Binge Writing

For Camp NaNoWriMo I started out with serious ambitions to finish/polish/whatever The Book Smart Wolf but I've been working on that book for so long I'm a little burnt out on it. A lot of burnt out on it. So when April 1st hit I found myself free-writing an idea set in an alternate 1950s where we still have iPhones & Google, Kayne West & Katy Perry. It was about a greaser and soc who fall in love amidst being pursued by a demon. Which sounds crazy and paranormal romance shelf at B&N, I know, but the plot wasn't so much about the demon or modern technology as it was about these two kids overcoming their own personal demons and faults. The demon was metaphorical but also real? It's much more normal than I'm describing, but I really don't know how to normalize its plot for a blog post description.

Demon Days was an interesting exercise in just letting go and writing what I wanted to write about, and I'm happier with this product than anything else I've ever written before. I wrote it for me and no one else, which was refreshing. When writing I normally have my own invisible demon nearby, being all super judgey about my plot points and rude about my writing style. But without that demon to pester me, and only myself to please, the writing came swiftly and easily, like splurging in words I always wanted to type but found myself too embarrassed to. In April I binged on all those words, and I came away fat with a funny kind of happiness I've yet to be familiar with.

Indoorsy Type

Seve and I built this cool little tent together for Camp NaNoWriMo, the spring equivalent to the event held in November. Seve does Nano with his creative writing class each semester, and though the November event is well known with plenty of library and bookstore participation, Camp NaNo isn't as riddled with local events. Any, actually. So Seve and I make our own! At the kick-off party we set up an inflatable campfire, projected a looping video of a full moon onto the chalkboard, played some ambient forest noises over the speakers, and hid a microwave in the tent so we could "roast" hot dogs and marshmallows. It was so fun I got zero writing done! Yeah!

But when the tent's at home, I cuddle up and write to my heart's content. The Camp Nano event I'm looking the most forward to this year? April 15th is the lunar eclipse and we've rented out a cool backyard venue to write by the light of the blood red moon. so awesome omg can't wait can't wait

Human Again

Attempts at a profile pic that descended into hairy madness.

Time for some reflection on this year's NaNoWriMo.

Seve hosted a race-to-the-finish party at his classroom where I wasn't able to get wifi, so I verified my word count early, pulling the extra 8K I needed from a previous story. This resulted in a final word count of 55,285, which I was sure couldn't have been right . . . where did that extra 5K come from? Did I really only need 3K? Nevertheless, that night at the party I finished with fifteen minutes to spare having written the full 8K in a mere three hours. My hands were shaking by the time it was over, and I'm pretty sure those last four pages descended into complete and utter gibberish.

But I did it! So on top of the initial 20K I wrote for the story back in China, I now have a fully completed 70K manuscript. In heavy need of revisions, of course, but I'll tackle that come January. I don't think I even want to look at the thing until January.

Seve also completed his NaNo on the dot at midnight after an equally frenzied writing session. Cowabunga, dude!

Tackling the NaNo this year wasn't like past NaNos . . . for once I knew the entire story from front to back, nothing was a mystery. I always thought that would help me write better, but it didn't. The writing and pace remained as it always had any time I sat down to write. Rather than dishearten me it gave me hope; that the other stories I have logged away and unsolved will reveal themselves to me in time, as long as I keep writing.

In fact, on days where I procrastinated my word count I kept returning to my 2010 NaNo. I hadn't bothered to read it since writing it three years ago, thinking it was awful and an eyesore. But I loved reading it! The 1950s werewolf story? I vaguely remember blogging about it at the time. I was sorely tempted to abandon my NaNo and just finish that werewolf effort. It's a full 50K after all, and only needs maybe 30K or so to wrap up the story. But then I remembered that's how this year's effort was brought about . . . a resurrection of 2007's NaNo, realizing it wasn't as bad as I thought, a sudden desire to finish it . . . so I pressed on, and finally made it to the finish line.

How did your NaNo go? Did you finish? Are you enjoying JustSleepAndEatDecember? Me too.

Hong Kong Garden

Some point-and-shoot shots from my time in Hong Kong. The last one is of me sitting at the entrance to the LDS Hong Kong temple.

A strange confession about this year's NaNoWriMo experience: it's made me cry a lot.

Well, twice, but that was quite enough for me. And I wasn't crying because the writing process was daunting or agonizing, and the tears weren't tears of frustration. I cried during the research for my novel, which was in two parts: the research of location and technicalities, and the research of my own personal experience. Rereading journals, etc.

