It Which Must Not Be Named
You know what I’m talking about, right? We don’t say those words. We don’t want to give it power by believing in its existence. We wouldn’t want to… summon it by accident.
For WIP #2, all I have is my main character’s name. Yes, that’s the sum total of my NaNo novel, of which the rest I have completely scrapped. What I wrote didn’t work. I don’t know what. Maybe it was the world, the other characters, the tone, the genre… I have no idea.
All that junk was cluttering up this novel’s room, and it needed a blank slate. So today I deleted it for good. Trash can and everything.
Yes, sometimes we crave the blank page again.
She’s special, I can tell. I keep trying on different clothes, different settings, different plots. Nothing is fitting.
This morning, I got a sentence. It’s a sentence that says everything about who she is:
“I’m not going to fill your fuckin’ mold,” she said.
A sentence! Woo-hoo!
Phew. I’m so relieved I could celebrate a day’s hard work because I got a sentence.
But I need to get back on my 5K a day program. I know that was years ago, but I need it back.
So I’m sitting here. I sometimes force myself in a chair for three hours, internet off, WIP open, and tell myself I’m not allowed to move for three hours. And I’m trying jobs on her, trying cities, trying genres, trying ages, trying situations.
A little niggle suddenly makes me wonder if she was talking to me when she said she wasn’t filling any molds.
Er.
I can see the appeal of stepping back and pretending our characters are fully-realized humans before we met them, that we’re just conduits or whatnot. Maybe I should try it: Hi, nice to meet you.
Both my WIPs are in the “sputtering” stage, where I can’t even write complete sentences yet. No whole pages polished, no chapters finished, nothing. Just a bunch of stutters.
Glenn is sick. If they send him home, then I really must write faster. Amazing how desperation helps you write faster. Needing the money has always pulled me through, except when it paralyzes me, LOL. I was sorta looking forward to my three months of no pressure. It’s life, I guess!
Universe, remember what I requested for this year?
So what do you do about it which must not be named?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
You have one more sentence than I do in my shiny new idea.
I guess what I do about which must remain nameless is whine until the Universe sends me a sign that it’s listening.
Kath, that’s a good technique. Seems to be working for me, LOL!
I have 1k of notes on a novel I hope to start tomorrow. I’m going to try the 1k a day program for this new novel. I hope to finish rewrites on another novel after the 1k goal is reached. I’ve never given myself word count goals. It will be interesting.
And, I think you have a great sentence!!
Good luck, Paul! Let us know how it goes!
Thanks!
I love your sentence! But… but… I’m not entirely sure what it is we’re not supposed to say.
I have a couple paragraphs for my new idea but I can’t seem to come up with a story. Granted, I haven’t spent much time thinking about it, but I’m trying.
I hope Glenn is okay!
Um, writer’s… writer’s… bl… bl…
*sigh* I can’t say it. I don’t dare.
I hate when a story is in that stage!
I hope he is, too. He’s out of touch for the next ten days or so.
Oh, wow, I don’t know. My fiction writing efforts are so sporadic I can just pretend I don’t have time and do some legal writing instead. Unless I totally run out of legal work temporarily, which almost never happens, that”s what I do. I don’t really face it.
Nice website by the way. Simple, Uncluttered. Not like some websites I can think of!!
Eric, it does help to have something else to work on! I need to get more stories in progress.
Thanks!
It took me forever to write the first half of my wip. The second half was going faster . . . until this last week. I took two days off, and now I’m bleeding out the words again.
Edie, that’s awesome! Until last week. Ugh. I need to not take days off. They muck everything up!
hooray,you’re back to normal! I kept getting that weird “Go Daddy” page and it drove me nuts.
As for your sentence–one sentence is all you need.
Elizabeth, me too! I was away all day, so I didn’t know about it until late.
Sorry!
“Both my WIPs are in the “sputtering” stage, where I can’t even write complete sentences yet. No whole pages polished, no chapters finished, nothing. Just a bunch of stutters.”
Seems we’re on the same page!
Hope it’s not serious and he recovers quickly.
I this page, Bernita! Ugh!
I hope so, too. I just pray he doesn’t go septic or something. *sigh*
For something which shall not be named and does not exist, it tends to hold me in its gruesome grasp at least 4-5 months of the year.
Love your new website!
*shudders at the thought* Ugh! That’s awful!
Thanks, Kate!
For some reason, my google reader feed for your blog suddenly referred me to some commercial site yesterday. Not sure what was going on. Maybe it was a temporary glitch.
Yes, that was my bad. I have an email account that I use for shopping, and I never check it. So when my domain came up for renewal, I didn’t realize that I hadn’t updated with my new credit card, as the old one expired. So they suspended my domain, and then I checked, and I had to go and enter the new number.
Sorry about that!
Never want to tempt fate, Nat. My current WIP is moving slowly … but the point is that its moving.
Love your first line. An eye catcher.
Totally, Liz! Moving is good. Very good.
I love the “maybe she was talking to me” thought. I hope not. Your main character should be nicer to the person who can poof her out of existence with a mere thought. Or make her really fat. Or give her acne.
Robin, you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Exactly! I can! I am her GOD!
I’ve thought about this, and I think that your character works with pottery/ceramics. (LOL)
But wait! There’s more!
She’s tired of her patrons/students who can’t do one freaking thing by themselves, they’re always whining “but I can’t” and one day she’s had enough and she tells one of them “I’m not going to fill your fuckin’ mold.”
LOL again… what do you think?
Hahahaha!! That’s hilarious, Elizabeth. Exactly! I think that’s it! I can’t believe I missed that!