This past November, I participated in the NovNov challenge, which took over from NaNoWriMo. Although I\u2019ve played around with doing NaNoWriMo a couple of times, I never officially joined, so this was my first time signing up. I would have gotten the 50k words in if I hadn\u2019t had major computer and internet issues\u2014I could only write by hand for a week! \ud83d\ude12 But what finally made it easy to write 1,667 plus words a day was joining the online writing sprints offered by the NovNov sponsor, and discovering that they\u2019re the best thing since sliced bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, they\u2019re much, much better. In fact, it\u2019s probably not an exaggeration to say that discovering virtual writing sprints may be one of the best things that\u2019s happened to me in years. I just wish I\u2019d found something like them a long time ago; if I had, I\u2019d probably have more than a dozen novels written by now\u2014and I\u2019m not joking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happily, the NovNov sponsor (a UK company that makes a program for writers called ProWritingAid) has continued to run sprints as part of the numerous activities they\u2019re offering in conjunction with a writing contest. One of their videos is a \u2018bootcamp course\u2019 on writing. I was impressed with the way the course succinctly covers a lot of important material. While probably eighty to ninety percent of the points it addresses are things I already do\u2014often unconsciously\u2014likely because I\u2019m an experienced writer, it made an excellent and encouraging review. I would particularly recommend it for young writers (or anyone relatively new to the craft, regardless of age). <\/p>\n\n\n
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This \u2018bootcamp’ for writers stressed the importance of hooking the reader from the get-go, pointing out that an essential element of that hook comes from the main character currently experiencing\u2014or having just experienced\u2014something that changes their life in such a way that it\u2019s impossible for things to go back to the way they were before<\/em>. When I was thinking about that, I recalled something that gave me a very good laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I may have mentioned elsewhere in this blog that one of my absolute all-time favorite novel openings is from Gene Wolfe\u2019s Nightside the Long Sun<\/em> (a book that also has a very awesome title!).\u00a0 The first line alone is intense and surprising because of the juxtaposition of the profound and numinous concept of \u2018enlightenment\u2019 with the relatively mundane setting of a ball game.\u00a0 Then the reader is plunged deep into the world of the novel with the force of an Olympic platform diver knifing through the water to the bottom of the pool; one powerful image comes after another, and the language that he uses to paint those pictures is so gorgeous (even when\u00a0describing unpleasant things!) that it\u2019s absolutely breathtaking. The first time I read it, I thought, \u201cThis<\/em> is what I want to be able to do: to write masterfully enough to pull off something this brilliant.\u201d \u00a0(Silly me\u2014I\u2019ve always been too ambitious for my own good.) \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n\n\n\n I recently read an anthology of Mr. Wolfe\u2019s short fiction. The way the stories demonstrated the depth and breadth of his knowledge about everything from science and history to literature and music was staggering (not to mention how eerily prescient many of his stories written in the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s were about disturbing things happening today). After rereading the opening pages of Nightside<\/em> for the first time in a few years, it occurred to me that the man probably had an IQ of 200, and that what he could do with the English language likely requires nothing less than that, so the rest of us mere mortals probably shouldn\u2019t aspire to emulate his skill. \ud83d\ude22<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here\u2019s the amusing part regarding the advice about starting at a point where the character can no longer return to \u2018the way things were before.’ Not only does the first line of Nightside<\/em> illustrate that aptly, it does so very literally . . .<\/em> \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n That opening sentence is: \u201cEnlightenment came to Patera Silk on the ball court; nothing could ever be the same after that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I suppose we might say, \u201cWell, that\u2019s one<\/em> way to do it!\u201d \ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past November, I participated in the NovNov challenge, which took over from NaNoWriMo. Although I\u2019ve played around with doing NaNoWriMo a couple of times, I never officially joined, so this was my first time signing up. I would have … Continue reading