Because my novel is set in Hong Kong, and much of it is based on my experience when I taught English over there for a semester. Remembering everything made me miss it so much, I reduced myself to tears. Just looking at pictures of egg tarts and moon pies makes me tear up, not to mention my old students.

We were warned that me might experience culture shock when we arrived, but I never did. I loved, loved, loved it there. For whatever reason, I felt so ridiculously happy and free. That's sounds silly and cliché, I know, but I really don't know how else to put it. I had just come out of a serious relationship, had just returned to college after a semester away, had just been to my sister's wedding . . . a lot of stuff had been building up at that point, and I let it all to go in China. Like, the minute I stepped off the plane. And it was perfect. (I guess you could say things have been great ever since, because I met Seve a few weeks after returning to the States).

I've never been a very good journal writer. This blog is my journal, I suppose. But for several years, stories were what I wrote down instead of personal experiences. And it's strange, I can reread my old short stories and they bring back all the memories that surround the time period of when I wrote them. So, I even cried a little while rereading the bits I already had for Easy Beauty. Because, in the midst of reading about the way my characters hold hands, I'm suddenly on the HK metro again, or when my protagonist is describing his childhood in Texas, all I can think of is how I wrote that scene after eating at that restaurant with the giant bust of Chairman Mao.

Seve was able to give me a tour of his mission in Ukraine when we were done teaching in Russia, but one day I'd like to take him and my pups to Hong Kong and relive some of my favorite experiences there. But for the time being, that's what finishing Easy Beauty is doing for me.

Easy Beauty

Perhaps it goes without saying that I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. I do it practically every year. But this year it's a bit more fun, because I'm participating with Seve's class. Seve not only teaches theatre, but creative writing, and every semester his classes participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo in November, and Camp NaNaWriMo in April).

Even though I often "win" NaNo every time I participate, I never necessarily love the product I end up with. 2010's effort just didn't turn out how I wanted . . . I'm usually an advocate for not taking a NaNo too seriously while writing it; it'll make it too hard to reach your word count each day. Some days you really do just end up writing a bunch of crap, and it can dishearten the effort more than if you just hadn't written anything at all.

But this year I'm breaking a few rules. Breaking my own rule of not taking myself too seriously, and breaking the usual NaNo rule of "starting fresh:" I'm finishing a NaNo I started back in 2007. This was the year I taught English abroad in China, and I convinced my entire volunteer group to participate in NaNo too. My roommate and I threw ourselves into the process and managed to get our manuscripts up to 30,000--pretty good considering we were busy teaching English/exploring China everyday. Another girl wrote a funny retelling of all the adventures we shared in China, and another wrote a hilarious retelling of Twilight substituting all of our names for the original characters (I was Alice).

The pictures above are of some literary magazines I picked up in China, called "Top Novel." I've never been able to read them, obviously, but my native coordinator informed me they were full of short stories, serials, and poetry. She translated a few for me. They're also filled with beautiful artwork and comics. Anyway, it was from these that I drafted my 2007 NaNo idea. The illustrations were just so beautiful, so I invented a story of what I thought they could be about.

It's six years since I bothered to read that story, but in February of this year I finally pulled it up. And I  . . . loved it? It's an embarrassing teen romance, really quirky and magical realism-ish, but whatever, I love it. I've decided I owe it to myself to finish it.

Anyway, this month, as a way to pep myself up to finish, I'll be blogging about my time in China and various topics related to Easy Beauty.

Participating in NaNo this month? Become my writing buddy here. If you're struggling with your own NaNo, Nathan Bransford (my favorite ex-literary agent blogger) wrote a great book with some relevant-for-trying-to-write-and-publish-a-novel-in-2013 tips here. And when you're done checking that out, watch this video because I really like it.

In the bat's mouth

I love this print by Francesca Montanari. I originally wanted to get it for myself as a personal pat on the back for finishing the NaNoWriMo (especially since I listened to a lot of Bat For Lashes during the process), but now I think it will just be a Christmas present "from Seve." He already knows what I got him, haha. A tight budget where we're both privy to who bought what, where, and when kind of kills the surprise of gift giving for us. But maybe I'll manage to sneak in a nice anniversary gift that'll knock his socks off. Hmm . . .

Shewolf

Guyz look another wolf in glasses!!!!11one

It's here. November 30th.

Many of my bloggy buddies have been participating in 30-day challenges, including a photo for every day and 30 items of clothing to be worn in 30 days. My 30-day challenge has been the NaNoWriMo - write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. And I'm about to ride this wave out in glory, people, GLORY.

