Congrats to Ryan

I know I should wait until he's had a chance to check his e-mail and post a post of his own and all that jazz, but I'm too psyched. Waiting is not an option.

Ryan's 3-Day Novel was an Honourable Mention. I believe that means that he's made the short list. Which I also believe means that he and G "tied" for their 3-Day Novel efforts.

I don't know how this works within the roommate dynamic, but I'd say it's damned good news.

So, congrats. Congrats. Congrats!

Here's the link with all the winners.

A Retrospective

I put my submission in the mail today, determined to get it out of my sight in the event that I'd be tempted to tinker with it outside of the contest time line. With the contest now safely behind me, I have the temerity to think I understand what I did right, and what I did wrong. This will probably be good for a laugh in a few months when I have some legitimate perspective on everything.

Rights:

1) The research that I did helped a great deal. I know that I bitched about it as I settled into the last minute panic before the contest began, but it really did help. I was able to add the parts of history that I thought were most interesting where they were most fitting, and that's not a bad thing. True flavour in a Fake setting. It's like real apples on the top of an apple pie filled with that horrible canned filling... except not disgusting... I hope.

2) Working with someone else was incredibly encouraging. Even though Ryan was a province away, having his word count there in the sidebar was enough to make me feel the push of friendly competition. Also, he was quick to call me if he thought I was stuck -- or not posting onto TextFIGHT enough -- and to talk about his own frustrations. Knowing that we were in this together was a life saver.

3) Talking to Kaz about my worries and needs before the week-end began made everything a lot better. He stayed out of my hair, and when I would snap, "NO READING" as he walked by the monitor, he was able to brush it off as temporary insanity. He also did lots of cooking and supplying of food. That was awesome, and he has already hinted that next week-end might be a good time to do the same for him.

Wrongs:

1) I had some indistinct names. I named one of my character's Johnny, and then half-way through the book I decided that I meant that his name was Charlie. It was a boring name from the get go, and if I had picked a name with some meat to it, I wouldn't have been flip-flopping all over the place. Seriously. I thought I had the problem fixed, and then when I sat down to write the penultimate scene, I reverted back to Charlie. It was an irritation that was easy enough to fix with the find/replace tool, but annoying nonetheless.

2) I should have known that I needed more substance to my outline. If I were to do this again (oh so doubtful) I would make sure to have an outline with extra scenes that I can choose to exclude if I want. Then I wouldn't be worried about my word count from day one.

3) I doubted my original plot. After day one, I was feeling wishy-washy about what my outline was telling me to do, and so it was like I was working on two different books for a while there. This made my editing job a lot more difficult in the end, and all of my fixes pushed things back inline with my original idea. I would have saved myself a lot of time and hassle if I had just stuck with my instincts.

4) My historical setting was a pain in the ass. I know I was going to go all metaphorical on its ass, but I kept thinking about what the setting was really like in the 1920's. I wish I hadn't done that because it was an extra hoop that my mind had to jump whenever I wrote anything: dialogue, descriptions, everything.

Second Draft

My current word count is at 22,301. If it changes at all from this point, it will be pretty minutely. I thought I'd be disappointed if I didn't reach 30,000 words, but I'm really quite pleased with the work I have in my hands. It is undeniably full of me: my words, my thoughts, my ideas, my silliness. I am quietly giddy.

I know that I have another seven hours or so to tinker with it, but I don't think I will. If Kaz is up to it, I'll get him to read through the new draft. He has been full of helpful suggestions, and he's been quite brilliant at finding grammatical errors. More than one comma splice has missed my notice, and been caught by him. If he's not up to the second read, no biggy. It stands on its own. I think I've tied up my loose ends, pulled the two parts of my story together, and somehow figured out how to write lesbian in the 1920's... or at least bluffed well enough that I've fooled myelf.

My page count, for you folks playing along at home, is at 82. The page count is only slightly padded by making sure that there's always a page break in between chapters, which is done for my own editing peace of mind than anything else. The length is what I had expected out of my thesis, and I am so proud of myself for getting something of this scope written on my own.

Would I have been prouder if I had made it to 30,000 words? I think I might have, but it would have been a vastly different story. It's punchy -- it moves along. If I added things to make it into a proper novella, it would likely have perspectives aside from Dahlia's, and I'm a little tired of working with that sort of text since we're doing precisely that kind of thing with the group-work novel.

So, as it reaches five o'clock SK time, I think I can officially say that I'm done.

Edit: On a hunch, I did some last minute research about what I had named a club, and I discovered Swing Jazz didn't really get popular until the 1930's. I had named the club The Swing Set (I know, I know, incredibly clever), but I changed it to two-word name, thus losing some of my precious words.

I have printed it, created a witness statement (which Kaz has signed), wrote up a title page with all my necessary info on it, and put it all into an envelope and sealed it up. I shall stop thinking about it now. If I can.

First Draft

I have come to the end of my outlined plot and I am 9,500 words short of my goal. I am cautiously optimistic though because I have about thirteen hours to re-read, edit, and add more things to it.

I may not feel so optimistic when I finish reading the draft. We'll see.

More as I realize that I am either insane or brilliant.

Eighteen Hours of Sleep

I went to bed early yesterday since my headache would not leave me alone, and with the addition of three hours of napping -- also because of aforementioned headache -- I know I have something that I can blame for my crappy word count.

I find my self dilly-dallying today. My mind is still fuzzy, and my left eye feels puffy, like I've some how managed to physically overexert it. Sometimes, when I'm feeling insecure about doing stuff, my hypochondriac tendencies flare up with a vengeance.

I did have a moment of insight while I was drifting off last night, and I repeated it to myself about a hundred times so that it would stay with me when I woke up this morning. I think I will name my novel(la) Smoke and Mirrors. When it came to me, I realized that it fit in all of the right ways. I have tons of imagery that should make someone recall it as they read the book, and it should make people wonder whether the plot I've got with my little god is going to be real or fake, and what it means. It works, also, with the little bit of trickery that I throw in that isn't directed at Dahlia, but at the cultists themselves.

So, in case you missed it in amongst those ramblings. I have a title. Now I just need to finish it. Wish me luck.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.