Writing In General & Obstinant Computers In Particular
My ex husband, Fred, has said that he will drive down to New York tomorrow. He is bringing his old computer to me, reformatted and reprogrammed, to replace my older and very buggy bluelight.com one.
He had promised to do it over a month ago, in time for National Novel Writing Month, when he heard about the problems my computer had been giving me. Still is giving me, for that matter. He procrastinated for over a month.
It has a DVD-RW. *smile* Definite upgrade city.
Despite my computer problems I won, one of many people who wrote over 50k for NaNoWriMo. The novel isn't quite finished yet but I'm taking a break from it to write two short stories, one for a horror anthology, the other a bit of fluff for a group of friends on LJ. When I'm done with those then I am going to start writing another novel, following the same timeline as the one I wrote for NaNoWriMo but following very different events in a separate geographical location. I think that I will need to work on the second book in order to finish the first one.
The NaNo novel, by the way, is a Good Argument For Finishing A Story Before You Post It For Critique. I had written the minor story arc intending it for a lead-in to the main story and the VP character, a thief-for-hire, died after 10k words. I had read that this was an acceptable literary device, so I wanted to try it.
Naturally, the folk who critique these sorts of stories (fantasy, non-epic, non-Tolkienesque) didn't want me to kill him off. Changing his character and what happened to him also changed the nature of the antagonist--and made me realize that perhaps to tell the entire story I would need to write four books, separate novels, the events of each which would happen concurrently.
It's still an improvement over the nearly-forty page, single-spaced microtype original outlnie I did for the story, complete with fifty some-odd notes on society, background, culture, environmental concerns -- all that's pretty much out the window now.
I am also, starting in January, going to do a NIAY or NoWriYe -- Novel in a year, Novel Writing Year -- 2005. I plan to commit 1k per week (along with some friends who will also proceed along with me and write their own BIAY) for the entire year to the first book in my planned series, working title Swain's World. Save the complaints about the title, I like it and I did say it was a working one. If it sounds like humor, well, the original 450-word story I wrote that appeared in the first issue of The Cosmic Unicorn by that title was humorous in tone: though like Buffy The Vampire Slayer it has taken a darker tone than the original story. I have fifteen books planned, more may grow out of the concept, and the prequel to the story is starting to rot my demented little brain. *grin*
You have to write some stories; if you don't prune them that way, then they fester and grow. ;-)
* * * * *
The author's long tale
Grown from a sapling to a
Giant behemoth.
* * * * *
With Fond Regards,
Elizabeth Anne Ensley.
He had promised to do it over a month ago, in time for National Novel Writing Month, when he heard about the problems my computer had been giving me. Still is giving me, for that matter. He procrastinated for over a month.
It has a DVD-RW. *smile* Definite upgrade city.
Despite my computer problems I won, one of many people who wrote over 50k for NaNoWriMo. The novel isn't quite finished yet but I'm taking a break from it to write two short stories, one for a horror anthology, the other a bit of fluff for a group of friends on LJ. When I'm done with those then I am going to start writing another novel, following the same timeline as the one I wrote for NaNoWriMo but following very different events in a separate geographical location. I think that I will need to work on the second book in order to finish the first one.
The NaNo novel, by the way, is a Good Argument For Finishing A Story Before You Post It For Critique. I had written the minor story arc intending it for a lead-in to the main story and the VP character, a thief-for-hire, died after 10k words. I had read that this was an acceptable literary device, so I wanted to try it.
Naturally, the folk who critique these sorts of stories (fantasy, non-epic, non-Tolkienesque) didn't want me to kill him off. Changing his character and what happened to him also changed the nature of the antagonist--and made me realize that perhaps to tell the entire story I would need to write four books, separate novels, the events of each which would happen concurrently.
It's still an improvement over the nearly-forty page, single-spaced microtype original outlnie I did for the story, complete with fifty some-odd notes on society, background, culture, environmental concerns -- all that's pretty much out the window now.
I am also, starting in January, going to do a NIAY or NoWriYe -- Novel in a year, Novel Writing Year -- 2005. I plan to commit 1k per week (along with some friends who will also proceed along with me and write their own BIAY) for the entire year to the first book in my planned series, working title Swain's World. Save the complaints about the title, I like it and I did say it was a working one. If it sounds like humor, well, the original 450-word story I wrote that appeared in the first issue of The Cosmic Unicorn by that title was humorous in tone: though like Buffy The Vampire Slayer it has taken a darker tone than the original story. I have fifteen books planned, more may grow out of the concept, and the prequel to the story is starting to rot my demented little brain. *grin*
You have to write some stories; if you don't prune them that way, then they fester and grow. ;-)
The author's long tale
Grown from a sapling to a
Giant behemoth.
With Fond Regards,
Elizabeth Anne Ensley.
posted by Liz | 2:31 AM
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