Craig: the first NaNo experience

[Craig]

OK, it's October 31st, I signed up on a whim, and I'm going for it. ;D

I'm totally lost though, as of right now. *rushes off to immerse self in official website*

My strategy for this novel is going to be: start from absolute scratch. As of right now, I have no characters, no setting, no plot, no theme, and no idea what I'm going to write about.

*time capsule's first post*

[Avery]

Good luck, Craig! =D

[Craig]

Thanks Carrie!

All right... well writing starts tomorrow and I still have zero idea what I'm going to do. So I think I'll just write some ideas down, and see what comes of them. I kind of want to get one nailed down, but we'll see. My strategy for this is just going to be to find a beginning, and then write from there with no preconceptions. It's something I've never done before, so I have no idea how it will turn out.

OK... on the spur of the moment, I'm going to jot down some ideas:

- ok for sure it'll be non-neopets, just because I haven't done a "real" story in forever.
- *thinks* Hm... well I want it to be semi-fantasy, but I don't want to make up a whole new world... Maybe humans getting involved in some sort of otherworldly phenomenon. *tries not to be cliche*
- wow ideas are not coming right now... I'll come back to this later. Let's hope by tomorrow I can at least have something to start on.

[Deleted]

Good luck! I'm with you, all the way xD!

[Craig]

Thanks Sam! I'm going to brainstorm tonight, and hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow morning that I have an idea. ^_^

[Belle]

Good luck. I'm sure you'll do great. ^_^

[Tashni]

I'm trying not plan too much myself, Craig. I think a lot of NaNo's fun is not knowing where in the world you're going.

If I may quote Chris Baty's book, "No Plot? No Problem!":

"As reassuring as it is to embark on your writing journey with a mule-team's worth of character traits, backstories, plot twists, metaphors, and motifs, it's also a 100 percent viable strategy to walk into the wilds of your novel with nothing but a bottle of water and a change of underwear."

[Craig]

Idea!

OK I officially have an idea, and I'm sticking with it. It may not be the best, but I'm going to do it. I've never finished a non-neo story before in my life that's over ten pages, so I hope this works out.

It's about a boy (age not sure about yet) whose family owns a huge art museum. He wanders around all the time, looking at the paintings. He sees this guy there every once in a while. So one day this guy comes up and talks to him, and somehow (plot is still fuzzy) the guy tells the boy that if he touches a precious jewel that someone is wearing in a painting, he'll be bound to visit them. Or something.

Anyway, this kid eventually find these paintings and touches the jewels, and then finds himself inside the land in the painting. And there will be adventures. And the lands will be connected.

That's all for now. *off to school to brainstorm*

[Tashni]

That's a really interesting idea. It's like an old cartoon I usedto watch, but real life! That will be really interesting. And there's so much you could decide to do with it! Like what if he went to the land of Picasso?

[Craig]

tashni said:

That's a really interesting idea. It's like an old cartoon I usedto watch, but real life! That will be really interesting. And there's so much you could decide to do with it! Like what if he went to the land of Picasso?

Yeah, I like the idea because it lets me be creative. I'm not a good enough author to pull off Picasso-world, but I can definitely make up some cool stuff.

So I know that he's going to visit four paintings, and I know that he has to bring the jewel that he touches back with him. And that's all I know for now. But that's all I need, I think, to begin writing.

*nervous and excited* OK, I'm going to go type the first words of my story! Here's hoping for success!! ;D

[Avery]

Good luck, Craig!

[Deleted]

Good luck! What's your name on NaNo?

[Craig]

My NaNo username is same as my Neopets username: reggieman721, after my dog. ^_^ I still haven't written a word yet, as I'm formatting the document. *rushes off to write*

[Craig]

SPOILER: Click to show

Chapter One
Alexander and Annabelle Hartford were very interested in fine art. They owned and operated an enormous art museum called simply “Windows,” an expression of their belief in the great insight of artistic expression. The building was designed to be like a maze of small rooms, so that one could wander for hours and never know quite where one was in the museum, therefore abandoning any order or plan that one might have arrived with. The Hartfords were clever in that they had divided the place into four sections, so that after walking for hours in the labyrinth of chambers one would always end up back in the center of the building, which was a round, high-ceilinged hall that was topped by a round dome of glass. It was the only real window in the whole museum, because the rooms in the four branches of the building were mainly dark with lights fixed on the various paintings. Overall, a visit to Windows was more like an exploratory journey than a casual excursion, and that was exactly how Alexander and Annabelle Hartford wanted it to be.
Their only son Edward, however, did not see the beauty of the museum. Ward, as he was nicknamed, preferred to read in the massive library that lay next door. He liked the way every book was organized alphabetically and by topic, so that one could always find exactly what one was looking for. He preferred the straight lines of bookshelves to the confusing map of rooms in Windows, and he certainly chose reading a story over staring at a painting. Although his parents had stressed the aphorism “A picture is worth a thousand words,” Ward had decided that he would rather read a thousand and one words than take the time to try to understand the complex forms of art that were exhibited in his parents’ museum.
Therefore, it happened that Ward spent very little time in Windows and very much time in the large library beside it. He had the floor plan memorized—it was quite simple, after all—and every day after school he would walk right past his house and into the library. Ward would read in the comfortable armchairs late into the evening, arriving home only to eat dinner with his parents, do his homework, and go to bed.
This behavior worried Alexander and Annabelle Hartford greatly. The two had dedicated their entire lives to the preservation of fine art, and to see their son have no desire to follow was indeed frustrating. While the parents agreed that literature was a fine form of entertainment as well as an educational and necessary tool, they decided that it was possible to have too much of a good thing, and banned Ward from the library.
This infuriated Ward to no end, but there was nothing he could do about it. His mother picked him up from school as soon as the bell rang and drove him to Windows, where he was forced to work as a guide to help those who became lost in the labyrinth of rooms. The boy had to learn the trick to navigating through each of the four sections of the museum, which was indeed simple: the doors with gold knobs led one closer to the bright center room, while the silver knobs led one deeper into the dark chambers of fine art. Ward was frustrated that the museum guests themselves could not be informed of this, but his parents insisted that no one else be told the trick. After all, they explained, the whole purpose of the design of the building was to get the visitor lost and remove any inhibitions, so that they could fully enjoy the experience and find something new with every visit.
So it was that Ward found himself wandering the museum one day, walking through the empty rooms until he found a stray explorer here or there and asking them if they needed to get back into the main hall.

[Avery]

Good start! I like it, Craig. ^^