Planning NaNoWriMo 2015

It's almost time for National Novel Writing Month! For those who don't know, the goal is to write at least 50,000 words during November. That's an average of 1,667 words a day for 30 consecutive days. It's not exactly easy to do. Last year I was very busy and really only participated to be able to say I was making the attempt. This year will be my ninth year, and I feel like I have a win in me this time. I don't have any looming projects on the horizon so I should be able to commit the time needed for the writing. Plus since about February, I have been doing a lot of writing and I feel like I have a good routine of sitting down and writing almost every day. This should all be good for my NaNoWriMo attempt.

It's also great to have a good idea. Some time ago, I watched this video about the life of John Dee. He was court astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. I also heard about him in this episode of Shakespeare's Restless World by Neil MacGregor. The idea Dee contacted angels via scrying is pretty incredible. For the purposes of this novel, it doesn't much matter what he did or didn't actually hear or do. In a fantasy and horror setting, I can take the story at face value and accept he did talk to angels. This starting point opens many great storytelling options.

Instead of making Dee himself my protagonist and thus be bound by his actual biography, I've created a rough analog named Dr. Nicholas Rasmus. I'm going to write Rasmus' diary as he uses a chunk of crystal to talk to angels. I've got other ideas in the mix too. Rasmus will use Edger Cayce-style “automatic writing” to channel the angel's descriptions of the place where they live and the science they know which he hopes will benefit mankind. Yet, not is all as it seems. Inspired, as Dee himself was, by the Book of Enoch, the “angel” Rasmus is contacting as actually a fallen angel. He channels this description of the glorious city the angels live it, but the angel doesn't tell him its built in a prison in the pit of fire where the fallen angels are locked. I'm thinking of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's underground city in The Coming Race. A fabulous city full of wonders, but there's a sinister undercurrent Rasmus will eventually uncover. I am also borrowing a little bit from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. I haven't read it, but I know it is written as a demon's letter to Lucifer asking how to corrupt humans more. I think I'll throw in just a touch of the “found document” angle used by Poe in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Lovecraft in The Call of Cthulhu and Potocki in The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.

In preparation for the project I've read the Book of Enoch. My main impression is, there's a very good reason it didn't make “the cut” and get included in the Biblical canon (at least not in 99% of Bibles). It's very repetitive, doesn't say much in the first place and is mostly concerned with material things. Enoch has a list of angel names, descriptions of the valley of fire where the angels are thrown, “secrets” of the yearly progression of the sun from one solstice to the other and a record of Noah's birth (he was glowing and filled the room with light!). This is all like Old Testament fan fiction. There's very little about actual Divine interaction with individuals which is the mainstay of Genesis, Judges, Samuel and the later Gospels. That said, the details of Enoch are perfect for turning into my own Old Testament fan fiction. I've picked an ex-angel from the list to be the one Rasmus is talking to. The general impression of “ooo this is all secret knowledge passed on just to you” also fits the tone I have in mind of Rasmus' diary.

During this run-up to November, I happened upon the fact long-time fantasy and science fiction artist Wayne Barlowe has also done a bunch of paintings of hell. I've spent some time looking at his hell art since. I've always liked Barlowe's style and I love the way he's worked out an economy for and the metaphysics of his fallen angels. My story won't deal with hell, I don't think, but I think Barlowe's ideas about what a fallen angel looks like will influence me. In my mind's eye as well are the Daemonix from Rifts Coalition Wars 2: Coalition Overkill and the mass-production Evas from The End of Evangelion. I will also keep in mind the Biblical descriptions of powerful angels with multiple beast-like heads and wings covered in eyes.

Right now my word count is 0 words.
By now I should have 0 words.