Since I'm going to tell you about the trials and tribulations of writing such a massive amount of words in one month, perhaps I should tell you what it's about. The story is based in a fictional world where people can voluntarily induce synesthesia upon their minds as they see fit. Synesthesia is a real phenomenon where some people experience extra sensory modalities when they experience stimuli within alternate senses. For example, someone might see the color green and have the taste of spaghetti in their mouths. Or maybe a person who hears the squeak of nails on a chalkboard gets the taste of spaghetti in their mouth. The possibilities are limitless, and most of them don't even involve spaghetti! Wikipedia 'synesthesia' for more information. Okay, so that's the background of the world. In the story, we follow around the protagonist who, unlike 99.999 % of the population, was actually born with the condition. Unbeknownst to everyone else who has the synthetic form of the condition, she is the very reason that the technology exists. She is also the inspiration for a character in a series of books written by her mother. Naturally, she dislikes the books, dislikes her mother and really dislikes the synthetic-synestheic people. But when people start dying off for unexplained reasons, it's up to her to put things right. Or something. There's still quite a few kinks in the plot, so I'll remain light on the details. Also, as it is now, I sadly don't have a single gun in the narrative. Before it's finished, I'll make certain that it's all like "blam blam blam."
Over the course of 30 days, I wrote around two to three hours a day, everyday. Good grief. To do this, I woke up an hour earlier than normal and devoted a good portion of my prime television viewing hours to writing. The first week was a breeze: everything I had outlined previously was, more or less, flowing pretty easily. By the time the second week rolled around, I was constantly wondering why it was still November. In the third week I inserted some interesting plot points that I hadn't previously considered. Things were looking up. And then the fourth week hit. I was all like "uhhhhhhhhh." With nearly quadruple my average monthly word count, I could not think of anything to write that actually made sense in the scope of the story. So, I wound up just writing the lyrics to all of the Michael McDonald songs I could think of. Not really, but my writing was stunted for sure. I finally crossed the finish line with...less than grace; the last sentence was a freaking struggle. BUT, I did it. Approximately eighty hours of work devoted to accomplishing a goal I set for myself about two days before the start of the month. As good as it felt to be finished, the end didn't come with triumphant celebration but with a sense that my goal was not yet complete. The book needs an ending. And damn it, I intend to give it one.
I'd like to announce to the entire blogosphere that I owe a great deal of thanks to the lovely C-Note, otherwise known as Courtney Something Kalof. Without her encouragement and picking up of my slack for things like eating and cleaning things I may have still finished, but I would have been much, much stinkier by month's end and there would have been a pile of dishes up to the ceiling. There may have been a supportive comment or two in there from her. (Actually, more like 88. I became a huge whiny jerky jerk face at certain points in the month.) So thanks to my gal pal for her niceness.
I've addressed the attempt at writing a novel in a month, now I need to address some other things. Namely, my guilt. I have eaten two burgers since the start of November, and written absolutely none haikus about them. Without tightly structured Japanese poetry, my burger-capades are not as fun as they should be. I've flirted with the idea of writing late haikus for each of my burgers, but ultimately I am not going to do this. It wouldn't be fair to the burger. But worry not, one of the places definitely warranted a return visit, and another was on the crappier side of so-so.
Other things that deserve space on this page: I've got a new word or two that need to enter the cultural lexicon as soon as possible, so look for a few more "Loss for Words" columns coming up. My smash-hit short fiction Shootout at the Fantasy Factory needs an ending. And I've got one for it coming soon, I promise. It's got a great twist ending and Lavar Burton may even make a special guest appearance. Sometime down the line I'm going to move my comic strip publishing venture over to the Extreme; I've got a few more I've been working on and I'll go ahead and publish the archives as well so our newer readers won't be confused. And because it's a little weird for me to have a character in my comic strip that I haven't spoken to in years, after the completion of this saga, I'm going to change the direction of the comic. So look for new characters and a new title. Woo hoo! Of course, I still may throw in a few "That's Dego" classics in from time to time with the optional DVD commentary. What else is in the works? I'm not sure, I've got some other projects in various stages of development. And by various stages, I mean that I've thought about them. Perhaps I'll find the time to conduct an interview with the co-creator, producer, director and writer of the smash box office hit (in my mind) Rough Draft. There's also a Van Halen project rattling around in there somewhere. Also, my plan to nuke the moon is still in the works.
That's all. Thanks for your time.
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