Do NaNoWriMo

Today = 1930 words

Aha! I found it. I guess it was from me. On a hunch I searched my old computer for “genie” and found this article from the manuscript I made from my Grandfather’s scrapbook. It’s probably from 1936 or so. I emboldened the part about the skull genies, so to speak. I give this book to people who seem to need it and they always find something in it they can use.

Originality: by Major General J.G. Harbord

(Retired in 1922 as Major General and promoted to Lieutenant General in 1942, so this probably came from the 30’s after he retired from being president of RCA. During his presidency they created NBC and started broadcasting TV.)

A DEFEATEST once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Perhaps not— nothing that is new to nature. But, from man’s point of view, the sun itself is new— an unexplored star. When it is brought close enough to be analytical study, it will be through the genius of some astronomer or physicist. He will devise a new instrument out of things as old as the universe— and what he creates will be original.

Originality is the ability to put two things together, not to make the third thing equal to the sum of the other two, but superior to the sum. The motion picture is not merely the sum of film and light. It is one of the most delightful illusions created by man— a report of life in action, a splendid dream under control. In the perspective of man’s history it is utterly new. And there are even more wonderful sums yet to be struck from the simple addition of old and ordinary things.

IT IS a common mistake to believe that creative achievement is the product of inspiration— that some good genie, evoked by rubbing the skull, suddenly appears with the manuscript of a great novel, all completed, a finished electric light, or a radio tube echoing the mysterious voices of the air. Original accomplishments are not delivered to us ready-made. With hard work and solicitous cultivation, they grow out of commonplace earth, like flowers. They are the result of patient addition of commonplace things— usually by ordinary hardworking men.

For thousands of years most of the human race has contented itself with routine, in the belief that new things and new ways can be created only by geniuses— super-brilliant men— who were “born with the gift”. The gift of genius is the gift that every normal child has at birth— energy, activity, curiosity, the capacity for labor. A genius is merely an ordinary man using his powers. He is not just eating, sleeping and walking the treadmill of ancestral habit. He is acquiring knowledge and adding it up into amazing new totals. He does not acquire all of his knowledge through personal experimentation. He may strike a total from the discoveries of generations of discoverers.

EVERY HUMAN being is original. He needs only to work with patience and pains to create. He does not need a flash of inspiration. He needs only to explore, to imagine and to add. In one of 10,000 totals he may find a sum that is useful to man. He must not despair of the other 9,999 efforts. They are not wasted. They are most necessary. They have proved what cannot be done— an original discovery in itself. They will save future generations unnecessary journeys into barren lands already charted.

Everything under the sun is new to him who does not know it. In childhood we are our own good geniuses, prying and peering into the unknown, adding up old things into the world’s old sums, but surprising and delightful to us. As we grow older and learn what is known, we may still keep our childish and original hearts— and go on seeking that which is not known. And when at last we find it— the new sum, the original achievement— in that moment we are gods, standing upon the summit of creation.

I had only a few minutes in the house today so I only got, what, a couple hundred words? I ended up at 15996 so I added a 5-word sentence before stopping back here. I’m still ahead, but I have less leeway if I crash.

I got a manuscript in the mail today I promised to edit, but I was hoping it wouldn’t arrive until December. Luckily it’s entertaining so it should go quickly. I suspect since it’s a first draft and she just wants it cleaned up for submission it will only require proofreading and not full-on stylesheet editing—because the latter can take up to 80 hours and I don’t have 80 hours this month with NaNoWriMo and stock to make for the holiday season! Arg.

Faithfully working on my novel. Taking a break for a bit, then back to it. Want to get to 10,200 words before the day ends.

Total Word Count: 9930

Seriously, I’m trying my hardest to keep things going in a life I just pulled from the crapper, and part of that is after making sure I won’t get sick for the day, driving to a place I can get computer access for certain hours in the day.

Only today the doorknob to the house breaks. causing the door to be closed and unopenable.

Handy pocket tool and an hour and a half later the door opens and closes, but is just knobless and using the deadbolt to close it.

