#9 It's over! Praise be to the deity of your choice!

NaNoWriMo is over. I managed 50,666 words so I've just printed out my shiny winners certificate. It gets to replace the 2006 one on the fridge.

I wasn't expecting this year to be that difficult. I don't remember finding last year difficult. I knew what I wanted to write, it was mostly just a matter of finding the time. There were occasional moments when I knew I needed something to happen before something else happened, so I had to make something up quick. There were moments of surprise when something happened that I didn't expect, or something I had put in earlier on a whim turned out to be useful.

This year was really hard work. I know people say the second year is harder, but I didn't believe them until now. It was hard work from start to finish. Most days I didn't know what I was going to write. There are occasional things that I like. I think the original idea is still in there, struggling to get out. I still like the idea. Time to leave it for a month or so now and see what I think of the execution of it then.

Should anyone want to read through it (and I realise I'm not exactly selling it) they would be most welcome. Deedee is already reading. She's brilliant because shockingly she actually likes reading my writing but will tell me if I'm just being plain stupid.

Anyway, another thing that I found different from last year was that after last year's NaNo, all I wanted to do was sit around and play computer games and read books. I had no desire whatsoever to do any more writing for months. This year I do. Maybe it's just because I didn't find it so hard to find the time. Maybe it's because while the plot for the NaNo story was struggling, I had the best ideas for things in the EpicWIP. ...Ok, some of them are cracktastic. Some of them are actually good and I will seriously use. Funny though they are, we are not having a repeat of the Pink Bunnies of Doom.

Now we come to the point of the blogpost. I want to do some writing but I don't have the most up to date version of the document I'm working on. Thus the universe thwarts me again.

#8 WGA Strike

So... Writer's Guild of America strike. It's an easy opt out to say it doesn't involve me, it's not even in my country, why bother about it?

But the fact is that Hollywood and LA remain the centre of the entertainment world, at least for the US and Europe. Many of the films and TV shows I watch originate there. And besides that, if people can get away with not paying thier writers in Hollywood, maybe other similar places like Bollywood will be tempted to follow suit.

You may not have heard much about this. You should think very carefully about who owns the majority of the papers and the news.

Anyway, lots of people who know more than I do and who say it better have been busy blogging about why they support the strike. Two of the best posts I've seen are from Doris Egan, who currently works on House and Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame. Diane Duane, a sci-fi and fantasy author has a rather good video posted on her blog.

There have been various videos... (Blogger sadly seems to have some objection to me embedding them)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ydTaPQw-c

Is quite a good one (another one Diane Duane found)

Ken Levine has written a lovely Simpson's scene on the subject.

If I haven't persuaded you to follow any of these links, a simple summary is this. Writers would like to be paid for the work they've done. In exchange for taking the issue of DVDs off the table (current rate: 4 cents per DVD is what I've heard, though not sure how accurate that is), they were promised a discussion of new media, of the internet (Current rate: 0 cents for anything.). Turns out, the various people who run these companies think that they might not make money from the internet. So... you know, why pay writers? The promised discussion never really took place.

I would like to think that most people are now aware that actors don't make up their own lines. I would like to think most people would acknowledge that writers make their favourite movie or whatever the way it is. More people are following writers these days, as a guide to TV programmes that they'll like, Joss Whedon's following being an example of that (or Aaron Sorkin for that matter). Although they are less visible and it's harder for them to do, say, what the cast of Friends did and threaten to walk away if they weren't paid more, I hope that people would notice if the writing quality of something suddenly nose dived, just as they would notice if Jennifer Aniston and co were suddenly not in Friends.

Ok, things you can do. Supporters are welcome on the picket lines, should you happen to be in the US and near one of these things. And you know, wouldn't it be pretty cool to hang out with these people, even if it wasn't for a good cause? The WGA digest gives you news and fans4writers have a list of things to do, including donating to their fund to keep the picket lines well fed. while I'm not a fan of petitions, there's one to sign.

They aren't asking for a tropical island somewhere or a private jet. They want enough to feed their kids. Think of your favourite movie, your favourite line. Somebody wrote that. Chances are, they were a WGA member. Chances are they were paid a pittance for it. How much do you think that line is worth? Now there are lots of things that contribute to a good movie, or TV show. But words are what make it. If you don't have those and you don't value those, then you have nothing but a room full of lights and people, waiting for something to happen. If the industry can't learn to value words then we have a lot of crappy TV to look forward to.

