It's half-past midnight

23746 is close enough to 25000 that I'm packing it in for the night.

In the next scene, Harry and Bear-on-Fire finally meet, and that's a pretty important scene so I'd like to be fully alert and awake for it.

I expect some bonding, and then the grisly climax. That will be followed by a condensed denoument that covers the sunset years of Harry's gunslinging career, and the final framing chapter.

The end is very much in sight, and the order of events is clear. Whether I can get there in 7000 words or not is my primary question.

If I can't make it in 7000, can I make it in 10000. If I need more than that, I'll be cutting my editing too short, and I desperately need that.

I'll resume tomorrow. Early, I hope.

Okay, I'm okay

For awhile there, I was worried that I might not make it to twenty thousand words today. It's been a bad day, though not as bad as Rilla.

Looking over my posts for the day was sort of funny. The abrupt shift from "Woo-Hoo!" to "D'oh!" is funnier to me now than it was before.

For awhile there I was gmail chatting anyone who'd fucking listen, just to try and maintain a little scope. Thanks to those who provided moral support.

My goal for the night is 25,000. I want the leeway tomorrow for a few reasons.

1) I want the freedom and time to go to 35,000-40,000 words if I need to.

2) I want as much editing time as I can squeeze in if I don't.

The best news of the day is that I finally have an ending I'm happy with.

Back to it.

Bad Afternoon

It all started to fall apart on me around 5:00. I was finishing my scene with my small dark god, I was pleased with his attitude, but I knew that there hadn't been enough plot reveal. I figured moving forward was better than rewriting, so that's what I did.

Unfortunately, about that time I developed a headache (still there) some dizzyness which was quickly accompanied with nausea. I went straight to bed and slept for three hours. I'm still not feeling myself, and I'm 2000 words off of my target for today. I'm not planning on pushing it because I'd rather feel good than productive. Will I regret this tomorrow? Quite possibly.

The other bad news: I have added five chapters to my original outline, and it's a damn good thing I did because I am currently three chapters away from completion. I suppose that puts me at 22,000 words or so, if I'm feeling verbose. My plan for whenever I can write again (tomorrow morning at the latest) is to write those three chapters and then go over it until I'm satisfied that there's nothing else crucial that I should add. In my mind, I see this playing out like so: I finish the book in the morning and spend the afternoon reading and editing, and then the evening writing a new chapter or possibly two. Tomorrow will likely be a long shitty day.

hey Ril?

I misplaced your number. I was gonna do a call in. but now I can't. If you have my number, call. Or send me an email. I need a human voice.

That's more like it...

I've unblocked and I'm back at it. A little humbler, a little older, perhaps a little sadder, but ultimately wiser, and all for the best.

I will catch up to Rilla. She is beating my ass today like a kettle drum.

Fuckity, as the Romans say.

I have hit my first bona fide wall of the weekend. What the hell?

It was going so well.

Not panicking. I'm printing the book so far, and reading it in the tub and having a hot soak.

That should unstick my cramping brain.

And yes, loyal reader Gordon Jensen, I have already tried "jerking it".

No dice.

Second Day

Just as Rilla has discussed, the second day has been a vast improvement on the first. I'm really enjoying the work today. It feels alive to me, and that is a good thing.

I think part of it was that the goal of 30,000 words was so scary to me that I had no real sense of it. Now I know I'm almost half way there with nearly two more full days to go. It takes some of the pressure off.

Now I just have to not get cocky is all.

Good Morning

I am totally on schedule and way off outline. This, however, is a good thing since I was still going to be short of words and plot after I had made my revisions to the outline yesterday. This morning I had a moment of insight and thought of two new chapters that would tie up some loose ends that seemed pretty obvious to me, but maybe wouldn't have been noticed by a reader. I think they really add to the tone of the book as well, so I'm quite happy.

The inventive process has really lightened my mood, and I'm loving writing today. When I get back at it after lunch, I'll be refocused on the outline again, and my enthusiasm might sag. I'm hoping it won't because today has been a hundred times better than yesterday.

Glee

I just wrote The Ballad of Harry Parker, by Arise-Ye-Sons-Of-Israel Parker.

I'm insanely happy with it. Of course, I'm in no position to judge it right now. It took a long time, for not that many words. Totally worth it.

It's my favorite thing so far in the book.

Yay. I'm happy I'm enjoying this again. It was feeling a lot like work for a while there.

Minor Setback

I slept in a wee bit later than was my intention, only to discover that poor Spenser had been terribly ill through the night, likely from eating apples from the tree in the back yard. Happily, G was home to clean that up. (I don't. I just don't clean up dog diarrhea. It is part of our arrangement. I would not have dogs if I had do that. Though Spenser has changed my perspective on these things somewhat)

The house still smells a little bad, and I'm working on that.

Poor puppy, though. So, I'm keeping an eye on him today.

Now, I think I'll write some poetry as Harry.

