Writing Blog Number 2

20241111 - NaNo-11

NaNoWriMo #11

Day 11.

Had some jobs to do this morning… which took a lot longer than I had hoped they would take… As such, I didn’t get down to writing until just before lunch (had a Remembrance Day thing to go to).

Then I wrote, and the fairy story went into a tense section. The step-uncle tried to cut down the tree that was the entrance of the fairy sidhe, the narrator/kid (yes, 1st person PoV) tried to stop him and his chainsaw, and then they were both drawn into the sidhe.

Then the kid left, leaving the fairies to decide his fate and went to be with his aunt. 3916 words.

Doesn’t seem like much, I know, but it was a lot of writing. I really tried to up the emotion in the tale, to get the kid terrified, and make the step-uncle menacing, while the fairies remain mysterious. However, I had to stop there. Not because I ran out of time, as I had many writing hours left, but because I have no idea how to finish it. What are the fairies going to do to the step-uncle? Will the kid be involved? If so, how? I have a couple of ideas:
         he escapes the sidhe but has aged and withered;
                   he dies in the sidhe;
                             there can be no death in the sidhe, so he has an eternity of torment;
                                       he comes out with his mind gone.
I don’t like any of them, not really, to be honest.

So… I let my brain have fun and wrote a quick-fire 273 word poem about the “news” on Facebook. I might submit it to the local paper or read it on the radio (got to get it approved; I abuse Musk and Trump in it). It’s a weird little poem, rhyming, AABBCC etc rhyme scheme, 11-13 syllable rhythm, repeated ending refrain with a twist in the last (fourth) stanza… Exactly the sot of poetry modern poets and poetry critics (including here on WdC) hate.

So, how do I write a poem like this? I have an idea – in this case that Facebook is rubbish, after a woman in Sydney created a panic by being an absolute numpty – and then I write lines that relate to it, focusing on the rhyme first and foremost. I go through it a couple of times to make sure it makes sense and as few of the rhymes as possible are forced.

Next, I go through and add or subtract syllables to give it a more constant rhythm, based on the average length of line I already have. So, in this case, the shortest line was 8 syllables and the longest was 14; turning that into 12 ±1 to give a more constant rhythm.

Finally, I go through to make sure that the emphasis and breathing fits and is as consistent as I can get it. I am not a strict iambic pentameter sort of writer – I’m not that good (not good at all, really) – but it does need to sound right when I read it out loud. So, a good 2 hours and 273 words later… I poemed!

And, for what it’s worth, the cryptid story seems to have woken up and is stirring in the back of my mind. I have seen the ending, I think, now I have to get there… I’ll finish the fairy story tomorrow and then ignore the demon woman story and hit the cryptid story and let that go without any other story distractions. I have a feeling that while the others were fine working in concert with others, the cryptid story, because of the intensity of the scenes and the deaths, needs to be on its own. I have encountered that before, and am trusting my instincts in this one.

Finish the fairy story tomorrow (I hope!) and then rest and the next day (Wednesday) tackle the cryptid tale.

The demon woman story can hang around in the background for a while yet.

So: 4189 words today
Total words: 60248