Ah, the start of week two. Storm clouds are in the distance. I had some trouble writing today. I realize I need to be more prepared about how I want things. Time to work on the look, size, and number of characters I really want. Today I will be taking some notes and hopefully working out these kinks so tomorrow my story and word count won’t suffer from pauses and switches in scenes.
Todays Word Count: 679
Total word count after 8 days: 5,423
She had the idea that maybe she would leave. If not today then Thursday. She would drive to Boston, walk around town, and take pictures. She would climb the tower again and look around a city going about their business. She thought about the city that had people with purpose.
The more she thought about it the more she knew she wanted to visit a city she hadn’t see. Not Boston, Atlantic City, or Washington DC. She knew she shouldn’t keep thinking of running away to get away from her problems. She knew they would just follow her. She was forever trapped to be unhappy. She thought, I guess it is better to be loved even if you didn’t really love back.
I don’t know where all this writing energy has come from. When I have a free moment it’s all I can think about. Today I dug out a book I bought years ago (possibly 2005), No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. He is the founder of National Novel Writing Month. I never fully participated in NNWM. I think I wrote a few hundred words and quit. Now, this writing I’m doing is not me participating in my own writer’s month. I always remember this book having great tips for kick starting or continuing through tough times and I know I will have writer’s block in the future.
The purpose of this post? I think it was yesterday’s writing. I had a portion of the story I wanted to change but I knew I shouldn’t delete. Sure enough one of his tips from the book, “Don’t Delete, Italicize”. Brilliant! So much better than parentheses. This little tip made me feel I was on the right track.
One problem I almost had was with the program I’m writing with, Scrivener. I couldn’t find how to place an italic button on the main writing menu. If you have the same problem or maybe I’m just a little brain dead it’s not a big deal. I am implicating the task the manual way (Commend or ALT ‘I’). Other then that. I really like using Scrivener. Haven’t used the outliner or cork board but I love the ‘full screen’ option, which lets you choose the width of your paper and fades the background. Less distractions.
Okay, enough talk about writing! I promise.
Today, 679 words.
I promise I won’t Tumblr (Edit: or WordPress) blog my word count everyday. Maybe just twitter it. Day four and I’m feeling I could keep this pace up. Break the mental fear, procrastination, and whatever else stopping me from writing. And not just writing these little scenes or the days activities and insecurity in my journal but a story that fits together.
Words written today, 664. Editing while writing is one of my offenses but I didn’t go back. Well…okay, I did but I realized rewriting would get me no where in the story so separated the past writing by putting it in parentheses and wrote what I wanted to write from there. Now I have the start of two scenes in the beginning of chapter two but like Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” and I just have to keep going. Edit and rewrite at the end.
Today I wrote 439 words. It is said it take 3 weeks to break a habit or instill a new one. I think I’m trying to do both. I would like to have a better writing schedule and continue to sit down for the next 19 days write without whatever stops me getting in the way.
Anyway, I’m proud of day two. Maybe, tomorrow, I’ll stay seated after I run out of images to write and just try to continue…
Think I finally have a story idea and this morning I wrote 339 words towards that idea. I just have two images in my mind. I wrote one image. I don’t know where I’m going after the second one but I just hope I can keep going.
I was writing. This night in this car a moment of inspiration struck and I was typing it down on my phone, thumbs moving around the small smooth screen mixing in neighbor letter bringing red lines until my phone died. My inner voice still talked. I took out a pen from my bag but I had no paper. In a moment I started gliding the words out on my hand.
The driver broke in and asked, “why I was writing on my hand?”
I continued to write. “I had all these thoughts in my head and I just felt I had to get them down.”
The driver smirked, “Why don’t you write on paper.”
If I wasn’t in the car I probably would have made a sarcastic comment but all that was said, “I don’t have any and in this moment I hate I have relied on my phone because I stopped carrying paper and now it died.”
The driver asked, “What are you writing?”
I realized I stopped writing somewhere in the talking. I had lost my thought. I couldn’t read my hand to see if the writing could help me get a hold again. The street light was to dim and moved to fast over my palm for me to read and retrace, find, pick up. I forfeit, “Nothing. I lost it when I started explaining.”
I could see the driver was culpable as he said, “Oh. Sorry.”
I held on to the pen and mustered, “it’s find.” But it wasn’t. I felt I lost so much. I don’t know where it went. It seemed so implanted now it was gone. I tried to see in the dark. Tired to read a word with every passing, dim light. My voice said to the driver, to my feelings, “I would have ran out of room.” But I knew I would have kept writing on the back of my hand, and up the arm if I had to. The driver tried to hang on to my distancing self, “You will have to learn to write with your left hand.”
A ‘Click’ shut the pen closed and I shoved it back in my bag.
Tonight I’m up. Don’t know why. When I’m awake I start thinking. Or am I awake because I can’t stop thinking.
Was thinking about traveling. A few weeks ago a cousin was posting picture of their trip in Orlando and my mom and I talked of going. Should I plan a trip now? It would make me happy. Love getting away. Haven’t been to the parks in so long.
Other view is I don’t have a job. No income and no matter how much I look and apply nothing seems to be coming my way anytime soon. Another truth is what happens if I don’t want another Monday- Friday 9-5 job. Bland office with no natural light. Or a window with a view of another building. Or just a cube of tack board. Maybe switch my thinking to maybe working with fun, good people. Making money. Being challenged.
Do I really have a choice?
Need to find a story to write. I write little separate stories. Stories about crazy girls, adventurous animals, or everyday tasks but nothing turns into a novel. I do write better away. Every night I write about my day. Every day I write!
Thinking is my problem. All this thinking about everything and I get no where. Certainly not to sleep. Grrr.
Maybe focus on how I feel happier. Just remember how unhappy I was and how I finally found something inside me (courage, strength, false sense of hope) to be happy.
I’ll most likely delete this later… It’s what I do.
I love when I get lost in my writing and I lose track of time. It just happened now. I think this creative serge has to do with the fact that I cleaned my desk today. Maybe I uncluttered my mind when I uncluttered my desk.
Random Thoughts 
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