Week 3

What has week 3 of NaNo taught me? 

Well, I didn’t hit the wall (as mentioned in the last post) but I did hit a hurdle.  I have been cruising through this novel, better than I had ever expected.  This week, through the magic of the internet I didn’t take a break from any other writing but decided to try something new.

As you all know I am VERY active in Friday Flash.  The program is simple – write a flash story and post it to your blog and tweet it. 

Through Friday Flash, I have had a few stories published, read TONS of great material, and met lots of great writers.

This past week I wanted something new.  Mostly because of my frustration with NaNo.

My characters are alive.  They are bouncing off the walls.  But they are asking me what to do and for the first time since NaNo started, I didn’t have a clear answer.  I had to (gulp) work out the answer by writing.  My two thousand and three thousand days quickly shortened to a thousand here and there and (double gulp) one day with NO WRITING for NaNo! 

Please don’t judge me! 

I needed a spark and I got one.  I posted on Twitter that I wanted to co write a Friday Flash story and within ten seconds I had a hit.  A wonderful writer from India named Pratsie took me up on my offer and it took off.  Now, I’m in the good ol’ US of A (in Pennsylvania) and here I am writing with a person in India. 

The world has become smaller via the internet.  We worked through our time differences and made a story that in my opinion kicked BUTT!  Ironically it’s about two writers trying to co-write who just can’t get along.  Read it here:  http://writersnwriters.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-worlds-collide-fridayflash.html

What did this show me?  Well, it showed me I still like challenges.  It showed me I still liked to write.  And it showed me that taking a break from NaNo was needed.  I tip-toed back into NaNo and this weekend has been MORE than productive.  As I write this, I am over 41,000 words with plenty of time to hit the 50,000 word mark.  AND I have the rest of the novel planned out, so all I have to do is write.

And on top of that, crazy me, I started a new project.  I am going to write a full length, ten song album, in one month.  The musical version of NaNoWriMo.  Call it NaAlWriMo (National Album Writing Month).  The site is here:  www.1album1month.wordpress.com.

So I hit a hurdle and not a wall. . . .

My shins are still sore, but I’ll make it – I promise!

Week 2

Week 2 of NaNo is behind me and everyone else and believe it or not, I’m in amazing spirits!

I do not have the list of news like I did last week about stories getting published and winning a contest, but I am happy to say that I am ahead of schedule with my NaNo novel by over two thousand words. 

My biggest fear going into NaNo was “the wall”. 

All writers know about “the wall” even though they may use a different term for it.  Here’s the scenario:

You come up with a story.  It sounds great.  The scenes start coming to life before you could grab a pen and paper to take notes.  In the very back of your mind you picture a bookstore full of people begging to meet you, you see yourself looking through the newspaper and finding your new novel at #1. . . or maybe that’s just me.  J

Anyways, you have this idea.  You start writing it and a few thousand words – or maybe twenty thousand words – into it, you hit a wall where the story just stops.  You’re stuck.  Sure you can have a monster show up and eat people to get action going or maybe have your main character win the lottery and then live vicariously through them because you realize this will never be a bestseller because it can’t even be finished by the author.

For most writers, hitting “the wall” doesn’t last very long but the time it does take is painful.  The reason is because as you try to climb that wall and move the story forward you find more and more walls. 

Luckily, up to this point, I have not hit “the wall” with my NaNo story.  It has been smooth sailing with one idea after another.  The ideas work, the first draft is coming along great, and I’m really into my characters and whole concept.  I find myself comparing daily events to what characters in the novel would do.  To me, that’s a good sign.

And for those who care about my plan I talked about a few weeks ago – that is going perfectly.  As I write this my wife is reading the first half of my other novel and I am still secretly penning the novel after that.  I do see one problem coming. . . letting go.

I can see myself on November 30 at 11:59pm hugging my screen not wanting to put Jack, Hazel, Abby, Teddy, and Vegas away. . . I want to still to be with them.  Then I’m going to have to do a 180 and welcome back Charlie, Baila, Bill, Marcia, and Julie to finish their well deserved story.

