![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jade_sabre) wrote2008-11-06 09:46 am
notes from NaNoLand
It is 21:26 Wednesday 5 November 2008, and I am having my first crisis of conscience over a character death! Oh no! I need to keep writing my NaNo, but there is absolutely no way to continue and avoid this character death. Alas! I should not have given the old man a name, much less have suggested that in this particular scene he is proudly reliving his glory days in escorting two lovely young ladies to the capital. I feel as if the only way to make this worse would be to have him start telling the girls about how he used to take the one’s mother and aunt to balls just like this one, and—
OH GOD NOLDY, I’M SO SORRY.
I mean I named him “Noldy” even, which wasn’t very nice. I mean, geeze, one indignity after another.
Is there anyway to spare him? Oh God, that makes Cindy look even more heartless, if she goes with NOLDY’S MURDERERS rather than “the people that killed that old man” or even “the people that killed the footman.” And I don’t want Cindy to look heartless, and I’ve been struggling with that for twenty-five pages now, and oh Lord.
Okay, if, say, we don’t kill him, but just knock him out early on, then we…convince him Cindy is dead and send him straight home (oh, Tom Jones doing Kiss, this is totally inappropriate music), and then he alerts all the servants, and…life goes on. Alternatively, we use him to take Nell to the ball, and then send him home to tell everyone that Cindy is dead OH MY GOD WHY DO I DO THIS TO PEOPLE they’re all going to be so sad! Why did I choose this plot? This is AWFUL what was I THINKING oh my bajeezus.
I mean I guess we could not slit his throat, and could just knock him out, but dangit all, he’s an old man, that’s not going to do him any good. I mean, pretty much any violent activity is going to severely threaten his ability to continue living. Throwing him from the carriage = broken bones, potentially serious ones—however, if he just gets thrown from the carriage, rather than (ooooooooooh if I kill the horses I could use that to tie it back with Nell’s dad’s death edit: I chose not to take this route because I just wanted to get the scene OVER with and it's pretty obviously already the worst night of her life) has his throat slit, that’s more accidental…and maybe faster? I mean if he blacks out (act your age mama, not your shoe size!) (ah-hahaha speaking of last NaNo I just had this wonderful image of Amir dressed à la Tom Cruise in Risky Business, singing this song, ah-hahaha) before he dies, that’s not as bad, right?
…it’s just easier, plot-wise, if he dies, because that’s one less person to convince (although honestly, why would Nell lie) but that whole lack-of-corpse thing always makes convincing people more difficult (like I, uh, know all that much about convincing people that other people are dead ARGH)…
But I feel awful.
Chocolate break!
Things that are better than a chocolate break: Host-mum-made-bread-pudding break and remembering HEY GUESS WHAT OBAMA IS THE FREAKING PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE FREAKING UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FUCK YEAH.
Okay I know I had some kind of revelation about how Noldy was going to die and it was going to be okay, but I have forgotten it. Bread pudding makes everything better, though, and I think I’ve separated myself enough from my story (ah-hahahaha Stranger than Fiction begone from my head s.t.p.) to continue with what has to happen.
22:14—note to self: to avoid guilt, DON’T MENTION THE OLD MAN BY NAME OR THE ACTIONS HE WOULD TAKE IN THE FUTURE IF HE WAS GOING TO LIVE THAT LONG.
The moment of truth!
22:51 OKAY I DID IT. SORRY NOLDY. AT LEAST YOU DIED OFF-SCREEN, AND WE’LL NEVER SEE YOUR BODY?
Gosh I need to finish this scene, preferably before I go to bed, because I am not getting any writing done tomorrow. Okay girl! You can do this!
…Y HALLO THAR, DR. HORRIBLE REFERENCE.
Diction is important, because it’s the only way to distinguish between the different niveaus (ah-hahaha niveaus). OKAY FIFTEEN MORE MINUTES KID.
They use the phrase “digging a crease” in French as well, to describe a frown.
Ideas for a future Little Mermaid retelling—the idea of dancing in cloth slippers, each time your foot hits the marble/wood floor you feel the impact like a knife. Heh.
AH ONE MINUTE.
SWEET who kicked butt tonight, I did. And now, exhausted, I bid you goodnight to the fading strains of “Boys of Summer,” and hope to see you in the morning.
no subject
My novel is about death, so I'm killing people left and right, but unsurprisingly, uneffectively, and unfortunately, I'm three-for-four on off-screen deaths. Also, I waste so much time coming up with the name of the soon-to-die characters. Some are easier than others, but I've already gotten to one point where this character-to-die felt like a Lindsey, and then I sat there thinking, oh God, I know people named Lindsey, I'm not killing them, I don't want them to die, oh, but this character, she needs to be hit by a bus now. Okay!
no subject
I know what you mean! I forgot Noldy had to die, and so I just kind of threw a name at him, and now I just feel awful, like I should have taken more effort. And about giving characters names from people you already know; it's like, crap, I hope they don't read this and think it's them.
no subject
I enjoyed this post, because I've just been writing a scene in my book (NOT NaNo, just, you know, book) where the main character learns that her friend and idol has died --offstage, but there's a reason she can't get to see her. It was tough to write and I don't know if I struck the right notes or not, but at least I have a scene on paper I can work with.
Good luck!
no subject
Oooooooh I just wrote a scene in which the main character has to watch her best friend/somewhat idol choose to go with a bunch of bandits rather than with her fiancé...nevermind all the separation anxiety that's going to come after it. But I know what you mean, about trying to strike the right chords; I've been having a lot of trouble keeping the best friend likeable (or rather, Nell likes her, and I understand why Nell likes her, but I'm afraid everyone will be angry with Nell for putting up with her).
Luck to you as well!
no subject
no subject
DO YOU FEEL BAD NOW I HOPE YOU DO please be on the internet tomorrow :<
yeeeeeeeeeeah obamaaaaaaaaaaaaa woop woop
See, look. Here it's happened again; I sit down to write something detailed and appropriate and thought-provoking and instead I vomit up this crap. i--i think i suck at being a friend sorry
uhhhh
i--i'm sorry
voldy'snoldy's dead. :<no subject
seriously I keep rereading that first paragraph and am about to spit apple out my nose ow.
YES I STILL FEEL AWFUL I MENTIONED HIM AGAIN in the last few words which by the way bring me up to 25K although I have to admit I'm still not entirely sure if I like most of the stuff or not. I really want you to read it though! And I am almost done with this section. (I have decided to do it in three sections, or rather have part one, and then have the rest of part one be flashbacks during part 2, thus turning it into part 3.) So I will probably inflict on you, just as a potential audience, not as a beta because hocrap I would not wish that job on you.
hahaha friendship. *glomps you*
:-b
no subject
no subject
no subject