Toluu : Fresh Ribbon

Fresh Ribbon

November is the cruelest month, baby. Sweet Jesus. I was in the zone today and made it past 50k. I'm a zombie, but a zombie with a novel. Can't even think about rewrites right now. Can't think about anything but a little wine and a long sleep.

I can't remember who exactly made me think I could do this, but thank you.

Word Counts and Plot Twists and Whiners...oh myNovember 15

I put this graph in because it simultaneously irritates and encourages me. I can be proud of my NaNoWriMo word count, and at the same time completely aware that I'm a tad behind.

All word count aside, writing this novel at breakneck speed has been a fascinating writing experience. There are Those Who Scoff at all these furiously typing novelists as rank amateurs who have no right to call themselves anything but typists. As a creative writing professor I have very little to say to such people, because I know their pathology. When you've spent your life kneeling before the Gatekeepers of Academia and kissing their asses for a lousy publication in some university literary mag no one's ever heard of, it can make you a little cranky. Fine.

I'm not including links to such unhappy writers for a couple of reasons. First, because they want us to. Throwing an elitist and edgy bomb out into the the blogosphere and then turning off the comments forces others to respond by writing on their own blogs and LINKING. It's a nice way to manipulate the old Technorati count and fluff one's overinflated ego. Second, these writers clearly haven't been reading contemporary creative writing pedagogy. Separating the acts of invention and revision is standard

Just so you know...November 9

. . . today's wordcount is 13,212. I'm a little self-congratulatory right now, so bear with me. I may not be achieving this NaNoWriMo magic wholly on the manual typewriter, but I'm making sure to sling out a page here and there on the Olympia SF just to assuage my guilt.

I can live with that.

NaNoWriMo Observations, Day OneNovember 1

1. I can write more in an hour than I thought I could.

2. Outlines are for other people.

3. Creation is my favorite part anyway.

4. The story writes itself and I should have done this years ago.

5. I couldn't do this on a manual typewriter. I hate that.

6. I can tell the problem won't be getting to 50,000 words by month's end. The problem will be forcing myself to step away from the novel and back into my daily responsibilities.

7. It's delicious telling my Inner Editor to go to hell.

NaNoWriMo or Bust, and a Video PoemOctober 19

Codes from Musser on Vimeo.

This typecast is brought to you on Alice, a witty debutante of an Olympia SF that - if my life were different - would definitely be used in Typewriter Brigading the NaNoWriMo. When I figure out what I'm doing wrong with my camera, I'll share photos of Alice and another FABULOUS Olympia, both delicious cursive hand-me-downs from the best typing buddies a girl ever had.