November is getting painfully close now, so I'll be writing in earnest soon. Presently, I'm jotting down all manner of notes, from plot points to character foibles to how an interplanetary parliamentary government is supposed to run.
There's some decisions to be made about this little chronicle of the process too, which I've been glossing over, thus far. For example, you'll notice I haven't posted any outline material yet. The wall I've run into there is that the outline is....well....an outline. I can't help but feel that it'd give just a little too much away for even a spoiler warning to suffice. It'd be like standing in the ticket line, before the first screening of Empire Strikes Back and talking not just about Vader being Luke's father but about Luke's attraction to Leia being illegal in forty-two states. Just saying, "Spoilers!" isn't adequate before ruining two-thirds (THERE WERE NO PREQUELS) of the saga.*
Mayhap, I'll post excerpts of the outline with corrisponding excerpts of the novel. Hopefully that can illustrate the process, without destroying interest in following the novel itself.
...And now I've written about writing about writing. This has to stop.
* -- Lesson learned: No writing after midnight. I start channeling Lucas, and no good could possibly come from that. Ewoks.... *Shudder* (Remember: No prequels.)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Outlining Begins
I began prewriting today, starting with a timeline of the events leading up to the novel. In hindsight, I think I went a little further back and into a little more detail than I hand originally intended, but since I'm gearing up to write a freakin' novel, that's probably not a bad thing. Moreover, while I went a little out of control, the word-count for what I wrote today, hovering around 1,600 words, is pretty encouraging. It means the quota I've set for myself, once November hits, is pretty realistic. As long as I don't run out of plot or find myself with a gaggle of dead characters, this might just be doable.
In any case, the TIMELINE!
Ye gods, there's probably a better novel to be had in the background of Consent of the Governed than in the novel itself. Dammit! Oh well.... What's a good idea, without a wealth ofshitty prequels to cash in on flesh out later? Roight, maybe I'll not look to George Lucas for any further pointers.
Incidentally, if you're a fan of Tom Clancy's earlier works, you may notice a bit of influence from Red Storm Rising in there. You may also notice that I didn't pussy-out, where Clancy did.
In any case, the TIMELINE!
Ye gods, there's probably a better novel to be had in the background of Consent of the Governed than in the novel itself. Dammit! Oh well.... What's a good idea, without a wealth of
Incidentally, if you're a fan of Tom Clancy's earlier works, you may notice a bit of influence from Red Storm Rising in there. You may also notice that I didn't pussy-out, where Clancy did.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Oops....
Remember that book I was worried I wouldn't finish quickly enough? Let me give you a timeline of this past evening:
3:00pm - Relieve first shift.
6:30pm - Finished work.
7:20pm - Finished lunch.
10:00pm - Finished book.
11:30pm - Scheduled end of shift.
Roight. Outlining begins tomorrow. Huzzah!
3:00pm - Relieve first shift.
6:30pm - Finished work.
7:20pm - Finished lunch.
10:00pm - Finished book.
11:30pm - Scheduled end of shift.
Roight. Outlining begins tomorrow. Huzzah!
Litany of Errors
There is a bit of pregaming necessary to having any hope of cranking out a novel in thirty days. I for one, would like to get the protagonists and secondary characters outlined, along with the plot and some of the history leading up to the events of the novel. Pounding out 2,000 words each day is a whole lot easier, when I know what I want to get across ahead of time.
I'm also trying to kill off the book I'm currently reading, A Tale of Two Subs, so that I don't have to set it aside for thirty days and entirely lose the plot. Up until the last couple of days, I had been doing pretty well at grinding through that. No small part of that is due to the positively immense amounts of downtime I have at work, allowing me plenty of time to read (and later write). Naturally, as I realize today that expediency is the best course, we've begun having networking issues between our automation and database, slowing the day's work to a crawl.
Really, I'm worrying over nothing. Even with the added time spent babying machines, I should still finish the book up on my Saturday shift, as planned, and have a solid week for outlining. I'm just suffering from a bit too much excitement, I suppose. I hope.
Of course, there's little progress to report on the novel itself. I have one character named (though with very few other details to go with him), and I'm gravitating toward Consent of the Governed as the title. Popular Rule feels a bit too literal, and Spheres of Influence just doesn't quite fit the story. Though I'm trying to choose a good title ahead of time, I pretty firmly believe that whatever I do wind up choosing will last until about November 28th, and over the following two days, I'll change it hourly.
More to come next week, as I start to nail down some details.
