Man, don’t you just hate it as a writer when one of your characters is a lot smarter than you were when you plotted the scene and basically says, “Of course I’ve figured this out, I’m not an idiot” and drags the plot behind them like the bad guy being dragged behind the sheriff’s horse?
Yesterday, I tweeted this out:
Day 1 of #nanowrimo2021, and, with my @muskrat_john "Writing: A Bad Day / A Good Day" mug in hand, kicked out my daily word count. Must be a Good Day! Huzzah!https://t.co/7MQv73sQog
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) November 2, 2021
Referring to this John Kovalic Dork Tower strip, which I bought on a coffee mug several years back, and is a perennial at NaNo season (or when I’m in my writing group):
I was hoping that Kovalic would see it and smile and maybe even Like it.
He did Like it. He also RTed it, which was cool
He also added that the mugs weren’t available any more, so maybe it was time for another run. Which I gave a hearty thumbs up and comment to, because mine has been fading in the dishwasher the past few years, and I would very much like another.
Well, not specifically on NaNoWriMo, but it sure fits:
I think that applies to why a lot of folks (cough) do their writing primarily during NaNoWriMo season. It also ties into some of the dynamics that go on during NaNoWriMo, especially as the end of the month draws nigh.
(via Holy Kaw)
From the news:
SAN FRANCISCO—Noveller, the online macroblogging service that lets users post their impromptu narrative ruminations on modern life, society, and the nature of existence itself, celebrated its millionth post late last week, officially making it the world’s most popular prose-sharing tool.
Social media experts said they’re not surprised so many people have subscribed to the exciting new site, as it’s the only online service in which users can post a major multivolume epic in the morning, and have it read, critiqued, and reNovelled by thousands of other people around the world before lunch.
“You know, before we came up with Noveller, we had all these friends creating these great 75,000- to 300,000-word works of fiction, but there was no quick, easy, fun way to share them,” cofounder Chuck Gregory said. “To be honest, we were stunned there wasn’t already anything like it out there. It seemed so obvious.”
At 10 a.m. Pacific time on Mar. 13, Gregory and his team of programmers launched Noveller. By 10:03 a.m., the first-ever Noveller post—a primitive but vigorous account of an insurance salesman who becomes obsessed with his father’s boyhood on a Philippines naval base—was put up by user johnnyK_67.
Within an hour, more than 300 user-generated “Novels” had been posted.
Read the whole thing, and be sure and visit the Noveller home site to sign up for your own account!
Okay, I have to share another Inkygirl cartoon:
I have mixed feelings sometimes about folks reading my writing — both terror of rejection and eagerness for praise (Insecurities ‘R’ Us)*, but I cannot abide someone watching over my shoulder as I write.
It’s not just a matter of someone noting all my typos and spelling errors (though that’s irksome enough). It’s because when someone’s watching over my shoulder, I find myself wondering more how they are reacting to it than focusing on the creative process itself. Creation, like procreation, is probably best done privately, though it’s fine to show off the results of both to friends.
* That all said, I very much appreciate constructive feedback, even if it’s critical. Critical stuff I can stand (because I can analyze it and agree or disagree with it). Subjective rejection (“Sorry, it’s just not my cuppa”) is fine, too. It’s the “This writing sucks, and the horse the writer rode in on” sort of thing that I get all anxious about receiving, even though when I do receive it, it tends to simply make me determined to go better. I didn’t say this was a rational bundle of feelings.
Inkygirl opines on editing as you go:
Yup, that’s just about the size of it. Or, as Voltaire put it, the perfect is the enemy of the good. And certainly of the copious.
Elsewhere in the cartoon world, PvP is doing a series this week on NaNoWriMo.
(by Jack Ziegler at the New Yorker, via Cartoonbank, which will put this on a t-shirt or matted print, hint-hint …)
The day dawned much like any other day, except that the date was different.
The 2004 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winners are hereby announced.
(via Ipse Dixit)
