Day 15 of NaNoWriMo

The halfway point. Day 15. I should have at the very least 25,000 words accumulated. But as of this morning I have only 17,950 words written for my November novel. Almost 8,000 words in arrears. Good Grief! Only 770 words by the end of last night, Day 15.

It's posted at:

http://www.genechambers.com/day-15.htm

. . .

I read an article in which scientists are proposing a one-way trip to Mars. Yep. As unbelievable as such a proposal would seem, it's true. You can read the article for yourself.

Here is the link: Click here.

. . .

The Poetry Collection website has some poems written by Marianne Moore. You might like them.

Marianne Moore (1887 - 1972)

(or you might not like them)

Here is an example:

The Past Is The Present
Written by Marianne Moore

If external action is effete
and rhyme is outmoded,
I shall revert to you,
Habakkuk, as when in a Bible class
the teacher was speaking of unrhymed verse
He said - and I think I repeat his exact words -
"Hebrew poetry is prose
with a sort of heightened consciousness." Ecstasy affords
the occasion and expediency determines the form.

I have read all the poems presented on the above-linked web page and I do not understand any of them. The subjects and objects Marianne Moore writes about somehow fail to come to life in my imagination upon reading her words. The poems, in my opinion, are indecipherable... but still I read the words, mystified and yet strangely captivated.

Go figure.

. . .

I haven't heard (read) anything from my friend Anthony for the last few days. Hope he's okay.

. . .

Language Log is one of my favorite blogs, it being produced by Geoffrey Pullum and a few other knowledgeable linguists. In today's entry I read some interesting thoughts filed under Prescriptivist Poppycock, an article regarding books that give advice for writers. Below is the first paragraph:

"The problem with people who want to impose their linguistic tastes on others," says David Crystal, "is that they never do so consistently." I'm not so sure I agree that's the problem. Consistency isn't quite enough to excuse grammar fascism. I'd say the problem with people who want to impose their linguistic tastes on others by writing books on how to write is that they are so bad at it: though often they are good enough at writing (I have never said that E. B. White or George Orwell couldn't write), they actually don't know how they do what they do, and they are clueless about the grammar of the language in which they do it, and they offer recommendations on how you should write that are unfollowed, unfollowable, or utterly insane."

Professor Pullum rarely pulls his punches.

Maybe that's why I like his articles so much.

. . .

This NaNoWriMo thing seems to be having an unexpectedly positive effect on me. Even though I have lagged seriously behind in my word count, I have a good feeling about the end product, that being a full length novel when I finish, on time or not, for which I can then revise (and tinker, tinker, tinker with) to my heart's content. Most of the scenes I've written have potential. They will have to be connected together and additional scenes will have to be produced to enhance them.

Anyway, I think it will be beneficial to my eventual sense of well-being at that time when I finish the first draft of my novel.

What do I have to lose?

__________

"Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads."
--Marianne Moore