Blog on the Lillypad
Sunday, November 07, 2004
NaNoWriMo is one week old today!
I am on schedule to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month (though the real challenge will be meeting the quota while at the Doctor Who convention at the end of the month). At this point, STANDARD CHRISTIAN is not as interesting as SECRET RADIO, but I've had some good reminders and ideas over the last two days, and I hope to make changes that will keep it pertinent.
I've been evaluating excerpts by other writers on the NaNoWriMo site. So far I've done about 30 excerpts. My two observations may seem like a paradox, but here they are:
1) I'm amazed at how incredibly bad so many excerpts are, and
2) I'm amazed at how incredibly good so many excerpts are.
In the halls of Doctor Who Fanfiction, I learned that being derivative is a constant threat and enticement to the unwary. And that's the greatest problem in the NaNoWriMo losers category. They are not writing anything new. Rather, they are dredging up and remixing popular books, most notably JRR Tolkien's stuff. They even imitate his language, and so it comes off twice as bad because Tolkien did a better job writing Tolkien than anybody else is going to do. [Derivative Story] + [Hackneyed narrative] = [One Bad Novel]
Yet there are very few of these hopeless stinkers. Many more excerpts fall into one error or the other, but not both. The biggest problem was a good plot told with cliched language and way too much authorial presence. A novel is a drama. It's a drama on paper. It's not a textbook. So if it reads like a textbook (with the author explaining everything), it will be dull, no matter how excellent the ideas. The actors have to play out the story, and they have to impart most of the information to the reader.
Then again, when you consider how many of these people are writing a novel for the first time, I was amazed at how many excerpts were just so good. One young lady had a great opener about two teenagers out on the snowy slopes (guy and girl). It was vivid, fresh, intriguing, and had great realistic detail about snow boarding. Snappy, witty dialogue perfect for teenagers. I was sure this was going to be a great mystery-adventure with these two likable kids. Then she introduced a third character, a guy, and sent it off into a teenybopper romance. I really lectured her. I scolded, and I pleaded. All that talent. A teenybopper romance! D'oh! (slaps forehead.)
One fellow has really captured the Chandler-type narrative for his story, but his main character is a land-of-the-dead type, with only echos in his mind of having once been human. It sounds hokey, but the dark, terse, brooding narrative worked, and it was a frightening and yet a very "film noir" beginning to the book. I really think he can get that published.
The other thing that surprised me was the level of profanity in some stories. Not anything believable either, just blue language strewn around. Nothing replaces tight narrative, not even explosive cuss words. Going for shock is not shocking. It's trite. Even being offensive requires that people take you seriously, and I don't take needless cussing seriously. I think it's merely juvenile.
So it still comes down to the basics of good writing:
A logical and fresh plot
Clear, tight wording with vivid images
Highly individual characters
I am on schedule to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month (though the real challenge will be meeting the quota while at the Doctor Who convention at the end of the month). At this point, STANDARD CHRISTIAN is not as interesting as SECRET RADIO, but I've had some good reminders and ideas over the last two days, and I hope to make changes that will keep it pertinent.
I've been evaluating excerpts by other writers on the NaNoWriMo site. So far I've done about 30 excerpts. My two observations may seem like a paradox, but here they are:
1) I'm amazed at how incredibly bad so many excerpts are, and
2) I'm amazed at how incredibly good so many excerpts are.
In the halls of Doctor Who Fanfiction, I learned that being derivative is a constant threat and enticement to the unwary. And that's the greatest problem in the NaNoWriMo losers category. They are not writing anything new. Rather, they are dredging up and remixing popular books, most notably JRR Tolkien's stuff. They even imitate his language, and so it comes off twice as bad because Tolkien did a better job writing Tolkien than anybody else is going to do. [Derivative Story] + [Hackneyed narrative] = [One Bad Novel]
Yet there are very few of these hopeless stinkers. Many more excerpts fall into one error or the other, but not both. The biggest problem was a good plot told with cliched language and way too much authorial presence. A novel is a drama. It's a drama on paper. It's not a textbook. So if it reads like a textbook (with the author explaining everything), it will be dull, no matter how excellent the ideas. The actors have to play out the story, and they have to impart most of the information to the reader.
Then again, when you consider how many of these people are writing a novel for the first time, I was amazed at how many excerpts were just so good. One young lady had a great opener about two teenagers out on the snowy slopes (guy and girl). It was vivid, fresh, intriguing, and had great realistic detail about snow boarding. Snappy, witty dialogue perfect for teenagers. I was sure this was going to be a great mystery-adventure with these two likable kids. Then she introduced a third character, a guy, and sent it off into a teenybopper romance. I really lectured her. I scolded, and I pleaded. All that talent. A teenybopper romance! D'oh! (slaps forehead.)
One fellow has really captured the Chandler-type narrative for his story, but his main character is a land-of-the-dead type, with only echos in his mind of having once been human. It sounds hokey, but the dark, terse, brooding narrative worked, and it was a frightening and yet a very "film noir" beginning to the book. I really think he can get that published.
The other thing that surprised me was the level of profanity in some stories. Not anything believable either, just blue language strewn around. Nothing replaces tight narrative, not even explosive cuss words. Going for shock is not shocking. It's trite. Even being offensive requires that people take you seriously, and I don't take needless cussing seriously. I think it's merely juvenile.
So it still comes down to the basics of good writing:
A logical and fresh plot
Clear, tight wording with vivid images
Highly individual characters
