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Is it Nano if There are not Dinosaurs?

Happy November, friends! ‘Round these here parts, it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which I am doing for the first time in five years. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. (I’m at 19,000 as of yesterday.) The idea behind Nano is that, instead of letting yourself get bogged down in worries about the quality of your writing, you focus on quantity, and, in theory, unleash your inner creativity that would never come out under normal circumstances. I love Nano, but Nano is not always the right solution for where I currently am in my writing career. But when they do line up–why not go in, feet first, with all the reckless abandon I can manage? The story I’m working on this year is one that I had a vague idea for that never gelled. So I stole it and stuck it in Hidden Worlds. Then, of course, after Hidden Worlds was published and released into the wild, the story gelled. About five years ago, I did a ton of research for the story and wrote the first chapter. And then I put it away, to be worked on when I got around to it. Well, I’ve gotten around to it. The story is a kind-of Odyssey-ish voyage across an ocean, focusing on themes of redemption, knowing and trusting yourself, and discovering your worth. Which is all lovely. Sounds like I know what I’m doing, doesn’t it? But it also gives me leave to make a bunch…

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I Really Just Want to Talk about Dinosaurs

I could write you an introspective post on creativity, friends, but that sounds boring, so I’m going to talk about dinosaurs instead. For a reason that will go unmentioned, I’m spending all week at either the zoo or the museum. In a few weeks, the zoo is going to be opening an exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs throughout. They’ve had a Carnotaurus for a few months advertising this fact. He’s pretty scary, as far as robot dinosaurs go. Sure, he mostly just moves his head and growls, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time watching children come to a dead stop and stare at him with utter terror. I get it. You’re not expecting a 9-foot tall carnivore to suddenly rear up out of nowhere. (He’s kind of hidden around a corner, and now they’ve planted palm trees to screen him.) Especially not one that moves and growls. And even after they’ve realized it’s not real (or their parents have explained that dinosaurs are extinct and that this is a robot), the kids still are skeptical. They keep their distance. If they do get up close, it’s to giggle and run away a moment later, as if they’ve done something very brave. (My question is: who decided to design its arms so that they tuck up backwards against its body? That’s super unnatural looking, made more jarring by the fact that the rest of the dinosaur looks so real.) I’m super excited for the exhibit. It actually opens on one…

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