A Novel in November

Dear NaNo Servers,

C'mon, I know you can do it. Don't die, don't die! You survived the entire first week, at least that I saw. Keep going, server hamsters!

Looooove and Encouragement,
Me

Hey Noah,

Thanks a BAJILLION for telling me what your shadiness was. Also, I think you may become mildly prophetic/psychically linked to a lucid dreamer who is in grave danger of being manipulated/kidnapped/ (It's possible Loki might want her to dream him free from his imprisonment...)

Eternal Thanks,
Your Author

Dear Jay,

Sweetheart, I need you to do more than lay around and have porn-y dreams. Why do you sell your dreams? Where do you live? What's your story? So far you're naught but a name to me and that won't get either of us very far this month, so try and be a little more forthcoming, okay?

Hopefully,
Your Author

Dear Caffeinatrix,

You, me, a fresh pot of coffee, and some plot. Whaddya say?

Overstimulation Ahoy,
Melissa

Dear Noah,

I know this is your first appearance in the novel so far this year, so you're probably feeling a little bit woozy and confused (don't worry - we all are,) but I'd appreciate it if you would get a little more into character. Your giant guilt trip over crossing Veruca's boundaries earlier really doesn't fit with the roguish, well meaning ne'er do well you're supposed to be. Also, you're up to something shifty, (which is great, as you're supposed to be, so keep that up, eh?) but I need to know what it is, or we're going to have a whopper of a problem soon. I like writing you, so let's communicate, shall we?

Hopefully,
Your Loving Author

PS: Thank you so much for being an introspective babbler.

9726 / 50000 words. 19% done!

Dear Veruca:

Sorry about all that expository dialogue you just had to spout off. To make it up to you, I promise that you can talk to someone who isn't Gunner before I go to sleep tonight. Also, good news - you're not possessed! But Gunner might be, so be on the lookout.

Keep up the verbosity my dear!

Love,
Your Author

PS: I think you've about killed those songs you queued up for your breaktime. Your next scene is probably going to be breakdown. Reese?

Dear Gunner:

Gonna have to write some stuff from your point of view. Wonder how lucid you are inside that front you're putting on? I also wonder just whether you actually are possessed by the spirit of some hooper-girl. We'll see; they did see you at the bar after all.

Keep drinking beer!
<3 Me

PS: WTF is up with your fascination with your hands?

5265 / 50000 words. 11% done!

Seven Major-ish Characters:
- Jasper
- Dusty
- Trinh
- Noah
- Veruca
- Gunner (whose full name is something like 14 words long i think)
- Jay

(i think there may still be one or two lurking in the shadows...jasper has to have some associates as he's not smart enough to be my big baddie. he's kind of a spineless reactionary dweeb with something to prove and a disproportionately overdeveloped sense of self, actually.)

Some Supporting Cast:
- Reese
- Adia (possibly dead, possibly possessing someone)
- purple people
- a tribe of hoopers
- Loki the Wangsty Emo Woe God lurking in the background, mayhaps

A Universe where ANYTHING Is Possible Including:
- dodos
- photoluminescent mushrooms
- kegs that magically refill with delicious beer
- selling sleep...then learning to harness it to power the grid
- lucid dreamers who sell/trade their dreams
- a gaggle of telekinetic children (still working on their collective noun)

The First Glimmers of Plot Hooks? well, let's hope so.

3191 / 50000 words. 6% done!

today i need at least 5144 words to get back on target. i'd like to do 6800 or so and get to 10k, but that might be pushing it. c'mon, muses!

that my muses are channeling turtles. i miss the days when they were so prolific i couldn't write fast enough.

i also think i may have bitten off more than i can chew by trying to quit smoking in the same month as nano. it seems to mostly result in me sitting in front of my pc (or notebook) alternately fuming over my writer's block and wanting a smoke, and it puts me in a spiralling mindset that i can't shake myself out of. i'm starting to feel like i either need to back off from nano or let myself smoke a little without beating myself up over it just to relieve some of the mental pressure. i do not like feeling like a tea kettle inside a pressure cooker over high heat.

in other news...

dear muses,
okay, so we're writing that smut you like so much. *eyes lj icon* i know it's het, but none of my male characters are even in the same place as each other right now, so no boinking boys for you. that said, i've never written anything this...ahem...graphic and it's more than a little awkward sounding so if we could just motor through this section, that would be great. we can go back to jasper then....maybe the fervid embers are some sort of gay male tribe of fire worshippers? it's up to you, just, please....let this lucid dream sex fiasco end soon.
allllllllllll my love and milano cookies and stuff,
your devoted recipient of inspiration

Dear Dusty,

Do I have any character notes on you from last year? I hope so because I have to say that I'm very intrigued by what I'd written about you but I cannot remember ANYTHING about who/what you are supposed to be. You talk about "rendering" the rooms around you and your body makes some funny metallic noises. I think you were kidnapped...you woke up after teh Incident...were you a sleep battery? Was someone naughty stealing your dreams? Were you part of a pedosomniac hideaway? TELL ME!

