30 November 2008
NaNoWriMo Day Twenty-Nine
Word Count: 50139 / 50031 (according to the NaNoBots)
Authors who need a drink: 1
Well, that was satisfying. And an amazing release. I'm off to hug my pets and feed them treats and to try to put back together the shambles that I have traditionally called my home and love life.
29 November 2008
NaNoWriMo Day Twenty-Eight
Word Count: 48320
Spectacular monster-slaying stage plays: 1
Displays of supernatural powers: 3
Hilarious lines: lots, I hope, but my favourite one is this, shouted by an old woman heckler after witnessing a particularly scourge-eriffic display of supernatural powers:
"Jesus Christ you ain't!"
Oh man, it's been a long month. I've experienced quite the learning curve. Everything they say is true: novel writing is like a long, solitary trip across the desert of yourself. Or maybe (if you're lucky) the dessert of yourself. The worst moments are right before you sit down for a writing session. If you can get your bum in your chair and a pen in your hand and even one word down on that page (after procrastinating further by numbering your page and carefully noting the date at the top) you'll probably be fine.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm just under halfway to a full draft of the novel. But I'm quite sure now that I can do it.
Spectacular monster-slaying stage plays: 1
Displays of supernatural powers: 3
Hilarious lines: lots, I hope, but my favourite one is this, shouted by an old woman heckler after witnessing a particularly scourge-eriffic display of supernatural powers:
"Jesus Christ you ain't!"
Oh man, it's been a long month. I've experienced quite the learning curve. Everything they say is true: novel writing is like a long, solitary trip across the desert of yourself. Or maybe (if you're lucky) the dessert of yourself. The worst moments are right before you sit down for a writing session. If you can get your bum in your chair and a pen in your hand and even one word down on that page (after procrastinating further by numbering your page and carefully noting the date at the top) you'll probably be fine.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm just under halfway to a full draft of the novel. But I'm quite sure now that I can do it.
28 November 2008
27 November 2008
NaNoWriMo Day Twenty-Seven
Word Count: 45906
Zombicidal children: 12, give or take
Troupes of slightly nonthreatening monsters: 1
I didn't intend for the monsters to be friendly. HOW DID THE MONSTERS BECOME FRIENDLY?
Because they all have their own stories, that's how. Well, crap. There's a layer of complication that I hadn't banked on.
At the same time, I think my overarching metaphor - the one about power - just got a lot more complex and interesting.
Zombicidal children: 12, give or take
Troupes of slightly nonthreatening monsters: 1
I didn't intend for the monsters to be friendly. HOW DID THE MONSTERS BECOME FRIENDLY?
Because they all have their own stories, that's how. Well, crap. There's a layer of complication that I hadn't banked on.
At the same time, I think my overarching metaphor - the one about power - just got a lot more complex and interesting.
26 November 2008
NaNoWriMo Day Twenty-Six
No new words today. I decided to take the day to do some research that's essential to generating the next 8k and completing the NaNoWriMo challenge. This pause for recherche is actually making me far more excited about the next section of writing than if I'd barrelled on through. Don't get me wrong: barrelling is important and fun.
But you know what K. Rog has to say:
But you know what K. Rog has to say:
NaNoWriMo Day Twenty-Five
Word Count: 42361
Deadly moral interludes: 1
Heart-munching: 1 heart, 3 munches
Appearances of Satan: 1
Plague sores: dozens
The devil I'm dealing with is only an ersatz devil, a perhaps-once-human person whom time and circumstance has utterly transfomed. But when I wrote the scene I was thinking of images like this one, purportedly of St. Augustine and the Devil, painted by Michael Pacher in 1480:
It's a wonderful image because these women, in their decrepitude and flowing longhairedness and wrinkliness and overall crone-like gorgeousness, would have been the sort to most likely appear in medieval and renaissance art as being in cahoots with the devil. Not beating him (or her, if you take the cue of the devil's breasts) into submission.
Deadly moral interludes: 1
Heart-munching: 1 heart, 3 munches
Appearances of Satan: 1
Plague sores: dozens
The devil I'm dealing with is only an ersatz devil, a perhaps-once-human person whom time and circumstance has utterly transfomed. But when I wrote the scene I was thinking of images like this one, purportedly of St. Augustine and the Devil, painted by Michael Pacher in 1480:
I don't know anything about Pacher, but Hugo Zoom observes this about the painting:
I love images like this one because the devil looks so totally alien. A confection of otherness. Especially because his butt is smirking.
So too the devil in this Daniel Hopfer etching. Hopfer was a late 15th / early 16th century artist. We've got a firebreathing crotch here, and numerous devils flying overhead and creeping behind the trees in the background. But at least for now, it seems the three old women are able to triumph over evil.
It's a wonderful image because these women, in their decrepitude and flowing longhairedness and wrinkliness and overall crone-like gorgeousness, would have been the sort to most likely appear in medieval and renaissance art as being in cahoots with the devil. Not beating him (or her, if you take the cue of the devil's breasts) into submission.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)