A Tale of Two Writing Sessions
You've done it. I've done it. And I decided to do it again this year.
I haven't written a novel in a little bit. Other things have consumed my time--including me writing a new story for Paul Bishop's new anthology, BANDIT TERRITORY--and it was high time to start. I almost always start a new tale on the first day of the month. This month just turned out to be NaNoWriMo month. Why not?
Well, come 5:15 a.m. today, I was starting to fret. I had the opening scene in mind. I knew the main character. Heck, I even had a working title, a rare thing for me.
When I opened my Chromebook today and started chapter one, it was slow going. Frustratingly so. There have been opening days on novels in which I wrote over three thousand words. Today's morning's session, I managed 755.
Come lunch time, it was time for session two of the day. Taking a cue from Dean Wesley Smith, I re-read all that I had written that morning, tweaking and editing and adding bits of color along the way. Then, when I reached were I had stopped, I had a head of steam and kept going.
And kept going. The words flowed.
All the way up to the moment when the last line of chapter one clicked into place a few minutes before I wrote it. The grin that spread across my face was pretty big. I walked back to my day job desk floating, remembering exactly why writing is such an awesome thing. 2,063 words done.
I know every day won't be this way. I know every book won't be this way. But as a creative, those are the times to cherish.
Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo?
Day 1: 2,063 total (47,937 remaining)
2 comments:
Quietly doing Nanowrimo for the 13th time. Have never finished (last year did 38,206 words, my best), so I decided to do what feels good. Writing Into the Dark. (read Smith's book years ago). Dictating. Will go through the transcription after the story is done. Will finish the novel, which will be a first for me.
Way to go, 1LLoyd! Finishing your first book is a Cloud 9 experience. I wanted to run up to everyone and say "I just finished a novel!" I think it was Smith who said the best way to keep going is to write the next sentence. Way easier said than done.
Something I kept in mind when I tried my first NaNoWriMo: keep going no matter if it is 1 December or later. Just keep going and keep writing.
Come back and let us know how you're getting along.
Post a Comment