NaNoWriMo, Pyjama Pants, and Adelaide

Hello faithful readers, and greetings from NaNoWriMo land, where I have just made my word count for day three with eight minutes to spare. This was mainly because I whittled away my Saturday thusly:

- Sleeping.
- Reading.
- Craft shopping.
- Supermarket shopping.
- Making pyjama pants (I just bought a sewing machine, and it is the best thing ever, I love it.)
- Making dinner. 
- Wondering when my bag of crap from 1-day will arrive.
- Eating a chocolate bar. 
- Wondering whether I am more productive on weekends when I have made a list during the week of things that I need to do during the weekend.
- Wondering how far into next week I will get before regretting not being productive this weekend.
- Not caring about the above two points, on account of the eight point. 


NB. In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I have decided not to proofread or edit my blog post. This may also be the spirit of laziness, but just keep that to yourself. 

In other news (when I wasn't either a) writing or b) distracted by my new shiny sewing machine and making pyjama pants) I tried playing around with making a cover image for this November's novel. I was pretty unsuccessful as I couldn't find any royalty free images that you don't need to pay for of the image I had in mind (a girl holding a globe), but I've come up with this, which I can see on the back of a book with a blurb underneath. (Tidied up and done by an actual graphics person, obviously.)

My story, in brief, is called The Girl Who Saved The World. It's about a nine year old who aspires to, uh, save the world. The problem? She's nine. Also, it's set in the real world, which is a much harsher landscape for would be superheroes than science fiction or fantasy are. And just to really kick the poor girl when she's down she has a sadistic teacher and horrible classmates who laugh at her and mock her for wanting to do good in the world. I don't think she'll let it deter her for too long though, and I'm sure she will achieve her goal by the time November comes to an end. 

Also, new pyjama pants:

With my laptop where I am working on THIS VERY BLOG POST in the background. How meta. 

NaNo has had an interesting start this year. Normally I go full pace ahead in the first few days, but this year I've only gone a couple of hundred words over the daily 1667 word count each day. Even today, which was Saturday - I didn't have to go to work. I didn't have to make pyjama pants. I did have to go to the supermarket, but that shouldn't take all day. So why so slow?

I was getting annoyed with myself, particularly when I'd sit down to write after having been on the bus reading. Reading was probably my first mistake - I started freaking out and asking myself 'why doesn't my book have fully developed characters? Exciting twists and turns? A complex plot? Why haven't my characters done anything yet besides go to school?'

Then my rational side returned and shoved my worrying side out of the way. 'Because it's NaNoWriMo. You know, that thing where you basically write a zero draft, not a completed manuscript. Where the plot always tends to work itself out around the middle of November. You've only got a few thousand words so far, and you had to start it at school - that's where the conflict sparks from.'

Clearly, I'd forgotten what I get out of NaNoWriMo. I get to hang out with other crazy people and write. I get to try out something I'm not used to - in this case, writing children's litereature. I get a completed draft, and it doesn't have to be perfect. Scratch that, it's definitely not going to be perfect. John Boyne wrote The Boy in Striped Pyjamas in something like three days, and I bet even that needed a little bit of editing. 

I continued to think about it, and realised that for whatever reason I'd been talking to quite a few non-writing people about my writing lately. And everyone always wonders when you're going to be published. That's a lot of expectation to heap on when you're doing NaNoWriMo. Because it's not like you can just finish a book and then get it published - there are so many hoops to jump through before publication is even a remote possibility. And not everything is written with publication in mind. But tell someone that you're writing a novel and they immediately think you're looking at publication.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have something published. But some novels are just written for fun. Some are written while you find your voice and learn your craft. All writing is great practice. Is it a waste of time to write a novel with no intent of publication? Of course not. Would you say it's a waste of time to go and play a round of golf if you're not playing in the PGA, or to paint a picture if you are just going to hang it up in your living room rather than in a prestigious art gallery? I hope not, and if you disagree then I fear you have some harsh realities about life coming your way! 

So I have cast off all shackles of expectation and embraced the crazy spirit that is NaNo once more. I will write without editing, without fear, with gaping plot holes, as fast as I can. Come November I will have a 50,000 word manuscript. It may end up being something that is worth developing more, or it may be something I can use as a doorstop. Whatever the case, I'm sure I will have learnt more and become a better writer. 

And now for something entirely different! Well, not entirely, it is still about writing. But it is not about NaNoWriMo.

I was cruising the internet the other day, as I often do, and stopped upon the website of my most favourite author ever Mr Scott Westerfeld. He had written that he (and the equally wonderful Justine Larbalestier) would be at the Adelaide Writer's Week in 2013. 

'Adelaide, ay?' I wondered. 'That's not too far away from me.'

The next day the program for the Adelaide Festival was announced online so I checked it out.   And lo and behold, Writer's Week also features my MA supervisor. Which is just crazy when you consider that Westerfeld was the subject of two thirds of my MA thesis. If you google their names the Adelaide Festival is the first search result, and my thesis is the second. I hope they meet. 

I've spent the past few days daydreaming about attending the week myself, trying to convince myself that it is probably not the smartest, most fiscal idea. Then I tell myself to stop being boring, suck it up and do a bit of overtime, penny pinch for a bit, and just go. Somebody should just tell me what to do. Validate my choice, either way. Anyway, I checked out airfares and they are a ridiculous $800 return, but the wisdom that is the internet (the wisdom of the crowd, in Westerfeld speak) tells me that specials for the next year tend to come up in December, so here's hoping ... it may actually be possible to go. 

Until next time, readers, here is a nanoism from the journey so far. For the uninitiated nanoisms are sentences that you write in a NaNo novel that are funny, awkward, and/or make no sense.

‘That was most enlightening’, Mrs Salter continued, waving her hand around in the air. (Which Aiofe’s older cousins had reliably informed her was what people did ‘when they just don’t care’). ‘Very fine aspirations indeed, though perhaps somewhat difficult to bring to fruition. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ve thought it through very thoroughly, haven’t you?’