NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Twelve

Word Count: 19009
Betrayals and Revelations of Betrayals: 1 current, 1 impending

Oh how I love to betray my characters! How divine it is to watch their confusion as they discover they've been swindled, double crossed, undone, lied to, and cheated.

I guess this is the glee that the amazing Gale reports when she talks about torturing her characters. Nice.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Eleven

Word Count: same as the day before

Yeah. Sometimes it just doesn't feel right to keep writing. Tuesdays and Wednesdays suck for NaNoNovelling; and it all comes together on the weekend. Sundays have been awesome so far. I am so, so happy that there are five of them this month.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Ten

Word Count: 17354
Secret diaries: 1

Sweaty encounters: 2

Oh what bliss, setting up a character to make an unpleasant and life altering discovery later on down the line!

I never know when I'm writing a sex scene: is this hot, or is it totally ridiculous? I'm not getting into the throbbing gristle or anything, nothing too porno, but you know, because what I'm writing is more...sensation based, I'm not sure if my own proclivities and tastes are, to put it delicately, colouring the text too much. And you know, my proclivities and tastes might not be everyone's proclivities and tastes. In fact I'm sure they're not. Oh well: what can you do?

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Nine

Word Count: 16135
Bags of blood: 10

Mugs full of gently warmed blood: 3

Major moment of hypocrisy on the part of my main character. I think I'm finally figuring out how to express major plot points through this whole diary / multiple first person format. It's tricky, but it's all about playing narratives off each other. Good fun for a recovering academic like myself.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Eight

Still from Les Vampires, 1915


Word Count: 14 283
Vampiric conversions: 1
Broken ankles: 1
Grossed out sidekicks: 3



Ah, the ups and downs of NaNoWriMo! Apparently what I needed was a solid day where I spent most of my time writing and a write-in to inspire me. I wrote 3662 words today, and am now officially above par.

My story, though, is not nearly as light as I'd thought it would be. As I said to fellow NaNo-er girlwithapearl today, it's turning out to be emotionally based. I realize that a lot of what I've been writing in the last little while has centred around conflict in action: will the good guys keep the bad guys away from the interdimensional fort? Will the ambiguously morally oriented creature decide to fight on behalf of humanity? Will the all-girl punk band kidnap the barely disguised Paris Hilton proxy and deliver her safely to the record executive on the other side of the paranormal wasteland? Yeah...you know. Regular plots like that.

The crux of the conflicts in this year's NaNo novel are emotional. The dilemmas are classic psychological double binds. I find myself caring about these characters because they represent shades of things I've felt. I'm digging a little deeper.

Gotta love vampires.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Seven

Word Count: 10600
Disastrous attempts at apology: 1

I realize I don't really know how police reports are written. I'm faking it for now (because that's the NaNoWriMo way), but will research this more thoroughly when it comes time for The Great Rewrite / Filling in of Massive Gaps.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Days Five and Six

Amorous Old Woman and Young Man, Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1520-22

Word Count: 9281
Semi-geriatric romances: 1

There are so few genuinely engaging - by which I mean sexy - romances about older people. I'm thinking Harold and Maude is a good example of a film that broke a major taboo in that arena. What is it about us as a culture that we only want to think about perfectly smooth, unaged bodies rubbing up against each other? Seriously? For those of us beyond the perfectly smooth and unaged portion of the program, this whole issue can be a real downer. That goes double for those who never really managed to achieve perfectly smooth in the first place.

Bah. I'm writing the hottest 80-year old granny character ever.