I'm starting to get ready for NaNoWriMo. It starts in ONE WEEK! And here's what I've done:
*I've figured out which book I'm going to write! This isn't as simple as it might seem. My brain is full of shelves and hooks and tables piled full of ideas. Some are noiser and pushier than others, but that doesn't make them better--necessarily. So I have to look at each one separately, and this is where I get in trouble because I fall in love with them all over again. But one persevered, clamored the most, and was pretty cool, so I chose it.
*I've got the beginning! And the ending! Now I just have to figure out that pesky middle stuff, like who does what when and where and why and how. You know, the details. Okay, not the details. The good old basic plot. This book I chose to write had better get busy in my brain and start laying itself out. Sheesh. Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself?
*These characters need names. I am all over the map on naming my heroine. Nothing seems to quite fit her. I will consult a name book. Hopefully something will leap out of the pages and into my brain. I'm choosing Josh for the guy because I am all about Destination Truth, which is an awesome show on SyFy and I think Josh is smart and funny and cute.
There. Pretty productive weekend, wouldn't you say? Plus I shopped like crazycakes at a couple of BIG HUGE MALLS in Minnesota which was fun but now my entryway is filled with shopping bags I have to unpack and laundry that needs to be done. It's always something, isn't it? And thanks to Harry and David, the best store in the world for snacky food, I'm all set for stuff to eat and type my way through November.
ONWARD!
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4 comments:
This might explain my colossal fail at NaNoWriMo two years ago. I decided on October 30th of 2007 to do it without an idea, a plot, a character name. Then I proceeded to forget about it until November 2nd so I was already a day behind. I think I managed to do three days worth of aimless writing that is still aimless. Sigh. I think I might go back and do Laurie Halse Anderson's write 15 minutes a day challenge in November since I started that but only made it three days as well. :) At least it would be something! YOU are inspirational.
I'm preparing, too! I've been reading "No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty (the organizer of Nano) to help me get into the right mindset.
I've also been grading like a mad woman and updating my spring courses to work as far ahead as I can before we officially kick off.
I couldn't settle on a project, but it came to me last night in a dream (I actually dreamed that Nano kicked off, and I started writing with no idea where I was headed, and this was what I came up with...).
It's more an overall impression than anything. Southern, definitely; somewhere in the Great Smoky Mountains/Appalachia area of East Tennessee or Western NC. A single mom (Willa) with two girls, one about ten (Carly) and one about six (Shy, a nickname for Cheyenne that suits her personality). Shy's invisible friend, who's name I don't yet know. And my hero, of course, Ben. I don't know why Ben; that's just his name.
The first line is:
"Shy left the window open again last night."
Carly says it, and she's talking to Willa. Both of them are preparing breakfast in what looks like an older farm-house style kitchen. Dingy yellow cabinets, faded floral wallpaper, old-fashioned, yellow-speckled formica counter-tops, but everything very neat and clean. It's very important that Shy left the window open--there's something else going on there, but I'm not sure what yet.
The rest remains a mystery, but I'm hoping it will come to me, too--maybe in another dream? ;)
Oh--and I really like "Josh" for the hero. I think I can already picture him... (sigh)
xxoo,
Kacie
And Carly might actually be "Ginger." It's a strange choice, I know, but it keeps coming back to me. I'm trying to let my right brain have full reign right now, which means I'm trying not to analyze everything to death...
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