Hello, glorious fellow rebels!
I'm finding my un-novel quite hard to get into the flow of. It's part travel-book, part history, part memoir - sort of a collection of observances, places, experiences, moments, and other ~stuff~ in the city I live in, in a way that tries to connect daily life with personal and cultural history. The ideal is for it to be expermental and interstital while still readable, and thinking about it is exciting, researching/visiting places to write about is fun; writing it is not. It's feeling very stagnant at the moment, and part of that is probably not yet having settled into it, and not having written anything like this with an extended length. But what I'm really feeling the absence of at the moment is the world- and character-building, plotting, and prompts that usually get me through NaNo. I miss the prompt-swapping especially right now.
So, more experienced non-fictioneers, my question to you: do you have alternative creative methods for both grounding your work and inspiring yourselves if it's not flowing? Any and all thoughts would be deeply appreciated :)
Many thanks!
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24,935 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 23 37
Not so terribly experienced, but my first NaNo was memoir, and last year I participated, but didn't register or anything, finishing the memoir I started the year before.
For me it flows from different sources, and perhaps memoir writing requires a little bit of patience also - to let things percolate to the surface that you know you need to write about.
Hand writing sometimes unclogged the artery. Starting with description and setting sometimes helped also. Sometimes it came best by re-creating a dialogue/conversation/event.
Sometimes it evolved out of plotting timelines, exploring themes that linked everything together, lessons from that time, or whatever. I wrote to a plan, but it still took a direction of it's own anyway.
All the best with your project. It sounds very exciting. Don't worry too much about what form it takes as you write it now. Just allow it to come out, and know you can alter everything at the edit stage.
50,110 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 00 04
hi,
I will try to answer your question. my english is not so good, and I don't like to pick my words from a dictionary...
I am also trying to write a mix, not exactly like yours, but still a mix of impressions.
I try to realize every day (every minute :-)) that it is NOT supposed to become a ready-to-print piece of work.
As soon as I feel really 'stagnant' I stop writing. And for the rest of the day try to think about WHY it did not work, but without forcing myself to get an immediate answer to that question or even without writing it down when an answer comes to my mind.
Then I go to sleep with the idea in my mind that the next morning I will know and will get up early to write.
Most of the time it works.
I also take care not to spend too much energy on the forums (or on my blog), but concentrate on the real thing: my piece of 50000 words that I would never have written without NaNoWriMo.
ciao,
----------Maria-Dolores
Maria-Dolores
32,049 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 07 04
I have a little secret. In fact, it has worked so well that I included a shout -out to this method in the book I am writing!
I get my best ideas when walking outside or driving. What is a writer to do when sitting in front of the keyboard with a blank mind trying to get back the flow that was so easily pouring from her little brain while she was in traffic 10 minutes ago?
She turns on her handy-dandy little recorder that she was talking into the whole time and transcribes away! It's slow at first, but it gets the juices flowing. So far, I'm meeting word count no problem.
The bonus is that, now that I'm used the sound of my voice, it no longer gives me the willies.
Good luck!
---------->^..^< Mélanie
http://hopespeaking.com
1,350 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 17 10
I'm going to ask on another forum too, but I wanted to know how you go about the transcription process...do you just keep playing it back and hitting stop...I can't type as fast as I can talk!
Also, I tried doing it while walking, but it looks like I'm talking to myself...lol...
34,332 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 19 36
Thanks for the great responses, all - I really like that recorder idea, Stormkatt. I'm walking about a lot for this project, and then trying to remember everything when I get back - recording is clearly the way forward :)
25,100 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 38
Good idea on the recorder! Now if I only had the guts to do it. I don't know why it intimidates me so. I mean, I even have the shiny iPhone, so it should be easy...
----------34,332 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 20 40
So I walked around town with a recorder yesterday - absolutely brilliant, I've got all these thoughts and observations that probably would have forgotten otherwise, plus having the background noise of the streets on tape sets the atmosphere excellently for writing about city things.
Goddam but I hate the sound of my own voice, though...
50,110 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 00 33
hi,
It's me again!
Just to say that the stuff with recorders and notebooks maybe does not work for everybody :-).
I myself have lots of notebooks full of 'prompts' for at least a hundred novels, or non-fiction books, but still have to wait till I really feel 'warmed up' to write about that item. Most of the time they turn out to be items of wich I thought: but I would never write about THAT... Wasn't there an exercise in The Artist Way about themes we always try to avoid??
Ciao,
----------Keep smiling,
Maria-Dolores
Maria-Dolores
9,653 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 06 56
Oh dear - don't think I could ever use the recorder. I'd feel silly! Plus the sound of my own voice (which I had to hear many many times when doing training to be an English teacher) still gives me the creeps, and I become self-conscious with how I speak.
That said, I don't drive, so when I'm on the move I have my hands free and can scribble in a notebook. Something I like to do when sitting in a cafe or on a bus etc is just focus on one thing - a person, building, whatever - and do my utmost to describe it perfectly. Kind of like still life drawing, but for writing.
It makes me write what I see rather than what I think I see, and the results are often surprising or inspiring.
----------Above Ground: Violence, Adventure & Mayhem.
50,627 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 09 58
I'm writing non-fiction as well, a mix of personal cartharsis with good-faith tutorial and I've found that I get my best "A-ha" moments at the most inconvenient moments.
I simply put a silly picture, in my mind, with that thought and when I get home I have something to remember the thought by. Then I write down the subject in my notebook, even if I don't know where it will fit into the book yet, I want the heading.
When I get stuck inside my book, I turn to one of those headings and write on those... I'll fit them in later.
It's actually kind of nice to have some place to redirect myself when I'm losing my groove inside my book and yet I can still be writing.
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