Mr Cow's NaNoWriMo - "Elephants and Tears"

[Cow-winkle]

I have no idea what I'm going to write about; I came up with the title a while ago for a joke, thinking it sounded like a good title for a novel, but with no intention of actually writing it. Now, the time seems right.

Here's the synopsis I put on my NaNoWriMo page:

"A post-modern deconstructionist neosurrealist satirical polemic against the pseudo-foundationalist structuralist paradigms that permeate the Western Anglo-American cultural hegemony.

Or maybe I'll just write a story about elephants."

More to come: I'll use this thread both for humour (Are you adequately prepared to LAUGH?), and for serious updates about my novel.

[Cow-winkle]

I've done NaNoWriMo a few times, but I didn't finish it last year. I started it, but I didn't finish it. The beginning of the story just didn't have me excited about what was going to happen next, and it was going too slowly. I was feeling constricted, like I wrote myself into a corner within the first six thousand words.

I have this weird thing where I have a hard time reading fiction. I don't have any trouble reading technical books or other non-fiction, but when I try to read any sort of narrative, my eyes glaze over and I miss important details, so I'm completely lost by the time I get fifty pages in. It hasn't even always been like this; at the time that I started participating in NaNoWriMo, I read a lot of novels, but nowadays, I generally can't just pick up a book of fiction and pay attention from beginning to end (I really think it's an attention problem rather than a comprehension problem, since I can read complicated technical books with pretty good comprehension). I've been able to fake my way through College English classes by listening really well in class; I always ran my eyes across the pages in an act not unlike reading, but I never could retain any of the information presented. At this point, I consider it great if I can find a novel I can pay attention to from beginning to end, let alone thoroughly enjoy.

Still, I've continued to do NaNoWriMo, more as a personal creative exercise than as an actual attempt to create literature. I think it goes well when I try to write a fun story, rather than a profound one, but it goes even better when I can find a way to alternate between the two.

Sorry this post has been a little on the negative side; I shouldn't be so much of a "Debbie Downer". I do have a question, if anyone's reading this: How much do you plan ahead your NaNoWriMo stories, before November starts and during November?

In the month before NaNoWriMo, I don't usually plan very much. I sort of get myself excited, and brainstorm the kinds of specific events, characters, themes and settings I'd like to use in the story. I don't have that many specific ideas right now, but I'll consider writing them down in this thread later.

I do a bit of planning during the month while I'm writing the story. Sometimes, given what's happened so far, I know exactly what's going to happen next but don't have time to write down all the prose itself. So, I write down what's going to happen in the next few scenes so I don't have to think as much as I would otherwise.

[Brooke]

I plan ahead as much as my characters let me. This year I have about half the events sketched out, as for the other half, I'm trusting my characters to come up with that. ^_^ I would like to plan the whole thing before NaNo starts. But unless I get hit by some inspiration, that's not gonna happen.

[Cow-winkle]

I think one of my problems is that I always have this idea that my characters are victims of circumstance, which, in fiction and real life, is not necessarily true.

I just had an Improv comedy class today, and we did a little bit of work on how to develop a story. It was meant as a method for developing a short scene as you're acting it, but I thought it might be interesting to bring up in the context of writing a story.

It was presented in terms of five aspects to develop in order when acting out a scene:

1) Location
2) Characters
3) Conflict
4) Raise the stakes
5) Resolution

So, just as an exercise, let me think of a story just off the top of my head.

1) Location - How about, a kitchen. It's filled with dirty dishes and swarming with flies. But why?
2) Characters - A chef has recently fired his loyal dishwasher, who has been a friend to him for many years. They recently won an international chef's competition, but had a fight over who gets to keep the trophy. The dishwasher has turned to drinking and is living on the streets.
3) Conflict - They both want the trophy. The chef wants the kitchen to be clean, but the dishwasher wants the respect he deserves.
4) Raising the stakes - To make matters worse, if the dishes aren't clean by the end of the night, the health inspector will come by and shut the place down.
5) Resolution - The chef and dishwasher realize they need each other. The chef hires the dishwasher back with a raise, and, with only thirty minutes left, the dishwasher cleans up the kitchen with more speed and vigor than he had ever done before. When the health inspector comes by, he's astounded at how clean the place is, and awards the chef the "International Award of Cleanliness", which the chef insists that the dishwasher deserves to have instead.

