My life as a reader of posts about novels
Nov. 5th, 2002 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkI've enjoyed this National Novel Writing Month thing a good bit. I'll probably finish my novel this weekend. But the myriad of nanowrimo community posts on my friends' list are a wondrous thing.
My own first person contact-with-an-alien-species-as-metaphor-for-cyberspace novel is proceeding along predictablegurdonark lines. It has lots of editorial comment ("who is that John Galt anyway, and why the heck does he need 150 pages of monologue to express such a simple set of ideas?"), lots of random rumination, more than a little grammatical flaw, and almost nothing remotely resembling a plot or characters. It's a lot like my poetry or my journal posts--long rambling excursions about pretty much nothing, like being lost on a country road, and scanning the horizon with binoculars.
But this nanowrimo community involves rampant plot excerpts, hectoring cries for critiques, characters killed, characters revised, novels deleted, novels renamed, webpages about the webpages about the novel, intricate histories, indelible joy and all manners of life's mayhem. It all rather makes me feel as though I am daydreaming of a fairly chaste kiss while everyone else is at third base.
I like to think, though, that chaste kisses have their place, and
I'm 20,900 words from playing spin the bottle.
My own first person contact-with-an-alien-species-as-metaphor-for-cyberspace novel is proceeding along predictable
gurdonark lines. It has lots of editorial comment ("who is that John Galt anyway, and why the heck does he need 150 pages of monologue to express such a simple set of ideas?"), lots of random rumination, more than a little grammatical flaw, and almost nothing remotely resembling a plot or characters. It's a lot like my poetry or my journal posts--long rambling excursions about pretty much nothing, like being lost on a country road, and scanning the horizon with binoculars.But this nanowrimo community involves rampant plot excerpts, hectoring cries for critiques, characters killed, characters revised, novels deleted, novels renamed, webpages about the webpages about the novel, intricate histories, indelible joy and all manners of life's mayhem. It all rather makes me feel as though I am daydreaming of a fairly chaste kiss while everyone else is at third base.
I like to think, though, that chaste kisses have their place, and
I'm 20,900 words from playing spin the bottle.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-11-05 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-11-06 02:03 am (UTC)I will miss the nanowrimo community a bit, too, but this experience makes me realize that every time I push myself into creative places to which I usually do not go,it is a good internal thing, regardless of the resulting lack of quality in the writing output:).
Simple pleasures
Date: 2002-11-06 04:09 am (UTC)Give me chaste kisses any day.
Reminds me of a Crowded House lyric, but it's not appropriate.
Romp and ramble, Robert!
Re: Simple pleasures
Date: 2002-11-07 10:47 am (UTC)'Knowing full well the earth will rebel'
Date: 2002-11-07 05:16 pm (UTC)For two reasons. One, It's really not relevant, just my personal free association. And two, I'm going to tell you which song right now. 'Into Temptation' from the album 'Temple of Low Men' which is just bursting with lyrics like hammers...
And the lyric that repeated in my mind when I was reading your post was: 'Experience is cheap/I should have listened to the warning'.
It sounds like I'm advocating learning from others' mistakes. I do feel we have to make our own too.
See, I told you it wasn't appropriate : )
Bobby McFerrin would be better: "I am so happy/Simple pleasures are the best.'