Enthusiasm

Lesson of the evening is this: Enthusiasm can only carry you so far. Caffeine can drag you a little further, and so can sweets. Eventually, though, you need to sleep.

I am really tired, and a little punchy right now.

I half want to press on because I just got to the Ballad of Harry Parker. It's one of Harry's poems, and I've wanted to write it for a month now.

I'm pretty sure that any attempt I make at it tonight with be a mess.

So, I'm turning in for the night.

In other news, I've heard some lovely tracks from the 3 Day Album project. G is mildly under the weather, but pushing through. The recordings are lovely and clean, and I'm curious to see how they experiment with them now.

Mañana, all.

I'm back at it.

That was a very productive little pause to refresh.

I reckon I'll write me some more words now.

A change is as good as a rest.

I am taking a break here to play with my awesome dogs, and to feed them some leftover perogies which has made them extremely happy.

I am then going to go over what I've written today and tighten it up. Then I'm going to go over it and see what I can save from the original outline. Most of it, I think.

I am finally getting to the cool and hopefully scary parts of the book, and I'm looking forward to it. I am aiming for 15,000 words before bed, and I think I can do that easily.

My deepest flaw as a writer is how damned rough my rough drafts are. So I want a lot of time to fix it before the contest is over.

One thing I have learned is that I must be a much lazier writer than I thought. I have not found this especially trying so far. Just time consuming. Mind you I did spend close to a month going over it in my head, so my head is, if you'll pardon the term, pre-filled with cool scenes.

My one fear right now is that what I've written is not that interesting. The book starts with an opening chapter I'm proud of. It's followed with back story for Harry is important to the overall shape of his life, and which informs the decisions he makes. I just worry that I will lose my readers on the back story.

Time will tell. I can't afford to hesitate for long.

Day One: My Eyes Hurt

Some thoughts on my day one experience, after a short walk, a good supper, some sugary snacks, snuggles, and drumming video games.

I only really felt like I got into my character around 4:00 this afternoon. The timing of this was excellent because I was starting to get worried about making 10,000 words in a decent time. Finally getting the feel for what Dahlia was like made the last three thousand words go by really quickly, and for once I enjoyed both what I was writing and the process of writing itself.

Breaks are necessary. Absolutely necessary. I have to get over my guilt if I take an extra ten minutes at lunch to not look at my monitor screen. My eyes are well and truly exhausted after working at my laptop for eighty percent of the day. It only makes sense that I look away from seven inches in front of my face, if only to stare out the window in silence.

When asking someone to proof read your copy, don't say, "I don't think you'll like it. It has lesbians."

Most troubling for me is that I took forty minutes to revise my outline, and I'm still going to be around 6,000 words short of my goal. And I'm being generous. I'm going to sleep on the outline tonight and take another look at it in the morning. I have gone "off outline" a few times, but only in so far as I've changed the settings and roles of characters slightly. This is both good and bad. Right now I'd almost welcome the opportunity to go "off outline," if only I could get more plot out of it. I think I took a plot for a short story, and decided this was a good opportunity to make a novella out of it, and this is probably not such a good idea.

I'm feeling good. If I feel like this after another ten hours of writing tomorrow, I'll be quite pleased.

P.S. Writing from 8:00 am until 7:00 pm with lunch breaks and short "move your legs" breaks really is not fun. When I dragged my butt back to my laptop after lunch Kaz asked, "Isn't this supposed to be fun?"

"No," I said.

"Then what's the point?"

"To have a finished work in a short period of time."

"Then go write!"

No more today. Back at it tomorrow.

The Outline

Well, I'm officially off outline.

Which, according to the survival guide means I'm about a day early on getting off outline.

This scares me a little. I found a better way to get where I needed to go. I suspect parts of my outline are still useful. We'll see.

I'm also happy to have broken 10,000 words. This means I'm still on schedule. I will now have my 10,000 word special treat. (It's chocolatey)

Whew.

Okay, my pace is starting to flag a little, but that's to be expected. I am now taking an hour or so off, to cook myself some real food, as I'm still well on target for the day.

I can definitely do 30,000 words. I just hope they wind up being 30,000 decent enough words.

It's absolutely impossible for me to tell right now. I'm just not in critical mode.

I've fixed the timeline problems with surprising ease and elegance, actually. I'm grateful for that. I just have to be sure to make the dates match up at the end.

I'm finding the teenaged Harry Parker to be a bit of a jerk.

Part of what I'm mulling over on this break is whether or not I want to show the first time he kills a man, or if I just want to jump ahead ten years from his leaving home to him already being half crazed and callous and retired from outlaw work to being a town marshall.

Both of these strategies have strengths and weaknesses.

Happily my next section is a Bear-On-Fire segment, so I have some real time to think.

Your thoughts are welcome, if you have any. If any of my friends are online and want to read what I have so far before offering council, drop me an email.

Thanks.

Crap.

I just took a short break to bathe and clear my head, and I've discovered what may be a timeline problem.

