Progress Report

81,252 words as of right now. I did not really write on my novel for about four days this week. It was disappointing but I finally caught the thread and was able to make good progress today. It is getting to the point in the novel that I need to start wrapping some stuff up. I still have no idea how I'm going to finish my novel....but each day I make progress is good. I have to remember, when it gets "done" doesn't mean I can't come up with a better idea later and work on that. I'm still on pace to make my goal of finishing by the end of this month. The 40,000 word goal that I set shouldn't be an issue at all. I'm only 12,750 away from that. I can do that with much issue between now and the end of the year.

New Update

I'm currently at 63,500 words. I'm gaining on it. I think my novel is going to really start progressing to it's finish here pretty soon. I'm thinking another 25-35 thousand words will get me there. Yeah, I know. That is another 30-40% to go but at least I have an idea where it is going. So on ward and upward (in word count). I know that it isn't the most important thing (that is kind of the story) but it what motivates me.

Whatever works right?

November Stats

I finished November with 54,035 words which worked out to be about 155 pages of stuff.

I made it

Holy crap!!!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha. Do a little dance for me. Sing a little ditty. I wrote and wrote and wrote and I made a goal that I NEVER thought I was going to make. And I did it two days early!

Ah ha ha ha ha ha!

<----------- Ain't that cool?????

I'm so almost there. I have that hunger in the pit of my stomach to bear down and try to hit the 50,000 tonight. Another 1867 words? That's nothing write. And plus I am in a section of my story that I have been looking forward to writing for a while. I there and just starting. I just had one bombshell laid on her. I have to explain and work my way through this section and then lay the next bombshell on my main character.

Then my novel will take on a whole new level of urgency.

But as for hitting 50,000...not tonight. I will feel good about hitting the goal tomorrow and I have a bottle of wine all lined up for making the feat. As I said before, I'm shocked that I have been able to do this. I'm also upset that I haven't been able to do anything like this prior to this month. I now have around 150 pages of a story written. Amazing. Another 50,000, which is realistic at this point, and I will have a work of 300 pages. Insane. I want to have it completed by the end of the year. I should have anywhere from 54,000-56,000 words done by bed November 30.

You want to know what I am thankful for? I am thankful for the new confidence that NaNoWriMo has accorded me with this months work. It has been liberating and exciting. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be impossible...remember? But I am intrigued that there are those who have doubled my word count in the same period of time. Are they for real? Wow.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

NaNoWriMo

44,000 done tonight! I have an outside shot to make 50,000 by Friday night, which is the mini challenge posted on the site by Chris Baty. If I can put 2000 words out on Thanksgiving, which may be possible, I'll hit it on Friday. If not, then Saturday will be the day that pass the 50,000 word mark. Insane. I never thought I would make it. It will be an awesome feeling.

At the same time, why has it taken me so long to do this? It has been there the whole time. The ability to create and write is there. I know it. My short stories, when I wrote them were polished and normally well received at online sites. I didn't spend enough time with them before publishing, that was all their issues were.

It's excited and disappointed in myself all at the same time. Wild right?

Next Update

You can see that I added my word count widget to the blog. I am so proud of this! I'm 75% there now and can smell the finish line. I want to be at either 39,500 or 40,000 by the end of the day!

A week to go and I feel great. I'm going to make it. I've come too far not to reach the goal. I'm not patting myself on the back yet but I am surprised at myself. Honestly, I never thought I was going to have a chance to reach even this word count. I thought I would have run out of things to say long ago. I don't think I'm quite to the half way point yet. I bet I will reach that in the next week. 50,000 words as my half way point? Weird.

Want to know what is more odd? It hasn't been difficult. I was thinking about that last night getting the dishes done. This hasn't been hard. It was a wild sensation. I have NEVER written this much before. At this time at 37,500 this is about 3 times longer than anything else I have written. What is the difference? I have a goal and a deadline. I should have known. My boss gives me deadlines because she knows that I struggle if I don't have a defined end date. I should have been pitching word counts in my own head all along. But now that I know I can do this....I can do it again.

