possibly pointless babbling

To NaNo or Not to NaNo: Going Rogue

annabowling 2 Comments
doing my own thing, now with my own graphic

doing my own thing, now with my own graphic

Is this a final decision? Eh, maybe. There’s no saying I won’t lose my nerve and hop on the NaNo train in the next few days, or maybe do an end run and take a flying leap halfway or later through, but for now, I’m doing my own thing in November. That decision came last night, in the middle of my first meeting with an eclectic group of local writers, all talented, articulate and entertaining people. We’re still in the getting to know each other phase, and of course the question of NaNo came up. One gentleman asked if I was participating, and without thinking about my answer first, I said “not this year.”

What it came down to was that wordcount bugaboo. I don’t count my daily words at present, and I don’t find that a lack. What I do see is more pages in the document when I power down for the night than there where when I started, and I’m good with that. I’m filling notebooks, emptying pens, and transcribing most of that on my external keyboard, and I’m loving what I’m doing. I’m not bashing my head against the keyboard (maybe said bashing is why the laptop’s keyboard gave up the ghost before the rest of the machine; I don’t know, but I can’t discount it.)

Knowing what works best for me at this time is the mature, responsible thing to do for my writing, (and, honestly, a whole lot of fun) but that doesn’t mean I can’t adapt the things I do love about NaNo to my own use. In that vein, I’m going Rogue. I’ll be posting here about my writing progress during November, not with word count (but at the end, maybe, just for kicks) but what works for me. Scenes, characters, those unexpected turns stories take when we the writers aren’t looking.

What matters most to me this upcoming month is that I dive into both existing and new projects fully focused on what counts most for me; the story.  Not to say NaNo ignores story for words, because that’s not the case. I had a lovely time in Camp NaNo this spring, and won then, and I’m proud of it.

2014-Winner-Facebook-Cover

Why does it matter to me so much if I’m doing NaNo at any given session? If I haven’t babbled it out by now, it may not have an explanation. I do love the community, but y’know what? Writers exist all over the place. One of the gents in group last night made a comment that there are thousands of writers in one city alone, and he’s right. There’s a great group of gals (and guys) in my local RWA chapter, I have writer friends scattered all over the globe, all as close as my email or an IM window, and unless write-ins come complete with bouncers demanding the password, there’s no saying I can’t plop myself and my notebook down at a write in, and keep my eyes on my own paper. Or talk to my neighbor. Or whatever. Because what matters is that the story gets written.

The journey from “once upon a time” to “and they all lived happily ever after” can take many paths, and no one is more “real” than any other. What is real is what gets the story from my head onto the page, and eventually into the heads and hopefully hearts of readers. Do I know exactly what going Rogue means for me this particular November? Not entirely, but I’ll figure it out as I go, and I’ll be sure to blabber about it here.

Typing With Wet Claws: Birthday Edition

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It's Feline Friday again

It’s Feline Friday again

Hello, all. Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling here. It is Friday again, so it is my turn to take over my Anty’s blog. She would like to say welcome to her new followers and thanks for the comments. The more people she has to talk to, the better. For all of us.

Today’s blog is coming late because it was Anty’s birthday. She really loves birthdays, and they don’t have to be her own, but that doesn’t hurt. She says today was a good one, even though she spent a lot of it away from me. I did get a new friend, though. He doesn’t say much. I think he is shy.  As long as he doesn’t go for my food, I think we will get along.

The strong and silent type?

The strong and silent type?

Anty and Uncle went on what people call a date. They did not eat any actual dates, as far as I can tell. They had Chinese food. I took a picture before they left. This is probably why there are not any great photographers who are cats.

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Before her date with Uncle, Anty and Mama went on a walk in the woods. I do not know why Anty was so excited about this. I spent the whole first six months of my life in the woods, and it isn’t that great, but Anty had fun and took a lot of pictures. I stayed home. I have had enough woods.

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She’s pretty busy right now with new notebooks and pens, so she asked me to share her birthday cupcakes with all the readers. These are pumpkin flavored. They are also people food, which means not good for kitties. That’s okay, because I get my treat every single day, not only on birthdays. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Cupcakes for everybody (except for kitties, who get treat.)

Cupcakes for everybody
(except for kitties, who get treat.)

Until next Feline Friday, I remain very truly yours,

Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)

To NaNo or Not to NaNo: the benefits

annabowling 4 Comments

i1035 FW1.1Big surprise, I’m still not decided on whether or not I’m officially signing on for NaNo madness. To all new readers who wonder if I always natter on about something of this nature, the answer is probably yes. Talking and thinking happen at the same time with me a good deal of the time, and I do like to examine things from multiple angles, so it’s safe to say I’ll be hopping over both sides of the fence until I finally have to pick one.

Last post, I talked about one of my biggest bugaboos about participating in NaNo, so with this one, I’m going to look at the other side of the coin and examine the plusses. For me, the biggest one is the sense of community. Moving from an area where I’d lived for decades to a place that was totally new was a big adjustment, but finding a local NaNo community as well as a fabulous RWA chapter made a big difference. Last year, the kickoff party was held at the coffee house where I write most weekdays. Getting plunked down in a room full of strangers who like to do what I like to do is always fun for me, and I have made some friends from my NaNo contacts. I’d be happy to do the same this year as well.

