Word by Word

This is going to be a quiet corner on the web for the rest of the month. Pictures here and there perhaps, but little else. I'm funneling every word I can spare into the annual National Novel Writing Month. I'll still be writing over at Doing Good Together a couple of times each week, so if you want a peek at the girls from that angle, just head over there.

This year, inspired by the riveting, frightening, and hysterical book Super Sad True Love Story, I'm trying my hand at satire. My own humorous reflection on the state of the world is Sister Savior, and just three thousand words in, I now understand why every review of Shteyngart''s work included some version of the following: "Satire is notoriously difficult to pull off."

Unlike my 2008 attempt though, my goal this year is a finished product that potentially deserves the love and attention of a second draft. So off I go, word by word to build a satirical novel in November worthy of attention in December and beyond.

Oh, and I Really Should Update My Writing Blog

That's exactly how Upturned Stones is going at the moment. I wrote Chapter 1 with enthusiasm. Then I went out of town for four days. Now...

I really should weed the garden... and make some zucchini bread for my neighbor that just had her fourth baby, poor thing... and hang the laundry on the line... and maybe I should catch up on that aging stack of Harpers that I haven't read all summer... And I really need a word count widget on my blog.

So, one tidy garden, 2 loaves of zucchini bread, tons of clean clothes, several enriching articles, and one word count widget later, I'm all set.

And right back where I started. Is it writer's block when you know how the scene should play out (more or less) but can't find the words to describe it? I think it is.

Part of the problem is that this second chapter sets up a lot of the rest of the book. The MC's internal struggle that drives the rest of the book is introduced here, along with several other key characters (to a lesser degree). It feels burdensome.

At this point, I need to mentally trap my "inner editor," to quote the Nano jargon, and lock her back in the depths of my uncertain writer's brain, maybe in the same storage unit as my old college papers so she has something to amuse herself with until it is time to edit.

Right then, trap the editor, and get on with the words. Off I go... but some ice cream sure sounds tastey.

The End!

Nearly 66,000 words in 23 days. Woo hoo!

This was an exhilarating process. The book essentially followed my outline, though it reach the mile markers in much different ways than I expected. I grew weary in the middle, disenchanted with the shape of the story, and disheartened that it was a lot of movement and interaction without much depth or meaning.

Surprisingly, plugging on to the end was extremely effective. The very last paragraph I wrote somehow summed up the meaning I was after. Now, armed with my handy NanoNotes document where I stuck every revision idea that occurred to me, I should be able to rework it into something a little more satisfying.

Funny how one goal flows into the next. First it was 50,000 words in November. Then, when I hit that last Monday, the goal was to finish the story in November.

Now that it's done, I want to reach a cohesive second draft before my brithday... And after nano, I know I can get it done!

Cracked

35,000+ which is great. Really, it feels really good.

And yesterday I did something I really haven't done since college. I let someone else read my writing!

I sent the book so far to a friend, who certainly would have encouraged me no matter what. However, I actually believe her enthusiasm for the story. I, of course, am already fond of it, and it is great to hear someone else rattle on about these people who have been sharing my days....

And it's a good thing I let her read it. Without a little positive feed back and external enthusiasm, I might be tempted to give up in spite of a good head start.

The real world is banging on my door with determination, in the form of loads of relatives complaining about not seeing us enough, planning trips to see us... plus, last night a sick three-year-old that almost guarantees a sick 1-year-old... and probably a sick me.

But I'm motivated to finish the tale, for myself and my friend.... and for the second draft that will be even better than this one.

So 5,000 more words done, and a whole lot more to go.

OH YEAH!

I'm at 30,000 plus a handful, and this story has it's own momentum now.

I still have a long way to go in the story arc, but the plot has thickened, so to speak, and it seems to take fewer words to cover each event now.... and the character's are surprising me by demanding new and different roles for themselves.... forcing them on the track I had originally mapped out would work against the unity of the story, so I'm following them and the story's logic where it goes.

For now though, after a piddley 1,500 words for the day, I'm breaking to make cookies, have a dance party with my girls, and watch a movie this evening.

I want 40,000 by Friday night though, so I'm planning on three big days coming up.

28,477 - but a struggle

I think I put in about 3,000 words today, which isn't bad at all for a day home with the girls. Our first day trapped inside by the bitter cold weather.

Funny, because last week at this time it was 75 degrees and we were picnicking in the woods.

The story has turned a corner, with all sorts of struggle and plot horrifying my characters, which is good. The cast may be too big. They seem to scatter on me when I try to take up another voice for the next section. All that will be fixed later.

