Tag Archives: fiction

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[In]NaNoWriMo – halfway point

[In]NaNoWriMo

INterNAtional-Novel-Writing-Month

This is my first [INter]NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth, aka. InNoWriMo, and for the traditionalists in the USA: NaNoWriMo.

The aim is to get back in to the habit of writing and making it a daily exercise; not editing, not plotting, and certainly not worrying whether my prose cuts it. I have been working on a large piece of fiction for a couple of years and have fallen in to the “pit” and cannot climb out of the latest chapter, constantly re-editing, cutting characters, adding and removing B and C plot lines etc.

This has to stop, and a month of strictly enforced vomit writing seemed the obvious remedy.

I spent October plotting and found Kristen Lamb‘s eight part series on Plot Structure to be a most valuable resource. I read her posts and applied some of the techniques to my basic idea for a story and started day one with a twenty-five chapter outline, a passable Log Line, and the scenes for the first seven chapters planned out.

I’m not sure I would have made it through the first week without that preparation “in the bag”.

So here I am at the end of day 14 with 20,229 words and eight chapters completed. based on the official NaNoWriMo schedule of 1667 words per day I am a little behind, but based on my own schedule, that takes in to account a new other commitments such as my youngest son graduating year 12 at school, I am pretty much where I want to be.

I have made mistakes but, so far, have resisted looking backwards and trying to fix them.

I have left stubs; where research is needed, such as where I don’t know the particular military ranks in the Spanish Army of the fifteenth Century e.g.

“Off you get [rank],” a disheveled officer said to me.

…and this helps to quieten the pedantic editor and perfectionist lurking inside me. Now…End Blog, and back to the vomit draft.

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How can a westerner come to understand Seppuku?

If there is one part of Japanese culture that alludes most westerners it is ritual suicide by disembowelment known as seppuku, or “Hara-kiri” as it is better known outside Japan.

Seppuku became an integral part of Bushido (The way of the Warrior) and was used in several ways:

  • Capital punishment for disgraced samurai rather than be executed (this was not an option for other classes)
  • To avoid falling into enemy hands, and possible torture and revealing military secrets
  • To follow your Lord into the next world
  • In protest of a lord’s decision

Seppuku is poorly understood and is often used to support an argument that the Japanese people hold human life in little regard, when in actual fact it is more truly a proof of the opposite.

The act of seppuku is common in historical literature and drama, the most famous in my experience is the story of Forty-seven Rōnin.

The Forty-seven Rōnin also know as the Genroku Akō incident (元禄赤穂事件) occurred at the start of the 18th century and is the story of group of samurai who are forced to become rōnin(masterless warriors) when their daimyo (feudal lord),  Asano Takumi-no-Kami Naganori, is ordered to commit seppuku after being tricked into insulting a court official.

These rōnin plotted for over two years to avenge Asano’s honour.

Even early in my martial arts training I was exposed to mentions of these”Forty-seven Rōnin” but it wasn’t until I read the novel The Tokaido Road by Lucia St. Clair Robson that I learned more than that these rōnin were the epitome of bushido.

It was while reading this novel that I had a satori moment where I feel I came understand seppuku.

St. Clair Robson’s novel tells the fictional account of Lord Asano’s daughter who, also vows to avenge her father’s honour, and travels The Tōkaidō Road disguised as a high-ranking courtesan to reach Oishi, the leader of these Forty-seven Rōnin.  From her point of view he and the other rōnin have done nothing to avenge their Lord for two years.

Spoiler Alert

In the end the story matches the historical facts and the Forty-seven Rōnin succeed in killing the court official who betrayed their lord and then surrender to the will of the Shogun. The shogun deliberates; will they be executed, forced to commit seppuku, or set free?

As a typical westerner I read an appreciated the story of revenge and truly expected them to be rewarded for the honour of this act and be set free. This story, and history, had a different ending and it appears that the happy ending eventuated but was not the one I expected; The Forty-seven Rōnin, were granted “the right” to commit seppuku, thus returning the honour of both their Lord Asano and their own families.

I had a double take and read this again, while my mind raced and was forever changed.

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Does Rabinovich live here?

I found this little beauty while researching satire:

A KGB Officer goes twice to a man’s door asking if Rabinovich  lives there. Each time the man tells him NO;

A postcard of the Russian Revolutions of 1917

The third time, the KGB Officer arrives with a photo, which he holds up, saying, “This is Rabinovich  and it is a picture of you; why did you tell me you didn’t live here?”

To which Rabinovich replies, “This, you call living?”

“J” is for Joke

…a long bow I know but I wanted something lighter today.

I found it in a footnote from “Humor, hostility and the psycho-dynamics of satire” by Susan Isabel Stein. Literature and Psychology 2000. Vol.46, Issue 4, while researching for the post Satire it just isn’t funny

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Blogging from A to Z…it’s coming…April 2012

What to expect in April:

Profiles of people who inspire me or I admire

Reviews of books, films, music,…blogs (leave a comment if you would like to feature!)

…and opinion pieces based on a eclectic selection of topics that I find engrossing or alarming

See you on Sunday the first of April

A Fettered Mind

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Only describe the extraordinary

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Over the New Year I read a paragraph of Haruki Murakami‘s new novel 1Q84 (pg. 189 HB) and found a wonderful insight to improve my descriptive writing.

An older editor, Komatsu, gave a younger writer some advice on a piece of fiction he was we-writing:

“When you introduce things that readers have never seen before into a piece of fiction, you have to describe them with as much precision and in as much detail as possible. What you eliminate from fiction is the description of things that most readers have seen.”

There is nothing more sure to stop a person reading than if you describe an ordinary scene in a clinical manner. If it is just a room, call it that; a room, and leave the reader to fill in the blanks. But if the room is imperative to the story then describe it through the eyes and tilted perception of the mind of your narrator or character.

I’d love to read a literal translation of Marakami’s original dialogue for his character Kamatsu. Please comment if you find it?