2007 National Novel Writing Month: The Vultures of Parnassus
(previously The Chocolate Generation)

Everyone's a winner - well, a lot of people - all those that write a 50,000-word novel in November - National Novel Writing Month:

• 10 steps to prepare for writing a NaNoWriMo novel.
• 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley.
• Background on the write-a-novel-in-a-month international race.
• NaNoWriMo 2005 lessons learned.
• Plan A.
• Status day-by-day.
• Weekly tips and exercises from Baty's book.
• Working Days by John Steinbeck.
• Other writing work rates.
• The Weekend Novelist: Write a novel in a year.
• NaNoWriMo 2005 status of Write a novel in a month.
• NaNoWriMo 2006 status of Write a novel in a month.
• NaNoWriMo 2007 status of Write a novel in a month.

2007 Preparation

Signed on with fellow travelers, including Gayle (TheIt) and the William Blake Tarot. The latter will provide a card and an emphasis of the day.

The 3-days-to-go card is: Generation, the Ace of Painting, whose keyword is "Origination of Ideas and Projects".

Registered with the Kiwis, to whom dawn comes almost as soon as it crosses the International Day Line, so I can start early and often.

Hours written: while the hours of physical writing are listed, the longer that this month of writing retreat progresses, the more one is drawn into one's story and spends many hours thinking about it, in addition to the writing. This is a very calming drug that has probably helped many novelists.

2007 Status? What status?

The form is the haibun: prose interleaved with haiku and other poems. Again we adopt the Haiku Bonus: each poem (haiku) is like a picture and gets a word bonus to top its word count up to 1000 ... because a picture is worth a thousand words...

Day.	Hours written.	Word count reached [with Haiku Bonus]	Blake Tarot card	Significance [adapted from The William Blake Tarot]
1	2	2.4k	Child of Music.	Sharing visions and dreams via creative expression.
2	1	3.7k	Woman of Painting.	Ritual purification; patience; stubbornness; self-worth.
3	2	5k	Angel of Music.	Insight; forgiveness; opportunism; duplicity.
4	2	6.8k	4 of Poetry.	Harmony
5 (Mon.)	2.5	9K	Man of Music.	Wisdom; creative mastery; self-delusion; lives in fantasy; needs an audience.
6	1	10K	10 of Science.	Defeat; addiction; ruin. [It seems that Blake was not a fan of science.]
7	1	11.2K	10 of Music.	Dance; collaboration; team work; wholeness.
8	1.5	12.5K	I : Magic Tradition has Magician.	Ability to concentrate; will power; time and timing; duality.
9	3	15.5K	Angel of Science.	Unemotional and unbiased thinking. Scientific idealism. Intellectual self-absorption.
10	3	17.5K	5 of Painting: Hardship.	Hardship. Material problems. Anxiety. Illness. Stripping down to basics. Voluntary simplicity.
11	1	18.5K	VII : Experience Tradition has Chariot.	Culmination of the material quest. Ego concerns. Spiritual defeat. Ambiguity.
12 (Mon.)	2	20K	4 of Science: Repose.	Repose. Shut in the deep. Truce. Forced withdrawal. Highlight: Theo Ivory Coast chocolate received from Chloé Deux to help struggles with NaNoWriMo 2007.
13	2	21.6K	XIII : Transformation Tradition has Death.	Change of consciousness. Intense experience. Elimination. Letting go. Surrender.
14	1.2	22.8K	8 of Poetry: Swiftness.	Time warps and timely coincidences; infatuation and falling in love; fast thinking and communication; finding a new sense of values.
15	2	23K	3 of Poetry: Creativity.	Creative blessing and success; synthesis of ideas; revelation of truth; spiritual idealism or understanding.
16	2.2	25K	Ace of Poetry: Inspiration.	Burst of intuition; sense of inner guidance; sexuality as metaphor for imagination.
17	2.2	27.2K	XX: Liberty Traditional card here is Judgement (which Blake sees as "human liberation" rather than "Last Judgement").	A calling; awakening to freedom; rebirth; rite of passage; being judged.
18	3	30.2K	5 of Music: Melancholy.	Sorrows and regrets; awareness of mortality; sensitivity to psychic influences; deep emotional conflict; disappointment in love; spiritual maturity; need to transcend and move on.
19 (Mon.)	2	32.2K	XIX: Sun.	Enlightenment; delight; liberation from old forms; return to the source.
20	2.2	34.2K	Woman of Poetry.	Feminine intuition; expression of sexuality; channeling of prophetic truth.
21	2.5	35.8K	IX: Imagination Tradition has the Hermit.	Introspection; inner conviction; facing the unknown.
22	1.5	36.4K	2 of Painting: Balance.	Use of practical wisdom; negotiation; choices; balance between idea and form, potential and loss, impulse and action; stretch to go on.
23	2.7	38K	10 of Poetry: Prophecy.	Speaks eternal truths; humility in the face of infinity; channeling; bowing to the will of the universe; acceptance of your lot.
24	2.7	39.6K	7 of Science: Lamentation.	Disappointment; defeatist thoughts; running away from problems; unstable efforts; gathering ideas and experiences; shaping and preparing; resisting negative pressure.
25	1.0	39.9K	6 of Poetry: Cooperation.	Gift from above; teamwork between mind and spirit; advancement toward a goal; new sense of purpose; success through cooperation.
26 (Mon.)	1.5	41.2K	Child of Poetry.	Faith in divine inspiration; receptivity to ideas; influx of creative energy; attraction to the unusual.
27	3	42.7K	II: Mystery Tradition has the High Priestess. The image on Blake's card is the triple goddess (maiden, mother, crone) Hecate.	Ability to concentrate; will power; magical and occult powers; time and timing; aggressive imagination.
28	2	44.7K	Woman of Music. Although these cards are picked entirely by chance from those that remain, this image on Blake's card is the goddess Helice, the maiden (virgin) form of Hecate, seen in triple form on yesterday's card. (The Grecian Mount Helicon, home of the Muses, was named after Helice.)	Emotional depth; flowering psychic skills; inspiration to others; multiple affinities and talents.
29	1.6	46.4K	VI: Knowledge Tradition has the Lovers.	Self-knowledge; self-integration; taking responsibility; moral freedom; carnal knowledge; marriage
30	5	50K-plus	Ace of Painting. Hmm -- again!	Generation. And I am hence from here, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

