A start, at least (at last)

Finally broke through and made some progress on the novel tonight, after struggling so much lately over the intro. I had less than 400 words earlier today, but now have zoomed to 3,500. I should pass the part of the plot I had initially reached in December by the end of the week.

I feel like it's starting to take shape and be the story I wanted to tell. I'm still way shy of my target, but a few more days like this and I'll feel pretty good about my progress.

Tomorrow I shall don the shirt I received from Ian and see what I can do about passing the 5,000 word mark.

I read about a site that's encouraging some sort of incremental novel writing project. It's called Word Count Journal and the idea is that you write one word your first day, two the second and so on for a year. By the time you're required to write 365 words in a day, you've got 66,795 words, which is pretty much novel-length. I thought about trying it, but don't think I can write like that. All the prose would be extremely, Hemmingwayishly terse at the beginning. It'd be weeks before I could write even a complete sentence all at once. No good for scatter-brained swoopers like me. Still, for any plodders out there daunted by the idea of writing a full length piece, this might be a way to achieve that, bit by bit.

I'm pretty sure Hemmingwayishly is a word. Still, it won't be one of the 100,000.

As much as I wanted to shift the tone of things and start over, it's also possible that I was blocking myself out of fear of moving forward. This isn't a book I can just chuck like the NaNo one. This one is important to me, and I think I've been worried that I'll ruin it.

So now that's the goal. "Try not to ruin it."

It's a little weird, still, the process of writing itself. I have gotten used to most of my creative output being collaborative through my years in theater and the band, and it feels strange to be creating something more or less alone.

I'm pressing on, though. I'm excited again, and ready to do the work. Once I build up some momentum, I should be all set.

Because I have a freakish side about certain public challenges, I am now declaring that I will finish the first draft by the middle or March. Done before St. Patrick's Day, that's my motto. Accomplishing this requires the same 1,667 word per day commitment that NaNo did, assuming 60 working days between now and then.

No sweat. Right? Right?!?