The Elliptical Crown – Outline

As usual, I'm posting the version of the outline that I started out with rather than how it ended up (useful for study purposes because it illustrates how a work transforms during the writing process).

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The Tiara (working title) outline

Dramatis personae

Rose (Roseanna Murray) – Young (late 20s early 30s) associate for the law firm of Dyer, Deadmarsh and Stull, a big New York law firm specializing in corporate clients. Has been with the firm just long enough to be lead counsel on a medium-sized negligence case for an insurance company client. Ambitious, but not rabidly so. Cares most about being good at her job. Medium height, medium build, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, pale. Grew up in Florida, loved the ocean (seems different to her in Mass.), doesn’t want to have to move home

Helpers

Alison Ayodele – Boston branch attorney for the firm. Mostly a documents specialist, skilled at finding not-easily-accessed records and absorbing lots of information in a short time. Former Boston PD detective, so has an air of private investigator about her. Dark skin, long hair, large but not thick glasses. 30-something. Nerdy but with a good sense of humor.

Ellie (Elisa Salcedo) – Rose’s long-term partner (waiting for Ellie to pop the question). Medium height, athletic build. Short, dark hair. Dresses academic-casual. Works as an assistant curator at the Museum of Natural History, specialty is pre-Columbian art, minor fascination with Polynesian culture

Charles Tilton – Curator of the Newburyport Historical Society museum and collections. Family has served the NHS for decades, but had to marry into money to hold on to his position. Passively resentful of his wife, struck with liberal guilt about Newburyport’s racist attitudes about Innsmouth folk. Secretly favors return of the tiara. Medium height and build, looks very professor-ish.

Calvin Randell – Rose’s law school classmate and another associate at the firm. Promoted into Rose’s old spot (though no hard feelings). Tall, good looking, nicely but not super expensively dressed. Her “in” if she needs to sneak anything from the firm.

Antagonists

Geoffrey Marsh – The client. Short, pale, looks like a toad and a fish had a baby. Peculiar smell. Angry disposition, the clear source of lawsuits filed for pure spite. Dresses in expensive, old-fashioned suits.

William Dyer III – Goes by Will, hates being called Billy (which Petran does for that very reason). Managing partner at DDS, grandson of one of the founding partners. Blustering “good old boy” façade poorly covers the cold-blooded snake inside. Tall, stocky, clean-shaven, not dealing well with male pattern baldness. Very expensive suits.

Miss Darcey (Stacia Darcey Wakefield-Tilton) – Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Newburyport Historical Society. Medium height and build, brown-grey hair held up in conservative style. Dress and demeanor very much a ladies-that-lunch sort of person. She becomes even more self-important when dealing with people who even vaguely might regard themselves as her equals or superiors (so merely dismissive of the younger lawyers while actively condescending to older characters). Feigns pleasantness (usually poorly), has no ability to contain her disdain for Innsmouth folk in general and the Marshes in particular.

Neutrals

Andrei Petran – 50-something “black sheep” partner at DDS, New York branch. Got along well with the previous generation of senior partners, but not so much with the new crop. Now mostly given low-dollar cases so he earns a minimal share of the partners’ take (trying to force him out, but he’s content with his spot and won’t go). Short, balding, goatee, dresses more academic than corporate law.

Geoffrey Marsh III “Jeff” – Considerably more human than his grandfather (though still something a bit off about him). Wants the Innsmouth interests looked after, but isn’t as vitriolic about regaining the tiara.

