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Tag: nanowrimo
#226; Monday morning in a fog of words
I’m planning a short vacation down to NYC and it’s gotten me thinking: I haven’t been writing. Not really. Not like I normally do in the summer and fall. Normally, the heat and the humidity have always fueled me creatively. Nothing feels better than sitting outside, sweating desperately, with a fedora for shade and a notebook. It seems that without that heat, without the oppressiveness of a Southern August (and yes, I consider DC part of the South – I’m a New Englander by birth after all), my writing doesn’t flow nearly as easily.
As a matter of fact, writing fiction has felt like pulling my own teeth out all summer. But I’ve been plugging away at a piece (most likely novel length; best described as ‘creative non-fiction’ or ‘very fast and loose memoir’) and slowly but surely it’s (almost) taking shape. I like the quick tone, the acidic attitude of it. It comes off as almost bitter, almost sad, almost angry – but in the end it’s just fact. It’s seen it all, and it knows the truth, and you need to sit down and listen to it tell you how it is. Does that make sense? The piece has it’s own voice, one that feels like a person in your head, one you can argue with (and it argues back). It flutters at times, falters, but the story calls for it. This piece is something I really feel, in my bones, and I want to keep working on it. So here goes, one of my favorite lines to inspire me to get writing tonight:
I met a boy once: you would have thought it was orchestrated how well this first meeting went, all mishaps and delightful coincidences and perfectly timed innuendo.
#213; healing power of words
I’ve done it! I’ve tackled my writers block and come out on top. At least, so far. Thanks to a great start at my very first Camp Nanowrimo novel, Bipolar In Order.
I wrote 6,500+ words in two days, staying in line with the NaNoWriMo schedule despite starting two days late. I haven’t written in a burst like that in months, not once since I moved to Boston, and I can tell you it feels amazing. It feels like stress relief, emotional release. It’s physically tiring, even! I sleep better when I’m a writer, I breath more easily, I feel like myself.
The novel/short story collection is something different for me. I’m writing it as nearly 100% autobiography. This makes it more difficult than other pieces of prose or poetry to share (it’s so much easier when you change the names and claim fiction!), though I find it also makes it easier to write. Dealing with emotional scarred tissue is sluggish, even dreadful, but you also never have want for material. And so, I’ll be bringing you slightly censored excerpts and quotes throughuot the month (there will be even more at my tumblr, my dumping ground for all things shiny and interesting).
…with lips so full you wanted to chew on them and drink up their juice like you do with a plum, and they were nearly, naturally, that delicious dark red of plums…
It’s interesting to find yourself stopping in the middle of a thought – a story line – to remember the way a friend’s mouth curved the first time you saw them smile. Or how someone’s voice sounded when you were half asleep, smushed up against the ceiling of your dorm because you’re in a loft bed and the angle changes how you hear things. I love remembering quiet moments, personal moments, lonely moments, and I love writing about the crazier ones, too, the nights you can’t hardly remember and raging debates that leave your voice hoarse from shouting and laughter.
What do you think? The challenge of (completely) honest writing is difficult, and is draining, but it feels so worth the turmoil just be churning out words again. How do you bust the block? Are any of you out there hitting up July’s session of Camp Nanowrimo? (There’s another in August if you want to wait a couple more weeks!) Let’s get a real discussion going this month, all about writing, emotional literacy, intimacy with your audience, and of course, absolutely ridiculous online challenges that take over our brains and lives.
#205; round 2 – when I rule TV
Here I go again, ignoring my fiction-in-process for shiny new characters to damage from scratch (there’s something incredible about taking a brand new character and breaking it down into what you need it to be, but I’m not going to worry about the implications of my enjoyment of that). I will also absolutely give more prompts, if you want! I have two more of these in the works from college roommate Rosaline (Ally McBeal meets X-Men!) and Cloverdew (Sherlock Holmes meets Dexter!).
Confession: I have not seen all of BSG, but I started watching it after working on this and I was like “aw, damn, I feel a little bit bad for putting Grace Park in all these situations after BSG.” But she is the only Jules in my mind, so I stuck with her. Any similarities are totally unintentional!
1. Comment to this post with “I surrender!”. I’ll assign you a TV show idea.
2. Create a cast of characters: include the actors who’d play them.
3. Add in actor photos, character bios, & show synopsis.
Title: Details
Prompt: Genetic engineering is possible. Because of it, by your genes, everything is predetermined for you. Who you’ll marry, how you’ll die, what you’ll do, everything. However, (there’s GOT to be a however!) our heroes are fighting to control their destiny. How are they doing it? Is your life really a matter of your genes? What happens when you rebel?
