14-DAY CHALLENGE: PART 2

Last week I went through some rough moments. I hope this week will be better.

Still…

Something isn’t Nothing

I have a whole lot of something. An entire week’s worth of writing I didn’t have before, and much of it is actually on topic! How wonderful!

JUNE 23: ELECTION DAY

Got a lot written in my notebook before falling asleep most of the day. Then watching the countdown clock while trying to read for censorship. All in a day’s work.

I did do some interesting work on LUKE’S background. You know, pre-story elements that influence or foreshadow events in the novel.

JUNE 24:

I typed the word LUKE.

Actually, I did begin the very important step of organizing a story binder for my novel. This is where I take all the loose pieces of paper and put them together in a binder. It reminds me of story elements I may have forgotten (like the layout of a certain apartment complex) or need a refresher on (what was the bartender’s real name?). Remember, it’s been a year since I looked at this stuff and not all of it has stuck.

JUNE 25:

I am hopeless. I will do the hard work.

Today it has been especially hard to write about LUKE because I feel so uninspired and tired of the whole project. I’d love to say there are only five days left in the challenge, but that’s only in the blog challenge. I don’t know why I can’t seem to sit down and write about LUKE no matter what I do. So here I sit writing about how I can’t write about my book. That sounds like a filthy excuse, and I should go back to writing.

Upon a second glance, it looks like I did some important background work on a couple of characters. That’s never wasted time.

JUNE 26

So, I’ve done more blogging about writing than writing itself. That’s ok the writing will come next month.

JULY CAMP is next month (only a few days now). I’ve adjusted my goal from 50K to 30K.

SAD FACE 😦

If you remember, I wanted to write 50K in APRIL and didn’t make it. I did make 30K.

While I totally believe it’s possible to write 50K in a month and plan to do it again in NOVEMBER, I don’t think this month or this project is the time to push boundaries. I would rather have 20K of usable words than 50K of gibberish, which is usually what I come up with the first go round.

For JULY’s hard work, I am going to try to write LUKE backwards.

Yes, you heard me. End to beginning.

You may be thinking:

But why?!? Didn’t you say you already have the beginning done?

YES! look how far it’s gotten me…

JUNE 27

I started practicing the backwards thing, trying to tell myself the story in reverse. I actually remembered quite a bit, I’m proud to say.

Here’s me getting real with myself about a couple of my characters:

They’re not going to be considerate people, and they’re not going to have good ideas.

Sometimes I have to get over what I thought I was doing and write the characters as they are, not as I would wish them to be. Not everyone in my stories are nice people, and though it would be great to only write about nice people, I’ve committed to telling the truth in my fiction, and the truth is frequently ugly.

JUNE 28

Yet another (unconventional) character has appeared in my peripheral vision, and though s/he must be acknowledged, I’m not sure s/he must be developed. We shall see.

Questions about setting. Whether the events I have taking place are appropriate for the location they are taking place and vice versa. How do my characters fit into this setting, and do I have the right things in place.

JUNE 29

More blogging than writing, but that’s ok. It’s the last day of the month tomorrow and that will be my final prep day. I’m going to continue assembling my notebook and will be ready to rock and roll on the 1st …

…with all my scene sticky notes listed backwards.

Catch you up next week!

xxxlinsey