Hiatus

Clarification: This does not mean I am going on vacation in Haiti.

During the month of November, I will be posting my novel daily to this site instead of my normal blog.

For those of you who are wondering: yes, I'm coming out of the closet. Olympe Maxime is none other than my own alter ego under whose name I pass off my secret scribblings.

Ta, and have a good November!

Potter Politics

Saw a banner ad on a writers' help site I was at today that had a picture of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter plastered all over it.

The caption said:

"I learned the hard way that rushing off to fight with faulty intelligence costs lives. That's why I'm supporting John Kerry this November.

For Sirius."

Dear Diary

Nanowrimo plotting and planning has left me plastered to my desk in pulpy pieces because of constant banging of head because of frustration.

• What's an unethical thing a psychiatrist can do, other than breaking confidentiality?
• Why would someone blackmail a psychiatrist? What does the aforementioned loony doctor have (not money) to offer a blackmailing loony?
• How can I ensure that my character, who's charged with 2nd degree murder and is pleading insanity, is out and about during the trial (i.e. isn't being held in prison or a mental facility)?

I transmit, in every mode of communication possible, a cry of help to the universe at large, but when it comes to these questions, even the universe is stumped.

Meanwhile in other areas of life ... wait, let me try and remember what they are...

Really useful information

NaNoWriMo Help

Part 1: Help Wanted
AKA Do It With Me! ;)

Do you see November stretching out in front of you... thirty long and dreary days with nothing to occupy them but the droning hum of your office? Do you wish you had a cool hobby, so that when people ask you "What do you do?" you have an amazing answer like, "I am a novelist"? Do you want bragging rights for life, without having to spend a lifetime working for those rights?

NaNoWriMo is your answer!

Seriously, if you've ever, even fleetingly, just once in your life, thought, "Man, I wish I could write a 50,000 word novel in November 2004!"... this is your chance. Do it with me. I have a feeling we'll need all the help we can get not to fizzle out.

Here are the advantages of writing your dream novel in the next month:

1. It's all about output. Quality doesn't matter one bit. Just get writing, and use these tips to help you reach the magic 50,000.
2. You can cheat! Plot the novel in advance, know what happens in each and every scene... just make sure you don't write a word of the actual novel itself before 12:00:01 a.m., November 1st 2004.
3. You never have to show it to anyone... not even me, even if we're doing it together... but you do get to laugh at my effort!

Sign up here.

Part 2: Help Available
AKA the manna from Holly.

1. Plotting Under Pressure
2. Scene-Writing
3. Editing Without A Heart (Not that anybody's going to need this till November's done, at least.)

Bye, then!

*Hops off to try the plotting tool to locate her story, currently suspected to be wandering in the desert.*

Has anyone seen my plot?

NaNoWriMo is up and I've been trying to get the bits of my story together, like ingredients collected nicely in separate cups in those cooking shows on TV, so I can start combining them smoothly and elegantly (I wish!) come November.

And as if my penchant for writing sentences like the above isn't enough trouble, I have now lost my plot, which is spiralling skyhigh in an exuberant display of pointlessness. I hate pointless plots. Pointless plots need eye-poppingly magical characters, which need inspiration of the highest order, which needs mountains and lakes for a view instead of brownstone buildings and streets filled with impersonal cars.

What's more, my exams are in the first week of December. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

I am now seriously considering picking up a piece of fan fiction that I had planned to shelve for the time being and writing that instead of an original novel. It has the huge plus of being beautifully plotted (by me) and filled with eye-poppingly magical characters (property of Joanne Rowling). All those in favour, say aye.

Easier said then done (but I'll try anyway)

What is the source of listlessness, but feebleness of the mind? What giveth it power but the want of reason? Rouse thyself to the combat, and she quitteth the field before thou strikest.

- Akhenaton

PS: Sorry about the long break. This blog will be back soon.

Happy B, Ani B!

Many happy returns to that tormentingly witty, stunningly evil and ironically adorable freak of nature who was born 20 years ago this day.

(PS: That's AniBunny I'm talking about.)

Cornered - in the great open sea

Some beach vacation.

This photo is for real. It hasn't been digitally enhanced in any way. It's National Geographic's Photo of the Year. Or so my e-mail said.

'Bush the Fool'

Naveen asks me to explain, having been in America for a month now, why Bush is supported by an overwhelming majority.

Well. The short answer to that is that Bush isn't supported by an overwhelming majority. A sliver is more like it. But that also means the support is there, and there are actually some good reasons why.

One (and this is the biggest reason): Bush's campaign line against his opponent ('Kerry the flip-flopper') is working exceedingly well. This is partly due to sheer marketing, but there's some truth to it and Kerry isn't helping. Kerry's congressional voting record isn't at all consistent... but I haven't seen any others', so maybe it's really very typical.

But there was no excuse for the first Presidential Debate two days ago. Bush was clearly standing for something that night, and it was something he'd always stood for, whereas the best that Kerry could manage was - I kind of agree with Bush, but I kind of don't.

For example, on Iraq, Kerry didn't have anything different to offer as a solution now, all he did was fault Bush on going to war 'without a plan to win the peace'. He made the situation worse by contradicting himself on every turn: he wants to 'reallocate' some of the 'overinflated' defence budget to schools, healthcare and social security, but he complained how the troops in Iraq don't have good equipment and by gum, he was going to remedy that! 'Iraq was a threat' and 'Saddam Hussein needed to be dealt with with force' but 'Iraq is not the focus of the war on terror, Afghanistan is', implying strongly that going into Iraq was a bad idea.

Bush is, of course, helped by the fact that he's had four years to create a personal brand... everyone already knows what he stands for. But it makes his 'flip flopper' line doubly effective when Kerry does flip-flop.

Two: Economic sense. Kerry doesn't have a plan for the economy. It's as simple as that. Kerry wants to cut the taxes for the middle class (who shoulder the largest chunk of the tax burden), and spend more on everything from defence to fighting drugs (a Republican track if there ever was one) to housing. This doesn't make sense at all. And cutting outsourcing? It would be safe to say that the middle class, Kerry's major support group, knows that (a) it would only hurt the economy and (b) it won't happen anyway.

Three: Overall Plan. Kerry right now stands against Bush, and that's about it. Bush, on the other hand, has his own original agenda. Who sounds like he's doing more work? And both parties are pretty centrist now anyway, so the major advantage that you would expect to have with a Democratic victory - personal freedom, stem cell research, access to marijuana - are not there. Kerry's only selling point is that he isn't Bush.

It isn't that Bush's supporters and apologists don't see what a schmuck he is... it's just that even he manages to outclass Kerry.