GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Since I'm GenieInABottle   on NaNoWriMo, I decided to name this thread after that nom de plume. Hope the genie comes out and does her thing, because I'm WAY behind - not unanticipated with usual overwhelming schedule and visiting parents and relatives to distract me [happily]; but not to be ignored either.

I am not sure of the genre or the title, but for now, it is:

Novel: Chasing Humans
Genre: Mainstream Fiction

I had started with
Genre: Other;

toyed with Science Fiction as it started with characters un-imaginatively named Blip and Byte and Child and Whiff [wind] …but then a human being showed up on the fourth or fifth day, much to my surprise, with a name, and the surprisng  though slow unfolding of the tale is delightful for me!

I never know who'll come next!

Synopsis:

A shockwave runs across the cyberworld when they learn that humans, having lost confidence in their ability to live with Gaia, are about to leave Earth.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Sounds interesting, Meenakshi.  13,000+ is no small feat with a busy schedule and visitors!  xo

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Oh, those humans. They just show up everywhere, don't they? It does sound like quite the interesting story. Keep at it.

xo

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

A shockwave runs across the cyberworld when they learn that humans, having lost confidence in their ability to live with Gaia, are about to leave Earth.

Sounds like it could be sci-fi or fantasy, Meenakshi, or general fiction, of course. It can be anything you want it to be. Sounds good, in any case. I love those names: Blip and Byte and Child and Whiff [wind] (I think I mentioned that before somewhere?)

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

ooooh…. this sounds good, Meenakshi! Maybe you'll grace us with an excerpt sometime?

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Delight to see wonderful friends here, so supportive, taking time to read and write and …okay, here it is ready or not.
–

I'm surprised as I don't remember writing abt the number of words we need to write fo NNWM - when I'm trying to subside into one word or just silence. Was thinking I needed to write this, and see that I did, at a day I picked randomly tosshare. What surprised me is: that a man came thru [since then, others have to]; that HE felt abt words as I do and….okay, read on:
=========================EXCERPT FROM DAY THREE==================
MEMORIES
If there's anything to be said, it can be said in one word. In one sentence. If you can't say it in one  sentence, it's not right. Or rather, he said, correcting himself, well aware of the irony of what was  happening, you have not yet understood it correctly.

Oof!

There was something about that memory that kept haunting him. A dream that kept coming up, again  and again.
What was he being shown? what did he need to remember?It was impossible for him to  understand. Perhaps he'd get it one day. Like the tip of the tongue phenomenon,  he knew that if he kept focusing on it, it would recede. It was like an aura  actually, better found when unfocused. When the focus was diffuse, 
Softened, expanded.

He found himself using these words again and again. Expanded, specially. He 
knew that Maniri got annoyed with him when he said it; but he had no idea why 
these words came to him. They just seemed to say what he wanted to. Exactly. 
No other word would do.
And sometimes the words were in another language. Or at least, they seemed  to be. They could have been garbled of course. Nonsense words.
NSS.
===

If they hadn't said, don't edit, I probably would have…but onward to Day 12.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Meenakshi!! That's ALL you're giving us? I feel like I've been given a taste of the most exquisite, tantalising delicacy .. and then it's taken away, no more. My mouth a bowl of saliva.

I love love love this. That first paragraph: Or rather, he said, correcting himself, well aware of the irony of what was  happening, you have not yet understood it correctly.

Whine! That's how *I* want to write. Like that.

MORE please. Fingers drumming.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

I think my mouth was open, reading this. Wow!

Just the first paragraph had me hooked. I want to meet this character, get to know him—and at the same time I feel I already do. Your writing is magic, Genie. :)

Looking forward to more…

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Meenakshi, I'm so curious now! Loved reading this. I saw Sandra's and Ruth's comments in my inbox (because group digest doesn't work) and couldn't resist. Glad I came! I LOVE science fiction, btw. Wouldn't mind at all if it took (or has taken?) that direction. Lovely voice, lovely language. I think it's the first time I really meet you as a writer. Looking forward to more. Maybe a longer bit next time?
Just sayin'…  ;)

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Wow–you are all so supportive! I've been mostly offline, so…OK, here's another, different characters this time:

[the paragraphs got all wonky with the copy-paste]
==========EXCERPT==============
THE STARS ARE OUT AT NIGHT

That’s what starseed knew as she hurtled down to earth. She didn’t know she knew this, because she didn’t know night from day till the moment when she entered the atmosphere of earth. For a moment, when she entered, and it was day where she encountered atmosphere for the first time on earth, she looked up to see if her brothers and sisters were following her. They were and beyond them were other starseeds. But not, they were not moving. Stars! That’s what they were. Seemingly fixed in their places. So it was there in her memory but she did not know it.  


