Dear Diary,
Yesterday was Day Two of Camp NaNoWriMo.
It only took two days this time for the story to remind me it’s really the one in charge. (I suppose this means I’m improving as a writer? Takes much less time these days to re-connect with the story, to get in The Zone? Well, I’ll just pretend that’s what it means, yes …)
Months of internal debate, wall-sized plotting and notebook scribbling devoted to trying to figure out what comes next, and all it took was the equivalent of roughly two hours of actual writing to completely blow past that block.
Embed from Getty ImagesOnly took those two hours or so for the characters to roll their eyes and give me a good slap and let me know (yet again) they have everything under control. I needn’t worry. Just because *I* have no clue what will happen doesn’t mean *they* don’t know. They totally know.
All I gotta do is sit down and shut up and let them show me what happens. (And then write it down, of course, because well, they still haven’t figured out how to write down their story themselves … although that sure would be nice, wouldn’t it? I’ll tell them to work on that ….)
Now, some writers will say doing this allows your characters to run amok, and you’ll never get that novel finished if you let them drive. But I don’t agree with that, necessarily.
My characters have their guidelines (aka, the rough outline I created before starting the novel). They know the perimeters of their world. They know the boundaries they’re not allowed to cross. They play within the playground I give them. But the writing goes so much more smoothly when I don’t attempt to structure their play.
What continues to amaze me about these “SQUIRREL!” moments, as I have personally labeled them (think Doug the Dog from UP!), is that they AREN’T just superfluous words or events. They always actually have something to contribute to the greater whole of the story. They always advance the plot, bring out more character development, instigate conflict, etc. Despite the fact they are entirely unplanned on my part.
No matter how often I tell myself to trust the story and listen to the characters, I still fall into the trap of thinking I know better.
Sigh.
Maybe someday I’ll learn.
So, I endeavored to write my word quota over the work time lunch hour. Because my child doesn’t go to bed until 9pm, and then I’m much too tired to request that my brain function properly.
This worked out quite well it seems.
I sat out on the deck (I worked from home yesterday, a definite plus) where it was unseasonably chilly (and by chilly I mean 72 F without humidity, which is unheard of for a Missouri summer) and hammered out somewhere in the vicinity of 550 words. Just short of the daily quota yet again, but it’s all I squeezed out for the day.
Again, I’ll take it. I’m still in the running. I’ll be just fine.
Cuz this is MY Camp! This year, I’ve got – OOOO LOOK A SQUIRREL!!!!
Embed from Getty Images<3 JRF
Is it seriously that time again already. hot damn time flies.
Does that mean we need to start cooking sweating up ideas.
I know can you believe it??
Awesome news!
Thanks!
By far, my hardest challenge is just sitting down (butt in chair, hands on keyboard) and typing without censoring myself to start with. Learning to trust the characters is so difficult.
Agreed! That’s the hardest thing for me to do as well. Especially after so many years of writing fanfiction, where the characters are well-known from the start. Learning to trust total strangers is nerve-wracking at first, lol.
I love the kids analogy – it’s so true. Characters are just like sprogs; give them boundaries and a safe(ish) place to ply then let them get on with it and see what happens. Sometimes they’ll look to you for approval or security, but mostly they’ll hare off yelling and screaming, then come back hours later with fantastical tales of madness and adventure. Crack on JRF!
Glad you agree! 😉 Thought it would make for a proper analogy! That has been my experience, for sure!