The Flow of Things

Days left: 555

Word count: 975

Even though we were on vacation last week (Oct. 22-26), I still managed to do a little writing (as evidenced by the increased word count above). I'm starting to get a feel for my characters and where they are at the beginning of the story and that is exciting. The best part of writing (other than being done) is when things start to flow, when the characters truly take on a life of their own and they start telling their own story (often far away from the story you sat down to tell). I can feel their world coming to life. I'm still not sure where they'll end up , but that's okay. There is definitely a theme emerging for this story, namely fear of change, fear of taking the next big step in life and how others can help us through those transitions (something I've dealt with a lot in my life).

I hear my daughter stirring from her morning nap so I better close for now. I leave you with this awesome Death Star jack o' lantern from break.com. Happy Halloween!

Progress!

Days left: 575
Word count: 552

So I have finally written the first 552 words of "the novel." I was able to devote, not one, but three hours to writing yesterday and today. Yesterday, I spent most of the time fleshing out my two main characters, Mark and Ronnie. I'd done some work on Ronnie's character a few weeks ago, but I'd been wrestling with Mark.

In fact, I've been wrestling with Mark's character since college, since that night nine years ago that he first popped into my brain (all of which you can read about here). Yesterday, I had one of those magic writing moments where it all just flooded out and made sense, and I finally felt like I could get started on the storytelling part.

Now if I can just keep this momentum going...

Slacker

So I've been a total slacker the last few weeks, at least when it comes to "the novel." I have done little else but have little brainstorming sessions in the car while I'm driving to pick up my daughter from day care. I tell myself, very sensibly, that "the novel" will never get written if all I ever do is drive around thinking of writing "the novel." And yet, here we are with 578 days left and approximately zero words written. I go on to say, to myself, you set a writing schedule Kiley, now stick to it for once in your life!

So, starting next week, Tuesdays, Thursdays and at least one day on the weekend are "writing days," where I must spend at least an hour working on "the novel." It's not much, but, hey, it's a start!

In other news, I am halfway through reading Persuasion by Jane Austen for the first time. (I know, I know! I call myself a Jane Austenite and yet have never read Persuasion! Whatever.) I have to say that Captain Wentworth is giving Mr. Darcy a run for his money. Especially when he's portrayed by such lovely male specimens as Rupert Penry-Jones. Sigh...