Sunday, November 2, 2008

The best part...

...of writing is that sometimes you start and it stinks. It stinks and it stinks and you keep writing it even though the whole time instead of the voice of the story, all you can hear in your head is the voice of reality saying how much it stinks.

And say you HAVE to keep writing, like you've blabbed your big fat mouth all over the wide world of the world wide web that you're not only going to write this book, but it's going to be 50,000 words and you're going to write it in a month. And say you've even bragged about how much fun it is going to be to write this book that has, so far, no plot, no beginning middle or end, and only the hint of an idea and the vaguest sense of who the main character is.

You keep writing until you just can't take it and it is absolutely no. fun. at. all. You write 2,000 words, if you can even call this drivel "words" or "writing" and you couldn't care less if they get saved or tossed into the abyss.

So you trash them. And you start over with absolutely nothing, not even that vague notion of a character or the hint of idea. You start with "Once upon a time," because you have no idea what else to say.

And when you get to the word "time," you keep typing and typing and the words fly off your fingers and you don't have to think about them at all because it's like you're channeling from some invisible and extremely generous ghost whom you also find hilarious.

And when you have to stop, you are disoriented and wonder for a moment at finding yourself not in Principal Caukler's office with Ant and Devra but at your mom's house.

And before you have to go join real life, you look it over, just in case.

And it is so good it makes you smile and think that you can't wait to get back to it tomorrow.

14 comments:

Amber Lough said...

YAY!!! Those are the moments when we really FEEL like writers, huh? :-)

See if you can use the word "lyperine" in your book this month. Yeah, it's my word verf. Sound wolfish to me.

Marina said...

Wow -- way to go, Jacqui!!

Jacqui said...

Thanks, Amber and Marina!

Amber, I wish I were writing my crappy shape-shifter fantasy from last NaNo; I could totally use lyperine!

Brianna Caplan Sayres said...

What a wonderful feeling! Congratulations! And good luck tomorrow!

Nora MacFarlane said...

Woo hoo! (rub some of that my way, would ya?)

Unknown said...

go NANO-girl go!

C.R. Evers said...

*\o/* Yea Jacqui! I'm glad you're having fun w/ your NaNo project! Coming out of your imagination, I have no doubt that it will be insanely clever! :0)

P.S. (you won my 1st book giveaway. e-mail me.)

Christy

Anonymous said...

Wow, Jacqui. I am impressed. You actually have an idea and a plot.
I've been writing things like "I have no idea what I'm writing about, but I'm going to sit my sorry self here and pound away at something until my word count is high enough.
And characters and everything. Keep it up.
Sharon

J. Thorp said...

Git'em, J!

Liza Martz said...

Oh dear, I did this once and I managed TWO "novels" in that time period. As you can imagine, they were a wonder to behold. You can ask my critique group - I actually thought they were ready to go!

Stephanie J. Blake said...

AWESOME!

Jacqui said...

Brianna, Jill, Thorp, and Steph: Thanks! We'll see how it goes tonight...

Nora and Sharon: sending telepathic inspiration.

Christy: you are always so sweet! Seriously, are you my mom in disguise?

Liza: welcome! So glad to see you here. I am astounded that you wrote two novels in a month even if they deserve quotes. How is your own writing going now?

Liza Martz said...

Jacqui,

Wellll, since you asked...I recently retrieved my novel from the trash and plan to work full steam ahead on adding a more surprising surprise. Yikes!

Jacqui said...

Liza, that's great! I can't wait to read it and be surprised...