The Island-Fish

-
Image
  “O ye passengers, whom may God preserve! come up quickly in to the ship, hasten to embark, and leave your merchandise, and flee with your lives, and save yourselves from destruction; for this apparent island, upon which ye are, is not really an island, but it is a great fish that hath become stationary in the midst of the sea, and the sand hath accumulated upon it, so that it hath become like an island, and trees have grown upon it since times of old; and when ye lighted the fire upon it, the fish felt the heat, and put itself in motion, and now it will descend with you into the sea, and ye will all be drowned: then seek for yourselves escape before destruction, and leave the merchandise.—The passengers, therefore, hearing the words of the master of the ship, hastened to go up into the vessel, leaving the merchandise, and their other goods, and their copper cooking-pots, and their fire-pots; and some reached the ship, and others reached it not. The island had moved, and descended...

NaNoWriMo report 1

-
Here's a picture of my "Novel Bible."  These are the notes (so far) that I will be consulting as I write my novel in one month. 

I am learning very quickly.

I began with a more mathematical approach to this project, thinking that I could break the project down into smaller portions based on clean divisions of the overall project: 50,000 words = about 1667 words per day, or one scene per day.  I then set an initial goal of 1 chapter per week, or 5 chapters at the most.

Two words: "Epic Fail!"  Of course, I'd rather do this two days into the project, than later.

My first chapter was subdivided into eight smaller scenes.  I just finished one scene and realized that the scene in itself is one whole chapter!  If I squeeze eight scenes into one chapter, it would produce rather lengthy and cumbersome chapters.  If this pattern holds true, then my novel will be not five chapters, which sounds simple enough, but as many as 37 chapters!  That's a little over one chapter per day!

Perhaps the "Tolstoy" style would be appropriate here: five major "books" or parts, and the appropriate chapters accordingly by scene.  Sounds reasonable.

Popular posts from this blog

Rock Me, Epictetus!

-
Image
“Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?” EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.6 b –8 
Read more

The Smooth-flowing Life

-
Image
Legend has it that the astronomer Ptolemy (1st century A.D.) suggested that falling stars were caused by the gods moving in the heavens, thus knocking stars out of their places. Somehow people reasoned that that if the gods were moving, they must be getting close to earth so they would lift their "prayers" or "wishes" (literally, "desires") whenever they saw the stars falling in hopes the gods would notice and grant a favorable answer. But how does one wish on falling star? Once you see it, it's gone before the wish or prayer can be made! The answer is simple: meteor shower. That's how to get your wish. Mrs. Ann Hodges had a wish fall right into her lap. Sort of. In 1954 Mrs. Hodges was sleeping on the couch when a 8 1/2 pound meteorite fell through her house and into her living room where it bounced off the radio and struck her left hip leaving her with a bruise. Not sure what she was wishing, but that's not how to do it. Epictetus hel...
Read more