We've had threads on how awful our writing is, but I wanted to start one on the good things we've written. Bad words are a part of NaNo, but so are the surprising good ones that show up here and there. Is there a sentence, or a paragraph that surprised you?
Here's a favorite of mine. My MC is trying to fly:
He thought about how birds took off from the ground and tried to remember if he'd seen exactly what they did to get into the air. At first he pictured sparrows, but he just couldn't visualize details. Then he thought about crows, bigger, slower birds that he'd seen take off from only a few feet away. Crows took a hop and trusted their wings to carry them.
This works really well with one of my themes, about the power of belief. So what are some of your favorites?
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2007: Shattered --WIN!
2008: Of Shadows and Flame -- WIN!
2009: Flight
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40,063 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 16 39
I won't quote it here in case it's not as good as I think it is today, but I wrote a great scene that I hadn't planned about a dragon dying. And the cool part is, I think it set up several things that I had planned for later in the book.
53,159 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 18 26
I don't have a quote, because it would be too long and I don't want to digging for it anyway. But I have to say that I'm being amused by my characters despite the challenges they are presenting me. One started the book already a hero, the other as a totally green character who didn't even want to leave his home. Now they are showing their skills and flaws in ways that I never thought of before I started writing.
I'm sure that a majority of these specific words will dissapear or move about when I edit later, but overall I'm happy with the story they tell.
----------It's not about the words, it's about the meaning - the words are just there to hold it all together.
2007 - Hands Down - winner
2008 - Natural Spirits - winner
2009 - The Queen's Own - ?
18,695 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 18 52
The excerpt on my page is one of my favorites, and I'm rather proud of this sentence:
"I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear." -Freddie Mercury
53,159 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 20 41
OK, so I lied about not quoting. I just wrote this bit though, so I didn't need to dig for it.
Bo has just found the woman he's supposed to assassinate, and has taken an opportunity to blow a poisoned dart in her direction. She take exception to that.
She looked at him.
How could she have even know that he was there? How could she still be standing? He fell through the earth and into a cold lake.
It's not about the words, it's about the meaning - the words are just there to hold it all together.
2007 - Hands Down - winner
2008 - Natural Spirits - winner
2009 - The Queen's Own - ?
52,204 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 21 30
I rather like this bit of my story:
This is while they are trying to find the guy responsible for Elise and Simon's being there (and Kokopelli.)
----------"You gotta go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven." - Jimi Hendrix
36,917 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 22 00
I know.
Sometimes, even while wallowing in all the glorious word-count crap, I'm amazed that it was my mind that actually put a few words (or even just a couple) in an order that pleases me; and who knows? might please others. But even more often than that I'm impressed, when I'm in word-count mode, by what my characters sometimes might do or say—without my even realizing they were going to do or say it; when that's the case, I can always play wordsmith later.
When characters surprise me, that's when I'm in NaNoHeaven.
----------May your snark never be a boojum,
Jay
50,068 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 41
i had a paragraph the other day that i absolutely loved. I'm not gonna quote it because i'm sure it needs to be cleaned up (probably full of adverbs and adjectives). I had written some good stuff before that, but that was the first part where i felt reminded that i was genius ;-)
May we all have more of those moments to keep us going forward
----------Sarah
"She said she cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful and life was so short" - Brian Andreas
37,757 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 11 43
This isn't something that I can quote, but I have to say that I'm super happy with my first two chapters. One character discovers that her rival and friend was killed by a leopard and the other character is breaking into his old house to see if the new owner has changed anything (he's got a smidge of OCD, and get's really pissed when he sees that the living room furniture has been rearranged)
It makes me super happy. I hope the rest of you get 'EUREKA!' moments too. They're lovely.
----------Tootles!