As always, I like to include my readers in my creative process. Right now I have a debate that I hope you guys can help me sort out. I’ve been looking into a plot. It’s a romantic comedy that for now is called “Christmas in London”. It’s the story of a New York marketing director who meets this English hotel heir, who is trying to bring his brand to the US. Imagine an English male Paris Hilton in a bad mood.
The literary challenge for me in this story is the places. Most of my stories are created in a town, an island, but not a specific place giving my readers the opportunity to imagine their own. This time I wanted to challenge myself to give a specific scenario. To prepare for this, I have inquired with a dear English friend of mine, Google (of course) and I’m looking into some research history books. So what’s the problem with this story? Keep on reading.
Last year I participated in Script Frenzy, which is coming up in April. This is where you write a script of 100 pages or more in 30 days (see a pattern here…LOL) Last year I didn’t even finish the challenge, and I was so close. I gave up at 85 pages. I’ve been encouraged to try again this year and I’m giving it serious consideration. Here’s the dilemma, should I write this plot as a novel or should I experiment with it as my Frenzy Script… What do you think? What would you like?
I have created a poll on the side of the page that I will keep up until February 28th, 2011. Your participation is encouraged and appreciated. Your comments are appreciated and well received too.
Image by paloetic (limited internet access) via Flickr
Last year when I did NaNoWriMo… I didn’t have a story to tell. I had somewhat of an outline, but the hardest part for me was to come through with those 50k words. I was excited but I just didn’t think I was going to be able to make it. I think my fear of not making it and definitely God’s help got me through each stage of the month and I don’t remember experiencing all the things that they say happen on week 2. I can’t say the same about this year.
First of all, after not finishing script frenzy back in April, I was really concerned about meeting word count. So I left the gates dashing out and giving it all. I thought this time it would be easier, not only have I been down this road before, but this time I have a story to tell. I was wrong!
Yes, I had a story to tell that was burning inside of me. I didn’t need outlines or chapters; all I needed was to get it all out in that paper. For the first week I wrote and wrote and by the end of week 1 I had over thirty thousand words and most of my story told. I realized that I had made an outline out of my novel. There were things that were not developed. The worst part, I got confident about my word count and I stopped writing for one single day. It has taken forever to get back on track even when I’m writing an average of 2k words a day right now. My story had died.
By Tuesday of week two I was ready to call it quits. I didn’t tell anyone because I have been blessed with lots of friends who are praying and supporting me through this and I know it was going to let them down. I hated my novel, it totally absolutely royally sucked! Between Tuesday and Wednesday morning I took the time to go back and fill those empty holes that my speed writing had created. I got more word count, but I was still not satisfied with the product. I was so disappointed. Then the magic happened!
Wednesday was the perfect day to quit. I had lost some of my work, I still don’t understand how. I lost my dinner by stumbling into one of my dog’s bones in the floor and I threw cranberry juice in my cream carpet and I was writing the worse novel ever. I’ve read of some people who hate their novels in week two and they want to delete it and start over. That was not my plan. I was done with the whole thing. I was packing my bags and going home. As I do every night, I went to our Nano chat room and there was something I had never done before, a word war that lasted an hour. For those not Nano involved or knowledgeable, that means writing without stopping for an hour. I have done tons of word wars before, but nothing longer than fifteen minutes and trust me your mind and your fingers want to explode. An hour? Are you kidding me? What the heck, I don’t think I have enough to write, but let’s go for it!
That was precisely the breakthrough I needed. My mind was forced to see the scenes from other angles. I found my plot, my novel was coming back to life and the story was getting better than ever. Those sucky parts can be dealt with during editing after the fact; they are not too bad to affect the content. So with new ideas, new discipline and fired up with what I’m writing I’m approaching week three, without the concern of word count as I’m already at 48.5k, this is the time to finish writing a great story!!
Like one of our fearless Atlanta ML (Municipal Liaison) would say, this week feels like being in the middle of a traffic jam on 285 during morning rush. After writing 35,000 words, I feel like I’m in the last stages of labor. I can’t sleep, I have a lot to drink, therefore a lot of stops to make, I’m craving weird stuff to eat and pain…oh a lot of pain (from thinking and typing, LOL!). The reality is that they are just Braxton hicks’ contractions, in other words false alarms; this baby is not ready to come out( or in NaNoWriMo lingo, we still have writing to do. The story is not finished yet).
One thing I have learned from this year’s Nano is that you should never stop writing. If your story is not finished, the fact that you have a bazillion words doesn’t mean you can take a break. Somehow your brain thinks that the break implies that you’re done and it takes twice the effort to get yourself in gear. So, if you want to give yourself a mini-break, get on the page at least for five minutes and write a paragraph, a line…whatever it takes to keep you connected to your story. I had to learn it the hard way. I was very confident with my work last week. I wrote a little on Friday and none on Saturday even though I had the time. Then yesterday, going back to my labor analogy, it took pitocin (meaning going to a write-in), a chai latte, three word wars and a good frustration cry to get me back in gear.
My story has taken a life of its own. I had something envisioned and for those who do not write, believe me characters are like your children, they may have your DNA but ultimately they do what they want, and you have to rail them in to do what you know it’s best for them (or your story). I knew I had reached insanity when I spent five paragraphs describing a bathroom and a doll house. They were pretty though. So after a good chat and a couple of laughs I’m ready to get back to business, the discovery of the murder. Who did it? Stay tuned…
Naty Matos 