Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 24

So, this is one of those best of lists that is strangely particular. However, it is possible that you are also looking for a list like this one. Perhaps you, too, are suddenly curious about steampunk. A sort of mashup of fantasy and science fiction (though really science fiction), it’s not the world’s largest subgenre, but it is out there and I all of a sudden want to read more of it. Okay, any of it.

For me, it began as a conversation with my son. It was a fun conversation, where we talked about what steampunk is (a parallel universe where humanity sorta stayed in Victorian times and did not change to the modern age or modern technology and definitely not computers, usually historical fiction and using steam-powered engines) and then we wondered about different ways this subgenre could be taken, or what other subgenres could have arisen (or are yet to arise) from this same grain of an idea: what if technology (and to an extent, culture) had stalled in a certain era but advanced within itself? I was intrigued, starry-eyed with wonder and daydreams. Plus, I was like, steampunk is fun as a style, a fashion, and perhaps after I create my next four, planned cosplay outfits, I should go the ol’ steampunk way. And, inevitably for me, I felt an itch in my brain to make a steampunk book list.

In the end, I think this list will be helpful. Why? Well, the thing is, I have spent some time during the past couple years planning out a fan fiction series based on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There are many pieces there. However, I have been conflicted on writing this as fan fic because, even though I am a huge fan and I love to immerse myself in this world, I am also a working writing. So, money. I can not make money off of HP fan fic (though Rowling generously (I think) lets you publish it on certain platforms). I have been wondering, for a while, if there was a different world in which I could set my story. Nothing seemed even remotely doable, until this. Steampunk. I will have to do some more thinking and research (and reading, duh), but I really think that the story, the plot, and the characters I have (with some modifications) could be transferred to and written in a steampunk universe instead of magic. I am intrigued. And I will have this list here when I am ready to tackle a new series.

Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

The Scar, China Mieville

Iron Council, China Mieville

The Fall of Babel, Josiah Bancroft

The Aylseford Skull, James P. Blaylock

Fever Crumb, Philip Reeve

The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers

Ack-Ack Macaque, Gareth L. Powell

The Hod King, Josiah Bancroft

Godsgrave, Jay Kristoff

The Difference Engine, Gibson and Sterling

Captain Nemo, Kevin J. Anderson

In Dark Service, Stephen Hunt

Larklight, Philip Reeve

Boneshaker, Cherie Priest

Soulless, Gail Carriger

Leviathan, Scott Westerfield

Clockwork Angel, Cassandra Clare

The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne

The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi

Lady of Devices, Shelly Adina

The Greyfriar, The Griffiths

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore

The Affinity Bridge, George Mann

Airborn, Kenneth Oppel

The Girl in the Steel Corset, Kady Cross

The Alchemy of Stone, Ekaterina Sedia

The Half-Made World, Felix Gilman

Clockwork Heart, Dru Pagliosotti

Mainspring, Jay Lake

Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballentine

Dearly, Departed, Lia Habel

Airman, Eoin Colfer

Etiquette and Espionage, Gail Carriger

Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve

The Warlord of the Air, Michael Moorcock

The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

Morlock Night, K. W. Jeter

Queen Victoria’s Bomb, Ronald W. Clark

The Rose of Versailles, Ryoko Ikeda

Homunculus, James P. Baylock

Infernal Devices, K. W. Jeter

Gotham by Gaslight, Brian Augustyn

Anno Dracula, Kim Newman

Anti-Ice, Stephen Baxter

Naausica of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyasaki

Soulless, Gail Carriger

Wolrdshaker, Richard Harland

The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer

The Bookman, Lavie Tidhar

Dreadnought, Cherie Priest

The Manual of Detection, Jedidiah Berry

Hour of the Wolf, Andrius Tapinas

The Aeronauts Windlass, Jim Butcher

The Emporer’s Edge, Lindsay Buroker

His Dark Materials, Philip Pulman

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznik

The Alchemy of Stone, Ekaterina Sedia

Retribution Falls, Chris Wooding

Agatha H. and the Airship City, Kaja FoglioThe Iron Duke, Maljean Brook

Worldshaker, Richard Harland

Heart of Veridon, Tim Akers

The Steampunk Trilogy, Paul di Filippo

Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon

Storming, K. M. Weiland

Girl Genius Omnibus Volume One, Agatha Awakens

Blameless, Gail Carriger

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones

The Little Ships, J. A. Sutherland

Changeless, Gail Carriger

Beneath London, James P. Blaylock

Cold Magic, Kate Elliott

The Clockwork Scarab, Colleen Gleason

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley *

Steampunk, Jeff Vandermeer

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde

The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter

I read this book because it is on “the” list of best Christmas books. Note: there are not that many books on this list. I have read one or two each holiday season since I started this list, and, quite frankly, it has not been full of winners. Yet. There is still hope. Which means, yes, I was not super impressed with Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie. Do I still want to read some other Agatha Christie down the road? Yes. But this one? Eh.

Image from Amazon.com

Maybe it’s because I’ve seen too many murder mystery movies, by which I mean not really that many but enough of the really popular/good ones to understand the genre and therefore know what’s up. As I was reading Christmas, in fact, I found myself wondering about readers who read mysteries and murder mysteries as a genre—as their genre—on a regular basis. I mean, doesn’t it get old? Repetitive? Doesn’t it become too easy to predict? Then again, I read all of Sir Arthur Conan O’Doyle’s Sherlock stories and books and I was still interested. It might be the faults of this particular book (and I’m sure many others) that I am feeling, here. I don’t know. My family often comments/jokes about how I almost always know how a movie is going to end from the opening credits (and sometimes the preview), including the twists. It is the writer in me, and also the deductive reasoner, the ADHD mind that never turns off even for a second. I understand story, so it is admittedly difficult to pull one over on me. I’m sure there are modern mystery writers doing amazing things with the genre (like Gone Girl). (I myself am writing a murder mystery but it is mashed up with YA, coming-of-age, and fantasy, so…)

Hercule Poirot (her-kyool pwah-roh) is the fictional detective cooked up by Agatha Christie in 1922. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is number eighteen of thirty-three Poirot novels. Poirot is Belgian (Christie is English), where I had assumed he was French. There have been many spin-offs in radio, TV, and movies since he was retired in the seventies. The books were in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, which was somewhat modeled after Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin. The real-life story of Poirot is remarkably similar to Sherlock, in that Christie tired of Poirot as O’Doyle had. Christie, however, kept writing him without ceasing because that is what the public wanted, and when she finally killed the obnoxious Poirot off, he received an obituary on the front page of The New York Times. Some of the more famous of the Poirot novels include Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.

True to many Christmas books in series, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas leaves the more usual supporting characters that the Poirot books have for a “special” cast. Poirot is on holiday vaca, hoping to have a quiet time, when, of course, there is a murder nearby. But we don’t begin with Poirot, who many of the readers would already be familiar with. We begin briefly with two strangers on their way to the English countryside and then are ushered into the Lee family, a very wealthy and dysfunctional family. At the head is the really awful human being and now invalid, Simeon Lee. His wife is long-since deceased and he has had four legitimate sons and one legitimate daughter, who has also recently died. Two of the sons have been estranged for twenty years (as had the daughter), one is keeping up face to get his allowance, and one is the devoted eldest who now manages the estate. There is but one granddaughter. There are three daughters-in-law. And all of them have been convinced, in secret by old Simeon, to return to the family estate for a good ol’ fashioned family Christmas. (The book was written in the late ‘30s.) Many of them are suspicious (as they should be) of this, but they all end up there to dig up old griefs and secrets, fight, and wonder which one of them murdered their odd, crotchety, kinda evil father on Christmas Eve.

So did I know the ending from the beginning here? Is that my disappointment with the book? Yes and no and yes and no. I knew some of the how before I got to the end, but I did not know the who. So that’s something. I did feel a tad perturbed because I thought some of the clues were obscured a little by the writing style and also by the translation between an American reader, a British writer and setting, and the “background” of certain characters. And, quite frankly, this plot has been done to death (ha!) by writers and screenwriters since. A cast of crazy, mostly family characters are assembled in a big house (which becomes a character in and of itself and also a receptacle for family history) and someone is murdered. They all have to stay put until the bumbling police and whip-smart detective figure out whodunnit, chasing purposeful rabbit trails and a nasty nest of motives based on family secrets with the butler and other house staff in tow. This isn’t Christie’s fault, but by the time I read it, I felt like I’d rather watch the new sequel to Knives Out (Glass Onion) instead.