Child did not know this till the day she fell into the well. She was running after the dog who ran free in the village, his dog collar belying but not curbing his free status. As he turned the corner, it was the end of the village. The boundary she had been told very firmly not to cross.
Child! She could hear her mother telling her. Be careful. you are never to cross the boundary of the village. Not unless you’re wit me or daddy. It can be dangerous out there. There are wild animals and who knows what else.   But then she saw the dog just within the boundary going to the other side of the village. The part she had never seen, and feeling safe, she ran as fast as little legs could carry her.

The wind ruffled her hair and she felt free, running faster and faster till all around her seemed a blur. She almost stopped then, seeing the wonder of that blur, as if wind had turned to color or form to  liquid. But the dog barked, leading her on, and she followed. And suddenly it was all gone. The blur, the sound, the ground below her feet. That’s what she noticed first.

 Her legs moved, but her feet felt nothing. later she would know that she had fallen down an old disused sewer, not covered by a manhole cover. For now, she could only stay shocked at the sudden change of place; where she had been, but so far away from the villagers who were on the surface. She looked up, squinting at the open hole, and saw something that amazed her. The stars were out and it was still day.

Thank you , she said, her disorientation staying still from turning to sudden fear. and a star fell somewhere out there. A shower of stars, and the child smiled. She had seen the starseeds, and they had called out to her heart. And then suddenly all light was blocked out, and she saw the complete darkness that surrounded her. Fearfully, she looked up again, the dark surrounding her threatening to draw her in. there was a glimmer of light and she saw that it was the dog who had come to the hole, looking for his companion for running. Woof! He asked.

And the child cried. She was scared, and lost and did not know how to get out. She did not even try. Somewhere an old forgotten fear that had been lying in wait, got hold of her heart, and she was sure she would never again be found, never again…a darkness even deeper than the dark of no- light threatened to engulf her. And then her inner knowing shone a light. They were the grays. The ones who could not pass over, could not leave, they must have fallen here too, waiting for a heart alive to take them into its sharan, to play out their lives, and in this moment, when she had almost forgotten again, she did. And when that inner knowing was most asleep, the sound above changed. It had been quiet for a while as the dog had disappeared.

His frenzied barking brought out the Shanti family from their home at the outskirts of the village.

Gaurav saw a thin scared face peering up at him. The hole was not very deep, and he could reach down and draw the chld up. it was really a blur to the child. She did not know how or who, but suddenly she was held in warm arms, felt another heart beating steadily, steadying the pounding of her own heart. for a moment, they breathed together, and she was lost in a daze.

 She forgot once again, the starseeds falling to earth, the voices of the dispossessed that she had accepted and ones that she had not. But she never forgot that hole in the ground, and seeing the stars out in the day.   –  

And seed knew of this as well. Just at the moment the tiny shoot burst open into the light of day, the stars were visible, some hurtling to the ground.  A quick glimpse, a sudden movement of the life force, a call to empathy, and then it was merged quickly into the unknowing.   — 

 The byte of course was the first to have seen this. Just as he swirled around with his one and zero friends, he looked up. and the stars shone brightly. Not the stars seen by seed or child or even starseed. They were stars of cyberspace, glowing mightily in their made up universe, shining in the chaos of the recycle bin.  

And then someone out there hit the Restore button, the byte was back where it had  started. Not the speed of light. It was faster. It was the speed of being there.  

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Meenkashi! You were hiding all this from us? I mean all this time? I mean from the start of Gaia, or have I been missing something? I need to go and read your blogs. I have a kind of shiver. Like when something sneakily good, delicious, excellent, no, more than that, quite brilliant, in fact really very clever, in fact a kind of genius, and more than that,  something brand new and shiny and bright and never seen before. Until now. And I turn the words in my mouth and the sentences and the images and all I can say, is, wow.

