Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Calm before the Crazy...

Here it is March 31st. I am to begin writing for a consecutive 90 days tomorrow. I have a confession to make, my attempt at outlining/providing a road map for my writing has failed. Here's why? In the book I purchased the suggestions for different types of outlines required that you see scenes from your book. Clearly that has not worked this time since I have not been able to really see scenes. Odd right?

So, I have today and today is a bit full to piece together a working outline I can use to get me started tomorrow. It is the fact that I don't have a functioning outline that makes me nervous about this 90 day challenge. And getting started each day. In previous attempts I will sit there with pen to paper (yeah, old school style!) and I have sat there blankly for hours. According to the book I have commited to 2-3 hours of writing not staring...So really I should cut this short since here it is 11:42 am and I have an outline to put together to save me some pain and suffering tomorrow and in the 89 days to come.

This has just reminded me, so that anyone and I who are reading this or keeping up with this are all on the same page...as of tomorrow I will count down 90-1 in the title of posts. I don't know that I necessarily needed to announce that since people are smart and can usually figure it out, but just in case. There ya go!

Now to get on with that freaking outline!!!!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The adventure begins where?

I recently purchased a book called 90 Days To Your Novel: A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book written by Sarah Domet. I did not realize upon purchasing the book that it was aimed for people who do not have an idea yet, at least one as solidified as the one I have. So, here's what I am planning on doing...

I am going to outline my idea in days leading up to April 1st. At that point I will write consecutively for 90 Days, finishing my first draft on June 29th. It is at that point that I will rest a month leaving specified people to review my draft and get notes back to me. Now, each day during the 90 day challenge I will blog about what I'm experiencing and the progress I'm making, the frustrations and all of that jazz.

I hope that you keep reading!!

They say the first step is...

When you decide that you want to write a story, you want to take pen to paper or your fingers to the computer keyboard, success in any form begins with having an idea.
The first step is...
A story that can connect people from all walks of life, an adventure that carries people to another world, into another person's home, their life. A story that may or may not have a moral to it, a lesson to be learned, etc.
The first step is...
A story that has compelling, relatable characters. A story that has action and continues to move and build from the first page to the final punctuation point.

A question you have to ask yourself is, what is your reason for sitting down to write a book? For me, I want to prove to myself that even the biggest, most outlandish dreams can come true if you are brave enough to take that first step. Sure I am dealing with fear from every angle but I am willing, eager and excited to look past that and see where this daring adventure can take me. I would be lying if I said that I did not have high expectations. If I didn't I wouldn't be attempting this beast. I don't particularly have anything motivational or inspiring to talk about, other than the extraordinary power of your own imagination which is the beacon I live by, but in using my imagination I've come across a story that is truly incredible and fun...in my own very biased personal opinion of course.

I know that a lot of people now-a-days are writing blogs. Some may be hoping that everyone is reading them, some do it to get their emotions out of their system to help them move forward. Well, when it comes to this particular blog...I'm hoping that a ton of people do read it. Success happens by word of mouth...so if you like what I blog about, spread the word please!!

So in the next post I'll fill you in on where this blog is going to go.