Here’s the thing(s). A) It is not Christmassy. The only way the reader really knows it’s Christmastime is primarily the section headings, which give the date, and then also the convo where the police officer says he’s looking forward to a quiet Christmas and maybe a few other mentions that it is Christmas. I was like, where the heck are the decorations? The snow? The traditions? The Christmassy foods? At the end, we see the manor’s storage closet full of the trappings of Christmas, not yet touched, but I don’t quite understand why none of them had come out before Christmas Eve, especially for the sake of the novel and the reader (and the guests!). It does not read at all like a holiday novel. B) There are a lot of people to keep track of, though I think Christie did a pretty good job here straightening out these characters for us. I was dubious, but she did it. However, C) We don’t get into the internal lives of any of the characters. We are very much a casual observer, or maybe like a private eye. Like the Sherlock stories, I would have been much more engaged if I was more engaged with Poirot. And like Knives Out, I would have loved to really sympathize with one of the characters in order to really know some of (or at least one of) these people. Perhaps that is a modern thing, especially for murder mystery. And D) It is strangely sexist in parts, which I suppose we can expect for 1939, even written by a woman. It feels like Christie is trying to imbue her females with strength and skills of their own, but they are often reduced, somehow, despite this. Even without the overt ridiculousness of the men who all throw themselves at the attractive women and largely ignore the less-attractive ones and also the assumptions about the physical strength of women (and the elderly) compared to men, there is something at the back of Christie’s interactions between the men and women that make me want to gag. Again, I’m sure it’s a product of the time, but something about it felt different to me than, say, reading a Victorian novel and understanding the mores and norms but also finding strong and sympathetic characters amidst the more “typical” ones.

I wouldn’t really say don’t read it, especially if you like reading murder mysteries, like reading older books, and are looking for a Christastime read. What you won’t find here is a saccharine Christmas story with a Hallmark moral, cute kids, or elves. Instead, you’ll find a pretty solid and basic 1930s murder mystery classic from a master of the genre using a giant of a character from the genre. It won’t feel particularly Christmassy, but it will feel very familiar as a crime novel, and you will be wondering who the murderer is, how these people fit together, who’s hiding what and why, and all that jazz, sniffing for clues from page one because you, reader, are the detective.

QUOTES:

“People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!” (p87).

“And what was he going to get for it in the end? What the good boy of the family always gets. A kick in the pants. Take if from me, gentlemen, virtue doesn’t pay” (p117).

“If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth!” (p148).

“Mon cher, everyone lies—in parts like the egg of the English curate. It is profitable to separate the harmless lies from the vital ones” (p148).

“’Well, one never knows with girls! Lie themselves black in the face for the sake of a man.’ / ‘That does credit to their hearts,’ said Hercule Poirot” (p169).

“Justice is a very strange thing. Have you ever reflected on it?” (p169).

MOVIE(S): I watched the one movie based on this book that I could find: the 1994 (movie-length) episode from a British series, Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Well. It’s kinda old and kinda goofy, which you would expect from 1990s television. It also combines four of the characters into two and omits one other main character: in other words, there are supposed to be three more characters/suspects in this story. I think it actually works well, but I missed those characters since I had just read the book. Oh, and one of the characters is replaced by a regular. I forgot. There are changes in the plot, too, most notably in the origin story of Simeon Lee. And the wife/mother’s importance to the story was replaced by another woman, someone who is hinted at in the original. What I really didn’t like was that some of the characters’ personalities were changed. I don’t think the writer/director understood what Christie was going for in some of the big characters, especially Lydia. On the other hand, I almost always enjoy having actors give a face (and a setting) to the story that was being played out in my head. For the movie, too, many things had to be simplified, and the physical resemblances of the family were given much more weight in the movie than their personality similarities and also the web of secrets, lies, and grudges that they had built in reaction to their awful patriarch. Still, if you are interested in watching old murder mysteries, you might enjoy the whole series of Agatha Christie’s Poirot. For me, the sound, the style, all of it took me back to my childhood–not the content of the show, exactly, but the feel of it.

Image from Amazon.com

If you have not read this novel (and/or seen the movie), perhaps you are a little out of the loop or a little old? It is a modern manifesto of the teen life, since the late 90s but still extremely loved and adopted by each decade of teens since. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is written by Stephen Chbosky, perhaps an unlikely person to have written the quintessential teen manifesto novel. Why? He just has a strange career and had intended to work in film. He has written screenplays and directed and worked in TV, including the movie adaptations of Wallflower, Wonder, the newer Beauty and the Beast, and Dear Evan Hansen.And then he wrote another novel, twenty years later, a psychological horror novel, Imaginary Friend.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary coming-of-age, YA novel set in Pittsburg in what appears (to me) to be my high school years (in the mid-nineties). The set-up is Charlie—our unconventional hero—writing to an anonymous person. He’s kind of a strange, quirky, outcast, new freshman (who is older due to being held back when his aunt died and he suffered a mental breakdown in elementary school). His best friend has recently committed suicide. He has no friends. Punky Sam and Patrick step-siblings take him under their wings and eventually ingratiate him to their friends, who are like 18-22 or so. Lots of drugs and sex ensue as well as afternoons at the Big Boy and Fridays at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We see the usual malls, football games, school dances, school fights, cruising, parties, and hanging out at a friends’, first crush, first relationship, first everything, basically. Meanwhile, Charlie’s sister is crashing through her emotional, dramatic, senior year and his brother is off to play football at the college level. The parents are a little clueless, which the protagonist enjoys cuz, duh, he’s a teen. But at the heart of it all, Charlie’s dealing with figuring out who he is and what he believes as well as his dark past and mental illness. Ultimately, as well, it’s a sort of catalogue of teen moments and nostalgia (for the 90s and for grown-ups, at least).

This book is excellent. A one-off from Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is both incredibly popular, pretty enduring (since 1999), and one of the most challenged books of the past couple decades. My daughter loves this book. My husband loves this book. I hadn’t read it, but now that I have, I love this book.

What I love: the voice, the endearing quality of the character, even the epistolary form which works far better here than it should because it kinda doesn’t make sense and it’s strictly necessary. I was really happy to see that Charlie’s maturity level is pretty spot-on to, and he’s got a bumpy ride to figure out how to get from point childhood to point adult. The story isn’t cliffhangery but you can’t put it down because the stakes are always so high. It’s fun. Sometimes funny. Continually insightful. You can probably relate somewhere. It is pretty all-encompassing of all these shared experiences. In the end, it’s uplifting despite the bad things that happen and the bad decisions that are made. You enjoy the cool kids. You enjoy the fun times. You see all the characters through the eyes of someone who is extremely generous and kind, to a fault, so you root for everyone. As far as the nostalgia, these are, date-wise, my high school years (ending in 1997). But it’s universal in that there are no historical markers or too many other tell-tale signs. No tech, really, except tapes. Even the typeset and lower case (in parts) feels high school (which is probably because it was done by MTV and it does rub some people the wrong way).

I read this book now because I am writing a YA, coming-of-age series that takes place largely in high school. How did that work out for me, here? For one, I got to see how someone wrote a world with no tech except tapes making it universal time without the messiness of social media and smartphones. This is what I am hoping to do, but the thing is that my story is probably taking place in the nineties, too. It was also great to read the teenage, male voice with authenticity and to walk along on all those usual YA struggles, both internal and external. My book will hopefully capture all that and a bag of chips. While my story is ultimately fantasy, it mostly takes place in a typical, middle/upper middle class high school setting, somewhere in the Midwest (which was here the East Coast). Either way, it captures many things I would like to recapture, at least in the A World (the reality world) of my series.