It has been suggested I can fake my way in, attend the write-ins even without signing up, and that’s a possibility. Though now I may have outed myself on that plan, but if they’re held in public places, who’s going to stop me, hm? Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Three pages of this, but no spaces, so NaNo count would say it's one word. Darned second keyboard.

Three pages of this, but no spaces, so NaNo count would say it’s one word.
Darned second keyboard.

There is always the option of joining the rebel camp, which I have done before, but not in the same way I’d be doing it this year. If I do it. I do have to admit I like the sneakiness of being a rebel. The new project (still deciding how much I want to talk about it while under construction) would be starting from scratch, so it is a new work, but I’d also likely split my time between new and existing projects because I am in love with two stories right now, and it’s not a matter of picking one or the other. It’s an and situation here. I like working on more than one thing at one time. Working on one thing feeds my desire to work on the other, and if I’m at a roadblock with one, then I can take a break, work on the other and come back with new perspective.

Oh well, looky there, new rules say I don’t have to start from scratch and can continue with a WIP. New food for thought, and I still don’t know. What I do know is that not knowing has helped me meet one of my other goals, that of growing this blog and posting more often, so the blabber is doing some good. I’d never meant to have a break from blogging; quite the opposite, but overthinking got me there as well. Here, I get on, I blabber, I put up pictures because I put up pictures, and on with the show. So, still undecided as we head into the final week, and this may well continue, but that rule change does tip things every so slightly into the yea category. Which may change. Or not.

Off to wander the moors and contemplate...

Off to wander the moors and contemplate…

Layer Cake and NaNo Pondering

annabowling 1 Comment

There is no actual cake in this post; I’m rambling about NaNo again, but my birthday is Friday, so there will likely be cake to share then. In the meantime, have a picture of Skye.

Skye has the right attitude.

Skye has the right attitude.

NaNo start date looms ever closer, and I still don’t know if I’m signing. up for the official ride. Part of me wants to, because that’s what one does this time of year, I will be writing (and blabbering about it here) no matter what, so what’s the harm?

The big bugaboo for me is word count. If I focus on that, I get the aforementioned mental muscle cramp, I hate the story, I hate writing, I have to count every single word? Can’t I tell the story? That’s what I came here for in the first place, so why is NaNo trying to distract me with math? Did I mention I failed the really really easy math course in college twice? I love the idea of plowing through to The End; in fact, that’s one of the things I’m working on in my own personal writing renaissance, but there’s one problem with this. I’ve discovered I write most naturally in layers. Did I always work like that? (Long time crit partners, feel free to weigh in  here.) I couldn’t say, but it’s what I’m doing now. Get the bones down, quick and dirty, and then go over it again with a few more passes. Organs. Cartilege. Connective tissue. Muscle, skin and hair. Clothes, makeup, a few accessories, and good to go. How do I fit all of that into a daily word count when it’s as likely words are going to be subtracted as well as added, moved around, turned inside out…did I mention that college math class?

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This is an accurate representation of my first-first drafts, and no, I am not opening those notebooks here. Lots of longhand, lots of bullet points and boxes with swirly corners drawn around them because that’s how my mind works. Different colors of inks and highlighters, sticky notes everywhere. Small Moleskine lives in my purse, in a comfy pouch with all the pens and highlighters and smaller pad of sticky notes. Spiral notebooks (current project, one of the two of which I am working on, at different stages; if I do sign on for  NaNo, I may split my time, automatically putting me in the rebel camp. I am probably going to work on both, NaNo or no NaNo anyway) are both for the same project. The one with the flowery (weedy?) cover is already full, white on black lettering about one third of the way there. Yellow legal pad is one of many culled from my dad’s house (vintage!) and somehow in all of that, the story comes together. Plus bouncing things off a critique partner (only the one for this particular story at the moment.) Don’t ask me how I do that; I just do it, and maybe that’s the best way for me at present.

I love writing again, I can blabber to my CP to my heart’s content without having too many voices get in my head and drown out not only the voices of my characters but my own as well (a big factor in the derailment of the last few years, I am sure) and still keep shoulder to wheel and nose to grindstone and get that story told. I know these people. I know their world. I know why they need to be together and I know why it’s darned freaking hard for them to get over what’s standing in their way so they can do that. The story is getting told, and isn’t that the whole point of NaNo in the first place? If I have to pick between words and story, I am going to pick story. Maybe I’m already fulfilling the spirit of NaNo if not the letter of the law? :shrug:

Skull socks make everything better.

Skull socks make everything better.


To NaNo or Not to NaNo and Happy Albanyversary to Me

annabowling 2 Comments

 One of the questions that is probably troubling you at the moment is this: How do I know whether I’m a writer? And the question can only be answered with another question: Well, do you write? If you don’t, you’re not. If you do, you are. There’s nothing else to it.
–Nick Hornby

This is one of my all time favorite quotes, but one of my all time favorite writers, and, this time of year, it’s especially apt. We’re ten days out from the start of National Novel Writing Month, and I am not signed up for it yet. I don’t know if I will be, and I may not know until the starting pistol has indeed been fired. This is not entirely a bad thing.

