where his civilizations, including our own

So, catching up... Nano was pretty easy for me this year, which is why I didn't make a bunch of posts bemoaning the pain of it all. It was partly easy because of the format I picked -- a character writing his own memoir in the first person. Memoirs tend to have a fairly loose structure anyway, so it was easy enough to go off on tangents about different people and places. I managed to keep up the pace every day with minimal grumbling. I don't think what I produced was actually that good, but at least it wasn't painful!

Last year I struggled badly due to over-planning, so I went in with no plan this year, which I think also makes it easier. It's tempting to use Nano to work on a concept you've been nurturing for months/years, but I think it works better if you start with a fresh idea that you're not attached to. Next year I might just do it as "write 50k words in a month" rather than "write a novel", which isn't honestly a goal of mine anyway. Short stories are way more fun for me.

My Yuletide fic is going kind of okay. It's turning out plotty, or at least plotty by my standards, by which I mean... it has a plot. I'm writing way outside my usual genre, which is entirely my own fault and not something pressed upon me by my recipient, I hasten to add. I'm just making it difficult for myself, as usual. And having agonizing moments of certainty that everything I write is crap, interspersed with moments of less certainty of that fact.

I also signed up for wizard_love, because I was browsing the prompts and some of them were absolute genius. This should be interesting, because I'm sure I've forgotten a lot about HP canon. But the due date isn't until January 30, so the timing works. I believe claiming is open for a few more days.

How are you guys doing? YT and other challenge fics coming along?

Nano's going well for me. I've hit par every day and am not yet experiencing the inevitable hatred of my choice of subject and gnashing of teeth at the thought of writing one word more.

I happened to read this, and it's relevant:

"I am afraid I have never had time to wait for inspiration. If one waited for the right mood, or for things to occur to one, one would, I should imagine, do little or nothing at all. I cannot say that anything ever 'occurs' to me until I have the paper actually in front of me."
-Sir Arthur Sullivan

Yeah, all right, I'm doing Nano. This is me.

I wasn't sure if I was going to do it because I didn't have an outline ready, but I went ahead and started on an idea I've had kicking around for a few weeks. It's set in my conworld, though it is not, of course, actually in a conlang (title aside). It's about a female-assigned person in a Renaissance era society who ends up taking on the identity of a male eunuch. Lately I've become interested in how gender variant people deal/dealt with it in cultures where the transgender narrative doesn't exist -- there is no name for who you are or what you want, yet you still have to figure out some way of being in the world. (And let's be clear -- there are people in this culture whose gender identity is not adequately provided for by The Two Boxes.) I could go on about this but I'd better save it for the book.

Anyone else taking on the challenge this year?

Thanks for the snowflakes guyz! Very appropriate since I just saw snow fall for the first time. (I'd seen it on the ground, just not in the air.) Consider yourselves all snowflaked by me.

So NaNo is done, I did win. But I didn't really get the same rush of inspiration that I did last year when I was so busy and struggling to get it done. I think this year I spent too much time on it to get that frenzy of creativity, but not enough for it to be "good" like finished-good. So it was kind of a discouraging experience in that way, but at least I did it, and later if I want to turn that material into something good, it's not going anywhere.

Somewhat similarly I am done with posting a fic a week. The plan was to do it for a year, and I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think it's reached the point where it's counterproductive. I did write a few things that were good, but it has become evident that I can't and shouldn't write things quickly. They come out... um, bad. How embarrassing! Well, live and learn. Next year, how about Fic a Month?

And now to clean up to make room for forthcoming Christmas tree.

Finishing Nano later tonight. It was... well, I guess I can post about it when I'm done. This bit is actually from my first day of writing.

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( I've got a secret, said the girl on TV )

At 35k+, I have adopted a new title: Annoying Things That Really Happened, More Or Less, Grrr.

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( excerpt )

Oh snap, I failed last night. No words, so now I'm a day behind at 23,401. I think I can catch up today, though.

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( excerpt )

Still going, 13,338 right now. This excerpt isn't anything special, except for not being embarrassingly incoherent! Ah, Nano...

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( another excerpt )

Whoops, this was supposed to get posted yesterday, but the wifi kept flickering and I gave up.

My Nano's off to a decent start, keeping up the par pace for the first two days. It's going to be your standard sort of novel about regular people who frequently get emo about their problems. Exciting, I know! Since I did urban fantasy/adventure last year I thought I'd throw something different in the grinder.

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( excerpt )

My conlang thing is done and went over well, or at least no one threw rotten fruit at me, which means aaaaagh it's almost time for Nano to start. I was smart and wrote an outline already, though I can't imagine I'll end up following it.

TODAY: Chores.
TOMORROW: New Tales of Monkey Island!
SATURDAY: Trick or treating with stepkid.
SUNDAY: *flail*

Are the rest of you ready?