Way of the Writer
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Real writing
Spent the evening yesterday at the coffeeshop prepping for NaNoWriMo. Resolved a difficult moral issue due to upcoming personal events. Whew! Even engaged in my first Word War (100 words) over at Forward Motion for the first time in over a year.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Thursday, October 21, 2004
***98 words an hour***
I read in the NaNoWriMo forums how one participant had calculated that one could complete the goal by writing approximately 98 words per hour. Seven hours of sleep were included in the calculation. As I previously commented, I found the figure psychologically comforting even though impossible.
But wouldn't an attempt be fun to try? I'm thinking, just for grins, selecting a day and see if I can write 1666 words (which would be 98 words per hour for the 17 remaining hours of a day.) That means scheduling no major activities for that day such as working out, long lunch (more than 45 minutes), etc. Just sit and write 98 words on the hour, every hour.
The day will have to be either a Saturday or Sunday. Hmmm. What's R.'s on-call schedule for November again?
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
***If you're interested in writing and teaching***
Writing and teaching
Some great advice for those who are interested.
Monday, October 18, 2004
***Prepping up***
This was the first weekend I spent a significant time writing. I drove down and stayed at the coffeeshop both Saturday and Sunday jotting down notes, journalizing, and reviewing my ideas for NaNoWriMo.
Scheduling occupied the lion's share of time. Specifically, I calcuated how many words I needed to aim for weekly as opposed to daily, what were the writing days (usually nights); and the time slots in each day. I discovered a significant (well, sorta) glitch: R. was on vacation from Monday, November 1st through Sunday, November 7th. That meant couple time during those evenings and weekend. I believe, though, I came up with a workaround. (And, yes, we spoke about it. Pouting and sulking does affect me. And the couch is very uncomfortable.)
Another situ is deciding which idea to work on during November. I've narrowed down from six to two but was stumped. Do I want to pursue the idea of what happens to the main character after he's swallowed by the dragon (DT)? Or the character who's the chess piece/salvation for returning gods (PP)? Both ideas have good strengths and weaknesses. I've given myself until the 21st of this month to come with a solution. (See private writing journal as to why that specific date.)
I spent some time in the NaNoWriMo forums as well to see how my fellow participants were gearing up. Many, especially the returnees, had posted intriguing ideas and I found the following especially intriguing:
Someone calculated that one can meet the 50k word goal by writing 98 words per hour (after considering sleep.) Though I (and other participants) found executing the idea to be obviously impossible, I found the figure psychologically soothing.
Fillers were intriguing. Besides the common ones liked flashbacks, dream sequences, and lots of inane dialogue, there were the more unique ones like novel-related blog entries. My favorite was one writer whose two main characters met a fortune teller who did a reading for each one. At 9-12 cards each with a paragraph (at least) to describe each card, I could see the writer filling up a dozen pages quickly. Even better, the readings were related to the plot. Kewl!
All work and no play makes Joel a bored boy, though. I spent some time in the Forward Motion chatroom where I convinced a newbie to join NaNoWriMo. And I talked to several regulars in the coffeeshop. One is an aspiring film-maker. We spend a considerable length of time on our arts.
Overall, a productive weekend.
***Culture on food and story ideas***
Hmmm. I caught on the Discovery Channel yesterday a brief snippet about killer whales. Scientists have been puzzled why the animals don't attack humans with the frequency like sharks. Snorklers, for example, would look like floating seals from under the ocean's surface (which, scientists believe, sharks attack humans). Yet there are various excursion groups that can safely float above feeding wild killer whales.
A theory, based on captive whales like Shamu, is that killer whales--wild or captive--have a culture developed around their food source. It's been observed that whales that hunt fish have a different "culture" than those who hunt seals and the two tribes don't interbreed. Killer whales (again, like Shamu) whose primary source of food is fish won't attack their human trainers because they're not fish. Seems at first a bit ridiculous (meat is meat, right?) even for an animal, but humans exhibit similar behavior. A human culture that primarly eats fish, for example, would have different hunting techniques and even equipment than a culture that hunts deer.
I had read in one of the Traveler role-playing game supplements about an alien culture that was partially based on where they found their food in their alien oceans and thought the concept intriguing and original. Now I discover (no pun intended) the authors idea may have been based on the killer whale or other animals exhibiting similar behaviors. Regardless, there are some cool ideas for stories in either source (see private writing journals. You think I'm actually going to share them with you hacks? ;) ).
And people wonder where writers get their ideas. For myself, it's not getting them that's the issue.
