Angry rant about something that's not important

bullshitting ego-maniacs with good imaginations There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed - Dennett

Since doing nano my characters have been telling me that the Tony Blair is trying to control my brain with radio waves. Since reading this thread they're telling me that Enzo is in on it and he must be killed.

Dan - Yes, Tony Blair is responsible for keeping your NaNoWriMo word count at least 1,000 words below mine at all times. I admit, I put him up to it. Yan - My thoughts exactly. Enzo.. Read my rubbish novel as it happens! http://somesolitude.wordpress.com/

My characters have told me... Oh hang on, they've just told me not to say. ~PEPS~ Latest on The Art of Tea ( http://pepsoid.wordpress.com/ )... "The Art of Flânerie"

For some it may be an effective "procedure" for writing. You know how some actors live the role of their characters off-screen? One vivid example was Val Kilmer when he played Jim Morrison in 'The Doors'. He thought he'd been possessed by Morrison and said he quite literally became him for a while. It helped him fulfil the role. Maybe? Or some of them could be in need of psychiatric assistance. There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed - Dennett

Or maybe they're just be... Metaphorical? :-/ ~PEPS~ Latest on The Art of Tea ( http://pepsoid.wordpress.com/ )... "The Art of Flânerie"

There is some truth in the "my characters made me do it" syndrome. I've had an idea for a ghost story, based on a dream, that I've been mulling over since 1997. I've finally gone back to it and started fleshing out the characters, and suddenly I've realised there's no room for the ghost any more because the relationship between the two central charcters is so big. So, if I was feeling metaphorical (Thanks Peps) I could say "The characters have gone off in their own direction"; in fact what I really mean is that I've taken an executive decision to write something more interesting.

I knew it! Will bring axe to the halfway meetup.

This is turning into the dream I had in 1997...

I'm still not convinced G4eth. I stand by the executive decision thing. Unfortunately, I might not be able to make the halfway meetup. You'll have to kill me at the early-dec meetup, I'm afraid... Enzo.. Read my rubbish novel as it happens! http://somesolitude.wordpress.com/

but by that time it'll be too late and you will have already won

Oh yes, too late indeed, my friend. Too late indeed. However, having said that, my word count for today is a measly 632. I'm still aiming for close to 2,000 though. It's just been a bit of a chore yesterday / today. I suppose there'll be a lot more days like this to come... Bloody hard work though, innit?! Enzo.. Read my rubbish novel as it happens! http://somesolitude.wordpress.com/

it is indeed hard work fellow NaNo nanoites (?) I am in with a shot as well, up to nearly 12000 after 3 good days friday was a wash out due to drunkeness and it really puts you well behind if you miss a day

Man, I need a good day! It *is* tough. I still haven't caught up after just one and a half days off, and I've been spending every spare minute on it. I need to get some dang speed up! ~ I'll Show You Tyrants * Fuselit * The Prowl Log * Woe's Woe

For the past hour and whatever, I turned off the internet, the tv, the music, everything...and have just topped 15,000 words! I'm well chuffed with myself, it puts me exactly 2 days ahead of where i should be at this point. Really, JC, just forget all concept of quality and you'll fly. You'll be able to read how weak tonight's effort is on my blog in a bit. Many thanks for the positive words in your earlier post by the way. Enzo.. Read my rubbish novel as it happens! http://somesolitude.wordpress.com/

