5000 words and counting

So far, for NaNoWriMo, I have 5000 words of garbage. No, really, it’s bad. But that’s okay. I’m not in it to get even a publishable manuscript out of it. I’m in it to be one with the many people who have chosen to enter the hermitage of National Novel Writing Month in November. I’m in it to talk to writers during our write ins at Paper Angel Press. I’ll be there–take a look at my appearance calendar to see what dates and times (Eastern).

I was very productive this morning, having woken up at 3:30. After doing some luxurious lounging (no work or dialysis to get ready for at six), I gathered my tea and went upstairs to visit with Hemingway, my iMac Mini that’s like ten years old. I work on that for strictly writing, so I don’t find myself distracted by my journal, cats (well, sometimes cats), kid, or game.

That’s also where I do my podcasts, and I did a quick six-minute podcast this morning. You can check it out here.

I’ll be doing a podcast every week during NaNoWriMo and trying to write as many words as possible during the write ins. You can come and visit, just follow the above Paper Angel Press link and join in the fun! It’s through Google Hangouts.

Almost there!

The good thing about dialysis is I have time to read books. I broke down and got Kindle Unlimited, so I could get some fiction books for “free” ($9.99/month). I also purchased a few Kindle editions of books that are best sellers or recent sellers. I downloaded a few novel-writing workbooks, too, that I’m working with in my journal.

So far, I have a few scenes for NaNoWriMo’s story. I need subplots. I’m making up this entire thing. It’s not going to be an accurate representation of Latino life, and I’m not appropriating that culture for this. This story is mine and mine alone, and is never going to get published because I’m not backing it up with facts. You know me, I research things to death before writing anything, which is why War Mage took me so long to write. I finally threw my hands up and just said, “Forget it,” and wrote War Mage just to finish the story.

I found the original story in one of my notebooks, and I’m kicking myself for not sticking with that original story. It would have been better, I think.

I read most of a book called Shadow Company by Michael Hesse. So far I’m the only reviewer on Goodreads for him. I gave him four stars for military accuracy and interesting story world, but the character had been through too much by the time I got almost half-way done with it, that I didn’t want to bother anymore. I didn’t realize that it was a 500 page novel, either.

Shadow Company has a bit of “The Chosen One” trope, which I have outgrown since reading the Dragonlance series and attempting (every few years) to read the entire Lord of the Rings series. But I would suggest you read it if you like military fantasy like I do.

I plan on doing a podcast today in anticipation of NaNo, and hope to do podcasts every week updating people on my progress. I’m tempted to write the story upstairs on my Mac, without any distractions other than some music and tarot cards for jumping off points.

NaNoWriMo Prep

At first, I wasn’t going to do NaNo because of my work/dialysis schedule. Now that I have some time available for recuperation, I could probably do NaNo.

I’m not going to force myself to get to the 50K mark. I’m not even doing any research for it this time around. I’m going to write, without any purpose. It’ll be full of cliche’s and stereotypes, probably be a total insult to my subject matter, and I’m making the whole thing up. It’s not even going to be based in real life, but it’ll be a fantasy of mine.

Of course there’s going to be a dark part of it, which is what I’m hanging the story on. Because it can’t all be unicorns and rainbows.

Hemming and Hawing

I’m wishy-washy about a big decision with my job. That’s what’s taking up most of my time recently, the indecision of what one person says in HR versus what another person says. Nobody at HR knows what the hell will happen to me if I make this decision. In the interests of my health, though, I have to make this decision in a way that I don’t like, that will not benefit me, and will cause me problems in the short term.

See, dialysis is a total time sink. Three times a week for six hours: a half hour to put me in the chair, a half hour to disconnect me, four hours in the chair, and half an hour there and back home. I tried to work afterward but I was so exhausted, I just wanted to sleep. I didn’t do much after dialysis.

My boss suggested I take the days off that I have dialysis, which are Tuesday and Thursday. She did some research on it and said that I would probably be too tired to work. Although I protested, I could see her point. I would not be a good functioning member of the team after dialysis. Nor would I be effective after 8 hours.

I found that out on Friday, when by 3 pm I was ready to ask her if I could take a 4 hour PTO because I was a babbling wreck. I thought I knew myself well enough to work 12 hour days. I guess I can’t.

That being said, the whole idea of just resting irritates me. I can’t see myself doing it. I must always be busy, or I’m not functioning. Dialysis, it seems, is kicking my ass in ways I didn’t expect. It’s making me rest, forcing me to stop and reassess.

I don’t like it, not at all.

Now, for writing, I honestly haven’t been doing any of it this week. I had a story idea from a dream but it’s not even a skeleton, it’s a bunch of dislocated ribs. Of course, that’s what you get when you have a dream and try to make a story out of it. I wrote out the bare bones in my journal and I’m a bit meh over it. It doesn’t entice me.

Back to the drawing board.

Memoir

I bit the bullet and sent my memoir, Torn Asunder, to my publisher to have him take a look at it. Right now he’s in the throes of publishing Corporate Catharsis, an anthology that I wrote a story for entitled “Hextron, Inc.” so I’m not expecting a response to it within the next couple of months. Catharsis comes out November 1, and that’s also the start of National Novel Writing Month, when the publishing company shuts down so we can all concentrate on writing.

