Wednesday, October 24, 2012

It Will Leave a Scar

I’m doing Nano again this year. And I’m not excited about it. I’m going it alone this year I think. No word war challengers, no cheerleaders writing/suffering with me. I haven’t ever succeeded in Nano this way, but to be fair, I’ve failed with supporters as well.

I had a basic outline that was a fictionalized story of the past few years in my life. Kind of a write what you know thing. But I’ve been encouraged to really write what I know. So I’m not going to fictionalize it. I don’t know how far back to even go, but it will be further back than I was planning originally. It’s a long story, but I don’t know all the words. And believe it or not I’ll have to research it. Research my own life and my own feelings. That seems a little weird, but I’ve already looked back and found that there are feelings I’d forgotten and recent things that I’m not comfortable remembering. I’m not excited to bring up the bad emotions that I’ve tried to erase already. In fact I’m not sure I’m excited to bring up the good ones right now either.

I guess it’s like picking a scab. Sometimes it really hurts, but you have to do it to get the bad stuff out. It’s meant to be healing but it will leave a scar.

Maybe I’ll be a better person by the end of this. Maybe I’ll at least know me a little better again. I hope I like me in the end.

yWriter

I found a book about outlining. It was on Amazon and I bought it, along with a couple other noveling made easy books. Ha! I won’t get to read them before Nano this year, and I shouldn’t because the story I’m writing is different. But I did browse through the first one. And I thought there were some good tips in it. One recommendation is to use yWriter.  It’s free software from SpaceJock. http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html. It helps you sort your book into scenes and chapters that can be moved around and dropped where you need them later.

I did download it and I’ve started to build my outline on there. I think it will be a very useful tool. I’ve already had to move things around because I remembered them in the wrong order or I wanted a chapter in between when A and B happened.

I guess the one thing I am excited about Nano this year is the actual outline. By November 1, I should have at LEAST 30 bullet points to spew on about. I can write 1667 words if I have an idea about what to write about. And I have a feeling it will take more than 30 if I’m being true to myself and not glossing over points.