I passed my goal of 15,000 words by the end of the weekend tonight. Originally I had thought I would hit 15K by the end of Sunday, but instead, I find that it's Monday night but I made my goal all the same (I can count today as the weekend, since it's Veteran's Day and I didn't have to go in to work).
This story is so much fun to write. I am constantly surprised by the directions it takes, by what the characters do, by what they learn. Where does this stuff come from? Last week I was fretting because I couldn't get Elum to leave home. He was back after a pretty traumatic event, one in which afterwards he didn't know what to do, so he found himself at home and he was just hanging out, doing nothing much at all... learning more about his younger brother having not seen him in several years, seeing his Uncle and cousin and generally working in the colony orchards without much thought of the past. By Friday on my drive back to Flagstaff after taking Sarah to the airport for an early morning flight, I was thinking, "what the heck are you doing Elum? You need to get the heck out of there! The readers are going to want some action, you know, not just a bunch of scenes in the orchard or the kitchen or the wherever!"
Can you see my frustration? Well, it finally happened on Saturday. I was writing away and all of a sudden, someone shows up with a message for Elum (sorry, no spoilers, okay?) and he has to quick leave the colony and head on out to make this story happen.
Now, I'm not saying that those first days of writing are not any good --- although the whole grammar thing is kind of a struggle --- what those days show are background for who our main character is, they set up the story, they flesh out the "drama and trauma" that are affecting him and his true goals in life, etc.... so they are not a waste, but I gotta tell ya, I was getting tired of him hanging out at home; out of the limelight so to speak.
Sarah said tonight that I just needed to tell Elum to get the heck out of there and after I did it, he did! Wow, that's an amazing thought --- on many levels.
As I move forward with this story things happen that I don't expect, connections get made with what I'm writing now and something I wrote days ago, pieces seem to fall in place or go in directions I was never expecting. And all of this happens in the conversations between the characters. They just start talking and I kind of know what they are going to talk about (I mean, I need to know since I'm writing it, right?) but all of a sudden some new thread comes up or some leap to the past gets made and lights go on, bells ring, and chocolate falls from the heavens! Well, not really, but you get the idea. It's amazing! AND really fun!
So, I made my goal and am feeling good. It looks like I need to do just under 2000 words a day for the rest of the month to make 50K and I know I can do it. This is just fun! They say there is a wall out there and that I'm bound to hit it. Who cares! I'm staying in the moment and right now the moment is FUN!
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