here comes mary, all dressed in black

[intertribal]

I have written/elaborated on an outline for the novel (yes, the same one I've been "working on" for the past 6 years).  It is 16 pages (9,700 words = 10% of the novel's projected word count) long.  I think my goal is to somehow write the novel by continuously elaborating on the outline?  I guess this puts to rest any idea that I might be a pantser instead of a plotter.  LOLOLOL.  Don't even tell me if this isn't going to work, all you people who have successfully written novels.  That's pretty much what I accomplished over university closedown.  I didn't do any work on short stories, people.  But good news is, the two short stories I spent autumn working on - "Absolute Zero" and "Infested" - both made it into the anthologies they were written for (Creature!  Thirty Years of Monster Stories, ed. Paul Tremblay and John Langan, and Bewere The Night, ed. Ekaterina Sedia).  Just got the acceptance for the latter story this afternoon before I headed out for New Year's, so I was already in a chipper state before I had the ouzo.

The Twilight Zone marathon has been on SyFy all day.  Saw "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" earlier.  Still a great and necessary story about I-have-seen-the-enemy-and-it-is-us in my book, as trite/predictable as it may seem to modern audiences (clearly not so trite/predictable that we have learned not to repeat Maple Street's mistakes).  ETA: This episode reminded me somewhat of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived In the Castle, particularly when the one guy's like, "Are we going to pick apart the idiosyncrasies of every man, woman, and child..."  But I will make a post specifically about We Have Always Lived In the Castle.

This year, like last year, I celebrated New Year's with the local Greek population.  But this year I not only broke a plate, but I participated in the women's folk dance!  Second time around I started getting the steps right.  Considering that last year I chickened out for fear of embarrassing myself, I for one am fairly proud.  Onward, to Namek2011!  Selamat Tahun Baru!

Comments

[lilpocketninja.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I just ran across a link to this today and it's pretty much "expanding an outline until it's a novel."

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Make just one line for each scene. In one column, list the POV character. In another (wide) column, tell what happens.

Oh God, this is exactly what I did. Hahaha. I remember reading about the Snowflake Method a while ago, maybe it embedded itself in my subconscious.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Heh, perfect New Year's video for you :D

Selamat Tahun Baru!

Here's to both of us making progress on the novels we're working on this year.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed *clinks champagne glass*. That's my New Year's resolution - serious work on the novel, and reading more. Where is yours at?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ughhh, mine is at the "I want the novel to be like this--no, like this! No, like this!" stage where I'm constantly rewriting and rethinking it.

Right now there are only about 11,367 words. (Yeah. I just opened it and checked...) I have a concept, and I have certain key bits in my head, but I'm not sure if the connective tissue can be made interesting and meaningful. I think I know what needs to happen for it to be those things (I think...), but then I wonder if I'm up to it.

And then I think, maybe I should forget it for now and write Penpal instead.... but that opens up a whole other can of worms, and no, I think I want to stick with this one first, and then do the other one.

---and I've just gone and done the thing that I laugh when I see other writers doing which is, given an opening TALK AT HUGE LENGTH ABOUT MY PROJECT. (Not that I mind when other people do it--I like it, in fact, because it's interesting--it's just funny how much stuff, in all of us, is just brimming to be released if anyone asks, at all!)

[selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com]

Best of luck in the novel progress realm to both of you.

I couldn't sleep a few nights ago for scenes and narrative keeping me awake on a New Novel Project (tm).

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a blessed state. I love that. When it's all you see in front of you. When your kids say, "Wow, pretty cool about those dancing bears, huh?" And you say, "What? What dancing bears?" because your mind was elsewhere.

intertribal, in your case you can substitute friends or mother for kids.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

It is a blessed state. That was me in high school, all the time. I would literally start cackling in the middle of the hallway during passing time because of a story-thing I was planning in my head and the kids in front of me would be like, "wtf?"

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

LOL - but you didn't actually introduce the project itself, just where it's at organizationally/conceptually. I can't imagine what would come out if I asked about the content ;)

Yeah, goddamn that connective tissue. Part of the problem with Draft #1 for me was that the connective tissue was either not there in one chapter (I don't know why I thought that was ok??) or just plain not related enough to my central characters everywhere else. So I studied wikipedia's demonology page until I got enough little tidbits to build connective tissue that would actually relate my central characters to the community. It's still very episodic, but oh well.

Yes, stick with it! It's all about dedication and just-do-it-ness. And some planning, for me. Planning makes me feel like I know what I'm doing and also have a safety net.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(You actually contributed to my novel anxiety--but in a GOOD and PRODUCTIVE way--with your story in Ideomancer--remember I said? BP's mom? The one who fed her dead baby to the coyotes? God I loved that, and I was like, THIS! What she's doing here! More of this is what I need at X spot!"

But I haven't gotten around to revising appropriately (I promise no cribbing your actual ideas--and actually, of course, it may not work anyway, but man, your story was inspirational) because I'm also still trying to finish up my second-annual-ghost-story-that-sprang-from-a-summer-trip. .... and now I'll remember to close the outer parenthesis.)

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Hey, I am totally happy and flattered that I could provide some story-fuel. I think that's one of the things we writers-on-LJ can do for each other.

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year. May all your novel dreams come to fruition.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's the year of no-more-excuses.

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

Count on my support.

Intertribal: Full Throttle

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, I love it! Now I just need to get me a motorcycle...

Rumor has it . . .

[selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com]

Totally off topic here, but last night we were watching the year-end Sucker Free Countdown on MTV2, and I laughed at this Ludacris song, "How Low."

'cause, hey, it's ballin' with the Candyman allusion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox-lfowevqA

Re: Rumor has it . . .

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

LMFAO. Seriously you do not know how hard I am laughing right now.

Extra funniness: asakiyume linked me to that song about a year ago in one of our rap discussions.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

I was unaware that you celebrated New Year's with the local Greek population.

Also, I got your present! Thank you! The candy canes broke, but they were still delicious.

There is altogether too much positivity on your LJ now (I say only partly seriously). I feel like I'm visiting some sort of support group or clique of female Reedies or something.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a tradition of only two years - we went to the Parthenon last year and then downtown, and this year we decided to skip downtown and just stay at the Parthenon. Less hassle.

Sweet (literally). I guess it's more of a (non-Chinese) New Year's present. Yours is still in transit.

Haha, sorry. It is being sort of a writers' support group, and I'm feeling positive about my writing right now for reasons mentioned in the post.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Never would've thought to do that.

It should arrive soon. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but I felt I needed to follow through on something I said...

Yeah, it's cool that you got published. I'm just sufficiently contrarian to wonder if support and/or acceptance are signs you're doing something wrong, rather than something right. Or maybe thought is itself a symptom of me feeling like an outsider here. Maybe it's a little of both.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

*that thought

(reworded the sentence, left out a word)

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

To go to the Parthenon? I mean, it's Christina's idea, since she knows everyone at the Parthenon. But there's a live band and dancing and plate-breaking, and it's very festive without being annoying like downtown is.

Oh dear. I'm sure it'll be fine, really.

I understand. I think the support isn't really a sign of anything other than my LJ-friends being supportive because they're my friends - the acceptances, there are cases when I would feel that, but I don't submit to markets/editors I don't consider to be doing good work. I feel like I'm just starting to be able to write the kinds of stories I want to write, from a conceptual and stylistic perspective, and I don't think I'm compromising on anything.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

That makes more sense.

haha.

That sounds good. I don't think I can judge, at least not for now.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Well, I would add: it's not just people being supportive, but the way you respond to them. I feel like you're trying to win a popularity contest. But I could be way off base. It's like, when I talk to you, it's the 'real' Nadia, but when I see you talk to them, I'm like, "Who is that? Do I know her?" It's a really weird feeling.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Well, I talk like I normally would with you, because I know you very well, and I'm sort of casual-conversational with LJ-friends (like I would be at a party). Usually if I'm talking about a "serious" topic I will talk the same way to everyone, but if it's a light subject then it's just small talk. Sorry if it comes off that way. Believe me, if I was trying to win a popularity contest, there's a lot of other things I'd be doing.