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Sometimes the Plot Train gets derailed
Nov. 4th, 2011 02:46 pmSo my original idea for NaNoWriMo was a humorous, semi-autobiographical foray in to what it's like to be a girl in the various sci-fi and video game fandoms. It would be loosely based on the adventures of me and my friends in fandom and basically tossing the notion that all fans of sci-fi, anime and video games are slovenly, overweight white people who live in their mother's basement. Part of this stemmed from a lot of the criticisms against Team Unicorn FTW's "G33K & G4M3R GURL5" - mostly that no true geek looks like the member of Team Unicorn and obviously they aren't "real" geeks nor a real representation of the female geek and gaming community.
Well, it is a valid point that not all female geeks and gamers look like the members of Team Unicorn, but it's also a valid point that most female geek and gamers aren't overweight with skin conditions and no social life. I would say that most of us (myself included) fall into the "average" category. And like it or not, to claim that no true geek and gamer girl can look like anyone from Team Unicorn is insulting for all women in fandom. We come in all shapes and sizes, and for anyone to say otherwise is ignorant.
Anyway, what was supposed to be a light-hearted romp through high school while trying to keep fandoms a secret so as not to be a target of bullying, my novel had taken a decidedly darker turn. We now have, aside from the bullying angle I was already going to use, teen pregnancy, rape, suicide, and mental illness.
Did I mention that my novel was originally a comic effort?
Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. The story has reached the point where it more or less writing itself down, with me making notes of important names and events as they get mentioned. A lack of continuity is a major pet peeve for me (which makes my love of Haven hilarious, given that continuity isn't exactly one of the series's strong points), and I hate to think that I opened up a monster truck sized plot hole because I can't keep names/dates/major events straight.
(And just a heads up, my current word count is 6,513/50,000, which means I still have roughly 100 more words to write today to reach today's "par" word count, and another 1,700 to reach the roughly 2,000 words I like to reach per day.)
Well, it is a valid point that not all female geeks and gamers look like the members of Team Unicorn, but it's also a valid point that most female geek and gamers aren't overweight with skin conditions and no social life. I would say that most of us (myself included) fall into the "average" category. And like it or not, to claim that no true geek and gamer girl can look like anyone from Team Unicorn is insulting for all women in fandom. We come in all shapes and sizes, and for anyone to say otherwise is ignorant.
Anyway, what was supposed to be a light-hearted romp through high school while trying to keep fandoms a secret so as not to be a target of bullying, my novel had taken a decidedly darker turn. We now have, aside from the bullying angle I was already going to use, teen pregnancy, rape, suicide, and mental illness.
Did I mention that my novel was originally a comic effort?
Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. The story has reached the point where it more or less writing itself down, with me making notes of important names and events as they get mentioned. A lack of continuity is a major pet peeve for me (which makes my love of Haven hilarious, given that continuity isn't exactly one of the series's strong points), and I hate to think that I opened up a monster truck sized plot hole because I can't keep names/dates/major events straight.
(And just a heads up, my current word count is 6,513/50,000, which means I still have roughly 100 more words to write today to reach today's "par" word count, and another 1,700 to reach the roughly 2,000 words I like to reach per day.)
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