Shouts From Down Under

Nanowrimo sufferers. Your cure is less than four weeks more.

A question / comment on a Facebook writing group set me thinking, and when that happens it's a good thing because then cogs turn and blog entries return.

Here is the post:

"DO NOT read a Booker prize winner, a Pulitzer winner and a literary classic before starting ‪#‎NaNoWriMo‬.
Every word I write SUCKS."

My thoughts on this:

It may not be your words that lack, but the usability of your underpinning "idea".
Why are you writing? Why THAT idea for a story?
It will have to be sticking up in your mind and life like a lost sewing needle in pile carpet if it'll stand the rigours and distractions of your mind.
Your very being is at question here.
Your story background should be a passion punching bag that compels you to smash your literary fists into its sneering "writer's block" face.
Visit with someone who you detest, (and / or love intensely) and argue the point for a couple hours. Then you'll realise what will drive you to write, and what will fade into the forgetfulness of boring.



Well, maybe I sound like I think I know what I'm talking about. And not everyone feels the same way about writing. I think having an intermittent memory recall makes it necessary that my story ideas hold lots of weight, push me to extend into areas I know nothing about, and create a challenging platform for a character building foundation.

Foundation. There's that word. Biblical. Build on the rock and not on the sand.

1.the basis or groundwork of anything:
the moral foundation of both society and religion.
2.
the natural or prepared ground or base on which some structure rests.
3.
the lowest division of a building, wall, or the like, usually of masonry and partly or wholly below the surface of the ground.
4.
the act of founding, setting up, establishing, etc.:
a policy in effect since the foundation.
5.
the state of being founded

Stableness as opposed to erodible.

Erodible: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/erodible

- to eat into or away; destroy by slow consumption or disintegration

With an older house rejuvenation / reno, the foundation matters. Ours is much worse than we thought. This probably explains why we have had plaster cracks and cracks in the walls growing worse by the year. This has been caused by bad spouting where leaks have happened in isolated spots. This makes the soil wet / damp in one spot and dry in another. The unevenness has put too much pressure on our house footings.

Another cause is external where road building machinery vibrations - rollers - have travelled along from the street, through the concrete paths to the house piers, the trench type, and even further to the back of our property where the clothes line was buried in a slab of concrete, now cracked clean in quarters.

Blame for this damage is impossible to be pointed at anyone, far as I can see. But the house is old, the guttering ill maintained and we haven't spent much money over the 17 years we've lived here. We didn't have it to spend, simple as that.

When house brickwork cracks through the middle of the bricks it means there has been a lot of pressure on that brick.

So, now repairs are vital before we apply new plaster / sheet rock to the interior. My photo album of this renovation is on public view here:

https://www.facebook.com/rod.aylett/media_set?set=a.10153629120423864&type=3&pnr...

I'll be updating this process as time goes on. For now, it appears we have a very expensive repair job on our hands, and we are casting about for an economical and efficient way to set things right. In a word...underpinning.

Here is what I found on Google.

http://www.builderbill-diy-help.com/brick-underpinning.html



So how is it going with Nano? Has your story got the much needed foundation sorted properly? Or are you plastering over cracks in the plot, problems with your theme, gaps in your character building, inconsistencies in your dialogue?

Did you really feel your protagonist should be so perfectly over-paintable? There's a word I've seen lately when we've priced bits and pieces for our reno. You know the stuff. Tools. Pots of this. Cans of that. Sheets of material. Lengths of whatever. Packets of screws. Manhole frame. Paintable...



When you read a book, you know if it's guff painted over to look ok. You just know. The books that make you sit up and READ, those authors who have guts not guff to their foundation theme, reality to their plot, they are the ones you remember.

Sparky