Normal People

The novel I decided to read from my to-read-pile was Normal People by Sally Rooney, as you may have guessed from my statement that I couldn't live without it a second longer after reading its review. And the review was right. This is a great novel.
It has been a long time since I read anything that felt like it was exactly what I should be reading at the time; one of those novels you don't want to read too quickly because then you'll have read it all and there won't be any new bits of story left. The plot is what it is; basic boy-meets-girl stuff. I read somewhere that this is a love story, but not a romance. This is very true. But don't let the love story bit fool you. The language and style is beautiful. It is a contemporary story, but it feels completely timeless. There are descriptions and short in-between sentences that stuck with me for a couple of days; there are bits that are just so beautifully written that you have to read them again just for the joy of it.
Then there are the characters. Obviously, these are not normal people, or they wouldn't be found in such a magnificent novel. And in a way they are, as the title tells us. The story is about Marianne and Connell; the first is awkward and unpopular in secondary school, but blossoms when she gets to uni. He is the other way around; the popular soccer star in high school, but lost in the posh university universe. Somehow they have found each other, and somehow they manage to stick by each other. They both have their flaws; personality traits and experiences that run deep and influence every decision they make. The scenes where they are together, depending on each other and supporting each other, are the best in the book. But then they break the fragile bond between them, at first because they are clumsy and inexperienced, later because they cannot stand the intensity of the emotion, or the feeling of being so close to another human being. They are very recognisable, striving to fit in and be normal people but at the same time standing out because they are so beautifully crafted. It reminded me in some ways of Jude in A Little Life, only somehow better written.
There are lots of other things in the novel; class boundaries, intimacy issues, gender roles; there is a fair bit of sex in a very casual, normal way. All of this fleshes out the story, makes it more than just a love story, but for me it wasn't the main thing. The main thing was their story.
And then I got to the back inside cover of the novel and there is a picture of Sally Rooney herself and it turns out that she is only 27! Who, at 27, could know this depth of character, these intricate details of the human personality that make people who they are, that make people act and react the way they do? Some other review called her 'Jane Austen for the millennial generation', and I have to agree completely. I can't wait to read Conversations with Friends, her first novel.
But, here is the big but to this novel. The ending. I won't spoil it for you, but the final chapter really bugged me. The chapters alternate between Marianne and Connell, not their full point of view but we follow either of them around, and the final chapter is a Marianne chapter that I really disliked. Somehow, it even felt rushed the way it was written. I read deep into the night to finish this novel, so I thought it may have been my sleepy head just wanting the story to finish, but upon reread the rushed quality is still there. All the emotion, all the light, loving connections that existed between these characters are now replaced by sodden, plonking style. It was a major let down.
But overall, this novel is beautifully written, in a fresh, young, sparkling style. The characters are so well made. The story is so light, so fragile, it might break at any moment (and for me it does break in the final chapter). Still, it is a lovely read, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a story that loves its characters and itself.

NaNo Days 25 & 26: Winner!

So yeah, I won! I don't know if I've ever won on Day 26 before, it feels awfully early, but I can't be bothered to check right now. 50,196 words in total, according to the NaNoWriMo website. I actually wrote 4,006 words today, all on the write-in at IKEA, where I'm also writing this from. My last word war I wrote 57 words per minute, so it was a sprint to the finish.
Somehow, winning feels better when you do it amongst fellow Wrimos, with also the Discord channel to cheer you on. I got several congratulations, both real life and online, which makes the win feel more real.
Concerning my story; yeah, it ended how it's supposed to end. They get each other, they kiss, all is well with the world. Although there are some nice parts, some pretty neat dialogue, and even some stupid in-jokes I didn't actually plan for, I can safely say I will never ever do anything with this story again. And I probably won't ever write romance again either. But I got to 50,000 words in a month (a month? 26 days!) and that's what counts!

NaNo Days 19 to 24: 40k and the home straight

So last week I had the week off. I had to many days still left over to take with me to next year, and I could also do with a bit of a break in the middle of the busy season (sales, holidays, etc). Also, of course, it was good for writing.
The aim was to write 2,000 words every day, which would bring me pretty close to 50,000 by the end of this week. This did not work out exactly as planned, as on Day 21 I didn't actually write a single word. But I still made the 40k on Day 22 and am now a little over 43,000 words. Feels like I should be able to finish the story in a couple of days, especially as I still have a write-in ahead of me on Monday. However, I feel like I should have more words on the page by now, because my going has been pretty slow.
What makes the writing pretty tough is that I have sort of lost interest in my characters and story. I know they will end up together, despite all the tension I've been trying to put in their exchanges, I know when and where it will happen, but I can't actually be bothered with all the stuff happening in between. It is kind of silly; I already knew what the ending would be before I started to write, which is a unique situation for me, as I generally don't write an ending to any story, but somehow that didn't make it easier to get there. So I've been putting in all kinds of personal experiences just to flesh out the story a bit more, which doesn't really have anything to do with the main narrative. Scenes that have nothing to do with the actual romance portion of the plot, but are there just to get more words in. A proper editor would put a red cross over them in a heartbeat.
This is fine. It is what NaNo is about; getting words on the page. Also, I never expected the romance genre to be the thing for me, and it turns out I was right all along. You live and learn, and learn and write. Just a little under 7,000 words to go.

