November 23? Seriously?

How did it get to be Nov. 23 already?

No time to panic, must write. And write, and write, and write...

Oh yeah, lost track of what I was doing there for a minute.

So my idea is pretty well fleshed out, and I’ve been writing, but of course there are always 1,289 things that get in the way, from work and work and work to kids and school and everything else. So I’m actually okay with the progress I’ve been making.

Actually, the best thing that has come out of NaNo this year, for me, is the writing group we have started. Not sure if we will continue meeting after NaNo is done, but it has been really nice to get together and chat with other writers every Saturday afternoon. (Okay, so Saturday afternoon is not a great time to do it, but when WOULD be a good time?)

There are five of us that have been meeting each Saturday, mostly chatting about our story ideas and research progress and what not. It’s a bit of an eclectic group of people that I probably never would have met otherwise, let alone spent time getting to know. It’s been quite nice.

My story is advancing, though some of the details are hanging me up. For instance, my character is from Venezuela, but I don’t speak Spanish. So I’m struggling for some authenticity there.

I’m also working out the details of a fight between her and her husband, which I don’t want to be over the top and violent, but I want it to be clear that she and her husband are pretty well over. I’ll work it out, I’m just not there quite yet.

Let’s see, what else? The little girl’s name is not working for me at all. I’ve temporarily named her Dulcea, but I really don’t like it. Nothing brilliant has come up yet, though.

Time

What I really need now, as I sit in front of my computer screen on day four, is a 30 hour day. That way there would be enough time for everything I am crazy enough to get myself mixed up with, and maybe I could chat with my husband and hang out with my kids a little, too.

Sheesh.

So I'm thoroughly behind at this point, and time is gaining on me. But it is only day four, and it is Friday, so the plan is to spend today (and perhaps the weekend) catching up. Heck, maybe even getting ahead (lol!).

Off to steal the hour I have before my 2 p.m. appointment to sort out a scene with Elena...

Day two

It's 4 p.m. on day 2, and I'm at 1,200 words. OK, not where I'd like to be, but it's a start.

Yesterday was an insane first day -- I had a paper due by 11 p.m., and I had to write the county commission meeting and the editorial and and and...by the time I had chance to work on my novel, my creative juices (or at least the ones I use to write) were pretty well zapped.

So hopefully I'll have a little more energy left to right tonight...unless I start thinking about all of the things I have to do now...

WAY too early in the month to get discouraged. So I think I'll go see if I whip out a couple of hundred words before I leave work today.

My current excerpt:

“I heard the unmistakable sound of a baby crying on my front lawn,” Gina would tell people later, when the calls started coming, from the media hounds, the social workers, and every other interested party in the city of New York who looked her number up in the phone book.

But truth be told, Gina really couldn’t be sure what pulled her from the Harlequin she had unapologetically and completely immersed herself in and brought her outside in the midnight hours of that cold dark night.

Now for the scary part

OK, so it’s two days to NaNo. Well, at this exact moment it is 30.5 hours to NaNo. I have the idea, I have the plot, I kind of know my characters (last minute plans are to do some character sketches/worksheets to firm up those details) – the story is coming together in my head.

Now for the scary part.

Now I have to write.

Not just talk about writing, or hell, even write about writing, but actually write. I’ve always been a writer, since I was a very small girl. I’ve never wanted to do anything else. I used to write constantly – short stories, journal entries, everything – but the past few years, it hasn’t come as easily.

There are lots of theories on why writing has become difficult for me. Maybe I’m afraid of putting myself out there to fail (or to succeed). Maybe the bout of writer’s block brought on by my ex-husband is still hanging on. (If this is the case, I could even pin point the time and place of the demise of my muse.)

Maybe it’s something else entirely.

What ever it is, I’m not going to let it hold me back anymore. I’ve decided. It’s official. I am going to get in the habit of writing – for NaNo and beyond – and quit talking about it. I’m tired of sitting around with other writers and feeling like a fraud because, while I do write, I never finish anything. What makes someone a writer? Writers write. So, damn it, if you want to call yourself a writer, let’s get writing.

