Random-Ass Facts about My *Newest* Novel Project

Yep, it's that time again. I'm working on something else, which y'all will know it as Dolls. And yes, might as well share with y'all some stuff about the project.

• This used to be a Silent Hill fan fiction before I took the arduous task to divorce it from its source. It took me two years, on and off, to do it.

• Its original title was An Absence of Innocence.

• I first started writing this when I was 19. And here we go, 7 years later...

• It is set in my home state of Texas, though in cities I haven't been to since I was a kid (Houston and Galveston).

• The full current title came from a Sylvia Plath poem.

• Remember when I said three characters from another story made an appearance in Spiders? Well, the three are in this novel.

• The two main characters have the last names of Buckingham and McVie. And unlike Spiders, this was a coincidence. I had the characters created for separate works originally, but when I had them join forces... well, there you go.

• The name of the neighborhood that the main characters live in used to be the name of the town they lived in the events of the fan fiction: Briar Lake. It was supposed to be half a day's drive away from Silent Hill. Now it's a fictional neighborhood in Houston.

• One of the main characters has a former dream job of mine: record store clerk.

• Some of the nightmarish elements in the story were loosely inspired by dreams I had, especially my run of nightmares about haunted houses I had when I was 19.

• Here is the novel's theme song ('cause we gotta have this too): 

Thank you for your time to indulge me concerning a novel project that no one may actually read in its final form for about eight years.

Here, have a LOL:

*meme does not belong to me*

Never mind, everyone!

No wedding scene. Spiders says "naw, no wedding! You don't wanna write that, don't ya? S*** goes bad now, okay?"

Okay, Spiders. If you say so...



This does explain why I was hesitant to work on the novel for a while.

*meme does not belong to me*

Random-Ass Facts about My Current Novel Project

While hard at working on A Wilderness of Spiders, I came up with a random thing to procrastinate on... a random list of facts about the project.

Read at your own discretion (or boredom, same thing).

• This was LOOSELY inspired by my time as a bridesmaid for my best friend's wedding. It was thankfully not chaotic and tragic like the events of the novel (it was actually a huge blast and there was a mariachi band). And maybe the movie Bridesmaids, even though I have never seen it. I heard it was good...

• An addendum to the first fact: none of the characters were based on anyone I knew in the wedding party. Everyone was awesome and drama-free!

• One of the main characters was loosely inspired by my little sister. She approves of this. :D

• The novel plays with the legend of how bridesmaids were supposed to be the guards of the bride in tradition. 

• Yes, there is a stab at Fifty Shades of Grey. You're welcome.

• The main character listens to this song as she travels to the bride's place. I love this band.

• I may or may have not deliberately named three characters after two Talking Heads members and The Cars' drummer... o_o; (You get a prize if you guess the connection to two of the musicians!)

• An early title for it was Nowhere to Hide and then West End Girls (after the Pet Shop Boys song).

• It is supposed to be my attempt at a feminist mystery/thriller. I want that genre to exist so badly. Get on it, writers! I don't want to invent it!

• It takes place about two weeks before the 2012 elections. So when I was planning it, I had no effing clue who was going to become President. I wanted to capture the pre-election tensions going on around the time. (Not times we all want to recall, eh?)

• It takes place in the span of ten days. The prologue and epilogue are the exceptions, taking place in late 2004 and in mid 2013, respectfully.

• There wasn't supposed to be a wedding scene, but I added it in after thinking of it as a "deleted scene" and realized how awesome it would be if it was actually in there.

• I created my first atheist character in this novel. She's really awesome.

• The common connection that three of the characters have is a shared love for the music of The Band. And yes, they listen to The Last Waltz a lot in the novel.

• One character names "Gangnam Style" as her favorite song of the year.

• One of the police officers was named after a suggestion by my little sister's friend. Shout-out to her!

• Three characters from a previous novel idea make cameos in here. WTF, y'all? Stay in your own universe!

• And finally... this is the novel's official theme song.

Have I sufficiently bored you yet? No? Then go look at some LOLcats or something. Why are you still here? Here, have a random picture.

*meme does not belong to me*

Read the labels and create your own title!

As I reach the 60k mark in Spiders, I have come to a strange realization: I don't want to have the whole thing finished by the 30th. I wanna take it a bit slower, try to complete it at the pace I usually go at. At this rate, I could finish it in early December. And you know what? That's fine with me. I'm really enjoying the story and characters, and I really want to spend a little more time with it.

You see, I think this may be the last time I "officially" participate in NaNoWriMo. After doing it a second time,  I realize that I hated having to cram in a bunch of words in one day. I wanted to write two to three thousand words that meant a little more than padding. Nothing wrong with the NaNo approach, it works for some people, but I've come to realize that it doesn't work for me. I like taking my time (well, not years and years, but you understand) and crafting something a little more than a zero draft. Then again, oh hai perfectionist self! (And also, it doesn't help there I already got the nicest prize from the whole shebang last year: the coupon for Scrivener.)

This is not a hatefest on NaNoWriMo, people have shown their asses doing that and it's honestly a ridiculous thing to get worried about. Man, it must be nice not having real problems! Y'all are just sad that people found a way to make writing fun and more than an art, but a fun craft! But then again, just read what John Scalzi has to say about all this, he said it better than I could. And also, Mary Robinette Kowal. They are wise beings.

I think my time with NaNoWriMo has come to an end. I had tons of fun and wish everyone who still partakes in it all the best and nothing but the best.

~

I finished Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I got a bone to pick with it. I understand women having their own writing space (i.e. time) and their own funds is important, but thanks for throwing the poor and uneducated under the bus! I mean, damn! When I was reading this book, I couldn't help but think of writers that were born in working-class families and writers who don't have college degrees and thought "wow, y'all... hate to break it to you, but by Woolf's standards, you ain't ever gonna be good writers". Of course, there was rarely any decent discourse about writers of color. And I won't even get into the whole concept of one sounding like a man or woman in their writing... uuugggh. That is all such utter bull***.

~

I'll wrap up Spiders in due time and get ready for the next big challenge: the grad school application!

Now there's something I'll keep trying every year until I succeed!

Whoops, I overestimated...

After looking over some of the scene note-cards I made for Invisible, I realized that, in all honesty, the novel isn't going to need about 17k words to wrap the whole thing up. I can easily wrap up plot threads in about half of that, maybe even less. As I thought about it, it appeared that there wasn't much else to be said. I have truly written the falling action, now the denouement is upon me.

Looks like I seriously overestimated. Even if I add more scenes to earlier parts, I doubt it will make a huge impact. Not something to the tune of 17k.

But we'll have to see.

Update on Invisible

After going on a writing marathon over the weekend (on Saturday night, I clocked in at a NaNoWriMo-esque 5,208 words), I am about 94% complete with this novel project. If I keep at my pace of about 2,000 words a day, I should finish Part 4 by the end of the month and the epilogue can be done in less than three days. Ah yes, the end is in sight. Early March is the time and place. Mark your calendars, kids!