I'm gonna plunge on ahead, and just try to make sure I have time to go back and make some repairs. It's not super-critical, but it does have to do with Quakers and their difficulties in the civil war, so I have to pay some attention to it.

Such is the joy of writing a 3 day novel.

Disaster

I'm writing up a storm. I'm having no problems writing, and I'm following my outline. Things are going well.

Except that I'm into my fifth chapter and I have written four thousand words. That means my projected word count is going to be roughly 18,000 words instead of 30,000. I obviously miscalculated how much meat would be in each of my chapters. I've just had some lunch, and I'm going to spend some time revising my outline before I continue. I think if I can figure out where I can add more substance to the text now, I'll have a better chance of making this a good read than if I finish the text according to my outline and then add padding.

I'm disappointed as hell, and I'm not that excited with what I'm writing. I'm at the stage where the plot is going to thicken, so I hope I'll be more enthused as the day goes on.

Lunch break

Okay, I'm taking a lunch break after finishing that last chapter. I'm happy with my pace, considering that I spent some time screwing around like a damned fool already :)

Back at It.

I did not sleep well. It's time to get caffeinated, and get back to it.

Turning in for the night

Okay, in the last two hours I've done 2500 words, and finished the opening framing chapter of the book. If anyone wants to read it send me an email, and I can send it to you. As I've said...feedback is helpful.

I am now going to sleep.

See you in six to hate.

I mean, eight.

And we're live

I'm typing this, then word one.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

I realize that last year G had to do this shit with cameras on her. On the other hand, Friday night prior to midnight she was very busy filming interview segments and doing challenges and what have you. This seemed like a damned pain at the time, I'm sure.

For my part, I'd welcome it right now. I am champing at the bit to start writing. I just got back from a run to the grocery store where I picked up an OBSCENE amount of soda pop and food I will regret come winter.

Now I have roughly 190 minutes to sit on my thumbs. Watch a movie, maybe. Play with the dogs.

The wait is killing me.

Ril?

Holy Crap! Thanks, Ril.

Okay, so I will not be putting the novel on the web for just anyone to see. I totally missed that being against the rules.

What I will do, and this seems entirely permissible, is provide a link to my remote backup for people who ask me for it. So if you want the link to the remote backup, let me know. I'd be happy to have the eyes on it.

Whew, that was a close one. Thanks, Harpo.

I Have Chosen... Poorly

I've spent the last two days reading through some historical type books about flappers, the 1920s, and the mindset of the age. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz is the one that I've delved into most. It is exceptionally engaging for an analysis of history, but it is not particularly inspiring me, or really placing me in that time. It also focuses more on the famous people of the '20s, and isn't so much about the average women. In fact, there's nothing about a woman who works as a bank teller and has a psychotic boss set on summoning dark forces. So, thanks for nothing, Zeitz.

I should have taken Binary Kitten's advice and picked up a movie, or followed Ryan's lead and read a bunch of novels about my time period. This is a frustrating error to have made this late in the game, and I briefly toyed with throwing my outline out, and writing a Cyberpunk novel of some kind because, if there's one thing I know (PDF) it's Cyberpunk. But, I'm going to stick with my plan. For one thing, I have an outline, I have an imagination, and I can make this work.

More than anything, this is likely last minute jitters. Even though Zeitz couldn't tell me things that I could directly apply to my gal Dahl, I do have a much clearer picture of what the '20s were like, so that's not going to hurt.

I'm not planning on starting at midnight tonight, like Ryan is. I'm starting at 8:00 am tomorrow. I'll post throughout the week-end, so you'll be abreast of my work.

*snicker* abreast.

Staring Down the Barrel of a Loaded Dictionary

According to the countdown clock it is scant hours until Ms. Rilla and I assay word mountain. I have some fear, but I am starting to feel more relaxed as the day drags on.

I am going to do some writing when midnight strikes, but I expect I'll do most of the work during the days, so that I can let the dogs in and out as required.

I intend to post regular progress updates as the weekend goes on, and I will have the novel available online as it is being written. I will provide links for you as you go. Your feedback is more than welcome. If you already have my email, send it to me there, or you can send your encouragement, feedback and other communications to textfight@gmail.com.

I'll talk to you in a few hours, probably just before I retire for the night.

No cold yet. Yet.

One Thing I Don't Fear

Deb posted some humourous advice on Writer's Block today. As I settle in to the final moments before I can actually start writing my novel(la), I certainly am not worried about writer's block. It's weird, but it seems to me that the whole spirit of this insane adventure is to just write. Get it out. Get it down. Write something. There's no time for writer's block because you have, well, no time.

So, thanks, Deb, for the encouragement, but I am really hoping that this, of all things, will not trouble me.

Now to knock on wood.

Sudden Stark Fear

G seems to be coming down with some manner of cold, and I fear I may be too.

At least I don't have to sing, but I do worry about my ability to focus with a cold.

Cross your fingers everyone, do whatever it takes to keep me from getting a cold. Get on it.

The Human Factor

Let it be known that the Kaz has some reservations about being called the human factor.

My biggest concerns about the 3-Day Novel Contest is whether or not I can continue to be a decent human being to Kaz while in the midst of writing. I'm not sure about what this is going to do to my mental capabilities, whether the challenge will inspire me to greater heights, or whether I'll turn into uber-bitch lady. I don't particularly want to be that grumpy person who snaps at every noise, but this is a pretty tight deadline. Some might say it's an insane deadline that will thus spark insanity.

So, this is a bit of a reality check on my part -- a little reminder about my priorities and what lines are where. If it comes to the point where stress turns me into a bad spouse, I want to have the guts to walk away for as long as it takes to put things right. I hope I'm a kind enough person that this is unneccessary worrying on my part, but I honestly am not sure what sort of tricks my brain will play on me this week-end.

The Mood

So, I've been reading book after book after book to try and get myself in the right place to tell the story of Silver Bullets. It's not been useless, as it's filled me chock full of interesting little details and certainly my grasp on the overall history of the time is better. It hasn't, however, dropped me into the right place emotionally.

I'm not very surprised. Usually, I get inspired emotionally when major breakthroughs come in the plot, and also from the music I choose to have on as I write. Usually, I know when a song is right or wrong for my little soundtrack. I can't explain why, or what the criteria are, but they are there nonetheless.

For some reason the songs I've been listening to while I do the outline stopped being just pleasant background, and I began to really hear them. It's made all the difference. One of the songs in particular has brought me so totally into my book that it's like a kind of magic.

The song is called He Lays In The Reins. It's a collaboration between Sam Beam of Iron and Wine and Calexico. That last band makes several appearances on my soundtrack, but this song in particular has moved me.

Lyrics can be found online. A lovely live performance of the song can be found as well.

This song is so perfect that it almost means I don't need to write the book. That's the thing I hate about music of course. You can write a three minute song with the emotional impact of a full novel. It's not fair.

But I do love it.

And I'll take inspiration and assistance wherever I can.

Tiny Insignificant Detail

I don't have a title. This, I assumed, would work itself out as I wrote this week-end. However, we're in the midst of coming up with a title for the team-effort book, and it is taking a long time. When I had originally come up with the concept, I was going to call it The Dahlia Chronicles, and it would be a bit of a serial thing. I'm not so much interested in the concept of a series. It's exhausting. Plus, I only think I can really follow her along for this one adventure. So, if it's not going to be The Dahlia Chronicles, what's it going to be?

Keep the Change

Dahlia works at a bank, so there's a bit of a money theme to the work. Also, the plot-twist with the little god is related to change that is supposed to occur, but doesn't.

In Bloom

The main character and her partner in crime are both named after flowers: Dahlia and Jasmine. Since part of the theme of the work is about empowerment and being alive and vivacious, it's in keeping with the flavour of the text.

The Smoulder Candidate

Early in the book, Dahlia uncovers the cultist plot by finding a file with her name on it and "candidate for smoulder" written on it. The plot follows Dahlia figuring out what this means, who Smoulder is, and what exactly it means to be his candidate.

When Dahlia Met Jasmine

Obviously a rip-off of When Harry Met Sally, but I kind of like it anyway.

Other

If you can come up with something better, I'd be pleased as punch.

Since we all love the democratic process, there will be a poll in the sidebar shortly. Vote on the title you like best. If you vote "Other" you should give me your suggestion in the comments of this very post.

Too Busy to Play Along?

If you're the type who would love to participate in the 3-Day Novel Contest, but just have too much crap to do, check in with Deb, who wrote all about it, and tell her you know just how she feels.

A Lesson I Learned While Researching Today

Something I have learned about popular music of the latter half of the nineteenth century is this: Don't kill nobody if you got yourself a catchy name.

Gangster rap is a far older genre than most people realize.

Is all I'm saying.

I Can't Has Outlines?

I've been meaning to go over my outline for the 3-day for a while now -- pretty much ever since I wrote it up. As I suspected on the onset, the timing of the long week-end really sucks. I am rather busy with work at the moment. So I need to get a bit more of a grip of what needs to be absolutely done before the clock starts ticking. Here's my list of to dos.

1) Name my damn characters. I have the names for the flapper, the villain, the scholar, and the god. Dahlia has a posse of people who party, and I need to be able to call them something consistently. The villain also has at least one helper, but I'd rather have a whole troupe of cultists.
*Bonus Round* Have some descriptions figured out.

2) I have got to come up with a better role for my small dark god. I am not satisfied with what his worshipers think he is going to do, and this is stretching my imagination.
*Bonus Round* Adjust outline to accommodate for awesome new godlike powers.

3) Research flapper life. Aside from wikipedia, I have done no research. Foolish, foolish me.
*Bonus Round* Download some music appropriate for the times.

Thursday is my deadline for my work revisions, so at the very least, I can spend Friday gearing up properly, but I'd rather not just have one day to accomplish these things. It's a short list, but numbers two and three could take a lot of time.

This shit creek just keeps flowing more and more swiftly.

So, here's the silver lining: While I'm working so diligently on my assigned revisions I will be developing skills applicable to this 3-Day Novel. I will be writing, after all, and that's probably the most important thing to practice. Things like pacing and tension will be in the fore of my mind, and these are absolutely crucial to a 30,000 word work. Since my current writing project is a juvenile fiction novel, we try to keep the pacing swift and the action immediate. I'll be attempting to duplicate that with Dahlia's story. Plus, with five chapters to revise in two days (more or less) I'll be pushing myself to keep my work levels high, which will come in handy this week-end.

Well, I feel better. A little panicked, but better nonetheless.

Successes and Failures

My big plan for last week? Those two things that I needed to get done? They're done. I also managed to do them in the appropriate time frame. So, that's my success, albeit small.

Last week, Ryan wrote a stirring essay about the ramifications of failure when you set your own goals. I am not going into the contest with hopes of winning, or even being on the short list. For me, winning will be completing the novel(la) in the three-day deadline that we've got set for us. That being said, one of the most liberating experiences of my life was failing at something that was important to me. I learn a lot about my limitations when I fail, and I learn to give myself leeway when I can't do something I thought I'd be able to do.

Par Example: My M.A. was supposed to be a thesis. It was going to be a grand eighty page discussion of Douglas Coupland's works. That didn't happen, and it was largely due to my own inadequacies as a scholar. So, my M.A. turned into a twenty-some page article about William Gibson (and taking a few more classes). This was for the best, and I learned a lot about my attention span, my work ethic, and my place (or lack thereof) in University. Letting go of the idea of living the life of a scholar was incredibly painful, but it let me explore a new path and find new avenues of fulfillment. Really, the failure was just that, but it liberated me.

If things turn sour over the week-end, and I don't finish the book, I will be sad. I will learn, however, about what sort of writer I am, and that's not nothing. It won't be as exhilarating as having a finished work in my hand after three days of intense writing, though.

Seeking Pleasure in the Old West

So, I've gathered a great many books on the Old West to get myself in the mood a bit. One of these books has the same title as this blog entry. It's entirely about how people entertained themselves on the frontier, and I have to say it's wonderful to read.

One thing I notice, over and over, in the old photos is the freedom with which men used to display physical affection to each other without that being perceived as non-masculine or weird. It's not unusual to see good friends hand in hand or sitting with their arms around each other, and I think it's tremendously sweet.

One thing I don't want to forget, as I write this book, is that in the midst of what is a very large sort of story, this is a story about two guys who love each other like crazy in a purely heterosexual way.

The problem with me, basically, is that I'm a damned romantic and I really do earnestly believe that if anything can turn back the face of apocalypse it will be the love of one friend for another.

So there's that.

My outline continues to transform and the plot continues to change. The book is now so far removed from the antecedent ideas that I hope the people who were into the couple of pieces I toyed with won't be disappointed.

The main concern for me is that I need this 30,000 word piece to stand entirely on its own. I don't want there to be the need for more in order for it to have both impact and resonance. I worry that I may not meet that challenge. That's because I now have a much grander scope in mind for the story, and for its conclusion.

For years and years now, I have been fascinated with the idea that characters from long running series of books don't seem to age along with the times. Very little of this is usually made of it in the books themselves. You are just expected to sort of go along with it, and assume the characters live in a sort of omnipresent now.

In fact, we see the story of a kind of group of literary immortals. The stories that happen to them seem to freeze them in time and place, and the supporting characters of their life as well. I find this damned interesting.

This is the direction in which I've taken Silver Bullets. The immortals of this book are literary immortals. They don't die seemingly because their tale isn't over. There's more to it than that, but the society, such as it is, of these creatures is sharply divided on the implications of this, and on the nature of the story being told.

It's a complicated notion, and maybe not one that interests anyone but me, but I've been trying to tell the story for a long time. Since my fan-fiction days, in fact.

So, the story has taken on some internal philosophical momentum, which is good.

Also, I cannot lie, I plain stupid love Harry Parker. It's probably shameful to love your own creation as much as I love Harry. I fear desperately that people will think he's too Mary Sue. Or Anti-Sue. Or whatever they use to describe characters that are obnoxiously well-loved by their creators.

For my part, I love him because there is so little of me in him. He's enormously freeing to write about, and to think about because he seems to magically say and do things that are not of me. So he pisses me off, and he delights and surprises me.

I am in that camp that feels that his characters have a life of their own, and kind of do and say as they will. Some of them, however, do that more than others. Harry is one of those.

Anyway, I'm off on a ramble now, but if this blog is for anything, it's to talk and talk and talk about the process of the 3-Day. This is part of that.

So.

Why We Fear (a stirring essay)

In her comment on the post below, Gayleen asked Rilla and I why we are afraid of the weekend to come. She made the excellent points that writing speed was no measure of one's quality as a writer, and further that if we didn't like what we came up with we didn't have to send it in.

I felt the need to respond.

