#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.