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Good-bye Week Two


Yesterday was a frustrating day for so many reasons I don't know. Really. I don't know why I was so frustrated.  I mean I get that I want to cut my  novel into little bits, shred it and either use it for Chinchilla bedding or burn it - but I don't know if all that frustration came from my novel - but then I sit back and realize it really did.  I was really in need of one of the weekly or bi-weekly pep-talks the Office of the Letters and Light send out (OLL is the governing body that organizes and operates NaNoWriMo).  I checked my mail several times hoping for some bit of wisdom to push me out of this funk.  Posted a great rant in both the over-achiever forum and the NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul forums; the second I was a bit wary of because my writing is currently sitting at about 65K and when I bemoan my own issues with my novel people seem to roll their eyes and get snippy with me because I've already reached 50K - and it's my first NaNo.  The over achiever forum I really want to hug and squeeze; it's other people like me who have either found their novels are much longer than they'd anticipated or else set those astronomical goals themselves.  


Anyways! I got my pep-talk email this morning from Maureen Johnson, author of a lot of books I've never picked up - and that makes me sad to say that now! Her pep-talk email was beautiful and really fitting; I guess week two of NaNo really is this point where everyone sort of tanks.  


I spent yesterday listening to a lot of podcasts from Writing Excuses which features fifteen minute talks on a subject of the writing industry, process or whatever and has at least one person I'm very excited to listen to talk; Brandon Sanderson.  Who is Brandon Sanderson?  Well for anyone who reads the Wheel of Time books he is someone to pay attention to since Robert Jordan, the original author, passed away because now Brandon and Robert's widow are finishing the epic book series.  I have yet to read any further than the 10th or 11th book, can't recall which but it was the last written by Jordan himself; I sort of don't want to get reinvested in a series that isn't finished yet.  I want to wait until Brandon's finished them and then go out and buy the newest box set and take a month off work and reread what I've read and read what I've been waiting to read.

None of that has anything to do with the point of talking about Writing Excuses podcasts... Anyways!  I have never listened to podcasts before but I found theirs so interesting I went back and listened to, well, a lot.  Some of the things they said I smacked myself over the head for NOT doing and scribbled away notes and did a bit of brainstorming myself; didn't make me feel a whole lot better but at least I got some shiny new tools to play with.  One of their podcasts dealt with story telling and how sometimes, such as in the case of the Appolo 13 mission, we all knew how the story ended when we went to see the movie - so in order to make that story a success, the story had to be about more than just the shuttle going around the moon and coming home.  It had to be about people and their individual stories and giving the entire event an almost sentient quality.  

Now what was so ironic about this was that last night I went to go see Race Across the Sky, a movie about the Leadville 100 mile bike race.  It's possibly the most gruesome bike race of it's kind, asking bikers to master all sorts of terrain and in usually horrible circumstances; yet every year 1400 people start out at the starting line, roughly 80% will finish, but not all of them in the time limit.  I'm unsure of how many "officially" finish each year.  For the last six years a man named David Wiens has won it against impossible odds and has become something like Leadville's champion; in the movie you see people wearing green shirts that say Go Dave! Because no one has ever done what he's done!  The previous two years ('08 & '07) Tour de France champions have come to race this non-road race and have been handed their treads handily by the older David.  These champions have included Lance Armstrong by the way; well this past year ('09) Lance wanted another go.  We all know Lance Armstrong and his disgustingly inspiring story (I say that with a smile on my face and great respect for him.) and that he doesn't take loosing too well.  Beyond the people, I think the film crew did an okay job of making this movie about a race that anyone who went to see it - knew how it ended - but making it not only about the racers, primarily David and Lance, but about the town and how a bike race saved their economy, how the race has a life of it's own and how hard it can be.  Cyclists start off in very cold weather and have the possibility of scorching heat, freezing cold, wind, sleet, snow, hail and rain that could face them.  It was a good, inspiring movie - except my mother chatted away during the whole thing.  Not sure why she wanted me to come along...

Anyways, good story telling is inspiring and that was an alright job.  My pep-talk really helped me this morning and I should cross 70K today.  I have the reigns of what I want to happen in my story and I have to make it happen.  This might be a project that once it's done gets trashed and I pray I'll forget it but finishing it is important.   

[Edit] Oh my....I just realized Robin McKinley is going to do a NaNo pep-talk..... I read her Hero and the Crown and Blue Sword books several times over when I was younger and have been feeling the need to find and reread them recently.... I might die happy now.  :)

Friday, November 13, 2009 | Labels: , , , , , , , , |

 

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Grew up traveling to rodeos with my parents. I've gone across the world thanks to my gypsie feet. I feel sometimes like I've done everything & nothing. I've played roller derby, traveled parts of the world, have four degrees. I've done some things most people will never do in their lives & still I want to do more. I want to work with orphans & teenagers again. I'm a Christian. I have a lot of tattoos. I like art therefore I want to be art. I love people. I started writing years ago when I was a kid. I think at the time it was an outlet for me; I found escape in my word & the worlds I created. Eventually I just started to like creating stuff & that's when I started sharing it with other people. Now I think I write every day. I want to do NaNoWrMo this year. I'm also learning how to knit. I think I'm on my way to being an eccentric old woman who runs around the world doing silly cazy things and knitting while she does them. Be on your guard I have knitting needles!

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