Good morning, everyone and welcome to Tedorigawa for August 7, 2007 and my new brainstorm.
Ocassionally incredibly illegibly hand-written by George Stenson using pen, pencil, doodles, art, notes, and re-writes, Dancing On the Arc of A Dream is the first hand-bound, hand-written, first-draft novel written since 1450: the first and only draft of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream.
Here's the plot so far: Two men and one woman borrow money from the wrong people to open a greasy spoon coffee shop. They discover to their horror that they are in over their heads and have to beg, borrow, steal or print lots of money real fast. Murder, revenge, back-stabbings, double-dealings, drugs, rock and roll, and a woman known only as The Suit. Wish me luck.
Photos of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream are here: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream!
Dancing On the Arc of A Dream
I stumbled upon a great idea at Plotastic.com via The Writing Show with Paula B. (on iTunes, of course, where else?). Seems Mark Putnam, creator/editor of Plotastic, wanted to write a novel but couldn't concentrate on any of his many ideas. He created Plotastic.com and a survey wherein people could vote on main character, plot points, motivation, etc cetera for Mark's novel, which he would write given the parameters of the survey. He is hard at work and as of today has about 35,000 words of his projected 100,000-word novel.Dancing On the Arc of A Dream
Bear with me here; I'm getting to the point. Mark inserted a link to NanoWrimo on his website. NanoWrimo is National Novel Writing Month which is held each November. Your goal in NanoWrimo, should you decide to accept the challenge - and what writer can't? - is Simply? to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. I have dragged my carcass through NanoWrimo for the last three years and have reached the goal of 50,000 words each year. (Yeah, me!) Meaning, in my case, two completed novels (Calvado and Tristram's Printer) and one incomplete novel (Caraculiambro) but still over 50,000 words.Dancing On the Arc of A Dream
Now, what does NanoWrimo, Mark Putnam's Plotastic, and me have to do with this great new novel writing idea I have? Read on, MacDuff, there's more. I also enjoy hand bookbinding. I'm a very, very beginner but enjoy it. Here is a link to one of my books on Flickr, if you're dying to see what a handbound book by me looks like.Dancing On the Arc of A Dream
Get to the Point! I hear the one person who is reading this blog scream. Okay. Let's see what we can add up: bookbinding, NanoWrimo, me, Plotastic. What do you get? Me, handwriting a novel in one of my handbound books before the year is out.Dancing On the Arc of A Dream
I've already bound the book and I've already started scribbling. I'm eschewing computers and anything more high-tech than a ball-point pen. I'm writing it without a net (no outline), and I'm editing it as I write In the Book! First draft is the last, all editing marks, crossouts, misspellings, doodles, and other aids to procrastination included.Dancing On the Arc of A Dream
I have a title but no plot ... But! the plot is forming as I write! Talk about organic (see The Writing Show episode for July 29, 2007 with Anthony G. Williams "Scales" for more on organic.) And what is the title? Look: Dancing On the Arc of A Dream!Ocassionally incredibly illegibly hand-written by George Stenson using pen, pencil, doodles, art, notes, and re-writes, Dancing On the Arc of A Dream is the first hand-bound, hand-written, first-draft novel written since 1450: the first and only draft of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream.
Here's the plot so far: Two men and one woman borrow money from the wrong people to open a greasy spoon coffee shop. They discover to their horror that they are in over their heads and have to beg, borrow, steal or print lots of money real fast. Murder, revenge, back-stabbings, double-dealings, drugs, rock and roll, and a woman known only as The Suit. Wish me luck.
Photos of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream are here: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream!
