Beginning, Middle and The End

Day one of year two. Hi again. So lets talk about last year a minute. I did participate in the magical land of NaNoWriMo in 08 and fell behind miserably. But I did write over 20,000 words. So to me that was an accomplishment. I learned many of the ways of the great NaNo wizards and hope to use that great wisdom to move through this years efforts. I did work on the outline for my new story but did not get far. So this year I'm going to use this blog to walk the steps I travel as I write. Hence the title for today.

The Beginning-I have dozens of them. I find beginnings easy to write. Not hooks or full chapters, only the first few paragraphs that tell me who takes center stage and where they are and what the problem is with the perfect picture I have devised.

The Middle-This should be easy. Everything happens in the middle. All the twists and turns and the action climbs higher and higher.

The End-The big climax and the resolution to all the loose ends. Of course they live happily ever after.

That all sounds so easy. But it is not easy as I can attest to. Sometimes you just have to think, think, think till either your head explodes or the answer does.

So that is today's goal. Wish me luck and hopefully I will be back tomorrow with my head still intact.

Opening Day at NaNoWriMo

The official first day of getting ready for NaNoWriMo is up and running. The home page is full of useless but fun stuff that you can waste your precious writing time on. That's why they give us a full 30 days before the real start to get all that looky-lou out of our system. They offer a lot of support in the form of information and forums. You can get a mentor or set up your own challenges with friends or other writers from the far reaches of the globe. Check out the latest and greatest tech upgrades for the site and drool over the prizes for completing your word count.

I am looking forward to our regularly (more or less) scheduled letters from the man himself, the great and wonderful Chris Baty. Our own personal cheerleader who will try his hardest to inspire, cajole and help push us along.

One last very important piece of information I will take advantage of for this year is to try and finish as many of my obligations during the month of October so I will have as much time as possible to just write.http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Pre-NaNoWriMo Challenge

So back in February I made that final decision and moved on to greener pastures. My Friday night group of ladies has turned into one gonzo power house writing/critique group. The dynamics of our group has weathered a lot of ups and down, some tears and a revelation or two. Our meetings have become the most important night of the week for me. Of the five of us I bring up the rear in actual writing produced but I have found I do have talent in some areas and still need work in others. The most important results of our circle of five has been the bonds of friendship we have formed and the freedom to be very honest with each other.

Each day between the meetings I try my best to find some little piece of time to write. I'm not always successful. The group has pulled ideas and new avenues of possibilities through the cobwebs lining my mind. I wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning with dreams fighting to find their way onto a blank piece of paper once again. After ten years of struggling with the slow, going nowhere pace of my past group I feel like I'm finally a driver at the Indy 500. I'm working on a little pre-race maintenance and soon I'll have that baby idling.

This all bring me to the fact that the start of this years NaNoWriMo is only 30 days away. I plan on signing up for the challenge again. As a newbie last year I made a fair showing but didn't make the finial goal. So as of today I start with the things I learned last year. Number one is to make an outline of some sort on what story I will be writing. I know, I know. It really is suppose to be a more by the seat of your pants kind of thing. But I did that last year and would get off track and be lost way too much. So my goal for the pre-NaNoWriMo challenge is to do an outline. Nothing is carved in stone but I will hammer at it a little. So here is our group. Come check us out.

http://fridaynightwrite.blogspot.com/

Am I Blue by Bette Midler

"That was a really terrific song."

Am I blue is how I am feeling today. My writing world took a turn upwards after the WriMo in November, or so I thought. I got together with some of the ladies that frequent my Saturday morning critique group. (I can call it mine here but not where others can hear me.) This group of ladies have been coming to my house on Friday evenings as a novel group for about six weeks. Since the first of the year. We lost one lady right off the bat due to creative differences. It has been a good but tenuous working environment most days. I lost my cool the other night when one member started suggesting changes to the schedule of the Saturday group, again. My slow but able fingers shot back. I truly regret the rashness of my words but failed to stop myself at the time.

In the mail I received the latest edition of Writers Digest and was blown away by the timely and freakishly close to the chest article "Critiquing Critique Clubs." After reading it and thinking about the current situation I have a big question. When is it the right time to leave a group as its leader? I inherited the Saturday group from a previous leader. I vowed to keep it going. It was a promise to myself. I could have let it slip through my fingers many times over the last almost ten years but kept pulling it along. With the increasing tension among some of the members and my own waning interest in keeping it going due to my interest in another group something has to change. Can I let it go? That question has two sides to it. Can I personally let it go? It has been a part of me so long but it really hasn't helped me to move forward in my writing. Has it become just something to do to keep that writing thread going? The second thing that I question is if I let it go will I lose that connection with the other writers? I respect and have become friends with some of them. I would hate to lose that as well. I feel I am in a catch-22 situation. Apologies are necessary but that only takes care of the now. What happens in the future when this situation arises again?

All presidents, rulers and leaders have to step down eventually. Is it time for me to move on?

Time to make a decision.