(now I know why you call yourself Genie in a Bottle. What I want to know, is who took the stopper out?!)

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

I wonder if this book when it comes out isn't going to usurp (on the bookshelf and in my heart) the place where some of my favourite parable-stories have reigned for decades.

I love it, love it! I feel like I've just discovered a new author, reading and rereading and waiting impatiently for news of her next book.

She was running after the dog who ran free in the village, his dog collar belying but not curbing his free status.

The byte … with his one and zero friends…

The stars … shining in the chaos of the recycle bin.  

And then someone out there hit the Restore button, the byte was back where it had  started. Not the speed of light. It was faster. It was the speed of being there.

Man, I could quote everything. I am hooked.

Thanks for sharing this.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Oh you brought tears to my eyes, dear friends. So generous with your words.

Sandra: “What I want to know, is who took the stopper out?!)”

When I can say it in one sentence, I will….but really, look all around me, look in the mirror also, and you know!

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Today is about skirting that void that came up on the Day 16 thread and writing something that I'd thought of once, while flying. I'd thought that would be  a story in itself, but somehow it's come thru here; let's see. I DID think science fiction!
====================EXCERPTS========

Why do we call them greys, grandma? Child decided to ask his grandma, just to see what she would say? Call what, greys, child? Asked grandma, absent mindedly. But she couldn't fool Ari. He knew immediately that she was fibbing. Hiding something. He felt a growing sense of excitement.
“You know, you know, grandma!” and he hugged her tight.
“Yes I know dear Ari. But how do you…” and she sighed. “Of course,” she muttered under her breath, half laughing at his exuberant embrace, its strength revealing to her the depth of the aloneness he must have felt before he knew that others knew about the greys too.
“We call them greys because…”
“I know! Because we can see everything through them; but everything looks grey!”
She sighed again. But it was a sigh of resignation tinged with relief. She had often wondered which of her grandchildren would know; and in a way, Ari was the best. He'd be able to handle it, especially now that they knew of each other. A little memory nudged at the fringes of her brain. But it disappeared before she could pay attention to it.
She would remember this one day, the memory on this day that she thought Ari was the one grandchild who knew.


————————–

It wasn't really anything special; just a thought, really but until he knew exactly what it was, he would never be satisfied.
“Oh for heaven's sake! Gau-t-a-m!!!” Maniri was exasperated,” can you just get over this and speak to me? Gosh!!!!!”

“I’m trying to think' please don't bother me.” Gautama said. The child who had fallen down the manhole. That's the one who flashed into his mind right now. What was with all these girls who he kept seeing? First the one with the nonsense syllables, and now that little girl he'd rescued when he was - what? - Sixteen? More like fifteen.

He remembered her huge eyes, the pupils dilated in the dark. What had he glimpsed? And for a moment, he was there, Maniri's voice fading in the distance. In that void, the ones he had seen in the moonless night. The night as Maniri called it, of
“…the new moon today,” Maniri was saying.” and i want to do my meditation. Will you join me? Actually no,” with effortless ease, she calmed down. Very still. As if poised on he brink of that void.
……………..
A wave of love swamped him, unexpectedly. Not what he usually felt when he was guilty. It was as if that wave of - wow! He brought himself up short. Yes, he had felt love for the little girl. It had swamped him, so strong it had been. Not like a boy-girl love; but more like just - wow! Just love. What the spiritual people said we should feel. Wow! He had actually felt it for that child, child that he had been as well. If he analyzed it, words like caring and sympathy and even pity and compassion came up.
“But you know what, Maniri, “he said, realizing that he was speaking aloud,” for once I’ve realized that love is just…love. There’s nothing else except that. Sigh!”
And he leaned over to his perplexed wife and squeezed her awkwardly. Not because of how he felt, but because of those “click it or ticket” seatbelts.

