Not exactly what one might call a flood, but I actually feel as if I was pretty productive with those 18 words. I think I have decided to start a new project for NaNoWriMo and I spent some time having fun plotting it. Then I managed to switch gears and think about Fen for a while. I only eked out those measly 18 words–which, I admit, I might delete today–but I also tweaked some of the words leading up to those 18 and felt generally pleased with the quality of the words on the page.
NaNo starts Saturday, so my goals for the next few days are to keep working on Fen and–more importantly–to get all of my files with their new covers posted to all of the sites that I want them to be posted on. That’s a big job and I want to finish it, not having it drag on throughout the month of November. If I can finish it by Saturday, then I go into NaNo without the lurking weight of all the things I need to take care of dragging me down. I’ve always failed NaNo grandly–within the first week, I’m thousands of words behind and wanting to spend all my time asleep, but this project would be one where I know my characters pretty well (with one exception) and a lot of the events can evolve in a very natural way. I think I might be able to really fall into it. And maybe for once the whole goal oriented nature of NaNo will work in my favor.
But still, that’s three days away. Today, I’d like to finish the scene I’ve been working on with Fen, and get Ghosts re-formatted. And now that I’ve written a blog post, maybe I’ll let myself actually get to it!
I’m thinking about nano too. I have tons of characters to choose from who speak to me but I am so challenged as to story line. I was thinking of how Jenny Crusie rewrote the book she taught for so many years and hated. I entertained the notion of rewriting what is the inevitable ending for Jax in Sons of Anarchy. Taking the beautiful biker man, (though my character would not be a biker) who starts out intelligent enough to be reading Emma Goldman, and arching him into something good, rather than the stupid monster Sutter is creating by following the storyline from Hamlet. (If I had known he was following Hamlet I would never have started watching it.)
Anyhoo – it’s a lot to take on and I’m not sure I am prepared.
I’m not familiar with Sons of Anarchy, but you could pick a story you like better and model it on that. The great thing about Nano is that the point is not to write the next great bestseller but simply to pour out 50,000 words in a spirit of foreword momentum instead of self-criticism. If you’re feeling up for it, you should go for it! (Note that I’ve never come anywhere close to finishing NaNo–I freeze entirely and lose fast usually!)