Burning NaNoWriMo

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog ...

National Novel Writing Month is over for 2005. I'll be back at it again next year.

In the 235 other days of the year, you can check me out on my main page at BrothaLove RantSpace.

And remember today is World AIDS Day.
Get Educated. Get Tested. Get Treated. Get Involved.

The End is Here ...

The end of my pretense, that is. Okay, so i didn't do it. I didn't get the magical burst of energy at the end of the month that enabled me to stay awake for 72 hours straight, writing at every free moment. It would have taken that and more to make up the more than 35,000 word deficit i was facing as of tonight.

I'm disappointed in myself. Not because i didn't finish so much as because i didn't set myself up in a way that would have led me to succeed. (It's the old adage: people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan.) In any case, now i have the choice of sitting and thinking about all the wonderful stuff i didn't do this month as i struggled instead with "The Novel that Didn't Happen," or being appreciative of the fact that i've broached a topic i have been avoiding for several years.

I'll take the latter, thanks.

Thanks to y'all who kept encouraging me and/or taking me to task this month. And thanks again to my friend Zun for unlocking this story in me. Even though i didn't finish it by the end of November, i know now it's ready to be finished. And so it shall be.

On a final note, congratulations to my Writing Buddies Brandon Wilson and Terrance Heath. They both crossed the finish line with time to spare. I may not be there with you this year, but i've done it before and i know what a great feeling it is. KUDOS!

Stay tuned for more on the development of the story, post NaNoWriMo...

Nearing The End

The end, as it comes, comes slowly, ineluctably, and yet all at once. For many reasons i won't go into, it looks very unlikely that i will complete this novel this month. I tell myself that's okay, but i don't believe it. I have given myself until next October to complete 101 tasks. That means this is the first one that if i don't do it now, i won't be able to do it at all. If that turns out to be the case, i'll just have to deal with it, but for some reason, this is more important than many of the other items on my list.

Just venting at myself, i guess. It's all about the choices i made. And my self-diagnosed OCD. Or ADHD. Or any other set of letters that means "it's not really my fault, right?"

{{sigh}}

Back to it, then. Never say die.

What the hell is wrong with me?!?!?

I started late, set out slow, took a break, trashed the entire novel, started with an entirely different book, still only have barely 1000 words written ...

... and i'm still convinced i'm going to finish by November 30.

What does a psychotic break feel like?

Burn It Down!

"Burning" takes on a whole new meaning today. After an online chat with my friend Zun last night (yeah, i know i should have been writing), i decided to set aside what i've been working on and start again. Can you believe it? It's not that i don't think BURNING has the potential to be a great story. I've just been struggling to come to the story right now. I think it's partly because i was so addle-brained about having worked on it before that i got lost in trying to make it something different ... even though i don't remember a lot of what i'd done two years ago.

So i'm burning it.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here and now. (After all, every keystroke i use should be going toward the new novel, right?) Suffice it to say, the perspective will be a lot more ... personal for this story. I've got a working title:

GROWN-UP SEX (...at a very early age)

Other than that, i'm going to follow some advice Reggie emailed the other day and not go on too much about it. Suffice it to say that before i'm done, i'll have both novels written. In the meantime, you can check my NaNoWriMo page to see my progress.

Just not this month ...

Plotting Along ...

It occurs to me that i haven't mentioned anything about what the plot of my novel is. So i figured i'd take a moment for those of you who are reading this blog to get a brief teaser synopsis. Thanks to all both of ya! LOL!

A flaming cross that can't be extinguished. One black family, one white, and their unknown history that ignites a series of events destined to burn out of control. BURNING: Trouble in the New South starts where integration left off: right at the flash point of the color line. College students Linda Beaumont and Marlon Jefferson become unlikely allies, working to unravel the mystery of the "The Burning." Navigating their way through the pitfalls of a still-segregated South, they must battle against political opportunists, religious zealots, and their own families' desperate attempts to keep the past dead and buried in order to uncover the truth.

There, that's my cheesy best for the moment. It's my addle-brained attempt at the kind of blurb you might see on a book jacket. You know, right above the one-paragraph bio of the handsome author? (That'd be me, y'all.) Hope you get to hold a paperback copy in your hands someday. Um ... with a much better blurb, of course.