He gave himself a shake.
“Maniri, I realize I’m often unfair to you.”
She got very still. It was a moment of amazing insight, amazing clarity, unprecedented in their married life. Not one to shake.
At the red light, he looked at her.
His eyes were like voids - just pupils

And the little girl smiled.
—————THIS IS THE PART I'LL REALLY NEED TO REVIEW AFTER NOVEMBER———-

“You are not going to join that wild crowd. Please Zsi, please don't!”
“Mom, don't control me! I…” and he broke off and when he continued, she knew he'd already left. …”hi!” he said beatifically. At least, his lips smiled and so did his eyes, only they just weren't. His. His eyes or lips. Someone else had come in, and who knew where Zsi had gone.
“Did you flip?” she enquired. “No, we did a tri-way…I’ll be here for a while, I’m Crezo,” and he extended his fingers to touch hers. She touched his absent-mindedly and started. His energy signature was …familiar somehow. She could swear it was not because of Zsi's hands. It was something that was his but still, not fully his. A named stirred at the corner of her brain and then just as Zsi and Crezo and someone else had exchanged bodies, moving at the speed of being there, the memory morphed. It was here, but she was there. Not in the crude way of these youngsters today, but in the more subtle way of the way showers. She was in that time and space, when she had reached out to hold the handle of the ancient airplane, and her tips had touched someone else's. It was instant ignition. They knew if they looked into each other's eyes, they'd be lost. She knew, and she knew he knew, because of the way the fingertips twitched, and the way his aura changed to a deep pink. Not etheric pink, but the one that they had discovered back in the 20th century or perhaps 21st that signaled this special kind of attraction. Red and pink mixed.
Moving sharply away from that memory, she realized that Crezo had the same energy signature. Not same, but…
Similar, right? Yes, you're right, Grini, said Crezo. I'm related to Peets. He was my one-up. My .. Male parent, he corrected himself. She could see he was trying to be polite, to be careful of her earlier embodiment.
You read me very clearly, she mented to him.
Yes that's right, it's because Zsi left behind a pod.
Sst! You're quick! She mented.
Thank you, he replied.

Do you know who is the third one?
Crezo paused. I get that it's…

I'm Segh! Just for a minute, we're

Hi ma! We're playing

Stop it, Zsi! This is crazy! But he had already left.
She fled.
Should she hide him any longer from the COPS? Did they even control any of the prolific shifting that was sweeping the second ones?
 ——————————
[WIth apologies to Ian Gardner whose word I've used - ment –will have to check if it;s the way he defines it]

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

hmmmmmmmm well wow - wow wow wow. I am speechless. Meenakshi I am loving this, and hope you will post some more excerpts when you have the chance. This is beautiful and intriguing, and I want to read more!!

xo

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

There is an almost poetic feel to some of the phrasing, and the little tidbits of pure wisdom that are sprinkled throughout keep me reading, and searching for more clues as to what these characters have to say.  This is great writing, and even though sci-fi or fantasy is not usually my genre, (and I'm therefore unqualified to really have an opinion), what I know that I love about it so far is that it feels authentic and real, and the characters are multi-dimensional.  Thanks for sharing these excerpts.  Will be checking back for more.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Meenakshi,

My dear friend, what a surprise ! ! !  Yet, it's not.  Oh, you are always so solid and with it in this serious, organized way - that it could be missed that you have all this creativity going on inside but I think I had glimpsed it in a subtle way and so, I'm reading and thinking, yes, oh yes, I do believe Meenakshi would put these things together like this.  Oh, how you enrich this community.  It will be a treat to read your finished work some day.

I thought you might find it of interest that my child, my 8 yr old budding Steven Speilberg, was doing a semi-parallel thing as you were writing this.  He was creating a story that was a bit different for him - usually its all monsters and superheroes (his passion) but this one was called Internetic and it is about a person who becomes miniaturized and gets lost in a computer, in the internet and battles computer viruses. 

So, I wondered if the humans leaving Gaia would go into that virtual reality world we think of as real here.

So happy to be sharing this journey with you.

Deb

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Deb, I'm not surprised at your surprise, but I'm delighted to see your comment here. How the writer of words craves a reader who went even deeper into the words that drew her!

yes, your son's book seems to be right in the same world as Chasing Gaia!! I read this earlier and chuckled in delight, and see now that I didn't reply.

