Daley Travels

It is Day 7 of the NaNoWriMo annual challenge and this is already turning out to be more intense than I really thought it would.  I find that I'm pretty much always thinking about the next chapter, how I'm going to take so-and-so's interaction to the next level, how many WORDS I can write.  All that and more. 

I've also learned some things about myself - or in some cases, confirmed some things about myself. In no particular order, here are the highlights:

• I've confirmed that I AM an organizer deep down to the core.  When you break down most of the jobs I've had throughout my life that's what they were.  Organizing people, information, stats, even arrest warrants.  That's who I am. 

• Since I didn't get sucked into this NaNoWriMo thing until about 3 days before it was due to begin, I didn't have time to do any planning - or 'plotting' as I've heard it's called.  I just jumped in at midnight on November 1 and started writing without any real direction; figuring I'd have to make it up as I went along.  Fly by the seat of my pants and all that stuff. 

• I've learned that 'flying by the seat of my pants' is not my writing style.  Without at least an outline or story arc scratched out on the back of an envelope, my story is becoming quite tangled as I write scenes in no particular order other than what comes to me while I'm watching an episode of Bones.  Granted, I'm writing it on a laptop and I can easily cut and paste sections later to make the story flow more logically but I still need an outline.  I've taken to jotting things down on a cheat sheet so I don't lose a character or forget what I named that planet we passed last week.

• I've learned that I need to figure out some way to tune out my 13 year old who believes that her dad and I want a running commentary on every single thing she does, thinks, ponders, and gets mad about during the day.  (I honestly don't know where she gets that tendancy since her dad is not known for being a chatterbox and I'm perfectly comfortable with silence too.)  I have a studio downstairs that serves as the warehouse for my Etsy shop inventory as well as where I go to pour the resin for my pendants, but it just doesn't have the right 'feel' for writing.  I've tried it.

So 17,288 words into my novel as of this morning, I was still really looking for the 'moral' of it.  I'm beginning to get an idea of where we're going, who's gonna die and who's going to get - um - make that 'experience love'.  But I haven't reached that "aha!" moment that I want where the whole thing comes together and makes sense - in my mind anyway. 

And then I realized that I was missing the point.  This likely will not be a best-seller and that's okay.  Odds are it won't ever be published and that's okay too.  The point is to write.  Pure and simple.  Just write.  Like anything we want to do well, good writing takes practice, practice, practice.  I shudder to remember how those first hymns I played on that piano at Pelican Bay EFC sounded 20 years ago.  But my friends didn't give up on me and I got better.  I practiced a heck of a lot, but I got better. 

I'm looking at this novel as that 'first step'.  Once I get through this, I'll know I CAN write 50,000 words - and I'll get better.  Just like those first few songs I played in that gymnasium of the 7th Day Adventist Church in Crescent City - I survived that first service, didn't faint, and got better. 

So, fellow NaNo writers (am I the only person who can't write or say that without flashbacks of Mork and Mindy??) Let's WRITE ON!!