Day 10: NaNoWriMo 2012

*slap to the forehead* Doh! I nearly forgot to post yesterday's update.

Some of you are my Facebook peeps and saw this post:

Yes, she did it again. My wife gave me a few hours of uninterrupted writing time. I don't care who you and what you do, without real support from those who surround you, living your dream in the face of life, becomes a challenge of Herculean proportions.

And the results?


Day 10's total: 4,255
Overall: 26,635

Remember to thank those that help you and support you. And in honor of my supportive family, I took today, the eleventh day off. I will be back on Day 12.

Hope you're doing well. Keep writing and, as alway, Fight the good fight!

Day 9: NaNoWriMo 2012

The voice emerges...

I am at the mid-point in the story and I received another great surprise. I wasn't very productive on day 8 (in terms of word count). I wrote one scene, but a real good scene. Possibly my favorite.

The surprise was the voice of my protagonist and antagonist. They've evolved and have built a unique speech pattern. Even the selection of words and sentence structure seems to be true to who they should be.

Clearly, it's always best to have this up front, but my experience is that it rarely happens that way. It'll mean that when I revise the draft, I will have to rewrite the scenes with the evolved voice. But that's okay. I actually love revising and adding new scenes. It becomes a game. I look forward to how my characters respond to the original scenes or to new ones.


Day 9's total: 1,369
Overall: 22,380


Okay, back to the manuscript. I will officially start Day 10 of NaNoWriMo as soon as I've pressed "Publish" on the blog. Ready? Laters


Fight the good fight!

Day 8: NaNoWriMo 2012

And then he did what he wasn't supposed to...

It happens all the time. My characters say and do things that were not planned. What happened this time is that it threw a monkey-wrench in the plot line. My high level plan is now out the window.

"So what," you may say. "Just delete the unplanned stuff and keep at it."

Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions in store for me. I have learned to trust my characters. I have honored their request to change my story. And between you and me... I like where it went.

Now, I have to think on the fly as to how this new plot-line will reveal itself. Or, I may just let the characters take over. Allow the inmates to take over the sanitarium. Does that make me the medium?

The good news is that it sparked new energy in the manuscript. It could have derailed the progress. And it may still derail it in the coming days if I don't come up with the rest of the path. But for now, the word count is solid.


Day 8's total: 2,307
Overall: 21,011

Fight the good fight!

Day 7: NaNoWriMo 2012

I'm tired, okay? I want to sleep!

That's what I continued to tell myself last night. But I had to write. I just had to.

Sure I could have taken the day off. Why not? I'm ahead of plan after all. But there was one reason above all that forced me to move forward. Shame.

Yeah, you heard me. I have to write my daily diary on this blog. I may not have a huge following but this series is getting a few hundred hits a day (thank you, by the way). So as you can see, that's pressure. Real pressure.

So if I had been smart, I would have done this whole "write a book in a month" thing in the privacy of my little room. And if I finished, then I would have told the world that I was done.

But that's the rub isn't it? It's easier to give up when no one is watching.

And since you guys are watching, I pushed through. It was sloppy, messy and painful (get your head out of the gutter!). Once I'm ready to revise, I may lose half of those words. But at least I have something to edit.

Day 7's total: 2,104
Overall: 18,694

Just Write and remember...

Fight the good fight!

Day 6: NaNoWriMo 2012

No life lessons in this post...

And that's the thing about writing... most of the time, the magic of writing isn't that magical. I'm sure you've heard the saying about 5% inspiration, 95% persperation? Well, it's a good approximation. Although, I do believe that coffee accounts for 10% and Nutella another 5%... good chocolate should account for another 10%. Snack. Snacks are good for 7.5%... but I digress.

All kidding aside, writing may be an art, but art can only be produced by the same methods that you produce anything in life.

If you want to have a vegetable garden, you can't just be inspired by the though of fresh veggies. You have to treat that soil, take care of the insects and snails, water the soil, manage the weeds and so on.

The basic principle is hard work and discipline. Because if your butt isn't in the seat, and if your fingers aren't moving on that keyboard, then words don't show up on your manuscript.

Speaking of words...

Day 6's total: 2,573
Overall: 16,590

Just Write!

It's not easy. I get it--trust me. Life gets in the way. But that's what we have to do. Otherwise, we would all be lawyers :)

Fight the good fight!

Day 5: NaNoWriMo 2012

Yesterday was one of those days that should have ended poorly, but didn't.

It is natural for "reasons" to get in the way of your writing. We are reasonable people. And we will use our reasons to stop us, slow us down, or give us an out.

As I mentioned on Day 1, I made a from-the-hip decision to write a mystery novel. As I've said, I read mysteries all the time, but that's out of love, not because I write them. In other words, I don't read it like a writer, I read it like a fan. I am not trying to pick up techniques -- What worked about that interrogation scene? What was the procedure for evidence discovery? etc.. -- I'm just reading.

Well... my story has broken into Act II now. And it became very clear that I was hitting knowlege walls. I needed research to help me with my facts. And I allowed myself to get into a funk -- questioing the wisdom of writing this story, questioning my own sanity, questioning why the sky is blue...

Then I remembered something that Stephen King said in his masterpiece On Writing. Research is for backstory. The key word is "back." He says, keep it way back. He advises, make up what you don't know. You can clean it up later.

And so I did.

Remeber this, you can't edit what you haven't written. Let the story roll. Don't let the fact that you are a reasonable human get in the way of following through on an unreasonable venture -- writing.

Day 5's total: 4,350
Overall: 14,017

As for my overall progress, I'm still on track. But remember, this is Act II. The long middle where you will hate your story, your characters, your scenes, and your third grade teacher for good measure.

Let me know what resources you use. Share your pain with me. Remember: misery loves company.

Fight the good fight!

Day 4: NaNoWriMo 2012

Yesterday was weak. Today was wick-ed.

Get it? Get it? Weak -- Wicked?

Come on! Give me a break, okay? I'm tired. I tried to come up with something that rhymed and that's the best I could do.

Today I nailed down 4,956 words. Yes, I basically doubled the output of my first three days on my fourth day. That puts my novel's grand total to 9,667.

As happy as I am about the results, I know that there will be days that I will not be able to produce more than a few hundred words. This is the truth about word counts -- daily goals are okay... weekly are superior. Some days will fall flat and others will give you gifts like the one I received today.

What went well today? Three important things:

(1) Yesterday was a busy day for family and friends, and although I got in about 1,300 words, there was a lot more I wanted to write. The nice thing about stopping when you still know what you want to write next is that the next writing session receives a turbo boost.

(2) As my day progressed yesterday, additional lines, scenes, and conflicts continued to bubble up. I took notes in my handy dandy notepad (you do have one, right?)

(3) And possibly the most important thing is what I posted on Twitter

The support I get from my wife is the driving force behind my work. Couldn't do it without her. And no, she does not read my blog, so I will get no points out of this one :)

I may try to squeak in a few more words, but I'm in a good place right now. I know what I want the next scene to include. I think I'll sleep on it and, as Stephen King says, let the boys in the basement do their magic while I sleep. 

Fight the good fight!