The PLAN

I’m writing this not as a “hey, look what I’m doing” kind of bragging thing, but more as a reminder to myself of what I hope to accomplish in the next four months. And it will keep the pressure up because you, the great people who read my blog(s), will see it and in certain ways keep me reminded of what I said I was going to do.
We are within a week away from NaNoWriMo starting. For those who don’t what that is, it is gathering of writers who write a 50,000 word novel in just ONE month. Here is the site for more information: www.NaNoWriMo.org.
For me, NaNoWriMo this year will be a first. I am excited but also nervous as I am trying to decide how to write this novel. I have a few pages of notes and that’s it. I’m coming in blind and hoping to don’t lose my butt by the end of November. I also start thinking about time. November first – I’ll be in Scranton, PA visiting my parents. Then there is Thanksgiving, hockey (GO FLYERS!), and of course, spending time with my family. So how is that all going to work out? Well. . . (imagine me taking a deep breath like Ace Ventura does before he spouts for ten minutes. . .)
I am currently working on my first draft of a new novel. It is a little more than halfway done. When I need a break from that, I have been handwriting a “secret” novel which I have about thirty handwritten pages now. Friday I am going to order a copy of my half completed novel and give it to my wife to read while I complete my NaNoWriMo novel. This will serve as a break from the novel AND my wife can give me honest insight to if the story is good or not.
When NaNoWriMo is done, I will pick on the novel again with the hopes of finishing it before the end of 2009. While this is happening, my wife will be reading my NaNoWriMo novel. She let me know if I have something there worth working on OR if I just had a fun time writing nonsense for a month!
When 2010 starts, I will give my wife the first draft of my finished novel. She will read it and edit it while I work on typing up my “secret” novel and completing that. When she is done editing my novel, I will proceed to lock it away for AT LEAST one month while I work on the new novel. When I need a break from the new novel, I will work on the NaNoWriMo novel to see where it needs work. Then, around Valentine’s Day, I can take out the novel I finished that has been locked away and begin my edits while still working on the “secret” novel when nobody is looking.
(Exhale loudly. . .)
Get it?
Good.
That’s my plan for the next four months . . . let’s see how many diversions there are! Oh, and if life isn’t busy enough, my wife and I are expecting our second child in May this next chapter in my little storybook of life is going to be jam packed!

Now before I end this, what are your writing plans for the next month? Two months? Three months? Well, you get it.

And finally, my NaNoWriMo name is JimWisneski

Sorry Charlie – Bummer Baila. . . you two just have to wait –

The halfway point of my novel brought me to a very exciting spot – where my two main characters meet.  It’s an extremely pivotal point because if it doesn’t hit with readers (or myself) then the first 40,000 words mean nothing and the next 40,000 words mean nothing. 

Pressure?

You bet.

I find my two newest friends, Charlie and Baila, sitting in a bar.  They just met.  They’ve pictured each other for a little while, hoping to meet – hoping for something to happen.  At the bar, my fingers stop typing.  Both Charlie and Baila look at me and ask – “What do I do now?”

No, I’m not a crazy person – maybe a crazy writer, but not a crazy person.  With characters, they have to become real.  They have to live, exist, and do things.  They can’t be robots with on and off switches or else they will sound and act like robots and for the purpose of my novel, it wouldn’t work so well.

Sometimes I find myself negotiating with myself like parents do with kids.  Here’s a great example:  I have a few scenes written out that are past the “bar scene” where my characters are frozen.  I tell myself, ‘Jim, you need to force yourself through this, then you can work on the other scenes.’  I’m like a parent telling their child to eat the vegetables or there will be no ice cream for dessert. 

Well, you know what?

