I like to think my fiction isn’t as self-confessional as other writers’ (I mean, I didn’t write Misery, for better or worse), but there’s way too much of me in what I write that my flaws and quirks are close to the surface. Oh, you’re a neo-pagan now, Erik? You should get on that post-apocalyptic fantasy with wiccan-inspired supernatural entities. Oh, you’re a big string theory nut? Wrap a story around that and no one will notice. (Except you, dear reader. Whoops!) Oh, you like koans? Sorry, your readers don’t.

Well, it’s all fuel for the fire.

One log that refuses to burn, however, is my prior involvement, and continuing fascination, with the Otherkin community. One step above Furries on the geek subculture hierarchy, Otherkin believe that they are non-human souls – such as elves, trolls, and vampires – animating human bodies.

Word Count: 50079

I passed over the 50K threshold Tuesday night.  After a 10K three-day weekend, I decided that I could get over the finish line in a day or so.  Monday, I wrote about 2K, and Tuesday I wrote about 3K.  You can view my stats here.  This is my third NaNoWriMo win.

I’m not done yet.

I’m a little over halfway through my (constantly changing) outline, and my target word count is 90,000.  After a day or two off, I’ll be writing about 1,000 words a day, which should let me finish The Coral Gate sometime in mid-January.

Word Count: 35,060

And now I’m in the doldrums.

The problem isn’t the story – it’s chugging along quite merrily, in fact.  Up until now, the issue has been time.  My social engagements, exercise, and work had effectively slimmed down my remaining free time to just enough to keep on pace.  On Sunday, I slipped a day behind, and through some determination (and something I’ll mention below) rebounded back to par.  Luckily, the past few days have been much less intense.

Total words: 25,163

I feel like I just had a second week 1.

I’m a third of the way into my outline at best (but probably closer to a quarter).  The usual NaNoWriMo compositional narrative runs thus: strong wind through week 1, duldrums in week 2, a slow sail back to the tradewinds in week 3, and a mad rush to the finish in week 4.  I’m still riding the strong winds.

Total: 14,065 words

Start-to-date average: 2,009 words/day

There’s always the urge to push far ahead in the first week, knowing things will get dire around week 2 or 3.  I’ve been most successful when my word counts have kept consistent below a certain threshold (usually around 2,000 words a day).  When I began Those Who Favor Fire, I was writing around 4,000 words a day, and I burned out.  Things got a bit dicey a few days ago, when I had to write 3,000 words/day so I could take Election Day off.  My brain felt like mush when I finished.

Once again, I have decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month.  This will be my fifth year participating, and an anticipated third win, should I make it to 50,000 words by December 1.

This year’s project will be The Coral Gate, a rural, modern-day fantasy set in backwoods Tennessee.  “Lily Mason and her family discover a red stone arch near a national laboratory in rural Tennessee; soon, creatures appear from the arch, and not all of them are friendly or benign.”  It’s a concept I’ve toyed with this year: writing a portal/parallel worlds fantasy that doesn’t feel like every other one out there.  I’ve also wanted to write a fantasy series that takes place around Roane County, where I spent part of my childhood and early adulthood.

The road goes ever On and on … on and on … for One thousand pages.

(With apologies to Tolkien!)

I love internal conflict.

Is there a God?  Should I save my friends or pursue the ways of the Force?  Are pirates really the way to go, or am I really a member of the ninja clan?

Internal conflict drives many literary novels.  Herman Hesse’s Siddharta is an exploration of spiritual identity; Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a quest for meaning.  Done well, it can move a reader to tears.

But it’s very difficult to do in genre fiction.  The market expects a minimum dose of external conflict, something outside the characters’ heads to invest in.  You really can’t write the SF Siddharta.  But there are other ways to play.

Across the water, Returned from the underworld, move forward again.

(Edit: too many syllables)

The denouement of any story should provide a sense of closure and emotional resolution, resolving any outstanding conflicts.  Deviations from this pattern, such as in Neon Genesis Evangelion or Lost, are often met with disappointment or hostility from the audience.

But this blog isn’t a narrative.  It’s a series of impressions, a stream-of-consciousness travelogue attempting to describe an experience in terms of its emotional impact rather than – and in fact, studiously avoiding – factual events.