Seriously, you just ate nearly two hours of my schedualed writing time. What’s worse is I’m going to have to go over this all over again tomorrow. Running errands to get peas, because the two stores I’ve gone to haven’t been stocking them and they are one of eight foods I can eat. Then I’m going to have to price check door knobs and locking systems and possably buy one and install it.

Then I have to ask for and wait for reimburcement from the landlord. Because dang it I intend to get my own computer if I have to do somethings I wouldn’t normally do in an effort to scrape together the money to pull it off.

I don’t think this is in the cards for me this year- it was one of my 40/40 challenges, but I am just not feeling it. Maybe I am not a novel writer. Which is ok. I’ll think about it for a few more days before I officially pull the plug.

I had a lot of trouble today. Since I had thought I wouldn’t have time, I wasn’t prepared mentally to write. I finally broke down and asked my coach if he had a trick to use when your main characters are all shouting at you at once and not letting you get any work done, even if you know what they should be doing, he sent this text, “Follow c3po”.

One of my main characters is an android, so I went over an over what I should do with her, but nothing came of it because there isn’t anything any more special about her than anyone else, and still the other characters were shouting, “Look at me! No! Look at ME!”

Eventually I gave up and asked, “huh? not the droid im lookin 4”.

Turns out I totally misunderstood, because what he really meant was when his main characters seem overpowering, or like they may be lying, what you need to do is ask what one of the minor characters think. Like C3PO. Or one of the peasants in the Seven Samurai. I started following Deva Perkins at about 9:30 PM, a reporter who turns propagandist, and she started by reporting to me that one of my main characters had gotten engaged the night before the ship blew up.

Something I didn’t know!

Turns out Deva has been bitterly wallowing in her position as sports gossip reporter and never gets a chance to cover any real news because her pedigree is designed for media support, not lead anchor. It’s kind of like being genetically designed for liberal arts and therefore limited to that by law.

many pizzas actually and I got paid to do it too. and then I ate, and now I have to get to a late night grocery store to get the few foods I can actually eat on my illness enduced diet which is going strong at year three now I think.

Then maybe I’ll look over my past writings tonight, and do some rough edits on paper so when I retype them it will be like retelling a story so that it’s better and more streamlined with each telling.

Then I’ll brainstorm where my supernatural teen novel goes from it’s start.

and then think about where to start my fantasy story. Though with that one I may do something I’ve never tried before and write nonlinerally. Jumping around to the parts that have already formed in my head. It’s not my style, because for me I’m often on the journey with the characters and discovering what happens, so first things first.

Tomorrow is important, it’s my first day off in a while, and I intend to make up for lost time by sitting at a keyboard for at least 8 hours.

This is adapted from a poster I made which was adapted from an article I wrote before I turned down my first Faustian Deal novel contract. My coach (who says he has been doing NaNoWriMo every month- I curse him silently for this) wants me to post the article about the skull genies I sent him once but I’m not sure I can find it, so here’s this one for now.

1. Nothing you write will ever be finished, because art is never finished, only abandoned.
2. Getting ready to write is not the same as writing.
3. Write, then edit. Editing while you write is like constantly asking if the foreplay is going well.
4. There is no such thing as an original story. At least, none that people will pay to read.
5. Writing is work, not play. If it never, ever feels like work, you are doing it wrong.
6. You need to find excuses to write, because excuses not to will find you.
7. You have not finished for the day unless your body can’t decide between supper and sleep.
8. Who the hell cares if other people think you think like your bad guy? It will make them want to read the next thing you write.
9. Other writers’ motivational formulae will not work on you any better than other people’s diet and exercise plans.
10. Just do the damned thing!

Anyway, I have done NOTHING today. Yet. I thought this was the Honey’s day off but it isn’t, so my brain is totally wiped clean because I didn’t expect to have time today. Sigh.

(BTW, the real problem with finding an article about skull genies is that I don’t recall any articles about skull genies. I would think I would remember that.)