You ask us why we fear the challenges of the forthcoming weekend. I answer that we fear them because we fear ourselves. This contest is the chance to set a goal, a very challenging goal, and to either succeed in attaining it, or fail. To fail at a goal one sets for oneself is disappointing and worse. It shames you. It tells you that you are less than you thought you were.

In this world we are routinely judged by others. Our goals are often set by others. We are judged on criteria we cannot control. This judgment can be hard enough to bear, but we can abide because we know that the criteria are not those we chose. We can't be all things to all people. We can only do our best to grow.

In this instance, we have looked at the challenge and we have said, "I believe I can do that." It will be difficult, and it may even be unpleasant, but we believe we have the potential to do it. Failure means that we misjudged ourselves, and that is painful.

I am aware that I may fail but, for my part, the attempt matters. it is one more in a series of attempts to motivate myself, to shrug off lethargy and self doubt and just DO the ACT. To quote S.M. Stirling, “Talent is cheap, inspiration fairly common. The discipline and persistence necessary to make something of them, much less so.” I am a good writer. I'm also a lazy writer and, to succeed, that needs to change.

This is why I set these challenges for myself, why I will keep at them for the coming year, and how I hope to change. Competition, even with myself, motivates. As does failure.

Slight Change

I hope the text is now more readable.

I also hope that I can actually meet this challenge. Fear has struck hard for me for the first time here. So, there's that, anyway.

Wait a Minute

I was walking home today, and I usually space out and think about all sorts of crap when I take a good walk. This time, I was thinking about writing. I thought about work because I've got a lot of revisions on my plate right now and I've got to get them done fairly quickly. Then I thought about my 3-Day Novel. I started to examine the logistics of this thing.

Crap.

Currently, I write 2000 words a day without going crazy. I feel confident in the quality of what I write and I spend a lot of time going over and revising before I submit my meager 2000 words. With three days to get 30,000 words written, that puts me a touch over 2000. Just a touch. Okay, a lot. I've got to do five times that, that's 10,000 words, in a day.

It was about then that I asked myself, "What the devil was I thinking?"

So, I'm going to put myself to the test a little bit over the next few days. I do have a lot of revisions to do, and I do have to do them rather quickly. I'll consider this practice and see if I can still write with the quality that I want in a short time frame. Since this is my job, I'm not going to sacrifice quality for number, but I want to push my limits a bit. I'm hoping this will give me a bit of a clue about just how hard next week-end is going to be.

New look

Hey, lookit! We have a sexy new banner.

Many thanks to Gayleen. Also many thanks to Val and Iain who we should have asked first. Truly, theirs is the house of stuff.

We're still looking for more banners to switch up occasionally.

For now, I'll just look at this one happily

Plot Twist(s)

So, I did my outline, just like I said I would. I have 15 chapters, and at an average of 2000 words per chapter that will sit me at a good length for the novel(la). I was expecting one particular plot twist because I had figured it out from the start. Why don't you meet him.
This is my Small Dark god. The image was created by Grymm the Pleasant last year when I was throwing the idea for this book around. He and I talked about the development of the novel a lot at the time, and he drew this up as inspiration.

So, this is basically the supernatural aspect. How is he a plot twist? Well, the main characters are going to expect him to be one way: an evil overlord of chaos. But really, he's not so much about that. There will be some shenanigans with a summoning and a sacrifice, and things will start to unravel for our antagonists pretty quickly. I'm not 100% satisfied with the methods that I've got outlined, but I've got a few more days to come up with something better. In my head, I can see the plot twist coming a mile away, and I think the way I've written it up, it'll be pretty obvious that things are not going to go well for my villains. I want it to be more of a surprise, so I might have to tinker with the outline a bit more before I'm satisfied.

The second plot twist, was a total surprise for me. I realized that I needed another main character to help move the action along, so I created a research type girl to help Dahlia figure out the situation with my little god. Then there were some lesbian dynamics that I wasn't prepared for at all, but I rolled with it, and I think it really adds something to the spirit of the book. I always imagined Dahlia being this really awesome free-spirited, intelligent, kick-ass kind of woman, but my other character, Jasmine, has all of this self-confidence that Dahlia was somehow lacking: A quieter assurance of self, that is also entangled in her sexual identity. So, there you have it.

A book that I had original envisioned being about a flapper who kicks ass and befriends a little god is actually about a flapper who kicks ass by overthrowing the status quo, not only in a supernatural way, but also in a very concrete societal way.

Surprise!

Silver Bullets

So, just exactly right below this post, Rilla talked about some of the anxieties involved in writing an historical novel. She's writing about flappers, and she feels she doesn't know quite enough about them.

I can relate. My book is a western. I mean, okay, granted, it's a supernatural western, and it could probably be classified as satire, but it's a western.

If I could go back in time and tell sixteen year-old me that I was now writing a western, I can only imagine what my younger self would say to me. It wouldn't be pretty. I never cared for westerns. They always seemed deadly dull to me, and the allure of the frontier never really clicked for me. Westerns are what my father loved. Fathers and sons. Complicated. Now, of course, I'm quite fond of some of them.

