It's Been 10 Years, But I Just

Over the last few weeks, I have been itching to have another crack at writing the sequel to Fairies, because it's been ten years (almost) since I wrote it, I'm back in the place I wrote it (mostly) and I feel like it's about time. As in, it's about time I wrote it, the novel isn't about time. That would add a whole other level of complicated I can't deal with right now. 

4thewords is continuing to be a helpful beastie, because it makes me write at least 444 words a day, and sometimes the hurdle is just starting and putting pen to paper... well, fingers to keys. Once I get going, I'm not anywhere near NaNoWriMo personal bests of 20k days or writing 100k in a month, but I can crack through between 1.5-5k words a day without it interrupting my day too much, so where is the problem? 

Part of the problem is the characters. **If you haven't read Fairies, this is going to contain spoilers, so please consider this your alert.**

Fairies finished with Nate, Adamson, Louie, and, I want to say Felix, but who knows at this point!, returning to the fairy world because an eternal life as a fairy was better than a limited human life. They could make an impact on the lives of humans and they were important there. Seemingly simple? 

It's really not simple. 

Following on from their return to the fairy world, things change around quite a bit, so there's some of the sequel which is about them, some which is about Frank as my favourite person who was left behind in the human world (and someone who crops up into another novel I've been writing for just next to forever but needs a bit of character development in between the two!) and two new characters. One of the new characters is 'evil' and in league with the imps and the other is the one causing me the most problems, as she's Felix's (he's definitely called Felix - I checked) daughter. Originally I intended the story to be just about her, but every time I start writing about her, she seems to find some sort of tangent to go on and finding the way to make the actual storyline (and the reason I'm writing the book in the first place) to happen seems to be beyond me at the moment. 

Ah well - I've had a moan about it, and now I can get back to writing it, even though it's been at least five years since I read Fairies over again (only cringing most of the way through it) so the details are a little hazy and I have no idea where either the .pdf file or the proof copies are, but that's just a bit tough, isn't it?

Is It a Monster?,

There is this amazing song that was popular when I was at school by a band called The Automatic. Much of it is asking the identity of something traversing an incline in the topography, but it is wonderful. There were two ways I was thinking of going with this - I'll try and do both...

First thing

When we are approaching NaNo and whilst it is going on we can often feel like what is that? Is it a monster?

It can feel like it at times.

What you need to remember is that no one from NaNo HQ nor myself or anyone else is running around after you with a red hot poker trying to force you, we will not brand you with the word loser if you fail, we will not pick you up and shake you to see if the words fall out... We won't even shave your eye brows off if you fall asleep at a write in (because that is frowned upon). Nothing bad will happy if it is too much to ask at this moment.

NaNo is my motivation because I am competitive and it works for me. It working for me allows me to think of it as the chrysalis which forms around a caterpillar. The chrysalis allows the caterpillar to become something amazing, something beautiful. It allows the caterpillar to hold it together or to be held together.

To over exhaust this metaphor, the MLs provide the leaf or the branch on which this pod of transformation hangs, and the tree is the wider NaNo community. You need to be the change in yourself, but we're here to support you. This is the support network which allows use to become butterflies.

If slaying the NaNo beast works better as your metaphor, grab your light saber, throwing stars and flame throwers. Kill it with fire and a pair of phoenixes (you and your work) will rise from the ashes in a blaze of glory with Jovi blasting out in the background.

Second thing

Let's imagine that two WriMos are writing the same novel. Work with me here, it's going somewhere. The boy is sat with his diary on one side of his desk, laptop in the middle and something looking suspiciously like a Pokédex on the other side. The girl is sat with her laptop in the middle, wearing her underwear Superman style (red underwear over blue jeans). These visual representations give you an idea of which team each person is playing for.

Team Planner, what's that coming over the hill, is it a Monster? IS IT A MONSTER?? 

Team Player makes a grab for his Pokédex. "It is a monster, but fear not, my madeuposaurousatron with strength of whatever Top Trumps metaphor yada yada yada, well planned battle scene, win win injury save the day yada yada" Boom!

Team Pantser, what's that coming over the hill, is it a Monster? IS IT A MONSTER?? 

Team Pantser looks around herself and her eyes happen upon a plastic dinosaur that someone's kid sister decided to add makeup to. It has also had its body brutally melded to something that was possibly a Transformer made by that douche pants from Toy Story. Boosh: the madeuposauratron is born. Pantser thinks her way through a battle scene that is unfolding gradually in her imagination as her wrists cramp from trying to scribble down each drop of blood soaking into the ground beneath the battle field as her main character traverses this battle scene (and she knows he/she/it/they have to make it because otherwise it is Game Over for this novel. They slay and look as though they are winning, lose something like a finger or an eye, but win overall despite being viciously maimed...

The answer to the question of is it a monster is fundamentally the same, is, well, yeah, it is. The action the main character takes, again, fairly similar, but the difference is the person at the keyboard. Can you pants it? Can you plan it? What works for you? It's not monstrous, but that is a monster. 

Run, and I'll catch you later.