But to me if that’s my biggest problem – fighting over which characters mean more – I think I’m on the right path. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my dinning room just transformed into a bookstore and crowds holding signs and posters are waiting for me to start signing autographs.

NaNoWriMo – Week 1 recap

 

            My first NaNoWriMo week – a recap.

            Saturday October 31, 2009.  I’m in Scranton for the weekend to visit my parents and to see my son and my nephews second but first Halloween together.  (It was technically their second, but last year they were practically newborns, so we didn’t get to have too much fun.)

            My son was a tiger that lasted five minutes.  My nephew was a puppy dog that lasted about ten minutes.  Don’t worry, the costumes were not a waste of time – I have a few pictures of me wearing my son’s tiger head and my Dad wearing my nephews puppy dog ears. . . classic.

            The rain had made the day and night somewhat of a bummer as we didn’t get to take the babies out – all night I kept that if I was a kid, I’d be royally pissed knowing that Halloween was almost rained out.  

            The Phils were on the tube and were beginning their decent into a long few days of defeat to the Yankees. 

            In the back of my mind, I could hear a keyboard clicking.  I could see a desk, dimly lit.  I could see a guy hunched over the desk, eyes bulging, hacking away at the keyboard.  I could see empty coffee cups scattered across the desk.  Then I realized – it was a vision into the future. 

            NaNoWriMo started great.  I went right into my story – a story that had been brewing in my mind for weeks.  I did NOT write anything for the novel before NaNo started.  Since it’s my first year, I wanted to go in with a real 0 word count. 

            The past week hasn’t taught me anything new, but rather reminded me of why I write – because I love to.  The five minute breaks from life when my son is watching Elmo’s world and my wife in the phone I sneak away into the dining room to pick up my story.  The two minute breaks at work when the phone stops ringing and the office is empty, I hurry and jot down some notes.  And I must admit that NaNo couldn’t have come at a more PERFECT time for me. 

            I had just broke the halfway point to a novel that I erased on purpose a little while back.  I got 35,000 words into and decided I hated it.  So I started from scratch, battling myself every day about the story.  And my break has come in the form of NaNo.  And it’s been great so far and I can’t wait to keep pounding away at the keyboard and keeping my “plan” moving forward.  What’s my plan?  Read it here:  http://wizworld.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/the-plan/

            Now I can’t wait to finish NaNo and get back into the other novel.  Ideas are coming to me like crazy and I feel alive again.  I feel ready to conquer the literary world as I did three months ago. 

            AND if things couldn’t go any smoother, I received HUGE writing news all week long.  I sent out a story for an anthology.  Got the news it was picked up to be published.  I wrote a ten sentence story for Pen 10 Sribes. . . got picked up!  http://pen10scribes.blogspot.com/2009/11/unnoticed-by-jim-wisneski.html

            The first publication that picked up my story. . . well, I sent one in and they rejected it.  What did I do?  (First, I wrote a new story, sent it, and they accepted it – see, persistence pays off!)  I send the rejected story to Flashes in the Dark and they picked it up!  That will be published November 14, 2009. 

            So that’s three stories for the week – a personal record for me.  Then comes Saturday.  My wife gets the mail and there it is – a white envelope with my label to myself on it. 

            “Another rejection letter,” I said to her.

            “Oh yea?” she says.  “Congratulations, you have won first place in The Starving Writers quarterly contest. . .”

            I won?  I won?  No, seriously, I won?

            It was such a great feeling to win a writing contest . . . something I haven’t done since I was in grade school when I wrote a poem about a pig with hair.

            The week has been good to me.  And for me, I’m just getting warmed up.  I just broke the 15,000 word mark on my NaNo novel and the ideas are still flowing.  My biggest fear with NaNo was that I’d get the general idea of the novel down and then run out of ideas. . . say at about 5,000 words.  That hasn’t happened yet and I won’t allow it to happen.

            For those who aren’t buddies with me on NaNo, my name is JimWisneski (I know, how original!).  For those not following me on Twitter, my name is @Wisneski.  For those who have read this, THANKS!  Now share your first week of NaNo – or anything in general that has happened.

Jim