NaNoWriMo 2023: Weekly Update #2

Week 2 is always a bit of a slog. The thrill of the new thing (or, as is the case with me, the reinvigoration of the prospect of finishing an ongoing thing) is over, and you are getting good and properly into the shit of it. Even taking a couple days off—my writing weekend tends to be in the middle of the week—is immensely helpful ordinarily, but is just not possible during NaNoWriMo.

Don’t get me wrong; I still find the exercise useful. And there is a specific joy and fulfillment that comes from the ascetic (or ascetic-like, anyway) discipline of writing a lot every day. But it is, for me, unsustainable. And the older I get, the harder it is to get through the month—especially week 2. So good news everyone: We made it!

It’s not that weeks 3 & 4 are a cake walk or anything. But you know what the shape of your month is by the end of week 2, and so the rest is a bit easier from there. That, or you don’t, and it typically breaks one and the event ends. That’s okay, too! I’ve quit many a NaNo at this point, and there is no shame in it. The whole point of this is to celebrate writing and deepen our practice and commitment to the craft and art of it. So please don’t let anything come between you and that.

If you’re not a participant, rejoice! Your time is your own (writing-wise, anyway), and I hope you are having a great November!

Okay, so rambling done. Let’s look at the work itself from this week …

New chapters

This one is big, y’all. I think it’s the longest chapter in the whole novel so far, weighing in at 7,000 words. (Many of the Wendy story path chapters turn out much longer, for whatever reason). It took five sessions for me to write because it’s emotionally dense, and spans not only the entire fifteen book series so far, but it gets into a lot of iceberg-y stuff that I’ve known but have not said. Or, shit, maybe I have, but it’s been a minute, m’kay? Anyway, it was a labor to birth this one, and it feels good to have it done. I don’t know that it’s perfect? But I hit the major beats and think I got the flavor I was looking for.

Soooo spoilers for the first fifteen books? But please don’t let that stop you from reading it. Unless you’re the sort of person who simply cannot abide spoilers, in which case you do you, babe. This one explains the relationship between the Narrator—Teresa—and Dorian. I think very clearly? You tell me. If you know who the hooded figure is, then you’ve read a different version of this scene in another novel—an early one—and are now getting it from another perspective … well, kind of. Anyway, it’s a massive lynchpin for the early plotlines in the Secret of Secrets series. I hope it’s an interesting chapter here, in its own right.

Oh, one more thing about this. It depicts an attempted suicide. So if you are not in a good spot, maybe skip it. Please take good care of yourself and reach out for help if you need it.

It has become my way to overcomplicate things. Many of y’all are writers yourselves, so I’m sure you have your own analog to this. Anyway, what I’ve done here is create the first proper subpath within the Dreams story path. It’s called “The Dreamwar and Other Diversions of Ignorance”—which I will hereafter shorten to simply “Dreamwar.” So chapters published along it will have the deck: ‘Story path: Dreams: Dreamwar.’ I know, it’s a bit ridiculous and is starting to look like a directory structure or something. But we’ll get through this!

All of this mess came to me in a single dream, so it’s less of some purposefully obtuse writerly contrivance and more a practical matter. Yes, one dream gave me twenty chapters. Not the first time that’s happened, but it’s the first time in awhile—and perhaps the only time—I’ve been able to harness the whole dream into something I can return to without having to write it all out immediately (akin to automatic writing but maybe a step removed) or it’s gone.

For the curious, the outline is footnoted in the chapter. If you’re ‘playing’ the game aspect of the book, then there is a stipulation about reading it. But if you’re just reading, have at it.

Another “Dreamwar” chapter. Man alive, it’s been a minute since I felt so angry at someone I didn’t like. Marlowe had me worried about my commitment to pacifism and nonviolence. I really wanted to beat the hell outta that motherfucker in a way I haven’t felt in decades. I didn’t—not even in the dream—but it was concerning to be in contact with those impulses again. Not entirely surprising, though, given all that’s going on in the waking world rn. Lots of discussions of violence and appropriate use of force and power and all that. I don’t have an answer for large scale violence, but I am against it—including established and accepted violence. Again, I don’t have an answer, only the perspective that it is tragic and wrong and is perhaps the singular foundation for the ‘we live in hell’ argument.

Anyway, as someone who has lived with violence as a means to solving problems as a way of life, I have no desire to return there. If you’ve been there, you probably feel the same; and, if you support violence, you probably haven’t—that, or you’ve never made it out. In which case, you have my deepest sympathy. Truly, I mean that.

I wrote another chapter about this subject a few weeks ago, which you can read here if you missed it:

I wrote it about a week prior to NaNo, so it isn’t counted toward the 50k.

Speaking of chapters written before NaNo, I was going to publish some in a flurry of web-only posts for your convenience and the tidiness of your inbox, when it occurred—I could ask your opinion!

Historically polls have proven fairly useless cos no one agrees? But I like ‘em and and some folks love a poll, so here we are.

Keep in mind, too, that most of my readership is through email—about 85%. So if I web post only something, it might be read by a handful of people, but will more likely simply be there in an archive, unread.

Okay, mah babes. I think that’s it for this week. Take the poll! And/or comment on what you want, m’kay? I had a couple unsubs from some 4 star users, so. If there’s something I cannot change—like, say, the content—then, fair enough. I understand. But if it’s something I can change, like the frequency or mode of publication, I’m happy to do so. So tell me!

Have a good week!

Xoxo,

T

P.S.—If you missed last week’s summary, that’s here:

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