Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to meet people and when they ask what I do, I say, I’m a fiction writer. Often people try to tell me the ‘great idea’ they have for a story.
Ideas are all around.
The first year that Barry did NaNoWriMo around mid October, our youngest asked Barry what he was going to write about. He looked around, saw a notice from Peapod delivery on the counter and pointed. “I’m going to write about him.”
That’s the story Barry tells. But it’s so much more than that. His love of Milwaukee comes through, and his connection with his mother.
The ideas are easy. It’s the follow-through that takes time and effort. Lots of effort.
My goal for next year’s NaNoWriMo is 3333 words per day. And not more than that. Sure, I’ve said that before, but since I’ve been seeing a chiropractor the last week, this time I mean it.
And I think it’s true for the future. I’ve established that I can write two novels in November, and 201,228 words. I don’t think I’ll do more than that, and I don’t need to try.
I thought I’d at least be done writing first drafts for a while, but 3 days after NaNo finished, I woke up and had a neat story idea. I’m waiting until at least January to work on it, though.
The kids are all home, so we’re spending time as a family including playing games. Last night we played a poetry game where each of us wrote a phrase and passed it to the next person. You could only see the last line written. Here’s one of the ones I started:
With crinkled brow, she struggled
to eat all the cotton candy she could
before her father took her home.
The next morning, she walked bare-foot downstairs
to say good morning to the seagulls and fish.
Silence was their usual response, especially from the fish.
These creatures feared not, and did not need conversation to establish connections
sharing each others sentiments
together at last.
It’s time to look at one of the novels that I drafted in November during that crazy time of writing 10,000 words a day. I admit that I feel a little trepidation. As long as I don’t look at it, I can (mis)remember it as having all these brilliant insights. Still, maybe it’s time to run my list of ‘bad words’ against it and delete all of my:
just, really, Hopefully, But, And and a few dozen other words that I tend to overuse.
But then I’d have to do something about those ‘shrugged’ and I’m not sure I’m ready to face that.
I’ve been busy puttering around with an almost completed novel, so going to a first draft is going to be a shock, I fear. Oh well, I’m sure I can get through 10 pages twice today. And a start on deleting the words from my ‘bad words’ list. And it’s starting that is difficult. So, time to start.
(Holds nose and jumps in.)