Type: Action/drama – 13 episode seasons – 1 hr each.
Setting: Future – Everywhere
Opening Credits Song: Muse “Uprising”
Closing Credits Song: Muse “Feeling Good”
Tagline: The devil’s in the details.
Opening Art Credit:damien6160 @ deviantart
Musical Score By: Matthew Bellamy
Synopsis: The center of the financial and political world has moved from NYC to Washington DC & the Eastern coast of Virginia, home to the largest military complex in the history of the US. It is here, in sleepy Hampton Roads, that Kaylyn Adams does her terrible work — well, to the normal, establishment citizens of the world it isn’t terrible at all, it’s freeing and personalized — it’s Detailing, their way of life. To the rebels of the East Coast and beyond, it’s imprisonment, and Julie and her family will do anything to stay out of the President’s agenda for perfection in humanity.
Detailing is as engrained in everyday life as breathing, eating, and fighting. It is the practice of pre-natal genetic engineering that determines all Fate – your companions, your job, your family role, your spouse. Homosexuality, dissent, and religion are strictly outlawed. When President Columnar came to power from the disbanded US Senate in 2082, the public rejoiced in a leader who was strong enough to continue the program that had been running their lives since 2021, when the first Detailed child was born. Columnar certainly did what the public felt was necessary, creating bands of roving Bounty Hunters to end the small resistance once and for all.
In the War, NYC has been left in ruins, Miami stands as little more than a burnt out plain on the ocean, and Boston has been deserted thanks to the cold winters. The population of Detailed citizens have settled on the West Coast and throughout the Midwest, essentially abandoning the East Coast to the work of the military. As the rebels search for any place to call home, the Bounty Hunters close in…
#199; when I rule TV
I have been so utterly in love with this meme for the last week or so, having been given this assignment of sorts from a fellow blogger. After finishing this one, I was given three more prompts, which are in the works. It’s quite the long/photo-heavy post compared to my normal work, so bear with me! In other news, I’m so dearly in love with this story-building-format that I’m considering using it this year to plot out my NaNo novel. Thoughts? Suggestions? Fellow Nanowrimo obsessives out there?
I’ll admit, I didn’t stick as closely to the prompt as I would have liked. No matter how I tried to make it funny and sweet (the word “zany” even came to mind!) — this crazy drama kept coming out. Race relations and poverty and murder and betrayal… Eventually, I went with it despite the prompt. Also, feel free to take part and I’ll leave prompts here as well!
The Rules:
1. Comment to this post with “I surrender!” and I’ll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (post-apocalyptic scifi-fi drama, fantasy, noir gumshoe pulp, criminal procedure…IN SPACE, historical drama WITH WEREWOLVES, etc.).
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who’d play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios, and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post.
Title: Crossed Stars
Prompt: “The totally true and sweet adventures of a girl and her pet werewolf.”
Type: Fantasy-drama in 1hr 22-episode seasons; some shots are done documentary style.
Setting: Present day Boston
Opening Credits Song: Augustana’s “Stars & Boulevards”
Closing Credits Song: My Chemical Romance’s “Sing”
Tagline: “I like the stars; it’s the illusion of permanence. I can pretend that things last; that lives last longer than moments.” Said in the commercials by various characters (quote by Neil Gaiman)
Synopsis: Allyson’s lived a hard life – absentee (at best) mother, no father, a fuck-up of a lovable older brother. She’s always been the adult, and if it weren’t for her music and her loyal and wonderful boyfriend, she’d probably have succumbed to the neighborhood long before now. Now, though, things are different. Her mother and her brother are dead. Even music doesn’t ring true anymore. So she packs her bags, she gives Santy back his high school ring, and finds a house in Boston filled with insane artists, east coast snobs, and a landlord who just happens to be a werewolf. And just happens to fall in love with her. And just happens to tell her his truth.
Suddenly, Allyson is needing to balance the lives of the supernatural, the dead, the mortal, and the newborn while also keeping herself afloat and trying to make it big in a small business. Luckily, with lifelong allies and brand new family at her side, she’ll be able to find her voice and make anything possible.
#154; to be missing
Another excerpt from what I’m working on. This one just stuck out to me…
My heart is heavy with a decision I made on a whim. I didn’t realize that saying goodbye to this place would be saying goodbye to my history here. The past doesn’t come with us, not when every one of us has vacated the place; with both you and I gone now, how did we possibly spend years here? That time is simply gone now, without anyone to walk down those once familiar streets and remember it.
