The Christmas Break Challenge, Day One

Days Left: 499
Words written: 1,678

The Christmas Break Challenge (which shall be referred to as CBC from now on) began today, and I am proud to say I far exceeded by 500 words-a-day goal, writing 713 words all in one sitting. Maybe it was pent up writing energy from the two months I've spend not writing.

Today's writing took me to an unexpected piece of backstory for two of my main characters, essentially showing how the two of them got together. All I'm going to say is that the song Lady in Red had something to do with it.

Your assignment? Go download that song and listen to it. Classic. That's what I'll be doing as soon as I post this. I've decided to start a playlist on my new iPod (Thanks, Dad!) that will be a sort of soundtrack for "the novel." Stuff I can go to for inspiration when I'm stuck.

'Til tomorrow...

The Christmas Break Challenge

Days left: 522
Word count: 975

So.

Yeah.

I haven't done a thing with "the novel" in weeks. Haven't really even thought about it. This is no way to get a novel written, I know, but life just, well, intrudes. I tell myself very rationally that if this is something I really care about, that I really want to do, that I will make time for it, that it is worth sacrificing a night or two vegged out on the couch with my husband. But then I get the baby to bed at eight, and I just can't resist the pull of those cushions, the glow of the television, the foot rubs!

Sigh.

I have a plan though. My office is closed the week between Christmas and New Year's and my husband has to work. This leaves me with nine days (not including Christmas Day) with relatively large amounts of free time to write (in between adoring my daughter, of course). So, the plan is to write at least 500 words on each of those nine days, leaving me with an additional 4,500 words I do not have now and (hopefully) jumpstarting my urge to write this novel again.

The question is, am I truly disciplined enough to stick to my plan? (History says no.) Stay tuned to find out. I promise to blog each day to keep you up to date on my progress (and whining).

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...

How to Write a Novel

Top 3 sites that pop up when you Google the phrase "how to write a novel":

http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/resources/resour_writers/100daysbook/bk100da.html

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

And this very funny (and useful) blog post by Justine Larbalestier:

http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2006/09/06/how-to-write-a-novel/

Now to put some of this advice into practice...

Excuses and Name Calling

So it's been a couple of weeks since I've done anything with "the novel" (if you can call an idea in my brain such a thing). Life has interfered, beginning with a trip to my hometown for my ten year high school reunion, followed by my daughter starting at a new daycare which has lengthened my commute by 15-30 minutes (depending on traffic) and just general disorganization stemming from those two events.

Thankfully, this week we're back into the normal swing of things, and I can refocus. Today I thought of a great name for my main female character. I was looking for something that was traditional, but that would lend itself to an unusual nickname, and I think I've got it (though I'm going to refrain from writing it here for several reasons I don't care to get into at the moment).

Anyway, my goal for tonight is to get a rough sketch of her life, appearance, personality, etc. Actually get something on paper and not just scribbled notes on a pad!