The NaNoWriMo Blues

I have not worked on my NaNoWriMo story since last Thursday. Friday I had my three year old niece overnight and Saturday I opted to finish a short story I'd been working on. I don't regret Saturday's choice because I finished the story and I'm very happy with the first draft! Sunday night I wound up falling asleep at 7:30, and by the time I woke up again, it was time to go to bed.

So here I am on Monday night, ten days into NaNoWriMo, with my word count still idling at 8560. I'm having issues with my main character. He started out vibrantly. His personality was coming across nicely, and then the action started. It was like the first sign of insanity kicked in and he clammed up. Sure, he made it through the action really well, but his personality fell flat. We can't have that.

I will be returning to the early half of the chapter to the place where the action started to see if I can give Ryan mouth to mouth. Hopefully he doesn't deflate, because his lackadaisical response to zombies is really pushing me toward either starting a new project, or just going back to the edits on my nearly completed summer novel.

I hope that all of my NaNoWriMo friends are having better luck. I know now that it's not that I don't want to write. I just don't know if I can keep on trying to breathe life into characters that don't want to live. In all seriousness, he's not even a zombie, and the zombies have more life right now than my main character. That can't be good.

I do have another idea, one that I am almost positive I can whip out 20,000 words in a week over if I actually start it. Tempting, tempting.

Limbs, Blood & Gray Matter Everywhere

Well, despite the fact that I spent most of my day procrastinating, I did manage to add 2537 words to my NaNoWriMo total today. That brings the overall total to 8560. I'm currently on chapter three. The body count is rising. There are six dead so far, one of them a suicide who had been bitten by a zombie.

Chapter two was pretty gory. It was where most of the violence and vomiting took place so far, and I am feeling a little disconnected from the characters right now. I feel like Ryan has fallen a little flat because all of it has been the interaction with really limited emotional response. I may need to go back in and connect emotionally or I don't know if I'll be able to go on. It's very rough.

In my procrastination today, I did manage to have great conversation with some friends I went for a nice walk and did a lot of thinking. All in all, I feel it was a good day. On to the next.

And then his secretary ate his face...

There was a part of me that worried it would take me too long to get into the action in my NaNoZombie novel, but tonight I got right to it. Of course, the zombie attack had to take place right in the middle of a boring executive meeting. What better way to get out of a meeting? Though after watching the zombie secretary quickly devour two suits, I'm thinking maybe I might have actually enjoyed the meeting better. My poor protagonist is currently vomiting into a hallway radiator and trying to figure out how to help the people still trapped in the conference room.

Four days in and I'm about 2000 words behind. My four day NaNoWriMo total is at 6023 words, but I will kick that totals butt tomorrow.

For now, it's late. It's been a long day filled with zombie secretaries and of course, new presidents. Apparently the results are in. Barack Obama will be the new president of the United States. I'm excited. This is the first time that I felt good about my vote, that it wasn't just choosing the lesser of two really icky evils. Our country is ready for change, and I look forward to where the future will take us!

NaNoWriMo Kickoff!

I did everything in my power to stay up last night to start my NaNo novel after midnight. I started out watching the Ghost Hunters Live seven hour Halloween investigation hosted by Josh Gates, and though I was completely engrossed, I did manage to get out the first 100 words between commercials. Then, I passed out just fifteen minutes before the end of the investigation.

So, after spending most of my afternoon procrastinating with everything from cleaning, bathing and working to cooking, napping and chatting on twitter, MySpace and the phone, I finally managed to glue my behind to the chair so I could squeeze out 1903 words.

The zombies have yet to appear, as I am trying to establish characters and their current relationship and situation before the big apocalypse, I did manage to sprinkle mysterious sickness in through a phone call. Yay for mystery Solanum virus.

Now, I didn't do a lot of pre-plotting. I have no outline I'm working from, except for the basic plot outline that started in my head. I did start out with two main characters, but about halfway through the introductory chapter a third character emerged that proved to be equally important, so now I have the three main characters already introduced along with their relationship to each other and their current situation.

I'm off to watch an inspirational zombie flick, but hope to get more written before I drop off to bed tonight. I'd like to get to at least 3300 so I have a nice buffer.

Good luck to all of my NaNoWriMo friends. May the word force be with you today!

