Today I started the National Novel Writing Month challenge. Armed with the founder’s No Plot No Problem book, I embarked on a new and exciting journal as a novelist. I discovered on this first day that not only am I truly and certifiably insane, but that this task may very well be my final undoing. Here are the snags I have run into so far:
1. The 4 1/2 month old baby doesn’t seem to understand this whole “national novel writing month” concept. I’m trying to explain it to him, but he only responds with drool and shrieks. Mom doesn’t have much sympathy for me, either.
2. Our younger Golden Retriever, Sampson, decided that today would be a good day to renew his passion for diarrhea. Picking up solid dog poop from the backyard is fun and all, but what I really live for is anxiously waiting for Sampson to do the poo-poo dance so I can take him outside and then wipe his butt with paper towels. Yeah, now that’s the good life!
3. 1,667 words a day for 30 days doesn’t seem so bad. However, 1,667 words after a full day of work and then a full evening of teaching and driving back and forth from downtown is a lot!
4. It might be good to have some general sense of, oh, let’s say plot, or maybe characters, or even environment. I actually wrote the beginning of three different stories before settling on one opening I think I can live with. My second idea was going to be about this guy who was known in “the biz” as a “dangler.” He would be used as bait to try and get the right crowd of people together and then things would happen. You see what I mean? Pure crap. Had to scrap that one quick, before it tried to hijack my fingers. I got about 500 words in, though, which is scary. Reminded me of writing my dissertation…
5. Using short names for frequently used characters is a good thing. Still have no idea where this thing will end up, but at least I have a protagonist’s name I can live with. It’s Tim. I think (see 6).
6. Writing from multiple locations can be annoying, especially if you’re scatterbrained. I was sure I had saved my first 450 words on my USB drive, then I got home, and no file to be found. I must have left it on the laptop. No way I’m hauling that behemoth inside tonight. So, I’m forced to write my remaining 1200 words separated from their parents. I hope they match up when I go to combine them tomorrow.
7. When you buy a book named No Plot No Problem, it might make sense to actually read the thing before embarking on a quest to write a book with no plot. Pure osmosis isn’t doing the trick so far.
8. Wednesdays this month are probably going to be the hardest for me. So, I’ll try to make a nice little cushion by doing a little extra on Thursday and Friday. Ha! I love telling myself stuff like this, because it never happens that way. Something always manages to come up.
9. I need to get over my relentless drive for perfection and my obsessive-compulsive need for symmetry. So take that, incomplete list! Only 9 items! Ha!! Who’s Howard Hughesish now? Huh, huh?
Need sleep….
