NaNoWriMo Day 8: The Other Side Is Shiny

Word count goal: 13,336

Achievement: 13,755

I’ve been freaking out over the past few days because I reached the point in my writing where I tend to put things aside. But I have good news! I beat through that horrible point where it was like trying to walk through molasses.  I put aside four novels earlier this year (well, technically one was a novella) because of this stupid molasses-point, but I broke though it! And I cam through shiny on the other side.

Tina and Tengu didn’t make it to their date. I sent Tina to school and she had a run in with Chelsea who’s dating Lachlan the hottie patottie, and turned into kind of a bully. Then I sent Tina to physics class hoping to send her to detention but she refuses to do anything that will get her in trouble like that! So I had to trick her. In physics class they were playing with a Van der Graaf generator, those big ball thingies that create static electricity. I barely remembered what it was like playing with one when I went to high school, so I spent about half an hour talking with hubs who has a diploma in forensics science so he’s done all this physics/chemistry/biology classes that I didn’t take in college but Tina is taking. They say ‘write what you know’ and I know nothing about the generator. So I had to research. And then I wrote a scene about what happened in the classroom when Tina accidentally reveals she’s not exactly normal.

It’s not a detention, which quite frnakly I wasn’t very happy with being my first peak point in the novel, so instead it’s come off as more of an accidental exposure issue.

If you can’t tell by the tone of this entry I’m quite jubilant, and rather happy that the novel is progressing. Hopefully I will get around to the Tina/Tengu date tomorrow! Those two need to get it on! (I might not be so happy tomorrow because I have to write romance and I’m not very good at it.)

NaNoWriMo Day 7: In Which I Almost Cry

 

A review of The Edge of Darkness is up on Gina’s blog, Fantasy Casting. We’re going to do a fantasy cast and an interview as well, so stay tuned for those!

Word count goal: 11,669

Achievement: 12,035

I can’t write romance. I can’t write this falling-in-love thing. I barely remember what it felt like to fall in love with my fiancée. As far as I am concerned I always loved him, I just hadn’t met him yet. I can’t draw on my personal experience because I’ve only ever been in two long-term relationships and I can’t even remember what it’s like to fall in love!

I can’t develop two romances at once because quite frankly Tina is aware that the hot guy Lachlan is being a jerkface and she doesn’t want anything to do with him. I feel like I’m being very mean to her when I make her think inappropriate things about the boy! And now that I’ve introduced someone who’s warning her off Lachlan, I can’t see Tina doing anything stupid like actually attending the planned party (second peak event) with him. I must make her more receptive to him!

I just can’t do this. I’m despairing.

I’m trying to tell myself that this is when I’d normally give up on a story and that I just need to keep going, but it’s hard.

Tina has another date with Tengu tomorrow, and they need to get very close very quickly. I want them to be almost dating by the time Lachlan’s party starts, so Tengu has a reason to go all alpha male on him.

Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMo Day 6: A Busy Little Bumble Bee (And I’m Being Interviewed! 2)

I’m being interviewed at Olsen Jay Nelson’s blog talking about The Edge of Darkness and NaNoWriMo! Go check it out.

Word count goal: 10,002

Achievement: 10,075.

I didn’t write a post yesterday because I didn’t make the word count. I missed it by about 200 words. My fiancée and I went out in the afternoon to socialise (for Guy Fawkes Night, which is a big deal in the UK) and didn’t get back until late, and by then I was too tired to write any more.

And tonight I’ve struggled a little with getting Tina to fall in insta-love with the hot Polynesian witch, but I think I’ve sorted it out now. I don’t want to say too much because I’ll spoil it, but I had already hinted at something when the same thing was suggested to me.

Tomorrow should be easier. I’m almost at the first peak of the three-act model, so I have to write quite a bit of conflict tomorrow.

At least I’m still on track. I’m not letting people charging ahead with their word count get to me because although they think it’s about quantity over quality, I refuse to stoop and write below my ability. I’m aiming for quality as well.

NaNoWriMo Day 4: The First Hurdle

Word count goal: 6668

Achievement: 7464.

I realised something as I struggled to write a scene. It was a scene where two people who know each other but don’t know each other very well attempt to get to know each other better with a hint of romance but oh-no-we-can’t-do-this-because-you’re-a-demon-and-I’m-a-demon-hunter. And every first attempt to write something, my heroine would say something snarky. I didn’t want her to, so I had to force her to be civil, if a little defensive and wary.

I didn’t want to do my words today. This is generally the time when I tend to put aside works in progress. It’s a struggle to get to double figures and then it’s a struggle to get past 10K.

Out of the four works in progress I have aside from NaNoNovel2011, I have 11K, 10K, 7K and 3K. And from what I remember last year, it was hard to drag my ass past that 10K barrier.

So my resolve for tomorrow is add conflict conflict conflict! I write good conflict. Luckily for me, that’s exactly what comes next according to my plan. Today was a slower scene and my god, was it hard to write.

NaNoWriMo Day 3: The Issue Of Race

My first novel, The Edge of Darkness, had a heroine of Filipino descent. She was the daughter of immigrants to Australia. I’m hyper aware of the issue of race. In my writing, the race issue if often softened because above being Filipino, Max was Australian. Australia is a very diverse country. At least 20% of the population are second generation immigrants and at least 25% of Australian residents are born overseas.

In NaNoNovel 2011 (still untitled as yet) my heroine is white. I can’t do anything to change that, and quite frankly I don’t want to. I’m happy with her being white. I’m not trying to change the world by having a white girl write every book with a lead from a different race. But I’m not happy with my entire book being filled with white characters, expecially in a culture as diverse as Australia.

So I made one of the hot love interest guys Polynesian (because oh my gosh have you seen Polynesian hotties? I love my Englishman but still). I wanted the guy that ended up winning Tina to be a skinny ginger nerd (because a skinny ginger nerd dating a Goth girl who could kill him with her pinky? Totally awesome). But I couldn’t reconcile the fact that the Polynesian guy (Lachlan) was going to come off second best to a white guy (Connor) while trying to win the affection of a white girl.

Sure, I’m more than capable of writing Lachlan as a decent guy but quite frankly, he’s not. He’s modelled on the Edward/Patch/Daniels of the world. I didn’t want the hot guy to win against the nerd. I wanted the nerd to win because quite frankly, nerds are hot. And nerds deserve more of a voice in young adult literature.

I couldn’t bring a reconcilliation into the whole white-girl-chooses-white-guy-over-racial-minority no matter how humanely I portray Lachlan. Even if I don’t focus on his race (they’re all Australian) there’s always going to be at least one person screaming RACIST at me.

So Connor the ginger nerd has been demoted and Tina’s love interest is now someone else. Someone of another racial minority. Someone whom her parents would kill if they found out she was dating.

Why?

Because he’s a demon.