Diana's Writing Blog

Well, it's Day 2 of NaNo, and so far I'm going strong. I didn't make it to my area's write-in Sunday. I went home to WI instead, but I still managed to meet my 2,500 word goal for Sunday. I'm thinking maybe the write-ins wouldn't actually help my writing that much. I tend to need to just park in front of the computer with the novel's playlist on loop and ignore the outside world. Yes, I make a tailored playlist for each novel I write. I've had the one for NaNo 09 since mid-October.

Anyway, I'd still like to go to a meet-up or write-in this year. Just to meet other writers in my area. "Make a Friend" is on this year's to-do list and time is a-runnin' out.

In writing news, I already had an I-Hate-My-Writing-Style relapse, but it passed. I'm trying really hard not to backtrack for any reason, because once I start reading back what I've written, I get sucked into editing mode and my creative side flounces off in a huff.

I say "trying" because I sort of already did. But with good reason. I needed to change a scene's setting to make sense with something new I was writing. And it ended up netting me more words and clearing up a block. So. Doesn't count.

I've been lurking over at nanowrimo and they have these daily excerpt posts where you can add what you've written for the day. I'm thinking of posting Chapter 1 of my novel. Just for the lulz. Or I guess I could just post it here.

I don't know. I'm oscillating between "Hate it!" and "Eh, it's not so bad...." so it all depends on what mood I'm in.

Oh, and I'm dusting off the ol' Writing Progress box. Good to have you back, buddy:

Well, it's Day 2 of NaNo, and so far I'm going strong. I didn't make it to my area's write-in Sunday. I went home to WI instead, but I still managed to meet my 2,500 word goal for Sunday. I'm thinking maybe the write-ins wouldn't actually help my writing that much. I tend to need to just park in front of the computer with the novel's playlist on loop and ignore the outside world. Yes, I make a tailored playlist for each novel I write. I've had the one for NaNo 09 since mid-October.

Anyway, I'd still like to go to a meet-up or write-in this year. Just to meet other writers in my area. "Make a Friend" is on this year's to-do list and time is a-runnin' out.

In writing news, I already had an I-Hate-My-Writing-Style relapse, but it passed. I'm trying really hard not to backtrack for any reason, because once I start reading back what I've written, I get sucked into editing mode and my creative side flounces off in a huff.

I say "trying" because I sort of already did. But with good reason. I needed to change a scene's setting to make sense with something new I was writing. And it ended up netting me more words and clearing up a block. So. Doesn't count.

I've been lurking over at nanowrimo and they have these daily excerpt posts where you can add what you've written for the day. I'm thinking of posting Chapter 1 of my novel. Just for the lulz. Or I guess I could just post it here.

I don't know. I'm oscillating between "Hate it!" and "Eh, it's not so bad...." so it all depends on what mood I'm in.

Oh, and I'm dusting off the ol' Writing Progress box. Good to have you back, buddy:

So, I've been reading through my writing books. You know, because of the whole suddenly hating my writing style thing. I'm on Self-Editing for Fiction Writers right now.

One of its chapters started like this:

If you're like most writers, you probably find that writing dialogue takes more thought than writing narration or action. Your characters come alive--or fail to--when they speak, and it's no easy matter to put just the right words in their mouths.

Problem is, I'm not like "most writers." Not according to that book, at least. I actually do pretty well with dialogue. As long as I have a good picture of the characters in my head, I could write dialogue all day. It's pretty much all the stuff around the dialogue that I have problems with.

That chapter had some good points, though. Like dialogue tags. If you're writing good dialogue, you shouldn't need the adverbs. For instance: "Screw you" he said, angrily. is totally redundant. Even: "Screw you!" he exclaimed. is kind of unnecessary. I mean, unless it's something they wouldn't get from the dialogue and context, it's basically just patronizing your reader.

And I get that. Unfortunately, what I tend to do instead is gestures. So there's a lot of nodding and shrugging and smiling and sighing. So much so that you can scan down the page and read something like, "He shrugged. She nodded. He sighed. She shrugged. He groaned. She sighed." I mean, there's dialogue and--if I'm feeling ambitious--some narration, but every paragraph starts with something like that.

I need to start adding "beats" instead: tailored action that has my characters interacting with their environment instead of just standing there talking to each other. For instance, from the book:

"I'd never thought of that before." Roger walked over to the fridge and helped himself to a soda. "But I suppose a good coat of shellac really would work just as well, wouldn't it?"

