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Live 8
By Bob Geldof, Articolo 31, 4Peace Ensemble, Bryan Adams, Bjorn Agren
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Right when I first get up is my best time to write, and it has nothing to do with caffeine. I think every part of my brain gets wound up tight while I sleep and starts ticking down as the day goes on. So if I want to get anything accomplished quickly, I have to do it while my brain is going ticktickticktick, rather than the evening’s tick…. tick......… zzzz… tick………………….. tick(?)…………. (silence).
This morning I started writing soon after waking and whipped out more than half of the day’s quota with no sweat. And the second half was cranked out with a little more effort in the early afternoon. Tomorrow I’ve got rehearsal almost all day, and if I can get up early enough to make it there on time I’ll be doing good. So I may slip a little further behind, but I know from past experience that I can catch up if I don’t let myself get too far behind.
8,417/50,000
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| This afternoon I sat myself down in my favorite coffeehouse (less so, since they changed their music) with a cup of strong coffee and forced words out of my brain and through my fingers. Unfortunately, I think I may have overlapped my caffeine doses, resulting in a nasty headache. Wish I could blame it on the strain of writing, but I’ve suffered enough coffee induced headaches to know better.
Other than that, it was a typical day for me. This is what I remember from last year, the wringing of words out of my gray and squishy brain. The past few days have been too easy, honestly, not that I’m complaining. But just so long as the daily word quota is being met, I don’t care. So I’m still just one day behind.
I’ll just keep (french) pressing on!
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| An extra 331 words later and I’m back on track. That is, I’m still just one day behind quota.
For being such a mish-mashed world, the ideas are coming pretty easily. Last year I tried to tell my story from a limited, third-person perspective. I think I was about 15 to 20,000 words in before I found myself backed into a corner, the easiest way out of which was to start writing from the perspectives of other characters. So this year, just to keep things flowing, I’ve tried to make every 1,667 word segment (a day’s quota) about a different person. Right now I’m holding at three (protagonist, mentor, and antagonist), but I’ve got ideas ready if I have to add a fourth (love interest, probably).
Not only does this give me plenty of variety, it also allows me to stay in the ordinary world and put off moving into the later story beats just a little longer. I can gush over character descriptions and back-stories without having to worry about moving the plot forward just yet. Once the story starts flowing I’ll be able to keep an eye on my word count to know when what needs to happen. Today, for example, I started the second segment on my protagonist. Naturally, at this point I hinted at the call to adventure.
As the word count grows and it starts looking like time to get things wrapped up, I’ll just weave all of my threads together. Right now my main characters don’t even know each other, so I’ve got to get them there. Once I do, I can still keep my perspective moving, to maintain interest, and cover events from every angle. It’s not about great writing, it’s about high word count.
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| Today was fairly busy with work and babysitting. I probably could have written more while the little boy was asleep, but I didn’t. Today I’m ending about 330 words behind of where I’d like to be, and more than a day behind where I should be. But since I started a day late, I don’t mind being a day behind, though tomorrow I’ll obviously have some catching up to do.
To my new readers, let me explain, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in a world-wide event where crazy, would-be novelists write a 50,000 word novel in a month. November is the “official” month (there’s a website and everything) to take advantage of the miserable weather. Last year I whipped out my novel in 28 days and it was an incredible experience.
Last year’s novel was about a small, snowbound university attacked by evil, half-human/half-bat monsters. It starred a snow-crew worker, so yes, it is semi-autobiographical. I based a lot of my characters on real people and killed most of them off, which is why most of you never got to read it (and never will).
This year’s novel should be little further removed from real life (imagine that!). No, this time I’m writing a western, but with all of the fantasy elements of a post-Tolkien fantasy novel. Both worlds are very dear to me, and mashing them together should be much fun.
In other news, I changed my first really dirty diaper today. I only gagged once and may have sworn off small children forever.
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| No, you didn’t miss day one. Up until a few days ago I wasn’t sure if I’d have the time to write another novel this year, or if my writing energies would be needed elsewhere. Yesterday I wasn’t sure if I’d have the creative gumption to write anything at all. But today I decided to just go for broke, start a day late (like last year) and see what I can do.
After last year, with one novel already under my belt, I’m heading into this November with a lot of confidence. I learned a few tricks last time around that I think are going to help me, and goodness knows I’ve got enough time to write. Right now my biggest fear is not that I’ll find myself unable to write a novel. My biggest fear is that my confidence is going to get the best of me and I’ll let myself fall behind.
But all fears aside, I’m really excited to be revisiting the month-long novel-writing journey. Last November was a great experience, and while here at the trailhead everything looks familiar, this is going to be a different book, written in a new place. And I can hardly wait to find out what new sights are going to greet me.
For the curious, no I am not writing TWILIFE. I don’t think I could bring myself to deal with the tedium and plagiarism such an undertaking would require. Nor am I writing a sequel to last year’s adventure with its human/bat things and the ghost of Davy Crockett. At this point there’s really no telling what I’m going to end up with, but I can promise it will be neither of those.
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