bowiestatenanowrimo

So, this blog is going away now until next year when we’ll be back to try and write the next Great American (or great Whatever) Novel. In the next couple of days, I will update the resources on the side so that you have something to aid in your writing endeavors. And all the posts will remain up for you to peruse and use at your pleasure. I’d like to thank everyone who visited this blog. Everyone who came to our write-ins on Bowie State’s campus. Poet, Bro. Yao for contributing, a great post. I’d especially like to thank the Department of English and Modern Languages at Bowie State University for support; the people at the Smith-Vidal Language and Literacy Center for providing space for our write-ins; Prof. Jenise Williamson for the ideas and enthusiasm. And a very big thank you to Dr. Monifa Love, who jumped at the idea of bringing NaNoWriMo to Bowie. She was strong in all the organizational areas I was weak and offered so much insight and wisdom on the craft of writing. There is no way this would have happened without her. We’ll be back better and stronger next year! Peace.

–Rion Amilcar Scott

Some Things I Learned Participating in NaNoWriMo 2012

For no reason of all, a picture of poet Jack Gilbert.

It’s December 1st.

Or as I like to call it, “You either made it to 50,000 Words or You Didn’t Day.”

I didn’t. I suspect some of you out there reading this didn’t either. (And if you, did, big congrats!!) I’m not ashamed or embarrassed or even (that) disappointed about failing to make the mark. I wrote more words in a short period of time than I ever had and half a draft of a novel. Wrote some pretty decent scenes. Wrote some abysmal scenes that can be turned into something great given time and space. Connected with some cool writers inside and outside the Bowie State Community.

So here are a few things I learned walking this November NaNo path:

1. I ended at 16,211 words. Takes a lot of mental energy to get to 16,211 words.
2. I don’t particularly enjoy writing on deadline. But my former editors in the newspaper industry could have told you that.
3. Junot Diaz says that every writer has a speed in which they write, and there is no speeding that up. I was convinced that he was using that as an excuse, but now I’m not so sure.
4. 2-year-olds don’t like it when you write novels. They are fine with blogging however.
5. A novel often begins like a great love. Everything is firing beautifully and each moment feels perfect and then at a certain point, you look at the novel and it is not as beautiful as it once was. But you have to keep going. (Though the last time I wrote a novel (before NaNoWriMo), I began indifferent toward it and as I wrote it became my great love).
6. The last thing I need is another unfinished project, but at least I’ve put words to an idea that occurred to me a long, long time ago. I will keep working on this thing, just not now.
7. There are probably 50,000 words on this blog.
8. Want to write a novel quickly? Do it in first person. The first section of my novel is in a very voice-heavy first person and the writing went quickly. When I got into the second section and switched into the third person, the writing slowed down significantly.
9. It’s hard to live with some characters.
10. I had a bunch of ideas for this novel, many I’ve had for years. I went with the one with most convoluted and complicated plot. Next time I’m going with something simpler.
11. Write-ins are great fun.
12. Number 10 is funny because no matter what you write, it will become complicated and convoluted through the writing.
13. My process is to write for a while and then read for a while and write for a while and read for a while, which is not really conducive to writing in a short period of time.
14. Some words need time and space.
15. I’m going to leave you with a poem by Jack Gilbert, who passed in November. Seems appropriate:

Jack Gilbert

Failing and Flying

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It’s the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-73271613/

Friday Music: I Know You Got Soul

I start to think/and then I sink/into the paper like I was ink/when I’m writing I’m trapped in between the lines/I escape/when I finish the rhyme/I got soul –Rakim

It’s the final day of this crazy experiment. Here’s hoping you made like Rakim and escaped the lines of your paper, crossing over into the land of 50,000 words.

Last post: Dec. 1.

The novel’s not dead, it’s not even seriously injured, but I do think we’re working in the margins, working in the shadows of the novel’s greatness and influence.

–Don Delilio, from Paris Review Interview, Art of Fiction No. 135

The Current Big Thing: My NaNo Project

The writer Elizabeth Eshelman tagged me in a chain questionnaire. Figured it was a good time to share some info about my NaNo novel. This is supposed to be titled “My Next Big Thing: My Next Project,” but I retitled it to fit this blog. Here we go.

–Rion Amilcar Scott

What is the title of your book?

The Ants.

It comes from an African proverb I saw in a dead prez video: Together the ants can conquer the elephant.

Where did the idea come from for this book?