What's really problematic is that giving people in my personal life a heads up about November being busy has backfired. Somehow everyone, EVERYONE is giving me the "I know you said you were busy but I need you to...." or "do you mind if I..." or "It's just one weekend..." So I feel like I've been fencing the demons of the real world, trying to demand my right to escape into nano world.

Exhausting, but I'm holding my ground!

I imagine December will be a very social month.

Pace and Piddling

I passed 25,000 words today, by a few hundred. It was a nice milestone... technically half way through the word count at 9 days in.

I'm about a third of the way through my planned story arc, though I've deviated a bit, so I'm not really that sure where I'll end up (which is a good thing! Keeps it interesting). I can see the mile markers, but keep surprising myself with the road in between.

If that makes any sense.

I'm guessing that to really finish a (rough, rough) draft of this beast, I'll need to hit about 75,000 in November. That is the new goal... not 75,000... a total draft. I would like to make it through the skeleton.

To do that, I've already bypassed two scenes, summarizing them instead of writing the whole thing, simply because I thought they deserved a little more time and attention. The more action-packed, immediate scenes seem easier to write, and I can forge ahead on those to reach the story's end. Later, I can pull back and take time creating of the MC's portentous fireside story telling of an invented 1918 folktale....

Anyway, it seems to have it's own momentum, and I like each scene is a little stronger than the last one.

Taking a break tonight to watch The Fall, which seems to be a good lesson in story telling, judging by the reviews.

I can't believe I haven't done Nano before!

20,4443! WooHoo!

Yea! I broke the 20,000 barrier.

And I got through all of the introductory stuff that needs to happen before I can really get moving.

I've started grouping off my characters, because I'm having a hard time with scenes that involve all 8 of the people in exile on this farm. Characters keep disappearing from scenes, and it's hard to keep track of. So now we're doing sort of a small group buddy system.

Fun, though, and I'm looking forward to a weekend of high drama!

I can't believe I waited this long to write so much :)

Plugging Away

I'm at 18,430... squeaking in a bit more than 2,000 words today and finishing a scene that ended up being more important than I thought. One of the MC's has symptoms of the flu, but the virus is mutating quickly and he says nothing, hoping his strain is not the bad one... he wouldn't want to worry anyone, you know.

Meanwhile, three other characters, who emerged from a camping trip to discover that they're in the middle of a pandemic and a power outage, take advantage of a spring shower to clean off from their camping grime.... I think that scene turned out pretty funny... we'll see.

I much preferred my weekend writing, where I had blocks of the 3 or 4 hours to write, helping me stay focused. Now I'm writing for an hour here, 30 minutes there. By the time I feel like I'm back into it, I'm needed elsewhere, or tired, or want to watch the Daily Show.... Grr.

So, the weekend is coming, and my novel will be better for it.

Though I'm glad I have kept moving, even with the little chunks of time. I'm getting into a rhythm, where I end each writing session outlining (very sketchy) the next scene, or at least my preliminary thoughts on it. That way, when I come back a few hours later, I can pick it back up more easily.

Nano Day 5 - 16,299

I hit about 2,500 today, though it was like pulling teeth.

Everything I wrote sounded completely uninspired. I feel like I have so many things I need my characters to DO for the plot, that I don't get much time to just BE in their heads or to describe the broader scenes.

Maybe it was just a bad day to write... lazy old muse. Or maybe it isn't as bad as I think. Or maybe it is, and I can layer in the more interesting bits later. I think I have already eliminated a couple of characters... or at least side lined them to really small, bit parts instead of major players. It's just too much to keep track of it all.

And I do need to start taking Baty's advice and keeping a notebook at my side to keep straight the names of random friends or siblings of my main characters, or weird hobbies or ticks they end up with, so that these things can be consistent form one scene to the next.

Grr, and I just this moment realized that I wrote an entire scene excluding a character that was there at the start, and then just vanished.

Not my best day so far. Shouldn't have skipped yesterday; it threw me off!

Glad I worked ahead....

Because my 1 year old was up for two hours last night.... as it turns out, raisins upset her little tummy, I think.

Combine lack of sleep with the jittery, media driven angst over the election, and I just can't settle, this evening.

I'm also a bit daunted by the next scene, which has to address bigger events, and pull the plot along, as well as introduce the tribulations of an 8 year old.

Definitely am too tired to deal with it tonight. So I'm taking a break :)

Word Count to Date - 13,784

I'm not up to the math, but I think I wrote about 3,400 words today. An unexpected windfall for a Monday, with both girls home.