NHS attorney -

Plot summary

Descendants of the Marsh family of Innsmouth take legal action to reclaim a ceremonial tiara taken to the Newburyport Historical Society after the government raid in the 20s. The story is told from the perspective of a young, ambitious attorney for a big NY or DC law firm. She loses an expensive case (lawsuit? arbitration?) and is exiled to the Siberia of the firm: the public interest attorney (check to make sure this isn’t too close to Grisham). She’s assigned to represent the Historical Society with the assurance that if she can do a bang-up job that she’s got the chance to return to the partners’ good graces (but of course if she fails she’s out the door). The society resists at least in part out of racism against the fishy folk of Innsmouth. They’ve also gotten the funding for upgrades to their museum, including a special exhibit space for the tiara. As a compromise, the Marshes agree to let the museum keep the piece as long as they’re allowed in to perform a “deconsecration” ceremony on it. EOD only in attendance, though a recording made surreptitiously by the museum reveals nothing particularly unusual. But after the ceremony is performed, the museum finds itself beset with a problem: nobody can stand to go anywhere near the tiara. At first it’s just a vague sense of unease felt by anyone close to it. But then it expands, becoming almost a force field of intense feelings of uncontrollable dread and creeping evil pervading the entire museum. And now the Innsmouth folk won’t take it back!

Plot outline

(note: Deadly Light last 2/3 had 30 scenes)

Act One

Rose loses a lawsuit

            Her first time as lead counsel, small (to defendant) but significant insurance case

            Sitting out in the hallway, looking at happy plaintiffs, questioning her life

            Clearly she’s lost the step up to junior partner

            Consoled by Calvin

            They grab coffee and go to Battery Park

            Rose talks about going to the ocean (not visible from the park) in Florida

            Seeking comfort when she was a kid (sense of unimportance of problems)

            both messaged by DDM

Rose is called to the boardroom

            Pattern the building off Lathrop Gage only even swankier

            Rose notes that it’s easier to get into the courthouse

            demoted to Petran’s office

            Calvin gets the junior partner spot

            Rose assigned to artifact recovery case (which she knows nothing about)

            Door nameplate already gone

            Sadly packs her office (photo of Ellie), bids farewell to her bad view window

            New office is windowless broom closet

            Eerie encounter with Innsmouth Look aggressive panhandler

Reassuring interlude with Ellie

            Rose comes home to the smells of a decent meal cooking

            Ellie having harassment problem with her boss at the museum

            Jokes that if Rose gets fired, at least Ellie will be able to afford her

            Ellie points out the merits of the whole artifact recovery thing

            Rose reads up on artifact recovery, introduce the basic issues in a not boring way

Rose and Petran go to Boston branch

            Pick-up at airport

            Alison introduced as their Boston team member and document hunter

            She’s an aggressive driver, white knuckles all the way downtown

            Boston DDM office is older building, the firm’s original home

            Meeting room is expensive, dark wood

            Meeting with Jeff Marsh

                        Petran (little knowledge of artifact recovery) does the talking

                        Marsh explains history from the Innsmouth perspective

                                    History of resentment between Innsmouth and neighbors

                                    Importance of tiara

            Petran dumps case on Rose, returns to New York

            Another eerie encounter, Innsmouth Look group staring from across the street

Battle plan with Alison

            Car trip to Newburyport, Rose driving this time

            Outline what they’ll need to be able to prove, where investigation might help

Meeting with Miss Darcey & lawyer

            Both of whom are the big fish in a small pond sort

            Lawyer has red nose, Rose mentally nicknames him Rudolph

            Chamber of Commerce office downtown

            Tilton outlines the history from the Newburyport perspective

                        Attempts to buy, steal the tiara

            Darcy warns about the Innsmouth Look (already seen in NY and Boston)

            Also the plan to stay in Innsmouth, especially overnight

Tour of NHS with Tilton

            Building is converted church with dusty interior

            special exhibit space upper floor apse (Pratt side room)

            tiara in vault in basement

            Rose gets a weird feeling just looking at it

            Tilton confides his sympathy for the Marsh case

            dislike of wife, new money who needed to marry into an old family

Journey to Innsmouth

            Getting set up in the Gillman Hotel

            Creepy clerk at the desk / no bellhop for heavy, longer stay bags

Straying over to the EOD ruins

            Reading commemorative plaque

            Getting stared at by townsfolk

Eerie night in the hotel

            Room and whole hotel are eerily quiet (Council Grove hotel quiet)

            TV sounds incredibly loud even at low volume

            TV off, trying to sleep (not even any white noise)

