September 2004 Archives

So, after the bad news I received last week, I was not sure that I would be participating in NaNo this year. Depending on how Chance continues to respond to his chemo, I may or may not still be participating.

But all of this made me want to write a story about a doggy named Chance. I thought about writing about his cancer, but then I thought that would be too dry and dreary. Then I thought about writing about three kids (Cassie and Katie the twins and Kellen their little brother) who have a dog. But then I didn't know what the heck kind of plot I was going to come up with that would carry 50K words, since that seemed more like a children's story.

When I was telling Susan this the other night she said, "Why not a series of adventures?" So, I thought that would be a good idea. (Susan always has good ideas!)

So, unless something drastic changes, I will be doing a series of adventures about Cassie, Katie, Kellen and their dog Chance. And it will be called "The True and Wonderful Adventures of..." and that's where I get stuck. I want something snappy. Like "Chance the Wonder Dog" but I don't actually want to use the phrase "Wonder Dog" but something of that flavor - really campy and attention getting. Gonna have to stew about it some more.

But I think writing the adventures of a doggy named Chance will be a good outlet for me as I continue to deal with my Chancey's cancer.

Or...all the voices in my head aren't pretty.

Someone named Katie wants to be Cassie's twin. I'm keeping these notes (via this blog) to possibly use later, but I am trying to figure out who to listen to.

The idea of Cassie and Katie being twins is making me slightly uncomfortable. Is that discomfort a good thing or a bad thing? At what point do I say, "Stop! I don't know who you are, and I am writing about Cassie!"

But then, last year, Darci didn't exist until November 2 and showed up insisting that I write even though I had already decided not to participate in NaNo after all. I was skeptical, but she carried my plot forward ten chapters and then even appeared again in the last chapter to light a fire under my protagonist's butt. What if I had ignored her?

Or should I just see a therapist about these voices in my head?

In the middle of a Trixie fanfic writing session, I decided "Serendipity" MAY be the title of my NaNo novel. Now, I generally never name anything until it's well underway, but this word just suddenly struck me today.

And it gave me the glimmer of a plot idea, too!

Of course, I've thought of three other great titles over the last few weeks, too, so who knows? Unfortunately, all three occurred to me just as I was drifting off to sleep and I never was able to remember them the next morning!

Someone named Kellen told me he MIGHT be involved in my story, somehow, but he's not really committing. Hmmmm....we'll see, I guess.

And the name Wellington popped into my head yesterday as Cassie's last name. It seemed really familiar for about two seconds when suddenly a light turned on and I realized why it sounded so familiar - it's a name from the Trixie Belden series. So I decided not to use it.

So to sum up - I have Cassie [no last name] and maybe a guy named Kellen and not much else. As where Susan, lucky, lucky Susan, actually has a plot and is even doing serious research! You go girl! :)

So, between my 5 day business trip in November (which is to Chicago so I will be disrupting Susan and Mary's NaNo schedule as well) and my annual Thanksgiving trip to Michigan which is at least 6 days, that leaves me NINETEEN days of November left to write. That works out to 2,632 words a day. I hope I can do it.

I'm not even going to TRY to be optimistic that I can get any writing done on my trips. While I am in Chicago, I'll be working all day and then at night there is the Weber Grill and The Italian Village and the Russian Tea House (obviously trying to capitalize on the Russian Tea Room's fame) and giggling and gabbing that will undoubtedly fill my time.

And let's not even THINK about RL getting in the way!

So, lately I have noticed a recurring theme. Every time I think about my NaNo experience, I cannot help but think about how I never plotted anything the whole month. The main characters just jumped into my head and I let them talk. That's all I did. And that was the most wonderful writing experience I have ever had.

At 12:46 this morning, Cassie very emphatically informed me that she is my protagonist in this year's NaNo story. Ummm, okay. This is good!