novah_11 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} novah_11) wrote,@ 2008-11-03 15:02:00 |
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NaNoWriMo goals
So far so good on my first ever NaNoWriMo!
I have a few solid goals that I'm going to work on over the next 27 days. One of which can be summarized by this article by Philip Pullman on the censorship of the His Dark Materials trilogy (one of my favorite books--considering it as a single book!) and how the attempted censorship of his writing by those who disliked his viewpoints has only increased sales.
I'd consider it a success if ... well the first success would obviously be to get published in the first place, but equally validating would be if the book-burners amongst us hated my book so much that they fought to keep others from picking it up. It would make me feel warm and fuzzy. So, I'm going to do my best to not shy away from my opinions and the issues I want to address.
My second goal is a more technical one. My biggest pet peeve when reading fiction is when the prose isn't derived from the point of view of the character from whose point of view the scene/story is meant to be told. What I mean is, if John is the main character, and John walks into a room where there's a bomb but John doesn't know there's a bomb, and the author writes, "John, not knowing about the bomb, walked into the room." Maybe it's just me, but I cringe every time something like that happens, and I've actually put books down and refused to finish when there are multiple offenses.
My approach is to be completely immersed in the POV character. Everything he or she thinks and notices, and nothing more, is written into the story. This has added an additional challenge, because instead of writing my scenes as if I am watching a movie, I really have to become the character. Another layer of challenge comes from the fact that many of my scenes are from the POV of non-human animals. And this isn't like The Lion King--I'm talking true-to-life animals. The book opens from the point of view of a crow, for instance. (A very black crow, haha...) I'm hoping at some point to work in a scene from the point of view of the secondary character's dog that has dialogue between the main & secondary character... and somehow indicate the point of the discussion that catches the dog's attention--namely when someone uses the word "hunting."
So far so good on my first ever NaNoWriMo!
I have a few solid goals that I'm going to work on over the next 27 days. One of which can be summarized by this article by Philip Pullman on the censorship of the His Dark Materials trilogy (one of my favorite books--considering it as a single book!) and how the attempted censorship of his writing by those who disliked his viewpoints has only increased sales.
I'd consider it a success if ... well the first success would obviously be to get published in the first place, but equally validating would be if the book-burners amongst us hated my book so much that they fought to keep others from picking it up. It would make me feel warm and fuzzy. So, I'm going to do my best to not shy away from my opinions and the issues I want to address.
My second goal is a more technical one. My biggest pet peeve when reading fiction is when the prose isn't derived from the point of view of the character from whose point of view the scene/story is meant to be told. What I mean is, if John is the main character, and John walks into a room where there's a bomb but John doesn't know there's a bomb, and the author writes, "John, not knowing about the bomb, walked into the room." Maybe it's just me, but I cringe every time something like that happens, and I've actually put books down and refused to finish when there are multiple offenses.
My approach is to be completely immersed in the POV character. Everything he or she thinks and notices, and nothing more, is written into the story. This has added an additional challenge, because instead of writing my scenes as if I am watching a movie, I really have to become the character. Another layer of challenge comes from the fact that many of my scenes are from the POV of non-human animals. And this isn't like The Lion King--I'm talking true-to-life animals. The book opens from the point of view of a crow, for instance. (A very black crow, haha...) I'm hoping at some point to work in a scene from the point of view of the secondary character's dog that has dialogue between the main & secondary character... and somehow indicate the point of the discussion that catches the dog's attention--namely when someone uses the word "hunting."
Should be fun!
edit: I used to begin these entries with whatever was under my Jones Soda bottle cap that day. I just got one that says "Keep expectations reasonable." Maybe it's a sign.
