Archive for November, 2008
Friday, November 28th, 2008
So What now, Brown Cow?
Okay Crom, you say, you’ve finished the NaNoWriMo novel, you’re victorious, when are you going to stop touching yourself, and start another project?
Well, I’m touching myself right now, as I write this, so you’ve lost that battle already, but the next project? Is THE project, Panda Girls.
This shit has gone on long enough. Axe and I have struggled to write a movie that is worthy of our own desires, and god damn it is HARD. Our mandate, and strongest desire, is to make a movie that will be fucking awesome. Which you are probably shrugging at right now and thinking: Duh?
I don’t think anybody starts out with a script in hand, tinkering with the camera, and thinking “Wow…I can’t wait to unleash this complete piece of shit on the world”. But it does happen. I’ve seen a lot of movies in recent years that made me hold my head in my hands, and wonder what the fuck was happening in the Hollywood board rooms.
Simultaneously I’ve seen some great shows crop up, and a few good films; the vibe on the street is that quality story IS possible. But you have to commit, and that’s why Axe and I worked so hard. But we’ve come to a crossroad; we need to stop thinking about how good our story is, and start wading into the deep shit. The spirit of the Nano is still in me, and so I have a sly declaration to make…but I’ll wait till I’ve talked to Axe, before I make it.
Mwahahahaha!
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
VICTORY!
So my NaNoWriMo submission is complete.
I clocked in at 50,066 words, although because they count the chapter headings as well, I’m probably closer to the 50,040, but that’s just nitpicking.
This was a fun month, and a month of torture. I religiously followed the daily word count, and sometimes it was all I could do to not punch my own face. But, as the story unfolded, and as ideas came to me about where to take it, it became less and less of an agonizing affair. I looked forward to taking the story to the different places I imagined when I was soaking in the tub, or cutting up vegetables. After awhile my brain took over the job, and I didn’t have to force it all the time.
The flip side of that, is that the book really sucks. A lot. The story is a little bland, and the emotional narrative is all over the place, but that’s fine. The whole exercise of the NaNo is to bang out a story as fast as you can; worrying over plot points, or character development, or any of that shit is just going to eat up time. I sacrificed quality for speed, and in a first draft, that seems to be the winning ticket.
Axe and I have been writing our movie for a long time, and not much actual writing has happened lately. We’re at a place that requires some very specific details to be worked out, and that makes us stop and think. When you stop to think, you aren’t writing anymore, and that’s bit our asses a few times. Axe has come up with some ideas to complete the story, and the plan going into December is to just write the shit out of it. Stop worrying about trying to get it right on the first draft; it’s never going to happen, and like us, you’ll only torture yourself.
That’s what I learned from this year’s National Novel Writing Month. Just push that terrible piece of cliched garbage out right away, and once you have, you can look at it and realize all the cliche you used, all the tired story lines, and you can now move forward knowing what it ISN’T, and figure out what it IS.
Write without mercy.
Crom
p.s. The name of the novel? “How to BBQ your Girlfriend”
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Halfway Mark
It’s just past the middle of the month, and I’m slightly ahead on the National Novel Writing Month project. I started out with only a vague idea, and it has thrashed around and become something else during this process. it isn’t what I wanted to have on the other end of the tunnel, but I’m not disappointed. I didn’t know what I wanted, I just put my foot on the gas, and gave ‘er.
Now, 30,000 words through the book, I’ve come to find other meaning in the events I wrote, and the places I have to go to close the loop of the story. I was talking with Axe about it the other day, and he had some great ideas that the book could evolve into on the next draft; ideas that outline my controlling idea clearer, and conceptional smarter.
So that’s the take away from this event for me so far, and I’m sure there will be more when it’s all said and done. This has been torture, but it’s also been a lot of fun, and it’s made me feel something. I can do this with consistency, I can write for a deadline.
It isn’t as high quality as I want it to be on my first passes, but that comes with time. I still have a road to follow though, and a lot of work to complete before I can raise my hands in victory. So I’ll quit writing blather in this little window, and go blather in another, far more important window.
Enjoy every sandwich.
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
NaNoWriMo
The National Novel Writing Month has begun, and this time I’m taking no prisoners.
Last year I had started off well, but right in the middle of the month I shit the bed. I didn’t give myself enough time, and I hadn’t committed to the story, which left me high and dry with two weeks remaining to complete the story. I had taken time off for the last week, but it made little sense to try and rush to finish it in a week of being locked in my home. I wanted to have a novel done, but the whole point of the exercise had been to cultivate consistency in my work; to commit to a schedule and keep it. Frantically trying to complete it last minute felt like junior high, when I tried to do my homework on the bus ride to school.
This year I’ve actually plotted some point prior to starting, which isn’t quite as good as building a full structure, but at the same time I don’t expect to get to the end of the month with a manuscript I intend to mail out to people; I just want a first draft that I can work from. I want to cultivate consistency.
I want to write.