{"id":4707,"date":"2009-12-01T19:56:21","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T00:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2009-12-01T19:56:21","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T00:56:21","slug":"no-no-nanowrimo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/no-no-nanowrimo","title":{"rendered":"No-No NaNoWriMo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, National Novel Writing Month<\/a> is over, and I was a near-total failure. I managed to write a mere 2,600 words, only about 5% of the goal of 50,000 words. But I’m happy! Those 2,600 words are the most I’ve managed to write \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as fiction, I mean \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in 15 years. More to the point, I managed to make an incredibly obvious insight that seemed profound at the time!<\/p>\n

I finally let my anecdotes become stories. That is, I took several of the oddball experiences I’ve had and let them breathe, let them belong to someone else. Where I once took pains to ground my anecdotes in utter veracity and my voice, I discovered I could let them out to play in fiction’s wonderland. Actions and reactions don’t have to be my<\/em> actions and reactions. If something funnier could have \u00e2\u20ac\u201d should have \u00e2\u20ac\u201d happened, then maybe this time it will.<\/p>\n

It turned out that I’d never given myself permission to ask, “What if this happened instead of that?”<\/p>\n

Still, that breakthrough didn’t take me far enough. I let other things distract me, and still need to find the time and discipline to work on this stuff.<\/p>\n

But I felt pretty good when I got started, so I’m going to try to get back to it, now that the dogs are asleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, National Novel Writing Month is over, and I was a near-total failure. I managed to write a mere 2,600 words, only about 5% of the goal of 50,000 words. But I’m happy! Those 2,600 words are the most I’ve managed to write \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as fiction, I mean \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in 15 years. More to the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “No-No NaNoWriMo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-f-you-you-whining-f"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1dV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4295,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/f-you-you-whining-f-dont-look-back-edition","url_meta":{"origin":4707,"position":0},"title":"F*** You, You Whining F***: Don’t Look Back edition","author":"Gil","date":"August 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, CIA Director Leon Panetta pulls a Mark McGwire and asks Congress to stop looking into the CIA's role in running secret torture prisons and planning political assassinations: I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "F*** You, You Whining F***"","block_context":{"text":"F*** You, You Whining F***","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/f-you-you-whining-f"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6027,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/you-could-do-this-or-you-could-do-that","url_meta":{"origin":4707,"position":1},"title":"You could do this, or you could do that","author":"Gil","date":"June 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'd like to write about this month: TCAF 2011 \/ Toronto writeup, with all sorts of great comics-anecdotes Visit to Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Met (with side trip down to the Frick) TCAF 2010 writeup (boy, did I let that one slide) Commentary on The Leopard and The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2411,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-back-next-week","url_meta":{"origin":4707,"position":2},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Back Next Week","author":"Gil","date":"September 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was too busy\/addled this weekend to write my Monday Morning Montaigne post, dear readers. But I did finish the Apology for Raymond Sebond, and have (what I think) are some neat observations about it. I was gratified to see that M. loosened up a bit more in this last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1856,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cheap-novelties","url_meta":{"origin":4707,"position":3},"title":"Cheap Novelties","author":"Gil","date":"January 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sure, Bobby Fischer's death got all the press, what with the worldwide reactions and reminiscences of his chess-playing genius, his uncomfortable relationship with celebrity, and his later hatred of Jews. But let's also take time to mourn Richard Knerr. I'd never heard of Mr. Knerr till I opened the NYTimes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2476,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/market-timing","url_meta":{"origin":4707,"position":4},"title":"Market timing","author":"Gil","date":"September 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Two anecdotes that help me make sense (of humor) out of the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy, the Merrill Lynch buyout, the Fannie\/Freddie seizure, Bear Stearns debacle and all else: 1. Around 1991, I walked into a local-ish comic store, as is my wont. As I was checking out, I noticed that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16861,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-592-swan-huntley","url_meta":{"origin":4707,"position":5},"title":"Episode 592 – Swan Huntley","author":"Gil","date":"June 20, 2024","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 592: Swan Huntley \"I write all my books in first person because I'm very interested in denial, the space between what the character knows and what the reader knows about them.\" Author & illustrator Swan Huntley joins the show to celebrate her two new books, I WANT\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/huntleycomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C548&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/huntleycomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C548&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/huntleycomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C548&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/huntleycomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C548&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/huntleycomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C548&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}