I have consistently written 1,667 words every day. I had some NaNo friends who ran hard in the beginning, boasting impressive word counts of 20,000 at day 3 when I was only at 5,000. But some of them burnt out after such energetic sprints, and I'm here to say that slow and steady wins the race.

I attribute this success to my job. I write 1,000 words on average daily. It's all draft work; only about 200 ends up being publishable. With that in mind, the majority of my NaNo novel will probably never see the light of day. But writing comes easy for me. And I am so happy that I've crossed the finish line! And GUESS WHAT the story isn't anywhere near being over. Yay '50s doo-wop werewolves!

I hope you guys don't mind my boasting, but writing is my only real talent, aside from this one time when I made a prom dress out of duct tape.

This helps me write my wolf book

The Book Smart Wolf

Well gosh crap it's snowing.

My new office window!

So, I recently completed my goal of reading and viewing all Harry Potter literary and film installments. Thoughts after reading: I wish I was Harry Potter.

Writing the NaNo while finishing Harry Potter has given me a whole new perspective on world and character building, and the scope by which Mrs. Rowling managed to juggle so much in such a perfectly executed fashion. It boggles me that her mind was able to store so much, though I'm beginning to learn that with the power of Microsoft Excel anything is possible.

My own novel is struggling with elements of brooding darkness and quirkiness that don't seem to mix. I'm getting the word count down for sure; writing isn't the issue, it's feeling accomplished in what I've written. My wolves are wearing glasses and listening to '50s doo-wop music one minute then debating the handling of a severed head the next. They're dealing with a haunted canoe, falling in love, missing their moms, hunting down ghosts, discussing the merits of devouring the haunted canoe . . . I guess it's silly of me to expect anything real to come of this project. I went into it knowing it'd be just for kicks. But since when am I a werewolf novelist?

Also. Due to my husband's fervent dislike of the title On All Fours, here are some other titles for your consideration:

Red Riding (turns out this is the title to a TV series)
The Book Smart Wolf (serious consideration at this point)
Muzzle (boring)
Wolf Like Me (TV On the Radio song title)
Haters Gonna Hate Now Let's Go A'Howlin (made this one up on the spot while typing this post)

I worry that anything with "wolf" in the title will be tossed aside as another Blood & Chocolate or Twilight knockoff. Lord help me, if I ever attempt to publish this thing I'll need a good query letter to sever that connection, but when you're an agent with a daily slush pile to tackle, the wrong title can set a bad taste in the mouth that spoils the rest of the letter. Hmm.

Oh, and for the record, Harry Potter was a much better boyfriend than The Hunger Games. By far.

Sh*t my coworker says

So so busy. Work + NaNo have me writing writing writing. I shouldn't even be taking this blog break. I love this Barnaby Ward sketch as it's a good reflection of my mind right now. Just busy and cluttered. But I'm getting everything done! That's what counts. Seve's incredibly busy too. Read: TWO PLAYS AT THE SAME TIME. Plus school. Crazy.

Oh, and we're officially going to Florida for Christmas! Didn't think it would be possible, but my Mum and Bum-in-law have very generously secured the trip for us. Trying to think of how on earth I can ever repay them for their kindness.

Also, I was daydreaming about how funny it'd be to have a "fashion blog" dedicated to people in pajamas and sweatpants, but in really sexy poses and pretty photo shoot settings. They'd act like it's real fashion, and list where they got each item. Winnie the Pooh onesie - $15 - Walmart.

And OH YES Halloween was fantastic! Though Seve's "Proud to be an American" t-shirt drew a fine line between Garth and Joe Dirt. Luckily, Trent scrawled "Aerosmith" over it.

k TIME TO WRITE MORE bai.

Oh it's a skull that's neat

Oh, hey guys! Hope you had a Happy Halloween. I've just been busy noveling and such with the NaNoWriMo. So far so good! Oh, and I did a little redesigning here on the ol' bloggy. Anyway, more blog stuffs later, time to novel again.

On All Fours

Well, I think ya'll know by now how much I love this wolf by Rosie Music. While procrastinating plot outlining I made this little cover for my NaNoWriMo novel. Seve thinks my title suggests an innuendo; my friend Daniel said if I wanted an innuendo I should have named it Doggy Style.

Well, I'm here to say that I hope my cover and title alike suggest a werewolf novel without silly full moons, silver bullets, or innuendos; but rather awesome Buddy Holly references and book smart wolves.

But, you know, without being all hipster-pretentious. Actually, this cover doesn't really convey my story at all, I just thought it was cute. Maybe too cute. Because there's scary stuff in the novel too, like getting your hand ripped off, accidentally eating your favorite horse, and whatnot.