I love the support in NaNoWriMo, love my local group, have met friends through last year’s journey…but the book? Well, I wrote it. Did I make 50K? I don’t think so, but the truth is, I don’t remember or feel like going back to check. The whole thing felt and feels as appetizing as a snack of wet cardboard, so that’s a sure sign that something about that whole particular endeavor was not right for me.

This year, I want to have a different emphasis. Not so much focus on word counts, but on what counts. For me, that’s telling the story, and listening to the story so that I can tell it. Does that always conform to hitting a certain amount of words on a particular day? No. Does that mean the story moves forward? Yes. Are those always the same thing? Not always.

I did Camp NaNo this year, and won that. Had fun doing it, too, and I suspect being able to set my own word count goal helped somewhat. Confession: I am not a word counter. I can tend to obsess if I do keep that in mind, and end up in a fetal position under the dining room table, clutching a stuffed fish (plush) and muttering something about Zwieback. It’s not a fun place to be. In the end, I suspect I will do what is best for me at the time I need to make the decision. In either event, I will be posting and documenting here, because pretty much anything is more fun for me if I can blabber about it.

Washington Park sunset

Washington Park sunset

Two years ago today, my family packed up our entire lives and departed the old country for the brave new world of Albany, NY. My only regret was not being able to convince all our beloved CT and MA friends to move with us (or for that matter, FL, CO, MI, etc; if I could ever have everybody I love in one huge room, that would be paradise.) I cannot say how good it feels to be home. I want my writing and the books that come from it to be home as well. Same with this blog.

It’s all a process. It’s also a journey. Some twists, some turns, some whoa-what-is-thats, but I have to trust that it’s going to take me where I need to be.

Every Keyboard Tells a Story

annabowling 2 Comments

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That’s the keyboard on my actual laptop right there.  Note the missing H key, multiple keys where the markings were rubbed off, fingernail marks carved into the key that used to say “N.” We won’t discuss things periodically cleaned out from in between the actual keys, or things spilled on them and hastily wiped away, usually accompanied by fervent prayer.

This keyboard (and the laptop it’s attached to) has seen three different states, two different homes, been my companion through three distinct phases of my life (before, during and after the bottom dropped out of my world and I went from writer to caregiver to last family member standing to writer once again.) It’s been dropped, fallen from improvised “desks” made from overturned wastebaskets, balanced on knees sweating in summer heat or swaddled in hand-knit afghans (or my special snoflake fleece blankey nobody else is allowed to touch) and seen a plethora of libraries and coffee shops.

It’s seen the starts of novels, completion of a few, fiery deaths of others, while still others slipped into quiet comas. Some of those will come back, some will sail off into the sunset without me, and I am okay with all of that.  Yet more stories are still to come, and I am looking forward to meeting them all. How many more get to be on this particular keyboard or laptop, I’m not sure, but I’m looking forward to the adventure.

There have been games played on this computer; three different iterations of The Sims franchise, four if we count the Sims 4 demo, and a couple of forays into Second Life. Movies watched, countless YouTube videos, episodes of favorite TV shows, pictures composed and edited. New friends met, final farewells said, willingly or not, when certain chapters closed. New hellos yet to say to what’s still ahead of me.

It’s been a wild ride these last few years, and, in a way, it’s fitting to see the machine that saw me through that much coming to the end of its own journey. Not there yet, but the time is coming, and I’m okay with that.  New adventures are ahead.

One of which is blogging. I’ve had this blog for a while, in various incarnations, but I’m still getting the hang of it. While I do blog elsewhere, it’s easier to write about an external topic. Writing about me, about my own writing, that’s a whole different story, pun intended, but I’m here, and I have a brand new keyboard, so we’re good to go, this old friend and me.

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AnnaLog

Imageannabowling 9 Comments

i1035 FW1.1

I love notebooks. Oversized, mini sized, desk size, pocket size, hardcover, softcover, lined, plain, gridded (my new favorite) – all are good. I’m not a Moleskine purist, as there are lots of other good makers, but I do have a soft spot for them. I love notebooks in general, so babbling about them here feels natural.

No, these were not all purchased at the same time, and yes, they will all get used, each for its own purpose. I find there’s something in paper and pen that a computer can’t provide. I do write fiction longhand, as well as freewriting, which I also term “bloodletting,” dumping whatever is in my head onto the page until my brain has taken care of that business. When writing the rough-rough draft of a story, it comes more naturally to me with pen on paper than fingers on keys, so I am learning to trust myself and do what comes natural. Sometimes, that’s scary, but onward I go. Doesn’t have to be perfect, only has to be.

I used to be a purist about lined pages and nothing else, but after I tried my first gridded notebook, by Markings (will share Markings books in another post) it was love, pure and deep, so gridded pages are now my preference. I’m trying to figure out how I can best use plain pages, but so far, the blankness baffles me, and the unblemished page is lovely and pristine, but I’m not ready to give up on that format yet. Any plain-page fans have any tips?

Next up: a peek inside