Writing Day 11

Preliminary research book: This is Burning Man (Brian Doherty).

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No writing today. I'm in the midst of a Java programming class (nothing big; it's a fundamentals class and I'm a tech writer, fer God's sake). But I did find of copy of this book that at least for the moment ties in with some of the ideas I have for the novel.

Writing Day 10

No progress on reading.

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I did some mind mapping to get my ideas down on paper. I imagine I'll be doing that for at least a week. If it start to become a slog at this point in the process, I'll probably move on.

I'm also doing some reading as preliminary research. Nothing heavy duty yet. Just jotting things down as they come to me. Suddenly the idea of an iPad doesn't sound so bad. Smart phones are just too small for taking notes.

Writing Day 9

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success Progress: 100% (Review)

Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence Progress: 17%

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Task 1: Shaping Your Inspiration

Today I started my extremely preliminary gathering of ideas. I'll be using the techniques for outlining from K. M. Weiland's book and Roz Morris' plans from her book. I think they are complimentary as they both espouse the idea of taking time to plan. Spend the biggest amount of time in up-front planning. As with software production, the cost of making changes at the beginning of the project lifecycle is much less than if changes need to be made later in the project.

It's time to make the extravagant steps--think big, act big--because it's cheap to do so now. Once I settle on a direction and put scene together, it will be a tougher decision and cost much more.

I've done some mind mapping to start off with, putting together some of the components that I'd like to see in a story, something I'd like to read. I don't know how much writing will be involved at this point. I don't know how much I want to share. I'll work through that as I go.

Writing Day 8

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success Progress: 89%

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“What do you mean you lost it?” said Mark.

“How many ways can I say it? Did you not understand me the first time?” said Jane.

“I guess it’s just so unbelievable that I can’t… wrap my mind around it.”

“You better find a way to wrap your mind around it, because it is all well and good gone.”

“Why do you use that saying so much? ‘Well and good’; what is that supposed to mean? You never ever use it when things are really well and good.”

“I think it’s sarcasm.”

“Brilliant. I know it’s sarcasm. And do you really need to be sarcastic at a time like this? It doesn’t exactly help us with the problem you’ve introduced.”

“Right. It’s all my fault. If you hadn’t pulled me out of bed at the butt crack of dawn, I might have been a little more lucid. You know I’m not a morning person. You know I can’t think straight first thing in the morning.”

“I didn’t have any other choice. Do you really think I want to bring anyone else into this? We really are out in front on this. The more people involved, the greater chance it’s all going to go south.”

“Considering your friends, the first thing they’d do is post it to YouTube!”

“Don’t even start on my friends! When it comes right down to it, if it wasn’t for your parents, none of this would have happened in the first place!”

“There you go again! Why can’t you take some personal responsibility for a change? I may have lost it, but I didn’t decide to take it in the first place.”

Word Count: 278