NaNoWriMo Update, such as it is, and What I'm Reading

I've been working on a book review that's a real head-banger (hard to decide what to say because there's so much to talk about!!) and because I had no focus whatsoever, today, I decided to toddle over to see if New Orleans Chris had posted anything about his NaNoWriMo progress. Sure enough, Chris is chugging right along. I had a super first day of Nano, in spite of the fact that I've always been nervous about the story I chose to work on -- which I've been mulling for something on the order of 4 or 5 years -- but I started late and still managed to crank out over 5,000 words.

This morning . . . ugh. I suspected something was wrong around 4,000 words, yesterday, so I was kind of hesitant when some of my Twitter buddies congratulated me on my first-day word count. At 6,000 I knew it was a dead end but tried to zig when I probably should have zagged in order to fix things. At 6,400, I stopped.

My beloved, half-blind kitty has been in an outdoorsy mood, so I abandoned the computer and spent most of the afternoon on the porch with her. On the porch, I broke open A Novel Idea: Best Advice on Writing Inspirational Fiction (<----link to bn.com, for a change of pace). Okay, let me just say this, first: If you are trying to write a novel of any kind at all, this book will be helpful. Inspiration is the theme, but there's some fantastic writing advice that has already helped me and which applies to all genres; it's just excellent, general information. I don't know if it'll save my fat Nano butt from doom, but we'll see.

While I'm not calling my story "inspirational," it definitely has some Christian elements and I've fretted so much because it's almost a burden being handed a story like this in a dream. It has built-in conflict -- huge, ridiculous, wonderful conflict -- and I have the option to make my heroine completely miserable, push her to the brink, nearly ruin her life and then . . . pull her back. That's good, right?

The problem, I discovered from reading the first chapter (by Angela Hunt) is that I didn't begin my story in media res, "in the middle of the action". I was nowhere near the inciting incident (not the big disaster, but the story starter); I was way back in the build-up to the inciting incident, which needs to be presumed rather than written because it is too freaking boring to read.

So, like Chris on his first day, I was thinking #Nanofail. At the regular time (only darker - stupid Daylight Savings Time), my husband walked in the door and he said, "You can't quit," when I told him That was it. I blew it. I replied that I can do anything I darn well please because it's my choice and he said, "You. Can. Not. Stop." Well, huh. Not sure where that came from, but I've spent the evening reading and snoozing and pondering. We'll see what happens, tomorrow.

Bookwise:

You'd think I'd slow down on my reading because of Nano, but no . . . I've actually picked up and started several books. I finished Pretties and started The Knife of Never Letting Go. I'm not sure what I think of The Knife of Never Letting Go, at this point, except that I think hearing a dog's thoughts can be pretty hilarious.

Of course, I started A Novel Idea -- the promo material says, "All of the proceeds go to Media Associates International, an international organization whose goal is to help fledging (I presume they mean "fledgling") writers and publishers produce Christian literature that is culturally relevant." Cool.

I've also read the intro and first chapter of The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice and I am loving this book even more than I'd imagined. The author is a psychologist and he begins the book with a discussion about connectivity -- why people and monkeys and other critters need each other -- by describing an experiment with baby monkeys and a wire-monkey mother versus a soft, fake mother. Fascinating stuff. I only stopped after the first chapter because I'm in a group that is going to discuss the book and I don't want to move beyond the discussion points.

Hubby has made a salad from How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking by Michael Psilakis and neither of us liked the dressing but the salad was so good that I asked for seconds. And, I am not a big salad eater; it's that good - with roasted almonds and dried fruit, mmm. This is truly a stunning book, by the way, with pictures of not only the recipes but everyday life in Greece.


And, I'm reading a book in PDF, which is very unusual for me, but I chatted with the author and his book sounded so fantastic that I told him I'm willing to make an exception: How to Lower Your Cholesterol With French Gourmet Cooking by Alain Braux (<-----Amazon link that does not benefit me because I'm too lazy).

My husband sat down to read part of it off the screen. He is by far the pickiest person I've ever met, when it comes to cookbooks so it was surprising, to say the least, when he said, "I'm sold." Whoa. He read aloud (another thing he never does) Alain's opinion on fresh-caught versus farm-raised salmon, an opinion with which we already strongly agreed.

The recipes look fabulous at a glance and what little I've read of the text has been pretty amazing. We'll try some recipes, soon, and report back to you.

All right. I've gotten my babble fix over with. I guess I'll be up early to give Nano a second attempt, tomorrow. Cross your fingers, say your prayers and send positive thoughts, please!!!

Happy Writing to those who are also Nanoing and Happy Reading to everyone else!!

Bookfool, not particularly jazzed but willing to give it a second go