Besides all the wonderful things I just said about this book, however, as a parent I have some issues. And when you watch the movie, especially, I think it becomes clear that this story would have made loads more sense if these kids were all in college (and Charlie was an incoming freshman). And also be warned about this: like much fiction, it is completely unrealistic about consequences. Don’t expect your teen to understand the real world from Wallflowers, when what it really is is a fun, for-some-nostalgic, for-some-relevant, romp of a novel with a few more serious subjects (including coming of age) wrapped up in it. You are completely welcome to skip my rant below and just rest assured that this is still a great book, one that teens love, but one that is probably a little “old” for its supposed characters and not very realistic in some senses. Still a great book.

RANT WHICH COMES FROM THIS BOOK BUT IS ABOUT BEING A TEEN PARENT, I SUPPOSE:

Thinking aloud, here.

I have one rant to go on about this book. It is, for all intents and purposes, fantastical. I don’t mean the genre, but that it is extremely unrealistic in the way that genre fiction (like romance) can be. While some topics are taken seriously (suicide, abuse, mental illness, relationships, friendships, activism), there are other topics that are very, very casual (drugs (including marijuana and nicotine, over-the-counters and hard stuff), alcohol, sex, sexuality, finances/money, abortion, risky behavior of all sorts). (There were moments when I wondered if Chbosky purposely included every teen vice that he could think of, on purpose, like a checklist.) And then these things are played off like the only reason there would be consequences to these types of things are because adults give them consequences. And that’s because adults are restricted, old fuddy-duddies out of touch with reality. While a fairly common idea through the ages, how about the adults dishing out consequences are doing it because they have more maturity, experience, and perspective and they want their teens to be happy, healthy, and, to some extent, safe? Or a combination of their own cultural upbringing with sincere care? And where-oh-where are the natural consequences? The “hip” adults just might be the dumb ones, truly.

And the message of this book: no matter what you do in your teen years and no matter what happens to you, it’ll be graduation with the best friends you ever had, valedictorian, and rolling off to the college of your dreams. It’ll all be okay. Will it? And this: if you decide something was a bad idea, you just choose to stop, you just decide not to perpetuate something, apologize, and move on. Newsflash: it’s very often not that simple. Addiction, bad habits, poverty, recovery, illness, death, broken relationships, etc.: these are real things which even well-intentioned people don’t always return from, at least not whole. Which I guess makes Charlie and his friends conventional heroes? Maybe. It’s like the way our whole culture handles alcohol, just ignoring the struggles of millions of Americans and their families with alcoholism. Just because we believe in freedom of choice doesn’t mean we should gloss over the realities attached to those freedoms.

I mean, many books have this fantastical element to them, where life is rosier in fiction. I read books like that all the time. This bothers me in this book, though, because there are also some really serious things dealt with and the book is set up as so real; I feel like the messages could be confusing, the lines crossed. Probably most kids are going to read this book, enjoy it, and NOT run out to experiment with hard drugs, start smoking, and throw themselves into bed with their first boyfriend/girlfriend (and without protection). Obviously, some teens are going to make terrible decisions. (Maybe they should read Junk as well as Wallflowers.) However, I think this message is bolstered by the current attitude out there, the current swinging of the pendulum to the far side. Many people, especially youths, embrace a narrative of risky behavior being not only normal but cool and necessary to wokeness and these tend to downplay the real-world results (physical, emotional, relational, etc.) of deciding to, for example, hook up or take drugs. Isn’t figuring out your life, who you are, dealing with anxiety, navigating relationships, etc. enough? (Also, so many teens are not mature enough for these sorts of thing, anyway. Books and movies often portray teens much wiser and mature than most of them really are. That’s normal, but still. (Note that Chbosky sort of up-ages his characters. The seniors are all 18, they hang with college kids, and the main character freshman is almost 16 when the story starts.)) And you do not have to be a rebel to come out happy and balanced in the end! Sincerely. Hmm… I wouldn’t say don’t read this book. I’m not trying to ban it or something. I would say have a little perspective: despite its depth and realness, there is an element of fantasy (not to mention privilege and insulation) to this whole story. It’s entertainment and we want to see the hero succeed. To which my eighteen-year-old daughter just said, “Yeah, I guess…”

Perhaps I’m missing the point; it’s just a light-hearted teenage manifesto. And I’m just a concerned adult out of touch with reality. I don’t think adults should stop being concerned, though. Even that is part of the process. Nor should we cowtow to teenagers and young adults who think they’re more relevant or smarter than we are. Nor should we perpetuate our own unhealthy, cultural beliefs, if we can find them and root them out, God willing. Helicoptering our children and then suddenly handing them a platter of shiny, new freedoms at age thirteen or even eighteen, however, is a little bit weird, people, and a little bit wrong. And the rant (which has to do with much more than just this book, obviously) is over.

QUOTES

“I wish I knew. It might make me miss him more clearly. It might have made sad sense” (p4).

“’Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve’” (p24).

“I don’t think we should base so much on weight, muscles, and a good hair day, but when it happens, it’s nice. It really is” (p67).

“It’s like when you’re excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to always feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means that you’re happy, too” (p96).

“I feel like a big faker because I’ve been putting my life back together, and nobody knows. It’s hard to sit in my bedroom and read like I always did” (p100).

“The book takes place in the 1920s, which I thought was great because I supposed the same kind of conversation could happen in the Big Boy. It probably already did with our parents and grandparents. It was probably happening with us right now” (p105).

“She also said that people who try to control situations all the time are afraid that if they don’t, nothing will work out the way they want” (p130).

“Especially since I know that if they went to another school, the person who had their heart broken would have had their heart broken by somebody else, so why does it have to be so personal?” (p142).

“But try to be a filter, not a sponge” (p165).

“But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there” (p211).

MOVIE

See previous review HERE. Liked it better after I’d read the book, actually. I’d recommend reading this review, even if you want to read the book, because it’ll give you a perspective from a different year of my life.

I have not finished this book yet. It is a daily reading, but I wanted to get the review on The Starving Artist now (December 5th) so that if you are interested in reading it, you won’t miss Advent this year, entirely. I will update the review after I read it all, but I don’t see much changing.

Image from Amazon.com

One of the things I love about this book isn’t even in the book. Because Scott Erickson wrote it out of an attempt to inject novelty and therefore authenticity back into Christmas and did so by creating new and modern images about the Advent story, it invites the reader (without literally doing so) to attempt their own advent craft to bring wonder back into Advent. In other words, this year I read a meditation every day along with contemplation of the image Erickson gave us, but I am looking forward to embellishing on this in the future, which could be done for an many years as I have left. How do I plan to do this? To do some sort of daily art along with meditation of the Christmas story. You could draw (print?) like Erickson, sure, or you could even write your own meditation, but you could also:

DrawPaintWrite a meditationWrite a poemCalligraphy artCraft an objectMake an ornamentMake your own nativityMake a Jesse branchAny number of arti mediums, like sculpture, ink, charcoals, whateverTake a photoColorMix and matchConnect a song to the day (or write music, if you’re inclined)Fabric artMake a décor chain or banner/pennantsWrite letters/postcardsEtc.

If you read the intro to the book (which I recommend in this case), doing something creative during Advent in contemplation of Advent is basically the point of the book. However, if you don’t want one more giant project to add to your holiday season because that seems much less like getting to the heart of it than stressing yourself out even more, then you could just read the book.

I have been looking for a great Advent book for years and years. I found one that we use for the Advent candles and also one to do a Jesse Branch, but I had not found one for daily Advent that I really like. Well, as much as I won’t object to trying another someday, this is exactly what I was looking for. If you are not a Christian or someone considering the faith, then this is not the book you’re looking for. But if you are curious about what lies at the heart of Christmas—the original story/”reason for the season”—and would like to start stripping away at all the accoutrement (from plastic toys to decorated trees and even to tired re-tellings and worn out carols), then this is the book for you. That might be a lot to claim, but I do appreciate how this little book really carves out a small space in each day (for 24 days) to contemplate something different but no less relevant to the “Christ in Christmas” and that very first Christmas season.

