Nano, fixing of..

Just some quick notes here, for me and to me:

- Camden needs to actually BE a superhero. The bank incident should spur him on to become one and win back Angelina.
- The world is one of superheroes and villains; as much as him being "I'm neither!" over it works in theory, it failed in practice. GhostSoul it works for, since he is essentially amoral. Camden is not.
- The mid-life crisis becomes more oomphable with him questioning his decision to be a hero, the good he's done etc. etc. It also needs to happen via scenes throughout the novel, not just in the rare scenes I did. The Rsketh need to be more than they were.
- Yugo needs to appear more.
- a CREDIBLE (i.e. useful to char and plot) alternate-dimension trip has to happen, not the thing I wrote.
- If his parents are important, they need to BE in the novel more.

things to leave entirely as they were:
- Master J.
- Edsel worked wonderfully.
- Bryce, though there need to be non-powered them flashback moments.
- Atomic Crush. More scenes with, too.
- Linda, though she does have to change jobs.

Things I learned this year in nano....

1) Just because the first week rocks on toast doesn't mean the rest of the words won't come very slowly. Granted, Real Life involved itself, but it was still rather surprising.

2) Do not plan to write 22 years of someone's life as a nano ever, ever again.

3) First person with a cast of over 80 == stupid.

4) Two nano in a month may happen again next year; I just end up having idea A and B and C come screaming along; I ignored them this year, but did a lot of plot stuff for them in 2 notebooks when I could have been working on nano.

5) Do not try to run rpg sessions even once a week during nano. The focus is gone.

6) Starting to do plot stuff in September does not work. A 12K file on the nano seems good until you realize less than 1K of it was actually an outline of the plot :)

And it becomes a wordle.

Nano 08 worldle.

And was done, at almost 75.5K. A strange first draft, heading off into odd places at times, with a plot too big for a nano and too damn many characters. I suspect will (would?) be a better novel if not in first person, so shall let it sit six months, re-read it, and go from there.

9 days into nano....

43,000 words done, which is not bad at all. I'm only 3 years into the actual plot, which is not as good since said plot spans 22 years, but a lot of the 'now' plot has been setting up characters and back story for some, as well as foreshadowing fun. I think the second draft will shorten the time frame to 10 years (or even less) but that's for then.

Currently, the MC is en route to another dimension - the details and nature of which I've yet to decide - and various things are happening back in his 'real' life that should shake things up some. Social pressure to become a superhero will grow, his brother head down dark paths and possible cracks appear in his relationship with his GF. All of which leads up to the first of 3 (now 4) alien invasions and the price protecting the world exacts on him.

Should be fun, though whether I finish it in the month or not is doubtful...

nanowrimo fun

Ah, nano.. research tonight has been a) syntax of british sign language and b) how one goes about destroying a galaxy

novel titles

I can has title? would be a neat title for a novel :P

Just not for one I'd write. I am 10K into plotting nano bits, and have just realized I have no title at all for it.

Minor thing :)

Plotting out nano

I am ostensibly writing superheroes. The chief problem is that I tend to apply real-world thinking to them (like, "How can the cast of Smallville afford insurance anymore?). The end result is that I need to strike a line between this world and that of a world in which super humans exist.

In this world, superhumans are sometimes celebrities. Which means they attract a special bred of paparazzi. There are superhuman talk shows and tabloids. (There used to be an olympics for superhumans. Once, three years ago. No one talks about that too much. They were held on Mars to reduce collateral damage ... they still haven't found Phobos yet.)

In this world, being a 'mutant' can be cool. It can be freaky. It can be ugly and useless. It can also just be cancer, and you just die. People do that, after all; most never return.

In this world, superheroes can save it. Sometimes. Those who do it often, and not from problems they cause, are considered heroes. Plain and simple. (This is akin to huge sports stars, who can get away with anything and the world turns a blind eye.)

In this world, aliens exist. Some heroes. Some villains. Even tourists. A few have TV shows, though aliens chefs have never caught on.

In this world, superhumans are common enough that a sudden rush of missed classes by good students leads to teachers asking them if they have powers. Sometimes. Most people learn to take the insanity in stride, and even derive pride from it. ("I was there during the invasion of the Meteons, man! It was so awesome! They turned me into a car with their whole 'make humanity useful, let it understand its servants' science that Inventions Inc. reversed, but it never helped me pass driver's ed.")

In this world, superhumans can be treated as weapons of mass destruction and locked away accordingly. In this world, even the villains who believe humanity to be ants crushed under their death ray still have to find funding to make it, and pay their phone bill.

In this world, there are bars for superhumans. With strong drinks, and a 'no fans and no sidekicks' policy. Because life isn't fiction,and sometimes you aren't fast enough, don't have the right power or trick for the job, don't think quite quick enough that one time ...

In this world there are heroes, and their are villains, and some have powers, and some do not: and in the end all that defines them is their common humanity and how far they'd go.

Thoughts on nano...

So, for this year I wanted to do something involving superheroes. Only not a parody/satire in the direct sense, since that has been done to death. The interesting problem is that the resulting novel will not be a superhero one, in a strict sense.

Time passes. People age,die, grow up. Change.

Superheroes do not change. It's one of the defining characteristics of the genre. Many Famous Detectives also follow the same mold (you could throw James Bond in it too). They don't age. Each story is complete, itself: it leaves no scars, no wounds that last, no baggage to drag a character down with. We grow by experience, but we learn via scar tissue.

So I am not quite sure what this nano will end up as, for all that it will hold the tropes of a superhero story.

Post nano writing....

I've begun writing what was planned as nano2008, simply because the basic idea is fun, but I'm not sure it's enough to sustain a novel. So I'll find out this way. I've mostly been writing it out by hand, and turned one line of background note into 3500 words of pre-novel story, which was nicely odd though it isn't, strictly speaking, a real short story.

As for nano next year, it's now entirely up in the air what I do. I just know I don't want another research-heavy nano, if only because of the cost of research materials. I may try horror: I've had this urge to do something with werewolves and ghosts for some time, so I may see where that takes me. (Alas for vampires, there's really nothing I can think to write about them that would actually be original at all. Well, besides my vampires who survive on the blood of trees (sap), but one can't base an entire novel out of that. I think. May work as a supporting character :))

I've decided that I am only doing the one nanowrimo next year, though. Doing two a year can be fun, but I reach an internal point where the fun ends, somewhere after the 100K mark I just want it all to be over. I get through it, of course, but I don't see the need to hit that point for a third year in a row.