NaNo Planning: To Plan, or Not to Plan... That is the Question

I have never been a major fan of planning ahead. I write much like I go through life: by the seat of my pants. In the twenty-two years I have been writing, I've always just dived right in and gone from there. Maybe once the plot thickens and I need to keep track of things, I will start o record them in a neat manner for future reference, but when it comes to planning most of that is done inside my head.

Characters come to me. Maybe you'll think that's crazy, but it's how it's always been. They come to me and tell me their story, and I record it for them. When the relative experience is really deep, or I feel particularly connected to it, the story comes out in first person. Many of them are written in third person limited because the characters are what drive a lot of my stories. Personal experiences that reach out and grab others... things that someone can read and say, "Oh my word! I have felt like that!"

So, when it comes to planning out where and when things will happen, most of that is done in my head. It's similar to planning, I suppose, but without all the structure to limit my creative process. I have tried to be neat and tidy... the second year I did NaNoWriMo I had a great structure all mapped out. Character sheets, chapter-by-chapter plotting, the works, but there is no story. In fact, the few thousand words I actually expended on the story don't even feel salvageable to me.

I started to plan and plot once I decided on a subject for this year's NaNoWriMo, but then I realized that one of the pushes of NaNoWriMo is finishing a novel in thirty days. The drive is in the deadline. Finishing the first draft is what is important. So, I tossed my written plans out the window and have returned to mentally tossing ideas about until it comes time to start dropping them onto paper on November 1st.

So, do you plan before your write? Do you feel as if you can't get through the first draft without a strong plan? Do you wing it, and worry about filling in any holes once the first draft is done?

Prepping the living dead for NaNoWriMo 2008

This is my third year doing NaNoWriMo, and I am very excited to be participating. Last year I didn't do so well, bombing out somewhere just around 10,000 words. The year before, I managed to make it, but the end result today feels like it needs a complete overhaul before I can even think of using it. This year, I've got my basic plot established. I'm having a zombie apocalypse.

Revealing major plot details to the general public always feels like telling people what you wished for when you blew out the candles on your birthday cake, so I will only say this: I am charged about the overall plot I'm working on. I'm about to start creating the host of characters and a small outline to go off of once the massive writing fest begins. I've never been a big fan of outlining, but you can't dive into NaNoWriMo without a good plan.

The inspiration started mid-summer, when I began working on a zombie-inspired short story. Right after I had established the early plot elements, a great How To opportunity came up on Mahalo: How to Survive a Zombie Attack. Hello? Kismet? Is that you? So I took on the assignment, and like the Solanum Virus, zombie fever was in my blood.

Before I could start gnawing on the nearest human being, I reached for Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide, and the zombie fixation escalated. Zombie films have been a staple in our household for years anyway, but it was time to have massive marathons. I also had the desire to dig up a series of books featuring zombie short stories from the 90's, but have yet to unearth them from the dusty past. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a John Joseph Adams edited short story collection that just came out near the end of September entitled, The Living Dead. Featuring short stories by Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and a host of other phenomenal authors, it promises to be a fantastic read.

So the research period has begun. Over the next couple weeks don't be surprised if my blogs take on a strange, survivalist undertone, with tips on where to find underground water, how to identify edible plants and fungi and improvise cookware on the fly. I mean, let's face it, when zombies attack, how long you survive is going to depend on a host of things like:
1. How fast you can run.
2. How well you can plan and think under pressure and depression
3. Your wilderness survival skills

Because there are so few people living in the wilderness, the zombies will probably not venture too far into the woods in search of food. Wilderness survival knowledge is going to give anyone a major leg up in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

I'm excited about this coming NaNoWriMo competition. I can't wait to get started, and I'm avidly devouring research, both of which are very good signs. Stay tuned throughout the coming weeks for more details, and of course, once the competition begins I will be logging my progress as often as I can.

CoC at NaNoWriMo again this year!!

My online writer's group, CoC is gathering a few of our writers to tackle the NaNoWriMo competition for the third year in a row. We've got our NaNoWriMo thread established if there are any writers interested in a great support network:

CoC Koffee Klatch @ NaNoWriMo

CoC has a great forum and password protected safe online archive for workshopping novel length works. If you're looking for a great group of folks who aren't afraid to offer their honest opinions on your work and who is incredibly supportive, please feel free to join us:

CoC Online Writers Group

I have been writing with this group online for more than five years, and they are really wonderful people. Join us!