NaNoWriMo – Day 9

Starting Word Count: 19316

Writers spend a lot of time thinking.  Since I started down this author road, I find myself pondering stories, scenes, character “development” (otherwise known as “how can I torture her/him next?”), setting, tone…well you get the idea.  I never stop thinking about writing.

I mentioned that over the weekend I did some location scouting.  Spent a lot of time on trains–and I find that (barring idiots yelling on their cell phones) trains are a great place to think. So, as well as snapping a few photos and getting location notes down, I thought a lot about my current NaNo story, and some deep personal things that have happened.

One of my main protagonist’s struggles in the first book was trust.  I’ve had reasons to think about trust myself over the last couple years…and today I enjoyed writing a little ironic reversal. I tapped into my own feelings, doubts and anger and wrote the confrontation I’d been planning for a while. It’s pretty powerful, even for a first draft.  Once I’d gotten that out of my system and had a bit of a cry, I jumped into the first of two scenes involving trains.  It was very different from the emotional bit I’d just typed.  More adventure, intrigue and action ending in…oh wait.  No Spoilers.  You’ll just have to read the final product for yourself.

Taking that day to think really energized me for week two of National Novel Writing Month.  Normally by now, those great ideas for the first week have turned into a bit of a panic in week two.  Not this time.  It was a really good weekend for writing.