[4,027 / 50,000 words]
Day One of NaNoWriMo 2009 is done and gone. At the suggestion of Chris Baty I attempted to "go big early" and create a buffer on day one with a "double up" challenge suggested by one of my online writing groups.
I did writing and outlining. I recently entered a competition that asked for a synopsis and (unlike many) it turns out that I kind of like synopses. There are many writers that hate writing them because they write them after writing the novel and then they have to boil the entire novel down into ten or five or (heaven forbid) two double spaced pages. But when you're writing the synopses at the beginning of the writing process it's a chance for you to concentrate on the character's motivations and the tensions between them and any external elements that come to play (and create more conflict) in the novel.
And -- excitement! -- I figured out how I'm tying together the larger threads in the novel to form a climatic ending. This is very important when your novel features a witch, a mafia, the ghost of a werewolf, a talking cat, a preternatural inn and very, very, very tiny pirates that live on a ship in a bottle.
And no, I'm not writing the first draft of my MFA thesis this month.
I desperately need to get tickets to the Post Secret event that's coming to town this week. Must do that! Must also get a flu shot! For some reason all the places around here are canceling clinics or having really weird limited hours -- and I just want a regular, season flu shot! Must go find candy and prizes for my students for when we meet and word war. I promised them prizes and fame for their novelling efforts and I plan to deliver. Must grade and must write another 2000 words. It'll be a busy Monday.
I have decided to attempt something I'm calling "shooting the bird." It's a combination of phrases I've heard, some in relation to NaNoWriMo and some in relation to the card game Hearts. Much like "shooting the moon," I'm trying to go big or go home by writing 2,000 words a day between Nov. 1 and Thanksgiving. Thus, on Turkey Day (the bird) I will have finished (shot) the novel. I could be reeeaaaly stupid.
Suggested reading: Other people's accounts (or non-accounts) of NaNo.
Just My Thoughts -- (she earns bonus points for working in the phrase "a bee's dick behind")
Editor Unleased -- NaNoWriMo: Writing with the Bulls
Rarely Likeable -- Dear NaNoWriMo
the INTERN -- NaNoReVisMo