Finally in Motion

Thanks to my co-worker and "Writing Buddy" Brandon, i'm now in motion on the new version of BURNING: Trouble in the New South. (By the way, i'm almost 100% certain i'll change that title before the end of the first revision.) My partner has encouraged me, my co-workers have encouraged me, my fellow bloggers have encouraged me, and i just found out another one of my online acquaintences is running full-steam-ahead with his novel.

I may have gotten off to a slow start, but i'm definitely going to reach the finish line on time. Gotta be thankful for that strategic Thanksgiving Break near the end of the month, though. I am keeping my schedule clear and i have no travel plans, so i should be able to  catch up if i'm still behind.

Thanks to everyone who keeps sending words of support. (And yes, Bernie, i'm going back to writing on the novel now ....)

Too Much, Too Little

Too much to do. Too little time to do it in. Isn't that always the complaint? I'm not ready to call this year's NaNoWriMo a bust yet, but it's looking grim. At least it's mostly for good reasons. School and work. And photo shoots for BrothaLove Images. But then again, why am i typing here instead of in the body of my Word document?

At least i finally have something posted on my NaNoWriMo page. I'm not at ZERO words anymore. Ah, but i want to make any real headway, i'd better get back to work ...

Already done did it?!?!?

I didn't plan to be placing any posts in my "Frustration" category until waaaay later in the month, but why not start of on a note of confusion. As the name of the blog and my first post suggest, my intention this month was to write a novel with the working title Burning: Trouble in the New South. I went to great lengths to reassure myself that even though i had begun the draft of a stageplay with the same name, this was not cheating, as i was going to start from scratch and work on the novel as i had originally conceived it. Early this morning (yesterday was a bust), i went to look for the character profiles i had created when i was working on the play two years ago.

Lo and be a ho, i found not only the sought-after character profiles, not only the first act of the play i had written (which i did not read today), but twenty-six pages towards a novel version of BURNING. Go fucking figure. I had forgotten that i tried to do this as my NaNoWriMo novel back in 2003. So i've spent a good portion of the day today wrestling with whether or not it's really cheating to try it again now.

And all that storytelling is leading up to me rationalizing why it's not:

1. Whatever i wrote two years ago, i don't really remember. I mean i have a vague idea of where i wanted the story to go, but i really don't remember any of the details.
2. I didn't read what i'd written when i found it today. I mean none of it past the title. So i'm really not just picking up where i left off or anything like that.
3. I really think that the work i did two years ago is just rumbling around in my head like a plot outline might do for some other writers. Hell, my writing buddy Brandon Wilson was working out his plot days in advance. It's a perfectly acceptable tactic.
4. As long as i don't go back and look at anything i wrote before, i really will be starting from scratch and doing the whole thing this month.
5. I really want to write this story.

So that's it in a nutshell. I'm going to write BURNING this month. I'm going to finish it this time (at least a first draft). And i'm not going to let anything stop me. Not even a full-time job, full-time class load, and the fact that i've already wasted two days.

I better sign off of here and get to writing.

Getting Started ...

It's day one. Ground zero. The big jump-off. The first day of the rest of my life, and all that. Today marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month 2005.

I've decided to revisit an old theme that i tried to work through before. (No it's not cheating, either!) I was working on a stageplay called "BURNING" but i never got more than the first scene on paper before i realized it was too much for a novice playwright to attempt. So i decided to scrap the whole thing and go back to my original idea of attacking it as a novel. Somehow i never got around to it. (See! Not cheating!) So now, i've decided to take it on during National Novel Writing Month.

For those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month (or "NaNoWriMo" as it's known to aficionados) is the annual celebration of writing practiced around the world when 40,000 or so people set out to write the first draft of a novel, start to finish, in just one month. I've done it once before, and i'm getting ready to do it again this year. Well ... i'm doing it. Now, kinda. (Okay, not now, 'cause i'm writing this blog entry now, but you know what i mean.)

I'm excited this year, because my creative juices are really flowing. I'm in school at The Creative Circus studying photography, i'm working my way through The Artist's Way, and now i'm setting out to write another novel. Yeah, another novel; i actually finished one called Little Man back in 2002 during NaNoWriMo. Here's the thing: with all this creative energy flowing through me, it feels really good to be doing something. I tend to think, dream, even plan a lot. With everything i have going on right now (including still working full-time at AID Atlanta), i don't have as much time to sit around and think about things. I'm finding myself on the go, in motion, running the race, moving confidently in the direction of my dreams.

It sure feels good to be getting started ...