Friday Five: NaNoWriMo

If you’re not familiar with National Novel Writer’s Month (NaNoWriMo), then here it is in a nut shell: 50,000 words, 30 days – go.

People praise this process for several reasons. The three that come to mind are: 1 – the supportive online NaNoWriMo Community, 2 – the deadline, 3 – the fact that this program encourages writers to ‘just keep writing’ and discourages editing – which often turns into OVER-editing during the drafting stage.

For me NaNoWriMo is all about the deadline – my first draft is going to require a MAJOR rewrite anyway, so might as well get it out as quickly as possible. Once the story is all there, it’s easier to play with prose and dialogue.

I was completely fanatical about this program, until I realized that when I’m drafting, every month for me is like NaNoWriMo – trying to fit as many words into a day as possible after eight hours of work, maintaining a social existence, and cleaning the apartment.

Here’s what people (participants and authors) are saying on their blogs and via Twitter:

1. “My characters are supposed to be my puppets. But somehow...I've turned into theirs....” Participant April Brown
   
   
2. “Remember that chapter in The Grapes of Wrath that talks about nothing but a turtle crossing the road? I wonder if that was Steinbeck, trying to get his NaNoWriMo word count total up?” Participant Debra Kreps
   
   
3. “Writing this fast won't be nearly as fun anymore when I don't have a little box to constantly update my word count.” – Participant Rachael Fox
   
   
4. “Some people don't need the added incentive to sit down and write, some don't need the insta-community of like-minded folks because they already have a support system. But others need to have that opportunity to, for one month, put writing first and have a community of folks doing the same -- reinforcing the decision.” Author Carrie Ryan (2006 Participant)
   
   
5. “No editing. Don’t go back and fix it. Insert a comment and move on.” –Author Deanna Knippling
   (2010 Participant)
   
   

Healthy-ish Obsession: When Bret Easton Ellis meets Vanity Fair, meets James Franco

Everybody obsesses. Nothing to be ashamed about. I would say, embrace it (since you probably don’t have a choice anyway).

My BFF, Brit, and I have had six years of solid friendship built partly on the fact that we happened to obsesses about the same things at the same time. And right now we are obsessed with the in-development movie, based on the Vanity Fair article ‘The Golden Suicides’, screenplay by Bret Easton Ellis, with James Franco dubbed as the ideal leading man.

Our relatively new, but definitely now full-throttle obsession, defined by Brit as “our love for a misogynistic writer, a clinically insane art-world power couple, and James Franco all rolled into one” may seem kind of crazy, but please hear me out. After all, this latest movie project by Bret Easton Ellis is much healthier than our past obsessions…

Exhibit A: 2005 – Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. Yes, I realize we’re revisiting the Bret Easton Ellis obsession that was huge five years ago when we were in college, but at least with this present obsession, we’re not going around quoting Patrick Bateman (people were a little scared of us).

Exhibit B: 2006-2007 – Victoria Beckham. We said things like ‘knickers’ instead of underwear, and wore sunglasses too big for our faces, and Brit refused to smile in pictures.

Exhibit C: 2008 – The Suburbs. We’re city girls now, but there was once a time when we thought it didn’t get any better than owning a house surrounded by a white picket fence, near a grocery store and a nail salon. Lucky for us this obsession was never indulged (the silver lining of the recession).

Exhibit D: 2009 – The September Issue, the movie. We validated purchasing expensive purses and wearing fur because Vogue said it was okay (or more specifically, Anna Wintour said it in the movie).

So after hearing our track record, our new fixation surrounding the soon-to-be movie about the life and death of a coddled, neurotic, certifiably crazy, but art extraordinaire couple, as depicted by a women-hating literary genius, and hopefully captured in the form of human eye candy, James Franco, seems practically normal. Right?

Really, at its core, this obsession starts and ends with good writing. From a beautifully written article to a screenplay adaptation written by the ONE person who can probably make sense of this tragedy, it’s clear the next step into film is going to be phenomenal.

How can you not be at least somewhat engrossed by the fact that the man who wrote The Rules of Attraction and Less Than Zero is writing a movie that portrays the consequences of locking yourself inside your own imagination – feeding the crazy, so to speak – and exploring the depths of how this can imprison your thoughts?

A healthy obsession indeed.

Friday Five: Andy Warhol Quotes

Inspired by this quote from Maureen Johnson’s blog regarding James Frey’s latest low:

“James is quoted as saying, 'Andy Warhol’s Factory is an example of that way of working. That’s what I’m doing with literature.'

