Category: Books & Writing

Empty word bag

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’d hoped to generate truckloads of words today, but I was just too tired to keep at it consistently. Tonight I’ll get to bed a lot earlier and hopefully can break my single day record tomorrow.

Although…on the other hand, to quote Michael Stackpole quoting someone else, “My wordbag is empty.”

Our intrepid heros finally got moving today, but now they’re stuck again. They’ve got an enemy to fight (fantasy, after all) but I’m not sure if I can make this a satisfying conflict, since the enemy is a creature that is intelligent but not really sentient.

Maybe I need a plot bunny!

They won’t budge!

Posted on by Nimgimli

A belated update… I submitted my word count and stuff just before midnight tonight.

I’m pleased with the wordcount, but not with the story. I’ve always read about how characters take on a life of their own and do things that you don’t expect them to do. Well I’m experiencing that now…except my characters refuse to get their arses in gear!!! They’re prone to navel-gazing rather than action.

Mind you, I’m not letting that get in my way. The goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in November. NOT to write a GOOD 50,000 word novel in November!!! This is my first NaNo so I’m just focused on finishing. Next year I’ll focus on trying to do something worth reading.

My super-double-secret goal, by the way, is to finish by Nov. 22. Why? Cuz that’s when the XBox 360 comes out!

Grim

Posted on by Nimgimli

So I’m doing things a bit differently tonight. I’m writing this update *before* I work on the novel. I have no idea how many words I’ll manage tonight.

Today was one of the worst days at work I’ve had in…jesus, a very long time. It was long, tiring, frustrating and in the end not very productive. I re-affirmed my boss’s opinion of me that I am a problem employee, which will lead to more angst down the road (of course when I’m unemployed I’ll have a lot more time for writing). Mind you, all I was doing was trying with every fiber of my being to prevent us from making what I felt in my soul was a disasterous mistake. I should take a cue from my fellow workers and just keep quiet, let the mistakes happen and then clean up the mess.

Anyway, on the way home I bought all the fixings for some kick-ass margaritas. Dinner is made and waiting in the fridge (a cold salad). Its 8:30 already so if I don’t write now, I never will.

Time to ignore the rumbling belly and the siren call of tequila, and get writing.

Feelin’ grooovy!

Posted on by Nimgimli

Hello lamp post, whatcha knowin?

Um, anyway. This whole NaNo thing is feeling do-able tonight. I had a nice writing session that felt really, really good. I got comfortably past my goal of 2000 words/day, but the important thing is that I really enjoyed myself.

I got the whole “flow” thing happening. It wuz teh roxx0rzz!!11!

This is the easy week?

Posted on by Nimgimli

So starting this NaNoNovel has been harder than I thought. Maybe if I had an outline it would’ve been easier.

What scares me is that people say the first week is easy, the second week hard.

I’m finding that I need to have things taken care of before I can really settle in. Dinner dishes washed, cat fed, all that kind of thing.

Things were picking up steam as I finished, though. Maybe tomorrow will be easier.

A plot?

Posted on by Nimgimli

With November 1st quickly drawing near, I’ve been starting to panic about a plot for my NaNoNovel. This morning, something hit me that is, at least, a vague outline of what might be a plot. I need to identify the key character and figure out what the conflicts and change will be. But I have a few days to outline this stuff before the writing begins…

Reboot

Posted on by Nimgimli

OK, this place has languished for far too long. I keep meaning to get back to it, but feel guilty for owing an email to this person or that person. So I need to make this a priority or else it’ll just sit forever.

(OK, so maybe this was prompted by my getting the bill for the next year’s hosting.)

Anyway, big project coming up: NaNoWriMo, and I’m going to give it a go. I’ll be tracking my progress here, which may not be exactly riveting reading but its important to me!

So soon…it all begins!

The Horse and His Boy

Posted on by Nimgimli

The Horse and His BoyLife’s been really hectic lately, as evidenced by my lack of posting here. Hopefully things will ease up soon and I can get back to my regularly scheduled blatherings… 🙂

In the meantime, I finally got around to finishing C.S. Lewis’s The Horse and His Boy (Book 3 in the Narnia series) last night. I was pretty underwhelmed with the first two books in the series since they felt more like long vignettes than novels. The characters just seemed to be swept along without really doing very much. Horse was much better in this regard, with the protagonists taking an active role in their fates. The religious symbology was either gone or subtle enough that I didn’t pick up on it (of course, a Bible scholar I am surely not). The ending was predictable but relatively pleasing.

However, liking them more than The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is really damning with faint praise. I’m still failing to see what all the fuss is about. As children’s books, Horse works. I can certainly imagine reading it to a child, but there just isn’t a lot here to hold the attention of an adult.

In fact…I think I need to put the series back on the shelf for a while. I need to read something with a bit of meat before I start seeing the Narnia books as a chore I need to get through.