Here we go – let’s get to 50,000!

Research

I have spent most of my afternoon doing research for my story, carefully logging interesting details that will help me to create realism in my characters even as I spin them off into something totally fictional and my own.

I now have a lovely little manilla folder sitting on my desk labeled “research” which contains a stack of interesting news stories about the case, along with some details about the place in Venezuela where my characters will be from.

My MC, Elena, and her daughter Dulcea (though I’m not hooked on that name yet, because something about it doesn’t quite fit perfectly) are from Sierra De Coro, in Venezuela. So they have names, and a home, and I know some things about their home. All very good steps!

I have quite the urge to start crafting now, but forcing myself to spend that creative energy researching and doing pre-writing exercises is probably much more helpful.

Our local NaNo group is meeting on Saturday, and I have a three-page plot ready to share there. Then on Sunday I’m trekking to Bismarck to visit with the group there, meet Pookel and say hello. Oh yeah, and go shopping... *wink* On Monday I’m thinking a massage, not thinking about writing, and taking a long afternoon nap so that at midnight I can jump right into writing.

Ambitious, probably, but it’s all about pushing myself to get the writing done. It will be a very busy, busy month, and I’ll need all the incentive and push I can get.

Short story idea...

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be working on NaNoWrimo. Not sure why I can’t concentrate on one story at a time, but I’m hoping if I get this out of my head, I won’t have to deal with it for a while.

I went to a thing at a local high school yesterday called a “ghost out.” Students were pulled from their classrooms, their faces were painted white and they pretended to be dead. A student was pulled every 15 minutes, representing how often people are killed in alcohol and drug-related car crashes.

Then they had a guest speaker, and this boy told his story, about how he had been the drunk driver who killed his best friend. It was very emotional and touching, and reminded me of something that happened in a community I lived in a few years ago.

It would certainly make an interesting short story, I think, and I always struggle with short stories, so I may like to have the idea later. (AFTER NaNo!)

This account isn’t the total truth of how it happened, because my memories are a bit fuzzy and some of it is disconnected. But it’s some details I recalled that would be interesting to include.

Two men in their 20s and two teenage girls were out joyriding in the middle of the night. (So far as I know, no one really knows what the girls were doing there in that car, would be an interesting part of the story.)
Everyone had been drinking, they were probably on that gravel road in the country to smoke a bowl or have a beer, or who knows what else. (Not likely sexual, knowing the characters, but you never know.)
Maybe they were going too fast, maybe the driver got distracted, but what ever happened, they got into a wreck. The two men in the front seat were thrown from the vehicle, the girls were tossed around the cab.
The girls, thinking only of what was going to happen to them if they got caught, got out of the car and took off running. They got back to the main road and hitchhiked back into town.
One girl, we’ll call her Jenny, had just crawled into bed when her mother, an EMT, was called out to the scene of an accident.
Back at the truck, the driver woke from unconsciousness, blood running into his eyes, and found his friend, lying on the ground. My understanding is he held him in his arms while he died. Perhaps that’s an embellishment, perhaps not.
Then, panicking, he turned to find the girls. They were nowhere in sight, he was terrified. When emergency crews arrived he was frantic, asked them to find the girls.
The EMT knew right where to look.
Jenny had a broken arm, both girls had a few cuts and scrapes, but everyone was okay, except the front passenger, who they were not able to save.
He left behind a girlfriend, a four-year-old step daughter and a new baby.
The girls, with their total disregard for human life and absolute selfishness, always really shocked me about this story. How could they just go home, and not think twice about it? How could they go crawl into bed and not tell anyone what had happened, get help for their friends?

I don’t recall any criminal charges, though that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. It seems like there probably should have been, but it’s a small town, and maybe it was never pursued?

