Dear JK, It's me, Creepy.

Okay, so nanowrimo is starting to make me feel a little like Jekyll and Hyde. This weekend I was filled with optimism. 

Then this morning I spent fifteen minutes staring at a blank page.

I don’t like what I’ve written. 

I’ve begun this book all wrong. 

And this idea!?

 Okay.  I still think the idea has merit.  But it’s like having this very specific, vibrant, colorful image in my head- but when I go to paint it, everything is ‘off’’.  The colors are dull, the lines blurry- it’s just a shadow of what I’d hoped to capture and not coming out at all the way I’d imagined. 

Now comes my inner conflict-  After getting almost 4k into it, should I trash it all and start from scratch?  4k isn’t that much, after all. Or in the spirit of Nano- should I just keep writing from the point I’d want to see things change and tell myself I’ll go back and cut at the end of the month?

To be honest, the second idea makes me cringe.  Just like old habits dye hard- all the new writing habits I’ve acquired through hard work and study of the craft are making it difficult to just let things slide and move on.  My inner editor, who was duct-taped to a chair over the weekend, has broken free and is now gibbering loudly in my ear. 

It’s saying : ‘Katie.  You’ve tried pantsing a project before and look what happened.  It’s still sitting in your closet.  You might work through it, with it, or around it but you can’t deny it- you are a revision hater and therefore you can’t give yourself the liberty of spewing out a first draft as it comes.  And at this rate, this thing is going to end up needing more editing than you’re honestly willing to deal with.  Pull out now and save yourself the heart ache.  Abort!  Abort!”

So it appears Nanowrimo and I are at a stand still. 

Okay, that’s not exactly true.  It’s more like:

Nanowrimo: 1

Me: 0

These are the kinds of situations that have me wondering ‘WWJKRD?’. 

*CQG*

You Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine

Now, there is a reason I started plotting manuscripts instead of pantsing them.  My first manuscript was pantsed.

It was also 180,000 words long. 

Just like my natural hair color makes me look naturally gross, my natural writing habits do nothing good for me or my manuscript.  So had to tweak them- experiment and try out new methods, lengths and colors until I found one that fit my face.  (You know what I mean.)

Some people have the opposite problem- They underwrite;  write down conversations with sparse description and then have to go back and fill out their scenes.

For the first time in a long time I find myself writing a pantsed project for Nanowrimo.  Okay- it’s practically pantsed.  I only outlined the first three chapters and after that all I have are some vague overhead guidelines to follow.

However, my tendency to overwrite might end up coming in handy if I want to meet the 50k mark by the end of the month.  Nanowrimo is definitely giving my natural writing tendencies some ugly dark roots.

Some (most) of the details aren’t necessary.  Like what the MC has picked out wear or what she’s eating or the layout of her home.

Or the needless descriptions of the building.

Or her town.

Or the state. 

Or the weather. 

Or her physical health.

And I’m also indulging back-story galore.

Bad bad bad bad bad.

Will I keep most of the gibberish that’s twisting my plot into pretzel–like pieces?  Probably not.  But I’m having a hell of a lot of fun discovering this new world in minute detail.

What is your natural writing style? (You can be brave and include your natural hair color too if you want:) Mine’s swamp brown. It’s scary.)  Would writing 50k in a month be a challenge for you underwriters?  Overwriters?  

I Have...an idea.

People have thousands of thoughts a day- those synapses are constantly snapping together to form ideas. But only ONE out of a million will grow up to be nurtured and molded into a fully-formed story by our own hands.

But the question is: Which one?  And more importantly: Why? 

How and why do we choose to write the stories we write?

In my case, I’ll have an idea for a book every few days or so- usually when I’m driving.  If my enthusiasm fizzles out in the first ten minutes of daydreaming about the possible plot- I don’t usually bother retaining the idea.

If it doesn’t, and the story idea keeps coming back to me over the course of a few weeks- I’ll go as far as to write it down.

The bar usually stops there.

But then, every once in a blue moon, an idea will pop into my head that I just can’t seem to get rid of.  I’ll write it down but then different scene sequences and character details will keep invading my mind until the little story blurb I wrote down begins to grow.  I add details as they come- scenes, bits of dialogue, supporting characters...until I’m pretty sure I’ve got enough material for a rough outline.

I plan the plot, add what I’ve come up with so far and brainstorm the rest.

Then I start writing.

Of course- the manuscript inevitably takes on a mind of its own from there.  Sometimes I’m able to stick to the basic plot outline- sometimes the plot changes as new twists and turns present themselves, surprising me as though I were reading the book rather than writing it.

But the point is- I never brainstorm story ideas.  I write what I feel like reading when I feel like reading it- and so far the hot thrill of creating something from nothing always gets me through the process.

I’m writing this now because I was surprised this week with...an idea.  It’s one of ‘those’ ideas.  One of the ones I know isn’t going to go away until I write it and I’m excited about it!  What caught me off-guard, though, is that after I wrote and began querying FOSSEGRIM, I went through a six month drought.  I couldn’t write for the life of me- the querying process just sucked all my hope and creative energy down the drain. 

Which is why I’m really surprised by the rapidly growing book idea that’s haunting my days and nights.  I just finished KISSING FOR COFFEE in June and began querying it in August.  I was almost looking forward to a break between books and figured my creative juices would take awhile to restock. 

Alas, this book – another Romantic Comedy with a Paranormal twist- is demanding some attention.   

Which is why I’m thinking it might be a good time to give the National Novel Writing Month of November (NaNoWriMo) a shot.  I’ve always been too terrified to try.  But I figure the book idea is here and raring to go- What have I got to lose?  (besides time for sleeping, eating, thinking, and perhaps a good part of my sanity)

Anybody ever attempt NaNoWriMo?  Any advice?  How do you usually decide which ideas will become full-blown novels?