It is writing, but where does it come from?
I find this whole process of trying to write a book in a month, or at least 50K out of 85K , quite interesting, and probably not in a good way.
I did struggle at the beginning, trying to squeeze in a good 2K a day, hoping to get 2 1hr-sessions in my day, two scenes and I found myself writing flat. Really flat.
The best compliment I ever received is someone who commented on Barbara Vey’s blog at Publishing Weekly that I wrote with all my heart. And I’ve also had my writing called melodramatic by contest judges but that only made me smile. I was actually happy by the criticism.
I don’t mind being melodramatic, who knows maybe it’s because I’m French. The the truth is I don’t want, absolutely don’t want to write flat.
The problem I find with trying to fill the Nanowrimo quota is that, no my heart is not in it. It feels like I’m just writing a laundry list of she did this, then that. They went there and he did that.
I like to daydream between writing scene. I walk or take the bus everywhere, and before in RI I drove a lot. Always listening to music (NIN, lately Abney Park for the Steampunk story that shall be written) and images come to mind, just like scenes out of movies. Everything is always dramatic in my daydreams. Characters scream their pain, express dark and untold desires, gather unearthly powers to find their enemy in storms and deady winds.
I daydream the scene, then take the hour as I just woke up, still in the sleepy dreamy state, to write that scene I have been dreaming about for 24 hrs.
The problem wih Nano and pushing the work counts and that, one, I didn’t have enough time to daydream the scene of the day and two, I force myself to add settings and small details to get the high word counts, stuff I usually worry about on the second draft.
So my writing partner Jenn Bray Weber liberated me when she wrote her take on Nano in her “Nanowrimo lite” post at Musetracks.
I’m following her lead. No longer pressured the word count competiin, I am back to the constant dream state, attempting to write those bigger-than-life moment I see, hoping they’ll translate.
But when the tears are near after those words are down, regardless on how many I wrote, I know I’m doing okay.
