Infinity of Falling

Yes, I am one of those annoying people that calls Jane Austen by her first name.

So I was thinking about Sense and Sensibility. Something I had never really thought about before: Edward Ferrars really isn't better than Willoughby.

I mean, Edward is engaged when he meets Elinor. Willoughby is free. Edward is beholden to the whims of his mother, Willoughby is beholden to his aunt. Edward knows he is not free but moves forward with his relationship with Elinor dishonestly. Willoughby lets Marianne believe they have a future.

So why does Edward come out of this smelling like a rose? Is it because Marianne acts like a tragic heroine and Willoughby encourages her excesses? But this behavior is Marianne's choice. She could choose to be more circumspect.

Is it because when confronted with the two women in his life Edward acts like someone in the hotseat whereas when Willoughby is confronted he acts as though it was all in Marianne's head?

I'm thinking we like Edward better because of Elinor's reaction to him. It is Marianne's excesses that drive us to dislike Willoughby. Elinor loves as deeply as her sister, is pained as deeply as her sister, but in her grace there is transcendence. We are turned off by Marianne's extremism and therefore turned off by Willoughby. So the main characters' actions and reactions tell the reader how to feel.

I'm at 38k and Nano ends on Monday. This is my fourth year participating and the first one that I will not win.

I'm not saying I'm giving up. In fact I'm working on it right now in another window. But I'm just not the kind of writer that can sit down and pump it out in the next couple of days. I'll get close but I'm not going to make it over the finish line this year.

That's okay. I've not done much actual writing this year and I was rusty coming into this. I'm grateful to have written anything at all. But what I have done this year is study the craft and I think that this story is the most actualized of the Nanos I have done. The story is cohesive, the plot interesting and complex, the characters solid. So I'm moving forward with finishing this draft, I'll just probably finish it in Decemeber. I'm looking forward to editing it, too.

It's that time of year again. That time when we stuff ourselves silly with turkey and lots of other things that we only eat at Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas. I've always found it funny that certain foods symbolize the day to people and it just doesn't feel right if that food isn't there. I also love the fact that every family seems to have their own unique stuffing recipe.

In our family the stuffing involves chicken livers and sausage. Yeah, I pick the chicken livers out. However, there is an internal struggle between the faction that is happy when the stuffing turns out dry and the faction that loves it moist.

But in our family the one dish that means HOLIDAY in great big neon Las Vegas lights. Sweet Potato Souffle. http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/holidays/sweet-potato-souffle/
If this is not made, or does not turn out right, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

My sister-in-law ususally makes a pineapple upside down cake, too. This is also ubiquitous. Other things may change but if these three elements are there, Thanksgiving is Go.

So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on my friend list. I hope you are full and happy and blessed. :)

Someone in chat tonight said they had finally reached the point where they had given themselves permission to write crap.  And you know, that's kind of the point.   I do Nano to get rid of that awful internal editor, at just such a pace that I have to keep moving. Standing still, ruminating, second guessing only leaves me lagging.  So I write.

Just in time too, for I have reached the dreaded Boggy Middle. Still a lot to go from here.

I'm writing! I'm even about one day ahead in my word count which gives me a slight buffer.

I felt like I was writing all day yesterday but didn't move ahead  as I'd hoped, but I'm writing.

I'm not as wholly enamored with this nano as I was with last year's, but it's workable and fun and I've got forward motion.  I used a phase outline this year, something I had tried and rejected before but now it is working very well.  And although normally I begin writing by bouncing all over the outline I usually settle down and start writing from the beginning at some point but this time I've continued bouncing, writing however much of however scene the muse wants me to. I'm also working with multiple points of view this time. Normally I restrict my POVs to one or two so this is a big departure for me.

That just goes to show you: every novel is different and you are a different writer every time.
 

The words are finally flowing again (thank god). I love NaNoWriMo for just this reason. Whatever angst I've had all year about my writing doesn't really matter because I have a goal and dammit I've got to win! I've won every year I've participated so far and damn if I'm going to wreck things now.

Looking up something mentioned in chat I came across this story:

From Wikipedia

When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of Max von Laue and James Franck into aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. It was subsequently ignored by the Nazis who thought the jar—one of perhaps hundreds on the shelving—contained common chemicals. After the war, de Hevesy returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The gold was returned to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation who recast the medals and again presented them to Laue and Franck.

There's a plot bunny in that.

It's been a long time since I updated. I guess I just haven't had much to say. What I do have Twitter handles pretty well within 140 characters.  This has been a difficult year writing-wise; well in real life ways, too.  At this point I've decided to call it a learning year and I'm comfortable with that. I'm improving my craft and that is progress even if I'm not meeting much if any of the goals I set for myself earlier in the year.  If I'm able to win Nano, I'll consider the year a success.  My biggest obstacles to writing have been writer's block and lack of focus.   I look back at last year and the output that I had, the discipline and I know that I will get there again. In order to have hills you have to have valleys.

I

ETA: Magic you are totally right. It does say add 1 cup of cold water.  Posting while sick = posting while drunk. Don't do it. LOL