Tag Archives: stacking

NaNoWriMo Update

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Lately it’s been a tradition for me to post the first batch of words I excrete in pursuit of NaNoWriMo glory. I don’t think I’m going to do that this year. For one thing, there’s already a similar story beginning in these pages (although I rewrote it), and, well, it’s just not gaining traction.

I had decided to do Topstar, a lo-tech adventure on an exotic planet, but at the last moment I switched to Gravity, the story of a woman with no past, who just knows she is not like the people around her. At 11:59 Halloween night, it just resonated better. So off I went. The problem with the latter, however, is that although it’s got one really good character, that’s all it has. I’m ahead on word count, but I’m still circling the plot like a prizefighter who has yet throw a punch. Not so great for the audience. So far I’ve been making up characters and throwing them in there to see if magic happens. Nurse: nope. Team of three doctors: nope, nope, nope. Private investigator: nope. There’s still an outside chance for the quiet and thoughtful latino gang leader, but in the end all hope rests on the Biker Cliché Who is Not What He Seems. Because there’s never been an urban fantasy with that guy before.

Words are flowing, however, at a pretty good rate, and that’s the point of this exercise. Get writing momentum back and turn it on Munchies. I’m writing scenes I normally would have trashed mentally before committing them, with a “see what happens, you can always delete it later” attitude. So after 50,000 words I can set this jumble aside and turn my new-found energy back onto the target that really deserves it.

Last night the beer was flowing as well, and I realized at the end of the night that my stacking instincts had kicked in. This photograph may be the most artistic thing I did last night, though the placement of the bottles is too symmetrical for my taste.

Perhaps the most artistic result of NaNoWriMo so far.

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Thanks!

A night of beautiful stuff

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It is five minutes until five, Central European time. The sky is still dark, and the streets are quiet. I’ve been walking for the last hour or so, making my way home from a bar called Tulip. I’m not sure how much of the story I will tell, not because of any salacious or embarrassing details, but because it’s the same story all over again.

… and that’s as far as I got writing the episode before I called it a night last night.

Anyway, Little John invited me to join him at his favorite haunt last night, and I accepted because it had been a while since I left the domicile. A friend of his was singing and playing at Tulip, and they serve a particularly good flavor of beer, so it was a promising evening. I arrived to find Little John there with some of his friends, and we were joined as well by fuego and MaK. By the time Mad Dog (he will not be a regular character here, and how he earned his nickname is Little John’s story and not mine, but by Mad Dog he shall always be known here) joined us, I had already built one minor stack. In marked contrast to the last time I was stacking objects in a bar, this time those at the table were fully supportive. When I started wedging coasters into notches in the salt and pepper caddy, the others at the table began to collect items for me to use. I got a couple of interesting stacks, but nothing spectacular. fuego has pics of my early-evening efforts, so maybe I’ll be able to put one up here.

The music was good, the beer was good, and all was well with the world. Singing along was not just tolerated but encouraged (at least by Little John), and I did some of that as well. Later on a rather astonishingly beautiful woman joined us from the next table over, and cuddled up with one of Little John’s friends. It turns out she’s American, and has moved here to teach at an international school. She’s been here a week. She was very happy with her sparkly shoes, and she wants to be a writer. We talked for quite a while. Somewhere along the way a different musician took over, and his mellower style fit with the advancing hour.

And that, really, is it. Rather sad to think that is the most interesting thing that’s happened to me in the last few days, but any evening that includes stacking things with no resulting disasters and talking to a pretty girl is right up there on the “pleasant evening” scale.

Thanks!