NaNoWriMo: November 4 Update

Words Written Last Night: 2,335
Total Words Written: 8,542
Percent of Final Goal: %17

Notes: I think I started writing in present tense, but I’ve since switched to past. Whoops. Thing is, I’m not sure which I like better. The immediacy of present tense is nice, but it feels pretty unnatural to force present tense for an entire book. I’ll need to think about that one.

Part of the reason the story I’m writing is so fragmented is because it involves a lot of authors who are writing their own stories. Each of these little stories contributes to the plot as a whole – in theme, if not directly in action. I’m finding it’s interesting to try to give the author’s different voices. It’s easy to do with stories like A Velvet Noose, which is supposed to be highly modernist and experimental, but more difficult to do with straightforward stories like the one I worked on last night.

Mrs. Rachel Booth, one of the minor characters, shares a story about a cat that turns into a girl. She says the girl is based on a dream she had about a little boy. In the dream, she grew quite fond of the little boy, so much so that, when she woke up, she missed him. The story of the cat and the girl is based on a similar dream I once had.

Available for Review: Mrs. Booth’s Story – The Woodcutter

NaNoWriMo: November 3 Update

Words Written Last Night: 1,683
Total Words Written: 6,207
Percent of Final Goal: %12.4

Notes: Wednesday nights, when I have improv workshop, are going to be difficult for me here.

As I write, I continue to be underwhelmed by the main character I’ve selected – mainly because he feels so underdeveloped. In revision, I may opt to remove him completely and focus on some of the other, livelier characters.

I’ve gone into a bit more detail about Peter Priest – the man who wrote A Velvet Noose in the world of my story. I always knew he was going to be a bad man – he dies before the story even begins, shot down while attempting to murder a woman with his bare hands. I don’t think I realized exactly how twisted he was going to come out. I kinda like him – in a fascinating, villain-y way. Too bad I killed him off before getting to know him.

I may have to change some of these names. Peter Priest sounds a bit too much like Peter Priesthood, which has some unfortunate connotations for Mormon people.

Also, nearly every time I go to write A Velvet Noose, I wind up writing A Velvet Revolver. And that would be a completely different story.

Addendum: I think I may have solved my protagonist issue while taking a shower this morning.

Moral of the story: Always take a shower.

I'd Be Scared to Close My Eyes

NaNoWriMo: November 2 Update

Words Written Last Night: 2,267
Total Words Written: 4,524
Percent of Final Goal: %9

Notes: I get absent-minded when I write. I wrote a couple of text messages while working last night, but I forgot to send them.

I wrote the epilogue. I think it’s nice, but it’ll probably come across a bit heavy-handed.

I don’t know exactly what kind of book A Velvet Noose would actually BE, but I can guarantee I would never want to read it. I wrote a second excerpt last night. It’s kind of creepy stuff.

The love interest in the story, Angie Connor, is striking me as the most fascinating character right now – definitely a much more well-defined character than the main protagonist. A lot of that characterization, though, has come out in writing. I just found out that Angie wrote a one-act play that involves naked people yelling and throwing things at each other. Seems like a cool girl to me.

Available for Review: A Velvet Noose, excerpt 2

NaNoWriMo: November 1 Update

Words Written Last Night: 2,257
Total Words Written: 2,257
Percent of Final Goal: %4

Notes: The book I’ve started is called The Cult of Story. This is a working title – frankly, I might as well call the book Suck Title right now, because I REALLY hate the title The Cult of Story.

I’ve decided the story is going to be framed between a prologue and epilogue which, at first glance, are only tangentially related to the story as a whole. After everything’s said and done… they may still be only tangentially related to the story. That’ll get ironed out in revision.

I started on the first chapter and included a lot of character description. I literally have a scene where the main characters sit around a table and introduce themselves. I feel this scene is necessary, but it’s pretty boring right now. I’ll find a way to spice/break it up later.

Also, I wrote a couple of quick passages that’ll fit in to the story later, including the first significant passage from a fictional book called A Velvet Noose, which was written by a VERY bad man. Okay, technically, I’m the one who wrote it, but… you know what I mean.

Lastly, I spent so much time writing that I burned my pizza. Sad day.

Available for Review: A Velvet Noose, excerpt 1

The Terrifying Face of the Tintin Movie

I may be the only person on this side of the Atlantic Ocean who cares about this, but Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are collaberating on a Tintin movie.

For those of you who don't know (and that may well be everyone), Tintin was a comic character created by Belgian artist Hergé - and he's pretty big in Europe. I remember reading Tintin comics when I was pretty young - mainly because I enjoyed reading about the dog. Those twin detective guys were pretty funny too, I guess.

Recently, I've rediscovered Tintin - now more as an interesting artistic and historical artifact than anything else. Hergé depicted a lot of scenes that would be difficult to find in children's comics today - like this opium den:


Hergé wasn't afraid to address social issues of his day, which are now matters of history to the rest of us. His view of Americans, and especially their treatment of Native Americans, is particularly interesting - not to mention fairly damning.

Anyway, the visual style's the big deal for today's purposes. Hergé invented what is now called the ligne claire style of cartooning. That doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but I do know that it's quite nice to look at. Spielberg and Jackson have decided that they'd rather not use live-action to portray Tintin & company, opting instead to go with the same motion-capture technology that brought Gollum to life. The idea is to maintain as much of that magical Hergé artwork as they can.

Practically, this means that fan-favorite Captain Haddock, who usually looks like this:

...will now look like THIS:

Yeah, I am NOT down with this sickness!

Horrorshow: Finale

What better way to end the Halloween season than with a horror movie double-feature?

Before this, I don't think I'd ever seen an actual Vincent Price film. Now my life will never be the same...

The House of Haunted Hill is a great suspense story - full of tense, genuinely frightening moments. It's a fairly dated film, of course, by today's standards. I found the lack of gore to be refreshing, especially after some of my bloodier forays into horror filmdom.

Now, the whole film, you KNOW some evil scheming is going on besides the supernatural, and that tends to blur the line between what is real and what isn't. Even at the end, I wasn't quite sure what was going on for CERTAIN - but SOMETHING was definitely up.

The atmosphere is tense, the chemistry between actors believable, and Vincent Price is a genuinely creepy presence at all times.

And speaking of "blurring the lines of reality"...

My dad touted The Haunting as one of his favorite horror movies - mainly because there is no way to determine if anything supernatural actually is going on. The tenants of Hill House experience many supernatural phenomena, but there's nothing that can't be SOMEHOW explained away by natural events.

If there's one storytelling device I would LOVE to get rid of, it's the internal monologue. Watching a person's face fill up a screen, hearing them talk in an echoing voice WITHOUT their mouth moving... nothing throws me out of a movie faster. Luckily, it's a trend that seems to have all but died off in most forms of storytelling (even comics are getting rid of thought balloons). Still, in older films, it's a bit jarring - and The Haunting RELIES on the internal monologue device.

Since The Haunting is all about the gradual disintegration of a human psyche, most of the film is spent building the atmosphere slowly and subtly. There aren't a lot of jump-out-of-your-seat scares, but the ones that ARE there will get you good.

And I think that's it for horror movies this year. I'm starting to jump at shadows - and, with as early as it gets dark nowadays, there are a LOT of shadows out there. I'll probably pick some more up next Halloween, but... geez.