A Post Mortem
30/11/2013 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaSo in this bit of Oz there's less than two hours left of November. Could be spending some of that time tossing some extra words on the Nano novel pile but decided to just slink about in Cyberia instead
The theory was that doing some proper plotting, planning and outlining during July would pay off in November but not so much that there would be no story left to tell
November would be about joining all the dots and making sense out of all the little bits of the big jigsaw puzzle. Weaving a seamless story from the stash of existing snippets, filling in the plot holes and tidying up the knots and other loose ends
That was the map but the territory turned out to be totally different
For the first time since 2006 did not spend the first weekend of November on the annual pilgrimage to "Eden Vale" to visit the annual Country Gardens festival
So no two hours on the train getting into a strange trance like state, no afternoons of sipping coffee in one very kitsch cafe being so inspired by the surroundings that the pen could not keep up with the musings of the ancient serpent brain cells and then returning to the Lair on Monday evening to type it all up. That bit was always the most tedious but the big fat word count sort of set the scene for the rest of November
So this year's story "Death is not the end" could be summed up in one sentence as
"The past returns to haunt the victorious leader who saved his nation from the Zombie Apocalypse"
After doing a Snowflake outline along with character notes and lists of scenes for more than half of the story, the writing itself should have been a breeze
It was a struggle just to get the daily quota of 1,666 words let alone building a buffer by aiming for 2,000 instead
Yes. It looked like the zombies had invaded the Izzie brain. But giving up was not an option. Would just have to keep plodding, turning up for those 1,666 every day and hoping that the muses would finally drop by but the crazy playful inner serpent seemed to have lost her voice and was nowhere to be found
Oh well. So much for the grand plans. Looks like the magic meant to glue all the bits together is just not happening so will have to make do with making lots more bits and pieces so that at least there will be something for the inner editor to work with after November and maybe then the muse will pay her long overdue visit
So since the muse was proving to be particularly elusive had to resort to the sneaky old trick of just grabbing a deck of cards, picking one and writing 200 words. After a couple it was usually possible to steer events in the direction of something vaguely related to the official story
But this wasn't any old deck but one of Kat Black's amazing creations. She uses Renaissance and Baroque artworks from the masters and combines them so skilfully that you would think that all the pictures are originals
There were scenes of angels and demons, dragon slaying knights on horseback, crumbling towers, peeved Popes and golden bulls amongst others
So it was sort of strange using a tarot deck to generate ideas and ending up with a whole bunch of Bible stories, conspiracies, espionage and witch burnings.
The main character being a power hungry man on a mission to rid the nation of God botherers and zombies combined with endless Biblical scenes made for an interesting combination
There were already zombie plagues and other abominations in the original outline so what's another snippet or two from the Good Book between scenes? Toss in a whole bunch of monuments to Mammon including an office block tower or two and then all hell can break loose
But things got kind of creepy on Friday 22nd. There had been endless discussion and commemoration of the anniversary of a certain assassination and a very bitchy first week of the new parliament in Canberra
This might be an auspicious time for a call to arms rallying the masses against the incompetent government that is doing nothing to stop the shuffling hordes from swarming the city
So the main character and soon to be zombie slayer whose name is not Clive Palmer is peppering his call to arms with countless unattributed quotes from John F Kennedy and a certain Tony Abbott
This stuff just seemed to come out of nowhere. Even Abraham Lincoln wanted in on the act and some 4,000 words later the main character was casting out the God botherers and zombie lovers from the Temple of Mammon
That day and the few that followed were the sort that make November a month to remember. The all important word count diverged from the dreaded line of duty. Not only was it effortless but lots of fun too and probably the best stuff so far in this strange tale
So in the end did manage to reach the finish line with days to spare which then needed to be spent catching up on other neglected business.
