secrets in the sea
You may whisper your secrets to the sea
And the sea will keep them for you
Cover them with crashing waves
Carry them out on retreating tides
Pull them under
Tuck them into coral-adorned recesses and between the curves of seashells.
The sea will hold your secrets in its depths
And if you need them back, you need only ask
They will be returned to you
Damp and salt-kissed and safe.
About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.
I probably don’t have to tell you all that November is National Novel Writing Month.
And you probably already know that The Night Circus started life as a tangent in a NaNoWriMo novel and was then further developed through subsequent NaNo-ing. (It very likely played a part in the circus itself being autumnal, since I was always writing in November. Also, autumn is my favorite.)
But unless you follow me on Twitter you may not know that this year I’m participating again, for the first time since 2009.
I am cheating. Oh wait, no, I am a “NaNo Rebel” which is a nicer word for cheater. One is supposed to start fresh and write a new novel and I’m not doing that. I’m working on not one but two projects, my already started novel-in-progress and a secret new something. My goal is to get 50k of shiny new words written between the two of them before the end of the month.
This is the most I’ve been writing in bulk in awhile, for a number of reasons, and it’s weird to get back into it. I am already failing at one of my old standard NaNo practices of getting a head start. I would always try to bulk up my word count on day one or two so I’d have that extra buffer of comfy words but I’ve been staying more or less right on pace through this first week, I only managed to pull a teeny bit ahead of daily average today.
I’m mostly working on the new thing, to get my brain into non-editor, no self-criticizing, just-keep-writing NaNo mode and so far it seems to be working. I’ve come up with several bits that are not completely terrible in amongst the stuff that is completely terrible but led to the not so bad stuff. (And one particular thing which is so delightful that I am far too pleased with myself and pretty much assures that I will try to turn this into something salvageable someday if only for that one fantastic thing that should really live out in the world and not just in the demented part of my brain that it sprang from.)
Here’s the part of the post where I show off my little wordcount widget:
This is the official NaNoWriMo site.
This is my official NaNoWriMo Pep Talk. It includes my best advice and tips and a tangent about a taxidermied marmot.
This is a post I did with other links and informative NaNo-related things last year.
This is a quote from that post, regarding people inevitably saying and posting disparaging things about NaNoWriMo that I think deserves to be restated:
I cannot fathom disparaging anything that encourages storytelling.
Get into the nuances of the issues or problems with it all you want, and I will be first to say don’t dare start contacting literary agents on December 1st, but disparaging the entire endeavor makes me growly. Grr.
And this is an Instagram photo of me and NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty.
flax-golden tales have been pre-written and prescheduled for the month (the one from the first of the month is, of course, for all the NaNo-ers), in-between blog posts will likely be photo heavy or NaNo progress updates.
This is, by the way, the tenth anniversary of my very first NaNoWriMo. I failed that year. Didn’t fail the next year. I feel pretty good about this one so far, but it’s only the 7th. We shall see.
the story trees
They string histories and myths and fancies and fables together and hang them in the branches of the story trees.
The garlands of tales catch the light and shimmer in the branches, half-hidden in the leaves.
If you listen closely, you can hear fragments and quotations repeated by the wind.
They add new stories and old stories and retellings often.
Daydreams and nightdreams and wishes and lies.
Fairies rub story-shoulders with murderers and innocents and lawyers.
Happy endings lead to new adventures and lost loves and never-there loves and new loves and back again.
There are always more stories to add.
But the branches are strong.
There is room for them all.
About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.
I inadvertently left the jellyfish out of the last post so now they get one of their own.
This is a much belated post. Remember when I mentioned I was going on proper vacation at the beginning of the month? We were in Vancouver. We’d been planning it for awhile, Adam hadn’t been out to British Columbia in a few years and I’d never been anywhere Canadian beyond Toronto, so we spent a few days in Vancouver city and then the rest of the week out in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
I want to go back to the city again to spend more time and eat more food. We had such good food there. (My must-go-back favorites were Hawksworth & Salt Tasting Room.) Also apparently Vancouver is a magical land of gluten-free cookies because we kept finding fantastic ones everywhere, including in ice cream sandwich form. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium and saw otters and lots of jellyfish and we went to the Granville Island Market where we ate lots of delicious things and also watched a seagull murder a pigeon. I didn’t plan any book things because vacation but I did offer to sign stock at a Chapters because they had the circus everywhere and the booksellers were adorable and wonderful. Most things in Vancouver were wonderful, other than the murderous seagull.
Vancouver Island is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. All the trees are so gorgeous and moss-green, fairy-tale foresty. In Tofino we took long walks on the beach (we had remarkably good weather) and saw fat starfish. We ate more delicious food and drank tea and read books and I taught Adam how to play Clue. It was beautiful and calm and relaxing which is just what I needed & I’m sure we’ll go back someday.
Here are a few photos, all taken by Adam. There were so many lovely ones but I tried to pick my favorites.
sunset-colored death in a temporary cage
I caught Death in a cage in the backyard.
It was mostly an accident.
The cage was supposed to be a trap for ghosts but it didn’t work the way I expected it to.
Death looks like a sunset that got torn up by the cat.
I thought death would be darker, or heavier. Bits of sunset float and curl around the bars and almost glow, but not quite.
At first Death was very quiet, then it started making a low humming sound but after awhile the humming turned into words that felt like music in my head though I could never remember what they said.
The cage didn’t last long since it was made of paper, the wind and a little bit of rain pulled it apart until it looked more like streamers than a proper cage.
I couldn’t tell when Death left exactly, it was there and then it felt like it was still there but it wasn’t anymore.
Even though Death is gone I can still hear it in my head.
About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.