I think aging has made the difference. I saw the video for Purple Rain the other day, and I realized that the first time I heard that song was as long ago as the dawn of rock and roll was when I was a child. The realization that the events of my childhood are as far away as WWII was for my grandfather the day I was born is sobering. That used to seem like an ocean of time.

As I get older, the past begins to seem less far away to me. It is not that many human lifetimes to reach back to Ancient Rome. It's 2 or 3 to the Wild West era.

The progress of North American growth is a little fearsome.

I digress.

The 1800's in North America seem entirely within my grasp now. I know that things were immeasurably different. Mostly in ways that were uglier. I'm not too worried about historical accuracy. For one thing, I'm writing about the old west as myth. For another, I have a plethora of research materials on hand to guide me.

I don't think it's enough for me to just say, there's magic here and so I don't need to worry. I think that I want to stay as true to the real world as I can muster. However, art must prevail. I love Deadwood. This book is, I can't even pretend otherwise, my love letter to that show, and to Carnivale, and John From Cincinatti, three brilliant shows that all died too soon. This means I will take the same kind of liberties that they did. Can you imagine Deadwood without that operatic swearing? I can't, and so, though I know it to be historically inaccurate, I too will embrace the potty mouth.

I have no intention of letting the real world, or historical fact, get in the way of a story. All fiction is nothing more than the most glorious kind of white lie.

So, in the end, Ril, I guess I'd advise you tell the story you want to tell, and facts be damned. Find ways to take your distance from the truth. Mythologize. Lie beautifully.

In A Flap

I organized my day so that I would have the afternoon to begin sorting through my outline. With the afternoon a total of 25 minutes away, I can already sense my hesitation becoming greater. I may have done a very foolish thing.

I decided to set my book in the 1920s. Why? Well, because I wanted my main character to be a flapper. I like flappers. I see them as my foremothers in their free spiritedness and their beginnings of independence. It's not the true 1920s though because I've got a supernatural aspect to the novel, and this is freeing in its own way. I don't have to worry about who the President was, or who was plotting what war because its not going to matter. The research freak in me is telling me that this is horrible and that I'm setting myself up for an overly complicated setting about which I know very little. I don't know what slang they would use, or what flapper culture was really like. Did they get along with each other? Was there the beginnings of a sisterhood there? Would flappers go out alone or in packs?

I DON'T KNOW.

And it scares the living shit out of me that I've decided to write this book because I DON'T KNOW. I only shout to emphasize that I'm up shit creek here. No paddle in sight.

So, here's my plan: I'm going to forge ahead with the outline anyway. Once the outline is complete, I'll start with the research because I'll have a sense of what aspects of flapper culture will become important, and what parts I don't really need. Then, I'll swallow my fear and let my imagination just do its thing. If there are glaring inaccuracies when it's finished, I really have to let that go because it's not really the 1920s anyway. It's the 1920s in my world, which I want to make a little more interesting, a little more seedy, and a lot more weird.

Potential new folks

I have invited some people to join in the fray here. If you are one of those new people wanting access to post here, leave us a comment, or drop an email to textfight@gmail.com.

I'm doing some temp work for a few days, so I may not get you added within the hour, or anything. Rilla might. I don't know.

In any case, welcome.

I hope to post about my outline tomorrow night, looking for some advice.

Not So Organized

The Rook has his shit figured out. Seriously. I am no where near the stage where I'm planning how to survive the week-end.

My plan for this week:

1) Register. Since I decided to join the crazy train while I was in Yorkton, I did not have access to a printer and cheques. Actually, I don't use cheques because I suck at the money. Thus registering entails going to the bank and getting a money order and all that kind of jazz. Putting my money where my mouth is should help me devote more time to the outline.

2) Outline. I need to take my protagonist, antagonist and plot twist, and get something a little bit more firm in place. The novel that I drafted as part of a creative group has roughly 30 chapters and a final word count of 60,000. Since this is my only jumping off point for how to get a book written, I'll use it as a guideline and aim for 15-20 chapters which should put me at around 30,000 words. The Rook is using that as his acceptable word length and I'll follow his lead.

And that's my whole plan.

No really.

My ten planned steps to success (I hope)

Step 1) Unhook the wireless card from my laptop. This is crucial. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a serious email problem. I can't resist checking it. With the advent of Gmail chat, I can easily waste an hour without even trying. Once I start checking the email, it's a slippery slope to surfing "just for a minute". Forget that. I am allowing myself set internet breaks once every two hours, and I am allowing occasional updates to this blog. In order to do that, I will have to leave my writing area and come downstairs.

Step 2) Make my bedroom as comfortable and distraction free as possible. I am going to use it as my primary writing area. I'll be bringing a comfortable chair up there, and it will be where I spend the vast majority of the weekend. It's better than downstairs for a few reasons. One of these is that the dogs don't like to come in my room. This will reduce pestering. It's also where I wrote my book, and it's become very comfortable to me.