Loooove,
Melissa

Dear Jasper,

A year later and we're still figuring out exactly what a "Fervid Ember" is. Great. That said, I think it at least mildly possible that you will wind up at war with my tribe of hoopers.

Creatively,
Me

Dear Muses,

We're getting closer. You like fire, and coffee, and chocolate. Guess I'm going to Walgreens for discount candy after all. If I have a stroke from the Christmas decorations they've put up, I'm either making you wear wrapping paper for clothes or you have to live inside a snow globe. If I finish writing the incredibly smutty scene I started last night, will you let the plot bunnies start breeding again? I know you like nookie... And I'm beginning to suspect that after all this time, you're still Lance and Justin. 0.o

Hopefully/Confusedly/Verbosely,
your humble author

Dear 08 NaNotebook,

You came back! You practically jumped into my hands first thing when I got home from the most frustrating day of work in...days! I am so ecstatic! Thank you!
Luuuuuuurv,
Melissa

Dear Muses, Whoever You Are,

Kay, the notebook is back. We're going to curl up with some hot chai with milk and honey and some Beats Antique (unless you'd like to take this opportunity to make your musical preferences known to me? No? Somehow I'm not surprised,) and read through last year's bits and bobs just like you wanted. After that, we need to talk words. I am a fabulous briber-of-Muses, I just need to know your preferences. Let's get to know each other. Otherwise, I may just say to hell with all of this and write fan fic. And we all know that no one wants that. If you're nice, though, we can write some smut later....
Hopefully,
Melissa

Dear Trinh and Adia,

Brace yourselves. Incoming characters, anachronisms, and inconsistencies! YAY!

Dear 2008 NaNotebook,
I've been trying to stay calm, but it does not appear to be working. Apparently your presence is absolutely critical for this year's novel to go swiftly. The Unnamed Muses want story fodder from your pages and damned if I can't find a digital copy of NaNo 08 anywhere.....so um, please show up? Pretty please? I really want to get this story moving.

Searchingly yours,
Hex

Dear Unnamed Muses,
Pick something, anything, and let me write it. Just because we can't locate last year's plot/story/characters doesn't mean you can skive off this year and leave poor Trinh alone in her world with nothing right now but some nameless tribal family and a dead girl's hula hoop. Also, please decide if you want to bring Loki into this story or not. He is currently acting like the Supreme Deity of Wangst and Emo Woe, but at least he wants to do stuff, unlike some slackers of inspiration I could name...

Do you need an offering? I'm not sure what to procure for you...I have a brand new notebook, a pack of the best NaNo pens in the world, and delicious tasty coffee as well as cider. Let's go to Walgreens and I'll let you pick out some discount Halloween candy and chocolate - will that help? Just tell me what you need! I want you to be happy and fruitful!

Cautious Love,
Hex

Dear Trinh,
I promise you won't be stuck mid-hoop-ritual forever. Also, I'm pretty sure your people live in a cemetery, but don't worry - it's usually invisible. I think. Please, stick with me, don't die like Adia did.

Reassuringly,
Hex

Dear Adia,
You. Are. A. Liar. You're not actually dead and Adia isn't even your real name. Also, you may just be a spirit and not even corporeal. Basically, you're a question mark. Oy.

Grr Argh,
Hex

Dear Inner Editor,
I've finally figured it out. If I have no words to write, you have no words to smite. Nyah, nyah. *sigh*

Hex

left all my words at home this morning on my computer. did not email them to self in order to have while writing at work. bah, nano-bug. clearly, the answer is...

MORE COFFEE!

