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Comments for Thirteen Thoughts on This Year's Nanowrimo
#30: Thirteen Thoughts on This Year's Nanowrimo: 10/31/07
Nanowrimo (National November Writing Month) begins at midnight. I've been participating since 2004. My book's title this year is Tangent. Previous year's titles were Moonwalking (2004), Precursor (2005), and God's Big Toe (2006). In honor of a month of craziness, I dedicate this week's Thursday Thirteen to it.
- Every year I've had at least one gay character, usually my main character. I do this for a number of reasons but the main one is that it forces me to think more about characterization and back story. I also like to write books I'd want to read and I like a diverse cast of characters (as long as they are well rounded).
- My main characters' names are Sam Wilder (named for Samuel Wylde, the author of The Practical Surveyor) and Dakota Kim.
- Dakota Kim will be a challenge to write this year. Dakota is biologically male but living as a woman for a number of reasons. The two Dakota gives are: it's good for business at the Cantina (most of the customers are young men being shipped off to war) and it helps avoid being shipped of to war. I'm sure there are others too.
- Sam is a surveyor, home from the war. He has come home jaded. His altered attitude, plus the nature of his job will help him realize that things are not what they seem at home.
- My "planet" needs a name. It is inspired by the Salinas Valley but I'd like to come up with something more creative than either Salinas or Steinbeck. The three main cities are named too. They are purposely kept simple as: Uptown, Cantina (aka Middleton) and Downtown. Society on this world is confined to a single valley with a very linear way of seeing the world. Because of the linear nature, I've also thought of calling it Euclidia. Maybe I'll call it Hale.
- My novel this year is inspired by a number of books I've read this year: The Practical Surveyor by Samuel Wylde, Shooting Polaris by John Hale, Arizona by Clarence Budington Kelland, The Long Valley by John Steinbeck and Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene.
- My "planet" is really a man-made structure which is why it's so small. I suppose it could a terraformed moon. This is another big piece of the mystery I have to figure out before the end of November.
- The mountain edges of the valley are one of the two big clues of the mystery. Two separate land disputes at what should be the antipodes of the valley will clue Sam into the fact that things aren't what they seem. He will decide to do an informal resurvey of some troublesome areas to verify what his eyes are telling him. It isn't that Sam, et al, believe that the world is flat, more that they don't believe the world is that small.
- While there is modern and futuristic technology in the two cities, the valley itself is behind the times for the most part. The cultural time period for the entire world is vaguely 1940s but with modern stuff thrown in too. I suppose it's a post-modern steampunk (in that it's not set in a Victorian inspired world or Victorian times).
- I picture society here being fairly conservative and perhaps a bit repressive which will unfortunately make things more difficult for Sam and Dakota.
- As much as I hate planets that are all one climate, this one will probably be one climate. Again, it is small. There will be microclimates but overall the world climate will be that of the actual Salinas Valley. I should probably think of a mechanism behind the climate control.
- I have no idea where this world is relative to earth, how the humans got there, how far in the future it is or whom they're fighting. I'm not even sure any of that is relevant to the plot.
- I came up with this world during a number of very long drives through the Salinas Valley. The two sides of the valley look almost identical and the mouths of the valley are bookended roughly by two cities that look almost the same.
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