Rebekkah Elliott

If we took one class in driver’s education we’re aware of what the common road signs mean. If it’s yellow with a curved arrow pointing to the right, we know there’s a curve coming up to the right. But what if we didn’t know what they meant? Some of those signs may be communicating more than the designers bargained for. you task today is to come up with alternative means for the following five road signs:

(Mumaw & Oldfield 2006: 27)

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Today’s Starting Word Count: 3393
Today’s Word Count Goal: 6750
Today’s Nano Average Goal: 5000
Word Count at the time of Writing: 4010 (Track)
Current Funds Raised: $25 (Donate)

The first write-in at the Hooked on Colfax coffee house starts in a little over an hour. I’m planning to attend, if for no other reason than to get caught up on my word count. I’m a little behind since the landlord had someone in to spray for bugs. We had to keep the kitten out of the bug spray.

Anyway, I’m nervous. Meeting my peers. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Bits of advice from an inexperienced Nano: choose between the Halloween party and starting Nano ASAP on the first. The Halloween hangover will not leave you at your most creative or productive. Also, if you write using a pen name, be sure to do your fundraising with your real name. If you aren’t careful about that your friends and family will have no idea who is hitting them up for money!

I’ve written my first thousand words. I know that it doesn’t seem like much of a mile marker, but there are days when I can hardly force myself to write 100 words. I write poetry where I feel justified in stopping before I reach 50 words. I’m out of practice with prose, thanks to laziness, tech writing, and a stretch of poetic outlet. 1000 word feels like a real accomplishment!

I’m currently working on an expositive prologue written from the perspective of the antagonist. Call it ”Why I Went Bad” by Naughty McMeanie-Pants. I’m setting up the inciting incident, the Black Mother laying her curse, and attempting to do so in such a way that the reader sees this fantastic, over-powered, over-blown, vain, wicked, self-centered beast as a victim right up to the moment when she shreds the only scrap of moral fiber she had left. I’m hoping to get in another five pages before I call it a night.

28 days, 13 hours, 9 minutes, and 3 seconds left until NaNoWriMo Begins!
My Nano Page

So the process has begun. I’ve spent the last week researching the cultures, climate, landscape, and mythology of the Siberian Steppe and the PIE peoples so I have a good setting base. I’m written a little bit of character background, but nothing that will go into the novel. That would be cheating!

As for my outline; I want to scream! The story I want to tell isn’t a fairytale rework, but the outline keeps saying, “Ohhh, lets go this direction. You already have a talking animal, so why not do the ‘Since you rescued me, I’ll help you solve your quest puzzle,’ thing? It’s a classic!” No no no, don’t want to!

An Assignment from “Caffeine for the Creative Mind:”

Most of us are familiar with the Swiss Army Knife, that clever gadget rhat house 276 tools in one handy red plastic sheath. As creatives, we may never have a glaring need for a 2” hack saw, but there are things that we use everyday in our professional lives that might make more useful tools. Your task is to invent your “Professional Survival Swiss Army …Thing.” What would your sheathed utility tool hold? Draw it on a piece of paper or simply list the items it would have.
(Mumaw & Oldfield 2006: 21)

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Well I’m all moved. I have a new roommate with a new kitten. Lucky me!

NanoWrimo is coming up, so I’m “conditioning” for that. Look for more posts (more that zero is easy to accomplish), more poetry, more tech and more of everything in the near future, Be prepared to be inundated with Nano stuff, though, because that is the major creative outlet I’ll be focusing on for the next 9 weeks. You’ll (hopefully) see character studies, hear my moments of procrastination and dread, and maybe, just maybe, even read excepts of the novel itself.

Am I promising more than I can deliver? Probably.

Lovies!

I’ve always considered myself a fine blend of the geeky math/science/tech mind and the nerdy lit/language/art mind. Today I felt the need to demonstrate that blend with this exceptionally geeky poem:

The Arithmetic of Fear: A Word Problem
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I finished a book yesterday that defined for me what a first novel should be. “Heart Shaped Box,” written by Joe Hill is a fast tempo, rock-and-roll ghost story with a grizzled front man and an undercurrent of sexy taboos. The plot is dense, the characters are complex, the layers of musical reference are entertaining, and the development of the supernatural is just enough to suspend disbelief without becoming clinical.

Hill’s writing isn’t flawless, but whose is? I was reading with an eye for the flaws, and only a few stood out to me on my first turn through: repetitive figurative language, and an ending with a few to many tidy tie-ups were the biggest flaws I noticed, and as flaws go they are fairly minor. “Heart Shaped Box” is certainly worth the Bram Stoker Award it won, and definitely worth your attention.

It’s been a rough few months. I had to take some personal time and now I’m making plans to get back into the swing of my life as I believe my life should be. School will be starting soon! Last year went a bit clumsily, but this year will be different.

Summer
–Fiction Workshop
–Immigration & Ethnicity in American History
–History of Nuclear Weapons

Fall (If I Get What I Want)
–Language Theory
–Magazine Writing
–Theory and Practice of History
–British Isles to 1714
–Beginning Spanish

This always makes me feel hopeful and giddy.