The William Blake Tarot

As part of warm-up for 2007 NaNoWriMo, finished the The William Blake Tarot by Ed Buryn based on the work of William Blake.

Other books read for this project

Particularly during November 2007 (the actual NaNoWriMo month) and December 2007 (the revision or NaNoRiMo month):

• Several books on the culture of Ancient Greece, where this year's novel has decided it is set. Books include:
  • Ancient Greece by Don Nardo.
  • Ancient Greek (a Teach Yourself Complete Course, though I cannot be sure to complete it) by Gavin Betts and Alan Henry.
    
    1. Alphabet and the accents.
    2. Nouns and verbs. And prepositions.
  • Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine costume Mary Houston.
  • The Ancient Greek Olympics by Richard Woff describes:

    Day 1	Morning: Swearing-in ceremony. Boys' contests. Public and private prayer. Afternoon: Speeches and recitals. Sightseeing tours! Reunions!
    Day 2	Morning: Procession into the hippodrome (horse racetrack with lap length of 1.2 km (0.75 mile)). Chariot races. Horse races. Afternoon: The pentathlon (discus, javelin, jumping, running, wrestling (served as a tie-breaker if there were no outright winner of the first four events). Evening: Parade of winners. Singing of victory hymns. Feasts and revels.
    Day 3	Morning: Great procession to the temple of Zeus. Official sacrifice to Zeus of 100 oxen. Afternoon: Foot races (each to end toward the west and the sacred Altis) included: the opening race of the long-distance dolikhos: 20 or 24 lengths of the track and thus 3.8 or 4.6 km (2.2 or 2.7 miles). the stade: one length of the 192-metre (630-feet) track. the final race, the diaulos: two lengths of the track, and thus 385 metres (1265 feet). Evening: Public banquet (including meat from the official sacrifice).
    Day 4	Morning: Wrestling. Boxing. The pankration (all strength): combined boxing and wrestling; allowed anything except gouging and biting. Afternoon: Foot race in armour: hopliodromos.
    Day 5	Morning: Procession of Victors. Presentation of victory wreaths to the winners; only the first person won; no second or third awards. Afternoon and Evening: Celebrations and banquets.

    Other important Games:

    • Isthmian Games (at Corinth) in honor of Posidon.
    • Nemean Games (at Nemea) in honor of Zeus.
    • Panathenaic Games (at Athens) in honor of Athena.
    • Pythian Games (at Delphi) in honor of Apollo.
    
    
  • Ancient Medicine: from Sorcery to Surgery by Michael Woods and Mary B. Woods.
  • Aristotle: Philosopher, Teacher, and Scientist by Sharon Katz Cooper.
  • Elementary Greek: an Introduction to the Study of Attic Greek by Theodore C. Burgess.
  • From Alpha to Omega by Anne H. Groton.
  • The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology by Edward Tripp.
  • It's Greek to Me by Michael Macrone: a light survey of phrases in modern English of Greek origin.
  • Life in Ancient Greece by Pierre Miquel.
  • The Love Songs of Sappho translated with an essay by Paul Roche. Blog of The Love Songs of Sappho
  • Magika Hiera: ancient Greek magic and religion edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink.
    A COMPLETELY sidetracking killer book on Ancient Greek "spells" -- sort of Harry Potter in Attica. I began with the "binding" spells, which were like preemptive full-body-binds against athlete competitors, legal competitors, love competitors, etc. Then there were curses from the dead. There are herbs, potions, and more!
  • Our Greek and Latin Roots by James Morwood and Mark Warman.
  • Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece by Matthew Dillon.
  • Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus.
  • The Sappho Companion edited and introduced by Margaret Reynolds. Blog of The Sappho Companion
  • Step into Ancient Greece by Richard Tames.

• Several the Tintin books (by Hergé) for their delightful comic relief to the struggle of NanoWrimo and for the energy of their plots, which leap along a path of near-death experiences interleaved with hilarity.

• The astonishing Pulitzer Prize winner, Middlesex, an excellent epic of Greek immigration, assimilation, and modern social history both in Greece-occupied Turkey and in the USA: by Jeffrey Eugenides; listened to it on CD, beautifully read in full by Kristoffer Tabori.

• And a few more books that bear a vaguer relevance:
  • Rant by Chuck Palahnuik. For its multiple (approaching 50) voices to tell the story.
  • The Best American Poetry: 2007, Guest Editor Heather McHugh.

Previous years of help

Previous help:

• 2006 daily words from the Oxford English dictionary.
• 2005 daily words from the poet Bev Momoi.
• hints on writing a novel from John Steinbeck.
• Baty's weekly NaNoWriMo tips.

Books on Buddhism. Poetry - Learn How to Write Your Own. Forests of California and Trees of the World.

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