The End of the Beginning--Part One

(This is who I picture in my head when I write about Hereward.)

November is fast approaching, and most of you know by now that it's National Novel Writing Month. It will be my sixth year to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Last year I wrote the first draft of a story that's been in my head for ages, one that I had started many times but kept changing things. I'll tell you more about that story in November.

In the summer of 2008, I started writing another story. Gina (my sister-in-law, for the uninformed) had given me a very cool journal made from a children's sci-fi book, and I decided to write a cool sci-fi story in it instead of using it as a journal.

Immediately a character stepped forward in my mind. His name, he told me, was Hereward, an old-timey name I'd come across in a book somewhere and had filed away for future use. Hereward said that he was not special. Not particularly bright, not particularly dumb. He wasn't particularly anything.

Sounds like the makings of the most boring story in the world, but as I got to know him, both Hereward and I realized that he was rather interesting. I knew it only a few pages into the story, when he meets a girl whose face glows when she's emotional, and he totally takes it in stride.

I've spent almost a year and a half, on and off, mostly on for the past six months or so, writing from Hereward's point of view as he gets drawn into mortal peril with his newfound, power-enabled friends. For some reason, I got it into my head that I was almost finished with the story, but it was only about 31,000 words long. What I really did was come to the end of Part One. Makes me feel all literary and adult, writing a book with parts.

There were some difficult things in Part One of I Am No Hero. This is the most I've ever written in the point of view of the opposite sex, and, as much as you hear that guys are totally uncomplicated, it's not so easy to step into one's head when you're a girl. The scene where Hereward tries to get another guy to talk about his feelings was one of the hardest things I've written, and it was terrible. Thank goodness for all the input I got, and for editing.

I've had to write some emotional stuff too. I'm a romantic, and I like some gooey stuff, and I love sweeping, epic, heartfelt moments, but when it comes to writing anything dramatic like that, I don't have much confidence. I've used music and YouTube videos and movies to psych myself up for writing sad scenes and mushy scenes. Luckily I have a great writers group who tells me when I'm being too melodramatic or not dramatic enough.

I've written murder mysteries and done small fight scenes, but I haven't ever really gone as far as I did in Part One of I Am No Hero. It has a sort of violent scene where two of the characters escape from being held captive, and it was kind of scary to write. Scary to see the lengths my guys would go to. Part One ends with some intense action and a death, and that was really intimidating to write. I totally depressed myself watching death scenes and sad moments on YouTube, trying to find out what works and what doesn't, and how I wanted my scene to look.

I thought I knew what it would look like. I had it all set in my mind--it was rather similar to one of those YouTube scenes, actually. But once my two characters were in there, they started acting like themselves, not like the ones in the video, and what I ended up with was quite different. And sort of scary again, seeing how far my characters would go.

This is the longest thing I've written outside of NaNoWriMo in a long time. I think what's different, besides my own growth as a writer, that makes it easier to write is that I'm really, really invested in my own story and finding out what happens next. And I also have a few dedicated readers who are really invested as well. My biggest fan sent me a card with a picture of Hereward as he might have looked as a child, which I keep by my desk to inspire me. She's the one who's told me she's read the story over and over, and whenever I'm having a hard time writing, she threatens to put on her butt-kicking shoes and come after me. :P

Part One has been a long, strange journey. I'm hoping Part Two goes a little faster, even though it will be somewhat interrupted by November. I have started Part Two already, and I'm pretty excited about what's to come!