Forty-Six Percent Geek

So here it is, November 1st and the first day of NaNoWriMo 2005! (That's National Novel Writing Month, in case you forgot).

Today I start my novel! It's called

*fanfare*

"Forty-Six Percent Geek"

The basic idea is that you have this geek and she's too geeky to get along with "normal" people and not geeky enough to fit in with the geeks... miskina... so she gets even with the world by making snarky observations ;-)

For the last few years, my basic principle when writing has been: write what you know. Whenever I write about something that I don't know much about, the results have been disasterous. That's why I usually blog about me, me, me, by the way, because that's the subject I know best ;-)

So yes, for this novel the characters and the plot are drawing HEAVILY on my personal experiences (and on people I know, heheheh) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand how could I not include a blog?

AND if other people can get away with writing a novel as a series of diary entries, then surely mine can be a series of blog entries!

And in which case...

might as well write it on a blog, eh?

http://fortysixpercentgeek.blogspot.com

Plus that means that YOU get to follow along as I churn out my laughably awful yet lengthy prose :-)

Not to mention that you also get to COMMENT on it too *grin*

Whatever-her-name-is (don't know yet, she might remain nameless, miskina) won't see the comments (it's a novel, not a blog, have to draw the line somewhere) but feel free to leave comments informing me as to the precise awfulness of the so-called plot/one-dimensional characters/lack of wordcraft *snicker* Since the point of NaNoWriMo is to reach 50,000 words in thirty days, quality is optional, and I have no qualms about resorting to cheesy scenarios in order to up the word-count... so by all means, be snarky. If I start to sound too much like Danielle Steel, you might need to perform An Invervention for my own good.

There's various ways this could go.

I could run out of inspiration and give up, one more failed novelist who will spend her old age going around telling anyone who will listen (as well as those who won't) about how she "nearly wrote a novel once".

OR I could finish the novel, be discovered by a small, forward-thinking publishing house willing to take a chance on an unknown, find surprising success in a niche readership, make it to the Top Ten in Sapienzas and Agenda, surpass local sales of The DaVinci Code and be featured as a 30-second human interest story on CNN. Then international interest (Malta? Eh? Is that in Georgia?) will cause everyone to come and read my online original version, and then they will go and read the blogs of all the people who commented, and you will all get book deals too, and we'll all be rich and famous and go on international book-signing tours together!!!

(Give me a break, I'm practicing for writing 50,000 words of fiction, ok?)

Well even if none of us winds up rich and famous, it'll still be fun, so... yeah... feel free to comment there with ideas for plot and character development, and I'll see about working them in!

*goes off to type some more drivel*

Comments

[G]

Just wanted to let you know that I can now be found at http://allaboutg.blogspot.com (as well as GJ)

I look forward to reading your geeky story :)

[Cory]

I am very surprised that you were listed as only 46% geek.

[Athena]

Wow I only scored a 23%. Woohooo, so all the geeky stuff I do is actually cool. *struts around the room*

[Lena]

When did you say you booked the flights for the book-signing tour? =D I wish I had the time to take part in this, but I'm already falling back on books to read, and more books to read, and even more books to read for school *cringe* I'll be sure to contribute to your novel-writing. I'll bring you up to speed on Danielle Steelness - 1) your protagonist has to be drop-dead gorgeous, and has to wear a royal blue flattering dress with a plunging neckline in one or preferably more of the scenes, 2) the love story must culminate in some Very passionate love-making (yeah baby), 3) the lovers must be separated (oh the drama), 4) only to be predictably thrown on the same flight/in the same small town together towards the end of the novel.

=D

[Lena]

Oh, and..

"You are 16% geek

OK, so maybe you ain't a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you're probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you."

Fair enough ;) now can someone please explain what minutiae are? =D

[Athena]

And if you're the male hero in a Danielle Steele novel you must:
- be rugged
- have a big one
- have an even bigger bank account
- be as misogynist, but in the end pretend to have your heart somewhat melted by a trophy bimbo

Also, all characters must live in big, tacky houses, preferably have stables and horses and women wander around in long silk robes, while men come home, put on smoking jacket, pour whisky (everyone must have several decanters on a big mahogany table or in a cocktail cabinet) and settle down with a cigar.

Hey, this is easy, much easier than writing a PhD thesis. *ponders*

[MaltaGirl]

G, congratulations on becoming a proper blogger!!! ;-)

Cory, you know me too well. I did not score 46%. My novel's character scored 46%. I scored 56%: You are a geek. Good for you! Considering the endless complexity of the universe, as well as whatever discipline you happen to be most interested in, you'll never be bored as long as you have a good book store, a net connection, and thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Assuming you're a technical geek, you'll be able to afford it, too. If you're not a technical geek, you're geek enough to mate with a technical geek and thereby get the needed dough. Dating tip: Don't date a geek of the same persuasion as you. You'll constantly try to out-geek the other.

Lena, Athena, I love you both even though you're not terribly geeky. Lena, it's a shame the quiz didn't give points for using open-source browsers ;-)

Also, tut tut tut at the pair of you. My excuse for reading Danielle Steele is that I was very, very bored one day, and that's all that was lying around (thanks to Mum). What's yours?

[Athena]

Sheer boredom. It's not as if the sex is that interesting anyway. There's... no never mind too much info rofl.

[Lena]

Recommended to me by a friend, sadly enough lol. Added to the fact that I'll read anything provided that I have time to kill and I'm bored. For example, the last time I went to the dentist I ended up reading The Economist (even though I did not understand five words' worth of writing from the whole article).

Lol, the other day I sat next to a rather rough-looking man on the bus. He was reading a book which I started to peer at (as I usually do out of curiosity), only to discover that he was reading one of those D. Steelish books full of throbbing bodies and passionate lurve~~

[Kenneth]

Well, getting your work published and printed just like the "real thing" is not that difficult. You can also avoid all the huge prepress costs involved when printing at a local printshop. Books will be bounded (you can choose from perfect bound, saddle stitch, PlastiCoil or hardcover) and you can also get an ISBN number if you plan to distribute the book on Amazon (the book is actually included on Amazon, yes.) You can however opt to not have your book promoted. There are also no minimum order levels, which means you can only order 2 copies of the book for yourself and no one will complain (try asking any printing press for such a deal!)

Contact me if you're interested :p

[Hsejjes]

If writing about myself does not put me in the league of 'proper'bloggers then tough!! Keep up the good work, maltagirl. I for one love tuning into your blogg and enjoy reading them. And being geeky is an honour. Better then being some upstart person who believes he/she can churn out intellectual beads of wisdom.
Hope to be blogging properly soon. Getting a new puter.

[MaltaGirl]

Lena and Athena, ok, your answers are somewhat convincing... I am reassured.

Kenneth, I had my thesis printed and bound :-P Set me back about Lm8 per copy, cheapest was Lm5 (depends on the cover). Letters in gold and all.

Hsejjes, did I ever tell you how cool you are? :-) And the word you're looking for is wankellectual *grin* Looking forward to more on your blog :-D

aww maltagirl you just made my day!! Love you alot!!! wankellectual....brilliant word....will start using it for my boss....lols!!!