            Whispers in the hallway

            Doorknob rattles

            Attempt to unlock the door

            Alison blocks it closed with her body

            Whispering rises to shouting in English, unrecognizable language and growls

            Menace called off by unknown Marsh family member

Rose goes to factory

            Pre-visit agreement with Alison to relocate to Newburyport

            Good description of the creepy exterior / interior

            meets elder Marsh

            floats idea of deconsecration / rejected

            angrily dismissed by Marsh, ordered to leave town

            Jeff tries to smooth things over

Leaving town

            Detained by Innsmouth PD, notorious speed trappers

            Alison thinks to make a quick call to Jeff

            What looked like it was going to go bad turns out okay after call

            Back at Newburyport, Rose calls Ellie

Getting set up in a hotel in Newburyport

            Fortunately no fallout from abandoning the Gillman, as they were ordered out

            Hotel is right across the street cattycorner from NHS (pattern off Eldridge)

Next day preliminary hearing

            Judge in Newburyport courtroom finds in favor of defendant on key issues

            Making it apparent that the Rose and Marshes aren’t going to prevail in court

            Rose at first despairs of another defeat

            Then hallway conversation with Jeff about retrying negotiated settlement

Ellie comes to Newburyport

            Nice reunion

            Ellie inspects the tiara, makes some preliminary guesses, talks to Tilton

            Jeff calls, okays the ceremony scheme

Act Two

Arrangements for ceremony

            Complex negotiations, separate rooms with only lawyers meeting

            Only EOD can be present

            Security cameras / no audio

Lead-up to ceremony

            Audio secretly recorded despite agreement

The ceremony

            description

            analysis: neither Ellie nor Charles has ever seen anything like it

The aftermath

            Plaintiffs and defendants meet to sign documents

            Rose visits the tiara room

            Feels a vague sense of unease, coldness, dampness

Things go wrong

            Ill ease begins

            Escalates to terror

            Spoils local business, starts to affect the tourist trade

            Rose attempts to enter NHS building / description of effects

Attempt to transfer it back to Innsmouth

            Group trip to factory

            Miss Darcey eats shit

            Marsh refuses to take the thing back

Lunch with Jeff

            In which he spills the beans about the EOD cult, at least what he knows

Alison, Charles and Ellie working together figure out a way to contain it

            Secretly using DDM resources even though the firm’s interest is over

            Boston bomb squad (buddy of Alison) uses a remote to put it in container

            Cover story is that artifact has been found to be radioactive

            Some suspense when it’s removed / will it work? / yes it does

            Calvin arranges things on the New York end

            Ellie gets clearance from the museum by threatening her boss

Act Three

Off to NY Natural History Museum

            Ellie installs it in a sub-basement storage area

            Marsh calls Rose hopping mad, demands to know new location

            DDM fires Rose and Alison, demotes Calvin

Marsh tries to reclaim it

            Reasserting title

            Which of course he no longer has (Charles attends to assert NHS ownership)

            Side-revelation that Jeff has been sent away for reeducation

Deep Ones come for the tiara

            Ellie/Charles figure out what the ceremony was all about, what effect it caused

            Scary showdown

            Exposing long-disused tunnels that lead to the river

Thoughts

            Make the early parts scarier

            Lovecraft hated New York. Did he write something useful about it?

                        He

                        The Horror at Red Hook

                        Cool Air

                        The Shunned House (written while in New York)

                        In the Vault (written while in New York)

            More detail for the last act

                        Can the recorded audio be worked in?

                        Ellie/Charles finds/is given something that will undo the curse?

                        Can The Anatomy Museum be worked into this somehow?

                        Also be careful not to turn this into the last act of The Relic

            Overarching theme of the lawyer’s struggle with justice, hateful clients, etc.