Erickson’s writing is approachable. It is modern, sometimes funny, sometimes of the time, but also very real and, well I don’t love the word but, authentic. He seems like a friend who is thinking about these things with you and for the most part, his writing is clear and always concise. Half of the point of the book, though, is his modern, duo-chromatic paintings, which the reader is supposed to meditate on before reading the chapter. Most of them have some element of surprise curled within them, to drive home a point about the Advent story. For example, today’s reading featured a symbol for the Trinity on top of a candle lighting a candle with the world on it; thus we consider that Advent is meta as well as a time of the year or a moment of time. The Godhead gives all of us Advent in Its grace and forgiveness, all of the time. Then, that’s what Erickson writes about for that day. He also concentrates on the historical elements of Advent, at times, but sometimes in a speculative way. For example, he guides us into considering the meaning of God arriving in the very real uterus of a teenage woman.

I had considered writing an Advent book because I have had such a hard time finding one that spoke to me. I don’t know if I need to do that anymore, at least for now. My years of having kids in the house are getting long in the tooth, but I still need to simplify things as much as possible amidst a very busy life. Grabbing Honest Advent is my chosen way this Advent and probably next for stepping back and reconsidering what has become repetitive, mechanical, and often obscured by mountains of cookies and ugly sweaters. It is a small thing, but for me and many others, it is effective.

QUOTES

“We can get all caught up with our language and body positioning and forget that these are just the invented structures that help us connect what prayer is really about–abiding in the love of God” (p6).

“Connection with Divine has evolved over time from a burning bush, a tent, a temple, a first-century Jewish carpenter, and now the mysterious hidden portal within you” (p9).

“In any divine annunciation, you receive revelation as a gift, yet at the same time you receive notice that all that you had planned is ending” (p17).

“[Shame i]s the burden of perfection morally, spiritually, humanly, and it inevitably destroys our souls because there is no fulfillment” (p44).

“This shame we experience can be easily woven into our religion–the rhythms, rituals, and practices that become, not a remembrance that we are loved, but the very accomplishable works to earn back that love. A religion based on trying to earn love inevitably fails, because works can never truly heal the fear of being left alone because of your real. At some point, you just want to be loved for your real…” (p45).

I have not finished this book yet. It is a daily reading, but I wanted to get the review on The Starving Artist now (December 5th) so that if you are interested in reading it, you won’t miss Advent this year, entirely. I will update the review after I read it all, but I don’t see much changing.

Image from Amazon.com

One of the things I love about this book isn’t even in the book. Because Scott Erickson wrote it out of an attempt to inject novelty and therefore authenticity back into Christmas and did so by creating new and modern images about the Advent story, it invites the reader (without literally doing so) to attempt their own advent craft to bring wonder back into Advent. In other words, this year I read a meditation every day along with contemplation of the image Erickson gave us, but I am looking forward to embellishing on this in the future, which could be done for an many years as I have left. How do I plan to do this? To do some sort of daily art along with meditation of the Christmas story. You could draw (print?) like Erickson, sure, or you could even write your own meditation, but you could also:

DrawPaintWrite a meditationWrite a poemCalligraphy artCraft an objectMake an ornamentMake your own nativityMake a Jesse branchAny number of arti mediums, like sculpture, ink, charcoals, whateverTake a photoColorMix and matchConnect a song to the day (or write music, if you’re inclined)Fabric artMake a décor chain or banner/pennantsWrite letters/postcardsEtc.

If you read the intro to the book (which I recommend in this case), doing something creative during Advent in contemplation of Advent is basically the point of the book. However, if you don’t want one more giant project to add to your holiday season because that seems much less like getting to the heart of it than stressing yourself out even more, then you could just read the book.

I have been looking for a great Advent book for years and years. I found one that we use for the Advent candles and also one to do a Jesse Branch, but I had not found one for daily Advent that I really like. Well, as much as I won’t object to trying another someday, this is exactly what I was looking for. If you are not a Christian or someone considering the faith, then this is not the book you’re looking for. But if you are curious about what lies at the heart of Christmas—the original story/”reason for the season”—and would like to start stripping away at all the accoutrement (from plastic toys to decorated trees and even to tired re-tellings and worn out carols), then this is the book for you. That might be a lot to claim, but I do appreciate how this little book really carves out a small space in each day (for 24 days) to contemplate something different but no less relevant to the “Christ in Christmas” and that very first Christmas season.

Erickson’s writing is approachable. It is modern, sometimes funny, sometimes of the time, but also very real and, well I don’t love the word but, authentic. He seems like a friend who is thinking about these things with you and for the most part, his writing is clear and always concise. Half of the point of the book, though, is his modern, duo-chromatic paintings, which the reader is supposed to meditate on before reading the chapter. Most of them have some element of surprise curled within them, to drive home a point about the Advent story. For example, today’s reading featured a symbol for the Trinity on top of a candle lighting a candle with the world on it; thus we consider that Advent is meta as well as a time of the year or a moment of time. The Godhead gives all of us Advent in Its grace and forgiveness, all of the time. Then, that’s what Erickson writes about for that day. He also concentrates on the historical elements of Advent, at times, but sometimes in a speculative way. For example, he guides us into considering the meaning of God arriving in the very real uterus of a teenage woman.

I had considered writing an Advent book because I have had such a hard time finding one that spoke to me. I don’t know if I need to do that anymore, at least for now. My years of having kids in the house are getting long in the tooth, but I still need to simplify things as much as possible amidst a very busy life. Grabbing Honest Advent is my chosen way this Advent and probably next for stepping back and reconsidering what has become repetitive, mechanical, and often obscured by mountains of cookies and ugly sweaters. It is a small thing, but for me and many others, it is effective.

QUOTES

“We can get all caught up with our language and body positioning and forget that these are just the invented structures that help us connect what prayer is really about–abiding in the love of God” (p6).

“Connection with Divine has evolved over time from a burning bush, a tent, a temple, a first-century Jewish carpenter, and now the mysterious hidden portal within you” (p9).

“In any divine annunciation, you receive revelation as a gift, yet at the same time you receive notice that all that you had planned is ending” (p17).

“[Shame i]s the burden of perfection morally, spiritually, humanly, and it inevitably destroys our souls because there is no fulfillment” (p44).

“This shame we experience can be easily woven into our religion–the rhythms, rituals, and practices that become, not a remembrance that we are loved, but the very accomplishable works to earn back that love. A religion based on trying to earn love inevitably fails, because works can never truly heal the fear or being left alone because of your real. At some point, you just want to be loved for your real…” (p45).

Image from Amazon.com

If you’ve been paying any attention at The Starving Artist, then you know I am up to my neck in Nanowrimo, the National Novel Writing Month when writers write about 1700 words per day until they have a “novel.” As part of my project this year—a YA fantasy adventure trilogy, book one—I have immersed myself in music, movies, and books that vibe similar to what I am writing. One of the books I chose was Circe, partly because I already had it on the shelf with the intention to read it, but also because my project has elements of almost-mythology and a darkness that I assumed would be part of the story of Circe, the Witch of Aiaia.

Madeline Miller has been very popular the last several years for just two books: Circe and Song of Achilles. I read and reviewed Achilles about a year ago, and I could not put that sucker down, though I called it “book-candy-ish,” not quite my style, etc. It is a “gripping, sweep-you-off-your-feet experience” and a “homoerotic retelling of a Greek myth likewise steeped in legend and period history.” I mention these things because I was surprised while reading Circe that it feels like a very different book, almost like a different author (though she does throw in a reference with a wink now and again to Achilles and Patroclus). Sure, Circe, written later, is also a retelling of Greek mythology, but Miller wasn’t handed an already-famous classic epic (The Iliad for Achilles), but had to weave together many myths related (or sometimes only by time or place or other characters) to Circe and combine that with a bunch of made-up stuff to create an actual novel-worthy story from Circe’s antics. I think that is where the main difference in experience lay. (There were also differences that I found surprising: mainly that she removed more explicit sex descriptions, a la Twilight.)

