Eve of the Greatest Event of the Year

Halloween is fast becoming one of my favourite holidays. First off, I can wear impracticle costumes - corsets, long dresses, bustles, absurdely large hats with a bouquet of roses plaited to the hatband - without reproach (though every year my mother asks me, "And just what are you wearing?" with a look half way between amusement and dismay. I just happen to like ridiculously long skirts, >.>). I called this year's costume "Morning Dress" - my idea of what an English gentlewoman might have worn in the 18oos (... which is too broad a time period to be useful. Let's say late 1800s, closer to the year 1900). The costume was, to say the least, an inharmonious jumble of skirts, white blouse, and corset made from cardboard box, twine, and plastic bags. Yeah, I know. xD

I wish I had stuck with my original idea costume, and spent the week working on it, rather than trying to figure out how much of the Industrial Revolution to rip off from for my NaNo. I had planned to dress up as Murtagh - typical black everything, plus cloak - with some steampunk thrown in - goggles, aviator's cap, watches on chains - and my fencing sword reworked to resemble Zar'roc. It all came from the oddest idea I outlined for an Eragon fanfic I'm never going to write because it was practise for NaNo and thus the steampunk accessories. But instead I developed a history of gunpower just so there can be scenes of characters getting shot in my NaNo, and so ended up scrambling, and formulating a costume in the two hours I had before it was time to go to the fall festival we attend every year.

As for the second reason why Halloween is fast becoming a favourite holiday: it's only the eve of the Greatest Event of the Year.

Goals for NaNo2008:

- Reach 50K before November 25 for the green bar
- 100k+ words total
- to complete my novel November 30th with the words THE END
- to have bucketloads of fun

Outlining is coming along so beautifully I'm often at a loss to express my happiness. One thing I wanted to concentrate on was genre atmosphere, if there is such a thing: the conventions of the genre form the atmosphere of the novel, one might say. It's coming splendidly.

The beginning of my story has a definite fairy tale quality - three wishes, talking dogs, red cloaks, granny's house, an old woman who is more than she seems. From there, it takes a turn for high fantasy - lots of fun with cliches here (Chosen Ones (complete with innate ability)! Evil overlords (complete with maniacal laugh)! Faithful sidekicks, old mentors, tangled prophecies, evil uncles, despicable rivals, rightful rulers deposed, a Resistance, the Royal Knighthood, a group of travelers questing to save the world!)

As the story grows less lighthearted - I'm trying my hand at working with paranoia, and how it could lead to tragedy - the gothic horror I've always wanted to write - complete with cliches! (otherwise known as "read Anne Radcliffe") - comes in. And I'm hoping the fashion of the characters world with convey the steampunk, DIY scheme of things.

I cannot wait.

Vive la (le? xP) NaNo!