                        Making it way more personal with my own past experiences

Relevant passage from “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”

Most interesting of all was a glancing reference to the strange jewellery vaguely associated with Innsmouth. It had evidently impressed the whole countryside more than a little, for mention was made of specimens in the museum of Miskatonic University at Arkham, and in the display room of the Newburyport Historical Society. The fragmentary descriptions of these things were bald and prosaic, but they hinted to me an undercurrent of persistent strangeness. Something about them seemed so odd and provocative that I could not put them out of my mind, and despite the relative lateness of the hour I resolved to see the local sample—said to be a large, queerly proportioned thing evidently meant for a tiara—if it could possibly be arranged.
The librarian gave me a note of introduction to the curator of the Society, a Miss Anna Tilton, who lived nearby, and after a brief explanation that ancient gentlewoman was kind enough to pilot me into the closed building, since the hour was not outrageously late. The collection was a notable one indeed, but in my present mood I had eyes for nothing but the bizarre object which glistened in a corner cupboard under the electric lights.
It took no excessive sensitiveness to beauty to make me literally gasp at the strange, unearthly splendour of the alien, opulent phantasy that rested there on a purple velvet cushion. Even now I can hardly describe what I saw, though it was clearly enough a sort of tiara, as the description had said. It was tall in front, and with a very large and curiously irregular periphery, as if designed for a head of almost freakishly elliptical outline. The material seemed to be predominantly gold, though a weird lighter lustrousness hinted at some strange alloy with an equally beautiful and scarcely identifiable metal. Its condition was almost perfect, and one could have spent hours in studying the striking and puzzlingly untraditional designs—some simply geometrical, and some plainly marine—chased or moulded in high relief on its surface with a craftsmanship of incredible skill and grace.
The longer I looked, the more the thing fascinated me; and in this fascination there was a curiously disturbing element hardly to be classified or accounted for. At first I decided that it was the queer other-worldly quality of the art which made me uneasy. All other art objects I had ever seen either belonged to some known racial or national stream, or else were consciously modernistic defiances of every recognised stream. This tiara was neither. It clearly belonged to some settled technique of infinite maturity and perfection, yet that technique was utterly remote from any—Eastern or Western, ancient or modern—which I had ever heard of or seen exemplified. It was as if the workmanship were that of another planet.
However, I soon saw that my uneasiness had a second and perhaps equally potent source residing in the pictorial and mathematical suggestions of the strange designs. The patterns all hinted of remote secrets and unimaginable abysses in time and space, and the monotonously aquatic nature of the reliefs became almost sinister. Among these reliefs were fabulous monsters of abhorrent grotesqueness and malignity—half ichthyic and half batrachian in suggestion—which one could not dissociate from a certain haunting and uncomfortable sense of pseudo-memory, as if they called up some image from deep cells and tissues whose retentive functions are wholly primal and awesomely ancestral. At times I fancied that every contour of these blasphemous fish-frogs was overflowing with the ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil.
In odd contrast to the tiara’s aspect was its brief and prosy history as related by Miss Tilton. It had been pawned for a ridiculous sum at a shop in State Street in 1873, by a drunken Innsmouth man shortly afterward killed in a brawl. The Society had acquired it directly from the pawnbroker, at once giving it a display worthy of its quality. It was labelled as of probable East-Indian or Indo-Chinese provenance, though the attribution was frankly tentative.
Miss Tilton, comparing all possible hypotheses regarding its origin and its presence in New England, was inclined to believe that it formed part of some exotic pirate hoard discovered by old Captain Obed Marsh. This view was surely not weakened by the insistent offers of purchase at a high price which the Marshes began to make as soon as they knew of its presence, and which they repeated to this day despite the Society’s unvarying determination not to sell.
As the good lady shewed me out of the building she made it clear that the pirate theory of the Marsh fortune was a popular one among the intelligent people of the region. Her own attitude toward shadowed Innsmouth—which she had never seen—was one of disgust at a community slipping far down the cultural scale, and she assured me that the rumours of devil-worship were partly justified by a peculiar secret cult which had gained force there and engulfed all the orthodox churches.

The Elliptical Crown – Final stats and final thoughts

First a quick look at the stats:

Before starting this blog entry, I went back and re-read my final thoughts from last year. Given how smoothly this year went, it's kinda hard to imagine that a year ago I doubted that I'd even give it a try this time around.

