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October 19, 2007

I Cheated

Yes. I am confessing here, and once you've finished reading, you may all hiss me and throw rotten foodstuffs.

I started my NaNoNovel this week.

Honestly, I didn't mean to. I was just making notes about the character and some of the things I wanted to explore further as possibilities, and suddenly I had an opening sentence. And when it's as great a sentence as this one is, you don't ask it to wait another two weeks before you write it down. No. You grab your laptop and type it in.

The next thing I knew, I had 677 words. I'm calling it a prologue. And I now promise that I won't write again about the story at all until Nov. 1. And, of course, now I will be shooting for 50,677 words. Though I won't include these in the word count until I get to one of those desperate moments that hit at the end of Week Two.

This, by the way, is why I don't outline my NaNo plots. Because almost the moment I start thinking about story elements and ideas, the story shows up and demands to be written down. Sometimes it goes places I am not at all interested in going (see last year's novel), but once the story begins, I have to write it down. It's vital to the process. Otherwise, I lose it and I can never, ever get it back.

I know this from experience.

I mean, really, with a beginning sentence like this one, what was I supposed to do?


It all began with Santa Claus.

Posted by sally at October 19, 2007 04:07 PM

Comments

Oh, Sally! Bad, BAD Nano Guide. What kind of an example is THAT to set? I am fishing around for a rotting pumpkin this instant. Still, I'm glad you're feeling inspired. By the way, I deleted your e-mail address, so please re-send. Thanks! OohLaLaura

Posted by: OohLaLaura [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 24, 2007 01:33 PM

I don't know if I'll do the novel this year. I'm always starting novels in my head, great characters, good beginnings, middles and develpment, but no ends.

My novels never have ends.

Maybe becaue they are so personal, and so far, nothing has seen a resoltution. Sometimes I feel like I don't do the characters justice because they still have so much more life to live and I can't decide that for them yet.

You'll have to email me your novel in early December. Santa Claus? I'm intrigued.

Posted by: Eris [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 26, 2007 09:02 PM

My novels don't have particularly useful middles. I have fun and interesting beginnings and kickass endings and only ever manage to write about 1/3 of the middle. And then I never get around to writing anything more because I've moved on to another story. Tell you what, you tell me how my middle should go so that it all hangs together and makes sense, and I'll tell you how your story ends.

Posted by: Sallyacious [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 28, 2007 06:39 PM

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