I should have predicted this. I like my outline, my characters, the nature of my story. So I should never have worried about the word count.

In college, I was the jerk that wrote with half inch margins and 10 point font so I wouldn't go over the 10 or 20 page limit.

I have words bubbling out of every orifice... gross.. no... I mean, they aren't always good words, but I am loquacious if nothing else.

So my worry, no my expectation now, is that this story is going to take A LOT more than 50,000 words to get down in one draft. I'll just have to cut the slack later.

I would still like to finish the draft in November, so I'll try to keep pulling in the big word counts so I can hit 60,000 or 65,0000.

It went really smoothly today though. All the characters are at the farm, the pandemic has hit, misinformation is spreading more chaos than the actual flu. Even I don't really know what's going on... wait, that's bad probably.

Oh well, this is sooo much fun!

Day 2 - 4,900 words

I eeked out more than 10,000 words over the weekend.

I was so tempted to just run around outside, enjoying the nearly 70 degree weather, which is unheard of in the northern U.S. this time of year.

And I did get quite a bit of that. But I was a good girl. Just as soon as my hubby's ultimate frisbee tournament was over, I dived right in.

This was an easy 10,000, all scenes that I have thought through quite a bit. I was totally surprised by how fun it was, like day dreaming in class in junior high.

Of course today, my characters were camping, something I love to do, and the main love interest was introduced, so that was fun.

A good start though, and it gives me the leeway I need, with two kids with volatile sleep habits!

Tomorrow I'll post a brief expert, since I think I like what I wrote today.

5,400 Words!

I'm not entirely sure I'm done for the day, but I'm taking a break.

I reached 5,400 , though I'm not that far into my outline... at this pace who knows how long this book will be.

It's really pretty awful at this point, I think. I have no sense of whether I'm actually capturing the mood, the setting, and the personalities that I have in my head.

I have introduced all three of the main viewpoint characters, I have initiated the bird flu scare (everyone loves a good crisis!), and I've gotten one of the three groups to the farm.

If I can get another 5,000 words down tomorrow AND move all of my characters to the rural farm where the rest of the story takes place, I think I'm on track for serious word count success.

So far, it's like taking a little vacation in my head. How fun!

Outline + Characters + November = Novel?

I finished the short stories about my main characters!

The process did two thing, helped me dig deeper into the character's voices, and illuminated the most interesting characters in my cast. They weren't who I thought they would be!

From these stories I was able to quickly summarize the key physical, psychological, sociological, and story-related features of each character. Plus, thanks to a great NaNoWriMo Forum suggestion, I figured out each characters Eneagram Personality Type. It was a great way to get a little more insight into the way the characters think.

I wrote about 2,500 words five days in a row this week, which is the most I've written since grad school finals week.... and the most fiction I've written ever.

It gives me high hopes for November, especially since I enjoyed it.

Woohoo, 1 week to go!

2 Down

& at least two to go.

I'm still working on my little mini-series of stories designed to illuminate characters in my NaNoWriMo novel. In story two, though, I covered two of the 7 character groups I intended to flesh out this way.

I think I'll do at least two more. This was a really helpful way to get to know the characters. Unfortunately, I still have to work through some of the character sketch questions afterward to fill them out a bit, but the questions seemed more interesting and easier to answer after writing a little story from the character's perspective.

This process has renewed my love of the MC, who was beginning to seem dull. Now that I have layered in her background, her goals, and her quirks, I'm convinced once again that she is one of the main voices in the story.

Another perk from this little project is that I can stay busy writing before the (ever closer) November kickoff without dwelling too much on the NaNo plot.... I can start November fresh, but well acquainted with the cast of the story.

Off to start story number 3, a slapstick comedy of errors for a pair of professors and their precocious off spring.

Writing Quiz

Thanks to Chrysanthemum Promise, a fellow writer's blog, I've completed this little meme quiz that is racing around writer's blogs.

I'll be brief.

Do you write fiction or non-fiction? Or both?
Loads of nonfiction, in the form of hundreds of grant proposals and graduate school papers. I've dabbled in fiction for years, but never actually nurtured a story past a terrible first draft.

Do you keep a journal or a writing notebook?
Always. Unfortunately I also lose everything. I end up with writing notebooks in coat pockets, purses, diaper bags, under piles on my bedroom floor, and in my kid's toybox. I try to dump all of my good notebook ideas into a word folder every now and then so a lost notebook isn't so heartbreaking.