It was an interesting experience to start with something that was maybe a fragment of an idea for a short story (based on a couple of paragraphs from a well-known Lovecraft tale) and see it spin out into an entire novel. The main take-aways from this time are that I can begin with something small and get it to turn into something larger. And things go a lot smoother if I use October to create a detailed outline so I'm ready to hit the ground running when NaNoWriMo starts.

On a personal note, my depression has been a lot better controlled recently. That helped keep the unproductive days seem a lot less apocalyptic.

My closing thought is that prior to publication I will most likely change the name to "The Innsmouth Crown." That should do a better job of placing it in the right spot for readers, not to mention making it sound less like a novel about the winner of a contest involving a piece of gym equipment.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 26 – Done

A snow day away from the college gave me the extra time I needed to put in a 4000+ word sprint and finish the novel.

As usual, I plan to take a day or two before blogging my final thoughts and other end-of-project materials.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 25

It's super strange to be done with the Novel Rhino challenge but still be working on the novel. It's now officially the longest thing I've ever written in a single month, and other than last year's Rhino project that was one third done before the first of November, it's the longest thing I've ever written period.

Today's writing wasn't the mammoth marathon of yesterday, but it was still a respectable total. It took me to the end of the final meeting at DDS. So the only major piece left is the showdown in the museum.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 24 – Winner

This evening I topped 50,000 words with around 30 minutes to spare before midnight. I've decided not to verify my Novel Rhino victory until the novel is actually finished or the month runs out, whichever comes first.

I didn't get a lot of writing done this morning, but this afternoon I hit some long passages with a lot of action. They carried me forward to a 4,843 word day, shattering my previous single day record by more than 800 words.

At this point I'm guessing that the novel has another 8000 words or so to go. But that's just a ballpark estimate. By the middle of the week I should either be finished or have a more concrete idea of what remains to be done.

The writing this evening stopped at the end of the bridge attack scene. Tomorrow should find our cast back in Boston and headed for New York for the final showdowns.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 23

Another predictably dreadful day. But now Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving festivities are finally behind us. Absent unforeseen circumstances, I should be able to make up for lost time on Saturday and pass the finish line on Sunday.

Today's brief writing session ended in the lobby of the Marsh Refinery.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 22

Not a great writing day, even with the head start I gave myself after midnight before I went to bed. But then it's Thanksgiving, which I already knew was not going to lend itself to writing.

Today's session ended in the middle of my adaptation of the Beast of Berkeley Square.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 21

Once again saved by a late evening sprint.

Today I covered a great deal of distance, going all the way from the start of the crown's expanding effects to the moment right before Rose calls Jeff to set up a meeting.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 20

Crossed the 40k mark with room to spare this evening. It really helps that there's almost no set-up or back story at this point. The plot's moving along at a healthy clip, and I'm hoping the words will keep flowing from here until the end.

I'll go ahead and speculate that I won't get a ton of writing done on Thursday or Friday, but otherwise maybe I can stay on track.

Today's writing began after midnight, picking up in the middle of the ceremony. I wrapped up at the end of the post-ceremony conversation between Rose, Ellie and Alison in the restaurant.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 19

Based on my current word count, I could write less than 1000 words per day and still hit 50k by the end of the month. Though of course my goal is still to make the Rhino finish line ahead of schedule and complete the whole book by the end of the month.

At my stopping point this evening I had to leave things in the middle of the ceremony. Because I'm anxious to see how it's going to turn out, I may come back to it after midnight and get an early start on day 20.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 18

Like last week, I’ve managed to bounce back from two bad days in a row. I topped 3300 words for the day, getting me back on my 2k per day track.

I reached the total at least in part by continuing writing after midnight, so I woke up this morning with approximately 1000 words already done.

The day began with the start of negotiations and ended at the end. Or not quite the end. Nothing's been signed yet. But that's just a formality, right?

The Elliptical Crown – Day 17

Though this still wasn't exactly a stellar achievement day, I did manage to get a little back on track. In the quest for word count, I'm currently where I should have finished the day yesterday. I just need to keep chipping away at the damage done by Day 16.

