Not A NaNoWriMo Project
Wednesday, 15 October 2014 16:06![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsSo back on 9 September, just over a month ago, I started in on a novel. It's a story I've worked on before, including the last year, but I changed things.
But after I'd written some 6000 words, I realized that this was the "nice" version of the story. I needed to be meaner to my characters if this was going to work. Because otherwise, it was just... schlock.
So I set the A novel aside and started the B novel on the 12th. After about 15,000 words, I decided that I was putting back in too many "nice" features. That things weren't hard enough. Also the characters needed to be edgier.
So I set the B novel aside and started the C novel on the 24th. After about... oh yeah, you can see this coming... after about 3000 words, I felt that while the characters were edgier -- and to some extent fun -- they were TOO cocky. These people needed to have suffered. And still living with it. No fairy tale endings. No Prince in shining armor or worsted wool.
So... since I hadn't gotten too far, I set the C novel aside and started the D novel on 27 September 2014. I think maybe I've got the mix right. Still haven't decided if this is YA or not. Technically it is neither SF or Fantasy -- call it alternative history -- and quite unlike anything I've ever written before, yet parallel to some of the stuff in my 29th century SF. Go figure.
I'm just about one-third of the way to my initial target length, so I might as well pull out the word meters and officially put this super-secret novel project on notice to the world.
The Lost Kingdom Project D Novel
Whether this thing will ever see the light of day, who knows? But I am having fun with it, from figuring out the business class seating of an Airbus A330-300 (and I loathe Airbus -- grin) to discovering that of all the Scandinavian countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland -- the only one on the euro is Finland. The rest use the kroner, only it's not the same kroner, and at least one of them is pegged to the euro and one of them has ditched the less-than-one krona coins, much like Finland ditched the 1- and 2-eurocent coins, except for collectors, so all prices are to the nearest €0.05. We knew that last fact, because we were in Helsinki and Tampere in 2003... Also had to research which countries in Europe had left-side-drive/right-side-steering at one time.
Anyway, I will probably make reference to this in the future. And I thought I'd get this out there before November dawns and all those 50,000 word NaNoWriMo novel counters start showing up.
For those who care about technical details, given the current mix of computers, I am NOT writing this novel in Word 95 like almost all my other writing, but in Word 97 / 2003 / 2010, because they allow one to use the mouse wheel for scrolling around. Word 97 has almost the same icon toolbars as Word 95. Word 2003... I have to beat it around some. And Word 2010? Gah... ribbons. What a waste of screen real estate and unnecessary having to farble around between tabs. On the other hand, Wendy's old laptop that I call ZEPPELIN has a big screen, which makes for easier editing, so Word 2010 it is.
Dr. Phil
But after I'd written some 6000 words, I realized that this was the "nice" version of the story. I needed to be meaner to my characters if this was going to work. Because otherwise, it was just... schlock.
So I set the A novel aside and started the B novel on the 12th. After about 15,000 words, I decided that I was putting back in too many "nice" features. That things weren't hard enough. Also the characters needed to be edgier.
So I set the B novel aside and started the C novel on the 24th. After about... oh yeah, you can see this coming... after about 3000 words, I felt that while the characters were edgier -- and to some extent fun -- they were TOO cocky. These people needed to have suffered. And still living with it. No fairy tale endings. No Prince in shining armor or worsted wool.
So... since I hadn't gotten too far, I set the C novel aside and started the D novel on 27 September 2014. I think maybe I've got the mix right. Still haven't decided if this is YA or not. Technically it is neither SF or Fantasy -- call it alternative history -- and quite unlike anything I've ever written before, yet parallel to some of the stuff in my 29th century SF. Go figure.
I'm just about one-third of the way to my initial target length, so I might as well pull out the word meters and officially put this super-secret novel project on notice to the world.
The Lost Kingdom Project D Novel
Whether this thing will ever see the light of day, who knows? But I am having fun with it, from figuring out the business class seating of an Airbus A330-300 (and I loathe Airbus -- grin) to discovering that of all the Scandinavian countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland -- the only one on the euro is Finland. The rest use the kroner, only it's not the same kroner, and at least one of them is pegged to the euro and one of them has ditched the less-than-one krona coins, much like Finland ditched the 1- and 2-eurocent coins, except for collectors, so all prices are to the nearest €0.05. We knew that last fact, because we were in Helsinki and Tampere in 2003... Also had to research which countries in Europe had left-side-drive/right-side-steering at one time.
Anyway, I will probably make reference to this in the future. And I thought I'd get this out there before November dawns and all those 50,000 word NaNoWriMo novel counters start showing up.
For those who care about technical details, given the current mix of computers, I am NOT writing this novel in Word 95 like almost all my other writing, but in Word 97 / 2003 / 2010, because they allow one to use the mouse wheel for scrolling around. Word 97 has almost the same icon toolbars as Word 95. Word 2003... I have to beat it around some. And Word 2010? Gah... ribbons. What a waste of screen real estate and unnecessary having to farble around between tabs. On the other hand, Wendy's old laptop that I call ZEPPELIN has a big screen, which makes for easier editing, so Word 2010 it is.
Dr. Phil
