Piers Anthony, My Hero

Our pep talk for NaNo came this week from Piers Anthony. He's so awesome.

Dear Writer,

You're a fool. You know that, don't you? Because only a fool would try a stunt as crazy as this. You want to write a 50,000 word novel in one month?! Do you have sawdust in your skull? When there are so many other more useful things you could be doing, like cleaning up the house and yard, taking a correspondence course in Chinese, or contributing your time and effort to a charitable cause? Whatever is possessing you?

Consider the first card of the Tarot deck, titled The Fool. There's this young man traipsing along with a small dog at his heel, toting a bag of his worldly goods on the end of his wooden staff, carrying a flower in his other hand, gazing raptly at the sky—and about to step off a cliff, because he isn't watching his feet. A fool indeed. Does this feel familiar? It should. You're doing much the same thing. What made you ever think you could bat out a bad book like that, let alone write anything readable?

So are you going to give up this folly and focus on reality before you step off the cliff? No? Are you sure? Even though you know you are about to confirm the suspicion of your dubious relatives, several acquaintances, and fewer friends that you never are going to amount to anything more than a dank hill of beans? That you're too damned oink-headed to rise to the level of the very lowest rung of common sense?

Sigh. You're a lost soul. So there's no help for it but to join the lowly company of the other aspect of The Fool. Because the fact is, that Fool is a Dreamer, and it is Dreamers who ultimately make life worthwhile for the unimaginative rest of us. Dreamers consider the wider universe. Dreamers build cathedrals, shape fine sculptures, and yes, generate literature. Dreamers are the artists who provide our rapacious species with some faint evidence of nobility.

So maybe you won't be a successful novelist, or even a good one. At least you are trying. T hat, would you believe, puts you in a rarefied one percent of our kind. Maybe less than that. You aspire to something better than the normal rat race. You may not accomplish much, but it's the attitude that counts. As with mutations: 99% of them are bad and don't survive, but the 1% that are better are responsible for the evolution of species to a more fit state. You know the odds are against you, but who knows? If you don't try, you'll never be sure whether you might, just maybe, possibly, have done it. So you do have to make the effort, or be forever condemned in your own bleary eyes.

Actually, 50,000 words isn't hard. You can write “Damn!” 50,000 times. Oh, you want a readable story! That will be more of a challenge. But you know, it can be done. In my heyday, before my wife's health declined and I took over meals and chores, I routinely wrote 3,000 words a day, taking two days a week off to answer fan mail, and 60,000 words a month was par. Now I try for 1,500 and hope for 2,000. That will do it. If you write that much each day, minimum, and go over some days, you will have your quota in the month. On the 10th of the month of August, 2008, I started writing my Xanth novel Knot Gneiss, about the challenge of a boulder that turns out to be not stone but a huge petrified knot of reverse wood that terrifies anyone who approaches it. Petrified = terrified, get it? And by the 30th I had 35,000 words. That's the same pace. If I can do it in my doddering old age—I'm 74—you can do it in your relative youth.

Of course you need ideas. You can garner them from anywhere. I noticed that our daily newspaper comes in a plastic bag that is knotted. The knot's too tight to undo without a lot of effort, so I just rip it open to get at the goodies inside. It's a nuisance; I wish they'd leave it loose. But I thought, maybe there's this cute delivery girl who has a crush on me, and she ties a love -knot to let me know. Not that at my age I'd know what to do with a real live girl, but it's still a fun fantasy. Okay, there's an idea. I could use it in my fiction. Maybe even in a Pep Talk. The mundane world has provided me with an opening. It will do the same for you, if you're alert.

Here's a secret: fictive text doesn't necessary flow easily. Most of the time it's more like cutting a highway through a mountain. You just have to keep working with your pick, chipping away at the rock, making slow progress. It may not be pretty at first. Prettiness doesn't come until later, at the polishing stage, which is outside your month. You just have to get it done by brute force if necessary. So maybe your ongoing story isn't very original. That's okay, for this. Just get it done. Originality can be more in the eye of the reader than in any objective assessment.

You can make it from a standing start, even from a foolish daydream when you should have been paying attention to the Pep Talk. You will want to try for a bit more quality, of course, and maybe a spot of realism. Garner an Idea, assemble some Characters, find a suitable place to start, and turn them loose in your imagination. Now go home and start your engines!

Piers

Piers Anthony is the author of the Xanth series. You can learn more about him and his work by visiting his website.

I am quite busy

Writing in and of itself has taken a backseat while I let my brain ferment. My original intent was to do NaNoWriMo this month; however, I've realized that I haven't recovered yet from personal stress and grief to let myself take the suicidal plunge this month.

I have been busy. Here is my peace offering as a way of saying sorry for not posting. My photo blog, where all of my silly adventures get written up in photo book format:

http://marfstravels.livejournal.com/

Ea, the Clever Prince(?), was under oath with them
   so he repeated their talk to the reed house:
     'Reed hut, reed hut! Wall, wall!
O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
  Tear down the house and build a boat!
                      - Gilgamesh, Tablet XI

Who can say of mankind and all of its creations?
Will all of these letters and words which become sentences and stories
become something greater? Or will the story change until it ceases to exist?

Editor's Note: I am pissed I can't find the cuneiform to make this a wholly more fascinating post.

NaNoWriMo Cometh

Coming in November is the mad scramble to write 50k words – that’s “write”, it’s National Novel Writing Month. Each year, thousands of people participate. It’s quite the fun madhouse.

In my writing group we’re all going to give it a go. Who else out there is going to do it? I’d like to add you to my list. Here’s my info so you can add me:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/411510

Feel free to post your information in a comment, or email it to me if you’re shy.

My Dear Tom

A friend of mine in my writing group recently passed away. Although we never met face to face, I considered Tom Stewart a friend and a comrade in arms, and his death came as a shock. Writing is more than a story. It's a battle, a challenge to not only write The Story but to make it comprehensible to a multitude of people.

I'll never forget when I first joined the Well. He was a submitting maniac with his novel, but Tom was always kind, a hard worker, and a helluva writer. He was also generous with his time and gave as good as he got. Although I will now sadly never get to meet him, I know that part of his writing passion lives on in me and others he's helped along the way, and I hope he knows that, even though he's gone.

Part of me still can't believe he's gone. I'm waiting to hear his latest thoughts as he finishes fine-tuning the novel and looking for a publicist. But as time goes on and the emails never come, I'm sure it'll hit home one day harder than I expect.

Rest in Peace, Tom. And Godspeed.

And we're moving into the editing phase

My first chapter is getting inspected and turned inside out by my fine writing group as we speak.

Oh boy.

Novel Progress

Phases I and II complete. I'm feeling accomplished.

This weekend is phase III: chronology.