Okay, it's a dumb story, but considering I came up with it in a few minutes, I think it has promise, and I've certainly heard worse stories in my life. (No, this won't be the story for my NaNoWriMo this year).

Speaking of which... what would you call the novel you write for NaNoWriMo? I've heard people call them NaNos, but that sounds too much like the prefix "nano-" meaning "a billionth", or the iPod Nano, not to mention the fact that NaNo, in this context, would be short for "National Novel", which doesn't make sense. Calling it just a "novel" is a bit misleading, because it's really a rough draft for a novel, which may have very little resemblance to a completed novel, and it doesn't really encompass the speed with which it's written. Calling it a NaNoWriMo novel seems a bit redundant, seeing as how the "No" in "NaNoWriMo" stands for novel. But just calling a "NaNoWriMo" is also confusing, since NaNoWriMo is the name of the month itself. Still, I think "NaNoWriMo" is the word I like, since it tells you what I mean without being too ambiguous, provided that there's some context for it.

[Rikku]

I just call them NaNo-novels generally. It had not actually occurred to me that that was basically just saying National Novel Novel. I think I will use it all the time now. =D

Er. *tilts head* If you're still curious about the planning thing, I do about the same thing as you before and during NaNo, though me writing down what happens in the next scenes is often confusingly disjointed dialogue or stuff like, 'But remember that he doesn't like oysters either.' Having too many scenes and plot and whatnot planned out in advance means it's a lot easier to stumble over what you're doing and get tangled; simpler to just have a general idea of where you're going and so you can build on the things you actually remember to include. >.>

Also I hope you post more remarks and maybe excerpty bits and so forth in here, because your posts are always immensely fun to read. xD So. Much. Hilariousness.

[Cow-winkle]

Oct 24, 2011 2:22:44 GMT -5 Rikku said:

I just call them NaNo-novels generally. It had not actually occurred to me that that was basically just saying National Novel Novel. I think I will use it all the time now. =D

Er. *tilts head* If you're still curious about the planning thing, I do about the same thing as you before and during NaNo, though me writing down what happens in the next scenes is often confusingly disjointed dialogue or stuff like, 'But remember that he doesn't like oysters either.' Having too many scenes and plot and whatnot planned out in advance means it's a lot easier to stumble over what you're doing and get tangled; simpler to just have a general idea of where you're going and so you can build on the things you actually remember to include. >.>

Also I hope you post more remarks and maybe excerpty bits and so forth in here, because your posts are always immensely fun to read. xD So. Much. Hilariousness.

Feel free to answer any of my posts at any time. Since I've ended every one of my posts with a question so far, I'll probably continue to do so in the future, so everyone feel free to answer whenever you like.

Also, thank you for describing my posts as "fun", not only as a compliment, but as a segue into my next topic.

A lot of people tell me my writing is fun to read. This is fine when I'm writing a comic, a script, or a forum post about NaNoWriMo. It's a little unsettling, however, when a fellow university student describes my essay on neo-Nazis and Holocaust denial in Canada as being "fun" -- and yes, that did happen.

I guess it's something I have trouble turning off sometimes. For example, I'm taking a Philosophy class this semester, and writing an essay in a Philosophy class is very different from writing an essay in an English class. In English (at least, in the high school and first-year university English courses I took), style matters more than clarity and content. Content and clarity (or the illusion of clarity) matter in English courses, but in philosophy, I'm finding the standards are much higher.

