wasted: the great american beer novel
Last spring I started working on a project (a probable novel) with the working title Wasted. The narrative focused on a one week trip to the Salton Sea in southern California. Wasted started out being a buddy/road-trip novel. Two guys on the road, away from their normal lives, tooling through the desert, and having low-key but life-changing adventures. I hammered out twenty thousands words before running out of steam.
When I started writing Wasted I thought it would be the final installment in a four part set of novels chronicling my adventures as a beer writer. I had three books already sketched out My Year in Beer, Drinking in Place, and Cottage Brewer, each book roughly corresponding to the three years I've been writing about the Long Island beer scene on my blog, The Beer Hall. I've written a little of each of those three books -- mostly bits and pieces collected from my blog -- but none are even close to being novels yet. In the last few weeks I've started to think about all four of these projects as one larger novel. I'll keep the title Wasted as the overall title for the four parts. The last part, the one I started writing last April will be called The West End of Never.
My plan for November is to construct a framework for Wasted that will bind together all four parts into a single novel that poses a question and then answers it. What is the question?
The 2008 NaNo Blog
the salton sea
posted Tuesday, November 13th, 2008 by donavan
Today's word count is 19442. This morning was a bit of a make-up session from yesterday morning's poor word count performance. In the last two days I've average nearly 1500 words, so I'm not far off the schedule. However, to complete the novel on time I should be at 21671 today so I need to make up 2229 words. We'll see how things go tomorrow since I doubt I will get any more writing time today.
The Story: Donavan shifts the focus of the narrative back to the Salton Sea as he tours that body of water and the Imperial Valley all the way down into Mexico.
a crisis of confidence
posted Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 by donavan
I'm more than a third of the way there. Today's word count is 16439. You can find some of the stuff I've been writing about on my two blogs: "our crisis of confidence" and "confidence in future better beer".
The Story: Donavan wonders why people think immediate self-gratification is so fun. A good dose of self-denial and austerity is what's good for the soul.
beer and capitalism revisited (expanded)
posted Friday, November 7th, 2008 by donavan
I hammered out nearly 1700 words this morning bringing today's word count to 10935. The writing went fairly well this morning, though I departed from my narrative to elaborate on how beer is related to the creation of a future social democracy in America.
The Story: Donavan wonders why people think being a greedy bastard is admirable.
morning musings on future beer novels
posted Thursday, November 6th, 2008 by donavan
Today's word count is 9236. I took yesterday off because I was tired and because a friend was visiting from out of town and I wanted to spend QT with him before he had to head out. This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 and fired up the AlphaSmart and typed as fast as I could about whatever came to mind.
The Story: Donavan can't sleep. He wakes and starts reading Three Sheet to the Wind by Pete Brown. Donavan imagines what a beer novel might look like and he floats a few possibilities and discusses their merits and deficiencies. Riviting stuff.
karl in the celler
posted Tuesday, November 4rd, 2008 by donavan
Today's word count is 7646. A bit of a slow morning. I should have been able to knock out a few hundred more words, but today is Election Day and I have to stop. The whole family is heading to the polls before work.
The Story: Donavan is jetlagged. He accidently takes a six hour nap. He wanders down to the Beer Celler at Queens College and has a pint with a guy named Karl.
passing james carville
posted Monday, November 3rd, 2008 by donavan
Today's word count (after the morning writing session) is 6377. The morning wasn't as productive as I had hoped. I lost an hour to starting a fire and a half hour to bread making duties. This evening I posted something about the project: "in search of wasted time".
The Story: Donavan leaves the White Horse, goes into Waterstone's bookstore, then heads to the Eagle and Child. Along the way he passes James Carville in the street. Is this the last we'll see of James Carville?
the oxford pub guide
posted Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 by donavan
Donavan, the narrator of this great American beer novel, lands in England. He's kicking off a five week tour of England in search of great beer and great places to drink it in.