Update

Ok, ok, ok, I know. I haven't written one update on my NaNoWriMo experience. One word explanation? AWESOME. First off, I have never written anything longer than thirty pages of so. Today I passed 31,000 words, that's getting around 100 pages. I'm actually sitting at 31,556 words. It looks like I am going to be able to make the 50,000 word count.

Here is how everything is breaking out. Tomorrow is volleyball night. My word count is not going to go up a huge amount. Goal for tomorrow...500 words is likely, 1000 words tomorrow would be a bonus.

If we assume likely that will put me right at 32,000 words. My goal for Friday is 2,000 which should not be any issue. That puts me at 34,000. Saturday and Sunday, low goal is 4000 words by the end of the weekend. No problem with that. I am going to try to write 3000 words each day. If we assume low end...that puts me at 38,000 with 8 writing days to go. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday should be 2000 apiece. That puts me, low end estimate again, at 44,000. Turkey day my goal is only 1000 but I may be able to write more. That would put me at 45,000 with 3 days left. If I can pull of the 6000 word weekend I would like to, it would be 47,000 with 3 days left.

Either with 3000 or 5000 remaining in those three days, there would be nothing stopping me from getting there. I don't see my story running out at all.

In fact, I haven't gotten to any of my three plot twists I have been thinking about. I am about to introduce the first one starting in my writing tomorrow. I'm planning on plowing right into December and set my own goal for that month. I would like to put 40,000 words out by the 31st. We'll see how that goes.

Been Slacking

Yes, I have been lazy. I worked on my outline today. I am going to start working in the mornings and evenings.

I think that I can plot out an okay story so far but I have one big issue. I have NO IDEA how I want the story to end. I have all sorts of twists and turns but I need a whopper of an ending.

I have a partial ending with Terese and her missing three years and the good doctor. But I don't know how I am going to resolve her daughter issue. Do I want her to figure out a way for her daughter to escape? If so, is Terese okay with that? Kill her daughter? If that, does Terese do it? I think her daughter needs to get away against Terese's best efforts.

Maybe, maybe, just thinking of this. Maybe I should let Terese think that she has killed her daughter and finds out she cannot recover her three years of memories (that is what the good doctor is going to tell her) and then maybe find out that her daughter is alive by making contact with her.

Jules

Completed...got it done.


I saw something today at Write Anything about preparing for NaNoWriMO. I don't think I'm cheating anymore. I can write scene sketches and character sketches, and outline to my little heart content.

Honestly, I'm thinking I would like November to be here so I can really get going.

Evan

Completed.


I feel like this is cheating but this is a nice break from trying to grind out too much too soon. I think this will give me reason to get me going for next week with outlining and writing.

See you tomorrow

Terese Profile

Completed - did not look at word count

Basically, I gave names to her parents, what they did for work. What kind of personality they had. Gave a brief synopsys of what her past was and what she currently did. I gave her temperment and special traits were and a physical description.

This week I am taking it a little easier with the tasks. Last week was not as good as the previous two weeks. I have skipped one day of writing in three and I made that up the very next day. I am happy so far with the results.

After these profiles. Next week I am going to start my outline and maybe some writing prompts. I am going to start two writing sessions per day starting, ugh, this coming Saturday.

The Truth

Completed - 1226

Good piece. My new character, Leon Jenks, is actually the character that saves Ballard's character and brings together the murders and Terese's issues. Just a few days ago I thought I was going to have to throw that all out and just focus on Terese's stuff. I was okay with that idea but then it just ends up being a spy novel and I wanted something more than that.

I'm still writing this evening. It looks like I made a mistake that I have listed two subject to write this evening. One is Goals and the other is the start of my character profiles that I want to write. I am dropping goals at this time. I am going to write the profile of Terese this evening.

These aren't going to be word count works. They may. I don't know. I am just going to work on background stuff. Like I said earlier, I'm going to use these as I move through my work to give a better ground on how I want these characters to react to situations.

A murder continued...A reason...and Next Week

A murder - completed 1317 words.

I still did not finish this piece but I finished most of it and know exactly where it was going to go.


I didn't write yesterday. It was three full weeks before I skipped a day. But I just needed a chance to reload. I had a long day yesterday. I went fishing and I was wiped out. I am going to take a shower and then come back and write Saturday's piece and then write again tonight. I will then be totally caught up.

