I was cobbling together dinner earlier as rain fell against my porch’s metal roof and the news jabbed at me from the living room. And I looked out my window at the Douglas firs which seemed to have grown taller this past year, and wondered how it can possbily be November. And how the gloom and mist and hard rain were the new normal. And that stabbed at me a bit. I had to shake myself, kind of like a wet dog, because the clocks are going back an hour and the gloom will become more pervasive. At least I don’t live in Alaska, I told myself because months of darkness sound hellish.
And then: it’s a good time to get some writing done. And make soup.
But before I fixate on soup–I made an extraordinary batch of turkey vegetable a few days ago– let’s get down to business.
Congratulations to the hardy souls who are heading into the bucolic, subsuming, and exhausting stint known as NaNoWriMo.
BECAUSE:
- Companionship, check.
- Accountability, check.
- Excitement, check, check.
- Fun, triple check.
- Progress, quadruple check.
I know multi-pubished and best-selling authors who started out on November 1 with a mission and a passion and a need to write. It can work magnificently. Some of these writers turned authors claim it changed them. Forever. Some of them keep participating in the madness.
You might ask yourself:
- What does my protagonist want desperately?
- Why does he or she have this desperate need?
- What hideous doom might befall him or her if he or she fails?
- What will break your main character?
- Who or what will stand in the way?
- Is this the most interesting and exciting segment of your character’s life?
When you’re not writing keep pondering your characters’ personalities, goals, dilemmas, and traps you’re setting. You might also write wee missives before sleep asking these questions. Then tuck them under your pillow as if the Story Fairy might appear instead of the Tooth Fairy. Submit to sleep imagining their faces, the the way your character faces the world.
It never hurts to bring your subconscious into the job.
Best of luck. And thanks for stopping by.
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart.
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