Tomorrow the Anti War Committee is having a benefit craft sale/bake sale 11am to 4pm, at Mayday Books (301 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis). The little man and I will already be in the area, as we’re attending the annual NaNoWriMo “Thank God it’s Over” party, except I’m not feeling relieved at all. If anything, I’ve been feeling a bit despondent and unproductive since the end of November. I already miss the make it or break it daily word quota goals, the forced creativity under pressure. That worked for me. And I am not alone (there were 6,000 of us who crossed the 50,000 word finish line). The message boards have come alive with “Life After NaNo” posts (I especially like the “reclaim your life, figure and personal hygiene” thread). So I’ve been ruminating about what got me through the month. The husband is so not on that list. I was waiting for a pat on the back from him, something, anything. Instead you know what he had to say to me about it on December 1st? “Great, now you can wash the dishes.” Which I still haven’t done, sheerly out of spite. So while I did this mostly under my own steam, I have to admit there were a few padding techniques I picked up, and employed, towards the end:
- Use extra long chapter titles;
- Do NOT use contractions;
- Dig through past weblog post titles for inspiration, chapter quotes and titles;
- Add lengthy quotes at the beginning of each chapter (most frequently lyrics from whatever song I was listening to at the time that seemed relevant, or, most sadly from fortune);
There was one extreme measure that I did not have to take. I’d read of others who ran into last minute writer’s block problems, who dumped in entire passages from other books, having their characters quote from long soliloquys just to reach their word count. Thankfully it didn’t come to that for me.
The Good: Overall this exercise gave me more confidence in my abilities. Over the last decade I have started and abandoned more novels than I care to count (Chris Baty calls these “three chapter novels”). So now I know that I can finish what I started. And by being so intimately connected with this novel, by virtue of spending so much time with it day in and day out, it gave me a better sense of structure, the big picture, and pacing. I am going to need to stay away from it for a few more days before I unleash my inner editor, but I do want to start polishing it up when it’s still fresh. Also good…because of NaNo I met, and wrote alongside of, some wonderful folks.
The Bad: All right, not necessarily bad, but there are caveats. I don’t believe my resulting novel is any sort of masterpiece (far from it), or that it’s something I would consider submitting to a publisher (I will be printing off a few copies for a select group of friends to enjoy/mock). This exercise gave me a good idea of how easy it is to let a promising story fall victim to cliche. Oy. And if there was ever any doubt over who I’ve been influenced by, there isn’t now (Joss Whedon, Jonathan Carroll and Michael Chabon come to mind).
The Ugly: I ate more poorly than usual throughout the month of November, cleaned house even less, and maintained tenuous ties with friends, family, and reality. And the little man had more screen time than usual…be it watching DVDs in front of the teevee, or playing games on my desktop while mommy worked away on her laptop. That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Bonus: Also happening tomorrow, Dalek will be doing an in-store appearance at the Robot Love store on Lyndale, from 2-4pm.
Extra bonus: This homemade Lord of the Rings board game is quite the masterpiece.
Plus: Just a thought, if holiday shopping is on the horizon for you, consider buying Fair Trade.
Annoyed: Our state has gone from ranking 18th to 4th in the nation in SUVs per licensed driver. Gee, great.
And: Hard to believe it was one year ago today that the husband and I received some very bad news. I’m glad I documented it, though. Re-reading those entries has been cathartic.
