Month: November 2012

*facepalm*

I’m working on my rough outline for the final book of my trilogy tonight. Which is great, right? All my ducks in a row and all that. Only as I’m building the climax I’m realizing that two of my most important elements, resolutions to questions that go all the way back to the first book, kind of conflict with each other. And seriously, I need to have them both in there. All kinds of other things depend on them. I really need to put my brain to work on this one and find a creative solution that will allow me to have both in harmony with each other, because as it stands right now, the reader’s going to get to that point and basically go, “but… you just said that…” *headscratch* “that doesn’t make any sense…” and it will all be a giant letdown.

It’s funny how you don’t really realize stuff like that when it’s all just in your head, but then you put it down on paper and immediately see that there’s a problem. So I guess thank god for outlining, or freenoting really since this is just a jumbled mess of ideas right now.

Now I’m going to go ponder the immensity of what the true definition of humanity is, because it’s no smaller problem than that. Sigh.

And Then A Funny Thing Happened

I’ve been almost entirely preoccupied with Callie, Matthieu and Dane for nearly a full year. The three of them fill my thoughts constantly. So I was surprised recently when, at the back of my mind, another voice appeared. She was quiet at first, stealing into my thoughts every once in awhile when the others were silent, but over the past month or so she’s been gradually getting louder and more insistent. I’m here she says. Listen to me for a bit. And I do. I find I’m listening to her a lot.

She’s a funny one, this girl. A bit of an enigma. She tells me lots about her childhood, but little about her present or the trials she’s facing. She says we’ll talk about all that later, but in the meantime, there are things I ought to know…

Callie was kind enough to give the kid a few pages of my time today (she’s not enjoying having her early days re-written, it seems) and just like that, this girl-without-a-name became real, a person on paper, instead of a hint of an idea in my mind. There are a few things I need to get down before she’ll settle back into her quiet corner, waiting until Callie et al. have said their piece. The funny thing is, I don’t even know where she came from. It sure wasn’t the lightning bolt of inspiration I experienced with The Unravelling. Maybe she was born of discarded bits of other ideas. Maybe she’s always been there. It’s pretty clear at this point that she’s not leaving.

Now I find myself with a whole new tree of folders in my writing directory, a fresh set of topics to research and a document to store stray ideas as she feeds them to me. There’s monsters, and magic and a giant identity crisis – all the things I love in a story. I’m intrigued by all this – it’s a completely different process from what I’m used to. Callie’s story is so driven by music and I see and hear her in things all around me. This is like little whispers from the ether I have to strain to hear.

Is it possible to be working on two completely different books at the same time? Is that even wise? I might be about to find out.

Thanks Google Drive, YOU IDIOT

SERIOUSLY?

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Shenanigans

I’m working on my outline some more. So much fun! I’m enjoying seeing the basic structure unfold.

I don’t go into great detail, just bullet points describing key scenes in a short paragraph. Some of them are only a few words long.

My very favourite part is these two points, back-to-back:

  • Shower-stall time machine.
  • Major next-day awkwardness. Now Callie’s really confused.

It makes perfect sense when you read the rest of the outline, but out of context, all on its own like that, it’s more than a little ridiculous. Which is why it’s my favourite part. And for anyone who’s read The Unravelling, you’re probably scratching your head right now, thinking, what the hell? Which was my intention all along.

Also. ALSO! I scored an incredible find on Kijiji today. It’s 100% the best thing I’ve ever bought from there. Check it out:

It’s a Smith-Corona Super-5. I did a bunch of research on it today and from what I can gather it’s from 1956 and is one of the best manual typewriters ever made. It works pretty well, too! I only paid $20 but from what I’ve learned it could be worth a lot more. Like if I was on Storage Wars it would be the find of the day. Not that I’d consider selling it though. I’m totally in love with it, and it’s found a home on my bookshelf. I plan to pull it out from time to time to shake things up when I’m stuck for ideas. And post-2012/peak oil/comet strike/nuclear war/rapture/solar super-flare/your favourite apocalyptic end times scenario here, guess who’s still going to be able to write while the rest of you are trying to hack your Macbooks to take D-cells? This girl, that’s who.

Want to learn more about my typewriters? Check them out here.

And This Is Why It Pays To Share Your Work

Hey, first five chapters? Select-all-delete. I have a better idea for you.

I am becoming better at what I do thanks to the sage words of others. I was afraid to let my friends and family read my novel, but I shouldn’t have been. And it looks like I get to do some real writing this month after all!

I’m so excited for this.

NaNotQuiteANovel Weeks 1 and 2

I’m a little behind in my goals these first two weeks, although my outline for The Unseeing is coming together like a house on fire. It just keeps growing and growing and there are hardly any entries that go “and then a bunch of stuff happens.”

Now that I’m home from Mexico and have the healthy glow of a person who collected a year’s worth of vitamin D in a week’s time, I hope to get caught up. In the meantime, here’s my progress so far:

Nov 1 – nothing
Nov 2 – five points on my outline
Nov 3 – research agents a tiny bit
Nov 4 – nothing
Nov 5 – six points on my outline
Nov 6 – Seven points on my outline
Nov 7 – discussed plot points and character motivation at length with one of my first readers
Nov 8 – added new music to my ‘inspiration for writing’ playlist and gained a few ideas from it
Nov 9 – saved my outline from document corruption, narrowly avoiding losing all my work thus far (okay this doesn’t count as a task but HOLY CRAP I was scared for half an hour)
Nov 10 – Nada
Nov 11 – So much more nada
Nov 12 – Sweet tweet. Started to feel like this was a stupid idea, I’m so far behind.

Total tasks: 6 (and counting)

Today I hope to accomplish TWO things, so I can make up for one of those missed days. I’m totally allowed to do that, as long as I have 30 tasks completed by the end of the month. This week I might even start writing…