I was standing in a restaurant waiting on food while my wife and son went upstairs to grab a table. The thought occurred to me (and it was only a joke) that it was a perfect time to run. I realized then that I had a great premise for a novel. I had a character already that would do something like that and I figured, Hey, I’m not done with him yet. Then I asked the question, where is he running to. I remembered a fragment I wrote for a grad school class about a made-up Caribbean nation that becomes the property of a corporation. So then I thought, That’s where he’ll run.

What genre does your book fall under?

Literary fiction, I guess, but as I get older I’ve become less and less interested in what category a piece of work falls under and more interested in the story.

How long did it take to write the first draft?

Ha! Still writing, began Nov. 1st and am scheduled to be done on Nov. 30, no matter what my word count says.

What actors would you use for a movie rendition of your book?

If it were 10 years ago I’d say Denzel Washington. Every actor that comes readily to mind is too old or inadequate in some way. I know I want Spike Lee to direct and the RZA to do the score.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Searching for adventure and the chance to be a part of something larger than himself, Kin Samson abandons his family and finds himself part of a revolution on the Caribbean island of Bimin.

Will it be self published or represented by an agency?

I have to finish it before I figure that out, don’t I? I will say that I have little interest in self-publishing. (and please do not fall for self-pub scams, even if the do have venerable names attached to them).

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I was inspired by the idea of NaNoWriMo. t felt like a fun challenge, but I knew it would be more meaningful if I brought it to my community at Bowie State so we could get several books out of it instead of just one. That’s several people practicing and trying to master their craft.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I suppose I’d compare it to Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It contains the sentences: Outside swirled a storm, a fantastic storm, the weathercasters were saying. One for the books. The not-quite-storm-of-the-century, but some places it was already storming. Some places it’s always storming.

A More Links for the Final Week

Bethesda Magazine and Bethesda Urban Partnership are sponsoring a short story contest. For the short story contest, entrants must be: “Residents of Montgomery County, MD and Upper NW Washington, D.C. (ZIP codes 20015 and 20016) are eligible.” For the essay contest “Residents of Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia are eligible.” More details here.

Linden Avenue Literary Journal is looking for a reader. Search ends 12/1. Details here.

Internet figure, booster and New York Times recognized poet, Steve Roggenbuck is looking for an assistant. From his announcement:

help wanted classified’s

soon i wil need an assistant or manager to help me with the business side of what im doing: booking events, merch stuf, accoutning… i’ve been doing the bare minimum of those tasks and usualy dreading them. i need someone who can help me be effective and proactive with that side of my work. must be an enthuisastic person who undestands boosting and believes deeply in what i’m doing.. i woud pay this person, but the hours woud be v limited at first. please pitch me if youd be excited about this and u have ideas of how u could co-boost with me in this way… thank u very much

Contact him at his Facebook page or at his other Facebook page.

Some music to end your NaNoWriMo to.

A disturbing short story by Lincoln Michel to inspire your NaNo end: “A New Game.”

‘Nother post coming up soon.

*

Bowie State’s NaNoWriMo write-ins take place every Thursday (with the exception of Thanksgiving) on Bowie State University’s campus (14000 Jericho Park Road, Bowie, MD 20715-9465) in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Building from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. All are welcome.

A Rallying Cry of Sorts

#amwriting

Writing a novel is always an emotional ride from the ecstatic movement when everything is clicking to the dreary feeling when the words are lifeless to the despair when you are not reaching your goals. It’s weird going through all those changes over the course of a month. We are four days until the end and my attention and excitement is flagging a bit because writing so many words is exhausting and, most importantly, I am very behind. Some of us are looking at our word counts and shaking our heads at the enormity of the task of writing enough words to bring us to 50,000. I know I am. According to my word counter thing on the NaNoWriMo website, I have to write 6,800 words a day to make the goal. A good day for me is 600 words. I’ve been pulling 1,000 word days and feeling tired and satisfied in the end. I’ve also had my share of distractions, self-imposed and imposed upon me by life. Sometimes it feels like it would make more sense to give up and accept noble defeat, but giving up is not noble. There should be no turning back. I’ve never written so many words in such a short period of time and neither have you probably. That’s an accomplishment. This is really no time for any of us to throw in the towel. What do you do when you might not make your deadline? You write anyway. You write on fire until you hit that wall and you keep writing even after. I still believe I will make it. I will type my 50,000th word at 11:59 on Nov. 30th. As they say in The Way of the Samurai: “The end is important in all things.” Therefore, to help ourselves reach that necessary end, our next task will be writing the final chapter, the final section, the final paragraph, the final sentence, the final word and the final piece of punctuation. This will help us visualize the ending and force us to march steadfastly toward it. Pens in gear like Shakespeare!

This post was ridiculously late today. I apologize for that. Another small post soon with some opportunity links.