NaNoWriMo Day 5 – Also Guy Fawkes Day

On November 5, 2011 By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo2 Comments

First, Happy Guy Fawkes Day! It doesn’t get much press in this country, but it’s one of my favorite holidays. I mean, really–a holiday where you light a bonfire, commemorate an obscure bit of British history and, in recent days, celebrate fighting for individual freedom. It’s a great holiday.

On to the main topic. By objective measurements, a perfectly acceptable day. Today’s word count was 1,718, for a total of 8,550, putting me about 200 words up on the overall goal. By subjective measurements, it was inexplicably a more satisfying day than yesterday. I wrote about 60 words less, but I think they were more important words for moving the story forward. I wrote most of that pivotal scene I was up to, settled up my second big chunk of backstory, and introduced a whole slew of characters. With any luck, tomorrow we’ll get to know my second main character, who has dodged an appearance for nearly the first fifth of my 50,000 words. Or it might be Monday. But either way, we’re getting there!

Excerpt time…how about those new characters?

I learned all their names later, so I’ll give them to you now, though at the time I could perhaps have hazarded a few at best. In order from eldest, the princes were Daemyn, Danton, Dacien, Dathan, Daylin, Dagan, Dastan, Darshan, Darnell, Darius, Dallon and Damek. You see why we didn’t learn any names. Just to add to the difficulty, they were twelve brothers and they looked it. They were similar in height and build, with dark hair and dark eyes. And, of course, they were all handsome.

But on the other hand, we were all used to looking for the details in a face—the tilt of a nose, the setting of eyes, a dimple or a cleft chin, the thickness of eyebrows or the slope of a jaw. It was how we told each other apart, and it didn’t take long before we could tell them apart too.

That, however, came later. That evening, we had a swarm of names and faces and even more questions.

Don’t worry, there isn’t a quiz, and no expectation that the reader will ever learn more than two or three names. 🙂 And that’s all for now–I’m off to a party to watch V for Vendetta and possibly burn things!

Blargh

On November 4, 2011 By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo, Ruminations1 Comment

As expected, yesterday was a complete flop for writing. Circumstances were against me. I had to travel for work, which ate up most of the day, besides being draining. I knew I’d have about an hour between finishing work and getting on the road, during which I could eat dinner, hang out at a mall near the office (with nice chairs!) and wait for the rush hour traffic to abate before I got into it. I figured, I could haul my laptop along and do some writing then.

And I did–a grand 174 words! See above regarding “draining.” Those 174 only got written because I could tell myself, “It’s NaNo–WRITE!” And it really, really helps knowing that a lot of other people are doing it too. But nevertheless, it was not a terribly productive day.

Today was better…ish. Writers out there, do you ever have a day when you know you got a lot done, but you just don’t feel it? 1,774 words today, which puts me just ahead of the goal, but it was a draggy day for writing. I love those days when the story pulls me forward and I can’t type fast enough to keep up with it. Off the top of my head, I can think of two specific evenings that were probably my best ever for that kind of writing. And there are plenty of satisfying days. And there are plenty of blargh days, where it’s a matter of me dragging the story instead of the other way around.

Oh well. The good (and bad) thing is that the feeling can turn on a dime. The words got written, and tomorrow is another day…and I think I got myself right up to the edge of a pivotal scene that I don’t have the energy to handle right now. Tomorrow.

In the meantime, have an excerpt.

I closed the book I hadn’t been reading anyway. I had been talking to Mina. They say, in the terribly practical books that Mina reads, that if you’re ever so unfortunate as to have a very large and potentially hostile predator staring at you in the woods, don’t move. Movement attracts them.

My book closed and my father’s eyes swept to me, piercing, hard, cold. It’s not the sort of comment a girl ought to make about her father, but he has creepy eyes.

NaNoWriMo Day Two, and the Kitten of Distraction

On November 2, 2011 By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo4 Comments

Tired tonight. But total word count is at 4,884!

I really wanted to get ahead tonight, because I’m going to be out tomorrow evening. I may find myself with some time to write on the fly…and I might not get anything done! So a good solid cushion is a welcome thing right now.

To get there, though, meant fighting the “Kitten of Distraction,” as I saw it called on the NaNo forums. Yesterday, I was pretty focused. Today, for the first hour of writing I kept thinking of all the other things I could do. Things that were totally relevant–like setting up a chart in Excel to track word count (spent twenty minutes on that) or visiting the NaNo forums (at least fifteen there). But those aren‘t things that make actual writing progress…

The good thing is, the Kitten of Distraction got distracted itself eventually, and I got into a better rhythm in hour two. I can already tell that how frequently I check word count is a pretty good barometer of how it’s going. The slower it’s rising, the more frequently I check.