I mean, though Miller messed with The Iliad, the drive of plot was still there, built in. Circe felt more like a series of anecdotes, probably because it is. I can just imagine Miller poring over her research, wondering who Circe was, how she became the Witch of Aiaia, what might have compelled her to do the things she’s credited with, and then piecing together what she had and drawing lines out to all these other mythical bits and pieces. There is a level on which Miller was very successful with this, but I wasn’t as impressed as I wanted to be. There is a complete character there with a backstory, motivation, consistency, etc., but quite frankly I didn’t want to spend all that much time with her. I got a little bored. And then you have these through-lines connecting these myths and Circe’s emotional past that explain (sometimes explain away) her deeds (including many bad deeds). The era of the villain, perhaps, is coming to an end, but I found myself not wanting to be all like “poor lady, she was raped and that’s why she murdered all those people,” or whatever. And then, on top of that, putting all those already-existing stories together worked but I found it a little clunky. Like where is this story going? It wasn’t as cohesive as one usually likes to see in a novel, especially one that is so popular (not an academic read).

If you like Circe, or think you might like Circe, I would like to point you to Till We Have Faces. It doesn’t weave together different myths, but it is a retelling of Cupid and Psyche with very similar themes and it is one of my favorite books of all time. It is excellent. And don’t let the authorship of C. S. Lewis keep you from reading it; it is nothing like his other stuff.

There is one thing that Miller did in Circe that I’m sure caused her headaches (on top of weaving together disparate myths, giving the character character, and creating an intelligible plot), and that is writing from the perspective of a goddess. Circe is the daughter of Helios (a Titan) and an ocean nymph, Perse. I suppose Miller gets out of it a little by making Circe not very powerful or even very beautiful (by the standards of the gods), but still Circe’s experience as very-long-lived and magical and not having our same needs, etc. was hurdle after hurdle for the writer writing her, and Miller must have had to think her way out of many situations where the gods are involved. How exactly would a god enter a room and what would they look like or feel like or sound like? How would time perception be affected by living hundreds or thousands of years? How would personality be changed by having all your physical needs met or not even exist? I was intrigued by all these questions, myself, as I read, and with many of the ways she answered them. I just thought she could have spent more time perfecting those answers? I’m probably asking too much. I mean, Miller spends years researching and dealing with material before she publishes a book. But something in Circe fell flat, for me, and I love reading mythology.

I admire the research and work, I enjoyed reading the book to an extent, but I found that the back cover copy promised a book that was not there: it was not as unified or as dramatic as “Circe must summon all her strength and chose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or the mortals she has come to love.” The tension of that whole deal is just not there. In the end, the book feels like a more traditional myth-telling, where the real action and all the details are left up to the listener’s imagination. This is not how we like our novels, now, and I felt told much more than convinced.

I do think Miller has done something special here, though. The task of making ancient Greek myths into a cohesive story told from the perspective of a goddess and with modern flair is special, I think, at least done to this level. There is also a bit of feminism here, but it’s not done in a way that feels false to the original telling, just from a different perspective. The novel is not seamless, but taking a common character and giving her a voice was a great idea and Miller did an admirable job with it, overall. Maybe don’t have your expectations too high and you’ll have a better read.

QUOTES:

“It was my first lesson. Beneath the smooth, familiar face of things is another that waits to tear the world in two” (p16).

“’It is not fair,’ I said. ‘It can not be.’ / ‘Those are two different things,’ my grandmother said’” (p45).

“It is law that guests must be fed before the host’s curiosity” (p171).

“’If I had known I would not have done the rite.’ / She nodded. ‘You and most others. Perhaps that is why suppliants may not be questioned’” (p175).

“All my hammering had only made her harder” (p180).

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of the poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep” (p213).

“Her only love was reason. And that has never been the same as wisdom” (p261).

“He could not imagine the scope of the gods, the mercilessness of seeing generations rise and fall around you” (p282).

“Yet a thousand men and women walk this world and live to be old. Some of them are even happy, mother. They do not just cling to safe harbors with desperate faces” (p282).

“It is youth’s gift not to feel its debts” (p285).

“Girls and boys would sigh over him, but all I saw were the thousand soft places of his body where his life might be ended. The bareness of his neck looked obscene in the firelight” (p288).

“I cannot bear this world another moment longer. / Then, child, make another” (p295).

Every writer should have a writing group. I say this, but surely there can’t be a writing group with like-talented writers for every writer in every community. So I guess what I mean is, I am thankful for my writing group. A small group (capped at six since its founding) that is joined by invite only, I was lucky enough to get an invite when a writer moved out of town. It’s been a struggle to meet on a regular basis, especially during the Pandemic, but life is busy, y’all. When we do get together, we will go over someone’s short story (or two someone’s short stories) which we have previously read. We also each share what we have been reading and what we have been writing and, of course, any exciting news. We also share news and events via email, in between times.

Recently, one of my friends/writing comrades was published in a magazine and when I went to read the story online, I ended up reminding myself of some of her other publications. Which reminded me of other publications by my other friends. Which led me to wanting to drop a little, nepotistic blog post here. This is where you can find my current writing group friends’ writing and I recommend that you do. (This is not everything they’ve had published. It was kind of difficult to find what they have had published and where, actually, except for Justin who toots his own horn, like me. It’s only a sampling from each of them.)

Anita’s nonfiction story, “Inventory of Your Things as I Empty Your House” is the one that was just picked up by The Cincinnati Review. It is a beautiful and thoughtful piece. It is linked below.

Anita Wright Collins:

“Inventory of Your Things as I Empty Your House” at The Cincinnati Review (2022)“The Anderson Kid,” Doris Betts Fiction Prize in North Carolina Literary Review (2017)

Theresa Dowell Blackinton

“Thanks, Barbie, for Making Me a Better Parent, The Washington Post (2020)“Reunification,” Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, Thomas Wolfe Review (2018)“Next Time, the Whale,” The Iowa Review (2017)“An Ugly Traveler One Year, A Pretty One the Next,” Perceptive Travel (2008)

Thomas Wolf (not to be confused with Tom Wolfe or Thomas Wolfe)

The Plea , 2022 (true crime with his wife) The Called Shot , 2020 (historic baseball book) Midnight Assassin , 2007 (true crime with his wife)“Boundaries,” Doris Betts Fiction Prize in North Carolina Literary Review (2012)“Distance,” Doris Betts Fiction Prize in North Carolina Literary Review (2007)

Justin Meckes

“Tom Turkey,” The Writing Disorder.com (2021) 9 Brief Films from Suburban Zen , short film The Hot Air Balloon , short film“Carlos, a Dying Dream,” Idle Ink (2021)“The Pharmacon,” Bewildering Stories (2018)

My new waterproof notepad for those ideas that inevitable come in the shower.

It takes an effort to accomplish Nanowrimo and to do other things besides Nanowrimo that you just can’t function without… (For me, this includes cleaning, laundry, making meals, dishes, helping kids with homework, keeping up on the college application process, random appointments like for doctors and grooming, one week singing at church, and always Thanksgiving, my daughter’s birthday, and normal hygiene. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things. I may have stopped working out, temporarily.) Right now, my days mostly consist of getting everyone ready and sometimes going to a coffee shop or workshare and then hours writing actual words (the point of Nanowrimo) followed by hours of story-planning (keeping ahead of where I’m writing, ideally). After dinner and homework and whatever else is going on, I have been focusing on reading and viewing thematically, to keep my in the vibes and keep my brain working. (I have dotted the landscape of my house with notepads and pens, even the shower with waterproof paper and the car with a voice recorder.) I do try not to write too late because it gets difficult to switch off my story thoughts to sleep.

We are a week in! Today is day 8. I have tried to blog before now. It has not been a success, though this is partly because I am working on a few longer-term blogs, like series I am reading or books in a certain category that will be posted together. So maybe the static of The Starving Artist isn’t all Nano’s fault, but getting 1667 words on the page per day is a real thing and it takes time and energy. Last night, after having to catch up after a migraine and put almost 4,000 words on the page during the one day, I realized I was exhausted by my effort. Exhausted. I still made dinner and did the dishes but only got through half the laundry baskets of folding before I just rolled over to watch Enola Holmes 2, Halloween decorations still hanging in the family room.

Story-boarding a la Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.