Next Week I plan on writing from each of my characters perpectives as a bio. These won't be in the story necessarily but can help me determine how they will react as the story poses problems. Will they chance them head on, pull back, procrastinate, or what.


Sunday: Terese
Monday: Evan
Tueday: Jules
Wednesday: Ayrien
Thursday: Nicoli
Friday: Dr. DeVerne
Saturday: Ballard

A Murder

incomplete - 618 words

No, I didn't finish this one. But I am going to come back and finish this one tomorrow. I almost didn't write at all this evening. But this idea, actually fits with what my original idea was...and combines my new line of thinking for my novel.

A new character is introducted, yes, in 618 words. This is one I am going to finish to the end. I want the night to sleep on it. This just came out.

Has Experiment

Completed - 1273 words

This assignment was more like it. I felt good writing this piece. This was about the good Doctor and his wife. I have decided that Terese finding out that she has a daughter, trying to track her down, and find out how she lost her past is going to be the main story. I am dropping the whole serial killer thing. It just didn't seem to work with what I have.

I have a nice little twist for the doctor that this piece is introducing. I'm not sure if this will fit nicely into my novel but he is becoming a very interesting person to me. Maybe once I am done with Terese I can focus on the good doctor.

On to the next.

The Weather

completed - 1061 words

This week has been hard so far. Or at least the last two days have been difficult writing. Not as much motivation as the previous two weeks. But that is going to happen. I have not skipped. Last night's effort was crappy but something still came out.

I had a revelation today about my story. I think that it will need to go in a different direction. I think that Ballard is gone. The character that I have in my head is different than what comes out on the page. I think I need to rethink how the story is going to flow. I am going to finish out this week's writings and next week write from the different character's point of views next week. Sketching them out and give more background into each.

Once I do that then I am going to start outlining for November and try to bang out what the writing schedule is going to look like.

On to the next.

A Stranger

Completed - 644 words

Sorry, short writing session tonight. And I didn't start off well and have no idea how to finish it off.

The Guard

Completed - 1374 words


This was good only because 10 minutes before I actually began writing, I had no idea what I was going to say. I'm not saying that this piece is any good. I think it gives a little more background into Nicoli and how Terese and he interacted in Russia but that is about it.

When I kept going and let the writing go, I think it went somewhere, frankly, that is useless. Most of it doesn't fit anywhere in what I am thinking about doing. Who knows, things can change and it is out.

On to the next!

Sex Appeal

Completed - 1477 words


This one went well. I kind of thought that it would. If my time had not run out I could have gone much further with this scene. It was Ayrien stalking her kill. I only had enough time to put down how she got the guy, who is an absolute dork, to leave with her. He wasn't totally stupid. He thought she was just going to use him for something, like dealing drugs or just pumping him for money. But she used her assets to make him leave.

I'll have to write how she kills him and tortures him to get what she wants. Nothing overly graphic, just straight to the point. I probably could have written at least twice this length if I was just writing the whole entire scene this evening.

Well on to the next.

Recap of this Week...and Plans For the Next

I completed this week with 9687 words for the seven writing exercises for an average of 1383.8571 (again, yes the decimal is important)per writing assignment. If I can continue this pace I am looking at 41,515.713 words over 30 days. I am feeling good that I should be able to accomplish what I want.

If you combine the last two weeks worth of writing I am at 18,649 words for an average of 1243.2666 words per session. I do have a short children's work included in this total.

Anywhoo, nobody cares. This blog is just for me.

Next Week's Work

Monday: The Guard
Tuesday: A Stranger
Wednesday: The weather
Thursday: Has
Friday: A murder
Saturday: The Truth
Sunday: Goals

Again using multiple sources for reference to come up with these topics. 5 weeks to go!

God Experiment

Completed - 1266 words

This scene had Evan thinking about almost being shot. He felt the breeze of the bullet pass his face. And what really blew his mind was that she missed on purpose. He had to confront that if Ayrien had killed him, Terese probably still would not done anything to her daughter. And he had to realize that he still trusted Terese, even though he knew her daughter came first.