But tonight I got enough words written to get my dancing princesses in and out of their magical forest, and to go back in time for some background. Tonight’s excerpt:

We turned back towards the glittering diamond forest. I glanced over my shoulder as I walked towards the first trees. I wouldn’t have minded exploring, at least a bit. As I looked back, I thought I saw movement, just on the edge of the light. It was a shadow among shadows, possibly a silhouette. But I blinked, and when I looked again, I couldn’t be sure that I’d seen anything. Even if I had, I didn’t know if that was a reason to stay, or an even better reason to go.

They might get to meet the silhouette tomorrow. Or the next day. But not if I don’t get off the computer tonight…

NaNoWriMo

On October 28, 2011October 14, 2011 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations9 Comments

As I’m sure you know, we’re coming up on November. And as many in the writing and blogging community will know, that means National Novel Writers Month–NaNoWriMo in the shorthand, or NaNo if you want to make it really quick.

The goal of NaNo is to write a novel in a month–50,000 words, or about 1,600 a day. People come together, in person or over the internet, and support each other in their goal. It is, by all accounts, a fun way to connect with other writers, and to hopefully produce some writing–which everyone expects will require vast amounts of revision. But the point isn’t so much to write a good novel–just to get something written, and you can always revise it later.

I’ve been hearing about NaNo for years, but I’ve never actually participated. November never seemed like a good month for a vast amount of writing. In school, November is just when everything’s gearing up with major papers and final exams. Last November, I was busy starting a blog. 🙂

But I’ve decided that this is the year–I’m finally going to give NaNo a try. I have a full-time job and plenty of social activities, not to mention a blog, but I know lots of people with crazier schedules than mine make an attempt on NaNo!

I already write most days, but I tend to fit in just a little time at the end of the day, and I’d like to write more. I figure NaNo will force me to–and hopefully I can make some habits I can keep following after November. I’m finishing up the first draft of the novel I’ve been working on for about a year and a half, so the timing is perfect to launch off into something else.

I’ve had an idea percolating for a while that I want to explore. As I think regular readers all know very well 🙂 I love fairy tale retellings. Lately, I’ve been drawn to “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” After reading a lot of retellings, I re-read the original in Grimm’s (“The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces.”) There was plenty there that had been in most of the retellings, but there was one line that suddenly jumped at me:

“Each Prince danced with the girl he loved.”

I found myself re-examining the entire story. In every retelling I’ve been able to find, the Princes are evil demons, the Princesses are forced to go dancing, and the King is a well-meaning man who does his best to help his daughters.

But that’s not in Grimm. In Grimm, the Princes never do anything evil, the Princesses seem perfectly willing (even eager) to go dancing, and the King is locking up his daughters and chopping off champions’ heads.

Which leads me to ask–what if the villain of the story is not who everyone has been making it out to be? What if everyone’s motivations, and everyone’s desires, are entirely different than what we’ve come to expect them to be?

So that’s what I’ll spend November answering!

Obviously I plan to focus on novel writing for the month, which will mean less blog-writing of the usual kind. I expect there to still be a few book reviews and a few other things like Favorites Friday posts–and if the novel-writing goes well, I’ll share excerpts! But don’t be surprised if the usual posts are less frequent for a few weeks. I still plan to post often though–so that I can let you know how the novel-writing goes, and keep myself accountable!

If you’re participating in NaNo too, I’d love to hear how it goes for you; you can find me over on the NaNo website. My username is cherylmahoney.

I have another horror novel review for Halloween, and then the novel-writing starts next Tuesday–wish me luck!

Picturing the Twelve Dancing Princesses

On October 19, 2011September 29, 2011 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews4 Comments

Have you ever stumbled on something and wondered why you didn’t know about it twenty years ago? That’s how I feel about Kinuko Craft. She did the cover for Wildwood Dancing, and since seeing that, a friend and I have both become a little obsessed with her art. And apparently she’s been doing covers and illustrations for years! How did I not discover this sooner?

Most recently, I tracked down a beautiful picture book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Marianna Meyer and illustrated by Kinuko Craft. I’ve talked about the dancing princesses a lot in various other retellings, and this one doesn’t offer a lot that’s new in the story itself. A slight twist on a few elements, but mostly a straight-forward retelling. But the pictures are lovely. Apparently this is just my week for talking about illustrations!

Almost every alternate page is a full-page illustration, with illustrated sidebars on the text pages. The detail and intricacy of the art is wonderful. Some pictures are relatively simple, such as a man working in a field (although even that has an entire sweeping landscape behind him). Others are a swirl of faces and dresses, showing all twelve princesses. One dark picture shows the mysterious castle on the far side of the magic lake; another is riot of color in a flower garden.

The hero is drawn a little cherubic for my taste, but the princesses and their dresses are beautiful. I think my two favorite pictures are when the hero is approaching the castle, showing the stretch of mountains and water before him, and a picture showing dozens of couples dancing in a vast hall lit by chandeliers.

But why take my word on what they look like? Better to just put up a few pictures!