How am I doing with my Nano goals? Technically, each day is at first broken down into a goal of 1667 words for everyone. As you either hit or don’t hit that target each day, the auto-generated goal adjusts to spread out your total over the amount of days you have left. (This year, for the first time, I have been having issues with the Nano site, and it hasn’t worked for me all the time.) I have an adjusted schedule in my dot journal, since I need to basically take five days off late in the month for the holidays. My goal is to write upwards of 2000 words per day. Spread out like that, it’s not super difficult to go a little extra daily rather than write a ton extra at the end. I am above target, technically, though I am a smidge below my 2000-word target. I do think I will catch up soon, but I get nervous like every day. Will I know what to write? Do I know these characters and this story well enough? Is it somewhere in there, in my brain? I went to bed last night with 13,258 words written in 1 week. The official target was 11,669. My personal target was 14,000. I am very excitable right now.

Write-in with sprints on an unseasonably hot Saturday. There are like eight people to my right.

I have been attending write-ins and have been introduced to sprints, which is kind of revolutionizing my writing. Sprints are just a prescribed length of time (usually 15 or 20 minutes) where you set a timer and then sit there and write straight till the timer goes off. Sprints are often done at either in-person write-ins or virtual write-ins, though you can conduct sprints (with or without others) with tools online. Besides in-person, I have been using a Youtube video with dramatic, fantasy music to write alone during a sprint and also a bot on my local Nanowrimo’s Discord channel to invite others to do them with me. (If you don’t understand what I just said, I wouldn’t have a week ago, either. I had to get some help and watch a tutorial to interact with Discord but it is central to the way my local Nano chapter does Nano.)

I won a Starbucks gift card (trivia), so I decided it would mean about four trips to write away.

What I have discovered at the various write-ins and sprints I have attended is that I write fast, but not the fastest. (There are some Nanowrimers—one in particular—who are disqualified from competing more than once per write-in during sprints, because they write like 2-3 times faster than anyone else there.) I even write dialogue pretty fast. I was a little surprised because I write two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back, always looking to edit and write intentionally, even while drafting. I average a very reliable 500-550 words per 15-20 minute sprint, which means if I do 4 sprints a day, I am at 2,000 words. This also means that I can go ahead and set one of those writer, daily, word goals for myself for the foreseeable future. 2,000 words per day (not counting weekends, at least at this stage of my life) is not out of reach for me, not at all. There is a certain obsession that comes along with writing a project, though, that does kinda cloud the rest of my life, so I think it would be healthy to take breaks, especially after a whole novel. But a couple hours writing straight, a couple hours doing other story-related things, and the rest of the day on all that other writerly stuff, and I’ll be a regular Stephen King, just my desk will move around like magic.

Ready for story-boarding. Those are pins.

I am having the time of my life, writing, story-planning, reading engaging books (even if they are not high fiction), getting pumped up and talking shop with other, kind people. I don’t know if it’s how much I believe in the story that I am writing right now, or the new wardrobe for taking myself seriously, but I do really love writing and I was built to do it. Even blogs. Even lame blogs, like this one.

But that is the update. That is it in a nutshell. Hopefully in a couple days I’ll have another blog for you, and then another after that, even though it is November, the most writerly time of the year.

So if you are not aware of Nanowrimo, you won’t be aware of Preptober. If you don’t plan to write a novel, then this blog post won’t be of any use to you except as a curiosity. If, however, you are going to write something—especially a novel—some day, then this is a good thing to read. If you are gearing up for Nanowrimo in any year, then this is definitely something for you.

My project for Nanowrimo 2022.

I have explained a dozen times on this blog what Nanowrimo is, including in my last blog post, but here it is again: Nanowrimo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is a 30-day event taking place every year in November during which tens or even hundreds of thousands of people attempt to write a rough draft of a novel. Preptober is jargon for the month of October leading up to Nanowrimo, during which writers prepare for writing in November. There are many things one can do in October, the point being that in November a writer will be in no place to do anything except put words on the page. Preptober and Preptober festivities (as it were) are like insurance against getting stuck somewhere in the November manuscript and therefore failing to “win” Nanowrimo.

I am a little late on the Preptober upswing, and I am right here vowing to hit Preptober on October 1st next year the same way I hit Nanowrimo on November 1st. The truth is that up until this year I have been a casual Nanowrimo-er. I have used the tool(s), but I have not gone whole hog. I am trying to go whole hog, but like I said, I’m a little late to Preptober. Even so, with five days left until Nanowrimo, I want to give you a shot at a last-ditch attempt to prep. In the coming years, this will be a great blog post to use earlier. For now, I say use these four days (especially if you don’t have much in the way of weekend plans) to prep away! (And by prep, I don’t mean just plan the structure of your novel. No! There are many more and many more fun things to do to get yourself in a writerly place.)

