28 Jan 2012

I mentioned that I live and breath the story as I'm working on it.  I go to sleep thinking about the story, I read the newspaper wondering if there is some way the articles I'm looking at, no matter how mundane, might somehow be applicable to my story.

I wake up thinking about the story.  This morning, for instance, when I woke at 5:00, I thought maybe I will jump out of bed and write 500 words; that has a good ring to it, 500 at 5.  But, I linger, I think about the story as I'm lying in bed and allow the thoughts to send me back to sleep, drifting in and out of sleep until 6:29 when I do get up.  500 at 6:29 doesn't have quite the same ring to it but that's really not the point.

I am not even certain what I am going to write about.  Last night, as I was sitting at the kitchen island waiting for Rachel to finish up something before we were going to exchange shoulder massages, I introduced a new character, Ben's brother.  I realize no one knows who Ben is at this point but I will eventually make that clear in the next few days.  I was enjoying the new character and furiously writing, longhand, before going into the living room.

This morning, I was feeling as if the story was in trouble as the plot seemed to be falling apart for me.  A sense of panic came over me, probably becuase I felt as if I had everything pretty much neatly tied up in my mind just a few days ago.  So, I focused on Ben's brother (who doesn't have a name as yet) and did some rambling between Ben and his bro and the story began to gel again for me.  I was on a roll and instead of merely getting 500 words out to start the morning, I raced all the way to the 2,000 word mark.  Definitely a very good way to start the day.

5:20 in the PM and I've managed to scratch out a few more words during the day.  Rachel and I went on an almost 2 hour hike and I thought I would have some photos to bring back.  The opportunities certainly presented themsleves but it turned out my camera battery was dead.  Among one of my favorite sightings which I wish I could have photographed was some fungi on a log that obviously had blossomed with yesterday's rain.  A light tannish, scalloped affair that Rachel said reminded her of cave formation, which they did indeed.

A few more words put down during the evening.  I'm not sure if it will work out but I've challenged myself to 4,000 words tomorrow.  But putting down words is not the same as putting in miles on the bike.  At the end of the year, it won't matter if I have 100, 200 or 500 hundred thousand words as it's what the words spell out that is key.  Yet, still, with a goal of putting down x number of words, it forces me to focus on the end result.