#7 Why I hate my story

This is my story so far. I'm more or less on target as far as the word count goes.

But I hate it. I keep trying to make myself like it, and there are bits that are ok, but... no. I'm bored of it. I don't feel there's anything exciting to look forward to, so I can't even make myself just get through the next bit because... there's only a lot more like it to come. Argh.

Anyway, I am going to keep writing it. I'm going to hit 50K, though the story is planned out to 80K, so it won't actually be finished then. Maybe I'll abandon that planning scheme to try and make it more exciting. *yawn*

But so far as the discipline of actually sitting down and writing nearly 2K every day goes... I've done pretty good. Way better than last year. Last year it took me most of my evening to get my writing done. This year, I sit down and do it in a couple of hours and get the rest of the day to myself.

I'm planning post-NaNo things to keep me going. This is not so much a blog post as me trying to encourage myself to open the thing up and do some more writing...

#6 The Curse of NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is nearly upon us. This year I bought a T-shirt because I liked the colour (also because I still have a lingering belief from childhood that the more stuff I have around me associated with something will somehow make me better at it... I know, I know.) and I have been playing on the forums, answering questions and generally being sociable. Should anyone like to friend me, that would be most welcome (Gem351 is my username).

I thought up until yesterday that I knew what story I would be writing. I had a retelling of Beauty and the Beast in mind, in a more historical setting than fantasy. I had named my characters. I had worked out a few plot elements, although not very many. Now I'm not so sure.

Last year, I had vague meandering plot ideas, but I had characters that I knew. I had a decent, but still vague idea of Zillah, Sam and Micheal. Red was easy as soon as he walked onstage, as it were. Flowers was... challenging for me, but it just doesn't feel like that this time round.

This year I really feel it's laboured. I don't really HAVE a plot (even last year I had a faint idea of one, such as it was). The thing is, nothing much really happens. I mean, I have complex relationships worked out between people (which I think I'm getting pretty good at, my epic WIP to thank for that one.) but there's nothing much for them to DO.

I'm seriously considering ditching it, which is a shame because I still love the title and beginning I have in mind. But it just isn't cooked yet. I think this one needs a while longer in my head.

I have various other ideas I could pull out. There's Jemima's story, but again, that's a newish idea that I think needs time to stew and needs a lot of research. I could fudge it, but I get a lot of ideas when I read non-fiction and it would be a shame to miss out on those.

So... second NaNo idea is something that I wrote the first four paragraphs of two years ago. Or so. I was never quite sure what the rest of the story was but it seems to be playing ball with me for the last week. The world is built. I need to work a little on one of the characters (Oona) but I think I could write that. It lets me play in a lot of cultures and with a different technology level than I usually write.

Lastly, the same as last year, my epicWIP which has been uncooperative over the summer, now decides it's time to get active again. I think it has some kind of weird hibernation cycle. I'm still writing the backstory thingy for Deedee (it's up to 12 pages... how did I get this verbose?) and now I have another thing I want to write quick before I forget it because it is neat and awesome in so very many ways (and also shows that last years Pink bunnies of Doom sketch had its uses...)

#5 For which I have no title

My little trip to the Criterion yesterday was very enjoyable. Neil was charming as always and does a rather good Jonathan Ross impersonation. I queued to get books signed afterwards. And it was a loooong queue, but I had a nice time talking to new people. I also got a notebook I've had for a while scribbled in, because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

I made the mistake of subscribing to a number of the NaNoWriMo threads/forums yesterday and woke up this morning to over 90 emails. I LIKE getting emails, but that's too much, even for me.

Anyway, work calls (unusually).

EDIT: Here is my notebook. It's kind of random unless... Ok. Explanation. This is a lovely leather bound notebook that the person who gave it to me described as a 'grail diary'. Think Indiana Jones. So I explained (in a rather rambling but still somehow coherent fashion) to Neil that it was such a lovely notebook it deserved something GOOD written in it but that I didn't have anything yet and I didn't want to ruin it. And he said "So you want me to ruin it first?" and well yes, I did, please. And we talked a little and he doodled this for me on the first page. Not sure if it'll make me write any more. I'm the only thing that makes me write more, really, for all I like to pretend that various acoutrements will help me. But it's sort of nice and the picture makes me smile.

