Some of my songwriting

No Nano

Nanowrimo came at a really bad time for me. Loads of volunteer work, correcting  and report cards and parent teacher interviews. Next year, I'll have to plan better.At least get a plot and character bios down before November rolls around. Some of my grade 5 and grade 6 students are participating, so at least I've contributed that in the larger writing community.

I have written just the same, I just didn't participate in NanoWrimo like I had hoped. this past weekend despite having report cards and volunteer work, I scoured through all of my notes for my middle grade novel and tried to sort out the plot on 20 some odd index cards. This coming weekend should be slow besides a bit of Christmas shopping, so I will start writing the first and second chapters.

I'll try not to procrastinate and let you know how it all goes.

just found my NANO idea

I was eating an English muffin with store bought strawberry jam and old cheddar for supper when a scene from class yesterday played itself out in my brain and the opening line rolled across my mind's screen.

I'll write what I know without knowing where I'm headed and I'll not even try to disguise how autobiographic this novel will be.

Anayway, I loved Among School Children by Tracy Kidder.

So far, NANOWRIMO has had a reversed effect on me

Besides journal writing longhand with my favourite purple Energel in the mornings as I rise or just before going to bed, I haven't written anything since NANOWRIMO started 5 days ago. I am now 8335 words late if I want to average 1667 words a day. 

I'm -8335 words.  That's minus 8335 words.

i THINK i'LL DO nanowrimo  IN REVERSE. oups I got My CapitaliZations in REversE.

Just like I avoid having friends on Facebook and ignore friend requests, maybe I'll go try for minus 50 000 words.

As soon as November first rolled around, I decided that I wasn't doing it. I have to write the first chapter of my kids' novel with detailed drafts of chapters 2 and 3 and rough drafts of the remaining chapters. And I think that there are major components to my story that I need to rework. 

I had thought of starting a 3rd adult novel but that sounds like 30 days of craziness and that's besides the fact that my day job requires me to do things like plan lessons, grade work, meet students and parents. I corrected my students writings and various evaluations and started working on report cards on this beautiful Saturday instead of writing for me.

That's ok. I journalled and I'm writing now. I journalled about being at a birthday celebration for a friend and myself last night and having to practice zenness when the restaurant lights were dimmed and staff, our table and patrons started singing Ma chère other friend's name c'est à ton tour, de te laisser parler d'amour as the waiter brought out 1 piece of angel food cake with one candle and placed in front of my friend who was at the other end of the table. I practiced smiling even the little girl inside wanted to run home at that very moment. I wrote about being alone on my actual birthday walking in Ottawa and hearing someone call out "Happy Birthday" and it wasn't for me. 

Funny how the world never stops for you. Could each and everyone of us just get one frigging day a year where we are celebrated?

Your world can be falling apart or it can just be your birthday, a day that you would like to be a little bit special, and everybody's life just goes on. Life goes on even if you die. How thankless is that? 

If at least you can be at your own funeral and then check out after the last song has been sung and the last bottle of wine has been emptied, providing that people would actually say kind words and tell everyone else what a great gal you were, how you were so full of talent and that they were lucky to have you as their friend, to their teacher, their sister, lover, partner, neighbour, mentor, roommate, Twitter stalker, Youtube friend and guest on their blog. 

So, I got over not having cake delivered or that dumb song sung for me until quite a few minutes later. Like walking on a balance beam hoping not to fall off, I practiced smiling gracefully without feeling too sorry for myself, and concentrated on my conversation with another friend who has gone through a life changing year.

  Like a budding musician listens to wonderful musicians, I read one heck of a lot.

I'm reading a few different books by superb authors: Robert B. Parker, Elizabeth Berg, Michael Morpugo, Walter Isaacson and Ralph Fletcher.

trying to write 1667 words today

Nanowrimo starts tomorrow and so i thought I'd try to write 1667 words today but I'm hovering around 700. I don't like the direction I took. I tried writing the first chapter of my kids' book but beyond the first line I'm getting a long way off of my flimsy plan.

I started an adult fiction chick lit kind  of novel during March break this year. I've got about 20 000 words written.

I thought I'd start a 3rd novel and let my brain rip and not think about a plan.

Well, my laptop battery is low so I might just have found my excuse to go back to reading Steve Jobs autobiography instead of writing this evening.

Opening lines from mostly kids' books

“There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.” 
Louis Sachar, Holes.

"Their mother had been here in the hospital with the new baby for almost a week." 

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall 


"So Mom got the postcard today." When you reach me by Rebecca Stead

"He did not wan to be a wringer." Wringer by Jerry Spinelli



 

I should be writing

There are post-its stuck onto my laptop with novels in the works' titles and easily attaniable word counts per day goals.

I got the critic back from my instructor on my second book novel writing  course assignment and unfortunately for my ego, said instructor saw and pointed out holes in my synopsis. Ouch!! Double ouch!

So I can either quit or lick my bruised ego and dig in my heels and work harder. I left his comments aside for a couple of days before re-reading them and realizing that maybe, just maybe he could be right about a few things. This morning or afternoon, I'm not sure which because I was late getting out of my jammies, I analyzed his comments and turned them into a TO-DO list which got turned into more post-its which will find their places stuck somewhere onto my laptop when I finish writing this.

On the bright side:
story is age appropriate
principal characters are interesting
good inner conflict

I now have to work on:
developping secondary characters so that they won't seem so cartoonish and more like real people
injecting humour (I didn't think that there had to be humour in the synopsis, I just thought I'd ooze humour as I actually wrote the novel, ok, no more excuses!)
 finding suitable U.S. publishers (I only researched Canadian publishers thinking I'd have better chances at getting published!)
 working on plot and subplot

 Oh and I have to write the 1st chapter and detailed outlines for chapters 2 and 3 with rough outlines of the remaining chapters before December 15th!!!
 I desperately want to NANOWRIMO.
 Maybe I'll just write this novel they way I see it in my head and write furiously for 30 days and the edit for 15!!!!