In the style of the inimitable Gaga’s Boys Boys Boys, of course.

You know, I personally don’t care what anyone else says — she’s awesome. And she does wonderful things for the LGBTQA community by being such a sweet person and so open about what she is — while not using it as another way to get into the papers.

Anyway, that wasn’t the point of this post. I’m at 14,306 words in Nano, which is good considering how tired I’ve been this month (seriously — insomnia until 5am and then not being able to wake up till the late afternoon, and tired all the rest of the time but still not able to fall asleep = not. fun. at. all.). My Nano novel is The Jade Star of Athering, which is the sequel to Bellica, and it’s coming along fairly nicely. As it’s my second novel in that world and set right after the events in Bellica I’m having trouble separating the two; I have to remember to make it enjoyable as a standalone as well as a sequel, because I would hate to be one of those writers. You know the kind I’m talking about.

I’m also trying to make my main character much different from Yarrow, but it is difficult because she is around the same age, a bellica, and — of course — is the HEROINE. There are going to be similarities.

What I find helpful is to compare my characters to characters in movies or TV — specifically Battlestar Galactica, because the show is basically religion to me. Yarrow was very Starbuckian*; I’m trying to make Bellica Agate more like Kendra Shaw. Very reserved, sober, disciplined — but she has her dark, dirty secrets.

(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, GO WATCH BATTLESTAR GALACTICA RIGHT NOW. All of it. Even Razor. Actually, especially Razor, because that’s where Kendra Shaw appears. Shame on you for not having seen it. It’s fucking fantastic.)

Then come the other problems — while editing Bellica I noticed a lot of devices that I used and reused and reused until I and my beta readers committed mass suicide (mmm Koolaid). Since then I’ve been consciously trying to NOT use those devices so much, and it slows down the flow. I know the point of Nano is not to edit as you go, but I really, really can’t help it. It’s like cooking — clean the kitchen as you go; make it a habit and your kitchen will forever glisten. (I don’t actually do this, but the analogy sticks. Because I don’t use Pam.)

Also I can’t continue writing until I have a name for someone or something, because the person’s character is tied to the name — AND the name has to be meaningful. Really awesome when the subject of your book is a totally new culture that you haven’t had a chance to research properly — that is, it’s a made-up culture BASED in the Mayan culture. So I want it as true to life as possible, meaning I’m not just going to make up Mayan sounding names, but actually composite new names based off the real words in Maya.

Which Maya? GOOD QUESTION. I’m calling the people the Pokomam, which is a kind of Maya, but that’s not necessarily what I’m basing it off.

Oh, and I need to devise a Mayan calendar for a different world 20,000 years in the future.

So my flow is not fresh. It is stumbly and blocked. But at least it’s moving.

As for Get Your Words Out I’m at 154,984. If I finish NaNo at just 50K I’ll need to pound out 10K in December. Which is fine; I’ll be doing NaNoFiMo most likely. But I’d love to finish WriMo with 60K.

That’s it. I’m off to write.

-Katje

*Also, Starbuckian is a term I use in my own life to refer to how I shoot myself in the foot REPEATEDLY and am just a general frak-up, but if I were a Viper pilot you can bet your ass I’d be the best you have.