Camp NaNoWriMo reflections of a creative challenge: Admiral Fish and the Rainy Day Parade

Once I started to write, I do my best to tell a story and think of nothing else. It's one of those things, in this world of constant distraction and outlandish claims most people make about multitasking, when I work, I do nothing else but work. I do not let the outside world bother me. I do not open tons of windows on the computer, I do not have my phone near by. I'll listen to music, and even that I have at a low, low volume. And to take it one step further, I do not let my mind get in the way. I can easily shut the noise of life off while I work.

Admiral Fish, as a character, became a large personage but ultimately a minor player in the book which bears his name. I tried to avoid making him a charlatan, or the wise man of the village. Ultimately, what I was trying to play with in the story was this: all the silly, outlandish or downright stupid conspiracy theories and what-ifs rolled into one narrative. And I thought Admiral Fish could be that old man crackpot we all know (and if you don't know him, then he's you) and place him at the epicenter of the end of days.

Akana was not my initial idea of a protagonist. He is not a hero in any way. He is not a particularly strong fellow. And whether it is because of my Gen X sensibility or the notion that at the end of the world everyone might find a disarming person comforting, Akana became the main character.

So, there it was, an unlikely main character, an old codger with a suspect past and all the conspiracy theories you can think of, I began to write.

Just before the process began, I was pitching my idea to my friend Savannah late night after work and a few drinks. She asked question after question. I kept to my concept: it's the end of humanity, everyone knows it and even if there is a little Stoicism with the characters, they choose to live and party. She was incredulous. She simply did not believe that people would treat the end with grace. Rather she thought that people would rape and pillage and become depraved lunatics. Incidentally, I think my friend Savannah is a positive, upbeat person who I might consider a resilient optimist. I do not have that same belief when it comes to myself. I do feel like I'm idealistic and hope for the best in people.

When it came to the story, I wanted the conflicts to be the smaller conflicts which we all have. I wanted the characters of Riverside to behave the way most of us behave. I wanted broken hearts, slow healing heartbreaks and forgiveness layered in hearsay, miscommunication and those little white lies that keep people from really knowing one another.

Then I added booze and sex.

Plus there were soldier robots on the outskirts of town waiting patiently for the atomic battery in the electromagnetic pulse emitter to die.

Ultimately, it was just about writing the story. It was just about completing the creative challenge of Camp NanoWriMo. And what a good time it was.