To write a novel, to me, seems quite easy. Of all of the wonderful books that I’ve read, studied for school, and taught in the classroom, it didn’t appear that it could be that tough. I have an idea, describe a few characters and some action, and boom! it’s written.
As I found last week during the National Novel Writing Month, when I took off a week to write my novel, it is not. While I have been thinking about and creating characters, action ideas, and scenery for the past several years, I only began to write it down in the last six months. On my phone, I have a Notes folder which has the former title of my book on it to refer to when I have a thought or a brainstorm idea. It might be some food I want to describe, a particularly beautiful scene, or lyrics from a song which brought forth emotions in me.
All of the jotted down notes and character information were not a huge source of inspiration for the novel, however. During my time off from work to write it I found there were many barriers. I'll admit, though, that many of them are created by me to avoid writing!
The chronicled time
I spent most of the first day off from work finishing up a project that required tedious fact finding and reporting. I had to arrange for my husband to be taken care of while I was gone one single night. I finished up the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and made my bed, and I was ready to go.
I had reserved a room at a local hotel from which I had won two nights stay after reading books with the library this summer on a summer reading program. I checked in as the sun was setting on the western side of the building which blocked the sun from the pool area, so my plan of writing by the pool after a cool dip, was thwarted. It’s November, so my hours were numbered, especially after the daylight savings time change two nights before. I sat and read my inspiration book and compiled a few notes here and there, until 30 minutes later, I finally decided to go to my room.
As I ate my chicken salad from home, and clicked on my computer, I noticed something that was happening. My novel idea was changing. Right before my eyes. It was a good thing but slightly frustrating. I decided to read more about writing one's first novel and found some excellent ideas on Pinterest. While I was going to use the snowflake method, it wasn’t working for me as I had imagined. When I read a post about character development it was an "aha" moment for me because that was what I really need to do. I am proposing that my story be a series of short stories about distinct individuals that are all connected somehow to one person. By writing the descriptors of a character beforehand, I will be much more prepared to write the full novel.
That evening I developed Google docs pages for each character, and developed a spreadsheet for all of them, and another spreadsheet for scenes in activities that I had dreamed up before to put in the novel. By the time I had put my character related questions into each sheet, and set up the other input pages, I was ready to go to bed.
The next morning when I woke at 10 AM, without an alarm clock for the first time in weeks, I was ready to go. But first, I had to pursue exercise, in the form of walking to Starbucks to receive my free bonus drink that I had achieved months ago. I brought along my laptop, and as I sat outside, I was able to compose at least one character at that time. I then moved onto the library, walking again of course, and decided to do some character research (to avoid writing), to find out how other novelists wrote about the main character in my book. I then pulled out the laptop again and wrote some at the library.
As I walked back to my hotel, I saw a sign for free Amy’s ice cream from 3 to 7 PM. Since my husband was coming to join me that evening, and we are going to enjoy dinner together, I needed to have the ice cream early enough in the day so as not to spoil my appetite. The hotel offered a free shuttle, and I took it to the library, to pick up a book and the bottle of water I had left there. The line was long, but worth it for free ice cream. I enjoyed one of my favorite ice cream flavors ever, dreamsicle with big chocolate chunks in it.
I enjoyed it as I sat on the outdoor area of the mall, but as I did so, I became quite chilly as a cold front moved in. I decided to use a coupon I had in my purse to go buy a jacket or wrap if I could find an affordable one, and I scored with a wonderful fuzzy sweater. I noticed the time and rushed back to the hotel, walking again, as I didn't want to have to wait for the bus, and wanted to walk off some of the ice cream! I showered and met my husband in the bar, to not write another sentence for the rest of the night.
Next morning, Kevin had an early conference call, and fire alarms clanging roused me out of bed. In my disoriented, half awake state, I left the room with my purse, but not my computer or my phone or my inspiration book. No writing took place before we went to enjoy breakfast. That afternoon, I had a massage scheduled, so after breakfast, I buckled down and went to Barnes and Noble to write more character development. Unfortunately, I also had a few bills to pay and emails to reply to, so not much character development occurred. Afterwards, I did some fun shopping and then went home to kiss my husband goodbye to join friends on a hunt.
The good thing was that I would be alone in my home for the evening, and able to pursue character development and start writing a chapter. I wrote about a couple and filled in some of my spreadsheets. Again, laundry, texts and emails drew me away, with the start of my novel postponed.
Thursday morning, I had other writing projects to pursue, including an interview with an executive director of a rehab hospital, for which I started writing a news release, and work for an interior designer for whom I do the books and pay the monthly sales tax. By the time I had made some delicious butternut squash soup and rice crispy treats for my daughter, it was time to shower and leave for Waco to go see her. We had arranged to go to dinner and then to a coffee shop for her to study and me to write, but we conquered little, preferring to discuss our lives and the interesting topics surrounding ourselves. I pursued a bit once we made it back to her apartment, but I had little heart for it.
The weekend
Friday morning I slept in, we went to breakfast at a food truck at the fabulous Magnolia market, where we were blessed by the awesome staff, and then I took off for Dallas. The visit with sister and dad-in-law that afternoon was wonderful, but, no writing. After a trip to my mother-in-law's home and a treat of buy one - get one free coffee drink at Starbucks, we joined the other part of the family and consumed a delicious Mexican dinner. I could have easily driven back home to Momma O's and buckled down and written; instead, I sat in front of the television watching mindless movies, and went to bed late.
Saturday was another sleep in day, and after a quick shower, I went thrifting with my sister in law. Boy, did I find the bargains too - every piece of clothing was $1! I purchased five blazers, five shirts, a pair of Levis and a gorgeous red silk and wool sweater for a mere $12, and five other beautiful items for my thrift friendly daughter. I left town to go back to Spicewood by three pm, made a couple stops on the way home, and was in the garage a little after 7 pm. I immediately threw the jackets and sweater, by fabric type, into the dryer with dry cleaning sheets, and washed the other items. As I took care of that, I cooked a simple dinner, and again, sat in front of the TV. I finally managed to write a few items, but probably no longer than an hour. I went to bed late as usual, thinking about starting my novel.
Sunday dawned, and I was determined today! I immediately started working on my book, and actually accomplished about 5 pages in Google docs, before I went on a walk.
Distractions are endless
As I compose this, I’m literally walking away from my writing task. My other job duties of laundry, cooking, exercise, house cleaning, phone calls, and other minutia tasks around the house are excellent at taking away from the push to finish a story a book, or any other project for which I have been assigned, or assigned to myself. Writing a blog post about this novel was one of the things I put on my list to do today - great idea, only it took over an hour!
Thank goodness I was able to multitask and take my walk at the same time as I wrote this blog.
I will add that climbing the steep hills of my neighborhood make it difficult to talk and walk, and that there are plenty of breaks during my 35 minute walk. Exercise may increase brain power afterwards, but during, it’s all I can do to use those muscles correctly and those lungs to keep that heart beating.
To sum up my long diatribe, I'd like to say that to write a novel requires strict discipline that I have too many distractions in my life to attend to at this time. While I do intend to write more in the evenings after I return from work while my husband is out of town, and possibly this weekend in between cooking and cleaning for family coming next week for thanksgiving, and possibly next week when I do not have to be in the office, I probably will not reach the goal of National Novel Writing Month of completing 50,000 words.
I did start it, however, and will continue to pursue it until it's done! I plan to keep anyone who cares to read my blog updated over the next couple of months. If I can write one chapter per month, now that I have a character list and descriptions for each, I might be able to handle editing the big book by next year this time, during NaNoWriMo 2018!
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