I wrote the majority of this novel in November as my annual National Novel Writing Month endeavor. It's never easy to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Well, one year it was. But that was the year I wrote a fantasy having done zero world-building (except to draw a really nice map), hit the desired word count a week early, and never picked up the story again. It's hard work. But the thing about NaNoWriMo is that it forces me to stop thinking so hard and Just Write. When I'm under a deadline, even a self-imposed one, I can't labor over every sentence, and I can't spend more time staring off into space than actually writing.
There's a quote that writers are a lot like mentally ill people because they both spend time in small rooms staring at walls. I stare. Boy, do I stare. My mind wanders terribly, and most of the time I'm not even thinking about the story. I have a lot of coping strategies for the weird things my brain does, and when my mind starts to wander, I need background noise. Music isn't enough. I like writing to music, but my mind will still wander anyway. On the occasions when I write exclusively to music, it's usually because I need help getting into the tone, whether it's sad or intense or dangerous or relaxed.
What works the best for me is the TV. I know this is incredibly weird, and it probably sounds counter-productive. But it's not. Not for me, anyway. I think I need the background noise in order to distract my brain. That's the part that sounds counter-productive, right? But when my brain has something else to focus on, my mind doesn't wander nearly as much. I can half-listen to the TV instead of thinking about a conversation I just had, or my monster to-do list, or how dreamy Sgt. Hathaway is on Inspector Lewis. This way, I can focus on the story. I don't know how it works, but the important thing is that it does work. It cuts my daydreaming significantly.
The trick is choosing what to watch. I can't do anything that gets me too involved, so I don't usually pick a movie, unless it's one I've seen a lot of times. True crime shows work well. (I love the Discovery ID channel.) I can listen to the story, but I can tune out and write too. The History Channel is good too. COPS is good. I can look up every now and then to see someone get tasered and then "swear to God" that they weren't doing anything wrong.
I designated today as a writing day, and though I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to, I managed to move the story ahead. Self-defense is done, and now my characters are having the gun conversation. Then I can move on to the really good stuff. I'm ready to finish this book. I can't wait to see what happens. I know there will be a fifth book, so when I reach the end of #4, I should have some idea of how #5 will start. Also, I just need a break from it. I'm shopping the first book around to agents, and I'd like to be able to concentrate more on that and on the changes I still need to make in that book.
Plus, I've had some new ideas, and there are other projects I'd like to get back to as well, like the 15-years-earlier prequel to the series, and this sci-fi epic I've been poking at for years. I've wanted for a long time to write about an awkward vampire, and I finally had a breakthrough on that front. I'm doing a short project along with my teen writers that's speculative fiction--well, it's pretty similar to my series, actually. I didn't plan on that. I didn't know what to write, really, but then a character moved something with her mind, and I was hooked.
It's my New Year's resolution to blog more regularly. You're probably going to hear a lot about writing because that's how I spend my days. That's what's on my mind most of the time. I promise to try to make it interesting, and maybe even funny sometimes. :P See you around!
Favorite line from today: "He can teach you all the Jackie Chan moves he can cram into your head, but there's no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." (Yes, yes I did just quote Star Wars in my own novel.)
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