Notes from Nanoland
06/11/2012 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThe serpent has been busy in Nanoland. Combined with the ritual of the annual visit to the spring garden festival down south, this has proved to be an interesting mix indeed
Had looked forward to the train journey but had the bad luck to get one of the few seats just behind a wall meaning that there’s not much leg room and no table. Also there was a squealing kid strategically located in the seat just behind the Izzie. He wasn’t even particular pesky as far as kids go but the constant wailing and whining and banging of the back of the seat was as annoying as hell.
Did try to tune out by rereading “No Plot, No Problem” but its effect was rather limited. This is a bad omen indeed to be such a neurotic nut job when this journey should be for relaxing and unwinding
Turned out there was at least two squealing beasties in each carriage. Was a murderous wreck by the time the train got to Bunbury. Could not get on the coach quick enough. It at least was half empty and full of oldies. Space, peace and quiet. What bliss. Also had the inspired idea of listening to music since the scenery is too nice to be wasted on a book and not wanting to risk motion sickness by doing something so silly
Listening to Lisa Gerrard was just the spookiness this serpent needed to switch into mystical magical mode. So silly not to have thought of this earlier. Figured too that it would be fun to see how many Dead Can Dance song (or album) titles could do double duty as chapter headings too. The Serpent’s Egg has already made an appearance
But there were side effects too of being in this state. Got to thinking that it seems a bit implausible to write a story about the most evil corporation in the universe with its headquarters in Melbourne and offices in Perth and even miserable Manjimup (yessss - this company really is that soulless and awful) To have three Australians and four Indians on the board of directors which has twelve in total plus the CEO is even more unlikely. Somehow the excuse that it is the serpent’s story and she can do whatever she damn well likes just did not cut the mustard. It’s sort of the story equivalent of the parent who constantly proclaims “Because I said so”
But then just the tiniest tweek came to mind. What if Megatherion Money Management isn’t actually the most evil corporation ever but is just a sad and pathetic bunch of wannabees with delusions of grandeur?
Now that turns out to be rather more close to the reality of the organization providing the original inspiration for this story but there were some interesting side effects. Suddenly the story had an engine and could start going places.
Big M wants to get bigger and badder and its board of directors are constantly plotting to invade Poland while a whole bunch of other characters are trying to prevent that happening
Then there’s the board of directors who are continually bickering and bitching about each other. There’s rumours going around that the big bad boss (one John Winston Smith) is going senile and every single one of them is scheming and plotting how to get the top job while appearing to be eternally loyal to their goblin master.
Now there’s a nice little gold mine of potential conflict.
So with all those possible plot points simmering away in the serpent skull plus a few visits to a seriously kitsch cafe and bric a brac store (the same one which provided a cast of characters and locations for last year’s adventure) got out the spiral notebook and emerald ink and started squiggling. The fountain pen is much slower than a horrid scratchy ballpoint pen. The whole point of this ritual is to be forced to write slowly and neatly. No point in churning out thirty pages like last year and then discovering they were almost indecipherable when sitting at the keyboard two days later
Between those two days and the journey back on the train with no squealing rampaging kids and half empty seats was able to not only squiggle some forty something A5 pages but had a whole pile of fun doing it
Not once was there any need to resort to the safety net of the 88 index cards. That may have something to do with bringing a certain character out of retirement. But his seedy plotting and scheming will have to stop or else the poor old toad will not even get two minutes as a creature feature. She is supposed to be the star of the show after all.
The lazy loser hasn’t gotten around to writing a single memo yet and she seems to have outsourced all the disciplinary action. Tomorrow it will be time to take that stuffed cane toad out from her little bag which she shares with the Thoth tarot and let her loose on those muses.
Enjoyed these unplugged writing adventures so much that it might be time to add a few more of them
Had looked forward to the train journey but had the bad luck to get one of the few seats just behind a wall meaning that there’s not much leg room and no table. Also there was a squealing kid strategically located in the seat just behind the Izzie. He wasn’t even particular pesky as far as kids go but the constant wailing and whining and banging of the back of the seat was as annoying as hell.
Did try to tune out by rereading “No Plot, No Problem” but its effect was rather limited. This is a bad omen indeed to be such a neurotic nut job when this journey should be for relaxing and unwinding
Turned out there was at least two squealing beasties in each carriage. Was a murderous wreck by the time the train got to Bunbury. Could not get on the coach quick enough. It at least was half empty and full of oldies. Space, peace and quiet. What bliss. Also had the inspired idea of listening to music since the scenery is too nice to be wasted on a book and not wanting to risk motion sickness by doing something so silly
Listening to Lisa Gerrard was just the spookiness this serpent needed to switch into mystical magical mode. So silly not to have thought of this earlier. Figured too that it would be fun to see how many Dead Can Dance song (or album) titles could do double duty as chapter headings too. The Serpent’s Egg has already made an appearance
But there were side effects too of being in this state. Got to thinking that it seems a bit implausible to write a story about the most evil corporation in the universe with its headquarters in Melbourne and offices in Perth and even miserable Manjimup (yessss - this company really is that soulless and awful) To have three Australians and four Indians on the board of directors which has twelve in total plus the CEO is even more unlikely. Somehow the excuse that it is the serpent’s story and she can do whatever she damn well likes just did not cut the mustard. It’s sort of the story equivalent of the parent who constantly proclaims “Because I said so”
But then just the tiniest tweek came to mind. What if Megatherion Money Management isn’t actually the most evil corporation ever but is just a sad and pathetic bunch of wannabees with delusions of grandeur?
Now that turns out to be rather more close to the reality of the organization providing the original inspiration for this story but there were some interesting side effects. Suddenly the story had an engine and could start going places.
Big M wants to get bigger and badder and its board of directors are constantly plotting to invade Poland while a whole bunch of other characters are trying to prevent that happening
Then there’s the board of directors who are continually bickering and bitching about each other. There’s rumours going around that the big bad boss (one John Winston Smith) is going senile and every single one of them is scheming and plotting how to get the top job while appearing to be eternally loyal to their goblin master.
Now there’s a nice little gold mine of potential conflict.
So with all those possible plot points simmering away in the serpent skull plus a few visits to a seriously kitsch cafe and bric a brac store (the same one which provided a cast of characters and locations for last year’s adventure) got out the spiral notebook and emerald ink and started squiggling. The fountain pen is much slower than a horrid scratchy ballpoint pen. The whole point of this ritual is to be forced to write slowly and neatly. No point in churning out thirty pages like last year and then discovering they were almost indecipherable when sitting at the keyboard two days later
Between those two days and the journey back on the train with no squealing rampaging kids and half empty seats was able to not only squiggle some forty something A5 pages but had a whole pile of fun doing it
Not once was there any need to resort to the safety net of the 88 index cards. That may have something to do with bringing a certain character out of retirement. But his seedy plotting and scheming will have to stop or else the poor old toad will not even get two minutes as a creature feature. She is supposed to be the star of the show after all.
The lazy loser hasn’t gotten around to writing a single memo yet and she seems to have outsourced all the disciplinary action. Tomorrow it will be time to take that stuffed cane toad out from her little bag which she shares with the Thoth tarot and let her loose on those muses.
Enjoyed these unplugged writing adventures so much that it might be time to add a few more of them
