Fantasy Bonnet Novel Redeemed by Characterization

Dragons of the Valley was my first encounter with Paul's writings.  At first glance, the novel reads like something that was published because based solely on the God-like deity without demanding any other merit.  But, after 120 pages of the book, I realized there is more to the novel than just this God-like creation named Wulder.

Yes, the book is difficult to understand if you have no background in the series.  The land is never described beyond mere basics, the people are given little (if any, in many cases) physical description and the plot builds so heavily on the prior books that the new reader easily looses interest.  In these respects, the argument can easily be raised that this book was published because of its God character, and therefore does not meet the standards other pieces of literature are measured by.

I take issue with that view of standards for literature, but that's a lesson for another time.

To get back to the book, the dedicated reader can find gems underneath the bonnet-novel façade.  The most interesting and rewarding part of the book, in my humble opinion, was the various personalities of Paul's characters and their consistency throughout their actions, words and innermost thoughts.  Some of the characters are likable strictly because of their personalities, such as the kimen.  Tipper's personality, for the most part, is quite in line with a young woman of her particular background. 

All in all, the book has no practical appeal to audiences who either A) aren't Christian or B) aren't familiar with the rest of the series.  However, to the audiences familiar with the subject, Paul's Dragons of the Valley holds some reward as a descent demonstration of consistent and believable characterization.

**Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

Day - Wait, the month is over?

So, apparently it's December now.

Where did the month go?

If you're curious, yes, I did write 50,000 words in one month.  Though, the last 15000 were nonsensical dream-sequence.  I'm in the process now of rewriting that bit.  My goal is to accomplish another 50,000 words before the end of January.  Another 50,000 words by the end of March and I will have a 330 some odd page novel on my hands.

What will I do with such power?

Of course, all of this is assuming I make it out of final exam week alive.  It's looking pretty sketchy at the moment.

Day Seven - Getting there (maybe?)

Well, I am now set to finish my 50000 words on Nov 28.  The is way better than December 5 and all that other nonsense the NaNoWriMo site was telling me a few days ago. 

This story is exhausting, and I just realized today that once I finish this next bit (about 4000 words) I have no idea where I am going with it.   If this whole project turns out doomed to failure, I will be one very unhappy camper.

On the other hand, I am working on crocheting my first teddy bear.  I'm thinking that once I'm finished with NaNoWriMo, I'll just spend all my money buying yarn, stuffing and buttons, because the bears are terribly cute.  I have the burning desire to make one two of my friends, each who has had a baby in the past year, as a Christmas present for the baby.  Maybe a pink and purple one for little Gracelyn Rae and a blue and green one for little Levi James. 

How precious would that be?

Once NaNoWriMo is over, I will start uploading pictures and videos to document my progress.  If you want to know how to make a bear before then - let me know, I will see what I can do.

Day Six - Getting Ahead

So, my goal this weekend is to get to 15000 words by Sunday night.  That would place me ahead by two days (Sunday night's NaNoWriMo goal is 11668 words).  I have 5000 words to write to accomplish this, but at least I'm not behind right now. 

It may be worth mentioning right now that NaNoWriMo changed the stats displayed on the Writer's Stats part of each user's page.  Whereas it used to display the target goal for the day and the number of words the writer had left until they achieved it, it now displays an "At this rate you will finish on" and the suggested word count does not change as the number of words you write goes over the required amount for the day.

I don't like the changes.  I liked the feeling of pride that came with watching my recommended word goal for the day shrink.  It made me feel accomplished - like I was actually doing something.  Now it just says that I'm not going to finish in  November (Current "At this rate you will finish on" is December 01). 

Pretty much what I'm saying is I would like the NaNoWriMo site designers to put it back so that I feel better about NaNoWriMo.

Is that too much to ask?

Or is the 5000 words in the next 25 hours and 20 minutes a more outrageous goal?

We shall see.

Day Five - Dec 5th? Really?

According to the NaNoWriMo site, I'm not going to reach the 50,000 word mark until December 5.  Well that's just mean.  I mean, I got all caught up last night - actually, I got ahead by 200 words.  Why will I not finish on time?  So cruel...

Anyway, I'm at about 7600 words.  My goal is to get 15000 words done by the end of the weekend so that I can be 3332 words ahead (so ahead by about 2 days of work).  A girl can hope, can't she?

On top of my 15000 word goal, I have a whole host of other things to accomplish this weekend:

• History of the English Language Test on Middle English
• Advanced World Literature E-mail reaction to the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (about 2-3 pages)
• Advanced Expository Writing paper on culture in the controversy and banning of HuckFinn edits
• Attend the guest speaker for ROTC (of course, the guest speaker is Mom, so that's cool...)

I'll get it all done.  Somehow.  Maybe I just won't sleep this weekend.  

Anyway, about NaNoWriMo:

The excitement is wearing off.  NaNoWriMo isn't novel anymore (Yay - bad puns).  It's losing its charm with each ounce of my spirit it drains painfully through my fingers.

This day has been particularly hard, because I'm trying to describe the way a spaceship would look that is fifty years advanced from where we are now through the eyes of someone who sees it as a piece of antiquated junk.   What was I thinking when I picked this idea as my NaNoWriMo idea?

But I wrote a total of over 3300 words yesterday.  If I can do that, I can clearly finish up my 1667 for today.

Wish me luck.

Day Four -3300 words behind schedule

I'm famous for taking on more than I can handle.  For example, I took on the 100 Poems challenge back in 2007.  I am still trying to break into double digits in that competition and it's now 2010.  But I clearly do not learn from past mistakes.

So, I am doing NaNaWriMo.

For those of you who do not know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month.  You write 50,000 words, or one novel, in one month.  That averages out to 5000 words every three days. 

The difficulty associated with NANOWRMO is not a lack of ideas.  There are always sites like the Seventh Sanctum Idea Generator that can help with that.  The difficulty is getting the words down on paper.

The finishing prize is pretty mundane for the immensity of the task: winners (people who finish the 50,000 words by Nov. 30 at midnight) get an official "Winner" web badge and a PDF Winner's Certificate.  However, the true prize is getting the novel written.

Right now, I am behind by 3300 words because I had to write a seven to eight page paper on the censorship and controversy around The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Full Web Text) last night.  Yes, I did write a seven page paper in 2 1/2 hours.  Yes, I am regretting the sleep sacrifice I had to make to accomplish this. 

If it wasn't for my senior year's required coursework, I would definitely be ahead on the word count right now.  But as I do have required coursework, I am behind.

Hopefully I'll catch up.  I have two fellow English ladies doing it with me, one of whom is a fellow undergrad and the other a postgrad.  We are trying to keep each other encouraged.

Therein lies the beauty of NaNoWriMo:

"For one month out of the year, we can stew and storm, and make a huge mess of our apartments and drink lots of coffee at odd hours. And we can do all of these things loudly, in front of people. As satisfying as it is to reach deep within yourself and pull out an unexpectedly passable work of art, it is equally (if not more) satisfying to be able to dramatize the process at social gatherings." (Why are you doing this? - NaNoWriMo FAQ)

So I'll give NaNoWriMo a shot, and keep updating about every painful, mind-numbing, strength-sapping day of it.




If you have questions about the NaNoWriMo Challenge, check out their FAQ.

If you feel like following my progress, you can find me here on the NANOWRMO site.

If you're curious about the 100 Poems project, my deviantART journal detailing the challenge and listing my (limited) progress can be found here.