Nano, anyone?

[hobgoblinn]

Well, I broke down and signed up for Nanowrimo again. Actually, just updated my account info from last year. Another year older, possibly wiser. Apparently not wise enough, as I'm seriously considering doing this again, just having come off a month of "Lost Boys" madness.

I'm thinking of an original bit of writing this year, or working on several ideas I have and seeing where they go. And using my word counts, as last year, to finish up stuff that had been hanging about undone. That's how Summer came to be finished, after all. So perhaps Last Year's Novel will get some work this November, so that my lovely beta gillo will have more to work with. Like an ending. Then I can go back and apply her superior knowledge of geography, and many other things, to the earlier sections. It's not as if I will get anywhere near 50k words legitimately anyway; I may as well use the challenge to do what I think will help me most. I'm also signed up for mini-nanowrimo, or will be when they open it up for pledged word counts in another week or so.

So, who's going "once more into the breach" with me, dear friends? Let me know so I can make you a buddy on my home page there. Also, what are you doing to prepare? If you've done it in the past but have now come to your senses, what advice do you have for the sanity impaired among us?

Comments

[usedtobeljs]

Good luck with Nanowrimo!

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[father-turtle.livejournal.com]

I am participating for the first time, God help me. I'm writing under an alias--Nathan Black. Here's my page: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/214160

I've done character profiles and a quick chapter list, and I'm starting to outline chapters.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Oh my. You're like all organdized and everything. Last year my count was something like 35k, and that was with a week of performances and rehearsals of the Brahms Requiem and Lauridsen Lux Aeterna there at the beginning of the month (I think one day my word count was about 40....)

I just friended you back, by the way. Crazy people need all the friends they can get. And your journal looks interesting, too. I look forward to getting to know you better.

I'll go add you to my buddies list, if I can figure out how, at nano.

Is there an active group doing this where you live? You'd think greater Cincinnati would have write-ins all over the place, but I didn't find that to be the case last year. I'm trying to recruit cow orkers this year. Insanity is a prerequisite at my company. Advanced dementia makes you a candidate for management.....

Good luck, Mr. Black, Sir.

Hob

[father-turtle.livejournal.com]

I have to be organized if I'm going to do this. I've tried writing freestyle before, and I just don't have the discipline to make it work. I'm not sure I'll have the discipline even with the preparation, and God only knows if my twin babies (not to mention work and the preaching I'll be doing the week of Thanksgiving) will give me the time, but I'm going to try.

You're a performer? I used to sing in choirs in college, but I'm horribly out of voice now. I get winded too easily these days when I try to sing.

There's a nearly completely quiet New Orleans community, and I'm also in a Louisiana: Elsewhere community which is a little more active, but it's spread all over the state. I'm between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and over an hour from both of them, so I'm pretty much on my own here.

Good luck to you, too. Let's both make it.

[father-turtle.livejournal.com]

Oh, and my writing LJ for Nathan Black is nathanblackpen.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. I've friended your other journal as well. We'll have to do virtual write-ins, maybe. I have November 5-6 off, so that may help me get off to an early lead.

I found last year that sometimes I got a lot out of writing character studies-- even if it was just a list of the kinds of things I saw my character caring about, or grieving over, or denying. I also did a lot of nights writing rambling what should happen next stuff. None of it would go in a proper novel, but I decided if I wrote it that day, and it was creative fiction in any way (a new scene for an old unfinished story, even, and not at all part of the "main novel") it counted towards the day's word count. It was amazing how giving myself that permission to break the rules freed me up to try stuff and make myself sit down even when it was painful to do so. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I have been a chorister most of my life, for college chorales, and more recently with the May Festival Chorus (the organization for which the Cincinnati Symphony was founded). I had to drop the latter when I got my Wee Hob back after a protracted custory battle, but I still sing with the Bishop's Choir in the morning and with Anawim, a contemporary group, in the evening at Covington's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. Cool church-- if you're ever up this way, you and yours should definitely make time to see it. The mosaics and stained glass windows and murals are amazing. Do a web search and you'll probably find some stunning images out there.

I better get Wee Hob ready for Scouts now. Talk to you later.

Hob

[father-turtle.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've actually friended father_turtle or not. You aren't showing up on my user info page.

[father-turtle.livejournal.com]

I meant to say more than that, but that's what I get for pressing the "post comment" button before my brain turns on in the morning.

