NaNoWriMo

Until a couple of months ago I thought this meant some sort of chemical equation. I am not what you call science-y (obviously). It didn’t take long for me to work it out though; Twitter has become my new Wikipedia in terms of helpful (but mostly useless) knowledge. NaNoWriMo is of course the National Novel Writing Month that helps empower writers and raise money for charities.

So NaNoWriMo is this awesome month long endeavour when all writers (good and bad, published and unpublished, professional and amateur) put their nose to the grindstone and simply write. It sounds easy but most of us know that writing 1,667 words a day can seem impossible when you consider your everyday school or professional work and other home life considerations. I always thought it was hard...actually that’s not exactly true.

Early last year I rediscovered my love of writing through fanfic. Prior to that it was a pipedream squashed by parents suffering from terminal practicality. I am a trifle embarrassed by my fanfic experience but it was a great means in which to dip my toe back in the writing waters. Before that moment, I had always dreamt of being a writer. Not a successful writer, or even a good writer...just a writer. I had visions of being Jo March all bundled up in a drafty attic with a truly ugly hat on my head, scribbling away by candlelight. In the six months that I wrote fanfic (mostly FNL, my love of the show knows no bounds or horrific injustice to their fantastic writing) I got into a great rhythm. I was writing between two and four thousand words a day. But more importantly, I was developing my writing of dialogue. In attempting to sound like a character from television I learned about a character’s individual voice and how important that is from tone, to vocab, to just knowing the character. While fanfic is usually bad (I readily agree that mine’s in with that batch), it was a great means in which to develop some of my skills.

I had an audience of which I was inordinately proud. They would also tell me how fantastic I was at conveying the depths of mystery in Tim Riggins. How funny they found a specific line and how they thought a certain kiss could steam windows up. It did wonders for my confidence. Of course now I realise that a lot of their enjoyment came from characters well and truly established on the show and really had nothing to do with my writing. This rich characterisation is something I still need to learn. Another moment of reality was witnessing my ardent admirers rave over the extremely ordinary writing of other FNL fanfic-ers that made me realise that there was still a long way to go. That being said, getting a positive review online from FanFiction.net, all these many months later, still feels good, no matter how false I believe it to be.

I signed up for my first NaNoWriMo at the beginning of September and immediately declared that I was crapping myself. I wasn’t kidding. I abruptly stopped writing fanfic in the latter months of last year (sorry to those people that were cut short reading Quicksand) when work got out of control and I lost the enthusiasm. I lost my rhythm. I started NaNoWriMo having been on a year plus writing drought. While some people might give me credit for writing plenty on the blog and having a good rhythm there...it didn’t count. It’s completely different to write a narrative than writing a personal opinion piece or a review. In the latter’s case the preparation is minimal, you come to the table with your thoughts. And yet, despite this knowledge, when November 1st came around I had not prepared.

I am now entering Day 6 of NaNoWriMo and I have hit that wondrous 10k mark. Something I could never have contemplated a week ago. Not only have I done it but I have managed it around a torn back ligament, pain meds, immobility and a horrific few days at work. I can do it. Does this mean that I will be successful in hitting the 50k mark? Not necessarily. Does this mean my words will be any good, my characters realistic, my dialogue snappy or my story flow? No. But NaNoWriMo is more that the result, it’s the process and the self-realisation and development that come from it. What have I realised? That it’s possible, that one day I might be able to live out a decidedly more modern existence as a weekend Jo March.

If you’d like to follow my progress (or lack thereof) you can befriend me via NaNoWriMo here.

Today Persnickety Snark is being graced with the presence of one of the students from my school. Miss J (age 10), as I will call her, is a voracious reader and very badly wanted to read Belinda Murrell's The Locket of Dreams when she spotted it in my possession. I said it was all hers with the condition that she wrote a review for my blog and here's it is:

Title: The Locket of Dreams
Author: Belinda Murrell

Have you read any other books by this author?:
No.

Why did you choose this book?:
It looked really interesting.

Write the main events that take place in the story?:
Sophie's grandma shows Sophie and her sister a box. A really pretty box. Sophie's grandma shoes them everything in the box. Sophie sees a golden locket, a heart shaped one. That night Sophie wakes up and takes out the pretty looking box. Sophie takes out the locket and puts it around her neck. When Sophie falls asleep with the locket around her neck she goes back to the past (1858) to learn the truth about the mysterious Charlotte McKenzie.

