WTF-National Novel Writing Month, the creative process

November becomes a blur each year as I embark on writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Luckily I've won every year for five years.  The whole point of this process is writing so fast your inner editor cannot correct or make you second guess your work. Thought I would share a little bit of the creative process with you:

Prepping for Novel Writing is the most stressful part of this process. This year I had two ideas jostling in my brain for first dibs, both interesting ideas.

How did I get these ideas? Dreaming!  Isn't it crazy. I can dream an entire novel, or a scene that leaves me so breathless I have to structure something around it.  Both ideas came in a dream, me quickly writing them down in a journal beside the bed so I don't forget them. Once the ideas sets, the obsession starts, where I cannot stop thinking about them, so I start notebooks for each idea, further embellishing the idea.

I thought about writing two books in one month, but one idea backed down the other took hold. My goal is finishing the one book early and starting the next,  effectively writing two novels before the end of the year. Next time you see me, hold me to that promise.

Here's the hard part.  The ideas came to me beginning of October and since I am a purist, I could not write the first word of the story until Nov 1st.  That's not the easiest thing to do, because when an idea takes hold, everything in your system wants to flesh it out, you want to start writing. I keep the faith by writing notes about characters, possible scenes, anything keeping me from writing that first line.

It's always hard telling people my ideas for stories because when I talk about an idea it becomes real and sometimes sounds a lot weirder than what's going on in my head. It's hard to explain werwolves and stuff in a serious tone without people looking at you like you are crazy. Well, maybe I am crazy, but these people in my head are real to me.

Now that I got the first day out of the way and 4,000 words down, I'm feeling pretty good. Do I remember most of what I wrote? Not a thing.  Usually the good stuff I don't remember writing, that's when the brain takes over and I'm just the poor sap typing at the keyboard. It is fun going back and re-reading what I wrote because sometimes I'm like, "Damn, that's some pretty good shit."

So my story has notes, it has characters, specifically Ben, Toby, Jane, Chloe, and the tall stranger.  It now has a beginning, and as the month rolls along a middle and an end.  Maybe I'll take a nap to see if I can dream a little more of it.  Oh creativity, you are so fickle.

Good luck to other NANOers, here's to toasting 50K in words before the end of November!

Oh and what will I do with the other 5 novels I've written? I've edited two and need a proofer, one  is part of a series, I'm editing Novel #1. My other goal is to get my work out there and move into publishing some of this stuff.  That's another post at another time about courage and sharing your work!!