NaNoWriMo Day 21
I know I said I had yuckiness planned for my heroes, but ... but ... I had no idea I was going to do this to them so soon. While I wrote, I saw it heading into a dreadful direction and it was too late to stop it. I tried -- I wrote them out of the corner, but when I turned back to the keyboard to conclude, it was already too late. I typed out the inevitable conclusion of the scene. And I can't go back and change it because as tragic as it is, it's also the only thing that should have happened.
Is that crazy? To mourn?
Yet, I realized the scene sets up the next direction of the novel, one which I had vaguely scoped out in my head, now is crystal clear.
And I'm remembering when I wrote my last novel, lo these many years ago, the same process was at work. The only difference, I think, is that I wrote it when I was in Missouri, and when everything was falling down around me. My faith was being shaken, key figures in my life were leaving, I had failed myself, my dreams were dissolving. I wrote the novel then (probably in record time) to save my mind. I was in Bible School, yet I wrote violence and had my characters screaming profanities. It was pouring out on page, everything that I felt. It was a psychotherapuetic process more than an attempt to create art. I finished the novel and saved it (just gave it another look). It's 342 pages of 10 pt double-spaced text. I broke it into six parts, so I can't do a word count right now, but vaguely I remember it being something in the range of 125K words. That ain't hay!
Anyway, I say all that to say, I am a writer. I don't know why I forgot that in Missouri, or why I didn't continue when I left. Derailed, I guess, to pursue the practicality of the need to 'make a living'. It worked out much better for My Friend The Doctor, but it's not too late for me!
So excited.
What will it be like at Thanksgiving, 2007?
Oh, speaking of Thanksgiving, I'd like to give a shout out again to my Other Hero. I'm just full of the warm fuzzies for that guy because it was his example of method and followthrough that has helped me get this far this time. Every time I come back to the blog and enter the new NaNo Day, I think of Alex Wilson. I sent him a manhug!
Peace and love, good people.
And I'm friends with Matt Atherton, so that's alright then!
Is that crazy? To mourn?
Yet, I realized the scene sets up the next direction of the novel, one which I had vaguely scoped out in my head, now is crystal clear.
And I'm remembering when I wrote my last novel, lo these many years ago, the same process was at work. The only difference, I think, is that I wrote it when I was in Missouri, and when everything was falling down around me. My faith was being shaken, key figures in my life were leaving, I had failed myself, my dreams were dissolving. I wrote the novel then (probably in record time) to save my mind. I was in Bible School, yet I wrote violence and had my characters screaming profanities. It was pouring out on page, everything that I felt. It was a psychotherapuetic process more than an attempt to create art. I finished the novel and saved it (just gave it another look). It's 342 pages of 10 pt double-spaced text. I broke it into six parts, so I can't do a word count right now, but vaguely I remember it being something in the range of 125K words. That ain't hay!
Anyway, I say all that to say, I am a writer. I don't know why I forgot that in Missouri, or why I didn't continue when I left. Derailed, I guess, to pursue the practicality of the need to 'make a living'. It worked out much better for My Friend The Doctor, but it's not too late for me!
So excited.
What will it be like at Thanksgiving, 2007?
Oh, speaking of Thanksgiving, I'd like to give a shout out again to my Other Hero. I'm just full of the warm fuzzies for that guy because it was his example of method and followthrough that has helped me get this far this time. Every time I come back to the blog and enter the new NaNo Day, I think of Alex Wilson. I sent him a manhug!
Peace and love, good people.
And I'm friends with Matt Atherton, so that's alright then!
posted by Me | 11/21/2006 09:14:00 PM
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