Friday, October 15, 2010

Useful things

Things that might be useful for clocking 1670 words a day for 30 days. Space, time, yoga practice, a cache of sweet treats, a pot of coffee and a scene by scene outline. Also enough baby food in the fridge so that I don't have to rack my brains over what she is going to have for lunch or dinner.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

This November

I am glad I registered two weeks in advance because it allows me to get all the boring stuff out of the way. Such as stocking the freezer with ready-to-eat stuff so that I don't have to waste precious time planning and cooking meals. One of the pep-talks I just read asks the writer to find a 'chip on her shoulder' which will not allow her a moment of peace till the shitty 50,000 word first draft is done. While I can think of a zillion things that would qualify as a 'chip', I ask myself why do I need something negative to egg me on something that I wanted to do all my life anyway? In fact, this is really the ONLY thing I really ever wanted to do. Everything else was either optional or in someway deemed as feeding that secret ambition. It just came back to me that for both my tenth and 12th standard board exams I actually wrote stories for the composition assignment. Who does that? When I got laid off, the first thing that came to my mind, even through the funk of shock and outrage was: finally I am free to do what I really want to do. This is by far the best thing that has happened to me. Honestly. But 50,000 words, a 15-month old baby and two years of mounting frustration later, I am only that close to fulfilling my dream. It seems that it is not enough to get 50,000 words on paper. It's more important that it make perfect narrative sense. That's a really tough call. But this November, I will give it that final "Do or Die" shot. I believe that the 50,000 words I have written so far are a stepping stone to something greater. In other words, they are not a 'waste' even though I might not be able to use them in this novel. Besides, as some people say, at the end of one's life, one never regrets not having spent more time at the office. I just don't want to get to the end of my life regretting that I didn't give this seemingly ridiculous novel writing business a fighting chance.

P.S The real reason why I am sitting up so late at night writing this blog is that my inner demons won't let me sleep. Is it just a coincidence that right at this moment, in another part of the world, some people are enthusiastically celebrating the slaying of another demon by an all-powerful goddess?

Pattern of Change

It's been a while since I blogged. That's because my novel has been languishing for 5-6 weeks owning to a drought of creative ideas. I was also developing a character designed to be a key figure who I couldn't seem to bring to life no matter how hard I tried. He just kept saying and doing pretty wooden things and boring me to death. And after a while I lost all interest in him. But last week saw a major break through. I hit upon a parallel story line, the 'story within the story' which has me bursting with enthusiasm again. In its wake, came a slew of fresh ideas. Now I have two new characters who seem more familiar to me than the previous cast.

This morning, my mother suggested that I join the http://www.nanowrimo.org/  to dedicate all my efforts towards knocking off a first draft of 50,000 words in the month of November. I totally fell for the idea and as of a few minutes ago, have registered for this online effort. Just the thing I needed right now! After my successes with WeightWatchers.com in early 2008, I am given to believe that I work well with such web based motivation tools. So here's to me!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite poets, e.e. cummings who wrote, "..for life is not a paragraph/ And death I think is no parenthesis."