Days 274-293 - National Novel Writing Month

Image from NaNoWriMo by hoosadork
(I didn't make that up), via Flickr.com

OK, so National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) isn't over yet for everyone, but I have decided I have learned enough and I need to get back to my regular project writing. I have missed the pleasure of writing about something new each day. There are still so many pieces I need to write down with so little time left within the 365 days of this project.

My NaNoWriMo project title is A Paper Doll World. I wrote the title and a very brief overview, but I never completed the summary. The same title just might be my project next year, too. I wrote about 30,000 words which will give me much to edit between now and next November.

As a transition, here are the lessons I learned from my 20 days with NaNoWriMo:

• It isn't necessary to have the whole idea for a story in order to get started, although perhaps I should wait until I have succeeded at writing the whole story to make that statement. A more accurate lesson is that it is possible to let inspiration take its course based on the characters already described.

• It isn't necessary to do all the research before beginning to write. As I thought of the places I could place my characters, I looked up reference material, but I didn't spend time reading it all. I just kept track of where I could get the material again and kept writing.

• It isn't necessary to be strict about chronology when beginning to write. I couldn't decide if I wanted to tell the story as it would have been during my childhood or as it would be now. Eventually it seemed clear that I needed to tell the story of my character as an adult with flashbacks to childhood. That made it necessary to develop a timeline so I could keep track of what would have been going on in the world at each of the points in time of the story. But if someone ended up the wrong age on this timeline, I could change the year of their birth to adjust. It is, after all, my story, not a history lesson.

• It is much easier to write straight narrative than dialog. It is even more difficult to balance the text between the two. I will likely write two versions of much of my story, one with dialog and one without and then work on integrating the two.

• Writing something every day is easier than I thought, especially when I didn't let chronology or history or details of the location interfere, but setting a word deadline for each day was more of a stretch than I could keep up. Writing at least 500 words each day for this project is possible because the pieces don't have to connect from one day to the next. Writing at least 1500 words per day on the same story every day is much more challenging.

• Next time I need to begin planning earlier. Next time I want to have an outline and a timeline complete before NaNoWriMo begins.

Day 116 - Two Projects From the Writers Exercise Generator

Project One:

Write a hundred word business report on the agricultural potential of magic beans.

image by chiptape, via Flickr

Carlysle Agro-Industries announced today that years of research and experimentation has resulted in the development of a remarkable new strain of bean with exceptional properties. The researchers who developed the bean dubbed it a magic bean because of the potential it holds for medicinal and nutritional purposes.

Injections of an extract from the new bean, officially named Phaseolus Magus, have completely shrunk several types of cancerous tumors in mice, including cancer of the stomach, lung, liver, and kidney.  A second extract is being tested as a treatment for leukemia.

In addition to these medicinal properties, the bean has double protein levels and amino acids needed for protein production of soy beans, on a par with the protein obtained from lean beef. More remarkable is that the bean contains a complete set of essential amino acids, the only such vegetable protein source. This property alone has the potential for wiping out malnutrition in areas where meat, poultry or fish sources of protein are not sufficient.

The bean is drought tolerant and resistant to common viral, fungal and rot that affect other varieties of beans, making it a hardy crop in tropical, semi-tropical, and temperate climates. The typical yield from a new bean crop is at least 50% higher on average than can be obtained from other bean varieties. One reason for the significantly higher yields is the spectacular heights the vines reach when mature.  The circumference of a mature vine averages four feet which is sufficient for the vines to grow upwards without supporting structures. After the beans have been harvested, the vines can also be harvested as building materials as strong as oak planks.

Carlysle Agro-Industries estimates the annual income from the sale of the new bean will exceed $50 million per year. Carlysle plans to set aside a percentage of the profits for scholarships to students committed to pursuing careers in science or agriculture.

Project Two:

Write an upbeat press release announcing Jack's murder of the giant.

Image by Peter Martin Hall, via Flickr

The village of Whitley is a safer place now that Officer Jack Black of the Whitley Municipal Police Department has killed the Whitley giant who had terrorized residents for the past five years.

Police say the 119-year-old victim tossed boulders at law enforcement for an hour while hiding in a lighthouse before being fatally wounded by Officer Black.

The victim was a suspect in more than 50 disappearances of children from the Whitley area.  None of the missing children have been found, although nearly all were last seen in the vicinity of an oversized vine that had grown so tall its top reached the clouds above the Whitley Cemetery. Attempts to capture the giant and take him in for questioning with regard to the disappearances failed several times during the past year.

On Friday Mayor Haskel Thompkins told the people of Whitley, "We've closed an important chapter in this tragedy."