![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
Original posting 6 Nov 2010
Okay. Yesterday was a bad day for me. I got busy with work, fought off the dripping nose with a dose of whatever the medicine is, but paid for the temporary relief with a series of fun symptoms such as sleepiness, dry mouth, and aching sinuses. For a while, I thought I was going to do something, but I finally just gave up. After all, I had managed to do a little, enough that I was over my target for the day (with extra from before). Funny part is that the nano site insisted I slipped a day because I didn't meet the daily level, even while it admits that I'm ahead overall. Me thinks there's a glitch in the program, there, but I'll not argue with it. (and I notice today that they seem to have removed that line from the stats. Perhaps someone else argued?)
Let's see. Over here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/141633.html I mused about the little stuff. Adding in some details about what's going on, how your hero and his team actually got from their gathering place in the inn of the seven gables to the great fight scene, and all that stuff. (A bus? They took a bus? Did they have to change lines, or was that an express?)
Still a good idea. After all, just because your characters are heading into major fun and games doesn't mean they can avoid all the little trials and tribulations of life. When they get up, they probably need to go through their morning routine -- shave, brush teeth, wash face, shower, bath, makeup, dressing, and all that stuff. Eating lunch? Hey, they have to sit down, order (assuming they're in a diner or some other eating establishment), pick up the napkin and put it in their lap (or do they tuck it in their shirt? I remember eating once with a young man who did that. I kept wanting to laugh every time I looked across the table, but it did keep the food off of his shirt.). Get the food, and walk through unwrapping the burger, eating some french fries, putting a straw in the drink and sucking on it, all those little bits and pieces! Oh, and did you ever notice that the first draught of a soda and the last dregs are different. Something about the ice melting, and the fizz going flat. And that wonderful sound of someone trying to suck a little bit more out of the glass, the swish, swish, rattle.
Any and all of that detail is grist for your word mill! And who knows, you too might become well known for telling 24 hour stories in a mere 500 pages or so (not in an hour long show).
Okay. The point is that adding in details about the background, daily life, all the contents of the bag that fell to the floor when the old man missed putting it on the table (what, you don't want to know that there was garlic cloves, an onion, a quarter pound of chopped beef a.k.a. hamburger, a loaf of stale bread, and a half-dozen eggs in the bag? Or that when he picked it all up and found two eggs broken, he stirred the ingredients together and made meatloaf? Which reminded him of that old TV show, where the son-in-law was called meathead, and he laughed as he tried to remember who the other characters were. Archie Bunker? And his wife was... huh, that's gone. How about the cute blonde with the big smile that was the daughter? All In The Family, that was the show, and I'll bet Google could provide enough details, maybe even a joke or two, that you could have your character watch an episode if they happen to be living in that time and place...).
Details! That's the thing that makes the story ring, and fills the wordy count of nano...
(Edith Bunker! And Gloria? Yeah, I think that was the daughter... sigh. Those were the days, my friend...off to put some more words in the mill before the sun sets in technicolor splendor over the hills and byways)
Okay. Yesterday was a bad day for me. I got busy with work, fought off the dripping nose with a dose of whatever the medicine is, but paid for the temporary relief with a series of fun symptoms such as sleepiness, dry mouth, and aching sinuses. For a while, I thought I was going to do something, but I finally just gave up. After all, I had managed to do a little, enough that I was over my target for the day (with extra from before). Funny part is that the nano site insisted I slipped a day because I didn't meet the daily level, even while it admits that I'm ahead overall. Me thinks there's a glitch in the program, there, but I'll not argue with it. (and I notice today that they seem to have removed that line from the stats. Perhaps someone else argued?)
Let's see. Over here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/141633.html I mused about the little stuff. Adding in some details about what's going on, how your hero and his team actually got from their gathering place in the inn of the seven gables to the great fight scene, and all that stuff. (A bus? They took a bus? Did they have to change lines, or was that an express?)
Still a good idea. After all, just because your characters are heading into major fun and games doesn't mean they can avoid all the little trials and tribulations of life. When they get up, they probably need to go through their morning routine -- shave, brush teeth, wash face, shower, bath, makeup, dressing, and all that stuff. Eating lunch? Hey, they have to sit down, order (assuming they're in a diner or some other eating establishment), pick up the napkin and put it in their lap (or do they tuck it in their shirt? I remember eating once with a young man who did that. I kept wanting to laugh every time I looked across the table, but it did keep the food off of his shirt.). Get the food, and walk through unwrapping the burger, eating some french fries, putting a straw in the drink and sucking on it, all those little bits and pieces! Oh, and did you ever notice that the first draught of a soda and the last dregs are different. Something about the ice melting, and the fizz going flat. And that wonderful sound of someone trying to suck a little bit more out of the glass, the swish, swish, rattle.
Any and all of that detail is grist for your word mill! And who knows, you too might become well known for telling 24 hour stories in a mere 500 pages or so (not in an hour long show).
Okay. The point is that adding in details about the background, daily life, all the contents of the bag that fell to the floor when the old man missed putting it on the table (what, you don't want to know that there was garlic cloves, an onion, a quarter pound of chopped beef a.k.a. hamburger, a loaf of stale bread, and a half-dozen eggs in the bag? Or that when he picked it all up and found two eggs broken, he stirred the ingredients together and made meatloaf? Which reminded him of that old TV show, where the son-in-law was called meathead, and he laughed as he tried to remember who the other characters were. Archie Bunker? And his wife was... huh, that's gone. How about the cute blonde with the big smile that was the daughter? All In The Family, that was the show, and I'll bet Google could provide enough details, maybe even a joke or two, that you could have your character watch an episode if they happen to be living in that time and place...).
Details! That's the thing that makes the story ring, and fills the wordy count of nano...
(Edith Bunker! And Gloria? Yeah, I think that was the daughter... sigh. Those were the days, my friend...off to put some more words in the mill before the sun sets in technicolor splendor over the hills and byways)