Thursday, November 04, 2010

My NANO..MD



November is National Novel Writing Month- a fun "kick in the pants", with a lot of interaction from other NANO writers both locally and internationally, to just get that first draft down and fill the white pages- you can track your word count and if you get to 50,000 words in the month, the average of a novel, you can post an award on your site! I tried it last year- puttered out about half way through- this year- I was deep in outlining a YA, so am not participating- since NANO wants you to start with a fresh idea first of the month.I am doing NANOMD-  Get the ...NOTES and NOTES OFF MY DOOR month. You know that technique- plotting out your outline on note cards, laying them on the floor, so that you can move things around, get the bird's eye view of your novel.  Well I have a little problem keeping track of a bunch of little pieces of paper-wind drafts and big dog tails tend to make them go flutter...i.e. you tape them to the back of your door! Brilliant, except eventually the tape loses its grip and I have to go looking for where key plot points went fluttering to.
I recently had my own "kick in the pants" to finally get serious to writing this novel that has been swimming around in my head for a very,very long time. I was up in the Denver area to speak at the RMC SCBWI Fall Conference on a panel of First Published Writers and Illustrators with the fun Jean Reidy and Lindsay Eland, both writers and I was the illustrator, well the day before, I had a rock the size of a grapefruit go into the car' windshield going about 50 mph down the highway-
the force of the impact covered my mom and I with glass dust and blew out my entire back window- thank God -we and no one else around us was hurt. Well needless to say, I had a hard time going to sleep that night, God and I had a little conversation and you know- I felt pretty good about my life- being a mom, a wife, my service to Him, in the church, but what went to the front of my mind was this Novel! That I hadn't written it! That I hadn't put my all towards my art and my writing! Not saying the "World need me to write this novel" more it has become a blockage in my creative pipes- I'm constipated and need to blow this "Monstrosity" out of my head to be able to move forward!! Thus why my door is covered white- it is all there- it has been there for, well I don't want to admit how long this thing has been perfectly laid out in my head- getting it on the paper- that first draft- that first "crappy" draft- that is what my hope for November is- no matter how crappy it is! FYI- after all that- the YA is set in Utah during World War 2- centered around the young daughter of a Polygamist and about a little known fact that the Manhattan Project was secretly searching for Uranium for the Bombs in Utah.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Julia, I found your post through the BlueBoards and wanted to say welcome! I love your modified nanomd idea, because I too am doing a modified nano month but I'm not as creative as you to make up my own name. (I'm doing good just to distinguish between the two in my brain.) Very glad no one was hurt when the boulder crashed through your window. Over at BB, I'm hanging out a lot at revisionland. Say hello when you make it into revisions. (I'm there for an extended amount of time.) :) P.S. Your header is gorgeous. Your work?

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  2. Julia, I am relieved to know that you both are okay. Up here in NH we don't have as many rocks to fall on us, but the trees are always ready.

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  3. PS.. I love your novel writing style, reminds me of Stphen King's method.. and looks a lot like the way I plan a picture book, but with many fewer notes. I am so glad you are at work on your novel!

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  4. I did not know this was how SK wrote- I just can keep all the factoids and characters in my head- too trained to do a rough in illustrating and plan everything out!

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