Today's start found Rose and Ellie having dinner, and it ended with Ellie's post-examination report about the crown. Tomorrow the negotiations get underway.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 16

Terrible day. I don't even want to think about it anymore, let alone try to write anything.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 15

Crossed the 30,000 word mark early this evening. Judging by where I am in my outline, I'm guessing that I'm somewhere around halfway done with the novel. That tends to suggest that it will be longer than the Novel Rhino 50k finish line by more than a small margin.

For what it's worth, I'm having second thoughts about the title. "Elliptical Crown" sounds intriguing if you think about it. As the characters have already asked more than once, what kind of head could wear a metal crown with an elliptical base? Trouble is, titles aren't there to provoke thought. They're there to sell books. So now I'm wondering if "The Innsmouth Crown" wouldn't be a clearer advertisement for the book's content, doing a better job of getting through to its most likely audience.

I'm not going to change it before the end of the month, but for anyone who comes back, reads this blog later and wonders why the entries call it "Elliptical," that's the explanation.

Today's writing session began with Rose and Alison leaving Innsmouth and ended with Ellie's imminent arrival in Newburyport.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 14

Here's something I should have mentioned two days ago when it happened: I've passed the word count for Grandma Gillman, my previous foray into Innsmouth country. Though publication of the current project is still some distance in the future, I'm considering offering it as a stand-alone novel and also in a package of both Innsmouth tales priced cheaper than buying the two separately.

Today's writing task was the sad tale of our heroes' visit with their client. So at least that's done.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 13

Halfway there. Actually roughly 1100 words past the midway point.

Today's writing was mostly action – the attack in the hotel – so it went swiftly. At the end of the evening our heroes were outside the Marsh Refinery getting ready to enter.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 12

I've reached the point in the writing process where my fidget cube has begun to take on a personality. When set on the joystick side with the switch side in the on position, it looks just enough like it has feet and a nose.

In less insane observations, I'm back on my 2k pace for the first time since stumbling late last week. I'm just under 1000 words from midway done. And while I was writing this evening, I finally figured out how the story ends. With a few tweaks here and there, I should be able to use the outline to write straight through to the end.

Today's session began at the Innsmouth town line and ended with Rose and Alison getting groceries and heading back to the hotel.

The Elliptical Crown – Day 11

Today's work consisted of three separate writing sessions. As I did yesterday, I got an after-midnight start on the day. I spent a chunk of time writing before dinner and another chunk after. Between the three, I finished the day an hour early with a respectable showing.

The last sentences for the day concluded Rose and Alison's meeting with Charles. From here it's off to shadowy Innsmouth itself.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Ten

A much better showing today. Last night (technically this morning) after midnight I kept writing for awhile, giving myself a running start. This evening after dinner I started at the same time I've been starting (give or take a half hour or so), but I had a more productive writing session than I've had for the last couple of nights.

At least part of the difference was that I've finally gotten past the dull set up. The legal details are in the rear view, and the actual story is finally getting underway.

This evening's session began in the middle of the conversation at the Chamber of Commerce, and it ended in the office of the museum's curator. Between the start and the stop was the protagonist's first look at the great McGuffin itself. It was an interesting experience rewriting Lovecraft's description so it conveyed the same descriptive information but substituted a vague sense of unease for his "ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil."

The Elliptical Crown – Day Nine

Another dismal showing, as once again I wasn’t able to get started until late in the evening. My pace is now barely above what I’ll need to finish before the end of the month. I hope tomorrow will represent a fresh dedication to productive writing sessions.

The discussion at the Chamber of Commerce continues but has not yet reached its conclusion.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Eight

Worst day so far in terms of word count. I got an extremely late start and didn't even make it to 1000 words. Now annoyingly off my pace. In the next three days I'm going to have to work hard to get caught back up.

The story is now in Newburyport toward the beginning of the meeting in the Chamber of Commerce.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Seven

Another less than ideal writing day. I managed to stay above the 2000 word daily average, but just barely.

