WORD COUNT: 1839
Day One, and I already have 1839 words. That's a good start, considering my procrastination skills. Now let's see if I can do this for the next 29 days.
Hopefully all days won't start off like this one. I intended to begin writing at 10:00, but I was finishing up some email and my morning surfing, so I started late by twelve minutes. Rather than letting that deter me like I would usually do, I started right away. I got 400 words into a story before I thought, "This is way too hard. I will never get 50,000 words out of this, much less the 1800 for the day." So I switched stories right then and there. I went with an idea I had years ago. I think I once wrote a little at the time I came up with the idea, but it sucked. I never picked it up again� until now.
So I've got a story, and I wrote 1839 words on it this morning. I'm not even going to talk about the subject, because I have a bad habit of dropping interest once I share it. I'm keeping this one all to myself.
What I will talk about is the fact I have lots and lots of ideas, but I'm not quite sure where to go now. I don't even know what I'm doing with it tomorrow. I have a general idea of the direction this is headed, but I won't be going anywhere if I don't have a map. In other words, I see the forest, but there aren't any trees yet. I know my destination. I don't know how to get there. That might present one heckuva problem for me tomorrow when it comes time to get another chapter or so out.
My latest angle is to hang out and wait for the characters to do what they do. I think of writing this story as a transcription more than creation. Of course, it is a creation, but the story plays itself out in my head long before I write anything down. It's more like watching a movie or being a fly on the wall than thinking it up myself. Right now, my characters are sleeping, and they aren't talking to me. I really hope they wake up tomorrow and are ready to get on with their lives when it's time for me to start writing again.
I'm probably worrying about this way too much.
And speaking of worrying too much, I'm also fretting over my dialogue. My journal is proof I'm not much into dialogue. I haven't written much of it since� well� about 15 years. It's not that I haven't written since then. I have done lots of writing, most of it in journals, but some short stories and collaborative projects. I participated in an online story that was pretty good, but my character was a mute. I never thought to make her mute because I didn't like dialogue. That's just what she was. She interacted with another character who never spoke, but I don't know if that was by choice. Another writer controlled that character, and we handled communication between the two through other avenues. I had very little dialogue from other characters, both my own and others' creations.
With my new story, I've already got a ton of dialogue, and I have been questioning it ever since I wrote it. Is it too much? Am I writing it ok? Is this relevant and interesting? But then I have to tell myself not to worry about it. A) It's a first draft, and B) it's NaNoWriMo. I'm just supposed to chunk this stuff out and do it. It doesn't have to be good or entertaining. It can be boring, inaccurate slop. Tidying it up can be done later if I feel like it's even worth the effort. So my characters can chatter away. I wish they'd do more of it, so I can get this story moving forward.
Today I got rid of:
About five pair of hand-me-down jeans Hammy never wore
Shirt that doesn't fit Boo anymore
Three pillowcases
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One year ago - Seven, Eight, Nine...
Another chapter on friendships through the years
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One Year Ago Today:
