Frederation

Due to a variety of issues with my work schedule and the marketing effort for The Muse in November, I won’t be able to participate directly in this year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) activities. What I’m doing instead is to push my NaNo writing up a couple of months and try to do two sessions of 2500-word/day writing, one in September, one in October. I’m calling it Fred-o-Wri-Mo, and I’ll be keeping a diary here of how it goes. If you’d like to spend a couple of months in writing meltdown with me, or just want to point and laugh, follow along.

14 Sep 09, Day 1 (2065 words): I’d planned to start yesterday, on the first day of my work trip to Florida, but the traveling put the beat-down on me, so I just got some take-out dinner and crashed in my hotel room. Today, I’ll start in earnest, after we go to the work site to get our access badges and check out the equipment.

For anybody who doesn’t know me, my day job is providing simulation support to Army exercises. Army units have to regularly practice their wartime (or peacekeeping) procedures, and my organization helps present a realistic computer-simulated environment that allows the Army troops to get their practice without hurting people or breaking things. This month, I’m in Florida, which sounds cool, but when you consider I’ll be spending most of my time in a windowless computer facility, it loses some of its luster. I can see the beach from my hotel room, though, which is a plus.

Started the day with a nice 2.5 mile run. Weather was hazy and mild, not too hot, but the humidity made it feel like I was drinking my air. Thunderstorms later in the day, always great for writing. As a warmup, worked on a little prelude story that will be going out to folks who pre-order The Muse.

Got seriously into the writing around 11am or so, got to about 2065 words by 2pm. Moving slower than I’d like, but it takes me a few sessions to really get into the “write, don’t edit” mode. I planned to do more work in the evening, but got shanghaied by a minor rewrite for a short story that sold today. All told, I probably wrote close to 3200 words today on my various projects, not including the blog. I don’t think this level of multitasking will be typical. I hope not, or I won’t get through the novel, which is Job #1.

Cheated a little bit–had the first scene mostly written as part of my outlining earlier this summer, but since I’m working independently this time, I get to make and break the rules. Woo hoo! Got through the second major scene which will be followed by a knockdown/dragout fight at home that will launch my heroine onto her journey.

For reference, here’s the draft blurb that summarizes the story. I expect much will change along the way, and I don’t intend to give out too many spoilers during the diary-ing, but this should provide the context for anybody who’s following along:

Pearl Tachikara has two passions in life: speed and spending money. When she turns 21, her father expects her to settle down and help run the family’s multiplanetary corporation, like her responsible older sister.

As if.

Pearl cashes in her trust fund, pockets her mother’s heirloom necklace, and sets off on a whirlwind tour of space via the Conduit, a space-folding interstellar transport system that makes tripping across the galaxy as easy as hopping a train. It’s the perfect plan, except for the part where she gambles away the money and the necklace. Now Pearl has to stay one step ahead of the Conduit Patrol, alien loan-sharks, and a self-appointed guardian angel with a talent for destruction. She’s about to discover there’s really no place like home.

If she’s lucky, she’ll stay alive long enough to get there.

15 Sep 09, Day 2 (3550 words): A little behind pace today. More stuff at work, had to make a grocery run, and finished the first draft of the bonus story for advance orderers of The Muse, so started writing late in the afternoon, not optimum for me. Weather continues unsettled, and is forecast to remain so for most of this week.

Beginnings are always delicate times, as Frank Herbert noted in Dune, and I’m trying to introduce characters, motivation, and conflict while doling out a little backstory and keeping everything moving fairly quickly. This is an action story, and it needs to develop faster than The Muse. It’s also more about the relationships within a family, so I’m using multiple POVs to provide as 3-dimensional a picture of those dynamics as I can. That will be harder to do when I move my heroine off-world, but I want to document this journey from her perspective, her father’s perspective, and her sister’s perspective. I had originally thought to make the sister more of a villain, but it’s looking like she might even join the road trip. We’ll see–there’s a major confrontation coming up between the sisters, and it’s all going to turn on how they handle it.