One of my friends suggested that I "interview" my characters, while another suggested that I do "job applications". The thing is, you don't apply to become a pastor, and I can't imagine a police application would do very much in helping me understand the character. But I used to play roleplaying games (Middle Earth Role Playing, Dungeons & Dragons, Mekton), and the character sheets really helped flesh out the characters for when you were trying to play the character with some personality besides your own. So my character profiles resemble those character sheets of old.

I'm afraid that if I allow myself to deviate from my main purpose too much, I'll never get the damn thing done. I don't know if I'll ever try for publication, but I'd like to say that I wrote at least one novel in my life.

Probably the most ambitious piece I ever performed was Bach's "St. Matthew Passion"--I can't imagine a piece any more ambitious than that--though we performed a number of beautiful pieces: Rutter's Requiem and Magnificat, Handel's Messiah, Vivaldi's Gloria, etc. I've performed in Alice tully Hall in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. (I've also sung in St. John the Divine in New York City, the National Cathedral in D.C., and German cathedrals , though the choir only did those for fun during sightseeing and not as a regularly scheduled concert.)

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Ooops. Good intentions pave my road. At the moment, it's quite a slippery slope, in fact. You are added now, I think.

Hey, I tried to add you to a google document with the address father_turtle@livejournal.com. It probably won't work-- one of my other LJ friends put some character sheet materials out there for me and I thought you might like them. If you don't get them and would like to, shoot an e-mail to skierein at gmail dot com and I'll add you directly.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

I've done the B Minor Mass; probably the most moving thing I've ever done was performing the Britten War Requiem with the May Festival Chorus at Carnegie Hall, a month to the day after September 11th. It's such a moving piece anyway, but-- that was special. I have to say that I had no idea when I auditioned what a big deal the May Festival was, or what kind of tradition it represented. I was new to the area, then. The first time I was ever in Music Hall, I was on the stage. I miss it, but Wee Hob comes first.

You might appreciate this link to a poem one my friends wrote wee hob on the occasion of his switching from Percussion to Trumpet this year:
http://hobgoblinn.livejournal.com/37729.html

We'll have to compare more musical notes sometime. Looks like you've got a plot progression pretty well mapped out. Any idea what the novel's about? Or is that kind of not the point?

I have an age-regression Harry Potter idea I've been kicking around since before DH came out. I haven't seen many of those in the HP fandom, but I know it's a staple of fanfic in general, and one of the first bits of fanfic I ever read was an age repression fic. I really like seeing what it does to relationships, having unlikely people become vulnerable in that way, or become caretakers because there's nobody else.

Anyway, I have some good scenes, but not sure yet what I want it to be about. That's the main discipline I need to start something now-- what change or realization am I writing toward? I can change it (I did for lost boys to an extent) but starting without it leads to Documentary, not story.

I'll look forward to seeing you progress through this next month. I'll cheer, even if I don't get far myself. And I'm glad you're on my flist.

[father-turtle.livejournal.com]

The wee ones always come first, for better or for worse. That's what makes me wonder if I can actually do NaNoWriMo. The twins take up so much time and energy that I don't know if I'll have the time or energy to sit down and write.

In terms of what the novel is about, I guess I'd define it by the conflicts:
-- Work focus v. personal lives
-- Sexuality v. faith
-- Catholic v. Lutheran
-- Parishioners' opinions
-- Overcoming introversion

There are some parts of this that are going to be easy to write, and some parts that are going to feel like I'm pulling bones (teeth are too easy). Like you, I have some good scenes, but if I want the novel to be worth anything I can't just have filler between those scenes.

I wish I had done this when I was single.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Well, focus on writing at least a little every day. What's the saying? Aim high-- you may not hit the target, but at least you won't shoot yourself in the foot.

I need simpler "what's it about" when I start. But I usually am more lacking in anything resembling a plot. Also, I think musically and programatically, being both by trade-- I want to know how the big blocks fit together. Because I'm also an INTJ I tend to be very vague on the "how" part-- I just have the unshakable intuition that somehow, it does fit.

Hope some of that material lady_clover sent me helps you as well-- I put you on most of it. I need to get back to my last couple of chapters of LB, and decompressing from an unusually lovely day.

How old are your little ones? And Twins? Good Lord. My best to you and Mrs. Turtle. Does she also write? At least wee hob is supportive (though maybe that's just the knowledge that for the next month I'll be too preoccupied to hound him about his homework too much, or cleaning his room....) He is absolutely the best beta ever.