Babble: NaNoWriMo

Where have you been?!

A valid question given the time that has passed since my last update and I will try and supply some valid excuses: Coursera, Theme Hospital, work, subsequent exhaustion, laziness and Nanowrimo.

It is this last excuse I want to talk about today. That would be Nanowrimo.

It is hard to deny that every person on this earth is, in his or her own way, a word smith and a storyteller. We all find ourselves in need to tell other people things – be it interesting facts, an event that has taken place, a prediction of the future, an opinion. And in that need to share with others we shape some form of discourse to suit that need. We choose a right approach, use a line of thought that may bring us systematically to our point, or prepare the punch line; or maybe we go out to get the most shock value. We are all crafty – whether we think it or not.

And it is this spirit which Nanowrimo allows to come out without restrictions or judgement. It is the platform to craft a world, a thought, an idea, a story just because you can, just because you want to, just because it is time to get off your butt and do something creative again.

So what is Nanowrimo? National Novel Writing Month is a writing initiative that aims to encourage unhindered, unedited, and ungracious creative writing.  The goal is simple: Start a story on the first day of November and write fifty-thousand words by the end of it. Fifty-wha? Are you crazy? That is insane! Actually… yes and no. It is possible to write that many words in a month. It amounts to 1667 words a day, which is what? Two pages? That is all you need in a day. That is not impossible to do, now is it? And it is not like you have to do it all in one sitting. A couple of minutes here and there throughout the day actually lightens the ‘load’ and allows you to really just sit and write without even having to worry about how many words you are writing.  People also have their own preferences to when it is the best time for them to write. I write the most in the mornings when I am too tired to think (oddly enough). But I like writing mornings and evenings. A fellow participant I know actually writes his novel by hand. He keeps a notebook with him wherever he goes and will write whenever he finds the time for it – like when he is standing in a queue.

As for the accusation that it is insane, why yes, it IS insane and that is the beauty of it. The splendour. The majesty. It is something to do that is against the norm either in the privacy of your own home or along with a bunch of other over-eager and possibly highly-caffeinated people who have also chosen to make November a crazy, crazy month.

And by a bunch of people, I do not mean fifty or a hundred or a thousand. No, not even ten thousand, not even a hundred-thousand. Let me put it this way: last year there were over 250000 participants from all over the world. That is a big bunch…

That is a whole lot of crazy! Yes, yes it is.

Why? Why would anyone be crazy enough to do it? Well, why not? Why not allow yourself the opportunity to write something that is not for work or school? Why not allow yourself to be creative and silly? Why not allow yourself to do something challenging and different? Nanowrimo gives you that opportunity.

But I do not have a story. Most Nanowrimo participants start off not knowing what they are going to write about. Some only figure it out about three days into the month. So what do they do in the meantime? Well, just write whatever nonsense comes into mind, really. Nanowrimo is not about an awesome story – although some participants do use the month to rewrite some of their work or use the pressure of having a deadline as a way to construct a very rough first draft of a project they might want to continue working on later. Nanowrimo is simply about writing. You can do anything you want in your story. Want to have your characters sit in a pub and talk the whole time? Go for it. Want three pirates to walk in? Type that up. Want ninjas follow them? Do not let us stop you. Want someone to have an Alien/Spaceballs moment where an alien bursts out of their chests and dance on the counter top? Make it happen.

But that is ridiculous! Exactly. Nanowrimo is about what you want to write about. There are no rules because, as much as it plays the role of a competition and even calls those who made the 50k mark ‘winners’, it is simply giving you the opportunity and permission to write. How much sense your story makes is up to you. My last story was not worth being printed and used as toilet paper, but it was still fun and I felt I achieved something by the end of the month.

 I do not want to have anyone read what I wrote. Which is a valid concern, but not really relevant here. The purpose of Nanowrimo is not to critique your writing in any way. It is to get you to write. It is not to make anyone look at what you are writing – no one is going to. You do not submit your story somewhere and then wait for them to determine whether it meets some kind of criteria that classify it as a novel. The only time you are ever asked to upload words somewhere is when it is the end of November and your words go through a word count programme to confirm the fact that you have reached your target. Feel unsure about that? Feel like someone might steal your masterpiece? Well, go to a website like http://www.ipsum-generator.com/ which generates gibberish words, select how many words you want generated and paste the gibberish words into the Nanowrimo counter. But you can cheat that way! Yes, you can, but what would you gain if you do? Zip.

