7,426 Words

A week into National Novel Writing month and I already have a very rough outline of the story that I want to develop. I’ve taken a different approach to writing this story as compared to my last attempted novel, forming three characters deeply and letting them drive the action until the story revealed itself to me. I’ve also had the advantage this time around of having read James Scott Bell’s excellent book Plot and Structure and am currently working on Ray Bradbury’s essay collection Zen in the Art of Writing.

This time around I have written every day and have not revised any of it. There are huge chunks of writing that are crap, and small nuggets of brilliance hidden deep in run-on sentences and misspelled words. Bukowski once wrote a poem that included the phrase “Sifting through the madness for the word, the line the way.” Tonight I plan, like a 49er, to dip my pan into the cyber sediment collecting in the recesses of my computer and begin to craft a story from the madness that I’ve chronicled.

Betting on the Muse

After talking to an old friend and sharing some of my new work I decided to take the plunge. November is National Novel Writing month, and, after one failed attempt under my belt I feel like I have a shot at at least making 50,000 words. November has become a new beginning for me, marking an array of changes that I didn't originally foresee. Life has an exciting prospect to it these days and I see characters everywhere--a blonde woman in high heels pushing an elderly man out of the way on the metro during rush hour, a well dressed gentleman sitting on the green bench in front of the fountain smoking a cigar worth more than my wristwatch, men walking around with bike helmets attached to their bags, women in yoga gear sitting in a full lotus--the possibilities are endless and life is a miracle I have not glanced before. Not to mention the occupiers, diplomats, presidential motorcades, homeless men hawking newspapers and waxing philosophical on the end of capitalism in america. It's all there for anyone willing to, as Bruce Springsteen penned, "case the promised land." I am grateful today for all of these things. Now off to the page.