Dear Fiend: The Letters of Stoves & Yumyum


Editor’s Note: Tasty Yumyum has checked in with his day one NaNoWriMo progress. Don’t worry: we aren’t going to be posting every single word we all write. Some days, no doubt, we’ll have nothing to share but a brief excerpt—and other days nothing worth sharing at all. But everyone loves a good intro, and this Editor’s Note sets the stage for Tasty’s new project: Dear Fiend: The Letters of Stoves & Yumyum. Later today, we’ll also be bringing you the inaugural installment in this epistolary anthology. Continue reading “Dear Fiend: The Letters of Stoves & Yumyum”

Artistic Differences (a last-minute warmup)

This past weekend I found myself eager to get started, even though NaNoWriMo hadn’t begun. Then I realized it might be a good idea to warm up a little anyway, so I set out to write a short story.

When the concept for Artistic Differences came to me, I knew I had to see it through—but I also knew it was in danger of becoming cheesy and gimmicky. I tried with all my writer’s might to stop this from happening, and I’m fairly sure I succeeded.

It was a good exercise because it alerted me to a habit I need to break during NaNoWriMo: labouring over every piece of prose. Read on and enjoy!

Continue reading “Artistic Differences (a last-minute warmup)”

Recap at the Outset

And so it has begun! NaNoWriMo 2010 is already twelve hours in, and I know more than a few people got started at the stroke of midnight. It’s going to be an interesting month.

There’s been a lot going on here at Stranger Than Truth in the past couple weeks, with our writing team ballooning to nearly a dozen—plus injuries, rivalries and more. So I thought now would be a good time to give a quick recap, in case you’ve missed any of the drama or the great short fiction that we’ve been posting in its wake. Read on and familiarize yourself with the incomparable team that is Stranger Than Truth.
Continue reading “Recap at the Outset”

Getting ready to go!

I just wanted to write a quick note to say I’m anxious to get started. The ideas are flowing pretty fast and furious, and I’ve already caught myself a few times jotting down a few interesting turns of phrase that I don’t want to lose between now and the First of November. Seventeen hundred words a day every day is quite a mountain to climb, so I’m going to approach it differently: A chapter a day, every day. Maybe that chapter’s a thousand words or maybe it’s three thousand. As long as I hit 50,000 in thirty days, I’ll be happy.

I strongly suspect my first two days are going to be my first and last chapters, so the book will definitely have a conclusion in place by the end of the month. The nice thing about my concept is that the plot will be episodic, so from Day Two to Day Thirty, all I’m doing is building better content based upon what I actually want to write each day, rather than worrying about where I need to be plot-wise in order to complete everything on time. Continue reading “Getting ready to go!”

“Choo-Choo to Broadway… Don’t get icky with the 1,2,3… Life is just so fine.”

I am a novel-writing neophyte. Although, i have lost a non-novel writing contest before. 

Well! i have a tentative course:

A boy reclines at the base of a tree, upon the high bank of a river, ruminating within a sunlit reverie, an idyll suggestive of Huck Finn’s liberty. 

“That which cannot be spoken of must be passed over in silence.” The Boy, unaccompanied on the river-bank, finds—just as Wittgenstein—there is much which must be passed over in silence. (A mode of paresthesic dream-white translucency envisaged by a Boy prostrated in stupor.)

Uncertain how the idiom will be perceived I have decided to site some context which hopefully facilitates justification: Continue reading ““Choo-Choo to Broadway… Don’t get icky with the 1,2,3… Life is just so fine.””

My Narcissism Reaching a Whole New Level of Shit

November 1st is fast upon us, and there is one thing which I am particularly afraid of.

I love myself far too much to be a good writer.

Ok, so I may have been cheating on NaNoWriMo just a teensy bit. I have indeed written a little—but it is handwritten, very rough, and not more than a few typed pages at this point. Ian, snake in the grass that he is, took a glimpse at my first page and reamed me out for starting with the word “twilight.” So not even my first word is acceptable at this point. Thus, my disclaimer and excuses for why I am not really cheating.

