I like it when I’m writing a scene and the characters take over. “How is that possible?” you may ask. You might even point out that the characters are merely figments of my imagination. They are constructs of my mind. I would have to agree with you. The thing is, if you create characters that are realistic in the what they do, say and think, sometimes the subconscious mind simply starts to build the narrative without you, the writer, being completely aware of it. It’s almost as if they were coming alive. Some of the most fun scenes to write for me have happened that way. I can barely wait to see what my fingers will type next. Unhinged If […]
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Day 14 – Digging out
Day 13 was not as successful as I needed it to be. That meant I was digging out of a word count deficit on Day 14. How can that be, you might ask. NaNoWriMo is the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. In order to “Win” the challenge, you need to write an average of 1,667 words every day for 30 days. I was a bit short of that average on Day 13. By a bit, I mean about 500 words too few. I grant you, 30 days sounds like a lot of time to get back on track. The risk is, you let your word count slide over and over to the point where it is virtually […]
Read moreDay 13 – Rollercoaster
So, let’s start with how this rollercoaster ride began…I wrote my post for day 12 and then forgot to post it. Not a promising start. Then I reread what I wrote for the previous day and had a complete blank on where to go next. Not writer’s block. Not exactly. But certainly the first vertical lift on the ride. I managed a bit of a flow for a while, mostly around filling in some plot holes. I did some reflection after that, realizing that, if I didn’t get the draft of the book finished this month, it would likely not get done this year (December already looks like it will be a write-off month for many things). That added some […]
Read moreDay 12 – Keep on trucking
Some days the words come easily and other days I have to fight to get each one. Yesterday was somewhere in the middle, but I was able to keep on trucking. In other words, I kept the story moving forward. I had an idea going in what I wanted to do. The scene I wrote was actually one that takes place immediately before the scene I wrote on Day 9. It was also a scene that involved some of my secondary characters. It’s always fun to let them have some time in the sun without Mik. Where do I go from here? There is still a long way to go with this story. I know I have some big stuff […]
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