It’s October! Where the hell does the time go? (Of course, for the people “stuck” in quarantine, they’re all wondering how I’m saying it’s October, when it’s clearly March 200th or some such.)
In the last month, there is not a whole lot to report. I have an announcement that I’ve been sitting on, but I don’t want to jinx it by announcing it just yet. So I guess I’m announcing that there is an announcement that has yet to be announced.
(Maybe I’m ready to write Jabberwocky III now, after all.)
But fall is here. The temperatures are starting to cool in much of the northern hemisphere (Texas should start its cool-down next month.)
October also means that in less than 30 days, that annual spectacle of fictional happiness begins. I’m talking about National Novel Writing Month, the event in which thousands of will-be novelists pound out 50,000 words in the first draft of a brand-spanking-new novel, providing entertainment for a new audience.
Or they crash and burn, because they find out the hard way that writing is work. They didn’t sign up for work.
Dean Wesley Smith will tell you that writing is not work. He will tell you that all you do is sit in a room and make stuff up. That’s fun, not work. Well, I’m here to tell you that I sit in a room and try to make stuff up, and not much lands on the screen at all. It takes mental effort and strain to put fiction down. That effort and strain are what I call work. May not be digging ditches, as the saying goes, but it’s not the ball of yarn the kitty in my brain likes to play with, either.
The point is… NaNoWriMo! Yay!
I will not be doing a podcast on it this year. If you REALLY need to be poked, prodded, and badgered, you can load the RSS feed into the feed-reader of your choice and listen to last year’s. Some things will be out of date, but most of the advice is still sound.
One thing that will be different this year is that NaNoWriMo is completely virtual! There are to be NO in-person events due to the global pandemic that still ravages parts of the world.
Here in my neck of the woods, we have been doing virtual write-ins via Discord since the pandemic started. I have attended my Sunday writing group more this year than I had in the four or five years I’ve been a member — combined. (I don’t like to get out much.) These virtual events have helped me keep to a regular blogging schedule, but I really miss being with my people and hugging them, and squeezing them, and calling them George. They tend to look at me funny when I do that, especially the ones not named George.
For me, the big draw to NaNoWriMo is getting together with folks, face-to-face, and writing in a room where everyone is there for the same reason. I like cracking jokes with bonetti, poking Titania on the shoulder while saying “bother” with each poke, and moving my hand in front of Nyx’s screen so she looks at me with grinning annoyance and kicks me under the table.
I understand the need to go virtual this year. Believe me–you’ve heard me yammer away ad nauseam about staying safe, wearing masks if you have to go out, and staying away if you can so we can kick this virus’s butt. Virtual write-ins will let me watch some people (who choose to be on camera) while they write. We can crack the occasional joke or have discussions on comic book movies.
But I can’t hug them when we sign off. I can’t “bother” them the way I like to. I can annoy them, but they can’t kick me afterward.
Then there are the special events that are my jam. We will not be writing in IKEA this year. We won’t be taking the train to Oceanside (though bonetti has a fascinating virtual idea on that one I’m interested to see play out). No writing at Disneyland’s Grand Californian Hotel and being irritated at constantly having to silence my music because the piano guy has started up again. (He’s good, but his music and mine do not mesh well.)
My biggest concern with Virtual NaNoWriMo, though, is that without the constant contact of my fellow writers, this will be the first time I do not win. These people motivate me. They egg me on. We encourage one another, celebrate our milestones, lament our setbacks. The virtual space gives us some of that, but I don’t know that it will be enough.
WRITING IN PUBLIC
As I expected, once I wrote a few words on my cover-inspired project, words would come. They’re awful, as is my norm, but there are a little over 2,000 of them. That doesn’t seem like much, since it has been about a month since I wrote my last post… but it’s more than I already had. That makes it a win in the Writer’s Handbook™.
One major difference between regular months and National Novel Writing Month is that I do not write every day. Not even close. In fact, my regularly scheduled writing day (Sunday, with the group) often has no writing attached. We gab for a bit, then while everyone else is writing, I surf the internet looking for interesting things to occupy my time while ignoring my open document. (Some days, like today, I open my blog file and type up an entry… but there are still three, sometimes four, weeks where I am supposed to fill it up with fiction words.
As with many things, it will come when I quit giving myself excuses and just do the durned thing. Until then, this Writing In Public segment will remain at zero.
Or, in this case, a little over 2,000 words that will probably need to be shafted in favor of a better story.
GAMING STUFF
The gang continues our Rise of the Runelords campaign in Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. We have begun Adventure 5 of the set, and some of the critters are big and bad. The good news is that some of the loot we’ve picked up is equally big and relatively good. My cleric character now has a spell that can resurrect a character who has died. Thus, while she continues to want to keep everyone alive, there is the fall-back that should a person fall in battle, we will not lose them.
We finished our last session with enough time left that we pulled out Zombie Dice, which I lost as usual. (Final Scores were: 14, 7, 4, and my score of 2. I succeeded in my goal of having a non-zero score!)
We will have at least one session this month (one of our group has a thing for one of our scheduled days), and we will wing it for November. I intend to make time for them, but they understand that I need to write a novel.
WRAPPING UP
Hello. I am Debbie Downer’s brother… Darren Downer. I would be pleased to meet you, but that would be counter to the premise of my existence.
But seriously, the primary source of any “downer”ness is my frustration with my own brain. It took years to come to terms with the idea that I am actually a writer (hobbyist though I be). To now be incapable of doing the one activity required to be a writer… it’s annoying.
Couple it with a world that’s falling apart around our ears… It’s a wonder anyone on this planet has any sanity left.
No matter the state of my mental health, I hope you are doing well. Please stay safe. Wash hands. Wear masks. All that hoopla.
AND, if you are in the United States (or anywhere there is an impending election), VOTE. It’s not only your right–it’s your duty.
Happy Halloween!