#4 What I did on my Holidays... and books. Lots about books.

Well, not a holiday as such, but I've just had a very nice week off work. I didn't do anything much, but it was good to be out of there for a bit. I'm now doing a small amount of writing most days. We'll see how long it lasts this time round.

Last Tuesday I went to the Bloomsbury Theatre to hear the lovely Susanna Clarke (I want her to be my adoptive grandmother or something. She's just a darling.) talk about her books. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, although we did all have to stand outside for 40 minutes or so because of a fire alarm. The fire crew checked it out, we all piled back in and Susanna picked up where she had left off. I appreciated the warmth a whole lot more though. The talk can be found as a podcast here.

On Friday, I cooked dinner for Tanya, Sam and Alastair and it seemed to turn out ok (against all my expectations!). And then on Sunday I was walking home from my eye test and saw an albino squirrel. I tried to take a photo but as I couldn't work out how to use the zoom, it's a tiny white dot in the distance. Oh well. I have a bit of a fascination for albino creatures. One day I'm going to get some albino snails.

I also read Shadowmancer, by G. P. Taylor. It's one of many books that I've been mildly interested in for a while. I should have liked it. It had smuggling (a sad result of my childhood reading is that I'm a sucker for books about smuggling) and it was set around Whitby (never been there, but a combination of Robin Jarvis and Dracula make me like it as a setting). I even like the title. Despite being a religious allegory, the bad guy is a vicar. I love that, because it's unusual and it's an interesting choice, given his message. I think BadGuyVicar is a message all on its own, one of being careful where to place trust, no matter what their position.

So... it was well written. I felt it was well researched, but what do I know? It had smugglers and some characters I liked. I loved the Azimuth and the description of her. I'm also kind of miffed Jacob Crane hasn't freed her. I did find it hard to stop reading once I got into it. But oh, the preaching.

So this is a Christian allegory. In fact, it's not really an allegory, because an allegory is an extended metaphor, where things and characters have a symbolic significance that can be extrapolated beyond that in the story. There is no metaphor here. There is no symbolic significance of anything. It's very blatant to the point where I felt uncomfortable reading it. I like some Christian allegories. I like Narnia and I love George Macdonald. They were subtle and clever. Yes, even Narnia was subtle compared to this.

Moving away from the religious message that is practically hammered into every line, I don't like its treatment of local tradition. There were lovely things like Thomas keeping his caul around his neck as a good luck charm. Being told "Come on, you don't need those silly little things, you should come and believe in the One True God (TM)" was missing the point. Maybe the caul won't save him from drowning but it was given to him by his mother and don't you think that would mean something to AlmostOrphanTom? Sometimes you do things for lots of reasons, or for the people around you. I don't think telling people they'll burn in hell for occasional games with Tarot cards is helpful or instructive.

The scene with Thomas' mother could have been really interesting and excellent. It could have turned me around on whether or not I liked the book. Thomas asks some excellent questions that have been asked by people since time out of mind. It would have been nice to have them answered. Basically, his mother is dying and he wants to know why God can't or won't save her. Other people have been healed in the course of thier adventure, so why not his mother? Presumably GPT has a point of view on this. It would have been nice to hear it. It would have been nice to see Raphah challenged. But instead, oh it's not his mother after all! No need for inconvenient questions. There were other ways to make it a trap. That one sucked.

In terms of plot, prayer was used way too many times as a get-out-of-jail-free card. "We're stuck in a room! Let's pray for the answer! God's shown me a secret passage!" ...Please. This takes Deus Ex Machina to a whole new literal meaning. I accept this is fantasy, but it's closely modelled on reality. This isn't Middle Earth. People don't get answers when they pray. That's what faith means. If you know, it isn't faith anymore. And I find genuine faith sort of interesting.

Lastly, the ending was very abrupt. Presumably the next book will fill in some gaps. There was a very big build up to the end and then everything happened in about two (short) paragraphs. I wanted more of a pay-off. And an angel just sort of snapping his fingers and making everything all right again also sucked. And what happened to everyone?

Enough on that. I shall probably read Wormwood, as I have it (for the princely sum of £1.50). And Wormwood itself, in the biblical sense, is an idea I'm fond of (but then, so were smugglers...). Right now, I've moved on to Garth Nix's Sabriel. There's some pretty neat ideas in there, so far.

