Day 3

Started out on track - over 2000 words on the first night with a decently written prologue and a first chapter of write-to-get-to-know-your-character drivel. By the end of the first chapter, the FMC was showing serious signs of being agoraphobic. Damn.

(And yes, I looked up 'agoraphobia' to make sure I was using the correct word after accidentally mistaking narcolepsy and necrophilia in another novel. Oops.)

On October 13, 2012, I figured out the problem with my first novel attempt in 2004. The MC never went anywhere or talked to anyone. "Get them out of the house! Make them interact with other people! Things will happen! Dialogue will happen!" Duh.

And here it was, seven novels and two weeks after that piece of advice, and I had done the same stupid thing to my MC. Ugh.

But it's okay. Her computer crashed - the BSoD! - and she knows nothing about how to buy computers. So she has to get out of the house to buy a new one and take someone with her who knows something. Whew.

5221 words.
+220 for today.

4 more days!

I've spent way too much time this weekend on Nano-prep, and I'm totally geeked about it! 
That work stuff will happen tomorrow. That Christmas-present-making thing will happen when I need to step away from the computer and think during November. 

I have index cards on my chapter, character, places, and research board in Scrivener! 
chapters: potentially 9, which will hopefully expand into more as I start to write. In 2008, I had planned to have the MCs on the cruise ship by Chapter 3, and I don't think they got there until Chapter 14. 
characters: 11 who will feature in the novel, plus an assortment of 17 other minor characters if they need to be thrown in 
places: 3 actual and 1 fictional town that I added to the UP, between Thompson and Manistique, in case you wanted to look for the place where you will not find it if on a UP map. 
research: Menominee language, legends, and mythological figures

I have no idea how to make my own wallpaper, but I might have to. The ones I've found this year don't really fit my style or novel. (Why would they? These people don't know me. I don't blame them. Really.)

Off to search for pictures... 
and not write some more. 
I promise. 
No sentences until Thursday! 

Ten more days!

Yep. Ten more days. Or eleven, depending on whether or not you're counting the rest of today. I'm not. 

Pardon me while I take a few minutes to brag about this year's NaNoWriMo, as well as NaNo 2013 and 2014: I have a PLAN. It is a three-year plan. Okay, not a plan so much as an idea. Three ideas. Three vague notions flying around in the back of my brain. They've been bouncing around in there in some form or another for six years. Now is the year to call forth the plan and execute it in the manner in which I unexpectedly stumbled upon in 2006. 

What I've learned about NaNoWriMo since 2004: 

1. When I don't plan, sometimes (okay, one time) the characters took over and told me what was going on. That was an amazing thing. 

2. #1 doesn't happen every year. It's disappointing. 

3. When I do plan, the book is a lot more coherent and tends to contain less nano-babble (yes, it's a word. I just made it up.). 

4. It's a good thing that I know how to type. I am perpetually thankful to my mother who tortured me with take a year of typing class in high school.

So, there you go. In eight attempts, I've learned four things. I'm sure I've learned more than four, but those four are the most relevant. Oh - and I have a lot of fun writing when I don't take it seriously. I taking NOT taking Nano seriously very seriously. AND I got a royalty deposit this year. Amazon gave ME money  - and it wasn't a return. It was seriously cool. It was $10.64, but still... 

Now I should go off and do some of that planning that I mentioned. 

Procrastination

We've come to the point in the novel where I reread to find out where I can change indefinite pronouns to much longer strings of words to pad my word count. Where I can add in a detail or a thought. Where I can paste my entire novel, thus far, into the 'create' box on wordle.net just to see what my novel looks like in a different form. And now, I'm going back to adding words. Not the same as writing more words. Nope. Definitely just adding words.

Weekend writing!

Back in Columbia, MO for my quasi-annual writing weekend. Haven't been here since '09. The Hot Box Cookies were still here, as well as the several thousand words that I had expected to materialize. I"m finally over the goal line on my nano-stats for the first time this year. Now let's see how many more I can get before it's time to fly home.

Like excavating with a backhoe...

I'm simultaneously pulling and pushing words from all places. Not quite in the nano-groove yet this year. I don't know my characters very well. I'm not sure of their motivations or back story. I didn't spend as much time in prep as last year - which is both good for my health and bad for my writing. Waiting for the characters to reveal themselves to me so they can send me on their way. 

It's getting desperate already - I've resorted to not only mentioning a Turbie Twist® hair towel, but also a 47 word disclaimer about the fact that I've never used a Turbie Twist® hair towel and mentioning my preferred style. 

And it's only the third....

Collecting stolen stuff to use later...

There's a poem that I really want to use in the opening to this year's  novel. I'm not yet sure the book will do the poem justice in occupying the same dead-tree space. At this point, the novel is not much longer than the poem. But it's a brilliant poem all the same.

and I just finished reading Libba Bray's LiveJournal. I'm totally stealing "witty wombat banter" and sticking that in my novel somewhere. I might even write the actual wombat banter to see if it turns out as witty as promised.

I have a lot to live up to. I need to write more so I can get to know my characters better. Here I go...