1273 / 50000 words. 3% done!

best typo so far: doznes, as in *dozens.*

well, it seems that today at work my software has decided to be completely unaccessible. i've been trying for 4 hours to access and FAILING. not surprised, as it's the first work day of the month and also a full moon. first day traditionally = little to no worky for quality. full moon = loopy melissa. nano month = usually 0 word count after day 1, putting me into a panic and behind.

thus, i have decided to skive off on the rest of my workday. can't do anything so i may as well not be here. plus being in my apartment doesn't make me want cigarettes which is a huge plus. so i think i shall make a giant pot of coffee, put together some tasty snackies of some sort, and plop myself down in my library to see if i can get a fix on what exactly is going to be in this year's nano...or at least who. i wish my plots from the last few years had been more finished...they're looking very tempting right now.

the more times i undertake this november lark, the more i believe the above.

goal for next year: resign self to doing nano at the beginning of october, or if not that early, at least not in the final week so that the muses have something resembling time to warm up and start feeling frisky. however, this could also mean that the inner editor will be slacking a little and not realize what's going on until i'm already halfway to word count or something.... updates as the month progresses. :)

no idea what to write this time around, although i realllllllly loved a lot of what i did last year, so i may just pick that back up in some form. going through some old plots and characters to get my brain to start moving. will probably troll the genre forums from work today as well.

i also decided to quit smoking. sooo...this should be interesting. we'll see what winds up going in the "box o' nano necessities" this year as a result.

blah. to work.

Still behind, but still hopeful, so as long as I can keep the doldrums at bay, all will be well.

In other news, here's the most recent line I wrote, for your amusement:

Nothing had been the same since those Texas yokels got creative beyond their mental means with particle physics.

6,691 / 50,000 (13.4%)

i wrote 1567 words last night using this odd writing tool called Write or Die. it's awesome, but don't slack on your writing pace or it WILL make you very sorry. it's kind of scary sometimes. but it worked.

i'm rewarding myself with some quick, if chilly, hooping time in hofner park with some other local hoopers, and then i'm coming right back here to try and make up some words.

after all, i'm only 9611 behind.

5,392 / 50,000 (10.8%)

I have become addicted to Gobstoppers. They seem to be the accompaniment to this year's NaNo. (Though suprisingly, they have not shown up *in* the NaNo yet.)

Word count growing, not as quickly as I'd like. Reverting to doing some writing on the computer tonight in an attempt to get the words out faster. How much will this help? We'll see...I kind of just want to nap.

Kel, dear? I believe I found your dodos.

My reply to the "To The Dark Gods of Writing" thread in the NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul forum.

*******

To the Dark Gods of Writing (most specifically Caffeinatrix, from whom all Blessings and Inspiration Flow,)

Hi. I'm sure you've noticed that I'm quite behind. In exchange for time to write that doesn't jeopardize my job or relationships, the death (or lengthy incarcerations) of my Inner Editor and Inner Procrastinator, interactive, 3-D characters, overactivity on the part of my muse, and some semblance of a point to my story, I will gladly offer up to you:

- The used coffee grounds from every pot of coffee I have to brew to survive this month
- Approximately 1/4 pound of dusty-tasting UDF French Roast coffee
- 1 package of multi-colored Post-It page markers
- All gel ink pens in my possession
- The surprise Great Dane my roommates adopted for use as your personal steed
- My fluffy-edged, sequined, light-up pink bunny ears
- A skein of hand dyed yarn
- An Invader Zim postcard
- The old strings from my boyfriend's mandolin

I also promise to light a circle of candles on the front lawn and fire hoop inside them in your name(s) the moment I reach 50K.

Yours in Wordy and Caffeinated Reverence,
Hex

Today I discovered a first person narrator - or narrative voice at least - that I didn't know I had - and about whom I know nothing, at the moment. I also met Jasper, who is a Fervid Ember...whatever that is. It does sound promising though.

Just keep writing.

Dear Muse,

OMGWTFBBQ? I appreciate your obsession with devotion to this idea you've given me. Honestly, really truly I do. It's a nice, shiny idea. I have a lot of questions about it, which you're currently being kind enough to let me mull over with well-timed input from your Muse-y Self. These things are *awesome.*

HOWEVER.

You do realize, oh giver-of-words, that without characters, nothing will happen in this beautiful world you're driving me helping me to create? If there are no people, there is no sleep to harvest, no dreams to steal, no realities to tear, no zombies to invade, no fire spinners to spin fire....nothing. It is a beautiful, intriguing WASTELAND.

Character concepts are all well and good, and they are helpful, I suppose....but aren't there any actual characters you want me to meet? Any at all? Side characters? Main characters? MC's pets or parents or grocery clerks? SOMEONE?!

I understand that there are still 9 days until these people would be allowed to do anything, but I'd like to get them primed and ready. I've never had a world with no characters. It makes me feel all wibbly-wobbly inside.

Please help. I am off to grind coffee beans in your name, oh Muse.