He thought about his dad, which I hadn't planned on writing but it came out. It was ok. The final piece was that he was resolved that he was going to have to catch Ayrien. He was going to have to be smarter than two better trained and more experienced spies. And when he shot at Ayrien, he wasn't going to miss.


Other thoughts. I think I might be cheating writing scenes and not just outlining for NaNoWriMo. But I have two thoughts. I have this real sketchy outline in my head that I still have not committed to paper because these exercises and leading me in new directions everyday. I plan on rewriting and adding other scenes that I know what I am going to write but am not going to write in the lead up to NaNoWriMo. And secondly, if I am cheating...I am doing it in the spirit of the effort. NaNoWriMo is a celebration of creativity and goal setting. I'm doing that right now and I am going to try to push through the remaining 5 weeks until November and then the 30 days of that month. I have never completed a novel and have full confidence that this attempt I am currently on will either be entirely successful or the closest I come to success in my life. That is worth it.

My Father

Completed - 1478 words

This was the best piece I have written this week. Ayrien my main villian/daughter of my main protagonist finally showed up in my writing. I know that I plan on writing more on her when I write "Sex Appeal". She is an angry girl. She has every reason to be. He father was executed. He mother was a traitor. She was subject to government testing and failed. Given to a man that she did not know, who also turned out to be a traitor. This drove her to be a killer with a secret.

Guess what? I don't even know what the secret is yet. She has to be doing all of this for a reason right? I had some stabs at this but haven't figured it out yet. Maybe it will come out in one of these timed writing sessions. Maybe it will come out in the outline when I get that fired up in a couple of weeks. Maybe I won't have it figured out until I actually write the damn novel.

On to the next!

The News Experiment

Completed - 1222 words.


This was the first time in my two weeks that I seriously considered not writing. I was able to get through that tonight and write. I got stuff out. I really did not think about writing until right before my scheduled time to write. I had no idea what direction this would go.

First impression on this session, worthless. I got to work more on Evan I guess but this isn't something that will come up. But it does give me a pause on how two of my main storylines are going to match up.

I need to come up with a way that both the serial murders and Agent Doucette's background are stitched together. This piece had Evan really focusing on Terese. I think I need to work on the murders a bit more now and less on Terese. I have her backstory in my mind down pretty well. Evan is the one that is going to dig that up and bring it out to the reader. I know that. But how is Evan going to go from Murder finder to Terese past finder????

On to the next.

10 words, 10 pages, One New Idea

Completed - 1214 words

I used the first ten pages of my dad's novel Cold Trail and used the tenth word on each page to come up with this idea. Three words stuck together so well, "you", "dead", and "Dallas". So we visited a crazy man who named people after cities. He thought Terese was a ghost and would always say, "You dead Dallas, Texas." It didn't matter what you asked or said to him, he would reply in the same way.

I liked what I wrote. I just had no idea what the point of it was. I like the character and what he could do, but I don't think that he has any place in my current idea. Maybe I can put him in my pocket and save him for later.

I had to write a little earlier than what I wanted to this evening but it was out and I think the effort overall was a better quality than the last few nights.

I have been writing a lot of dialogue recently and too much of it has been back and forth between two characters. I have to work on that. But getting the ideas out right now is the biggest thing. On to tomorrow!

If Only Exercise

Completed - 1305 words.

I stopped about 10 minutes early tonight. This line of thought could have continued but it was kind of going no where fast. Ballard was just being a wussy past obsessed punk. I don't think that is what I want him to be. But if did give me some history establish with he and Terese.

I want to thank my wife for allowing me the time to write on her nights off. I know that she wants me to be with her on her night she doesn't have to work and giving me forty five minutes to a hour on those nights is asking a lot. I think she realizes that these sessions are important to me. I can't believe I have someone in my life that believes in me and gives me the space that I need without giving me too much grief. If she gave me no grief at all, I would wonder if she cared.

God bless her. She is a special person.

Revert Exercise

Completed - 1629 words

Again, I was more successful with this assignment than what I expected. This one went a little better than last night's work but still isn't as strong as some of the others. But it is out and I got to work on Ballard this evening.

