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: NaNo With Dana
Went to Starbucks Coffee on Clarendon Blvd. I give it four stars as a place to write. Don't forget to take your Dana and a mug for a 10c discount.
If something is worth doing, it is worth overcomplicating. I've got the Dana and a goal of finishing NaNoWriMo, so today I spent some time getting ready and complicating things....
Alright, eight keys, so I've set them up like this:
F1- Novel outline. I never know what to write next when I'm writing prose, but I can generate ideas pretty quick if I don't actually have to describe the action and only need to list it.
F2- 1st 3rd of novel
F3- 2nd 3rd of novel I can't write linearly to save me.
F4- 3rd 3rd of novel
F5- Map of Dana, Map of world. I thinking of ripping off the names of streets in Clarendon for all my place name needs.
F6- Personae dramatis. Actually, this is just a list of 24 names, 1 per letter of the alphabet. I can't tell you how many times I'm writing along and I just stop because I need a name and can't think of one. OK, I can tell, you. It was 14 times.
F7- Prologue, Epilogue. This isn't part of the novel, so I think this is fair game for October work. Last novel didn't really get going until I had a reasonable vision of my two main characters. This time around I'm having a hard time imagining the world.
F8- NaNoWriMo Manifesto. All the things I love about novels, all the things I hate about novels. Plus my lists of story questions, lists of conflicts, etc.
Now I have five things to do when the prose typing has slowed. My theory is that if I can just keep typing something, I can get back into the groove.
Last novel was extremely jumbled. This created an editing problem. I needed to yank the naughty bits, list the factual stuff that needed to be researched, put the story into roughly chronological order, etc.
I could have written linearly, but that is too easy. I could have inserted each new scene into the appropriate place, but that requires stopping and searching through several thousand words for a suitable place to plug in the relevant scene. That costs word count.
My solution is to use XML tags, like:
Then, come December, I can whip out a pocket Swiss XML parser, sort the scenes by time, generate an G rated version for friends and family and an R rated version for posting on the scroupleless internet, and generate a list of sentences with shaky factual content that I need to google.
Also, this year I will not use italics. I will not use italics for foreign words because foreign depends on how much you know about a words history and how stupid you think the general population is. I will not use italics for characters thoughts because I'm going to try to keep my characters from engaging in pointless thinking. This year, due to a lack of suitable punctuation, my characters will be forced to make rash decisions and make rude, thoughtless comments to each other.
Went to Starbucks Coffee on Clarendon Blvd. I give it four stars as a place to write. Don't forget to take your Dana and a mug for a 10c discount.
If something is worth doing, it is worth overcomplicating. I've got the Dana and a goal of finishing NaNoWriMo, so today I spent some time getting ready and complicating things....
Alright, eight keys, so I've set them up like this:
F1- Novel outline. I never know what to write next when I'm writing prose, but I can generate ideas pretty quick if I don't actually have to describe the action and only need to list it.
F2- 1st 3rd of novel
F3- 2nd 3rd of novel I can't write linearly to save me.
F4- 3rd 3rd of novel
F5- Map of Dana, Map of world. I thinking of ripping off the names of streets in Clarendon for all my place name needs.
F6- Personae dramatis. Actually, this is just a list of 24 names, 1 per letter of the alphabet. I can't tell you how many times I'm writing along and I just stop because I need a name and can't think of one. OK, I can tell, you. It was 14 times.
F7- Prologue, Epilogue. This isn't part of the novel, so I think this is fair game for October work. Last novel didn't really get going until I had a reasonable vision of my two main characters. This time around I'm having a hard time imagining the world.
F8- NaNoWriMo Manifesto. All the things I love about novels, all the things I hate about novels. Plus my lists of story questions, lists of conflicts, etc.
Now I have five things to do when the prose typing has slowed. My theory is that if I can just keep typing something, I can get back into the groove.
Last novel was extremely jumbled. This created an editing problem. I needed to yank the naughty bits, list the factual stuff that needed to be researched, put the story into roughly chronological order, etc.
I could have written linearly, but that is too easy. I could have inserted each new scene into the appropriate place, but that requires stopping and searching through several thousand words for a suitable place to plug in the relevant scene. That costs word count.
My solution is to use XML tags, like:
< scene time="1" > blah, blah, blah < /scene >
< scene time="50" > blah, blah, blah < /scene >
< scene time="25" >< pr0n > blah, < need_info >blah< /need_info >, blah < /pr0n> blah blah blah < /scene >
Then, come December, I can whip out a pocket Swiss XML parser, sort the scenes by time, generate an G rated version for friends and family and an R rated version for posting on the scroupleless internet, and generate a list of sentences with shaky factual content that I need to google.
Also, this year I will not use italics. I will not use italics for foreign words because foreign depends on how much you know about a words history and how stupid you think the general population is. I will not use italics for characters thoughts because I'm going to try to keep my characters from engaging in pointless thinking. This year, due to a lack of suitable punctuation, my characters will be forced to make rash decisions and make rude, thoughtless comments to each other.