16 Sep 09, Day 3 (5515 words): About 2000 words today. Better, but still slower than I like. Got my run in again this morning and spent some time brainstorming ideas for the story. Wrote some in the afternoon, took a nap, then continued after dinner. Ideas are flowing better now, and I’m not editing quite as much, so that’s progress. Heroine’s almost launched and big sister will be coming along for the trip, but not in quite the way I’d originally envisioned. I’m trying to go broad brush on some of the setting descriptions and other details to save some time, as I can fill in the outlines once the draft is on paper. I’ve saddled myself with a lot of worldbuilding in this story, and I need to strike a balance between providing too little detail and inundating the reader with a series of data dumps. On the plus side, I think I’ve got a pretty good handle now on my main characters and have laid out the family issues that will drive the story. Discovered a cool room in the family mansion I hadn’t anticipated, and it ended up tying several big issues and a key scene together. I love it when I get surprised like that. One more good guy yet to introduce, and he’ll make his entrance sometime in the next session or two.

17 Sep 09, Day 3 (6864 words):Raining buckets this morning, then the skies cleared into a rather pleasant day. The hotel room walls were starting to close in, so I decided to find a different venue for my writing today. The local Starbuck’s had all the atmosphere of a phone booth and was full of community college professors grading papers. Tried the food court at the mall next door–too much traffic. Finally settled on a Panera sandwich shop I’d visited last trip here. Quiet, pleasant atmosphere, good cafe food, and lots of power outlets. They’d also added free WiFi service since last time, which sealed the deal.

Made some good progress, and though the quantity is still lagging, the writing felt better and more natural. I have to beware of obsessing over the word count and trying to force the story out. Yes, it’s important to get the words on the page, but even if I’m producing an amorphous blob of clay, I want it to be good clay. If I’m not feeling the story, if I’m not enjoying the story, it’s going to become a chore, and that will suck the life right out of it.

Anyhow, another surprise today as Pearl gained an unexpected ally on her journey who will provide important resources and a badly-needed touch of humor. I’ve meant all along for this story to be lighthearted, if not quite a full-on comedy, and it’s been feeling way too serious. I think I’m hitting my stride now, though.

18 Sep 09, Day 4 (7459 words): Drove down the road to a nice Barnes & Noble with an embedded Starbuck’s and WiFi. Got a couple more scenes written, but ran out of steam when I hit a spot that I realized would need a little more thought to avoid writing myself into a corner. Internet connection in hotel room was back up after being down the previous evening and most of the day. Chilled the rest of the evening. No work tomorrow, so I’m hopeful I’ll get more done then.

22 Sept 09, Day 5 (9536 words): Took three days off for a variety of reasons. I usually get a little blue about a week into one of these long trips away from home, which takes my motivation down to zero. Figured I’d just flow with it this time and give myself a chance to recharge rather than try to fight it. Got my CSFF Blog Tour posts written and took care of some personal business, laundry, etc. Sat down to write this afternoon, got on a roll, and put nearly 2100 words out. Got through the sticky part and into a fun scene I’ve been contemplating for a while that introduces another major character. Feeling pretty good and should be able to keep rolling now that the preliminaries are just about through. Lots of action ahead as well as further developments of the backstory that ties everything together.

25 Sep 09, Day 6 (11465) – Another two-day hiatus, but had a major breakthrough that is going to make a huge difference. I found the emotional heart of the story, the element that will make it actually mean something. I had a vague idea of it going into the writing, but it just wasn’t coming together. It was developing into a fun story, but at its root, it’s about estrangement and reconciliation. What was missing was the “why.” Why the estrangement, and why the reconciliation? Where did these people come from, and what was the driving factor that would push them apart in strange directions and bring them back together again?

I know what that is now. One of my main characters will bear most of the load of bringing this to light as the story develops, and that’s a good thing, because that character is passive through most of the story. Now, they’ll play a huge role in helping the reader understand what’s going on and why we should care about it. I expect faster progress from this point–I write better when I have an emotional anchor that allows me to feel what the characters are feeling.

26 Sep 09, Day 7 (12257) - Wrote a transitional scene I’d skipped over while working on backstory interludes. Man, I’m slow this time, but it’s not a bad slow–I like what’s coming out. Tomorrow should be fun. It’s time for another crisis.