To tell you the truth, I was silently savoring your words, la, holding them close to my heart, feeling the warmth that the vulnerability of writing seems to require from time to time; and Nancy, to have you read something that isn't usually your genre, is an honor indeed.

You have all helped me to write as much as I could in these days, and the story is still continuing.

I really don't know if sci-fi is the way to go with this. What always annoys me re sci-fi and visions of the future is how little they seem to reflect the real 'advances' that will take place - not in technology, but in the human psyche.
It's already started. Enough pontificating…back to the story.

==============SHORT EXCERPT FROM TODAY=============[is it still called a Nano excerpt, mods?]



“when you walk, the feet move on the ground, not the hair, yet the hair will go wherever the feet  do. the legs and hips are powering the feet, yet they never touch the ground while walking. the eyes move around, helping the brain to navigate, yet their connection at that moment with mother earth seems tenuous at best.”

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

My novel has a nickname with which I save it. It's Blip. So —

blip dec 4 09

whispers

it was the whispers that got to him. they were not the whispers of his wife during that sweet time  of intimacy or even those of secrets behind closed doors, promising a sudden surprise from the children. These were whispers that grew in intensity with the intensity of his dread, and just kept rising and rising. At first, they seemed to come from a place towards his right, but once he entered that open space, he felt he was in a fishbowl, much as he had felt at first when he got his spectacles with progressive lenses. everything was distorted, and here, with a feeling of terror he realized that those whose whispers he heard, were shouting, screaming, raging just outside the periphery of…of what? where were these people? were they even people? the voices sounded…demonic somehow. how do i even know what a demon is? they sounded even beyond rage. evil.

yes, that was it. the voices were pure evil, and they surrounded him from all sides.

summoning up courage he tried to use the strategy he had used to get over his fear of the dark. for a moment, he faltered. he really thought that fear had gone, those mighty monsters relegated to mythic worlds. but now he wasn't so sure. now he realized he had just kept them at bay, banished them to a space beyond memory, beyond perception, beyond even imagination. but not beyond nightmares.

he was sure now, that this was a nightmare. not real, surely? all he had to do was…but the whispers grew urgent somehow, and he could not remember what he needed to do.

he tried to drown them out, by shutting his ears. strangely, that made them even louder - no, not louder. clearer. and with that sibilance, so did his terror increase to unimaginable levels, till it too drummed in his ears threatening to drown him out.

desperately, he sent out for help, trying to latch on to anything - even, crazily, the source of those voices - anything so that he would not drown, not be sucked into the void that threatened to disintegrate him. it was useless. he was not even aware of the scratches he got from those he had tried to hold on to in his despair. the depth of his own despair was merging into the void; the whispers that threatened were now promises of a life, all the more real for their loudness. now it was the soft ones that terrified him. the ones that showed that he had finally lost the battle. it was too late. he was …he was not…no more..

“No more!”
Maniri woke up to the sound of desperate shouting by Gautam. “Gautama! Wake up! You're having a nightmare! Wake up!”

No; that sound was in his head. There was no one who caleld to him. no one who shook him awake. no bedsheets rumpled in night terror…

they were floating in the breeze, eerily glowing in that space of no sound…
 

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

If I may selfishly ask questions:

Does this seem forced?

“once he entered that open space, he felt he was in a fishbowl, much as he had felt at first when he got his spectacles with progressive lenses.”

Is 'despair' used a bit two much here?
”he was not even aware of the scratches he got from those he had tried to hold on to in his despair. the depth of his own despair was merging into the void; the whispers that threatened were now promises of a life, all the more real for their loudness.”

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Meenakshi, I've not read this yet, but I just wanted to say that to ask questions of commenters is absolutely NOT selfish, in fact quite the opposite. It's very helpful to know what kind of comments an author is seeking! 
back soon.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

oops and I'm back but only to make a light suggestion on the bits you asked questions about – I think this kind of question is great, but maybe for the later 'editing' stage. I'd say if you try to double think at this fine-tuning kind of level while you are writing first draft, you might stymie the flow. (And, there are writers who will not let a sentence out of their hands unless it's perfect.)

