Chris Baty knows
Tue 2004-11-09 23:06:13 (in context)
- 8,661 words (if poetry, lines) long
- 0.00 hrs. revised
Chris Baty knows! He knows with the knowing of many, many people who know! His knowing is neither to be no-no'd nor naysay'd, because he knows!
The "Week Two Wall" is real. It is no joke. It exists, and it is out to get you.
Lookit! I don't even have enough words yet to rightfully consider myself in week 2! But there's that damn wall. It is a wall full of slogans, one on every demon-inscribed brick, and the slogans say things like, "This novel is crap," "You call that a plot?" "You realize it's completely unoriginal, right?" and "Of course you don't know what happens next! The characters are all stupid!"
And of course there's this: I cannot continue writing days upon days of "Diane woke up. She went to school. She went home again, possibly running into Important Characters. She then either turned into a unicorn and ran around the Front Range all night, or she decided she was too scared or maybe that she needed her sleep. She went to sleep. She woke up and went to school."
Obviously, compression has to happen somewhere. I believe a rereading of Snyder's Black And Blue Magic and Season of Ponies is in order. Both are wonderful examples of the sub-genre of teenage supernatural coming-of-age fantasies to which I am attempting to contribute. They follow their protagonists over an entire summer, and somehow manage not to go "and then she woke up, and then she went to find Ponyboy, and she either found him and had more wonderful adventures or she didn't find him and was sad, and then she went home, had dinner, and went to bed, and then she woke up again."
But first I have to reach my 2000 words for the day. Midnight is fast approaching. There is no time to reread favorite books.
So I guess for now I will walk into that Wall and attempt to knock it over with my forehead, and write how Diane gets home from school and decides whether her evening plans will involve running around on all fours in the mountains again.
Mad props to all the other NaNo'ers out there who are doubtless having angsty Week Two Wall moments of their own. We can do this, y'all.