ATM there’s one week left to complete NaNoWriMo 2011. This is Year Four for me; two wins, one abortion on Day Three in Year Two, plus this year. But this year I’m not really doing it according to the rules.
bookmark_borderOutline, 3DayNovel, and writing
I did the 3 Day Novel this past September. The word count is half what I get from doing NaNoWriMo but it’s a complete story, though a short one. I went into this with a detailed outline which helped a lot. In the process of doing the writing I hit most of the outline targets but I know that the story is short; some scenes are missing, possibly some secondary stories are not formulated yet, and some elements that I hoped to bring out need padding and reinforcement.
bookmark_borderPlotting: “Bad Teacher”
Not long ago I watched the movie Bad Teacher. What interested me most, beyond that particular striking wide-eyed attractiveness that is the Cameron Diaz from Something About Mary and Charlie’s Angels, was the plotting.
bookmark_borderEmotional Masturbation
Apparently there is something bad or wrong about masturbation. It’s not natural, or it’s devoid of the element of procreation or sharing that is supposed to be the purpose of sexual drive. Some people who accept masturbation as okay have issues with pornography. Besides being devoid of procreation like masturbation, pornography also devalues the act of sex and devalues the people/gender/activities that are displayed. Some authors then carefully try to slot themselves as “erotica” to avoid being labeled as porn. Erotica is supposed to have realistic people, realistic emotions, realistic stories. Erotica is like romance, but with sexual descriptions. Imagine Jane Austen or Harlequin Silhouettes with the missing sex scenes included.
bookmark_borderTheatresports for writers, courtesy of blog spammers
I have a blog, actually more than one blog, but all are anonymous and all very narrowly focused in terms of topic, which is probably why I have more than one. The main one has been around long enough that I get the same blog comment spam as anyone who has a blog of their own is familiar with. Some of these spam comments (all of which are picked out nicely by Akismet and held back from posting) are made up of a loonnng paragraph of randomly generated words, sometimes almost close to making sense, with a bunch their keywords and links thrown in.
Continue reading “Theatresports for writers, courtesy of blog spammers”
bookmark_borderReview: Visitor Q (Originally Bijitâ Q)
Dysfunctional family, healed with the help of an outside visitor. Sound like a good storyline?
Now, how dysfunctional can you make the characters, both as family members and as individuals? How about using prostitution, and incest? How about combining the two so that the incest comes about when the daughter is charging the father for the sex, including a surcharge for cumming too early? Is that too wierd? Wait, it gets better. Throw in some family violence. The son, who is being bullied regularly by some boys his own age, verbally and physically abuses his mother while the father ignores them and continues to eat his dinner. Toss in some more prostitution and add in some sexual violence when the mother needs to earn money to support her drug addiction and her client asks her to whip him with his belt. And voyeurism. The father is a failed television newscaster and films himself and his family constantly. He films himself having sex with his prostitute daughter, films his son being bullied and films as his house is attacked by the bullies brandishing fireworks. He has the unknown visitor do the filming while he rapes and kills a former newscast partner when she refuses to partake in the filming of the bullying of the son. Add in some necrophilia when the father takes the body home to dismember but finds himself getting excited. Add some scat when the dead woman’s bowels release while the father is having sex with her dead body. Put in some more violence and indignities to human bodies when the father and mother kill the boys who have been bullying the son and add the three bodies to the woman’s body and begin to dismember them as a family project. And this comes after the mother has rescued the father’s penis from being trapped by rigor mortis in the dead woman’s body by giving the father a shot of heroin.
bookmark_borderPOV Exercise
I’m not certain how this is going to work out, but here’s the deal:
- Write a scene and identify the point of view that it uses.
- Then re-write the same scene from another point of view, and then another, and then another, until all four (first person, third person, third person limited, second person) are all done. For any other than third person you have the option to change character for each version or to maintain the same character.
- For more practice, change characters and write some more versions and various combination of the scene. Ultimately you could have one third person and three versions for each character in your scene.
bookmark_borderPOV Exercise: Third person
It’s early but the late fall evening is already dark and the sky is spitting tiny droplets of cold rain. The Broadway articulated bus is heading south, away from downtown. On this section of the route more passengers exit than enter the bus. People are heading home and the bus is in the process of emptying.
bookmark_borderPOV Exercise: Second person
The November meeting was done at 6:30 and you’re on the last leg of the bus trip home. It’s already dark and the wipers on the front window are going. You stare at them. Asymmetrical rhythms to you are like light to a moth. Bus wipers must operate by separate motors because they never stay in synch. Bomp, be-domp. Bomp, bomp-de, bomp, b-domp. Each one has its own tempo. Sometimes they hit together, but then they inevitably drift apart, further and further, then closer, and closer, until they meet again.
bookmark_borderPOV Exercise: First Person
The November meeting was done by 6:30 and I’m on the last leg of the bus trip home. It’s already dark and I’m watching the wipers on the front window. Asymmetrical rhythms to me are like light to a moth. Bus wipers must operate by separate motors because they never stay in synch. Bomp, be-domp. Bomp, bomp-de, bomp, b-domp. Each one has its own tempo and sometimes they hit together and then drift apart, further and further, then closer, and closer, until they meet again.