I’m an adult, dammit, and I can eat my ice cream now!  J

In reality, I can’t force a scene to happen.  It would be irresponsible as a writer to do so.  Think about The Notebook for a second.  Think about the romantic scene with “the kiss”.  Now imagine if the writer was stuck and force through it:

Noah and Allie are in Noah’s little boat.  He’s paddling along through the water. . . oh, it’s so romantic.  You’re heart is beating, you’re praying something happens. . . “Come on!” you yell at your television, “You’re meant to be together!”  Then it starts raining.  Now Allie takes out an umbrella that she always carries in her purse and opens it.  She looks deep into Noah’s eyes and says, “I don’t like rain.  He paddles back to the dock.  She gets out of the boat and walks away.  She marries the other guy, has four children; one doctor, one lawyer, one is a vet, and the last is a writer.  Noah lives a life of regret and dies of old age in that big ‘ol house he fixed up for Allie.

The End.

 OH MY GOD!  That was terrible.  Now the rest of the movie is garbage.  And the entire thing leading up to that scene is garbage.  

Okay, that’s a little stretched, I get it – but my point is that I can’t force myself through writing.  If I get stuck, I stop.  I have to.  I’ll take notes, try ideas, but I won’t force through ESPECIALLY if there is something else to work on. 

So yes, I apologize to both Charlie and Baila who are sitting at the bar frozen in time.  They are both staring at me waiting for an answer that I am working on.  I’ve tried them just kissing like in the notebook, but Charlie falls out of his chair and hits the floor hard and has back problems forever.  I tried the rain scene, but how could it rain inside a bar?  So for now, they will sit in silent while I work on another part of the book . . . but I promise, I’ll come back to my friends Charlie and Baila and complete their story – that is once they’ve figure out what they want their story to be!

Halfway there!

I made it past the 50% mark on my new novel!

Yes, yes, I know – I still have another half to write, but come on, let me take a minute and celebrate.

This is a great moment for me for many reasons. First, anytime you can complete half a novel, you deserve a pat on the back. That’s over 40,000 words to this story. That’s 40,000 words of meeting these characters, becoming them, letting them run the story. That’s 40,000 words of building a story and watching it flourish and become its own. And yes, that means there is still 40,000 plus words to cap it all off and end it.

Second, the idea for this book came to me on a whim. I wrote a novel earlier this year kind of as a “let’s see if I can really do this” type novel. I did it, the novel was written in a few months. It felt great. It was four years in the making, but that is a whole other post. The scary part after writing that book was to write another one. Another 300 page manuscript? More nights holding my eyes open writing and writing and writing. More moments in my truck driving where I have to quickly hit the power button on the stereo and grab the tape recorded because a great scene had just come to me. Anyways, back to the “whim” part. It had been almost four months since my novel was finished. I had edited it twice, my wife edited it once, and I was still working on bits and pieces. The town in my first novel is the one I currently live in. A small, old fashioned town (actually named one of the nicest places to live), it has old buildings, a farmer’s market every Sunday, and little activities always happening. I bought a bike and began riding through this little town, just absorbing the atmosphere to make sure I captured it in my novel and to see if any inspiration could come. Well, the idea for my new novel has nothing to do with the town, but I remember riding down this narrow sidewalk, hitting a big bump, and thinking: ‘A man who has been divorced for a year but still wears his wedding band because he can’t let go’.

And just like that, my next novel was born.

Pages of notes, long nights of thinking, and a trip to the Outer Banks which is where the novel would take place set me up for a great story. But that is where the nightmare began. I couldn’t find my voice in this one. I forced words, characters. . . it was terrible writing. Each chapter felt like I was being forced into doing something I hated. It was the first time writing felt like work – work I hate. It took me until I got to 35,000 words to realize it was all garbage; it wasn’t the original idea I had that day on my bike ride. I did something I had never done before – something that had my heart racing. I got ride of it. All of it.

Okay, not literally, but it was moved. I started the novel over from page and word one. I did use certain parts from the crap version – I’d estimate about 10,000 words in total were used from the garbage version. . . don’t worry, those were the good parts of the garbage and were edited before touching what I’m calling the “right” version.