I got the highest mark in my class on my recent Philosophy essay. However, I didn't get a perfect mark, and one of the comments that came up was that, when I explain things, I have a habit of being suspenseful about it and leaving the reader hanging. That's a big no-no in Philosophy essays, where the precision of your language and the content of your arguments take precedent over a pretty or easy-to-read writing style. In fact, our instructor has told us explicitly that philosophical writing is usually a bit clunky, and if our writing looks like that, it's a sign that we're on the right track ("on the right track" -- see how easily imprecise, figurative language can sneak into your writing?)

So, here's my question of the day: What goes through your mind when you're writing a sentence or a paragraph? Do you aim for clarity? Precision? Aesthetically pleasing prose? Something else entirely?

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I don't read as much fiction as I should, so I'm probably not the best role model in the "writing style" department. I read a lot of non-fiction, particularly in the sciences and sometimes history and biographies.

It seems to me a good sentence should be like a satisfying punch in the face. Okay, that sounds awful, but bear with me here.

I'm as much of a hippie-pacifist as any red-blooded British Columbian, but if I were to punch somebody in the face, I'd want it to leave an impact on the victim both physically and emotionally. If I focused too much on physically hurting the victim, then everyone around me would just think I was a psychopath. But if I spent too much time thinking about the emotional impact of my gesture, I'd screw up and the punch wouldn't have as much weight to it. I might even miss the victim's face and his his shoulder instead, and that would be awkward for both of us. Also, a good punch should be short, but efficient and powerful. Disclaimer: I do not endorse physical violence, even if it's committed in the name of good writing.

So, when writing a sentence, I try to pack in, as efficiently as I can, a good amount of objective detail, but presented in such a way as to hit the reader on an emotional level. It's important to have objective details -- "show, don't tell," as they say, since it's somewhat difficult to enjoy a story if you can't tell what's going on -- but when selecting which details to include, I consider which details support what I'm trying to get across, and how I can phrase them to have the impact I want to have on the reader.

There are little details in everyday life which affect our mood in noticeable ways. I'm speaking of little pieces of sensory information, like the smell of coffee, the sound of a bowling ball hitting pins really loudly, or the feeling of closing a Ziploc bag right on the first try. These are weird examples, but they're little things that people don't always notice consciously, but which they can relate to nonetheless. Of course, this is subjective sometimes; It's hard to enjoy the sound of a bowling ball hitting the pins if you despise bowling. So I bring in sensory information that I find to be impactful, under the theory that at least some other people will react the same way.

When I write anything, I keep in mind the whole as I write the parts. I don't necessarily know how the whole will turn out, especially in the case of NaNoWriMo, but I do have a gut feeling about what I want it to be like, and that's the direction in which I try to aim the details of my writing. I think hierarchically when I write. The story as a whole has a sort of arc from beginning to end, and each scene has a "shape" of its own. Each paragraph has to feel coherent in itself, and each sentence, as I noted earlier, should be as concise and elegantly structured as a case of assault and battery.

These are heuristics I try to follow, and I don't always follow them well, so don't hold me to them if I post excerpts to this thread. I'm describing what I do by sort-of-habit. Right now, though, I'm more interested in reading what YOU think.

[Cow-winkle]

I'll update this thread, just to keep it from getting too far behind the first page.

I still have no idea what I'm going to write. I'm hoping I'll have some idea of a first sentence by November 1st.

Ah jeez, I have to go somewhere right now. So, question of the day, uh... what time-management steps do you take over the course of NaNoWriMo?

[Cow-winkle]

Problem: You're getting bored of writing your current novel, and want to start writing a new one, but you're 20,000 words in, so you can't start from scratch.

Solution: Have one of your characters start writing a novel within your novel!

***

Also, I've made a video about writing which borrows heavily from one of my earlier posts on this thread. I mention this in case anyone runs across the video and wonders whether or not the incredibly handsome person in the video plagiarized me.