Nano Not So Much

Well, I didn't do so well with NaNoWriMo this year. I only wrote 11,328 words of the 50,000 word goal. The good thing is that I wrote more than I have in the past 10 years probably. Another good thing is that I plan to try it again next year.

Problems that I came across were that I wrote 11,328 words about two characters doing things but there was really no plot so it was pretty flat. I had ideas about what I ultimately wanted the end result to be but no real plan of how to get from point A to point B, so my characters kept getting up and going about doing the mundane tasks of their daily lives with nothing really happening.

The solution was that, for Christmas, I asked for and received a book called Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. I Have started to read it and so far I think it will be extremely helpful.

One thing that I really like about the book is that it has exercises in it. This is the sort of thing I need. I have to re-educate myself in the art of creative writing. Correction: I may have to actually educate myself in the art of creative writing. Even though I studied this in college, I really think that maybe I didn't really get it. I had ideas but they never really made it past the drawing board. I think the problem was that I didn't really map out about the plot very well. Instead I focused on a lot of description and emotions which really just resulted in a lot of literary snapshots of a scene but no real scene. Hopefully, all of that is going to change!

Sports Novel? Not Really.

One of the protagonists in my story plays field hockey. She is actually a goalie. Coincidence? Not really. I was a field hockey goalie in Junior High School and High School. I think it is a little funny that I went all the way back to Field Hockey in my own life when I started writing on November 1. My story doesn't take place in High School. I guess it takes place in College--although I'm not completely sure. They might be in some sort of futuristic athletic complex.

My characters are all athletes or coaches so far. I find this funny in a way because I think to myself: Self, are you writing a sports novel? I don't think it is really a sports novel. It just happens that the characters are athletes. The main males in the cast are ice hockey players and the female leads are field hockey players. This is a long way from the vampire stories I would write in day's of old. If you could even call them that since they never seemed to go anywhere.

Craig has been giving me suggestions for the names of the ice hockey players. So far we have laughed a lot but I have not used any of the names. If you are a Carolina Hurricane's fan you might get a chuckle out of some of the suggestions. Here are the top four that make me laugh hysterically: Brad Rindamore, Mutt Callen, Way Rippley and of Wam Cord. As you can see they get more and more ridiculous.