Pep talks always come right when I need them!
I'm referring to Aimee Bender's pep talk recently (here because I can't link properly http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3874221 )
where she talked about having an anthill show up in the middle of a grocery store. Even though the writer maybe hadn't planned having an anthill show up if they let that plot play out it might take their novel some where better.
Yesterday my MC threw an absolute tantrum for 2000 words over food. FOOD! REALLY I don't know why she wanted too and it wasn't like her at all but at the end she stormed out. I don't know where she's gone too or what happens next. It was amazingly fun to write though. In the past however many words I've just been loathing my novel but that temper tantrum was the most fun I've had so far. And today when I sat down to write more my novel somehow ended up being closer to what I had at first wanted it to be. And I'm liking my MC a lot more now because she isn't so boring, she's someone who likes to throw irrational fits over mundane food (read: sad burritos)
Anywhoo I don't know if I'll finish. I know I'll keep trying. But that little anthill moment of mine was a definite moving forward point for me. So let your story run away with you!
/end motivational speech moment :P
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101,608 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2010 - 10 24
Absolutely brilliant. I was writing fantasy, and the goblins decided they were going to be steampunk instead. And insist I must go on at length about their gearwork eyes...
They were supposed to be in the next book! :(
----------NaNoWriMo region: Ferndale, MI | Naperville, IL
Genres: Urban contemporary; fantasy, sci-fi; speculative; historical
121,372 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2010 - 15 57
Gosh do I love anthill moments; they are what keep me coming back for more :)
I had one last week, when the MC’s (estranged) father handed MC his business card and it said:
“Digital production, sound editing, and other miscellaneous magic.”
Magic? I thought I was writing science fiction!!
----------English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education -- sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street. ~E.B. White
50,077 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2010 - 15 43
My anthill moment occurred yesterday. My group of characters was crossing a river, when they were confronted by the enemy. Originally, there was supposed to be a heated discussion, before this poisonous gas bubbled up, and everybody split so that they wouldn't get poisoned.
It turned into a 1000 word+ fight, with the MC getting dragged along by a monster(this particular enemy is a beastmaster). This section lasted 500 words alone, at least.
I have no clue how it turned into a fight. But it did. But I don't mind, because the fight turned out well.
----------Peace is but a shadow of death,
Desperate to forget it's painful past...
Though we hope for promising years
After shedding a thousand tears,
Yesterday's sorrow constantly nears
And while the moon still shines blue,
By dawn, it will turn to scarlet h
62,699 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2010 - 14 07
My anthill moment would have to be the pwca (pronounced Pooka, as in the never-seen character in Harvey) who decided to appear one day when I was incredibly bored with what I was writing. He has ended up being kind of important for a character I didn't even know belonged in the story when I was outlining it.
----------cb
http://www.brennan-design.com/nano.html
76,543 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2010 - 13 16
Mine was definitely when a throwaway character who was only supposed to exist in one scene to deliver a line of dialogue that sent my FMC digging around where she wouldn't have normally, decided that he'd said it on purpose, that he had a plan, and that he was also going to be an MC, and there was nothing I could do about it. Because of that, my story is so much richer and has so much more meat to it, and it's allowed my other MMC to split off from the group and go off on his own for his own little subplot. :D I love November.
----------"We're number 17!"
NaNo 2004- WON! 56k | NaNo 2005- WON! 54k | NaNo 2006- WON! 93k | NaNo 2007- WON! 51k | NaNo 2008- WON! 50k | NaNo 2010- WON! 76k