Writing Days Are Here At Last

10/22/2015 11:00:00 AM Lexie Dunne 4 Comments

Things you should not do while exhausted, a not at all exhaustive guide by Lexie Dunne:

1) Write blog posts.

Too bad, I’m going to do it anyway. You’re not my mom. Unless you are my mom and you’re reading this, which I know you are at one point because I’ll have hopefully remembered to cross-post this to Facebook, then: hi, Mom.

2) Skip breakfast.

Yep, definitely did that! Wooo!

3) Write.

If I followed this rule, I wouldn’t ever get anything written and that would be a bad thing.

4) Nanowrimo

...oh crap, I definitely did not get the memo.

Yep, it’s nearing the end of October, which means it’s nearing the beginning of November, and in addition to my social life suddenly becoming a hopping place again, Nanowrimo is here. This will be the 13th anniversary of that time I sat down in my dorm room and wrote a story about, well, there were a lot of problematic things happening in there, including the idea that a woman couldn’t go through the court system without getting raped so to make it as the dragon’s apprentice, you literally couldn’t be touched by a man without him ending up in severe pain. And I hadn’t even read A Song of Ice and Fire yet, so I don’t know where my little 18-year-old brain got this idea. I finished that book on November 30th at something like 52,000 words, didn’t verify it because I didn’t know how, and remain stupid proud of the fact that none of you will ever read it.

Unless you bribe my sister. I believe she has a copy.

Nano was a bust in 2003, but in 2004, I wrote a YA book and verified it! I didn’t win again until 2008, when I wrote Superheroes Anonymous, which I was so proud of that I didn’t edit it, stuck it in a drawer, and literally forgot it existed for years at a time. 2009 proved to me that if I’m going to pants my way through a novel, maybe it shouldn’t be high fantasy that requires district maps and several cultures being integrated into one trading system, political intrigue, and a giant cast of characters. I had a good time writing that novel and I had a lot of fun ideas in it. Six years later, I’m still cannibalizing pieces of it that I never got to use.

2010, I was out of work and won Nanowrimo on the 11th, took a week off in the middle to drive down to Texas, and still finished with 100k written in that month. My friend Jen did not strangle me, but only because her boyfriend at the time wrote something like 3 times that amount and he was a much more convenient target. I think I made word count in 2011, but I was writing fanfiction and not an actual novel. 2012 and 2013, I didn’t participate due to health reasons, and in 2014, I was going to write Supervillains Anonymous, I swear I was, but it wasn’t close enough to the deadline for the full panic writing yet, so that fell through.

So 2015 will be, hopefully, the first time since 2008 I can sit down and complete one novel instead of writing away at a bunch of them. In 2008, I wrote Superheroes Anonymous starting on November 1st and finishing on December 10th (I think; the last scene is written on a print-out that has December 10 on the bottom). So that’s my goal with Super Secret Project #2. Start on November 1st, finish December 10th. That comes to 2125 words per day, which is a bit higher than the goal of 1667 that Nano lets you strive for. Super Secret Project #1 has been put on hold since #2 takes priority, and with any luck, I’ll be able to come back and finish it before I jump into Super Secret Project #3.

(I really need better code names for these things. I should name them after people! Okay, so Super Secret Project #1 is now named Florence, Super Secret Project #2 is now Kate Petersen (which is the protagonist’s original, original name according to my notes), and Super Secret Project #3 is Amy Johnson.)

I’m so excited about Kate Petersen, you guys. I think she’s going to be great, and Florence will just have to keep crying herself to sleep at night. Anybody else doing Nanowrimo? Come friend me!

Stay sexy!
Lexie