Nanowrimo 2012 - Day 10

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Ten days.

We're almost a third of the way through this noveling dream (and sometimes nightmare).

Currently we are going through what is known as The Dreaded Second Week. For the average Nano, this is where plots start to get tangled, ideas start to feel very stale and in general one starts to question WHY they are doing this when they can be doing something more productive like laying in bed and watching the ceiling fan spin.

From having done this for five previous years my "week two" starts around day three. I can typically write enough and get excited energy for those first few days...and then I just feel the creativity get sapped away while I'm distracted by other things.

One cure I found to this is getting hooked up with other writers (which action as a mentor has helped incredibly the past couplf of years) and another cure I like to use involves finding some movie or TV show that relates to your novel's theme/genre and give yourself a couple hour break.

Tonight I decided to watch the James Cameron sci-fi horror, thriller, action film Aliens. While not exactly tied to my novel in terms of setting...the tone of the film is something I hope to capture. I am not particularly attracted to the typical horror genre/tropes because of it almost involving people who are unable to defend themselves and just the same tired cliches.

However I love the idea of there being this huge, giant, impossible horrifying evil...and a group of people saying "So what? We all have to die someday and if we're going to die we might as well do something about it."

I hope that does not sound entirely fatalistic so much as I find the idea of good vs evil on a grand scale to be fascinating. Infinitely so when it is infinite odds where good has to decide if the fight is worth fighting (an analysis of integrity, deep held beliefs and willingness to sacrifice it all in order to do the right thing...because it is the right thing.)

For me at least, I have trouble writing characters until I understand them, their hopes/dreams/beliefs/desires/etc...both the good and evil ones. It doesn't have to make it to the text of the novel because once we know them it's like having a conversation with a friend...the words tend to come much easier.

I'm going to try and log in at least a thousand or so words before calling it a night.

Hopefully.
We'll see what happens.
Monsters of evil exploding, improvised weapons being created and hope is still flying.
-Matt