Day 3 - 5068 words and Back to the Future
Monday, November 03, 2008 by Mel
I have a feeling there won't be any more writing today. Yesterday was rough, as I have surmised all Sunday writing will be. My brain just doesn't work as well on Sundays. At least we had gorgeous weather and I could sit outside Panera after they closed. Everything was going well until the elastic band on my Moleskine notebook caught the N key on my laptop and popped it off! For a few seconds, I just stared at the overturned key on the concrete and wondered if I would have to bow out of writing my story. C'mon, my main characters are Jane and Andrew. Definitely need the N if I'm going to stay in nanowrimo.
Luckily, the key wasn't broken and I snapped it back into place. Whew. Everything was great until this pregnant lady started smoking. That's right. Pregnant. Smoking. Uncool. That's when I retreated to Starbucks and got next to nothing accomplished.
Since my story deals with time travel both forward and backward, I've been thinking a lot about the Back to the Future movies lately. It didn't help that two of them were on TV the other day, or that the box set is sitting mere inches away from me and can be viewed at my leisure. But I've decided that rather than fight it, I'm just going to embrace the fact that there may be similarities. Not intentional, mind you, but similarities nonetheless. And that's true of just about everything I've ever written; halfway through I will inevitably think of some book I've read that shares elements with what I'm working on. That frustrates me, because I don't ever want to think that I'm a copycat writer.
Good things about today:
1. Met my word count plus a little extra.
2. Figured out my main character's last name.
3. Wrote a scene I was thinking about but couldn't write yesterday.
4. Managed to do this all before 11 p.m.
Bad things about today:
1. Beginnings of a sore throat. I always get some kind of throat/ear/sinus problem this time of year, so I'm just hoping this will be something mild that won't fight me while I'm writing.
2. Still struggling with the beginning of the story. I know there is a conflict between the main character and her best friend, but I have no idea what that is. Also, best friend's brother has the possibility to be an interesting character, and I didn't see this coming. Perhaps he is a catalyst in the confrontation? I can't tell yet.
Luckily, the key wasn't broken and I snapped it back into place. Whew. Everything was great until this pregnant lady started smoking. That's right. Pregnant. Smoking. Uncool. That's when I retreated to Starbucks and got next to nothing accomplished.
Since my story deals with time travel both forward and backward, I've been thinking a lot about the Back to the Future movies lately. It didn't help that two of them were on TV the other day, or that the box set is sitting mere inches away from me and can be viewed at my leisure. But I've decided that rather than fight it, I'm just going to embrace the fact that there may be similarities. Not intentional, mind you, but similarities nonetheless. And that's true of just about everything I've ever written; halfway through I will inevitably think of some book I've read that shares elements with what I'm working on. That frustrates me, because I don't ever want to think that I'm a copycat writer.
Good things about today:
1. Met my word count plus a little extra.
2. Figured out my main character's last name.
3. Wrote a scene I was thinking about but couldn't write yesterday.
4. Managed to do this all before 11 p.m.
Bad things about today:
1. Beginnings of a sore throat. I always get some kind of throat/ear/sinus problem this time of year, so I'm just hoping this will be something mild that won't fight me while I'm writing.
2. Still struggling with the beginning of the story. I know there is a conflict between the main character and her best friend, but I have no idea what that is. Also, best friend's brother has the possibility to be an interesting character, and I didn't see this coming. Perhaps he is a catalyst in the confrontation? I can't tell yet.
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It's funny that you should mention the near crisis with your N key. My O has been sticky for a bit, though I am positive that this is not the laptop I spilled root beer into back in 2002.
In any case, I'm sure I'm going to have to go back through chapters and chapters after November to fill in words with o's when I am done.