Lots of Hope (and caffeine!),
Hex

maybe i'll do this and maybe i won't. between gigging/practicing with incendium, teaching the circus class, drag, band, and work, i feel like my life is - thankfully - busier than ever before. but this has been such a fantastic and amazing year so far that i have a feeling i won't be able to resist seeing what happens if i tackle nano in it. bajillions of new things happened to me this year...maybe winning nano could be on that list too.

i'm starting to get story ideas. the idea i've been tossing around with jon off and on all year about what would happen if you could transfer sleep between people is starting to branch off and make me wonder more things, and the only way to answer those questions is to - duh - write a story. so there's that plot line/societal institution.

i'm also still really interested in last year's zombie apocalypse plot line. okay, so we have a zombie apocalypse in a world where sleep - and hence maybe dreams/abilities/nightmares/drug trips as well - can be transferred between people?

but i also kind of want to write about burning man. okay....underground dreamweavers at burning man who fight off a zombie invasion?

oh wait and i want fire spinners. i might want them to save the city/region/world by fighting off the zombies with their amazing fire spinning skills.

where do these things come from, and why do i keep doing this to myself?

i also think i will probably have to make a promise to myself to handwrite the story this year. i don't have a laptop and i don't know anyone who can loan me the use of one. in past years i've gotten really caught up in the process of transferring things handwritten into the hard copy in the computer. i always wind up finding myself stricken with words somewhere away from a pc/the lappy (in years when i've had a lappy.) i wind up with too many copies, i wind up wasting time transferring words, i might not hit save...too many horrible options to contemplate. plus that process opens the door WIDE for my internal editor - who is loud and proud and difficult enough already to contain - to go rampaging through my hard-earned words, ripping things out left and right.

in the days of my most prolific writing, my best creative writing was always done by hand, even when i was simultaneously chatting and looking up supporting info on the compy. i'm kind of in love with my own handwriting, i am DEFINITELY in love with the feel of a good ink pen gliding across paper, and if there's one thing i love to buy, it's new notebooks/journals and writing utensils of all sorts. i'm thinking i'll bribe myself with a thick, beautiful notebook - maybe a moleskine - and a package of pens with the smoothest flow i can find. (bonus points if they're available in multiple colors, negative points if it's gel ink.) it'll be super portable, so i can write any/everywhere, i'll only get to use the notebook and pens for nano, and if they're good enough pens, you wouldn't believe how much motivation that will be for me.

so handwriting 'twil be for this gal, and i'll get to keep a crazy word count and force myself not to edit b/c the pages won't be as pretty and my count will be frakked if i do. a few people in the forums number every word they write when they count their totals - it's a procrastination thing, as i understand it. that would be an amazing way to enforce an "absolutely no editing whatever happens" rule on myself, which would undoubtedly be a very Good Thing...we shall think about this plan, yes we shall.

now, if only i could find myself some characters. i can only pull so directly from "real" life....

bardi...what are the guidelines for writing a border wars story? i mean...what are the established truths or histories or whatnot of the world? should i just go back through and read what's been written in the universe so far? is there a compendium list of those lj entries anywhere (tags, whatnot)? mind you, i'm not trying to start a deep philosophical discussion here, although i've a feeling i may've done so. i just have a sneaky suspicion that it's going to wind up creeping up in my stories...especially if lean away from the zombies, which i think i've figured a way to do...gotta think up some conflict...oy. rambling. good practice, lol. anyway, yes, border wars info please kay. :) thanks.

Kay, so I am the world's biggest NaNo slacker. I know, big surprise. I just...I've been getting flashes, but no big long marathons of writing. I'm trying tonight. We'll see. In the meantime, here's the beginning. Maybe if someone looks at it I will be more motivated to write the frakkin thing.

( on the river... )

So this year, I'm writing zombie apocalypse Cincinnati. Not sure who precisely is behind it yet - I suspect Dayton and Lexington may be ganging up on the 275 loop - and I have no characters with names, but I know where it starts and I know that at some point there is a zombie brain-licking chihuahua puppy. (Her brothers are a pair of pit bulls.)

I have a flash drive - the one I'm using for work too, thanks to my company for that - and I'm picking up a copy of the Zombie Survival guide today. Or tomorrow, since now I have to go into the office today. *sigh*

At any rate - this should be interesting. As usual.

Dear Inner Editor,

Get the everlasting FRACK out of my head.

No love,
nanowrimolissa

It's all material. Direct it all into your novel. That's what you have characters for - to subject them to things, right? So what if it turns into chick lit urban fantasy - that's not so bad, that's almost kind of a new genre sort of but not really. At least it would be different. Maybe it doesn't distract the mind, but at least it turns it into something quasi-productive/worthwhile.

Word count too depressing to post. See me after I use my story as therapy.