The to-read pile

I have a lot of books. To anyone who knows me or has read a few posts on this blog, this cannot come as a surprise. All those books live in bookcases spread throughout my house. The bulk of my fiction lives in the living room, ordered in an ever-changing system but currently somewhat logically organised alphabetically by author's name (with a clear distinction between English and Dutch fiction, of course). In between all of these books are also some books I haven't read. I couldn't tell you how many exactly, but more than 10 and less than 50. For a while, I kept all my to-read books in between the other books, because it wasn't their fault I hadn't come around to reading them yet, so they should be allowed to live with the others. However, this led to frequent cases of 'having nothing to read' and therefore 'buying more books just to have something to read'. The bookish brain is easy to trick into buying more books.
To prevent a complete overload of non-read books, I introduced a 'to-read pile'. This is a stack of books on one of the shelves, consisting of books I haven't read or am in the middle of reading but have put aside for some reason. Although, to be fair, it doesn't contain all the books I haven't read yet, for then the pile would quickly fill up with giant tomes such as War and Peace, The Count of Monte Christo, Parade's End and The Fountainhead. Also, it doesn't contain all the books I am in the middle of reading, because I always keep a stack of those on my bedside table; books I got tired of while reading in bed which never made it back down to the living room again. So its a bit of an arbitrary pile, but let's be honest, we're talking about a book sorting system; it's not going to bring us world peace.
November is usually a month where the to-read pile is pretty big, due to a couple of reasons:
- my birthday is in October
- the shorter the days, the bigger my urge to buy books
- I generally don't read a lot during NaNo, and what I read tends to be a reread
So for a sneak preview of the upcoming months, I will now share my current to-read pile with the world:

To read, 19th November 2018

As you can see, no new books will fit on this pile at the moment. This is a good sign for me to actually start reading something that is on it.
But what is on it? Two books I'm in the middle of; Stephen Fry's Mythos and Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill. The former I couldn't really get through, the latter is a train book (a thin, light book that I've already read, which I can slip into a bag whenever I need distraction on the train). Then there are books I got for my birthday; The Catcher in the Rye, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, Calypso, We zullen niet te pletter slaan and Een schitterend gebrek. A nice blend of classics and wholly unknown novels and authors. Are you experienced? was also a gift, although not for my birthday. Milkman is the 2018 Man Booker winner, so an obvious buy. Normal People was a novel I found out about the day after my birthday, and I couldn't actually live without for another second. The other two, Little Fires Everywhere and Het bestverkochte boek ooit*, are my only guilt buys: books bought while standing in the bookshop for no proper reason, when I really have to buy something although there is no rationale behind it. I usually have more guilt buys in spring, in autumn I can somehow control myself as my birthday and the holidays are coming up.
So, there we are. 10 brand new books, 1 partly read, 1 a reread. If I were to give you an estimate that the next book I will read will come from this pile (I just finished rereading a Jasper Fforde book this morning), I'd say the odds are 50/50. Because despite the to-read pile, I can still pick up a completely different book. It's controlled chaos, as is all of literature.

NaNo Days 11 to 18: Flat and up

Last week was week 2 of NaNoWriMo, also known as Hell Week. The week where you come to the realisation that 50,000 really is a lot, your story is actually not as great/funny/exciting as you thought, your characters are all a bit meh, and you can't for the life of you remember why you ever thought doing NaNo was a good idea.
I didn't really suffer very much from Hell Week this year, mostly because I didn't actually have the time to write anyway. But I kind of foresaw this happening, and put in a nice buffer of 4,000 words on day 11, followed by three days of not writing. Not even thinking about writing, to be honest. By day 14 I was 1,000 words behind par. Nothing to worry so far, as on day 16 I did another write-in that gained me 3,500, which, combined with the 2,500 words I wrote yesterday, puts me right back on track. It does make for an interesting stats chart:

We are now on day 18, par is 30,000 words and I started today at 30,049. So yay me!
I haven't written a single NaNo word yet, but I hope to put in at least 1,000 before I have other things on my mind (company, films, chocolate). Somehow, this year's November seems more filled with social events than any other November ever was. Must remember not to have a social life next year.
I put up bird food a couple of days ago as the temperatures have turned to freezing around here, and I am now joined by a colourful crew of fluttering birds outside my window. The cats are too invested in staying warm to go outside, so my feathered company is quite safe. And distracting, but in a good way.
Anyway, time to write something that actually counts towards my wordcount!

NaNo Days 9 & 10: 20K!

So the last two days have been very grey and rainy and sad, which makes for perfect writing weather. However, somehow, this year all of my days got swamped with social events, so I'm not as far ahead as may have been expected. However, I just crossed the 20K boundary with 20,012 words. This means I'm two days ahead of schedule. It also means I can stop writing for today, which is a blessing, since for the last 500 words one of my cats has been leaning against my right arm, putting it into an awkward position and now somewhat of a cramp. Time to give it a rest!