27 Sep 09, Day 8 (12809) – Walking before I run. The crisis has begun, and I’m eager to see how my heroine gets out of this one. Time to check back in with big sister and her traveling companion. Also completed another project I’ve been working on, a multimedia ”kinetic novel” version of one of my previously published short stories, and posted a notice in a related forum for feedback, with a general announcement and release coming later this week. Finished up with a nice run, a little cooler and less humid this evening.

28 Sep 09, Day 9 (14422): Another big surprise. Started out light and funny, but I keep stepping on emotional landmines in these flashbacks. Today I watched something develop within the backstory that I never expected, and it blew me away. All the pieces are on the board now. Time to wrap up the opening and move on to the middle game.

30 Sep 09, Day 10 (14806) …but first, I’ve got to get Pearl out of this fix I just put her into…

1 Oct 09, Day 11 (15662) Ok, now she’s in more trouble, but I think help is waiting in the wings. Amazingly, I’m not that far behind a 50000 words / 30 days pace (excluding the days I skipped), but I need to do better than 600-800 per day.

2 Oct, Day 12 (16448) Okay, she’s out of danger and ready for a transition. Part of what’s slowing me down is that I’ve been writing with pen and paper most of the time, as I can’t bring a personal laptop into my work area. Then I have to type in what I’ve written, so I’m losing time repeating what I’ve already done. Yeah, I know, weak excuse. On the plus side, the weather’s nice and the humidity’s down. I may have to take a Vitamin D break tomorrow at some point, but I will be writing.

3 Oct, Day 13 (17406) Another interlude, and now its time for the sisters to meet up again, though they’ve got a long way to go before they bury the hatchet (and not in each other). The conspiracy lurking in the background should be emerging soon.

5 Oct, Day 15 (17406) Real life disrupts my schedule, as if it was anything close to consistent already.  Son’s having knee surgery in Chicago this week (was supposed to happen last week, but there was the usual administrative screw-up between the PCM’s office, the surgeon’s office, my son, and us). So, I needed to focus the last couple of days on helping with the coordination as best I could from several hundred miles away. Priorities. The story will keep.

23 Oct: Good grief, talk about the best-laid plans of mice & men, etc. Work, family life, and the final edits on The Muse have really derailed me this month. CSFF Blog Tour didn’t help either, as this month’s selection was particularly challenging, and I spent a lot of time angsting over my review, still coming out with mixed results and quite possibly alienating the author, always a risk when the review is anything less than totally positive. It’s getting harder to be honest about my reactions without making enemies and coming off as a jerk.

<soapbox>Particularly in the Christian fiction world, people seem to expect everything in a review to be nicely-nicely and are shocked when somebody shows a little integrity and provides an honest reaction to a book, warts and all. Sure, criticism hurts, and it’s wrong to flame a book just for the sake of flaming, but if we don’t give an author honest feedback, he/she/I will keep blissfully cranking out books with the same problems, thinking there’s a mandate from the audience because everybody’s so blooming polite they can’t tell the truth. </soapbox>

The good news is that I think the storms have passed and I can get back on track now. I’m beginning to wonder if I might just want to do a conventional NaNo in November with the Muse sequel I’ve been pondering, but the marketing push after the 1 November release of the novel may not permit that. We’ll see.

24 Oct, Day 16 (18590): Back in the hunt. My schedule is changing from “no time to write” to “nothing to do but write,” which should help. Transitioned to the next venue, which presents a whole new environment, alien culture, and set of problems. This story is going to need a whole lot of editing when I’m done. The last book felt like I was painting. This one feels more like a set of pencil sketches.

25 Oct, Day 17 (19684): Setting the stage for the next action event, which should be a lot of fun. Most everything I’m getting right now is dialogue. May go back today (yes, I know that’s a no-no in the Nano world) and fill in some of the gaps–description, environment, other stuff happening in the background, etc.) also realized that, as I’ve been e-mailing files back and forth between hotel and workplace (no flash drives at work, sorry), I created a parallel version of a transitional scene that I need to reconcile with the rest of the story, as the original puts an important character in a place I don’t really want him to be.

