Two Days In

I'm two days in to NaNoWriMo and I've got about 3200 words.  Technically I started with a partially written chapter, but who cares. The point of this for me is to write every day of the month. So what I'm telling myself it, if I write 50K words this month - that's AMAZING.  If I don't - who cares, as long as I write every day. That is the goal.

Write something on the novel, every damn day!

So I'm two days in and I've written both days.  And where am I? I'm no straddled with a new character who has to tag along with my MC's for god knows how long to god knows where.  See what happens when you get back to it?  Chaos and mayhem! HA!  But that's just fine, because I am writing people and that's the whole point!

To everyone in Nanoland - more power to you and keep those fingers moving!

NanoWrimo 2015 - it's that time of year again!

November is just around the corner and you all know what that means - NanoWrimo.  I'm participating this year and I'm continuing the saga of Elum and Ari.  This is perfect timing and a great motivator to keep me moving down the path of writing. So if you're ready and willing keep that encouragement coming because I can use all the help I can get.  1600 words a day is something else.  And yes, I would love to take the month off and just write, that 's not going to happen.  I've got my regular life to keep on living.  So writing will be happening around all the other stuff.

So here's to everyone out there who does this every year and "wins!" You are amazing!  And here's to everyone who signs up and tries!  You are amazing too!  And here's to me!  I am also amazing!

Writing keeps me alive - so here we go.

Writing on Empty

You'd think I haven't been writing since this blog hasn't been active for so long, but that's hardly the case. I've been writing a lot for "work," you know the job that pays the bills.  And the other truth is that I've been writing in a wonderful circle almost every Wednesday night for the past two years that's been saving my bacon.

So why "writing on empty?"

Cuz you gotta have juice, man! You gotta have energy, gas, carbs! You got to have something in the tank to get those little gray cells moving, the pen in hand, the fingers dancing on the keyboard.  When you spend hours writing at your day job what do you have left? Fumes...

But that's where writing circle comes into play.  They are amazing and the circle is sacred. It and they have kept me writing; creatively; peacefully; solemnly; wholesomely; full-fillingly.

Even though nothing hits these blog pages, I've gotten a lot done over the past two years and I'm ready to get back into the novel full speed ahead, full throttle, pedal to metal, and any other metaphor you want to toss into the mix.

The tank is full and I'm surrounded by a sacred circle.

Outlines

When writing a story outline - how detailed to you go?  Chapter outlines - do you go with brief description of what would happen in each chapter and that's enough - or do you get more detailed in each chapter and go paragraph by paragraph?

What about segments of the overall story?  This who idea of doing an outline is just feeling overwhelming - one thing I'm considering is to start large view and work my way down or narrower...

But sitting here right now, I'm just not sure who the story really ends, so can I really do an outline when I don't know that?

UGH!  Sigh...ideas?  Tillie tries to help, but she runs out of ideas too!

Time to Outline? Time to Confess...

I've never outlined my story...never sat down and so much as put one bullet point on paper about the plot, the characters, the climax, any sub-plots and I certainly haven't organized a full blown outline of who, what, when, where, how, why, and then this and voile...(can't even spell that word - not even sure I got the right word - trying to get the word from magic that implies ta da - there it is!!!).

But is that necessary?  I'm beginning to think the answer is a resounding YES!

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of miscellaneous notebooks from the past few years with numerous pages of notes about my story with lots of great ideas about my characters, who they are, where they come from, where they should go, what they could do, together, to each other, etc... how they are connected, ideas for background, notes about where I need to go back and fill things in...but what I definitely DO NOT HAVE is a comprehensive outline or even a slightly vague outline of what is going to happen in this story.

How problematic is that?

In reading so - oh so many posts at the beginning of November on the Nanowrimo Facebook page enthusiastic Nanoists talked in excruciating detail about the importance of outlines.  In fact, people were panicking at the end of October at having NOT outlined in preparation for the start of Nano!

It's been far too long since I took an actual creative writing class and in reading about writing, clearly an outline is the way to go - and in the practicality of my daily life and trying to wrangle this complex story, an outline is needed.

So - outline it is.  Suggestions - comments - ideas are welcome.  But, as I have no followers on this blog and no one seems to be reading it or commenting - which is fine - this is just really an exercise right now to keep me writing - I'm going to jump in and get started with a basic attempt.

However, in the off chance there is someone out there who does happen across this and feels so inclined to leave their two cents (thanks in advance).

Writing Again Feels Good!

I changed the name of my main female lead. Thank you Sarah for the help! Awesome idea... Ariana going by Ari for short. It means holy one! Perfect!

The Dark Rider is now revealed as Sana which means radiant one (what a fall from grace, right?).

1200 words so far today! Yay!

Back at it...

I am way behind in Nano writing but I got back to it today! Whew for the three day weekend, even though I have to work a bit I can write while I work so alls good! Yay. I can and will catch up this weekend!!! I am determined!