2 posts tagged “fiction”
I read this book on a recommendation from a friend and I ended up loving the story. It's a story within a story (as told by the protagonist) about a young man name Kvothe (pronounced Quothe) who becomes orphaned after his family is murdered by the mysterious Chandrian. After spending many years begging on the streets, Kvothe decides he must make his way to the university as this was what his family would have wanted him to do. Using his quick wits and his penchant for mischief, he is accepted into the university where he makes both friends and enemies. Kvothe is a magician, a musician and a young man trying to solve the mysteries of his parent's murder - this story is set in a completely original world with all the fantasy elements a reader would want to see.
And I've already learned a few things about myself. I've always known that I have this sick fascination with writing. I was always the one in my English classes laughing in the face of measley 10 page essays and relishing every moment it took for me to create a grand (well in my mind at the time) piece of written work that would be forever etched in paper and no longer trapped in the synapses of my mind. Doing Nanowrimo re-enforces this theory I have about myself and how much I really like to write.
Last year I made excuses for not doing Nanowrimo. I was in my last semester at college (and oddly enough I only had two classes) and for some reason I thought that I just wouldn't be able to do it. I'd never tried tackling something on the scale of 50,000 words before and so it scared me and I didn't want to fail. Failure is not an option for me. But apparently not trying was better than trying and failing. In theory I don't believe that was the right way to go, but hey, we all have our struggles.
So anyway, the longest piece of fiction I'd ever written was a 15,000 uncompleted noir fiction piece that met it's doom mostly because my internal editor told me I screwed it up at the beginning and had painted myself in a corner. I should have kept going since it needed about 10,000 more words to be completed, but it sat there and gathered dust and hasn't been touched in a very long time.
Writing 8,000 words in two days, however, has put things in perspective for me. It isn't about getting it perfect the first time. That is what editing is for later. It is just important to get the ideas out and improve it later. And early next week, when I break through the 15,000 word wall that has been up for me for so long, I think I will enter into the realm of the "writer's high". I can see my story ahead of me very clearly and although I don't know everything and every word that will be written, the path is clear and the 50,000 mark will be reached.
I have more to say, but I need to save my words for the novel. (Maybe I should start audio posting my thoughts...hmm...)
I hope you other Nanowrimo-ers are doing well. I know I'm going strong right now, but I expect I'll probably have to be dragged sometime late next week as carpal tunnel syndrome will most likely be setting in.