I picture him as an older man that I used to play volleyball with when I was younger. I don't know why. It is just what sticks in my head when I think of Ballard. I got to work on the self-doubt that eats at Ballard. I really want to drive that point home. He really is going to have to swallow his pride to ask Terese to be part of the case. This scene that I wrote starts to hash that out, so it is a good start in that respect.

I think tomorrow night is also going to be about Ballard. It may be rehashing some of the same ideas but I think Ballard needs to be the character that struggles with his past...his successes and his failures bother him. His ghosts dominate his life. His goal is going to be able to overcome them.

Such A Long Drive Exercise

Completed - 1573 words.

I'm not surprised that I wrote this much but I'm actually kind of disappointed with the results. I don't like what I wrote. I didn't like it as it came out but I kept going. That is the important part. I forced myself to overcome that critic. That was good. I don't think that the entire piece is worthless but I felt like I jumped tense or point of view or something. One paragraph just doesn't fit for whatever reason. I think if I let it sit for a while and come back to it I might be able to make more sense of it than I can right now.

This was about Terese driving across Arizona trying to find the good doctor that was not a character until last week. A couple of things I know that this piece will need to be expanded on.

1) Setting, I need to get that right. I know what I want to say but getting it out is a little bit different. You know that almost right word thing is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug? Tonight I was the lightning bug.

2) I have to show how Terese can see different things at the same time. I know this is going to be a challenge and I have to be able to come up with some way of showing it to the reader. I am going to have to focus on this part going forward. It is very important in my story.

3) Transitions. Need to have them and need to flow smoothly. They sucked in this piece. I felt like I was writing stuff that I just wrote but in a slightly different manner.

But all things considered...I may be the my own harshest critic but it got done and not only that this was the most words I had written in my time sessions. I can only hope that I can continue with putting out consistent volumes of words. The things I am doing now are laying the groundwork for the novel itself. These works, while not perfect are going to be a goldmine of material to pull from.

Next week's events

No, I haven't written already for today, however, I reached the end of my posted topics after my writing session this evening. Here is what I plan to do next week.

Monday: Revert
Tuesday: If Only
Wednesday: 10th word, 10 pages, one new idea
Thursday: The news
Friday: My father
Saturday: God
Sunday: Sex Appeal

If Only, The News, God, and Sex Appeal again come from Room to Write. If you don't have this book, get it. You can use the ideas or they are great at cultivating some just different than their intent. The 10th word stuff came from that website that I can't find. My father comes from my own head as a topic, gasp. Revert was a "spark word" on Write Anything website.

I have written, thus far, 8809 words not including my children's story. If you count the whopping 153 words from that, 8962 words. If you carry that pace into NaNoWriMo I would be on pace for 37,752.855 words. Yeah, the decimal is important. I need to keep this up. I will be adding a morning reading session that I am going to have a goal of 500-700 words and the evening session of 1200-1500 words. At that pace, I should break the 50,000 word mark. But there is still a ton of my novel that I don't know and I plan on trying to discover over the next six weeks.

This week alone I added a new character. I got to try on the voice of five of my main characters. I still have two more that I haven't even touched. I have no idea if this week's assignments will fit those two or someone I have already written about. Time will tell.

My Grandfather Exercise

Completed 1509 words

I knew that this one would be a big word count. I could have kept going but I am keeping this to a timed exercise. I didn't even get to tell my grandfather's story. I found myself writing about the scientist that "created" Terese. I used my Grandpa's name for the character. His middle name is a perfect last name, DeVerne.

So, anyway, I never expected to spend as much time as I have with this character that I did not expect to include in my novel. Now that I have written about him twice in a week, I don't think that the story can do without him. I think he will be very important at the end of the story. He can answer the questions no one else will be able to. But he can't explain it all. Those are the kind of characters, just like real life, there are no Gods living here on earth. And they have no place in novels either. Unless you are trying to create a God. And if you are good luck.

I leave you with these three words. Gin and tonic. This is what fueled me this evening.

Goodbye, Farewell, Adieu

Completed- 1206 words

This was surprising that I got this much out. I was really worried. I didn't have much going into this situation. I had been thinking more about what I have scheduled for tomorrow's writing more. Which is ok but not so good for this assignment.