I'm also trying to kill off the book I'm currently reading, A Tale of Two Subs, so that I don't have to set it aside for thirty days and entirely lose the plot. Up until the last couple of days, I had been doing pretty well at grinding through that. No small part of that is due to the positively immense amounts of downtime I have at work, allowing me plenty of time to read (and later write). Naturally, as I realize today that expediency is the best course, we've begun having networking issues between our automation and database, slowing the day's work to a crawl.
Really, I'm worrying over nothing. Even with the added time spent babying machines, I should still finish the book up on my Saturday shift, as planned, and have a solid week for outlining. I'm just suffering from a bit too much excitement, I suppose. I hope.
Of course, there's little progress to report on the novel itself. I have one character named (though with very few other details to go with him), and I'm gravitating toward Consent of the Governed as the title. Popular Rule feels a bit too literal, and Spheres of Influence just doesn't quite fit the story. Though I'm trying to choose a good title ahead of time, I pretty firmly believe that whatever I do wind up choosing will last until about November 28th, and over the following two days, I'll change it hourly.
More to come next week, as I start to nail down some details.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Idea
Everything starts with an idea, and sometimes that's the toughest part. Fortunately, I've had the basis for an idea gathering dust for nearly four years, now. During the Fall, 2004 semester, I took a creative writing course, and my big, end-of-semester project was a short story that wound up running 7,500 words. It would be cheating to reproduce all that text as part of the novel, but I am recycling the setting.
"A Turn of the Coin"
It's nothing particularly ground-breaking, but it provides an original sci-fi setting, with a broad conflict to utilize. Where this short story looks at the end of a series of conflicts between Io and the rest of the solar system, I think the novel will focus on that military strife and the politics that touched everything off. The twenty-word summary, as posted on the Nanowrimo forums: "The tyranny of the majority plays out across the solar system as incumbent politicians are reelected over objections of laborers."
Presently, I'm brainstorming titles. The two front-runners in that race are Popular Rule and Spheres of Influence. [addendum]Consent of the Governed may be more apt....[/addendum]
More to come as I settle on a title and do some more detailed outlining.
"A Turn of the Coin"
It's nothing particularly ground-breaking, but it provides an original sci-fi setting, with a broad conflict to utilize. Where this short story looks at the end of a series of conflicts between Io and the rest of the solar system, I think the novel will focus on that military strife and the politics that touched everything off. The twenty-word summary, as posted on the Nanowrimo forums: "The tyranny of the majority plays out across the solar system as incumbent politicians are reelected over objections of laborers."
Presently, I'm brainstorming titles. The two front-runners in that race are Popular Rule and Spheres of Influence. [addendum]Consent of the Governed may be more apt....[/addendum]
More to come as I settle on a title and do some more detailed outlining.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Of Projects and Sleep-Deprivation
It's 4:00am local time, here in dank, rainy Knoxville, and you may have noticed that I'm writing this post, instead of sleeping. I'd say there's a reason for this, but there is absolutely no way that I could defend such a remark. Anyway, to the point, and then to bed....
As I am wont to do in the wee hours of the morning, I've committed myself to an ambitious project. I've signed myself up for Nanowrimo 2009. I plan to use this site to chronicle the venture and post occasional excerpts, as I reach for that mythic goal of novelist-in-a-month. Being that it's still October, it would be cheating to put pen-to-page, so there isn't much to be done yet, besides set goals and brainstorm.
On that note, my tenative schedule is to reach for 1,750 words-per-day, Monday through Friday, with 2,625 on Saturday and Sunday. That should make for 60,000 words in thirty days. I can already see the Thanksgiving holiday throwing a wrench in the gears, but that's what I've laid out, with crossed-fingers.
That's where I am now. Hopefully, I'll have some manner of outline ready by the end of the month, but don't expect much activity, prior to November.
As I am wont to do in the wee hours of the morning, I've committed myself to an ambitious project. I've signed myself up for Nanowrimo 2009. I plan to use this site to chronicle the venture and post occasional excerpts, as I reach for that mythic goal of novelist-in-a-month. Being that it's still October, it would be cheating to put pen-to-page, so there isn't much to be done yet, besides set goals and brainstorm.
On that note, my tenative schedule is to reach for 1,750 words-per-day, Monday through Friday, with 2,625 on Saturday and Sunday. That should make for 60,000 words in thirty days. I can already see the Thanksgiving holiday throwing a wrench in the gears, but that's what I've laid out, with crossed-fingers.
That's where I am now. Hopefully, I'll have some manner of outline ready by the end of the month, but don't expect much activity, prior to November.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)