nanonano

The weekend of pre-Nano activities have ended. Friday was the kick-off party for the NoVA branch of Nanowrimo at the Hard Times Cafe. Last year only a few people showed up, but this year we had over a dozen hardly souls, chatting over chili and drinks. The place was a bit noisy. We wound up being backed by a racuous birthday party behind us, so sometimes the place was more of a dull roar. Consequently we wound up changing around seating so that people could meet new people and then moving over to the local cafe to chat more. I think we have a nice fun mix of people in addition to our usual writing group crowd.

Saturday was supposed to be the kickoff party for the actual DC wing of Nano, but I opted to stay home. I spent it instead digging through the opera cds at the local library for my Nano research. I've received some good answers on soprano types and repertoire, so I know both how she starts out and what she becomes eventually. (I'm actually a little worried because I have no names for any of these people, just ambiguous filler titles like "modern woman" and "opera singer" and "blackmailer".)

Sunday was the writing marathon at Common Grounds. Sometimes we have actual structured exercises, but this time was far more freeform. This worked out well for me, because I was able to brainstorm some of the plot aspects of the book. With the free WIFI access, I was also able to pop on online to research streamliners and valkyries. Okay, yes, I checked LJ occasionally. *sighs* But I did get some work done.

One thing we worked on was our "soundbyte", our short blurb describing our Nano novel. I revised the long version I originally wrote, because I hadn't thought of opera subplot when we did this originally. So the long version is: "Traveling back in time, a young woman discovers the fate of a obscure opera singer." I also have the shorter summary which now adorns my journal: "Gin, sin, and opera." Because I fully expect part of the book to turn into a scene from Chicago or The Wild Party.

Only five more days...