Of course, that's exactly what I tend not to do when I'm writing fast. But I figure I might as well use NaNo to practice. If I can get into the habit, it'll really improve my writing. So, I'll just do that then. Seems like I took a lot of words to say that, but whatever, I'm gearing up for NaNo, after all.

Speaking of, I wrote 15,000 words in the last two days. Just to warm up. It's been a while since I've really sat down and worked at a novel, so I figured I ought to get back into the habit. Also, work was slow. Not so much, anymore though. For November, I'll be aiming for 2,000 words on a weekday and 2,500 on weekends. I figure that'll give me a little buffer if I want to take Thanksgiving off. Or if my novel turns out to be waaay over 50k. Like last year. And pretty much any other time I've written a novel.

So, I've decided I hate my writing style. It's stilted and I use too many dialogue tags and I just hate it. But that's fine. I have a whole week before November and I have about a billion writing books. I already went through them all and bookmarked the relevant sections, so all I have to do is read those over and everything will be fine. Yep....Totally fine.

I am GEARED UP for NaNo WriMo, people. I'm feeling good about my novel's premise and outline. I'm actually excited to write it! (Yeah, I'm gonna look back at this about Nov. 10 and shake my head.)

Anyway, to channel my excitement into something semi-productive, I made graphics for my nonexistent novel. I usually wait till it's written, but what the heck. I made myself a novel cover and an icon:



Okay, so I'm not so sure about the title. It's descriptive, but I can't decide if it's edgy or stupid. It'll do for now.

Lastly, here's the synopsis for my NaNo Novel:


Eh. It needs some tweaking, too. But it's a good start. I can't believe I have to wait 17 more days to start writing. (Again, I'll be looking back and shaking my head once November is actually upon us.)

Well, November is National Novel Writing Month, so I guess October can be National Edit Last Year's Novel....Month. Not as catchy, I know. Anyway, if you recall, last year was my first year winnng NaNo WriMo. So I figured on top of gearing up to write the new novel in Novemeber, I'd also go back and do some major editing on the one I wrote last year. I've already taken a few passes at it, but kind of randomly: working on the parts I wanted to whenever I was bored at work. I did re-work the beginning quite a bit, and I'm fairly happy with how that looks now. The middle still sags, though, and it's all around too short, so that's what I'll work on this month.

So, here's my to-do list for October:

1. Do a chapter outline. For some reason, this is one of the last things I do. I don't know why. That's just my process.


2. Reread/Revise character sketches. I feel like my main character's personality goes a bit rogue somewhere in the middle, so once I have my chapter outline, I'll look at him and decide whether the character sketch or the character's actions in the book need to be revised.


3. Read through the entire novel. I've skipped around a lot in it. I need to sit down and read through the entire thing for continuity of seasons/time of day, resolution of plot lines, and spelling/grammar/writing tropes. (My worst is facial expressions/gestures. I tend to start my dialogue with things like "John grimaced," "Mr. Doe shrugged," "Jane nodded." Not bad once in a while, but when every other line has characters nodding and shrugging all over, something's gotta change.)


4. Decide I hate it and that it's un-fixable and switch to prep work for the new novel. I figure this'll happen sometime in the next two weeks, so that'll give me plenty of time to do preliminary character sketches and outlines for the novel I plan to write in November.


5. Do character sketches for the new novel.


6. Outline the new novel. No slacking on that this year. I tend to have an idea of where to start and an idea of where to end. So my outline of the middle of the book is always "[stuff happens....and somehow we get here-->]" and that's a recipe for writer's block right there. Of course, by the time I get to the middle, where I'm headed will probably bear little resemblance to what I outlined, but I'll at least have something to fall back on if I get stuck.

You know what? My blood pressure has always been nearly perfect. And I was really proud of that. Over the past two years, I've lost twenty pounds. I've started walking two miles five days a week. Twenty out of twenty-one meals a week are from foods I prepare at home. I even cut down on the amount of caffeine I drink. And somehow my blood pressure has gone UP since last year. And you know what? I blame YOU, World.

That's right, ever since I started following news on all that's wrong with the world: women's rights, animal rights, gay rights, etc., I can almost feel my blood pressure rising daily.

This is basically how I feel:


I can't listen to politicians anymore, they raise my blood pressure.

So, in the interest of my health, I'm taking a hiatus from the real world. What does that mean?

