National Novel Writing Month

Day 3 = 4,504 words

It's that time of year again -- National Novel Writing Month -- and for the second year, I'm taking the plunge. Last year's entry centered around a wool mill, and, keeping with that theme, this year's entry will feature a spice mill.

Now the mills I'm basing these stories on actually exist (Greenbank Mill) or existed (the Fell Spice Mill). However, I'm taking liberties with all sorts of things, not the least of which are time and space. It's nice being master of the universe, you know?

I did learn a lesson last year, and that is to keep each day's writing in a separate file. That should make cobbling them all together into a coherent whole so much easier. I've been flailing about with the wool mill story and haven't settled on how I'm going to beat it into submission. I'm under some pressure here because two people have asked to read it. I've chosen to set aside the worries about "this is just so much crap" and instead focus on dealing with what is and quickly turning it into something I might not be thrilled about others reading but at least won't die of embarrassment after I hand it over to them.

NaNoWriMo turns out not to be scary at all. In fact, I'm entranced by the whole experience. I've heard that writers have had characters just show up and take over the story or found the story shooting off in weird, but unplanned, tangents. I'd never experienced either myself until NaNoWriMo.

The whole point is to just write. The pressure of coming up with 50,000 words in just 30 days is supposed to turn off your internal editor, who thinks that everything you write must be deathless prose. It works. Each day when I sit down to "NaNo," I just close my eyes and start writing. This morning I wrote about a thrilling robbery. Yesterday featured an unexpected comedic bit. Of course, on the first day I killed three people and sent one to an asylum.

See how much fun you can have?

It's not to late to set out on your own NaNo adventure...

Just keep writing

Having spent a month working toward a 50,000-word goal, I'm finding it hard to stop.

Rather than fighting it, I'm giving in to what seems to be common sense and setting a new goal: 100,000 words in however many days it takes for me to get there.

I'm still trying to get all my characters to their proper spots for the climax, and they're coming along. However, it's taking some words and some time to get them from their respective point A to point B.

The weather, however, is cooperating beautifully. If there's one thing the weather around here can do, it's whip itself into a frenzy of a thunderstorm. I've lived through quite a few and there were one or two that I wasn't sure I would. So let's just say that I'm going to pull out all the stops and gleefully rain on my own parade.

It feels good to be a winner

We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.

--Captain Malcolm Reynolds, "Firefly"

I've climbed the 50,000-word mountain (50,932 ... and I haven't even finished the story yet).

What an awesome experience. And to think, just 30 days ago I had neither plot nor characters. All I had was an idea that involved a local historical mill and a gruesome murder or two. Now, 30 days later, I have characters, scenes, dialogue, way too much description, and three murders.

Even though the prospect of writing 1,600+ words each day for 30 days was intimidating, I found it to be actually fairly easy. Once I'd trained the boys, dogs, and spouse that "I'm NaNo-ing" meant that I'd be busy for the next half hour to 45 minutes, it was so easy to just close my eyes and type what floated into my head.

Of course, now I need to finish the story (I stopped before the most exciting part, which is guaranteed to keep me writing), then go back and flesh everything out. I mean, I have two male leads and two female leads, and the villain is about as easy to spot as a chocolate stain on your favorite white shirt.

From what I understand, a so-called average novel is about 100,000 words, so I'm a little more than half-way there. I'll be using what I learned from taking Holly Lisle's "How to Think Sideways" course (thank you, Holly!). I'll also be using Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Pro software (both easy and fun to use -- thanks, Randy!).

Most of all, I'll be using the self-confidence that accrued during the last 30 days.

Now when I tell people that I'm a writer and they ask what I write, I can tell them that, in addition to the business, technical, and marketing writing, I'm also a novelist. Life is good!

I can bend time and space

Day 19 of National Novel Writing Month

Hard to believe that 12 days from now it will be the first of December and NaNoWriMo 2009 will be over.

I'm not finding the going that difficult. Of course, all I have are a bunch of scenes that have the most tenuous of connections to the ones that precede and follow. I'm not fussed about that, though. I know that editing and writing are two different disciplines and are best kept separate. Besides, I do believe that there's a National Novel Editing Month to go along with NaNoWriMo. If there isn't there should be.

I've been having fun with this. Let's see ... I've killed two people -- nastily, if I do say so myself. I've got a few somewhat flat characters, including the bad guy. I had a cop show up out of the blue and try to highjack my story, turning it into a who-done-it rather than the basic historical fiction thriller (?) that I'm aiming for. Fortunately, he's gone back to the office and hasn't been heard from since. I imagine that if I kill anyone else, he'll come calling.

Right now I have 1 hour and 20 minutes before Skimbleshanks and BuddhaBoy arrive, and all hell breaks loose (a daily occurrence in our house). I've done my daily quote of NaNo, so now it's back to my current engineering report.

TTFN!

NaNoWriMo

This year I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. On day 13, I'm up to 19,981 words; the goal is 50,000 words by November 30. That's not a bad number, considering that on the first of the month I really had no plot and no characters.

The story is set sometime after the Civil War in a small mill town. A series of horrible murders leads a young woman to stumble into a web of secrets that will endanger her life (of course), lead her to love (why not?), and ultimately shake the town to its very core.

Not much to live up to there, eh?

I did have a lot of fun the other day writing about the first murder victim. It's kind of a rush being able to decide who lives, who dies, and how they die. I must say that SpecialEd was a bit put off by how much I was enjoying it.

I'm really, really glad that learned how to touch-type in high school. It's one of the best skills you can have, if you ask me. And back then, who knew every home would one day have not just one but multiple computers? Anyway, when I write, I just lean my forehead on the front of the bookshelf above my desk, close my eyes, and let the movie and soundtrack unroll in my mind. My fingers do a great job keeping up with my thoughts.

It really is a lot of fun, and since I'm the only one who's being exposed to my writing, the potential damage to anyone's delicate sensibilities is minimized. Writing really is fun once you give yourself permission to just write. Maybe next year I'll set out to write the most awful book ever written. I already have the first sentence, which I've borrowed from Edward Bulwer-Lytton: "It was a dark and stormy night."

More autumn awesomeness

Greenbank Mill, Wilmington, Delaware.
Photo 1: The barn and split-rail fence.
Photo 2: The wool mill.
Photo 3: Another view of the barn.

Wilmington & Western Railroad's steam train, Wilmington, Delaware.

(Sorry about the layout. If anyone can explain how I can work with Blogger so that it's less painful -- right now it about the equivalent of having a root canal w/o anesthesia -- please let me know!)