I focused on one of the more minor characters. She isn't extremely minor...she is part of the main team but I really haven't figured out what she is there for. I think she is going to be a mechanism for adding tension. She's kind of a self-absorbed bitch. Which is a totally fine thing to be.

I wish I would the ending that I came up with here would have been the body. I wasted a bunch of time of her thinking on how she was going to tie ends to together. I don't think she is going to be the one doing that. But she likes Tom Collins and misses her father. I figured that out tonight. And she doesn't like how women were portrayed in black and white movies.

She just can't stand'em. If you don't know what movie that is from...ok I have nothing clever to say. It is from singing in the rain. Now that had a strong woman character that was needlessly taken advantage of. But oh, how those who had taken advantage of Debbie Reynolds, they pay. They pay dearly.... :)

I Already Know Exercise

Completed - 1355 words.

I wanted to focus this writing exercise on a character I am planning for my novel. His name is Nicoli. My novel idea had started out so differently. Nicoli is a recent brainstorm. I came up with him about a week or a week and a half ago. So really recent. But I think his character is important and will add the twists and turns that my previous ideas lacked.

But being so new in my head made me very unfamiliar with how he would be. I took this and wrote a scene between he and my main character Terese. I know that this scene, or something very similar will take place in my novel. I really wanted to have a chance to get his physical appearance out on a page and see how it fit. Nicoli is that, character who knows a little too much about everything and is therefore very shady. I think my description might be a little too stereotypical but I will have to come back and re-read that section later. I think my current description makes him sound like a over the hill hockey player.

I also got a chance to work on how he will talk. I want it to be, different than others. He talks perfect English but phrases things as a foreigner would. That is the best way I can explain it. I liked how it came out, at least initially.

Ok enough about that. I found a pretty cool writing website here. Check it out if you have a chance. So good topics and inspirations.

My Great Grandmother's House

Completed - 1291 words

Well this one took me a number of places that I was not expecting. I tried to remember my great-grandmother's house to the best of my ability. I don't think I did too well. I remember seeing the Laker games, her in her rocking chair, her dog Fluffy, the black leather rocker, a white kitchen table, a gigantic spool, and a boring outside. That was pretty much it. And about that much detail.

So where did all the words come from? A story about my great-grandmother not liking grape leaves that my dad made her for a lunch but eating half the pot all by herself. About when my dad told me when she died and what I could remember saying distintcly, And then a big revelation that I had never thought about before.

When my great-grandmother died, my dad told me by himself. It was the same when he told me that they were getting divorced. My mom was nowhere to be found. Nine years apart, but the same scenario. I don't know if I would have ever realized that without this exercise. Talk about foreshadowing in one's life.

So I got something interesting about my own past thinking about Ethel Bolinger, my great-grandmother. Oh, I forgot to put in my writing that she was General Hersey's first cousin. Oh well.

Children's Writing - Cloud Story

Of course, tonight's "assignment" was different than everything I had done thus far. And to be honest, I have never even attempted to write anything that would be aimed at children. I completed my writing with a whopping 135 words.

Here is where the inspiration for the story came from. Sunday was a miserable weather day here at home. I think it was bad for most of the country as well but my seven year old wanted to spend as much time outside as she could. She asked me if she could make a sandwich that go and sit on the front porch and watch it rain. I love watching the rain fall. So I sat with her while it poured. And by the time she was done with her sandwich and her juice the storm had weakened. We watched the lower clouds fly across the sky, like they had somewhere to go.

My daughter said that the clouds must be mad and when I asked her why she promptly told me, "Because it has been sunny all the time." Which is what inspired me.

Here is what I wrote this evening.



Jeffrey Cloud was looking down
At all the children playing

And Jeffrey Cloud looking down
Heard all the children saying

Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.

And Jeffrey Cloud looking down
Felt like crying

And then he rumbled and then he grumbled
And all the little children ran inside

Jeffrey's mother heard her little Cloud
And said, “Jeffrey why so gray?”

And Jeffrey Cloud looking down
Said “It is just too sunny today.”

