Thursday 23 October 2003

Pic of the day: Romance! Picture from the anime Ultra Maniac.

Tired NaNoWriMo babblings

I wonder if this happens regularly to novel writers. It seems to have happened to a number of us who have signed up for the NaNoWriMo. As the start date approaches we realize that something is missing. For instance the plot...

As there is approximately one week left before the start of the Novel Writing Month, I decided to write down a plot outline. I already have the characters, with pretty good written descriptions and even more in my head. I also have approximately two pages at the beginning of the book and three pages at the end, floating around in my head. Somewhere in the middle I can choose between two different versions of the same episode. And in between there is the vast black emptiness of space. I can see a few plot elements like faraway asteroids tumbling through the darkness: Things I want to have in the story, but have no idea how to put in there.

For instance Jon should say some pretty harsh and bitter things about rich people, and this should happen before he finds out that Haugtusla's mother is a millionaire. (Not that I am sure he wouldn't have said the same even if he knew.) Another minor thing I want to fit in is the first encounter between Jon and Tassen, Haugtusla's dog. That will definitely not be love at first sight! Then there is the first time she sees his house. Apart from being very small, practically as small as you can get them here in Norway, it is also locked and Jon never carries a key. Since he can teleport up to about 10 meters without much effort, he usually just teleports in. This episode has to be so early in the story that he would not trust her with knowledge of his abilities. But I have no idea why she would come to his place together with him at that time. I guess I shall have to leave that to them to find out.

In short, there is no plot, just a bunch of characters and a few things that I can imagine them doing. That's definitely not a novel. And it is definitely not a romance novel! That is the other part. For some obscure reason I have chosen to write a romance novel (or perhaps the novel has chosen me to write it?) Even though I have no experience with romance in real life, and almost all the romance novels I have read have been written by the same author, who also has no experience with romance in real life. OK, the last part may be a bit harsh. But Sandemo certainly had a painful introduction to the relationship between men and women, and even I find some of her descriptions improbable and others downright creepy. Not saying that I could do it better, but that is hardly a good thing. Because now I have set myself up to try to do just that. I want to bring that special blend of romance and the supernatural into English and see how it will sound there.

I guess I should drop the whole outlining part, and do this the way Sandemo does it: She starts to write having little more than the names of the characters, and then writes the whole thing in sequence without correcting anything except spelling. Of course, Sandemo often claims help from ghosts or spirits or even Lucifer! I really don't think I would want that kind of connection!

Actually, what I want to connect with now is my pillow. But whether that will cause any new and interesting stories remains to be seen; if so, in the case of romance stories, it would be... in my dreams.