Shouts From Down Under

Gear UP for NaNoWriMo - and don't stop 'til December comesss

November is down to just hours away, and I'm feeling the pinch of non-attendance.

The lonely park bench, far from the perimeter of the city streets, with a couple of leaves blowing across an empty footpath - that's where I'm sitting, hearing all the people talk about Nano this and Nano that, and what happens?

My daughter makes it worse by playing a mournful improv piano solo of the Canon in D, and the day outside cobwebby windows has clouded over with the shadows of self pity; being left out, to sit and stare at an un-story on the monitor. Unwillingness, laziness, anxiety and a whole truck load of excuses crowd my mind like shouting characters from Hogwarts, like furry Furbies creepily still talking even after the batteries are removed. Echoes. Echoes. Gecko echoes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko

A nasty video of Bush snake versus Gecko.



Hmm, maybe I should stop trying to think up strange narrative, and emotional sentences to describe non existent incidents here, and non existent feelings in my skull, and consider doing Nano anyway. Or Not.

I saw a video on YouTube today that was totally random, but it made me think of NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. The driver of a semi-trailer, or tractor trailer as I believe they are called in the USA. I assume this is where the video was filmed, because of the obvious left hand drive truck.
Truckers. But we called them truckies here. This guy does an awesome job at his craft, handling this beast with the gentleness you'd show to a baby. Perfect harmony of man and machine.



So, what has this to do with Nano? Well, for those having a crack this year at jamming a novel sized amount of words down on paper, or screen, you need to have your stuff together, and understand a few things about the process on which you are about to embark. There are lots of help groups and sites, here and on the internet. But you're probably way past starting off by now. Unlike me. I seriously don't feel I can do it this year, with work commitments and other issues. But I have to tell you, it's very tempting. I remember the excitement, the hair pulling, the challenges, the mountain of impossibility, the tightrope walk across the racing hours of November.

But it doesn't have to be a gulf or chasm of fearful sweating and terror. Break it down into sections. Do up some lists. Names. Character traits and back stories for each one. Think up what you really want to put across in your story, and then magnetise this idea, or set of ideas, so that it mostly sticks to your main character / characters.
Have a beginning and end. Then divide things up into scenes, with a basic purpose for each. Work out what happens when, and then form up what will be in the chapters, how many chapters, and roughly how long.
Locations and some research would help things along.
Remember, you aren't worrying about all those perfectionist things like editing, punctuation, spelling and grammar. Up to a point.

But you should consider making sure what you write has an excitement, has verve, has passion, has a read point, has interest, has colour and style. Voice.

You should feather your plot so that it entices, seduces, convinces, persuades, influences, guides, prompts, provokes and pushes. You already have the permission of whoever reads it, to take them on a journey. They don't want to go from A to A. They want to go from A to Z at light speed. They want to be on a broomstick of impossible physics, sailing across an ocean of spectacular imagination. They want to view your view. They want to understand you. They want to be you, travel by your side, or behind your eyes. This is a pleasure to them. Don't disappoint with flaccid, placid, limp, half speed knights in half melted cheese armour, politically correctly sword fighting using wet cabbage leaves behind a hanging custard skin of pathetic-ness and average-idity.

Anyway, whoever is writing for Nano, all the best, may you enjoy the experience, and don't forget to breathe. Cry a bit. Mostly laugh, and try to manage to scare the dog or cat with the occasional blood curdling scream.

If its calm, if its boring, if its sane, its not NaNoWriMo.

Sparky