Describe one of the characters from the book?:
Charlotte McKenzie - Charlotte has long red, curly hair and blue eyes. Charlotte also wears old-fashioned dresses.

Who would you recommend this to?:
I would recommend this book to Miss Persnickety, other teachers, friends and family.

This effort was completely unguided (or edited) by me and I would love to thank Miss J for her contribution to the blog.

Published: 2009

Format: Paperback, 281 pages

Publisher: Random House

Source of Review Copy: publisher

Origin: Australia

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www.belindamurrell.com.au

Summary - Teach Me invites readers inside an experience that fascinates everyone—an affair between a teacher and student—and gives an up-close-and-personal answer to the question: How does this happen?

Review - There is no doubt that this is a superbly written novel. Exploring the inappropriate relationship that burgeons between a nerdy, teenage science freak and a self-aggrandising English teacher, Teach Me deals with tricky subject matter in a way that gets to the heart of the matter...the abuse of trust. It's such a tricky subject that I found myself hating the teacher from the first moment, not surprising considering I share his profession.

My bias made it impossible for me to emphasise with Richard. He’s loathsome. He’s everything I would have loved as a teen with his pretentious ramblings, soul searching eyes and narcissistic tendencies. But as a teacher, I definitely know better. It’s clearly predatory behaviour and at no point did I buy into his professions of genuine feelings. Richard knew it was wrong before he could have contemplated having feelings for Nine.

Nine’s situation is understandable but I didn’t particularly like the girl. It is curious that a girl who holds so many people at a distance gets sucked into a torrid affair. But ultimately it is not the affair that is interesting but the emotional fallout that is fascinating. Nelson writes Nine in a beautifully realised, frank style that is unlike anything I have read before. Peppered with poetry and science facts (that hurriedly flew over my head) you immediately absorb how intelligent this girl is and how cluelessly naive she is in a social context.

Nine is curious. She’s sarcastic and blunt but she still blindly finds herself in love with Richard. Understandably she finds this is a thrilling but safe endeavour as a teacher could never (and should never) return those feelings. While I physically baulked every time a line was crossed, Nine was becoming thoroughly intoxicated with her elder lover. Yet it’s the crumbling of this relationship and Nine’s mental break from rational behaviour that propels this tale from one of a play of emotions to one of betrayal and blackmail. It’s fantastically wicked, topical and a fun toe dip into the crazy-jilted pool of teenager love/obsession.

Published: 2007

Format: Paperback, 272 pages

Publisher: Razorbill

Source of Review Copy: purchased

Origin: USA

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http://www.ranelsonbooks.com/

Jessica Bendinger - The Seven Rays
Released: November 26, 2009

THAT IS THE ANONYMOUS MESSAGE that Beth Michaels receives right before she starts seeing things. Not just a slept-through my-alarm-clock, late-for-homeroom, haven't had-my-caffeine-fix kind of seeing things. It all starts with some dots, annoying pink dots that pop up on and over her mom and her best friend's face. But then things get out of control and Beth is seeing people's pasts, their fears, their secrets, their desires. The images are coming at Beth in hi-def streaming video and she can't stop it. Everyone thinks she's crazy and she's pretty sure she agrees with them. But crazy doesn't explain the gold envelopes that have started arriving, containing seeing keys and mysterious tarot cards. To Beth, it all seems too weird to be true. You are more than you think you are? But here's the thing: What if she is?

I LOVE Bring It On and Stick It, both written by this lovely lady. It's an interesting premise not populated by supernatural biting beings and will undoubtedly contain much snark and sass, as do her screenplays. It's her first teen publication so I am really excited to see how Beth's predicament unfolds.

Also, a somewhat funny aside, the first time I read the blurb I misread the character's name as Bret Michaels....a completely different book if that were to be!

Elizabeth Scott - The Unwritten Rule
Released: April 6, 2010

Everyone knows the unwritten rule. You don't like your best friend's boyfriend."

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more.

It's an Elizabeth Scott title so it it bound to be excellent: funny, introspective and sympathetic.

Question - How have none of Scott's books been acquired for movie rights?

IMM is brought to us all by Alea and Kristi.

