I spent the first part of today’s mega-writing session writing a summary of what had happened so far and then making a bullet list of what needs to happen. Transitions are currently non-existent (they’re talking to this new character because…?) but I continue apace.
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I didn’t make it clear the other night (well, I mentioned it in comments, but who reads those?) I didn’t actually make 4000 words the other night. I made 2000 for the day as a whole, most of which were down at Coffee Society (a few more at home, later). I still haven’t had one of those “bursts” that so many other NaNoWriMo participants talk about, where the fire gets lighted and suddenly the words are vomiting out of them, 4,000, 5,000, 10,000 at a time. (A few have reported 10000 word sessions. 10000 words is 40 pages. Even if it were 40 pages of crap, that’s forty pages. Your hands would be in traction. Well, mine would be, at any rate.
Still, wouldn’t mind trying it, just to see.
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I discovered Laurell K. Hamilton has a blog, which is mostly about what she has accomplished with her writing in that day (usually somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twenty pages a day—that “conk” you hear is my head hitting the table), along with a few rants on various topics.
One of the (unintentionally, I assume) hilarious bits in her blog is when she complains about her characters running away from her outline for another sex scene. If you haven’t read any of Hamilton’s books—any of the later Anita Blake books, or any of the Merry Gentry series—go read some of the one-star reviews on Amazon. Many of her fans are evidently pretty sick of the endless sex scenes as well. One of the reasons I gave up trying to read her books was that if you took out the sex scenes, you wouldn’t be left with a story. I have nothing against sex in books—in fact, I’ve been known to seek it out on occasion—but it has to be a)hot and b)have a point. The last Hamilton book I picked up I sped-read. “Yes, yes, slot A, tab B, now tab A, slot B, now bring in a few more people into the bed, is there a plot anywhere here?”
The other thing I’m left wondering after reading her blog is: are all of those misspellings and editing errors in her books (which you’ll also notice from Amazon are legendary) simply from her original manuscript and left in because there’s no copyediting at the publishing houses? Or is it just a case of an author getting so prominent the publishers don’t dare change a word for fear of irritating the author into another house’s arms?
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Oh Good God. I’m trying to write at Starbucks today (can’t stay at home—the kids wouldn’t let me have a minute to myself), and the guy at the table behind me is sucking his teeth. I mean, he is making the loudest sucking noises, loud enough to interrupt the music I’m listening to through headphones. Ssst. Ssst. Sssssst. I’ve already turned around and glared at him once. He’s an old man, I guess it’s a tic he can’t control. Damn, it sure is annoying though, and he’s determined to read the entire fucking paper while making that horrible noise.
I’d move, except a)I was here first, dammit and b)this is the big table with the power outlet.
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Okay! He wins! I’m outta there. I have moved on to a local coffeehouse in town. Probably should have come here to begin with, given that I am so into supporting local businesses these days (and their coffee’s better), but I thought I’d take a walk on the wild side and visit Starbucks. Terrible idea! Much better class of person here. Also, a ridiculous quantity of the people here also have laptops and are typing away. I am one of a flock of weirdoes! (I wonder if any of these people are NaNoing.)
I am so happy you’re back writing (and so envious of that word count.) I have been procrastinating on a freaking stupid synopsis for an entire month. It only has to be ten pages long. Well, I’m on page 8 with half the book left to synopsize, so I’ll end up having to edit something I didn’t want to have to write to begin with. But your word count is inspiring me. Go you!