Thursday, November 02, 2006

novelvember?

I'm going to try to write a novel and I only mention it here so that it has a slightly better chance of actually happening than all of the other things I set out to do for an extended period of time and yet fail miserably at. I have a short attention span and often give up before I'm finished, and there's an attic full of half-built perpetual motion machines to prove it. Then there's the whole zombie making thing, but, seriously, it's a little too cold to be digging up graves now.

I'm not officially going to try to write it as a part of this thing that I saw over at Newscoma's place, as that might be too much of a commitment that I eventually prove myself uncommitted to, but I'll shoot for the goal of 175 pages.
I tried novel writing in much the same kamikaze fashion a few years back when I was living in Knoxville and had two weeks to kill between jobs but very little money with which to slay them. I had a stack of jazz CDs by the computer and the general outline of a plot and commenced to writing without ever looking back or allowing myself to edit much. I was in the zone, and my mind wandered into thoughts of actually selling the damn thing until I let myself to stop at page one hundred--roughly half the way through--and read what I had produced so far.
Jeez. Think of every embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you and then place it in a cannon and have someone shoot you in the gut with that cannon and you'll have an idea of just how awful that thing was. I'm always hard on myself when it comes to judging my creative offerings, but there is no doubt that the collection of words I assembled in those two weeks were not meant for this world. I think I destroyed all copies, but a part of me wakes up in a cold sweat sometimes gripped with the fear that it lurks in the attic among the half-built perpetual motion machines and that android that could feel pain for some reason.
Again, I'm not a science person.
Anyway, I knocked out a chapter last night but I have yet to go back and read it, so I guess I'll at least make it a couple of days into the month without giving up.

6 Comments:

Blogger John said...

In all seriousness, do _not_ go back and read what you've written, except for the most cursory of glances (I forgot what name I gave to such-and-such a character and need to check on it). That sort of thing defeats the purpose of NaNoWriMo. You want to just keep writing and writing. You can second-guess yourself on Dec. 1.

You will find that, if you can get over the original hump, the creative juices will begin to flow. Yes, you'll write a lot of stuff that sounds like it was speed-written, but you will also have epiphanies that would never have occurred to you otherwise.

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year because a community theater production is taking up all my free time. But I can't wait to get back to it next year.

2:17 PM  
Blogger Newscoma said...

You know, I'm doing the same thing. I'm not going to actually sign up, just see how far it gets.
So far all I can think of is Elvis.
I have no idea why.
Elvis doing things.
Yeah, that's where I'm going.

7:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rex...I wish you'd include those women that weren't getting any from that place you worked in in Knoxville in your novel.

Potential Pulitzer stuff, there.

7:37 AM  
Blogger Rex L. Camino said...

I've managed to keep the blinders on so far, John, but I'll have to go back and check on character names now that I have permission. I bad about remebering names, even ones that I made up.

"Elvis doing things"...hmmm. That sounds better than what I came up with, 'coma. Now I want to write about Elvis doing things.

I remembered your suggestion from a few months back, Sista, and was planning to try and work that in somehow. That should also work to save me some writing.

7:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you'd like to see Elvis doing things, rent "Bubba Hotep" and bear with beginning. It's worth it!

sarasue.com

10:41 PM  
Blogger Newscoma said...

I love Bubba Hotep and there is a new one coming out, sarasue.

8:41 AM  

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