Been a Bit: Nano Update

It's been a while since I posted.

I got little to no views on my writing, which is fair. Blogs are a terrible spot to tell a story when other tools exist, so no more of KotEI here. Lorcan and company will now live on story-based websites.


I'm heading into NaNoWriMo and will be working on continuing my story with Molly Keating, "The Isthmus Gate." I've got it up on Wattpad and Fiction Press. Pick your poison. I'm presently re-posting the story with minor tweaks to get me to a starting point on Nov 1.

Wish me luck.

THE MONTH-LONG NOVELIST AGREEMENT AND STATEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING

I hereby pledge my intent to write a 50,000-word novel in one month’s time. By invoking an absurd, month-long deadline on such an enormous undertaking, I understand that notions of “craft,” “brilliance,” and “competency” are to be chucked right out the window, where they will remain, ignored, until they are retrieved for the editing process. I understand that I am a talented person, capable of heroic acts of creativity, and I will give myself enough time over the course of the next month to allow my innate gifts to come to the surface, unmolested by self-doubt, self-criticism, and other acts of self-bullying.

During the month ahead, I realize I will produce clunky dialogue, cliched characters, and deeply flawed plots. I agree that all of these things will be left in my rough draft, to be corrected and/or excised at a later point. I understand my right to withhold my manuscript from all readers until I deem it completed. I also acknowledge my right as author to substantially inflate both the quality of the rough draft and the rigors of the writing process should such inflation prove useful in garnering me respect and attention, or freedom from participation in onerous household chores.  

I acknowledge that the month-long, 50,000-word deadline I set for myself is absolute and unchangeable, and that any failure to meet the deadline, or any effort on my part to move the deadline once the adventure has begun, will invite well-deserved mockery from friends and family. I also acknowledge that, upon successful completion of the stated noveling objective, I am entitled to a period of gleeful celebration and revelry, the duration and intensity of which may preclude me from participating fully in workplace activities for days, if not weeks, afterward.

Signed: Tim Nutting
Date: 02-Oct-15

Novel Start Date: 01-Nov-15
Novel Deadline: 30-Nov-15
__________________________________

This is the pledge shown on the NaNoWriMo Prep Page, here:

http://nanowrimo.org/nano-prep

And yes, I signed it. So there. Shut up, inner heckler.

NaNoWriMo 2015

It is upon us once more. National Novel Writing Month is here in 31 blindingly fast days. Of course I'm going to try it again. This time I will win. I need  a story I can complete in 50,000 words, which is going to be a real challenge for me since I don't seem to get stories going below the 25,000 word mark.

I balked on Isthmus Gate because I didn't have the world building done yet. I chickened out on the Barsoomian Jephthah thing, but there's some impetus to go back to that. (It's one of my favorite Bible stories, full of outcasts who suddenly become useful to the powerful and has all the violence and war making you could want in a fantasy adventure.)

But maybe what I really want is this:

STARSHIP GENESIS

Humanity has survived the environmental and social catastrophes of the early 21st century. It was a narrow thing, but the move to send millions of humans into deep space to seed a distant star gave humanity enough breathing room to fix the problems.


The world is at peace, and more or less serene, but there is a secret. A long time ago, during the most tumultuous years of the changes that saved Earth and humanity, the ark ship Genesis learned that their generations-long quest would be a failure. Their home star was not suited for life. They chose to come home, and told Earth they were coming back.

That message was lost in the chaos, and now no one is listening to those channels.

But Genesis is almost home and a civilization of humans who were taught that Mother Earth was their destiny have come back to a world that can neither sustain them nor welcome them.

I more-or-less copied this from that TV show on Siffy (sorry, SyFy) "Ascension," which had a killer concept but betrays the whole set up 1/3 of the way through the story.

Now, conspiracy? Romance? Alien Invasion? All Three?

Hmmm...