NaNoWriMo 2010: T-Minus 9 Days

As expected, it was an eleventh hour decision on which project I'd move forward with, and I mean that in a very literal sense. At 11pm on Wednesday (which I affectionately referred to as 'that day by which I'll make up my frakkin mind or else the hat comes out') I reversed my decision of six hours earlier... and not by drawing it out of a hat, either. Actually made a decision and have started kicking the whole show into gear.

I've been getting the music stuff in order. If you don't remember from last year, I do two lists- one all instrumental or languages I don't sing in and the other directed at the theme, lyrically and tonally. The instrumental is for writing, the other is for kicking my butt into gear in the in-between times, like driving in the car. Last year's favorite music for writing came from "Friday Night Lights" and the band "Apocolyptica", both of which will still provide a ton of music, but this year's awesome music is the "Inception" soundtrack. Have you listened to it? It's amazing stuff, plus totally hits the right zone in my brain to keep me moving but not hearing the music. Tempo and tone over content is how my sister describes my music when I write, but this is pretty amazing on all counts. On the lyrical playlist side, it's a heavy "What If" mix, lots of songs asking what if, because the project is all about "what if".

The plots are coming together nicely- yeah, plots. It's the story of the types of relationships fracturing out from four alternate choices made by the main characters, but in all four lines, they're connected by a death. Yes, I enjoy making things stupidly complicated. One of my main characters would call it "unnecessarily playing cat's cradle with string theory just to study characters and relationships", but she's got a vicious streak and likes talking back already, so I totally ignore her at times like that. She's going to be more trouble than my other main character, David, who seems pretty content and along for the ride.

Four story lines, so life gets interesting-- four post secrets for each of two characters, for example. Four parts to my music list, which is about to get divided into four lists. And even though it's the same two people, because I'm all about giving them a lot of life's left turns, I'm exploring a lot of range on who they are and what can change them, which means deeper character breakdowns, sometimes labeled with multiple answers by plot line.

Part of me is still wondering if I should have picked the nicer "retelling of Wuthering Heights" idea, but for the most part, decision made. And stuck to. Maybe.

... no idea where I'll be at in nine days. Starting one or the other. And as long as I don't psych myself out, starting a NaNo version of underwater basket weaving. And possibly tempting my sanity. Yay NaNo!

NaNoWriMo 2010: T-Minus 17 Days

I think my "Dear Plot" letter summed it up best earlier today:

Dear Plot #1 and Plot #2,

One knock down drag out fight. Only one may emerge from the octagon. Seriously. One of you needs to kill the other. That way I can focus on just one of you and make it work.

Don't make Mommy choose. Sort this amongst yourselves. And maybe next year, the loser can come play.

Thanks,
Your author

I see myself drawing one of the two titles out of a hat in the near future! And sadly, there is no hope of merging these two bastards into one idea, and neither is falling into the tangle of plot holes or irreconcilable logic failure.

I know, whine more. Because it's actually an awesome problem to have. Suspect I may lean more toward the modern relationship/character study fiction piece, because it is a little more removed from my comfort zone. The fantasy "apocalypse meets Wuthering Heights"? Yeah, that's right up my alley. Both original and novel format, so no rebel writer status for me this year. I'm doing it straight old school! ;)

For now though, I'm continuing with both outlines, both sets of character developments, and plodding through set up work on both pieces. I've given myself till the 20th to make a decision on which project to go through with, so about then, I'll start some of the more fun projects, like covers, post secrets, and sketches. After a name comes out of a hat.