So what do you get out of it?

•          The satisfaction of meeting a supposedly impossible challenge head on and overcoming it – or getting close enough to beating it that you know you can.
•          The opportunity to be creative – not many of us allow ourselves to be even when we have a couple of minutes in our day to spare.
•          The permission to be silly; to take that harsh critic always lurking in your mind and stuffing them in a box somewhere. It has no place in Nanowrimo.
•          A chance to interact with people from different walks of life and perhaps make a couple of friends in the process. (Nanowrimo has also resulted in a couple of marriages mwahaha).

Does that not sound like something to consider at least?

Nanowrimo is my favourite time of the year. Move over Christmas and do not even glance at birthdays, there is a certain excitement I feel about Nanowrimo that I cannot fully put into words. Maybe it is simply because it allows me a moment to be geeky without feeling like I am being so all by myself. Maybe it is being passionate and challenged along with other people. Or maybe it is just simply because it allows me to write and not feel like 1) I have to justify it or 2) that it has to be brilliant. Instead I can simply write and dare call it a novel.

I also love the interaction among the participants – be they those in the local community or in the forums. There is an energy among everyone. Maybe it is simply because everyone is being sort of silly in taking on such a supposedly pointless challenge. Maybe it is just that people are eager to be creative or curious to see what they can do.

And, just to let you know. This post is going to be about 1667 words in length. That is my aim: 1667 words. Now why would I do such a silly thing? Well, it certainly is one way to show you that it is not all that difficult.  If you look through this post, you will note some of the ‘cheats’ used during Nanowrimo to help give you a bigger word count. Well no. Cheat is such a nasty word. Something to be frowned upon. We shall not call it cheating. Instead we will call it a shortcut. Yes. Shortcut it is.

The first shortcut being that there are no contractions in this post. Don’t counts for one word while do not counts for two. Nifty, eh? Also note how many random ideas I threw in here – ninjas, pirates, aliens. Random works. Random gives you more words. Repetitions also do the same thing. Adding more descriptive words also helps.  I also love adding thoughts in short sentences. This makes for more words. Yes. We like more words, do we not?

So how to find out more about Nanowrimo? Why, go to the website of course!  www.nanowrimo.org The website offers a wealth of information about the initiative – as it should! It also has a Frequently Asked Questions page (as opposed to a FAQ hahaha) that will hopefully be able to answer the questions I did not manage to cover in here. And then of course you are more than welcome to ask questions here so that you can be further saturated by all the Nanowrimo goodness.

Think about it. Ponder on it. Chew on it. Consider it a bit more. Then go to the website, register and let me know. I am always thrilled by the prospect of having another fellow crazy person writing along with me.

And that is about 1667. :)

Book Babble: Throne of Glass

So I finished Throne of Glass and figured to comment on it while it’s still fresh in my memory. I think my opinion of the story is going to be different from someone who hadn’t read the previous original piece. I’ve been spoilt by what I already know and so couldn’t really be introduced to the world as others would. From the reviews I’ve read, I’ve heard nothing but praise from both new readers and previous fans.  Plus, I can be (and mostly am) rather critical to even my beyond my learned friends’ observations.

So, before my criticism says otherwise, the book is worth a read. It is better than a lot of stuff I’ve read, but obviously not the best out there. I’ll say if you want something that you don’t have to really think through, but which might surprise you with its depth later in the series (and you’re into YA), go have a look at this.

Stop here if you don’t want the more critical view of this book. I can’t say I will be spoiling it. I’ll be vague for the most part and what I do mention will mostly  be from the back cover. The biggest spoil will probably be something like knowing there is a character in the book who has an x-type of personality.

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So, without further ado…

I know my previous post included a picture of the full cover and thus also the back cover plot synopsis, but for those who didn’t bother reading it:

MEET CELAENA SARDOTHIEN.

BEAUTIFUL. DEADLY.

DESTINED FOR GREATNESS.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament – fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live of die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

The book is younger than I would’ve liked, but not enough to be disappointed about. The biggest fault I can give it is that the main drive of the story – the tournament – really kind of isn’t. This book is about interaction. It’s about what is said and shown and what people are confronted by. The tournament is side-lined for the most part and that is rather quizzical. The second greatest fault I can give the book is that it feels like it’s setting up a series (which it is) and while it has a main thread that concludes by the end of the book, it kind of felt like the middle-child in a trilogy. You read it knowing that things were being saved for a next book and that bugged me.

