Wait…Monday is the first of November? Oh surely you must be mistaken, it can’t be the first yet, I don’t even have a complete outline or more than two characters developed. It can’t be time for NaNoWriMo 2010 already silly, I must have at least three or four more months to go.
Don’t I?
No, really, don’t I?
No, I don’t. The stark reality hit this morning that it all starts Monday…holy crap. I just read through the latest newsletter from the Office of Letters and Light and all of a sudden my palms got clammy. Yes for real. Immediately following the drops of beaded sweat on my hands my stomach did something resembling Shaun White ripping a big backside rodeo 540 and I got all nervous like I was about to try pulling one off too.
And no, don’t ask, I don’t really have a clue what a big backside rodeo 540 is, I just know that it very likely involves flipping around in mid air while plummeting downhill at an insanely fast rate of speed.
I’m in alright shape compared to last year when I didn’t have a single name, profession, or any other character point written, other than my female main character’s name and what she did for a living, but somehow by the end of it all I managed to write in the neighborhood of fifty three thousand words. And when it was finished just a couple months ago it registered at something like fifty eight thousand. (I’m also practicing writing out everything now for word count so instead of only one word by typing '53,000' I get three. Clever, eh?)
And 58,000 is not bad.
So why am I freaking out? I know who my main character is and I have a pretty good handle on her back story plus I already know who her best friend is going to be and I got the super duper inspiration not too long ago for exactly how this story is going to unfold. Oh and yesterday I came up with a pretty good title for this thing based on her profession and station in life.
Um, yeah, I’m way further ahead this year than I was last year. So what gives huh? Maybe I’m nervous because I’ve already done it so now the pressure is on to win again. It's one thing to quickly vomit a whole bunch of words onto a page and call it a book, it's quite another to realize this is the career I want and all that puke is going to have to be cleaned up into something respectable afterwards right?
Or maybe I’m just afraid that I won’t hit fifty thousand words and that whole fear of failure thing is taking a foothold.
That’s much more likely the case. And you know something? I am okay with that because if I don’t go and hold myself accountable for the way this thing pans out no one else will. It isn’t as if the people from the Office of Letters and Light are going to send a torch carrying mob to my front door demanding I finish on or before November thirtieth right? Right. And it also isn’t as if I have an Agent (yet) who is holding a big fat advance check in their hands with my name on it that they aren’t allowed to turn over to me until I finish.
I guess I just need to start writing and let the chips (and mugs full of coffee, plans with friends, droplets of water from the non existent showers in my future, rays of sunshine I won't see for a month…) fall where they may.
After all, it is only a book.
Right?
5 comments:
Office of Letters and Light... sounds like something from Harry Potter! LOL
And just to ease your mind, you get the advance check *before* you write the book. That's why it's an advance. Then if you don't meet your deadline, the publisher sends the Agent to break your kneecaps. There, see? Isn't that better? :D LOL
Right there with you in term of not having much of anything to start with on Monday.
The gang was over today and we worked on character building sheets, which involves coin tosses, an assortment of dice and random number generators.
Learned that my MC has 4 siblings, and that they are all named after characters from LOTR (the parents are big fans.
Don't worry. We'll be fine.
don't worry. i'll only post boring things on my blogs in november so you won't be too distracted. (heehee)
break a pencil!!!!
You already know my most exciting news of late, so don't worry about missing anything with me! I don't think I'm going to find the perfect legal job in a month.
The pages of the calendar are falling fast and soon 2010 will be just a memory. I think November, December speed by quicker than all the other months as they are crammed with so much to do beginning with Halloween ! From Oct 31st it's a bullet train ride to Happy New Year !
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