NaNoWriMo

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 62 Comments

A few of my writer friends are doing NaNoWriMo this year. Which I have to admit, I’ve never really been tempted by. Write a 50,000 word novel in one month. I know that if I decided to start a novel, that within one month, I might *reasonably* come up with a premise, and maybe even write 50,000 words. But those words would be be scattered scenes, most of them experimental in nature, and scattered, isolated lines (probably of dialogue), plus some background notes as I brainstorm on characters and plot ideas.

But a complete rough draft of a novel?

My initial writing of a story is always open-ended, and subject to later (possibly enormous) revision–what’s the use of keeping a little ticky-counter that rises as you approach 50,000 words if half of them end up in the round file later? Consigning words to the round file (or the back files of your hard drive–I never throw anything away) is part of the writing process. Success can’t be counted–for me, personally– by the number of words I have (unless I can’t get past one page, in which case, why would I attempt NaNo in the first place).

Anyone who can belt out 50,000 words of a rough draft in one month will probably spend the next year completely changing everything they wrote in that month. Which I suppose gives structure to the novel-writing task. But isn’t the same thing as actually “writing a novel” in a month. It’s the flower bud of a novel.

eta: above post edited to make clear my NaNo comments only apply to me, not anyone else, and certainly were not meant to belittle participants. Different things work for different people.

Urgh.

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 21 Comments

It’s that time again. That time when my latest ep of TD is gearing up, and I have something to complain about. This time, it’s blocking. You know, who stands where and what any character is doing at any given moment. AKA action. I’m having the worst time writing the action in TD 19, and I know why. It’s all talking heads. Everyone’s yapping at each other, imparting IMPORTANT INFORMATION, and mostly sitting around while they do it. On TV, you get a two-shot going, or maybe you switch off the over-the-shoulder shots of each speaker in turn, and the visuals become less important than what’s being said.

Which is fine, if it’s only one scene, but I have scene after scene of yammering.

So I try to break it up by having the characters DO something while they yammer, but there’s only so much coffee they can drink.

Oy, I’ve been here before, when the neat little tricks that spice up a scene just won’t come to my brain.

Forever Knight

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 7 Comments

Ooof…I’d forgotten how hot this show was. Erotically, of course, but also in terms of action, and hitting the emotional nail on the head with the exploration of human complexity and darkness.

Before the vampire Angel ever drove his convertible through the noir city streets, righting the wrongs of Los Angeles in order to redeem for centuries of evil, Nicholas Knight drove his convertible through the noir city streets, righting the wrongs of Toronto in order to redeem for centuries of evil.

I remember complaining when “Angel” first aired about the similarities. But they were superficial. Angel wasn’t a cop (and could never be one with that invitation problem), Darla wasn’t La Croix, Natalie wasn’t Cordelia, Janette wasn’t Buffy (or Darla), the Raven wasn’t Caritas, and the whole tone and emphasis of the shows were very different.

I love both.

Galveston/Houston

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 2 Comments

People are posting “Galveston stories”, so here’s mine. I’m a Southern California girl, born and raised. Beaches, palm trees, green, wet winters, brown gold, dry summers–that’s what I grew up with. Every summer my family would camp in the mountains and body surf down at San Clemente or Laguna. Then, at the tender age of 17, I went off to college in rural Iowa. Not only wasn’t there fast food for fifty miles, they had a one-hundred year winter there my Freshman year. And, it turns out, snow doesn’t just fall magically on December 1st and then disappear New Year’s Eve, the friggin’ stuff stays and storms and piles up until well into April. And sometimes it arrives in October!

That’s just wrong.

Well, anyway, I put up with that and the total lack of KROQ for four years (and by my senior year of college I was walking through the snow in sockless tennis shoes), and then after graduation I headed off to graduate school at Rice University in Houston.

Houston had palm trees. Houston had green, wet winters (sometimes I had to scrape ice off my front windshield), Houston had a gay community and decent college radio.

And then there was Galveston. I didn’t get down there much, but I remember the first time I did. My girlfriend stayed up on the sand while I waded into the water. I stood there, the waves crashing over my knees, and I cried.

It wasn’t home, but it was the next best thing.

Be safe, Texans!

Taxed

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 19 Comments

Just got back from Opera in the Park, which was fun. Along with the usual Mozart, Verdi, and et al samplings, the San Francisco Opera were pushing a contemporary opera they’ll be showing this year called Doctor Atomic, which is about Robert Oppenheimer. I, of course, am about three degrees of separation from the ev0l atomic bomb myself. Edward O. Teller is a character in the opera, and how weird is that? I studied under his son Paul. He was my dissertation advisor in grad school.

In sucky news, I got home to find a thick envelope from the I.R. Fucking S. They are auditing me for my 2003 tax return. They claim I owe them over $8,000. There is no way in hell I could owe them that. I don’t even make six times that a year as it is. Gross. I called my friend Gloria to talk to her CPA since I can’t make heads or tails of this. It’s insane.

Way to ruin my weekend, and after I was feeling slightly patriotic this afternoon and all that, too. pffft.

Tableau

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 70 Comments

Just got done another marathon viewing of Angel Season 4. Minus Home. I’ll get to Home again when I have my friends holding my hand. But the research, the research was important. Needed the Big Picture. So many thoughts. Reviews to do, fics to write.

Speaking of fics, finally has a table of contents. I always forget how hard LJ is to navigate, even if you’re familiar with it. So here ’tis:

The Destroyer

Archangel

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 5 Comments

You know, I don’t read AU fanfic. Of course, I don’t really read much fanfic, period, but I have no taste for AU at all, I’m the original Canon’s Bitch. The original author determines what the story is, and if I don’t like it, I don’t have to keep reading/viewing/etc. That’s how I feel. I even suffered five months of Post Traumatic Stress syndrome after the AtS episode “Home” because that’s how I feel.

But you know what I can’t deal with, and will never be able to deal with so much so it just simply never happened?

Season 5 Highlander ending spoilers