Part of my problem was that I came home exhausted and then had to deal with some other demands on my attention before I could sit down and write. Plus I’ve been in a bit of a blue mood all day, which of course doesn’t make it easier to think creative thoughts let alone write them down.

Tonight’s session started with Rose’s second street encounter with Innsmouth Look people, and it ended at the conclusion of Alison and Rose’s pre-Newburyport chat in the car. I’m in no shape to re-read it now, but sometime I’m going to need to take a critical look at this dialogue to see whether or not it is in fact dull as dirt, which at this point I richly suspect.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Six

Rescued once again by a late evening sprint.

Earlier in the evening I got distracted by coverage of the midterm election results. Not a proper topic for this blog, other than to mention that they were emotionally straining and not at all conducive to novel writing.

Once the results were mostly in, however, I found it easier to get back on task. Certainly I did much better than yesterday, not that beating yesterday's word count is much to be proud of.

Today I started toward the beginning of the conference between Rose, Alison and Jeff. By the end of the evening I'd reached the end of the conversation. Tomorrow it's one final bit of business in Boston and then hitting the road up the coast.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Five

My first bad day so far.

I felt wretched for most of the day. What started as a small headache in the morning became much worse – and added nausea to the mix – by midday. When class was over, I came home and went almost directly to bed.

Fortunately I felt better when I woke up. We had a good meal, and then I managed to salvage a little of the writing schedule after dinner. I’m still slightly above my target daily word count, but I lost a lot of the padding I built up over the weekend.

The whole session was devoted to introducing Jeff Marsh as a character and beginning the back story for the title object.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Four

Today was an interesting exercise in actually having too much time to write. Thanks in part to the switch off Daylight Saving Time, I ended up with several hours this afternoon. I actually hit a wall where I was still gunning for my optimal daily word count but having more and more trouble staying focused.

Eventually I gave up and went downstairs to cook dinner. After we ate and watched a little television, I sat back down and found a renewed burst of energy. I could actually have kept going if I hadn’t stopped myself in order to get to bed on time.

Today’s work finally got Rose out of NYC and off to Boston. When I first started outlining the story, I had no idea that what basically amounts to a prelude turned out to have such a large word count. At this point I am definitely looking forward to seeing what other details insert themselves as the novel continues to progress.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Three

Another irregular writing day. More than 800 of today’s words were written in the wee hours of the morning, really just a continuation of yesterday’s late-starting writing session.

Whatever does the trick, I guess.

I also had a problem with Word, which hung up and cost me around half an hour’s worth of work. Yet another lesson in the importance of saving frequently.

Of course when I started over, I saved after every paragraph. Doing that feels sarcastic somehow, like the crowd at a baseball game cheering for a strike after the pitcher throws several balls in a row.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Two

I got distracted by multiple other concerns for most of the day, not really settling into writing until after 9 p.m. But I managed to sprint for a couple of hours and put in a respectable showing for the day.

Today’s writing began with Rose’s arrival back at the law firm and finished with her preparing to move out of her former office.

The Elliptical Crown – Day One

And we’re off!

I stayed up past midnight and spent 30 minutes or so getting the novel started. Once again I’m committed to not making this blog a series of neurotic ramblings about word count. So I’ll likely only note it when I pass one of NaNoWriMo’s official badge points.

The story today began at the beginning, with Rose’s tragic (for her) courtroom loss. I finished as she arrived back at the office to face the music. In between, her story about the imaginary “sea people” from her childhood just popped into my head as I was writing. If I can keep successfully combining my pre-written outline with flashes of inspiration, this is likely to be a successful project.

Fingers crossed.

The Elliptical Crown - Cover Art

When I first started thinking about cover design for this book, I had something more tiara-like in mind. Then my mind moved to something more detailed, possibly resembling the weird pictures and writing described by Lovecraft. Almost immediately I decided that even an abstract version of that concept was going to require more time (and most likely more talent) than I had to devote to it.

Then I remembered that I used a photo I took of a fossil in a museum for the cover of Deep Mist. If it ain’t broke ...

