My marbles are in danger. Serious danger. I don't have any idea what possessed me to try to write a novel in a month with everything else that I have going on in November. I'm making progress but I don't think that I'll actually have a novel when I'm done and hit the 50,000 word mark. I think that what I'll have is a bunch of really interesting scenes featuring the same characters with big gaps in between that I can then go back and flesh out into a novel at a later date. And apparently according to the NaNo pep talks that's alright. This challenge is more about getting the ideas on paper as a first draft than it is about crafting a complete and compelling story that would be ready to shop to a publisher as soon as I type THE END.
It's a weird way to work, but in some ways it's very freeing. My inner editor hasn't reared her head even once in the process. My inner worry wart has made a couple of appearances when I go a couple of days without adding to my word count but I just give her a cookie and she shuts up.
But the weirdest thing is that I've actually written a bunch of new stories this month and submitted them to magazines.
I had an awesome day Monday when I found out via email that three of my pieces will be published in December and January in different magazines. And a fourth piece is slated for publication both online and in a print anthology at the end of 2010.
So I'm producing like mad and being published fairly prolifically.
Huh.
Maybe having my marbles shaken loose by the madness of NaNo is a good thing after all.
14 comments:
You are a literary hit! Nano works in mysterious ways. Congratulations!!!
See, this is what happens.. nano focuses you and makes you productive, which hooks you into wanting to do it again and again. (Crystal meth for writers)I got so hooked I did a marathon twice in one year (the writers site i belong to does them too). Freaking fabulous.
But of course losing ones marbles is a side effect of such productive creativity. (You might get them back unless you decide to do an April marathon as well...)
Strike while the irons hot - and get as many stories out of you and into the hands of magazines/ezines as you can!
AND congrats you super prolific published writer you!
Now go see the pic I sent you... :-)
Congrats! I think that losing one's marbles is the best way to be a prolific writer. :)
Thanks Laura! I'll just make sure that I hold tight to my favorite catseye....cause it's my shooter.
:0)
Cat the puppy could NOT have been cuter. Somehow you got some other things in the photo that almost killed me. Summer in New Zealand....now there's an awesome sight.
And no, after NaNo I'm going to just say no to drugs....
:0)
Thanks Judy! I still can't believe that I'm doing it. But it does seem to be shaking a lot of stuff loose. Spending so much time inside the head of an alien and on a whole different planet has caused me to write really dark literary stuff when I'm not writing the scifi....it's a weird combination for my brain..... kinda like cauliflower and chocolate ice cream....I like them both...but didn't think that I could have them at the same time.
:0)
Ok, I just broke the 20K mark.
Handsprings, cartwheels and a few woo hoos!
Now I'm going to step away from the keyboard for a bit.
:0)
Congrats ... three times! And I'm not a bit jealous. Really. I'm not.
Okay, before commenting on the actual post I have to ask: did you eat cauliflower and chocolate ice cream at the same time?
I'm so happy that you're on a roll and have so many stories typed in, published, plus the scenes of your novel, I can't wait to read!
(Did you also invent cool speech (terms) for those aliens?) :)
Rooty tooty whoo hoo! 20,000 words is... a dang lot of words. Wonderful. Congratulations on all writing fronts. Look at you charging ahead! It's incredible! *tosses hat in air, followed by other people's hats*
*runs away from angry hatless people*
Send me the links when all that forthcoming stuff gets published. I want to reeeead it.
ps. Am not dead! Just swallowed up in busy. Trying very hard not to spend too much idle time on the Internet, or sitting on the couch looking through flyers for Giant Eagle and CVS (they fascinate me. Why?). So off I go to exercise, make dinner, and writewritewrite!
I'll be able to autograph and send you a hard copy of at least one of them Lauren. Boy will that be fun. And believe me there will be hyping of the stories in each of the mags at publication....laughing...
Laura Eno, Alan Baxter and I will all be in 52 stitches together. That one is so cool it's 52 stories published one a week and at year end there's an anthology with all 52 authors. Aaron Polson is the driving force behind 52 stitches and he's an amazing writer. I just read some of his stuff at Everyday Fiction and it just blew me away.
I love the idea of you stealing other folks hats and throwing them in the air too.
You're so sweet to be thrilled for me!
Hugs honey!
Karen :0)
oh and ps....glad you're not dead
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Hi Estrella!
The aliens mostly relied on telepathy for communication at first. It made it easier...lol
Re: weird food...although I have had cauliflower with my breakfast...I've never mixed vegetables and ice cream.
Thank you for the congrats Linda, so sweet of you!
:0)
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