There are also a lot of unexpected leaps in terms of relationships – both friendships and otherwise. Celaena is supposedly the greatest, most talented, most feared assassin (notice something here?) and yet it doesn’t take long before people seem to forget that. I also would think an assassin as great and feared as she is would also be hardened by her profession especially given that she is only eighteen and I can’t that is the case. I found her personality far too changeable and overly dramatic (maybe because of her youth?). With that being said, I’ve met people a lot more fluid than Celaena so I can’t say that she’s unformed, but it is still not what I would have expected. Maybe that’s what makes her such a master assassin?

Some things didn’t make sense though, but might fit the YA scene. A highly-respected soldier, admired for his skill, who has never killed anyone. Actions leading to events which then stop abruptly before fulfilment without any interruption of any kind and having this befuddlement be considered normal. Young adults in leadership or positions of power who would probably, based on age alone, not have sufficient experience to be as good as they’re presented.

Many herald the protagonist as a great heroine as she holds her own amongst the male-dominated cast of characters she is surrounded by. She never diminishes and rarely seems overwhelmed by anyone. When she’s surrounded by men, you don’t feel that instant separation of sex pressing down on her and that is something that is still desperately needed in current culture. We desperately need more female characters who can stand their ground. Celaena definitely does that.

I can’t fault Sarah J. Maas’ writing. With the exception of a single scene in the book, I never had any trouble following what was going on blow-by-blow. There were some choices or… elements to the story that I didn’t quite get, but I’m going to write it off as something that’ll clear up in future sequels. It is hard not to compare this work to Queen of Glass as it was on www.fictionpress.com and I can’t say I succeeded in not doing so. So let me comment on that for those who like me did read QoG. Again no spoilers per se.

The main flaw in the competition as it occurred in QoG has been rectified, but I still had issues with Celaena being the only female in the competition. I would’ve preferred seeing at least one hardened female face in the group as opposed to all the uglies on the one end and the breathtakingly beautiful assassin on the other. Because the flaw in the story was fixed, events differ dramatically all the way through – as it should. I can’t say I don’t miss some of the moments that had to be cut as a result though, but that’s the fangirl talking. I have to say I was happy that Nehemia was already present. I love her. If anything, she is the type of strong, female character that I would love to see more of in fiction.

Celaena’s past comes through a lot more in this version – which I have no problem with and in fact support – but I can’t say I necessarily liked the way it was presented. If you want to bring in an element like past events or character issues or concerns, make sure it fits with the moment that your character is in presently. If it haunts her, make it a reoccurring dream or thought, not a one-hit wonder. Your reader is going to forget, but also is going to think ‘where did that thought come from’? That was a little jarring, but mostly because I recognized the things it was pointing towards, even if I thought it was a tad too revealing at times. I actually really like that Maas brought those things in already. I think it is appropriate that we don’t discover something later on that seems totally out of sync with what we have encountered before. And I truly appreciate the fact that Maas went that route.

I really liked her referencing something that I believe occurred in one of the novellas published before ToG’s release. It was simple and effective. As someone who hadn’t read the novellas (but looked through the titles), I really appreciated the way was brought in, because I didn’t have to know what happened. Simply by the way it was written, I could feel the depth of Celaena’s feelings for the events that transpired even when I didn’t know those events myself. I loved that. It would’ve been great to see that kind of ingenuity throughout.

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So where would I rank this book?

It’s a lot better than Twishite and its awful offspring, but it’s not Hunger Games. I would recommend it to readers of either camp. I think if you’re used to YA, this would be a good read. Having something of an inside scoop regarding future developments, I’m still rather excited and will be following the series with much interest. I do have two of the four novellas already released and will most likely get the other two as well (they’re R13 on Kalahari.net which I don’t think is all that bad) – I just hope they end up putting them in printed form so that I can stick it in my bookshelf. I hate the idea of only owning an e-book version of something. I’m still old school, I guess. I’d love to see Maas continue with the novellas. I hope she doesn’t stop now that the ‘main’ books are coming out.

So… I’d give it a 7 out of 10.