“But Jeffrey we rained just yesterday.”
And today is the sun's day to play

And then he rumbled and then he grumbled
But all the little children ran outside

In their little yellow hats
And in their little yellow coats
And in their little yellow galoshes

And Jeffrey Cloud looking down
Rained on all the children playing


I know, there isn't any puncuation. I'm not worried about it right now. I was pretty impressed with this overall. If there is anyone interested in illistrating my little tale I would be interested.

The "And" Writing Exercise

Completed at 1252 words.

I was excited all day looking forward to sitting down at my writing time and getting to work. I had a long day at work and it somewhat drained me and right before it was time to write I was worried that it just wasn't going to come out and I was going to give it a try.

It came out alright. Reading over it quickly, it could be written better. But the point is, it came out. And I think it came out alright. It is a conversation between two of my main characters in my novel that I am thinking of from NaNoWriMo. I don't think it is a scene from my book. I just wanted to try writing some dialog between the two.

The man character, Evan, is hard working but a little eccentric, but in a good just slightly peculiar way. He is discussing why he and his girlfriend are not together any longer. He says that his ex-girlfriend was a red delicious when he is looking for a honey crisp...I told you, he's a little peculiar.

Here is a couple of lines that when I wrote them came out just right. Funny and simple.

"Do you really compare women to apples?"
"Yes, is that strange?"
"Very, very strange Evan."

I was surprised that I wrote more this evening than my first two efforts. Before I sat down I thought that I would only be able to come up with a couple pages of stuff. But it flowed really easy and the time went by quickly. I know that it won't always go so well. It really does make me excited for the coming weeks to see what I can do.

And I have figured out I have seven weeks until NaNoWriMo. I will have to adjust my writing schedule that I posted yesterday to account for another week. I will do that later however.

Pre-Paring for NaNoWriMo

I just went over what my game plan is for the upcoming weeks. I now what to formally write down what writing experiments I am going to do over the next week. I am starting with the two I have already completed come up with more and post them next week.

Saturday "So Experiment" -completed 1014 words
Sunday "Just Experiment" - completed 1182 words
Monday "And Experiment"
Tuesday "Kids Story Experiment" Cloud Story
Wednesday "My Great Grandmother's House"
Thursday "I Already Know"
Friday "So Long, Farewell, Adieu"
Saturday "My Grandfather"
Sunday "Such a Long Drive"


The first three writing topics were taken in part from a website I ran across on Saturday. I am so sorry but I can't remember or locate it on my computer. The basic idea for So, Just, and And are these words don't imply anything. you start with that word and go from there. A little different than the sentence starting exercises...which will be I Already Know and Such a Long Drive. My Great Grandmother's House and So, Long Farewell, Adieu were taken from Room to Write by Bonni Goldberg. And finally, my kids story is going to be based on a conversation I had today with my 7 year old as we were sitting on our front porch watching the rain fall while she was eating a bologna sandwich.

Results so far. "So" started out as an writing exercise in an argument. A new boyfriend and girlfriend get in an argument for the first time. The story opens, "So, is this the way it is going to be?" The main argument is over but they are simmering through the calming down phase. It winds up that the real fireworks happened at her parent's home and the man in the story got into political disagreement with her father. To be honest at the end of 45 minutes I was at 992 words but finished the thought I had started and ended at 1014. I'm not posting it because it really isn't finished. It was a timed writing session.

"Just" is from the point of view of the main scientist that is heading the group that is responsible for my main character in the novel I plan to write for NaNoWriMo. He will not be a character in my story. However, having his point of view is interesting and is giving me some good ideas on what he foresaw her possibilities to be. It was written as if it were a letter to an unnamed person or possibly a journal/diary entry. I breezed through this one. And came up with a "how" I was wondering about as I have thought about my main character.

Tomorrow I am onto And. Wish me luck.

NaNoWriMo

That is correct, I am planning on taking part in the 2008 National Novel Writing Month annual challenge. I plan to write 50,000 words over a 30 day period of time to jump start a novel. I am very excited about this. I have told my wife and my dad. Both seem happy for me, both kind of gave me the "yeah right eye". How in the world am I going to make this happen when the longest piece I had ever written streched just north of 10,000 words. At this time, I am not 100% sure. What I am sure of, is that I am going to tell other people that I work with so that they can ask me, "How is that novel doing," and I really hate looking like an ass to my co-workers.

