I am preparing for Nanowrimo 2011, also known as National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to produce 50,000 words in a month. According to the fine folks at the Nanowrimo headquarters that is about 175 pages, or a chapter of War and Peace.
Since I haven’t quite decided what I wanted to write about yet I figured it is time to start warming up my chops and chose to use music to do so. So what you have here is a very small selection of videos and song excerpts. There is a rhyme and reason why I selected these particular “ditties” but I may choose to go a different direction entirely.
This really is just a warm up. It is a chance for me to start jingle jangling the melon to see if I can come up with something that works for me.
She put him out like the burnin’ end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin’ to forget
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind
Until the night1st Chorus
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I’ll love her till I die
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby”
‘Believe me”
You really don’t have to worry
I only want to make you happy
And if you say,
hey, go away, I will
But I think better still
I ought to stay around and love you
Do you think I have a case?
Let me ask you to your face:
Do you think you love me?
I think I love you!”
“See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for youSleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without youWith or without you
With or without youThrough the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I’m waiting for youWith or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you”
Hello, how are you?
Have you been alright, through all those lonely
Lonely lonely lonely lonely nights?
That’s what I’d say, I’d tell you everything
If you’d pick up that telephone, yeah yeah yeahHey, how you feelin’?
Are you still the same?
Don’t you realize the things we did, we did
Were all for real, not a dream?
I just can’t believe they’ve all faded out of view
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah
I fell in to a burning ring of fire
I went down,down,down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire.
Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasn’t died
Give me, give me one more chance
To keep you satisfied, satisfiedLittle things I should have said and done
I just never took the time
You were always on my mind
You are always on my mind
You are always on my mind
I have about seven days to make a decision what direction to go in but I am going to start pushing hard to figure it out earlier than that. I suppose the big question is whether I use any of the existing pieces of Fragments of Fiction and or the pieces from The Red Dress Club.
I don’t know why, but I am a little bit nervous about this. I suppose it is because I want to do something special. I want to create something significant and meaningful. That is not a bad goal to have. If you are going to do it you might as well try to do it write. Bad joke there, but sometimes you have work with what you have.
This is part of the Just Write Project.
You ever try NaBloPoMo? It’s the poor man’s alternative to WriMo. Good luck with your project!
It sounds familiar, but I don’t know the details. Off to your place to learn more.
Congrats on NANO, I love the music warm up and inspiration dig!
I would think that this is right up your alley. Are you going to try it?
So, would you potentially use it to put all the pieces together and create a novel? That could be exciting and inspiring (or scary?)
Yep, I want to take the fragments and turn it into a whole piece.
Just remember, you can use ideas, character development, etc from other pieces, but no cutting and pasting! All 50,000 words are supposed to be new! I’ve done this project eight or nine times and finished less than half of that. I am debating over whether or not to do it this year….I just can’t figure out what I would write. Just Write is an awesome warm up project for NaNoWriMo!
Hi CJ,
I can’t say for certain that I won’t cut and paste part of it. I have 100+ posts that are all fiction and have been meaning to try to weave them into something that works as a single unit.
But ideally it would be cool to create something new. I think that it is great that you have done it before. It should make it a little bit easier or so I would think.
Welcome to the NaNo fraternity, Initiate! May your muse sing, your words flow steady as the tide and your story wrap you in her thrall – but most of all, may you have fun, lots and lots of fun!
Hi Ruth,
I am excited about it. I think it should be fun.