So now there's certainly sufficient raw story material but the main aim of November never was achieved. Putting it all together, pacing it properly and joining the dots in the attempt to create a seamless story will now have to wait for some other time and some other place
Maybe it is finally time to start finishing things
The theory was that doing some proper plotting, planning and outlining during July would pay off in November but not so much that there would be no story left to tell
November would be about joining all the dots and making sense out of all the little bits of the big jigsaw puzzle. Weaving a seamless story from the stash of existing snippets, filling in the plot holes and tidying up the knots and other loose ends
That was the map but the territory turned out to be totally different
For the first time since 2006 did not spend the first weekend of November on the annual pilgrimage to "Eden Vale" to visit the annual Country Gardens festival
So no two hours on the train getting into a strange trance like state, no afternoons of sipping coffee in one very kitsch cafe being so inspired by the surroundings that the pen could not keep up with the musings of the ancient serpent brain cells and then returning to the Lair on Monday evening to type it all up. That bit was always the most tedious but the big fat word count sort of set the scene for the rest of November
So this year's story "Death is not the end" could be summed up in one sentence as
"The past returns to haunt the victorious leader who saved his nation from the Zombie Apocalypse"
After doing a Snowflake outline along with character notes and lists of scenes for more than half of the story, the writing itself should have been a breeze
It was a struggle just to get the daily quota of 1,666 words let alone building a buffer by aiming for 2,000 instead
Yes. It looked like the zombies had invaded the Izzie brain. But giving up was not an option. Would just have to keep plodding, turning up for those 1,666 every day and hoping that the muses would finally drop by but the crazy playful inner serpent seemed to have lost her voice and was nowhere to be found
Oh well. So much for the grand plans. Looks like the magic meant to glue all the bits together is just not happening so will have to make do with making lots more bits and pieces so that at least there will be something for the inner editor to work with after November and maybe then the muse will pay her long overdue visit
So since the muse was proving to be particularly elusive had to resort to the sneaky old trick of just grabbing a deck of cards, picking one and writing 200 words. After a couple it was usually possible to steer events in the direction of something vaguely related to the official story
But this wasn't any old deck but one of Kat Black's amazing creations. She uses Renaissance and Baroque artworks from the masters and combines them so skilfully that you would think that all the pictures are originals
There were scenes of angels and demons, dragon slaying knights on horseback, crumbling towers, peeved Popes and golden bulls amongst others
So it was sort of strange using a tarot deck to generate ideas and ending up with a whole bunch of Bible stories, conspiracies, espionage and witch burnings.
The main character being a power hungry man on a mission to rid the nation of God botherers and zombies combined with endless Biblical scenes made for an interesting combination
There were already zombie plagues and other abominations in the original outline so what's another snippet or two from the Good Book between scenes? Toss in a whole bunch of monuments to Mammon including an office block tower or two and then all hell can break loose
But things got kind of creepy on Friday 22nd. There had been endless discussion and commemoration of the anniversary of a certain assassination and a very bitchy first week of the new parliament in Canberra
This might be an auspicious time for a call to arms rallying the masses against the incompetent government that is doing nothing to stop the shuffling hordes from swarming the city
So the main character and soon to be zombie slayer whose name is not Clive Palmer is peppering his call to arms with countless unattributed quotes from John F Kennedy and a certain Tony Abbott
This stuff just seemed to come out of nowhere. Even Abraham Lincoln wanted in on the act and some 4,000 words later the main character was casting out the God botherers and zombie lovers from the Temple of Mammon
That day and the few that followed were the sort that make November a month to remember. The all important word count diverged from the dreaded line of duty. Not only was it effortless but lots of fun too and probably the best stuff so far in this strange tale
So in the end did manage to reach the finish line with days to spare which then needed to be spent catching up on other neglected business.
So now there's certainly sufficient raw story material but the main aim of November never was achieved. Putting it all together, pacing it properly and joining the dots in the attempt to create a seamless story will now have to wait for some other time and some other place
Maybe it is finally time to start finishing things