Step 3) Sleep Friday afternoon if possible. I still don't know what my work situation will be that day, but if it's at all possible I want to take a nap on Friday afternoon. This will keep me a little more alert as I write from 12:01 am until I decide sleep is a priority.

Step 4) Give myself 8 hours of sleep every night. Crucial.

Step 5) Have healthy foods handy that don't require a ton of effort to make. Use caffeine sparingly, and avoid sweets. Sweets cause me to crash hard, and I can't afford energy dips.

Step 6) Use the outline. It's there to stop me from freezing up. You cannot rely on yourself creatively when you are in a marathon situation. The outline is there to help me keep moving. Obviously, the time may come for me to deviate from that outline, but before I do, I need to be positive I know everything that comes next.

Step 7) For the love of god, back up my work. Save every ten minutes. All it takes is one momentary goof and you can lose pages of work. I saw this happen last year to people on the TV show, and that scared me. Every page counts.

Step 8) Control my ambition. I know that stories get bigger for me as I write them, and new avenues and digressions come naturally. This is not the time for that. I need to tell a more or less simple story in a straightforward way. After the contest, I can expand the book to be whatever I want it to be. My goal for the weekend is to finish. Period. I can't let the book get too big to wrap up in three days. If I do that, I've blown it.

Step 9) Don't be afraid to take a brief walk. Sitting all day can tire you out and wear down the mind. It's a good thing to get the blood flowing. Play with the dogs for a few minutes, whatever I need to do. Just get myself awake and aware, and go back to the book.

Step 10) This is the hardest one for me. I need to shut out all other concerns. My biggest distraction will always be anxiety. In quiet moments, I worry. I obsess about past failures, hurtful things I may have said or done, and I worry about the things to come. This has to be a three-day vacation from all of that. This time is for me, and for this book. I'm giving this story 3 days of my life without reservation. Three days isn't going to make a difference to any problems short of a sucking chest wound.

So that's what I think. Anyone else have any ideas?

Ryan gets on board.

    I'm a lazy writer.  I admit this freely.  It's a bad habit.  I have, in the last year, finally finished a novel.  It's something of a miracle, really.  I want to keep the momentum going.  I like being productive.  It's a much better feeling than that feeling I get laying in bed at nights thinking of the hundred or so stories and novels I have in progress.  That feeling is called shame.

So, that's one reason to do the 3-Day Novel Contest.

     There's another reason, though, even if it's futile.

It's a dick thing.

        My roommate is Gayleen Froese.  She entered the contest last year, as Rilla mentioned above, and she was part of the televised version.  While anyone can do this from anywhere in the world, Gayleen was selected to be one of twelve people who did this on television.  There was a separate winner for the show, and we can't discuss who that was yet, as the show hasn't yet aired due to network shakeups.  However, Gayleen made the shortlist in the overall contest.  She was the only contestant on the show to do so.

Gayleen and I are competitive, in a friendly way.  Mostly.

So, I pretty much have to win.

Even if I shortlist, she'll be going on and on about how she shortlisted while having cameras pointed up her nose, and being bothered by the producers, and having to lose three hours a day for little reality show challenges.  She has a point.

So, the only way I can get remotely close to beating her is to win the whole thing.  Even then, she'll probably still talk about the cameras.

But I have to try.  What would I be if i didn't try?

   Mature, probably.

But, you know what?  I'll take it.  Any excuse to push myself to write that many words in a short period of time.

Gayleen, by the way, has agreed to answer any questions people might have about the contest, and to offer her advice.  Send any questions to textfight@gmail.com.

Tomorrow, I will tell you about my plans for the contest.

Rilla Joins The 3-Day Novel Contest

Last year was the first time I had heard any mention of The 3-Day Novel Contest. My friend Gayleen was participating in the televised version and it was all very exciting and frightening all at once. I was intrigued, but I didn't have any ideas for a novel, and I was in the midst of trying to finish my M.A. in English. The stars were not aligned.

This year, I have the percolation of a novel in my brain. To make matters even better, I've been working on a creative team to write a novel, so I feel like those little coffee drippings that are steadily turning me into a pot of hot and bother could actually turn into an interesting work of my very own.

(I can make any metaphor work, but it's not pretty)

So when The Rook started talking about his own entry into The 3-Day Novel Contest, I figured that it was a good time to give this a shot (of espresso... see? Any Metaphor). Unlike The Rook, I don't have a plethora of ideas already in mind. I basically have one idea. No. I have one character that I've been thinking about for a year or so. I also have her nemesis and a plot twist. But that's all.

The down side of this whole thing is that the timing is a bit rough. Our editing team is slated to finish our novel at the end of August, so I'm sure that I'll be involved in a work push at just the right time to mess with the 3-Day Novel Contest. I think that the spirit of the contest, though, is that there will always be something to prevent a writer from working on his or her dreams, but it's time to pick a time and get some writing done. So, I'm going to do just that.