I don’t think I’m going to work on it this year, especially with my time constraints. I know for certain I won’t be able to make the minimum daily requirements. But the other thing is I don’t have a freaking clue what to write.

Ova has turned into a real shitshow. The problem is I’ve written the story once, I liked it, but it got taken out with The Purge of my house I did in March. I don’t want to sit here and retell a story I’ve already told myself. That’s not how I write. I’m a pure discovery writer. I plot the beginning and the end, and how we get to the end is totally left up to the Muse. I’m just along for the ride.

Ova might be interesting to others, but I can’t seem to get myself into it. So instead of excuses, I’m just going to dump it and consider it lost.

While cleaning out my filing cabinet, I found my old floppy disks (the 3 1/2″, not 5 1/4″ ones) with Hunter’s Realm on them. I do have Hunter’s Realm on my TB drive, and I liked how that one came out. I loved Luther so much – he was a real Mary Sue, though. I should read through it and see if it’s viable. As a YA story, I think it is, because I wrote it when I was in college.

NaNoWriMo requires a new story, though, so that’s where I’m stuck. I have so much going on…what story could I do? And what time do I have to do it?

I’m beta-reading a story for someone, and while I’m reading it, I’m thinking, “I can do better than this with my eyes closed.” I’m catching small things that are really good, and glaring errors. An example stuck in my head is using the word “junkyard” in a fantasy world with elves and dwarves. It brings to mind rusting cars. Maybe “scattered about like a pile of junk.” Or, my favorite word of the year, detritus.

Should I yank out my old D&D books?

Last taste of relaxation

This is the last week I have before I return to work on Friday. I’m excited but not. I’m excited to start this new journey, but I’m afraid of overextending myself.

This is good for six months, and then after this I have to reassess. Hopefully I won’t get sick again in the meantime.

I haven’t written, to tell you the truth, and I know, that’s bad. I’m actually beta-reading a novel for someone, and it’s over a hundred thousand words. At the same time I’m reading Second Company by Michael Hesse, which is how I really wanted War Mage to be but didn’t have the knowledge to do. To tell you the truth, he did a better job.

Dialysis gives me four hours to read, so I’ll have plenty of books on my Kindle.

Real Magic for Writers is selling steadily, probably because it’s cheap right now. We don’t know if it’s this blog, the podcast, or just Amazon bumping me up that’s doing the sales. It’s magic!

Butt in gear

I have lots of things to obsess about. The dialysis (which has given me four hours of reading time three times a week), the next book which already has a writer’s block on the first chapter, and what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.

As soon as I move the computer upstairs to my third office (I live in a 10-room house) I will be doing a podcast.

I’m having trouble with the new novel, tentatively titled Ova. I want to introduce the main character, but I can’t seem to catch her voice. I don’t hear her very clearly–though I know what she ends up doing, at the beginning here I can’t seem to get her down right. I need to ask myself some questions and do a little “interview” of her to get where she’s coming from. I’ve plopped her down on the page and have no backstory, only what happens in the future.

I tried to write her home life, but it was boring. Eat, watch TV, go to sleep. Wake up. Do chores. Go to work.

It’s really hard for me to describe something or someone without making it seem like a description. I have to use active words, have characters do something other than stand there while we take a picture. Describe and action at the same time.

A side track

I know this is a blog about writing, but I need to take a moment to let you know something.

I’m starting dialysis Monday.

I’m waffling between “This is a death sentence” and “I’m going to fight like the dickens and live a long life with this.” 15 hours a week at a dialysis center, and working 40 hours a week won’t leave me much time for fun and games.

However, on the bright side, I’ll have time to write. Somewhere I have a Bluetooth keyboard and I can hopefully type using my iPad. I’m working on the next novel, the sci-fi one I explained in the previous blog. I’m doing it in Word this time around, not Scrivener.

I’ll have time to read, to listen to audiobooks and podcasts, and do fill-it-ins (they’re like crossword puzzles but you’re given the word and have to fit it in puzzle). If I had a laptop I would probably game, but I don’t have one.

I also have time to pester people, do my calls and emails. Go ahead, tell me my on hold time is an hour. I’ll wait.

Back in the saddle?

I was in the hospital for two weeks due to a mental health issue, and realized while I was there that I missed writing.

I was into the game, and work, and other things known as Life, that I didn’t want to write. I didn’t have time or the energy.

So when I got out of the hospital, I let my publisher know that I was going to write something. But I wanted to write a different genre, something that I hadn’t done before.

While cleaning cat puke off a notebook, I realized that this notebook had my notes from a hard science fiction novel I had written in my 20’s. It was very similar to Dune in that it had to do with an alien race finding a mythical person to lead them. However, it took place on Earth.

I hadn’t written hard sci-fi since then and wondered “Why not?” My plan is to write the first chapter, present it to the publisher with a very rough outline of the rest of the book, and see what he thinks.

Thinking is writing, too

Just because you’re not putting anything on the page, it doesn’t mean that you’re not writing if you’re thinking about your work in progress.

I’m looking for inspiration to write something. City of Heroes’ characters are deep in that lore, so pulling Maximillian out will make things weird. A few people I talked to mentioned a children’s book, something upbeat and fluffy. All week I’ve been trying to think of “fluffy” and it always turns into something dark.

It’s a whole different mindset to think of something positive, when all you can think of is the negative. But I’m still thinking, trying to twist the negative into the positive.

I guess i need to watch more Star Trek.