Nanowrimo has failed me. Or I’ve failed it. A little of both.

I have never had this much trouble with a Nanovel; with other stories, sure, but the energy of Nanowrimo has always been enough to propel me past doubts and frustrations.

I don’t know what’s going on with me this year.

But the important thing, I suppose, is just meeting my deadlines, of which I have plenty. Writing every day, blah blah blah. The part of me that doesn’t want to crawl into a cave and wait for the world to go away will be working on meeting my obligations.

I collect links like a fiend, and with Nanowrimo almost upon us I thought I’d share what I have found most interesting, most amusing or most useful.
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Current Mood:  accomplished

The cool thing about writing in modern times is the vast array of writing tools to help you organize and write your story.

The bad thing about writing in modern times is how easy it is to get distracted by your writing tools to the point that you’re too busy world-building to actually write.

And of course, if you’re me you’ll start half-a-dozen different files in various tools and then get distracted (Ooo! Shiny thing!) and leave them all half-done.

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Current Mood:  cheerful

How are things going? Not so good. I got the Arcana in early but haven’t finished a thing since. I haven’t written anything longer than 15,000 words this year. The screenplay is still slow-going, particularly since I realized I was going about the framing device in an utterly wrong way and had to take out those scenes for redoing—which is also on hold while we try to find some more biographical information.

I have all my deadlines in a “days until” countdown widget in iGoogle, and while the number of days looks like a lot, when I think about everything I’m planning to do in those numbers of days I just deflate a bit. I need more time, I need more discipline, I need more words.

It’s almost September and I feel like I haven’t accomplished a thing this year, particularly compared to last year.

Current Mood:  gloomy

Firstly: the next novel is currently at 72,000 words and is being read by some close friends for plot coherency. I think I’m in a good place with how it’s developing, though every time I look at my countdown doohickey to the deadline I squeak a little bit.

Secondly: A friend of mine is going to try her first original novel.

I had a hand in this.

I’m immensely pleased.

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So there’s been plagirism wank.

I have three thoughts about this, which I will get to eventually:

1. this so needs to be a drinking game
2. the perils of POD publishing houses
3. people like being authors but not being writers

One. The drinking game.

1. Vehement denial of all wrongdoing: take a sip.
2. Threatening the people who discovered/exposed the plagirism: take a sip
3. Blaming the plagiarism on stress/mental illness/physical illness/past trauma/past life trauma: take three sips.
4. Emergence of sock puppets in the guise of spouse/agent/sibling/therapist/dog groomer: take a sip.
5. Threats of internet lawyers: take a sip.
6. Appearance of internet lawyers: take a shot.
7. Appearance of internet lawyer who has no understanding of copyright law/the First Amendment/basic rules of grammar: take two shots.
8. Grudging admittance of wrongdoing and half-assed apology: take three shots.
9. Acceptance of responsibility and sincere apologies to the offended party: CHUG LIKE A FRAT BOY ON SPRING BREAK.

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How to Write a Book

My favorite is number 7: “Never have a mental breakdown before 11 p.m.”

Oh, I know that feeling.

My absolute favorite book about writing, by the way, is The Unstrung Harp by Edward Gorey. It’s not about how to write a novel. It’s about what it’s like to write one.