Writer's Block-head: NaNoWriMo Update - Week 1
According to my Facebook page, 2010 was The Year of the Novel. For nine months I did very little work on said novel. Instead, 2010 became The Year of the Garden, The Year of Eating Better, The Year of Learning to Love Exercise, The Year of Giving Up Coffee and Then Starting It Up Again Slowly Because I Need It Dammit, The Year of Improving My Credit, The Year of Doctor's Appointments and Various Pills That Made Me Cry and Bleed, The Year of Knitting, The Year of Forgiveness, and, as always, of Friendships and Love.
Now it's November, and I am smack dab right in the middle beginning of my NaNoWriMo attempt (my very first, despite being signed up on the website since 2007). Yesterday I was invited up to Corona to the home of one of the writers I met at the NaNoWriMo Kick Off Party in Riverside last Saturday. They had planned a sixteen hour day, starting at 7 AM, where they would write, stretch, eat, and then write some more. The woman's husband happily went to bring all of us snacks and meals, all while taking care of their three kids for the entire day. It was beautiful! I was so glad to get out of the house to write because I know if I was in here chores, television, naps and random cooking projects would have probably sucked up my day. Instead, I got 4,000 words down. I'm still behind where I should be on the 7th of the month, but today is Sunday and there is ground to be made!
I feel like I can't talk about the subject. I know it's a really bad sign if someone asks, "Hey, what are you writing?" and all they get in reply is a few blinks and a shrug. I know what I'm writing but I feel like if I say it out loud or try to explain it, it's going to lose it's magic. I'm not ready for input. In fact, despite agreeing to share it with a few people after I'm finished, I'm ready to backpedal on that promise, too.
Getting back into writing has been difficult. I've decided I am a reactionary writer, after years and years of doing just that with wordsdiminish . Give me a prompt and I will write a one or two character response, with actions, in the matter of minutes. No problem. Give me an entire world where a character's every move does not warrant four or five paragraphs about his hair and exact thoughts, and I'm floundering. I edit while I write. I know that November's exercise is to write, write, write without even a thought to the red pen, but I'm already itching to scrap the first 2,000 words and start again. The preface is all wrong. Wrong characters, wrong scene, and the fact that it's a preface is all wrong, too, because I didn't even want one of those.
But! The point is to get the words down. So I'm leaving it for now; ignoring it there at the top of the word document. It can mock me all it wants, for now. Just be warned, Preface, I will be back with my mighty backspace key when this is all over, and you will be nothing but empty space.
My count for the week is 6,009. If you're on NaNoWriMo, please be my writing buddy! And if you're up in the Temecula/Murrieta area, I'd love to have a friendly face to take to next Saturday's Write-In in Old Town Temecula.
Also, let it be known, I am taking my coffee pot out for the first time in a year. My writing brain likes caffeine, and if that's what it takes.. well, then, that's what it takes! Bring on the creamer!
Now it's November, and I am smack dab right in the middle beginning of my NaNoWriMo attempt (my very first, despite being signed up on the website since 2007). Yesterday I was invited up to Corona to the home of one of the writers I met at the NaNoWriMo Kick Off Party in Riverside last Saturday. They had planned a sixteen hour day, starting at 7 AM, where they would write, stretch, eat, and then write some more. The woman's husband happily went to bring all of us snacks and meals, all while taking care of their three kids for the entire day. It was beautiful! I was so glad to get out of the house to write because I know if I was in here chores, television, naps and random cooking projects would have probably sucked up my day. Instead, I got 4,000 words down. I'm still behind where I should be on the 7th of the month, but today is Sunday and there is ground to be made!
I feel like I can't talk about the subject. I know it's a really bad sign if someone asks, "Hey, what are you writing?" and all they get in reply is a few blinks and a shrug. I know what I'm writing but I feel like if I say it out loud or try to explain it, it's going to lose it's magic. I'm not ready for input. In fact, despite agreeing to share it with a few people after I'm finished, I'm ready to backpedal on that promise, too.
Getting back into writing has been difficult. I've decided I am a reactionary writer, after years and years of doing just that with wordsdiminish . Give me a prompt and I will write a one or two character response, with actions, in the matter of minutes. No problem. Give me an entire world where a character's every move does not warrant four or five paragraphs about his hair and exact thoughts, and I'm floundering. I edit while I write. I know that November's exercise is to write, write, write without even a thought to the red pen, but I'm already itching to scrap the first 2,000 words and start again. The preface is all wrong. Wrong characters, wrong scene, and the fact that it's a preface is all wrong, too, because I didn't even want one of those.
But! The point is to get the words down. So I'm leaving it for now; ignoring it there at the top of the word document. It can mock me all it wants, for now. Just be warned, Preface, I will be back with my mighty backspace key when this is all over, and you will be nothing but empty space.
My count for the week is 6,009. If you're on NaNoWriMo, please be my writing buddy! And if you're up in the Temecula/Murrieta area, I'd love to have a friendly face to take to next Saturday's Write-In in Old Town Temecula.
Also, let it be known, I am taking my coffee pot out for the first time in a year. My writing brain likes caffeine, and if that's what it takes.. well, then, that's what it takes! Bring on the creamer!