I'll be back again!! (think of Arnie)

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Ah, okay, thank  you Sandra. [Hmm–Arnie? I missed something ]

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Loved the excerpt, Meenakshi. I don't quite know what's going on, as by the end it seems that it wasn't a dream at all, but I don't mind not knowing, as I seem to have a deeper sort of understanding going on as I read. I thought of madness, I thought of sanity (that in fact we don't listen to the 'voices' inside ourselves that are actually extremely in tune with the world).. I thought of dreams, and are we dreaming or are we being dreamed, and what is, in fact, reality.
Well, these thoughts were not actually running as I read, but something along those lines, wordlessly. 

As for your questions. (Arnie is Arnold Schwarzenegger who famously said ”I'll be back” in The Terminator. I”m not even sure I've seen the movie) – for now I'll just say, in my subjective opinion, No to the first one and Yes to the second! But again, this kind of thing is easy to take a look at in edit process, especially if you let the work 'mulch' for a while, i.e put it aside for days, weeks, months, years even. I find editing MUCH easier when I'm not so inside the story.

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Sandra, thanks [first, bopping myself on the head that I didn't get that Arnie reference that I use often in my speech!!!] for that feedback; it came thru pretty freefall for me, and was a mix of vision and different realities….yes, that would seem 'crazy' or verging on  madness!

Re: GenieInABottle's NaNo Excerpts

Meenakshi, finally I got to reading the other exerpts you have posted. I very much liked reading them. There is something mysterious and intriguing about this world, I would love to know more details. Lovely descriptions of the Child in the first bit, of her run and how she falls into the pit.

And suddenly it was all gone. The blur, the sound, the ground below her feet. That’s what she noticed first. Her legs moved, but her feet felt nothing. later she would know that she had fallen down an old disused sewer, not covered by a manhole cover.

Just like Child it took me a moment to realize what had happened. Very well done!

And then this bit. And then her inner knowing shone a light. They were the grays. The ones who could not pass over, could not leave, they must have fallen here too, waiting for a heart alive to take them into its sharan, to play out their lives, and in this moment, when she had almost forgotten again, she did.

And then the last paragraph of this exerpt, that one really blew me away.

And then someone out there hit the Restore button, the byte was back where it had  started. Not the speed of light. It was faster. It was the speed of being there. 

The speed of being there, wow. That is amazing. I want to know more about the greys, of course. Then there is the grandmother who realizes one of her grandchildren 'knows' and I want to know what they know, what is going on here. And all the other characters that seem to have special abilities, or knowledge. It gets a bit hard to follow since these are only bits of a much bigger story, but I'm fascinated by the details of what happens here, the whispers in the dark, surreal somehow. Very gripping.

I think you might be in a similar stage as I am, writing bits and pieces of material, loosely connected or maybe even more then loosely. As far as my writing goes, it's not even first draft yet, I see it as the material I collect to become able to write the first draft later, once I know roughly what my story is going to be about and what is happening in a bigger sense.

I found a wonderfully helpful page on the NaNo site yesterday I wanted to tell you about, re your questions about editing. It's “Tips for Rewriting” on the “I wrote a Novel, now what?” page. I agree with Sandra and it gets reinforced by the advice they give there, don't even start thinking about editing details, that comes so much later, it's completely irrelevant at this point. Never mind the repetition of words and the too much or too little of this or that. As long as we collect material or write our first draft it's the creative process that counts, just letting it all come out the way it comes out. I think you're doing great! Listen to this, from the Tips for Rewriting, the bit from Chris Baty (I really love his way of putting things! ;)

“Do not spend a single second making your prose readable until you're absolutely, positively sure that you have your story locked down. This is the single most important bit of advice I have, and I ignore it all the time and have wasted years of my revising life because of it. The impulse to snappy-up dialogue and make sentences eloquent is almost irresistible at every point in the revision process. The sadness comes when we spend six months transforming our first three chapters into Pulitzer-worthy gems, only to realize that none of those chapters will actually end up in our novels because they don't work with the ending. Think of your second draft as a house that you're building. You need to pour the foundation, frame the walls, and get a reasonably waterproof roof over your head before you start to think about putting art up on the walls and installing the basement bowling alley and aviary.”

–Chris Baty is the founder of NaNoWriMo and the author of No Plot? No Problem!