Nanowrimo, Day 24 through 28

Well, it was the Thanksgiving weekend but I still managed to get a lot of writing done. And then I took a day off Sunday, which was nice. Today, I got back to things and wrote another 3,000 words, the most I've done in one day. I'm trying to wrap things up and I'm at 49,820 words now. I'll definitely be done tomorrow.
My novel seems to be an "And Plot" type of story, as recorded in the Turkey City Lexicon:

And plot
Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular.

I think this is probably endemic to Nanowrimo. If you don't decide what the story is about at the beginning, you end up sending characters to one place, then another and they get in trouble and they get out of trouble and they never seem to go anywhere. That is definitely my problem. I got all tangled up at one point and the plot just sort of circled around a couple of things that don't much matter to the characters interior lives.
Anyway, that's what it is and I'm still very happy with having returned to Nanowrimo this year.
Hope everyone else is doing well and nearing the finish line.

Changes

The links bar to the right may look a little odd for a while. I'm going to make some changes to it, make it more useful. Currently, I've added categories Authors, Online Fiction, and Random. There will be more categories to come and links will be sorted out. Some links will be removed, many will be added. It could take a while though. If you have any suggestions or other changes you'd like to see on this blog, use that button labeled comments below (or e-mail me at w3irdwrit3r at yahoo.com).

Nanowrimo, Day 23: Sad chapter

My characters are dealing with the death of that main character from two chapters ago. All rather sad, but necessary. I wrote another 1,700 words today.
I find it interesting that I write almost the exact same way everday. I wake up, avoid writing for about an hour. Then I write about 400 words in one big gulp. Then, I go do something else (laundry, dishes, reading, whatever) and waste another hour avoiding the story. Then I go back and do another 400 to 600 words. And then on and off for the next hour I write a paragraph here, a paragraph there, until I manage to get over 1,666. I almost always end over 1,700 words. This pattern continues almost every single day. Is my brain just geared to writing a certain number of words before a distraction is required? I remember reading that A.E. Van Vogt always wrote in 800 word chunks. He would work his characters into a problem in that many words, then go relax and think about the situation until he found a way out. I wonder if this kind of thing is common among all writers?
I'm up to 40,938, about a day and a half worth of writing ahead of where I have to be. I still would like to add some more to that, but tomorrow it's going to be hard to do that. And since I don't know if I'll be posting again, I'll just say happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there, and to everyone else, have a happy Nov. 24.

Nanowrimo, Day 22: Action!

I'm still a little worried that killing off that character yesterday may have been a bad move. He may have been an emotional center of the novel, although I'm not sure I ever pulled that aspect off. So instead, today's writing, all 1,800 words of it, was all action. People on motorbikes duking it out try to deliver a message. Fun stuff. Belongs, at best, to the pulps. Still, nothing wrong with that. The novel is now at 39,165 words. Just another 11,000 or so to go. I'm wondering if I can wrap this novel up in 50,000 words. If I don't, I guess it's not a problem, I'll just have to keep writing into December. I would hate to just drop the thing.

Jeff Ford posts "Bright Morning"

Jeffrey Ford has posted his short story "Bright Morning" at 14theditch. The story is one of the best (although its so hard to pick a "best" one) stories from The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories. It's such a terrific collection, if you haven't picked it up by now, do it! It'll be the best thing you've done for yourself in years. (By the way, Matt Cheney was inspired by Ford's story post to put up a portion of the interview he did with Ford in Fantasy Magazine.)
I'm waiting now for The Empire of Ice Cream, Ford's next collection.
In other news, I got my copy of "The Cosmology of the Wider World" from Shocklines. I can't wait to read it, but I've kept away from fiction while I'm doing Nanowrimo. I'm sure I'll write more about it in December.
And one more thing, there are appreciations of Ford's "Empire of Ice Cream" and "The Scribble Mind," as well as Ford's own appreciation of Gardner Dozois' "Fairy Tale," up at the EDSF Project. Check them out, and while you're there, sign up for a story to appreciate. I should be sending my appreciation out in the next day or so.

Nanowrimo, Day 21: Darkness

Today I actually killed off a main character. I can't decide if it was a good idea or not. Too late now, I've got to plunge ahead with Nanowrimo. I'm up to 37,350 words, which is about a day ahead of where I need to be. I would like to gain a little more than that, because Thanksgiving weekend may be tough. We'll have to see if I can pad up the next few chapters.

Nanowrimo, Day 19: Cliffhangers!

Have a few minutes to blog this weekend. I just completed Chapter 19, I'm now at 34,117 words. I am being so consistent, it's thrilling. My chapters all seem to naturally end at around the 1,700 word mark. The process feels great and even some of the chapters don't feel as lousy as they once did.
I've been taking to cliffhangers. Actually, every time I've done Nanowrimo, cliffhangers have inserted themselves into my work. I think it comes with working without a net. You just naturally lead your characters into some kind of trouble and the next day you try to figure out how to get them out. In my case, I've put three sets of characters into cliffhangers. Now I have to figure how to get each one of them out, keep the overarching plot moving and bring these three groups back together again. And I'm looking forward to it.

Prisoner remake

Cheryl Morgan says she has a bad feeling about an attempt to remake The Prisoner. Here's what SciFi Wire says:

Damien Timmer, who has been lined up to executive-produce the show for Granada, told Broadcast the new series would take "liberties with the original" and would not retain its arty feel.

Well, of course its going to take liberties, but any creator saying it won't "retain its arty feel" worries me. Plus, there really is no need to remake the show. It's one of the few classics television has produced.

Nanowrimo, Day 17

Not much to say about Nanowrimo today either. I did another 1,700 or so words. That seems to be my usual amount. I'm up to 32,374. Moving right along.
I do wonder how I can resolve my plot. I have plenty of action and things happening, but there's no overarching theme or story for the whole thing. I guess that's what happens when you don't plan out far enough and you're writing as fast as you can. Ah well, it's all grist for the mill. I'm sure I can use some of this stuff after I rewrite.

The geek novels

At Morrow Planet, Mike starts a new meme, based on this article. So show your geek cred and bold the novels you've read:

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

12 out of 20, not too bad. Do I lose geek cred if I say I'd never heard of No. 20? I have read some of Wyndham's other work however.

Nanowrimo, Day 17, also SciFiction

Wrote another 1,748 words, bringing me up to 30,657. Not too shabby I think.
I don't have much more to say about that, so let's talk a little about SciFiction and the EDSF Project. First off, more than a hundred people have signed up to the Project. That's great! But there's still hundreds more stories to be appreciated, so if you haven't already, go sign up to write about a story!
While you're there, check out some of the appreciations that have already gone up. (For instance, Jeffrey Ford's appreciation of Gardner Dozois' "Fairy Tale.")
In other places, La Gringa called Ellen Datlow, the editor of SciFiction, and checked on her well being. Gringa says:

Anyway, it was nice to talk to Ellen. She sounds upbeat and positive about the whole situation, and is looking toward projects for the future. She said that she's been overwhelmed by the kindness and grace flowing in her direction out of the skiffy community the past few days.

Well, my dear Miz Datlow, on behalf of the skiffy community at large, may I just say this?

You have earned this community's respect.

I would like to add my own voice to that. She most certainly has. Datlow's work has been a presence in my life for as long as I can remember reading science fiction, fantasy and horror, starting way back with Omni magazine and through her many anthologies and right up to her Year's Best work and SciFiction. And then there's the influence she's had on the field. She has brought so many great writers in and (from accounts I've read) has had a terrific influence on their writing. Ellen Datlow deserves a magazine created just for her editing, and it should be done immediately. Anybody got tens of thousands of dollars to spare to create a good magazine? It would be worth it.

Elsewhere, Charles Coleman Finlay looks at how online fiction is surviving and urges everyone to contribute to Strange Horizons. He also mentions some of the other great online fiction markets that deserve money and attention: Ideomancer, Infinite Matrix and Fortean Bureau. I would also add ChiZine to his list. And I'm sure there's more. Do what you can for them.

SciFiction: What you can do

With the death of SciFiction, people are looking for what they can do. Well, I offer two things.
First, write to feedback@scifi.com and tell them how you feel about SciFiction. Don't be insulting and don't slam the SciFi Channel. Instead, tell SciFi Channel why SciFiction is great and why you are disappointed in seeing it go and ask them to reconsider their decision. Who knows, if enough people do this maybe they will actually think about it.
Second, check out The ED SF Project. (I believe that stands for the Ellen Datlow SciFiction Project, but I haven't seen it spelled out.) It's a blog put together by Dave Schwartz to show appreciation for the five and a half years of great stories SciFiction has put up.

Here's my idea.

By my count there are 320+ stories archived at the site. I'm willing to bet that there are that many SF writers/critics/fans/what have you who have some sort of presence on the web. So I'm thinking, let's all of us write an appreciation of one of the stories.

Here's the list. There are plenty of stories left to be chosen. I encourage everyone to pick one and write something about it. I've picked Marc Laidlaw's "Jane."
With all the attention this thing is getting (its been linked to from Bookslut and BoingBoing as well as every science fiction blogger in the universe), I must say I'm slightly intimidated. Not to mention I'll be writing an appreciation alongside people like Jeffrey Ford, Jeff Vandermeer, Ted Chiang and god knows who else. But it's a great idea and I think everyone who loved SciFiction should get involved and pick out a story.
Don't know which story to write about? Go to the SciFiction archive and start reading. Everything there is good.

Nanowrimo, Day 16: The plot thickens

Today I wrote 1,700 words on my Nanowrimo novel (still without a title by the way). I wrote from a different character's perspective and I think the interaction between him and a military man was written pretty well. I think I captured the ego one-upmanship between them. I'll have to wait to re-read it before I can decide how well it turned out. As always, I'm doubtful of my own abilities. Tomorrow's chapter will head back to character viewpoints I've been writing from all along.

Nanowrimo, Day 15: The halfway point

I've reached the halfway point in Nanowrimo and I'm up to 27,199 words. Today started out slow. I found myself unable to avoid my Avoidance Techniques (patent pending) and slowly worked my way toward the novel. However, once I got started the plot rolled right along. I split a few characters up, brought a couple of them together and headed towards some confrontations. There was even an action scene today. Not bad for one set of 1,900 or so words. I'm feeling pretty good heading into the second half of November.
Mike at Morrow Planet is trying to catch up. He's currently at 20,023 words. But his dedication to writing has even inspired his daughter to say her first sentence. Congratulations Mike.

HBO: Rome renewed

According to Rome's official Web site, the HBO show is coming back for a second season. This pleases me. I've been watching it all season long and was getting a bit worried about the show. There doesn't seem to be a lot of talk about it out there. This weekend's episode was particularly good with an extraordinarily bloody fight scene at the end.
The show isn't up to the quality of the Sopranos, but it's still one of the best things on TV right now. Anybody else watching this show? Like it or hate it, tell me what you think.

SciFiction has been cancelled

By now you've all heard the terrible news. SciFiction will be no more thanks to decisions made by the SciFi Channel. Here's Ellen Datlow's message about it. And there has already been some great commentary on this. And all of the links I've mentioned so far were really easy to find. I imagine there's a lot more people out there talking about this.
There's also Datlow's message board as well. Here's where they are discussing the loss. Of course, this means Datlow needs a job. Someone out there must be smart enough to create a magazine for her, or install her in one already in existence. She really is one of the best editors in the science fiction, fantasy, horror genres there is. This is the woman who discovered William Gibson. She has published all of the big names. I really hope she gets something new soon. In the meantime, check out her own Web site at Datlow.com.
This is a huge blow to the Internet science fiction community, as well as the science fiction community in general. SciFi channel is making a big mistake. How much could this be costing them? Certainly less than those crappy movies they make. And it adds prestige and, oh yeah, actual good science fiction to their channel. But prestige doesn't make you money.
There are other markets of course, but it's just sad to see. Take a look through the SciFiction archive and read some of the great stories available before the SciFi Channel takes them down.
UPDATE: You know, I'm starting to rethink some of my more sarcastic comments about SciFi Channel. I still think it's stupid for them to cancel SciFiction. However, I would like to note that it has been wonderful of them to put this up in the first place and to keep it running longer than most people thought it would. So, SciFi channel, thanks for what you have done for us, some of it has been really great. Now what are you going to do?

Nanowrimo, Days 11 to 14

I do indeed fall behind on Nanowrimo on the weekends. I wrote every day, but each day was just short of the 1,666 minimum I need. I was ahead of the game before the weekend began and I wrote about 1,800 words today, so I'm probably still ahead of where I need to be. In fact, my word count is now over 25,000 words, so I'm more than half way there. And tomorrow is the half-way date. But each day does drag a little. As long as I don't try to overwrite (push myself too far beyond the 2,000 word a day goal) I seem to be OK.
At Fast Fiction, Cybele is only on her fourth writing day and she has more than 16,000 words. She says she's behind where she wants to be, but I can't see her not making it at this point.
Not too much other Nanowrimo news out there. Hope everybody's keeping their word counts up.

Nanowrimo, Day 9

Not much to say really. Day 9 took slightly longer to get rolling, but still didn't take all that long in the end. I did about 1,800 words, which is not bad.
On the Web, well I haven't seen much actually. Mehitobel Wilson (who wrote a great horror story, The Mannerly Man," in The Darker Side) started up Nanowrimo only to be derailed by an actual writing contract. Can't blame her there. Also specficrider is up to 10,000 words.

Looking back on Babylon 5

Abigail Nussbaum at Asking the Wrong Questions has a great look at what was right and wrong with Babylon 5. My feelings on the show are very close to hers, except I don't have the excuse of being 15 when I first watched it.

Nanowrimo Day 8, still amazed at my good fortune

I've completed another 1,800 words today. My plot has moved along and some new complications have occurred to me. This is all to the good. I'm really happy with how easy this has been so far for me.
In the past, I've always met resistance pretty early and get behind. This year I'm ahead. My chapter process is working well. Part of the reason I believe that's helping me is that I don't try to do too much. I work on my idea and get it finished in 2,000 words (or thereabouts) and I don't try to move onto the next thing in the same day. Instead, I let my subconscious stew over the plot and characters and usually by the next morning I have somewhere to go with it all.
Anyway, I think that's why it's working. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I won't be able to write more than 100 words.
As for Nanowrimo on the Web, one thing everyone must check out is the blog Paperback Writer. In just the past few days, she has had Ten things for writers that cost nothing, 12 step editing and 10 things for Nanowrimo'ers. I'm going to be checking this blog out more and more often.
Found through Paperback Writer, Wired News has an article on Nanowrimo.
And that's it writing wise for me today. Good luck writing.