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mousmePart of me wants to stay up right now and write write write. Thanks once again to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ai731 and her Wednesday Word Count Challenge, I have overcome the stupid writing block that plagued me on Monday and Tuesday. It wasn't words that were lacking, it was how to make the plot go forward. So, instead, I went backward and gave the serial killer his own chapter. Before, he'd had a thousand-odd words to himself in a section of a chapter. Today he got his very own chapter, and I allowed him to rant for more than 2,000 words.
So now, I have momentum, even though I'm tired. If I keep writing now, I will be tired like a tired thing tomorrow, and then I'm seeing the new Harry Potter film, and then I'll get home late and it'll all be bad. I am still debating whether or not to keep writing. I am way ahead of where I thought I would be on this day, but I want to get a lot more writing done before Sunday, since I won't be home all day that day. I have a knitting date withlooking4wings. Woo!
The "problem" with being surrounded by creative people, is that they stimulate my desire to create stuff. Not just writing, although that's the main way in which I express my creative side, but crafty stuff, too. So I've had an idea (well, someone suggested it) for a knitting project, and another idea for a quilt, and... wait for it... another idea for a novel.
Yes, a novel. Actually, this is the aborted novel of NaNoWriMo 2003. At the time, I wanted to write about a woman with Bipolar Affective Disorder, about the beginnings of her illness and how it affected her life, and just the start of how she was eventually going to learn to live with the illness.
Ironically, that November I spiralled into a severe mixed episode, and the book never got finished. Isn't it ironic? Bipolar Disorder got in the way of my book on Bipolar Disorder. Ha ha ha. Anyway. Bleh.
That November, I tried writing it from two perspectives. The first was the woman herself, speaking in the present text. I was alternating chapters, for what it's worth. She's in the middle of a severe depressive episode, freaking out about something (probably imagined), and trying to pull herself together before her husband and kids get home from their respective days at work and school. The alternating chapters are from the husband's perspective, but in the past tense, detailing the beginnings of their marriage, and his wife's slow descent into madness and his reaction to it.
It was an interesting experiment, but it failed. So I moved on. Then I tried rewriting it in the third person limited perspective from the point of view of the kids. That also didn't work. The voice rang false to me when I tried to write it, and so it didn't happen.
Then, about a week or two ago, the woman's eldest son began talking to me. He explained that he wanted to tell the story, and in the first person. Suddenly things began to make sense. I wasn't writing a novel about mental illness for adults, I was writing a young adult novel, a coming of age story which just happens to have mental illness in it. I'm actually quite excited about this new idea, since it's been living in my head in various incarnations for going on three years now. Once I finish my NaNo novel, I shall tackle this story, hopefully in December, but if I haven't finished the present novel by December I shall work on finishing first and write my second novel in January (along with our project for Capricornucopia, somiseri, sorceror and foi_nefaste don't have to worry about my flaking on them. Does Julie have an LJ? I don't recall...).
This brings me to another shiny new idea. Since I'll be writing a novel, it will need a notebook. Now, up until recently I haven't paid that much attention to my notebooks. They're just spiral-bound things of about 100 pages, because 100 pages fills up at a reasonable rate, which means I get a lot of writing done, but I also get to have a brand-new notebook at reasonable intervals.
Then my friendowldaughter mentioned a really neat thing in her blog that she does when she starts a new book project. Namely, she designs and creates a special collage notebook cover for the new project. She thinks about the characters and the themes and the general feel of the book (all depending on whether it's fiction or non-fiction, or course), picks out images and so forth, and goes about creating the notebook cover. She wrote about it in this entry, in case you're interested in reading it in her own words.
Seeing that, I thought: "Hey, that's a fantastic idea!" And now I'm trying to think up exactly what my new notebook will look like for this novel project. In other words, there's a lot more to be excited about than just the writing of the novel.
In other words, starting in December I will have a minimum of four projects on the go, and that number may go up to six, depending on whether or not some projects stretch out longer than I anticipate. This is exciting, but also vaguely disturbing. When am I going to find time for all of this?
