Writing Sisters and Loaded Arsenals

Is it . . . Friday already? These weeks go by so fast, I feel short of breath.

The other night, my sister and I got talking, and our conversation led to a plan to write a novel together.  The next day I got out the laptop and showed her the basics of Word. She is bound and determined to learn how to use that computer, and it's fun stuff to watch her. Right now, she's spending more time comparing fonts than actually writing, but I think we'll reach take off soon. The two of us will write this novel, but she'll be the principal contributor. I can't wait to see what she comes up with.

The arsenal

On a NaNo note, I have my supplies for the month in order. I plan on writing the novel by hand, as the laptop in my possession is rather heavy and gangly, and I'll want to be able to write at school without having to camp out in the computer lab. And of course, the laptop will be otherwise employed by a precocious nine-year-old girl. :) So I have a handsome black notebook, new Sharpie pens and G2s, and a little calculator all lined up. I can't wait to use them, but . . .

. . . I'm also nervous; there are so many difficult assignments going on in school, I still haven't the foggiest about what I'm going to write about for 30 days, and my parents aren't overly pleased about my upcoming foray into a novel. The odds aren't in my favor, but I still have this ambiguous determination to do this thing! Thousands of Wrimos cope with way more than I have to cope with. I understand now why Ellyn included the Emerson quote a few posts back.

My motivation and excitement have fluctuated greatly over the past week.

My goals:
~Write every day.
~Write something I am proud of.
~Be happy that I'm writing! It'll be good to grow in the sport.


Next time I sign in here, I'll have an actual writing log + wordcount to show.

Oohh . . . there goes one of those stabs of excitement. *grin*

~ Mia

PS - Three days!

Goals, Logs, and Reasons

Hmm, call me anti-establishment, but it's not accurate. I just don't like the 50,000 word necessary-ness. Can't stand it all. All my goal is for NaNo is a finished book.

Goal: Finished Book.

My book, which is already mercilessly long (I apologize in advance, printer) should be finished in roughly ten to twelve chapter. Tonight I wrote for an hour and a half.

Writing Log: Hour and a Half.
Tremendously unfocused, however.

Words: 1,162

It's not so bad. It's quite good actually. Tomorrow, I'm going to ruin my poor character's life. The worst part; I'm not even going to feel bad.

My plot for this novel is unlike anything I have written before. Usually, I am a very structured writer who keeps very detailed outlines and sketches out how many words I'm allowed to use for a conversation. Not this book. This book I'm just writing along then all of a sudden my brain goes, 'Hey, Sarah, what about a sub-plot.' Then I just throw a sub-plot in there. It's going to be a nightmare to edit. Then again, all editing is a nightmare. Not looking forward to that.


For tomorrow; ruin Harper's life, write without doing another twelve different things, start earlier, and go longer.


As Mia asked for, I've pondered my reasons for writing, or doing Nano, over the day. I'm doing Nano because it's fun to write with friends when you know you're writing with them. Writing's very solitary, and it's nice knowing you're not the only one who doesn't care about ruining your character's life. And I write because I go insane otherwise. If I don't write, my head implodes. If I don't write, I get intolerably crabby. I have to write just like I have to breathe. It's necessary to my DNA.

On another note, this book itself as felt more pressing than my other books to write. It actually feels like some divine being wants me to write this book very badly. I get these odd subliminal pushes to keep going when I get stuck.

On my author's page is a summer of my current writing project, and reading it will have this make a lot more sense. My novel is all about celebrities, and even more so about what happens when two of them mate, then spawn. It's a book about rock star offspring, and their difficulties in the world. It's also about prodigies. Over the course of writing this book, which I've been doing since late August, I have had SO MANY stories of married musicians, children of two very talented people, teenage prodigies, or on rare occasions, all of them combined into real, living, breathing people. They are constantly falling into my lap.


That to me is reason enough to powerful even the worst of writer's block.