#3 The myriad things I find to do instead of writing

Things I have discovered this week:

1. I can't write lyrics. I just can't. The whole 'Gemma's going to write some music' idea that I had on monday was just a complete failure because I had forgotten that yes, music I could do. Lyrics no. No. Just no. That one's on the back burner now. I suspect the only way that song will see the light of day is a brief mention in a story sometime. Haha. Probably for the best.
2. Having listened to some varied music (not written by me, thank god) this week I have reached the conclusion that the descant recorder just never sounds good. Never. Ok, well maybe if you're playing some fast moving renaissance piece. But sustained notes always sound bad. Tenor recorders are nice. People should look into them a bit more.
3. I am obviously way too critical when listening to things. I was trained that way! Sadly I have not yet worked out a way of transferring this critical nature to the written word.

I found an extremely old notebook last night that an old friend gave me. I wrote all kinds of story stuff down in it ten years ago now. A lot of it made me want to bang my head against the wall. A lot of it made my brains melt from the sheer stupidity. A very small amount of it made me think 'Hmmm. That was a cool idea. At what point did I lose that? Can I put it back in again?'.

I hate looking at it. It's not as bad as the Big Green Book of Awfulness (which I actually can't look at these days. For very many reasons.) but it's still kind of icky. But I'll keep it because then when I'm having a bad day and everything I touch seems to just fall apart I can look at it and remember that I'm better than I was. I'm learning and I'm better than I was a year ago, or ten years ago.

#2 Me and My Red Pen

This weekend I realised it's been nearly a year since I finished A Measure of Life and still haven't finished reading it through and editing. In my defense, I couldn't bear to look at it until about April, so really I've only been editing for six months.

That doesn't sound much better.

It's not that I don't like editing. It can be quite pleasing once I get motivated to do it. It's just... I'm never quite sure what I'm doing. I'm kind of unfamiliar with the whole process so I'm muddling along and it seems to be working out ok so far. But I worry that I'm somehow Doing It Wrong. Even worse, I worry that someone will find out that I'm Doing It Wrong and get cross about it.

I've never edited before. Not arrogance, for I would love a beta reader and periodically try to enlist one (then fail/get fingers burnt/we turn out to be into different writing styles/etc), but I've never edited like this before. I don't usually finish something, then go through it to edit because I edit in a crazy obsessive way as I go along. I will actually obsess over a scene (or even in exceptional circumstances, a paragraph or a word) in my head for days or weeks and when I think I have every word planned out, I'll write it down. Sadly, this explains why it takes me so damned long to get anything done (except at NaNo time).

So now I have this finished Thing and am just flailing around with a red pen trying to make it better. Mostly notes to myself to add more description (my eternal flaw). And big lines through stuff.

Things I am Looking For

• Bad spelling/grammar/Gemma used a stupid word that doesn't mean what she thinks it means/Gemma spells main character's name wrong for 70 pages (Yes, I have done this).
• Too much repetition. Sometimes I get fond of a word. A lot. In one paragraph.
• Passive voice. Now I actually know what passive voice is, I'm on the lookout for it. It's basically how I write my lab book.
• Really monumentally stupid plot holes. Haven't seen any yet, but you never know.
• Lots of other things that don't fit into bullet points, but I like playing with the bullet points.

Aaaaanyway, good things have come of this so far. I'm going to seperate the story out into three parts (Rule of threes, again. It pleases me stylistically). I may experiment with chapters. I don't write in chapters. Having procrastination type thoughts on why that is. Maybe it's because I don't notice chapters at all when I read. Hmm.

Editing musings over, I shall go back to writing the thingummy I'm writing for Deedee.

#1 Because three is a magic number.

Yes, I really did need a third blog (Rule of Threes, you know how it goes). My blogs now wear different hats. Or rather, I wear different hats depending on which one I type in.

I already have a writing one (not for writing about my writing in, but to let me do some writing while I'm at work. Yes, this is very bad and I shouldn't do it, but you can only play KOL for so many hours of the day.).

I also have a blog in which to moan/enthuse about things that, frankly, most people just don't want to hear me moan/enthuse about. My geeky blog, if you will.

So this is going to be my serious-ish, game-face, look-at-me-networking blog. It will also be about my writing, because everything is sooner or later.