Placing the photo properly in the frame required a little rotation and a lot of cropping. Otherwise the colors and shadows you see are exactly what I captured.

The font also kinda dropped into my lap. The Photoshop project I finished right before this one was my once-a-semester (if I’m lucky) contribution to the Metamorphoses Project. I was going for a World War Two propaganda poster look for that one, and I opted to use a Typekit font called Comrade. When I started work on the book cover in Photoshop, the text tool defaulted to the last font I used. And in this case it proved to fit quite well into the new design. I tried some other fonts but came back to this one.

The cover design became a priority this early in the process because once one sets up one’s book on the National Novel Writing Month web site, there’s a place in the new entry for a cover. And a suggestion that a cover is a good thing to include, as apparently it increases the chances that the book will make it to the goal before the end of the month.

The other thing I needed to do was assign a title. The working title up until now was “The Tiara,” for obvious reasons. However accurate the term was for describing the thing at the center of the story, I felt like it wasn’t going to fly as a public-facing name. The word suggests beauty pageants and quinceaneras more than Lovecraftian horror.

A quick re-read of the relevant passage from “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” revealed that one of the object’s defining qualities was that it was too elliptical to easily fit a normal human head. Thus the current title just seemed obvious.

And that of course leads me to the biggest news of the day: I’ve set up an official spot on nanowrimo.com for the book. Maybe a bit early, but I want to build momentum throughout October so I can hit the ground running on November 1.

The Elliptical Crown - Getting Started

Fans of this blog (or people capable of scrolling down a bit) may already know that at the end of National Novel Writing Month last year I was leaning toward not trying it again this year. Though I had a number of concerns, the biggest issue was that I didn’t have another novel-length idea in mind.

To be honest, that still concerns me. In 2014 I met the quota at least in part because I had firm ideas about the wrap-around and the first part, and the second part was actually an expansion of a long-lost screenplay I wrote for a class way back when I was an undergrad. One might even say that what I’d really accomplished was two novellas grafted together (and a critical critic might even justifiably observe that the graft was awkward at best).

My next victory came last year, and it too had a lot of the legwork done ahead of time. The first act was almost completely done considerably before November 1, 2017, so it couldn’t be included in the Novel Month word count total. I didn’t have a firm plot in mind for acts two and three until I wrote an outline in the days leading up to the start of the race. So at least the writing for those acts was original rather than something I dredged up from my past.

Still, overall it could still be argued that it was three separate stories tied together by common characters and locations. I think of it as a novel and defend its honor by pointing out that Stephen King has done more awkward melds in the past and sold millions of copies to people who never questioned their statuses as full-fledged novels.

But that still wasn’t a single story arc from beginning to end, and it still wasn’t something that wasn’t at least partially pre-written, even if long ago in another form.

Knowing that the next novel would have to start from an unformed idea and make it all the way to a novel-length word count in 30 days seemed daunting.

It still does.

However, over the summer I got the chance to spend some time organizing my story ideas. Like many writers, I tended to have things jotted down in several different notebooks, Google docs, Apple notes and the like. Getting them all typed into a single location gave me a much better view of what was unlikely to actually work, what would make a short story at best, and what precious few could maybe expand into a novel.

One particular piece seemed naturally to sprout elaborations on the basic concept. Like “Grandma Gillman,” my first self-published novella, this one took a small piece from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” But this one centered around a small collection of paragraphs early in the tale. The Newburyport Historical Society museum had acquired a ceremonial tiara from the Innsmouth folk via questionable means. Lovecraft describes the object to introduce the particular peculiarities of the people whose town he was about to visit.

Somehow my brain managed to mash that tiara up with the federal law designed to help Native Americans retrieve the stolen artifacts and ancestral remains held in museum collections. Which led easily enough to the notion that a story might be made from the only thing in the world worse than Lovecraftian monsters: lawyers.

About all of that much more could be said, but for now all I need to note is that the idea from my files struck me as sufficient to supply the skeleton for a novel-length work. And thus was born my determination to give Novel Month another go.