If you write fiction, do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?
While preparing for this big NaNoWriMo-inspired push to complete a novel before I'm 30 (incredibly cliche I know), I'm thinking through the story quite a bit ahead of time. I have actually followed the Snowflake Method, and it's helped me create a substantial storyline, subplots, character goals, motivations, obstacles, conflict..... and yet I still feel that there is a lot I don't know or can't nail down without actually taking the plunge on a first draft.

Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?
Extreme procrastinator. Before I had kids, I routinely spent days laying around reading, consuming vats of coffee and all sorts of good food, and indulging every whim, confident that I would write "later." Now, with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old who have shaken the procrastination out of me by the force of a thousand midnight snuggles, I'm committed to stealing the time to write away from my regular responsibilities.

Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?
I enjoy both. Now that I have tuned into my inner muse again, I get bursts of creative momentum at least daily (the reason for my many notebooks), and even when drafting pieces I care about, I rarely have more than a couple of hours to give to anything. I'm learning to be efficient.

Are you a morning or afternoon writer?
During my baby's morning nap... both girls' afternoon naps, and after they've gone to bed in the evening. Basically whenever I don't have to be vigilant about a tiny person's self-destruction.

Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?
I used to require perfect silence, but I haven't heard that in 3 years! So now, I write to Noggin's latest kid show, or my husband's guitar practice, or when I'm lucky, good music.

Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)
Computer. I can never read my handwriting. Even my brief notes are tough to decipher. I used to write with a pencil and a legal pad, but the smudgy wild writing only got worse the more I got into my story. In the end, the whole thing was lost.

Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One? Or do you let the story evolve as you write?
I have to know where the story is headed, and I have to know the major turns it will take along the way, but so far I'm always surprised by first drafts. No matter how well I outline, the story has its own momentum.

Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?
No. I've just gotten into writing. If I can make it through the creative cycle, past the first draft, through several edits, arriving at a manuscript I don't hate, maybe then I'll give it some thought.

Editing/Revision - love it or hate it?
Loved it during the grant writing phase of my life. Progress was so immediate. I haven't yet edited any of my own fiction.

November... Oh so far away!

Okay, so shortly after my hubby's 30th birthday, I rediscovered the NaNoWriMo contest and thought, "Exactly, I must write a novel before I'm 30."

Actually the thought was more like, "I can still do it, I'm not 30 until April." The truth is, at the end of the day, I would rather identify myself as a failed writer (with the rejection letters to prove it) than a successful anything else.

Remarkable, isn't it, what a round-numbered birthday can do for your motivation!

So here I sit, with an outline I really like, several characters falling over each other to play the lead or share the POV, and concepts for scenes inspired by moments as simple as spooning oatmeal toward my wiggly toddler.

This weekend I'll finish the synopsis. I have a bit of research to do.... then I am left with the first draft looming ahead and November still 3 weeks away!

Do I start another project in the interim, to keep me from getting board and pursue some of the other interesting ideas bumping around?

or

Do I stick with some freewrites, read a couple of good books to get me in the mood, and keep tweaking my outline and character info?

The Road Not Traveled... or Written

My little brain storming exercise, thinking through all of the conflict and hardship that could befall my newly fleshed out characters, was really helpful. That, plus a little research has taken my primary plot in a bit of a new direction.

That leaves me a little sad for the original plot, that wasn't as good, but had captured my imagination in a different way. The same goes for some of the other bits of brainstorming, interesting things popped up that don't belong in this story. Maybe they'll push their way into a different story.... let's hope. That exercise also gave me a few ideas, now, for a SciFi/Fantasy time travelish good versus evil story, the kind I love to read. So maybe that will be the next project, after Legacy... and the Nano project.

I've dubbed the NaNo project Prairie Apocalypse, because I'm terrible with titles and refuse to give it a real one until the first draft is done.

The outline is basically done, except to think through some of the first scenes. Then I'll put it away for a bit, work on my Legacy rewrite, and take it all back up for the official November first draft.

Glass Half Full?

As it turns out, my generally positive outlook on the world makes for a pretty dull plot. I'm having a hard time forcing myself to introduce dark events to my story (beyond the original problem of a major bird flu pandemic!) or attribute dark motives to my characters.

I have a reasonable outline for the overall conflict in my Nano story, and I'm trying to add complexity and contrast to my growing cast of characters. Hopefully more conflict will naturally emerge as I start to put all of these components together.

If not, I just sat down a made a huge list of all the terrible things I could introduce if I start getting board by November 6th or something. I'm not too crazy about most of them, but a few are intriguing. It's like a writer's block "free pass" to help me reach the November word goal.... we'll see if it works!