No Reading News on the Following Topics:

• Politics. Especially anything that comes out of the mouth of Republicans. Sorry Republicans, I'm sure a lot of you are very nice, but the phrases "traditional values," "death panels," and "liberal media" appear just a bit too often in Republican speeches.


• Fat Acceptance. Being fat myself, how could news about fat acceptance possibly raise my blood pressure? Because it largely doesn't exist. So really news about how people are failing spectacularly at fat acceptance. Fashion designers, television producers, the majority of the medical community, you all FAIL at fat acceptance. Also, PETA gets a special mention for failing so freaking hard at, well, every ad campaign they've ever launched. Anyway, I don't need a daily update on the new and varied ways of failing you come up with.


• Women's Rights. Gee, but we're allowed to vote and wear pants and everything. And yet we still get paid less, are underrepresented in politics and top-level positions at companies, and are still largely seen as walking bodies and not actual people. It goes without saying, but this especially includes any abortion news. As with the Republicans, anti-choicers have too many lies and half-truths in their speeches.


• Gay Rights. Sorry to say it, because I am a huge supporter of gay rights, especially gay marriage. But if I have to read one more "Christian" diatribe on the subject, I'm going to throw up.
  
  Apparently, this one extends to letters from my pastors in response to the recent ELCA decision to let gays in commited relationships be pastors. Yeah, that's right. The spiritual leaders of the church I've gone to since I was five all felt the need to write letters assuring the congregation that they were AGAINST the ELCA decision and still totally believe that homosexuality is a sin. I especially enjoyed the lamenting of how the church has been "turning away from traditional values" over the years from our FEMALE pastor. It was our "turning away" from "traditional values" that lets you do more than stand silently behind your husband. Seriously! Oh, but they all still totally "love and accept" gays. They just don't think they should be allowed to have the same rights as "normal" people. Really? That sounded logical and true when you were writing it? What is wrong with people? Yes, the Bible is important. But what happened to the church being a living thing? Clinging to the Bible and the values of a civilization that died a few hundred years ago only makes sense if you believe God isn't still around.
  
  But don't worry about my immortal soul. I found a nice church close to where I live that not only approves of the ELCA decision, they were welcoming gays years before the ELCA approved of it.


• The Middle East. This includes basically any story about the people and politics in the Middle East. I'm sure that the majority of the people are just normal, everyday folk going about their lives. But the only stories we get in the Western media are child brides and "justified" gang rapes and honor killings and acid attacks and women in general being treated like cattle. It sucks, but there you have it.
  
  This also includes stories about our troops. You know what? I support the troops. I really do. I'm from a poor community. I know the military seems like the only decent job around. I don't blame anybody for buying the whole "serve our country" honor thing. But the truth is that we are over there cleaning up a mess that our own government created a few decades ago. We supplied weapons to dictators and we purposely created unrest so that we could continue getting our oil at rock bottom prices. And the people who are caught in the crossfire of our little war on terror have as little to do with the terrorists as the average American did with our government's actions decades before.


• Africa. Yes, the entire continent. Again, I'm sure the majority of the people are normal folk. But Western media likes to report on genocides, famines, female circumcision, and witch killings.


• Animal Rights. The crap people do to each other is enough, but the things they do to creatures who don't have the power to fight back or speak out is just horrifying. No more daily updates, please. That includes the ASPCA newsletter. Tor every touching story about a doggy blood donor or a cat being surrogate mom to a bunch of bunnies, there's three times as many about owners throwing their dogs off the roof or cooking them alive in the oven just for fun.

So there you have it. For the next few months, as far as I'm concerned, the world is a happy sparkly place full of kittens and rainbows. The politicians are working together to help and protect the nation's citizens. Society doesn't judge us solely on the way we look or invent reasons why it's okay to hate fat people. Women all over the world are valued just as much as men and allowed to make their own medical decisions. Anybody is allowed to marry any other non-related consenting adult. Nobody is allowed to marry a non-consenting child. And the idea of inflicting pain and suffering on any person or animal just for the fun of it is just as horrifying to everyone else as it is to me.

If I hear anything to the contrary, I'm going to put my hands over my ears and go, "la, la, la." And my Google Reader news feeds will basically only report about crafting and frugality.

Sorry, World. I know it's harsh, but that's just how things have to be. I gotta look out for me, first. We're not broken up. We're just taking a break. I'll check back in with you around December. Hopefully we'll both be in a better place by then.