Cross-posted tosecret_history.
ai731 and her Wednesday Word Count Challenge, I have overcome the stupid writing block that plagued me on Monday and Tuesday. It wasn't words that were lacking, it was how to make the plot go forward. So, instead, I went backward and gave the serial killer his own chapter. Before, he'd had a thousand-odd words to himself in a section of a chapter. Today he got his very own chapter, and I allowed him to rant for more than 2,000 words.So now, I have momentum, even though I'm tired. If I keep writing now, I will be tired like a tired thing tomorrow, and then I'm seeing the new Harry Potter film, and then I'll get home late and it'll all be bad. I am still debating whether or not to keep writing. I am way ahead of where I thought I would be on this day, but I want to get a lot more writing done before Sunday, since I won't be home all day that day. I have a knitting date with
looking4wings. Woo!The "problem" with being surrounded by creative people, is that they stimulate my desire to create stuff. Not just writing, although that's the main way in which I express my creative side, but crafty stuff, too. So I've had an idea (well, someone suggested it) for a knitting project, and another idea for a quilt, and... wait for it... another idea for a novel.
Yes, a novel. Actually, this is the aborted novel of NaNoWriMo 2003. At the time, I wanted to write about a woman with Bipolar Affective Disorder, about the beginnings of her illness and how it affected her life, and just the start of how she was eventually going to learn to live with the illness.
Ironically, that November I spiralled into a severe mixed episode, and the book never got finished. Isn't it ironic? Bipolar Disorder got in the way of my book on Bipolar Disorder. Ha ha ha. Anyway. Bleh.
That November, I tried writing it from two perspectives. The first was the woman herself, speaking in the present text. I was alternating chapters, for what it's worth. She's in the middle of a severe depressive episode, freaking out about something (probably imagined), and trying to pull herself together before her husband and kids get home from their respective days at work and school. The alternating chapters are from the husband's perspective, but in the past tense, detailing the beginnings of their marriage, and his wife's slow descent into madness and his reaction to it.
It was an interesting experiment, but it failed. So I moved on. Then I tried rewriting it in the third person limited perspective from the point of view of the kids. That also didn't work. The voice rang false to me when I tried to write it, and so it didn't happen.
Then, about a week or two ago, the woman's eldest son began talking to me. He explained that he wanted to tell the story, and in the first person. Suddenly things began to make sense. I wasn't writing a novel about mental illness for adults, I was writing a young adult novel, a coming of age story which just happens to have mental illness in it. I'm actually quite excited about this new idea, since it's been living in my head in various incarnations for going on three years now. Once I finish my NaNo novel, I shall tackle this story, hopefully in December, but if I haven't finished the present novel by December I shall work on finishing first and write my second novel in January (along with our project for Capricornucopia, so
miseri, sorceror and foi_nefaste don't have to worry about my flaking on them. Does Julie have an LJ? I don't recall...).This brings me to another shiny new idea. Since I'll be writing a novel, it will need a notebook. Now, up until recently I haven't paid that much attention to my notebooks. They're just spiral-bound things of about 100 pages, because 100 pages fills up at a reasonable rate, which means I get a lot of writing done, but I also get to have a brand-new notebook at reasonable intervals.
Then my friend
owldaughter mentioned a really neat thing in her blog that she does when she starts a new book project. Namely, she designs and creates a special collage notebook cover for the new project. She thinks about the characters and the themes and the general feel of the book (all depending on whether it's fiction or non-fiction, or course), picks out images and so forth, and goes about creating the notebook cover. She wrote about it in this entry, in case you're interested in reading it in her own words.Seeing that, I thought: "Hey, that's a fantastic idea!" And now I'm trying to think up exactly what my new notebook will look like for this novel project. In other words, there's a lot more to be excited about than just the writing of the novel.
In other words, starting in December I will have a minimum of four projects on the go, and that number may go up to six, depending on whether or not some projects stretch out longer than I anticipate. This is exciting, but also vaguely disturbing. When am I going to find time for all of this?
Cross-posted to
secret_history.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 04:39 am (UTC)Now, if I would just discipline myself to actually sit down and write this stuff. *sigh*
And, the best idea I had that I actually think I could have done came well into Nanowrimo, or I think I might have actually done that this year.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 04:16 pm (UTC)We'll all be behind you. I'll introduce you to my friends on LJ, and we'll be your cheerleading team. :D
Or else write your songs. Come post them in
no subject
Date: 2005-11-25 07:33 pm (UTC)I have a few friends who want me to email what I'm writing as I write, so I'd be happy to include you on that list if you want. I haven't typed any of it out, yet (I write longhand then type it up. Can't stand to write creatively on a computer for some reason.)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-25 09:54 pm (UTC)Yes, please email me your stuff. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 04:14 pm (UTC)Check your email
Date: 2005-11-17 06:42 pm (UTC)