"You’re no Andy Warhol, James. He liked his money as much as you do, and he would probably have had a good and appreciative laugh over the comparison, but you haven’t got his style or his wit. Andy Warhol said cool stuff like, 'I like boring things' and 'It would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor’s finger.' He got why it was funny to make paintings of money and then sell them off. The old shyster had class. You got yelled at by Oprah.”

Andy is hilarious and brilliant (quite the anti-James Frey, if you ask me). See for yourself.

1. “Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.”

2. “I never think that people die. They just go to department stores.”

3. “It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”

4. “I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say "figment."”

5. “The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.”

Book Event Weekend – Laurie Halse Anderson & Suzanne Collins

The situation: Suzanne Collins was swinging by my area of the country on her book tour on the exact days I was out of town at a wedding.

What’s a girl to do?

Beg her cousin to go for her? Exactly.

My cousin saw Suzanne Collins and even waited in line for an hour to get a book stamped for me, to which I am forever indebted. She had this to say about the experience, “A lot of people dressed up. Unfortunately, no one dressed up as Finnick.” Thank goodness, right? The last thing a place swarming with teenage girls needs is a Finnick-type walking around half naked offering people sugar cubes.

I was lucky enough to be in town to see Laurie Halse Anderson speak (no pun intended). She was excellent – very entertaining and very informative. While she was speaking, I remember thinking about ten times, “I’m going to quote her on that.” She says many quote-worthy phrases. But after the signing and the long drive back to my place, there was one quote that stuck. When an aspiring writer in the audience asked how many words a standard novel should contain, she said, “All of them.” Love it!

It was especially interesting to hear about her writing process. For historical fiction, she documents dates and events, creates a plot based on where the characters are during those events, and lastly, develops the characters. Whereas, for YA fiction she develops the character first – the plot follows.

As always, it’s wonderful when a successful writer admits to writing horrific first drafts. Very refreshing to hear that they have to revise and work for the magic too!

Laurie was promoting her new historical thriller, Forge, and this event made me excited to read historical fiction. Laurie predicts this will be the next YA craze. It will be my first attempt at reading a piece of historical literature since 2005, but knowing I will be in the safe hands and entertaining voice of Laurie Halse Anderson, I’m more than excited to get started.

Historical fiction – any recommendations??

The Need to Quote – Friday Five

People love quotes. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because a quote is a clever message wrapped up in pretty words. One statement that says volumes. My generation, and probably also the generation coming after me, as well as the one right before mine, have readily taken the business of quoting to a new level – like say, applying it to everyday life, in place of conversation.

Exhibit A: While we were riding in a shuttle from a wedding reception back to the hotel, a man who had consumed too much at the open-bar started running alongside us, waving like an idiot, as the shuttle pulled away from the reception hall. Immediately following this incident my boyfriend had this conversation with the guy sitting in front of us:

“We're going streaking!”

“Everybody’s doing it!”

“No it's cool man, bring your green hat!”

“SNOOP! SNOOP-A-LOOP!”

*hearty laughter*

Needless to say, the rest of the shuttle ride they were best friends, bonded forever by a love of Will Ferrell in Old School, and the infamous ‘we’re going streaking’ scene.

The above scenario, spouting off one quote after another, happens all the time. I’ve done it too. In college my roommates and I used to have conversations consisting solely of Anchorman quotes, as well as several (I’d like to think, more intellectual) conversations where we quoted Bret Easton Ellis repeatedly.

So my for my Friday Five I’ve decided to embrace the business of quoting, and list five quotes. Because really, it will say so much more.

And since Will Ferrell seems to be one of the figures behind this quoting-in-place-of-conversation-movement, here are five hilarious Will Ferrell quotes:

1. “No, no. It's not schizophrenia. It's just a voice in my head. I mean, the voice isn't telling me to do anything. It's telling me what I've already done... accurately, and with a better vocabulary.” – Stranger Than Fiction

2. “I'll be in the neighborhood later on, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to get some frozen yogurt, or perhaps a whole meal of food, if that would be agreeable.” – Old School

3. “I've sent in my application to the Real World. So I'm hoping to hear back from that. I'm putting A LOT of my eggs into that basket, the MTV basket.” – Taladega Nights

4. “This is a house of learned doctors.” – Step Brothers

5. "I was born a baby, a blank slate. I thought I was in control of my own destiny, and then I met my dad.” – Kicking and Screaming