Hi Ben I agree, those comments sound more than a tad precious, pretentious, head-up-arse. And yet… I do understand what they’re on about, to an extent. Nearly every decent ‘writing’ guide I’ve ever read – from the likes of John Gardner, Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, Stephen King, Anne Lamott, Robert McKee – says roughly the same thing: character is plot. When I first tried my hand at writing, years ago, I gave up pretty quickly because I couldn’t come up with any plots. Once I discovered I didn’t have to worry about plot anyway, just concentrate on character, things started working better. Lamott puts it like this: ‘Plot grows out of character. If you focus on who the people in your story are… something is bound to happen. Characters should not… serve as pawns for some plot you’ve dreamed up. Any plot you impose on your characters will be onomatopoeic: PLOT. Don’t worry about plot. Worry about the characters.’ Later on, she says: ‘Don’t pretend you know more about your characters than they do, because you don’t. Stay open to them.’ When I first read that, I thought ‘what a pile of toss.’ But I’ve come to set a lot of store by it – especially when I get blocked. Forgetting what I want to do and homing in on the character works great as mental Ex-Lax. King, as you might guess, is a bit more forthright. He’s got a great piece in ‘On Writing’ where he talks about plot generally, and in particular about how he came to write ‘Misery’. I’ll let him tell it: “I won’t try to convince you that I’ve never plotted any more than I’ll try to convince you that I’ve never told a lie, but I do both as infrequently as possible. I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless… and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible. … Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story which results from it is apt to feel artificial and laboured.” For him, he says, situation comes first, characters next. “Once those things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded of a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do things their way. In some instances, the outcome is what I visualised. In most, however, it’s something I never expected.” In describing the writing of a novel, he uses the metaphor of an archaeologist uncovering part of a fossil in the ground. The rest of the thing is hidden, and gets uncovered bit by bit. It may be a seashell, it may be a Tyrannosaurus Rex. With ‘Misery’, he tells the story about how he started with the situation and the two characters, and had a pretty good idea about where to go. It was going to be a short story. Then, as it went on, he thought it would be a novella. But then “Paul Sheldon turned out to be a good deal more resourceful that I initially thought… Annie also turned out to be more complex than I’d first imagined her… And none of the story’s details and incidents preceded from plot; they were organic, each arising naturally from the initial situation, each an uncovered part of the fossil.” Again, it probably still sounds like toss. But then – whatever you think of his stuff (and I personally think he did his best work 20 years ago) – he’s sold over 300 million books!

I've read On Writing, I'm a big King fan, in fact (like you, mostly older stuff), and I can see where all that's coming from. I've had an idea for a character that's changed completely once I've started writing. Similarly I've had ideas for plots that have changed during writing. I agree with the power of strong character-driven fiction. I love it myself. All my favourite authors develop wonderful characters (in my opinion). But writing characters and creating characters is separate to those characters existing independently of the writer and - in particular - 'arguing' with you about their future. I just can't accept it. Like I said, I can accept that a story doesn't evolve how you anticipated, that in the context of what you write there is often a necessity (or choice) to tweak or recreate characters. I can also see how some of my initial quotes from the NaNo messageboard could be seen as being metaphorical--and that's fine, metaphors are good. I've just seen enough to believe that for those people, they're NOT metaphorical, and I think that's a bit odd, or, at least, completely alien to me. Thanks for putting those On Writing quotes up, by the way. Haven't read that book for a few years, since it came out. I remember his description of the accident and subsequent ill-health being harrowing in its objectivity. Will dig it out and have a read... Cheers Enzo.. Read my rubbish novel as it happens! http://somesolitude.wordpress.com/

Yeah, I take your point there. Did you catch the interview with King on Front Row on Monday? Worth a 'Listen Again' if not.

No, I didn't. I'll look for it. Did you read Cell? I found it disappointing, I felt the end in particular was really weak. Enzo.. Read my rubbish novel as it happens! http://somesolitude.wordpress.com/

I personally prfer a good James Herbert.

No... the last King novel I read was 'Gerald's Game' - by which point I thought he'd lost it so much that I didn't bother with anything that came afterwards. I've never taken to James Herbert. Simply don't like his style of writing. I find Clive Barker slightly better. But I don't think either of them come anywhere close to King at his best - 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Pet Sematary. Think I'd still probably prefer to read King at his worst than either of the other two. As for Shaun Hutson.... Jeez! How the hell does he get away with it?