I wrote about my feelings when I deleted the first version – here is the link if you care to read it: My New Novel – The BIG Change! – posted September 2009

So that’s my little rant right now. I’m proud I made it past 50% and my tentative goal is to have this novel finished by the end of the year.

I also wanted to extend a big thank you to all those who follow my blogs, twitter, etc. and who have exchanged kind words with me and have always had my back – no matter how honest they had to be to get me to listen through the stubborn, Polish wall that I put up.

My first post here. . .

This blog.  Another blog.  Another www.blahblah lost in the world of the internet.  Eh – maybe.  Wiz World (I know, such a creative name) is just me being me.  It’s me talking about me, my writing, what I’m doing . . . all that fun stuff.  Hopefully along the way, we can share some stories together, learn new things, and just move forward in the great world of writing. 

Another blog?  I have a couple others floating around.  Writers n’ Writers is my first one.  I took tons of time following what I feel are the best blogs for writers to follow.  BUT I took it a step further and each day I post as many links to posts on those blogs – the best in my opinion.  They include interviews with agents, information about agents, publishing, etc.  The great news is that I leave out all the bad junk.  Our world is too damn negative to begin with, so why add to it.  And instead of jumping on the bandwagon of “publishing is too hard, you can’t get published. . . blah, blah”, I post the happy stuff – the good news. 

JimCast is a simple blog.  It contains my podcasts.  Nothing more.  I just started this blog and have been turning my short stories, flash stories, one novella, and two novels into podcasts.  I’m still very new at it – still learning the ropes – but having fun at it. 

I’m going to start this blog off by talking about my day.  A day in the life of Jim.  Well, a day in the writing life of Jim – I’ll leave all the fun Daddy stuff I do on a regular basis . . . unless of course anyone wants to hear it!  I’m not shy about my Daddy duties!

The alarm screams in my ear at 6am.  By 6:30, coffee in hand, I fire up the laptop and start working.  Some mornings I work on Writers n’ Writers.  I get all the new posts from the late evening or early morning and get them ready to share with the world.  Some mornings, if the mood is right, I jump right into my new novel.  Once 7am hits, then it’s time to shift out of “writer mode” and into “accounting mode” (as that is what currently pays the bills).  Lunch is made, tie is pulled up to my throat, and I’m off to earn a living until the writing earns a living.  I can’t complain about work, so I won’t.  I have a nice desk, a window to watch the beautiful Pennsylvania leaves change color, and two notebooks always handy.

Two?

Of course. 

One is for the notes on my next novel – I’m average about two pages a day in notes for the next book.  The other notebook is for poetry or other thoughts that come into my mind.

I keep them separated because it’s who I am.  That’s my final answer on that.

Once all my links for Writers n’ Writers is done, I post them to Twitter and begin my day of Tweeting.  On average, I get about twenty Tweets a day done.  Not sure if that’s a lot to some people, but for me, it is.

I do promise that in all this, I get eight hours worth of work done to earn the paycheck.

Then I come home.  My family greets me and the day at work washes off my soul until the next day.  And if I can go off tangent real quick and give an honest piece of advice from my heart – please, no matter what, don’t bring your work home.  That’s why it’s work.  The precious time we get to spend with our families should be cherished.  And for those who work full-time and write understand how much time there ISN’T available.  So each and every second counts.

Once the family duties are done and the apartment is quiet, I jump right back into my novel.  Write, write, and write. 

I check my blog stats, Twitter account (via Hootsuite – a GREAT program) to see who replied and what’s happening.  Then I see if there are any posts I can use for the next day to link. 

So, to get down to the nitty-gritty for Tuesday, here are the stats:

Five links on Writers n Writers

Twenty tweets on Twitter

Three replies

Two replies to replies

Write two poems

Edit a new piece of flash for the end of the week

Write two and half pages for my next novel

Type up 2,000 word for my current novel I’m working on

Type up this blog post about 800 words

Type up a second blog post about 600 words

 

How does your day go?