Dear Wal,
I don't believe it. I almost can't believe it. It doesn't make any sense. How in the world did I end up here, with ninety pages of nothing but Jason before me on the screen? Just goes to show how much material I had sitting around in my head. I was afraid for a while after I hit 30,000 words that I was going to run out of material, but no end is yet in sight. Not that there ever could be an end to a story about a superhero. They just don't work like that. I'll probably end up giving one of those "And he fights on..." endings to Jason. Although, I couldn't think of a better way to do him justice than that.
This has been a very interesting experience, mostly because it's the first Nano where I haven't had to seriously struggle. It's like being in shape. Running four miles isn't so hard any more, and that stupid hellish hill isn't so painful. I mean, I've gotten into plot holes and I've dug my way out. Slowly, in some cases, but I made it out. And when the words didn't come, I just had to wait a little longer for them to come. Not days or weeks or anything like that, more like a few minutes. Writer's block has never really been a problem for me anyway, what was always the problem was that I got myself and my story into this huge snarly mess that no amount of industrial strength detangler could get me out of.
Even that has worked itself out. And that was a problem I never thought I would be able to kick. Granted, something awful might turn my story into crap in the next week (PLEASE NO D8) and prove me wrong on that count. But I doubt it. I've gotten to the point now where I'm not only committed, I've got a solid writing habit now. It's kind of an...amazing feeling. I'm winning. My crazy insane ridiculous writing and all of my crazy insane ridiculous characters are coming together to create something real-something that has weight to it (if I printed it out-I'm terrified of wasting that much paper, though).
I feel like a real writer now.
Not that I have any clue what that means, exactly.
Anyway, here are a few things that I've been doing to keep on going through this month of insanity:
1) Have a place. A spot where writing always happens. For me, it's this wonderful blue chair in my room, a Batman snuggie (yes, I have one of those) and a lava lamp. After a while, it becomes an automatic trigger. I sit down in the chair, I start thinking about writing.
2) Feel free to skip ahead or write things out of order. Jason's story has never been one that I think of in a linear way. It comes to me in episodes that are all out of order and disconnected, and then I have to figure out how to fit them all together in the right order. For instance, I started in the dark and stormy future-the epic final climax of my JLA arc, which is the final arc in everything I've come up with so far-and skipped back to writing about Catwoman and then back to the future and then back to Catwoman and then to Jason's origin. All out of order.
3) Turn off spell check. I know this sounds insane, and no self respecting college student would willingly do this. But I did, and it really helps. Those little wiggly lines get really annoying after a while, and they interrupt your flow of thought when you have to go back and fix them. (I'm terrified of turning spell check back on now. There are going to be little wiggly lines everywhere. Revision is not going to be a fun process.)
4) Immerse yourself in your genre. I've been reading comics, going on epic DC comics wiki safaris and playing DC universe online: absorbing as much superhero related media as I can. Not that I don't already do that...
5) Take a break. I don't mean stop writing. By no means stop writing. Just take your mind away from your novel for a while. I've been watching Doctor Who to get me thinking about something that isn't related to superheroes, and occasionally dabbling in a sci fi story I've been working on steadily since this summer.
6) Get some exercise. Go for a walk. Go feed your creatures if you have any. I've been running and working with my horses. It does wonders for getting all the junk out of your head.
/endrant
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