THINGS TO DO TO GET READY FOR NANO

Come up with an idea (or have one already). If you are a purist, you will approach Nanowrimo Day #1 with a blank file (more on that later) and a novel idea. Then you will write at least 50,000 words in that file and will be either done or well on your way to finishing the first draft of a new novel at the end of Nano. Other people are what is called “rebels,” and they piece together projects and goals (like short stories) to get to 50,000 words or—less rebellious—continue a novel that was already begun or write nonfiction. At any rate, at the very least, you need to have an inkling of what you are going to begin writing on November 1, something that will sustain for the whole month. This year, I am being a purist, and starting on a brandnew novel (the first of a trilogy) which was inspired by a dream I had a few months ago. I definitely have an idea, but my main character does not even have a name, yet. He will by Tuesday.Clear your calendar as much as possible and adjust expectations. Especially if this is your first Nanowrimo, you want to rethink your daily schedule with an understanding of the time it will take to put 1,667 words on the page per day. This might mean changing your usual way of doing things/your daily schedule and it will almost certainly mean committing to the bare minimum in November. Do things ahead in October and then put things off during November. For most of us, this still means we’ll be fighting against the expectations and commitments of our lives (like work, parenting, etc.) but it also helps to throw out unnecessary appointments or schedule them for October or December. Also, try to lower your standards (and for a person like me, it is healthy to do this, anyway) and accomplish things like a full-house clean before November. If you have things that have to happen in November, you will want to adjust your daily goals around them. For me, I lose about five full days in November to Thanksgiving and my daughter’s birthday, so I have set my goals for those days at 0 words and for the remaining 25 days at 2,000 words. (See where you might want to record those personalized goals below.)Sign up for Nano and add a project. Nano essentially happens online, though it also happens in person, on Discord and Zoom, and more importantly in your house. To do Nanowrimo in community (and the literal way), you will need to go to nanowrimo.org and sign up for a free account (if you haven’t signed up another year) and then “announce” your project for this Nanowrimo. The goals will be pre-set for you at 50,000 words from November 1-November 30, but you can enter your working title, information about your project, a working cover, etc. For that matter, you can update your personal info with a photo and biographical info. Most Nanowrimers that I know have an oblique username that they can proclaim loudly without embarrassment. Mine is just my name, which comes off a bit weird, sometimes. Think gamer tags having to do with writing and genre. It might stick with you for years.Join your local Nano chapter and sign up for workshops, kick-off events, write-ins, and sprints. Another two-stepper, you will want to search for a local Nano group and, if there is one, join it. You don’t actually have to do any of the things, but I have found all of it really helpful for 1) learning more about actually writing, 2) keeping accountable to all those words and 3) getting in the festive, Nano mood. I am attending (online and off) as many of these things as I can manage for the above three reasons.Make sure you have what you need like space and supplies. Hopefully, as a writer, you already have a place(s) where you write and the tools you need to do so. It needs go no further than your couch or desk and a laptop or even a pen and paper. It might be helpful, as well, to consider some additional places you might write when you need a change of scenery, like coffee shops (and their hours), a workshare, or a park. There also might be specific tools that you need to write this specific idea, including research materials, or tools you use for drafting like notecards and highlighters.Listen to a podcast (or three). Totally optional, of course, but I have spent the month of October bouncing back and forth between Halloween music and a couple of writing podcasts. There are even a couple podcasts that are specifically for Nanowrimo. See lists below for a list of podcast possibilities.Read a craft book. And no, I don’t mean a craft book (because, as mentioned earlier, we’re going to put a pin in our art and home projects for a minimum of 30 days), I mean a writing craft book. I think you should always be reading some sort of writing craft book (and/or magazine), but Preptober should be a month to really overdo this and also to pick a craft book (or, again, a few) that is specific to your Nanowrimo project. Highlight that sucker up. This year I am reading a novel structure book and also one on YA.Get Scrivener and download the Nano template. You don’t have to use Scrivener. You just want to use Scrivener as many, many (but not all) writers will tell you. However, there are two things that might scare you off from this writing-specific software (as opposed to word-processing software like Word or Googledocs). First, it costs $50 (though there is a rather generous 30-days-of-use trial period). Second, it takes some time to learn the program (though Google searches can educate you as you go, too). I got Scrivener over the summer, followed their tutorial, and then followed that up recently with a half-dozen Youtube tutorials by other writers. I also discovered that Scrivener now has a deal with Nano and have made available a template specifically for Nanowrimo. This is pretty cool in a really nerdy way. There were a few of these grassroots templates available in previous years and they do things like track your word count and help during Preptober, but this new joint-venture lets you update your word count directly from the Scrivener document. After it tracks your daily count and/or session count. What-what! Fun times.Fill out a workbook or sheets (or two or three) or otherwise plan/structure your novel. You can wing planning your novel’s structure. In fact, pantsers (meaning writers who eschew planning and fly be the seat of inspiration) insist on not planning. I would suggest some planning for a time like Nano, but you can skip this if you’re happier winging it. As for us planners, there are myriad resources for assisting us with planning. As far as I know, they break down into books or workshops from which you would make your own plans, worksheets (often printable from a pdf), and workbooks. My plan for my project is to fill out a structure workbook as well as a world-building workbook (since it’s a fantasy trilogy in the making) this year and then kinda wing a 7-step structure inspired by a workshop I just attended for the important side characters and the subplots. Then I’m going to line up scenes and color code. In four days.And now that you have Scrivener, you are going to want to update your Scrivener project and even edit the template to fit your needs. Before November 1. I added some folders and files (like Braindump, Soundtrack, and Timelines) and split my manuscript into a file for each day. I then set word count goals for each of those files, including my 0-word days (see above). If you don’t have a clue what you might want in a Scrivener Nanowrimo file, pop on over to ye olde internet and watch a couple videos or read a couple articles where more experienced people will tell you just how they manage Scrivener and Nano. Also, transfer any story notes you might have to Scrivener if you didn’t generate them there.Make a cover. Again, optional, as most of this is, but fun and inspiring. I have had expensive publishing software that I was trained on and have used that in the past to make mock covers, but I no longer have that ‘spensive stuff. So, as suggested on one of the podcasts, I started a Canva account and opted to keep it free. Then I made the most amazing cover for my project. It didn’t take super long but now I have something to post with my project on Nano and, more importantly, I have it posted on the wall above my desk because vibes are important.Speaking of vibes being important, make a playlist. You can go one of two ways, here. Personally, I use Spotify. Use whatever you use normally. Make a mix-tape if you have a way of doing that. Whatever. But then, some people make a playlist to listen to when writing and some people make a mood-inducing playlist or a playlist that would fit with, say, a movie of your story. I like to let the book (idea) generate the playlist which means I often end up with songs with lyrics which means I cannot under any circumstances listen to it while writing. If I need to drown out noise while writing I find it handy to have a second playlist, perhaps one I didn’t even make myself, which is instrumental and non-distracting. The book playlist I do use for setting vibes.And still speaking of vibes, it’s about time you line up some related novels and movies on your bookshelf/TBR. There is a fear that many writers have (and I have myself) that if you read something close to what you are writing you will rip it off, subconsciously. I am trying to get past that fear this year for Nanowrimo because—let’s be real—you have to read the genre if you are going to write the genre. For pity’s sake. I will do my best not to rip anyone off or become formulaic just as I will do my best to read widely so that I have an understanding that is not limited to only a few books, movies, or authors. Vow taken. See below for my lists of possibilities for this year.Get/make some sort of tracker. Ahem. Yes, Nanowrimo has a word count tracker which updates every time you post to it with new goals, etc. It’s kind of the point of the website, really. And yes, you want to update that sucker every single day. If, however, you are mildly insane or feeling giddy during Preptober, you could make yourself some tracker(s) that will be other places besides the internet. Like on a bookmark. Or in your dot journal. Or on a calendar on the wall.Create (or glom on to) a rewards system and stock it. I have never done this, until… I am actually doing a sort of pre-Nano Nano, in which I am completely finishing the novel I have been so close to finishing all month before Nano arrives. Which means I already have word goals, this week. Yesterday I was doing an especially exceptional job at procrastinating, so when my husband went out to run an evening errand I asked him to please bring me home a favorite snack and give it to me only when he saw my word count had exceeded my session goal (on Scrivener). Believe it or not, folks, it worked. I wrote 2,000 words in between the time my son handed me my laptop and getting-ready-for-bed time. I enjoyed the snack over an episode of something with my hubby. Some Nanowrimers set up a rewards system for the entirety of Nanowrimo. I have seen little cards with goals and stickers. I have heard of people buying some of their favorite things and withholding them until certain milestones are met. I have also heard of people, at least in theory, using an advent calendar since they now make them with goodies in them from makeup to wine samples or whatever. You could generate a compliment for yourself and illustrate it after each day. You could reward yourself with a special outing. You figure out the goals (which can be the daily word count or bigger ones) and what might actually work dangling over your head.Blog it out/Insta/Facebook/whatever. Or, as Nanowrimo would say (I think), “publish it.” Tell the world that you are doing Nanowrimo (and for that matter, set some boundaries early). You don’t have to do this, surely, but it does help bolster the community and therefore accountability and can help you think through and actually do your own practice. It doesn’t have to be amazing or thorough, but perhaps just post something ahead of time (like an Insta post) and then a few updates during the month, like of your sleep-deprived face, Blaire Witch style.Finally and lastly, begin Nanowrimo with a midnight sprint! The whole point of Preptober and whatever suggestions you decide to implement is Nanowrimo: words on a page. I am all too aware that Nanowrimo Eve is also Halloween. I am a big Halloween fan and I go all out. However, I also love the idea of gathering at midnight (for me, this year, on Zoom) to do a few writing sprints in my pajamas before flopping down onto the bed. I don’t usually write too late because it’s terrible for sleep, but what a fun tradition and what a way to blast into Nanowrimo ready and jazzed.

So, whether or not you have done anything so far in Preptober, there is still time to get just-ready enough. You need an idea. You need to sign up online. Everything else is just icing, though sometimes this icing is what will save you, mid-Nano.

Gallery above: Three other mock covers that I might have made when I was in Canva. A book that is done, a book that is drafted, and a project I pitched for a 2023 residency.

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List of podcasts, books, movies, and craft books I am considering for this go-around:

PODCASTS:

Write-MindedHow to Win NanowrimoUnpublishedThe Creative Writer’s ToolbeltWriter’s RoutineThe Imaginary WorldAtticus After Darkand for me this year, Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby!.

WRITING BOOKS (specifically for novels and for story-generating and writing):

Plot & Structure, BellSave the CatSave the Cat Writes a NovelSave the Cat Writes a YA NovelOutlining Your Novel, WeilandOutlining Your Novel Workbook, WeilandThe Only World-Building Workbook You’ll Ever Need, HolladayThe Only Fantasy Workbook You’ll Ever Need, HolladayThe Emotional Craft of Fiction, MaassStory Structure, BernhardtWonderbook, VandermeerHow to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method, IngermansonList of best books on writing HERE (like On Writing , King; Zen in the Art of Writing , Bardbury; Bird by Bird , Lamott; and tons of other books on more specific things and more general things, from grammar to the editing process to unleashing your creativity to the writing life to making money to publishing to writing about death or villains or dealing with specifics (like the first five pages or character or sentence structure) or whatnot and in other genres (like YA, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, script-writing, etc.) Also, some writer memoirs.)Story Genius, Lisa CronThe Writer’s Journey, VoglerSteering the Craft, Le GuinnHow to Write Bestselling Fiction, KoontzWriting Down the Bones, GoldbergWord Work, RogersAspects of the Novel, ForsterPity the Reader, VonnegutWild Words, GulottaMurder Your Darlings, ClarkHow to Grow a Novel, SteinThe Science of Storytelling, StorrDaily Rituals, CurreyStory Engineering, BrooksOn Writing, BukowskiNobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, PressfieldAbout Writing, DelanyIf You Want to Write, UelandThe Kick-Ass Writer, WendigThe Portable MFA in Creative Writing, NY Writers’ WorkshopThe Paris Review Interviews, I-IVOn Writing, WeltyThe Modern Library’s Writers’ WorkshopThe Lie That Tells the Truth, DufresneThe Art of Fiction, Gardner