Ok, that isn't the only plan that I have. I am working on a gameplan. First, I have six weeks to prepare myself for this onslaught of forced creativity. How can I force creativity...I think that is somewhat easier to do then what it sounds like at first blush. Here is what I plan on doing.

• Write everyday. No exceptions from yesterday until November 30th. NaNoWriMo is November 1-30. I have six good weeks to get into a writing habit. I have written the last two nights between 8:45 and 9:30. Both nights I have successfully written over 1000 words in that timeframe. I know, you just did the math and figured out that, um hey Einstein, that will only equally 30,000 words over 3o days (60% of the goal). I know that.

• For the next two weeks, I am going to write for 45 minutes only. I am going to make every effort to stay on the same time schedule that I have started on. This will be difficult as a number of my favorite shows are either airing new episodes or will be starting shortly. But I feel strongly that this is why DVR was created. As much as it may pain me to miss House when I know my wife is watching it and wants me to watch it with her, I will be typing my little heart out in the other room.
• For the next two weeks I am going to start at my standard time and write until I finish my thought/story completly as I can. This may only take me the same 45 minutes or it may take a hour and a half. I think it will depend on the writing experiment that I plan on doing that day.
  
• The final two weeks before NaNoWriMo...oh boy, this is the one that I think is going to take the most determination and grit. These two weeks, if I accomplish anything going into November and learn something about myself it will be the last two weeks of October. I am going to establish 2 separate writing times, one in the morning and the already established evening writing time. I hate mornings. I hate them with a passion. However, paradoxically I tend to feel more creative during those times than after working, struggling with the kids, and trying to relax. The morning session will also be 45 minutes to an hour long, but instead of having a particular writing assignment, I am going to write and plan my outline for my novel. I have an idea already and shared it with my wife. She seemed to really like it and really like the name of my main character. Her reaction was really encouraging.

Day One

So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. I have been thinking a lot about a story that I would love to write...a novel in fact. Who hasn't heard that one before? I want to be a novelist. There are so many want to be and have nots that it just is insane. And I fit exactly, squarely, into the wanna be and have nots. I have had all the false starts and grand ideas. I was going to write the greatest novel that had ever been conceived. But I haven't written much at all. Just a couple of short stories that I never submitted anywhere other than to some online sites that were, for better or worse, at least someone to listen.

I had gotten quality feedback, lame feedback, and feedback that said that I should not ever write again. I started a financial blog that I wrote on for seven months before I came to the realization that I wasn't writing anything new. I was just reorganizing others ideas and putting them together in my own rationale. When I really thought about it. I wasn't doing anything "creative" which is what I have wanted to do my entire life.

So I come back to trying to be a writer. A creative writer. A fictional writer. A storyteller. A novelist. And I thought to myself that I wrote EVERYDAY as a financial blogger. I had people want to have space on my blog. I had people pay me (ever such small sums) for my words. They sought me out. Why can't I use the same blogging medium to really concentrate on making that next step? That next step might just be right here.

But at last I come to the reasons, why haven't I been able to accomplish what I have always longed to be? I think it comes down to two aspects...1) self-doubt and 2) no one really pushes me. The first reason, I think is fairly clear to see. It is clear to the reason why I stopped blogging on my other site. I just didn't believe that what I was saying was important. That they (my audience) could get the same information from someone who was more important, smarter, and more well spoken/written than myself. The second reason really is an extension of the first. As much as I love my wife and family. No one really cares what on earth I actually do. None of them really push me to become something bigger than what I am. I have to try to push myself. And then see reason number one why I haven't accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.

I am going to use this blog as a launching point and note pad. I am going to try to write at least something here. A scene, a plot, a character sketch, anything. This is going to be my own space that I can use to build something, mostly myself. I want to try to build myself. Whoever may want to come along, you're welcome to join. You're welcome to cheer, jeer, be critical, or whatever you may feel like doing.