Sean D. Francis

Why I’m Not Writing in NaNoWriMo

Posted on 10 November 2011 | Comments Off

The chill winds of October remind me that November approaches and with November comes the promise of National Novel Writing Month.  I used to love National Novel Writing Month.  The challenge, the discipline did me good.  The impetus of just writing, write even if you don’t know what to write, just keep the fingers flying on the keyboard compelled me.

I’ve attempted NaNoWriMo several times and only succeeded once.  I have friends and acquaintences who continue to participate and succeed on a regular basis.

As much as I appreciate the discipline and challenge of NaNoWriMo, I have a fundamental problem with the structure of NaNoWriMo.  The one time Iw succeeded, I spewed such drivel upon the page in the final days, that the last 5,000 words were useless to me. The whole novel begs for a rewrite of an epic proportion.  When it comes to wrtiting, I’m a plotter. I need spreadsheets, index cards, maps, and research to be comfortable with what I’m writing. I’m the kind of writer who first needs to build a world and then populate it with stories.

Yet, that produces very dull stories. At least when I do it. My imagination is clean. I don’t mean that in terms of being naughty or nice, but in terms of who I imagine worlds.  My initial constructs of my fictional worlds are very much like Asimov’s worlds, or Heinlein’s. There is a minimalism and a cleanliness… or at least the absence of the grime and grit that actually make worlds interesting.

This is actually one of the things I really love about Joss Whedon’s works. He takes the standard tropes and then muddies the waters. A lot. As much as possible. It takes a lot of effort for me to muddy the waters. I like things to be easy. Easy, in stories, is boring.

In this vein, obviously, I should thrive under NaNoWriMo, forced to create on the fly is the best way to create the grime that makes a story interesting.

What I write under that pressure does create some fascinating cracks in pristine structure for the interesting quirkiness to come through, but I’m frustrated by it.

So I’m not writing in NaNo. But I still wish I was.

To my friends who take up the challenge year after year, I see you in the same category as my friends who run marathons as I run 5Ks. I’m jealous and awed.

 

Of Brick Walls and Writer’s Block

Posted on 25 October 2011 | Comments Off

To say I’ve been suffering from writer’s block is an understatement. What is worse than having writer’s block is having tons of ideas for things to write but missing the angle to make the writing interesting.

For the last eight months or so, I’ve been focused on very personal writing.  I believe the insights of a single forty-year old man struggling for career and love has a certain poetic tragedy and ‘everyman’ aspect to it.  Yet, it mires me in the ruts and pits of despair I’m desperate to get out of. Read more

A Sense of Satisfaction

Posted on 11 October 2011 | Comments Off

I had a moment of contentment last night.  It is sort of unusual for me so I had to take note.  It was just as unusual as the moonbow I saw as I stepped out on my deck last night.  Something else I took not of and tried to take a picture but couldn’t capture the gloriousness of it as you can see.

It was Monday and I edit my podcast on Monday nights. It is a solo process and much like most nights, I am alone. Read more

My Mom’s Gift to Me

Posted on 5 October 2011 | 9 responses

Every day I go to the same coffee shop and order the same thing. It is one of those constants in my life. I’ve written about it often because honestly, it is sometimes the best part of my day.  This morning I was running late and there was a line at the counter that was moving REALLY SLOWLY (probably not, perception is weird) so I stood and shuffled my feet in the line until it was my turn.

They know my order:  medium house coffee to go.  Yes, it is a coffee shop, not a Starbucks. No fancy names.  I noticed that right before she took my order the woman behind the counter filled the thermal carafe with cream.  She then asked me if I took cream in my coffee, which I thought was weird since it wasn’t part of the normal ordering process. It took me a second to realize that she was going to give me the cream and have me take it over to the table where that stuff is kept.  I then offered to do just that for you. Read more

Strangers Live Here Now

Posted on 30 September 2011 | 1 response

I own things in my heart that I don’t actually own.  Yes, that is as weird as it sounds.

I grew up on a lake in Montana.  It wasn’t a private lake. It was shared with all sorts of people with cabins who lived there during the weekends on the summer, but only a few families lived there year round. This is one of the reasons why I claimed the lake as mine. I was there month after month. I was there when the lake was too cold to use. I was there during the intense storms, all the bad moments.  I was there saving neighbors’ docks that were pulled free from southerly storms. Read more

Those Moments of Clarity are Frightening

Posted on 13 September 2011 | Comments Off

I wrote this almost a month ago but couldn’t bring myself to post it.  In the midst of my Self Improvement through Attitude Adjustment month, I read this again and felt it does have a place. 

I had one of those moments.  We know these moments. We usually enjoy these moments. They get great names like Eureka! moments, epiphanies, or Dawning Realization.  Sometimes the moments are so tremendous that we give them titles like “Paradigm Shift” or say of them “Everything has Changed”. Read more

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