![The only 12 1/2 writing rules you’ll ever need.
[via notentirely:dominickbrady]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ks7ttk9iI41qzq16eo1_400.jpg)
I am a little underwhelmed at my production today. I wrote 1911 words, which is enough to be on track, but I was hoping with a day of basically nothing to do, I would knock out at least two or three days worth of words.
There are several reasons I did not get as much written as I wanted to:
Again, the goal: 50,000 words in 30 days.
My goal is made even more challenging by the fact that I will be taking a five day road trip in the middle of the month, where I will be unlikely to be doing any writing.
This is going to be fun.
Many of my writing friends opted to use the extra hour most of us got today to extend their writing time. I think I used it much more wisely—I slept in, spent some extra time lounging in bed, took a long, hot shower, and had a wonderfully lazy morning.
However, now it is time to get to work.
I have opted to spend my first couple of hours outside of home. I have coffee and a warm french baguette—do you need much more?
I’ve done a lot of preparation work, but as I sit down to write, I feel woefully unprepared. In a way, this is comforting—I want to dive in, race down the highway of creative unknown. Think of it like camping—you see those people with their R.V.s, satellite T.V.s, propane gas grills, GPS units, heated foot warmers, and other luxurious nonsense.
Well that’s not me. I’m like Davy fucking Crockett, with my coonskin cap and hunting knife, saying: “Unknown darkness, prepare to be my bitch.”
The only 12 1/2 writing rules you’ll ever need.
[via notentirely:dominickbrady]
I’ve got a lot of writing to do if I am going meet the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days. I have one week to prepare. How do I make this work?
Here is what I have decided upon to help me make this happen:
Besides plotting food and snack strategy and trying to do some actual time scheduling, I think that’s about it. I’ve got some time to work out some more major plot points / story events and characters, but I think I am just about ready to take this on.
I decided to not pick up a slew of reference books or how to write or anything of that nature, though I did convince myself to purchase Chris Baty’s book No Plot? No Problem! A low-stress, high-velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days. Chris Baty started NaNoWriMo and this is his sort of definitive guide—it is short, accessible, and good. I was pleasantly surprised to see his list of essentials closely matched mine, though I don’t think I’ll be wearing a plastic Viking helmet.
Warning: minor spoiler for episode three, season four of the television show Heroes.
For the sake of the point I’d like to make, let’s skip the discussions about how season two and three of Heroes were severe disappointments or how except Heroes, I don’t actually watch televisions shows, so that fact that I can even talk about this is an oddity.
I just finished watching episode three (“Hysterical Blindness”) and want to share a powerful moment of character. Season four introduces some new characters, one of which is a deaf woman who can see color. An obvious question to ask after learning this is: what can you do with that?
Something brilliant.
Super heroes are great vehicles for story if done right—these are two standard approaches: 1) your hero is over-powered to an almost deity-like proportion, but in the end faces emotional and moral decisions that the powers can’t help with (e.g. Superman) or 2) your hero is very mortal but can do something interesting or has access to something special and she uses reason and ingenuity to overcome seemingly impossible odds (e.g. Batman).
There is a subtlety that is important here and the story does not always have to be about stopping the enemy. One of the ways Heroes went way off track is the characters became so powerful that they were no long interesting and became caricatures of themselves. Season four is doing a lot to rectify this, but there was an especially important moment in this episode—back to the seeing-sound-as-color-lady.
Peter, one of the main characters, can mimic a power of heroes he comes into contact with. He accidentally gets the power to see sound and realizes that this woman has a power. For reasons we don’t fully understand, plus the added pressure of being disabled in a society which doesn’t fully appreciate the difficulties, she is obviously wary and unhappy. Peter himself has been shown to be unhappy and unfulfilled. The stage is set.
The brilliant moment comes when they realize they can both see the colors and they sit down and play the piano together. My mouth literally fell open when I realized what was going on—these two characters were sharing an intimate moment (I think they are going to fall in love, awww) because of the power; the power became a vehicle for a raw, emotional connection between two characters in a way that will probably have significantly more story arc and lasting consequences than stopping a bank robbery ever will.
Lesson: Don’t be afraid to be subtle with your characters and recognize the potential for small connections between characters to have powerful contributions to the lasting story.
I have had the idea for this story for at least 7 or 8 years. I can not remember the exact moment I came up with it, but it came in a spark of creativity that I’ve carefully stoked, but never executed, over the years.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I sat down today to write my synopsis. This idea which I’ve had for the better part of a decade, which I have shared with numerous friends and colleagues—I couldn’t write it down. I struggled for words, I couldn’t articulate ideas, and even now, I feel it is clunky.
All this time and not only did I fail to try to write this story, but clearly I didn’t even try to write the idea itself down.
Lesson: No matter how absurd the idea is, write it down as soon as you have it. If you can not find the words, do your best, you can always revise it and it is going to change over time or as you work on it anyways.
Each race has it’s time to rule over the world. It is the dusk of humankind’s reign but no one wants to go quietly into the night. The priests and spiritual leaders gather in council and collectively ask their plethora of deities to intervene. Then the unthinkable happens:
The gods answer.
This is, as it turns out, unpopular. Instead of helping mankind from their lofty homes far away, the gods walk upon the planet. Instead of answering the prayers, requests, and demands of the faithful flocks, the gods have the audacity to issue commandments such as what is okay to put on a breakfast bagel and requiring sacrifices of food, money, and the ever-rare virgin.
Finding their gods actually exist and having to deal with them unbearable, the priests take the only logical route—they hire a contract killer.
To kill the gods.
This should turn out well.
I officially joined NaNoWriMo today.
The idea is simple: write a 150 page (about 50,000 word) novel in 30 days.
You can see my profile, overall progress, and be my writing buddy here.
What am I doing?
I’m drawing the line in the sand here for myself. I’ve spent most of my life reading, listening, watching, and thinking in stories. It is time to move from passive experience to active participation. This is not about fame, success, or money. This is about passion, joy, and the challenge of it all.
This is also not about sharing my writing (though I will). This is about sharing the process of learning to write: how I plan, what works, what doesn’t work, what roadblocks I hit, how I schedule my time, what I eat, how I take breaks—whatever lessons I learn and a log of my successes and failures.
Who am I?
I am not an experienced writer, I have no formal training, and I’ve never let experience or training stop me from doing and succeeding in the past. I am a 31 year-old IT professional, working for a large California research University. I have a degree in Religious Studies. I play foot hockey, racquetball, and sail. This is all somehow, I hope, going to translate into good writing.
What’s next?
Join me as I struggle to learn to write.