my life imagining conversations and not actually having them. That's what I do with my writing, it's a very good way to do the same thing without sounding like a crazy person. And in addition to reimagining people in new ways, we authors put a little of ourselves in each of our characters.

Matt, one of my characters in The Conqueror isn't much like me, he's a detective and thinks everything through and I'm a lunatic writer who does things on impulse, but there is this one little part of me that became a part of him. Matt, like myself, is the farthest thing from a morning person. There is a section in chapter 13 where I bring this up and I think it's a part that makes him more real for the reader. Being bleary-eyed in the morning is not a tragic flaw, but it is a flaw, and it makes him more believable and relatable and I like that.

The Conqueror, Chapter 9

Overall word count: 11162
Words written today: 625

Fridays are always hit or miss writing days for me, generally because I tend to write more late at night and I don't have that option on Fridays. I work at 6:30 on Saturday mornings, so a reasonable bedtime the night before is a must. Today I managed 625 words which is not fantastic, but far better than anything else this week. I went three days without writing a word, partially because of the crazy amount of schoolwork I had to complete (6 pages of papers just last night) and partially because I've been having a really rotten week. And by really rotten I mean "exceptionally exhausting" and "terribly trying" and other such alliterations. Getting back to writing, accomplishing something, felt good, like visiting and old friend or watching a favourite movie. (Which I also did tonight by introducing my best friend to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, but that's beside the point)

In those 625 words I finished the 9th chapter of The Conqueror and introduced one of my favourite characters, William. He's a bit crazy, usually drinking, and generally hilarious. He used to work in the palace, before the Overthrow, and now he works for the resistance. If you've read my novel Zenith, or heard me talk about it, you might be thinking that he's very similar to Fagan/Gramps, and in some ways he is, but in many others he's very different. Still, I think those two would get along rather well, especially over a good meal.