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Houston, we have a synopsis!

In case you don’t hear much from me over the next month, the reason – I mean, besides “the election, my children, and drowning in bills” – is as follows (as previously announced here). Word count shown here reflects only my first two days’ work, still quite short of the ideal average of 1,667 words per day (one “wins” if one crosses the finish line by November 30 with at least 50,000 words – see more on NaNoWriMo here), but cut me some slack, this is my first year!

Synopsis & Excerpt: The Book of Badgirl

Again, word count in screen capture is as of late Sunday night. Work in progress title is tentative. For the live page at NaNoWriMo, see the “Novel Info” tab here. And if you want to support the organization by pledging a buck or more (modest, first timer pledge goal for me is $1 per every 1000 words written), click here.

Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Monday, November 3, 2008, at 5:01 am by Victoria Marinelli. Filed in Images, Narrative, Process.
  • Speaking of sloppy, did not mean to comment twice. :P
  • Despite my own sloppy writing, I was once a copy editor, and old habits die hard!

    To wit:

    Williamsburg, the neighborhood in Brooklyn? Or Williamsburg, Virginia? (People tend to assume one or the other, depending on where they live already.) Always minimize any possible confusion for a reader. (That doesn't mean I always do this, but then, I don't write fiction. :P )

    Keep it up, and no slacking!
  • Ha, thanks. I think (I'll have to check) by this point in the chapter (this excerpt is from the first third of one chapter, is preceded by at least a few paragraphs) it's established that we're in Virginia - and it's definitely established in terms of the whole book (this will be one of the first chapter, but not the first chapter - they're being written completely out of order). But, I want each chapter to stand on its own, for the most part, as stories, so these are exactly the kinds of things I'll have to check as I go along, or at least return to later.

    I'm nearly OCD about the editing stuff, and it's kind of a problem - the idea of NaNoWriMo being "save the editing for December and beyond, right now just get out the raw word count." It's a very different approach from the one I'm used to, and I think once this thing is over, I'm going to try for a more reasonable middle path, where I edit as I go along (but not excessively, since that's led me to lots of dead ends before), but I shoot for at least 1,000 words a day.

    I'm kind of doubting I'll make it to the 50,000 word mark by November 30th at this point - which is okay, it's a marathon after all, and I'm a first-timer - a number of participants have said it took them a few years before they made the entire word count in 30 days. Of course, if it were only about my ability to generate words, I'd be near the finish line already, between email, blogging, etc. (this morning I wrote 1,000+ words for a blog post I'm not ready to publish yet) - but it's been hard to concentrate that capacity on the book, exclusively.

    First, the material is really painful (albeit with enough absurdity and occasional outright hilarity that it's not - to whatever extent I can speak objectively about the matter - a bummer to read). Second, although I'm using fictional forms, nearly all of it is based on things that actually happened, which must be coherent within their historical context. I tend to go off on variously useful research tangents (examples: here, here and here), which does hold me up somewhat (but I still think that's better than realizing I have to re-write huge sections because a given event couldn't have happened when I first thought it did).

    ETA: Now if only I could count the above comment toward my word count, which is about 25% of the NaNoWriMo recommended daily average :P
  • Yes, I was a copy editor for awhile. Old habits die hard, love. Sorry. To wit:

    Williamsburg, the neighborhood in Brooklyn, or Williamsburg, Virginia? Be specific.

    Write this down and stick it on a sticky note someplace: "The less work the reader must do, the better, and minimize any possible confusion."

  • kimmy
    I'm hooked !!
  • Thanks, sweetie! Now of course due to political blogging I'm way behind where I want to be on word count, and I've only slept 2 hours out of the last 24, but after the election returns are in (*crosses fingers*) and I'm rested a bit, I'll be going back at this autiobiographical (but still technically fictional) mess with all I've got.
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