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While I’m at a break in tonight’s WriMo’ing I thought it would be a good time to record my thoughts on the writing since last week.
First off, holy interfering characters. I have a some secondary characters that a few days ago were just names floating around, popping in and out, mostly when I needed a crowd or someone to bounce dialogue off. But no, one, cute artistic Joe, keeps showing up and doing some interesting things, while slim and mysterious Bethany ended up being the voice of reason and I so want her around more. It’s like the more control I give up over the story, the more I like what happens. It’s a weird, unconscious act.
Also I’m getting excited for revision. There are already areas I’m itching to go back and rework. I’m not yet because I’m terrified of doing anything to my word count. I feel frustrated with how fast I can’t write. Especially when I get going I just want to jump from event to event, sequence to sequence and I can’t keep up.
I am ahead of the prescribed word count so that’s good, in case I get distracted, which could easily happen. Lots going on this week in the evenings, my preferred WriMo’ing time. Dinner with friends, Adler After Dark, Baby Showers. Crazy times ahead. Crazy awesome.
Inspiration and setting of my NaNo novel
I meant to do this on Sunday, Day 7 of NaNoWriMo to create a nice symmetry. An update every week on how the writing went, what I discovered about my story, the characters and maybe myself along the way. And then life over road that plan, like many others.
As of today, Day 12 I’m at 23,102. It’s a big number but the higher it gets the more I’m less worried about it. After I hit 10K which seemed impossible two weeks ago, I’m driven less by the number (and also check it less than every ten minutes and despair) and more by my story. Driven so much that I’m worried I’ll be able to finish by November. Sure I’m on pace to hit 50,000 and win but for me the real win will be completing the story. Not to get all sappy and personal but I need this right now really bad. I need to validate that I can do this, write a novel that has at least some redeeming qualities.
Which is the shock in all this. How much I’ve come to rely on my writing time. In the past I have tried to set aside time each day to simply write, but I never sustained it. Sure I hem and haw and whine that I have to write, but by 30 minutes I’m flying, lost again. And I like what I’m writing. Yeah, my novel’s genre, yeah it’s filled with typos and really bad grammar and far too many adverbs and uneven balance between dialogue and events.
So it leads me to today, where I’m being very mopey and critical of my life so far and wondering what now? When this is done and I have a finished product then what? I plan to revise, of course. I really like what I’ve written and I feel I owe it to Al and Jen, and Lis and Mellie to give them the best I have. But then…can I take the next step? Publish? It seems like a pipe dream. It seems I’m unworthy to even say the word, to even think it. But can I really not try?
So onward and upward…to higher word counts.
Yes, oh yes, it is almost November. In 5 short days I’ll be kicking off NaNoWriMo 2009, my first attempt to write a novel. To prepare I’m being conscious on my personal pitfalls. I’ll be starting early and hard, knocking out Act One by the end of Week One. I have no ideas how long Act One will be or how many words I really can write in a day with my other commitments, you know feeding myself, my job. I’m preparing for next week to be eye-opening. I plan on doing something NaNo related everyday rewarding myself on Sundays with a Write-In in Lincoln Square.
Although it feels like I’m diving in head first I actually have a rough plan, basic character sketches and some random notes. So to that end I’m going to write out my outline, probably leaving out the ending with the super suprising twist you all will probably see coming. Also because I’ve yet to figure what that will be. So here it is, the rough, so rough, outline of Cumberland.
Act One opens with the main character, Allison Roberts or Ally, being woken at 5 am by her phone. Her best friend Lis Davis is on the other hand freaking out because it is the first day of high school for both. Ally gets ready for school early and meets Lis so they can walk to school together. Ally has to walk through Cumberland Cemetery to meet at Lis’ house. Typical first day school antics ensue, more so because Ally and Lis are 15 and have previously been home schooled by their parents. The are starting at Varna High(could change) so they can take Drivers Ed and have a normal high school experience. Their other home schooled friend Jensen Marshall was supposed to join them but he is mysteriously absent. On the walk home from school Ally and Lis run into Jensen and find out he will not be joining them at school. Ally is pissed. (Okay so that was way detailed for a rough outline but it’s the first part I’ll be righting so I’ve thought about it, in the car, overcome by the urge to write it down now.)
Act Two is when we’re introduced to Ally’s family at dinner, Mom Joan an organic farmer/orchard and Dad Greg a Short Haul Truck Driver. This is when we also learn Ally’s Big Secret. She can see and talk to ghosts. She knows she shouldn’t, that it only encourages them but it’s her crutch when she gets upset with the living (Jensen). She goes to Cumberland to talk to her friend Georgie Darnell, son of the founder of the settlement that grew to become the town (none of which named Cumberland, internal debate on whether to use the names of real places or make em up.)
Act Three involves various school shenanigans like class elections, a cat fight at the Friday Football game, continued fighting/bickering/flirting between Ally and Jensen. Also creepy things start happening to Ally at home and she thinks a ghost is trying to scare her/send a message. Ally meets a new ghost Dawn after an ill-advised senance and works with Lis to find how she came to be at Cumberland so she can be at peace and leave Ally alone.
Act Four will probably include a Fall Ball to continue with the school whatnots. Ally and Jensen will makeup and probably some PG-13 making out only to have an even bigger fight over Ally’s abilities. Things also escalate with Dawn and Ally finds out new things about Georgie.
Act Five will tie everything together and there’ll be a Big Showdown with the Big Bad where good will win, Ally and Jensen finally make up (and maybe some more of that PG-13 making out) and all will be well again in Cumberland. The End
Oddly enough my Word of the Day email has been giving some great quotes in the last week for an epigraph or chapter openings.
“The first symptom of love in a young man is shyness; the first symptom in a woman, it’s boldness.” Victor Hugo
“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head and listen to silence. To have no yesterday and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.” Oscar Wilde. I haven’t verified these yet so proceed with caution.
I’m doing it. I’ve thought about it since my good friend Rachel suggested it back in July. I signed up, I have some plot ideas, I’m buying a book tonight, I’m probably crazy but… I’m writing a novel next month.
As of today I’m an official participant in NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month. The purpose, since 1999 is to write a complete novel, whether it be crap or not, of 50,000 words by November 30th and win. Win what? The Grand Prize? Vacation for Two? Toaster Oven? No you win what I like to call at life. Writing a novel has been a crazy pipe dream of mine since high school and I wanted to move on from angsty poetry. And NaNoWriMo’s mission fits with my needs, dedicating time to simply writing. As they say quantity, not quality counts. I need to do this, I need to break the mantra down that I could do this if I…blah blah blah. No excuses I’m telling myself. I’m doing this. I might start believing myself soon but I’m writing a novel next month. It will be crap and I will share with you all, and I might throw up and chicken out of the whole thing but it’s happening.
Not sure how this is going to effect my 100 books in a year challenge. I just hit 77 so I’ll be in good shape if I take a month off. I’ll just end the year strong with a string of kids and romance novels.
If you would like to join me in madness my id is akmargie. We’ll be writing buddies. In insanity.