SIMILAR, VIBEY FICTION BOOKS (I was looking for a certain vibe that fell in the YA/fantasy/adventure vicinity. If you have any suggestions, let me know):

Twilight (except I already read it)The Hunger Games (except I already read it) The Complete Sherlock Holmes (except I already read it)The Raven BoysMortal Instruments (and Infernal Devices?)His Dark MaterialsThe Perks of Being a WallflowerWill Grayson, Will Grayson ?A Separate PeaceThe Old KingdomThe Dark Is RisingHush, Hush Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Something Wicked This Way Comes BartimeausBloodlinesFallenIf I Stay The Blue Sword Daughter of the LionessThe ImmortalsThe Chronicles of NarniaEnchanted Forest ChroniclesChaos WalkingDaughter of Smoke and BoneThe House of the ScorpionChronicles of Chrestomanci GoneShiver A Monster CallsEvery Day Boy Proof Eleanor and ParkUnder the Never Sky (Una)Shatter MeThe Immortal Rules The Lightning ThiefAll the Bright PlacesAngelfall Obsidian The Darkest MindsA Court of Thorns and Roses

MOVIES (Same vibe as stated above, because this is what I will be writing):

Blinded by the LightTwilightHunger GamesHarry PotterThe Perks of Being a WallflowerNapoleon DynamiteInto the Spider-VerseBill and Ted’s Excellent AdventureBrickJunoThe CraftDonny DarkoEasy ASpiderman: HomecomingLove, SimonSay AnythingElectionFast Times at Ridgemont HighLadybirdBooksmartThe Lost BoysDazed and ConfusedFerris Beuller’s Day OffMean GirlsTen Things I Hate About YouBack to the FutureThe Breakfast ClubCluelessThe School of Good and EvilMiss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar ChildrenEnder’s GameMortal EnginesSpirited AwayHowl’s Moving CastleArtemis FowlSuper 8Stanger ThingsSee You YesterdayBumblebeePercy JacksonThe Darkest MindsE.T.Haunted MansionGoosebumpsThe Neverending StoryHow to Train Your DragonAlice in Wonderland

NOTE: I plan on doing many of these things in the future for each book that I tackle, including the second draft of the one I just finished and even a re-write of the one I’m currently shopping out for an agent. You could even use some of these tools (especially #9) for short stories.

I am gearing up for Nanowrimo 2022! If you don’t know what Nanowrimo is, you can read my old blog post HERE. Or I can give you the gist: Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s been around for, what?, twenty years? The basic and original premise is an online space/club for people to set the goal and write 50,000 words in any given November, which is an arbitrary “novel.” Nano (for short) now has other things, like summer camp where you can set your own goals in April and July and programs for kids and schools, but the big to-do is still November and the 50,000 words. This is my first year in seven actually, really doing Nanowrimo since I am not homeschooling and teaching co-op at the same time. (I have done it occasionally in the last seven years, but not really to hit 50,000 words. Also, I do always lose like five days of the month to Thanksgiving and my daughter’s birthday, so I have to write slightly faster on the other 25 days.) This year, I am not only a full-time writer, but I am in need of getting a whole lotta words on the page. And I have an excellent idea for a new book. So good. (Please picture me drumming my fingertips together and smirking over how great of an idea this book/trilogy is.)

I am so all-in this year that I am even going to attend in-person events like a kick-off, a couple workshops, and—my fave—write-ins (where you sit and don’t talk and write together. It’s an accountability thing). Last weekend, barely home from my residency, I swept away on a Saturday afternoon to a local library for my first Nano workshop, ever. Hosted by a library where a published, Nano writer works as a librarian, the workshop was “Outlining for Fiction Authors” with Phillip M. Locey. Honestly, I didn’t think I needed a workshop on outlining, but I figured I wanted to join in somewhere. (I ended up being wrong, anyhow.)

Among the community, swag, fundraising, and vernacular that has built up around the Nano website over the past more-than-two decades are the terms “planners,” “pansters,” and “plantsers.” Planners are people who have it all figured out before they put one word on the first page of a novel. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants, I presume, and don’t have anything but a dream or a vague idea—whatever’s in their head and heart—before the start the rough draft. Usually, they don’t know where they’re going, just a simple who or what. Plantsers, which probably includes most writers, lie somewhere between. They do some planning but then write, maybe do some more planning along the way. I often write short stories as a pantser, but for novels? I am always going to be either a planner or a plantser. Thanks to this workshop, I am going to enter this Nano season more planned than I ever have before, because Locey gave us his (developed over time) strategy and I really like the look of it.

I don’t want to give too much away; after all, this is Locey’s shtick. But I will say a few things. First of all, the anecdote with which he began really stuck with me. He had attended a workshop or maybe a reading of a more famous author (who will go here unnamed) and she balked at planning. Like other die-hard pantsers, she believes (so he said) that writing has to come directly from the intuition, from the creative flow, and in the moment. She shared at her reading that planning would dampen, nay destroy, creativity and that no writer could produce a good book by planning it nor should they try. After some time, another question came around and this same author shared that she had to re-write some novel of hers eight times. Locey must have chuckled to himself internally, if not into his palm. Eight times! But no wonder. Planning—or outlining as he calls it—could have saved this poor author from eight re-writes! (Or, at least, planning after a more “spiritual” draft-one could have cut down the rewrites severely.) Personally, I think I’d be so sick of the book by the eighth rewrite I might chuck it out the window.

(Personal note: I have blogged before (like HERE) about how I don’t believe in writer’s block. Likewise, I don’t think all—or even most—good things come from pantsing it. If you have talent plus tools, you can write good, even great, stuff when your muse feels mute. Passion sure does make things more enjoyable and maybe points us in the right direction, but you don’t stop or even pause doing a thing just because you’re not feelin’ it right that second (at least if you want to thrive/be a successful human being), and, as I’ve said before, when you just write you often end up with stuff that is… hey, this is actually something.)

Here are some of my favorite pointers from the workshop:

You need to really define the stakes for the protagonist. Say it clearly and give the alternative outcome if they don’t get what they want. What’s standing in their way? What happens if they don’t succeed? If they do? High stakes are ideal.The four phases of novel planning are: figure out the concept, the big idea, the “What if?” and then the premise (the character + conflict + stakes); map it out as a story structure (Locey uses a seven-point structure, but there are other options); put some meat on the narrative by thinking outside worktime and writing paragraphs explaining how to get from point A to point B; choose actual scenes, figuring out how information like foreshadowing and location are going to play out. (By the second or third step, you would actually start writing the book. Step four can be done as you get to each scene.)It doesn’t matter as much if your ending is bitter, sweet, or bittersweet, as much as it is satisfying. (I often use the word “inevitable” here.)During scene selection, line up your plots and subplots and color code by scene/time so you know when each one needs to be addressed. (I love this idea!)We’ve all heard this before, but “ideas generate ideas,” and every scene should progress the plot or develop a character.Subplots should be brought up every two to four chapters and don’t generally span the whole book.Write to the tropes of your genre. (Break rules in moderation, I think.)Any good conflict or tension deserves a scene. This shouldn’t happen off-camera.

I really enjoyed this workshop. Was it ground-breaking? For some people, probably. I didn’t exactly hear too many new things, but it was really beneficial for me to hear Locey’s opinions and approach so that I could reevaluate the way that I plan/write and remind myself of some things. I am going to use his system basically how he presented it to get ready for Nanowrimo this year. I have a brand-new book, barely a few hundred words in notes, and this will be a great project to try out a more planner-ly approach, especially as it should allow me to put more actual words (50,000!) on the page in November. Now to finish one novel (two chapters left!) and get all this planning accomplished. I have—yikes!—two weeks.