Anyway, the scene would make for an interesting short story I think, and hopefully it will get it out of my head so I can concentrate on my novel. I’m so *@#@#$ ADD sometimes about my writing!

15 minute fiction

The wind whipped at Andrea’s long black hair as she slowly made her way down the boardwalk. She wasn’t in any hurry – it would be hours before anyone wondered where she was, and the cold sea air was really helping to clear her mind.

So she strolled, breathing deeply, letting her hair fly, letting the wind envelope her. She was a million miles away, staring out over the waves as the water splashed against the rocks in the cove. The sound had always been a comfort, since she was a small girl.

All at once, Andrea’s breath was knocked free of her chest and she found herself sprawled on the hard ground. Dazed, she looked around to see what had sent her flying to the boardwalk. Then there was a warm, wet tongue in her face.

“Chocolate! No!”

The enormous dog was pulled away, with some struggle, and Andrea caught her breath, wiping slobber from her eyes, her nose, her mouth. Finally she looked up, prepared to rip this beast’s owner a new one, and her eyes met his. Her heart stopped, then sped to life again in her throat, making it impossible to speak.

“I’m so sorry about my dog,” the blonde Adonis said, hauling her to her feet with one strong arm.

She shook her head, tried to speak, looked from the man to the huge brown dog at the end of the leash he held.

“Bad Chocolate, bad,” he said, as if to reinforce just how sorry he was.

Still Andrea was speechless, a highly unusual occasion.

He frowned at her. “Are you okay? I’m really sorry about my dog, she’s just a little over-excited sometimes.”

“I’m fine,” she finally sputtered. Her voice sounded unusually high to her ears, forced and tight in her throat.

Still looking unsure, he took her by the arm and turned her around, looking her over, as she stood in bewilderment at why she was letting this strange man touch her like a familiar friend. His frown deepened as he noticed the blood running down her leg, coming from what looked to be a deep cut in her knee. “No, you’re not, you’re bleeding,” he said. “Let me help you, it’s all because of my stupid dog.”

Before she knew what was happening, he was sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her down the boardwalk, Chocolate trailing along behind. She didn’t even have time to argue.

Writing exercise

I am always looking for new and interesting free-writes, and I’ve taken to blog surfing lately. Sooner or later, the two things had to meet up. I was poking around today and came across this livejournal that has a weekly (I think?) challenge they call a “Ficlet,” where they give you a word and you spin it into a story in 15 minutes.

Here is a link to the blog:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/15minuteficlets/

So I thought I would give it a try.
By the way, I entered a writing contest with a similar topic, and for some reason, I can’t really get that out of my head. So I started out with a little brainstorm, then wrote this, which is completely unrelated because it doesn’t fit the “fiction” requirement:

Some days, you just gotta have it. Nothing you can do to control it, nothing you can do to change your mind or divert the course, you absolutely have to have chocolate.

So you get in your car (walking to the store for chocolate certainly seems counter-productive), you drive to the store, and you find that magic aisle, where they keep all of the sweet, sticky, chocolatey goodness.
For a moment, your heart catches in your chest, and it gets hard to breathe. What to choose, what to choose?

After several minutes of brainstorming, here is what I wrote based on today’s word...

Chomping at the bit

Work is crazy busy right now, and life is equally insane, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and blog (or write much, for that matter), but there's one thing for sure - I can hardly wait to get started on this novel. It is running through my head all the time. The story is telling itself, developing itself, preparing to be written. It's a very exciting time in the process of noveling!

Noveling, is that a word? Lol.

At any rate, this Saturday we had the first meeting of our local NaNoWriMo group, and in my opinion it went quite well. There were six of us there, including several writers of different abilities and experience levels, it seemed (not that we have shared anything yet to know that for sure!), and I'm very excited to work with all of them. Having a support system is really important for me, and having people to kick me in the butt and tell me to write something is even more important!

We will be getting together every Saturday through the NaNo process, and who knows, maybe continue after that on occasion. High hopes, that's me. :)