NaNo Days 5 to 8: Fits and bursts

Is it already November 8th? How time flies!
On Monday, I attended my first write-in since 2011. Two of the people who were there in 2011 were still there, only older and with many more NaNo words below their belts. We were nine in total, the youngest was only 12, the oldest must have been around 45. We sat at IKEA, talked, joked, ate, and also occasionally wrote some words. I managed to write about 2600 words, which is pretty good for a write-in. At that point I was about 4,000 words ahead of par.
Then on Tuesday, I sat in a bar with a friend, had good conversations, drank a little too much, and didn't write  word.
On Wednesday I wrote about 1,000 while on the train to a meeting. I was planning to also write on the way back, but I fell asleep.
This morning, I was below par for the first time this NaNoWriMo. That should have given me an anxious feeling in my stomach, but after such a busy week I was now so sleepy that it didn't really hit me until I got home and saw that most of my writing buddies were already way beyond 15,000 words. So I sat down, participated in 3 word wars, and am now at 15,016 words. The par for tomorrow is 15,000, so I'm one day ahead again. Fits and bursts, that's for sure.

Story-wise, I can't actually remember everything that I wrote. The characters are coming to life more, and I've written lots of dialogue because I got so fed up with all the exposition. It feels like I'm coming into my stride, although at the same time it feels like I'm not really writing romance anymore, like the romantic bits are tacked on top of a 'normal' story. I never expected this genre to be 'the thing' for me, so I'm glad I'm making it work anyway!
2,234 words down so far for today, let's see if I can make that 3,000 before my eyes fall shut.

NaNo Day 4: Raptors?

Today was a beautiful sunny day, which I spent mostly running around to fix all the weekend chores I had to cram into one day. But I managed to find time to write as well! I participated in three word wars, one of which I organised myself, and have gained 2,828 words so far. I hope to be writing some more later on, as my overall goal for today was 10,000 words, but for now the well of inspiration is slightly depleted at 8,689 words total.
So today I decided I was done doing introductions, and got right down to the main point of the novel; the love interest. Can't write romance without a love interest. I had not thought about him before, as usual, so the character just sort of appeared out of thin air as I put words down on the page. We'll see how much of him remains in later writing sessions, as I tend not to be too consistent in my character traits throughout NaNo.
So what about those raptors? Apparently, whenever you participate in a word war, there is a chance you'll get a raptor. Team with the most raptors wins, of course, and the Netherlands is at 51 raptors so far. Two of those were contributed by me, as I received a raptor after two of today's word wars. No idea where they came from, it is just a part of the craziness that is NaNoWriMo.

NaNo Days 2&3: rolling onwards

So yesterday I was at a conference and didn't write a single NaNo word. Hence the buffer on Day 1, of course.
Today I recuperated from the busy day, but didn't get home until about four, and didn't start my writing until about half past five. It's now ten minutes past seven, and I managed to pour out 2,390 words in that hour and a half. And 2,390 words will be my score for today, because my brain now feels like it is fried to a crisp.

In the actual writing, I realised I'd forgotten to add my main characters main hobby; musing about situations that will probably never happen. I'd given myself this option to add such musings in between the main actions, so when I feel like doing something a little bit different, I can add a standalone 'mini story' in between the main story to get some words down, without actually disrupting the storyline. I wrote the first of these during a 30 minute word war, it turned out to be 1,414 words (47 words per minute). If they all turn out around that size, I could reach the daily goal just writing a side-story, if needs be. And, if all goes well, they'll even fit into the main story line!

For now, no more NaNo, just dinner, relaxing series, and an early night.

ETA: I just realised I hadn't added my total word count so far, even though you can of course calculate that for yourself; 5,861 words. That means I've reached two achievement badges by now; 1,667 words and 5,000 words. 10,000 words is up next!

NaNo Day 1: Romance, anyone?

So today is November 1st, which means it's NaNo time! For some reason, I hadn't discovered the DutchNaNo Discord channel in previous years, so I kept my NaNo'ing mostly to myself. Today, I joined the website, and discovered a world of random chatting, writing distractions, and word wars. Also a neat bot that keeps track of the word wars and provides writing prompts and what not. It is a bit of a distraction, with 50+ people all talking at the same time it is pretty hard to keep track of things, so I mainly joined for the word wars, which means 20 or 30 minutes of non-stop writing and then posting the word count you managed in that time. Apparently, my writing speed is about 50 words per minute.
So at the end of today my score is 3471 words. A little over the 3,000 that was my goal, but way lower than the 4,808 count I reached on my first day of the 2016 NaNo. Never mind, I put in the buffer I needed to tide me over tomorrow, when I will be at a work conference the whole day and unable to write. After that it is the weekend, which should give me plenty of writing time.

Story-wise, I'm supposed to be writing a romance, as that is the genre I set myself, but today I didn't really get into that atmosphere. Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all to get into the 'second person perspective', where my main character is 'you'. Also, I could fit some dialogue in there, which I thought might be difficult. Other than that, it's been exposition, exposition, and more exposition, as I laid down the main character's surroundings and job. Will have to get more into the romantic atmosphere this weekend, because now it reads more like a manual than a love story. Anyway, I'm very much done for the day!