But I have written a bit. And I am shocked and appalled to say, that all of the characters are so far just twisted versions of myself. I’ve got the older gay gentleman version of Liz, the younger gay gentleman version of Liz, Liz as a lesbian, Liz as a crazy lesbian, Liz as her sexy dream man, Liz as a tattooed bartender, Liz as a fucking refrigerator waking you up in the middle of the night. Continue reading “My Narcissism Reaching a Whole New Level of Shit”

Outlining


Outlining. It’s supposed to be amazingly helpful, it’s supposed to help you actually write the novel (in a month or not)… and I’ve never actually done it. At all, for any story, including my win last year. But this year, I’ve finally actually buckled down to Snowflake my novel.

Sort of.

I’m definitely really liking the idea behind Snowflaking my novel, but I really don’t like the idea of actually sitting down and planning it out, scene by scene. That seems a bit too much like micromanaging, to me, haha.

I have, however, written almost 9000 words already on my novel – without writing a single word of prose. I’m expecting to hit almost 15 000 words of research/notes/planning/outlining before November 1st. Most of this planning can be found at my personal blog, though admittedly most of that is older thoughts, and half of that has changed.

Do you prefer to outline, or just fly by the seat of your pants? If you outline, what method do you use? Have you ever Snowflaked?

Injury Crisis!

I’ll keep this quick because I don’t want to hamper my recovery. Friday night my iPhone Challenge was thrown into peril after i fell off my bike and sprained my hand. I can type on my phone still but certainly not to the extent that NaNo requires. Hopefully between now and Monday It will heal, if not the iPhone Challenge will be over before it started.

Our benevolent editor is using his considerable influence and clout to summon the finest hand and wrist doctors in the world from UCLA and the University of Washington Medical School (yes, I’ve researched this) to assess the situation. (Editor’s Note: I only told Ian this to make him stop crying.)

Will I recover in time? Is the iPhone Challenge over before it started? Will I become the Kirk Gibson of NaNoWriMo?

Stoves, from the Sky


Greetings constant reader, Stoves here. Woke up this morning with a ghastly jellied feeling behind the eyes & a dwarf in my parlor! Had her dismissed by the help and then helped myself to a little brandy breakfast. Hell of a good time at the Pink Oarsman last night disposing of what little money my driver was able to loan me. Can you believe the cost of a lapdance these days? Inflation was a problem in more ways than one!

The condominium is in terrible disrepair. Trying like hell to recall who I gave the keys to before being dragged off to the pokey, although judging by the graffito on the walls and furniture they didn’t harbor a great deal of appreciation for the gesture. How the mail has piled up! Most of it unreadable documents in legalese, however none more illegible than the inappropriately large number of taunts and jibes, mostly in the form of postcards, from our ‘dear fellow’ Tasty Yumyum. I will not attempt to describe the flowery prose with which the most depraved and unholy scenarios of his demented fancy were communicated. Suffice it to say that the nude photos of my ex-wife enclosed in several of them were quite fetching—I had only to tear his image from them to make them of some use, or else scratch his face from the emulsion with a dirty fork, which was in itself gratifying. Continue reading “Stoves, from the Sky”

A Normal Day

Editor’s Note: Though we firmly believe fiction is Stranger Than Truth, we never said there aren’t some pretty badass truths out there—like a day in the life of contributor Tim Dallimore, who lives and works in the Yukon.

I like to eat pop tarts in the morning. A few months ago I decided I was going to go all caveman on everyone’s ass, and part of that meant not ever making myself good meals. Also it included not shaving ever or cutting my hair. Anyway, I woke up and tossed a couple of pop tarts into the toaster. Then I ate a bagel with cream cheese and a bowl of fruit loops. Enough about breakfast. I eat a lot. Mostly garbage. Then me and Tom got into the burb (the Suburban truck). We drove it to the other dudes’ houses and picked them up. We all got coffee and juice from the Gas station. Then I went to Shannon’s house to get my Shan-wich.

We all went to the compound. I got my shit ready in the gear shed. That means I cut a bunch of pieces of wire and sharpened my axe. My axe needs to be sharp enough to skin a bear. I walked back into the office at the compound and got my map. It shows me where the mountains will be during my day. We drove out to the chopper pad, which happens to be pretty far away these days. So there are the five of us, driving down the Yukon highway listening to Rammstien. I usually like to listen to the Batman theme by Danny Elfman to get pumped, but I guess today was a day for Rammstien. Finally we reached the helipad. We had to roll a bunch of Jet “B” fuel out of the truck and get it ready for the chopper if he wanted to fuel up. I spent my time waiting for the chopper saying things in a British accent.

Continue reading “A Normal Day”