26 October, Day 18 (19799): Okay, not much progress word-count-wise, but I fixed the things that were bugging me and don’t have two or three parallel stories going on any more. Interestingly, one of my “good guys” has taken on a decidedly ambiguous flavor. Another interlude coming, then a big actioner, in which my bad guys need to step up to the plate.

27 October: Got an invite from a ‘zine editor who wants to feature one of my stories. Worked on something for that, about 1500 words and a fair bit of editing/polishing.

28 October, Day 19 (20261): Finally broke the 20k barrier and discovered something about one of my alien cultures. Lead-in to the upcoming race became a lot more interesting–there’s going to be an active, rather than passive, face-off between the two sisters, and they’re both in for a lot more trouble than they expect. Three days left to decide whether or not to shelve this story and go conventional NaNo with the Muse sequel.

1 November, Day 1 (2213): Okay, I got a bolt of inspiration and have decided to shift my focus to the Muse sequel and join the regular NaNo. Off to a good start, and I know pretty much how the first third of this is going to go. There’s also going to be a fair bit of poetry integrated into this story, and that’s not something I can just toss out there. At this point, I’m writing something with the general thrust of where I want the poem to go, expecting to either complete or replace it in the rewrite, when I’ve got time to ponder.

2 November, Day 2 (4353): Pressing on–story’s cranking up a little faster than I expected, which is, I suppose, a good thing, as one of the consensus weaknesses of The Muse was that it took a little while to pick up momentum. Few of my stories grab the reader by the lapels and shake ‘em around on Page 1, though. I guess I’m kind of old-school that way.

3 November, Day 3 (6171): Slow & steady wins the race–If I can maintain a 2000 word/day pace, I’ll be fine, and it feels like that’s how fast the story wants to go right now. I’m happy with the way this is developing. I think I got through the introductory material in a way that will both orient the reader and avoid a data dump. I’ve been worrying a little about pushing some of the original cast to the back of the stage, since this story is so very much about one character in particular who was a bit player (but a pivotal bit player) last time. I think it’s going to be all right, though.

Speaking of characters, a new one popped in today who I’d thought about months ago but hadn’t really committed to even bringing into this story. Seems she wants to be included in a big way–she turned up, uninvited, on a bus. Go figure.

4 November, Day 4 (8181): And on we go. Main character has moved closer to bad-guy HQ and provided a flashback that begins to explain his very odd backstory. Full revelation to come later, but it’s enough for now. We also have an inkling of what the bad guys are about, even if their identity and motivations remain shadowy. More encounters and revelations coming up.

Realized this afternoon, after I’d put the story back on the electronic shelf for the day, that the impudent character who surfaced yesterday is a major link between this story and its predecessor, in an important way I didn’t expect, and also makes a huge reference to my personal life I hadn’t realized or intended. An encouraging development. When things like this start happening, I know I’m on the right track, because I’m making connections between ideas, emotions, and themes at the subconscious level, and that’s where the creativity happens, I think.

Man, a psychologist could have a field day with this stuff.

5 November, Day 5 (9313): A little slower today, but I started later in the evening and got tired. I discovered last time that mornings are my most productive writing time, but the schedule doesn’t always allow me to write when I want to. Made some good progress, got my hero into and out of the first bad guy encounter, and he’s pretty much figured out what’s happening, except for one very critical piece.

6 November, Day 6 (10520): Cleared the 10K hurdle, but running at half pace over the past two days. Again, good progress, though. Hero’s getting a tour of bad guy HQ, though he doesn’t know that’s what it is. Big conflict and reveal coming up on the good guy side, should happen at about 20K to keep this at the appropriate pace, I think. In the meantime, more mystery investigation and backstory.

7 November, Day 7 (11256): Busy day, and my hero’s trapped in a college cafeteria with two dozen snooty schoolgirls. Don’t ask.

8 November, Day 8 (11256): Family day, no writing. Had several of these last time, no worries

19 November (11640): No worries….yeesh, famous last words. Family day turned into family week with another car breakdown and half a dozen other little urgent business items. I’ll keep plugging away–it’s not over ’til it’s over–but I’m probably not going to “win” the NaNo this year. C’est la guerre.