The Piper's Son - Melina Marchetta (Aust. release - March 1 2010)

Melina Marchetta's brilliant, heart-wrenching new novel takes up the story of the group of friends from her best-selling, much-loved book Saving Francesca - only this time it's five years later and Thomas Mackee is the one who needs saving.

Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle's death.

And in a year when everything's broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.

I am so freaking excited and a little guilty. I get to read this baby but I can't say anything about it until next year when it's released. I love the ARC cover but it's likely it will change. Very excited.

Tom was one of my favourite characters in Saving Francesca and this is an awesome way to revisit him, Francesca and the rest five years after the previous story. It's Marchetta's first sequel but it also explores the life of Tom's aunt as well...jealous?

And now I need to resume my NaNo writing so if you'd like to befriend me, this is my profile. Cheers.

It's with sadness that I conclude the magnificence that was Friday Night Lights Week. Persnickety Snark has had many talented writers and bloggers give reasons for you to get your hands on season one. The question is...will you?

People that have dropped by:
Lisa Schroeder
Meg Cabot
Sarah Dessen
Jordyn from Ten Cent Notes
Trish Doller
Kaz Mahoney
Korianne from Korianne Speaks
Elizabeth Scott
Adele - The Characters and Why I Love it?
Felicity
Gayle Forman

If you have discovered the show via this celebration, please blog about the show and leave the link in the comments section. A big thank you to all the contributors and happy watching!

Gayle Forman (Sisters of Sanity, If I Stay) is a vehement Friday Night Light fan and was the first author I thought to contact with this celebration. She is our last columnist and it's a great way to see out a week of FNL love. (Beware there are some indications of where season 4 is heading which spoils content of previous seasons in the fifth paragraph.)

I don’t like sports. I especially don’t like football. It is the most boring of sports. And I don’t particularly like rednecks. And I really don’t like redneck football culture. So, a television show about football players at a Texas high school, on the surface, as appealing to me as oral surgery.

Well bring on the Novocain because Friday Night Lights, the wonderful, incredible, moving, fascinating television show that is ostensibly about a high school football team in a fictional West Texas town, is one of my favorite shows.

Of course, FNL, is about football like America’s Next Top Model is about actual modeling, which is to say, not a lot. In FNL, the football is a backdrop for small-town American life, but not the clichéd version we see play out every time there’s a presidential election. (Also, the show has the best representation of how religion plays out in American life.) It’s also about family. Coach and Tami and Julie are at the center of it, but, at least as of last season, there was the crazy messed up Riggins brothers and Matty Saracen and his loopy grandmother and the Garritys! And Tyra and her messed up mom and stripper sister. And Smash and his mama. None of them caricatures. All of them real. I love them all. Even Tyra who I used to hate.

When I watched the pilot episode of this show, I don’t know what I was thinking or expecting or even why I tuned in, other than I heard enough smart people tell me that this show was amazing and it was free and on the Interwebs. But I’m not sure I breathed that entire hour. It was that good. It has stayed that good, for the most part, for three seasons. There have been missteps, for sure, a couple of lame soap operatic turns in Season 2 that we’re all better off forgetting. And now, the show is doing something truly remarkable: graduating all its seniors and booting them off the show.

We’re heading into Season 4, uncharted waters with Coach Eric at a new school and presumably a whole new batch of rabble rousing kids to kick into shape. I can’t wait to meet them, to see where the show goes next, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to. It’s a bit of a Hail Mary Pass (look at me using football terms, wrongly) that the show is even back; it looked like it was headed for the trash heap of good shows that die (See: Freaks and Geeks). But it was saved through some sort of cost-sharing deal between NBC and DirecTV. But this season, apparently Friday Night Lights is only airing on DirecTV, which I don’t have. I don’t even have cable. I’m hoping I’ll still be able to watch it online because otherwise, this amazing show, which too few people watched because they, like me, probably thought it was a football show and therefore of no interest to them, will be denied of one of the best shows on television. Meanwhile, America’s Next Top Model marches on.

Sigh.

A big thanks to Gayle Forman for taking the time to write about her celluloid love. Hopefully many of you are inspired to track down season one and start watching this weekend. If you are someone who's fallen in love with it, I encourage you to post about it on your own blog and spread the word. Everyone needs FNL in their life.