NaNoWriMo: Clockwork Dragon

[wyld_dandelyon]

The NaNoWriMo website has a number of fun things going for it. Part of it is just stuff to keep you excited and on-track, like different types of word-count widgets. Part of it is social networking-type stuff. I'm not sure which one the "Novel Info" page is, but it has a spot to upload a mock cover.

Now this is not the cover I imagine for the finished work (for that I've been imagining one of the main characters actually working on a clockwork dragon), but for something thrown together in a short amount of time I'm reasonably pleased.

Attribution:  The dragons in this photo are sculptures by the talented Butch Honeck.  I expect I'll see him at Windycon; I should print a copy of this mock cover for him, EDIT:  website!  http://www.honecksculptures.com/ .

There's also a "novel synopsis" spot, which I took to mean "back cover blurb":

Bartholomew has been hired to investigate whether the playboy, metalsmith, clockwork artist, and wizard who calls himself Michelangelo Da Vinci is an appropriate suitor for a rich man's great grand-daughter, Emma. Da Vinci is a study in paradoxes, sensitive and socially clueless, rich, handsome, and popular, but seemingly lacking a past. Why do the vampires seem drawn to him? And what about the pale apparitions that are being seen around the city? Are they ghosts? Angels? Could they be an artist's muse? Or are they perhaps a modern wil-o-the-wisp, luring creative people to commit suicide?

In the meantime, Emma is intelligent and headstrong, and despite her enrollment in a genteel university's literature program and her musical skills, she puts a great deal more energy into studying vampires and other odd creatures and phenomena than to her formal studies. Her interest in jazz led her to Chicago's new speakeasies, where she first met Michelangelo. With his best friend having inexplicably abandoned him, she is perfectly poised to get to know him, and perhaps his mysterious past, better.

On the website, there's also a bit of novel excerpt, edited both to rub some of the first-draft-itis off and because out of context it was lacking some necessary antecedents.

I'm going to try to paste one of the silly graphs here, but if it doesn't work, my word count, for those who care, is currently 13627.  Actually, if the widget works the way I expect, for those of you who read this after I update my word count on their website, the widget will update.  I think.  We'll see!

<img src="http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/NanowrimoGraph/447085.png" />

So, writers, what have you been doing?  NaNo?  Something else?  How's it going?

And everybody else, what creative pursuits have you been doing?  Gardening?  Redecorating?  Food?  How's that been going?

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

I just passed the 10K mark on my NaNo project and despite being really down in the dumps about it yesterday and feeling optimistic about it again.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

It's a natural result of writing fast, I think, to hit a wall and feel down in the dumps about the writing. And also part of the process to hit a flow and feel really good about it for a while.

But I'm glad you're feeling optimistic again.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Um, not to be rude or anything, but it's Butch Honeck, not Bruce Honek. His web site is http://www.honecksculptures.com/ .

As for NaNoWriMo -- I tried it last year, but November is just hopeless for me. I petered out at 13K words. This year, the ideas that I can't put aside are stuff I'm scared to share.

I went back and looked at the file from last year's NaNo attempt to get the word count, and found myself reading the first page, and liking what I found there a lot. Maybe I will get myself to work on that story again.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!! I hate getting people's names wrong, and wanted to attribute it correctly. But I have a heck of a time getting names to stick in my brain. (I'm addicted to the fact that people wear name tags at cons!)

November isn't ideal for me either.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

So register at NaNo as John Doe and write what you need to write. You can decide whether or not to share it with anyone later, but in the meantime, you get it out of your system, and work through whatever is making these ideas impossible to put aside.

And maybe once you've worked it through, it won't be so scary.

Or maybe it will be scary enough to sell big.

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

I love the mock book cover. It does make it seem a bit more interesting/exciting. :)

I've been mostly doing chores :( Landlord/rental service was in today. He comes about every 3 to 4 months. We keep the place ok but there's always a bit extra to be done that I haven't gotten around to when he comes by. I'm feeling a bit tired and sore from it all.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Cleaning house is, in a sense, creating your life. This isn't my first thought when it comes to cleaning house, I must admit. But I suspect that's a failure of perspective on my part.

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

LOL, in our house it really needs to be an act of destruction: too many odd papers and bits that I squirrel away to collect dust and kitty hair. I need to go through drawers and closets to get rid of some of it but get overwhelmed :(

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that writing thing. Knew I was forgetting something. been telling those voices "go away, ya bother me, I'm busy" for so long that they finally did. And now I miss them. Come on, inspiration, where are you? Ahh heck, still too busy. Hope I get over it someday.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Try giving them a half-hour a day, and a little extra on weekends.

It will establish that you really are interested, even if you don't have time to give your muses proper attention right now. Kind of like saying to a friend, "I'm busy right now, but I've been thinking of you."

[(Anonymous)]

They keep bugging me on the train, saying "Hey, put the book down. I wanna talk." and I keep saying, "Go away, I have no paper." So they sighed deeply, and went away again.

One of these days, they'll catch me, I'm sure.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

So put a little notebook and a pen in your bag with your book! You don't need good handwriting to get the ideas on paper, you know.

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

I was at the school reading LJ and the danged thing logged me out somehow. Couldn't figure that one out, but you made the right guess on who it was.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Context is all!

And my brain is pretty good at carrying context forward even in interrupted conversations. Which these things on the net always are.

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

Well, had that little voice bugging me the whole way home on the train, just got done catching up on watching "Flashforward", and got a strong feeling I'm going to have some VERY interesting dreams! Hope I'm right on that! :)

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

See my comment below, oh anonymous poster!