The Real Halloween Scare…

~ crossovercreativechaos

…Is NaNo officially starting here in a few hours. Meep.

Very tempted to dive under covers. Very. I mean, I have an idea, but RL has been… well.

OTOH, have so far survived Halloween. Partly by dint of expressing my frustration by use of rubber snakes.  I recommend this. It causes far less damage than some things I’ve thought of doing….

So. NaNo. I have done some research on stuff I want in the story. I’ve got some notes. I’ve got a title, and an opening line. And sometime after midnight, I will cross my fingers and pray.

Because the point of NaNoWriMo is not to produce The Perfect Novel. It’s to try to produce 50K words of useable rough draft.

….Or possibly 50K of Random Ninja Can-Can. Who knows?

One thing I’ve found that helps, sometimes, is to consider an element of the ridiculous that strikes both the reader and the characters about whatever the situation may be.  For one example – you’re about to hunt down world-ending vampires, and you still need a warrant to search the premises. Or the bomb you need to disarm is… jammed behind a malfunctioning vending machine that someone really didn’t like.

Just something to make your characters – and reader – headdesk at Why Is This My Life?

Because we’ve all had those moments. And if you read a story to step into someone else’s skin for a while… it’s good to have something be familiar territory.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll get to blow up an evil vending machine yourself….

 

16 thoughts on “The Real Halloween Scare…”

  2. “Partly by dint of expressing my frustration by use of rubber snakes. I recommend this. It causes far less damage than some things I’ve thought of doing….”

    Oh tell me about it. I got a Saiyuki T-shirt to wear to work just to warn people off. Look, I’m in a bad space, don’t bother me with anything trivial.

    I really like my team. I really like being team lead (usually) but there are times where I’m sooo glad I don’t carry…because people would be in the hospital…

    Isn’t that evil? I actually feel guilty (afterwards)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. I actually saw someone dressed up like Medusa on Saturday while I was ushering – she even had rubber snakes in her hair! So that is now my head cannon for what your costume looks like.

    Though I would have to say that my personal pick for favorite costume would have to go to the Harley Quin with the fantastically realistic giant hammer. If only she’d been able to take it inside, she would would have hammered her way to first place in the costume contest!

    Which leads me to the Batman fanfic I started a while back that I’d really like to continue – and this would be a good excuse! The thing is a behemoth, but I have access to plenty of references!

    Like

    Reply

  5. Dressing up as an original character worked out well. Lots of compliments on my makeup. Owl face paint. Only one practice. I now have a much better idea of what that character wears. And what she hates about her formal outfits. Also, cloaks are lovely and I wish I could wear one the rest of the cold part of the year without getting stares. Still worrying about a couple plot problems for my story. I hope you enjoy NaNo this year!

    Like

    Reply

    2. The problem with cloaks is that it is very hard to wear them properly if you also have to carry a backpack.

      This I discovered yesterday in my guise as “Medieval noblewoman number two (background)”

      Like

      Reply

      1. You just have to not care that your cloak is humped up over a backpack (much like wearing a poncho over a backpack), or make sure you have a really long cloak in back, or a really long cloak that you belt up/kilt up in front.

        Like

      3. They also can flap very dramatically on windy days. And get in your face if you’re trying to swing a sword in said circumstances. I think I ended up taking mine off. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had the right idea, abandoning theirs at the start of the fight.

        Like

  6. Sometimes I forget that not everyone lives in Australia, ha. NaNo has already started over here, and there has been much panicking between me and my NaNo buddies. I think I drank about five oreo milkshakes today.

    Since you’re older and undoubtedly wiser and more experienced then me, you probably already know this, but I think one of the most important things in NaNo – and something I lose sight of almost every year – is just how important pacing yourself is. You *really* don’t want to burn yourself out. I managed to write 12k today, and I still feel pretty good, but there’s no telling when the words will stop flowing, so make sure to take time for some non writey things too!

    Ah, I’m sure you’ll do amazing. Good luck, Vathara!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment